Lo! in the deep recesses of the wood, Before his eyes his goddess mother stood-- A huntress in her habit and her mien: Her dress a maid, her air confessed a queen. Bare were her knees, and knots her garments bind; } Loose was her hair, and wantoned in the wind; } Her hand sustained a bow; her quiver hung behind. } She seemed a virgin of the Spartan blood: } With such array Harpalyce bestrode } Her Thracian courser, and out-stripped the rapid flood. } "Ho! strangers! have you lately seen," she said, } "One of my sisters, like myself arrayed, } Who crossed the lawn, or in the forest strayed? } A painted quiver at her back she bore; } Varied with spots, a lynx's hide she wore; } And at full cry pursued the tusky boar." } Thus Venus: thus her son replied again:-- "None of your sisters have we heard or seen, O virgin! or what other name you bear Above that style:--O more than mortal fair! Your voice and mien celestial birth betray! If, as you seem, the sister of the day, Or one at least of chaste Diana's train,[96] Let not an humble suppliant sue in vain; But tell a stranger, long in tempests tossed, What earth we tread, and who commands the coast? Then on your name shall wretched mortals call, And offered victims at your altars fall."-- "I dare not," she replied, "assume the name Of goddess, or celestial honours claim: For Tyrian virgins bows and quivers bear, And purple buskins o'er their ankles wear. Know, gentle youth, in Libyan lands you are-- A people rude in peace, and rough in war. The rising city, which from far you see, Is Carthage, and a Tyrian colony. Phœnician Dido rules the growing state, } Who fled from Tyre, to shun her brother's hate. } Great were her wrongs, her story full of fate; } Which I will sum in short. Sichæus, known For wealth, and brother to the Punic throne, Possessed fair Dido's bed; and either heart At once was wounded with an equal dart. Her father gave her, yet a spotless maid; Pygmalion then the Tyrian sceptre swayed-- One who contemned divine and human laws. Then strife ensued, and cursed gold the cause. The monarch, blinded with desire of wealth, With steel invades his brother's life by stealth; Before the sacred altar made him bleed, And long from her concealed the cruel deed. Some tale, some new pretence, he daily coined, To sooth his sister, and delude her mind. At length, in dead of night, the ghost appears } Of her unhappy lord: the spectre stares, } And, with erected eyes, his bloody bosom bares. } The cruel altars, and his fate, he tells, And the dire secret of his house reveals, Then warns the widow, and her household gods,