Extemplo Libyae magnas it Fama per urbes ,
Fama , malum qua non aliud velocius ullum :
mobilitate viget virisque adquirit eundo ,
parva metu primo , mox sese attollit in auras
ingrediturque solo et caput inter nubila condit .
illam Terra parens ira inritata deorum
extremam , ut perhibent , Coeo Enceladoque sororem
progenuit pedibus celerem et pernicibus alis ,
monstrum horrendum , ingens , cui quot sunt corpore plumae ,
tot vigiles oculi subter ( mirabile dictu ) ,
tot linguae , totidem ora sonant , tot subrigit auris .
nocte volat caeli medio terraeque per umbram
stridens , nec dulci declinat lumina somno ;
luce sedet custos aut summi culmine tecti
turribus aut altis , et magnas territat urbes ,
tam ficti pravique tenax quam nuntia veri .
haec tum multiplici populos sermone replebat
gaudens , et pariter facta atque infecta canebat :
venisse Aenean Troiano sanguine cretum ,
cui se pulchra viro dignetur iungere Dido ;
nunc hiemem inter se luxu , quam longa , fovere
regnorum immemores turpique cupidine captos .
haec passim dea foeda virum diffundit in ora .
protinus ad regem cursus detorquet Iarban
incenditque animum dictis atque aggerat iras .

Rumor , the swiftest plague there is , went straight out
To all the settlements of Libya .
She thrives on motion , drawing strength from travel ;
Tiny and timid first , then shooting upward
To hide her head in clouds yet walk the ground .
Mother Earth , they say , in anger at the gods ,
Bore this child last , quick-footed , quick-winged sister
Of Titan Enceladus and giant Coeus .
Beneath each feather of the hideous monster--
This is the startling legend--is a wide eye ,
A tongue , a blaring mouth , a pricked-up ear .
Between the earth and sky , in shadow , shrieking ,
She flies at night . No sweet sleep shuts her eyes .
By day she sits as lookout on a rooftop
Or a high tower , and alarms great cities .
Her claws hold both true news and evil lies .
She filled the realms now with her tangled talk ,
Chanting in glee a mix of fact and fiction :
" Aeneas , from a Trojan family , came here .
Beautiful Dido chose him as her lover .
What kind of rulers spend the whole long winter
Sunk deep in luxury and sordid passion ? "
The hideous goddess spread these stories widely ,
Then , without pausing , flew off to King Iarbas ,
And with her words piled high and lit his rage .

Straightway Rumor flies through Libya’s great cities ,
Rumor , swiftest of all the evils in the world .
She thrives on speed , stronger for every stride ,
slight with fear at first , soon soaring into the air
she treads the ground and hides her head in the clouds .
She is the last , they say , our Mother Earth produced .
Bursting in rage against the gods , she bore a sister
for Coeus and Enceladus : Rumor , quicksilver afoot
and swift on the wing , a monster , horrific , huge
and under every feather on her body--what a marvel--
an eye that never sleeps and as many tongues as eyes
and as many raucous mouths and ears pricked up for news .
By night she flies aloft , between the earth and sky ,
whirring across the dark , never closing her lids
in soothing sleep . By day she keeps her watch ,
crouched on a peaked roof or palace turret ,
Terrorizing the great cities , clinging as fast
to her twisted lies as she clings to words of truth .
Now Rumor is in her glory , filling Africa’s ears
with tale on tale of intrigue , bruiting her song
of facts and falsehoods mingled…
" Here this Aeneas , born of Trojan blood ,
has arrived in Carthage , and lovely Dido deigns
to join the man in wedlock . Even now they warm
the winter , long as it lasts , with obscene desire ,
Oblivious to their kingdoms , abject thralls of lust . "
Such talk the sordid goddess spreads on the lips of men ,
then swerves in her course and heading straight for King Iarbas ,
stokes his heart with hearsay , piling fuel on his fire .