VIRGIL’S ÆNEID




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                                   THE
                             ÆNEID OF VIRGIL

                      TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH PROSE

                                    BY
                           JOHN CONINGTON, M.A.
        LATE CORPUS PROFESSOR OF LATIN IN THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD

                   EDITED, WITH INTRODUCTION AND NOTES
                                    BY
                         EDGAR S. SHUMWAY, PH.D.
                             EDITOR “LATINE”

                                 NEW YORK
                          THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
                                   1917

                          _All rights reserved_

                             COPYRIGHT, 1910,
                        BY THE MACMILLAN COMPANY.

            Set up and electrotyped. Published February, 1910.
                  Reprinted June, 1914; September, 1917.

                              Norwood Press
                  J. S. Cushing Co.—Berwick & Smith Co.
                          Norwood, Mass., U.S.A.




CONTENTS


                                         PAGE

  INTRODUCTION

      The Æneid                            ix
      Virgil’s Life                         x
      Influence of the Æneid             xiii
      The Epic Itself                    xvii
      The Story                           xix
      Sources                             xxi
      The Translation                     xxi
      Chronological Table                 xxv
      Verse Translations Recommended     xxvi
      Books for Reference               xxvii
      Subjects for Investigation        xxvii

  THE ÆNEID

      Book I.                               1
          II.                              26
         III.                              51
          IV.                              74
           V.                              96
          VI.                             122
         VII.                             150
        VIII.                             176
          IX.                             198
           X.                             222
          XI.                             250
         XII.                             277

  NOTES                                   305

  INDEX TO NOTES                          345




INTRODUCTION


THE ÆNEID

When Rome, torn and bleeding from a century of civil wars, turned to that
wise judge of men, the second Cæsar, and acquiesced as, through carefully
selected ministers, he gathered the reins of power into velvet-clad
fingers of steel, she did wisely. Better one-man power than anarchy! It
became the part of true patriotism for the citizen and of statesmanship
for the politician to bring to the aid of the First Man of the state
all the motives that could harmonize the chaotic elements, and start
Republican Rome on the path of a new unity—the unity of the Empire.

For already “far away on the wide Roman marches might be heard, as
it were, the endless, ceaseless monotone of beating horses’ hoofs
and marching feet of men. They were coming, they were nearing, _like
footsteps heard on wool_;[A] there was a sound of multitudes and millions
of barbarians, all the North, mustering and marshalling her peoples.” In
his great task Augustus, with the aid of Mæcenas, very cleverly drew to
his help writers whose work has since charmed the world. We can almost
pardon fate for destroying the Republic—it gave us Virgil and Horace.

Pleasant indeed had it been for Virgil to sing in emulation of his great
teacher Lucretius! “As for me,” he says, “first of all I would pray that
the charming Muses, whose minister I am, for the great love that has
smitten me, would receive me graciously, and teach me the courses of the
stars in heaven, the various eclipses of the sun and the earth, what is
the force by which the deep seas swell to the bursting of their barriers
and settle down again on themselves—why the winter suns make such
haste to dip in ocean, or what is the retarding cause which makes the
nights move slowly.” Pleasant, too, to spend his “chosen coin of fancy
flashing out from many a golden phrase” in picturing “the liberty of
broad domains, grottos and natural lakes, cool Tempe-like valleys, lawns
and dens where wild beasts hide, a youth strong to labor and inured to
scanty fare.” “Let me delight in the country and the streams that freshen
the valleys—let me love river and woodland with an unambitious love.”
“Then, too, there are the husbandman’s sweet children ever hanging on his
lips—his virtuous household keeps the tradition of purity.” Ah, yes, to
Virgil most attractive was the simple life of the lover of nature, and
charmingly did he portray it in his _Eclogues_ and _Georgics_!

But Augustus, recognizing the genius of Virgil, and realizing the supreme
need of a reinvigorated patriotism, urgently demanded an epic that should
portray Rome’s beginnings and her significance to the world. Reluctantly
then Virgil took up this task. Even at his death he considered it
unfulfilled. Indeed it was his wish that the manuscript be destroyed.
Almost immediately the _Æneid_ became the object of the closest study,
and ever since it has evoked the deepest admiration. Perhaps no other
secular writing has so profoundly affected literature.


VIRGIL’S LIFE

Virgil (Publius Vergilius Maro), born in the rural district near Mantua,
a farmer’s son, was given by his loving father a careful education. Of
his father Virgil says, “those whom I have ever loved and above all my
father.” The regard of his hero Æneas for his father Anchises not merely
illustrates the early Roman filial affection—it suggests Virgil’s
relation to his own parent. In north Italy Virgil studied at Mantua,
Cremona, and Milan, and at seventeen took up his wider studies at Rome
itself in the year 53 B.C. Catullus had died the year before, Lucretius
was dead two years. At Rome Virgil had the best masters in Greek,
rhetoric, and in philosophy, a study in which he especially delighted.
In forming his own poetic style Virgil was profoundly influenced by
Lucretius, whose great poem _On Nature_ treated of the wondrous physical
universe, and by the subtly sweet young Catullus,

  “Tenderest of Roman poets.”

                  —TENNYSON.

In such studies Virgil spent ten years. But in 41 B.C. he appears again
in north Italy and this time in storm and stress. In the year of Philippi
the triumvirs, settling their victorious legions, confiscated lands about
Cremona, and Virgil, attempting to resist dispossession, came near to
losing his life. Through fellow-students of the Roman days he secured an
introduction to Octavius and was compensated—either recovering his own
farm, or receiving in lieu of it an estate in Campania.

Virgil relates his experience in two of his ten _Eclogues_ which were
published in their present form in 38 B.C. These charming poems were
especially loved by Milton and Wordsworth. Macaulay indeed considered
them the best of Virgil’s works. At Rome they met immediate success with
the people and with Octavius and his wise minister Mæcenas, Horace’s
patron. In them Virgil tenderly sings love of friends, home, and country.

Then Virgil spent seven years on the four books of the _Georgics_,
publishing them in 29 B.C., two years after Actium. The _Georgics_
Merivale calls “the glorification of labor.” In them Virgil hymns the
farmer’s life in beautiful Italy.

“Hail to thee, land of Saturn, mighty mother of noble fruits and noble
men! For thee I essay the theme of the glory and the skill of olden
days.”

Virgil was now acknowledged the greatest poet of Italy. In the year 26
B.C., one year after the title Augustus had been conferred on Octavius,
we find the emperor writing Virgil the most urgent letters begging the
poet to send him, then in Spain, some portion of the projected _Æneid_.
It was, however, considerably later when Virgil read to Augustus the
second, fourth, and sixth books, for the young Marcellus, the emperor’s
nephew, died in 23 B.C., and we are told that Octavia, his mother,
fainted on hearing the poet read the immortal lines about her son in the
sixth book:—

“Child of a nation’s sorrow! Were there hope of thy breaking the tyranny
of fate, thou shalt be Marcellus. Bring me handfuls of lilies, that I
may strew the grave with their dazzling hues, and crown, if only with
these gifts, my young descendant’s shade, and perform the vain service of
sorrow.”

Virgil,

    “who would write ten lines, they say,
  At dawn, and lavish all the golden day
  To make them wealthier in his readers’ eyes,”

had already spent some ten years on the _Æneid_, when in 19 B.C. he
decided to devote three years to its revision and improvement amid the
“famous cities” and scenes of Greece and Asia. It is in anticipation of
this voyage that his friend Horace prays the winds to

  “Speed thee, O ship, as I pray thee to render
  Virgil, a debt duly lent to thy charge,
  Whole and intact on the Attican borders
  Faithfully guarding the half of my soul.”

Augustus, however, met him at Athens and persuaded him to accompany his
own return. But Virgil was never again to see Rome. He contracted a fever
in Greece. It grew worse on the homeward trip; and he died, a few days
after landing, in Brundisium, having reached the age of fifty-one. His
tomb looks down upon the bay of Naples,

  “That delicious Bay
  Parthenope’s Domain—Virgilian haunt;
  Illustrated with never dying verse
  And by the Poet’s laurel-shaded tomb,
  Age after age to pilgrims from all lands
  Endeared.”

                               —WORDSWORTH.


INFLUENCE OF THE ÆNEID

As to the success of the _Æneid_, it was immediate with poets and people.
Two years after Virgil’s death Horace writes in his _Secular Hymn_:—

  “If Rome be all thy work, if Trojan bands
  Upon the Etruscan shore have won renown,
  That chosen remnant, who at thy command
  Forsook their hearths, and homes, and native town;
  If all unscathed through Ilion’s flames they sped
              By sage Æneas led,
  And o’er the ocean waves in safety fled,
  Destined from him, though of his home bereft,
  A nobler dower to take, than all that they had left.”

                                —Translated by MARTIN.

Some of the scholars, indeed, criticised it as having an undue
simplicity, as coining new words and using old words, with new meanings,
as borrowing too freely from Homer, as not written in chronological
order, as containing anachronisms, etc. But within ten years it was as
familiarly quoted by writers as we quote Shakespeare. It became the chief
text-book in the Roman schools of grammar and rhetoric. The great writers
of later days, like Pliny and Tacitus, show the profound influence of his
style, which would seem to have gripped them as Goethe tells us Luther’s
translation of the Scriptures affected his style, and as the King James
version has left its indelible traces on English literature.

When the race-mind tired of problems of government and law, and turned
strongly to the problems of religion,—degenerating easily, to be sure,
to superstition,—it was evidence of Virgil’s grip on humanity that the
poet of poets became the wizard of wizards. Even under the Antonines, the
_Sors Vergiliana_ (Virgilian prophecy) was practised. The _Æneid_ was
opened at random, and the first verse that struck the eye was considered
a prophecy of good or bad portent. “The mediæval world looked upon him
as a poet of prophetic insight who contained within himself all the
potentialities of wisdom. He was called the Poet, as if no other existed;
the _Roman_, as if the ideal of the commonwealth were embodied in him;
the _perfect in style_, with whom no other writer could be compared; the
_Philosopher_, who grasped the ideas of all things; the _Wise One_, whose
comprehension seemed to other mortals unlimited. His writings became the
Bible of a race. The mysteries of Roman priestcraft, the processes of
divination, the science of the stars, were all found in his works.”

True indeed are the words of Professor MacMechan: “Beginning the _Æneid_
is like setting out upon a broad and beaten highway along which countless
feet have passed in the course of nineteen centuries. It is a spiritual
highway, winding through every age and every clime;” and these of
Professor Woodberry: “The _Æneid_ shows that characteristic of greatness
in literature which lies in its being a watershed of time; it looks
back to antiquity in all that clothes it with the past of imagination,
character and event, and forward to Christian times in all that clothes
it with emotion, sentiment, and finality to the heart.”

As we approach modern literature, the great Italian Dante consciously
takes Virgil as his “master and author.” “O glory and light of other
poets! May the long zeal avail me, and the great love, that made me
search thy volume. Thou art my master and my author.” On English
literature the influence of the _Æneid_ has been so potent that our space
will hardly suffice to convey the barest hint of its direct and indirect
lines. Celtic story developed from it a voyage of Brutus who founds a
new Troy, or London. Geoffrey of Monmouth in the twelfth century sets
forth this tale in his history. It was believed down to the seventeenth
century and is reported by Milton. Elizabethan literature has frequent
references to it. Chaucer in his _House of Fame_ outlines the _Æneid_,
emphasizing the Dido episode, which interested also Nash, Marlowe, and
Shakespeare. Spenser teems with allusions and indeed translations, so—

  “Anchyses sonne, begott of Venus fayre,”
  Said he, “out of the flames for safegard fled
  And with a remnant did to sea repayre;
  Where he, through fatall errour, long was led
  Full many yeares, and weetlesse wandered
  From shore to shore emongst the Lybick sandes
  Ere rest he fownd.”

                        —_F. Q._, III., ix., 41.

and—

  “Like a great water-flood, that, tombling low
  From the high mountaines, threates to overflow
  With suddein fury all the fertile playne,
  And the sad husbandmans long hope doth throw
  Adown the streame, and all his vowes make vayne,
  Nor bounds nor banks his headlong ruine may sustayne.”

         —_F. Q._, II., xi., 18; cf. _Æn._ II., 304 ff.

Bacon calls Virgil “the chastest poet and royalest that to the memory
of man is known.” “Milton,” writes Dryden, “has acknowledged to me that
Spenser was his original.” But beside this indirect influence, and that
through the Italian school, Virgil’s direct influence on Milton is
attested by many an allusion. Dryden, Cowper, with his “sweet Maro’s
matchless strain,” Wordsworth, Matthew Arnold, with his “sweet, tender
Virgil,” freely acknowledge the debt they owe our poet. Dryden and Morris
translated the _Æneid_ into verse.

Tennyson, “the most Virgilian of modern poets,” gives the following
tribute, written at the request of the Mantuans for the nineteenth
centenary of Virgil’s death:—

  “Roman Virgil, thou that singest Ilion’s lofty temples robed in fire,
  Ilion falling, Rome arising, wars, and filial faith, and Dido’s pyre,
  Landscape lover, lord of language more than he that sang the Works and
    Days,
  All the chosen coin of fancy flashing out from many a golden phrase,
  Thou that singest wheat and woodland, tilth and vineyard, hive and horse
    and herd,
  All the charm of all the Muses often flowering in a lonely word,
  Poet of the happy Tityrus piping underneath his beechen bowers,
  Poet of the poet-satyr whom the laughing shepherds bound with flowers,
  Chanter of the Pollio, glorying in the blissful years again to be,
  Summers of the snakeless meadow, unlaborious earth and oarless sea,
  Thou that seest Universal Nature moved by Universal Mind,
  Thou majestic in thy sadness at the doubtful doom of human kind,
  Light among the vanished ages, star that gildest yet this phantom shore,
  Golden branch amid the shadows, kings and realms that pass to rise no
    more,
  Now thy Forum roars no longer, fallen every purple Cæsar’s dome—
  Tho’ thine ocean-roll of rhythm sound forever of Imperial Rome—
  Now the Rome of slaves hath perished, and the Rome of freemen holds her
    place,
  I, from out the Northern Island, sundered once from all the human race,
  I salute thee, Mantovano, I that loved thee since my day began,
  Wielder of the stateliest measure ever moulded by the lips of man.”

It is a lover of Horace (and who is not a lover of Horace?), the
brilliant Andrew Lang, who points out (in his _Letters to Dead Authors_)
a vital difference that has made Virgil’s the higher influence: “Virgil
might wander forth bearing the golden branch ‘the Sibyl doth to singing
man allow,’ and might visit, as one not wholly without hope, the dim
dwellings of the dead and the unborn. To him was it permitted to see and
sing ‘mothers and men, and the bodies outworn of mighty heroes, boys and
unwedded maids, and young men borne to the funeral fire before their
parents’ eyes.’ The endless caravan swept past him—‘many as fluttering
leaves that drop and fall in autumn woods when the first frost begins;
many as birds that flock landward from the great sea when now the chill
year drives them o’er the deep and leads them to sunnier lands.’ Such
things was it given to the sacred poet to behold, and the happy seats and
sweet pleasances of fortunate souls, where the larger light clothes all
the plains and dips them in a rosier gleam, plains with their own new sun
and stars before unknown. Ah, not _frustra pius_ was Virgil, as you say,
Horace, in your melancholy song. In him, we fancy, there was a happier
mood than your melancholy patience.”


THE EPIC ITSELF

The purpose of the epic is to indicate the divinely ordained origin and
history of Rome as a conquering, civilizing, and organizing government,
destined to replace both anarchy and tyrannical despotism by liberty
under law. As the real world-historic reason for Rome’s existence is so
commonly overlooked, let us recall Mommsen’s words in the introduction
to his _Provinces of the Roman Empire_: “It fostered the peace and
prosperity of the many nations united under its sway longer and more
completely than any other leading power has ever succeeded in doing....
If an angel of the Lord were to strike the balance whether the domain
ruled by Severus Antoninus was governed with the greater intelligence
and the greater humanity at that time or in the present day, whether
civilization and national prosperity generally have since that time
advanced or retrograded, it is very doubtful whether the decision would
prove in favor of the present.” Virgil states the function of Rome
clearly in the famous passage of the sixth book wherein Greek and Roman
are compared:—

  “Forget not, O Roman, thy fate—to rule in thy might o’er the nations:
  This is to be thine art—peace to the world to give.”

So the hero Æneas, himself of divine birth, is preserved by divine
intervention when Troy falls, and mid dire perils for seven years’
voyagings, and all the bitter warring in Italy, “to bring the gods
unto Latium,” “to found a city,” to teach Italy religion and a virile
civilization. “Whence Rome mighty in her defences,” “a task of so great
magnitude it was to build the Roman nation.” Twice,—once in fields
Elysian from the lips of sainted Anchises, and again, portrayed on
the shield that Vulcan made for Æneas, is rehearsed the long line of
legendary and historical Roman heroes down to Augustus himself. “On
this side is Augustus Cæsar, leading the Italians to conflict, with the
senate and the people, the home-gods and their mighty brethren, standing
aloft on the stern.” “But Cæsar ... was consecrating to the gods of
Italy a votive tribute to deathless gratitude, three hundred mighty
fanes the whole city through.” “Such sights Æneas scans with wonder on
Vulcan’s shield ... as he heaves on his shoulder the fame and the fate of
grandsons yet to be” (end of eighth book). Incidentally ground is given,
in compensating fate, for Rome’s conquest of Greek lands—she is but
loyal to her Trojan ancestry!—and for the duel to the death with Semitic
Carthage—whose queen once was the stately Dido, left by King Æneas at
Jove’s command! Incidentally, too, Virgil draws from Trojan origins
governmental forms, religious rites, yes, even games.

While this great task of glorifying patriotism and harmonizing it with
loyalty to Cæsar is ever present to Virgil, he cannot lose two qualities
that make him the most modern of ancient poets—his love of nature and
his pathos. As examples—of the former, it suffices to cite the charming
harbor scene succeeding storm and wreck, in the first book; and, of the
latter, the death-scene of the immortal twain, Nisus and Euryalus (in
Book nine).

“Down falls Euryalus in death; over his beauteous limbs gushes the blood,
and his powerless neck sinks on his shoulders; as when a purple flower,
severed by the plough, pines in death, or poppies with faint necks droop
the head, when rain has chanced to weigh them down. But Nisus rushes full
on the foe ... and dying robs his foe of life. Then he flung himself on
his breathless friend, pierced through and through, and there at length
slept away in peaceful death.

“Happy pair! if this my song has ought of potency, no lapse of days shall
efface your names from the memory of time, so long as the house of Æneas
shall dwell on the Capitol’s moveless rock, and a Roman father shall be
the world’s lord.”


THE STORY

The story on which Virgil builds is, briefly, the fall of Troy, the
voyaging of Trojan refugees under Æneas, and the successful wars of Æneas
with Italian barbarians.

According to the ancient legend the Greeks had warred ten years under
Troy’s walls, because the Trojan prince, Paris, having awarded the prize
of beauty to Venus as against Juno and Minerva, and, having been promised
as reward by Venus Helen the beautiful wife of the Greek Menelaus, had
eloped with that fatal beauty to Troy, and his father King Priam had
refused to make restitution.

The story then, as related by Æneas to Queen Dido in her palace at
Carthage, takes up (in the second book of the Æneid) the downfall and
destruction of Troy, with the escape of Æneas, his father and son,
together with a band of Trojans. Then (in the third book) are depicted
their voyagings, unsuccessful attempts to found cities, and arrival in
Sicily. Here father Anchises dies. From Sicily they sail in the endeavor
to reach Latium in Italy.

It is at this point that the epic begins. So after his invocation and
introduction (in Book one), Virgil makes unrelenting Juno, through the
storm-king Æolus, let loose upon the Trojan fleet a fierce tempest, which
drives the remnant of the fleet far away to the Carthaginian coast.
Æneas, directed by his disguised mother Venus, comes to the court of Dido
by whom he is kindly received, banqueted; and at her request narrates (in
Books two and three) his harsh experiences.

Book four continues the Dido episode. The queen madly loves Æneas—this
through the influence of Venus, who else had feared Carthaginian
hostility to her dear Trojans. Juno thinks to thwart the fates and Jove’s
will that Æneas should create the Roman race; and she plans to hold Æneas
as spouse of the Carthaginian queen. Jove intervenes, sending Mercury
with explicit commands to Æneas to seek Italy. He sails, and Dido slays
herself.

In Book five they reach Sicily again, and it being the anniversary of
Anchises’ death, Æneas celebrates it with athletic contests. During these
Juno again attempts to thwart the fates, sending a messenger to incite
the Trojan women to set the fleet on fire. But this attempt is only
successful in so far as it leads Æneas to leave the weaklings under the
kindly sway of their kinsman, the Sicilian chief, Acestes. The rest sail
for Italy, losing the faithful pilot, Palinurus.

Book six details the visit Æneas, under the guidance of the Sibyl, to the
abode of the dead. There he meets again his father Anchises, who passes
in review, as souls about to be reborn into the upper world, their heroic
descendants.

So far, with the exception of Book two, which recorded the fall and
sack of Troy, a theme omitted by Homer, Virgil has recorded the Odyssey
or wanderings of his hero Æneas. Now in the succeeding six books is
given the Iliad or wars of Æneas in Italy. As he lands, King Latinus is
divinely led to promise Æneas his daughter Lavinia. But she has been
betrothed to Turnus. Under Juno’s prompting then begins this tremendous
duel between Æneas and Turnus. And here we note a curious likeness
between Milton and Virgil. As our sympathies are aroused in the _Paradise
Lost_ for Lucifer, so Turnus, “the reckless one,” looms up a figure of
heroic size, doomed by the fates to die that Rome may live.


SOURCES

As Virgil’s sources for his story and indeed for no small portion of
his language may be mentioned preeminently:— Homer’s _Odyssey_ and
_Iliad_; Euripides, “with his droppings of warm tears”; the Greek epic
poets, called the cyclic poets, as dealing with the cycle of story
revolving around Troy; the Greek freedman and teacher, Livius Andronicus,
who translated roughly the _Odyssey_; Nævius, who wrote on the First
Punic War, tracing Carthaginian hostility back to the Æneas visit; and
especially Ennius, “father of Latin literature,” who in a great epic
traced the history of Rome from Æneas down. Of Virgil’s borrowings it
were enough perhaps to say that, like our Shakespeare, he ennobled what
he borrowed, wove it into the texture of his song—stamped it Virgilian.


THE TRANSLATION

Concerning the translation itself, we should perhaps set over against
Emerson’s famous saying, “I should as soon think of swimming across
Charles River when I wish to go to Boston, as of reading all my books
in originals, when I have them rendered for me in my mother tongue,”
that other remark of a great scholar, that “the thing for the student of
language to learn is that _translation is impossible_.” Exquisitely done
as is this version by Professor Conington, noble student of Virgil as he
was, some faint notion of what is lost in the process might be gained by
comparing a prose version of, say, Longfellow’s “Evangeline” with his
hexameters themselves:—

  This is the forest primeval. The murmuring pines and the hemlocks
  Bearded with moss, and in garments green, indistinct in the twilight,
  Stand like Druids of eld, with voices sad and prophetic—
  Stand like harpers hoar, with beards that rest on their bosoms.

At the very least, “the noblest measure ever moulded by the lips of man,”
Virgil’s “ocean-roll of rhythm,” is lost. That indeed is not revived for
us in Conington’s own poetical version, not in Dryden’s, nor in Morris’s.
Of Virgil also that is true which T. B. Aldrich, charming poet that he
was, wrote me anent his own early translations, “But who could hope to
decant the wine of Horace?”

Yet it may be not without interest to compare some verse renderings of
the initial lines:—

  I (woll now) sing (if that I can,)
  The armes and also the man,
  That first came through his destinie,
  Fugitive fro Troy the countrie
  Into Itaile, with full much pine,
  Unto the stronds of Lavine.

             —CHAUCER, _House of Fame_.

  Arms, and the man I sing, who, forced by Fate,
  And haughty Juno’s unrelenting hate,
  Expelled and exiled, left the Trojan shore,
  Long labors, both by sea and land, he bore,
  And in the doubtful war, before he won
  The Latian realm, and built the destined town;
  His banished gods restored to rites divine,
  And settled sure succession in his line,
  From whence the race of Alban fathers come
  And the long glories of majestic Rome.

                                        —DRYDEN.

  I sing of arms, I sing of him, who from the Trojan land,
  Thrust forth by Fate, to Italy and that Lavinian strand
  First came: all tost about was he on earth and on the deep
  By heavenly might for Juno’s wrath, that had no mind to sleep:
  And plenteous war he underwent ere he his town might frame,
  And set his gods in Latian earth, whence is the Latin name.
  And father-folk of Alba-town, and walls of mighty Rome.

                                                        —MORRIS.

  Arms and the man I sing, who first,
  By Fate of Ilian realm amerced,
  To fair Italia onward bore,
  And landed on Lavinium’s shore:—
  Long tossing earth and ocean o’er,
  By violence of heaven, to sate
  Fell Juno’s unrelenting hate;
  Much labored too in battle-field,
  Striving his city’s walls to build,
      And give his gods a home:
  Thence come the hardy Latin brood,
  The ancient sires of Alba’s blood,
      And lofty-rampired Rome.

                         —CONINGTON.

  I sing of arms, and of the man who first
  Came from the coasts of Troy to Italy
  And the Lavinian shores, exiled by fate,
  Much was he tossed about upon the lands
  And in the ocean by supernal powers,
  Because of cruel Juno’s sleepless wrath.
  Many things also suffered he in war,
  Until he built a city, and his gods
  Brought into Latium; whence the Latin race,
  The Alban sires and walls of lofty Rome.

                                     —CRANCH.

  I sing of war, I sing the man who erst,
  From off the shore of Troy fate-hunted, came
  To the Lavinian coast in Italy,
  Hard pressed on land and sea, the gods malign,
  Fierce Juno’s hate unslaked. Much too in war
  He bore while he a city built, and set
  His gods in Latium. Thence the Latin race,
  Our Alban sires, the walls of haughty Rome.

                                          —LONG.

  Arms and the man I sing who first, from Troy
  Expelled by Fate’s decree, to Italy
  And the Lavinian shores, a wanderer came.
  Sore travail he endured by land and sea
  From adverse gods, and unrelenting rage
  Of haughty Juno: harassed, too, by war,
  His destined city while he strove to build
  And raise new altars for his exiled gods.
  The Latian race, the Alban fathers hence
  Their birth derived—hence Rome’s proud fabric sprung.

                                             —RICKARDS.

(In hexameters.)

  Arms and the hero I sing, who of old from the borders of Troja
  Came to Italia, banished by fate to Lavinia’s destined
  Sea coasts: Much was he tossed on the lands and the deep by enlisted
  Might of supernals, through Juno’s remembered resentment:
  Much, too, he suffered in warfare, while he was founding a city,
  And into Latium bearing his gods: whence issued the Latin
  Race, and the Alban fathers, and walls of imperial Roma.

                                                                —CRANE.

  Sing I the arms and the man, who first from the shores of the Trojan,
  Driven by Fate, into Italy came, to Lavinium’s borders
  Much was he vexed by the power of the gods, on the land and the ocean,
  Through the implacable wrath of the vengeful and pitiless Juno;
  Much, too, he suffered in war, until he could found him a city,
  And into Latium carry his gods; whence the race of the Latins,
  Alba’s illustrious fathers, and Rome’s imperial bulwarks.

                                                               —HOWLAND.


CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE

  B.C.
  98. Birth of Lucretius.
  87. Birth of Catullus.
  70. Virgil is born.
  69. Birth of Mæcenas; Cicero is ædile.
  66. Cicero is prætor.
  65. Horace is born.
  63. Birth of Octavius (afterward Gaius Julius Cæsar Octavianus Augustus).
        Cicero’s consulship and _Orations against Catiline_.
  60. First Triumvirate (Cæsar, Pompey, and Crassus).
  58. Cicero banished. Cæsar begins conquest of Gaul.
  57. Cicero recalled from exile.
  55. Virgil assumes the _toga virilis_. Death of Lucretius, Cæsar in
        Britain.
  54. Virgil studies in Milan. Death of Catullus. Cicero edits Lucretius’
        _On Nature_, and (perhaps) Catullus’ _Odes_, and begins his essay
        _On the State_.
  53. Virgil goes to Rome: Horace is also taken there. Cicero is augur.
        Parthians defeat Romans at Carrhæ.
  52. Cicero’s _Oration for Milo_.
  51. Cicero proconsul in Cilicia.
  49. Civil War. Cæsar marches on Rome, bestowing Roman citizenship on
        Italians north of the Po. Pompey leaves Italy.
  48. Battle of Pharsalia. Assassination of Pompey.
  46. Battle of Thapsus. Suicide of Cato at Utica.
  45. Horace goes to Athens.
  44. Cæsar assassinated: Octavius, adopted in his will, assumes his name.
        Cicero’s _Philippics_.
  43. Birth of Ovid. Second Triumvirate (Octavianus, Antony, and Lepidus).
        Assassination of Cicero. Civil war with Brutus and Cassius. Horace
        a tribune in Brutus’ army.
  42. Battles of Philippi. Death of Brutus and Cassius.
  41. Confiscations by the triumvirs. Virgil introduced to Mæcenas and
        Octavianus. Horace returns to Rome.
  40. Virgil restored to his estate.
  39. Horace introduced to Mæcenas by Virgil and Varius.
  37. Virgil publishes _Eclogues_. Phraates king of Parthia.
  36. Antony invades Parthia.
  35. Horace publishes First Book of _Satires_.
  33. Phraates attacks Armenia and Media.
  31. Battle of Actium. Overthrow of Antony. Octavianus visits the East.
  30. Horace publishes Second Book of _Satires_ and his _Epodes_.
  29. Octavianus returns from the East and celebrates threefold triumph.
        Temple of Janus closed in sign of peace. Virgil publishes
        _Georgics_.
  27. Octavianus receives the title of Augustus.
  26. Augustus in Spain corresponds with Virgil.
  24. Horace (probably) publishes first Three Books of _Odes_.
  23. Death of Marcellus. Virgil reads portions of the _Æneid_ to Augustus.
  20. Expedition of Augustus to the East. Parthians restore standards taken
        at Carrhæ.
  19. Virgil journeys to Greece. Returns with Augustus. Dies at Brundisium.
        Augustus directs Virgil’s friend Varius and Tucca to edit the
        _Æneid_.
  18. Horace publishes First Book of _Epistles_.
  17. The Secular Festival. Horace writes the _Secular Hymn_.
  13. Horace publishes Fourth Book of _Odes_.
   8. Death of Mæcenas and Horace.


VERSE TRANSLATIONS RECOMMENDED

DRYDEN; CONINGTON (Crowell, New York); WILLIAM MORRIS (Roberts Brothers,
Boston); CRANCH; LONG (Lockwood Brooks & Co., Boston); CRANE (Baker &
Taylor Co., New York); HOWLAND (D. Appleton & Co., New York), RICKARDS
(Books I.-VI., Blackwood & Sons, London); RHOADES (Longmans); BILLSON
(Edward Arnold, London).


BOOKS FOR REFERENCE

_Roman Poets of the Augustan Age_, Sellar (Oxford, Clarendon Press);
_Virgil_, Nettleship (Appletons), and in his _Lectures and Essays_
(Oxford); _Classical Essays_, F. W. H. Myers (Macmillan); _Studies
in Virgil_, Glover (Edward Arnold, London); _Country of Horace and
Virgil_, Boissier (Putnam); _Master Virgil_, Tunison (Robert Clark &
Co., Cincinnati); _Vergil in the Middle Ages_, Comparetti (Sonnenschein,
London); _Legends of Virgil_, Leland (Macmillan); _Histories of Roman
Literature_ by Teuffel (George Bell & Sons, London), Browne (Bentley,
London), Cruttwell (Scribners, N.Y.), Simcox (Harpers, N.Y.). _Æneas as a
Character Study_, Miller (Latine, Vol. IV., p. 18).


SUBJECTS FOR INVESTIGATION

(Miller, in _Latine_ for January, 1886.)

(1) Virgilian Proverbs. (2) A Word Study. (3) Fatalism in Virgil. (4)
Virgil’s Pictures of Roman Customs. (5) Pen Pictures. (6) Astronomy in
Virgil. (7) Virgil’s Debt to Homer. (8) Milton’s Debt to Virgil. (9)
Virgil’s Gods and Religious Rites. (10) Omens and Oracles. (11) Virgil’s
Influence upon Literature in General. (12) Figures in Virgil. (13)
Virgilian Herbarium. (14) Detailed Account of the Wandering of Æneas.
(15) The Geography of Virgil. (16) Virgil as a Poet of Nature. (17)
Virgil’s Life as gleaned from his Works. [(18) The Manuscript Texts of
Virgil.] (19) Virgilian Translators and Commentators. (20) Some Noted
Passages—why? (21) The Platonism of the Sixth Book. (22) Dryden’s Dictum
Discussed, (23) Dante—The Later Virgil. [(24) The Prosody of Virgil.]
(25) Dido—A Psychological Study. (28) Æneas—A Character Study. [(27)
_Testimonium Veterum de Vergilio._] (28) Virgil and Theocritus. (29)
Virgil’s Creations. (30) Epithets of Æneas. (31) The Virgilian Birds.
(32) Was Virgil Acquainted with the Hebrew Scriptures? (33) Visions
and Dreams—Supernatural Means of Spirit Communication. (34) Night
Scenes in Virgil. (35) Different Names for Trojans and Greeks and their
Significance. (36) The Story of the Æneid.




VIRGIL’S ÆNEID




THE ÆNEID




BOOK I


  Arms and the man I sing,[1] who at the first from Troy’s[2]
  shores the exile of destiny, won his way to Italy and her
  Latian[3] coast—a man much buffeted on land and on the
  deep by violence from above, to sate the unforgetting wrath
  of Juno[4] the cruel—much[5] scourged too in war, as he                5
  struggled to build him a city, and find his gods a home in
  Latium—himself the father of the Latian people, and the
  chiefs of Alba’s[6] houses, and the walls of high towering
  Rome.

  Bring to my mind, O Muse,[7] the causes—for what                      10
  treason against her godhead, or what pain received, the
  queen of heaven drove a man of piety so signal to turn
  the wheel of so many calamities, to bear the brunt of so
  many hardships! Can heavenly natures hate[8] so fiercely
  and so long?                                                          15

  Of old there was a city, its people emigrants from
  Tyre,[9] Carthage, over against Italy and Tiber’s mouths,
  yet far removed—rich and mighty, and formed to all
  roughness by war’s[10] iron trade—a spot where Juno, it
  was said, loved to dwell more than in all the world beside,           20
  Samos[11] holding but the second place. Here was her
  armour, here her chariot—here to fix by her royal act
  the empire of the nations, could Fate be brought to assent,
  was even then her aim, her cherished scheme. But she
  had heard that the blood of Troy was sowing the seed of a             25
  race to overturn one day those Tyrian towers—from that
  seed a nation, monarch of broad realms and glorious in
  war, was to bring ruin on Libya[12]—such the turning of
  Fate’s[13] wheel. With these fears Saturn’s[14] daughter, and
  with a lively memory of that old war which at first she
  had waged at Troy for her loved Argos’[15] sake—nor indeed
  had the causes of that feud and the bitter pangs
  they roused yet vanished from her mind—no, stored up                   5
  in her soul’s depths remains the judgment of Paris,[16] and
  the wrong done to her slighted beauty, and the race abhorred
  from the womb, and the state enjoyed by the
  ravished Ganymede.[17] With this fuel added to the fire,
  the Trojans, poor remnants of Danaan[18] havoc and                    10
  Achilles’[19] ruthless spear, she was tossing from sea to sea,
  and keeping far away from Latium; and for many long
  years they were wandering, with destiny still driving
  them, the whole ocean round. So vast the effort it cost
  to build up the Roman nation!                                         15

  Scarce out of sight of the land of Sicily were they spreading
  their sails merrily to the deep, and scattering with
  their brazen prows the briny spray, when Juno, the everlasting
  wound still rankling in her heart’s core, thus communed
  with herself: “And am I to give up what I have                        20
  taken in hand, baffled, nor have power to prevent the king
  of the Teucrians[20] from reaching Italy—because, forsooth,
  the Fates forbid me? What! was Pallas[21] strong enough
  to burn up utterly the Grecian fleet, and whelm the crews
  in the sea, for the offence of a single man, the frenzy of            25
  Ajax,[22] Oïleus’ son? Aye, she with her own hand launched
  from the clouds Jove’s[23] winged fire, dashed the ships apart,
  and turned up the sea-floor with the wind—him, gasping
  out the flame which pierced his bosom, she caught in the
  blast, and impaled on a rock’s[24] point—while I, who walk            30
  the sky as its queen, Jove’s sister and consort both, am
  battling with a single nation these many years. And are
  there any found to pray to Juno’s deity after this, or lay
  on her altar a suppliant’s gift?”

  With such thoughts sweeping through the solitude of                   35
  her enkindled breast, the goddess comes to the storm-cloud’s
  birthplace, the teeming womb of fierce southern
  blasts, Æolia.[25] Here, in a vast cavern,[26] King Æolus[27]
  is bowing to his sway struggling winds and howling tempests,
  and bridling them with bond[28] and prison. They,
  in their passion, are raving at the closed doors, while the
  huge rock roars responsive: Æolus is sitting aloft in his
  fortress, his sceptre in his hand, soothing their moods                5
  and allaying their rage; were he to fail in this, why sea
  and land, and the deep of heaven, would all be forced
  along by their blast, and swept through the air. But
  the almighty sire has buried them in caverns dark and
  deep, with this fear before his eyes, and placed over them            10
  giant bulk and tall mountains, and given them a king
  who, by the terms of his compact, should know how to
  tighten or slacken the reins at his patron’s will. To him
  it was that Juno then, in these words, made her humble
  request:—                                                             15

  “Æolus—for it is to thee that the sire of gods and king
  of men has given it with the winds now to calm, now to
  rouse the billows—there is a race which I love not now
  sailing the Tyrrhene[29] sea, carrying Ilion[30] into Italy and
  Ilion’s vanquished gods; do thou lash the winds to fury,              20
  sink and whelm their ships, or scatter them apart, and
  strew the ocean with their corpses. Twice seven nymphs
  are of my train, all of surpassing beauty; of these her whose
  form is fairest, Deiopea, I will unite to thee in lasting wedlock,
  and consecrate her thy own, that all her days, for a                  25
  service so great, she may pass with thee, and make thee
  father of a goodly progeny.”

  Æolus returns: “Thine, great Queen, is the task to
  search out on what thou mayest fix thy heart; for me to do
  thy bidding[31] is but right. Thou makest this poor realm             30
  mine, mine the sceptre and Jove’s smile; thou givest me a
  couch at the banquets of the gods, and makest me lord
  of the storm-cloud and of the tempest.”

  So soon as this was said, he turned his spear, and pushed
  the hollow mountain on its side; and the winds, as though             35
  in column formed, rush forth[32] where they see any outlet,
  and sweep over the earth in hurricane. Heavily they
  fall[33] on the sea, and from its very bottom crash down the
  whole expanse—one and all, east and south, and south-west,
  with his storms thronging at his back, and roll huge
  billows shoreward. Hark to the shrieks of the crew, and
  the creaking of the cables! In an instant the clouds
  snatch sky and daylight[34] from the Teucrians’ eyes—night             5
  lies on the deep, black and heavy—pole thunders to
  pole; heaven flashes thick with fires, and all nature
  brandishes instant death in the seaman’s face. At once
  Æneas’[35] limbs are unstrung and chilled[36]—he groans
  aloud, and, stretching his clasped hands to the stars,                10
  fetches from his breast words like these:—“O happy,
  thrice[37] and again, whose lot it was, in their fathers’ sight,
  under Troy’s high walls to meet death! O thou, the bravest
  of the Danaan race, Tydeus’ son,[38] why was it not mine
  to lay me low on Ilion’s plains, and yield this fated life to         15
  thy right hand? Aye, there it is that Hector,[39] stern as
  in life, lies stretched by the spear of Æacides[40]—there
  lies Sarpedon’s[41] giant bulk—there it is that Simois[42]
  seizes and sweeps down her channel those many shields
  and helms, and bodies of the brave!”                                  20

  Such words as he flung wildly forth, a blast roaring from
  the north strikes his sail full in front and lifts the billows
  to the stars.[43] Shattered are the oars; then the prow
  turns and presents the ship’s side to the waves; down
  crashes in a heap a craggy mountain of water. Look!                   25
  these are hanging on the surge’s crest[44]—to those the
  yawning deep is giving a glimpse of land down among
  the billows; surf and sand are raving together. Three
  ships the south catches, and flings upon hidden rocks—rocks           30
  which, as they stand with the waves all about them,
  the Italians call Altars, an enormous ridge rising above
  the sea. Three the east drives from the main on to shallows
  and Syrtes,[45] a piteous sight, and dashes them on
  shoals, and embanks them in mounds of sand. One in
  which the Lycians were sailing, and true Orontes, a                   35
  mighty sea strikes from high on the stem before Æneas’
  very eyes; down goes the helmsman, washed from his
  post, and topples on his head, while she is thrice whirled
  round by the billow in the spot where she lay, and swallowed
  at once by the greedy gulf. You might see them
  here and there swimming in that vast abyss—heroes’
  arms, and planks, and Troy’s treasures glimmering through
  the water. Already Ilioneus’ stout ship, already brave                 5
  Achates’, and that in which Abas sailed, and that which
  carried old Aletes, are worsted by the storm; their side-jointings[46]
  loosened, one and all give entrance to the
  watery foe, and part failingly asunder.

  Meantime the roaring riot of the ocean and the storm let              10
  loose reached the sense of Neptune,[47] and the still waters
  disgorged from their deep beds, troubling him grievously;
  and casting a broad glance over the main he raised at
  once his tranquil brow from the water’s surface. There
  he sees Æneas’ fleet tossed hither and thither over the               15
  whole expanse—the Trojans whelmed under the billows,
  and the crashing ruin of the sky—nor failed the brother
  to read Juno’s craft and hatred there. East and West
  he calls before him, and bespeaks them thus:—“Are ye
  then so wholly o’ermastered by the pride of your birth?               20
  Have ye come to this, ye Winds, that, without sanction
  from me, ye dare to confound[48] sea and land, and upheave
  these mighty mountains? ye! whom I—but it were best
  to calm the billows ye have troubled. Henceforth ye
  shall pay me for your crimes in far other coin. Make                  25
  good speed with your flight, and give your king this message.
  Not to him did the lot assign the empire of the sea
  and the terrible trident, but to me. His sway is over those
  enormous rocks, where you, Eurus,[49] dwell, and such as
  you; in that court let Æolus lord it, and rule in the prison-house    30
  of the winds when its doors are barred.”

  He speaks, and ere his words are done soothes the swelling
  waters, and routs[50] the mustered clouds, and brings
  back the sun in triumph. Cymothoë and Triton[51] combine
  their efforts to push off the vessels from the sharp-pointed          35
  rock. The god himself upheaves them with his
  own trident,[52] and levels the great quicksands, and allays
  the sea, and on chariot-wheels of lightest motion glides
  along the water’s top. Even as when in a great crowd tumult
  is oft stirred up, and the base herd waxes wild and frantic,
  and brands and stones are flying already, rage suiting
  the weapon[53] to the hand—at that moment, should their
  eyes fall on some man of weight, for duty done and public              5
  worth, tongues are hushed and ears fixed in attention,
  while his words sway the spirit and soothe the breast—so
  fell all the thunders of the ocean, so soon as the great
  father, with the waves before him in prospect, and the
  clear sky all about him, guides his steeds at will, and as he         10
  flies flings out the reins freely to his obedient car.

  Spent with toil, the family of Æneas labour to gain the
  shore that may be nearest, and are carried to the coasts
  of Libya. There is a spot retiring deep into the land, where
  an island forms a haven[54] by the barrier of its sides, which        15
  break every billow from the main and send it shattered
  into the deep indented hollows. On either side of the bay are
  huge rocks, and two great crags rising in menace to the
  sky; under their summits far and wide the water is hushed
  in shelter, while a theatric background of waving woods,              20
  a black forest of stiffening shade, overhangs it from the
  height. Under the brow that fronts the deep is a cave
  with pendent crags; within there are fresh springs and
  seats in the living rock—the home of the nymphs; no
  need of cable[55] here to confine the weary bark or anchor’s          25
  crooked fang to grapple her to the shore. Here with seven
  ships mustered from his whole fleet Æneas enters; and
  with intense yearning for dry land the Trojans disembark
  and take possession of the wished-for shore, and lay their
  brine-drenched limbs upon the beach. And first Achates                30
  from a flint struck out a spark, and received the fire as it
  dropped in a cradle of leaves, and placed dry food all about
  it, and spread the strong blaze among the tinder. Then
  their corn, soaked and spoiled as it was, and the corn-goddess’
  armoury they bring out, sick of fortune; and make                     35
  ready to parch the rescued grain at the fire, and crush it
  with the millstone.

  Æneas meanwhile clambers up a rock, and tries to get a
  full view far and wide over the sea, if haply he may see
  aught of Antheus, driven by the gale, and the Phrygian
  biremes,[56] or Capys, or high on the stern the arms of Caicus.
  Sail there is none in sight; three stags he sees at distance
  straying on the shore; these the whole herd follows in the             5
  rear, and grazes along the hollows in long array. At once
  he took his stand, and caught up a bow and fleet arrows,
  which true Achates chanced to be carrying, and lays low first
  the leaders themselves, as they bear their heads aloft with
  tree-like antlers, then the meaner sort, and scatters with            10
  his pursuing shafts the whole rout among the leafy woods;
  nor stays his hand till he stretches on earth victoriously
  seven huge bodies, and makes the sum of them even with
  his ships. Then he returns to the haven and gives all his
  comrades their shares. The wine next, which that good                 15
  Acestes had stowed in casks on the Trinacrian shore, and
  given them at parting with his own princely hand, he
  portions out, and speaks words of comfort to their sorrowing
  hearts:—

  “Comrades! for comrades we are, no strangers to hardships             20
  already; hearts that have felt deeper wounds! for
  these too heaven will find a balm. Why, men, you have
  even looked on Scylla[57] in her madness, and heard those
  yells that thrill the rocks; you have even made trial of
  the crags of the Cyclops.[58] Come, call your spirits back,           25
  and banish these doleful fears—who knows but some
  day this too will be remembered[59] with pleasure? Through
  manifold chances, through these many perils of fortune,
  we are making our way to Latium, where the Fates hold
  out to us a quiet settlement; there Troy’s empire has                 30
  leave to rise again from its ashes. Bear up, and reserve
  yourselves for brighter days.”

  Such were the words his tongue uttered; heart-sick[60]
  with overwhelming care, he wears the semblance of hope
  in his face, but has grief deep buried in his heart. They             35
  gird themselves to deal with the game, their forthcoming
  meal; strip the hide from the ribs, and lay bare the flesh—some
  cut it into pieces, and impale it yet quivering on
  spits, others set up the caldrons on the beach, and supply
  them with flame. Then with food they recall their
  strength, and, stretched along the turf, feast on old wine
  and fat venison to their hearts’ content. Their hunger
  sated by the meal, and the boards removed, they vent in                5
  long talk their anxious yearning for their missing comrades—balanced
  between hope and fear, whether to
  think of them as alive, or as suffering the last change, and
  deaf already to the voice that calls on them. But good
  Æneas’ grief exceeds the rest; one moment he groans for               10
  bold Orontes’ fortune, another for Amycus’, and in the
  depth of his spirit laments for the cruel fate of Lycus;
  for the gallant Gyas and the gallant Cloanthus.

  And now at last their mourning had an end, when
  Jupiter from the height of ether,[61] looking down on the sea         15
  with its fluttering sails, on the flat surface of earth, the
  shores, and the broad tribes of men, paused thus upon
  heaven’s very summit, and fixed his downward gaze on
  Libya’s realms. To him, revolving in his breast such
  thoughts as these, sad beyond her wont, with tears suffusing          20
  her starry eyes, speaks Venus: “O thou, who by thy
  everlasting laws swayest the two commonwealths of men
  and gods, and awest them by thy lightning! What can
  my poor Æneas have done to merit thy wrath? What
  can the Trojans? yet they, after the many deaths they                 25
  have suffered already, still find the whole world barred[62]
  against them for Italy’s sake. From them assuredly it
  was that the Romans, as years rolled on—from them were
  to spring those warrior chiefs, aye from Teucer’s blood revived,
  who should rule sea and land with absolute sway—such                  30
  was thy promise: how has thy purpose, O my father,
  wrought a change in thee? This, I know, was my constant
  solace when Troy’s star set in grievous ruin, as I sat balancing
  destiny against destiny. And now here is the same
  Fortune, pursuing the brave men she has so oft discomfited            35
  already. Mighty king, what end of sufferings hast thou
  to give them? Antenor,[63] indeed, found means to escape
  through the midst of the Achæans, to thread in safety
  the windings of the Illyrian coast, and the realms of the
  Liburnians, up at the gulf’s head, and to pass the springs
  of Timavus, whence through nine mouths,’mid the rocks’
  responsive roar, the sea comes bursting up, and deluges
  the fields with its thundering billows. Yet in that spot               5
  he built the city of Patavium for his Trojans to dwell in,
  and gave them a place and a name among the nations, and
  set up a rest for the arms[64] of Troy: now he reposes, lapped
  in the calm of peace. Meantime we, of thine own blood,
  to whom thy nod secures the pinnacle of heaven, our ships,            10
  most monstrous, lost, as thou seest, all to sate the malice
  of one cruel heart, are given up to ruin, and severed far
  from the Italian shores. Is this the reward of piety[65]?
  Is this to restore a king to his throne?”

  Smiling on her, the planter of gods and men, with that                15
  face which calms the fitful moods of the sky, touched with
  a kiss his daughter’s lips, then addressed her thus: “Give
  thy fears a respite, lady of Cythera[66]: thy people’s destiny
  abides still unchanged for thee; thine eyes shall see the
  city of thy heart, the promised walls of Lavinium[67];                20
  thine arms shall bear aloft to the stars of heaven thy hero
  Æneas; nor has my purpose wrought a change in me.
  Thy hero—for I will speak out, in pity for the care that
  rankles yet, and awaken the secrets of Fate’s book from
  the distant pages where they slumber—thy hero shall                   25
  wage a mighty war in Italy, crush its haughty tribes, and
  set up for his warriors a polity and a city, till the third
  summer shall have seen him king over Latium, and three
  winters in camp shall have passed over the Rutulians’[68]
  defeat. But the boy Ascanius,[69] who has now the new                 30
  name of Iulus—Ilus he was, while the royalty of Ilion’s
  state stood firm—shall let thirty of the sun’s great courses
  fulfil their monthly rounds while he is sovereign, then
  transfer the empire from Lavinium’s seat, and build
  Alba the Long, with power and might. Here for full three              35
  hundred years the crown shall be worn by Hector’s[70] line,
  till a royal priestess, teeming by the war-god, Ilia, shall
  be the mother of twin sons. Then shall there be one,
  proud to wear the tawny hide of the wolf that nursed him,
  Romulus, who will take up the sceptre, and build a new
  city, the city of Mars, and give the people his own name
  of Roman. To them I assign no limit, no date of empire:
  my grant to them is dominion without end. Nay, Juno,                   5
  thy savage foe, who now, in her blind terror, lets neither
  sea, land, nor heaven rest, shall amend her counsels, and
  vie with me in watching over the Romans, lords of earth,
  the great nation of the gown. So it is willed. The time
  shall come, as Rome’s years roll on, when the house of                10
  Assaracus[71] shall bend to its yoke Phthia[72] and renowned
  Mycenæ,[73] and queen it over vanquished Argos.[74] Then shall
  be born the child of an illustrious line, one of thine own
  Trojans, Cæsar, born to extend his empire to the ocean, his
  glory to the stars,[75]—Julius, in name as in blood the heir of       15
  great Iulus. Him thou shalt one day welcome in safety to
  the sky, a warrior laden with Eastern spoils; to him, as to
  Æneas, men shall pray and make their vows. In his days
  war[76] shall cease, and savage times grow mild. Faith with
  her hoary head, and Vesta,[77] Quirinus,[78] and Remus his            20
  brother, shall give law to the world: grim, iron-bound,
  closely welded, the gates of war shall be closed; the fiend
  of Discord a prisoner within, seated on a pile of arms deadly
  as himself, his hands bound behind his back with a hundred
  brazen chains, shall roar ghastly from his throat of blood.”          25

  So saying, he sends down from on high the son of Maia,[79]
  that Carthage the new, her lands and her towers, may
  open themselves to welcome in the Teucrians, lest Dido,[80]
  in her ignorance of Fate, should drive them from her
  borders. Down flies Mercury through the vast abyss of                 30
  air, with his wings for oars, and has speedily alighted on
  the shore of Libya. See! he is doing his bidding already:
  the Punic[81] nation is resigning the fierceness of its nature
  at the god’s pleasure; above all the rest, the queen is
  admitting into her bosom thoughts of peace towards the                35
  Teucrians, and a heart of kindness.

  But Æneas the good, revolving many things the whole
  night through, soon as the gracious dawn is vouchsafed,
  resolves to go out and explore this new region; to inquire
  what shores be these on which the wind has driven him,
  who their dwellers, for he sees it is a wilderness, men or
  beasts; and bring his comrades back the news. His
  fleet he hides in the wooded cove under a hollow rock,                 5
  with a wall of trees and stiffening shade on each side.
  He moves on with Achates, his single companion, wielding
  in his hands two spear shafts, with heads of broad iron.
  He had reached the middle of the wood, when his way
  was crossed by his mother, wearing a maiden’s mien and                10
  dress, and a maiden’s armour, Spartan, or even as Harpalyce
  of Thrace, tires steed after steed, and heads the swift
  waters of her own Hebrus as she flies along. For she had
  a shapely bow duly slung from her shoulders in true huntress
  fashion, and her hair streaming in the wind, her knee                 15
  bare, and her flowing scarf gathered round her in a knot.
  Soon as she sees them, “Ho![82] youths,” cries she, “if you
  have chanced to see one of my sisters wandering in these
  parts, tell me where to find her—wandering with a quiver,
  and a spotted lynx hide fastened about her; or, it may                20
  be, pressing on the heels of the foaming boar with her
  hounds in full cry.”

