On 15 March 1889, three American and three German warships, and HMS Calliope of the Royal Navy’s Australia Station protecting British interests, were tightly anchored in a standoff in the tiny harbour of Apia, Samoa, as civil war raged. The standoff ended when a deadly cyclone hit the harbor damaging six of the ships and killing approximately 200 people. There have been many other events throughout history that fell around this time of year, which give rise to our maritime lament, but none so pressing as modern day climate change, or as tragic as the parting of Dido and Aeneas in ancient Carthage, and epilogue of sorts in the shadows of Paris and Helen of Troy.
Ah well, last night after all was the Ides of March (mid-March), day in ancient Rome that falls on 15 March according to the Gregorian calendar. First full moon of the Roman year before January and February were eventually added, according to the Almanac. The Ides of March are associated with misfortune and doom; and of almost biblical fame, the fall of Julius Caesar in 44 BCE. Yes, March was named after the planet Mars, god of war.
And before Julius there was Dido, founding Queen of Carthage and Aeneas the Trojan warrior, who according to the poet Virgil was founder of the Romans. On love’s betrayal, Dido ordered a pyre to be built and set ablaze, wherefrom she sang her last lament as Aeneas sailed away.
We could have pondered the world today, but it was Sunday, our day of rest. We can leave the fate of our world, Mother Earth for another day, and then perhaps just offer up a thought, a poem, a song divine in tribute to a planet where peace still waits to sing.
The Last Lament
Cry for me,
remember me
before I’m gone.
I burn for you,
drown for you
and now I’m done.
Rage for me,
forget me not
when I am gone.
Earth for thee
is not enough
and naught is done.
Lay me out,
hear me out,
my breath flows free.
Air for fire,
sand for sea
poor sanctity.
Steal away
where seedless keep
and timeless run.
Beyond the night
the sleepless deep
of naught is none.
Cry not for me,
remember not
my troubles see.
The skies, the deep,
these stones don’t scream
for you and me!
Yet here we’ll be
at rest undone,
guest of fate
for fossil lie.
Cry not… Amen
the world lives on.
Dido’s Lament
Queen of Carthage
[Barddylbach 2025]
An inspirational song: Annie Lennox – Dido’s lament – London City Voices (December 2020: Year of COVID) – This song divine, past my notice at the time, four years it had me wait!
A tribute: to Mother Earth & Virgil’s Aeneid: Dido (Elisha) ‘Queen’ of Tyre, founder of Carthage c. 813 BCE & Aeneas, son of Aphrodite/Venus.
Background Story
Queen Dido (aka Elissa, from Elisha or Alashiya, her Phoenician name) was a legendary Queen of Tyre forced to flee the city of her birth with loyal followers, after her younger brother, Pygmalion usurped her throne. Sailing west across the Mediterranean she founded the city of Carthage c. 813 BCE and later fell in love with Aeneas, a Trojan warrior and founder of the Romans.
In the Aeneid, the Roman epic poem by Virgil, Aeneas escapes the fall of Troy to Agamemnon, Odysseus, Achilles and the Ancient Greeks. His ship is blown off course from Sicily, landing on the shores of North Africa in a place called Carthage, a city newly settled by refugees from the Phoenician capital, Tyre. Aeneas falls in love with Queen Dido but is visited by the messenger god, Mercury, persuading him to leave her for lands to the north, where destiny decrees he will become founder of the Romans, his descendants Romulus and Remus later founders of Rome (that is according to Virgil). Distraught at his betrayal, Dido orders a pyre to be built and set ablaze, which he will see from his departing ship. She sings her lament before stabbing herself and burning, as Aeneas sails away.
The apocalyptic romance, Dido’s Lament ‘When I am laid in earth’ is the closing aria from Dido and Aeneas, a baroque opera by English composer Henry Purcell in around 1683-1688.
Recitative:
Thy hand, Belinda, darkness shades me,
on thy bosom let me rest,
more I would, but Death invades me;
Death is now a welcome guest.
Aria:
When I am laid, am laid in earth, may my wrongs create
no trouble, no trouble in thy breast;
Remember me, remember me, but ah! forget my fate.
Remember me, but ah! forget my fate.
And in conclusion, the final word:
We do to Earth what we do to our ourselves,
we claim love, we burn, we rape, we drown.
She claims before we die ‘cry not for me,
my troubles see, cry not… the world lives on’.
The Ides of March, the last lament, we soldier on, and Monday’s here again.
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