The Aeneid

by Virgil

The Trojans, after a seven years’ voyage, set sail for Italy, but are overtaken by a dreadful storm, which Aeolus raises at the request of Juno.

Dido, by device of Venus, begins to have a passion for him, and, after some discourse with him, desires the history of his adventures since the siege of Troy, which is the subject of the two following books.

The Trojans, worn with toils, and spent with woes, Leap on the welcome land, and seek their wish’d repose.

With me, the rocks of Scylla you have tried; Th’ inhuman Cyclops and his den defied. What greater ills hereafter can you bear? Resume your courage and dismiss your care, An hour will come, with pleasure to relate Your sorrows past, as benefits of Fate.

You promis’d once, a progeny divine Of Romans, rising from the Trojan line,

Three hundred circuits more: then shall be seen Ilia the fair, a priestess and a queen, Who, full of Mars, in time, with kindly throes, Shall at a birth two goodly boys disclose. The royal babes a tawny wolf shall drain: Then Romulus his grandsire’s throne shall gain, Of martial tow’rs the founder shall become, The people Romans call, the city Rome.

When Troy shall overturn the Grecian state, And sweet revenge her conqu’ring sons shall call, To crush the people that conspir’d her fall.

“Unhappy queen! then is the common breath Of rumour true, in your reported death, And I, alas! the cause? By Heav’n, I vow, And all the pow’rs that rule the realms below, Unwilling I forsook your friendly state, Commanded by the gods, and forc’d by fate.

r. But next behold the youth of form divine, Caesar himself, exalted in his line; Augustus, promis’d oft, and long foretold, Sent to the realm that Saturn rul’d of old; Born to restore a better age of gold.

This really reads more like Roman state propaganda than a founding myth. Snooze.