Mythology, Greek -- Juvenile literature; Mythology, Roman -- Juvenile literature
Then Juno, seeing how it fared with the Queen, spake to Venus, “Are ye
satisfied with your victory, thou and thy son, that ye have vanquished
the two of you one woman? Well I knew that thou fearedst lest this
Carthage should harm thy favorite. But why should there be war between
us? Thou hast what thou seekedst. Let us make alliance. Let Dido obey a
Phrygian husband, and bring the men of Tyre as her dowry.”
But Venus knew that she spake with ill intent, to the end that the
men of Troy should not reign in the land of Italy. Nevertheless she
dissembled with her tongue, and spake, “Who would not rather have peace
with thee than war? Only I doubt whether this thing shall be to the
pleasure of Jupiter. This thou must learn, seeing that thou art his
wife, and where thou leadest I will follow.”
So the two, taking counsel together, ordered things in this wise. The
next day a great hunting was prepared. For as soon as ever the sun was
risen upon the earth, the youth of the city assembled, with nets and
hunting-spears, and dogs that ran by scent. And the princes of Carthage
waited for the Queen at the palace door, where her horse stood champing
the bit, with trappings of purple and gold. And after a while she came
forth with many following her. And she had upon her a Sidonian mantle,
with a border wrought with divers colors; of gold was her quiver, and
of gold the knot of her hair, and of gold the clasp to her mantle.
Æneas likewise came forth, beautiful as is Apollo when he leaveth Lydia
and the stream of Xanthus, coming to Delos, and hath about his hair a
wreath of bay-leaves and a circlet of gold. So fair was Æneas to see.
And when the hunters came to the hills, they found great store of goats
and stags, which they chased. And of all the company Ascanius was the
foremost, thinking scorn of such hunting, and wishing that a wild boar
or a lion out of the hills should come forth to be his prey.
And now befell a great storm, with much thunder and hail, from which
the hunters sought shelter. But Æneas and the Queen, being left of all
their company, came together to the same cave. And there they plighted
their troth one to another. Nor did the Queen after that make secret of
her love, but called Æneas her husband. Straightway went Rumor and told
these things through the cities of Libya. Now Rumor, men say, is the
youngest daughter of Earth, a marvellous creature, moving very swiftly
with feet and wings, and having many feathers upon her, and under every
feather an eye and a tongue and a mouth and an ear. In the night she
flieth between heaven and earth, and sleepeth not; and in the day she
sitteth on some housetop or lofty tower, or spreadeth fear over mighty
cities; and she loveth that which is false even as she loveth that
which is true. So now she went telling through Libya how Æneas of Troy
was come, and Dido was wedded to him, and how they lived careless and
at ease, and thinking not of the work to which they were called.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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