Helēnus afterwards advised them to pass with caution the coast of Italy facing Epirus; for those coasts were poffefsed by the Grecians, and called by them Gracia Magna. Here dwelt the savage Locrians, and fierce Idoměneus had fettled in Salentia, and Philoctetes in Petilia. That the present wind would bear them to the streights of Cape Pělōrus, between Italy and Sicily; on the right of which streights stands the dreadful rock Scylla, and on the left the roaring whirlpool Charybdis; to shun which, he advised him to double the whole island, and steer away for the Tiber. He concluded by particularly advising them, wherever they came, to pay their devotions to Juno, and footh her with repeated oblations; and that after several dangers, they should arrive safe at Cuma in Italy, where, in a dark rocky cave, dwelled the Cumaan Sybil, by whose assistance he should visit and confult his father Anchises, who would then be in the infernal regions. After which Helenus made the Trojans many rich presents of horses, arms, and provisions; and Andromache presented Afcanius with a Phrygian veft. The Trojans, with warmest thanks, depart, and steer along the coaft near the Ceraunean mountains, where they cast anchor, and again refresh themselves all night on the shore, while Pălinārus, their chief pilot, obferving the watery Hyades, and Plyades, the bright constellation of Orion and the two Bears, promised fair weather, orders that next morning they should fail directly across for Italy, where they worshipped the goddess June as Helēnus had direct ed. From thence they failed cross the Tarentum gulph, and paffed within fight of Lacinia, the lofty cliffs of Caulon, and the shipwrecking strands of Scylăceum. They now arrive in view of the smoaky mountain Ætna in Sicily, and hear the dreadful roar of Scylla and Charybdis, which they avoid by bearing off to fea, and at length, after being tossed about by a terrible 6 rible storm, they are driven on the Sicilian coasts of the Cyclops, very near burning Etna, where they lie all the night in the woods. Early next morning they are greatly furprized at the sudden sight of Achemenides, a Grecian, who had by chance been left there some months before by Ulyffes. He, with tears, prayed them to take him from those inhuman shores, describing the vast and cruel Cyclops Giant Pölyphemus, whom Ulyffes had blinded with a firebrand in revenge for devouring fome of his men. Scarce had Acheměnides done speaking, than the huge ill-shaped monster appeared in fight. The Trojans feized with a fudden terror, ran to their ships, with the unfortunate Grecian Acheměnides, cut their cables, and in the greatest hurry put to fea. The sightless giant hearing the noise made by their oars, followed them far into the ocean, terribly bellowing when he found he could go no fur ther after them. His dreadful roarings brought from the mountains an hundred more huge frightful Cyclops. The Trojans ply their oars with all their force, and foon reach the small ifland Ortygia, by the affistance of the north wind, having paffed the rocky mouth of the river Pantagia, the gulph of Měgăris, and low Tapfus. From the island Ortygia, they steer by the city Syracufe, and the still river of Elōrus and its fruitful shores, and double the high cliffs of Cape Pachynus, and come in fight of the town Camarina, the Gelonian Plains, the city of Gela; then of lofty Acrăgas, a town famous for breeding war horfes. Afterwards they pass the palmy isle of Selīnus, and, fhunning the dangerous rocks near the promontory of Lilybeïa, they come to shore at Port Drăpănum; where Æneas's father, Anchises, worn out with endless toils and old age, died, and is much lamented by his pious son and companions. After some stay at this melancholy place with the generous Aceftes, they they again fet fail for that part of Italy once called Hesperia, and inhabited by the Oenotrians. **ÆNEAS and his followers had scarce lost sight of Sicily, and got into the Tuscan or Pyrrhanian sea, but revengeful Juno prevails upon Æolus *, god of the winds, to raise a prodigious tempest. The storm finks one of their ships, and scatters the others; three being driven on the hidden rocks called Ara, and three more on the Getulian quick-fands, called the greater and the leffer Syrtes. The whole must inevitably have perished, had not Neptune + came timely to their help, who rebuking the winds, and chastizing their master Æolus, for infolently meddling with his dominions, immediately calms the fea, by his trident, and, assisted by Triton ‡ and the sea nymphs, clears the vessels from the rocks and fands. Eneas with his own ship and fix more, which the late dreadful storm had spared, failed for the nearest land, which happened to be a port called Nympharum Antrum, on the coast of Africa or Lybia, in the mean time, Venus complains to Jupiter of her fon's misfortunes, * Aorus was son of Jupiter by Acesta, daughter of Hippota. He presided over the rougher winds, and is described by the poets, of an angry temper, and rough look, sitting in a vast cave, with his subjects fettered