Elissa (1)
(Menarini - Capelli)
from the album "Roma S.P.Q.R."

Arma virumque cano, Troiae qui primus ab oris Italiam, fato profugus, Laviniaque venit litora, multum ille et terris iactatus et alto vi superum saevae memorem Iunonis ob iram; multa quoque et bello passus, dum conderet urbem, inferretque deos Latio, genus unde Latinum, Albanique patres, atque altae moenia Romae. Virgilio, Eneide. Liber I (2)

Every story begins, where another one ends. Ten years it lasted Troy’s siege, before ending in an cruel, endless night. Many died, some managed, some way, to escape; little ruined things, forever marked. Aeneas was between them, he ran an ran through burning alleys and courts, carrying his old father on his own shoulders. He saw his wife murdered, saved his son. Finally, he armed his boats and left with few companions, sailing for the unknown sea. Then, one day, he saw the fierce shores of Carthage..

'o luce magis dilecta sorori, solane perpetua maerens carpere iuventa nec dulcis natos Veneris nec praemia noris? id cinerem aut manis credis curare sepultos? esto: aegram nulli quondam flexere mariti, non Libyae, non ante Tyre; despectus Iarbas ductoresque alii, quos Africa terra triumphis dives alit: placitone etiam pugnabis amori? (6) Virgilio, Eneide. Libro IV2

'moriemur inultae, sed moriamur' ait. 'sic, sic iuvat ire sub umbras. hauriat hunc oculis ignem crudelis ab alto Dardanus, et nostrae secum ferat omina mortis.' (7)

(…) 'hunc ego Diti sacrum iussa fero teque isto corpore soluo': sic ait (Iris) et dextra crinem secat, omnis et una dilapsus calor atque in ventos vita recessit. (8) Virgilio, Eneide.. Libro IV
Thanks (again) to Sandra Tedeschi for the above listed readings.

Dido's Lament
Henry Purcell's (1688)

Notes

(1) Dido, queen of Carthage. In some (older) sources she is also known as Elissa. I personally think that Elissa is more appropriate as a title for this song than “Dido”... Elissa was the name of a goddess, while Dido has been painted in history of literature as a fragile women that kills herself because she is refused by Aeneas, but she was a queen, and a tough woman, able to found and rule a city. Personally I think she didn’t mind too much to be abandoned by Aeneas, more probably, she hate herself for the weakness showed falling in love with him. For a minute she wished to be just a woman as many others, and this costed her everything she had built till that moment. A heavy price for such a weak man... Her city, the faith of her people, the delicate equilibrium of international relationships she had built with local kingdoms. All was sacrificed for a man that, not only left her, but was so coward to run away without a word (and not even able to do it properly, if it is true that, when she discovered his plans, he was ready to go back to her – thing that NO woman would ever accept!).
(2) Canto le armi, canto l'uomo che primo da Troia / venne in Italia, profugo per volere del Fato / sui lidi di Lavinio. A lungo inseguito / per terra e per mare dalla potenza divina / a causa dell'ira tenace della crudele Giunone, / molto soffrì anche in guerra: finché fondò una città / e stabilì nel Lazio i Penati di Troia, / origine gloriosa della razza latina / e albana, e delle mura di Roma, la superba.
(3) Virgilius says that Aeneas was convinced to leave Carthage by Mercury, sent by Jove sub prayer of Iarbas king of Gaetulia (and son of Jove himself and a Garamanthian Nymph). Iarbas was in love with Dido and, moreover, was very interested in joining the powerful and rich city to his dominions. On the other side, in Henry Purcell’s work it’s a plot of witches that send an elf disguised as Jove’s messenger to induce Aeneas to leave. I’ve preferred to follow this later version because the whole “myth” thing seem to me to be rather distant from modern taste, and the whole first strophe is nothing but a citation (adapted by me) of Purcell/Tate’s work.
(4) Dido escaped from Tyre when her brother, Ganymede, king of the city, murdered her husband Sychaeus (who, incidentally, was her uncle as well, sometimes myths can be complex and not too politically correct). Ganymede wanted Sychaeus’ gold, of course, but Dido pretended she had thrown all the gold into the sea, while she ordered to throw in to the water bags of sand. Ganymede believed the trick but was so upset that he decided to have his sister executed, so Dido left the city with several boats and some hundreds of faithful citizens of Tyre. On the way she collected many others, vagabonds, adventurers, prostitutes then, finally, she landed on the shores of what, nowadays, is known as Tunisia. Legend wants that local kings didn’t want to sell her any land to build her new settlement. Only one of them listened to her request but, as a joke, offered her “as much land as can be contained in an ox skin”. The queen accepted, had an ox skin cut in tiny stripes and joined land in order to make a rope long enough to enclose the peninsula on which the city was going to be built.
(5) Dido made a pyre with all Aeneas things, included his weapons, and burned them. Then, according to Aeneas, she killed herself with his sword and she let herself fall into the fire. Honi soit qui mal y pense
(6) Anna (sorella di Didone) risponde: "Sorella più cara della luce, / trascorrerai la giovinezza sempre sola e dolente / senza la dolcezza dei figli né le gioie di Venere? / Credi che questo importi alla cenere e all'Ombra / di chi è morto e sepolto? Stammi a sentire. Capisco / che non t'abbia piegato il cuore ferito / nessun pretendente di Libia o di Tiro; / capisco che tu abbia spregiato Jarba e i re / di questo paese africano ricco di tanti trionfi; / ma perché vuoi respingere anche un amore vero?
(7) Muoio invendicata, / eppure muoio, disse, ma va bene, era ora di scivolare tra le ombre e che il Dardano crudele veda questo fuoco da lontano e porte con sè l’oscuro presagio della mia morte.
(8) "Questo capello – disse Iris - porto e consacro a Dite / per ordine divino, e ti sciolgo da queste / tue membra." Con la destra strappò il capello: insieme / si spense il calore del corpo, la vita svanì nel vento.