Aeneid Book 6, lines 450 - 476

Aeneas finds Dido among the shades

by Virgil

On his journey in the underworld, Aeneas finds his lost steersman, Palinurus, among the unburied souls who are unable to cross over the river Styx. Aeneas’s guide, the Sibyl, comforts him by prophesying that he will soon be given a splendid tomb and be allowed to make the voyage. Persuading an initially reluctant Charon to ferry them across, Aeneas and the Sibyl sneak past Cerberus, the three-headed watchdog, by giving him a drugged titbit and press on to the Fields of Mourning, the home of those who have suffered from sorrow in love.

See the illustrated blog post here.

To follow the story of Aeneas in sequence, use this link to the full Pantheon Poets selection of extracts from the Aeneid. See the next episode here.

To listen, press play:

To scroll the original and English translation of the poem at the same time - tap inside one box to select it and then scroll.

inter quas Phoenissa recens a vulnere Dido
errabat silva in magna; quam Troius heros
ut primum iuxta stetit agnovitque per umbras
obscuram, qualem primo qui surgere mense
aut videt aut vidisse putat per nubila lunam,
demisit lacrimas dulcique adfatus amore est:
‘infelix Dido, verus mihi nuntius ergo
venerat exstinctam ferroque extrema secutam?
funeris heu tibi causa fui? per sidera iuro,
per superos et si qua fides tellure sub ima est,
invitus, regina, tuo de litore cessi.
sed me iussa deum, quae nunc has ire per umbras,
per loca senta situ cogunt noctemque profundam,
imperiis egere suis; nec credere quivi
hunc tantum tibi me discessu ferre dolorem.
siste gradum teque aspectu ne subtrahe nostro.
quem fugis? extremum fato quod te adloquor hoc est.’
talibus Aeneas ardentem et torva tuentem
lenibat dictis animum lacrimasque ciebat.
illa solo fixos oculos aversa tenebat
nec magis incepto vultum sermone movetur
quam si dura silex aut stet Marpesia cautes.
tandem corripuit sese atque inimica refugit
in nemus umbriferum, coniunx ubi pristinus illi
respondet curis aequatque Sychaeus amorem.
nec minus Aeneas casu percussus iniquo
prosequitur lacrimis longe et miseratur euntem.

Among them Phoenician Dido was wandering in
the great wood, fresh from her death-wound, whom
Aeneas, as he stopped nearby, recognised dimly in
the dark, as one at the start of the month sees, or thinks
he has seen the moon rise through the clouds.
He shed tears and spoke to her in tender love:
“unhappy Dido, so the news was true that you
were no more and had met your end by the sword?
Was I, alas, the cause of your death? By the stars
and Gods I swear, if any trust exists here in the depths
of earth, unwillingly, my Queen, I left your shores.
Orders from the Gods, which force me now to fare
through this shadow, wilderness and darkest night,
made me obey their power, nor could I have thought
that I would bring you such great pain by leaving.
Stop, and do not avoid my sight. Who do you run from?
Fate decrees that what I say to you now will be the last.”
So Aeneas tried to soothe her mind, as she looked askance,
burning in anger, and his tears began to flow.
She, turned away, kept her eyes fixed on the ground, nor
was her expression more changed by what he said than
if she had stood there hard flint or Marpesian stone.
Finally she tore herself away and, still in enmity, fled
into the dark grove, where her first husband, Sychaeus,
responds to her cares and gives her mutual love.
All the same, Aeneas, struck by her unjust fate,
follows her afar with tears and pities her as she goes.

`

More Poems by Virgil

  1. The Trojan Horse enters the city
  2. How Aeneas will know the site of his city
  3. Dido and Aeneas: royal hunt and royal affair
  4. Virgil’s perils on the sea
  5. Help for Father Aeneas from Father Tiber
  6. The farmer’s starry calendar
  7. Palinurus the helmsman is lost
  8. The Trojans reach Carthage
  9. Love is the same for all
  10. Aeneas joins the fray
  11. King Latinus grants the Trojans’ request
  12. Aristaeus’s bees
  13. Laocoon and the snakes
  14. Mourning for Pallas
  15. Aeneas reaches the Elysian Fields
  16. The Trojan horse opens
  17. Dido falls in love
  18. Aeneas sees Marcellus, Augustus’s tragic heir
  19. Aeneas’s vision of Augustus
  20. Aeneas arrives in Italy
  21. A Fury rouses Turnus to war
  22. The portals of sleep
  23. Aeneas rescues his Father Anchises
  24. Laocoon warns against the Trojan horse
  25. Into battle
  26. New allies for Aeneas
  27. Juno is reconciled
  28. King Mezentius meets his match
  29. Juno’s anger
  30. The farmer’s happy lot
  31. Vulcan’s forge
  32. The infant Camilla
  33. In King Latinus’s hall
  34. Helen in the darkness
  35. Aeneas comes to the Hell of Tartarus
  36. Aeneas’s ships are transformed
  37. The journey to Hades begins
  38. The death of Priam
  39. The Aeneid begins
  40. Turnus the wolf
  41. What is this wooden horse?
  42. Juno throws open the gates of war
  43. Aeneas tours the site of Rome
  44. Hector visits Aeneas in a dream
  45. The boxers
  46. The Harpy’s prophecy
  47. Souls awaiting punishment in Tartarus, and the crimes that brought them there.
  48. Aeneas prepares for a hopeless fight
  49. The Fury Allecto blows the alarm
  50. Dido’s release
  51. Rumour
  52. The Syrian hostess
  53. The death of Euryalus and Nisus
  54. Catastrophe for Rome?
  55. Dido and Aeneas: Hell hath no fury …
  56. Dido’s story
  57. Aeneas and Dido meet
  58. Cassandra is taken
  59. Omens for Princess Lavinia
  60. Anchises’s ghost invites Aeneas to visit the underworld
  61. Virgil begins the Georgics
  62. The Trojans prepare to set sail from Carthage
  63. Virgil’s poetic temple to Caesar
  64. Aeneas learns the way to the underworld
  65. Sea-nymphs
  66. Aeneas prepares to tell Dido his story
  67. Storm at sea!
  68. Mercury’s journey to Carthage
  69. The battle for Priam’s palace
  70. Aeneas’s oath
  71. More from Virgil’s farming Utopia
  72. The natural history of bees
  73. Virgil predicts a forthcoming birth and a new golden age
  74. Charon, the ferryman
  75. Venus speaks
  76. Aeneas saves his son and father, but at a cost
  77. Turnus is lured away from battle
  78. Aeneas is wounded
  79. Jupiter’s prophecy
  80. Signs of bad weather
  81. Fire strikes Aeneas’s fleet
  82. The death of Pallas
  83. Turnus at bay
  84. The death of Priam
  85. Rites for the allies’ dead
  86. The death of Dido
Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.