Aeneid 3
Warrior Women
After a restless night, Aeneas heads out at dawn with Achates to determine what kind of place the wind has brought them to. The land is untilled – has it been left wild, or are there people here? Can they recover any of what they have lost? He’s armed with two iron-tipped spears. The two of them head into the woods.
They come upon an armed maiden, bows slung over her shoulders like a huntress, dressed like a Spartan maiden or like the Thracian warrior maiden Harpalcye. Her hair is free and wind-blown, her robes are knotted around her, leaving her knees bare. “Young men,” she hails them, “have you come across any of my sisters, wearing a quiver and spotted lynx skin, or pressing after a mad boar?”
So said the maiden, who was Venus, and her son Aeneas answers her: “No, I haven’t seen or heard your sisters. And what should I call you, maiden? You don’t look or sound mortal. A goddess you must be, maybe the sister of Phoebus, or one of the race of nymphs? If you can help us, and tell us about this place, we’ll leave plenty of sacrifices at your altars. We’ve been driven here by the wind and the waves.”
Venus still does not reveal herself. “I’m nothing of the sort. We’re settlers from Tyre, where the maidens carry bow and arrows and wear purple boots. You’re in the realm of Carthaginians, from Tyre and the city of Agenor, but this here is Libya, a race unmanageable in war. Dido rules here. She left Tyre and fled here, away from her brother, and for good reason. It’s a long story.
“Dido loved her husband, Sychaeus, passionately. He was the richest man in Phoenicia, and her father gave her to him as a virgin, as soon as the auspices were good. But her brother, Pygmalion, on the throne of Tyre, a criminal monster, came between them. Wicked and lusting for gold, he caught Sychaeus off guard and killed him with his sword. Then he covered it up, mocking his lovestruck sister with tales of hope. But the unburied ghost of her husband came to her himself in her sleep and showed her everything. He told her to abandon her country, and showed her a treasure of gold and silver to help her on her way. She gathered companions with her, who either hated or feared the despot. Fortunately, they found sea-ready ships, which they seized and loaded with gold. So they landed here, lead by a woman, where you can see where a new Carthage is being built where they bought this ground. But who are you? Where do you come from? Where are you headed?”
“O goddess,” he replies, with a sigh and a heavy heart, “it would take the rest of the day to tell the story of our trials. We’re from Troy, in case you’ve heard of us, driven here by a chance storm. I’m Aeneas, a god-fearing man, with my household gods with me, safe from my enemies. I’m heading for Italy, because I’m of the race of Jupiter. I left from Phrygia with twenty ships, guided by my goddess mother, doing what I was fated to do. Seven remain, barely, and they have been shattered by waves and the East wind. I’ve been driven from Europe and Asia, and am a stranger here, roaming through the deserts of Libya, and in need.”
Venus interrupted his sad tale: “Whoever you are, know that you have not lost the favor of the gods, for they have brought you to a Tyrian city. Go see the queen. I can read omens. See those twelve swans, the bird of Jupiter, cavorting in the sky? Your companions and ships are not lost. They are either in harbor already, or approaching it at full sail. Go where you are led.”
As she turned away, she revealed herself, and he recognized his mother by the way she walked.
He chided her, saying: “Disguises again? Why can’t we just join hands and talk plainly?” But she had already fled into the sky, after cloaking him and Achates with a cloud to keep others from seeing them, or touching them, or questioning their purpose.
Aeneas and Achates climb a hill with the best view of the city, and admire the work being done, walking unnoticed among the workers. They reach a grove in the middle of the city, where Dido was building a mighty temple to Juno, as she had told her to do. Here, Aeneas first dares to hope and trust that his fortunes will improve. The work on the temple includes scenes of the Trojan battle! There are the Greek sons of Atreus, and the Trojan king Priam, and Achilles, who had fought them both. He weeps streams of tears, touched to the soul, to see it all proclaimed to the world. “Don’t fear,” he tells Achates. “This renown will give you some safety.”
