Cybele (so they say), mother of the gods, addressed great Jupiter: “My son, since you’ve tamed Olympus, grant this favor that your loving mother asks. On a mountain summit was a grove I loved for many years, where people brought me offerings. Pitch-pine trees and maples lent it murky shade. I gave it to Aeneas when he needed ships, and gladly so, but fear makes me anxious now. 90 Comfort me and grant your mother’s prayer: don’t let the boats be swamped at sea by waves or whirlwinds. Let it help them that my mountain was their home.”
Rhea/Cybele is the first Ent, or Lorax. She is, after all, the daughter of the earth goddess Gaia.
The cutting down of the sacred pines is first alluded to by Aeneas at the opening of Book III, though this translation only mentions the ships and not the pines they were made from.
