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Notes Do not display Latin text | translated by Theodore C. Williams Book I Chapter 38: After the feast | Next chapter Return to index Previous chapter |
When the main feast is over, they replace the banquet with huge bowls, and crown the wine with ivy-leaf and rose. Loud rings the roof with echoing voices; from the gilded vault far-blazing cressets swing, or torches bright drive the dark night away. The Queen herself called for her golden chalice studded round with jewels, and o'er-brimming it with wine as Belus and his proud successors use, commanded silence, and this utterance made: Great Jove, of whom are hospitable laws for stranger-guest, may this auspicious day bless both our Tyrians and the wanderers from Trojan shore. May our posterity keep this remembrance! Let kind Juno smile, and Bacchus, lord of mirth, attend us here! And, O ye Tyrians, come one and all, and with well-omened words our welcome share! So saying, she outpoured the sacred drop drop due to the gods, and lightly from the rim sipped the first taste, then unto Bitias gave with urgent cheer; he seized it, nothing loth, quaffed deep and long the foaming, golden bowl, then passed to others. On a gilded lyre the flowing-haired Iopas woke a song taught him by famous Atlas: of the moon he sang, the wanderer, and what the sun's vast labors be; then would his music tell whence man and beast were born, and whence were bred clouds, lightnings, and Arcturus' stormful sign, the Hyades, rain-stars, and nigh the Pole the great and lesser Wain; for well he knew why colder suns make haste to quench their orb in ocean-stream, and wintry nights be slow. Loudly the Tyrians their minstrel praised, and Troy gave prompt applause. Dido the while with varying talk prolonged the fateful night, and drank both long and deep of love and wine. Now many a tale of Priam would she crave, of Hector many; or what radiant arms Aurora's son did wear; what were those steeds of Diomed, or what the stature seemed of great Achilles. Come, illustrious guest, begin the tale, she said, begin and tell the perfidy of Greece, thy people's fall, and all thy wanderings. For now, -- Ah, me! Seven times the summer's burning stars have seen thee wandering far o'er alien lands and seas. Event: Aeneas in Carthago |
723-756 Postquam prima quies epulis, mensaeque remotae, crateras magnos statuunt et vina coronant. Fit strepitus tectis, vocemque per ampla volutant atria; dependent lychni laquearibus aureis incensi, et noctem flammis funalia vincunt. Hic regina gravem gemmis auroque poposcit implevitque mero pateram, quam Belus et omnes a Belo soliti; tum facta silentia tectis: 'Iuppiter, hospitibus nam te dare iura loquuntur, hunc laetum Tyriisque diem Troiaque profectis esse velis, nostrosque huius meminisse minores. Adsit laetitiae Bacchus dator, et bona Iuno; et vos, O, coetum, Tyrii, celebrate faventes.' Dixit, et in mensam laticum libavit honorem, primaque, libato, summo tenus attigit ore, tum Bitiae dedit increpitans; ille impiger hausit spumantem pateram, et pleno se proluit auro post alii proceres. Cithara crinitus Iopas personat aurata, docuit quem maximus Atlas. Hic canit errantem lunam solisque labores; unde hominum genus et pecudes; unde imber et ignes; Arcturum pluviasque Hyadas geminosque Triones; quid tantum Oceano properent se tinguere soles hiberni, vel quae tardis mora noctibus obstet. Ingeminant plausu Tyrii, Troesque sequuntur. Nec non et vario noctem sermone trahebat infelix Dido, longumque bibebat amorem, multa super Priamo rogitans, super Hectore multa; nunc quibus Aurorae venisset filius armis, nunc quales Diomedis equi, nunc quantus Achilles. 'Immo age, et a prima dic, hospes, origine nobis insidias,' inquit, 'Danaum, casusque tuorum, erroresque tuos; nam te iam septima portat omnibus errantem terris et fluctibus aestas.' |