The Junior Classics, Volume 3: Tales from Greece and Rome
General
The Junior Classics, Volume 3: Tales from Greece and Rome
Children's literature; Mythology, Classical -- 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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