  Thus Venus spoke, and Venus’ son replied:—“No sight
  or hearing have we had of any sister of thine, O thou—what
  name shall I give thee? maiden; for thy face is not                   25
  of earth, nor the tone of thy voice human: some goddess[83]
  surely thou art. Phœbus’[84] sister belike, or one of the
  blood of the nymphs? be gracious, whoe’er thou art, and
  relieve our hardship, and tell us under what sky now,
  on what realms of earth we are thrown. Utter strangers                30
  to the men and the place, we are wandering, as thou seest,
  by the driving of the wind and of the mighty waters.
  Do this, and many a victim shall fall to thee at the altar
  by this hand of mine.”

  Then Venus:—“Nay, I can lay claim to no such honours.                 35
  Tyrian maidens, like me, are wont to carry the
  quiver, and tie the purple buskin high up the calf. This
  that you now see is the Punic realm, the nation Tyrian
  and the town Agenor’s[85]; but on the frontiers are the
  Libyans, a race ill to handle in war. The queen is Dido,
  who left her home in Tyre to escape from her brother.
  Lengthy is her tale of wrong, lengthy the windings of its
  course; but I will pass rapidly from point to point. Her               5
  husband was Sychæus, wealthiest of Phœnician landowners,
  and loved by his poor wife with fervid passion;
  on him her father had bestowed her in her maiden bloom,
  linking them together by the omens of a first bridal. But
  the crown of Tyre was on the head of her brother, Pygmalion,          10
  in crime monstrous beyond the rest of men.
  They were two, and fury came between them. Impious
  that he was, at the very altar of the palace, the love of
  gold blinding his eyes, he surprises Sychæus with his
  stealthy steel, and lays him low, without a thought for               15
  his sister’s passion; he kept the deed long concealed,
  and with many a base coinage sustained the mockery
  of false hope[86] in her pining love-lorn heart. But lo! in
  her sleep there came to her no less than the semblance of
  her unburied spouse, lifting up a face of strange unearthly           20
  pallor; the ruthless altar and his breast gored with the
  steel, he laid bare the one and the other, and unveiled
  from first to last the dark domestic crime. Then he urges
  her to speed her flight, and quit her home for ever, and in
  aid of her journey unseals a hoard of treasure long hid in            25
  the earth, a mass of silver and gold which none else knew.
  Dido’s soul was stirred; she began to make ready her
  flight, and friends to share it. There they meet, all whose
  hate of the tyrant was fell or whose fear was bitter; ships,
  that chanced to lie ready in the harbour, they seize, and             30
  freight with gold. Away it floats over the deep, the
  greedy Pygmalion’s wealth; and who heads the enterprise?
  a woman[87]! So they came to the spot where you
  now see yonder those lofty walls, and the rising citadel
  of Carthage the new; there they bought ground, which                  35
  got from the transaction the name of Byrsa,[88] as much as
  they could compass round with a bull’s hide. But who
  are you after all? What coast are you come from, or
  whither are you holding on your journey?” That question
  he answers thus, with a heavy sigh, and a voice
  fetched from the bottom of his heart:—

  “Fair goddess! should I begin from the first and proceed
  in order, and hadst thou leisure to listen to the chronicle            5
  of our sufferings, eve would first close the Olympian gates
  and lay the day to sleep. For us, bound from ancient
  Troy, if the name of Troy has ever chanced to pass through
  a Tyrian ear, wanderers over divers seas already, we have
  been driven by a storm’s wild will upon your Libyan                   10
  coasts. I am Æneas, styled the good, who am bearing
  with me in my fleet the gods of Troy rescued from the
  foe; a name blazed by rumour above the stars. I am in
  quest of Italy, looking there for an ancestral home, and a
  pedigree drawn from high Jove himself. With twice ten                 15
  ships I climbed the Phrygian main, with a goddess mother
  guiding me on my way, and a chart of oracles to follow.
  Scarce seven remain to me now, shattered by wind and
  wave. Here am I, a stranger, nay, a beggar, wandering
  over your Libyan deserts, driven from Europe and Asia                 20
  alike.” Venus could bear the complaint no longer, so
  she thus struck into the middle of his sorrows:—

  “Whoever you are, it is not, I trow, under the frown of
  heavenly powers that you draw the breath of life,[89] thus to
  have arrived at our Tyrian town. Only go on, and make                 25
  your way straight hence to the queen’s palace. For I
  give you news that your comrades are returned and your
  fleet brought back, wafted into shelter by shifting gales,
  unless my learning of augury was vain, and the parents
  who taught me cheats. Look at these twelve swans                      30
  exultant in victorious column, which the bird of Jove,[90]
  swooping from the height of ether, was just now driving
  in confusion over the wide unsheltered sky; see now how
  their line stretches, some alighting on the ground, others
  just looking down on those alighted. As they, thus rallied,           35
  ply their whirring wings[91] in sport, spreading their train
  round the sky, and uttering songs of triumph, even so
  your vessels and your gallant crews are either safe in the
  port, or entering the haven with sails full spread. Only
  go on, and where the way leads you direct your steps.”

  She said, and as she turned away, flashed on their sight
  her neck’s roseate hue; her ambrosial locks breathed from
  her head a heavenly fragrance; her robe streamed down                  5
  to her very feet; and in her walk[92] was revealed the true
  goddess. Soon as he knew his mother, he pursued her
  flying steps with words like these:—“Why wilt thou be
  cruel like the rest, mocking thy son these many times
  with feigned semblances? Why is it not mine to grasp                  10
  thy hand in my hand, and hear and return the true language
  of the heart?” Such are his upbraidings, while he
  yet bends his way to the town. But Venus fenced them
  round with a dim cloud as they moved, and wrapped them
  as a goddess only can in a spreading mantle of mist, that             15
  none might be able to see them, none to touch them, or
  put hindrances in their path, or ask the reason of their coming.
  She takes her way aloft to Paphos,[93] glad to revisit
  the abode she loves, where she has a temple and a hundred
  altars, smoking with Sabæan[94] incense, and fragrant with            20
  garlands ever new.

  They, meanwhile, have pushed on their way, where the
  path guides them, and already they are climbing the hill
  which hangs heavily over the city, and looks from above
  on the towers that rise to meet it. Æneas marvels at the              25
  mass of building, once a mere village of huts; marvels at
  the gates, and the civic din, and the paved ways. The
  Tyrians are alive and on fire—intent, some on carrying
  the walls aloft and upheaving the citadel, and rolling
  stones from underneath by force of hand; some on making               30
  choice of a site for a dwelling, and enclosing it with a
  trench. They are ordaining the law and its guardians, and
  the senate’s sacred majesty. Here are some digging out
  havens; there are others laying deep the foundation of a
  theatre, and hewing from the rocks enormous columns,                  35
  the lofty ornaments of a stage that is to be. Such are the
  toils that keep the commonwealth of bees[95] at work
  in the sun among the flowery meads when summer is
  new, what time they lead out the nation’s hope, the young
  now grown, or mass together honey, clear and flowing, and
  strain the cells to bursting with its nectarous sweets, or
  relieve those who are coming in of their burdens, or collect
  a troop and expel from their stalls the drones, that lazy,             5
  thriftless herd. The work is all afire, and a scent of thyme
  breathes from the fragrant honey. “O happy they, whose
  city is rising already!” cries Æneas, as he looks upward
  to roof and dome. In he goes, close fenced by his cloud,
  miraculous to tell, threads his way through the midst,                10
  and mingles with the citizens, unperceived of all.

  A grove there was in the heart of the city, most plenteous
  of shade—the spot where first, fresh from the buffeting of
  wave and wind, the Punic race dug up the token which
  queenly Juno had bidden them expect, the head of a fiery              15
  steed—for even thus, said she, the nation should be renowned
  in war and rich in sustenance for a life of centuries.
  Here Dido, Sidon’s[96] daughter, was building a vast temple
  to Juno, rich in offerings and in the goddess’s especial
  presence; of brass was the threshold with its rising steps,           20
  clamped with brass the door-posts, the hinge creaked on
  a door of brass. In this grove it was that first a new object
  appeared, as before, to soothe away fear: here it was that
  Æneas first dared to hope that all was safe, and to place a
  better trust in his shattered fortunes. For while his eye             25
  ranges over each part under the temple’s massy roof, as
  he waits there for the queen—while he is marvelling at
  the city’s prosperous star, the various artist-hands vying
  with each other, their tasks and the toil they cost, he
  beholds, scene after scene, the battles of Ilion, and the             30
  war that Fame had already blazed the whole world over—Atreus’[o]
  sons, and Priam, and the enemy of both,
  Achilles. He stopped short, and breaking into tears,
  “What place is there left?” he cries, “Achates, what
  clime on earth that is not full of our sad story? See there           35
  Priam. Here, too, worth finds its due reward; here, too,
  there are tears[97] for human fortune, and hearts that are
  touched by mortality. Be free from fear: this renown
  of ours will bring you some measure of safety.” So speaking,
  he feeds his soul on the empty portraiture, with many
  a sigh, and lets copious rivers run down his cheeks. For
  he still saw how, as they battled round Pergamus,[98] here
  the Greeks were flying, the Trojan youth in hot pursuit;               5
  here the Phrygians, at their heels in his car Achilles, with
  that dreadful crest. Not far from this he recognizes with
  tears the snowy canvas of Rhesus’ tent, which, all surprised
  in its first sleep, Tydeus’ son was devastating with wide
  carnage, himself bathed in blood—see! he drives off                   10
  the fiery steeds to his own camp, ere they have had time
  to taste the pastures of Troy or drink of Xanthus.[99] There
  in another part is Troilus[100] in flight, his arms fallen from
  him—unhappy boy, confronted with Achilles in unequal
  combat—hurried away by his horses, and hanging half                   15
  out of the empty car, with his head thrown back, but the
  reins still in his hand; his neck and his hair are being
  trailed along the ground, and his inverted spear is drawing
  lines in the dust. Meanwhile to the temple of Pallas,[101]
  not their friend, were moving the Trojan dames with locks             20
  dishevelled, carrying the sacred robe, in suppliant guise
  of mourning, their breasts bruised with their hands—the
  goddess was keeping her eyes riveted on the ground,
  with her face turned away. Thrice had Achilles dragged
  Hector round the walls of Ilion, and was now selling for              25
  gold his body, thus robbed of breath. Then, indeed,
  heavy was the groan that he gave from the bottom of
  his heart, when he saw the spoils, the car, the very body
  of his friend, and Priam, stretching out those helpless
  hands. Himself, too, he recognizes in the forefront of                30
  the Achæan ranks, and the squadrons of the East, and the
  arms of the swarthy Memnon.[102] There, leading the columns
  of her Amazons, with their moony shields, is Penthesilea[103]
  in her martial frenzy, blazing out, the centre of thousands,
  as she loops up her protruded breast with a girdle of gold,           35
  the warrior queen, and nerves herself to the shock of combat,
  a maiden against men.

  While these things are meeting the wondering eyes of
  Æneas the Dardan—while he is standing bewildered,
  and continues riveted in one set gaze—the queen has
  moved towards the temple, Dido, of loveliest presence,
  with a vast train of youths thronging round her. Like
  as on Eurotas’ banks, or along the ridges of Cynthus,                  5
  Diana[104] is footing the dance, while, attending her, a thousand
  mountain nymphs are massing themselves on either
  side; she, her quiver on her shoulder, as she steps, towers
  over the whole goddess sisterhood, while Latona’s[105] bosom
  thrills silently with delight; such was Dido—such she                 10
  bore herself triumphant through the midst, to speed the
  work which had empire for its prospect. Then, at the doors
  of the goddess, under the midmost vaulting of the temple,
  with a fence of arms round her, supported high on a throne,
  she took her seat. There she was giving laws and judgments            15
  to her citizens, and equalizing the burden of their
  tasks by fair partition, or draughting it by lot, when suddenly
  Æneas sees coming among the great crowd Antheus
  and Sergestus, and brave Cloanthus, and other of the
  Teucrians, whom the black storm had scattered over the                20
  deep, and carried far away to other coasts. Astounded
  was he, overwhelmed, too, was Achates, all for joy and
  fear: eagerly were they burning to join hands with theirs,
  but the unexplained mystery confounds their minds.
  They carry on the concealment, and look out from the                  25
  hollow cloud that wraps them, to learn what fortune their
  mates have had, on what shore they are leaving their fleet,
  what is their errand here—for they were on their way,
  a deputation from all the crews, suing for grace, and were
  making for the temple with loud cries.                                30

  After they had gained an entrance, and had obtained
  leave to speak in the presence, Ilioneus, the eldest, thus
  began, calm of soul:—

  “Gracious queen, to whom Jupiter has given to found a
  new city, and to restrain by force of law the pride of savage         35
  nations, we, hapless Trojans, driven by the winds over
  every sea, make our prayer to you—keep off from our
  ships the horrors of fire, have pity on a pious race, and
  vouchsafe a nearer view to our affairs. We are not come
  to carry the havoc of the sword into the homes of Libya—to
  snatch booty and hurry it to the shore; such violence
  is not in our nature; such insolence were not for
  the vanquished. There is a place—the Greeks call it                    5
  Hesperia—a land old in story, strong in arms and in
  the fruitfulness of its soil; the Œnotrians were its settlers;
  now report says that later generations have called the
  nation Italian, from the name of their leader. Thither
  were we voyaging, when, rising with a sudden swell, Orion,[106]       10
  lord of the storm, carried us into hidden shoals, and far
  away by the stress of reckless gales over the water, the
  surge mastering us, and over pathless rocks scattered us
  here and there: a small remnant, we drifted hither on to
  your shores. What race of men have we here? What                      15
  country is so barbarous as to sanction a native usage like
  this? Even the hospitality of the sand is forbidden us—they
  draw the sword, and will not let us set foot on the
  land’s edge. If you defy the race of men, and the weapons
  that mortals wield, yet look to have to do with gods, who             20
  watch over the right and the wrong. Æneas was our king,
  than whom never man breathed more just, more eminent
  in piety, or in war and martial prowess. If the Fates are
  keeping our hero alive—if he is feeding on this upper
  air, and not yet lying down in death’s cruel shade—all                25
  our fears are over, nor need you be sorry to have made
  the first advance in the contest of kindly courtesy. The
  realm of Sicily, too, has cities for us, and store of arms,
  and a hero-king of Trojan blood, Acestes.[o] Give us leave
  but to lay up on shore our storm-beaten fleet, to fashion             30
  timber in your forests, and strip boughs for our oars, that,
  if we are allowed to sail for Italy, our comrades and king
  restored to us, we may make our joyful way to Italy and
  to Latium; or, if our safety is swallowed up, and thou,
  best father of the Teucrians, art the prey of the Libyan              35
  deep, and a nation’s hope lives no longer in Iulus, then, at
  least, we may make for Sicania’s straits, and the houses
  standing to welcome us, whence we came hither, and may
  find a king in Acestes.” Such was the speech of Ilioneus;
  an accordant clamour burst at once from all the sons of
  Dardanus.

  Then briefly Dido, with downcast look, makes reply:—“Teucrians!
  unburden your hearts of fear, lay your anxieties                       5
  aside. It is the stress of danger and the infancy of
  my kingdom that make me put this policy in motion and
  protect my frontiers with a guard all about. The men
  of Æneas and the city of Troy—who can be ignorant of
  them?—the deeds and the doers, and all the blaze of that              10
  mighty war? Not so blunt are the wits we Punic folk
  carry with us, not so wholly does the sun turn his back
  on our Tyrian town when he harnesses his steeds.
  Whether you make your choice of Hesperia the great, and
  the old realm of Saturn, or of the borders of Eryx and their          15
  king Acestes, I will send you on your way with an escort
  to protect you, and will supply you with stores. Or would
  you like to settle along with me in my kingdom here?
  Look at the city I am building, it is yours, lay up your
  ships, Trojan and Tyrian shall be dealt with by me without            20
  distinction. Would to heaven your king were here too,
  driven by the gale that drove you hither—Æneas himself!
  For myself, I will send trusty messengers along the coast,
  with orders to traverse the furthest parts of Libya, in case
  he should be shipwrecked and wandering anywhere in                    25
  forest or town.”

  Excited by her words, brave Achates and father Æneas,
  too, were burning long ere this to break out of their cloud.
  Achates first accosts Æneas:—“Goddess-born, what purpose
  now is foremost in your mind? All you see is safe,                    30
  our fleet and our mates are restored to us. One is missing,
  whom our own eyes saw in the midst of the surge swallowed
  up, all the rest is even as your mother told us.”

  Scarce had he spoken when the cloud that enveloped
  them suddenly parts asunder and clears into the open sky.             35
  Out stood Æneas, and shone[107] again in the bright sunshine,
  his face and his bust the image of a god, for his great
  mother had shed graceful tresses over her son’s brow,
  and the glowing flush of youth, and had breathed the
  breath of beauty and gladness into his eyes, loveliness such
  as the artist’s touch imparts to ivory, or when silver or
  Parian marble is enchased[108] with yellow gold. Then he
  addresses the queen, and speaks suddenly to the astonishment           5
  of all:—“Here am I whom you are seeking, before
  you,—Æneas, the Trojan, snatched from the jaws of the
  Libyan wave. O heart that alone of all has found pity for
  Troy’s cruel agonies—that makes us, poor remnants of
  Danaan fury, utterly spent by all the chances of land and             10
  sea, destitute of all, partners of its city, of its very palace!
  To pay such a debt of gratitude, Dido, is more than we can
  do—more than can be done by all the survivors of the
  Dardan nation, now scattered the wide world over. May
  the gods—if there are powers that regard the pious, if                15
  justice and conscious rectitude count for aught anywhere
  on earth—may they give you the reward you merit!
  What age had the happiness to bring you forth? what
  godlike parents gave such nobleness to the world? While
  the rivers run into the sea, while the shadows sweep along            20
  the mountain-sides, while the stars draw life from the
  sky, your glory and your name and your praise shall still
  endure, whatever the land whose call I must obey.” So
  saying, he stretches out his right hand to his friend Ilioneus,
  his left to Serestus, and so on to others, gallant Gyas               25
  and gallant Cloanthus.

  Astounded was Dido, Sidon’s daughter, first at the hero’s
  presence, then at his enormous sufferings, and she bespoke
  him thus:—“What chance is it, goddess-born, that is
  hunting you through such a wilderness of perils? what                 30
  violence throws you on our savage coasts? Are you, indeed,
  the famed Æneas, whom to Anchises the Dardan,
  Venus, queen of light and love, bore by the stream of
  Simois? Aye, I remember Teucer coming to Sidon, driven
  from the borders of his fatherland, hoping to gain a new              35
  kingdom by the aid of Belus. Belus, my sire, was then
  laying waste the rich fields of Cyprus, and ruling the isle
  with a conqueror’s sway. Ever since that time I knew
  the fate of the Trojan city, and your name, and the
  Pelasgian princes. Foe as he was, he would always extol
  the Teucrians with signal praise, and profess that
  he himself came of the ancient Teucrian stock. Come
  then, brave men, and make our dwellings your home.                     5
  I, too, have had a fortune like yours, which, after the
  buffeting of countless sufferings, has been pleased that
  I should find rest in this land at last. Myself no stranger
  to sorrow, I am learning[109] to succour the unhappy.”
  With these words, at the same moment she ushers                       10
  Æneas into her queenly palace, and orders a solemn
  sacrifice at the temples of the gods. Meantime, as if
  this were nought, she sends to his comrades at the shore
  twenty bulls, a hundred huge swine with backs all bristling,
  a hundred fat lambs with their mothers, and the                       15
  wine-god’s jovial bounty.

  But the palace within is laid out with all the splendour of
  regal luxury, and in the centre of the mansion they are
  making ready for the banquet; the coverlets are embroidered
  and of princely purple—on the tables is massy                         20
  silver, and chased on gold the gallant exploits of Tyrian
  ancestors, a long, long chain of story, derived through
  hero after hero ever since the old nation was young.

  Æneas, for his fatherly love would not leave his heart at
  rest, sends on Achates with speed to the ships to tell Ascanius       25
  the news and conduct him to the city. On Ascanius
  all a fond parent’s anxieties are centred. Presents,
  moreover, rescued from the ruins of Ilion, he bids him
  bring—a pall stiff with figures of gold, and a veil with
  a border of yellow acanthus,[110] adornments of Argive                30
  Helen,[111] which she carried away from Mycenæ, when she
  went to Troy and to her unblessed bridal, her mother
  Leda’s marvellous gift; the sceptre, too, which Ilione
  had once borne, the eldest of Priam’s daughters, and the
  string of pearls for the neck, and the double coronal of              35
  jewels and gold. With this to despatch, Achates was
  bending his way to the ships.

  But the lady of Cythera is casting new wiles, new devices
  in her breast, that Cupid,[112] form and feature changed, may
  arrive in the room of the charmer Ascanius, and by the
  presents he brings influence the queen to madness, and turn
  the very marrow of her bones to fire. She fears the two-faced
  generation, the double-tongued sons of Tyre; Juno’s                    5
  hatred scorches her like a flame, and as night draws on the
  care comes back to her. So then with these words she
  addresses her winged Love:—“My son, who art alone my
  strength and my mighty power, my son, who laughest to
  scorn our great father’s Typhœan[113] thunderbolts, to thee           10
  I fly for aid, and make suppliant prayer of thy majesty.
  How thy brother Æneas is tossed on the ocean the whole
  world over by Juno’s implacable rancour I need not tell
  thee—nay, thou hast often mingled thy grief with mine.
  He is now the guest of Dido, the Phœnician woman, and                 15
  the spell of a courteous tongue is laid on him, and I fear
  what may be the end of taking shelter under Juno’s
  wing; she will never be idle at a time on which so much
  hangs. Thus then I am planning to be first in the field,
  surprising the queen by stratagem, and encompassing                   20
  her with fire, that no power may be able to work a change
  in her, but that a mighty passion for Æneas may keep
  her mine. For the way in which thou mayest bring this
  about, listen to what I have been thinking. The young
  heir of royalty, at his loved father’s summons, is making             25
  ready to go to this Sidonian city—my soul’s darling
  that he is—the bearer of presents that have survived
  the sea and the flames of Troy. Him I will lull in deep
  sleep and hide him in my hallowed dwelling high on
  Cythera or Idalia, that by no chance he may know or mar               30
  our plot. Do thou then for a single night, no more, artfully
  counterfeit his form, and put on the boy’s usual looks,
  thyself a boy, that when Dido, at the height of her joy,
  shall take thee into her lap while the princely board is
  laden and the vine-god’s liquor flowing, when she shall               35
  be caressing thee and printing her fondest kisses on thy
  cheek, thou mayest breathe concealed fire into her veins,
  and steal upon her with poison.”[114]

  At once Love complies with his fond mother’s words,
  puts off his wings, and walks rejoicing in the gait of Iulus.
  As for Ascanius, Venus sprinkles his form all over with the
  dew of gentle slumber,[115] and carries him, as a goddess may,
  lapped in her bosom, into Idalia’s lofty groves, where a               5
  soft couch of amaracus enfolds him with its flowers, and
  the fragrant breath of its sweet shade. Meanwhile Cupid
  was on his way, all obedience, bearing the royal presents to
  the Tyrians, and glad to follow Achates. When he arrives,
  he finds the queen already settled on the gorgeous tapestry           10
  of a golden couch, and occupying the central place. Already
  father Æneas, already the chivalry of Troy are flocking
  in, and stretching themselves here and there on coverlets
  of purple. There are servants offering them water
  for their hands, and deftly producing the bread from the              15
  baskets, and presenting towels with shorn nap. Within
  are fifty maidens, whose charge is in course to pile up provisions
  in lasting store, and light up with fire the gods of the
  hearth. A hundred others there are, and male attendants
  of equal number and equal age, to load the table with                 20
  dishes, and set on the cups. The Tyrians, too, have
  assembled in crowds through the festive hall, and scatter
  themselves as invited over the embroidered couches.
  There is marvelling at Æneas’ presents, marvelling at
  Iulus, at those glowing features, where the god shines                25
  through, and those words which he feigns so well, and at
  the robe and the veil with the yellow acanthus border.
  Chief of all, the unhappy victim of coming ruin cannot
  satisfy herself with gazing,[116] and kindles as she looks,
  the Phœnician woman, charmed with the boy and the                     30
  presents alike. He, after he has hung long in Æneas’
  arms and round his neck, gratifying the intense fondness
  of the sire he feigned to be his, finds his way to the queen.
  She is riveted by him—riveted, eye and heart, and ever
  and anon fondles him in her lap[117]—poor Dido, unconscious           35
  how great a god is sitting heavy on that wretched bosom.
  But he, with his mind still bent on his Acidalian mother,
  is beginning to efface the name of Sychæus letter by letter,
  and endeavouring to surprise by a living passion affections
  long torpid, and a heart long unused to love.

  When the banquet’s first lull was come, and the board
  removed, then they set up the huge bowls and wreathe the
  wine. A din rings to the roof—the voice rolls through                  5
  those spacious halls; lamps[118] hang from the gilded ceiling,
  burning brightly, and flambeau-fires put out the night.
  Then the queen called for a cup, heavy with jewels and
  gold, and filled it with unmixed wine; the same which
  had been used by Belus, and every king from Belus downward.           10
  Then silence was commanded through the hall.
  “Jupiter, for thou hast the name of lawgiver for guest and
  host, grant that this day may be auspicious alike for the
  Tyrians and the voyagers from Troy, and that its memory
  may long live among our posterity. Be with us, Bacchus,[119]          15
  the giver of jollity, and Juno, the queen of our blessings;
  and you, the lords of Tyre, may your goodwill grace this
  meeting.” She said, and poured on the table an offering
  of the wine, and, the libation made, touched the cup
  first with her lips, then handed it to Bitias, rallying his           20
  slowness. Eagerly he quaffed the foaming goblet, and
  drenched himself deep with its brimming gold. Then
  came the other lords in order. Iopas, the long-haired
  bard, takes his gilded lyre, and fills the hall with music;
  he, whose teacher was the mighty Atlas.[120] His song[121] is of      25
  the wanderings of the moon and the agonies of the sun,
  whence sprung man’s race and the cattle, whence rain-water
  and fire; of Arcturus and the showery Hyades,
  and the twin Bears; why the winter suns make such
  haste to dip in ocean, or what is the retarding cause that            30
  bids the nights move slowly. Plaudits redouble from
  the Tyrians, and the Trojans follow the lead. With
  varied talk, too, she kept lengthening out the night, unhappy
  Dido, drinking draughts of love long and deep,
  as she asked much about Priam, about Hector much;                     35
  now what were the arms in which Aurora’s son had come
  to battle; now what Diomede’s steeds were like; now how
  great was Achilles. “Or rather, gentle guest,” cries she,
  “tell us the story from the very first—all about the stratagems
  of the Danaans, and the sad fate of your country,
  and your own wanderings—for this is now the seventh
  summer that is wafting you a wanderer still over every
  land and wave.”




BOOK II


  Every tongue was hushed, and every eye fixed intently,
  when, from high couch, father Æneas began thus:—

  “Too cruel to be told, great queen, is the sorrow you
  bid me revive—how the power of Troy and its empire
  met with piteous overthrow from the Danaans—the                        5
  heartrending sights which my own eyes saw, and the scenes
  where I had a large part to play. Who, in such recital—be
  he of the Myrmidons[122] or the Dolopes, or a soldier of
  ruthless Ulysses’[123] band—would refrain from tears? And
  now, too, night is rushing in dews down the steep of heaven,          10
  and the setting stars counsel repose. Still, if so great be
  your longing to acquaint yourself with our disasters, and
  hear the brief tale of Troy’s last agony, though my mind
  shudders at the remembrance, and starts back in sudden
  anguish, I will essay the task.                                       15

  “Broken by war and foiled by destiny, the chiefs of the
  Danaans, now that the flying years were numbering so
  many, build a horse of mountain size, by the inspiration of
  Pallas’ skill, and interlace its ribs with planks of fir. A
  vow for their safe journey home is the pretext: such the              20
  fame that spreads. In this they secretly enclose chosen
  men of sinew, picked out by lot, in the depth of its sides,
  and fill every corner of those mighty caverns, the belly of
  the monster, with armed warriors.

  “In sight of Troy lies Tenedos, an island of wide-spread              25
  renown, powerful and rich while Priam’s empire yet was,
  now a mere bay, a treacherous roadstead for ships. Thus
  far they sail out, and hide themselves on the forsaken
  coast. We thought them gone off with a fair wind for
  Mycenæ. And so all Trojan land shakes off the agony of                30
  years. Open fly the gates; what pleasure to go and see the
  Dorian camp, and the places deserted, and the shore forsaken!
  Yes, here were the troops of the Dolopes; here
  the tent of that savage Achilles; here the ships were drawn
  up; here they used to set the battle in array. Some of                 5
  us are standing agaze at the fatal offering to the virgin
  goddess, and wondering at the hugeness of the horse;
  and Thymœtes takes the lead, urging to have it dragged
  within the walls, and lodged in the citadel, either with
  treasonable intent, or that the fate of Troy had begun to             10
  set that way. But Capys, and the men of saner judgment,
  bid us send this snare of the Danaans, this suspicious present,
  headlong into the sea, or light a fire under and burn
  it; or, if not that, to pierce and probe that hollow womb
  that might hide so much. The populace, unstable as                    15
  ever, divides off into opposite factions.

  “Throwing himself before all, with a great crowd at his
  back, Laocoon,[124] all on fire, comes running down the steep
  of the citadel, crying in the distance, ‘What strange
  madness is this, my unhappy countrymen? Think you                     20
  that the enemy has sailed off, or that a Danaan could ever
  make a present that had no treachery in it? Is this your
  knowledge of Ulysses? Either the Achæans are shut up
  and hiding in this piece of wood, or it is an engine framed
  against our walls, to command the houses and come down                25
  on the city from above, or there is some other secret trick.
  Men of Troy, put no faith in the horse. Whatever it be,
  I fear a Greek even with a gift in his hand.’ With these
  words he hurled a mighty spear with all his force against
  the beast’s side, the jointed arch of its belly. It lodged,           30
  and stood quivering; the womb shook again, and an echo
  and a groan rang hollow from its caverns; and, then,
  had but heaven’s destiny and man’s judgment been unwarped,
  he had led us to carry sword and havoc into the
  Argive lurking-place, and Troy would now be standing,                 35
  and thou, Priam’s tall fortress, still in being.

  “Meanwhile, see! some Dardan shepherds are dragging
  with loud shouts before the king a young man with his
  hands tied behind him, who had thrown himself, a stranger,
  across their way, to compass this very thing, and thus
  let the Achæans into Troy—bold of heart, and ready for
  either issue, either to play off his stratagem, or to meet
  inevitable death. From all sides, in eager curiosity,                  5
  the Trojan youth come streaming round, vying in their
  insults to the prisoner. Now then, listen, to the tale of
  Danaan fraud, and from one act of guilt learn what the
  whole nation is. There as he stood, with all eyes bent on
  him, bewildered, defenceless, and looked round on the                 10
  Phrygian bands, ’ Alas!’ he cries, ‘where is there a
  spot of earth or sea that will give me shelter now? or what
  last resource is left for a wretch like me—one who has no
  place among the Danaans to hide my head—while the
  children of Dardanus no less are in arms against me,                  15
  crying for bloody vengeance?’ At that piteous cry our
  mood was changed, and every outrage checked. We
  encourage him to speak—to tell us what his parentage
  is; what his business; what he has to rest on as a prisoner.
  ‘All, my lord, shall be avowed to you truly, whatever                 20
  be the issue. I will not deny that I am an Argive by
  nation; this to begin with. Nor if Fortune has made a
  miserable man out of Sinon, shall her base schooling
  make him deceiver and liar as well. If haply in talk your
  ears ever caught the name of Palamedes, of the house of               25
  Belus, and his wide-spread renown—his, whom under
  false accusation, an innocent man, charged by the blackest
  calumny, all because his voice was against the war,
  the Pelasgians sent down to death, and now, when he is
  laid in darkness, lament him too late—know that it was                30
  as his comrade and near kinsman I was sent by a needy
  father to a soldier’s life in earliest youth. While he stood
  with his royal state unimpaired, an honoured member of
  the kingly council, I, too, enjoyed my measure of name
  and dignity; but after the jealousy of false Ulysses—you              35
  know the tale—removed him from this upper clime—dashed
  from my height, I dragged on life in darkness and
  sorrow, and vented to my own heart my rage at the disaster
  of my innocent friend. Nor did I keep silence—madman
  that I was! No, if ever the chance were given
  me—if ever I came back with glory to my native Argos—I
  vowed myself his avenger, and my words stirred up
  bitter enmity. From that time my ruin began; from that                 5
  time Ulysses was ever threatening me with some new
  charge, ever scattering abroad words of mystery, and looking
  for allies to plot with. Nor did he rest till by Calchas’[125]
  agency—but why recall this unwelcome story with no
  end to gain? Why waste your time, if you hold all Achæans             10
  alike, and to hear that is to hear enough? Take the
  vengeance you should have taken long ago. It is just
  what would please the Ithacan, and earn a large reward
  from the sons of Atreus!’[126]

  “This makes us burn, indeed, to explore and inquire into              15
  the reason of his tale, not knowing that crime could be so
  monstrous, and Pelasgian art so cunning. He resumes, in
  faltering tones, spoken from his false heart:—

  “‘Often have the Danaans designed to turn their back
  on Troy and accomplish a retreat, and abandon the war                 20
  that had wearied them so long; and would they had done
  it! As often has the fierce inclemency of the deep barred
  their purpose, and the south wind frightened them from
  sailing. Especially, when this horse was set up at last, a
  compacted mass of maple planks, the thunder of the storm-clouds       25
  was heard the whole firmament over. In our
  perplexity we send Eurypylus to inquire of Phœbus’[127]
  oracle, and this is the gloomy message that he brings back
  from the shrine: “With blood it was ye appeased the winds,
  even with a maiden’s slaughter, when first ye came, Danaans,          30
  to the shore of Ilion. With blood it is ye must buy
  your return, and propitiate heaven by the life of an Argive!”
  Soon as the news reached the public ear, every
  mind was cowed, and a cold shudder thrilled the depth of
  every heart. For whom has Fate a summons? Whom does                   35
  Apollo demand as his prey? And now the Ithacan, with
  boisterous vehemence, drags forward the prophet Calchas,
  insists on knowing what that announcement of heaven’s
  will may mean; and many even then were the prophetic
  mouths that warned me of the trickster’s cruel villany,
  and many the eyes that silently foresaw the future. Ten
  days the seer holds his peace, and keeps his tent, refusing
  to utter a word that should, disclose any name or sacrifice            5
  any life. At last, goaded by the Ithacan’s vehement
  clamour, he breaks into a concerted utterance, and dooms
  me to the altar. All assented, well content that the danger
  which each feared for himself should be directed to the
  extinction of one poor wretch. And now the day of horror              10
  was come; all was being ready for my sacrifice—the
  salt cakes for the fire, and the fillet to crown my brow—when
  I escaped, I own it, from death, and broke my
  bonds, and hid myself that night in a muddy marsh in the
  covert of the rushes, while they should be sailing, in the            15
  faint hope that they had sailed. My old country, I
  never expect to see it again, nor my darling children, and
  the father I have longed so for! No! they are likely
  to visit them with vengeance for my escape, and expiate
  this guilt of mine by taking their poor lives. O! by the              20
  gods above, and the powers that know when truth is
  spoken, if there is yet abiding anywhere among men such
  a thing as unsullied faith, I conjure you, have pity on this
  weight of suffering, have pity on a soul that is unworthily
  borne down!’                                                          25

  “Such a tearful appeal gains him his life, and our compassion
  too. Priam himself is first to bid them relieve the
  man of his manacles and the chains that bound him, and
  addresses him in words of kindness. ‘Whoever you are,
  from this time forth have done with the Greeks, and forget            30
  them. I make you my man, and bid you answer truly
  the questions I shall put. What do they mean by setting
  up this huge mountain of a horse? Who was the prompter
  of it? What is their object? Some religious offering, or
  some engine of war?’                                                  35

  “Thus Priam: the prisoner, with all his Pelasgian craft
  and cunning about him, raised his unfettered hands to the
  stars:—

  “‘You, eternal fires, with your inviolable majesty, be
  my witnesses; you, altars and impious swords, from which
  I fled; and you, hallowed fillets, which I wore for the sacrifice!
  I am free to break all the sacred ties that bound me
  to the Greeks. I am free to treat them as my foes, and                 5
  disclose all their secrets to the light of day, all the claims
  of the land of my birth notwithstanding. Only do thou
  abide by thy plighted word, and preserve faith with thy
  preserver, land of Troy, if he tells thee true, and makes
  thee large returns.                                                   10

  “‘The strength of the Danaan hopes, and the soul of
  their confidence in the war they plunged into, has ever
  been the aid of Pallas. From the time when Tydeus’ impious
  son and Ulysses, that coiner of villany, dared to
  drag away from her hallowed temple the fateful Palladium,[128]        15
  slaughtering the guards who watched the citadel’s
  height, thenceforth there was an ebb and a backsliding in
  the Danaan hopes, their forces shattered, the goddess estranged.
  Nor were the portents dubious that betokened
  Tritonia’s change of mood. Scarce was the image lodged                20
  in the camp, when flashing fire glowed in her uplifted eyes,
  and salt sweat trickled over her frame, and thrice of herself
  she leaped from the ground, marvellous to relate, shield
  and quivering lance and all. Forthwith Calchas sounds
  the note for flight over the perilous deep, for that Pergamus         25
  can never be razed by Argive steel, unless they go to
  Argos for fresh omens, and bring back the divine aid
  which their crooked keels bore with them aforetime over
  the sea. And now this their voyage home to Mycenæ is
  to get new forces and gods to sail with them; they will re-cross      30
  the deep, and come upon you unforeseen. Such is
  Calchas’ scanning of the omens. As for this image, he
  warned them to set it up in exchange for the Palladium,
  and, in expiation of injured deity, to atone for their fatal
  crime. Calchas, however, bade them raise it to the vast               35
  height you see, knitting plank to plank, till it was brought
  near to heaven, that it might not be admitted at the gates
  or dragged within the walls, and thus restore to the people
  the bulwark of their old worship. For if your hand should
  profane Minerva’s offering, then (said he) a mighty destruction—may
  the gods turn the omen on his head ere
  it falls on yours!—would come on the empire of Priam
  and the Phrygian nation; but if these hands of yours                   5
  should help it to scale your city’s height, Asia would roll
  the mighty tide of invasion on the walls of Pelops,[129] and
  our posterity would have to meet the fate he threatened.’

  “Such was the stratagem—the cursed art of perjured
  Sinon—that gained credence for the tale; and such the                 10
  victory won over us by wiles and constrained tears—over
  us, whom not Tydeus’ son, nor Achilles of Larissa,
  nor ten years of war subdued, nor a fleet of a thousand
  sail.

  “And now another object, greater and far more terrible,               15
  is forced on my poor countrymen, to the confusion of their
  unprophetic souls. Laocoon, drawn by lot as Neptune’s
  priest, was sacrificing a mighty bull at the wonted altar—when
  behold from Tenedos, over the still deep—I
  shudder as I recount the tale—two serpents coiled in vast             20
  circles are seen breasting the sea, and moving side by side
  towards the shore. Their breasts rise erect among the
  waves; their manes, of blood-red hue, tower over the
  water, the rest of them floats behind on the main, trailing
  a huge undulating length; the brine foams and dashes                  25
  about them; they are already on shore, in the plain—with
  their glowing eyes bloodshot and fiery, and their
  forked tongues playing in their hissing mouths. We fly
  all ways in pale terror: they, in an unswerving column,
  make for Laocoon, and first each serpent folds round one              30
  of his two sons, clasping the youthful body, and greedily
  devouring the poor limbs. Afterwards, as the father comes
  to the rescue, weapon in hand, they fasten on him and lash
  their enormous spires tight round him—and now twice
  folded round his middle, twice embracing his neck with                35
  their scaly length, they tower over him with uplifted head
  and crest. He is straining with agonizing clutch to pull
  the knots asunder, his priestly fillets all bedewed with gore
  and black poison, and raising all the while dreadful cries
  to heaven—like the bellowing, when a wounded bull darts
  away from the altar, dashing off from his neck the ill-aimed
  axe. But the two serpents escape glidingly to the
  temple top, making for the height where ruthless Tritonia              5
  is enthroned, and there shelter themselves under the goddess’s
  feet and the round of her shield. Then, indeed,
  every breast is cowed and thrilled through by a new and
  strange terror—every voice cries that Laocoon has been
  duly punished for his crime, profaning the sacred wood                10
  with his weapon’s point, and hurling his guilty lance
  against the back of the steed. Let the image be drawn
  to her temple, and let prayer be made to the goddess, is
  the general cry—we break through the walls and open
  the town within. All gird them to the work, putting                   15
  wheels to run easily under its feet, and throwing lengths
  of hempen tie round its neck. It scales the walls, that
  fateful engine, with its armed brood—boys and unwedded
  girls, standing about it, chant sacred hymns, delighted to
  touch the rope. In it moves, rolling with threatening brow            20
  into the heart of the city. O my country! O Ilion,
  home of the gods! O ye, Dardan towers, with your martial
  fame! Yes—four times on the gateway’s very threshold
  it stopped, four times the arms rattled in its womb.
  On, however, we press, unheeding, in the blindness of our             25
  frenzy, and lodge the ill-starred portent in our hallowed
  citadel. Even then Cassandra[130] unseals to speak of future
  fate those lips which by the god’s command no Trojan
  ever believed—while we, alas! we, spend the day that
  was to be our last in crowning the temples of the gods                30
  with festal boughs the whole city through.

  “Meantime round rolls the sky, and on comes night from
  the ocean, wrapping in its mighty shade earth and heaven
  and Myrmidon wiles: through the city the Trojans are
  hushed in careless repose, their tired limbs in the arms of           35
  sleep. Already was the Argive host on its way from Tenedos,
  through the friendly stillness of the quiet moon,
  making for the well-known shore, when see! the royal
  ship mounts its fire signal, and Sinon, sheltered by heaven’s
  partial decree, stealthily sets at large the Danaans, hid in
  that treacherous womb, and opens the pine-wood door:
  they as the horse opens are restored to upper air, and leap
  forth with joy from the hollow timber, Thessander and                  5
  Sthenelus leading the way, and the dreaded Ulysses, gliding
  down the lowered rope, and Achamas and Thoas, and
  Neoptolemus of Peleus’ line, and first Machaon, and Menelaus,
  and the framer of the cheat himself, Epeus. They
  rush on the town as it lies drowned in sleep and revelry.             10
  The watchers are put to the sword, the gates thrown open,
  and all are welcoming their comrades, and uniting with
  the conspiring bands.

  “It was just the time when first slumber comes to heal
  human suffering, stealing on men by heaven’s blessing                 15
  with balmiest influence. Lo! as I slept, before my eyes
  Hector,[131] in deepest sorrow, seemed to be standing by me,
  shedding rivers of tears—mangled from dragging at the
  car, as I remember him of old, and black with gory dust,
  and with his swollen feet bored by the thong. Ay me!                  20
  what a sight was there! what a change from that Hector
  of ours, who comes back to us clad in the spoils of Achilles,
  or from hurling Phrygian fire on Danaan vessels! with
  stiffened beard and hair matted with blood, and those
  wounds fresh about him, which fell on him so thickly                  25
  round his country’s walls. Methought I addressed him
  first with tears like his own, fetching from my breast the
  accents of sorrow—‘O light of Dardan land, surest hope
  that Trojans ever had! What delay has kept you so long?
  From what clime is the Hector of our longings returned                30
  to us at last? O the eyes with which, after long months
  of death among your people, months of manifold suffering
  to Troy and her sons, spent and weary, we look upon you
  now! What unworthy cause has marred the clear beauty
  of those features, or why do I behold these wounds?’                  35
  He answers nought, and gives no idle heed to my vain
  inquiries, but with a deep sigh, heaved from the bottom
  of his heart—‘Ah! fly, goddess-born!’ cries he, ‘and
  escape from these flames—the walls are in the enemy’s
  hand—Troy is tumbling from its summit—the claims
  of country and king are satisfied—if Pergamus could be
  defended by force of hand, it would have been defended
  by mine, in my day. Your country’s worship and her                     5
  gods are what she entrusts to you now—take them to
  share your destiny—seek for them a mighty city, which
  you shall one day build when you have wandered the
  ocean over.’ With these words he brings out Queen Vesta[132]
  with her fillets and the ever-burning fire from the secret            10
  shrine.

  “Meanwhile the city in its various quarters is being convulsed
  with agony—and ever more and more, though my
  father Anchises’ palace was retired in the privacy of embosoming
  trees, the sounds deepen, and the alarm of                            15
  battle swells. I start up from sleep, mount the sloping
  roof, and stand intently listening—even as, when among
  standing corn a spark falls with a fierce south wind to
  fan it, or the impetuous stream of a mountain torrent
  sweeps the fields, sweeps the joyous crops and the bullocks’          20
  toil, and drives the woods headlong before it, in
  perplexed amazement a shepherd takes in the crash from
  a rock’s tall summit. Then, indeed, all doubt was over,
  and the wiles of the Danaans stood confessed. Already
  Deiphobus’ palace has fallen with a mighty overthrow                  25
  before the mastering fire-god—already his neighbour
  Ucalegon is in flames—the expanse of the Sigean sea
  shines again with the blaze. Up rises at once the shouting
  of men and the braying of trumpets. To arms I rush
  in frenzy.—not that good cause is shown for arms—but                  30
  to muster a troop for fight, and run to the citadel with
  my comrades is my first burning impulse—madness and
  rage drive my mind headlong, and I think how glorious to
  die with arms in my hand.

  “But see! Panthus, escaped from an Achæan volley,                     35
  Panthus, Othrys’ son, priest of Phœbus in the citadel,
  comes dragging along with his own hand the vanquished
  gods of his worship and his young grandchild, and making
  distractedly for my door. ‘How goes the day, Panthus?
  What hold have we of the citadel?’ The words
  were scarcely uttered when with a groan he replies, ‘It is
  come, the last day, the inevitable hour—on Dardan land
  no more Trojans; no more of Ilion, and the great renown                5
  of the sons of Teucer; Jove, in his cruelty, has carried all
  over to Argos; the town is on fire, and the Danaans are
  its masters. There, planted high in the heart of the city,
  the horse is pouring out armed men, and Sinon is flinging
  about fire in the insolence of conquest; some are                     10
  crowding into the unfolded gates—thousands, many as
  ever came from huge Mycenæ: some are blocking up the
  narrow streets, with weapons pointed at all comers; the
  sharp steel with its gleaming blade stands drawn, ready
  for slaughter; hardly, even on the threshold, the sentinels           15
  of the gates are attempting resistance, in a struggle where
  the powers of war are blind.’

  “At these words of the son of Othrys, and heaven’s
  will thus expressed, I plunge into the fire and the battle,
  following the war-fiend’s yell, the din of strife, and the            20
  shout that rose to the sky. There join me Rhipeus and
  Epytus, bravest in fight, crossing my way in the moonlight,
  as also Hypanis and Dymas, and form at my side;
  young Coroebus, too, Mygdon’s son; he happened to be
  just then come to Troy, with a frantic passion for Cassandra,         25
  and was bringing a son-in-law’s aid to Priam and his
  Phrygians—poor boy! to have given no heed to the
  warnings of his heaven-struck bride! Seeing them
  gathered in a mass and nerved for battle, I begin thereon:—‘Young
  hearts, full of unavailing valour, if your desire                     30
  is set to follow a desperate man, you see what the plight
  of our affairs is—gone in a body from shrine and altar
  are the gods who upheld this our empire—the city you
  succour is a blazing ruin; choose we then death, and rush
  we into the thick of the fight. The one safety for vanquished         35
  men is to hope for none.’ These words stirred
  their young spirits to madness: then, like ravenous wolves
  in night’s dark cloud, driven abroad by the blind rage of
  lawless hunger, with their cubs left at home waiting their
  return with parched jaws, among javelins, among foemen,
  on we go with no uncertain fate before us, keeping our
  way through the heart of the town, while night flaps over
  us its dark, overshadowing wings. Who could unfold in                  5
  speech the carnage, the horrors of that night, or make his
  tears keep pace with our suffering? It is an ancient city,
  falling from the height where she queened it many a year;
  and heaps of unresisting bodies are lying confusedly in the
  streets, in the houses, on the hallowed steps of temples.             10
  Nor is it on Teucer’s sons alone that bloody vengeance
  lights. There are times when even the vanquished feel
  courage rushing back to their hearts, and the conquering
  Danaans fall. Everywhere is relentless agony; everywhere
  terror, and the vision of death in many a manifestation.              15

  “First of the Danaans, with a large band at his back,
  Androgeos crosses our way, taking us for a troop of his
  friends in his ignorance, and hails us at once in words of
  fellowship: ‘Come, my men, be quick. Why, what sloth                  20
  is keeping you so late? Pergamus is on fire, and the rest
  of us are spoiling and sacking it, and here are you, but
  just disembarked from your tall ships.’ He said, and instantly,
  for no reply was forthcoming to reassure him, saw
  that he had fallen into the thick of the enemy. Struck                25
  with consternation, he drew back foot and tongue. Just
  as a man who at unawares has trodden on a snake among
  thorns and briers in his walk, and recoils at once in sudden
  alarm from the angry uplifted crest and the black swelling
  neck, so Androgeos, appalled at the sight, was retiring.              30
  But we rush on him, and close round, weapons in
  hand; and, in their ignorance of the ground, and the
  surprise of their terror, they fall before us everywhere.
  Fortune smiles on our first encounter. Hereon Coroebus,
  flushed with success and daring, ‘Come, my friends,’ he               35
  cries, ‘where Fortune at starting directs us to the path of
  safety, and reveals herself as our ally, be it ours to follow
  on. Let us change shields, and see if Danaan decorations
  will fit us. Trick or strength of hand, who, in dealing
  with an enemy, asks which? They shall arm us against
  themselves.’ So saying, he puts on Androgeos’ crested
  helm, and his shield with its goodly device, and fastens
  to his side an Argive sword. So does Rhipeus, so Dymas                 5
  too, and all our company, with youthful exultation, each
  arming himself out of the new-won spoils. On we go,
  mixing with the Greeks, under auspices not our own, and
  many are the combats in which we engage in the blindness
  of night, many the Danaans whom we send down to                       10
  the shades. They fly on all hands: some to the ships,
  making at full speed for safety on the shore; others, in
  the debasement of terror, climb once more the horse’s
  huge sides, and hide themselves in the womb they knew
  so well.                                                              15

  “Alas! it is not for man to throw himself on the gods
  against their will!

  “Lo! there was a princess of Priam’s house being
  dragged by her dishevelled hair from the temple, from
  the very shrine of Minerva, Cassandra, straining her flashing         20
  eyes to heaven in vain—her eyes—for those delicate
  hands were confined by manacles. The sight was too
  much for the infuriate mind of Coroebus: rushing to his
  doom, he flung himself into the middle of the hostile force.
  One and all, we follow, close our ranks, and fall on. And             25
  now, first from the temple’s lofty top we are overwhelmed
  by a shower of our own countrymen’s darts, and a most
  piteous carnage ensues, all along of the appearance of our
  arms and our mistaken Grecian crests. Then the Danaans,
  groaning and enraged at the rescue of the maiden, rally               30
  from all sides, and fall on us. Ajax, in all his fury, and
  the two sons of Atreus, and the whole array of the Dolopes—even
  as one day when the tempest is broken loose, and
  wind meets wind—west, and south, and east exulting in
  his orient steeds—there is crashing in the woods, and                 35
  Nereus,[133] in a cloud of foam, is plying his ruthless trident,
  and stirring up the sea from its very bottom. Such of
  the foe, moreover, as in the darkness of night we had
  driven routed through, the gloom—thanks to our stratagem—and
  scattered the whole city over, rally again:
  they are the first to recognize the imposture of shield and
  weapon, and to mark the different sound of our speech.
  All is over—we are overwhelmed by numbers: first of                    5
  all, Coroebus is stretched low; his slayer Peneleos, his
  place of death the altar of the Goddess of Arms; slain,
  too, is Rhipeus, the justest and most righteous man in
  Troy—but heaven’s will is not ours—down go Hypanis
  and Dymas both, shot by their friends; nor could all                  10
  your acts of piety, good Panthus, shield you in your fall;
  no, nor the fillet of Apollo on your brow. Ye ashes of
  Ilion, and thou, funeral fire of those I loved, witness ye
  that in your day of doom I shrank from no Danaan dart,
  no hand-to-hand encounter; nay, that had my fate been                 15
  to fall, my hand had earned it well. We are parted from
  the rest, Iphitus, Pelias, and I. Iphitus, a man on whom
  years were already pressing; Pelias, crippled by a wound
  from Ulysses—all three summoned by the shouting to
  Priam’s palace.                                                       20

  “Here, indeed, the conflict was gigantic—just as if the
  rest of the war were nowhere—as if none were dying in the
  whole city beside: even such was the sight we saw—the
  war-god raging untamed, the Danaans streaming up to the
  roof, the door blockaded by a long penthouse of shields.              25
  The scaling ladders are clasping the walls; close to the very
  door men are climbing, with their left hands presenting
  the buckler to shelter them from darts, while with their
  right they are clasping the battlements. The Dardans,
  on their part, are tearing up from the palace turret and              30
  roof—such the weapons with which, in their dire extremity,
  in the last death-struggle, they make ready for their
  defence—gilded rafters, the stately ornaments of elder
  days, they are hurling down; while others, their swords
  drawn, are stationed at the doors at the bottom, and                  35
  guarding them in close array. The fire revived within
  me, to bring succour to the royal roof, and relieve those
  brave men, and breathe new daring into the vanquished.

