Page:The Aeneid of Virgil JOHN CONINGTON 1917 V2.pdf/55

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new, what time they lead out the nation's hope, the young now grown, or mass together honey, clear and flowing, and strain the cells to bursting with its nectarous sweets, or relieve those who are coming in of their burdens, or collect a troop and expel from their stalls the drones, that lazy, 5 thriftless herd. The work is all afire, and a scent of thyme breathes from the fragrant honey. "O happy they, whose city is rising already!" cries Æneas, as he looks upward to roof and dome. In he goes, close fenced by his cloud, miraculous to tell, threads his way through the midst, 10 and mingles with the citizens, unperceived of all.

A grove there was in the heart of the city, most plenteous of shade—the spot where first, fresh from the buffeting of wave and wind, the Punic race dug up the token which queenly Juno had bidden them expect, the head of a fiery 15 steed—for even thus, said she, the nation should be renowned in war and rich in sustenance for a life of centuries. Here Dido, Sidon's[o] daughter, was building a vast temple to Juno, rich in offerings and in the goddess's especial presence; of brass was the threshold with its rising steps, 20 clamped with brass the door-posts, the hinge creaked on a door of brass. In this grove it was that first a new object appeared, as before, to soothe away fear: here it was that Æneas first dared to hope that all was safe, and to place a better trust in his shattered fortunes. For while his eye 25 ranges over each part under the temple's massy roof, as he waits there for the queen—while he is marvelling at the city's prosperous star, the various artist-hands vying with each other, their tasks and the toil they cost, he beholds, scene after scene, the battles of Ilion, and the 30 war that Fame had already blazed the whole world over—Atreus'[o] sons, and Priam, and the enemy of both, Achilles. He stopped short, and breaking into tears, "What place is there left?" he cries, "Achates, what clime on earth that is not full of our sad story? See there 35 Priam. Here, too, worth finds its due reward; here, too, there are tears[o] for human fortune, and hearts that are touched by mortality. Be free from fear: this renown