Aeneid, Book 1: Lines 335-352

Summary: Venus is talking to Aeneas while disguised as a huntress in very revealing clothes. She brushes it off as just being a custom (but we know better) before telling the tale of Dido's misfortune. Basically, she gets married to an awesome rich dude she loves but her brother is a hater and kills him.



335-Tum Venus: 'Haud equidem tali me dignor honore;
336-virginibus Tyriis mos est gestare pharetram,
337-purpureoque alte suras vincire cothurno.
338-Punica regna vides, Tyrios et Agenoris urbem;
339-sed fines Libyci, genus itractabile bello.

335-Then Venus said: ' I, indeed, am hardly considered worthy of such an honor;

336-It is customary for Tyrian maidens to wear quivers,

337-and to encircle their calves with high purple hunting boots.

338-You see a Phoenician kingdom and the Tyrians and a city of Agenor;

339-but you also see the boundary of Libya here, a race unconquerable in war.

340-Imperium Dido Tyria regit urbe profecta,
341-germanum fugiens. Longa est iniuria, longae
342-ambages; sed summa sequar fastigia rerum.
343-'Huic coniunx Sychaeus erat, ditissimus agri
344-Phoenicum, et magno miserae dilectus amore,

340- Dido rules here, having departed from Tyre,

341-escaping her brother. The story is unjust, long

342-and detailed; but I will follow the highest details.

343-'Sychaeus is the spouse to her, wealthy with the gold

344-of Phoenicia, and is cherished with much love from a miserable wife.

345-cui pater intactam dederat, primisque iugarat
346-ominibus. Sed regna Tyri germanus habebat
347-Pygmalion, scelere ante alios immanior omnes.
348-Quos inter medius venit furor. Ille Sychaeum
349-impius ante aras, atque auri caecus amore,

345-Sychaeus, whose father gave him Dido as a virgin, had joined with

346-the first marriage rites. But brother Pygmalion was ruling the kingdom

347-of Tyre, more monstrous than all others in crime.

348- Whom (Pygmalion and Sychaeus) in the middle of a rage came between,

349-that man(Pygmalion) in front of the alter, impious and blinded by love for gold,

350-clam ferro incautum superat, securus amorum
351-germanae; factumque diu celavit, et aegram,
352-multa malus simulans, vana spe lusit amantem.

350-overcame unsuspecting Sychaeus secretly with iron (synecdoche for sword),

351-that one heedless of the love of his sister; that deed concealed, and for a long time,

352-the evil one pretends much. The deceived lover is sick with vain hope.