  “A door there was, a hidden entrance, a thoroughfare
  through Priam’s palace, a postern which you leave in the
  rear; by it the hapless Andromache,[134] while yet the throne
  was standing, used often to repair unattended to her husband’s         5
  parents, and pull the boy Astyanax into his grandsire’s
  presence. Through it I make my way to the summit
  of the roof, whence the wretched Teucrians were hurling
  darts without avail. There was a tower standing precipitous,
  its roof reared high to the stars, whence could be
  seen all Troy, and the Danaan fleet, and the Achæan camp;             10
  to this we applied our weapons, just where the lofty flooring
  made the joining insecure; we wrench it from its eminence,
  we have toppled it over—down it falls at once, a huge
  crashing ruin, and tumbles far and wide over the Danaan
  ranks. But others fill their place; while stones and every            15
  kind of missile keep raining unabated.

  “There in the entry, at the very gate, is Pyrrhus[135] in his
  glory, gleaming with spear and sword, and with all the
  brilliance of steel. Even as against the daylight a serpent
  gorged with baleful herbage, whom winter’s cold of late               20
  was keeping swollen underground, now, his skin shed, in
  new life and in the beauty of youth, rears his breast erect,
  and wreathes his shining scales, towering to the sun, and
  flashes in his mouth his three-forked tongue. With him
  gigantic Periphas and Automedon, his armour-bearer,                   25
  once Achilles’ charioteer, with him the whole chivalry
  of Scyros press to the walls, and hurl up fire to the roof.
  Himself among the foremost, a two-edged axe in hand,
  is bursting through the stubborn door and forcing from
  their hinges the valves copper-sheathed; see! now he has              30
  cut out a plank and delved into that stout heart of oak,
  and made a wide gaping window in the middle. There is
  seen the house within, and the long vista of the hall;
  there is seen the august retirement of Priam and the
  monarchs of past days, and armed warriors are disclosed               35
  standing in the entrance.

  “But the palace within is a confused scene of shrieking
  and piteous disorder; the vaulted chambers wail from
  their hollow depths with female lamentation; the noise
  strikes the golden stars above. The terror-stricken matrons
  are running to and fro through the spacious courts, clinging
  claspingly to the gates and printing them with kisses.
  On presses Pyrrhus with all his father’s might; neither                5
  barrier of oak nor yet living guard can resist him; the
  door gives way under the thick strokes of the battery,
  and the valves are torn from their hinges and brought
  down. Force finds its way; the Danaans burst a passage,
  rush in, and slaughter those they meet, and the whole                 10
  wide space is flooded with soldiers. With far less fury,
  when the river, all foam, has broken the prison of its banks
  and streamed with triumphant tide over the barriers set
  to check it, down it comes tumbling along the corn-fields,
  and along the whole country sweeps away herd and stall.               15
  With my own eyes I saw Neoptolemus, mad with carnage,
  and the two Atridæ on the palace-floor. I saw Hecuba[136]
  and her hundred daughters-in-law, and Priam at the
  altar, polluting with his blood the flames he had himself
  made holy. Those fifty marriage-chambers, the splendid                20
  promise of children’s children, doors gorgeous with barbaric
  gold and plundered treasure, all sank in dust. Where
  the fire flags, the Danaans are masters.

  “Perhaps, too, you may be curious to hear the fate of
  Priam. When he saw his city fallen and captured, the                  25
  doors of his palace burst open, the foe in the heart of his
  home’s sanctuary, poor old man! helplessly and hopelessly
  he puts about his shoulders, trembling with age,
  his armour, long disused, and girds on his unavailing sword,
  and is going to his doom among the thick of the foe. In               30
  the midst of the palace, under the naked height of the sky,
  stood a great altar, and by it a bay tree of age untold,
  leaning over the altar and enfolding the household gods
  in its shade. Here about the altar Hecuba and her
  daughters, all helpless, like doves driven headlong down              35
  by a murky tempest, huddled together and clinging to
  the statues of the gods, were sitting. But when she saw
  Priam—yes, Priam—wearing the arms of his youth—‘What
  monstrous thought,’ cries she, ‘my most wretched
  spouse, has moved you to gird on these weapons? or to
  what are you hurrying? It is not help like this, not protections
  like those you wear, that the crisis needs. No,
  not even if my lost Hector were now at our side. Come,                 5
  join us here at last; this altar shall be a defence for us all,
  or we will die together.’ With these words she took him
  to where she was, and lodged his aged frame in the hallowed
  resting-place.

  “But, see! here is Polites, one of Priam’s sons escaped               10
  from Pyrrhus’ murderous hand, through showers of darts
  and masses of foemen, flying down the long corridors and
  traversing the empty courts, sore and wounded, while
  Pyrrhus, all on fire, is pursuing him, with a deadly stroke,
  his hand all but grasping him, his spear close upon him.              15
  Just as at last he won his way into the view and presence of
  his parents, down he fell and poured out his life in a gush of
  blood. Hereon Priam, though hemmed in by death on
  all sides, could not restrain himself, or control voice and
  passion. ‘Aye,’ cries he, ‘for a crime, for an outrage like           20
  this, may the gods, if there is any sense of right in heaven
  to take cognizance of such deeds, give you the full thanks
  you merit, and pay you your due reward; you, who have
  made me look with my own eyes on my son’s death, and
  stained a father’s presence with the sight of blood. But              25
  he whom your lying tongue calls your sire, Achilles, dealt
  not thus with Priam his foe—he had a cheek that could
  crimson at a suppliant’s rights, a suppliant’s honour.
  Hector’s lifeless body he gave back to the tomb, and sent
  me home to my realms in peace.’ So said the poor old                  30
  man, and hurled at him a dart unwarlike, unwounding,
  which the ringing brass at once shook off, and left hanging
  helplessly from the end of the shield’s boss. Pyrrhus
  retorts: ‘You shall take your complaint, then, and carry
  your news to my father, Pelides. Tell, him about my                   35
  shocking deeds, about his degenerate Neoptolemus,
  and do not forget. Now die.’ With these words he
  dragged him to the very altar, palsied and sliding in a pool
  of his son’s blood, wreathed his left hand in his hair, and
  with his right flashed forth and sheathed in his side the
  sword to the hilt. Such was the end of Priam’s fortunes,
  such the fatal lot that fell upon him, with Troy blazing
  and Pergamus in ruins before his eyes—upon him, once                   5
  the haughty ruler of those many nations and kingdoms,
  the sovereign lord of Asia! There he lies on the shore,
  a gigantic trunk, a head severed from the shoulders, a
  body without a name.

  “Now, for the first time grim horror prisoned me round—I              10
  was wildered—there rose up the image of my dear
  father, as I saw the king, his fellow in age, breathing out
  his life through that ghastly wound. There rose up Creusa[137]
  unprotected, my house, now plundered, and the chance to
  which I had left my little Iulus. I cast my eyes back and             15
  look about to see what strength there is round me. All
  had forsaken me, too tired to stay; they had leapt to the
  ground, or dropped helplessly into the flames. And now
  I was there alone. When lodged in the temple of Vesta,
  and crouching mutely in its darkest recess, the daughter of           20
  Tyndareus[138] meets my eye; the brilliant blaze gives light
  to my wandering feet and ranging glance. Yes, she in her
  guilty fears, dreading at once the Teucrians whom the
  overthrow of Pergamus had made her foes, and the vengeance
  of the Danaans, and the wrath of the husband she                      25
  abandoned—she, the common fiend of Troy and of her
  country, had hid herself away, and was sitting in hateful
  solitude at the altar. My spirit kindled into flame—a
  fury seized me to avenge my country in its fall, and to do
  justice on a wretch. ‘So she is to see Sparta and her                 30
  native Mycenæ again in safety, and is to move as a queen
  in a triumph of her own? She is to look upon her lord
  and her old home, her children and her parents, with a
  crowd of our Trojan ladies and Phrygian captives to wait
  on her? Shall it be for this that Priam has died by the               35
  sword, that Troy has been burnt with fire, that the Dardan
  shore has gushed so oft with the sweat of blood? No,
  never—for though there are no proud memories to be
  won by vengeance on a woman, no laurels to be reaped from
  a conquest like this, yet the extinction of so base a life
  and the exaction of vengeance so merited will count as a
  praise, and it will be a joy to have glutted my spirit with
  the flame of revenge and slaked the thirsty ashes of those             5
  I love.’ Such were the wild words I was uttering, such
  the impulse of my infuriate heart, when suddenly there
  appeared to me, brighter than I had ever seen her before,
  and shone forth in clear radiance through the night, my
  gracious mother, all her deity confessed, with the same               10
  mien and stature by which she is known to the dwellers
  in heaven. She seized me by the hand and stayed me,
  seconding her action with these words from her roseate
  lips; ‘My son, what mighty agony is it that stirs up
  this untamed passion? What means your frenzy? or                      15
  whither has fled your care for me? Will you not first see
  where you have left your father Anchises, spent with age
  as he is? whether your wife, Creusa, be yet alive, and
  your child, Ascanius? All about them the Grecian armies
  are ranging to and fro, and were not my care exerted to               20
  rescue them, ere this they had been snatched by the flame,
  devoured by the foeman’s sword. It is not the hated
  beauty of the daughter of Tyndareus, the Spartan woman—not
  the reviled Paris. No, it is heaven, unpitying
  heaven that is overturning this great empire and levelling            25
  Troy from its summit. See here—for I will take away
  wholly the cloud whose veil, cast over your eyes, dulls
  your mortal vision and darkles round you damp and
  thick—do you on your part shrink in naught from your
  mother’s commands, nor refuse to obey the instructions                30
  she gives. Here, where you see huge masses rent asunder,
  and stones wrenched from stones, and blended torrents
  of smoke and dust, is Neptune with his mighty trident
  shaking the walls and upheaving the very foundations;
  here is Juno, cruellest of foes, posted at the entry of the           35
  Scæan gate, and summoning in tones of fury from the
  ships her confederate band, herself girt with steel like them.
  Look behind you—there is Tritonian Pallas, seated already
  on the summit of our towers, in the lurid glare of
  her storm-cloud and grim Gorgon’s head. The great
  Father himself is nerving the Danaans with courage and
  strength for victory—himself leading the gods against
  our Dardan forces. Come, my son, catch at flight while                 5
  you may and bring the struggle to an end. I will not leave
  you, till I have set you in safety at your father’s door.’
  She had ceased, and veiled herself at once in night’s
  thickest shadows. I see a vision of awful shapes—mighty
  presences of gods arrayed against Troy.                               10

  “Then, indeed, I beheld all Ilion sinking into flame, and
  Neptune’s city, Troy, overturned from its base. Even as
  an ancient ash on the mountain-top, which woodmen have
  hacked with steel and repeated hatchet strokes, and are
  trying might and main to dislodge—it keeps nodding                    15
  menacingly, its leafy head palsied and shaken, till at
  last, gradually overborne by wound after wound, it has
  given its death-groan, and fallen uprooted in ruined
  length along the hill. I come down, and, following my
  heavenly guide, thread my way through flames and foemen,              20
  while weapons glance aside and flames retire.

  “Now when at last I had reached the door of my father’s
  house, that old house I knew so well, my sire, whom it
  was my first resolve to carry away high up the hills—who
  was the first object I sought—refuses to survive the                  25
  razing of Troy and submit to banishment. ‘You, whose
  young blood is untainted, whose strength is firmly based
  and self-sustained, it is for you to think of flight. For me,
  had the dwellers in heaven willed me to prolong my life,
  they would have preserved for me my home. It is enough                30
  and more than enough to have witnessed one sack, to
  have once outlived the capture of my city. Here, O
  here as I lie, bid farewell to my corpse and begone. I will
  find me a warrior’s death. The enemy will have mercy on
  me, and my spoils will tempt him. The loss of a tomb                  35
  will fall on me lightly. Long, long have I been a clog on
  time, hated of heaven and useless to earth, from the day
  when the father of gods and sovereign of men blasted me
  with the wind of his lightning, and laid on me the finger
  of flame.’[139]

  “Such the words he kept on repeating and continued
  unshaken, while we were shedding our hearts in tears—Creusa,
  my wife, and Ascanius and my whole house,                              5
  imploring my father not to be bent on dragging
  all with him to ruin, and lending his weight to the avalanche
  of destiny. But he refuses, and will not be moved
  from his purpose or his home. Once more I am plunging
  into battle, and choosing death in the agony of my                    10
  wretchedness—for what could wisdom or fortune do
  for me now? What, my father? that I could stir a step
  to escape, leaving you behind? was this your expectation?
  could aught so shocking fall from a parent’s lips? No—if
  it is the will of heaven that naught of this mighty city              15
  should be spared—if your purpose is fixed, and you find
  pleasure in throwing yourself and yours on Troy’s blazing
  pile, the door stands open for the death you crave. Pyrrhus
  will be here in a moment, fresh from bathing in
  Priam’s blood—Pyrrhus, who butchers the son before the                20
  father’s face, who butchers the father at the altar. Gracious
  mother! was it for this that thou rescuest me from fire and
  sword—all that I may see the foe in the heart of my
  home’s sanctuary—may see my Ascanius, and my father,
  and my Creusa by them sacrificed in a pool of each other’s            25
  blood? My arms, friends, bring me my arms! the call
  of the day of death rings in the ears of the conquered.
  Give me back to the Danaans, let me return and renew the
  combat. Never shall this day see us all slaughtered
  unresisting.                                                          30

  “Now I gird on my sword again, and was buckling and
  fitting my shield to my left arm, and making my way out
  of the house—when lo! my wife on the threshold began
  to clasp and cling to my feet, holding out my little Iulus to
  his father. ‘If it is to death you are going, then carry us           35
  with you to death and all, but if experience gives you any
  hope in the arms you are resuming, let your first stand be
  made at your home. To whom, think you, are you leaving
  your little Iulus—your father, and me who was once
  styled your wife?’

  “Thus she was crying, while her moaning filled the
  house, when a portent appears, sudden and marvellous to
  relate. Even while the hands and eyes of his grieving                  5
  parents were upon him, lo, a flickering tongue of flame
  on the top of Iulus’ head was seen to shoot out light,
  playing round his soft curly locks with innocuous contact
  and pasturing about his temples. We are all hurry and
  alarm, shaking out his blazing hair and quenching the                 10
  sacred fire with water from the spring—but Anchises
  my father raised his eyes in ecstasy to heaven, directing
  hand and voice to the stars: ‘Almighty Jove, if any
  prayer can bow thy will, look down on us—’tis all I crave—and
  if our piety have earned requital, grant us thy                       15
  succour, father, and ratify the omen we now see.’ Scarce
  had the old man spoken, when there came a sudden peal
  of thunder on the left, and a star fell from heaven and
  swept through the gloom with a torchlike train and a
  blaze of light. Over the top of the house we see it pass,             20
  and mark its course along the sky till it buries itself lustrously
  in Ida’s wood—then comes a long furrowed line
  of light, and a sulphurous smoke fills the space all about.
  Then at length overcome, my father raises himself towards
  the sky, addresses the gods, and does reverence to the                25
  sacred meteor: ‘No more, no more delay from me. I
  follow your guidance, and am already in the way by which
  you would lead me. Gods of my country! preserve my
  house, preserve my grandchild. Yours in this augury—your
  shield is stretched over Troy. Yes, my son, I                         30
  give way, and shrink not from accompanying your flight.’
  He said—and by this the blaze is heard louder and louder
  through the streets, and the flames roll their hot volumes
  nearer. ‘Come then, dear father, take your seat on my
  back, my shoulders shall support you, nor shall I feel the            35
  task a burden. Fall things as they may, we twain will
  share the peril, share the deliverance. Let my little Iulus
  walk by my side, while my wife follows our steps at a
  distance. You, our servants, attend to what I now say.
  As you leave the city there is a mound, where stands an
  ancient temple of Ceres all alone, and by it an old cypress,
  observed these many years by the reverence of our sires.
  This shall be our point of meeting in one place from                   5
  many quarters. You, my father, take in your hand these
  sacred things, our country’s household gods. For me, just
  emerged from this mighty war, with the stains of carnage
  fresh upon me, it were sacrilege to touch them, till I
  have cleansed me in the running stream.’                              10

  “So saying, I spread out my shoulders, bow my neck,
  cover them with a robe, a lion’s tawny hide, and take up
  the precious burden. My little Iulus has fastened his
  hand in mine, and is following his father with ill-matched
  steps, my wife comes on behind. On we go, keeping in the              15
  shade—and I, who erewhile quailed not for a moment at
  the darts that rained upon me or at the masses of Greeks
  that barred my path, now am scared by every breath of air,
  startled by every sound, fluttered as I am, and fearing alike
  for him who holds my hand and him I carry. And now I                  20
  was nearing the gates, and the whole journey seemed accomplished,
  when suddenly the noise of thick trampling
  feet came to my ear, and my father looks onward through
  the darkness. ‘Son, son,’ he cries, ‘fly: they are upon
  us. I distinguish the flashing of their shields and the               25
  gleam of their steel.’ In this alarm some unfriendly
  power perplexed and took away my judgment. For,
  while I was tracking places where no track was, and
  swerving from the wonted line of road, woe is me! destiny
  tore from me my wife Creusa. Whether she stopped,                     30
  or strayed from the road, or sat down fatigued, I never
  knew—nor was she ever restored to my eyes in life.
  Nay, I did not look back to discover my loss, or turn my
  thoughts that way till we had come to the mound and
  temple of ancient Ceres; then at last, when all were                  35
  mustered, she alone was missing, and failed those who
  should have travelled with her, her son and husband both.
  Whom of gods or men did my upbraiding voice spare?
  what sight in all the ruin of the city made my heart bleed
  more? Ascanius and Anchises my father and the Teucrian
  household gods I give to my comrades’ care, and lodge
  them in the winding glade. I repair again to the city
  and don my shining armour. My mind is set to try every                 5
  hazard again, and retrace my path through the whole of
  Troy, and expose my life to peril once more. First
  I repair again to the city walls, and the gate’s dark entry
  by which I had passed out. I track and follow my footsteps
  back through the night, and traverse the ground                       10
  with my eye. Everywhere my sense is scared by the
  horror, scared by the very stillness. Next I betake me
  home, in the hope, the faint hope that she may have turned
  her steps thither. The Danaans had broken in and were
  lodged in every chamber. All is over—the greedy flame                 15
  is wafted by the wind to the roof, the fire towers triumphant—the
  glow streams madly heavenwards. I pass
  on, and look again at Priam’s palace and the citadel. There
  already in the empty cloisters, yes, in Juno’s sanctuary,
  chosen guards, Phœnix and Ulysses the terrible, were                  20
  watching the spoil. Here are gathered the treasures of
  Troy torn from blazing shrines, tables of gods, bowls of
  solid gold, and captive vestments in one great heap. Boys
  and mothers stand trembling all about in long array.

  “Nay, I was emboldened even to fling random cries                     25
  through the darkness. I filled the streets with shouts, and
  in my agony called again and again on my Creusa with unavailing
  iteration. As I was thus making my search and
  raving unceasingly the whole city through, the hapless
  shade, the spectre of my own Creusa appeared in my                    30
  presence—a likeness larger than the life. I was aghast,
  my hair stood erect, my tongue clove to my mouth, while
  she began to address me thus, and relieve my trouble
  with words like these: ‘Whence this strange pleasure
  in indulging frantic grief, my darling husband? It is                 35
  not without Heaven’s will that these things are happening:
  that you should carry your Creusa with you on your journey
  is forbidden by fate, forbidden by the mighty ruler
  of heaven above. You have long years of exile, a vast
  expanse of ocean to traverse—and then you will arrive
  at the land of Hesperia, where Tiber, Lydia’s river, rolls
  his gentle volumes through rich and cultured plains.
  There you have a smiling future, a kingdom and a royal                 5
  bride waiting your coming. Dry your tears for Creusa,
  your heart’s choice though she be. I am not to see the
  face of Myrmidons or Dolopes in their haughty homes,
  or to enter the service of some Grecian matron—I, a
  Dardan princess, daughter by marriage of Venus the immortal.          10
  No, I am kept in this country by heaven’s
  mighty mother. And now farewell, and continue to love
  your son and mine. Thus having spoken, spite of my
  tears, spite of the thousand things I longed to say, she left
  me and vanished into unsubstantial air. Thrice, as I                  15
  stood, I essayed to fling my arms round her neck—thrice
  the phantom escaped the hands that caught at it in vain—impalpable
  as the wind, fleeting as the wings of sleep.

  “So passed my night, and such was my return to my
  comrades. Arrived there, I find with wonder their band                20
  swelled by a vast multitude of new companions, matrons
  and warriors both, an army mustered for exile, a crowd
  of the wretched. From every side they were met, prepared
  in heart as in fortune to follow me over the sea to
  any land where I might take them to settle. And now                   25
  the morning star was rising over Ida’s loftiest ridge
  with the day in its train—Danaan sentinels were blocking
  up the entry of the gates, and no hope of succour appeared.
  I retired at last, took up my father, and made for the
  mountains.                                                            30




BOOK III


  “After that it had seemed well to the powers above to
  overthrow Asia’s fortunes and Priam’s guiltless nation;
  after that Ilion fell headlong from its pride, and Troy,
  which Neptune reared, became one levelled smoking ruin,
  we are driven by auguries from heaven to look elsewhere                5
  for the exile’s home in lands yet unpeopled. We build us
  a fleet under the shadow of Antandros,[140] and the range of
  our own Phrygian Ida, all uncertain whither fate may
  carry us, where it may be our lot to settle, and muster
  men for sailing. Scarcely had summer set in, when my                  10
  father, Anchises, was bidding us spread our sails to destiny.
  Then I give my last tearful look to my country’s shores
  and her harbours, and those plains where Troy once stood
  but stands no longer. A banished man, I am wafted into
  the deep with my comrades and my son, my household                    15
  gods and their mighty brethren.

  “In the distance lies the land of the war-god, inhabited,
  in vast extent—the Thracians are its tillers—subject
  erewhile to Lycurgus’[141] savage sway, bound by old hospitality
  to Troy, their household gods friends of ours, while                  20
  our star yet shone. Hither I am wafted, and on the
  bending line of coast trace the outline of a city, a commencement
  made in an evil hour, and call the new nation
  Æneadæ,[142] after my own name.

  “I was sacrificing to my parent, Dione’s[143] daughter, and           25
  the rest of the gods, that they might bless the work I
  had begun, and was slaying to the heavenly monarch of the
  powers above a bull of shining whiteness on the shore.
  It happened that there was a mound near, on whose top
  were plants of cornel, and a myrtle bristling thick with              30
  spearlike wands. I drew near, and essayed to pull up
  from the ground the green forest growth, that I might
  have leafy boughs wherewith to shadow the altar, when I
  see a portent dreadful and marvellous to tell. For the
  first tree that I pull up from the soil, severing its roots,           5
  from that tree trickle drops of black blood, staining the
  earth with gore. For me, a freezing shudder palsies my
  frame, and my chilled blood curdles with affright. Again
  I go on to pluck the reluctant fibres of a second tree, and
  thus probe the hidden cause to the bottom; as surely                  10
  from the bark of that second tree the black blood follows.
  Much musing in my mind, I began to call on the nymphs
  of the wood, and Gradivus,[144] our father, patron of the land
  of Thrace, that they might duly turn the appearance to
  good, and make the heavy omen light. But when I come                  15
  to tear up a third spear-shaft with a still greater effort,
  straining with my knees against the sand which pressed on
  them—ought I to tell the tale or hold my peace?—a lamentable
  groan is heard from the bottom of the mound, and
  the utterance of a human voice reaches my ear: ‘Why,                  20
  Æneas, mangle a wretch like me? Spare me at length in
  my grave—spare those pious hands the stain of guilt.
  It was not an alien to you that Troy bore in bearing me—it
  is no alien’s blood that is trickling from the stem. Ah!
  fly from this land of cruelty, fly from this shore of greed,          25
  for I am Polydorus. Here I lie, pierced and buried by a
  growing crop of spears that has shot into sharp javelins.’

  “Then, indeed, terror, blank and irresolute, came over
  me—I was aghast—my hair stood erect, my tongue
  clove to my mouth. Yes, this Polydorus had long ago                   30
  been sent secretly by Priam, unhappy then as ever, with
  a vast weight of gold, to be brought up by the king of
  Thrace, when he had already come to despair of the arms
  of Dardania, and saw the siege folding closer round his
  city. When the power of the Trojans had been broken,                  35
  and their star set, the Thracian followed Agamemnon’s
  fortunes, and joined the standard of the conqueror—every
  tie of duty is snapped—he murders Polydorus, and
  by violence possesses himself of the gold. Cursed lust of
  gold, to what dost thou not force the heart of man? After
  the cold shuddering had ceased to tingle in my marrow,
  I lay this portent from heaven before the select senate
  of our nation, and my father as their chief, and ask them              5
  what they think. All are of the same mind, to depart from
  the land of crime, to leave the home of violated friendship,
  and indulge our fleet with the gales that wooed it. So we
  give Polydorus a solemn funeral: earth is heaped high
  upon his mound; there stand the altars reared to his                  10
  manes,[145] in all the woe of dark fillets and sad-coloured
  cypress: and round them are daughters of Ilion, their
  hair unbound in mourner fashion: we offer bowls of new
  milk warm and frothing, and dishes of consecrated blood:
  so we lay the spirit to rest in its grave, and with a loud            15
  voice give the farewell call.[146]

  “Then, when the deep first looks friendly, and the
  winds offer a smooth sea, and the south’s gentle whisper invites
  us to the main, our crews haul down their ships and
  crowd the shore. We sail out of the harbour, land and                 20
  town leaving us fast. There is a sacred country with
  water all round it, chief favourite of the mother of the
  Nereids and the god of the Ægean. Once it drifted among
  the coasts and seaboards round about, till the heavenly
  archer in filial gratitude moored it to the rock of Myconos           25
  and to Gyaros, and gave it to be a fixed dwelling-place
  henceforth, and to laugh at the winds. Hither I sail:
  here it is that in a sheltered harbour our weary crews
  find gentlest welcome. We land, and worship the city of
  Apollo. King Anius, king of men at once and priest of                 30
  Phœbus, his temples wreathed with fillets and hallowed
  bay, comes running up; in Anchises he owns an old friend,
  we knit hand to hand in hospitality and enter his roof.

  “Behold me now worshipping the temple of the god,
  built of ancient stone. ‘Give us, god of Thymbra,[147] a home         35
  that we can call our own: give us weary men a walled
  habitation, a posterity, a city that will last: keep from
  ruin Troy’s second Pergamus, all that was left by the
  Danaans and their ruthless Achilles! Who is our guide?
  Whither wouldst thou have us go? where set up our
  roof-tree? Vouchsafe us a response, great father, and
  steal with power upon our souls!’

  “Scarce had I spoken, when methought suddenly came                     5
  a trembling on the whole place, temple-gate and hallowed
  bay, a stir in the mountain from height to depth, a muttering
  from the tripod as the door of the shrine flew open.
  We fall low on earth, and a voice is wafted to our ears:
  ‘Sons of Dardanus, strong to endure, the land which first             10
  gave you birth from your ancestral tree, the same land
  shall welcome you back, restored to its fruitful bosom:
  seek for your old mother till you find her. There it is
  that the house of Æneas shall set up a throne over all
  nations, they, and their children’s children, and those               15
  that shall yet come after.’ Thus Phœbus; and a mighty
  burst succeeds of wild multitudinous joy, all asking as one
  man what that city is—whither is Phœbus calling the
  wanderers, and bidding them return. Then my father,
  revolving the traditions of men of old: ‘Listen,’ he cries,           20
  ‘lords of Troy, and learn where your hopes are. Crete
  lies in the midst of the deep, the island of mighty Jove.
  There is Mount Ida, and there the cradle of our race.
  It has a hundred peopled cities, a realm of richest plenty.
  Thence it was that our first father, Teucer, if I rightly             25
  recall what I have heard, came in the beginning to the
  Rhœtean coast, and fixed on the site of empire: Ilion and
  the towers of Pergamus had not yet been reared: the
  people dwelt low in the valley. Hence came our mighty
  mother, the dweller on Mount Cybele, and the symbols                  30
  of the Corybants, and the forest of Ida: hence the inviolate
  mystery of her worship, and the lions harnessed
  to the car of their queen. Come, then, and let us follow
  where the ordinance of heaven points the way: let us
  propitiate the winds, and make for the realm of Gnossus[148]—the      35
  voyage is no long one—let but Jupiter go with us,
  and the third day will land our fleet on the Cretan shore.’
  He said, and offered on the altar the sacrifice that was
  meet—a bull to Neptune, a bull to thee, beauteous
  Apollo—a black lamb to the storm-wind, to the favouring
  Zephyrs a white one.

  “Fame flies abroad that King Idomeneus[149] has been
  driven to quit his paternal realm, that the shores of Crete            5
  are abandoned, houses cleared of the enemy, dwellings
  standing empty to receive us. So we leave Ortygia’s
  harbour, and fly along the deep, past Naxos’ bacchant
  mountains, and green Donysa, Olearos, and snowy Paros,
  and the Cyclades sprinkled over the waves, and seas thick             10
  sown with islands. Up rises the seaman’s shout amid
  strain and struggle—each encourages his comrades,
  ‘For Crete and our forefathers, ho!’ A wind gets up
  from the stern and escorts us on our way, and at length we
  are wafted to the Curetes’ time-honoured shore.                       15

  “And now the site is chosen, and I am rearing a city’s
  walls and calling it Pergamia: the new nation is proud
  to bear the name of the old: I bid them love hearth and
  home, and raise and roof the citadel. Already the ships
  had been hauled up high and dry on the shore, the crews               20
  were busied with marriage and tilling the new country, and
  I was appointing laws to live by, and houses to dwell in—when
  suddenly there came on the human frame a wasting
  sickness, shed from the whole tainted expanse of the sky,
  a piteous blight on trees and crops, a year charged with              25
  death. There were men leaving the lives they loved, or
  dragging with them the bodies that burdened them,
  while Sirius baked the fields into barrenness, the herbage
  was parching, the corn was sickening, and would not
  yield its food. Back again to Phœbus and his Ortygian                 30
  oracle over the sea my father bids us go, and there sue for
  grace, asking the god to what haven he means to bring our
  overtoiled fortunes, whence he orders us to seek for help
  in our sufferings—whither to direct our course.

  “It was night and all living things on earth were in the              35
  power of sleep, when methought the sacred images of the
  gods, the Phrygian household deities, whom I had borne
  away with me from Troy, even from the midst of the blazing
  town, stood before my eyes as I lay in slumber, clear in
  a flood of light, where the full moon was streaming through
  the windows of the house. Then they began to address
  me thus, and relieve my trouble with words like these:
  ‘The answer which Apollo has ready to give you when you                5
  reach Ortygia, he delivers here, sending us, see, of his own
  motion to your very door. We, the followers of you and
  your fortune since Dardanland sunk in flame—we,
  the comrades of the fleet which you have been guiding over
  the swollen main—we it is that will raise to the stars the            10
  posterity that shall come after you, and crown your city
  with imperial sway. Be it yours to build mighty walls
  for mighty dwellers, and not abandon the task of flight for
  its tedious length. Change your settlement: it is not this
  coast that the Delian god moved you to accept—not in                  15
  Crete that Apollo bade you sit down. No, there is a
  place—the Greeks call it Hesperia[150]—a land old in
  story, strong in arms and in the fruitfulness of its soil—the
  Œnotrians were its settlers. Now report says that
  later generations have called the nation Italian from the             20
  name of their leader. That is our true home: thence
  sprung Dardanus and father Iasius, the first founder of our
  line. Quick! rise, and tell the glad tale, which brooks no
  question, to your aged sire; tell him that he is to look for
  Corythus[151] and the country of Ausonia. Jupiter bars you            25
  from the fields of Dicte.’[152] Thus astonished by visions
  and voices of heaven—for sleep it was not: no—methought
  I saw them face to face, their wreathed locks and
  their features all in full view; and a cold sweat, too,
  trickled down my whole frame. I leap from the bed, and                30
  direct upturned hand and voice to heaven, and pour on the
  hearth the undefiled libation. The sacrifice paid, with
  joy I inform Anchises, and expound the whole from first to
  last. He owns the double pedigree and the rival ancestors,
  and his own new mistake about the two old countries.                  35
  Then he says: ‘My son, trained in the school of Troy’s
  destiny, Cassandra’s was the one voice which used to
  chant to me of this chance. Now I recollect, this was the
  fortune she presaged as appointed for our line, calling often
  for Hesperia, often for the land of Italy. But could anyone
  think that Teucrians would ever reach the Hesperian
  shore? Could Cassandra’s prophesying in those days gain
  any one’s credence? Let us give way to Phœbus, and                     5
  follow the better course enjoined.’ He said, and with one
  consent we gladly obey. So we quit this settlement as we
  quitted the last, and leaving a few behind, set sail, and
  make our hollow barque fly over the vast world of waters.

  “Soon as the ships had gained the mid-sea, and land was               10
  no more to be seen, sky on every side, on every side ocean,
  then came a murky storm-cloud and stood over my head,
  charged with night and winter tempest, and darkness
  ruffled the billow’s crest. At once the winds lay the sea in
  heaps, and the waters rise mountains high: a scattered                15
  fleet, we are tossed upon the vast abyss: clouds enshrouded
  the day, and dank night robbed us of the sky, while fire
  flashes momently from the bursting clouds. We are
  dashed out of our track, and wander blindly over the blind
  waters. Nay, even Palinurus owns he cannot tell day                   20
  from night in a heaven like this, or recollect the footpath
  in the watery wilderness. Three dreary suns, blotted by
  blinding darkness, we wander on the deep: three nights
  with never a star. On the fourth day, at last, land was
  first seen to rise, and mountains with curling smoke                  25
  wreaths to dawn in distant prospect. Down drop the
  sails: we rise on our oars: incessantly the crews, straining
  every nerve, toss the foam and sweep the blue.

  “Escaped from the sea, I am first welcomed by the coast
  of the Strophades—the Strophades are known by the                     30
  name Greece gave them, islands in the great Ionian, which
  fell Celæno[153] and the rest of the Harpies have made their
  home, ever since Phineus’[154] doors were closed against
  them, and fear drove them from the board which once fed
  them. A more baleful portent than this—a fiercer plague               35
  of heaven’s vengeance never crawled out of the Stygian
  flood. Birds with maiden’s faces, a foul discharge, crooked
  talons, and on their cheeks the pallor of eternal famine.

  “On our arrival here, and entering the harbour, see! we
  behold luxuriant herds of oxen grazing dispersedly in the
  fields, and goats all along the grass, with none to tend them.
  On we rush, sword in hand, inviting the gods and Jove
  himself to share the spoil with us: and then on the winding            5
  shore pile up couches for the banquet, and regale on the
  dainty fare. But on a sudden, with an appalling swoop
  from the hills, the Harpies are upon us, flapping their
  wings with a mighty noise—they tear the food in pieces,
  and spoil all with their filthy touch, while fearful screeches        10
  blend with foul smells. Again, in a deep retreat under a
  hollow rock, with trees and crisp foliage all about us, we set
  out the board and put new fire on new altars. Again,
  from another quarter of the sky, out of their hidden lair,
  comes the troop, all rush and sound, flying about the prey            15
  with their hooked talons, tainting the food with their
  loathsome mouths. I give the word to my comrades to
  seize their arms and wage war with the fell tribe. As I
  ordered they do—they arrange their swords in hiding
  about the grass, and cover and conceal their shields. So              20
  soon as the noise of their swoop was heard along the winding
  shore, Misenus, from his lofty watch-tower, makes the
  hollow brass sound the alarm. On rush my comrades, and
  essay a combat of a new sort, to spoil with their swords the
  plumage of these foul sea-birds. But no violence will                 25
  ruffle their feathers, no wounds pierce their skin: they are
  off in rapid flight high in the air, leaving their half-eaten
  prey and their filthy trail behind them. One of them,
  Celæno, perches on a rock of vast height—ill-boding
  prophetess—and gives vent to words like these: ‘What,                 30
  is it war, for the oxen you have slain and the bullocks
  you have felled, true sons of Laomedon? is it war that
  _you_ are going to make on _us_, to expel us, blameless Harpies,
  from our ancestral realm? Take then into your minds
  these my words, and print them there. The prophecy                    35
  which the Almighty Sire imparted to Phœbus, Phœbus
  Apollo to me, I, the chief of the Furies, make known to you.
  For Italy, I know, you are crowding all sail: well, the winds
  shall be at your call as you go to Italy, and you shall be
  free to enter its harbours: but you shall not build walls
  round your fated city, before fell hunger and your murderous
  wrong against us drive you to gnaw and eat up your
  very tables.’[155] She said, and her wings carried her swiftly         5
  into the wood. But for my friends, a sudden terror curdled
  their blood, their hearts died within them; no more arms—no,
  we must sue for grace, with vows and prayers, be
  the creatures goddesses or fell and loathsome birds. And
  my father Anchises, spreading his hands from the shore,               10
  invokes the mighty powers, and ordains meet sacrifice—‘Great
  gods, forefend these menaces! Great gods, avert a
  chance like this, and let your blessing shield your worshippers!’
  Then he bids us tear our moorings from the shore,
  and uncoil and stretch our ropes.                                     15

  “The winds swell our sails, we scud over the foaming
  surge, where gale and pilot bid us go. Now rising from
  the wave are seen the woods of Zacynthos,[156] and Dulichium,
  and Samos, and the tall cliffs of Neritos: we fly
  past the rocks of Ithaca, Laertes’ realm, breathing a curse           20
  for the land that nursed the hard heart of Ulysses. Soon,
  too, the storm-capped peaks of Leucata dawn on the
  view, and their Apollo, the terror of sailors. In our
  weariness we make for him, and enter the little town:
  our anchors are thrown from the prow, our sterns ranged               25
  on the coast.

  “So now, masters of the land beyond our hope, we perform
  lustrations to Jove, and set the altars ablaze with
  our vows, and solemnize the shores of Actium[157] with the
  native games of Troy. My comrades strip, and practise                 30
  the wrestle of the old country, all slippery with oil: what
  joy to have passed in safety by all those Argive cities,
  and held on our flight through the heart of the foe!
  Meanwhile the sun rolls round the mighty year, and the
  north winds of icy winter roughen the sea. A shield of                35
  hollow brass, once borne by the great Abas, I fasten up
  full on the temple gate, and signalize the deed with a
  verse: ‘These arms are the offering of Æneas, won from
  his Danaan conquerors.’ Then I give the word to leave
  the haven and take seat on the benches. Each vying with
  each, the crews strike the water and sweep the marble
  surface. In due course we hide from view the airy summits              5
  of Phæacian[158] land, coast the shore of Epirus, enter
  the Chaonian haven, and approach Buthrotum’s lofty
  tower.

  “Here a rumour of events past belief takes hold of our
  ears—that Helenus, son of Priam, is reigning among
  Grecian cities, lord of the wife and crown of Pyrrhus,                10
  Achilles’ very son, and that Andromache had again been
  given to a husband of her own nation. I was astounded:
  my heart kindled with a strange longing to have speech
  of my old friend, and learn all about this wondrous stroke
  of fortune. So I advance into the country from the haven,             15
  leaving fleet and coast behind, at the very time when
  Andromache, before the city, in a grove, by the wave of
  a mock Simois, was celebrating a yearly banquet, the
  offering of sorrow, to the dead, and invoking her Hector’s
  shade at a tomb called by his name, an empty mound of                 20
  green turf which she had consecrated to him with two
  altars, that she might have the privilege of weeping.
  Soon as her wild eye saw me coming with the arms of
  Troy all about me, scared out of herself by the portentous
  sight, she stood chained to earth while yet gazing—life’s             25
  warmth left her frame—she faints, and after long time
  scarce finds her speech:—‘Is it a real face that I see?
  are those real lips that bring me news? Goddess-born,
  are you among the living? or, if the blessed light has left
  you, where is my Hector?’ She spoke—her tears flowed                  30
  freely, and the whole place was filled with her shrieks.
  Few, and formed with labour, are the words I address to
  her frenzied ear, broken and confused the accents I utter:—‘Aye,
  I live, sure enough, and through the worst of
  fortunes am dragging on life still. Doubt it not, your eye            35
  tells you true. Alas! on what chance have you alit,
  fallen from the height where your first husband throned
  you? What smile has Fortune bright enough to throw
  back on Hector’s Andromache? is it Pyrrhus’ bed you
  are still tending?’ She dropped her eyes, and spoke with
  bated breath:—‘O blest pre-eminently over all, Priam’s
  virgin daughter,[159] bidden to die at the grave of her foe,
  under Troy’s lofty walls! she that had not to brook the                5
  chance of the lot, or, a slave and a captive, to touch the
  bed of her lord and conqueror! While we, after the burning
  of our city, carried over this sea and that, have stooped
  to the scorn, the youthful insolence of Achilles’ heir, the
  slave-mother of his child; he, after this, goes in quest of           10
  Leda’s Hermione[160] and her Spartan alliance, and gives me
  over to Helenus, the bondwoman to be the bondman’s
  mate! Him, however, Orestes, fired by desperate passion
  for a ravished bride, and maddened by the frenzy-fiend of
  crime, surprises at unawares, and slays at his sire’s own             15
  altar. At Neoptolemus’ death a portion of this kingdom
  passed to Helenus, who called the fields Chaonian, and
  the land itself Chaonia, from Chaon, their Trojan namesake,
  and crowned, as you see, these heights with a new
  Pergamus, the citadel of Ilion. But you—what wind,                    20
  what destiny has shaped your voyage? What god has
  driven you on a coast which you know not to be ours?
  What of the boy Ascanius? is he alive and breathing
  upper air? he, whom you on that night at Troy—say,
  can his boyish mind feel yet for the mother he has lost?              25
  Is he enkindled at all to the valour of old days, the prowess
  of a grown man, by a father like Æneas, an uncle like
  Hector?’

  “Such were the sorrows she kept pouring out, weeping
  long and fruitlessly, when Priam’s noble son, Helenus,                30
  presents himself from the city, with a train of followers,
  and knows his friends again, and joyfully leads them to
  his home, many a tear interrupting his utterance. As I
  go on, I recognize a miniature Troy, a Pergamus copied
  from the great one, a dry rivulet the namesake of Zanthus,            35
  and throw my arms round a Scæan[161] gate. My
  Trojan comrades, too, are made free of the friendly town.
  The king made entertainment for them in spacious cloisters.
  There, in the midst of the hall, they were pouring libations
  from cups of wine, their meat served on gold, and
  goblets in their hands.

  “And now suppose a day past, and yet another day:
  the breeze is inviting the sail, the swelling south inflating          5
  the canvas, when I accost the prophet with these words,
  and put to him the question I tell you:—‘True Trojan
  born, heaven’s interpreter,[B] whose senses inform you of
  the stars, and of the tongue of birds, and of the omens of
  the flying wing, tell me now—for revelation has spoken                10
  in auspicious words of the whole of my voyage, and all
  the gods have urged me with one voice of power to make
  for Italy, and explore that hidden clime. One alone, the
  Harpy Celæno, forebodes a strange portent, too horrible
  to tell, denouncing fierce vengeance and unnatural hunger.            15
  Tell me then, what perils do I shun first, or what must
  I observe to surmount the tremendous hardships before
  me?’ Then Helenus first implores the favour of Heaven
  by a solemn sacrifice of bullocks, and unbinds the fillet
  from his consecrated brow, and with his own hand leads                20
  me to thy temple, Phœbus, my mind lifted from its place
  by the effluence of divine power; which done, that priestly
  mouth chants these words from its prophetic lips:—

  “‘Goddess-born—for that presages of mighty blessing
  are attending you over the deep is clear beyond doubt—such            25
  is the casting of the lot of fate by heaven’s king as
  he rolls event after event—such the ordained succession—a
  few things out of many, to make your voyage through
  strange waters safer, your settlement in Ausonia’s haven
  more assured. My speech shall unfold to you but a few—for             30
  the rest the fatal sisters keep from Helenus’ knowledge,
  and Saturnian Juno seals his lips. First then for
  Italy, which you think close at hand, ready in your blindness
  to rush into the harbours that neighbour us, the
  length of a way where no way is severs you from its length            35
  of territory. First must the oar be suppled in Trinacrian
  waters, and your ships must traverse the expanse
  of the Ausonian brine, and the spectral lake, and the isle
  of Ææan Circe,[162] ere you can find a safe spot to build a
  peaceful city. I will tell you the tokens, be it yours to              5
  keep them lodged in your mind. When on an anxious
  day, by the side of a sequestered river, you shall find an
  enormous swine lying under the oaks on the bank with a
  litter of thirty head just born, white herself through all
  her lazy length, her children round her breasts as white              10
  as she—that shall be the site of your city—that your
  assured rest from toil and trouble. Nor need you shudder
  beforehand at the prospect of gnawing your tables—the
  fates will find you a path, and a prayer will bring you
  Apollo. But as for these lands, and this line of the                  15
  Italian coast, which lies close at hand, and is washed by
  the spray of our waters, this you must fly: the cities, one
  and all, are peopled by enemies from Greece. Here the
  Narycian Locrians have built them cities, and the Sallentine
  fields have been occupied with an army by Lyctian                     20
  Idomeneus: here is the Melibœan chief Philoctetes’ tiny
  town Patelia, with a strong wall to prop it. Further,
  when your fleet stands moored on the other side the
  water, and you build altars and pay vows on the coast,
  shroud your head with the covering of a purple robe, lest,            25
  while the hallowed fires are blazing, and the worship of
  the gods is yet unfinished, some enemy’s eye should meet
  yours, and make the omens void. Be this ritual custom
  maintained by your comrades as by yourself: let the piety
  of generations to come abide in this observance. But                  30
  when leaving Italy you are carried by the wind near the
  Sicilian coast, and Pelorus’ narrow bars dimly open, make
  for the left shore, for the left water, long as the circuit
  round may be; avoid the right, its land and its seas.
  This whole region by the forceful throes of a mighty convulsion—such  35
  power of change is there in long centuries
  of olden time—was rent in twain, so runs the story, the
  two countries before having been one and unbroken; at
  last the sea poured in violently between, and with its
  waters cut off the Hesperian from the Sicilian side, washing
  between fields and cities, their seaboards now parted,
  with the waves of its narrow channel. There the right-hand
  coast is held by Scylla,[163] the left by Charybdis, ever              5
  hungering, who, at the bottom of the whirling abyss,
  thrice a day draws the huge waves down her precipitous
  throat, and in turn upheaves them to the sky, and lashes
  the stars with their spray. But Scylla is confined in the
  deep recesses of a cave, whence she thrusts out her mouths,           10
  and drags vessels on to her rocks. At top, a human face,
  a maiden with beauteous bosom; at bottom an enormous
  sea-monster—dolphins’ tails attached to a belly all of
  wolves’ heads. Better far wearily to round the goal of
  Trinacrian[164] Pachynus and fetch about a tedious compass,           15
  than once to have looked on the monster Scylla in her
  enormous cave, and the rocks that echo with her sea-coloured
  dogs. Moreover, if there be any foresight in
  Helenus, if you give any credence to his prophetic tongue,
  if his mind be a fountain of Apollo’s truth, one thing                20
  there is, goddess-born, one thing outweighing all beside
  which I will foreshow you, reiterating the warning again
  and again—be Juno, great Juno, the first whose deity
  you worship—to Juno chant your willing prayers: subdue
  that mighty empress by suppliant offerings: thus at                   25
  last victorious you will leave Trinacria behind, and be
  sped to the borders of Italy. When you are there at
  length, and have come to the city of Cumæ, and the
  haunted lake, and the woods that rustle over Avernus, you
  will have sight of the frenzied prophetess, who, in the               30
  cavern under the rock, chants her fateful strain, and commits
  characters and words to the leaves of trees. All the
  strains that the maid has written on these leaves she
  arranges in order, shuts them up in her cave, and leaves
  them there. They remain as she has left them, their                   35
  disposition unchanged. But, strange to say, when the
  hinge is turned, and a breath of air moves the leaves,
  and the opened door throws their light ranks into confusion,
  henceforth she never troubles herself for a moment
  to catch them as they fly about the cavern, to restore
  them to their places, or to fit each strain to each. The
  inquirers retire with their doubts unsolved, and a hatred
  of the sibyl’s seat. Arrived here, let no cost of time or              5
  delay weigh with you so much—though your comrades
  should chide, and the voyage loudly call your sails
  to sea, and a sheet-full of fair wind be there at your choice—but
  that you visit the prophetess, and beg and pray
  her herself to chant the oracle, loosing speech and tongue            10
  with a ready will. She shall tell you of the nations of
  Italy, and the wars of the future, and the way to shun or
  stand the shock of every peril, and shall vouchsafe to
  your prayer the boon of a prosperous voyage. Such are
  the counsels which it is given you to receive from my                 15
  lips. Go on your way, and by your own actions lift to
  heaven the greatness of Troy.’

  “Soon as the seer had thus uttered these words of kindness,
  he next orders massy gifts of gold and carved ivory
  to be carried on shipboard, and stores in the keels, a                20
  weight of silver and caldrons of Dodona, a cuirass of
  chain-mail, three-threaded in gold, and a splendid helmet
  with cone and flowing crest, the armour of Neoptolemus.
  My father, too, has presents of his own. Horses, too, he
  gives, and guides too; makes up the complement of oars,               25
  and arms the crews. Meanwhile Anchises was giving the
  word to rig the fleet, not to wear out the patience of a
  fair wind. Him the interpreter of Phœbus addresses with
  much pomp of courtesy: ‘Anchises, graced with the
  proud privilege of Venus’ wedded love, the special care               30
  of the gods, whom they twice interposed to save from the
  fall of Pergamus, lo! there lies Ausonia’s land; for this
  make all sail. Yet what have I said? This coast you
  must needs sail past; far away yonder lies that part of
  Ausonia which Apollo reveals to you. Go on your way,’                 35
  cries he, ‘blessed in a son so duteous! Why proceed
  further, and make the rising gales wait while I talk?’
  As freely, too, Andromache, saddened with the grief of
  parting, presents Ascanius with robes pictured with gold
  embroidery, and a Phrygian scarf. She tires not in her
  bounty, but loads him with gifts of needlework, and bespeaks
  him thus: ‘Take, too, these, dear boy, to be a
  memorial of what my hands can do—a token for long                      5
  years of the affection of Andromache, Hector’s wife. Yes,
  take the last presents your kin can bestow, O sole surviving
  image of my own Astyanax[165]! Those eyes are his
  eyes, those hands his hands, that face his face, and he
  would now be growing to manhood by your side, in bloom                10
  like yours!’ Tears started forth, as I addressed my parting
  words to the royal pair: ‘Live long and happily, as
  those should for whom the book of Fortune is closed.
  We, alas! are still called to turn page after page. You
  have won your rest: you have no expanse of sea to                     15
  plough, no Ausonian fields to chase, still retiring as
  you advance. Your eyes look upon a copy of the old
  Xanthus, upon a Troy which your own hands have made—made,
  I would hope and pray, with happier auspices, and
  with less peril of a visit from Greece. If the day ever               20
  arrive when I shall enter Tiber and the fields that neighbour
  Tiber, and look on the walls which Fate has made
  over to my people, then we will have our two kindred
  cities, our two fraternal nations—the one in Epirus, the
  other in Hesperia, with a common founder, Dardanus,                   25
  and a common history—animated by one heart, till they
  come to be one Troy. Be this the destined care of our
  posterity!’

  “We push on over the sea under Ceraunia’s neighbouring
  range, whence there is a way to Italy, the shortest                   30
  course through the water. Meantime the sun drops, and
  the mountains are veiled in shadow. We stretch ourselves
  gladly on the lap of earth by the water’s side, having cast
  lots for the oars, and take our ease dispersedly along the
  dry beach. Sleep’s dew sprinkles our wearied limbs. Not               35
  yet was night’s car entering the middle of its circle, drawn
  by the unflagging hours, when Palinurus, with no thought
  of sloth, springs from his bed, explores every wind, and
  catches with his ears the voices of the air. All the stars
  he notes, as they swim through the silent sky, looking
  round on Arcturus, and the showery Hyades, and the
  twin Bears, and Orion in his panoply of gold. Soon as
  he sees them all set in a heaven of calm, he gives a clear             5
  signal from the stern. We break up our quarters, essay
  our flight, and spread the wings of our sails. And now
  the stars were fled, and Aurora[166] was just reddening in the
  sky, when in the distance we see the dim hills and low
  plains of Italy. ‘Italy!’ Achates was the first to cry.               10
  Italy our crews welcome with a shout of rapture. Then
  my father, Anchises, wreathed a mighty bowl with a garland,
  and filled it with wine, and called on the gods, standing
  upon the tall stern: ‘Ye powers that rule sea and
  land and weather, waft us a fair wind and a smooth passage,           15
  and breathe auspiciously!’ The breeze we wished
  for freshens; the harbour opens as we near it, and the
  temple of Minerva is seen crowning the height. The crews
  furl the sails, and turn their prows coastward. The harbour
  is curved into an arch by the easterly waves; a                       20
  barrier of cliffs on each side foams again with the briny
  spray; between them the haven lies concealed; the towery
  rocks let down their arms like two walls, and the temple
  retires from the shore. Here on the grass I saw four
  horses, the first token of heaven’s will, browsing the                25
  meadow at large, of snowy whiteness. And Anchises, my
  father, breaks forth: ‘War is on thy front, land of the
  stranger; for war thy horses are prepared; war is threatened
  by the cattle we see. Still, these beasts no less are trained
  one day to stoop to the car, and carry harness and curb               30
  in harmony with the yoke; yes,’ cries he, ‘there is hope
  of peace, too.’ With that we make our prayers to the
  sacred majesty of Pallas, queen of clanging arms, the first
  to welcome us in the hour of our joy; and, according to
  Helenus’ order, that order which he gave so earnestly, we             35
  duly solemnize to Juno of Argos the prescribed honours.
  Then, without dallying, soon as our vows were paid in
  course, we turn landward the horns of our covered sail-yards,
  and leave the homes of the sons of Greece, and
  the fields we could not trust. Next we sight the bay of
  Tarentum, the city, if legend say true, of Hercules; right
  against us rises the goddess of Lacinium, and the towers
  of Caulon, and Scylaceum, wrecker of ships. Then, in                   5
  the distance, from the surge is seen Trinacrian Ætna;
  and the heavy groaning of the sea and the beating of the
  rocks is heard from afar, and broken voices on the beach,
  and the depths leap up to sight, and the sands are in a
  turmoil with the surge. Then, my father, Anchises: ‘No                10
  doubt this is that Charybdis; these the cliffs, these the
  frightful rocks of Helenus’ song. Snatch us from them,
  comrades; rise on your oars as one man.’ They do no
  less than bidden; first of all Palinurus turned the plashing
  prow to the waters on the left; for the left makes the                15
  whole fleet, oars, winds, and all. Up we go to heaven on
  the arched back of the wave; down again, as the water
  gives way under us, we sink to the place of death below.
  Thrice the rocks shouted in our ears deep in their stony
  hollows; twice we saw the foam dashed up, and the stars               20
  all dripping. Meanwhile, tired and spent, we lose wind
  and sunlight at once, and, in our ignorance of the way,
  float to the land of the Cyclops.

