The Aeneid by Virgil Page A

to
                address a girl like you? Your face is not the face of a mortal,
                and you do not speak like a human being. Surely you must be a
                goddess? Are you Diana, sister of Apollo? Are you one of the
330         sister nymphs? Be gracious to us, whoever you may be, and
                lighten our distress. Tell us what sky this is we find ourselves at
                last beneath. What shore of the world is this on which we now
                wander, tossed here by the fury of wind and wave? We do not
                know the place. We do not know the people. Tell us and many
                a victim will fall by my right hand before your altars.’
                    Venus replied: ‘I am sure I deserve no such honour. Tyrian
                girls all carry the quiver and wear purple boots with this high
                ankle binding. This is a Phoenician kingdom you are looking at.
                We are Tyrians. This is the city of the people of Agenor, but the
                land belongs to the Libyans, a race not easy to handle in war.
340         Dido, who came from the city of Tyre to escape her brother,
                holds sway here. There was a crime long ago. It is a long and
                winding story, but I shall trace its outlines for you. Her father
                had given her in marriage to Sychaeus, the wealthiest of the
                Phoenicians. They were joined with all the due rites of a first
                marriage and great was the love the poor queen bore for him.
                But the kingdom of Tyre was ruled by her brother Pygmalion,
                the vilest of criminals. A mad passion came between the two
                men. In blind lust for his gold the godless Pygmalion attacked
350         him without warning, ambushing him at the altar. With no
                thought for his sister’s love he killed Sychaeus and for a long
                time concealed what he had done. Dido was sick with love and
                he deceived her with false hopes and empty pretences. But one
                night there appeared to her in a dream the very ghost of her
                unburied husband. He lifted up his face, pale with the strange
                pallor of the dead, and, baring the sword wounds on his breast,
                he pointed to the altar where he had been killed and revealed
                the whole horror of the crime that had been hidden in their
                house. He then urged her to escape with all speed from their
                native land, and to help her on her wanderings he showed
                her where to find an ancient treasure buried in the earth, an
360         incalculable weight of silver and gold. This moved Dido to plan
                her escape and gather followers, men driven by savage hatred
                or lively fear of the tyrant. They seized some ships which happened
                to be ready for sea. They loaded them with the gold and
                sailed away with the wealth Pygmalion had coveted. The woman
                led the whole undertaking. When they arrived at the place where
                you will now see the great walls and rising citadel of the new
                city of Carthage, they bought a piece of land called the