Aeneid Book 4, lines 362 - 393

Dido and Aeneas: Hell hath no fury …

by Virgil

Mercury, the messenger of the Gods, has been sent to tell Aeneas in the starkest terms that he must leave Carthage and Dido and fulfil his mission for the foundation of Rome. Concerned about how Dido will react, he begins to prepare his fleet without telling her, but she finds out. Confronted, he has just told her about Mercury’s message and assured her, not too convincingly, that he did not intend to deceive her about leaving. Not very tactfully, he has added that he never proposed marriage and, unlike her, did not regard their affair as one. Here is Dido’s reply.

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.

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.’
his medium dictis sermonem abrumpit et auras
aegra fugit seque ex oculis avertit et aufert,
linquens multa metu cunctantem et multa parantem
dicere. suscipiunt famulae conlapsaque membra
marmoreo referunt thalamo stratisque reponunt.

She watches him sidelong as he speaks, her eyes darting
to and fro, looks him up and down in silence,
and, livid, bursts out: “you traitor, no goddess was
your mother, nor was it Dardanus who founded your line:
bleak Caucasus bore you among its jagged rocks
and Hyrcanaean tigers suckled you. Why should I pretend?
What worse outrages should I wait for? Didn’t he sigh
in sympathy when I wept? Didn’t he turn his gaze to me?
Wasn’t he overcome by tears? Didn’t he pity me, see how
I loved him? Where to begin? Neither great Juno, nor
Father Jupiter can see this happen unmoved. Loyalty
can’t be trusted anywhere. I rescued him, washed up,
bereft, and in my madness set him to share my kingdom.
I brought his lost ships, his comrades back from death!
I am ablaze, driven by furies! Now Apollo the prophet,
Lycian oracles and Mercury, divine messenger of Jove,
bring these dreadful biddings through the air. So that’s
Gods’ will, what spoils their calm! I’ll not detain you,
question their word! Follow Italy on the winds, seek
your realm across the sea! I hope you will
know torture amidst the rocks, if just gods have power,
call again and again on Dido’s name!
From far, I’ll chase you with black fury’s
fire, when cold death has torn limbs from spirit,
my ghost will dog you everywhere. You’ll pay, wretch!
Word will reach me, I’ll hear it in the pit of Hades!”
She breaks off half-way, frenzied, shuns the open air,
turns, flees out of sight, leaving him with much
he meant to say, but in his shock leaving it unsaid.
Her maids support her, carry her in collapse
to her marble bedchamber and lay her on the couch.

`

More Poems by Virgil

  1. Virgil’s poetic temple to Caesar
  2. Aeneas and Dido meet
  3. Aeneas prepares for a hopeless fight
  4. Souls awaiting punishment in Tartarus, and the crimes that brought them there.
  5. The battle for Priam’s palace
  6. King Latinus grants the Trojans’ request
  7. The Syrian hostess
  8. More from Virgil’s farming Utopia
  9. The death of Euryalus and Nisus
  10. The infant Camilla
  11. Aeneas learns the way to the underworld
  12. Aeneas rescues his Father Anchises
  13. How Aeneas will know the site of his city
  14. Laocoon and the snakes
  15. Aeneas’s vision of Augustus
  16. Aeneas’s oath
  17. Aeneas saves his son and father, but at a cost
  18. Dido’s story
  19. Aeneas finds Dido among the shades
  20. Aeneas is wounded
  21. Aeneas joins the fray
  22. Storm at sea!
  23. Dido falls in love
  24. Turnus the wolf
  25. Aeneas comes to the Hell of Tartarus
  26. Juno’s anger
  27. The death of Priam
  28. New allies for Aeneas
  29. The Trojans reach Carthage
  30. Into battle
  31. Charon, the ferryman
  32. Aeneas’s ships are transformed
  33. Hector visits Aeneas in a dream
  34. Mercury’s journey to Carthage
  35. Signs of bad weather
  36. The natural history of bees
  37. Juno throws open the gates of war
  38. Turnus at bay
  39. Mourning for Pallas
  40. Turnus is lured away from battle
  41. Virgil begins the Georgics
  42. Vulcan’s forge
  43. Aeneas prepares to tell Dido his story
  44. The Trojan Horse enters the city
  45. Rites for the allies’ dead
  46. Fire strikes Aeneas’s fleet
  47. Sea-nymphs
  48. The Fury Allecto blows the alarm
  49. Juno is reconciled
  50. Love is the same for all
  51. The journey to Hades begins
  52. The death of Dido
  53. Aristaeus’s bees
  54. Cassandra is taken
  55. King Mezentius meets his match
  56. The boxers
  57. The death of Priam
  58. Omens for Princess Lavinia
  59. The farmer’s happy lot
  60. Dido’s release
  61. In King Latinus’s hall
  62. The Trojan horse opens
  63. Help for Father Aeneas from Father Tiber
  64. Rumour
  65. Aeneas tours the site of Rome
  66. The portals of sleep
  67. The Aeneid begins
  68. Aeneas arrives in Italy
  69. The farmer’s starry calendar
  70. What is this wooden horse?
  71. Catastrophe for Rome?
  72. Virgil predicts a forthcoming birth and a new golden age
  73. Jupiter’s prophecy
  74. Palinurus the helmsman is lost
  75. Virgil’s perils on the sea
  76. Dido and Aeneas: royal hunt and royal affair
  77. Anchises’s ghost invites Aeneas to visit the underworld
  78. Aeneas sees Marcellus, Augustus’s tragic heir
  79. Venus speaks
  80. Laocoon warns against the Trojan horse
  81. A Fury rouses Turnus to war
  82. The Harpy’s prophecy
  83. The Trojans prepare to set sail from Carthage
  84. Aeneas reaches the Elysian Fields
  85. The death of Pallas
  86. Helen in the darkness
    87. View Latin Poems
Powered by  GDPR Cookie Compliance
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.