Having crossed the Styx, Aeneas and the Sibyl were now in Hades proper. First they had to get past Cerberus, the three-headed dog: the Sibyl threw it a drugged sop and they moved on, past infants, suicides, and those who had died for love. Among them was DIDO, queen of Carthage, who had fallen passionately in love with Aeneas when he was shipwrecked on her shores. Their affair had been ended on the orders of Jupiter, and Aeneas very reluctantly left to sail to Italy. Aeneas had not seen her since, and was shocked at her cruel fate: she had killed herself when she realised he had left her.
They continued, passing the special place for those who'd died gloriously in battle. Aeneas recognised many old friends, including DEIPHOBUS. He was a son of Priam, king of Troy, who'd married Helen after the death of Paris. Helen had hidden his weapons, and in the fall of Troy he was trapped and brutally mutilated by Menelaus and Ulysses. Again, Aeneas had no idea that this had happened, and was appalled.
They reached a fork in the road: the right hand one leading to Tartarus, where the wicked suffer eternal torment, and the Sibyl recounted the crimes and described the bizarre punishments of such as the Titans (who'd fought against Jupiter), Salmoneus, Tityos, Ixion, Phlegyas and Tantalus.
The Sibyl led Aeneas along the left hand road, and they soon emerged into the brilliant light of ELYSIUM, or the Land of Joy. Here were the homes of the Blessed, such as Orpheus and the founders of Troy, whom Aeneas found feasting and singing with white ribbons round their brows. Aeneas asked one of them, the poet Musaeus, where he could find his father ANCHISES.