Original subtitles

SECOND PART

Queen Amata

His daughter Lavinia

II re Latino

In the ancient land of Lazio, three thousand years ago.

Lavinia was Latino's only heir

Her father saw her sitting on the throne for the first time

and it seemed to him that the flames separated her from him.

Thus, Latino led his daughter to the oracle of the place to know her fate.

Never look for a spouse for Lavinia among us italics

Fate destined her to a foreigner

A foreigner

a foreigner who will come from a city destroyed by a war and a fire

who will arrive in this land after a very long wandering

He will bring turmoil and he will spill Latin blood

At that moment in the palace of Carthage

hospitality was granted to a group of Trojans dispersed by a storm on the coasts of Africa .

In exchange, a gift was offered to the queen:

the wedding veil of Helen of Troy

The leader of those Trojans was Aeneas.

"Our city was treacherously attacked and set on fire", Aeneas told Queen Dido.

We saw dying our King Priam.

His family was destroyed.

The Trojan lineage is over.

Few of us managed to escape.

We were going west

I had indicated that direction

because I was certain that following the sunset star we would find a clear sea,

far from the enemies and that beyond that sea would have been our salvation.

We would find our new destiny.

And I set again the bows towards the west.

I waited to see on the horizon, towards the disc of the setting sun

the earth that many oracles had promised me.

But that unknown sea seemed to have no end.

My father Anchises who had followed me

even without believing that we had to look for a new homeland far from Troy, fell ill.

The terror of not being able to give him burial seized us.

Aeneas ... Tell me, father.

The earth flees from you.

You will never reach it.

Suddenly I realized that in the clarity of his death, he had read my most secret thoughts.

The land of which he had denied me even the hope, was my land.

The one that I had built in my imagination

without confessing it to anyone, day by day

rich of water, of forests, of free spaces, crossed by a large river.

When the storm broke

the storm that drove us to these beaches

it seems to everyone an unfair punishment

and for me it was the confirmation of his words:

"The land of the sunset does not exist".

Thus Aeneas made known to the Phoenician queen and to her own people the causes of his long wandering.

After the queen left the hall without saying a word

the Trojans took the way back to the beach silent and troubled.

Many of the things Aeneas had told they hadn't known.

today shortly after you left for the palace

the women asked me to pull the boats out of the water and overturn them to make huts.

Maybe they don't want to leave again.

One said: it is you, Palinuro who want to lead us to the ends of the world.

It is dawn now, Aeneas.

And I've been on watch all night, I'm tired.

I'll take your place, go to sleep.

Thank you.

I was wondering if I would find you awake

You didn't say anything after my story

Something that I said troubled you.

Maybe I spoke more for myself and for them than for you.

It doesn't matter.

I listened to you

and I know that there is a truth in your words

You spoke of a land of the sunset

and you talked about it like it never existed

Well, I know a land that the Greeks called Esperia

it means "The land of the sunset".

because they discovered it sailing towards the setting sun.

My people also got to know it by sailing north

It has deep forests,waters

and a large river that flows slowly towards the sea

the first you come across while going up the coast.

Tell that to your people.

They talked until the dawn began to melt the night shadow lights.

Then Dido hastened the return

She didn't want any of his subjects, going to work in the fields

saw her returning to the palace of Carthage

Aeneas would have liked to prolong the night

The queen's words had brought him a long-awaited comfort.

He watched her walk away saying the words she couldn't hear:

If there are gods who look at the good ones,

if there is justice somewhere and an righteous conscience, the gods reward you. "

As long as rivers flow to the sea, as long as the sky has stars, your name will remain in me

whatever land you call me.

It was daylight when the queen returned to her home

but she did not want the light to penetrate there

as if to keep away, together with the rays of the sun, the image of Aeneas.

But she took Elena's veil and put it around her shoulders.

I've been watching over here all night.

For the first time she lied to her sister.

Sister, dearer to me than the light

Don't you realize that you are suffocating the life in you?

So alone, you watch your youth running away

visited by dark dreams.

You think this matters to the ashes of the dead?

When Sicheo was alive

he had wanted two joint figures of man and woman

remembered the indissolubility of his marriage to Dido.

The queen had taken with her into exile that naive simulacrum.

In those days the master of all the lands that stretch between the immense African desert and the Libyan Sea

came to Carthage

Once a year he traveled through his domains to receive the taxes of the subject peoples

Even the Phoenicians owed it to him

because the runaway queen had bought from him the abandoned city on the beach.

His name was larba, son of Hammone and a nymph Garamantides.

He was the richest and most powerful of the African kings who surrounded the kingdom of Dido.

