Page:Great Men and Famous Women Volume 5.djvu/37

 ./ENEAS 13 They sailed away from this dismal prophetess, and touched on the coast of Epirus, where ^Eneas found his cousin Helenus, son to old Priam, reigning over a little new Troy, and married to Andromache, Hector's wife, whom he had gained after Pyrrhus had been killed. Helenus was a prophet, and he gave ^Eneas much advice. In especial he said that when the Trojans should come to Italy they would find, under the holly-trees by the river-side, a large, white, old sow lying on the ground, with a litter of thirty little pigs round her, and this should be a sign to them where they were to build their city. By his advice the Trojans coasted round the south of Sicily, instead of trying to pass the strait between the dreadful Scylla and Charybdis, and just below Mount Etna an unfortunate man came running down to the beach begging to be taken in. He was a Greek, who had been left behind when Ulysses escaped from Polyphemus's cave, and had made his way to the forests, where he had lived ever since. They had just taken him in when they saw the. Cyclop coming down, with a pine-tree for a staff, to wash the burning hollow of his lost eye in the sea, and they rowed off in great terror. Poor old Anchises died shortly after, and while his son was still sorrowing for him, Juno, who hated every Trojan, stirred up a terrible tempest, which drove the ships to the south, until, just as the sea began to calm down, they came into a beautiful bay, enclosed by tall cliffs with woods overhanging them. Here the tired wanderers landed, and, lighting a fire, ^Eneas went in quest of food. Com- ing out of the forest they looked down from a hill, and beheld a multitude of people building a city, raising walls, houses, towers, and temples. Into one of these temples ^Eneas entered, and to his amazement he found the walls sculptured with all the story of the siege of Troy, and all his friends so perfectly repre- sented, that he burst into tears at the sight. Just then a beautiful queen., attended by a whole troop of nymphs, came into the temple. This lady was Dido ; her husband, Sichseus, had been King of Tyre, till he was murdered by his brother, Pygmalion, who meant to have married her ; but she fled from him with a band of faithful Tyrians and all her husband's treas- ure, and had landed on the north coast of Africa. There she begged of the chief of the country as much land as could be enclosed by a bullock's hide. He granted this readily ; and Dido, cutting the hide into the finest possible strips, managed to measure off ground enough to build the splendid city which she had named Carthage. She received yEneas most kindly, and took all his men into her city, hoping to keep them there forever, and make him her husband. /Eneas himself was so happy there that he forgot all his plans and the prophecies he had heard, until Jupiter sent Mercury to rouse him to fulfil his destiny. He obeyed the call ; and Dido was so wretched at his departure that she caused a great funeral pile to be built, laid herself on the top, and stabbed herself with Eneas' s sword ; the pile was burnt, and the Trojans saw the flame from their ships without knowing the cause. By and by ^Eneas landed at a place in Italy named Cumae. There dwelt one of the Sibyls. These were wondrous virgins whom Apollo had endowed with