GCSE Latin - Virgil: Dido prepares to curse Aeneas

at regina, pyra penetrali in sede sub auras erecta ingenti taedis atque ilice secta, intenditque locum sertis et fronde coronat funerea; super exuvias ensemque relictum effigiemque toro locat haud ignara futuri.

Meanwhile the queen, having built in the heart of her home a funeral- pyre up to the breezes, huge with pine branches and cut down oak, spread the place with garlands and crowned it with funeral foliage; high on a couch she laid the clothing and sword \[he had\] left behind and his image, not unaware of what was about to happen.

pyra penetrali in sede sub auras

“a funeral pyre in the heart of her home up to the breezes”

* the **pyra** has a double meaning: she intends to burn items in a ritual but it will double as a pyre for herself after her suicide.
* The plosive (p) and sibilant (s) alliteration, and elided –i on penetrali draw attention to these words, as well as giving an impression of a panicked and disordered mind (she is the queen and the heart of her palace is being used for magic –this is a sinister use of her position of power).
* The separation of **erecta** (“having built”) on to the next line adds to this.

fronde coronat funerea

“crowned it with funeral foliage”

this would have been cypresses, pitch trees and yews. The enjambment (running on beyond the end of a line) again adds to the impression of a disordered mind.

exuvias ensemque relictum

“clothing and sword \[he had\] left behind”

an item belonging to the individual to be cursed is a common feature of this type of spell. There is an alliterative, polysyndetic (lots of conjunctions) tricolon (list of three) of items to be ritually destroyed (exuvias ensem...effigiem - clothing…sword…image)

stant arae circum et crines effusa sacerdos ter centum tonat ore deos, Erebumque Chaosque tergeminamque Hecaten, tria virginis ora Dianae.

All around stood altars, and a priestess with her hair loose called with a thunderous voice upon three hundred gods, Erebus, Chaos, and triple-bodied Hecate, the three faces of the virgin Diana

crines effusa sacerdos

“priestess with her hair loose”

She has her hair unbound which not only creates a dramatic image but is common in ancient depictions of witches. Social stigma was attached to being an older woman with long, untied hair.

ter centum tonat ore deos

“called with a thunderous voice upon three hundred gods”

‘One hundred gods’ is the standard invocation. The addition of ‘three’ makes it seem even more magical (three is a magic number). The vivid vocabulary choice of **tonat** gives the sense that she ‘bellows out’.

tergeminamque Hecaten, tria virginis ora Dianae

“triple-bodied Hecate, the three faces of the virgin Diana”

* The magical number three is repeated twice more, creating a tricolon and thus magnifying the power of three. Hecate, the goddess of witchcraft, was depicted as having three bodies. This seems to have been linked to the moon (the full moon, the half moon, and the new moon).
* The goddess Diana was believed to have three ‘faces’: the face she wore in the sky was that of the moon, the goddess Luna; the face on the earth was that of the huntress Diana; and the face she wore in the Underworld was Hecate.
* Diana was also known as Trivia, the goddess of the crossroads, and this seems to be how she became associated with Hecate. The crossroad was a place of mystical power and where spirits were supposed to gather. Trivia was a goddess to be feared: she served as a psychopomp (a guide of souls) who took the dead to the Underworld.

sparserat et latices simulatos fontis Averni, falcibus et messae ad lunam quaeruntur aënis pubentes herbae nigri cum lacte veneni; quaeritur et nascentis equi de fronte revulsus et matri praereptus amor.

She had also sprinkled water to represent the spring of Avernus, and powerful herbs, harvested with bronze sickles by moonlight, are found, with juice of black poison; also found is a love-charm torn from the forehead of a newly-born horse and stolen from its mother.

falcibus...aenis

“with bronze sickles”

bronze was used for metal items which were used in magic and divination. Iron was used when you wished to dispel magic. The vestiges of this belief can be seen even today in the lucky (iron) horseshoe.

falcibus...aenis, messae...herbae, nigri...veneni

“with bronze sickles, herbs harvested, black poison”

The separation of words which agree in these lines suggests the wildness of the scene

“nigri lacte”

“black milk”

The juxtaposition (placing next to) of **nigri** and **lacte** (lac means ‘milk’ or ‘milky juice’) extends the idea of everything being wrong. **ad lunam** (by moonlight) is traditionally the most magically potent time. **veneni** (poison), delayed at the end of the line, confirms our building suspicion that these herbs cannot be good.

ipsa mola manibusque piis altaria iuxta unum exuta pedem vinclis, in veste recincta, testatur moritura deos et conscia fati sidera; tum, si quod non aequo foedere amantes curae numen habet iustumque memorque, precatur.

\[Dido\] herself, \[standing\] beside the altars with holy grain and hands, one foot bare of its fastenings, with her dress undone, ready to die, calls the gods to witness and the stars \[who have\] knowledge of fate; then she prays to whatever divine power, just and mindful, has under its care lovers in an unequal relationship.

unum exuta pedem vinclis

“one foot bare of its fastenings”

In order to work magic effectively, a person had to free themselves from knots which might impede the power flowing through them. This would involve undoing hair, untying belts, and undoing fastenings elsewhere. The fact that she leaves one shoe bound is linked to the curse she is casting: she will be free, Aeneas will be ‘bound’ to her will