King Iarba, in presenting myself to you I confess that I feel a great and profound restraint .

Several times, making me such honor, you asked me to be your royal bride.

but this ... You preferred a difficult loneliness

My loneliness is a sign of fidelity to the memory of my husband and to the people who followed me into exile.

"A holy widow" called you your sister Anna .

Careful, Dido

The commitment you have made with yourself is a very serious one.

No weakness will be forgiven you.

Not even by you, larba?

Since you turned down my offer

I think it is right to address you as if you were a king, and not a woman

but whatever the reason that has brought you here may be, it always delights me to see you.

King Iarba, I would like to exercise the privilege granted to me by my poor and lonely royalty

to help a group of castaways camped on our beaches

and for this I need your consent.

Who are you talking about? A group of Trojans which escaped from their destroyed city

They arrived here alive but they have lost everything.

And you are sure they deserve your woman's help.

You don't know their pains, their sufferings!

How do they live?

What do they need?

Means to continue their journey

Their boats are in bad shape.

I wish that during the winter they could build a large and safe ship

but they have to find some wood

We will let them freely choose the most vigorous trees in our forest.

Thank you, king larbas.

You will determine how many they can cut down.

And then it was said in heaven: "I want"

but the people could not hear and even the gods cannot know the unalterable secret designs

She said we can cut down as many trees as a bull skin can contain

It is a feat we will never solve.

Are these your words or those of your own?

Mine.

It's an African puzzle, I want them to find out for themselves.

It's not that hard to understand...

I found: you have to cut it into thin strips as thin as possible

so we can fully exploit the skin surface!

A knife, give me a knife!

And it was said again

"Here, I offer you the knife."

Well, you see, they found out the secret even earlier than I thought.

I wonder why the king larba would have wanted to solve a riddle.

These are mysterious customs.

Your friends are ingenious.

They are happy, their minds run faster.

And why are they happy?

For the ship that I allow you to build?

No, for what you have given them, a concrete visible future.

"A land that has deep forests, a great river that flows slowly towards the sea".

These are your words, remember? I have repeated to them

and now they see the country that was promised them so long ago

when my father and I persuaded them to leave the land they had worked

and in which they were comfortable.

Now they see fields to plow, wells to dig

Common things to that are beyond this sea

things that your words have made less hostile,

less boundless

Father! with these logs we will build a ship that will have no fear on any sea

the women will have to sew a larger sail

These trees will fall under our shutters!

Aeneas, look at how many trees this strip can contain

They are so many.

Thus, our weapons are peaceful.

Dido, why are you helping me build the ship?

Why did you go to larba?

Don't face the sea with those little ships that have betrayed you.

Your people and mine will be able to build together a larger ship.

A phoenice ship like those that sail the farthest seas

I want ... I just want to help you.

Do you want to leave?

Do you think I can choose?

Dido .. Dido, I ...

Enea couldn't bear her gaze

He read her secret conflict.

He was afraid of suffering an equal one.

Like when a heavy force keeps the tired bodies motionless on earth at night

So it seemed to Enea that Ascanius, running in the woods with his companions, was calling him.

Father! ... and that he could not reach it

With these logs we will build a ship that will not be afraid of any sea!

Sister, you were a long time away from the palace!

I went to ask the king's permission to cut down trees so that Aeneas and his men can build a ship.

I hope you have agreed to marry the larba king

Look around you

Have you not seen the nubs behind the mountains ready to invade our fields?

And our brother is the most relentless of enemies

Don't you think you see him coming with his ships to punish us for our escape?

Why are you talking to me like that, sister? Why do you want to scare me?

You know, your widow's loneliness is the weakness of the kingdom

No, it is not a true!

This loneliness is my strength.

Around it our people united

Remember when my husband was killed by treason?

Everyone's horror for the crime committed by our brother

It is only in the name of Sicheo that they made me queen.

They see in this solitude the proof of my fidelity

It's been a long time.

Today we are but two single women

The name of Aeneas, his lineage, his value

could be a sure defense of the kingdom and you help him leave!

You want me to betray my people and myself.

You don't know in what a danger I am !

Anna, sister ..

I love him.

I know the signs of the ancient flame

but first I want the earth to rise above me

and that omnipotent Jupiter with the lightning bolt

rushes me among the ghosts of the underworld before I offend you!

You have time to decide

The ship you want to offer to Aeneas won't be finished very soon.

Its construction will last longer than winter

Days went by

Dido and Aeneas had never met again

He wondered if it was right to still remember the words they had exchanged in the woods

or if it were better to forget them

Dido multiplied the offerings to the urn that contained the ashes of her lost husband.

but those vows only hurt her

Like a careless doe that pushes itself out of the woods

and sighted by a man with a bow and stabbed by an arrow.

