I sing of arms and a man, who first form Troy, having been exiled from the shores,
came, by fate, to Italy and Lavinian shores;
he was tossed much on both lands and in the deep (sea) by the force of the gods,
on account of the unforgotten anger of cruel Juno,
also having suffered many things and in war, until he founded a city
and brought gods into Latium, from which source the Latin race
and the Alban ancestors and also the tall walls of Rome are.
Muse, relate to me the reasons, with which divine power of Juno having been offended,
or angry at what, did the queen of gods drive the man distinguished by loyalty
to undergo so many misfortunes, to encounter so many labors?
Do the divine souls have such great anger(s)?
There was an ancient city (the Tyrian settlers held it)
Carthage, at a distance facing Italy and the mouth of the Tiber,
rich in resources and the harshest in desires of war,
which alone Juno is said to have cherished more than all lands,
with even Samos having been esteemed less.
Here were the arms, here was the chariot;
the goddess tended and favored this (city) to be a kingdom to (her) people,
if the fates in any way would allow.
But indeed (Juno) had heard that an offspring had been led
from Trojan blood who would once overturn Tyrian citadels;
that the nation proud with war, ruling far and wide, would come
from this place for the destruction of Libya; thus the fates unrolled.
Saturn’s daughter, dreading it and mindful of the ancient war,
(she) as the leader had carried it on, on behalf of beloved Greeks- the causes of angers
and cruel griefs had also not yet fallen from (her) mind, deep in her mind
the judgment of despised Paris and the insult of her beauty having been rejected
and the hated race and the honors of stolen Ganymede:
(she), having been enraged by these also,
kept defending far-off Latium that the Trojans,
the remnants of the Greeks and also cruel Achilles
wandered for many years, having been driven by the fates around the entire sea.
It was such a great effort to found the Roman race.
Scarcely out of sight of the land of Sicily into the deep sea
the happy (Trojans) were placing sails and were plowing the spray of the sea with bronze,
when Juno, nursing the everlasting wound deep in her heart, said this to herself:
“Am I, beaten, from the beginning, to desist from my undertaking and not to be able
to turn aside the rule of the Trojans from the Italians?
Truly I am forbidden by the fates. Wasn’t Minerva able to burn up the Argive fleet
and also to submerge those very men in the sea
only on account of the crime and madness of Ajax, (son) of Oileus?
She (Minerva) herself, having thrown the consuming fire of Jove from the clouds,
both scattered the ships and overturned the waves by winds,
she snatched him up exhaling, with the flames having pierced his heart,
by a whirlpool and impaled him on a sharp crag.
But I, who of goddesses walk as both the queen of Jove, and the sister, and the wife,
wage war with only the (Tecurian) people for so many years,
Can anyone worship the divine power of Juno hereafter
or as a suppliant place an offering on my altar?
Pondering such things to herself in her heart, having been inflamed, the goddess came
into her homeland of storm clouds, the regions teeming with raging Southern winds, Aeolia.
Here in a vast cavern the king Aeolus represses
the struggling winds and howling storms
with power and restrains (them) with chains and prison.
Those, being angry, roar at their barriers with a great rumble of the mountain;
In a lofty citadel sits Aeolus, holding a scepter,
and tames (their) souls and calms (their) angers.
If he did not do (it), the consuming (winds) would surely carry the seas and lands
and vast sky with them and sweep them through the air;
but the almighty father hid (them) in dark caves,
thinking this, he put tall mountains on (them),
gave (them) a king who, by fixed agreement,
would know both (how) to repress (them) and (how) to free (them)
and, having been ordered, to give the reins.
Then humble Juno spoke to him using these words:
“Aeolus, (for to you the father of the gods and the king of men has granted
both to calm and to stir up the sea by means of wind),
and enemy nation to me sails to Tyrrhenian seas
bringing Ilium and conquered household gods into Italy:
strike force into the winds and crush the sunken ships,
or drive the scattered (Tecuri) and scatter their bodies over the sea.
There are my fourteen nymphs, with surpassing bodies,
Deiopea, who is of them the most beautiful in form,
I will join (to you) in lasting wedlock and I will dedicate (her) as your own,
so that, for such merits, she might complete all years with you,
and might make you a father with beautiful offspring.”
Aeolus said in reply to this: “O queen, yours is the labor which you choose to examine;
it is my duty to undertake (your) orders.
You win for me whatever this is of a kingdom, and you win over the scepter of Jove,
and you grant (me the privilege) to recline at feasts of gods.
and you make (me) ruling of rain clouds and of storms.”
As soon as this was said, he drove against the side, the hollow mountain with a turned spear,
and just as with armies having been made,
where the door was given, the winds rushed and blew through the lands as a storm.
Together Erus and Notus and Africus, frequent with gusts,
fell upon the sea, and overturned the sea from the lowest depths,
and the rolled enormous waves to the shores of the sea.
The shouts of the men and the creaking of the ropes follow;
suddenly the clouds tore away both the sky and the daylight
from the eyes of the Tecuri, black night lay upon the sea;
the heavens thundered and the sky flashes with frequent fire(s)
and all things threaten instant death to the (Trojan) men.
Immediately the limbs of Aeneas are relaxed by chilly fear;
he groans and, extending both hands to the heavens,
in a voice says the following: “O three times and four times blessed
(are those) whom it befell to meet (death) before the shores of (their) fatherland
of Troy under the tall walls! O bravest Tydides of the Greek people!
Could I not have fallen (in death) in the plains of Ilium
and poured out this soul by (your) right (hand),
Where fierce Hector lies (dead) by the spear of Achilles,
Where mighty Sarpedon lies, where the shields and helmets of men and
(line 101) the brave bodies of all, snatched up by the Simois, roll under the waves!?”