We are powerfully reminded
of the scene in Aeneid 4 where Dido, another tragic victim of the events
of the poem, visits her dead husband’s grave and is terrified by omens, voices
and the hooting of owls by night
XII postquam
acies videt Iliacas atque agmina Turni,
alitis in parvae subitam collecta figuram,
quae quondam in bustis aut culminibus desertis
nocte sedens serum canit importuna per umbras—
hanc versa in faciem Turni se pestis ob ora 865
fertque refertque sonans clipeumque everberat alis.
When she sees the Trojan battle-lines and the troops of Turnus the Fury, changed suddenly into the form of that small bird which, sitting late at night on tombs and deserted buildings, often sings her ill-omened songs through the shadows - changed into this shape the fiend throws herself again and again into the face of Turnus, shrieking and beating upon his shield with her wings.
IV praeterea fuit in tectis de marmore templum
coniugis antiqui, miro quod honore colebat,
velleribus niveis et festa fronde revinctum:
hinc exaudirivuoces et verba vocantis 460
visa viri, nox cum terras obscura teneret,
solaque culminibus ferali carmine bubo
saepe queri et longas in fletum ducere voces;
And furthermore, there was in
her palace a marble chapel, sacred to her first husband, which she venerated with
utmost love, keeping it decorated with snowy fleeces and festal greenery. Now
from this chapel when night held the world in darkness she thought that she
distinctly heard cries, as of her husband calling to her. And often on a
rooftop a lonely owl would sound her deathly lamentation, drawing out her notes
into a long wail.