  “There is a haven, sheltered from the approach of the
  winds, and spacious, were that all; but Ætna is near,                 25
  thundering with appalling crashes; at one time it hurls
  to the sky a black cloud, a smoky whirlwind of soot and
  glowing ashes, and upheaves balls of fire, and licks the
  stars; at another it raises rocks, torn from the mountain’s
  bowels, and whirls heaps of molten stones into the air                30
  with a groan, and boils up from its very foundations.
  The legend is, that the body of Enceladus,[167] blasted by
  lightning, is kept down by this mighty weight, and that
  the giant bulk of Ætna, piled on him, breathes forth penal
  fire through passages which that fire has burst; and ever,            35
  as he shifts his side from weariness, all Trinacria quakes
  and groans, and draws up a curtain of smoke over the
  sky. That night, in the shelter of the woods, we endure
  the visitation of monstrous portents, yet see not what
  cause produces the sound. For there was no starlight,
  no sky, bright with a heaven of constellations, but the
  firmament was dim and murky, and dead night was keeping
  the moon in a prison of storm-clouds.                                  5

  “And now the next day was breaking in early dawn,
  and Aurora had drawn off the dewy shadow from the
  sky, when suddenly from the woods comes forth the
  strange figure of a man unknown, in piteous trim—a
  picture completed by Famine’s master-stroke, and                      10
  stretches his hands in supplication to the shore. We
  look back: there was filth to make us shudder, a length
  of beard, a covering fastened with thorns; yet the rest
  betokened a Greek, who had once been sent to Troy in
  the army of his nation. As for him, when he saw from                  15
  afar the dress of Dardan land and the arms of Troy, for
  a moment he faltered, scared by the sight, and checked
  his steps; soon he ran headlong to the shore, crying and
  praying: ‘By the stars I adjure you, by the powers
  above, by this blessed light of heaven we breathe, take               20
  me with you, Teucrians; carry me off to any land you
  will; this will be enough. I know I am one of the Danaan
  crews; I own that I carried war into your Trojan homes;
  for which, if the guilt of my crime is so black, fling me
  piecemeal to the waves, drown me deep in the great sea.               25
  If I am to die, there will be pleasure in dying by the hands
  of men.’ His speech was over, and he was clinging about
  us, clasping our knees, and writhing round them. We
  encourage him to tell us who he is, of what race sprung,
  to reveal what fortune has since made him its sport. My               30
  father, Anchises, after no long pause, himself gives his
  hand to the youth, and reassures him by the powerful
  pledge. He at length lays aside his fear, and speaks as
  follows:—

  “‘I come from Ithaca, a comrade of the ill-starred                    35
  Ulysses, my name Achemenides. I went to Troy, leaving
  my father, Adamastus, who was poor. Would that his
  lot had remained mine! Here, in their hurry to leave
  the door of the slaughterhouse, my comrades forgot me
  and so left me behind in the Cyclops’ enormous den. It
  is a house of gore and bloody feasting, deep, and dark,
  and huge; its master towers aloft, and strikes the stars
  on high (ye gods, remove from the earth a plague like                  5
  this!), whom no eye rests on with pleasure, no tongue dare
  accost. The flesh of wretched men and their black blood
  are the food he feeds on. These eyes saw, when two
  bodies from our company, caught by his huge hand, as
  he threw back his head in the midst of the den, were                  10
  being brained against the rock, and the floor was plashed
  and swimming with blood—they saw, when he was
  crunching their limbs, dripping with black gore, and the
  warm joints were quivering under his teeth. He did it,
  but not unpunished. Ulysses was not the man to brook                  15
  a deed like this; the brain of Ithaca was not wanting to
  itself when the need was so great. For soon as, gorged
  with his food and buried in wine, he bent and dropped
  his neck, and lay all along the den in unmeasured length,
  belching out gore in his sleep, and gobbets mixed with                20
  bloody wine; then we, having made our prayer to the
  great gods and drawn our places by lot, surround him on
  all sides as one man, and with a sharp weapon bore out
  his eye, that vast eye, which used to lie single and sunk
  under his grim brow,[C] and thus at last take triumphant              25
  vengeance for our comrades’ shades. But fly, unhappy
  men, fly, and tear your cable from the shore. For hideous
  and huge as is Polyphemus, folding in his den his woolly
  flocks and pressing their udders, as hideous and huge are
  a hundred others that dwell everywhere along this coast,              30
  monster Cyclops, and stalk over the tall mountains. It
  is now the third moon, whose horns are filling out with
  light, that I am dragging along my life in the woods;
  among the lonely lairs where wild beasts dwell, and looking
  forth on the huge Cyclops as they stalk from rock to                  35
  rock, and trembling at their tread and at the sound of
  their voices. My wretched fare, berries and stony cornels,
  is supplied by the boughs, and herbage uprooted yields
  me food. As I turned my eyes all about, this fleet of
  yours at last I saw advancing to the shore; with this,                 5
  prove it what might, I cast in my lot; it is enough to
  have escaped this race of monsters. Sooner do you destroy
  this life by any death you please.’

  “Scarce had he ended, when on the mountain-top we
  see the giant himself, moving along with his enormous                 10
  bulk among his cattle, and making for the well-known
  shore—a monster dreadful, hideous, huge, with his eye
  extinguished. A pine, lopped by his own hand, guides
  him and steadies his footsteps. His woolly sheep accompany
  him—there is his sole pleasure, the solace of his                     15
  suffering. After he had touched the waves of the deep
  and come to the sea, he washes with its water the gore
  that trickles from his scooped-out eye, gnashing his teeth
  with a groan; and he steps through the sea, now at main
  height, while the wave has not yet wetted his tall sides.             20
  We, in alarm, hasten our flight from the place, taking on
  board the suppliant, who had thus made good his claim,
  and silently cut the cable; then throw ourselves forward,
  and with emulous oars sweep along the sea. He perceived
  it, and turned his steps towards the noise he heard.                  25
  But when he finds he has no means of grasping at us with
  his hand, no power of keeping pace with the Ionian waves
  in pursuit, he raises a gigantic roar, at which the sea and
  all its waters trembled inwardly, and the land of Italy
  shuddered to its core, and Ætna bellowed through her                  30
  winding caverns. But the tribe of the Cyclops, startled
  from wood and lofty mountain, rush to the haven and
  fill the shore. There we see them standing, each with
  the empty menace of his grim eye, the brethren of Ætna,
  lifting their tall heads to heaven, a dire assemblage—like            35
  as on some tall peak, skyey oaks or cone-bearing cypresses
  stand together, a lofty forest of Jupiter, or a grove of
  Diana. Headlong our crews are driven by keen terror to
  fling out the ropes anywhither, and stretch their sails to
  the winds that would catch them. On the other hand,
  Helenus’ warning bids them not to hold on their way
  between Scylla and Charybdis, a passage on either side
  removed but a hair’s breadth from death; so our purpose                5
  stands to spread our sails backward. When lo! the north
  wind is upon us, sped from Pelorus’ narrow strait. On I
  fly past Pantagia’s mouth of living rock, and the bay of
  Megara, and low-lying Thapsus. Such were the coasts
  named to us by Achemenides, as he retraced his former                 10
  wanderings—Achemenides, comrade of the ill-starred
  Ulysses.

  “Stretched before the Sicanian bay lies an island, over
  against Plemyrium the billowy—former ages named it
  Ortygia. Hither, the legend is, Alpheus, the river of                 15
  Elis, made himself a secret passage under the sea; and
  he now, through thy mouth, Arethusa,[168] blends with the
  waters of Sicily. Obedient to command, we worship
  the mighty gods of the place; and from thence I pass the
  over-rich soil of Helorus the marshy. Hence we skirt the              20
  tall crags and jutting rocks of Pachynus, and Camarina is
  seen in the distance,—Camarina, which the oracle gave
  no man leave to disturb, and the plains of Gela, and Gela
  itself, mighty city, called from the stream that laves it.
  Next Acragas the craggy displays from afar its lofty                  25
  walls, one day the breeder of generous steeds. Thee,
  too, I leave, by favour of the winds, palmy Selinus, and
  pick my way through the sunk rocks that make Lilybæum’s
  waters perilous. Hence Drepanum receives me,
  with its haven and its joyless coast. Here, after so many             30
  storms on the sea had done their worst, woe is me! I
  lose him that had made every care and danger light, my
  father, Anchises. Here, best of sires, you leave your son,
  lone and weary, you, who had been snatched from those
  fearful dangers, alas! in vain. Helenus, the seer, among              35
  the thousand horrors he foretold, warned me not of
  this agony; no, nor dread Celæno. This was my last
  suffering, this the goal of my long journeyings. It
  was on parting hence that Heaven drove me on your
  coast.”

  Thus father Æneas, alone, amid the hush of all around,
  was recounting Heaven’s destined dealings, and telling of
  his voyages; and now, at length, he was silent, made an                5
  end, and took his rest.




BOOK IV


  But the queen, pierced long since by love’s cruel shaft,
  is feeding the wound with her life-blood, and wasting under
  a hidden fire. Many times the hero’s own worth comes
  back to her mind, many times the glory of his race; his
  every look remains imprinted on her breast, and his every              5
  word, nor will trouble let soothing sleep have access to
  her frame.

  The dawn-goddess[169] of the morrow was surveying the
  earth with Phœbus’ torch in her hand, and had already
  withdrawn the dewy shadow from the sky, when she,                     10
  sick of soul, thus bespoke the sister whose heart was one
  with hers:—“Anna, my sister, what dreams are these
  that confound and appal me! Who is this new guest
  that has entered our door! What a face and carriage!
  What strength of breast and shoulders! I do believe—it                15
  is no mere fancy—that he has the blood of gods in his
  veins. An ignoble soul is known by the coward’s brand.
  Ah! by what fates he has been tossed! What wars he
  was recounting, every pang of them borne by himself!
  Were it not the fixed, immovable purpose of my mind                   20
  never to consent to join myself with any in wedlock’s
  bands, since my first love played me false and made me
  the dupe of death—had I not been weary of bridal bed
  and nuptial torch, perchance I might have stooped to
  this one reproach. Anna—for I will own the truth—since                25
  the fate of Sychæus, my poor husband—since the
  sprinkling of the gods of my home with the blood my
  brother shed, he and he only has touched my heart and
  shaken my resolution till it totters. I recognize the
  traces of the old flame. But first I would pray that earth            30
  may yawn for me from her foundations, or the all-powerful
  sire hurl me thunder-stricken to the shades, to the wan
  shades of Erebus[170] and abysmal night, ere I violate thee,
  my woman’s honour, or unknit the bonds thou tiest.
  He who first wedded me, he has carried off my heart—let                5
  him keep it all his own, and retain it in his grave.”
  Thus having said, she deluged her bosom with a burst of
  tears.

  Anna replies:—“Sweet love, dearer than the light to
  your sister’s eye, are you to pine and grieve in loneliness           10
  through life’s long spring, nor know aught of a mother’s
  joy in her children, nor of the prizes Venus gives? Think
  you that dead ashes and ghosts low in the grave take this
  to heart? Grant that no husbands have touched your
  bleeding heart in times gone by, none now in Libya, none              15
  before in Tyre; yes, Iarbas has been slighted, and the
  other chieftains whom Afric, rich in triumphs, rears as
  its own—will you fight against a welcome, no less than
  an unwelcome passion? Nor does it cross your mind in
  whose territories you are settled? On one side the cities             20
  of the Gætulians, a race invincible in war, and the Numidians
  environ you, unbridled as their steeds, and the
  inhospitable Syrtis; on another, a region unpeopled by
  drought, and the widespread barbarism of the nation of
  Barce. What need to talk of the war-cloud threatening                 25
  from Tyre, and the menaces of our brother? It is under
  Heaven’s auspices, I deem, and by Juno’s blessing, that
  the vessels of Ilion have made this voyage hither. What
  a city, my sister, will ours become before your eyes!
  what an empire will grow out of a marriage like this!                 30
  With the arms of the Teucrians at its back, to what a
  height will the glory of Carthage soar! Only be it yours
  to implore the favour of Heaven, and having won its
  acceptance, give free course to hospitality and weave a
  chain of pleas for delay, while the tempest is raging its             35
  full on the sea, and Orion, the star of rain, while his ships
  are still battered, and the rigour of the sky still unyielding.”
  By these words she added fresh fuel to the fire of
  love, gave confidence to her wavering mind, and loosed
  the ties of woman’s honour.

  First they approach the temples and inquire for pardon
  from altar to altar; duly they slaughter chosen sheep to
  Ceres the lawgiver, to Phœbus, and to father Lyæus[171]—above          5
  all to Juno, who makes marriage bonds her care.
  Dido herself, in all her beauty, takes a goblet in her
  hand, and pours it out full between the horns of a heifer
  of gleaming white, or moves majestic in the presence of
  the gods towards the richly-laden altars, and solemnizes              10
  the day with offerings, and gazing greedily on the victims’
  opened breasts, consults the entrails yet quivering with
  life. Alas! how blind are the eyes of seers! What can
  vows, what can temples do for the madness of love? All
  the while a flame is preying on the very marrow of her                15
  bones, and deep in her breast a wound keeps noiselessly
  alive. She is on fire, the ill-fated Dido, and in her madness
  ranges the whole city through, like a doe from an
  arrow-shot, whom, unguarded in the thick of the Cretan
  woods, a shepherd, chasing her with his darts, has pierced            20
  from a distance, and left the flying steel in the wound,
  unknowing of his prize; she at full speed scours the
  forests and lawns of Dicte; the deadly reed still sticks
  in her side. Now she leads Æneas with her through the
  heart of the town, and displays the wealth of Sidon, and              25
  the city built to dwell in. She begins to speak, and stops
  midway in the utterance. Now, as the day fades, she
  seeks again the banquet of yesterday, and once more in
  frenzy asks to hear of the agonies of Troy, and hangs
  once more on his lips as he tells the tale. Afterwards,               30
  when the guests are gone, and the dim moon in turn is
  hiding her light, and the setting stars invite to slumber,
  alone she mourns in the empty hall, and presses the
  couch he has just left; him far away she sees and hears,
  herself far away; or holds Ascanius long in her lap, spellbound       35
  by his father’s image, to cheat, if she can, her ungovernable
  passion. The towers that were rising rise no
  longer; the youth ceases to practise arms, or to make
  ready havens and bulwarks for safety in war; the works
  are broken and suspended, the giant frowning of the
  walls, and the engine level with the sky.

  Soon as Jove’s loved wife saw that she was so mastered
  by the plague, and that good name could not stand in                   5
  the face of passion, she, the daughter of Saturn, bespeaks
  Venus thus:—“Brilliant truly is the praise, ample the
  spoils you are carrying off, you and your boy—great and
  memorable the fame, if the plots of two gods have really
  conquered one woman. No; I am not so blind either                     10
  to your fears of my city, to your suspicions of the open
  doors of my stately Carthage. But when is this to end?
  or what calls now for such terrible contention? Suppose
  for a change we establish perpetual peace and a firm marriage
  bond. You have gained what your whole heart                           15
  went to seek. Dido is ablaze with love, and the madness
  is coursing through her frame. Jointly then let us rule
  this nation, each with full sovereignty; let her stoop to
  be the slave of a Phrygian husband, and make over her
  Tyrians in place of dowry to your control.”                           20

  To her—for she saw that she had spoken with a feigned
  intent, meaning to divert the Italian empire to the coast of
  Libya—Venus thus replied:—“Who would be so mad
  as to spurn offers like these, and prefer your enmity to your
  friendship, were it but certain that the issue you name               25
  would bring good fortune in its train? But I am groping
  blindly after destiny—whether it be Jupiter’s will that
  the Tyrians and the voyagers from Troy should have one
  city—whether he would have the two nations blended
  and a league made between them. You are his wife; it                  30
  is your place to approach him by entreaty. Go on, I
  will follow.” Imperial Juno rejoined thus:—“That task
  shall rest with me. Now, in what way our present purpose
  can be contrived, lend me your attention, and I will explain
  in brief. Æneas and Dido, poor sufferer! are                          35
  proposing to go hunting in the forest, when first to-morrow’s
  sun displays his rising, and with his beams uncurtains
  the globe. On them I will pour from above a black
  storm of mingled rain and hail, just when the horsemen
  are all astir, and spreading their toils before the wood-walks,
  and the whole heaven shall be convulsed with
  thunder. The train shall fly here and there, and be lost
  in the thick darkness. Dido and the Trojan chief shall                 5
  find themselves in the same cave. I will be there, and,
  if I may count on your sanction, will unite her to him in
  lasting wedlock, and consecrate her his for life. Thus
  shall Hymen[172] give us his presence.” The Queen of
  Cythera makes no demur, but nods assent, smiling at the               10
  trick she has found out.

  Meanwhile Aurora has risen, and left the ocean. Rising
  with the day-star, the chivalry of Carthage streams
  through the gates, their woven toils, and nets, and hunting-spears
  tipped with broad iron, and Massylian horsemen                        15
  hurry along, and a force of keen-scented hounds.
  There are the Punic princes, waiting for the queen, who
  still lingers in her chamber; there stands her palfrey,
  conspicuous in purple and gold, fiercely champing the
  foaming bit. At length she comes forth, with a mighty                 20
  train attending, a Tyrian scarf round her, itself surrounded
  by an embroidered border; her quiver of gold, her hair
  knotted up with gold, her purple robe fastened with a
  golden clasp. The Phrygian train, too, are in motion,
  and Iulus, all exultation. Æneas himself, comely beyond               25
  all the rest, adds his presence to theirs, and joins the procession;
  like Apollo, when he leaves his Lycian winter-seat
  and the stream of Xanthus, and visits Delos, his
  mother’s isle, and renews the dance; while with mingled
  voices round the altar shout Cretans and Dryopians, and               30
  tattooed Agathyrsians. The god in majesty walks on
  the heights of Cynthus, training his luxuriant hair with the
  soft pressure of a wreath of leaves, and twining it with
  gold; his arrows rattle on his shoulders. Not with less
  ease than he moved Æneas; such the beauty that sparkles               35
  in that peerless countenance. When they reach the high
  mountains and the pathless coverts, see! the wild goats,
  dropping from the tops of the crags, have run down the
  slopes; in another quarter the deer are scouring the open
  plains, massing their herds as they fly in a whirlwind of
  dust, and leaving the mountains. But young Ascanius
  is in the heart of the glens, exulting in his fiery courser.
  Now he passes one, now another of his comrades at full                 5
  speed, and prays that in the midst of such spiritless game
  he may be blest with the sight of a foaming boar, or that
  a tawny lion may come down the hill. Meantime the sky
  begins to be convulsed with a mighty turmoil; a storm-cloud
  follows of mingled rain and hail. The Tyrian train,                   10
  all in confusion, and the chivalry of Troy, and the hope
  of Dardania, Venus’ grandson, have sought shelter in
  their terror up and down the country, some here, some
  there. The streams run in torrents down the hills. Dido
  and the Trojan chief find themselves in the same cave.                15
  Earth, the mother of all, and Juno give the sign.

  Lightnings blaze, and heaven flashes in sympathy with
  the bridal; and from mountain-tops the nymphs give the
  nuptial shout. That day was the birthday of death, the
  birthday of woe. Henceforth she has no thought for the                20
  common eye or the common tongue; it is not a stolen passion
  that Dido has now in her mind—no, she calls it
  marriage; that name is the screen of her sin.

  Instantly Fame[173] takes her journey through Libya’s great
  cities—Fame, a monster surpassed in speed by none; her                25
  nimbleness lends her life, and she gains strength as she
  goes. At first fear keeps her low; soon she rears herself
  skyward, and treads on the ground, while her head is
  hidden among the clouds. Earth, her parent, provoked to
  anger against the gods, brought her forth, they say, the              30
  youngest of the family of Cœus[174] and Enceladus—swift
  of foot and untiring of wing, a portent terrible and vast—who,
  for every feather on her body has an ever-wakeful
  eye beneath, marvellous to tell, for every eye a loud tongue
  and mouth, and a pricked-up ear. At night she flies midway            35
  between heaven and earth, hissing through the darkness,
  nor ever yields her eyes to the sweets of sleep. In
  the daylight she sits sentinel on a high house-top, or on a
  lofty turret, and makes great cities afraid; as apt to cling
  to falsehood and wrong as to proclaim the truth. So
  then she was filling the public ear with a thousand tales—things
  done and things never done alike the burden of
  her song—how that Æneas, a prince of Trojan blood, had                 5
  arrived at Carthage, a hero whom lovely Dido deigned to
  make her husband, and now in luxurious ease they were
  wearing away the length of winter together, forgetful of
  the crowns they wore or hoped to wear, and enthralled by
  unworthy passion. Such are the tales the fiendlike goddess            10
  spreads from tongue to tongue. Then, in due course, she
  turns her steps to King Iarbas, and inflames him with her
  rumours, and piles his indignation high. He, the son of
  Ammon, from the ravished embrace of a Garamantian
  nymph, built within his broad realms a hundred temples                15
  to Jove, and in each temple an altar; there he had consecrated
  an ever-wakeful fire, the god’s unsleeping sentry,
  a floor thick with victims’ blood, and doors wreathed with
  particoloured garlands. And he, frenzied in soul, and
  stung by the bitter tidings, is said, as he stood before the          20
  altars, with the majesty of Heaven all around him, to have
  prayed long and earnestly to Jove with upturned hands:—“Jove,
  the Almighty, to whom in this my reign the
  Moorish race, feasting on embroidered couches, pour out
  the offering of the vintage, seest thou this? or is our dread         25
  of thee, Father, when thou hurlest thy lightnings, an idle
  panic? are those aimless fires in the clouds that appal us?
  have their confused rumblings no meaning? See here:
  a woman, who, wandering in our territories, bought leave
  to build a petty town, to whom we made over a strip of                30
  land for tillage, with its rights of lordship, she has rejected
  an alliance with us, and received Æneas into her kingdom,
  to be its lord and hers. And now that second Paris, with
  his emasculate following, a Mæonian[175] cap supporting his
  chin and his essenced hair, is enjoying his prize, while we,          35
  forsooth, are making offerings to temples of thine, and
  keeping alive an idle rumour.”

  Thus as he prayed, his hands grasping the altar, the
  almighty one heard him, and turned his eyes to the queenly
  city and the guilty pair, lost to their better fame. Then
  thus he bespeaks Mercury, and gives him a charge like this:—“Go,
  haste, my son, summon the Zephyrs, and float on
  thy wings; address the Dardan chief, who is now dallying               5
  in Tyrian Carthage, and giving no thought to the city
  which Destiny makes his own; carry him my commands
  through the flying air. It was not a man like that whom
  his beauteous mother promised us in him, and on the
  strength of her word twice rescued him from the sword of              10
  Greece. No, he was to be one who should govern Italy—Italy,
  with its brood of unborn empires, and the war-cry
  bursting from its heart—who should carry down a line
  sprung from the grand fountain-head of Teucer’s blood,
  and should force the whole world to bow to the laws[176] he           15
  makes. If he is fired by no spark of ambition for greatness
  like this, and will not rear a toilsome fabric for his own
  praise, is it a father’s heart that grudges Ascanius the hills
  of Rome? What is he building? What does he look to
  in lingering on among a nation of enemies, with no thought            20
  for the great Ausonian family, or for the fields of Lavinium?
  Away with him to sea! This is our sentence;
  thus far be our messenger.”

  Jove had spoken, and Mercury was preparing to execute
  the great sire’s command: first he binds to his feet his              25
  sandals, all of gold, which carry him, uplifted by their
  pinions, over sea no less than land, with the swiftness of
  the wind that wafts him. Then he takes his rod—the
  rod with which he is wont to call up pale spectres from the
  place of death, to send others on their melancholy way to             30
  Tartarus, to give sleep or take it away, and to open the
  eyes when death is past. With this in hand, he drives the
  winds before him, and makes a path through the sea of
  clouds. And now in his flight he espies the crest and the
  tall sides of Atlas the rugged, who with his top supports             35
  the sky—Atlas, whose pine-crowned dead, ever wreathed
  with dark clouds, is buffeted by wind and rain. A mantle
  of snow wraps his shoulders; rivers tumble from his hoary
  chin, and his grisly beard is stiff with ice. Here first
  Cyllene’s god poised himself on his wings and rested; then
  from his stand stooping his whole body, he sent himself
  headlong to the sea, like a bird which haunting the coast and
  the fishy rocks flies low, close to the water. Even so was             5
  he flying between earth and heaven, between Libya’s
  sandy coast and the winds that swept it, leaving his
  mother’s father behind, himself Cyllene’s progeny.

  Soon as his winged feet alit among the huts of Carthage,
  he sees Æneas founding towers and making houses new.                  10
  A sword was at his side, starred with yellow jaspers, and
  a mantle drooped from his shoulders, ablaze with Tyrian
  purple—a costly gift which Dido had made, varying the
  web with threads of gold. Instantly he assails him:—“And
  are you at a time like this laying the foundations of                 15
  stately Carthage, and building, like a fond husband, your
  wife’s goodly city, forgetting, alas! your own kingdom
  and the cares that should be yours? It is no less than the
  ruler of the gods who sends me down to you from his
  bright Olympus—he whose nod sways heaven and earth;                   20
  it is he that bids me carry his commands through the flying
  air. What are you building? what do you look to in
  squandering your leisure in Libyan land? If you are fired
  by no spark of ambition for the greatness in your view,
  and will not rear a toilsome fabric for your own praise,              25
  think of Ascanius rising into youth, think of Iulus, your
  heir and your hope, to whom you owe the crown of Italy
  and the realm of Rome.” With these words Cyllene’s
  god quitted mortal sight ere he had well ceased to speak,
  and vanished away from the eye into unsubstantial air.                30

  The sight left Æneas dumb and aghast indeed; his hair
  stood shudderingly erect; his speech clave to his throat.
  He burns to take flight and leave the land of pleasure, as
  his ears ring with the thunder of Heaven’s imperious warning.
  What—ah! what is he to do? with what address                          35
  can he now dare to approach the impassioned queen?
  what first advances can he employ? And thus he despatches
  his rapid thought hither and thither hurrying
  it east and west, and sweeping every corner of the field.
  So balancing, at last he thought this judgment the best.
  He calls Mnestheus and Sergestus and brave Serestus;
  bids them quietly get ready the fleet, muster the crews on
  the shore, with their arms in their hands, hiding the reason           5
  for so sudden a change. Meantime he, while Dido, kindest
  of friends, is in ignorance, deeming love’s chain too strong
  to be snapped, will feel his way, and find what are the
  happiest moments for speech, what the right hold to take
  of circumstance. At once all gladly obey his command,                 10
  and are busy on the tasks enjoined.

  But the queen (who can cheat a lover’s senses?) scented
  the plot, and caught the first sound of the coming stir, alive
  to fear in the midst of safety. Fame, as before, the same
  baleful fiend, whispered in her frenzied ear that the fleet           15
  was being equipped and the voyage got ready. She
  storms in impotence of soul, and, all on fire, goes raving
  through the city, like a Mænad[177] starting up at the rattle
  of the sacred emblems, when the triennial orgies lash her
  with the cry of Bacchus, and Cithæron’s yell calls her into           20
  the night. At length she thus bespeaks Æneas, unaddressed
  by him:—

  “To hide, yes, hide your enormous crime, perfidious
  wretch, did you hope _that_ might be done—to steal away
  in silence from my realm? Has our love no power to keep               25
  you? has our troth, once, plighted, none, nor she whom
  you doom to a cruel death, your Dido? Nay, are you
  fitting out your fleet with winter’s sky overhead, and hastening
  to cross the deep in the face of all the northern winds,
  hard-hearted as you are? Why, suppose you were not                    30
  seeking a strange clime and a home you know not—suppose
  old Troy were still standing—would even Troy draw
  you to seek her across a billowy sea? Flying, and from
  me! By the tears I shed, and by your plighted hand,
  since my own act, alas! has left me nought else to plead—by           35
  our union—by the nuptial rites thus prefaced—if
  I have ever deserved well of you, or aught of mine ever
  gave you pleasure—have pity on a falling house, and strip
  off, I conjure you, if prayer be not too late, the mind that
  clothes you. It is owing to you that the Libyan tribes and
  the Nomad chiefs hate me, that my own Tyrians are estranged;
  owing to you, yes, you, that my woman’s honour
  has been put out, and that which was my one passport                   5
  to immortality, my former fame. To whom are you abandoning
  a dying woman, my guest?—since the name of
  husband has dwindled to that. Why do I live any longer?—to
  give my brother Pygmalion time to batter down
  my walls, or Iarbas the Moor to carry me away captive?                10
  Had I but borne any offspring of you before your flight,
  were there some tiny Æneas to play in my hall, and remind
  me of you, though but in look, I should not then feel utterly
  captive and forlorn.”

  She ceased. He all the while, at Jove’s command, was                  15
  keeping his eyes unmoved, and shutting up in his heart his
  great love. At length he answers in brief:—“Fair queen,
  name all the claims to gratitude you can, I shall never
  gainsay one, nor will the thought of Elissa[178] ever be unwelcome
  while memory lasts, while breath animates this                        20
  frame. A few words I will say, as the case admits. I
  never counted—do not dream it—on stealthily concealing
  my flight. I never came with a bridegroom’s torch
  in my hand, nor was this the alliance to which I agreed.
  For me, were the Fates to suffer me to live under a star              25
  of my own choosing, and to make with care the terms I
  would, the city of Troy, first of all the dear remains of what
  was mine, would claim my tendance. Priam’s tall roof-tree
  would still be standing, and my hand would have
  built a restored Pergamus, to solace the vanquished. But              30
  now to princely Italy Grynean[179] Apollo, to Italy his Lycian
  oracles bid me repair. There is my heart, there my fatherland.
  If you are riveted here by the sight of your stately
  Carthage, a daughter of Phœnicia by a Libyan town,
  why, I would ask, should jealousy forbid Teucrians to                 35
  settle in Ausonian land? We, like you, have the right of
  looking for a foreign realm. There is my father Anchises,
  oft as night’s dewy shades invest the earth, oft as the fiery
  stars arise, warning me in dreams and appalling me by his
  troubled presence. There is my son Ascanius, and the
  wrongs heaped on his dear head every day that I rob him
  of the crown of Hesperia, and of the land that fate makes
  his. Now, too, the messenger of the gods, sent down from               5
  Jove himself (I swear by both our lives) has brought me
  orders through the flying air. With my own eyes I saw
  the god in clear daylight entering the walls, and took in his
  words with the ears that hear you now. Cease then to
  harrow up both our souls by your reproaches: my quest                 10
  of Italy is not of my own motion.”

  Long ere he had done this speech she was glaring at him
  askance, rolling her eyes this way and that, and scanning
  the whole man with her silent glances, and thus she bursts
  forth all ablaze:—“No goddess was mother of yours, no                 15
  Dardanus the head of your line, perfidious wretch!—no,
  your parent was Caucasus, rugged and craggy, and
  Hyrcanian tigresses put their breasts to your lips. For
  why should I suppress aught? or for what worse evil hold
  myself in reserve? Did he groan when I wept? did he                   20
  move those hard eyes? did he yield and shed tears, or
  pity her that loved him? What first? what last? Now,
  neither Juno, queen of all, nor Jove, the almighty Father,
  eyes us with impartial regard. Nowhere is there aught
  to trust—nowhere. A shipwrecked beggar, I welcomed                    25
  him, and madly gave him a share of my realm; his lost
  fleet, his crews, I brought back from death’s door. Ah!
  Fury sets me on fire, and whirls me round! Now, prophet
  Apollo, now the Lycian oracles. Now the messenger of
  the gods, sent down by Jove himself, bears his grim bidding           30
  through the air! Aye, of course, that is the employment
  of the powers above, those the cares that break their
  repose! I retain not your person, nor refute your talk.
  Go, chase Italy with the winds at your back; look for
  realms with the whole sea between you. I have hope that               35
  on the rocks midway, if the gods are as powerful as they
  are good, you will drain the cup of punishment, with Dido’s
  name ever on your lips. I will follow you with murky
  fires when I am far away: and when cold death shall have
  parted soul and body, my shade shall haunt you everywhere.
  Yes, wretch, you shall suffer, I shall hear it—the
  news will reach me down among the dead.” So saying,
  she snaps short her speech, and flies with loathing                    5
  from the daylight, and breaks and rushes from his sight,
  leaving him hesitating, and fearing, and thinking of a
  thousand things to say. Her maidens support her, and
  carry her sinking frame into her marble chamber, and
  lay her on her bed.                                                   10

  But good Æneas, though yearning to solace and soothe
  her agonized spirit, and by his words to check the onset of
  sorrow, with many a groan, his whole soul upheaved by
  the force of love, goes nevertheless about the commands
  of Heaven, and repairs to his fleet. The Teucrians redouble           15
  their efforts, and along the whole range of the shore
  drag their tall ships down. The keels are careened and
  floated. They carry oars with their leaves still on, and
  timber unfashioned as it stood in the woods, so strong their
  eagerness to fly. You may see them all in motion, streaming           20
  from every part of the city. Even as ants when they
  are sacking a huge heap of wheat, provident of winter
  days, and laying up the plunder in their stores; a black
  column is seen moving through the plain, and they convey
  their booty along the grass in a narrow path: some are                25
  putting their shoulders to the big grains, and pushing them
  along; others are rallying the force and punishing the
  stragglers; the whole track is in a glow of work. What
  were your feelings then, poor Dido, at a sight like this!
  How deep the groans you heaved, when you looked out                   30
  from your lofty tower on a beach all seething and swarming,
  and saw the whole sea before you deafened with that
  hubbub of voices! Tyrant love! what force dost thou not
  put on human hearts? Again she has to condescend to
  tears, again to use the weapons of entreaty, and bow her              35
  spirit in suppliance under love’s yoke, lest she should have
  left aught untried, and be rushing on a needless death.

  “Anna, you see there is hurrying all over the shore—they
  are met from every side; the canvas is already wooing
  the gale, and the joyful sailors have wreathed the sterns.
  If I have had the foresight to anticipate so heavy a blow,
  I shall have the power to bear it too, my sister. Yet,
  Anna, in my misery, perform me this one service. You,                  5
  and you only, the perfidious man was wont to make his
  friend—aye, even to trust you with his secret thoughts.
  You, and you only, know the subtle approaches to his
  heart, and the times of essaying them. Go, then, my
  sister, and supplicate our haughty foe. Tell him I was                10
  no party to the Danaan league at Aulis to destroy the
  Trojan nation; I sent no ships to Pergamus; I never
  disinterred his father Anchises, his dust or his spirit. Why
  will he not let my words sink down into his obdurate ears?
  Whither is he hurrying? Let him grant this last boon to               15
  her who loves him so wildly; let him wait till the way is
  smoothed for his flight, and there are winds to waft him.
  I am not asking him now to renew our old vows which he
  has forsworn. I am not asking him to forego his fair
  Latium, and resign his crown. I entreat but a few vacant              20
  hours, a respite and breathing-space for my passion, till
  my fortune shall have taught baffled love how to grieve.
  This is my last request of you—Oh, pity your poor sister!—a
  request which when granted shall be returned with
  interest in death.”                                                   25

  Such was her appeal—such the wailing which her
  afflicted sister bears to him, and bears again; but no wailing
  moves him, no words find him a gentle listener. Fate
  bars the way, and Heaven closes the hero’s relenting ears.
  Even as an aged oak, still hale and strong, which Alpine              30
  winds, blowing now here, now there, strive emulously to
  uproot—a loud noise is heard, and, as the stem rocks,
  heaps of leaves pile the ground; but the tree cleaves
  firmly to the cliff; high as its head strikes into the air,
  so deep its root strikes down to the abyss—even thus the              35
  hero is assailed on all sides by a storm of words: his mighty
  breast thrills through and through with agony; but his
  mind is unshaken, and tears are showered in vain.

  Then at last, maddened by her destiny, poor Dido prays
  for death: heaven’s vault is a weariness to look on. To
  confirm her in pursuing her intent, and closing her eyes on
  the sun, she saw, as she was laying her offerings on the
  incense-steaming altars—horrible to tell—the sacred                    5
  liquor turn black, and the streams of wine curdle into
  loathly gore. This appearance she told to none, not even
  to her sister. Moreover, there was in her palace a marble
  chapel to her former husband, to which she used to pay
  singular honours, wreathing it with snowy fillets and festal          10
  boughs; from it she thought she heard a voice, the accents
  of the dead man calling her, when the darkness of night
  was shrouding the earth: and on the roof a lonely owl in
  funereal tones kept complaining again and again, and
  drawing out wailingly its protracted notes; and a thousand            15
  predictions of seers of other days come back on her,
  terrifying her with their awful warnings. When she
  dreams, there is Æneas himself driving her in furious chase:
  she seems always being left alone to herself, always pacing
  companionless on a never-ending road, and looking for her             20
  Tyrians in a realm without inhabitants—like Pentheus,[o]
  when in frenzy he sees troops of Furies, and two suns, and
  a double Thebes rising around him; or Agamemnon’s[o]
  Orestes rushing over the stage, as he flies from his mother,
  who is armed with torches and deadly snakes, while the                25
  avenging fiends sit crouched on the threshold.

  So when, spent with agony, she gave conception to the
  demon, and resolved on death, she settled with herself
  time and means, and thus bespoke her grieving sister, her
  face disguising her intent, and hope smiling on her brow:—            30

  “Dearest, I have found a way—wish me joy, as a sister
  should—to bring him back to me, or to loose me from the
  love which binds me to him. Hard by the bound of ocean
  and the setting sun lies the extreme Ethiopian clime, where
  mighty Atlas turns round on his shoulders the pole, studded           35
  with burning stars. From that clime, I have heard of a
  priestess of the Massylian race, once guardian of the
  temple of the Hesperides, who used to give the dragon his
  food, and so preserve the sacred boughs on the tree, sprinkling
  for him moist honey and drowsy poppy-seed. She,
  by her spells, undertakes to release souls at her pleasure,
  while into others she shoots cruel pangs; she stops the
  water in the river-bed, and turns back the stars in their              5
  courses, and calls ghosts from realms of night. You will
  see the earth bellowing under you, and the ashes coming
  down from the mountain-top. By the gods I swear,
  dearest sister, by you and your dear life, that unwillingly
  I gird on the weapons of magic. Do you, in the privacy                10
  of the inner court, build a pile to the open sky; lay on it
  the arms which that godless man left hanging in the
  chamber, and all his doffed apparel, and the nuptial bed
  which was my undoing. To destroy every memorial of
  the hateful wretch is my pleasure, and the priestess’ bidding.”       15
  This said, she is silent—paleness overspreads her
  face. Yet Anna does not dream that these strange rites
  are a veil to hide her sister’s death: she cannot grasp
  frenzy like that; she fears no darker day than that of their
  mourning for Sychæus, and so she does her bidding.                    20

  But the queen, when the pile had been built in the heart
  of the palace to the open sky, a giant mass of pine-wood and
  hewn oak, spans the place with garlands, and crowns it
  with funeral boughs. High above it on the couch she sets
  the doffed apparel, and the sword that had been left, and             25
  the image of the false lover, knowing too well what was
  to come. Altars rise here and there; the priestess, with
  hair dishevelled, thunders out the roll of three hundred
  gods, Erebus and Chaos, and Hecate[180] with her triple form—the
  three faces borne by maiden Dian. See! she has                        30
  sprinkled water, brought, so she feigns, from Avernus’
  spring, and she is getting green downy herbs, cropped by
  moonlight with brazen shears, whose sap is the milk of
  deadly poison, and the love-charm, torn from the brow
  of the new-born foal, ere the mother could snatch it.                 35
  Dido herself, with salted cake and pure hands at the altars,
  one foot unshod, her vest ungirdled, makes her dying
  appeal to the gods and to the stars who share Fate’s
  counsels, begging the powers, if any there be, that watch,
  righteous and unforgetting, over ill-yoked lovers, to hear
  her prayer.

  It was night, and overtoiled mortality throughout the
  earth was enjoying peaceful slumber; the woods were at                 5
  rest, and the raging waves—the hour when the stars are
  rolling midway in their smooth courses, when all the land is
  hushed, cattle, and gay-plumed birds, haunters far and wide
  of clear waters and rough forest-ground, lapped in sleep
  with stilly night overhead, their troubles assuaged, their            10
  hearts dead to care. Not so the vexed spirit of Phœnicia’s
  daughter; she never relaxes into slumber, or
  welcomes the night to eye or bosom; sorrow doubles peal
  on peal; once more love swells, and storms, and surges,
  with a mighty tempest of passion. Thus, then, she                     15
  plunges into speech, and whirls her thoughts about thus
  in the depth of her soul:—“What am I about? Am I
  to make fresh proof of my former suitors, with scorn before
  me? Must I stoop to court Nomad bridegrooms, whose
  offered hand I have spurned so often? Well, then, shall               20
  I follow the fleet of Ilion, and be at the beck and call of
  Teucrian masters? Is it that they think with pleasure
  on the succour once rendered them? that gratitude for
  past kindness yet lives in their memory? But even if I
  wished it, who will give me leave, or admit the unwelcome             25
  guest to his haughty ships? Are you so ignorant, poor
  wretch? Do you not yet understand the perjury of the
  race of Laomedon[181]? What then? Shall I fly alone, and
  swell the triumph of their crews? or shall I put to sea, with
  the Tyrians and the whole force of my people at my back,              30
  dragging those whom it was so hard to uproot from their
  Sidonian home again into the deep, and bidding them
  spread sail to the winds? No!—die the death you have
  merited, and let the sword put your sorrow to flight.
  You, sister, are the cause; overmastered by my tears,                 35
  you heap this deadly fuel on my flame, and fling me upon
  nay enemy. Why could I not forswear wedlock, and live
  an unblamed life in savage freedom, nor meddle with
  troubles like these? Why did I not keep the faith I
  vowed to the ashes of Sychæus?” Such were the reproaches
  that broke from that bursting heart.

  Meanwhile Æneas, resolved on his journey, was slumbering
  in his vessel’s tall stern, all being now in readiness.                5
  To him a vision of the god, appearing again with the same
  countenance, presented itself as he slept, and seemed to
  give this second warning—the perfect picture of Mercury,
  his voice, his blooming hue, his yellow locks, and the youthful
  grace of his frame:—“Goddess-born, at a crisis like                   10
  this can you slumber on? Do you not see the wall of
  danger which is fast rising round you, infatuate that you
  are, nor hear the favouring whisper of the western gale?
  She is revolving in her bosom thoughts of craft and cruelty,
  resolved on death, and surging with a changeful tempest               15
  of passion. Will you not haste away while haste is in your
  power? You will look on a sea convulsed with ships, an
  array of fierce torch-fires, a coast glowing with flame, if
  the dawn-goddess shall have found you loitering here on
  land. Quick!—burst through delay. A thing of moods                    20
  and changes is woman ever.” He said, and was lost in the
  darkness of night.

  At once Æneas, scared by the sudden apparition, springs
  up from sleep, and rouses his comrades. “Wake in a moment,
  my friends, and seat you on the benches. Unfurl                       25
  the sails with all speed. See! here is a god sent down
  from heaven on high, urging us again to hasten our flight,
  and cut the twisted cables. Yes! sacred power, we follow
  thee, whoever thou art, and a second time with joy obey
  thy behest. Be thou with us, and graciously aid us, and               30
  let propitious stars be ascendant in the sky.” So saying,
  he snatches from the scabbard his flashing sword, and with
  the drawn blade cuts the hawsers. The spark flies from
  man to man; they scour, they scud, they have left the
  shore behind; you cannot see the water for ships. With                35
  strong strokes they dash the foam, and sweep the blue.

  And now Aurora was beginning to sprinkle the earth
  with fresh light, rising from Tithonus’[182] saffron couch.
  Soon as the queen from her watch-tower saw the gray
  dawn brighten, and the fleet moving on with even canvas,
  and coast and haven forsaken, with never an oar left,
  thrice and again smiting her beauteous breast with her
  hands, and rending her golden locks, “Great Jupiter!”                  5
  cries she, “shall he go? Shall a chance-comer boast of
  having flouted our realm? Will they not get their arms
  at once, and give chase from all the town, and pull, some
  of them, the ships from the docks? Away! bring fire;
  quick! get darts, ply oars! What am I saying? Where                   10
  am I? What madness turns my brain? Wretched Dido!
  do your sins sting you now? They should have done so
  then, when you were giving your crown away. What
  truth! what fealty!—the man who, they say, carries
  about with him the gods of his country, and took up on                15
  his shoulders his old worn-out father! Might I not have
  caught and torn him piecemeal, and scattered him to the
  waves?—destroyed his friends, aye, and his own Ascanius,
  and served up the boy for his father’s meal? But the
  chance of a battle would have been doubtful. Let it have              20
  been. I was to die, and whom had I to fear? I would
  have flung torches into his camp, filled his decks with flame,
  consumed son and sire and the whole line, and leapt myself
  upon the pile. Sun, whose torch shows thee all that is
  done on earth, and thou, Juno, revealer and witness                   25
  these stirrings of the heart, and Hecate, whose name is
  yelled in civic crossways by night, avenging fiends, and
  gods of dying Elissa, listen to this! Let your power stoop
  to ills that call for it, and hear what I now pray! If
  it must needs be that the accursed wretch gain the haven              30
  and float to shore—if such the requirement of Jove’s
  destiny, such the fixed goal—yet grant that, harassed
  by the sword and battle of a warlike nation, a wanderer
  from his own confines, torn from his Iulus’ arms, he may
  pray for succour, and see his friends dying miserably round           35
  him! Nor when he has yielded to the terms of an unjust
  peace, may he enjoy his crown, or the life he loves; but
  may he fall before his time, and lie unburied in the midst
  of the plain! This is my prayer—these the last accents
  that flow from me with my life-blood. And you, my
  Tyrians, let your hatred persecute the race and people for
  all time to come. Be this the offering you send down to
  my ashes: never be there love or league between nation                 5
  and nation. Arise from my bones, my unknown avenger,
  destined with fire and sword to pursue the Dardanian
  settlers, now or in after-days, whenever strength shall be
  given! Let coast be at war with coast, water with wave,
  army with army; fight they, and their sons, and their                 10
  sons’ sons!”

  Thus she said, as she whirled her thought to this side
  and that, seeking at once to cut short the life she now abhorred.
  Then briefly she spoke to Barce, Sychæus’ nurse,
  for her own was left in her old country, in the black                 15
  ashes of the grave: “Fetch me here, dear nurse, my sister
  Anna. Bid her hasten to sprinkle herself with water
  from the stream, and bring with her the cattle and the
  atoning offerings prescribed. Let her come with these;
  and do you cover your brow with the holy fillet. The                  20
  sacrifice to Stygian Jove, which I have duly commenced
  and made ready, I wish now to accomplish, and with it
  the end of my sorrows, giving to the flame the pile that
  pillows the Dardan head!” She said: the nurse began
  to quicken her pace with an old wife’s zeal.                          25

  But Dido, wildered and maddened by her enormous
  resolve, rolling her bloodshot eye, her quivering cheeks
  stained with fiery streaks, and pale with the shadow of
  death, bursts the door of the inner palace, and frantically
  climbs the tall pile, and unsheathes the Dardan sword, a              30
  gift procured for a far different end. Then, after surveying
  the Trojan garments and the bed, too well known,
  and pausing awhile to weep and think, she pressed her
  bosom to the couch, and uttered her last words:

  “Relics, once darlings of mine, while Fate and Heaven                 35
  gave leave, receive this my soul, and release me from these
  my sorrows. I have lived my life—the course assigned
  me by Fortune is run, and now the august phantom of
  Dido shall pass underground. I have built a splendid
  city. I have seen my walls completed. In vengeance for
  a husband, I have punished a brother that hated me—blest,
  ah! blest beyond human bliss, if only Dardan ships
  had never touched coast of ours!” She spoke—and kissing                5
  the couch: “Is it to be death without revenge? But
  be it death,” she cries—“this, this is the road by which
  I love to pass to the shades. Let the heartless Dardanian’s
  eyes drink in this flame from the deep, and let him
  carry with him the presage of my death.”                              10

  She spoke, and even while she was yet speaking, her
  attendants see her fallen on the sword, the blade spouting
  blood, and her hands dabbled in it. Their shrieks rise to
  the lofty roof; Fame runs wild through the convulsed city.
  With wailing and groaning, and screams of women, the                  15
  palace rings; the sky resounds with mighty cries and beating
  of breasts—even as if the foe were to burst the gates
  and topple down Carthage or ancient Tyre, and the infuriate
  flame were leaping from roof to roof among the
  dwellings of men and gods.                                            20

  Her sister heard it. Breathless and frantic, with wild
  speed, disfiguring her cheeks with her nails, her bosom
  with her fists, she bursts through the press, and calls
  by name on the dying queen: “Was this your secret,
  sister? Were you plotting to cheat me? Was this what                  25
  your pile was preparing for me, your fires, and your altars?
  What should a lone heart grieve for first? Did you disdain
  your sister’s company in death? You should have
  called me to share your fate—the same keen sword-pang,
  the same hour, should have been the end of both. And                  30
  did these hands build the pile, this voice call on the gods
  of our house, that you might lie there, while I, hard-hearted
  wretch, was away? Yes, sister, you have destroyed
  yourself and me, the people and the elders of Sidon,
  and your own fair city. Let in the water to the wounds;               35
  let me cleanse them, and if any remains of breath be
  still flickering, catch them in my mouth!” As she thus
  spoke, she was at the top of the lofty steps, and was embracing
  and fondling in her bosom her dying sister, and
  stanching with her robe the black streams of blood.
  Dido strives to raise her heavy eyes, and sinks down
  again, the deep stab gurgles in her breast. Thrice, with
  an effort, she lifted and reared herself up on her elbow;              5
  thrice, she fell back on the couch, and with helpless
  wandering eyes aloft in the sky, sought for the light and
  groaned when she found it.

  Then Juno almighty, in compassion for her lengthened
  agony and her trouble in dying, sent down Iris[183] from              10
  Olympus to part the struggling soul and its prison of flesh.
  For, as she was dying, not in the course of fate, nor for
  any crime of hers, but in mere misery, before her time, the
  victim of sudden frenzy, not yet had Proserpine[184] carried
  off a lock of her yellow hair, and thus doomed her head to            15
  Styx and the place of death. So then Iris glides down
  the sky with saffron wings dew-besprent, trailing a thousand
  various colours in the face of the sun, and alights
  above her head. “This I am bidden to bear away as an
  offering to Pluto, and hereby set you free from the body.”            20
  So saying, she stretches her hand and cuts the lock: at
  once all heat parts from the frame, and the life has passed
  into air.




BOOK V


  Æneas, meantime, was well on his road, holding with set
  purpose on the watery way, and cutting through billows
  gloomed by the North wind, with eyes ever and anon
  turned back to the city, which poor Elissa’s funeral flame
  now began to illumine. What cause has lit up a blaze so                5
  mighty they cannot tell; but as they think of the cruel
  pangs which follow outrage done on great love, and remember
  what a frantic woman can do, the Teucrian hearts
  are swept through a train of dismal presage.

  Soon as the ships gained the mid-ocean, and no land met               10
  the view any more—waters everywhere and everywhere
  skies—a dark rain-cloud arose and stood over the hero’s
  head, charged with night and winter tempest, and darkness
  ruffled the billow’s crest. Palinurus himself, the pilot,
  was heard from the lofty stern:—“Ah! why has such an                  15
  army of storms encompassed the heaven? What hast
  thou for us now, old Father Neptune?” No sooner said
  than he bids them gather up the tackle and ply the lusty
  oar, and shifts the sheet to the wind, and speaks thus:—“Noble
  Æneas, though Jove himself were to pledge me                          20
  his faith, I could not hope to reach Italy with a sky like
  this. The winds shift and storm crosswise, ever rising
  from the blackening West, and the mist is being massed
  into clouds. We cannot make head against them, or
  struggle as we should. Well, since Fortune exerts her                 25
  tyranny, let us follow, and turn our faces as she pulls the
  rein. I take it, too, we are not far from the friendly
  brother-coast of your Eryx, and the havens of Sicania,
  if my memory serves me as I retrace the stars I watched
  long ago.” To him good Æneas:—“I have seen myself                     30
  this long time that such is the winds’ will, and all your
  counter-efforts vain. Turn sail and ship. Could any
  land indeed be welcomer, any that I would sooner choose
  to harbour my weary ships, than the land which keeps for
  me above ground the Darden Acestes, and laps in its breast             5
  the bones of my sire Anchises?” This said, they make
  for the haven; favouring zephyrs swell their sail, the fleet
  rides swiftly over the flood, and at last they touch with
  joy the strand they know so well.

  From a hill’s tall top Acestes had marked with wonder                 10
  afar off the new arrival, and the friendly vessels; up he
  runs, all in the savage trim of hunting-spear and Libyan
  bearskin—Acestes, son of a Trojan mother by the river
  Crimisus. The ancestral blood quickens in his veins as
  he gives them joy of their safe arrival, welcomes them                15
  with the plenty of rustic royalty, and soothes their weariness
  with every kind appliance.

