both conditions sounded mysterious when uttered, Aeneas discovered, on
rejoining his crew, that one of his Trojans had been slain. After
celebrating his funeral, our hero wandered off into a neighboring
forest, where some doves--his mother's birds--guided him to the place
where grew the golden bough he coveted.

Armed with this talisman and escorted by the Sibyl, Aeneas, by way of
Lake Avernus, entered the gloomy cave which formed the entrance to
Hades. Following the flying footsteps of his mystic guide, he there
plunged into the realm of night, soon reaching the precinct of
departed souls, where he saw innumerable shades. Although he
immediately crossed the river in Charon's leaky punt, many spirits
were obliged to wait a hundred years, simply because they could not
pay for their passage. Among these unfortunates Aeneas recognized his
recently drowned pilot, who related how he had come to his death and
by what means he was going to secure funeral honors.

In spite of the three-headed dog and sundry other grewsome sights,
Aeneas and his guide reached the place where Minos holds judgment over
arriving souls, and viewed the region where those who died for love
were herded together. Among these ghosts was Dido, but, although
Aeneas pityingly addressed her, she sullenly refused to answer a word.
Farther on Aeneas came to the place of dead heroes, and there beheld
brave Hector and clever Teucer, together with many other warriors who
took part in the Trojan War.

After allowing him to converse a brief while with these friends, the
Sibyl vouchsafed Aeneas a passing glimpse of Tartarus and of its great
criminals, then she hurried him on to the Elysian Fields, the home of
"the illustrious dead, who fighting for their country bled," to