Through the woods below
And the meadows of asphodel;
And at night they sleep
In the rocking deep
Beneath the Ortygian shore:—
Like spirits that lie
In the azure sky
Where they love but live no more.”
BOOK IV
This portion of the Æneid was written when the memory of Antony and Cleopatra was still fresh, and many traits of royal, imperious Dido seem suggestive of the Egyptian queen. Cf. Shakespeare’s Cleopatra, and Chaucer’s Legend of Good Women.