In today’s post, Aeneas and the ghost of his abandoned lover, Dido, have an unhappy meeting in the underworld. See the illustrated blog post here; listen to the Latin and follow in English translation here.
Today’s new Latin poem is from Virgil’s Aeneid. It sets the scene for Aeneas, as an honoured guest at the court of Dido, Queen of Carthage, to describe the fall of Troy. He is a Trojan prince, and the story he tells will be first-hand, vivid and full of drama, and a rarer subject in ancient literature than you might suppose – Homer’s Iliad ends before Troy falls. As Book 2 begins, Aeneas’s superhuman dignity and charisma are meant to remind us of his descendant, the Emperor Augustus.
Having persuaded Charon the ferryman to take him across the river Styx, Aeneas is distressed to find the spirit of his former lover Dido, the Queen of Carthage, in the Fields of Mourning, the home of those who in life have suffered unhappy love. Hear the Latin and follow in English here.
Did you miss … Aeneas preparing to tell Dido the story of the fall of Troy? Hear the poem in Latin and follow it in English here.
Aeneas and Dido have begun their affair. The monstrous Goddess, Rumour, sets to work to spread the news, some fake, some otherwise. Hear the poem here.
Dido has discovered that Aeneas is preparing to leave her, and Carthage, without telling her. Their next interview does not go well. Hear Dido’s reaction here.