  On the morrow, when the first dawn of the bright dayspring
  had put the stars to flight, Æneas calls his comrades
  to a gathering from all the shore, and standing on a heaped           20
  mound bespeaks them thus:—“Mighty sons of Dardanus,
  race of Heaven’s high parentage, the months are
  all past and the year has fulfilled its cycle, since we gave
  to the earth the earthly relics, the ashes of my deified sire,
  and consecrated the altars of mourning. And now, if I                 25
  err not, the very day is here—that day which for me shall
  ever be a day of weeping, ever a day of honour, since you,
  ye gods, have willed it so. Though this day were to find
  me among the Gætulian Syrtes a homeless wanderer—were
  it to surprise me in the Argive main or in the streets                30
  of Mycenæ—still would I pay my yearly vows and the
  pomp of solemn observance, and would pile the altars with
  their proper gifts. And now, behold, by an unsought
  chance we are standing—not in truth I deem without the
  providence, the beckoning hand of Heaven—at the very                  35
  grave, the buried ashes of my sire, driven as we are into
  this friendly haven. Come, then, solemnize we all the
  glad celebration; pray we for winds, and may He be
  pleased that I should offer these rites yearly in a city of
  my own building, in a temple dedicated to himself. Two
  heads of oxen Acestes, like a true son of Troy, gives you
  for each ship; call to the feasts the gods of the hearth,
  both those of our fathers and those worshipped by Acestes              5
  our host. Furthermore, if the ninth day hence the dawn-goddess
  restore to mortals the genial light, and make the
  world visible with sunshine, I will set up, first of all, for
  all Teucrian comers, a match among our swift fleet; then
  let him that is light of foot, and him that, glorying in his          10
  strength, bears himself more proudly with the dart and the
  flying arrow, or has confidence to join battle in gauntlets
  of raw hide, let one and all be here, and look for the prizes
  that victory earns. Give me your auspicious voices, and
  bind your brows with green.”                                          15

  This spoken, he shrouds his own brows with his mother’s
  myrtle. So does Helymus, so does veteran Acestes, so
  young Ascanius—so the whole multitude of warriors.
  He was already on his way from the council to the tomb
  with many thousands round him, the centre of a great                  20
  company. Here in due libation he pours on the ground
  two bowls of the wine-god’s pure juice, two of new milk,
  two of sacrificial blood; he flings bright flowers, and makes
  this utterance:—“Hail to thee, blessed sire, once more!
  hail to you, ashes of one rescued in vain, spirit and shade           25
  of my father! It was not in Fate that thou shouldst
  journey with me to the Italian frontier and the fields of
  Destiny, or see the Ausonian Tiber, whatever that name
  may import.” He had said this, when from the depth
  of the grave a smooth shining serpent trailed along seven             30
  spires, seven volumes of giant length, coiling peacefully
  round the tomb and gliding between the altars: dark
  green flecks were on its back; its scales were all ablaze
  with spots of golden lustre, even as the bow in the clouds
  showers a thousand various colours in the face of the sun.            35
  Æneas stood wonder-struck: the creature, winding its
  long column among the dishes and the polished goblets,
  tasted of the viands, and then, innocent of harm, reëntered
  the tomb at its base, leaving the altars where its mouth
  had been. Quickened by this, the hero resumes the work
  of homage to his sire, not knowing whether to think this
  the genius of the spot or his father’s menial spirit: duly
  he slays two young sheep, two swine, two black-skinned                 5
  bullocks; again and again he pours goblets of wine, again
  and again he calls on the soul of great Anchises and the
  shade loosed from Acheron’s[185] prison. His comrades, too,
  each according to his means, give glad offerings—they
  pile the altars, they slay the bullocks; others in their function     10
  set on the cauldrons, and, stretched along the grass,
  hold the spits over the embers and roast the flesh.

  And now the expected day was come; the steeds of
  Phaethon[186] were ushering in the goddess of the ninth
  dawn through a heaven of clear light; the rumoured spectacle          15
  and the great name of Acestes had brought the
  neighbouring people from their homes; the holiday crowd
  was flooding the shore, to gaze on the family of Æneas,
  and some, too, ready to dispute the prizes. First, in sight
  of all, the gifts are bestowed in the midst of the ring—hallowed      20
  tripods and verdant chaplets, and palms, the
  conquerors’ special guerdon—armour and raiment of
  purple dye—a talent’s[187] weight of silver and gold; and
  from a mound in the centre the shrill trumpet proclaims
  the sports begun. The first contest, waged with labouring             25
  oars, is entered by four ships, the flower of the entire
  fleet. There is Mnestheus, with his fiery crew, speeding
  along the swift Shark—Mnestheus, hereafter a prince of
  Italy, who gives his name to the Memmian line; there is
  Gyas with his monster Chimæra, that monster mass[D]                   30
  which three tiers of stout Dardans are pulling on, the oars
  rising in a triple bank; Sergestus, from whom the Sergian
  house gains the name it keeps, sails in the mighty Centaur;
  and in the sea-green Scylla Cloanthus, your great forefather,
  Cluentius of Rome.                                                    35

  At a distance in the sea is a rock, over against the spray-washed
  shore—sometimes covered by the swelling waves
  that beat on it, when the wintry north winds hide the stars
  from view—in a calm it rests in peace, and rises over the
  unruffled waters, a broad table-land, a welcome basking-ground         5
  for the sea-bird. Here Æneas set up a green stem
  of leafy oak with his own royal hand—a sign for the sailors,
  that they might know whence to begin their return, and
  where to double round their long voyage. Then they choose
  their places by lot: there are the captains on the sterns,            10
  a glorious sight, gleaming far with gold and purple; the
  crews are crowned with thick poplar leaves, and their bare
  shoulders shine with the oil that has rubbed them. They
  seat them on the benches, every arm is strained on the
  oar—straining they expect the signal, and their beating               15
  hearts are drained at each stroke by panting fear and high-strung
  ambition. Then, when the shrill trumpet has uttered
  its voice, all in a moment dart forward from their
  bounds, the seaman’s shout pierces the sky; the upturned
  seas foam as the arm is drawn back to the chest. With                 20
  measured strokes they plough their furrows; the water
  is one yawning chasm, rent asunder by the oar and the
  pointed beak. Not such the headlong speed when in two-horse
  race the chariots dash into the plain and pour along
  from their floodgates, or when the drivers shake the streaming        25
  reins over their flying steeds, and hang floating over
  the lash. Then plaudits, and shouts of manly voices,
  and the clamorous fervour of the backers, make the whole
  woodland ring; the pent-up shores keep the sound rolling;
  the hills send back the blows of the noise. See! flying               30
  ahead of the rest, gliding over the first water in the midst
  of crowd and hubbub, is Gyas; next him comes Cloanthus,
  with better oars, but the slow pinewood’s weight keeps
  him back. After them at equal distance the Shark and
  the Centaur strive to win precedence. And now the Shark               35
  has it. Now she is beaten and passed by the Centaur.
  Now the two ride abreast stem to stem, cutting with their
  long keels the salt waves. And now they were nearing the
  rock, and the goal was just in their grasp, when Gyas, the
  leader, the victor of the halfway-passage, calls aloud to his
  ship’s pilot Menœtes:—“Whither away so far to my right?
  Steer us hither; hug the shore; let the oar-blade graze
  the cliffs on the left; leave the deep to others.” Thus he;            5
  but Menœtes, afraid of hidden rocks, keeps turning the
  prow well towards the sea. “Whither away from the right
  course? Make for the rocks, Menœtes!” shouted Gyas
  again; and see! looking back, he perceives Cloanthus
  gaining on him close behind. Between Gyas’ ship and                   10
  the sounding rocks he threads his way to the left, steering
  inward, and in an instant passes the winner, leaves the
  goal behind, and gains the smooth open sea. Grief turned
  the youth’s very marrow to flame, nor were his cheeks
  free from tears; he seizes the slow Menœtes, forgetting               15
  at once his own decency and his crew’s safety, and flings
  him headlong from the lofty stern into the sea. Himself
  becomes their guide at the helm, himself their pilot, cheering
  on the rowers, and turning the rudder to the shore.
  But Menœtes, when at last disgorged from the bottom of                20
  the sea, heavy with age, and with his dripping clothes all
  hanging about him, climbs the cliff-top, and seats himself
  on a dry rock. The Teucrians laughed as he was falling,
  laughed as he was swimming, and now they laugh as he
  discharges from his chest the draught of brine. Then                  25
  sprung up an ecstatic hope in the two last, Sergestus and
  Mnestheus, of passing the lagging Gyas. Sergestus gets
  the choice of water and comes nearer the rock—not first,
  however, he by a whole vessel’s length—half his ship is
  ahead, half is overlapped by the beak of his rival, the               30
  Shark. Mnestheus walks through the ship among the
  crew and cheers them on. “Now, now, rise to your oars,
  old Hector’s men, whom I chose to follow me at Troy’s last
  gasp; now put out the strength, the spirit I saw you exert
  in the Gætulian Syrtes, the Ionian Sea, the entangling                35
  waves of Malea. It is not the first place I look for. I
  am not the man; this is no struggle for victory—yet
  might it be!—but conquest is for them, Neptune, to
  whom thou givest it. Let our shame be to come in last;
  be this your victory, friends, to keep off disgrace.” Straining
  every nerve, they threw themselves forward; their
  mighty strokes make the brazen keel quiver, the ground
  flies from under them; thick panting shakes their limbs,               5
  their parched throats; sweat flows down in streams.

  A mere chance gave them the wished preëminence; for
  while Sergestus, blind with passion, keeps driving his prow
  towards the rock nearer and nearer, and pressing through
  the narrow passage, his ill star entangled him with a projecting      10
  crag. The cliffs were jarred, the oars cracked as
  they met the sharp flint, and the prow hung where it had
  lodged. Up spring the sailors with loud shout, while the
  ship stands still. They bring out their iron-shod poles
  and pointed boat-hooks, and pick up the broken oars in                15
  the water. But Mnestheus, rejoicing, and keener for success,
  with quick plashing oars, and the winds at his call,
  makes for the seas that shelve to the coast and speeds along
  the clear expanse. Like as a dove suddenly startled in a
  cave, where in the hollow of the rock are her home and her            20
  loved nestlings, issues out to fly over the plain, clapping
  loud her pinions in terror in the cell—then, gliding smooth
  through the tranquil air, she winnows her liquid way without
  a motion of her rapid wings—so with Mnestheus,
  so the Shark, flying of herself, cuts through the last water          25
  of the course, so the mere impulse bears her speeding on.
  First he takes leave of Sergestus, struggling with the tall
  rock and the shallow water, and in vain calling for help, and
  learning to run along with broken oars. Then he comes
  up with Gyas and the great monster Chimæra itself; she                30
  yields, because deprived of her pilot. And now there
  remains Cloanthus alone, just at the very end of the race;
  him he makes for, and presses on him with all the force of
  effort. Then, indeed, the shouting redoubles—all lend
  their good-will to spur on the second man, and the sky                35
  echoes with the din. These think it shame to lose the
  glory that they have won, the prize that is already their
  own, and would fain barter life for renown; these are feeding
  on success, they feel strong because they feel that they
  are thought[188] strong. And perhaps their beaks would have
  been even and the prize divided, had not Cloanthus,
  stretching out both hands over the deep, breathed a
  prayer and called the gods to hear his vow:—“Powers                    5
  whose is the rule of ocean, whose waters I ride, for you with
  glad heart will I lead to your altars on this shore a snow-white
  bull, as a debtor should; I will throw the entrails
  afar into the salt waves, and pour out a clear stream of
  wine.” He said, and deep down among the billows there                 10
  heard him all the Nereids and Phorcus’ train, and maiden
  Panopea, and father Portunus[189] himself, with his own great
  hand, pushed the ship as she moved; fleeter than south-wind
  or winged arrow she flies to the land and is lodged
  already deep in the haven.                                            15

  Then Anchises’ son, duly summoning the whole company,
  proclaims by a loud-voiced herald Cloanthus conqueror,
  and drapes his brow with green bay; he gives each
  crew a gift at its choice, three bullocks, and wine, and the
  present of a great talent of silver. To the captains themselves       20
  he further gives especial honours, to the conqueror
  a gold-broidered scarf, round which runs a length of Melibœan
  purple with a double Mæander; enwoven therein is the
  royal boy[190] on leafy Ida, plying the swift stag with the javelin
  and the chase, keen of eye, his chest seeming to heave;               25
  then, swooping down from Ida, the bearer of Jove’s armour
  has snatched him up aloft in his crooked talons, while his
  aged guardians are stretching in vain their hands to heaven,
  and the barking of the hounds streams furious to the sky.
  But for him whose prowess gained him the second place                 30
  there is a cuirass of linked chain mail, three-threaded with
  gold, which the hero himself had stripped with a conqueror’s
  hand from Demoleos on swift Simois’ bank under
  the shadow of Troy; this he gives the warrior for his own,            35
  a glory and a defence in the battle. Scarce could the two
  servants, Phegeus and Sagaris, support its many folds,
  pushing shoulder to shoulder; yet Demoleos, in his day,
  with it on his breast, used to drive the Trojans in flight
  before him. The third present he makes a pair of brazen
  cauldrons, and two cups of wrought silver, rough with
  fretwork.

  And now all had received their presents, and each, glorying
  in his treasure, was walking along with purple festooning              5
  round his brows, when Sergestus, at last with great pain
  dislodged from the cruel rock, his oars lost and one whole
  side crippled, was seen propelling among jeers his inglorious
  vessel. Like as a serpent surprised on the highway,
  whom a brazen wheel has driven across, or a traveller,                10
  heavy of hand, has left half dead and mangled by a stone,
  writhes its long body in ineffectual flight, its upper part
  all fury, its eyes blazing, its hissing throat reared aloft, the
  lower part, disabled by the wound, clogs it as it wreathes
  its spires and doubles upon its own joints. Such was the              15
  oarage with which the ship pushed herself slowly along:
  she makes sail, however, and enters the haven with canvas
  flying. To Sergestus Æneas gives the present he had
  promised, delighted to see the ship rescued and the crew
  brought back. His prize is a slave, not unversed in Pallas’           20
  labours, Pholoë, Cretan born, with twin sons at her
  breast.

  This match dismissed, good Æneas takes his way to a
  grassy plain, surrounded on all sides with woods and sloping
  hills: in the middle of the valley was a circle, as of a              25
  theatre; thither it was that the hero repaired with many
  thousands, the centre of a vast assembly, and sat on a
  raised throne. Then he invites, with hope of reward, the
  bold spirits who may wish to contend in the swift foot-race,
  and sets up the prizes. Candidates flock from all                     30
  sides, Teucrian and Sicanian mixed. Nisus and Euryalus
  the foremost. Euryalus conspicuous for beauty and blooming
  youth, Nisus for the pure love he bore the boy; following
  them came Diores, a royal scion of Priam’s illustrious
  stock; then Salius and Patron together, one from                      35
  Acarnania, the other from Tegea, an Arcadian by blood;
  next two Trinacrian youths, Helymus and Panopes, trained
  foresters, comrades of their elder friend, Acestes, and many
  others, whom dim tradition leaves in darkness. As they
  crowd round him, Æneas bespeaks them thus:—“Hear
  what I have to say, and give the heed of a glad heart. No
  one of this company shall go away unguerdoned by me.
  I will give a pair of Gnossian darts, shining with polished            5
  steel, and an axe chased with silver for the hand to wield.
  This honour all shall obtain alike. The three first shall
  receive prizes, and shall wear also wreaths of yellow-green
  olive. Let the first, as conqueror, have a horse, full
  decorated with trappings; the second an Amazonian                     10
  quiver, full of Thracian shafts, with a belt of broad gold
  to encompass it, and a buckle of a polished jewel to fasten
  it; let the third go away content with this Argive helmet.”
  This said, they take their places, and suddenly, on hearing
  the signal, dash into the course, and leave the barrier               15
  behind, pouring on like a burst of rain, their eyes fixed on
  the goal. First of all, away goes Nisus, his limbs flying
  far before all the rest, swifter than wind and winged
  thunderbolt; next to him, but next at a long distance
  follows Salius; then, at a shorter space, Euryalus third.             20
  After Euryalus comes Helymus; close on him, see! flies
  Diores, heel touching heel and shoulder shoulder: were the
  course but longer, he would be shooting on and darting
  beyond him, and turning a doubtful race to a victory.

  Now they were just at the end of the course, all panting              25
  as they reached the goal, when Nisus, the ill-starred, slides
  in a puddle of blood, which lay there just as it had been
  spilt after a sacrifice of bullocks, soaking the ground and
  the growing grass. Poor youth! just in the moment of
  triumph, he could not keep his sliddery footing on the soil           30
  he trod, but fell flat in the very middle of unclean ordure
  and sacrificial gore. But he forgot not Euryalus—forgot
  not his love—no! he threw himself in Salius’ way, rising
  in that slippery place—and Salius lay there too, flung
  on the puddled floor. Forth darts Euryalus, and gains                 35
  the first place, a winner, thanks to his friend, cheered in
  his flight by plaudit and shouting. Next comes in Helymus
  and Diores, thus made the third prize. But now
  Salius is heard, deafening with his clamour the whole
  company in the ring and the seniors in the first rank, and
  insisting that the prize, which he had lost by a trick, be
  restored him. Euryalus is supported by the popular voice,
  by the tears he sheds so gracefully, and the greater loveliness        5
  of worth when seen in a beauteous form. Diores
  backs his claim with loud appealing shouts; he had just
  won the prize, and his attainment of the third place was all
  for nothing if the first reward were to be given to Salius.
  To whom father Æneas:—“Your rewards, boys, remain                     10
  fixed as they ever were; no one disturbs the palm once
  arranged: suffer me to show pity to a friend’s undeserved
  misfortune.” So saying, he gives Salius the enormous
  hide of a Gætulian lion, loaded with shaggy hair and talons
  of gold. On which Nisus:—“If the vanquished are                       15
  rewarded so largely—if you can feel for tumblers—what
  prize will be great enough for Nisus’ claims? My
  prowess had earned me the first chaplet, had not unkind
  Fortune played me foul, as she played Salius;” and with
  these words he displayed his features and his limbs, all              20
  dishonoured by slime and ordure. The gracious prince
  smiled at him, and bade them bring out a shield of Didymaon’s
  workmanship, once wrested by the Danaans from
  Neptune’s hallowed gate, and with this signal present he
  endows the illustrious youth.                                         25

  Next, when the race was finished, and the prizes duly
  given:—“Now, whoever has courage, and a vigorous
  collected mind in his breast, let him come forward, bind on
  the gloves, and lift his arms.” Thus speaks Æneas, and
  sets forth two prizes for the contest: for the conqueror,             30
  a bullock with gilded horns and fillet festoons; a sword
  and a splendid helmet, as a consolation to the vanquished.
  In a moment, with all the thews of a giant, rises Dares,
  uprearing himself amid a loud hum of applause—the
  sole champion who used to enter the lists with Paris:                 35
  once, at the tomb where mighty Hector lies buried, he
  encountered the great conqueror Butes, who carried his
  enormous bulk to the field with all the pride of Amycus’[191]
  Bebrycian blood—struck him down, and stretched him
  in death on the yellow sand. Such are Dares’ powers,
  as he lifts high his crest for the battle, displays his broad
  shoulders, throws out his arms alternately, and strikes the
  air with his blows. How to find his match is the cry;                  5
  no one of all that company dares to confront such a champion,
  and draw on the gauntlets. So, with confident
  action, thinking that all were retiring from the prize, he
  stands before Æneas, and without further prelude grasps
  with his left hand the bull by the horn, and bespeaks him             10
  thus:—“Goddess-born, if no one dares to take the risk
  of the fight, how long are we to stand still? How long is
  it seemly to keep me waiting? Give the word for me to
  carry off the prize.” A simultaneous shout broke from
  the sons of Dardanus, all voting that their champion should           15
  have the promised gift made good.

  On this Acestes, with grave severity of speech, rebukes
  Entellus, just as he chanced to be seated next him on the
  verdant grassy couch. “Entellus, once known as the
  bravest of heroes, and all for nought, will you brook so              20
  calmly that a prize so great be carried off without a blow?
  Where are we now to look for that mighty deity your
  master, Eryx, vaunted so often and so idly? Where is
  that glory which spread all Trinacria through, and those
  spoils that hang from your roof?” He replied: “It is                  25
  not the love of praise, not ambition, that has died out,
  extinguished by fear. No, indeed; but my blood is dulled
  and chilled by the frost of age, and the strength in my
  limbs withered and ice-bound. Had I now what I once
  had, what is now the glory and the boast of that loud braggart        30
  there; had I but the treasure of youth, I should not
  have needed the reward and the goodly bullock to bring
  me into the field; nor are gifts what I care for.” So saying,
  he flung into the midst a pair of gauntlets of enormous
  weight, with which the fiery Eryx[192] was wont to                    35
  deal his blows in combat, stringing his arms with the tough
  hide. Every heart was amazed, so vast were the seven
  huge bull-hides, hardened with patches of lead and iron.
  More than all the rest Dares is astonished, and recoils
  many paces; and the hero himself, Anchises’ son, stands
  turning in his hands the massive weight and the enormous
  wrappers of twisted thong. Then the old man fetched
  from his heart words like these:—“What if any one here                 5
  had seen those mightier weapons, Hercules’ own gauntlets,
  and the fatal combat on this very strand? These are the
  arms that Eryx, your brother, once wielded; you see on
  them still the stains of blood and sprinkled brains. With
  these he stood up against the great Alcides. These I                  10
  was trained to use while fresher blood inspired me with
  strength, and the snows of age, my jealous rival, were not
  yet sprinkled on my brows. But if Dares the Trojan
  refuses our Sicilian weapons, and that is good Æneas’ fixed
  wish, approved by Acestes, my backer in the fight, make               15
  we the contest even. I spare you the bull-hides of Eryx—never
  fear—and do you put off your Trojan gauntlets.”
  So saying, he flung off from his shoulders his double garment,
  and displays the giant joints of his limbs, the giant
  bone-work of his arms, and stands, a mighty frame, in                 20
  the midst of the sand.

  Then Anchises’ son brought out with his royal hand two
  pairs of equal gauntlets, and bound round the fists of the
  twain weapons of even force. At once each rose on tiptoe,
  and raised his arms undaunted to the air of heaven. They              25
  draw back their towering heads out of the reach of blows,
  and make their fists meet in the melée, and provoke the
  battle. The one is better in quick movement of the foot,
  and youth lends him confidence; the other’s strength is in
  brawny limbs and giant bulk, but his knees are heavy and              30
  unstable, and a troubled panting shakes that vast frame.
  Many the blows that the champions hail on each other in
  vain; many are showered on the hollow side, and draw
  loud echoes from the chest. The fist keeps playing round
  ear and temple; the teeth chatter under the cruel blow.               35
  Heavily stands Entellus, unmoved, in the same strained
  posture; his bending body and watchful eye alone withdraw
  him from the volley. His rival, like a general who
  throws up mounds round a high-walled town, or sits down
  with his army before a mountain fort, tries now this approach,
  now that, reconnoitres the whole stronghold, and
  plies him with manifold assaults, baffled in each. Rising
  to the stroke, Entellus put forth his right hand, and raised           5
  it aloft; the other’s quick eye foresaw the downcoming
  blow, and his lithe frame darts beyond its range. Entellus
  has flung his whole force on air; at once, untouched by his
  foe, the heavy giant, with heavy giant weight, falls to
  earth, even as one day falls hollow-hearted with hollow               10
  crash on Erymanthus or lofty Ida, uptorn by the roots, a
  mighty pine. Eagerly start up at once the Teucrian and
  Trinacrian chivalry; up soars a shout to heaven; and first
  runs up Acestes, and soothingly raises from the ground
  his friend, aged as he. But not slackened by his overthrow,           15
  nor daunted, the hero comes back fiercer to the
  field, with anger goading force; that mass of strength is
  enkindled at last by shame and conscious prowess. All on
  fire, he drives Dares headlong over the whole plain, now
  with his right hand showering blows, now with his giant               20
  left. No stint, no stay; thick as the hail with which the
  storm-clouds rattle on the roof, so thick the blows with
  which the hero, crowding on with both hands, is battering
  and whirling Dares. Then father Æneas thought fit to
  stem the tide of fury, nor suffered Entellus’ wounded spirit          25
  to glut its rage further, but put an end to the fray, and
  rescued the gasping Dares with soothing words, and bespeaks
  him thus:—“My poor friend! what monstrous
  madness has seized you? See you not that strength has
  passed over—that the gods have changed their sides?                   30
  Give way to Heaven.” He said, and his word closed the
  fight. But Dares is in the hands of his faithful comrades,
  dragging after him his feeble knees, dropping his head on
  this side and on that, discharging from his mouth clotted
  gore, teeth and blood together. Thus they lead him to                 35
  the ships; summoned, they receive for him the helmet and
  the sword; the palm and the bull they leave to Entellus.
  Hereon the conqueror, towering in pride of soul, and
  exulting in his prize, the bull: “Goddess-born,” cries he,
  “and you, Teucrians, take measure at once of the strength
  which dwelt in my frame, while that frame was young,
  and the death from whose door you have called back,
  and are still keeping, your Dares.” So saying, he took his             5
  stand full before the face of the bullock, which was there
  as the prize of the fray, and with arm drawn back, swung
  the iron gauntlet right between the horns, rising to his
  full height, crashed it down on the bone, and shattered the
  brain. Prostrated, breathless, and quivering, on earth lies           10
  the bull. He from his bosom’s depth speaks thus over
  the dead:—“This life, Eryx, I render to thee—a better
  substitute for Dares’ death; here, as a conqueror may,
  I resign the gauntlets and the game.”

  Next Æneas invites those who may care to vie in shooting              15
  the fleet arrow, and sets forth the prizes. With his
  own giant hand he rears upright the mast from Serestus’
  ship, and from its lofty summit ties a fluttering dove with
  a cord passed round the mast—a mark for aiming the
  steel. The archers are met; the lot has been thrown                   20
  and received by the brazen helmet. See! first, among the
  shouts of his friends, comes out before all the place of
  Hyrtacus’ son, Hippocoon, who is followed by Mnestheus,
  late conqueror in the ship-race—Mnestheus, crowned
  with the green olive-wreath. Third comes Eurytion, thy                25
  brother, thrice glorious Pandarus, who in elder days,
  bidden to destroy the truce, wast the first to wing thy
  weapon into the Achæan ranks. Last is Acestes, sank at
  the bottom of the helm, the old man’s spirit nerving his
  arm to essay the task of the young. And now, with stern               30
  strength, they bend and arch their bows, each hero his
  own, and draw forth the shaft from the quiver. First
  through heaven from the twanging string the arrow of
  Hyrtacus’ youthful son pierces sharp and shrill the flying
  air: it hits—it is lodged full in the mast-tree. After                35
  him stood keen Mnestheus, his bowstring drawn to his
  breast, his bow pointing upwards, eye and shaft levelled
  at once. But the bird itself, hapless man! his arrow had
  not power to touch that: it cut the knot and the hempen
  fastening by which she hung, tied by the foot, from the
  mast’s top. Away she flew, all among the south-winds
  and their murky clouds. Then, quick as thought, his
  bow long since ready, and his shaft poised on the string,              5
  Eurytion breathed a vow to his brother, fixing his eye on
  her in the moment of her triumph high up in the open sky,
  and as she claps her wings, pierces the dark cloudy covert,
  and strikes the dove. Down she drops unnerved, leaving
  her life among the stars of ether, and as she tumbles to              10
  earth, brings back the arrow in her breast. Acestes remained
  alone, a champion with no prize to gain; yet he
  shot his weapon into the air aloft, displaying at once his
  veteran skill and the force of his twanging bow. And now
  their eyes are met by a sudden portent, drawing a mighty              15
  augury in its train. In after days the vast issue told the
  tale, and terror-striking seers shrieked their omens too late.
  For as it flew in the clouds of heaven, the reed took fire,
  and marked its way with a trail of flame, and wasted and
  vanished wholly into unsubstantial air; even as stars unfastened      20
  from the firmament oft sweep across and drag
  their blazing hair as they fly. Fixed aghast to the spot,
  in prayer to Heaven, hung the stout sons of Trinacria and
  Troy; nor does Æneas’ sovran judgment reject the omen.
  He clasps the glad Acestes to his heart, loads him with               25
  costly gifts, and bespeaks him thus:—“Take them, my
  father; for Olympus’ mighty monarch has said by the
  voice of these omens that yours is to be a prize drawn without
  a lot. From Anchises the aged himself comes the
  present I now bestow—a bowl embossed with figures,                    30
  which in old days Cisseus[o] gave to my sire Anchises in
  royal bounty, a standing remembrance of himself and a
  testimony of his love.” So saying, he crowns his brow
  with verdant bays, and proclaims, first of all, the conquering
  name of Acestes. Nor did good Eurytion grudge the                     35
  preëminence, though he and none but he brought down
  the bird from the sky. Next steps into the prize he who cut
  the cord; last, he whose quivering arrow nailed the mast

  But father Æneas, ere the match was over, calls to his
  side the guardian and companion of Iulus’ tender years,
  Epytides, and thus speaks into his ear in secret:—“Go
  now and tell Ascanius, if his company of boys is ready,
  and the movements of his young cavalry duly marshalled,                5
  to bring them into the field in his grandsire’s honour, and
  show himself in arms.” He, by his own voice, bids the
  whole surging crowd retire from the length of the circus,
  and leave the field clear. The boys come prancing in on
  well-reined steeds, in even lines of light brightening their          10
  parents’ eyes; and as they pass, an admiring shout, breaks
  from the gathered chivalry of Sicily and Troy. All alike
  have their flowing hair duly cinctured with stripped leaves;
  each bears two cornel javelins tipped with steel; some have
  polished quivers at their backs; round the top of the chest           15
  goes a pliant chain of twisted gold circling the neck.
  Three are the companies of horse, three the leaders that
  scour the plain; twelve boys follow each, a glittering show,
  in equal divisions and commanded alike. The first of the
  youthful bands is led as to victory by a young Priam,                 20
  who revives his grandsire’s name, thy princely offspring,
  Polites, destined to people Italy; him a Thracian steed
  carries, dappled with spots of white, with white on the
  extremes of his prancing feet, and white on his towering
  brow. Next is Atys, whence comes the house of Roman                   25
  Atii—Atys the young, the boyish friend of the boy Iulus.
  Last of all, and excelling all in beauty, Iulus rides in on a
  Sidonian steed, bestowed on him by Dido the fair, in remembrance
  of herself, and in testimony of her love.
  The remaining youth are borne on Trinacrian horses from               30
  old Acestes’ stalls. The Dardans welcome them with
  reassuring plaudits, and gaze on them with rapture, and
  trace in their young faces the features of their old sires.
  Soon as the riders have made their joyous survey of the
  whole gazing crowd and of their friends’ loving eyes,                 35
  Epytides gives the expected signal with far-reaching shout
  and loud cracking whip. In regular order they gallop asunder,
  the three companies breaking and parting right and left;
  and again, at the word of command, they wheel round, and
  charge each other with levelled lances. Then they essay
  other advances and other retreats in quarters still opposite,
  each entangling each in circles within circles, and in their
  real armour raise an image of battle. Now they expose                  5
  their backs in flight, now they turn their spear-points in
  charge, now as in truce they ride along side by side. Even
  as men tell of that old labyrinth[193] in lofty Crete, its way
  cunningly woven with blind high walls, and the ambiguous
  mystery of its thousand paths, winding till the pursuer’s             10
  every trace was baffled by a maze without solution and
  without return, not unlike are the courses in which these
  sons of the Teucrians interlace their movements—a
  gamesome tangle of flying and fighting, as it were dolphins
  that swimming the watery seas dart through the Carpathian             15
  and the Libyan, and sport along the billows. Such
  was the form of exercise, and such the game that Ascanius,
  when he built the cincturing walls of Alba the Long, was the
  first to revive, and taught the early Latians to celebrate it
  as he had done in his boyhood, he and the youth of Troy               20
  with him; the men of Alba taught their sons; from them
  mighty Rome received the tradition and maintained the
  observance of her sires; and the boys still bear the name
  of Troy, and their band is styled the band of Troy. Thus
  far went the solemn[194] games in honour of the deified sire.         25

  Now it was that Fortune exchanged her old faith for
  new. While they are rendering to the tomb the due solemnities
  of the varied games, Juno, Saturn’s daughter, has
  sped down Iris from heaven to the feet of Ilion, with breath
  of winds to waft her on her way—Juno, deep-brooding                   30
  over many thoughts, her ancient wrath yet unsated.
  Speeding along her many-coloured bow, seen of none, runs
  swiftly down the celestial maid. She beholds that mighty
  concourse; she looks round on the coast, and sees harbour
  abandoned and fleet forsaken. Far away, in the privacy                35
  of a solitary beach, the Trojan dames were weeping for
  lost Anchises, and, as they wept, were gazing, one and all,
  wistfully on the great deep. Alas, that wearied souls
  should still have those many waters to pass, and that vast
  breadth of sea! Such the one cry of every heart. Oh
  for a city! the toils of the main are a weariness to bear!
  So, then, in the midst of them, she suddenly alights—no
  novice in the ways of doing hurt—and lays by her heavenly              5
  form and heavenly raiment. She takes the shape of
  Beroe, the aged wife of Doryclus of Tinaros, a dame who
  once had had race and name and children, and in this guise
  stands in the midst of the Dardan matrons. “Wretched
  women,” cries she, “not to have been dragged to the death             10
  of battle by the force of Achaia under our country’s walls!
  Hapless nation! What worse than death has Fortune in
  store for you? Here is the seventh summer rolling on
  since Troy’s overthrow, and all the while we are being
  driven, land and ocean over, among all the rocks of an                15
  unfriendly sea, under all the stars of heaven, as through
  the great deep we follow after retreating Italy, and are
  tossed from wave to wave. Here is the brother-land of
  Eryx; here is Acestes, our ancient friend. Who shall gainsay
  digging a foundation, and giving a people the city                    20
  they crave? O my country! O gods of our homes,
  snatched in vain from the foe! Shall there never be walls
  named with the name of Troy? Shall I never on earth
  see the streams that Hector loved—his Xanthus and his
  Simois? Come, join me in burning up these accursed                    25
  ships. For in my sleep methought the likeness of Cassandra
  the seer put blazing torches into my hands. ‘Here,’
  she said, ‘and here only, look for Troy: here, and here
  only, is your home.’ The hour for action is come. Heaven’s
  wonders brook not man’s delay. See here! four                         30
  altars to Neptune. The god himself gives us the fire and
  the will.”

  So saying, she is the first to snatch the baleful brand—swinging
  back her hand on high; with strong effort she
  whirls and flings it. The dames of Ilion gaze with straining          35
  mind and wildered brain. Then one of the crowd, the
  eldest of all, Pyrgo, the royal nurse of Priam’s many sons:
  “No Beroe have you here, matrons—this is not Doryclus’
  wife, of Rhoeteum—mark those signs of heavenly
  beauty, those glowing eyes—what a presence is there—what
  features—what a tone in her voice—what majesty
  in her gait! Beroe I myself parted from but now, and
  left her sick and sullen to think that she alone should fail           5
  at this observance, nor pay Anchises the honour that is
  his due.” Such were her words, while the matrons, doubtful
  at first, were looking on the ships with evil eyes, distracted
  between their fatal yearning for a country now
  theirs, and the voice of destiny from realms beyond the               10
  sea—when the goddess, spreading her two wings, soared
  up into the sky and severed the clouds as she flew with the
  giant span of her bow. Then indeed, maddened by the
  portent, goaded by frenzy, they shriek one and all, and
  snatch fire from house and hearth—some strip the altars,              15
  and fling on the vessels leaf and bough and brand. The
  fire-god revels in full career along bench and oar, and
  painted pine-wood stern. The news of the fleet on fire
  is carried by Eumelus to Anchises’ tomb, and the seats in
  the circus. They look back, and with their own eyes see               20
  sparks and smoke in a black flickering cloud. First of all
  Ascanius, riding in triumph at the head of his cavalry,
  spurred his horse just as he was to the wildering camp,
  while his breathless guardians strive in vain to stay him.
  “What strange madness this? whither now, whither                      25
  would ye go,” cries he, “my poor countrywomen? It is
  not the Argive foe and his hated camp—it is your own
  hopes that you are burning. See, I am your own Ascanius”—at
  his feet he flung his empty helmet which he was
  wearing in sport as he helped to raise the image of war.              30
  Quick follows Æneas, quick the Teucrian host at his heels.
  But the matrons are flying in panic along the coast, now
  here, now there, stealing to the thickest woods and the
  deepest caves. They loathe the deed and the daylight.
  Sobered, they know their friends again, and Juno is exorcised         35
  from their souls. But not for all this will blaze and
  burning resign their unslaked powers: deep among the
  moistened timber smoulders the quick tow, discharging
  a slow lazy smoke: the crawling heat preys on the keels,
  and the plague sinks down into the vessel’s every limb,
  and strength of giant warriors and streaming water-floods
  are all of no avail. Then good Æneas began to tear his
  raiment from his back and call the gods for aid, and raise             5
  his hands in prayer: “Jove Almighty, if thy hate would
  not yet sweep off the whole Trojan race to a man, if thy
  ancient goodness has yet any regard for human suffering,
  grant the fleet to escape from flame now, Father, even now,
  and rescue from death the shattered commonweal of Troy.               10
  Or else do thou with thy wrathful bolt send down this
  poor remnant to the grave, if that is my fit reward, and
  here with thy own right hand overwhelm us all.” Scarce
  had the words been breathed, when a black tempest is
  set loose, raging with fierce bursts of rain: the thunderpeals        15
  thrill through highland and lowland—down from
  the whole sky pours a torrent of blinding water, thickened
  to blackness by the southern winds—the ships are filled,
  the smouldering timbers soaked—till every spark is
  quenched at last, and all the vessels, with the loss of four,         20
  rescued from the deadly plague.

  But father Æneas, staggering under this cruel blow,
  began to shift from side to side a vast burden of care, as
  he pondered whether to settle in the plains of Sicily, shutting
  his ears to Fate’s voice, or still make for the shores of             25
  Italy. Then Nautes the aged—whom Tritonian Pallas
  singled from his kind, to teach her lore and dower him
  with the fame of abundant wisdom—hers the oracular
  utterances which told what Heaven’s awful wrath portended,
  or what the stern sequence of destiny required—he                     30
  it was that addressed Æneas thus in words of comfort:
  “Goddess-born, be it ours to follow as Fate pulls us to or
  fro; come what may, there is no conquering fortune but
  by endurance. Here you have Acestes, the blood of Dardanus
  and of gods mingling in his veins—make him the                        35
  partner of your thoughts, and invite the aid he will gladly
  give. Consign to him the crews whom your missing ships
  have left homeless, and those who are tired of high emprize
  and of following your fortunes—the old, old men,
  and the matrons, weary of ocean, and whatever you have
  that is weak and timorsome—set these apart, and suffer
  them to have in this land a city of rest. The town’s name,
  with leave given, they shall call Acesta.”                             5

  The fire thus kindled by the words of his aged friend,
  now indeed the thoughts of his mind distract him utterly.
  And now black Night, car-borne, was mounting the sky,
  when the semblance of his sire Anchises, gliding from
  heaven, seemed to break on his musings in words like                  10
  these: “My son, dearer to me of old than life, while life
  was yet mine—my son, trained in the school of Troy’s
  destiny, I come hither at the command of Jove—of him
  who chased the fire from your ships, and looked down on
  your need in pity from on high. Obey the counsel which                15
  Nautes the aged now so wisely gives you. The flower of
  your youth, the stoutest hearts you have, let these and
  these only follow you to Italy—hard and of iron grain is
  the race you have to war down in Latium. Still, ere you
  go there, come to the infernal halls of Dis,[195] and travel          20
  through Avernus’ deep shades till you meet your father.
  No, my son, godless Tartarus[196] and its spectres of sorrow
  have no hold on me—the company of the good is my
  loved resort and Elysium[197] my dwelling. The virgin Sibyl
  shall point you the way, and the streaming blood of black             25
  cattle unlock the gate. There you shall hear of your whole
  posterity, and the city that Fate has in store. And now
  farewell, dark Night has reached the midst of her swift
  career, and the relentless Daystar has touched me with the
  breath of his panting steeds.” He said, and vanished, like            30
  smoke, into unsubstantial air. “Whither away now?”
  cries Æneas; “whither in such haste? from whom are
  you flying? what power withholds you from my embrace?”
  With these words he wakes to life the embers
  and their slumbering flame, and in suppliance worships the            35
  god of Pergamus and hoary Vesta’s shrine with duteous
  meal and a full-charged censer.

  At once he calls his friends to his side, and Acestes, first
  of all, shows to them the command of Jove, and his loved
  father’s precept, and what is now the settled judgment of
  his mind. Brief is the parley, nor does Acestes gainsay
  his bidding. They remove the matrons to the new city’s
  roll, and disembark a willing crew of hearts that need not             5
  the stir of great renown. For themselves they repair the
  benches and restore the vessels’ half-burnt timber, shape
  the oars and fit the ropes, a little band, but a living wellspring
  of martial worth. Æneas, meanwhile, is marking
  out the city with the plough, and assigning the dwellings             10
  by lot, creating an Ilium here, and there a Troy. Acestes,
  true Trojan, wields with joy his new sceptre, and proclaims
  a court, and gives laws to his assembled senate.[E]

  And now the whole nation had enjoyed a nine days’
  banquet, and the altars had received due observance;                  15
  the sleeping winds have lulled the waves, and the repeated
  whispers of the south invite to the deep once more. Uprises
  along the winding shore a mighty sound of weeping;
  prolonged embraces make day and night move slow.
  Even the matrons, even the weaklings, who so lately                   20
  shuddered at the look of the sea, and could not bear its
  name, would now fain go and endure all the weariness of
  the journey. Them the good Æneas cheers with words
  of kindness, and tearfully commends them to Acestes, his
  kinsman and theirs. Then he bids slay three calves to                 25
  Eryx, and a ewe-lamb to the weather gods, and in due
  course has the cable cut, while he, his head wreathed with
  stript olive leaves, stands aloft in the prow with a charger
  in hand, and far into the briny waves flings the entrails,
  and pours the sparkling wine. A wind gets up from the                 30
  stern, and escorts them on their way. Each vying with
  each, the crews strike the water, and sweep the marble
  surface.

  Meanwhile Venus, harassed with care, bespeaks Neptune,
  and utters from her heart plaints like these: “The
  fell wrath of Juno’s bottomless heart constrains me, Neptune,
  to stoop to all the abasement of prayer—wrath that no
  length of time softens, no piety of man, unconquered and unsilenced
  by Jove’s behest, by destiny itself. It is not enough                  5
  that her monstrous malice has torn the heart from the breast
  of Phrygia,[o] and dragged a city through an infinity of vengeance—the
  remnants of Troy, the very ashes and bones
  of the slain—these she pursues; rage so fiendish let _her_
  trace to its source. Thou thyself canst bear me witness               10
  but now in the Libyan waters, what mountains she raised
  all in a moment—all ocean she confounded with heaven,
  blindly relying on Æolus’ storms to convulse a realm where
  thou art master. See now—goading the matrons of
  Troy to crime, she has basely burnt their ships, and driven           15
  them in the ruins of their fleet to leave their mates to a
  home on an unknown shore. These poor relics, then, let
  _them_, I beg, spread the sail in safety along thy waters; let
  them touch the mouth of Laurentian Tiber, if my prayer
  is lawful, if that city is granted them of Fate.”                     20

  Then thus spake Saturn’s son, lord of the ocean deep:
  “All right hast thou, queen of Cythera, to place thy trust
  in these realms of mine, whence thou drawest thy birth.
  And I have earned it too—often have I checked the madness,
  the mighty raving of sky and sea; nor less on earth                   25
  (bear witness Xanthus and Simois!) has thy Æneas known
  my care. When Achilles was chasing Troy’s gasping
  bands, forcing them against their own ramparts, and offering
  whole hecatombs to Death, till the choked rivers
  groaned again, and Xanthus could not thread his way,                  30
  or roll himself into the sea—in that day, as Æneas confronted
  Peleus’ mighty son with weaker arm and weaker aid
  from heaven, I snatched him away in a circling cloud even
  while my whole heart was bent on overthrowing from their
  base the buildings of my own hand, the walls of perjured              35
  Troy. As my mind was then, it abides now. Banish thy
  fears; safely, according to thy prayer, he shall reach
  Avernus haven. One there shall be, and one only, whom
  thou shalt ask in vain from the engulfing surge—one life,
  and one only, shall be given for thousands.”

  With these words, having soothed to joy the goddess’
  heart, the august Father yokes his steeds with a yoke of
  gold, and puts to their fierce mouth the foaming bit, and              5
  gives full course to his flowing reins. The azure car glides
  lightly over the water’s surface—the waves sink down,
  the swelling sea stills its waters under the wheels of thunder—the
  storm-clouds fly away over the wide waste of
  heaven. Then come the hundred shapes of attendant                     10
  powers: enormous whales and Glaucus’[198] aged train, and
  Ino’s young Palæmon,[199] and rapid Tritons, and the whole
  host that Phorcus leads; on the left are Thetis, and Melite,
  and maiden Panopea, Nesæa, and Spio, and Thalia, and
  Cymodoce.                                                             15

  And now father Æneas feels a soft thrill of succeeding
  joy shoot through his anxious bosom; at once he bids
  every mast be reared, every sail stretched on its yard-arm.
  One and all strain the rope and loosen the sheet, now right,
  now left—one and all turn to and fro the sailyard’s lofty             20
  horns; the fleet is wafted by the gales it loves. First,
  before all, Palinurus led the crowding ranks; after him the
  rest, as bidden, shaped their course. And now dewy
  Night had well-nigh reached the cope of heaven’s arch—in
  calm repose the sailors were relaxing their limbs,                    25
  stretched each by his oar along the hard benches—when
  Sleep’s power, dropping lightly down from the stars of
  heaven, parted the dusky air, and swam through the night,
  in quest of you, poor Palinurus, with a fatal freight of
  dreams for your guiltless head. The god has sat down                  30
  high on the stern, in the likeness of Phorbas, and these are
  the words he utters: “Son of Iasus, Palinurus, the sea
  itself is steering the fleet; the winds breathe evenly and
  fully; it is slumber’s own hour; come, relax that strained
  head, and let those weary eyes play truant from their toil.           35
  I myself will undertake your functions awhile in your
  stead.” Hardly raising his eyes, Palinurus answered him
  thus:—“_I_ blind myself to smiling seas and sleeping
  waves: is that your will? _I_ place my faith on this fickle
  monster? What? trust Æneas to lying gales and fair
  skies, whose fraud I have rued so often?” So he said,
  and went on cleaving and clinging, never dropping his
  hand from the rudder, nor his eye from the stars. When                 5
  lo! the god waves over his two temples a bough dripping
  with Lethe’s[200] dews, and drugged by the charms of Styx,
  and in his own despite closes his swimming eyes. Scarce
  had sudden slumber begun to unstring his limbs, when
  the power, leaning over him, hurled him headlong into the             10
  streaming waves, tearing away part of the vessel’s stern
  and the rudder as he fell, with many a cry for help that
  never came, while Sleep himself soared high on his wings
  into the yielding air. Safely, nevertheless, rides the fleet
  over the water, travelling undaunted in the strength of               15
  Neptune’s royal promise. And now it was nearing the
  cliffs of the Sirens’[201] isle, cliffs unfriendly in days of old, and
  white with many a seaman’s bones, and the rocks were
  sounding hollow from afar with the untiring surge, when
  the great Father perceived the unsteady reel of the masterless        20
  ship, and guided it himself through the night of waters,
  groaning oft, and staggering under the loss of his friend:
  “Victim of faith in the calm of sky and sea, you will lie,
  Palinurus, a naked[202] corpse on a strand unknown.”




BOOK VI


  So saying and weeping, he gives rope to his fleet, and in
  due time is wafted smoothly to Cumæ’s shores of Eubœan
  fame. They turn their prows seaward: then the anchor
  with griping fang began to moor vessel after vessel, and
  crooked keels fringe all the coast. With fiery zeal the                5
  crews leap out on the Hesperian shore: some look for the
  seed of fire where it lies deep down in the veins of flint:
  some strip the woods, the wild beast’s shaggy covert, and
  point with joy to the streams they find. But good Æneas
  repairs to the heights on which Apollo sits exalted, and              10
  the privacy of the dread Sibyl,[203] stretching far away into a
  vast cavern—the Sibyl, into whose breast the prophet that
  speaks at Delos breathes his own mighty mind and soul,
  and opens the future to her eye. And now they are entering
  the groves of the Trivian goddess and the golden                      15
  palace.

  Dædalus, so runs the legend, flying from Minos’ sceptre,
  dared to trust himself in air on swift wings of his own workmanship,
  sailed to the cold north along an unwonted way,
  and at last stood buoyant on the top of this Eubœan hill.             20
  Grateful to the land that first received him, he dedicated
  to thee, Phœbus, his feathery oarage, and raised a mighty
  temple. On the doors was seen Androgeos’ death: there
  too were the sons of Cecrops,[204] constrained—O cruel woe!
  to pay in penalty the yearly tale of seven of their sons’             25
  lives: the urn is standing, and the lots drawn out. On the
  other side, breasting the wave, the Gnossian land frowns
  responsive. There is Pasiphaë’s tragic passion for the
  bull, and the mingled birth, the Minotaur, half man, half
  brute, a monument of monstrous love. There is the edifice,[205]       30
  that marvel of toiling skill, and its inextricable maze—inextricable,
  had not Dædalus in pity for the enthralling
  passion of the royal princess, himself unravelled
  the craft and mystery of those chambers, guiding the
  lover’s dark steps with a clue of thread. You too, poor
  Icarus,[206] had borne no mean part in that splendid portraiture,      5
  would grief have given art its way. Twice the artist
  essayed to represent the tragedy in gold: twice the father’s
  hands dropped down palsied. So they would have gone on
  scanning all in succession, had not Achates returned from
  his errand, and with him the priestess of Phœbus and                  10
  Diana, Deïphobe, Glaucus’ daughter, who thus bespeaks
  the king: “Not this the time for shows like these; your
  present work is to sacrifice seven bullocks untouched by the
  yoke, seven sheep duly chosen.”

  This said to Æneas, whose followers swiftly perform the               15
  prescribed rites, she summons the Teucrians into the lofty
  temple, herself its priestess. One huge side of the Eubœan
  cliff has been hollowed into a cave, approached by a hundred
  broad avenues, a hundred mouths—from these a
  hundred voices are poured, the responses of the Sibyl.                20
  Just as they were on the threshold, “It is the moment
  to pray for the oracle,” cries the maiden; “the god, the god
  is here.” Thus as she spoke at the gate, her visage, her
  hue changed suddenly—her hair started from its braid—her
  bosom heaves and pants, her wild soul swells with                     25
  frenzy—she grows larger to the view, and her tones are
  not of earth, as the breath of the divine presence comes
  on her nearer and nearer. “What! a laggard at vows and
  prayers? Æneas of Troy a laggard? for that is the only
  spell to part asunder the great closed lips of the terror-smitten     30
  shrine.” She said, and was mute. A cold
  shudder runs through the Teucrians’ iron frames, and their
  king pours out his very soul in prayer: “Phœbus, ever
  Troy’s pitying friend in her cruel agonies—thou who
  didst level Paris’ Dardan[207] bow and string his Dardan arm          35
  against the vast frame of Æacides[208]—by thy guidance I
  have penetrated all these unknown seas that swathe
  mighty continents. The Massylian tribes, thrust away by
  Nature out of view, and the quicksands that environ their
  coasts—now at last our hands are on the flying skirts of
  Italy. Oh, let it suffice Troy’s fortune to have followed
  us thus far! Ye too may now justly spare our nation of
  Pergamus, gods and goddesses all, whose eyes were                      5
  affronted by Troy and the great glories of Dardan land.
  And thou, most holy prophetess, that canst read the future
  as the present, grant me—I am asking for no crown that
  Fate does not owe me—grant a settlement in Latium to the
  Teucrians and their wandering gods, even the travel-tost              10
  deities of Troy. Then to Phœbus and his Trivian sister
  I will set up a temple of solid marble, and appoint feast-days
  in Phœbus’ name. For thee too an august shrine
  is in store in that our future realm. For there I will lodge
  thy oracles and the secret words of destiny which thou                15
  shalt speak to my nation, and consecrate chosen men to
  thy gracious service. Only commit not thy strains to
  leaves, lest they float all confusedly the sport of the
  whirling winds. Utter them with thine own mouth, I
  implore thee.” So his prayer ended.                                   20

  But the prophetess, not yet Phœbus’ willing slave, is
  storming with giant frenzy in her cavern, as though she
  hoped to unseat from her bosom the mighty god. All
  the more sharply he plies her mouth with his bit till its
  fury flags, tames her savage soul, and moulds her to his              25
  will by strong constraint. And now the hundred mighty
  doors of the chamber have flown open of their own accord,
  and are wafting through the air the voice of prophecy: “O
  you whose vast perils by sea are over at length! but on
  land there are heavier yet in store. The sons of Dardanus             30
  shall come to the realm of Lavinium—from this care set
  your mind at rest—but think not that they shall also
  have joy of their coming. War, savage war, and the
  Tiber foaming with surges of blood, is the vision I see. No
  lack for you of Simois, or Xanthus, or a Dorian[209] camp.            35
  Another Achilles is reserved for Latium, he too goddess-born—nor
  will Juno ever be seen to quit her fastened hold
  on Troy—while you, a needy suppliant—what nation,
  what city in Italy will not have had you knocking at its
  gates! Once more will an alien bride bring on the Teucrians
  all this woe—once more a foreign bed. But you,
  yield not to affliction, but go forth all the bolder to meet it,
  so far as your destiny gives you leave. The first glimpse of           5
  safety, little as you dream it, shall dawn on you from a
  Grecian town.”

  Such are the words with which Cumæ’s Sibyl from her
  cell shrills forth awful mysteries and booms again from
  the cavern, robing her truth in darkness—such the violence            10
  with which Apollo shakes the bridle in her frenzied mouth
  and plies her bosom with his goad. Soon as her frenzy
  abated and the madness of her lips grew calm, Æneas the
  hero began: “No feature, awful maiden, that suffering can
  show rises on my sight new or unlooked-for—I have                     15
  foreseen all and scanned all in fancy already. I have
  but one prayer to make: since here it is that Fame tells of
  the gate of the infernal monarch, and the murky pool of
  Acheron’s overflow, grant me to pass to the sight, to
  the presence of my loved father—teach the way, and unlock             20
  the sacred doors. Him I bore away through flames
  and a driving tempest of darts on these my shoulders and
  rescued him from the midst of the foe: he was the companion
  of my journey, and encountered with me all the
  waves of ocean, all the terrors of sea and sky in his own             25
  feeble frame, beyond the strength and the day of old age.
  Nay more—that I would kneel to thee and approach thy
  dwelling—this was his charge, his oft-repeated prayer.
  Oh, of thy grace, pity the son and the sire; for thou art
  all-powerful, nor is it for nought that Hecate has set thee           30
  over the groves of Avernus. If Orpheus had the power to
  fetch back the shade of his wife, by the help of his Thracian
  lyre and its sounding strings—if Pollux redeemed
  his brother by dying in turn with him, and went and returned
  on the path those many times—why talk of Theseus,                     35
  why of great Alcides[210]? my line, like theirs, is from
  Jove most high.”