The hunter doesn't know that he has hit her

and she runs away, carrying the deadly arrow in her side,

I love in this man what keeps him away from me

I love his extraordinary fate that orders him to return to the sea

and I wish he would never leave.

I love his loyalty to the people and I wish his people didn't exist.

I help him build a ship to go where his fate calls him,

or where he wants to go.

But I want also that this ship will be born deformed

or that it will be destroyed by the waves

the very day that it will touch the sea!

Aeneas, a storm is breaking!

Come, let's take shelter!

That was for her the first step towards death,

the first cause of evil.

The stony mountains that surround your city and push it towards the sea

will be green with cedars and olive trees

The sun's rays will reach your face sweetly

but more, more, much more I will do for you

the wolf will flee from the sheep

the oaks will give golden honey

daffodils will bloom among the wheat

the owls will fly with the swans

These are the magic things I will do for you.

At the end of spring this ship will touch the sea!

Old Phoenicians skilled in the art of the sea helped the Trojans build the ship.

The Trojans worked with eager alacrity

like ants plundering a pile of grain remembering winter.

Aeneas was far away

and fame brought words to the sea.

It was said that Dido and Aeneas are mindful of their peoples

they no longer bothered to hide their passion

It was said that Anna protected their guilt

that the works in the city had stopped

that Carthage had ceased to grow

A long time ago, a god, Saturn, escaped from Olympus

and it was his own son, Jupiter who had driven him away

and he wandered for a long, long time, finding nowhere that peace he had sought so long

because his son's great power threatened him wherever he went.

It is a legend.

You believe it?

Your story enchanted me.

You didn't ask me for the end.

I thought you didn't know it

No, the story continues.

It says that the god ends up discovering a refuge where he stopped once and for all.

And the men who welcomed him

they lived without knowing greed,

violence, oppression, possession

but no one knows where is this place.

The queen no longer thinks about her decorum.

Dido is not afraid of scandal.

She doesn't want to hide her love.

She declares it a wedding love.

Thus, Dido covers up his guilt.

and now

The fame travels the lands, the big cities

There is no plague on earth that moves faster and on his road it multiplies its outrageous step.

It is born small and scared but soon swells in the air

It walks on the ground but it hides his head between the walls.

The fame spreads certain and doubtful things without making any difference

It flies tireless at night.

Between earth and sky in the hollow shadow

Well, even during the day the eyelids slowly close down to sleep

and subject the poor towns and villages in dismay, spreading careless truths and also lies.

Meanwhile, on the beach, the Trojans were celebrating the return of spring

There were the same rites, the same dances of the past and that day they were happy

although many moons had crossed the sky since they landed on the beach of Carthage,

and they still had no houses or wells or markets.

Ascanio directed the party in the place of his father

Honor the queen!

The queen often brought food and gifts to the Trojans

That day she rejoiced to see them celebrating and serene

She also saw that the construction of the ship had stopped

then she thought it was time to tell them

what she had been thinking secretly for many days.

We thank you for this visit, queen

but we would like to tell you that this is the last time we accept your gifts

if as I believe, these gifts are for us

Why?

Do not accuse us of ingratitude and don't take wrong my words.

We know we owe you a lot

and we have been using your hospitality for too long.

But I don't offer you to stay here as my guests

Leave the beach, come to the city, my city is yours

I will make no difference between Phoenicians and Trojans

We will be one people.

One people alone?

You say very serious things, queen

But does Enea knows this proposal of yours?

I think he already knows brcause he hasn't lived with us for a long time,

forgetting the fate of his people

and leaving unfinished the work on the ship that you offered him to leave.

If Aeneas really wants our name to disappear here

why has he convinced us that the earth destined for us is another?

Ask him yourself, my daughter

ask him, please, even if it will hurt you.

Do you remember what the oracle said?

"Return to the land of your fathers"

Didn't he say anything else?

There's another thing,that I have never told to my people.

He said:

the children of the children and those who will live the future centuries

will have dominion over all peoples

If I had a child with you, it would be the lineage desired by the oracle

You did not understand Ilioneo's words.

My people ask me to choose between you and them

If your people asked the same thing, are you sure you would choose me?

Enea .. Always on guard, Palinuro.

You know, my weakness is looking at the stars when everyone else is asleep.

On a night like this - I thought - before sunrise, Aeneas will return.

Is everything quiet down there on the beach?

Do you want me to wake them up and announce your return?

I'm not even sure they'd be happy with that.

You haven't gotten to know them yet.

