Page:Aeneid (Conington 1866).djvu/40

16 Instruct us, 'neath what sky at last,

Upon what shore, our lot is cast;

We wander here, by tempest blown,

The people and the place unknown.

O say! and many a victim's life

Before thy shrine shall stain my knife.'

Then Venus: 'Nay, I would not claim

A goddess' venerable name:

The quiver and the buskin's braid

But designate a Tyrian maid.

The Punic state is this you see,

Agenor's Tyrian colony:

But all around the Libyans dwell,

A race in war untamed and fell.

The sceptre here queen Dido sways,

Who fled from Tyre in other days,

To 'scape a brother's frenzy: long

And dark the story of her wrong;

To thread each tangle time would fail,

So learn the summits of the tale.

Sychæus was her husband once,

The wealthiest of Phœnicia's sons:

She loved him; nor her sire denied,

But made her his, a virgin bride.

But soon there filled the ruler's place

Her brother, worst of human race,

Pygmalion: 'twixt the kinsmen came

Fierce hatred, like a withering flame.

With avarice blind, by stealthy blow

The monster laid Sychæus low,

E'en at the altar, recking nought

What passion in his sister wrought:

Long time he hid the foul offence,

And, feigning many a base pretence,

Beguiled her love-sick innocence.