I posted this pic of the conjunction of the planets Venus and Jupiter on the evening of March 1, 2023 on my other social media and added the caption, "Jupiter and Venus canoodling in the heavens this evening." Even better, a few fellow Latin teachers suggested this passage from Vergil's Aeneid in which Venus visits Jupiter and pleads for rest and safety for her long-suffering Trojans:
Atque illum talis iactantem pectore curas
tristior et lacrimis oculos suffusa nitentis
adloquitur Venus: 'O qui res hominumque deumque
aeternis regis imperiis, et fulmine terres,
quid meus Aeneas in te committere tantum,
quid Troes potuere, quibus, tot funera passis,
cunctus ob Italiam terrarum clauditur orbis?
Certe hinc Romanos olim, volventibus annis,
hinc fore ductores, revocato a sanguine Teucri,
qui mare, qui terras omni dicione tenerent,
pollicitus, quae te, genitor, sententia vertit?
Hoc equidem occasum Troiae tristisque ruinas
solabar, fatis contraria fata rependens;
nunc eadem fortuna viros tot casibus actos
insequitur. Quem das finem, rex magne, laborum?...
Hic pietatis honos? Sic nos in sceptra reponis?'Olli subridens hominum sator atque deorum,
voltu, quo caelum tempestatesque serenat,
oscula libavit natae, dehinc talia fatur:
'Parce metu, Cytherea: manent immota tuorum
fata tibi; cernes urbem et promissa Lavini
moenia, sublimemque feres ad sidera caeli
magnanimum Aenean; neque me sententia vertit.
Hic tibi (fabor enim, quando haec te cura remordet,
longius et volvens fatorum arcana movebo)
bellum ingens geret Italia, populosque feroces
contundet, moresque viris et moenia ponet,
tertia dum Latio regnantem viderit aestas,
ternaque transierint Rutulis hiberna subactis.
At puer Ascanius, cui nunc cognomen Iulo
additur,—Ilus erat, dum res stetit Ilia regno,—
triginta magnos volvendis mensibus orbis
imperio explebit, regnumque ab sede Lavini
transferet, et longam multa vi muniet Albam.
Hic iam ter centum totos regnabitur annos
gente sub Hectorea, donec regina sacerdos,
Marte gravis, geminam partu dabit Ilia prolem.
Inde lupae fulvo nutricis tegmine laetus
Romulus excipiet gentem, et Mavortia condet
moenia, Romanosque suo de nomine dicet.
His ego nec metas rerum nec tempora pono;
imperium sine fine dedi. Quin aspera Iuno,
quae mare nunc terrasque metu caelumque fatigat,
consilia in melius referet, mecumque fovebit
Romanos rerum dominos gentemque togatam:
sic placitum. Veniet lustris labentibus aetas,
cum domus Assaraci Phthiam clarasque Mycenas
servitio premet, ac victis dominabitur Argis.
Nascetur pulchra Troianus origine Caesar,
imperium oceano, famam qui terminet astris,—
Iulius, a magno demissum nomen Iulo.
Hunc tu olim caelo, spoliis Orientis onustum,
accipies secura; vocabitur hic quoque votis.
Aspera tum positis mitescent saecula bellis;
cana Fides, et Vesta, Remo cum fratre Quirinus,
iura dabunt; dirae ferro et compagibus artis
claudentur Belli portae; Furor impius intus,
saeva sedens super arma, et centum vinctus aenis
post tergum nodis, fremet horridus ore cruento.'
Vergil's Aeneid I.227-241, 253-296
And here is my translation:
And so Venus, rather sad and swollen around her eyes glistening with tears,
pleads with that one pondering such concerns in his heart:
"Oh you who rule the affairs of men and gods with everlasting power,
and you who strike fear with the lightning bolt,
what so great offense has my Aeneas, what have the Trojans,
been able to commit against you, for whom, having suffered so many deaths,
the whole, wide world is closed because of Italy?
You actually promised that after this there would be Romans one day,
in the coming years, that after this they would be the leaders,
rising from the renewed blood of the Trojans,
who would hold the sea, the lands under all their domain.
What notion has changed your mind, father?
On my end I was soothing this fall and the sad ruins of Troy,
weighing out their past fates against future ones;
now the luck fortune pursues these men driven by so many misfortunes.
When will you, great king, bring an end to their sufferings?
This is their reward for our dutifulness? This is how you put us in power?"Smiling down at her, the father of men and gods,
with that expression, by which he calms the sky and storms,
gave a kiss to his daughter, and then says these words:
"Don't be afraid, Cytherea: the fates of your people remain unchanged for you;
you will see the city and the promised walls of Lavinium,
and you will carry great-souled Aeneas on high to the stars of heaven;
and no notion changes my mind. This one will wage a huge war
for you in Italy (for I will prophesy, since this concern worries you,
and I will reveal further things unknown), and he will defeat fierce peoples,
and put in place customs and walls for these men,
until a third summer has seen him ruling in Latium,
and a third winter has passed with the Rutulians subdued.
But the boy Ascanius, who now is called Iulus,
-- he used to be Ilus, while the kingdom of Troy stood --,
will fill out thirty great years in power with the months rolling along,
and he will move the kingdom from the seat of Lavinium,
and he will build Alba Longa with much strength.
Here now it will be ruled for three hundred whole years
beneath the race of Hector, until Ilia, a queen, a priestess,
pregnant by Mars, will give birth to twin offspring.
From that point Romulus, happy in the tawny hide of a nursemaid wolf
will continue the race, and will found the walls of Mars,
and he will name his people Romans after his own name.
I do not put limits or a timeframe on this things;
I have granted rule without end. Indeed harsh Juno,
who now wears out the sea and lands and heaven with fear
will change her plans for the better, and along with me
she will cherish the Romans as the masters of all things
and the toga-clad race: in this way it will be pleasing.
The time will come in the passing years,
when the House of Assaracus will hold sway over Phthia
and famous Mycenae, and it will be lord over the conquered Greeks.
A Trojan Caesar will be born from a glorious family,
who extends the empire to the ocean, and his fame to the stars,
-- he will be called Iulius, a name sent down from great Iulus.
One day you, untroubled, will welcome him, laden with the spoils
of the East, to the heavens; he, too, will be called upon by prayers.
Then these harsh ages will become calm with wars put aside;
grey-haired Faith, and Vesta, Quirinus with his brother Remus,
will give laws; the dire gates of War will be shut by iron
and close-fitting locks; wicked Madness, sitting inside
on top of savage arms, and bound by a hundred bronze knots
behind his back, will roars horribly from his bloody mouth."
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