You see, they were only afraid that you would never return to them,

Why, didn't you think so, too?

No, Aeneas.

I knew that nothing would have the strength to hold you back

In Epirus I once saw a large oak that the mountain winds wanted to tear down.

The branches at the top twisted with each shake of the trunk, covering the ground with leaves

but the tree resisted clinging tenaciously to the rock with its deep roots

and the violence of the winds did nothing against it.

Thus, there are men who shut themselves up in a pain they cannot relieve

and the mind remains motionless, the tears do not flow.

The next day Dido wanted a sacrifice to be made in the presence of the people of Carthage

The rite had not been celebrated since the Trojans arrived on the coast.

Dido wanted his people to know that the ancient order had been restored.

But what's the use of begging for grace?

The fire devours the tender bones

the wound grows silently in the chest.

In Tire, in the ancient times it was a custom to kill the king

so that his spirit belonged to the people forever,

his blood generate other kings.

Dido herself had ordered when she came to Libya from her lost homeland

that once a year that cruel rite was repeated on a simulacrum,

and so, now the queen saw herself dying.

Fame also reached larbas.

The African king drawn by what happened on his lands,

fearful for the fate of the queen, arrived in Carthage

but he did not go to the palace,

he reached the beach looking for Aeneas.

He found him near the structure of the ship

Aeneas had once again changed his mind and wanted to reactivate the construction.

They told me you want to talk to me.

So you are that Aeneas, the Trojan who wants to give laws to the people of Carthage

and plans to build walls on the land which belongs to king larbas

I don't build walls and this land is not yours, larba

I have given this inch of land to a woman to build a city there

as I have given you wood to build a ship

but this skeleton will never sail!

Is the land of Dido will no longer be worked because the queen is far from her people!

And because of you she has lost the only strength she had: her virtue!

Enea

He wants to leave without telling me, you also know he leaves!

Isn't it enough for you that I separated from him?

I don't understand what you are talking about.

You and Aeneas are hiding something from me

Certainly he has already confided you his intentions.

To you, who brought him here when he needed my protection

and now it is not enough for him

that I have allowed him to return to his people, that I have given up on him ...

He leaves and you know it! Don't be unfair to me, sister!

He leaves!

What was it that upset your mind?

Forgive me! Yeah, maybe something upset my mind!

We must leave before we also have less strength to do so

before our women convince us to stay here.

This is not the ancient mother, the land of our fathers.

nor the one you have been chasing for so many years.

This is just the land of the Phoenicians and the queen asked us to become Phoenicians.

We have refused her offer in your name, too, Aeneas

For you we have refused a home to which we are entitled

Our children grow up here as savages.

We can also restart the construction of the great Phoenician ship.

but one day is enough for me to repair our boats and put them back into the sea.

Let him leave if he wants! I won't be the one to retain him here!

Let him take the sea again because I allow him to!

Let him go away!

Don't expect me to run to him and beg him!

Don't tell him anything!

Maybe he didn't decide to leave...

He can't leave, the ship isn't finished yet!

You go, sister ... go and see!

Cruel love ... how tough you are coercing the hearts of people!

Anna, come back!

I have found the way.

Rejoice with me, sister.

I have found the way that returns me to him and frees me from passion.

It's true, I dreamed.

We ran together on a long road that never ended.

At the end there was darkness.

I called you but you gave me no answer.

You were with me and you disappeared.

Why?

But it's a dream, you are here next to me.

Listen.

I know, you never kept the truth from me,

you've never tried to look like a different man

you did not lie.

You were alone, desperate.

Together we have succumbed to a fault to which only I have given the "wedding" name.

One day you told me:

"I wonder if the fate that spared my life wants to give me solitude and silence in exchange"

You said to me "why must I give and not receive the word which comforts?"

"Why do I have to show the way when I don't know it myself?"

Instead you plan to go to foreign lands

to reach countries that nobody knows, that not even you knew,

lands that I have revealed to you with my words.

It is there your new homeland, and there your descendants will be born.

A son ... if at least I had a son with you!

if I had to look for him in my rooms

if he had your face, if he was here with me ...

I should have a reason to live

I wouldn't feel so desperate...

If there was a god, a just god who has pity on an unhappy love

a god who has mercy ...

Goodbye Aeneas ..

Goodbye...

I'll wait for you here.

Then she went to lean on the altar of her first husband

It seemed that Sicheo was calling her from the depths of Hades

or, perhaps it was the mournful song of the lone owl

that came down from above like a long cry.

And so the night passed..

Anna, tell me the truth

Don't hide it from me anymore.

Aeneas leaves, is that so?

It's true.

