Mythology of the Romans by Evelyn Wolfson

Author:Evelyn Wolfson [Wolfson, Evelyn]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780766061897
Publisher: Enslow Publishers, Inc.
Published: 2015-03-11T04:00:00+00:00

In Italy he will fight a massive war,

Beat down fierce armies, then for the people there

Establish city walls and a way of life.1

In the meantime, Aeneas and his best friend, Achates, set off on foot to explore the shores of northern Africa. Along the way, they stopped and conversed with a young huntress—Aeneas' immortal mother, Venus, in disguise. Venus feared that the Carthaginians would harm her son and his friend, so she enveloped them an invisible cloud before saying goodbye. Soon, Aeneas and Achates reached the city of Carthage and came to a temple dedicated to Juno, which was set off in a dense olive grove. Standing beside the door of the temple, the men heard Queen Dido offering advice and counsel to three Trojan men, whom Aeneas believed had been lost at sea. The men were telling about their perilous journey from Troy, but before they could finish, Dido interrupted and asked if she could meet their leader. Aeneas and Achates wasted no time slipping from beneath their invisible cloud. When Aeneas stepped forward and admitted that he was the leader of the Trojan people, the queen smiled warmly and asked that he finish telling the tale at a banquet that she would give in his honor. Aeneas accepted the invitation and asked if he could bring along his young son, Ascanius. The queen agreed.

On the evening of the palace banquet, Venus sent her immortal son, Cupid, the god of love, to the palace disguised as Ascanius. She believed that Dido would not harm Aeneas if the queen fell in love with him. So according to his mother's instructions, Cupid sat on Dido's lap and cast his spell. While Aeneas entertained Queen Dido's dinner guests with the long saga of the Trojans' journey to Carthage, Cupid made Dido fall helplessly in love with the young Trojan.

That night, Dido confessed to her sister Anna that she had fallen in love with Aeneas. Now she had a dilemma. She could no longer honor the vow she had taken to remain faithful to her dead husband. Anna reminded Dido that she had been a widow long enough and suggested that the city of Carthage might benefit from the presence of the Trojans, who would discourage invasions of other, more warlike foreigners.

From then on, Dido was consumed by Cupid's spell and her love for Aeneas. She could not get Aeneas out of her mind, much less her heart, and she soon began to neglect the business of building her city. Likewise, Aeneas, captivated by Dido's beauty and charm, visited her every evening. Together these lovers roamed Carthage's narrow winding streets lined with tall, closely packed houses, and they often went to visit the harbor.

Aeneas was impressed with the city's modern double-ringed harbor. The outer harbor accommodated trading ships. The inner harbor, a large, rounded area lined with hundreds of sheds, protected Dido's warships.

Soon, the couple was spending so much time together that Dido had completely neglected her royal duties. Juno decided that perhaps

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