Classical Mythology, 7th Edition - obinfonet: dia logou

VIEWS OF THE AFTERLIFE: THE REALM OF HADES 343
Evadne, Pasiphaë, and with them Laodamia and Caeneus, who had been
changed into a boy and now once again was a woman.
Here Aeneas meets Dido, queen of Carthage, who has recently committed
suicide because of her love for Aeneas and his betrayal. He addresses her in sad,
piteous, and uncomprehending tones; but she refuses to answer and turns away
to join the shade of her former husband, Sychaeus.
From here Aeneas and his guide move on to the last group and farthest
fields, reserved for those renowned in war, who had been doomed to die in
battle and were much lamented by those on earth. Tydeus, Parthenopaeus,
Adrastus, and many, many others come to meet Aeneas. Trojan heroes crowd
around him, but the Greek warriors from Troy flee in terror. Aeneas converses
with Dei'phobus, the son of Priam who married Helen after the death of Paris.
Dei'phobus tells the story of his death at the hands of Menelaus and Odysseus
through the treachery of Helen. Their talk is interrupted by the Sibyl, who complains
that they are wasting what brief time they have; it is now already past
midday on earth and night is coming on (540-543):
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This is the place where the road divides and leads in two directions: our way is
to the right and extends under the ramparts of Dis to Elysium, but the left path
leads to the evil realms of Tartarus, where penalties for sin are exacted.
We must look at Vergil's comprehensive and profound conception of Hell,
Tartarus, and Paradise, Elysium or the Elysian Fields (548-579):
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Suddenly Aeneas looked back to the left and saw under a cliff lofty fortifications
enclosed by a triple wall around which flowed Phlegethon, the swift
stream of Tartarus, seething with flames and rolling clashing rocks in its torrent.
He saw in front of him a huge door, with columns of solid adamant that
no human force nor even the gods who dwell in the sky would have the power
to attack and break through. Its tower of iron stood high against the winds; and
one of the Furies, Tisiphone, clothed in a bloody robe, sat guarding the entrance,
sleepless day and night. From within he heard groans and the sound of
savage lashes, then the grating of iron and the dragging of chains. Aeneas stood
in terror, absorbed by the din. "Tell me, virgin prophetess, what is the nature
of their crimes? What penalties are imposed? What is this great wail rising upward
on the air?"
Then she began to speak: "Renowned leader of the Trojans, it is not permitted
for anyone who is pure to cross the threshold of the wicked. But when
Hecate put me in charge of the groves of Avernus, she herself taught me the
penalties exacted by the gods and went through them all. Cretan Rhadamanthus
presides over this pitiless kingdom; he punishes crimes and recognizes
treachery, forcing each to confess the sins committed in the world above, atonement
for which each had postponed too long, happy in his futile stealth, until
death. At once the avenging fury, Tisiphone, armed with a whip, leaps on the
guilty and drives them with blows; as she threatens with her fierce serpents
in her left hand, she summons the phalanx, her savage sisters. Then at last the