Aeneas is putting his ships out to sea.

My sentence comes true

Anna, sister, tell me what should I do?

Maybe I should run straight to him and beg him to stay?

or maybe it is better that tomorrow I'll go on the departing Trojan ships?

Don't you think he would accept me?

He cannot reject me

Didn't I welcome them when they arrived shipwrecked, exhausted, desperate?

I, who could have them all killed?

Instead I offered them hospitality as if they had been sent by the gods...

Forgive me sister, only I am to blame!

Yes, me

I have not prevented your love!

I saw only the danger of our weakness of our loneliness!

Then Anna was afraid that her sister was losing her mind

She feared that the offense was stronger for her than the pain itself

and the modesty so often invoked and then betrayed

still penetrate the queen's soul

with the voice of guilt and shame

It was a divine deception

Now go. Leave me alone.

At dawn the beach was deserted.

Aeneas's sails had already disappeared beyond the horizon

There was only the skeleton of the ship.

Dido had made votive offerings all night

but the milk had curdled

the wine turned into corrupted blood,

or this seemed to her shocked mind.

Aeneas, you see that I left with you?

How could I let you go alone, on the sea that has already been your enemy?

I will be the first to see the land you seek

and will take care of your offspring

I will be wherever you go, as a pale ghost

So she raved and they were beside her

Juno, the bride of Jupiter and Venus the daughter of Jupiter

They had hatched that deception out of hatred between them .

And now they watched without being able to do anything.

I have to burn everything, guest.

I have to destroy what you touched.

I must curse the night you slept on that bed.

This is what the gods of the abyss want

Erebus, Chaos, and the three faces of the virgin Diana

I have seen the holy milk turn to corrupt blood

I heard the voice of my husband Shechaus calling me with long sobs

If I had a child with you, that would be the offspring the oracle spoke of.

The coasts of Africa are no longer visible, not even the peaks of the Atlas

Why don't you try to think they never existed?

Thank you, gods

Thank you..

Gods ... I hate!

I want an escape away from the light!

...avengers on the last prayer!

If there is a god who avenges betrayed love, listen!

If despite his miserable guilt

the fate that accompanies him is ineluctable

and he will be able to reach that land he did not believe in

let him find a merciless war

as an enemy of mine , cruel, relentless

that those struggles are fatal to his people, that they disperse them

May an unfair peace be given to him after he is beaten

May his son be taken from him!

May he wanders only in long intolerable exiles

and may he beg for help and day and night

and may he always remember the horrible torment of his people!

and may he die still young without burial

abandoned on an unknown beach!

Three times she raise her head and three times she fell back looking for the light

and wept when she saw her

Then the goddess took pity on her difficult death

Dido died before the time fixed for her

and Proserpina had not yet plucked the hair that loosens the soul from the body

and behold, descended on the golden wings

she stopped on his forehead

and cut off the hair.

The heat of the body went out immediately.

Life vanished in the wind.

So it was decided this way.

That you won't see the black and fatal smoke that contaminates the horizon behind you

That you won't not carry the wish of death with you

So it was decided, Ascanio.

The bottom of the sea has become lighter

Here the seabed is shallow

If there is an island pull over.

No, Aeneas gave me a course and I keep it.

But no one can hope to cross the sea without going from one island to another.

Those who are old will never get to that land.

We will all get there instead.

Now my father has found the way.

But if someone wants to stop, they can do it at the first stop!

If there will still be a stop in our navigation!

A long stop is approaching, Ascanio

It will give strength to you, uncertainty and pains to your father.

Look down. What can it be?

I do not know.

It's like a star in the daylight.

It's true. It has gone out, it seems a signal.

In fact you see, it comes on again.

Palinuro, pull over.

No, we must not go down here!

In the lands of the West, some wild peoples send out signals to attract ships.

and when these are dry on the beach they leap out, prey, kill.

Don't worry, I will go to see by myself.

Misenus ... faithful friend.

He who for the second time watches over his steps.

The third time will be fatal to him.

For an instant the great plain seemed to him the promised one.

But the light that had guided him had dissolved

and he saw weapons raised as a funeral trophy.

He was amazed.

They were Trojan weapons

He wondered who they belonged to

Who had placed them to guard the plain.

Who still honored Trojan weapons in the world.

Who are you? What are you doing here?

He's a pirate! No, he doesn't look like a pirate. Yes he is armed!

He is a warrior. You wanted to take the weapons away!

So who are you? How did you get here?

By sea

I would never have dishonored Trojan weapons.

I am Trojan. We, too!

Maybe he knows whose weapons these are

We found them on a raft

When?

A year ago.

