The Girls' Book of Famous QueensFarmer, Lydia Hoyt
History
The Girls' Book of Famous Queens
Farmer, Lydia Hoyt
Queens -- Biography -- Juvenile literature
After the fall of Troy, as narrated by the Greek poet Homer in the
Iliad, the city was taken by the stratagem of the wooden horse. Priam,
the old king of Troy, was slain by Pyrrhus, the son of Achilles; Paris,
the son of Priam, having previously killed the great Achilles by the
shot of an arrow in his heel, as Hector had prophesied at his death.
After the death of Paris, Helen married Deiphobus, his brother, and
at the taking of Troy betrayed him, in order to reconcile herself to
Menelaüs, her first husband, who received her again into favor. Homer
continues the story of Ulysses in the Odyssey, while Virgil, the Latin
poet, takes up the history of Æneas after the fall of Troy, and gives
account of his many adventures by land and sea. As our sketch has only
to do with his visit to Carthage and his meeting with Queen Dido there,
we must confine our narration to that part of the Æneid.
While the battle was still raging in the city of Troy, and the old
King Priam was slain in his palace by the son of the great Achilles,
Æneas, finding the fate of Troy was sealed, hastened to his own home,
and taking his old father Anchises upon his shoulders, and leading his
little son Ascanius by the hand, followed by his wife Creüsa, they fled
from the city to the temple of Ceres, where they were to meet others,
who should accompany them upon their wanderings. But as Æneas hastened
to go, Creüsa, his wife, was severed from him. Leaving Anchises and his
son with his comrades who had assembled at the temple of Ceres, Æneas
fled back into the city, searching for his wife. But nowhere could he
find her, and as he sought her, sorrowing, lo! as he called her name,
her image seemed to stand before him; and thus her spirit addressed
him:—
“Why art thou vainly troubled? The ruler of Olympus willeth not that
Creüsa should bear thee company in thy journey. Weep not, then, for
Creüsa, whom thou lovest, nor think that I shall be carried away to be
a bond-slave to some Grecian woman. Such fate befits not a daughter of
Dardanus, and daughter-in-law of Venus. The mighty Mother of the Gods
keepeth me in this land to serve her. And now, farewell, and love the
young Ascanius, even thy son and mine.” So saying, the spirit vanished
from his sight, and Æneas, weeping, returned to his father and son and
his comrades, now gathered at the temple of Ceres.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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