One scene shows the Greeks fleeing from the Trojan youths, as they warred around the citadel of Troy. There he waw the Phrygians, pursued by Achilles in his war chariot. Not far from that, he recognizes, with tears, Diomedes, the bloody son of Tydeus, ravaging the tents of Rhesus and his Thracians, stealing the fiery steeds away before they could even make it to the battlefield of Troy. In another direction, Troilus is beaten in unequal combat with Achilles. Meanwhile, the Trojan women entreat Pallas Athena in vain. And Achilles sells the rightful burial of Trojan Hector to his helpless father, King Priam, for gold, after dragging his body shamefully three times around the walls of Troy. And here is Aeneas himself, among his Greek foes, and the Amazon queen Penthesilea, fighting the Greeks as well.
Even as he takes in scene after wondrous scene, Dido advances to the temple, beautiful as a goddess, a quiver on her shoulder, her joy inspiring the great train of youths about her to the work and the kingdom being built. After being seated on her throne, beneath the central dome of the temple, she is making judgments and giving laws, directing the work fairly. Then suddenly through the throng Aeneas sees Anteus and Sergestus and Cloanthus advance, whom he had thought lost, and others of the Trojan fleet. He is speechless, Achate is overcome by both joy and fear. Eager to clasp hands with their companions, yet they stay hidden in the mist, and wait to see how the men are received, where they have landed their fleet, and what these men, selected from the fleet, hope to receive.
Illioneus, the eldest, begins calmly, when he is given leave to speak.
“O Queen, whom Jupiter has granted to found this city and curb proud races with fairness, we entreat you. Don’t burn down our ships, for we are pious. We aren’t here to lay waste your household gods, or to steal; we have been conquered, so we are not so arrogant as to do that. Instead, we are heading for Italy, called Hesperia by the Greeks. We were blown off course by storms; that’s why we’ve landed on your shores. Who would be so savage as to keep us from the shelter of the land and attack us? Even if you don’t honor Man and mortal arms, don’t forget that the gods know right and wrong. We had a king, Aeneas. No man is more just in piety or greater in war and arms. Alive or dead, we are certain you would honor him as much as we do. We also have friends in Sicily, where rules Acestes, who has Trojan blood. May we be allowed to repair our ships and make for Italy, once our companions and king have been recovered? Or if not that, at least seek the straits of Sicily where King Acestes will let us settle.”
Then says Dido, with downcast look, “Don’t fear. My kingdom is new; I’ve needed to guard my territories. Who doesn’t know about the prowess of the followers of Aeneas, or how hotly fought the war at Troy? We are not so unfeeling. Whether you head for Italy or Sicily, I’ll give you escort back to your ships and give you aid. If you wish to remain here instead, you may settle here as equals with me: I will show no distinction between Trojan and we who have fled Tyre. How I wish your king, Aeneas, were here with you. I’ll send men to look for him!”
“Goddess born,” says Achates to Aeneas, hearing this. “Look. Our fleet and companions are all recovered, as your mother said, except for the one we saw sink ourselves.”
Suddenly, the cloud that hid them parts, and Aeneas, with the breath of his mother upon him, appears as beautiful as a god.
“Here I am, Trojan Aeneas. You alone have pitied us in our unspeakable hardships. In no way can we, or any of the Trojan race anywhere, give Dido worthy thanks. The gods reward thee, if any there are who see the good, if justice anywhere exists, if any mind is conscious of what is right.”
Then he clasps Ilioneus with his right hand, Sergestus with his left, and then Gyas and Cloanthus.
Dido is amazed, by the sight of Aeneas and then by the tale of his misfortune. She remembers that he was born of Venus by Anchises, near the Simoes river in Phrygia. Teucer, the ancestor of the Trojans, also came to Sidon, which is how she heard of the Trojan war from her father, Belus. Even though a foe, he praised the Tuecrians and wished he himself came from their ancient stock.
She invites them: “So come, young men, and enter under our roofs. I too have suffered and been fated to settle here in this land. I am learning to assisted the wretched.”
Some thoughts:
The scenes of the Trojan War on Juno’s temple seem to paint the Greeks and Achilles in a bad light.
Although Dido is building a temple to Juno, Ilioneus says that it is Jupiter, not Juno, who has permitted her to found a new city here.
There is an ongoing theme of armed women on the side of the Trojans. Venus appears to Aeneas disguised like a Spartan or Thracian warrior maiden. Dido wears a quiver. The queen of the Amazons fought on the side of Troy. The Trojan women entreat Pallas Athena, goddess of war.