They must have belonged to a warrior who died on the sea.

We call him the Trojan hero

Why did you put them here?

To look over our city

We are building a city, you see

We have decided to dedicate it to this unknown hero

A city for us, young Trojans

We first made the layout of the streets and houses

Aceste taught us this

Then a great peace went down in the soul of Aeneas

He's the one who brought us here after saving us ...

He forgot about the people left behind by the ships

the people who had seen him go away and disappear beyond the hill

the people who were anxiously waiting his return.

He gladly accepted the food that had been offered to him

sheltered from the high sun of noon.

You told me you were all born in Troy.

Don't you never feel the desire to return, even in a dream?

If it still existed ..

How can anyone wants to return to a city that has turned to ashes?

Have you heard anything about Aeneas?

Aeneas is the last of the leaders who defended the fortress of Troy before Aceste brought us all to safety

We were all meant to become slaves

but a stranger took pity on us and killed the soldier on guard.

So we could escape.

And you don't remember that man?

We were children.

And you?

Were you in Troy that night? How come are you saved?

What are you doing in the shade? It's time for the races!

You can judge if you want. Yes, you judge.

"Father Anchises, by what prodigy did your remains reach this unknown land

where these young people who I saved that night found a refuge?"

Thus prayed Aeneas

By what mystery do your death and their life connect within me?

Our separation started that night

when I abandoned to fate your house and that of Creusa and Ascanius

to fight the battle alone

and it was those children who begged for help...

It was those children who made me discover that life is a greater obligation than death.

That Greek who came towards me was the last man I killed

Since then I have believed that my destiny was to give the others a dark salvation

rather than the example of a glorious end.

But what is the glory?

If I hadn't been abandoned you on the sea

if your funeral would had been celebrated within the walls of our city

you would have had a solemn burial,

and I would have offered to your memory according to our custom,

competitions between the strongest young people.

These young people now compete for their pleasure

but I offer them to you, father, I dedicate these games to you.

Please accept the unaware offer of those who know so little about us and our grief.

You, who are elder tell us who has won,

Saio or Niso?

I believe that not even the eye of Mercury could see the difference

They both won

You'll see what your friend Niso will do!

Nobody wins him in the race!

Stop!

Why don't we run instead of arguing?

What's your name? Elibanum

And what's your name? Euryalus

Your name?

Niso. Haven't you heard it before?

But won't you tell us your name ?

We feel like you've been here since forever and we don't even know your name.

My name is Aeneas and the Trojan weapons you found belonged to my father, Anchises.

So why didn't you tell us right away that you were Aeneas?

Why doesn't he come with us to the saline to our king Aceste?

If you are really Aeneas he should recognize you.

Is it true what my eyes see or is it an apparition?

A deception of the gods

No Aceste, I am Aeneas, alive.

Oh, Aeneas, you are safe.

The gods are righteous if I can hug you after eight years

Aeneas, comrade, friend!

This is my wife Segesta, do you remember her?

Enea!

Today the sea brought us a brother!

He doesn't hear your trumpet!

You don't have enough breath. Let's go find him instead of waiting.

It is useless

Soon the night falls, you will get lost in the dark.

Indeed, we should be ready to defend ourselves if savages have found him

I am sure he will return to us before the sun sets

How many times has he disappeared, forgottening who is waiting for him.

Maybe he has found another Carthage!

But what if he fell into an ambush? What if he fell off a rock?

If it were the gods who wanted his death?

This construction is all we have

We collect the salt.

Then the products of the earth according to the seasons

Here we gather in assembly or to make sacrifices to the gods.

I hope you are in no hurry to get back to your ships

My wife Segesta does not want to show up empty-handed to your companions

What are you thinking about, Aeneas?

You Confront in your mind Aceste that you left many years ago

A warrior, a prince,

your companion at old King Priam's court

with this man who gathers salt and works the fields?

Your boys call you "king" and call your wife "queen"

They say it for fun. They have never seen a real king.

They say it as they would say "father".

Did you tell them about me?

Yes i told them that

Priam's heir, heir by birth

by marriage, by value, I had left alive.

The only certainty I gave them was that you were alive.

Because they would have erased from memory the image of the deserted homeland of heroes.

I feared this.

I don't think I was wrong.

And yet sometimes secretly I was afraid that one day you would arrive.

Hero of a past that I wanted to remove from them...

war, death, ruin

Being responsible for the lives of others is a heavy burden to carry

and you know it better than me.

We found salvation here in this wild land that belonged to no one

No man had ever worked it

We buried the first dead in this land which thus became sacred.

Those words aroused a memory

A free land to bury the last Trojans

this I sought.

