queen Amata,[245] who, as she mused on the arrival of the

Trojans and Turnus’ bridal hopes, was glowing and seething

with all a woman’s passion, a woman’s spleen. Snatching

a snake from her dark venomed locks, she hurls it at

her, and lodges it in the bosom close to the very heart, that, 15

maddened by the pest, she may drive the whole house wild.

In glides the reptile unfelt, winding between the robe and

the marble breast, and beguiles her into frenzy, breathing

into her lungs its viperous breath; the linked gold round

her neck turns to the monstrous serpent; so does the festoon 20