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Atque haec ipse suo tristi cum corde volutat,

aspectans silvam inmensam, et sic voce precatur:

"Si nunc se nobis ille aureus arbore ramus

ostendat nemore in tanto, quando omnia vere

heu nimium de te vates, Misene, locuta est."

Vix ea fatus erat, geminae cum forte columbae           190

ipsa sub ora viri caelo venere volantes,

et viridi sedere solo. Tum maximus heros

maternas agnoscit aves, laetusque precatur:

"Este duces, O, si qua via est, cursumque per auras

dirigite in lucos, ubi pinguem dives opacat                   195

ramus humum. Tuque, O, dubiis ne defice rebus,

diva parens." Sic effatus vestigia pressit,

observans quae signa ferant, quo tendere pergant.

Pascentes illae tantum prodire volando,

quantum acie possent oculi servare sequentum.        200

Inde ubi venere ad fauces grave olentis Averni,

tollunt se celeres, liquidumque per aera lapsae

sedibus optatis geminae super arbore sidunt,

discolor unde auri per ramos aura refulsit.

Summary by Thomas Jenkins

Aeneas, utterly at a loss how to find the golden bough, intones a prayer, wishing that the sacred object might shine forth in the forest. Happily, Venus sends two doves to the rescue, and Aeneas is able to chase them about the forest until they alight on the tree that harbors the telling gleam of gold. The tale of the bough is itself a curiosity; it appears to have no known literary predecessors [though Ovid will include the detail in his "retelling" of the Aeneid in the Metamorphoses]. The eminent Virgilian scholar E. Norden suggests that the golden bough was connected to the rites due to the goddess Proserpina [Persephone in Greek traditions]. In addition, this portion of the story fits neatly into the scheme of a folk-tale; the hero needs to perform a seemingly impossible task, and is guided not by other humans, but by the realm of animals and nature [cf. Cinderella who must enlist the aid of birds to help with her impossible tasks before the ball].