Abandoned cemeteries, destroyed city,

sterile fields this is what people leave on the earth they inhabit.

On each hill, the remains of a destroyed town

signs of an ancient struggle.

Under every stone in the plain lies the body of a man pierced and disfigured by an enemy.

How many exiles, how many vanquished, how many slaves have no homeland in the world!

This has become their homeland, they love it as we have loved Troy.

They are my sons and I am proud of them

No one would recognize in these vigorous young men the frightened boys you entrusted to me that night.

Have you come to get them back, Aeneas?

Your sons?

No, Aceste.

Segesta is ready. Let's go towards the beach

My companions have been waiting for me for a long time.

Thus, after eight years, the different paths that they had traveled in exile will rejoin

They hugged, crying, their friend who they thought it was dead

the woman believed to be a slave

and in everyone's heart was the secret pain of another impending separation.

I'm Beroe, Archelau's wife.

I had many children on the farm you owned in Troy on the bank of the Scamander.

I will be happy to welcome you back to my home

You see, Segesta you are allowed to wait the old age with serenity

without fear of the night, spinning and weaving long canvases for grandchildren by the fire.

Aeneas had disembarked the penates

so that the meeting of the exiles was sacred in the memory of his father Anchises

After the death of Anchises, he took care of the very ancient simulacra

which represented the ancestors, the deities, the hopes of the fatherland

These simulacra represent the sowing, the mass, the harvest

We don't know when they were carved

but it is known that the ancient leaders of the people made them

before, long before they founded our kingdom on the coasts of Asia

They have always been kept in the citadel of Troy

The man whose tomb we honor today brought them to us by saving them from the flames

Anchise

Anchises, my grandfather told me something different

he told me that they represent our ancients who are Dardanus, Teucer, Laomedonte.

the creators of our power

Maybe

But now the cult depends on us, it depends on what we want to be.

It is as if we have never been separated

Yet how many things I would like to tell you and you to tell me

There is Serena who needs you quickly

Courage, soon you will know if you will have a son a daughter

We bring it to the ship. It is better not to move her.

Come away Acate. We will take care of her.

It is not the first to be born in the years of exile

but what is to be divided cannot be held together by this birth

Then I order the harvest to begin

The young men had led Ascanio into the assembly hall

Aceste allowed them to be masters here for a day

And may the muses be propitious to us in recounting the deeds of men and gods.

Here

You see the goddess of discord who was not invited to the Olympus banquet like the other major goddesses.

She arrived unexpectedly,

throws on the table the apple on which it is written

"For the most beautiful"

Then immediately between Juno and Minerva and Venus

was born a violent dispute because of the pommel .

And Jupiter said: "All of you leave that apple!"

A young Trojam will judge who is the most beautiful of you

Let young Paris be the judge!

First Juno made a promise to the young man

she promised reign and power

Minerva promised the beautiful prince virtue and knowledge

Venus promised Elena, the most beautiful woman in the world!

The winner was Venus!

Then Helen, wife of Menelaus, king of Sparta was given as a prize to Paris.

She immediately falls in love with him and follows him to Troy

All the young people celebrated

the new wedding desired by the goddess Venus

Why this game that offends the heavenly powers?

They talk about it as if at least a thousand years have passed

To them the dark wrath of heaven is only a fable

They could be our children but they are so different from us.

Then the goddess Juno inspired in the soul of those women

fear of the future and of the travel.

"The ships are unattended" they said

If you destroy them, Enea will have to give up dragging you with him

towards a destiny of violence and war

For you, women, now is the time to dare according to thoughts of hate.

I thought I heard Cassandra's voice in a dream

Cassandra said "Trojan women what are you waiting for?"

Do you want a better land than this?

courage, let's look for Troy here!

Here is our home and a god urges us to do it!

Courage, to the ships!

The women who had thrown the fire fled the beach

looking in vain for a place to hide,

and wondering why they had done that.

The women set the ships on fire!

Run, quick!

I have divided your people, Aeneas

I'll add pain to pain

I am not a pirate, I am not looking for cities to attack at night

those few women who have followed me for so many years, those children of theirs

they are the promise of a people.

Now I understand that I have lost them

What is the meaning of my journey without that promise?

None!

I will leave with Palinuro and no one else.

With noone else?

You say your journey has no meaning without the promise of a people?

The youth is a promise

I lost my young people the day you arrived

I expected these words

but I don't want Aceste, that you lose those kids because of me

In Carthage I saw what can cost the pain of obedience.

That is why those young people have to stay with you.