or chained down about him. These he was supposed to let out for a storm, and to shut them up again after it. † NEPTUNE was governor of the inland seas; and is generally described by the poets with a trident in his right-hand. This was his peculiar sceptre, and seems to have been used by him chiefly to rouse up the waves. He holds a dolphin in his left-hand, and rests one of his feet on part of a ship, to shew he presides over the inland seas, more particularly over the Mediterranean, which was the great and almost only scene for navigation among the Greeks and Romans. His aspect is majestic and serene, and is so described by Virgil, even when he is represented as in a passion. ‡ TRITON was the messenger of Neptune, as Mercury was of Jupiter, and Iris of Juno. He is represented by the artifts and poets, with his upper part human, and his lower like a fsh. mentioning 4 mentioning Antenor and his party of Trojans being permitted to escape the Greeks, and quietly to fettle at Patavium or Padua, in Italy. Jupiter comforts her, and fends Mercury * to procure Eneas a kind reception at Carthage. ÆNEAS, next morning, going out to discover the country, meets his mother Venus in the shape of a huntress, who informs him that he was in Lybia, near Carthage, a city which was then building by a Tyrian colony under Queen DIDO †, the daughter of Belus II. king of Tyre and Sidon in Phœnicia, who had fled hither by sea, passing the seven mouths of the Nile, in Egypt, down the Carpathian, Lybian, and Mediterranean feas, from her brother Pygmalion, who afcended the throne of Tyre and Sidon, after the death of his father, and who, through covet * MERCURY was the son of Jupiter by Maia. His chief character is that of Jupiter's messenger. His distinguishing attributes are his Petasus, or winged cap: the Talaria or wings for his feet; and the Caduceus, or wand, with two ferpents about it. Mercury had also a general power given to him by Jupiter, of conducting fouls to their proper place, and of re-conducting them up again upon occafion. + We are told that Dido bought from the inhabitants of the country, as much ground as a bull's hide would cover; upon which the cut down a hide into many thongs, which encompassed a quantity of ground sufficient to build a citadel upon, which from thence was called Byrsa, that is, a bull's hide; but this is a fable arising from the Greeks pretending to find in their language the etymology of all antiquities, not knowing that Boftra, or Bothrah, in the Phœnician language, imports a citadel. Thus instead of saying that Dido built a citadel, having found this barbarous word in the annals they had read, and not knowing its fignification, they translated it by that of Byrsa, which having no sense in this place, they framed the commentary now mentioned. We are further told, that those who dug the foundations of this citadel, found there a horse's head, which they reckoned a presage of its future grandeur; another fable, if we may believe Bochart, founded upon this citadel's being named Cacabé, a word which, in the language of the Phœnicians, fignifies a horse. See BOCHART, Chan. l. 1. c. 14. -VOSSIUS DE JOL. 1. i. c. 3. - and BANIER'S Myth. vol. iv. p. 318. Eng. ousness, ousness, had murdered her husband Sicheus, that he might possess his immenfe riches. Venus, moreover, tells him, his ships and friends, which he thought were lost in the late tempest, were all fafely arrived at Carthage, whither the conveyed him involved in a cloud, where he, and his companions, received a kind entertainment from the queen, and leave to stay till they had refitted their fleet. But, unfortunately for her, Dido, by the device of Venus, conceived a passion for ÆNEAs, and prevailed upon him to relate to her, in a particular manner, the history of his adventures since his departure from Troy, it being now seven years fince the destruction of that city. Next morning, the now amorous queen, discovered to her fifter Anna, her love for ÆNEAS, and her thoughts of marrying him; to accomplish which purpose, she generously entertained the Trojans, and proposed a hunting match; in the midst of which, Juno, by Venus's consent, raised a storm, which feparated the hunters, and drove ÆNEAS and Dido into the same cave, where their marriage was confummated. They had not lived thus as man and wife long, before the goddess Fame reported it to Iärbas, king of the Getulians, a former lover of Dido's, who appealed to Jupiter as injured; Jupiter moved with his intreaties, dispatched Mercury to ÆNEAS, to order him to fail for Italy. Æneas, secretly, prepares for his voyage; but Dido discovering his design, to put a stop to it, makes use of her own and her fister's intreaties, and discovers all the variety of passions that are incident to a neglected lover; which not prevailing, she, in despair at being abandoned by the man she loved, stabbed herself on a funeral pile, and was burned to death. Mean time ÆNEAS, and his Trojans, put to fea in the night, but are thrown, by a most dreadful storm, the fame evening, on the Sicilian coasts, and are |