This is one of the great passages of classical literature, from Virgil’s ‘Aeneid’, Book IV. In case anyone is unfamiliar with the story, Aeneas and his companions, fleeing from the sack of Troy, are shipwrecked on the coast of Libya, where they are taken in and entertained by the Queen of Carthage, Dido. Predictably she falls for Aeneas and they have a lot of fun together, including a hunting trip in which they take refuge from a storm in a cave where, to the accompaniment of thunder and lightning, it appears that their relationship is consummated. So far so good, but Jupiter, who has other plans for Aeneas, is not too happy about this and sends his messenger Mercury to pay Aeneas a visit and speak to him on the lines of ‘Look son, enough of the hanky-panky, you do remember that you are supposed to be founding a new kingdom in Italy?’. Reluctantly Aeneas prepares to set sail, meaning to tell Dido at some convenient moment, but she gets wind of his plans and angrily confronts him. He tries to excuse himself with a ‘Sometimes a man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do’ speech, but women, I have noted, tend to be much less impressed by that sort of sentiment than are men, and in the speech below she gives him both barrels in reply.

Blake said of ‘Paradise Lost’ that Milton ‘was of the Devil’s party without knowing it’. I think it would be too much to claim that Virgil was of Dido’s party without knowing it: I have no doubt that he had a genuine belief in the Roman virtues of duty and piety, even setting aside the fact that as an intimate of the Emperor Augustus such a belief would be politic for him. But that does not stop his empathy for Dido and her suffering being remarkable in a man of the time.

The translation that follows is my own.

Dardanus: in  legend, the son of Zeus and Electra, and ancestor of the Trojan race.

‘No goddess was your mother…’: Aeneas was said to be the product of a union between the Trojan prince Anchises and the Greek goddess Aphrodite.

Caucasus: a region between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, in classical times a byword for wildness.

The shift at line 7 into referring to Aeneas in the third person suggests that she can no longer bear to address him directly.‘and this is what the gods do…’: the tone here is heavily sarcastic, as if she does not believe a word of his protestations.

Talia dicentem iamdudum aversa tuetur
huc illuc volvens oculos totumque pererrat
luminibus tacitis et sic accensa profatur:
‘nec tibi diva parens generis nec Dardanus auctor,               
perfide, sed duris genuit te cautibus horrens
Caucasus Hyrcanaeque admorunt ubera tigres.
nam quid dissimulo aut quae me ad maiora reservo?
num fletu ingemuit nostro? num lumina flexit?
num lacrimas victus dedit aut miseratus amantem est?               
quae quibus anteferam? iam iam nec maxima Iuno
nec Saturnius haec oculis pater aspicit aequis.
nusquam tuta fides. eiectum litore, egentem
excepi et regni demens in parte locavi.
amissam classem, socios a morte reduxi               
(heu furiis incensa feror!): nunc augur Apollo,
nunc Lyciae sortes, nunc et Iove missus ab ipso
interpres divum fert horrida iussa per auras.
scilicet is superis labor est, ea cura quietos
sollicitat. neque te teneo neque dicta refello:               
i, sequere Italiam ventis, pete regna per undas.
spero equidem mediis, si quid pia numina possunt,
supplicia hausurum scopulis et nomine Dido
saepe vocaturum. sequar atris ignibus absens
et, cum frigida mors anima seduxerit artus,               
omnibus umbra locis adero. dabis, improbe, poenas.
audiam et haec Manis veniet mihi fama sub imos.’

As he spoke, she looked him up and down,
A silent stare, surveying the whole man
And then in anger spoke to him. ‘Deceiver,
No goddess was your mother, nor Dardanus
The father of your race: harsh Caucasus
Begat you on the rocks, and tigers reared you.
But why hold back? What worse can come? Was he
Moved by my weeping? Did he look at me?
Did he shed tears, outargued? Pity me?
What can I cleave to now? The gods themselves,
Jupiter, son of Saturn, and great Juno
Look down on this and with no friendly eyes.
Where now shall faith be found? I welcomed him,
A castaway upon my shore, a beggar,
I saved his ships, I saved his friends from death,
With foolish heart I shared with him my realm.
Driven by the Furies, now I burn.
And so, you say, Apollo prophesies,
The oracles proclaim, Jove’s messenger
Carries his commandments through the air.
And this is what the gods do, this is what
Troubles them in their tranquillity?
But go, I will not keep you then, nor argue.
Go, seek your Italy, the winds be with you,
Find your land beyond the waves. And yet,
If the good gods have power, I pray that you
May drink your cup of death among the reefs,
Over and over calling my name, Dido.
I’ll follow you from far off with dark fires
And when my soul is sundered by cold death
My ghost will be about you. Cruel one,
You shall be punished, and I’ll know: that news
Will reach me even in the depths of Hades’.