Don't leave them free to choose

I know they would follow me

But it is right that I resume the journey alone

Called by the pain of the son

Venus descended into the houses of Aceste

She regretted once again that she wasn't able to appear,

that she wasn't able to take him by the hand.

The journey which Aeneas now wished to take was to the deep realms of darkness.

Where is Aeneas?

For how many hours have you not seen him?

Enea!

The goddess was afraid that her son could not find the way to the secret kingdom

There are two doors of the dream:

one of horn on which the true dreams come out

The other door is of ivory from which the gods send uncertain dreams among men

In your dream I will take on a human appearance

In your dream I will awake in you the memory of Elenus, the husband of Andromache and his words.

Now listen!

If I Helenus, I see far away, if it is true that I am a prophet

if Apollo fills my soul with truth, you will see the places of hell

the sibyl will write her omens on the leaves

and the wind will scatter the leaves

The sibyl does not put them back in order as before

Then you will have to find the answer for yourself, Aeneas

Aeneas!

In your dream I will take on a human aspect

The god speaks to me in dreams

I write what he says on the leaves, then, if you can read the way is written here.

The way passes through the sacred forest, follow it, son

someone is walking it for you

the forest that hides the golden branch

They flew away

No one is allowed to enter alive in the secret realms

unless the golden bough is plucked first

The goddess Proserpina wants this tribute

she, the custody of the dead

If the goddess wants that someone pay the tribute for you

and offers his death in exchange of yours

the branch gently detaches from the trunk

Here, the tribute is paid and the wind has scattered the leaves

has cleared the way.

You can go. What are you still looking for here?

Who do you want to find? Can you make me talk to the shadows?

Entering is not difficult.

Ditte's home is always open

day and night

but retrace your steps to return to the air you breathe on earth

Is this the end of the journey?

The land you are looking for Aeneas, is far from you

It is still a distant land

The land you are looking for, Aeneas is far away

yes, son, is true.

what you have always feared is true

Dido is dead but you didn't kill her

yes, father, I recognized the sign.

Yes, I know.

You are the one I have to find again

You have finally arrived, Aeneas.

I have never doubted your love as a son

even though it was so hard to talk to each other

Now we will stay together for the last time

and I will try to comfort you

but first we must dispel the shadows that have remained between us

Forget what you can't forget

I know what will happen after my death

The ancient Trojan power will arise again

The land of the fathers will restore our strength

and my shadow will find peace.

you will have an army, you will land on our beaches

you will besiege and destroy that cursed Greek colony and Troy will return to dominate ...

You just want revenge Justice not revenge!

Which of my vote did you go to dissolve in Delos?

Which enemy god did you pray for your life on the night of Troy's siege ?

That day you wished for my death, is it true, Aeneas?

and the remorse never abandoned you.

But I tell you now

that your anger was right and that I, old man, was wrong

that the gods persecuted of Troy do not want my violent justice

but your prudence, your wise and uncertain reason.

Look ahead of you

You can't recognize that boy

He will be born long after your death

but he will belong to your people, to your offspring

His name will be Caesar Augustus

He will have such a big city that its walls will encircle many hills.

So that the city could be born you must return to the sea

and that would't be a lonely journey in search of secluded freedom without fame.

You are tired I know, but the time of your life does not belong to you

that is everything your father can tell you.

Goodbye now.

The wet night is about to end and the horses of the sun push me far away.

There are two doors of the dream: one of horn on which the true dreams come out

The other door is of ivory from which the gods send uncertain dreams among men

And now go back to yours, son

Ascanio rounded up the women guilty of setting the ships on fire

and waits for you to judge them

but you won't, you now know they're innocent

their desire to stay here in the land of Aceste is right

as it is right that first of all the weapons were saved from the burning ships.

Hurry, your friend's unburied body contaminates the living ones.

Poor Misenus

Look at that branch, they couldn't snatch from his fist

It looks like gold

Anyone who wants can stay here.

Our young people wanted to build a city around the arms of Anchises.

You can continue their work if you want,

those of you who believe this is your new homeland.

As for our young people I have always feared that our humble and peaceful land

wouldn't respond to their eagerness to know life

They have tied their dreams to ships, to weapons and so they have chosen to leave us

May gods let this be just a short separation

and they can find a better land than ours.

I repeat to everyone:

whoever wants to follow Aeneas will be free to leave with him, I will not object!

I know that even Eurialo, my son has decided to follow Aeneas, I'll go with him.

I have to leave, too.

And my wife, after the birth of her child is better not follow me.

Entrusting them to you, I am sure that one day I will be able to see them again.

Leave with whoever wants to follow you and promise nothing to the young people of Aceste.

If they will come with you of their own free will,

this will be another sign.