In the cliffs was a cave, with
sweet waters and seats carved from the living rock,--the abode of the
nymphs. Gathering here the seven ships that survived the fury of the
storm, Aeneas landed, and feasted with his comrades.
The next morning Aeneas, accompanied by his friend Achates, sallied forth
from the camp at dawn, to learn, if possible, something of the land on
which they had been thrown. They had gone but a little way in the depths
of the forest when they met Aeneas's mother, Venus, in the guise of a
Spartan maid, her bow hung from her shoulders, her hair flowing to the
wind.
"Hast thou seen my sister?" she inquired, "hunting the boar, wrapped in a
spotted lynx hide, her quiver at her back?"
"Nay, we have seen no one," replied Aeneas. "But what shall I call thee,
maiden? A goddess, a nymph? Be kind, I pray thee, and tell us among what
people we have fallen, that before thy altars we may sacrifice many a
victim."
"I am unworthy of such honors," Venus answered. "This land is Libya, but
the town is Tyrian, founded by Dido, who fled hither from her brother
Pygmalion, who had secretly murdered her husband, Sichaeus, for his gold.
To Dido, sleeping, appeared the wraith of Sichaeus, pallid, his breast
pierced with the impious wound, and revealed to her her brother's crime,
showed where a hoard of gold was concealed, and advised her to leave the
country.
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