Virgil's Aeneid Translation of Book I. 1-34

I sing of arms and the man whom fate had sent

To exile from the shores of Troy to be

The first to come to Lavinium and the coasts

Of Italy, and who, because of Juno’s

Savage implacable rage, was battered by storms

At sea, and from the heavens above, and also

Tempests of war, until at last he might

Build there his city and bring his gods to Latium,

From which would come the Alban Fathers and

The lofty walls of Rome. Muse, tell me

The cause why Juno the queen of heaven was so

Aggrieved by what offence against her power,

To send this virtuous faithful hero out

To perform so many labors, confront such dangers?

Can anger like this be, in immortal hearts?



There was an ancient city known as Carthage

(Settled by men from Tyre), across the sea

And opposite to Italy and the mouth

Of the Tiber river; very rich, and fierce,

Experienced in warfare. Juno, they say,

Loved Carthage more than any other place

In the whole wide world, more even than Samos.

Here’s where she kept her chariot and her armor.

It was her fierce desire, if fate permitted, that

Carthage should be chief city of the world.

But she had heard that there would come a people,

Engendered of Trojan blood, who would some day

Throw down the Tyrian citadel, a people

Proud in warfare, rulers of many realms,

Destined to bring down Libya. Thus it was

That the Parcae’s turning wheel foretold the story.



Fearful of this and remembering the old

War she had waged at Troy for her dear Greeks,

And remembering too her sorrow and her rage

Because of Paris’s insult to her beauty,

Remembering her hatred of his people,

And the honors paid to ravished Ganymede –

For all these causes her purpose was to keep

The Trojan remnant who’d survived the Greeks

And pitiless Achilles far from Latium,

On turbulent waters wandering, year after year,

Driven by fates across the many seas.



So formidable the task of founding Rome.