At the banquet Queen Dido sat on a golden couch, surrounded by the Trojan chiefs and her Tyrian lords. By her side was seated the handsome youth whom Achates had brought from the ships as the son of AEneas. Dido admired the beautiful boy and fondled him in her arms little thinking that it was Cupid, the god of love, whom Venus had sent to the banquet under the appearance of Iulus.
Unhappy Dido little thought what guest,
How dire a god she drew so near her breast.
DRYDEN, AEneid, BOOK I.
The real Ascanius meantime lay in peaceful slumber in a sacred grove in the island of Cyprus, to which Venus had borne him away.
Lulled in her lap, amidst a train of Loves,
She gently bears him to her blissful groves;
Then with a wreath of myrtle crowns his head,
And softly lays him on a flowery bed.
DRYDEN, AEneid BOOK 1.
And so Queen Dido entertained the chiefs of Troy and of Carthage, with the god of love seated beside her on her golden couch. A hundred maids and as many pages attended upon the guests. After the viands were removed, I-o'pas, the Tyrian minstrel and poet, played upon his gilded lyre, and sang about the wondrous things in the heavens and on earth.
The various labors of the wandering moon,
And whence proceed the eclipses of the sun;
The original of men and beasts; and whence
The rains arise, and fires their warmth dispense;
What shakes the solid earth; what cause delays
The summer nights, and shortens winter days.
DRYDEN, AEneid. BOOK I.
The song of Iopas was applauded by the entire assemblage. Then Queen Dido after asking Aeneas many questions about Priam and Hector, and Achilles, and Memnon, and Diomede and other heroes of the Trojan war, begged him to tell the whole story from the beginning. "Come, my guest," said she, "relate to us from the very first the stratagems of the Greeks, the adventures of your friends, and your own wanderings."
It was in compliance with this request that Aeneas, as has been said, recounted the history (already given) of the ruin of Troy, and of his own misfortunes, commencing with the artifice of the wooden horse, and ending with the storm which drove his ships upon the Carthaginian coast. The events of the story extended over a period of seven years, for it was now that length of time since the fatal "peace offering" brought destruction on the city of Priam.
IV. DIDO'S LOVE—THE FUNERAL GAMES—SHIPS BURNED BY THE WOMEN.
Queen Dido was much interested in the story told by Aeneas, but more so in the hero himself. His many virtues, the honors and glories of his race, made a strong impression on her mind; his looks and words were imprinted on her heart. In short, the Carthaginian queen was in love with the Trojan prince. She confided her secret to her sister Anna, and she said that if she had not vowed, on the death of her dear husband Sichaeus, never again to unite with any one in the bond of marriage, she might think of giving her hand to her noble guest.