  Such were his prayers, while his hands clasped the altar,
  when thus the prophetess began: “Heir of the blood of
  gods, son of Anchises of Troy, easy is the going down to
  Avernus—all night and all day the gate of gloomy
  Pluto stands unbarred; but to retrace your footsteps, and
  win your way back to the upper air, that is the labour, that           5
  the task. There have been a few, favourites of gracious
  Jove, or exalted to heaven by the blaze of inborn worth,
  themselves sprung from the gods, who have had the power.
  The whole intervening space is possessed by woods,
  and lapped round by the black windings of Cocytus’[211]               10
  stream. And now, if your heart’s yearning is so great,
  your passion so strong, twice to stem the Stygian pool,
  twice to gaze on the night of Tartarus—if it be your joy
  to give scope to a madman’s striving—hear what must
  first be done. Deep in the shade of a tree lurks a branch, all        15
  of gold, foliage alike and limber twig, dedicated to the
  service of the Juno of the shades; it is shrouded by the
  whole labyrinth of the forest, closed in by the boskage that
  darkens the glens. Yet none may pierce the subterranean
  mystery, till a man have gathered from the tree that leafy            20
  sprout of gold, for this it is that fair Proserpine has ordained
  to be brought her as her own proper tribute. Pluck
  off one, another is there unfailingly, of gold as pure, a twig
  burgeoning with as fine an ore. Let then your eye be
  keen to explore it, your hand quick to pluck it when duly             25
  found, for it will follow the touch with willingness and
  ease, if you have a call from Fate; if not, no strength of
  yours will overcome it, no force of steel tear it away.
  But, besides this, you have the breathless corpse of a
  friend lying unburied—alas! you know it not—tainting                  30
  your whole fleet with the air of death, while you are asking
  Heaven’s will, and lingering on this our threshold. Him
  first consign to his proper place, and hide him in the grave.
  Lead black cattle to the altar: be this the expiation to
  pave your way. Thus at last you shall look on the groves              35
  of Styx and the realms untrodden of the living.” She
  said, and closed her lips in silence.

  Æneas, with saddened face and steadfast eye, moves on,
  leaving the cave behind, and revolves in his mind the secrets
  of the future. Achates, ever faithful, walks at his
  side, and plants his foot with no less consciousness of
  care. Many were the things exchanged in their ranging
  talk—who could be the dead comrade that the priestess                  5
  spoke of, what the corpse that needed burial. And lo!
  Misenus, soon as they came, there on the dry beach they
  see him, snatched by death that should have spared him—Misenus,
  son of Æolus, than whom none was mightier to
  stir men’s hearts with his clarion, and kindle with music             10
  the war-god’s flame. Hector the great had been his chief:
  in Hector’s service he performed a warrior’s part, famous
  alike with the trumpet and the spear. But after the conquering
  arm of Achilles robbed his master of life, valiant
  hero, he made himself the comrade of the Dardan Æneas,                15
  nor found the standard he followed meaner than of old.
  But in those days, as he was making his hollow shell ring
  over the waters, infatuate mortal, challenging the gods to
  compete, Triton, roused to jealousy, seized him, if the
  story be true, and plunged him in a moment in the billow              20
  that laps among the rocks. So they all stood round, uttering
  loud shrieks; louder than the rest Æneas the good.
  And then without delay they set about the Sibyl’s bidding,
  weeping sore, and in mournful rivalry heap up the funeral
  pyre with trees, and carry it into the sky.                           25

  Away they go to an ancient wood, the wild beast’s tall
  covert—down go the pitch-trees; the holm-oak rings with
  the axe’s blows, and so do the ashen beams; the wedge
  cleaves through the fissile[212] oak; they roll down from the
  heights huge mountain ashes. There is Æneas, in this,                 30
  as in other labours, the first to cheer on his comrades, and
  wielding a weapon like theirs; and thus he ponders in the
  sad silence of his own breast, looking at the immeasurable
  wood, and thus gives utterance to his prayer: “Oh that
  at this moment that golden branch on the tree would reveal            35
  itself to our sight in all this depth of forest! for I see that
  in all things the prophetess has told us of you, Misenus,
  alas! too truly!” Scarce had he spoken, when, as by
  chance, a pair of doves come flying along the sky, under the
  hero’s very eyes, and settle on the turf at his feet. At once
  the mighty chief recognizes his mother’s birds, and gladly
  breathes a second prayer: “Oh guide us on our way, wherever
  it be, and as ye fly direct our steps into the grove                   5
  where the precious branch casts its shade on the rich
  ground! Thou too forsake not our perplexity, O goddess
  mother!” Thus much he said, and checked his advancing
  foot, watching to see what prognostics they bring, whither
  they aim their onward course. They, as they graze, go                 10
  ever forward on the wing, as far as the eyes of the travellers
  can keep them in view. Then when they come to Avernus’
  noisome jaws, swiftly they soar aloft, and gliding through
  the clear sky, settle twain on the same tree, their chosen
  seat, whence there flashed through the branches the contrasted        15
  gleam of gold. Even as in the woods, in the cold of
  midwinter, the mistletoe is wont to put forth new leaves, a
  vegetable growth, but of no parent tree, and with its
  yellow produce to surround the tapering boles, so looked
  the leafy gold among the holm-oak’s dark shade—so in the              20
  light breeze tinkled the foil. Æneas snatches it at once,
  plucks it off with eagerness overpowering its delay, and
  carries it to the home of the prophetic Sibyl.

  Meantime, with not less zeal, the Teucrians on the
  shore were mourning for Misenus, and paying the last                  25
  honour to the thankless ashes. First they raised a pile,
  unctuous with pine-wood, and high-heaped with planks of
  oak: they wreath its sides with gloomy foliage, and set
  up before it funeral cypresses, and adorn it with a covering
  of refulgent armour. Some make ready heated water and                 30
  cauldrons bubbling over the fire, and wash and anoint the
  cold corpse. Loud rings the wail: then, the dirge over,
  they place the limbs on the couch that claims them,
  and fling over them purple garments, the dead men’s
  usual covering. Some put their shoulders to the heavy                 35
  bier in melancholy service, and after ancestral fashion,
  with averted eyes, apply the torch from under. The rich
  heap is ablaze—offerings of incense, sacrificial viands, oil
  streaming from the bowl. After that the ashes were fallen
  in and the blaze was lulled, they drenched with wine the
  relics and the thirsty embers on the pyre, and Corynæus
  gathered up the bones, and stored them in a brazen urn.
  He, too, carried round pure water, and sprinkled thrice                5
  the comrades of the dead, scattering the thin drops with
  a branch of fruitful olive—so he expiated the company,
  and spoke the last solemn words. But good Æneas raises
  over the dead a monument of massive size, setting up for
  the hero his own proper arms, the oar and the trumpet,                10
  under a skyey mountain, which is now from him called
  Misenus, and retains from age to age the everlasting name.

  This done, he hastens to execute the Sibyl’s bidding.
  A deep cave there was, yawning wide with giant throat,
  rough and shingly, shadowed by the black pool and the                 15
  gloom of the forest—a cave, over whose mouth no winged
  thing could fly unharmed, so poisonous the breath that
  exhaling from its pitchy jaws steamed up to the sky—whence
  Greece has given the spot the name _Aornos_.[213]
  Here first the priestess places in sacrificial station four           20
  black-skinned bullocks, and empties wine over their
  brows, and plucking from between their horns the hairs of
  the crown, throws them into the hallowed flame, as the
  firstfruits of worship, with loud cries on Hecate, queen in
  heaven and Erebus both. Others put the knife to the                   25
  throat, and catch in chargers the steaming blood. With
  his own sword Æneas strikes down a lamb of sable fleece,
  for the Furies’[214] mother and her mighty sister, and a
  barren heifer for thee, dread Proserpine. Then to the
  Stygian monarch he rears altars, blazing through the                  30
  darkness, and piles on the flame the bulls’ carcases
  entire, pouring fat oil on the entrails all aglow. When,
  hark! as the sun began to glimmer and dawn, the ground
  is bellowing under their feet, and the wood-crowned heights
  are nodding, and the baying of dogs sounds through the                35
  gloom, for the goddess is at hand. “Hence, hence with
  your unhallowed feet!” clamours the prophetess, “and rid
  the whole grove of your presence. And you—strike into
  the road, and pluck your sword from his scabbard—now
  is the hour for courage, Æneas, now for a stout heart.”
  No more she said, but flung herself wildly into the cavern’s
  mouth; and he, with no faltering step, keeps pace with his
  guide.                                                                 5

  Ye gods, whose empire is the shades—spirits of silence,
  Chaos and Phlegethon, stretching wide in the stillness of
  night, suffer me to tell what has reached my ears; grant
  me your aid to reveal things buried underground, deep and
  dark.                                                                 10

  On they went, darkling in solitary night, far into the
  gloom, through Pluto’s void halls and ghostly realms—like
  a journey in a wood under the niggard beams of a
  doubtful moon, when Jupiter has shrouded heaven in
  shadow, and black Night has stolen the colour from                    15
  Nature’s face. There before the threshold, in the very
  mouth of Hell, Agony and the fiends of Remorse have made
  their lair: there dwell wan Diseases, and woful Age, and
  Terror, and Hunger that prompts to Sin, and loathly
  Want—shapes of hideous view—and Death, and Suffering;                 20
  then comes Sleep, Death’s blood-brother, and the
  soul’s guilty joys, and deadly War couched in the gate,
  and the Furies’ iron chambers, and frantic Strife, with
  bloody fillets wreathed in her snaky hair.

  In the midst there stands, with boughs and aged arms                  25
  outspread, a massive elm, of broad shade, the chosen
  seat, so Rumour tells, of bodiless dreams, which cling
  close to its every leaf. There, too, are a hundred monstrous
  shapes of wild beasts of divers kinds, Centaurs
  stalled in the entrance and two-formed Scyllas, and                   30
  Briareus,[215] the hundred-handed, and the portent of Lerna,[216]
  hissing fearfully, and Chimæra[217] in her panoply of flames,
  Gorgons,[218] and Harpies, and the semblance of the three-bodied
  spectre. At once Æneas grasps his sword, in the
  haste of sudden alarm, and meets their advance with its               35
  drawn blade; and did not his companion warn him, of
  her own knowledge, that they are but thin unbodied
  spirits flitting in a hollow mask of substance, he would
  be rushing among them, and slashing shadows asunder
  with the steel’s unavailing blows.

  Hence runs the road that leads to the waters of Tartarean
  Acheron, whose gulfy stream, churning mud in its
  monstrous depths, is all aglow, and disgorges into Cocytus             5
  the whole of its sand. These waters are guarded by a
  grisly ferryman, frightful and foul—Charon; his chin an
  uncleared forest of hoary hair; his eyes a mass of flame;
  while his uncleanly garb hangs from his shoulders, gathered
  into a knot. With his own hand he pushes on the craft                 10
  with a pole, and trims the sails, and moves the dead
  heavily along in his boat of iron-gray, himself already in
  years; but a god’s old age is green and vigorous. Towards
  him the whole crowd was pouring to the bank: matrons
  and warriors, and bodies of mighty heroes discharged of               15
  life, boys and unwedded maidens, and youths laid on the
  pile of death in their parents’ eyes—many as are the
  leaves that drop and fall in the woods in autumn’s early
  cold, or many as are the birds that flock massed together
  from the deep to the land, when the wintry year drives                20
  them over sea to tenant a sunnier clime. There they
  stood, each praying that he might be the first to cross,
  with hands yearningly outstretched towards the further
  shore; but the grim boatman takes on board now these,
  now those, while others he drives away, and bars them                 25
  from the river’s brink. Æneas cries as a man perplexed
  and startled by the tumult: “Tell me, dread maiden,
  what means this concourse to the stream? Of what are
  these spirits in quest? What choice decides that these
  shall retire from the shore, while those are rowing through           30
  that leaden pool?” To him in brief returned the aged
  priestess: “Son of Anchises, Heaven’s undoubted offspring,
  before you are Cocytus’ depths and the marshy
  flood of Styx, that power by whose name the gods fear
  to swear in vain. The whole multitude you see here is                 35
  helpless and tombless; Charon is the ferryman; those
  who ride the wave are the buried. He may not ferry
  them from the dreadful banks across that noisy current
  till their bones have found a place of rest. A hundred
  years they wander hovering about these shores; then at
  last they embark, and see again the flood of their longing.”
  Anchises’ son stood and paused, musing deeply, and pitying
  at his heart a lot so unkind. Yes, there he sees, sadly                5
  wandering without death’s last tribute, Leucaspis and
  Orontes, the captain of Lycia’s fleet: both had sailed
  with him from Troy over the stormy water, and the south
  wind whelmed them both, engulfing the vessel and its
  crew.                                                                 10

  Lo! he sees his pilot, Palinurus, moving along—Palinurus,
  who but now, while voyaging from Libya, his eyes
  bent on the stars, had fallen’ from the stern, flung out
  into the wide waste of waters. So when he had at last
  taken knowledge of his features, now saddened, in the                 15
  deep gloom, he thus accosts him first: “Who was it,
  Palinurus, of all the gods, that tore you from us, and
  whelmed you in the wide sea? Tell me who. Till now
  I never found him false; but in this one response Apollo
  has proved a cheat, foretelling that you would be unharmed            20
  on the deep, and win your way to the Ausonian
  frontier, and thus it is that he keeps his word!” “Nay,”
  returned he, “my chief, Anchises’ son, Phœbus’ tripod has
  told you no lie, nor did any god whelm me in the sea.
  No, I chanced to fall, tearing away by main force the                 25
  rudder, to which I was clinging like sentry to his post,
  as I guided your course, and dragging it with me in my
  headlong whirl. Witness those cruel waters, I felt no
  fear for my own life like that which seized me for your
  ship, lest, disarmed and disabled, shaken loose from her              30
  ruler’s hand, she should give way under the great sea that
  was rising then. Three long nights of storm the south
  wind swept me over the vast wilderness of convulsed
  ocean. Hardly at last, at the fourth dawn, I looked out
  aloft upon Italy from the crest of the wave. Stroke by                35
  stroke I was swimming to shore; and now I was just
  laying hold on safety, had not the savage natives come
  on me, sword in hand, clogged as I was with my dripping
  clothes, and clutching with talon fingers the steep mountain-top,
  and deemed blindly they had found a prize.
  Now the wave is my home, and the winds keep tossing
  me on the beach. Oh, by heaven’s pleasant sunshine
  and bright sky; by your father, I adjure you; by the                   5
  promise growing up with your Iulus, rescue me with that
  unconquered arm from this cruel fate: be yourself, and
  either spread earth upon me, for that you can surely do,
  and put back to Velia’s haven; or, if any way there be,
  any that your goddess mother can reveal—for well I                    10
  ween it is not without Heaven’s leave that you purpose
  to stem these fearful tides and the reluctant pool of Styx—stretch
  your hand to your poor friend, and take me
  with you over the water, that at least I may find in death
  a place of rest and peace.” So had he spoken, when thus               15
  the priestess begins: “What demon, Palinurus, has set
  on you so monstrous a desire? You, unburied, look on
  the Stygian water, and the dread river of the furies?
  You set foot on the bank unbidden? Cease to dream
  that Heaven’s destiny can be swayed by prayer. Yet                    20
  hear and retain a word which may console your hard lot.
  For know that the dwellers in that fatal border, goaded
  far and wide through their cities by prodigies from heaven,
  shall propitiate your dust: they shall erect a tomb, and
  through that tomb send down your funeral dues, and the                25
  spot shall bear forever the name of Palinurus.” These
  words allayed his cares, and banished for a while grief
  from that sad bosom: his heart leaps to the land that is
  called by his name.

  They accordingly continue their journey, and approach                 30
  the river. Soon as the boatman saw them, at the moment,
  from the wave of Styx, moving through the stilly forest,
  and turning their steps to the bank, he first bespeaks
  them thus, and assails them unaccosted: “You, whoever
  you are, that are making for these waters of ours in warlike          35
  trim, speak your errand from the spot where you
  are, and come no nearer. This is the place for the shadows,
  for Sleep and slumberous Night. The bodies of the living
  may not be ferried in my Stygian barque. Nay, it was
  not to my joy that I gave Alcides a passage over the lake,
  nor Theseus and Pirithous, born of gods though they
  were, and of strength unsubdued. The one laid a jailer’s
  hand on the warder of Tartarus, even at the foot of the                5
  king’s own throne, and dragged him trembling along:
  the others essayed to carry off the queen from Pluto’s
  bridal chamber.” To which the Amphrysian priestess
  replied in brief: “Here there are no stratagems like those;
  be not discomposed; these weapons are not borne for                   10
  violence; the monstrous guardian of your gate is free to
  terrify the bloodless spectres from his den with his unending
  bark; Proserpine is free to keep her uncle’s home
  as faithful wife should. This is Æneas of Troy, renowned
  for piety and arms alike: it is to see his father that he             15
  is going down to Erebus’ lowest depth of gloom. If thou
  art moved in nought by the spectacle of piety so signal,
  yet let this branch”—she uncovered the branch which
  was concealed in her robe—‘claim recognition.’ At
  once the angry swell subsides, and the breast is calm.                20
  No further parley. Gazing in wonder at the sacred offering
  of the fated bough, last seen so long ago, he turns to
  them the sea-green boat, and draws near the bank.
  Then he dislodges other ghostly passengers who were sitting
  along the benches, and clears the gangways, while                     25
  he takes into the vessel’s hollow the mighty Æneas. The
  sutures of the boat cracked beneath the weight, as through
  its rents it drew in large draughts of marsh-water. At
  length priestess and prince are safe across the flood, set
  down amid featureless mud and blue-green rushes.                      30

  Cerberus,[219] the monster, makes the whole realm ring
  with his three barking throats, as he lies in giant length
  fronting them in his den’s mouth. The priestess, seeing
  the snakes already bristling on his neck, throws him a
  morsel steeped in the slumber of honey and medicated                  35
  meal. He, in the frenzy of hunger, opens his triple jaws
  to catch it as it comes, and stretches his enormous back at
  length on the ground, till his huge bulk covers the den.
  Æneas masters the approach while the warder sleeps, and
  swiftly passes from the bank of the river without return.

  At once there breaks on his ear a voice of mighty wailing,
  infant spirits sobbing and crying on the threshold,
  babes that, portionless of the sweets of life, were snatched           5
  from the breast by the black death-day’s tyranny, and
  whelmed in untimely night. Next to them are those
  who were done to death by false accusation. Yet let
  none think that the lot of award or the judge’s sentence
  are wanting here. There sits Minos,[220] the president, urn           10
  in hand: he summons an assembly of the speechless, and
  takes cognizance of earthly lives and earthly sins.

  Next to them comes the dwelling-place of the sons of
  sorrow, who, though guiltless, procured their own death by
  violence, and, for mere hatred of the sunshine, flung their           15
  lives away. Oh, how gladly would they now, in the air
  above, bear to the end the load of poverty and the full
  extremity of toil! But Fate bars the way: the unlovely
  pool swathes them round in her doleful waters, and Styx,
  with her ninefold windings, keeps them fast.                          20

  Not far hence the traveller’s eye sees stretching on every
  side the Mourning Fields: such the name they bear.
  Here dwell those whom cruel Love’s consuming tooth
  has eaten to the heart, in the privacy of hidden walks
  and an enshrouding myrtle wood: their tender sorrows                  25
  quit them not even in death. In this region he sees
  Phædra and Procris, and sad Eriphyle, pointing to the
  wounds of her ruthless son, and Evadne, and Pasiphaë:
  along with them moves Laodamia, and Cæneus, once a
  man, now a woman, brought back by the turn of fate to                 30
  her former self. Among these was Phœnicia’s daughter,
  Dido, fresh from her death-wound, wandering in that
  mighty wood: soon as the Trojan hero stood at her side,
  and knew her, looming dimly through the dusk—as a
  man sees or thinks he sees through the clouds, when the               35
  month is young, the rising moon—his tears broke forth,
  and he addressed her tenderly and lovingly. “Unhappy
  Dido! and was it then a true messenger that reached
  me with the tale that you were dead: that the sword
  had done its worst? Was it, alas, to a grave that I
  brought you? By the stars of heaven I swear, by the
  powers above, by all that is most sacred here underground,
  against my will, fair queen, I quitted your coast.                     5
  No; it was the command of the gods; the same stern
  force which compels me now to pass through this realm
  of shade, this wilderness of squalor and abysmal night;
  it was that which drove me by its uttered will: nor could
  I have thought that my departure would bring on you                   10
  such violence of grief. Stay your step, and withdraw not
  from the look I bend on you. Whom would you shun?
  the last word which fate suffers me to address you is this.”
  With words like these, Æneas kept soothing the soul that
  blazed forth through those scowling eyes, and moving                  15
  himself to tears. She stood with averted head and eyes
  on the ground, her features as little moved by the speech
  he essayed as if she held the station of a stubborn flint,
  or a crag of Marpessa.[221] At length she flung herself
  away, and, unforgiving still, fled into the shadow of the             20
  wood, where her former lord, Sychæus, answers her sorrows
  with his, and gives her full measure for her love.
  Yet, none the less, Æneas, thrilled through and through
  by her cruel fate, follows far on her track with tears, and
  sends his pity along with her.                                        25

  Thence he turns, to encounter the appointed way.
  And now they were already in the furthest region, the
  separate place tenanted by the great heroes of war.
  Here there meets him Tydeus, here Parthenopæus, illustrious
  in arms, and the spectre of pale Adrastus. Here                       30
  are chiefs of Dardan line, wailed long and loudly in the
  upper air as they lay low in fight: as he saw them all in
  long array, he groaned heavily. Glaucus and Medon, and
  Thersilochus, the three sons of Antenor, and Polyphœtes,
  Ceres’ priest, and Idæus, with his hand still on the car,             35
  still on the armour. They surround him, right and left,
  the ghostly crowd; one look is not sufficient: they would
  fain linger on and on, and step side by side with him,
  and learn the cause of his coming. But the nobles of the
  Danaans, and the flower of Agamemnon’s bands, when
  they saw the hero and his armour gleaming through the
  shade, were smitten with strange alarm: some turn their
  backs in flight, as erst they fled to the ships: others raise          5
  a feeble war-shout. The cry they essay mocks their
  straining throats.

  Here it is that he sees Priam’s son, mangled all over,
  Deiphobus, his face cruelly marred—face and both
  hands—his temples despoiled of his ears, and his nose                 10
  lopped by unseemly carnage. Scarce, in truth, he recognized
  him, trembling as he was, and trying to hide the
  terrible vengeance wreaked on him: unaccosted, he addresses
  him in the tones he knew of old: “Deiphobus,
  mighty warrior, scion of Teucer’s illustrious stock, who              15
  has had the ambition to avenge himself so cruelly? who
  has had his will of you thus? For me, Rumour told me
  on that fatal night that you had sunk down, tired with
  the work of slaughtering the Greeks, on a heap of undistinguished
  carnage. Then with my own hand, I set up                              20
  an empty tomb on the Rhœtean shore, and thrice with a
  loud voice invoked your spirit. There are your name and
  your arms to keep the spot in memory: your self, dear
  friend, I could not see, so as to give you repose in the
  fatherland I was leaving.” To whom the son of Priam:                  25
  “Dear friend, you have failed in nought: all that Deiphobus
  could claim has been paid by you to him and to his
  shade. No; it was my own destiny and the deadly
  wickedness of the Spartan woman that plunged me thus
  deep in ill: these tokens are of her leaving. How we                  30
  spent that fatal night in treacherous joyance you know
  well: too good cause is there to bear it in mind. When
  the fateful horse at one bound surmounted the height of
  Pergamus, and brought a mailclad infantry in its laden
  womb, she feigned a solemn dance, and led round the                   35
  city Phrygian dames in Bacchic ecstasy; herself in their
  midst raising a mighty torch aloft, and calling to the
  Danaans from the top of the citadel. That hour I, spent
  with care and overborne with sleep, was in the hold of
  our ill-starred bridal chamber, weighed down as I lay, by
  slumber sweet and sound, the very image of the deep
  calm of death. Meantime, my peerless helpmate removes
  from the house arms of every sort: yes, my trusty sword                5
  she had withdrawn from my pillow, and now she calls
  Menelaus to come in, and throws wide the door, hoping,
  I doubt not, that the greatness of the boon would soften
  her lover’s heart, and that the memory of her crime of
  old could thus be wiped from men’s minds. Why make                    10
  the story long? They burst into the chamber, along with
  them that child of Æolus,[222] then as ever the counsellor
  of evil. Recompense, ye gods, the Greeks in kind, if
  these lips, that ask for retribution, are pure and loyal.
  But you; what chance has brought you here in your lifetime,           15
  let me ask in turn? Are you come under the spell
  of ocean-wandering, or by the command of heaven? or
  what tyranny of fortune constrains you to visit these
  sad, sunless dwellings, the abode of confusion?”

  In this interchange of talk, the Dawn-goddess in her                  20
  flushing car, careering through the sky, had well passed
  the summit of the arch; and perchance they had spent
  all their allotted time in converse like this, had not the
  Sibyl warned her companion with brief address: “Night
  is hastening, Æneas; and we, as we weep, are making                   25
  hours pass. This is the spot where the road parts in
  twain. The right, which goes under the palace-wall of
  mighty Dis—there lies our way to Elysium; the left
  puts in motion the tortures of the wicked, and sends
  them to Tartarus, the home of crime.” Deiphobus replied:              30
  “Frown not, dread priestess; I depart, to make
  the ghostly number complete, and plunge again in darkness.
  Go on your way, our nation’s glory, go: may your
  experience of fate be more blest.” He said, and, while
  yet speaking, turned away.                                            35

  Suddenly, Æneas looks back, and, under a rock on the
  left, sees a broad stronghold, girt by a triple wall; a fierce
  stream surrounds it with surges of fire, Tartarean Phlegethon,
  and tosses craggy fragments in thunder. Full in
  front is a vast gate, its pillars of solid adamant. No force
  of man, not even the embattled powers of heaven, could
  break it down. Rising in air is a turret of iron, and Tisiphone,
  with a gory robe girt round her, sits at the vestibule                 5
  with sleepless vigilance night and day. Hence
  sounds of wailing meet the ear, and the crack of remorseless
  whips; the clank of steel follows, and the trailing of
  the chain. Æneas stood still, riveted by the terror of
  the noise. “What shapes is guilt wearing now? tell me,                10
  dread maiden. What are the torments that lie on it so
  hard? what mean these loud upsoaring shrieks?” The
  priestess returned: “Noble leader of the Teucrians, no
  innocent foot may tread that guilty threshold; but the
  day when Hecate set me over the groves of Avernus, she                15
  taught me from her own lips the punishments of Heaven,
  and led me through from end to end. Here rules Gnosian
  Rhadamanthus, a reign of iron—avenger, at once, and
  judge of cowering guilt, he compels a confession of what
  crimes soever men in upper air, blindly rejoicing in the              20
  cheat, have kept secret till the hour of death, to be expiated
  then. In a moment, Tisiphone the torturer, with
  uplifted scourge, lashes from side to side the spurned
  and guilty soul; and brandishing in her left hand knots
  of serpents, summons her unpitying sisterhood. Then at                25
  last, grating on their dread-sounding hinge, the awful
  gates are opened. See you what manner of sentry is
  seated at the entrance? what a presence is guarding the
  threshold? Know that a Hydra fiercer yet with fifty
  monstrous throats, each a yawning pit, holds her seat                 30
  within. Then there is the abyss of Tartarus in sheer
  descent, extending under the shades, twice as far as
  man’s skyward gaze from earth to the heaven of Olympus.
  Here are earth’s ancient progeny, the Titan brood,
  hurled down by the thunderbolt to wallow in the depths                35
  of the gulf. Here too saw I the twin sons of Aloeus,
  frames of giant bulk, who essayed by force of hand to
  pluck down the mighty heavens, and dislodge Jove from
  his realm in the sky. I saw too Salmoneus, smitten with
  cruel vengeance, while mimicking the fires of Jove and
  the rumblings of Olympus. Borne in a four-horse car, a
  flaring torch in hand, he was making his triumphal progress            5
  through the tribes of Greece, and the midst of Elis’
  city, and bidding men accord him a god’s homage. Madman!
  to counterfeit the storm-cloud and the unrivalled
  thunderbolt with the rattle of brass and the beat of
  horses’ horny hoofs. But the almighty sire from the
  depth of his cloudy dwelling hurled his weapon—no                     10
  futile firebrand his, no pinewood’s smoky glare—and
  dashed him headlong down with that tremendous blast.
  Tityos, too, the foster-child of Earth’s common breast, it
  was mine to see: his body lies extended over nine whole
  acres, and there is a monstrous vulture with hooked beak              15
  shearing away his imperishable liver, and reaping a harvest
  of suffering from his vitals, as it digs deep for its meal,
  and burrows in the cavern of his breast, nor gives the
  new-growing filaments rest or respite. What need to tell
  of the Lapithæ, of Ixion[223] and Pirithous—men who live              20
  under a black crag, ever falling, and just in act to drop?
  The lofty couch is spread for the banquet, and the pillar
  of gold gleams underneath: the feast is before them,
  served in kingly luxury; but the eldest of the Furies is
  couched at their side: she will not let them stretch a hand           25
  to the board: she starts up with torch uplifted and
  thunder in her tones. Here are they who lived in hatred
  with their brethren while life yet was; who smote a
  parent or wove for a client the web of fraud; who gained
  a treasure and brooded over it alone, and never shared it             30
  with their kin—a mighty number these—adulterers,
  who were slain for their crime; citizens who followed
  the standard of treason; slaves who shrunk not from
  breaking their troth to their lords: all in prison awaiting
  their doom. Ask not _what_ doom is theirs, what                       35
  phase, what fate has whelmed them so deep. Others roll
  the huge stone up the hill, or hang dispread from the
  spokes of the wheel: there sits, as he will sit for evermore,
  unhappy Theseus: and Phlegyas, from the depth
  of his agony, keeps warning all, and proclaiming with a
  voice of terror through the shades: ‘Learn hereby to be
  righteous, and not to scorn the gods.’ This sold his country
  for gold, and saddled her with a tyrant; for gain he                   5
  made and unmade laws: this assailed his daughter’s bed,
  and essayed a forbidden union: all dared some monstrous
  crime, and enjoyed their daring. No; had I even a hundred
  tongues, and a hundred mouths, and lungs of iron,
  not then could I embrace all the types of crime, or rehearse          10
  the whole muster-roll of vengeance.”

  So spoke Apollo’s aged priestess; and then resuming:
  “But come,” she cries, “speed on your way, and fulfil
  the duty you have essayed: quicken we our pace. I see
  the walls which the Cyclopian forge raised in air, and the            15
  arched gates confronting us, where sacred rule bids us
  set down our offering.” As she spoke, they step side by
  side through the dusky ways, despatch the interval of
  distance, and draw near the gate. Æneas masters the
  approach, sprinkles his body with pure spring water, and              20
  fixes the branch on the portal’s front.

  And now these things done at length, and the offering
  to the goddess accomplished, they have reached the
  regions of bliss, green pleasaunces of happy groves, and the
  abodes of the blest. Here ether clothes the plains with               25
  an ampler plenitude and a dazzling lustre; and the eye
  beholds a sun and stars of its own. There are some,
  plying their limbs on the grassy wrestling-ground, conflicting
  in sport, and grappling each other on the yellow
  sand: some are beating their feet in the dance, and chanting          30
  songs. There, too, is the Thracian priest[224] in his flowing
  robe, singing the seven notes in unison with the
  dancer’s measure, and striking them now with his fingers,
  now with the quill of ivory. Here are the old race of
  Teucer, a goodly family, heroes of lofty soul, born in                35
  earth’s better days, Ilus and Assaracus, and Dardanus,
  founder of Troy. From afar he gazes wonderingly on
  their warrior arms and their ghostly chariots. Their spears
  stand rooted in the ground, and their unyoked steeds
  graze dispersedly over the meadow. All the delight they
  took when alive in chariots and armour, all their pride in
  grooming and feeding their horses, goes with them underground,
  and animates them there. See, too, his eye rests                       5
  on others regaling on either hand upon the grass, and
  singing in chorus a joyous pæan, all in a fragrant grove
  of bay, the source whence, welling forth into the upper
  world, Eridanus[225] flows in broad current between his
  wooded banks. Here is a noble company who braved                      10
  wounds in fight for fatherland; all the priests who kept
  their purity while life was; all the poets whose hearts
  were clean, and their songs worthy Phœbus’ ear; all who
  by cunning inventions gave a grace to life, and whose
  worthy deeds made their fellows think of them with love:              15
  each has his brow cinctured with a snow-white fillet.
  Looking on the multitude as it streamed around, the
  Sibyl bespoke them thus—Musæus before all; for he
  stands the centre of that vast crowd, which looks up to
  him, as with rising shoulders he towers above them:                   20
  “Tell us, happy spirits, and you, best of bards, which is
  Anchises’ haunt? which his home? for it is to see him
  that we have come hither, and won our way over the
  mighty river of Erebus.” Instant the hero replied in brief:
  “Here there are no fixed abodes: our dwellings are in                 25
  shadowy groves: our settlements on the velvet slope of
  banks and meadows fresh with running streams. But
  come, if you will, climb this hill with me, and I will set
  your feet at once on a road that will lead you.” So saying,
  he moves on before, and from the top of the ridge                     30
  points to broad fields of light, while they descend from
  the summit.

  But father Anchises, down in the depth of the green
  dell, was surveying with fond observance the spirits now
  confined there, but hereafter to pass into the light of day,          35
  and scanning, as chance would have it, the whole multitude
  of his people, even his loved posterity, their destinies,
  their warrior deeds, their ways and their works.
  Soon as he saw Æneas advancing through the grass to
  meet him, he stretched out both his hands with eager
  movement, tears gushed over his cheeks, and words escaped
  his lips: “And are you come at last? has love fulfilled
  a father’s hopes and surmounted the perils of the                      5
  way? is it mine to look on your face, my son, and listen
  and reply as we talked of old? Yes; I was even thinking
  so in my own mind. I was reckoning that it would
  be, counting over the days. Nor has my longing played
  me false. Oh, the lands and the mighty seas from which                10
  you have come to my presence! the dangers, my son,
  that have tossed and smitten you! Oh, how I have feared
  lest you should come to harm in that realm of Libya!”
  The son replied: “Your shade it was, father, your melancholy
  shade, that, coming to me oft and oft, constrained                    15
  me to knock at these doors: here, in the Tyrrhene deep
  my ships are riding at anchor. Let us grasp hand in
  hand: let us, my father! Oh, withdraw not from my
  embrace!” As he spoke, the streaming tears rolled down
  his face. Thrice, as he stood, he essayed to fling his                20
  arms round that dear neck: thrice the phantom escaped
  the hands that caught at it in vain, impalpable as the
  wind, fleeting as the wings of sleep.

  Meanwhile Æneas sees in the retired vale a secluded
  grove with brakes and rustling woods, and the river of                25
  Lethe,[226] which floats along by those abodes of peace.
  Round it were flying races and tribes untold: even as
  in the meadows when bees in calm summer-tide settle on
  flower after flower, and stream over the milk-white lilies,
  the humming fills the plain. Startled at the sudden                   30
  sight, Æneas wonderingly inquires what it means, what
  are those waters in the distance, or who the men that are
  thronging the banks in crowds so vast. To him his father
  Anchises: “They are spirits to whom Destiny has promised
  new bodies, there at the side of Lethe’s water, drinking              35
  the wave of carelessness, and the long draught of oblivion.
  In truth I have long wished to tell you of them and show
  them before you, to recount the long line of my kindred,
  that you may rejoice with me now that Italy is found.”
  “Oh, my father! and must we think that there are souls
  that fly hence aloft into the upper air, and thus return
  to the sluggish fellowship of the body? can their longing
  for light be so mad, as this?” “I will tell you, my son,               5
  nor hold you longer in doubt.” So replies Anchises, and
  unfolds the story in order.

  “Know, first, that heaven and earth, and the watery
  plains, and the Moon’s lucid ball, and Titan’s starry fires
  are kept alive by a spirit within: a mind pervading each              10
  limb stirs the whole frame and mingles with the mighty
  mass. Hence spring the races of men and beasts, and
  living things with wings, and the strange forms that
  Ocean carries beneath his marble surface. These particles
  have a fiery glow, a heavenly nature, struggling against              15
  the clogs of corrupting flesh, the dulness of limbs of clay
  and bodies ready to die. Hence come their fears and
  lusts, their joys and griefs: nor can they discern the
  heavenly light, prisoned as they are in night and blind
  dungeon walls. Nay, when life’s last ray has faded from               20
  them, not even, then, poor wretches, are they wholly freed
  from ill, freed from every plague of the flesh: those many
  taints must needs be ingrained strangely in the being, so
  long as they have grown with it. So they are schooled
  with punishment, and pay in suffering for ancient ill:                25
  some are hung up and dispread to the piercing winds:
  others have the stain of wickedness washed out under the
  whelming gulf, or burnt out with fire: each is chastised
  in his own spirit: then we are sped through the breadth
  of Elysium, while some few remain to inhabit these happy              30
  plains, till the lapse of ages, when time’s cycle is complete,
  has cleansed the ingrained blot and left a pure
  residue of heavenly intelligence, the flame of essential
  ether. All of these, when they have rounded the circle
  of a thousand years, Heaven summons to the stream of                  35
  Lethe, a mighty concourse, to the end that with memory
  effaced they may return to the vault of the sky, and learn
  to wish for a new union with the body.”

  Anchises ended: he draws his son and the Sibyl with
  him into the midst of the assemblage, the heart of that
  buzzing crowd, and mounts an eminence, whence he
  might see face to face the whole of the long procession,
  and learn each comer’s looks.                                          5

  “Now, then, for the glories of the Dardan race from
  this time onward, the posterity reserved for you in the
  Italian line, noble spirits, the ordained heirs of our proud
  name: of these I will tell you, and inform you of your
  destiny.                                                              10

  “He whom you see there, the youth leaning on the
  pointless spear, his lot is to fill the next place in light:
  he will be first to rise to upper day, born from the admixture
  of Italian blood, Silvius, that great Alban name,
  your latest offspring, whom in your old age at set of life            15
  your spouse Lavinia will bear you in the woods, himself
  a king and the father of kings to be: from him it is that
  our race shall rule over Alba the Long. Next comes
  mighty Procas, the pride of the people of Troy, and
  Capys, and Numitor, and a second bearer of your name,                 20
  Silvius Æneas, himself renowned alike for piety and for
  valour, if ever he should come to the throne of Alba.
  What glorious youths! look what strength they carry in
  their port, while their brows are shaded by the civic oak!
  These shall uprear for you, high on the mountains, Nomentum,          25
  and Gabii, and Fidenæ’s town, and the towers
  of Collatia, Pometii and Inuus’ camp, and Bola, and
  Cora; names which shall one day be named: now they
  are mere nameless lands. Romulus, too, the child of
  Mars, shall come along with his grandsire. Romulus,                   30
  whom a mother, bearing Ilium’s name, shall produce
  from the blood of Assaracus. See you the two plumes
  standing on his crest, how his sire marks him even now
  for the upper world by his own token of honour? Yes,
  my son, it is by his auspices that our glorious Rome shall            35
  extend her empire to earth’s end, her ambition to the
  skies, and embrace seven hills with the wall of a single
  city, blest parent of a warrior brood: even as the mighty
  Berecyntian[227] mother rides tower-crowned through the
  towns of Phrygia, proud of the gods that have sprung
  from her, a hundred grand-children at her knee, all dwellers
  in heaven, all lords of the lofty sky. Hither now turn
  your two rays of vision: look at this family, at Romans                5
  of your own. Here is Cæsar: here the whole progeny of
  Iulus, as it will pass one day under heaven’s mighty cope.
  This, this is he, the man promised to you so often, Augustus
  Cæsar, true child of a god, who shall establish again
  for Latium a golden age in that very region where Saturn              10
  once reigned, while he stretches his sway alike beyond
  Garamantian and Indian. See, the land is lying outside
  the stars, outside the sun’s yearly path, where heaven-carrier
  Atlas turns round on his shoulder the pole, studded
  with burning constellations. In view of his approach, a               15
  shiver runs already by oracular warning through Caspian
  realms and Mæotian land, and there is stir and confusion
  at the mouths of seven-fold Nile. Nay, even Alcides
  traversed no such length of earth, though he stalked the
  brazen-footed deer, or tamed Erymanthus’ savage wilds,                20
  and appalled Lerna with his arrows: no, nor he who
  guides his triumphal car with reins of ivy-leaf, Bacchus,
  driving his tigers down from Nysa’s lofty top. And do
  we still hesitate to let prowess give scope to power, or
  does fear prevent our setting foot on Ausonian soil?                  25
  But who is he in the distance, conspicuous with a wreath
  of olive, with sacred vessels in his hand? Ah! I know
  the hoary hair and beard of the king of Rome, who shall
  give the infant city the support of law, sent from his
  homely Cures and a land of poverty into a mighty empire.              30
  Next shall come one doomed to break his country’s peace,
  and stir up with the war-cry of his name, Tullus, warriors
  rusting in ease and squadrons that have forgotten their
  triumphs. Ancus follows, a greater boaster, even now
  too ready to catch the breath of a popular cheer. Would               35
  you look too at the kings of Tarquin’s house, at the
  haughty spirit of Brutus the avenger, and the fasces[228] retrieved?
  He shall be the first to take the consul’s power
  and the axes of doom: the father will bring his rebel sons
  to death, all for fair freedom’s sake. Unhappy man! let
  after ages speak of that deed as they will, strong over all
  will be patriot passion and unmeasured thirst of praise.
  Look, there are the Drusi[229] and the Decii,[230] and Torquatus[231]  5
  with his unpitying axe, and Camillus[232] the restorer of the
  standards. But those whom you see there, dressed alike
  in gleaming armour—spirits at harmony now and so
  long as they are confined in darkness—alas! how vast
  a war will they wage, each with each, if they shall attain            10
  the light of day, what arraying of hosts, what carnage
  will there be! Father-in-law and son-in-law,[233] the one
  coming down from Alpine ramparts and the stronghold
  of Monœcus: the other drawn up against him with the
  forces of the east. Do not, do not, my children, make                 15
  wars like these familiar to your spirits: turn not your
  country’s valour against your country’s vitals: and you,
  restrain yourself the first: you, whose lineage is from
  heaven, drop the steel from your grasp, heir of Anchises’
  blood. See here, a conqueror who shall drive to the lofty             20
  Capitol the car of triumph over Corinth, glorious from
  Achæan slaughter: here one who shall lay Argos in dust,
  and Agamemnon’s own Mycenæ, ay, and the heir of Æacus,
  with Achilles’ martial blood in his veins: a Roman’s
  vengeance for his Trojan grandsires, and for Pallas’ insulted         25
  fame. What tongue would leave you unpraised,
  great Cato, or Cossus, you? or the race of the Gracchi,
  or those twin thunderbolts of war, the Scipios, Libya’s
  ruin, or Fabricius, princely in his poverty, or you, Serranus,
  sowing your own ploughed fields? When, ye Fabii,[234]                 30
  will panting praise overtake you? You are in truth our
  greatest, the single saviour of our state by delay. Others,
  I doubt not, will mould the breathing brass to more flesh-like
  softness, and spread over marble the look of life.
  Others will plead better at the bar, will trace with the              35
  rod the courses of heaven, and foretell the risings of the
  stars. Yours, Roman, be the lesson to govern the nations
  as their lord: this is your destined culture, to impose the
  settled rule of peace, to spare the humbled, and to crush
  the proud.”

  Father Anchises paused; and, as they wondered, went
  on to say: “See how Marcellus advances in the glory of
  the general’s spoils, towering with conqueror’s majesty                5
  over all the warriors near! When the state of Rome
  reels under the invader’s shock, he shall stay it; his horse’s
  hoofs shall trample the Carthaginian and the revolted
  Gaul; and he shall dedicate the third suit of armour to
  Quirinus[235] the sire.” Hereupon Æneas, for he saw walking           10
  at Marcellus’ side a youth of goodly presence and in
  gleaming armour, but with little joy on his brow and
  downcast eyes: “Who, my father, is he that thus attends
  the warrior’s march? his son, or one of the glorious line
  of his posterity? What a hum runs through the attendant               15
  train! how lofty his own mien! but the shadow of gloomy
  night hovers saddening round his head.” Father Anchises
  began, tears gushing forth the while: “Alas, my son!
  ask not of the heavy grief that those of your blood must
  bear. Of him the fates shall give but a glimpse to earth,             20
  nor suffer him to continue longer. Yes, powers of the
  sky! Rome’s race would have been in your eyes too
  strong, had a boon like this been its own forever. What
  groanings of the brave shall be wafted from Mars’ broad
  field to Mars’ mighty town! What a funeral, father                    25
  Tiber, shall thine eyes behold, as thou flowest past that
  new-built sepulchre! No child of the stock of Ilion shall
  raise his Latian ancestors to such heights of hope: never
  while time lasts shall the land of Romulus take such pride
  in any that she has reared. Woe for the piety, for the                30
  ancient faith, for the arm unconquered in battle! Never
  would foeman have met that armed presence unscathed,
  marched he on foot into the field or tore with bloody spur
  the flank of his foaming steed. Child of a nation’s sorrow!
  were there hope of thy breaking the tyranny of fate, thou             35
  shalt be Marcellus. Bring me handfuls of lilies, that I
  may strew the grave with their dazzling hues, and crown,
  if only with these gifts, my young descendant’s shade, and
  perform the vain service of sorrow.” Thus they wander
  here and there through the whole expanse in the broad
  fields of shadow and take note of all. Soon as Anchises
  had taken his son from end to end, and fired his mind
  with the prospect of that glorious history, he then tells              5
  the warrior of the battles that he must fight at once, and
  informs him of the Laurentian[236] tribes and Latinus’ town,
  and how to shun or stand the shock of every peril.

  There are two gates of Sleep: the one, as story tells,
  of horn, supplying a ready exit for true spirits: the other           10
  gleaming with the polish of dazzling ivory, but through
  it the powers below send false dreams to the world above.
  Thither Anchises, talking thus, conducts his son and the
  Sibyl, and dismisses them by the gate of ivory.[237] Æneas
  traces his way to the fleet and returns to his comrades;              15
  then sails along the shore for Caieta’s haven. The anchor
  is cast from the prow: the keels are ranged on the beach.




BOOK VII


  And thou, too, in thy death, Caieta,[238] nurse of Æneas, hast
  left to our coast the heritage of an ever-living fame; still in
  this later day thy glory hovers over thy resting-place, and
  a name on Hesperia’s mighty seaboard is thy monument,
  if that be renown. So when good Æneas had paid the last                5
  dues and raised a funeral mound, and had waited for the
  calming of the deep, he spreads sail and leaves the harbour.
  Nightward the breezes blow, nor does the fair Moon scorn
  to show the way: her rippling light makes the sea shine
  again. The next land they skirt is the coast of Circe’s               10
  realm, where in queenly state the daughter of the Sun
  thrills her forest fastness with never-ending song, and in
  her haughty mansion burns fragrant cedar to give light by
  night, as she draws her shrill comb over the delicate warp.
  From the shore they heard the growling noise of lions in              15
  wrath, disdaining their bonds and roaring in midnight
  hour, bristly boars and caged bears venting their rage, and
  shapes of huge wolves fiercely howling: things which
  Circe, fell goddess, had transformed by her magic drugs
  from the mien of man to a beast’s visage and a beast’s hide.          20
  So, lest the pious race of Troy should suffer such monstrous
  change, were they to seek harbour there or approach the
  perilous shore, Neptune filled their sails with favouring
  breezes, sped their flight along, and wafted them past the
  seething waters.                                                      25

  The sea was just reddening in the dawn, and Aurora was
  shining down from heaven’s height in saffron robe and rosy
  car, when all at once the winds were laid, and every breath
  sank in sudden sleep, and the oars pull slowly against the
  smooth unmoving wave. In the same moment Æneas,                       30
  looking out from the sea, beholds a mighty forest. Among
  the trees Tiber, that beauteous river, with his gulfy rapids
  and the burden of his yellow sand, breaks into the main.
  Around and above, birds of all plumes, the constant tenants
  of bank and stream, were lulling the air with their notes and
  flying among the woods. He bids his comrades turn aside                5
  and set their prows landward, and enters with joy the
  river’s shadowed bed.

  Now be with me Erato,[239] and I will unfold who were the
  kings, what the stage of circumstance, what the condition
  of ancient Latium, when the stranger host first landed on             10
  Ausonian shores, and will recall how the first blood was
  drawn. Thou, goddess, thou prompt thy poet’s memory.
  Mine is a tale of grisly war, of battle array, and princes in
  their fury rushing on carnage—of Tyrrhenian[240] ranks, and
  all Hesperia mustered in arms. Grander is the pile of                 15
  events that rises on my view, grander the task I essay.
  It was the time when king Latinus, now stricken in age, was
  ruling country and city in the calm of years of peace. He,
  as story tells us, was the son of Faunus and a Laurentine
  nymph, Marica. Faunus’ father was Picus, who owes his                 20
  birth to thee, great Saturn: thou art the first founder of the
  line. No son, no male progeny, so Heaven willed, had
  Latinus now; just as it was budding into youth, the branch
  was cut off. The sole maintainer of the race, the sole
  guardian of that princely house, was a daughter, already              25
  ripe for wedlock, already arrived at full-blown womanhood.
  Many were her wooers from mighty Latium, nay, from all
  Ausonia. One wooer there was in beauty passing others,
  Turnus,[241] strong in the glory of sires and grandsires: his alliance
  the queen with intense yearning was seeking to compass;               30
  but heavenly portents bar the way with manifold
  alarm. There was a laurel in the middle of the palace, in the
  very heart of royal privacy, sacred in its every leaf, cherished
  by the awful observance of many years; men said that
  father Latinus himself found it there when he first laid the          35
  foundation of the tower, dedicated it to Phœbus, and thence
  gave his new people the name of Laurentines. On the
  top of this tree lodged a dense swarm of bees, marvellous
  to tell, sailing thither with loud humming noise across the
  liquid air, and twining their legs together, the cluster in a
  moment was seen to hang from the leafy bough. At once
  spoke a prophet: “There is a stranger approaching: I
  see him now; along this self-same path a troop is moving               5
  hitherward, and commanding the height of the citadel.”
  Moreover, while Lavinia is applying the hallowed torch to
  the altars, as she stands in maiden purity at her father’s
  side, she was seen, oh, monstrous sight! to catch the fire
  with her long tresses, all her headgear consuming in the              10
  crackling flame, her queenly hair, her jewelled coronal all
  ablaze, till at last she was wrapt in smoke and yellow
  glare, and scattered the fire-god’s sparks the whole palace
  through. There indeed was a tale of horror, a marvel and
  a portent; for, said the wise men, she will herself be illustrious    15
  in fame and fortune, but to the nation she bodes
  tremendous war. Troubled by these prodigies, the king
  repairs to the oracle of Faunus, his prophetic sire, to
  question at the groves beneath Albunea’s shade—that
  queen of forests, ever vocal with the sacred waters, ever             20
  breathing from its dark heart deadly vaporous steam.
  It is here that the tribes of Italy and all Œnotrian land
  seek answers in their perplexity; hither the priestess
  brings the inquirer’s offering, lies in the still of night on a
  couch of slaughtered sheep’s skins, and turns to sleep, when          25
  she sees many phantoms flitting in marvellous fashion,
  and hears divers voices, and enjoys communion with the
  gods, and holds converse with Acheron down in Avernus’
  deep. Here also king Latinus, in quest of an answer, was
  sacrificing duly a hundred sheep of the second year, and              30
  was lying on their skins, a fleecy bed, when sudden from the
  depth of the grove an utterance was heard: “Look not to
  ally your daughter in wedlock of Latium, O my son;
  put not faith in marriage chambers dressed and ready;
  there are sons-in-law from a far country now on their way,            35
  men destined by mixing their blood with ours to exalt our
  name to the spheres—men whose lineal posterity shall
  one day look down and see under their feet the whole
  world, far as the two oceans which the sun surveys in his
  daily round, revolving beneath them and wielded by their
  control.” Such was the response of father Faunus,
  the counsel given at still of night: nor does Latinus hold
  it shut in the prison of his own lips; but Fame had flown              5
  with the rumour through Ausonia far and wide from city
  to city, when the young chivalry of old Laomedon anchored
  their ships on the river’s grassy bank.

