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Vix ea fatus erat, cum circumfusa repente
scindit se nubes et in aethera purgat apertum.
Restitit Aeneas claraque in luce refulsit,
os umerosque deo similis; namque ipsa decoram
caesariem nato genetrix lumenque iuventae
purpureum et laetos oculis adflarat honores:
quale manus addunt ebori decus, aut ubi flavo
argentum Pariusve lapis circumdatur auro.
Tum sic reginam adloquitur, cunctisque repente
improvisus ait: "Coram, quem quaeritis, adsum,
Troius Aeneas, Lybicis ereptus ab undis.
O sola infandos Troiae miserata labores,
quae nos, reliquias Danaum, terraeque marisque
omnibus exhaustos iam casibus, omnium egenos,
urbe, domo, socias, grates persolvere dignas
non opis est nostrae, Dido, nec quicquid ubique est
gentis Dardaniae, magnum quae sparsa per orbem.
Di tibi, si qua pios respectant numina, si quid
usquam iustitia est et mens sibi conscia recti,
praemia digna ferant. Quae te tam laeta tulerunt
saecula? Qui tanti talem genuere parentes?
In freta dum fluvii current, dum montibus umbrae
lustrabunt convexa, polus dum sidera pascet,
semper honos nomenque tuum laudesque manebunt,
quae me cumque vocant terrae."
Summary by Thomas Jenkins
Book One introduces the enigmatic and tragic figure of Dido [also known as Elissa], a woman so ripe for artistic recreation that portraits, paintings, and poems celebrating her doomed loved comprise a rich European tradition. (Compare Purcell's sympathetic portrayal in his opera Dido and Aeneas, in which the first-billed Dido is definitely the protagonist!) Having infiltrated Carthage in a magical cloud, Aeneas and his companion Achates finally break out of their mist to address the queen of Carthage, and to thank her for her earlier promise to spare the Trojan ships from fire. As Aeneas speaks to Dido, Virgil notes how extraordinarily handsome Venus had made him through her charms—or is it that Virgil is giving us a vision of Aeneas focalized through Dido's love-struck eyes? Aeneas's last utterance is eerily prophetic of his eventual desertion of Dido: Aeneas is perfectly content to link together his name with Dido's, even if promise of a new land summons him away …
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Virgil, Aeneid 1.586–610 (Dryden's translation), read by Kathleen M. Coleman