Page:The Mythology of All Races Vol 1 (Greek and Roman).djvu/619

Rh came successively to the island of the Harpies, to the home of Helenus and Andromache on the coast of Epirus, and to the land of the Cyclops, where they saw the blinded Polyphemus. In an endeavour to avoid Scylla and Charybdis, they hugged the southern shores of Sicily with the intention of doubling the western extremity of the island, but Iuno espied them, and, unable to forget that they belonged to the Trojan race which she hated, roused a great storm that drove them on the coast of Carthage.

At this time Carthage was ruled by a Tyrian queen named Dido, who welcomed the fugitives into her court, entertaining them for many months as though they were a company of kings, and at her request Aeneas told the story of the fall of his city and of his perilous voyage from land to land in his search for a home. His personal charms won her love, and she offered to share her kingdom with him, but when, weary of wandering longer and despairing of finding his destined land, Aeneas was on the point of yielding to her passionate importunities, Iuppiter, through Mercury, roused him from his lethargy and turned his face once more toward the ships and the sea.

Re-embarking, the Trojans sailed northward and under the protection of Neptune reached the shores of Hesperia near Cumae, the home of the Sibyl. Here, like Odysseus in Kimmeria, Aeneas made the descent into Hades and saw many dire monsters and the shadowy troops of the dead. After conversing with the shades of some whom he had known in life, he turned to make his way upward to the light, his path leading him through Elysium, where he found the shade of his father, Anchises, who had died since the departure from Troy. By him he was led into the spacious Vale of Forgetfulness and was shown the vast assemblage of souls that were waiting to be implanted in some human body and given life upon earth, while Anchises also revealed to him the trials which he had yet to experience in establishing his colony in