  Æneas and his chief captains, and Iulus young and fair,
  lay their limbs to rest under the boughs of a lofty tree;             10
  there they spread the banquet, putting cakes of flour along
  the sward to support the food—such was Jove’s high inspiration—and
  rearing on the wheaten foundation a pile
  of wilding fruits. It chanced that when the rest was eaten,
  the want of meat forced them to ply their tooth on those              15
  scanty gifts of Ceres—to profane with venturous hand and
  mouth the sanctity of the cake’s fated circle, nor respect
  the square impressed on its surface. “What! eating our
  tables[242] as well?” cries Iulus, in his merry vein; that and no
  more. That utterance first told the hearers that their                20
  toils were over: even as it fell from the boy’s mouth his
  father caught it up and broke it short, wondering in himself
  at the power of Heaven. Then anon: “Hail to thee,
  promised land of my destiny! hail to you,” he cries, “Troy’s
  faithful gods! Yes, here is our home—this our country.                25
  It was my father—these, I remember, were the mystic
  words of fate he left me: ‘My son, whenever you are wafted
  to an unknown coast, and hunger drives you, failing food,
  to eat your tables, then remember my saying, there look
  for a home of rest, set up your first roof-tree and strengthen        30
  it with mound and rampart.’ This was the hunger he
  meant. This was the last strait in store for us, not the
  beginning but the end of death. Come then, take heart,
  and with the morrow’s earliest light explore we what is
  the place, who its dwellers, where the city of the nation,            35
  making from the haven in different ways. Meanwhile
  pour libations to Jove, invoke in prayer my sire Anchises,
  and set again the wine on the board.” So having said, he
  wreathes his brow with the leafy spray, and offers prayer
  to the genius of the spot; to Earth the eldest of the gods;
  to the nymphs and the streams yet unknown by name:
  after that, to Night and Night’s new-born stars and
  Ida’s Jove, and Phrygia’s mighty mother, invoking each                 5
  in turn, and his own two parents in the upper and the
  nether world. Just then the Almighty Father thundered
  thrice aloft in a clear sky, and with his own right hand
  flashed in open view from on high a cloud ablaze with rays
  of golden light. At once the news spreads among the Trojan            10
  ranks that the day has arrived when they are to build
  their promised city. With emulous haste they celebrate
  the banquet, and in the power of the august presage set on
  the bowls exultingly, and wreathe the wine.

  Soon as on the morrow the risen day began to illumine                 15
  the earth with the first sparkle of her torch, some here,
  some there, they set about exploring the city, the frontiers,
  the seaboard of the country. This, they learn, is the spring
  of Numicius, this the river Tiber, this the home of the brave
  Latian race. Thereupon Anchises’ son commands an                      20
  embassy of a hundred, chosen from all classes alike, to go to
  the monarch’s royal city, all of them with wreathed boughs
  from Pallas’ tree, to carry presents for his honoured hand,
  and entreat his friendship for the Teucrians. They delay
  not, but hasten at his bidding, moving with rapid pace,               25
  while he is marking out the city with a shallow trench,
  preparing the ground, and surrounding this their first
  settlement on the coast, camp-fashion, with battlements
  and earthworks. Meanwhile the missioned band had performed
  their journey, and were in sight of the towers and                    30
  stately homes of Latium, and passing under the city wall.
  In a space before the town, boys and youths in their prime
  are exercising on horseback, and breaking in their harnessed
  cars among clouds of dust, or bending the sharp-springing
  bow, or hurling from the arm the quivering javelin,                   35
  or vying on foot or with the gloves, when galloping up,
  a messenger announces, in the aged monarch’s ears, that
  mighty men have arrived in strange attire. The king bids
  him summon them into the presence-hall, and takes his
  seat in the midst on his ancestral throne. It was a reverend
  pile, of vast proportions, raised high upon a hundred
  pillars, on the city’s topmost ground, the palace of Picus
  the Laurentine, clothed in the terror of waving woods and              5
  hereditary awe. Here it was held to be of auspicious presage
  that kings should first take in hand the sceptre, and
  lift up the fasces: this temple was their senate-house,
  the hall for their sacrificial feasts: here, when a ram was
  slain, the seniors were wont to banquet down long lines               10
  of tables. Here, too, in succession were the effigies of
  past generations, carved from ancient cedar—Italus and
  father Sabinus, planter of the vine, preserving in that
  mimic form his curved hook, and hoary Saturn, and the
  image of two-faced Janus, all standing in the vestibule,              15
  and other kings from the earliest days, and heroes who had
  sustained the war-god’s wounds in fighting for their
  country. Moreover, there was hanging on the sacred
  doors abundance of armour, captive chariots, crooked
  axe-heads, helmet-crests, ponderous gates, javelins, and              20
  shields, and beaks torn from vessels. There, as in life,
  was sitting, decked with Quirinal staff and robe of scanty
  border, in his left hand the sacred shield, Picus, tamer of
  the steed, he whom, in her bridal jealousy, Circe, by a stroke
  of her golden rod and the witchery of her drugs, transformed          25
  to a bird, and scattered spots over his wings. Such was
  the temple where Latinus, seated on his ancestral throne,
  summoned the Teucrians to his presence within, and on
  their entry with placid mien bespoke them thus:—

  “Tell me, sons of Dardanus—for we know your city and                  30
  your race, and your coming over the deep has reached our
  ears—what is your errand? what cause or what necessity
  has wafted your ships to our Ausonian coast through
  those many leagues of blue water? Be it from ignorance of
  the way or stress of weather, or any of the thousand chances          35
  that happen to seamen on the main, that you have passed
  between our river’s banks, and are resting in the haven,
  shrink not from our welcome, but know in the Latian
  race the true people of Saturn, kept in righteousness by no
  band of law, but by our own instinct and the rule of our
  parent-god. And now I remember, though years have
  dulled the freshness of the tale, that aged Auruncans used
  to tell how in this land Dardanus saw the light, and hence             5
  he won his way to the towns of Phrygian Ida and Thracian
  Samos, which men now call Samothrace. Ay, it was from
  the house of Tuscan Corythus he went, and now the golden
  palace of starry heaven seats him on a throne, and among
  the altars of the gods makes room for him.”                           10

  He ended; and Ilioneus followed thus: “Great king,
  illustrious son of Faunus, no stress of gloomy storm has
  made us the sport of the waves and driven us on your
  coast, no sky or land misread has beguiled us of our
  track: of set purpose, with full intent, we are arrived one           15
  and all at your city, driven from a realm once the greatest
  which the sun surveyed in his course from end to end of
  heaven. From Jove is the origin of our race; in Jove, as
  their ancestor, the sons of Dardanus glory; our monarch
  himself, sprung of Jove’s own pure blood, Æneas of Troy,              20
  has sent us to your doors. How dire a hurricane, launched
  from fell Mycenæ, swept over Ida’s plains—how the two
  worlds of Europe and Asia, fate driving each, met and
  crashed together—has reached the ears of the man, if
  such there be, whom earth’s last corner withdraws from                25
  the wash of ocean, and his too who is parted from his fellows
  by the zone that lies midmost among the four, the zone of
  the tyrannous sun. From the jaws of that deluge flying
  over many and mighty waters, we ask of you for our
  country’s gods a narrow resting-place—the harmless                    30
  privilege of the coast, and the common liberty of water and
  air. We shall be no disgrace to your kingdom, nor light
  shall be the fame that men will blaze of you, nor shall
  gratitude for your great bounty grow old, nor shall
  Ausonia mourn the day when she welcomed Troy to her                   35
  heart. I swear by Æneas’ star, by his strong right hand,
  known as such by all who have proved it in friendship or
  in war, many have been the peoples, many the nations—nay,
  scorn us not for that we accost you with fillets of suppliance
  and words of prayer—who have sued for our company
  and wished to make us one with them. But the
  oracles of heaven, speaking as they only can, have driven
  us to search out your realms. Hence sprang Dardanus;                   5
  hither Apollo bids us return, with the instance of high
  command, even to Tuscan Tiber and the sacred waters of
  Numicius’ spring. Moreover, here are presents from Æneas,
  the scanty offerings of past prosperity, relics snatched from
  the flames of Troy. From this gold his father, Anchises,              10
  poured libations at the altar; this was Priam’s royal
  accoutrement, when he gave laws in kingly fashion to the
  assembled people; this sceptre, this sacred diadem, these
  robes, the work of Trojan dames.”

  Thus, as Ilioneus is speaking, Latinus holds his countenance          15
  in set downcast gaze, and sits rooted to his throne,
  turning his eyes in intense thought. Nor does the
  broidered purple stir his princely mind; no, nor the sceptre
  of Priam, so deeply as he ponders on the wedlock, the
  bridal bed of his daughter, revolving in his breast old               20
  Faunus’ oracle. This must be that predicted son-in-law,
  arrived from a foreign home, destined to reign in joint
  sovereignty with himself; thence must be born that glorious
  progeny, whose prowess is to master the world. At
  length he breaks out in glad tones: “May the gods prosper             25
  our intent and ratify their own presage! Yes, Trojan,
  you shall have your prayer, nor do I reject your presents.
  Long as Latinus shall reign, you shall not lack the bounty of
  a fruitful soil, nor miss the wealth of Troy. Let but Æneas
  himself, if his desire of us is so great, if he covets the tie of     30
  hospitality and the style of alliance, come to our presence,
  nor shrink from eyes that will view him kindly. Peace
  will be incomplete till I have touched your monarch’s
  hand. And now do you take back to your king this my
  message: I have a daughter, whose marriage with a husband             35
  of our nation is forbidden by voices from my father’s
  shrine, by countless prodigies from heaven; sons-in-law
  are to arrive from foreign climes—such, they say, is
  Fate’s will for Latium—who by mixing their blood with
  ours are to exalt our name to the spheres. That he is this
  chosen one of destiny is my belief, and, if my mind reads
  the future true, my award.” With these words the old
  king makes choice of horses from the multitude he possessed.           5
  Three hundred there were, sleek-coated, standing
  in their lofty stalls. At once he bids his servants
  bring for each of the Teucrians a fleet-foot with housings
  of embroidered purple; golden poitrels hang down to the
  chest of each; there is gold on their coverings; yellow               10
  gold under their champing teeth. For the absent Æneas
  he orders a car and two coursers of ethereal seed, snorting
  fire from their nostrils, sprung of that brood which artful
  Circe raised up fraudfully to her father the Sun, a spurious
  race, from the womb of a mortal dam. Thus graced with                 15
  gifts and kind speeches, the children of Æneas journey
  homeward on their tall steeds, and carry tidings of peace.

  Meanwhile, there was Jove’s relentless spouse travelling
  back from her own Argos, city of Inachus, and already
  launched on mid air; looking from the sky over Sicilian               20
  Pachynus, she beheld in distant prospect Æneas in his
  hour of joy and the Dardan fleet. Already she sees him
  building his home; already he has made the soil his friend,
  and has parted from his ships. Pierced with bitter grief,
  she stayed her course, and then, shaking her head, pours              25
  from her heart words like these: “Ah, that hated stock!
  those destinies of Phrygia that hold my destinies in check!
  Did the dead really fall on the plains of Sigeum? were the
  captives captured in truth? did the flames of Troy burn
  the men of Troy? Through the heart of the battle,                     30
  through the heart of the fire they have found a way.
  Ay, belike, my power at last lies gasping and spent; my
  hatred is slaked and I am at peace. I, who followed them
  with a foe’s zeal over the water even when tossed from
  their country’s arms, and met the exiles front to front on            35
  every sea! Spent on these Teucrians is all that sky and
  surge can do. Have Syrtes, has Scylla, has Charybdis’
  yawning gulf stood me aught in stead? They have
  gained the channel of Tiber, the haven of their wishes,
  and may laugh at ocean and at me. Mars had strength to
  destroy the Lapithan nation, huge as they were; the father
  of the gods gave up the honoured land of Calydon to Diana’s
  vengeance; and what had Lapithans or Calydon done                      5
  to earn such penal ruin? But I, Jove’s great consort,
  who have stooped, miserably stooped, to leave nothing
  untried, who have assumed every form by turns, am vanquished
  by Æneas. Well, if my power be not august
  enough, I would not shrink from suing for other aid, be it            10
  found where it may; if I cannot prevail above, I will stir
  up the fiends of the deep. It will not be mine to keep him
  from the crown of Latium—be it so; fixed for him by fate
  unalterably is his bride Lavinia; but delays and impediments
  may well be where the matter is so great; but to                      15
  cut off the subjects of our two monarchs—this may be
  done. So let father and son-in-law embrace, at the cost
  of their people’s lives. The blood of Trojan and Rutulian
  shall be your dower, fair lady; Bellona[243] is waiting to lead
  you to your chamber. Nor is Hecuba the only mother that               20
  has teemed with a fire-brand and given birth to a nuptial
  blaze; Venus sees the tale repeated in her own offspring—a
  second Paris—a funeral torch rekindled for reviving
  Troy.”

  Having vented words like these, she flew down in black                25
  rage to the earth; and now she summons Allecto[244] the baleful
  from the dwelling of the dread goddesses and the darkness
  of the pit—Allecto, whom bitter wars, and strifes,
  and stratagems, and injurious crimes cheer like a cordial.
  Hateful even to Pluto her sire is the fiend, hateful to her           30
  Tartarean sisters, so many the forms she puts on, so terrible
  the mien of each, so countless the vipers that burgeon
  blackly from her head. Her, thus dreadful, Juno lashes
  to fiercer fury, speaking on this wise: “Grant me, maiden
  daughter of Night, a boon all my own—thine undivided                  35
  aid, that my praise and renown may not be dashed from
  their pedestal—that the children of Æneas may not be
  able to ensnare Latinus in a bridal alliance or beset the
  Italian frontier. Thou canst make brothers of one soul
  take arms and fight; canst make peaceful homes dens of
  strife; thou canst gain entrance for the scourge and the
  funeral torch: thou hast a thousand names, a thousand
  means of ill. Stir up that prolific bosom, snap the formed             5
  bands of peace, scatter the incentives of war, let the nation
  in the same moment desire, demand, and seize the sword.”

  So then Allecto, empoisoned with Gorgon venom, first
  repairs to Latium and the lofty halls of the Laurentine
  monarch, and sits down before the hushed chamber of                   10
  queen Amata,[245] who, as she mused on the arrival of the
  Trojans and Turnus’ bridal hopes, was glowing and seething
  with all a woman’s passion, a woman’s spleen. Snatching
  a snake from her dark venomed locks, she hurls it at
  her, and lodges it in the bosom close to the very heart, that,        15
  maddened by the pest, she may drive the whole house wild.
  In glides the reptile unfelt, winding between the robe and
  the marble breast, and beguiles her into frenzy, breathing
  into her lungs its viperous breath; the linked gold round
  her neck turns to the monstrous serpent; so does the festoon          20
  of her long fillet; it twines her hair, it slides smoothly
  from limb to limb. And while the first access of contagion,
  stealing in with clammy poison, is pervading her senses
  and threading her bones with flame, ere yet the soul has
  caught fire through the whole compass of the bosom, she               25
  speaks with gentle plaint, as mothers wont, shedding
  many tears over her child and the Phrygian alliance: “And
  are fugitives from Troy to take Lavinia in marriage, good
  father? have you no compassion for your daughter and
  yourself? none for her mother, whom with the first fair               30
  gale the faithless pirate will leave and make for the deep,
  carrying off his maiden prey? Ay, things were not so
  when the Phrygian shepherd stole into Lacedæmon, and
  bore away Leda’s Helen to Troy town. Where is your
  pledged faith? where your old tenderness for your own                 35
  blood, and your hand plighted so oft to your kinsman
  Turnus? If Latian folk must have a son-in-law fetched
  from a foreign stock, and this is unalterably fixed, and
  your father Faunus’ command sits heavy on your soul, I
  hold that every nation is foreign whose independence
  severs it from our rule, and that such is Heaven’s intent.
  Turnus, too, if you go back to the first foundation of his
  house, has Inachus and Acrisius for his ancestors, and the             5
  heart of Mycenæ for his home.” But when, having tried
  in vain what these words can do, she sees Latinus obstinately
  bent, and meantime the serpent’s fiendish mischief
  has sunk deep into her vitals, and is thrilling every
  vein, then at last the miserable queen, unsexed by the                10
  portentous enormity, raves in ungoverned frenzy through
  the city’s length and breadth; as oft you may see a top
  spinning under the lash, which boys are flogging round
  and round in a great ring in an empty courtyard, with
  every thought on their game: driven by the whip it                    15
  keeps making circle after circle: the beardless faces
  hang over it in puzzled wonder, marvelling how the box-wood
  can fly, as though the blows made it a living thing.
  With motion as furious she courses through crowded
  streets and unruly peoples. Nay, more than this, she                  20
  feigns the inspiration of Bacchus, nerving herself to more
  atrocious deeds, and climbing new heights of madness—flies
  into the woods, and hides her daughter among the
  leafy hills, all to snatch from the Teucrians the bridal
  bed and delay the kindling of Hymen’s torch. “Evoe                    25
  Bacchus!” is her cry; “thou, and none but thou art
  fit mate for a maid like this. See! for thee she takes up
  the sacred wand, for thee she leads the dance, for thee she
  grows her dedicated hair.” Fame flies abroad; other
  mothers are instinct with frenzy, and all have the same               30
  mad passion driving them to seek a new home. They
  have left their houses, and are spreading hair and shoulders
  to the wind; while some are filling the sky with quivering
  shrieks, clad in fawn-skins, and carrying vine-branch
  spears. There in the middle is the queen all aglow, lifting           35
  high a blazing pine, and singing the bridal song of Turnus
  and her daughter, her eye red and glaring; and sudden she
  shouts like a savage: “Ho! mothers of Latium all, where’er
  ye be, if ye have human hearts and kindness left there for
  poor Amata, if ye are stung to think of a mother’s rights,
  off with the fillets from your hair, and join the orgie with
  me.” Such is the queen, driven among the woods, among
  the wild beasts’ lairs far and wide, by Bacchus’ goad in               5
  Allecto’s hand.

  And now, judging that she had barbed enough the
  young fangs of frenzy, upheaving from their bases the
  royal purpose and the royal house, the grim goddess next
  soars in air on her murky wings on to the walls of the bold           10
  Rutulian, the city which they say Danae built for her Argive
  settlers, landing there under stress of wind. Ardea
  was the name which past generations gave the place, and
  Ardea still keeps her august title; but her star is set,
  Here, in his lofty palace, Turnus at deep of night was in             15
  the midst of his sleep. Allecto puts off her hideous features
  and her fiendish shape, transforms herself to an old
  woman’s countenance and furrows her loathly brow
  with wrinkles, assumes hoary locks and woollen fillet,
  lastly twines them with an olive spray, and so becomes                20
  Calybe, the aged priestess of Juno’s temple; and presents
  herself to the young warrior’s eyes with such words as
  these: “And can Turnus calmly see all his toils poured out
  in vain, and the crown that is his own transferred to settlers
  from Dardania? See, the king is refusing you your bride               25
  and your blood-bought dowry, and search is being made for
  a foreign heir to fill the throne. Go on now, confront ungracious
  perils, and earn derision; go, mow down the
  Tuscan ranks, and spread over Latium the shield of peace.
  These very words Saturn’s almighty daughter with her                  30
  own lips bade me say to you when you should be slumbering
  in the still of night. Rise, then, bid your soldiery arm
  and move from city to camp, set fire to the Phrygian
  chiefs who have anchored in our fair river and to their
  painted ships. The dread voice of heaven speaks by me,                35
  Nay, let king Latinus, unless he consent to give you your
  bride and respect his promise, feel at last and find what
  it is to have Turnus for a foe.”

  Laughing scornfully at the old seer, the youth thus spoke
  in reply: “The news that a fleet has arrived in the Tiber
  has not, as you imagine, escaped my ear. Conjure me
  no such mighty terrors, nor think that queen Juno has forgotten
  me. No, it is you, good mother, whom mouldering                        5
  dotage, drained dry of truth, is vexing to no end, mocking
  your prophetic soul with false alarms in an atmosphere of
  royal armaments. You are in your place watching over
  statues and temples; but war and peace must be wielded
  by men, whose work war is.”                                           10

  At these words Allecto kindled into wrath. Even in
  the act of speaking a shudder seized the youth’s frame and
  his eyes grew stiff and stony, so fierce the hissing of the
  Fury’s thousand snakes, so monstrous the features that
  rose on his view. Instant with a roll of her fiery orbs she           15
  thrust him back as he faltered and tried to speak further;
  on either brow she upreared a serpent lock, and cracked her
  whip, and with infuriate lips followed thus: “Here is the
  mouldering mother, whom dotage, drained dry of truth, is
  mocking with false alarms in an atmosphere of royal armaments.        20
  Turn your eyes hither; I am come from the dwelling
  of the Dread Sisters: war and death are wielded by
  this hand.”

  Saying thus, she hurled a torch full at the youth, and
  lodged in his breast the pine-wood with its lurid smoke and           25
  glare. The bonds of sleep are broken by the giant terror,
  and a burst of sweat all over bathes the whole man, bone
  and limb. “My sword!” he screams in frenzy; for his
  sword he searches pillow and palace: the fever of the steel,
  the guilty madness of bloodshed rage within him, and angry            30
  pride tops all: even as when loud-crackling a fire of sticks
  is heaped round the sides of a waving caldron, and the
  heat makes the water start; there within is the flood,
  steaming and storming, and bubbling high in froth, till at
  last the wave cannot contain itself, and the black vapour             35
  flies up into the air. So then, trampling on treaties, he
  gives the word to the chiefs of his soldiery for a march
  upon King Latinus, and bids arms be got ready. Italy
  must be protected, the foe must be driven from the frontier;
  he and his men will be enough for both, Teucrians and
  Latians. So he says and appeals to Heaven: and the
  Rutulians with emulous zeal encourage each other to
  the fight. This one is fired by his leader’s peerless beauty           5
  and youth; this by the kings in his pedigree; this by the
  glorious deeds of his hand.

  While Turnus is filling the Rutulians with the spirit of
  daring, Allecto is putting her infernal wings in motion
  against the Teucrians. A new device working in her                    10
  mind, she fixed her eye on the spot where on the winding
  coast Iulus was hunting game with the snare and the
  course. Hereon the maiden of Cocytus suddenly presents
  to the hounds a maddening lure, and touches their nostrils
  with the scent they know so well, making them chase a                 15
  stag in full cry; which was the first origin of the trouble,
  and put the spark of war to the spirit of the countryside.
  There was a stag of beauteous form and lofty horns,
  taken by the sons of Tyrrheus from its mother’s breast,
  and brought up by them and their father Tyrrheus,                     20
  who had the control of the royal herds and the charge of
  the whole range of lawn. Trained to obey, it was the
  chief care of their sister Silvia; she would deck and
  wreathe its horns with delicate festoons, and comb its
  rough coat, and wash it in the clear stream. Grown tame               25
  to the hand, and accustomed to its master’s table, it would
  run free in the forest and take itself back home to the
  well-known door, however late the night. Now, in one
  of its wanderings the maddened hounds of Iulus started
  it in the hunt, as it happened to be floating down the                30
  stream or allaying its heat on the verdant bank. Ascanius
  himself, fired with a proud ambition, bent his bow and
  levelled a shaft: nor did his hand err for want of heavenly
  aid: the reed sped with a loud hurtling sound and pierced
  the belly and the flank. The wounded creature took refuge             35
  under the roof it knew, and moaning crept into its
  stall, and bleeding all over filled, like a human suppliant,
  the house with its piteous plaints. Sister Silvia first,
  smiting on her arms with her flat hands, calls for help and
  summons the rough country folk. They—for the fell
  fiend is lurking in the silence of the forest—are at her
  side ere she looks for them, armed one with a seared brand,
  one with a heavy knotted stock: what each first finds as he            5
  gropes about, anger makes do weapon’s service. Tyrrheus
  musters the company, just as the news found him, splitting
  an oak in four with convergent wedges, catching up an
  axe and breathing savage rage. But the cruel goddess,
  seizing from her watch-tower the moment of mischief,                  10
  makes for the stall’s lofty roof, and from its summit
  shrills forth the shepherd’s clarion, pitching high on the
  wreathen horn her Tartarean note; at the sound the
  whole line of forest was convulsed, and the woods echoed
  to their depths: it was heard far off by Trivia’s[246] lake,          15
  heard by river Nar[246] with his whitening sulphurous waters,
  and by the springs of the Veline[246]: and terror-stricken
  mothers clasped their children to their breasts.

  At once running to the sound with which the dread
  clarion gave the signal, the untamed rustics snatch up                20
  their weapons and gather from all sides; while the forces
  of Troy, on their part, pour through the camp’s open gates
  their succour for Ascanius. It is no longer a woodman’s
  quarrel waged with heavy clubs or seared stakes; they try
  the issue with two-edged steel; a dark harvest of drawn               25
  swords bristles over the field; the brass shines responsive
  to the sun’s challenge, and flings its radiance skyward; as
  when the wave has begun to whiten under the rising wind,
  the ocean gradually upheaves itself, and raises its billows
  higher and higher, till at last, from its lowest depths, it           30
  mounts up to heaven. See! as the arrow whizzes, a young
  warrior in the first rank, once Tyrrheus’ eldest born, Almo,
  is laid low in death; for the wound has lodged in his
  throat, and has cut off, with the rush of blood, the passage
  of the liquid voice and the vital breath. Round him lie               35
  many gallant frames, and among them old Galæsus, while
  throwing himself between the armies and pleading for
  peace; none so just as he, none so wealthy before to-day in
  Ausonian land; five flocks of sheep had he, five herds of
  oxen went to and fro from his stalls, and his land was
  furrowed by a hundred ploughs.

  While thus on the plains the impartial war-god deals out
  fortune, the goddess, having achieved her promise, soon                5
  as she had inaugurated the war with blood, and brought
  the battle to its first murderous shock, flies from Hesperia,
  and rounding the cope of heaven, addresses Juno in the
  haughty tones of triumph: “See here the work of discord
  complete in the horrors of war! Now bid them come together            10
  in friendship and strike truce. Thou hast seen that
  I can sprinkle the Trojans with Ausonian blood; let me
  but be assured of thy wish, I will give thee a further boon:
  I will sew rumours and bring the neighbouring cities into
  the war, and inflame their souls with mad martial passion             15
  to crowd from all sides with succour; I will scatter arms
  broadcast.” Juno returns: “There is panic and treachery
  enough; the seeds of war are sown deep; men are fighting
  hand to hand; the weapons which chance first supplied
  are being seasoned with new-spilt blood. Such be the                  20
  alliance, such the nuptial rites solemnized by Venus’
  virtuous son and good king Latinus. For thee to walk the
  upper air with larger freedom would displease the great
  Father, the monarch of high Olympus. Give place; should
  any chance emerge in the struggle, myself will deal with it.”         25
  So spoke Saturn’s daughter: the Fury lifts her wings that
  hurtle with serpent plumage, and seeks her home in Cocytus,
  leaving the altitudes above. There is a place in the
  bosom of Italy, under the shadow of lofty hills, known to
  fame and celebrated in far-off lands, the vale of Amsanctus;          30
  pent between two woody slopes, dark with dense foliage,
  while at the bottom a broken torrent makes a roaring
  among the rocks along its winding bed. Here men show
  an awful cavern, the very gorge of the fell infernal god, and
  a deep gulf through which Acheron breaks open its baleful             35
  mouth: there dived the Fury, and relieved of her loathed
  presence earth and heaven.

  Meanwhile, for her part, Saturn’s royal daughter gives
  the last touch that brings down the war. From the battle-field
  there pours into the city the whole company of shepherds,
  with their slain in their arms, young Almo and
  Galæsus’ disfigured countenance, calling on the gods and
  adjuring Latinus. Turnus is on the spot, and, in the fury              5
  and fire of the blood-cry, sounds again and again the note
  of terror: “The Teucrians are invited to reign in Latium;
  a Phrygian shoot is to be grafted on the royal tree; the
  palace-gate is closed on himself.” Moreover, the kinsmen
  of the matrons, who in Bacchic madness are footing the                10
  pathless woods—for Amata’s name weighs not lightly—muster
  from all sides, and strain the throat of Mars to
  hoarseness. All at once, defying omens and oracles,
  under the spell of a cursed deity, they clamour for an
  atrocious war. With emulous zeal they swarm round                     15
  Latinus’ palace; he, like a rock in the sea, stands unshaken;
  like a rock in the sea before the rush and crash of waters,
  which, amid, thousands of barking waves, is fixed by its
  own weight; the crags and the spray-foamed stones
  roar about it in vain, and the lashed seaweed falls idly              20
  from its side. But when he finds no power given him to
  counterwork the secret agency, and all is moving at relentless
  Juno’s beck, then with many an appeal to the gods
  and the soulless skies, “Alas!” exclaims the good sire,
  “shattered are we by destiny and whirled before the storm!            25
  On you will come the reckoning, and your impious blood
  will pay it, my wretched children! You, Turnus, you will
  be met by your crime and its fearful vengeance, in a day
  when it will be too late to pray to Heaven. For me, my
  rest is assured; my ship is just dropping into port; it is            30
  but of a happy departure that I am robbed.” No more
  he spoke, but shut himself in an inner chamber, and let
  the reins of empire go.

  A custom there was in the Hesperian days of Latium,
  observed as sacred in succession by the Alban cities, and             35
  now honoured by the observance of Rome, the greatest
  power on earth, when men first stir up the war-god to
  battle, whether their purpose be to carry piteous war
  among the Getæ, the Hyrcanians, or the Arabs, or to
  march as far as India, track the Morning-star to its home,
  and wrest the standards from the grasp of Parthia.
  There are two folding-gates of War—such the title they
  bear—clothed with religious awe and with the terrors of                5
  Mars the cruel: they are closed by a hundred brazen bars
  and by the everlasting strength of iron, and Janus[247] never
  quits his guard on the threshold. When the fathers finally
  conclude for battle, the consul himself, in the pride of
  Quirinus’ striped robe and the Gabine[248] cincture, unbars the       10
  grating portals, and with his own voice invokes battle;
  the rest of the warriors take up the cry, and brazen horns
  blare out in unison their hoarse assent. Thus it was that
  then, too, Latinus was urged to declare war against the
  family of Æneas and to unclose the grim gates. The good               15
  old king recoiled from the touch, turned with averted eyes
  from the service he loathed, and shrouded himself in impenetrable
  gloom. Then darted down from the sky the
  queen of heaven, smote with her own royal hand the unwilling
  portals, and from their bursten fastenings, as Saturn’s               20
  daughter might, flung back the valves on their hinges.
  All Ausonia, sluggish and moveless till then, blazes into
  fury; some commence their footmarch over the plain,
  some from the height of their steeds storm through the
  dust; one and all cry out for arms. Some are rubbing their            25
  shields smooth and their javelins bright with unctuous
  lard, and putting their axes under the grindstone; there
  is joy in the carrying of the standard, joy in the hearing
  of the trumpet’s sound. And now there are five great
  cities with anvils everywhere set up, giving a new edge to            30
  their weapons: Atina the mighty and Tibur the proud,
  Ardea, and they of Crustumium, and tower-crowned
  Antemnæ. Helmets are hollowed to guard the head;
  willows are twisted into wicker frames for shields; others
  are beating out brass into breastplates, or stretching ductile        35
  silver into polished greaves. All the pride of sickle
  and share, all the passion for the plough are swallowed
  up in this; they bring out their father’s swords, and smelt
  them anew in the furnace. Here, in wild haste, is one
  snatching his helm from the chamber-wall; there is another
  bringing his snorting steeds to the yoke, clothing
  himself with shield and corslet of three-plied gold, and
  girding to his side his trusty sword.                                  5

  [F][249]Now, Muses, ope your Helicon,
    The gates of song unfold,
  What chiefs, what tribes to war came on
    In those dim days of old,
  What sons were then Italia’s pride,                                   10
  And what the arms that blazed so wide:
  For ye are goddesses: full well
  Your mind takes note, your tongue can tell:
  The far-off whisper of the years
  Scarce reaches our bewildered ears.                                   15
    Mezentius first from Tyrrhene coast,
  Who mocks at heaven, arrays his host,
    And braves the battle’s storm:
  His son, young Lausus, at his side,
  Excelled by none in beauty’s pride,                                   20
    Save Turnus’ comely form:
  Lausus, the tamer of the steed,
  The conqueror of the silvan breed,
  Leads from Agylla’s towers in vain
  A thousand youths, a valiant train:                                   25
  Ah happy, had the son been blest
  In harkening to his sire’s behest,
  Or had the sire from whom he came
  Had other nature, other name!

    Next drives along the grassy meads                                  30
  His palm-crowned car and conquering steeds
  Fair Aventinus, princely heir
  Of Hercules the brave and fair,
  And for his proud escutcheon takes
  His father’s Hydra and her snakes.                                    35
  ’Twas he that priestess Rhea bare,
  A stealthy birth, to upper air,
  ’Mid shades of woody Aventine
    Mingling her own with heavenly blood,
  When triumph-flushed from Geryon slain
  Aleides touched the Latian plain,
  And bathed Iberia’s distant kine
    In Tuscan Tiber’s flood.                                             5
  Long pikes and poles his bands uprear,
  The shapely blade, the Sabine spear.
  Himself on foot, with lion’s skin,
  Whose long white teeth with ghastly grin
  Clasp like a helmet brow and chin,                                    10
  Joins the proud chiefs in rude attire,
  And flaunts the emblem of his sire.
  From Tiber’s walls twin brothers came,
  The town that bears Tiburtus’ name,
  Bold Coras and Catillus strong:                                       15
  Through the thick-rained darts they storm along,
    And foremost in the fray:
  As when two cloud-born Centaurs leap
  Down Homole or Othrys’ steep,
  The forest parts before their sweep,                                  20
    And crashing trees give way.

    Nor lacked there to the embattled power
  The founder of Præneste’s tower,
  Brave Cæculus, by all renowned
  As Vulcan’s son, ’mid embers found                                    25
  And monarch of the rustics crowned.
  Beneath him march his rural train,
  Whom high Præneste’s walls contain,
  Who dwell in Gabian Juno’s plain,
  Whose haunt is Anio’s chilly flood                                    30
  And Hernic rocks, by streams bedewed,
  Who till Anagnia’s bosom green
  Or drink of father Amasene.
  Not all are furnished for the war
  With ample shield or sounding car.                                    35
  Some sling lead bullets o’er the field,
  Some javelins twain in combat wield.
  A cap of fur protects their head
    By spoil of tawny wolf supplied;
  Their left foot bare, on earth they tread,                            40
    The right is cased in raw bull-hide.
    Messapus, tamer of the steed,
  The Ocean-monarch’s mighty seed,
  Whom none might harm, so willed his sire,
  With force of iron or of fire,
  Awakes his people’s slumbering zeal                                    5
  Long time unused to war’s appeal,
  And from the scabbard bares the steel.
  With him Fescennia’s armed train,
  The dwellers in Falerii’s plain,
  Who hold Soracte’s lofty hill                                         10
  Or fair Flavinia’s cornland till,
  Capena’s woods their dwelling make
  Or Ciminus, its mount and lake.
  With measured pace they march along,
  And make their monarch’s deeds their song;                            15
  Like snow-white swans in liquid air,
  When homeward from their food they fare,
  And far and wide melodious notes
  Come rippling from their slender throats,
  While the broad stream and Asia’s fen                                 20
  Reverberate to the sound again.
  Sure none had thought that countless crowd
    A mail-clad company;
  It rather seemed a dusky cloud
  Of migrant fowl, that, hoarse and loud,                               25
      Press landward from the sea.

    Lo! Clausus there, the Sabines’ boast,
  Leads a great host, himself a host;
  Whence spreads the Claudian race, since Rome
  With Sabine burghers shared her home.                                 30
  With him the Amiternians came
  And Cures’ sons of ancient name,
  The squadron that Eretum guards
  And green Mutusca’s olive-yards.
  Those whom Nomentum’s city yields,                                    35
  Who till Velinus’ Rosean fields,
  Who Tetrica’s rude summit climb
  Or on Severus sits sublime,
  Or dwell where runs Hemella by
  Casperia’s walls and Foruli,                                          40
  Who Tiber haunt and Fabaris’ banks,
    Whom Nursia sends to battle down
  From her cold home, Hortinian ranks
    And Latian tribes of old renown,
  With those whom Allia’s stream ill-starred
  Flows through, dividing sward from sward:                              5
  Thick as the Libyan billows swarm
  When fell Orion sets in storm,
  Or as the sun-baked ears of grain
  In Hæmus’ field or Lycia’s plain;
  Their bucklers rattle, and the ground                                 10
  Quakes, startled by their footfall’s sound.

    Halæsus, Agamemnon’s mate,
  Who hates all Troy with liegeman’s hate,
  Yokes his swift horses to the car,
  And brings his hosts to Turnus’ war,                                  15
  The rustic tribes whose ploughshare tills
  The vine-clad slopes of Massic hills,
  Sent from Auruncan heights, or bound
  From Sidicinian champaign-ground,
  Who fertile Cales leave behind                                        20
  Or where Vulturnian waters wind,
  Saticule’s tenants, rough and rude,
  And all the hardy Oscan brood.
  Spiked truncheons they are wont to fling,
  But fit them with a leathern string:                                  25
  A target shields the good left hand,
  And curved like primer’s hook the brand
  They wield when foot to foot they stand.

    Nor, Œbalus, shalt thou pass by
  Unnamed in this our minstrelsy,                                       30
  Born to old Telon, Capreæ’s king,
  By Naiad of Sebethus’ spring;
  The son contemned his sire’s domain,
  And stretched o’er neighbouring lands his reign.
  Sarrastes’ tribes his rule obey,                                      35
  And fields where Sarnus’ waters play,
  Who Batulum and Rufræ hold
  Or till Celennæ’s fruitful mould,
  Or those whom fair Abella sees
  Down-looking through her apple-trees,                                 40
  All wont in Teuton sort to throw
  Nail-studded maces ’gainst the foe;
  Their helm of bark from cork-tree peeled,
  Of brass their sword, of brass their shield.

    Thee too steep Nersæ sends to war                                    5
  Brave Ufens, born ’neath happy star:
  Hard as their clods the Æquian race,
  Inured to labour in the chase;
  In armour sheathed, they till their soil,
  Heap foray up, and live by spoil.                                     10

    Came too from old Marruvia’s realm,
  An olive-garland round his helm,
  Bold Umbro, priest at once and knight,
  By king Archippus sent to fight;
  Who baleful serpents knew to steep                                    15
  By hand and voice in charmed sleep,
  Soothed their fierce wrath with subtlest skill,
  And from their bite drew off the ill.
  But ah! his medicines could not heal
  The death-wound dealt by Dardan steel;                                20
  His slumberous charms availed him nought,
  Nor herbs on Marsian mountains sought
    And cropped with magic shears;
  For thee Anguitia’s woody cave,
  For thee the glassy Fucine wave,                                      25
    For thee the lake shed tears.

    From green Aricia, bent on fame,
  Hippolytus’ fair offspring came,
  In lone Egeria’s forest reared,
  Where Dian’s shrine is loved and feared.                              30
  For lost Hippolytus,’tis said,
  By cruel stepdame’s cunning dead,
  Dragged by his frightened steeds, to sate
  His angry sire’s vindictive hate,
  Was called once more to realms above,                                 35
  By Pæon’s skill and Dian’s love.
  Then Jove incensed that man should rise
  From darkness to the upper skies,
  The leech that wrought such healing hurled
  With lightening down to Pluto’s world.                                40
  But Trivia kind her favourite hides
  And to Egeria’s care confides,
  To live in woods obscure and lone,
  And lose in Virbius’ name his own.
  ’Tis thence e’en now from Trivia’s shrine                              5
    The horn-hoofed steeds are chased,
  Since, scared by monsters of the brine,
  The chariot and the youth divine
    They tumbled on the waste,
  Yet ne’ertheless with horse and car                                   10
  His dauntless son essays the war.

    In foremost rank see Turnus move,
  His comely head the rest above:
  On his tall helm the triple cone
  Chimæra in relief is shown;                                           15
  The monster’s gaping jaws expire
  Hot volumes of Ætnæan fire:
  And still she flames and raves the more
  The deeper floats the field with gore.
  With bristling hide and lifted horns                                  20
  So, all gold, his shield adorns,
    E’en as in life she stood;
  There too is Argus, warder stern,
  And Inachus from graven urn,
    Her father, pours his flood.                                        25
  A cloud of footmen at his back
  And shielded hosts the plain made black;
  Auruncans, Argives, brave and bold,
  Rutulians and Sicanians old,
  Sacranians thirsting for the field,                                   30
  Labici with enamelled shield;
  Who Tiber’s lawns with furrow score
  And pure Numicius’ sacred shore,
  Subdue Rutulian slopes, and plough
  Circeius’ steep reluctant brow:                                       35
  Where Anxur boasts her guardian Jove
  And greenly blooms Feronia’s grove;
  Where Satura’s unlovely mere
    In sullen quiet sleeps,
  And Ufens gropes through marshland drear                              40
    And hides him in the deeps.
  Last marches forth for Latium’s sake
    Camilla fair, the Volscian maid,
  A troop of horsemen in her wake
    In pomp of gleaming steel arrayed;
  Stern warrior queen! those tender hands                                5
    Ne’er plied Minerva’s ministries:
  A virgin in the fight she stands,
    Or winged winds in speed outvies.
  Nay, she might fly o’er fields of grain
    Nor crush in flight the tapering wheat,                             10
  Or skim the surface of the main,
    Nor let the billows touch her feet.
  Where’er she moves, from house and land
    The youths and ancient matrons throng,
  And fixed in greedy wonder stand                                      15
    Beholding as she speeds along:
  In kingly dye that scarf was dipped:
    ’Tis gold confines those tresses’ flow:
  Her pastoral wand with steel is tipped,
    And Lycian are her shafts and bow.                                  20




BOOK VIII


  Soon as Turnus set high on Laurentum’s tower the
  ensign of war, and the horns clanged forth their harsh
  music, soon as he shook the reins in the mouth of his
  fiery steeds, and clashed his armour, at once came a stirring
  of men’s souls: all Latium conspires in tumultuous rising,             5
  and the warrior bands are inflamed to madness. The
  generals, Messapus and Ufens and Mezentius, scorner of
  the gods, assume the lead, mustering succour from all
  sides and unpeopling the fields of their tillers far and
  wide. Venulus too is sent to the town of mighty Diomede               10
  to entreat help, and set forth that the Teucrians are
  planting foot in Latium: that Æneas is arrived by sea
  and intruding his vanquished home-gods, and announcing
  himself as the Latians’ destined king; that many tribes
  are flocking to the standard of the Dardan chief, and the             15
  contagion of his name is spreading over Latium’s length
  and breadth. What is to be the end of such a beginning,
  what, should fortune favour him, he promises to himself
  as the issue of the battle, Diomede will know better than
  king Turnus or king Latinus.                                          20

  So go things in Latium. The chief of Laomedon’s line
  sees it all, and is tossed on a sea of cares; now on this
  point, now on that, he throws in a moment the forces of
  his mind, hurrying it into all quarters and sweeping the
  whole range of thought: as in water a flickering beam                 25
  on a brazen vat, darted back by the sun or the bright
  moon’s image, flits far and wide over the whole place,
  now at last mounting to the sky and striking the ceiling
  of the roof. Night came, and tired life the earth over,
  bird and beast alike, were lapped deep in slumber, when               30
  Æneas, good king, troubled at heart by the anxious war,
  stretched himself on the bank under heaven’s chilly cope,
  and let repose at last steal over his frame. Before him
  appeared in person the god of the place, old Tiber of the
  pleasant stream, rising among the poplar foliage: a gray
  mantle of transparent linen floated about him, and his                 5
  hair was shaded with bushy reeds: and thus he began to
  address the chief and relieve his care: “O offspring of
  heaven’s stock, who are bringing back to us safe from
  the foe the city of Troy, and preserving Pergamus in enduring
  life, yourself looked for long on the Laurentian                      10
  soil and in the fields of Latium, here is your abiding place
  of rest, here, distrust it not, permanence for your home-gods:
  let not war’s threatenings make you afraid, the
  swellings of the anger of heaven have all given way.
  Even now, that you may not think this the idle coinage                15
  of sleep, under the oaks on the bank you shall find an
  enormous swine lying with a litter of thirty head just
  born, white herself throughout her lazy length, her children
  round her breasts as white as she: a sign that when
  thirty years have made their circuit, Ascanius shall found            20
  that city known by the illustrious name of the White.
  Of no doubtful issue are these words of mine. Now for
  the way in which you may triumphantly unravel the
  present knot, grant me your attention, and I will show
  you in brief. On this my coast, Arcadians, a race sprung              25
  from Pallas, who have followed king Evander and his
  banner, have chosen themselves a site and built a city
  on the hills, called from the name of their ancestor Pallas,
  Pallanteum. These are forever engaged in war with the
  Latian nation: let them join your camp as allies, and                 30
  make league with them. I myself will lead you between
  the banks, straight along my stream, that as you journey
  up your oars may surmount the adverse current. Up
  then, goddess-born, and ere the stars have well set, offer
  prayer in due course to Juno, and overbear with suppliant             35
  vows her anger and her menace. Once triumphant,
  you shall pay your worship to me. I am he whom you
  see here with brimming flood grazing the banks and
  threading rich cultured lands, sea-green Tiber, the river
  whom gods love best. Here rises my royal palace, the
  crown of lofty cities.” The river-god said, and plunged
  into his deep pool, down to the bottom; night and sleep
  at once fled from Æneas. He rises, and with his eyes                   5
  fixed on the sun’s rays just dawning on the sky, he lifts
  up in due form water from the river in the hollow of
  his hands, and pours forth to heaven words like these:
  “Nymphs, Laurentian nymphs, whence rivers derive their
  birth, and thou, father Tiber, with thy hallowed flood,               10
  take Æneas to your bosom, and at last relieve him from
  perils. Whatever the spring of the pool where thou
  dwellest in thy pity for our troubles, whatever the soil
  whence thy goodly stream arises, ever shalt thou be
  honoured by me with sacrifice, ever with offerings, the               15
  river with the crescent horn, the monarch of Hesperian
  waters. Be but thou present, and confirm by thy deed
  thy heavenly tokens.” So saying, he chooses two biremes
  from the fleet and fits them with rowers, while he gives
  his comrades arms to wear.                                            20

  When lo, a sudden portent marvellous to view—stretched
  in milk-white length along the sward, herself of
  one hue with her white litter, conspicuous on the verdant
  bank is seen a sow, whom pious Æneas to thee, even to
  thee, mightiest Juno, immolates in sacrifice, and sets her            25
  with all her brood before the altar. That whole night
  long Tiber smoothed his brimming stream, and so stood
  with hushed waves, half recoiling, as to lay down a watery
  floor as of some gentle lake or peaceful pool, that the oar
  might have nought to struggle with. So they begin their               30
  voyage and speed with auspicious cheers. Smooth along
  the surface floats the anointed pine: marvelling stand
  the waters, marvelling the unwonted wood, to see the
  warriors’ shields gleaming far along the stream, and the
  painted vessels gliding between the banks. The rowers                 35
  give no rest to night or day, as they surmount the long
  meanders, sweep under the fringe of diverse trees, and
  cut through the woods that look green in the still expanse.
  The sun had climbed in full blaze the central cope of
  heaven, when from afar they see walls, and a citadel,
  and the roofs of straggling habitations—the place which
  the power of Rome has now made to mate the skies:
  then it was but Evander’s poor domain. At once they                    5
  turn their prows to land and approach the town.

  It happened that on that day the Arcadian monarch
  was performing a yearly sacrifice to Amphitryon’s mighty
  child[250] and the heavenly brotherhood in a grove before the
  city. With him his son Pallas, with him all the prime of              10
  his warriors and his unambitious senate were offering incense,
  and the new-shed blood was steaming warm on the
  altar. Soon as they saw tall ships gliding toward them
  through the shadowy trees, and plying the oar in silence,
  alarmed by the sudden apparition, each and all start up               15
  from the sacrificial board. Pallas, bolder than the rest,
  bids them not break the sacred observance, and snatching
  up a weapon flies himself to meet the strangers, and
  from a height at distance, “Warriors,” he cries, “what
  cause has led you to venture on a path you know not?                  20
  whither are you bound? what is your nation, your family?
  is it peace you bring us or war?” Then father Æneas
  bespeaks him thus from the lofty stern, stretching forth
  in his hand a branch of peaceful olive: “These are Trojans
  you see. These weapons mean hostility to the                          25
  Latins, who have driven us from their land by a tyrannous
  war. Our errand is to Evander. Take back our message,
  and say that chosen chiefs of Dardany are at his gate,
  praying for an armed alliance.” That mighty name
  struck awe into Pallas. “Disembark,” he cries, “whoever               30
  you be, and speak to my sire in person, and come
  beneath our home-gods’ hospitable shelter,” and gave his
  hand in welcome, and clung to the hand he clasped.
  They advance under the shade of the grove, and leave
  the river behind.                                                     35

  Then Æneas addresses the king with friendly courtesy:
  “Best of the sons of Greece, to whom it has pleased Fortune
  that I should make my prayer and stretch out boughs
  wreathed with fillets, I felt no fear for that you were a
  Danaan leader, an Arcadian, allied by lineage with the
  two sons of Atreus: I felt that my own worth, and the
  gods’ hallowed oracles, and the old connection of our
  ancestry, and your world-wide fame, had linked me to                   5
  you, and brought me before you at once by destiny and
  of my own will. Dardanus, first father and founder of the
  town of Ilion, born, as Greeks tell, of Electra, daughter of
  Atlas, came among Teucer’s people: Electra’s father was
  mighty Atlas, he that bears up on his shoulders the                   10
  spheres of heaven. Your progenitor is Mercury, whom
  beauteous Maia[251] conceived and brought forth on Cyllene’s
  chill summit; but Maia, if tradition be credited, is the
  child of Atlas, the same Atlas who lifts up the stars of
  the firmament. Thus our two races part off from one                   15
  and the same stock. Trusting to this, I sent no embassy,
  nor contrived the first approaches to you by rule
  and method: in myself, in my own person, I have made
  the experiment, and come to your gate as a suppliant.
  The same tribe which persecutes you, the Daunians, is                 20
  now persecuting us with cruel war: should they drive us
  away, they foresee nought to hinder their subduing all
  Hesperia utterly to their yoke, and mastering either sea,
  that washes it above or below. Take our friendship and
  give us yours. On our side are hearts valiant in war,                 25
  and a gallant youth approved by adventure.”

  Æneas ended. Long ere this the other’s eye was scanning
  the speaker’s countenance and eyes, and surveying
  his whole frame. Then he returns in brief: “With what
  joy, bravest of the Teucrians, do I welcome and acknowledge           30
  ye! how well I call to mind the words, the voice,
  the look of your sire, the great Anchises! For I remember
  how Priam, son of Laomedon, journeying to Salamis,
  to see the kingdom of his sister Hesione, went on to visit
  the chill frontier of Arcadia. In those days the first                35
  bloom of youth was clothing my cheeks. I admired the
  Teucrian leaders, I admired Laomedon’s royal son; but
  Anchises’ port was nobler than all. My mind kindled
  with a youth’s ardour to accost one so great, and exchange
  the grasp of the hand. I made my approach, and eagerly
  conducted him to the walls of Pheneus.[252] On leaving he
  gave me a beauteous quiver with Lycian arrows, and a
  scarf embroidered with gold, and two bridles which my                  5
  Pallas has now, all golden. So now I both plight you
  here with the hand you ask, and soon as to-morrow’s light
  shall restore to the earth its blessing, I will send you back
  rejoicing in an armed succour, and reënforced with stores.
  Meanwhile, since you are arrived here as my friends, join             10
  in gladly solemnizing with us this our yearly celebration,
  which it were sin to postpone, and accustom yourselves
  thus early to the hospitalities of your new allies.”

  This said, he bids set on again the viands and the cups,
  erewhile removed, and himself places the warriors on a                15
  seat of turf, welcoming Æneas in especial grace with the
  heaped cushion of a shaggy lion’s hide, and bidding him
  occupy a throne of maple wood. Then chosen youths
  and the priest of the altar with emulous zeal bring in the
  roasted carcases of bulls, pile up in baskets the gifts of            20
  the corn-goddess prepared by art, and serve the wine-god
  round. Æneas and the warriors of Troy with him
  regale themselves on a bull’s long chine[o] and on sacrificial
  entrails.

  When hunger had been quenched and appetite allayed,                   25
  king Evander begins: “Think not that these solemnities
  of ours, these ritual feastings, this altar so blest in divine
  presence, have been riveted on us by idle superstition,
  unknowing of the gods of old; no, guest of Troy, it is
  deliverance from cruel dangers that makes us sacrifice                30
  and pay again and again worship where worship is due.
  First of all cast your eyes on this rock-hung crag: observe
  how the masses of stone are flung here and there, how
  desolate and exposed stands the mountain’s recess, and
  how the rocks have left the trail of a giant downfall.                35
  Here once was a cave, retiring in enormous depth, tenanted
  by a terrible shape, Cacus, half man, half brute: the sun’s
  rays could never pierce it; the ground was always steaming
  with fresh carnage; fixed to its imperious portals
  were hanging human countenances ghastly with hideous
  gore. This monster’s father was Vulcan: Vulcan’s were
  the murky fires that he disgorged from his mouth as he
  towered along in enormous bulk. To us also at length                   5
  in our yearning need time brought the arrival of a divine
  helper. For the mightiest of avengers, Alcides, triumphing
  in the slaughter and the spoils of the triple Geryon,[253]
  was in our land, and was driving by this road as a conqueror
  those giant oxen, and the cattle were filling valley                  10
  and river-side. But Cacus, infatuated by fiendish frenzy,
  not to leave aught of crime or craft undared or unessayed,
  carries off from the stalls four bulls of goodly form, and
  heifers no fewer of surpassing beauty. And these, that
  they might leave no traces by their forward motion, he                15
  dragged by the tail to his cave, haled them with reversed
  footprints to tell the story, and so concealed them in the
  dark rocky den. Thus the seeker found no traces to lead
  him to the cavern. Meantime, when Amphitryon’s son
  was at last removing from their stalls his feasted herds              20
  and preparing to quit the country, the oxen gave a farewell
  low, filling the whole woodland with their plainings,
  and taking clamorous leave of the hills. One of the
  heifers returned the sound, lowing from the depth of the
  vast cavern, and thus baffled the hopes of her jealous                25
  guardian. Now, if ever, Alcides’ wrath blazed up from
  the black choler of his heart: he snatches up his weapons
  and his club with all its weight of knots, and makes at
  full speed for the skyey mountain’s height. Then first the
  men of our country saw Cacus’ limbs tremble and his                   30
  eyes quail: away he flies swifter than the wind, and seeks
  his den; fear has winged his feet. Scarce had he shut
  himself in, and let down from its burst fastenings the
  huge stone, suspended there by his father’s workmanship
  in iron, and with that barrier fortified his straining doorway,       35
  when lo! the hero of Tiryns[254] was there in the fury
  of his soul: scanning every inlet he turns his face hither
  and thither, gnashing with his teeth. Thrice in white
  heat of wrath he surveys the whole mass of Aventine;
  thrice he attempts in vain the stony portal; thrice,
  staggering from the effort, he sits down in the hollow.
  Before him stood a pointed crag with abrupt rocky sides
  rising over the cave behind, high as the eye can reach, a              5
  fitting home for the nests of unclean and hateful birds.
  This, as sloping down it inclined towards the river on the
  left, pushing it full on the right he upheaved and tore it
  loose from its seat, then suddenly sent it down, with a
  shock at which high heaven thunders, the banks start                  10
  apart, and the river runs back in terror. Then the cave
  and the vast halls of Cacus were seen unroofed, and the
  dark recesses lay open to their depths—even as if earth,
  by some mighty force laid open to her depths, should
  burst the doors of the mansions below, and expose the                 15
  realms of ghastly gloom which the gods hate, and from
  above the vast abyss were to be seen, and the spectres
  dazzled by the influx of day. So as Cacus stares surprised
  by the sudden burst of light, pent by the walls of
  his cave, and roars in strange and hideous sort, Alcides              20
  from above showers down his darts, and calls every
  weapon to his aid, and rains a tempest of boughs and
  huge millstones. But he, seeing that no hope of flight
  remains, vomits from his throat huge volumes of smoke,
  marvellous to tell, and wraps the whole place in pitchy               25
  darkness, blotting out all prospect from the eyes, and in
  the depth of the cave masses a smothering night of blended
  blackness and fire. The rage of Alcides brooked not this:
  headlong he dashed through the flame, where the smoke
  surges thickest and the vast cavern seethes with billows              30
  of black vapour. Here while Cacus in the heart of the
  gloom is vomiting his helpless fires he seizes him, twines
  his limbs with his own, and in fierce embrace compresses
  his strangled eyeballs and his throat now bloodless and
  dry. At once the doors are burst and the black den laid               35
  bare, and the plundered oxen, the spoil that his oath had
  disclaimed, are exposed to light, and the hideous carcase
  is dragged out by the heels. The gazers look unsatisfied
  on those dreadful eyes, those grim features, the shaggy
  breast of the half bestial monster, and the extinguished
  furnace of his throat. Since then grateful acknowledgments
  have been paid, and the men of younger time have
  joyfully observed the day: foremost among them Potitius,               5
  founder of the ceremony, and the Pinarian house, custodian
  of the worship of Hercules. He himself set up in
  the grove this altar, which shall ever be named by us
  the greatest, and shall ever be the greatest in truth.
  Come then, warriors, and in honour of worth so glorious               10
  wreathe your locks with leaves, and present in your hands
  brimming cups, and invoke our common deity, and pour
  libations with gladness of heart.” As he ended, the white-green
  poplar cast its Herculean shade over his locks and
  hung down with a festoon of leaves, and the sacred goblet             15
  charged his hand. At once all with glad hearts pour
  libations on the board and make prayers to heaven.

