Aeneas learns from his ships, which have been transformed into sea- nymphs by the Goddess Cybele, that his son, Ascanius, and his Trojan force are being hard-pressed by the Rutulian leader, Turnus. Hear the Latin and follow in John Dryden’s classic 17th-century translation here.
It is time for Lavinia, the only child of King Latinus of Latium, to marry. Her mother, the Queen, has definite plans, but the omens are unfavourable, including a horrifying accident as Lavinia’s hair catches fire at the altar.
Hear the Latin and follow in English here.
Palinurus the great navigator and helmsman is betrayed and thrown overboard by the God of Sleep. The Gods have decreed that his life is the price of his companions’ safe onward journey: he will become the archetype, down the ages, of the poor mariner lost at sea. Hear the extract here.
Illustration: Wikipedia Loves Art participant “Opal_Art_Seekers_4“, WLA taft Plate with Palinurus Overboard, CC BY 2.0
In the battle between the Trojans and Rutulians, Turnus, the Italian leader, and Pallas, the young Arcadian Prince, confront one another – Pallas fights bravely, but the match is an uneven one. Hear the combat in Virgil’s Latin and follow in English here.
Today’s poem is taken from Schiller’s free German translation of Book 4 of the Aeneid, in which he describes how the Goddess Juno finally takes pity on Dido as she lingers in her death agony after stabbing herself with Aeneas’s sword and sends the rainbow-Goddess Iris to free her spirit from her body. Hear the German read by Tatjana Pisarski and follow an English translation here.
The great German poet Friedrich von Schiller wrote a thrilling free version of the Books of Virgil’s Aeneid which deal with the fall of Troy and the Story of Dido and Aeneas. This extract from the second – Book 4 – is Dido’s reproof to Aeneas when she discovers he has been planning to leave her. Listen to the German read by Tatjana Pisarski and follow an English translation here.
The illustration shows another famously and justly angry mythical woman – Medea – painted by Evelyn de Morgan.