  Meantime evening is approaching nearer the slope of
  heaven, and already the priests and their chief Potitius
  were in procession, clad in skins in ritual sort, and bearing         20
  fire in their hands. They renew the solemn feast,
  and bring delicious offerings for a fresh repast, and pile
  the altars with loaded chargers. Then come the Salii to
  sing round about the blazing altars, their temples wreathed
  with boughs of poplar, a company of youths and another                25
  of old men; and these extol in song the glories and deeds
  of Hercules: how in his cradle, by the pressure of his
  young hand he strangled his stepmother’s monstrous
  messengers, the two serpents; how in war that same
  hand dashed to pieces mighty cities, Troy and Œchalia;                30
  how he endured those thousand heavy labours, a slave to
  king Eurystheus, by ungentle Juno’s fateful will. “Yes,
  thou, unconquered hero, thou slayest the two-formed
  children of the cloud, Hylæus and Pholus, thou slayest
  the portent of Crete, and the enormous lion that dwelt                35
  ’neath Nemea’s rock. Thou never quailedst at aught in
  bodily shape, no, nor at Typhœus himself, towering high,
  weapons in hand; thy reason failed thee not when Lerna’s
  serpent stood round thee with all her throng of heads.
  Hail to thee, authentic offspring of Jove, fresh ornament
  of the sky! come to us, come to these thine own rites
  with favouring smile and auspicious gait.” Such things
  their songs commemorate; and they crown all with Cacus’                5
  cave and the fiend himself, the fire panting from his lungs.
  The entire grove echoes with their voices, and the hills
  rebound.

  The sacrifice over, the whole concourse returns to the
  city. There walked the king, mossed over with years,                  10
  keeping at his side Æneas and his son as he moved along,
  and lightening the way with various speech. Æneas admires,
  and turns his quick glance from sight to sight:
  each scene enthralls him; and with eager zest he inquires
  and learns one by one the records of men of old. Then                 15
  spoke king Evander, the builder of Rome’s tower-crowned
  hill: “These woodlands were first inhabited by native
  Fauns and Nymphs, and by a race of men that sprung
  from trunks of trees and hard oaken core; no rule of life,
  no culture had they: they never learnt to yoke the ox,                20
  nor to hive their stores, nor to husband what they got;
  the boughs and the chase supplied their savage sustenance.
  The first change came from Saturn, who arrived from
  skyey Olympus, flying from the arms of Jove, a realmless
  exile. He brought together the race, untamed as they                  25
  were and scattered over mountain heights, and gave them
  laws, and chose for the country the name of Latium,
  because he had found it a safe hiding-place. The golden
  age of story was when he was king, so calm and peaceful
  his rule over his people; till gradually there crept in a             30
  race of worse grain and duller hue, and the frenzy of war,
  and the greed of having. Then came the host of Ausonia
  and the Sicanian tribes, and again and again Saturn’s
  land changed its name; then came king after king, savage
  Thybris with his giant bulk, from whom in after days we               35
  Italians called the river Tiber: the authentic name of
  ancient Albula was lost. Myself, an exile from my country,
  while voyaging to the ends of the sea, all-powerful
  Fortune and inevitable Destiny planted here; at my back
  were the awful hests[255] of my mother, the nymph Carmentis,
  and the divine sanction of Apollo.” Scarce had he
  finished, when moving on he points out the altar and
  the Carmental gate, as the Romans call it, their ancient               5
  tribute to the nymph Carmentis, the soothsaying seer, who
  first told of the future greatness of Æneas’ sons and of
  the glories of Pallanteum. Next he points out a mighty
  grove, which fiery Romulus made the Asylum of a later
  day, and embowered by the chill dank rock, the Lupercal,              10
  bearing after Arcadian wont the name of Lycæan Pan.
  He shows, moreover, the forest of hallowed Argiletum,
  and appeals to the spot, and recounts the death of Argus,
  once his guest. Thence he leads the way to the Tarpeian
  temple, even the Capitol, now gay with gold, then rough               15
  with untrimmed brushwood. Even in that day the sacred
  terrors of the spot awed the trembling rustics; even then
  they shuddered at the forest and the rock. “This wood,”
  he says, “this hill with the shaggy brow, is the home of
  a god of whom we know not; my Arcadians believe that                  20
  they have seen there great Jove himself, oft and oft,
  shaking with his right hand the shadowy Ægis[256] and calling
  up the storm. Here, too, in these two towns, with
  their ramparts overthrown, you see the relics and the
  chronicles of bygone ages. This tower was built by father             25
  Janus, that by Saturn; the one’s name Janiculum, the
  other’s Saturnia.” So talking together they came nigh
  the palace where Evander dwells in poverty, and saw
  cattle all about lowing in the Roman forum and Carinæ’s
  luxurious precinct. When they reached the gate, “This                 30
  door,” said the host, “Alcides in his triumph stooped to
  enter; this mansion contained his presence. Nerve yourself,
  my guest, to look down on riches, and make your
  own soul, like his, such as a god would not disdain, and
  take in no churlish sort the welcome of poverty.” He                  35
  said, and beneath the slope of his narrow roof ushered in
  the great Æneas, and laid him to rest on a couch of leaves
  and the skin of a Libyan bear.

  Down comes the night, and flaps her sable wings over
  the earth. But Venus, distracted, and not idly, with a
  mother’s cares, disturbed by the menaces of the Laurentines
  and the violence of the gathering storm, addresses
  Vulcan, and in the nuptial privacy of their golden chamber             5
  begins her speech, breathing in every tone the love
  that gods feel: “In old days of war, while the Argive
  kings were desolating Pergamus, their destined prey, and
  ravaging the towers which were doomed to hostile fire,
  no help for the sufferers, no arms of thy resourceful workmanship     10
  did I ask; no, my dearest lord, I chose not to
  task thee and thy efforts to no end, large as was my debt
  to the sons of Priam, and many the tears that I shed for
  Æneas’ cruel agony. Now, by Jove’s commands, he has
  set his foot on Rutulian soil; so, with the past in my                15
  mind, I appear as a suppliant, to ask of his power whom
  I honour most, as a mother may, armour for my son.
  Thee the daughter of Nereus, thee the spouse of Tithonus,
  found accessible to tears. See but what nations are
  mustering, what cities are closing the gate and pointing              20
  the steel against me and the lives I love.” The speech
  was ended, and the goddess is fondling her undecided
  lord on all sides in the soft embrace of her snowy arms.
  Suddenly he caught the wonted fire, the well-known heat
  shot to his vitals and threaded his melting frame, even as            25
  on a day when the fiery rent burst by the thunderclaps
  runs with gleaming flash along the veil of cloud. His
  spouse saw the triumph of her art and felt what beauty
  can do. Then spoke the stern old god, subdued by everlasting
  love: “Why fetch your excuses from so far?                            30
  whither, my queen, has fled your old affiance in me? had
  you then been as anxious, even in those old days it had
  been allowed to give arms to the Trojans; nor was the
  almighty sire nor the destinies unwilling that Troy should
  stand and Priam remain in life for ten years more. And                35
  now, if war is your object and so your purpose holds, all
  the care that it lies within my art to promise, what can
  be wrought out of iron and molten electrum, as far as
  fire can burn and wind blow—cease to show by entreaty
  that you mistrust your power.” This said, he gave the
  embrace she longed for, and falling on the bosom of his
  spouse wooed the calm of slumber in every limb.

  Then, soon as rest, first indulged, had driven sleep                   5
  away, when flying night had run half her course; just
  when a woman, compelled to support life by spinning,
  even by Pallas’ slender craft, wakes to light the fire that
  slumbered in the embers, adding night to her day’s work,
  and keeps her handmaids labouring long by the blaze, all              10
  that she may preserve her husband’s bed unsullied, and
  bring up his infant sons; even so the lord of fire, at an
  hour not less slothful, rises from his couch of down to
  the toils of the artisan. There rises an island hard by
  the Sicanian coast and Æolian Lipari, towering with fiery             15
  mountains; beneath it thunders a cavern, the den of
  Ætna, blasted out by Cyclop forges; the sound of mighty
  blows echoes on anvils: the smeltings of the Chalybes
  hiss through its depths, and the fire pants from the jaws
  of the furnace; it is the abode of Vulcan, and the land               20
  bears Vulcan’s name. Hither, then, the lord of fire
  descends from heaven’s height. There, in the enormous
  den, the Cyclops were forging the iron, Brontes, and
  Steropes, and Pyracmon, the naked giant. In their hands
  was the rough cast of the thunder-bolt, one of those many             25
  which the great Father showers down on earth from all
  quarters of heaven—part was polished for use, part still
  incomplete. Three spokes of frozen rain, three of watery
  cloud had they put together, three of ruddy flame and
  winged southern wind; and now they were blending with                 30
  what they had done the fearful flash, and the noise, and
  the terror, and the fury of untiring fire. In another part
  they were hurrying on for Mars the car and the flying
  wheels, with which he rouses warriors to madness, aye,
  and whole cities; and with emulous zeal were making                   35
  bright with golden serpent scales the terrible Ægis, the
  armour of angry Pallas, snakes wreathed together, and
  full on the breast of the goddess the Gorgon herself, her
  neck severed and her eyes rolling. “Away with all this,”
  cries the god; “take your unfinished tasks elsewhere, you
  Cyclops of Ætna, and give your attention here. Arms
  are wanted for a fiery warrior. Now is the call for power,
  now for swiftness of hand, now for all that art can teach.             5
  Turn delay into despatch.” No more he said; but they
  with speed put their shoulder to the work, sharing it in
  equal parts. Copper flows in streams and golden ore, and
  steel, that knows how to wound, is molten in the huge
  furnace. They set up in outline a mighty shield, itself               10
  singly matched against all the Latian weapons, and tangle
  together seven plates, circle and circle. Some with their
  gasping bellows are taking in and giving out the wind;
  others are dipping the hissing copper in the lake. The
  cave groans under the anvil’s weight. They, one with                  15
  another, with all a giant’s strength, are lifting their arms
  in measured cadence, and turning with their griping
  tongs the ore on this side and on that.

  While the father of Lemnos[257] makes this despatch on
  the Æolian shores, Evander is roused from his lowly                   20
  dwelling by the genial light and the morning songs of
  birds under the eaves. Up rises the old man, and draws
  a tunic over his frame, and puts Tyrrhenian sandals
  round his feet; next he fastens from below to side and
  shoulder a sword from Tegea, flinging back over him a                 25
  panther’s hide that drooped from the left. Moreover, two
  guardian dogs go before him from his palace door, and
  attend their master’s steps. So he made his way to the
  lodging of his guest, and sought Æneas’ privacy, their
  discourse of yesterday and the gift then promised fresh               30
  in his heroic soul. Æneas likewise was astir not less early.
  This had his son Pallas, that had Achates walking by his
  side. They meet, and join hand in hand, and sit them
  down in the midst of the mansion, and at last enjoy the
  privilege of mutual talk. The king begins as follows:—                35

  “Mightiest leader of the Teucrians, whom while heaven
  preserves I shall never own that Troy’s powers are vanquished
  or her realm overturned, we ourselves have but
  small means of martial aid to back our great name; on
  this side we are bounded by the Tuscan river: on that
  our Rutulian foe beleaguers us, and thunders in arms
  around our walls. But I have a mighty nation, a host
  with an imperial heritage, which I am ready to unite with              5
  you—a gleam of safety revealed by unexpected chance.
  It is at the summons of destiny that you bend your steps
  thither. Not far hence, built of ancient stone, is the inhabited
  city of Agylla, where of old the Lydian nation,
  renowned in war, took its seat on Etruscan mountains.                 10
  This city, after long and prosperous years, was held by
  king Mezentius, by stress of tyrant rule and the terror of
  the sword. Why should I recount the despot’s dreadful
  murders and all his savage crimes? may the gods preserve              15
  them in mind, and bring them on his own head and
  his family’s! Nay, he would even link together the dead
  and the living, coupling hand with hand and face with
  face—so inventive is the lust of torture—and in the
  slime and poison of that sickening embrace would destroy
  them thus by a lingering dissolution. At last, wearied                20
  by oppression, his subjects in arms besiege the frantic
  monster himself and his palace, slay his retainers, shower
  firebrands on his roof. He, mid the carnage, escapes to
  Rutulian territory, and shelters himself under Turnus’
  friendly power. So all Etruria has risen in righteous                 25
  wrath; at once, at the sword’s point, they demand that
  the king be surrendered to their vengeance. Of these
  thousands, Æneas, I will make you general. For along
  the seaboard’s length their ships are swarming and panting
  for the fray, and calling on the trumpet to sound,                    30
  while an aged soothsayer is holding them back by his
  fateful utterance: ‘Chosen warriors of Mæonian land, the
  power and soul of an ancient nation, whom just resentment
  launches against the foe and Mezentius inflames with
  righteous fury, no Italian may take the reins of a race so            35
  proud: choose foreigners to lead you.’ At this the Etruscan
  army settled down on yonder plain, awed by the
  heavenly warning. Tarchon[o] himself has sent me ambassadors
  with the royal crown and sceptre, and given to
  my hands the ensigns of power, bidding me join the camp,
  and assume the Tyrrhene throne. But age, with its enfeebling
  chill and the exhaustion of its long term of years,
  grudges me the honour of command; my day of martial                    5
  prowess is past. Fain would I encourage my son to the
  task, but that the blood of a Sabine mother blending with
  mine makes his race half Italian. You, in years and in
  race alike the object of Fate’s indulgence—you, the
  chosen one of Heaven—assume the place that waits                      10
  you, gallant general of Teucrians and Italians both. Nay,
  I will give you, too, Pallas here, the hope and solace of
  my age; under your tutelage let him learn to endure
  military service and the war-god’s strenuous labours; let
  your actions be his pattern, and his young admiration be              15
  centred on you. To him I will give two hundred Arcadian
  horsemen, the flower of my chivalry, and Pallas in his
  own name shall give you as many more.”

  Scarce had his words been uttered—and the twain
  were holding their eyes in downcast thought, Æneas                    20
  Anchises’ son and true Achates, brooding each with his
  own sad heart on many a peril, had not Cythera’s goddess
  sent a sign from the clear sky. For unforeseen, flashed
  from the heaven, comes a glare and a peal, and all around
  seemed crashing down at once, and the clang of the                    25
  Tyrrhene trumpet appeared to blare through ether. They
  look up: a second and a third time cracks the enormous
  sound. Armour enveloped in a cloud in a clear quarter
  of the firmament is seen to flash redly in the sunlight and
  to ring as clashed together. The rest were all amazement;             30
  but the Trojan hero recognized the sound, and in
  it the promise of his goddess mother. Then he cries:
  “Nay, my host, nay, ask not in sooth what chance these
  wonders portend; it is I that have a call from on high.
  This was the sign that the goddess who gave me birth                  35
  foreshowed me that she would send, should the attack of
  war come, while she would bring through the air armour
  from Vulcan for my help. Alas! how vast the carnage
  ready to burst on Laurentum’s wretched sons! what
  vengeance, Turnus, shall be mine from thee! how many
  a warrior’s shield and helm and stalwart frame shalt thou
  toss beneath thy waters, father Tiber! Aye, clamour for
  battle, and break your plighted word!”                                 5

  Thus having said, he rises from his lofty seat, and first
  of all quickens the altars where the Herculean fires were
  smouldering, and with glad heart approaches the hearth-god
  of yesterday, and the small household powers; duly
  they sacrifice chosen sheep, Evander for his part and the             10
  Trojan youth for theirs. Next he moves on to the ships
  and revisits his crew: from whose number he chooses men
  to follow him to the war, eminent in valour: the rest are
  wafted down the stream and float lazily along with the
  current at their back, to bring Ascanius news of his father           15
  and his fortunes. Horses are given to the Teucrians who
  are seeking the Tyrrhene territory, and one is led along,
  reserved for Æneas; a tawny lion’s hide covers it wholly,
  gleaming forth with talons of gold.

  At once flies rumour, blazed through the little city,                 20
  that the horsemen are marching with speed to the gates
  of the Tyrrhene king. In alarm the matrons redouble
  their vows; fear treads on the heels of danger, and the
  features of the war-god loom larger on the view. Then
  Evander, clasping the hand of his departing son, hangs                25
  about him with tears that never have their fill, and speaks
  like this: “Ah! would but Jupiter bring back my bygone
  years, and make me what I was when under Præneste’s
  very walls I struck down the first rank and set a
  conqueror’s torch to piles of shields, and with this my               30
  hand sent down to Tartarus king Erulus, whom at his
  birth his mother Feronia endowed with three lives—fearful
  to tell—and a frame that could thrice bear arms:
  thrice had he to be struck down in death: yet from him
  on that day this hand took all those three lives, and                 35
  thrice stripped that armour—never should I, as now, be
  torn, my son, from your loved embrace. Never would
  Mezentius have laid dishonour on a neighbour’s crest,
  dealt with his sword that repeated havoc, and bereaved
  my city of so many of her sons. But you, great powers
  above, and thou, Jupiter, mightiest ruler of the gods,
  have pity, I implore you, on an Arcadian monarch, and
  give ear to a father’s prayer; if your august will, if destiny         5
  has in store for me the safe return of my Pallas, if life
  will make me see him and meet him once more, then I
  pray that I may live; there is no trial I cannot bear to
  outlast. But if thou, dark Fortune, threatenest any unnamed
  calamity, now, oh, now, be it granted me to snap                      10
  life’s ruthless thread, while care wears a double face,
  while hope cannot spell the future, while you, darling boy,
  my love and late delight, are still in my arms: nor let
  my ears be pierced by tidings more terrible.” So was the
  father heard to speak at their last parting; his servants             15
  were seen carrying within doors their fallen lord.

  And now the cavalry had passed the city’s open gates,
  Æneas among the first and true Achates, and after them
  the other Trojan nobles; Pallas himself the centre of the
  column, conspicuous with gay scarf and figured armour;                20
  even as the morning-star just bathed in the waves of the
  ocean, Venus’ favourite above all the stellar fires, sets in
  a moment on the sky his heavenly countenance, and
  melts the darkness. There are the trembling matrons
  standing on the walls, following with their eyes the cloud            25
  of dust and the gleam of the brass-clad companies. They
  in their armour are moving through the underwood, their
  eye on the nearest path: hark! a shout mounts up, a
  column is formed, and the four-foot beat of the hoof shakes
  the crumbling plain. Near the cool stream of Cære stands              30
  a vast grove, clothed by hereditary reverence with wide-spread
  sanctity; on all sides it is shut in by the hollows
  of hills, which encompass its dark pine-wood shades.
  Rumour says that the old Pelasgians dedicated it to Silvanus,
  god of the country and the cattle, a grove with a                     35
  holiday—the people who once in early times dwelt on
  the Latian frontier. Not far from this Tarchon and the
  Tyrrhenians were encamped in a sheltered place, and from
  the height of the hill their whole army spread already to
  the view, as they pitched at large over the plain. Hither
  come father Æneas and the chosen company of warriors,
  and refresh the weariness of themselves and their steeds.

  But Venus had come in her divine beauty through the                    5
  dark clouds of heaven with the gifts in her hand, and soon
  as she saw her son far retired in the vale in the privacy of
  the cool stream, she thus accosted him, appearing suddenly
  before him: “See, here is the present completed by my
  lord’s promised skill: now you will not need to hesitate              10
  to-morrow about daring to the combat the haughty
  Laurentians or fiery Turnus’ self.” So said the lady of
  Cythera, and sought her son’s embrace: the arms she set
  up to glitter under an oak that faced his view. He,
  exulting in the goddess’ gifts, and charmed with their                15
  dazzling beauty, cannot feast his eyes enough as he rolls
  them from point to point, admiring and turning over in
  his hands and arms the helmet with its dread crest, vomiting
  flame, the fateful sword, the stiff brazen corslet, blood-red
  and huge, in hue as when a dark cloud kindles with                    20
  sunlight and gleams afar; the polished cuishes,[258] too, of
  electrum and gold smelted oft and oft, and the spear,
  and the shield’s ineffable frame-work. On this was the
  story of Italy and the triumphs of the Romans wrought
  by the Lord of the fire; no stranger he to prophecy nor               25
  ignorant of the time to come: on it was the whole royal
  line of the future from Ascanius onward, and their foughten
  fields in long succession. There, too, he had portrayed
  the mother-wolf stretched in Mars’ green cavern; around
  her teats were the twin boys in play climbing and clinging,           30
  and licking their dam without dread; while she, her lithe
  neck bent back, was caressing them by turns and with her
  tongue shaping their young limbs. Near this he had inserted
  Rome and the lawless rape of the Sabine maidens
  amid the crowded circus, while the great games were in                35
  course, and the sudden rise of a new war between the sons
  of Romulus and ancient Tatius with his austere Cures.
  Afterwards were seen the two kings, the conflict set at rest,
  standing in arms before the altar of Jove with goblets in
  their hands and cementing a treaty with swine’s blood.
  Not far off Mettus had already been torn asunder by the
  chariots driven apart—ah! false Alban, were you but a
  keeper of your word!—and Tullus was dragging the                       5
  traitor’s flesh through the woodland, while the bushes were
  sprinkled with the bloody rain. There, too, was Porsenna
  insisting that exiled Tarquin should be taken back and
  leaguering the city with a mighty siege: Æneas’ sons were
  flinging themselves on the sword in freedom’s cause. In               10
  his face might be seen the likeness of wrath, and the likeness
  of menace, that Cocles[259] should have the courage
  to tear down the bridge, that Cloelia should break her
  prison and swim the river. There was Manlius standing
  sentinel on the summit of the Tarpeian fortress in the                15
  temple’s front, holding the height of the Capitol, while
  the Romulean thatch looked fresh and sharp on the palace-roof.
  And there was the silver goose fluttering its wings
  in the gilded cloister, and shrieking that the Gauls were
  at the door. The Gauls were at hand marching among                    20
  the brushwood, and had gained the summit sheltered
  by the darkness and the kindly grace of dusky night.
  Golden is their hair and golden their raiment; striped
  cloaks gleam on their shoulders; their milk-white necks
  are twined with gold; each brandishes two Alpine javelins,            25
  his body guarded by the long oval of his shield. There
  he had shown in relief the Salii in their dances and the
  naked Luperci, and the woolly peaks of their caps, and
  the sacred shields which fell from heaven: chaste matrons
  were making solemn progress through the city in their                 30
  soft-cushioned cars. At distance from these he introduces
  too the mansions of Tartarus, Pluto’s yawning portals,
  and the torments of crime, and thee, Catiline, poised on
  the beetling rock and quailing at grim Fury-faces: and
  the good in their privacy, with Cato as their lawgiver.               35
  Stretching in its breadth among these swept the semblance
  of the swelling sea, all of gold, but the blue was made to
  foam with whitening billows; and all about it dolphins
  of bright silver in joyous circles were lashing the surface
  with their tails and cutting the tide. In the midst might
  be seen fleets of brazen ships, the naval war of Actium;
  you might remark the whole of Leucate aglow with the
  war-god’s array, and the waves one blaze of gold. On this              5
  side is Augustus Cæsar leading the Italians to conflict,
  with the senate and the people, the home-gods and their
  mighty brethren, standing aloft on the stern: his auspicious
  brows emit twin-born flames, and his ancestral
  star dawns over his head. Elsewhere is Agrippa with the               10
  winds and the gods at his back, towering high as he leads
  his column; his brows gleam with the beaked circle of a
  naval crown, the glorious ornament of war. On that side
  is Antonius with his barbaric powers and the arms of divers
  lands, triumphant from the nations of the dawn-goddess                15
  and the red ocean’s coast, carrying with him Egypt
  and the strength of the East and the utmost parts of Bactria,
  and at his side—shame on the profanation!—his
  Egyptian spouse.[260] All are seen at once in fierce onward
  motion: the whole sea-floor foams up, torn by the backward            20
  pull of the oars and by the three-fanged beaks.
  On to the deep! you would deem that uprooted Cyclades
  were swimming the sea, or that tall hills were meeting hills
  in battle; such the giant effort, with which the warriors
  urge on their tower-crowned ships. From the hand is                   25
  scattered a shower of flaming tow and flying steel: the
  plains of Neptune redden with unwonted carnage. In the
  midst of them the queen is cheering on her forces with
  the timbrel of her native land; casting as yet no glance on
  the twin-born snakes that threaten her rear. There are                30
  the portentous gods of all the nations, and Anubis[261] the
  barking monster, brandishing their weapons in the face
  of Neptune and Venus and in the face of Pallas. Midmost
  in the fray storms Mavors,[262] relieved in iron, and fell
  Fury-fiends swooping from the sky; and Discord sweeps                 35
  along in the glory of her rent mantle, and at her back
  Bellona with blood-dropping scourge. There was Actium’s
  Apollo, with his eye on the fray, bending his bow from
  above; at whose terror all Egypt and Ind, all Arabia, all
  the sons of Saba[263] were turning the back in flight. The
  queen herself was shown spreading her sails to friendly
  breezes, and just loosing the sheets. On her face the Lord
  of the Fire had written the paleness of foreshadowed                   5
  death, as she drove on among corpses before the tide and
  the zephyr; over against her was Nile, his vast body writhing
  in woe, throwing open his bosom, and with his whole
  flowing raiment inviting the vanquished to his green lap
  and his sheltering flood. But Cæsar, entering the walls               10
  of Rome in threefold triumph, was consecrating to the
  gods of Italy a votive tribute of deathless gratitude, three
  hundred mighty fanes the whole city through. The ways
  were ringing with gladness and with games and with plausive
  peal; in every temple thronged a matron company,                      15
  in every temple an altar blazed; in front of the altars
  slaughtered bullocks strewed the floor. The hero himself,
  throned on dazzling Phœbus’ snow-white threshold, is
  telling over the offerings of all the nations and hanging
  them up on the proud temple gates; there in long procession           20
  move the conquered peoples, diverse in tongue, diverse
  no less in garb and in armour. Here had Mulciber portrayed
  the Nomad race and the zoneless sons of Afric:
  here, too, Leleges and Carians and quivered Gelonians:
  Euphrates was flowing with waves subdued already; and                 25
  the Morini, furthest of mankind, and Rhine with his crescent
  horn, and tameless Dahæ, and Araxes chafing to be
  bridged. Such sights Æneas scans with wonder on Vulcan’s
  shield, his mother’s gift, and joys in the portraiture
  of things he knows not, as he heaves on his shoulder the              30
  fame and the fate of grandsons yet to be.




BOOK IX


  While these things are in progress far away, Juno,
  Saturn’s daughter, has sent down Iris from above on an
  errand to Turnus the bold. It chanced that then Turnus
  was sitting in the grove of his sire Pilumnus, deep in the
  hallowed dell. Him then the child[264] of Thaumas bespoke              5
  thus from her rosy lips: “Turnus, what no god would have
  dared to promise to your prayers, lo! the mere lapse of
  time has brought to you unasked. Æneas, leaving behind
  town, comrades, and fleet, is gone to seek the realm of the
  Palatine, the settlement of Evander. Nor is that all:                 10
  he has won his way to Corythus’ farthest towns, and is
  arming the Lydian bands, the crowds of country folk. Why
  hesitate? now, now is the moment to call for horse and
  car; fling delay to the winds, and come down on the bewildered
  camp.” So saying, she raised herself aloft on the                     15
  poise of her wings, and drew as she fled along the clouds her
  mighty bow. The warrior knew his visitant, lifted his
  two hands to heaven, and pursued her flight with words
  like these: “Iris, fair glory of the sky, who has sent thee
  down from heaven to earth on an errand to me? I see                   20
  the firmament parting asunder, and the stars reeling about
  the poles. Yes! I follow thy mighty presage, whoe’er
  thou art thus calling me to arms.” With these words he
  went to the river-side, and took up water from the brimming
  flood, calling oft on the gods and burdening heaven                   25
  with a multitude of vows.

  And now his whole army was in motion along the open
  plain, richly dowered with horses, richly dowered with
  gold and broidered raiment. Messapus[265] marshals the van,
  Tyrrheus’ warrior-sons the rear: Turnus himself, the                  30
  general, is in the centre—like Ganges with his seven calm
  streams proudly rising through the silence, or Nile when
  he withdraws from the plain his fertilizing waters and has
  at last subsided into his bed. Suddenly the Teucrians
  look forth on a cloud massed with murky dust, and see
  darkness gathering over the plain. First cries Caicus from             5
  the rampart’s front: “What mass have we here, my
  countrymen, rolling towards us, black as night? Quick
  with the steel, bring weapons, man the walls, the enemy
  is upon us, ho!” With loud shouts the Teucrians pour
  themselves through all the gates and through the bulwarks.            10
  For such had been the charge of Æneas, that best of soldiers,
  when going on his way; should aught fall out meantime,
  let them not venture to draw out their lines or try
  the fortune of the field: enough for them to guard camp
  and wall safe behind their earthworks. So now, though                 15
  shame and anger prompt to an engagement, they shield
  themselves nevertheless with closed gates in pursuance of
  his bidding, and armed, within the covert of their towers,
  await the foe. Turnus, just as he had galloped on in advance
  of his tardy column, appears unforeseen before the                    20
  gate with a chosen following of twenty horse: with a
  Thracian steed to carry him, spotted with white, and a
  golden helm with scarlet crest to guard his head. “Now,
  gallants, which of you will venture with me first against
  the foe? Look there!” he cries, and with a whirl sends                25
  his javelin into the air, the overture of battle, and proudly
  prances over the plain. His friends second him with a
  shout and follow with dreadful cries; they wonder at the
  Teucrians’ sluggish hearts—men-at-arms, not to trust
  themselves to a fair field or fight face to face, but keep            30
  nursing their camp. Enraged, he rides round and round
  the walls, and looks out for an opening where way is none.
  Even as a wolf, lying in wait to surprise a crowded fold,
  whines about the enclosure, exposed to wind and rain, at
  mid of night; the lambs, nestling safe under their mothers,           35
  keep bleating loudly; he, maddened and reckless, gnashes
  his teeth at the prey beyond his reach, tormented by the
  long-gathered rage of hunger and his dry bloodless jaws:
  just so the Rutulian scans wall and camp with kindling
  wrath; grief fires the marrow of his iron bones—how to
  essay an entrance? what way to dash the prisoned Trojans
  from the rampart and fling them forth on level
  ground? Close to the camp’s side was lying the fleet,                  5
  shored round by earthworks and by the river; this he
  assails, calling for fire to his exulting mates, and filling his
  hand with a blazing pine, himself all aglow. Driven on
  by Turnus’ presence, they double their efforts: each soldier
  of the band equips himself with his murky torch. See,                 10
  they have stripped the hearths: the smoking brand sends
  up a pitchy glare, and the Fire-god wafts clouds of soot
  and flame heaven-high.

  What god, ye Muses, shielded the Teucrians from a fire
  so terrible? who warded off from the ships so vast a conflagration?   15
  Tell me; the faith in the tale is old, but its
  fame is evergreen.

  In early days, when Æneas in Phrygian Ida was first
  fashioning his fleet and making ready for the high seas,
  the great mother of the gods, they say, the Berecyntian               20
  queen, thus addressed almighty Jove: “Grant, my son,
  to thy mother’s prayer the boon she asks thee on thy conquest
  of Olympus. A pine-forest is mine, endeared by the
  love of many years, a sacred grove on the mountain’s
  height, whither worshippers brought their offerings, bedarkened       25
  with black pitch-trees and trunks of maple:
  these I was fain to give to the youth of Dardany when he
  needed a fleet; now my anxious heart is wrung by disturbing
  fears. Release me from my dread, and let a
  mother’s prayer avail thus much: let them be overcome                 30
  by no strain of voyage, no violence of wind; give them
  good of their birth on my sacred hill.” To her replied her
  son, who wields the starry sphere: “O mother, whither
  wouldst thou wrest the course of fate? what askest thou
  for these thy favourites? should vessels framed by mortal             35
  hand have charter of immortality? should Æneas, himself
  assured, meet perils all unsure? What god had ever
  privilege so great? Nay, rather, when their service is
  over and they gain one day the haven of Ausonia, from
  all such as escape the waves and convoy the Dardan chief
  safe to Laurentian soil, I will take away their perishable
  shape, and summon them to the state of goddesses of the
  mighty ocean, in form like Nereus’ children, Doto and                  5
  Galatea, when they breast the foaming deep.” He said;
  and by the river of his Stygian brother, by the banks that
  seethe with pitch and are washed by the murky torrent, he
  nodded confirmation, and with his nod made all Olympus
  tremble.                                                              10

  So now the promised day was come, and the Destinies
  had fulfilled the time appointed, when Turnus’ lawless
  violence gave warning to the mighty mother to ward off
  the firebrand from her consecrated ships. Now in a moment
  a strange light flashed on the eyes of all, and a great               15
  cloud was seen from the quarter of the dawn-goddess
  running athwart the sky, with the choirs of Ida in its
  train; then came darting through the air a voice of terror,
  thrilling the ranks of Trojan and Rutulian from end to
  end: “Busy not yourselves, ye Teucrians, to defend my                 20
  ships, nor take weapons into your hands: Turnus shall
  have leave to burn up the ocean sooner than to consume
  my sacred pines. Go free, my favourites: go and be
  goddesses of the sea: it is the mother’s voice that bids
  you.” And at once each ship snaps her cable from the                  25
  bank, and like a dolphin dips her beak and makes for the
  bottom. Then all emerge in maiden forms, a marvel to
  behold, and breast the main, as many as stood a moment
  ago with their brazen prows to the shore.

  Amazement seized the Rutulians; terror came on Messapus               30
  himself, confusion on his steeds; even Tiber, the
  river, pauses, murmuring hoarsely, and retraces his seaward
  course. But bold Turnus’ confidence felt no check;
  no, his words are ready to encourage and upbraid: “It
  is at the Trojans that these portents point: Jove himself             35
  has robbed them of their wonted resource; they wait not
  for Rutulian fire and sword to do the work. Yes, the sea
  is impassable to the Teucrians; hope of flight have they
  none; one half of nature is taken from them; as for earth,
  it is in our hands, thanks to the thousands here standing in
  arms, the tribes of Italy. I care not for the fateful utterances
  of heaven that these Phrygians vaunt, be they
  what they may: fate and Venus have had license enough,                 5
  in that the Trojans have set foot on the soil of our rich
  Ausonia. I, too, have a fate of my own, to mow down
  with the sword the guilty nation that has stolen my bride;
  that wrong of theirs comes not home to the Atridæ alone,
  nor has Mycenæ alone the privilege of going to war. But               10
  one destruction is enough for them—aye, had one transgression
  been enough, so that they had henceforth loathed
  the sex well-nigh to a woman. Men who trust in their intervening
  rampart, whom the pause at the trench, those few
  feet of distance from death, inspires with courage. Why,              15
  did they not see their city of Troy sink into the fire, though
  built by the hand of Neptune? But you, my chosen
  mates, who is there ready to hew down the rampart and
  rush with me on their bewildered camp? I need not the
  arms of Vulcan nor a thousand sail for _my_ Trojan war.               20
  Let all Etruria join them in a body. Night alarms, cowardly
  thefts of their guardian image, slaughterings of the
  sentry on the height, they need fear none of these; we will
  not skulk in a horse’s murky womb: in broad day, in the
  sight of all, I stand pledged to put a ring of fire round their       25
  walls. I will not let them fancy they are dealing with
  the Danaans and the Pelasgian chivalry, whom Hector
  kept ten years waiting for their due. Now, since the better
  part of the day is spent, for what remains, gallants, refresh
  yourselves after your good service, and be assured that               30
  battle is getting ready.”

  Meantime the charge is given to Messapus to leaguer the
  gates with relays of watchmen, and throw a girdle of fire
  round the ramparts. Twice seven Rutulian chiefs are
  chosen to keep armed observation of the walls: a hundred              35
  warriors attend on each, red with scarlet crests and gleaming
  with gold. They move from place to place and relieve
  one another, and stretched on the grass give wine its fling
  and tilt the brazen bowl. Bright shine the fires: the
  warders speed the wakeful night with sport and game.

  The Trojans look forth on the scene from their earthworks,
  as in arms they man the summit; with anxious
  fear they test the gates, and link bridge and bulwark,                 5
  their weapons in their hands. First in the work are Mnestheus
  and keen Serestus, whom father Æneas, should
  adverse crisis call for action, left to command the warriors
  and govern affairs at home. The whole army along the
  wall, dividing the danger, keeps guard, each relieving                10
  each at the post assigned.

  The warder of the gate was Nisus, a soldier of keenest
  mettle, Hyrtacus’ son, whom Ida the huntress sent to
  attend Æneas, quick with the dart and the flying arrow:
  and at his side Euryalus, than who was none fairer among              15
  Æneas’ children, none that ever donned the arms of Troy,
  a stripling whose unrazored cheeks just showed the first
  bloom of youth. Theirs was a common love: side by side
  they wont[266] to rush into the battle: and even then they were
  keeping watch at the gate in joint duty. Nisus exclaims:              20
  “Is it the gods, Euryalus, that make men’s hearts glow
  thus? or does each one’s ungoverned yearning become his
  god? My heart has long been astir to rush on war or
  other mighty deed, nor will peaceful quiet content it.
  You see the Rutulians there, delivered up to confidence               25
  in the future: their line of lights gleams brokenly: unnerved
  with sleep and wine, yonder they lie: all around is
  still. Listen on, and learn on what I am brooding, and
  what thought is this moment uppermost. ‘Æneas should
  be recalled’—so cry people and leaders as one man;                    30
  ‘messengers should be sent to tell him the truth.’ If they
  pledge themselves to what I ask for you—for me the fame
  of the deed is sufficient—methinks under the mound
  yonder I could find a way to the city walls of Pallanteum.”
  A thrill of generous ambition struck wonder into Euryalus,            35
  as thus he addressed his glowing friend: “And would you
  shrink from taking me with you, Nisus, on this high occasion?
  Am I to send you out alone on such perilous
  errand? It was not thus that my father, the veteran
  Opheltes, reared and bred me among Argive terrors and
  Trojan agonies, nor have such been my doings at your side,
  since I followed our hero Æneas and his desperate fate.
  Here, here, within me is a soul that thinks scorn of happy             5
  sunshine, and deems that the glory at which you aim were
  cheaply bought with life.” “Nay,” returns Nisus, “trust
  me, I had no such fear of you—none such had been just:
  so may I return to you in triumph, by grace of mighty Jove,
  or whosoever now looks down on us with righteous eyes.                10
  But should aught—and a venture like this, you see, has
  a thousand such—should aught sway things amiss, be it
  chance or heaven’s will, I would fain have you spared:
  yours is the meeter age for life. Let me have one to rescue
  me in fight, or redeem me by ransom paid, and so consign              15
  me to the burial all receive: or should Fortune grudge
  even that, to pay me the rites of the absent, and give
  me the adornment of a tomb. Nor let me be the cause of
  grief so terrible to that unhappy parent, who alone of
  many matrons has had a heart to follow you, dear boy,                 20
  nor cares for the city of great Acestes.” He replied:
  “Spinning empty pretexts is idle work: there is no change
  or faltering in my resolve. Up and despatch!” At once
  he rouses the guard, who take his place and fulfil their
  time, while he, departing from the post, walks side by side           25
  with Nisus, and they seek the prince together.

  All else that breathed on earth were asleep, their load of
  care unbound, their hearts oblivious of toil; the chief
  leaders of the Teucrians, the flower of the host, were holding
  council on the crisis in their realm’s fortune, what they             30
  should do, or who should at length be sent with the news
  to Æneas. There they stand propped on their long spears,
  their shields still in their hands, in the midst of camp and
  plain. At this moment Nisus and Euryalus eagerly crave
  instant admission—the affair is great, say they, and well             35
  worth the pause it claims. Iulus was the first to welcome
  and reassure them, and bid Nisus speak. Then began the
  son of Hyrtacus: “Listen, ye sons of Troy, with kindly
  heed, nor let these our proffers be judged by our years.
  The Rutulians, unnerved by sleep and wine, are hushed
  in silence: we have ourselves observed a place for a
  stealthy move, open through the passage of the gate which
  abuts on the sea. The line of fires is broken, and only                5
  dusky smoke rises to the sky: give us but leave to make
  use of fortune, and go in quest of Æneas and the walls of
  Pallanteum, soon shall you see us here again after a mighty
  carnage, laden with spoils. Nor can the way mislead us
  as we go: we have seen in the dimness of the vale the outskirts       10
  of the city while persevering in our hunting, and
  have made acquaintance with the whole river’s course.”
  Then spoke Aletes, weighty with years and ripe of understanding:
  “Gods of our fathers, whose constant presence
  watches over Troy, not yet in spite of all do ye purpose to           15
  make an utter end of us Teucrians, when such are the
  spirits and so steadfast the hearts ye breed in our youth.”
  As he said this, he kept embracing the necks and hands of
  both, and bathing his cheeks in floods of tears. “What
  guerdons, gallant men, what can I fancy of worth enough               20
  to pay you for glories like these? First and richest of all
  will be the praise of heaven and your own hearts: next
  to these you will receive the rest without fail from good
  Æneas and young Ascanius, who will never forget a service
  so great.” “Nay,” cries Ascanius, “let me speak, me,                  25
  whose safety is bound up with my sire’s return: by our
  great household gods I adjure you, Nisus, by the deity of
  Assaracus’ house and the shrine of reverend Vesta—all
  my fortune, all my trust, I place in your hands: bring
  back my father, let me see him again; he once restored,               30
  all grief is over. I will give you a pair of goblets wrought
  with silver and rough from the chasing-tool, which my
  father took when he conquered Arisba, a couple of tripods,
  two great talents of gold, and an ancient bowl, Sidonian
  Dido its donor. But if it be our victorious fortune to                35
  conquer Italy and attain the crown, and appoint the lot
  for the booty—you saw the horse which Turnus rode, the
  arms in which he moved all golden—that horse, that
  shield, and the scarlet crest I will set apart from the lot,
  and count it, Nisus, yours already. Moreover, my sire
  shall give you twelve matron captives of choicest beauty,
  male prisoners too, each with his armour, and, to
  crown all, the portion of domain held by king Latinus                  5
  himself. But you, whose years are followed at nearer
  distance by my own, revered youth, I take at once to my
  heart, and fold you there, my comrade for whatever betides.
  Never will I seek glory for my own estate apart
  from you: whether I have peace or war on hand, yours                  10
  shall be my utmost confidence in deed and in word.”
  To him spoke Euryalus in reply: “No length of time shall
  find me false to the promise of my bold essay: let but
  fortune speed and not thwart us. But one boon I would
  ask of you beyond all others: I have a mother of Priam’s              15
  ancient house, whom not the land of Ilium, not the city
  of king Acestes, could keep, poor soul, from going with me.
  Her I am now leaving, ignorant of this peril, be it what it
  may, with no word of greeting—Night and your right
  hand are my witnesses—because I could not bear a parent’s             20
  tears. But you, I pray, comfort her need and support
  her lonely age. With this trust in you to bear along
  with me, I shall meet all that happens with a bolder
  spirit.” Touched to the heart, the children of Dardanus
  broke into tears—chief of all the fair Iulus, as the picture          25
  of his own filial love flashed upon his soul. Thus he
  speaks: “Assure yourself that all shall be done that your
  mighty deeds deserve. Yes, she shall be my own mother,
  nought wanting but the name to make her Creusa’s self;
  to have borne you lays up no mean store of gratitude.                 30
  Whatever the fortune that attends your endeavour, I
  swear by this my head, by which my father has been wont
  to swear, all that I promise to you in the event of your
  prosperous return, shall remain in its fulness assured to
  your mother and your house.” This he says weeping, and                35
  unbelts from his shoulder a gilded sword wrought with
  rare art by Lycaon of Crete, and fitted for use with a scabbard
  of ivory. To Nisus Mnestheus gives a skin, a lion’s
  shaggy spoils: Aletes, true of heart, makes an exchange
  of helmets. Their arming done they march along; and
  as they go, the whole band of nobles, young and old, escorts
  them to the gate with prayers for their safety. There too
  was fair Iulus, in heart and forethought manlier than his              5
  years, giving them many a charge to carry to his father.
  But the winds scatter all alike, and deliver them cancelled
  to the clouds.

  Passing through the gate, they cross the trenches, and
  through the midnight shade make for the hostile camp—destined,        10
  though, first to be the death of many. All about
  the grass they see bodies stretched at length by sleep and
  wine, cars tilted up on the shore, men lying among wheels
  and harness, with armour and pools of wine about them.
  First spoke the son of Hyrtacus: “Euryalus, daring hands              15
  are wanted; the occasion now calls for action; here lies
  our way. Do you keep watch and wide look-out, lest any
  hand be lifted against us from behind; I will lay these
  ranks waste, and give you a broad path to walk in.” So
  saying, he checks his voice, and at once with his tyrannous           20
  sword assails Rhamnes, who, pillowed on a vast pile of
  rugs, was breathing from all his breast the breath of sleep—a
  king himself, and king Turnus’ favourite augur;
  but his augury availed him not to ward off death. Close
  by he surprises three attendants, stretched carelessly                25
  among their weapons, and Remus’ armour-bearer and
  charioteer, catching him as he lay at the horses’ side:
  the steel shears through their drooping necks; then he
  lops the head of their lord, and leaves the trunk gurgling
  and spouting blood, while ground and couch are reeking                30
  with black streams of gore. Lamyrus too, and Lamus,
  and young Serranus, who had played long that night in the
  pride of his beauty, and was lying with the dream-god’s
  hand heavy upon him; happy, had he made his play as
  long as the night, and pushed it into morning. Like a                 35
  hungry lion making havoc through a teeming fold—for
  the madness of famine constrains him—he goes mangling
  and dragging along the feeble cattle, dumb with terror,
  and gnashing his bloody teeth. Nor less the carnage
  of Euryalus: he, too, all on fire, storms along, and slays
  on his road a vast and nameless crowd, Fadus and Herbesus,
  and Rhœtus and Abaris—unconscious these:
  Rhœtus was awake and saw it all, but in his fear he                    5
  crouched behind a massive bowl; whence, as he rose, the
  conqueror plunged into his fronting breast the length of
  his sword, and drew it back with a torrent of death. The
  dying man vomits forth his crimson life, and disgorges
  mingled wine and blood: the foe pursues his stealthy work.            10
  And now he was making for Messapus’ followers, for there
  he saw the flicker of dying fires, and horses tied and browsing
  at their ease; when thus spoke Nisus in brief, seeing
  him hurried on by passion and excess of slaughter: “Forbear
  we now; the daylight, our enemy, is at hand; we                       15
  have supped on vengeance to the full; a highway is open
  through the foe.” Many warriors’ arms they leave,
  wrought of solid silver, many bowls and gorgeous coverlets.
  Euryalus lays hand on Rhamnes’ trappings and his belt
  with golden studs, sent by wealthy Cædicus of old as a                20
  present to Remulus of Tiber, when he fain would make
  him his friend from a distance; he, dying, leaves them to
  his grandson, after whose death the Rutulians won them
  in battle; these he strips off, and fits them to his valiant
  breast, all for nought. Then he puts on Messapus’ shapely             25
  helm, with its graceful crest. They leave the camp, and
  pass into safety.

  Meanwhile a troop of horse, sent on from the town of
  Latium, while the rest of the force abides drawn up on the
  field, was on its way with a message to king Turnus, three            30
  hundred, shield-bearers all, with Volscens, their chief.
  They were just nearing the camp, and passing under the
  wall, when at distance they spy the two bending to the
  left, and the helmet, seen in the glimmering twilight,
  betrayed the heedless Euryalus, as the moonbeam flashed               35
  full upon it. The sight fell not on idle eyes. Volscens
  shouts from his band: “Halt, gallants; tell your errand,
  who you are thus armed, and whither you are going.”
  They venture no reply, but hasten the faster to the woods,
  and make the night their friend. The horsemen bar each
  well-known passage right and left and set a guard on every
  outlet. The wood was shagged with thickets and dark
  ilex boughs; impenetrable briars filled it on every side;              5
  through the concealed tracks just gleamed a narrow path.
  Euryalus is hampered by the darkness of the branches,
  and the encumbrance of his booty, and fear makes him miss
  the right line of road. Nisus shoots away: and now in
  his forgetfulness he had escaped the foe, and gained the              10
  region afterwards called Alban from Alba’s name; in
  that day king Latinus had there his stately stalls; when he
  halted, and looked back in vain for the friend he could not
  see. “My poor Euryalus! where have I left you? what
  way shall I trace you, unthreading all the tangled path of            15
  that treacherous wood?” As he speaks, he scans and
  retraces each step, and wanders through the stillness of
  the brakes. He hears the horses, hears the noise and the
  tokens of pursuit. Pass a few moments, and a shout
  strikes on his ear, and he sees Euryalus, who is in the hands         20
  of the whole crew, the victim of the ground and the night,
  bewildered by the sudden onslaught, hurried along, and
  making a thousand fruitless efforts. What should he do?
  with what force, what arms, can he attempt a rescue?
  should he dash through the thick of their swords with                 25
  death before his eyes, and hurry to a glorious end in a shower
  of wounds? Soon, with his arm drawn back, he poises his
  spear-shaft, looking up to the moon in the sky, and thus
  prays aloud: “Thou, goddess, be thou present, and befriend
  my endeavour, Latona’s daughter, glory of the                         30
  heavens and guardian of the woods: if ever my father
  Hyrtacus brought gift for me to thine altar, if ever my own
  hunting swelled the tribute, if ever I hung an offering from
  thy dome or fastened it on thy hallowed summit, suffer
  me to confound this mass, and guide my weapons through                35
  the air.” This said, with an effort of his whole frame he
  hurled the steel. The flying spear strikes through the
  shades of night, reaches the turned back of Sulmo, there
  snaps short, and pierces the midriff with the broken
  wood. Down he tumbles, disgorging from his breast the
  warm life-torrent that leaves him cold, and long choking
  gasps smite on his sides. They look round this way and
  that: while the same fell arm, nerved by success, is levelling,        5
  see! another weapon from the ear-tip. While all
  is confusion, the spear has passed through Tagus’ two
  temples with whizzing sound, and lies warmly lodged in his
  cloven brain. Volscens storms with fury, yet sees nowhere
  the author of the wound, nor on whom to vent his                      10
  rage; “You, however, shall pay both debts meanwhile
  with your heart’s blood,” cries he; and speaking, rushes
  with drawn sword on Euryalus. Then, indeed, in frantic
  agony, Nisus shouts aloud; no more care had he to hide
  himself in darkness, no more strength to bear grief so                15
  terrible: “Me, me! behold the doer! make me your mark,
  O Rutulians! mine is all the blame; he had no heart, no
  hand for such deeds; this heaven, these stars know that
  it is true; it was but that he loved his unhappy friend too
  well.” Thus he was pleading; but the sword, driven with               20
  the arm’s full force, has pierced the ribs and is rending the
  snowy breast. Down falls Euryalus in death; over his
  beauteous limbs gushes the blood, and his powerless neck
  sinks on his shoulders; as when a purple flower, severed by
  the plough, pines in death, or poppies with faint necks               25
  droop the head, when rain has chanced to weigh them
  down. But Nisus rushes full on the foe, Volscens his one
  object among them all; he cares for none but Volscens:
  the enemy cluster round, and assail him on all sides; none
  the less he holds on his way, whirling his lightning blade,           30
  till at last he lodges it full in the Rutulian’s face, as he
  shrieks for aid, and dying robs his foe of life. Then he
  flung himself on his breathless friend, pierced through
  and through, and there at length slept away in peaceful
  death.                                                                35

  Happy pair! if this my song has aught of potency, no
  lapse of days shall efface your names from the memory of
  time, so long as the house of Æneas shall dwell on the
  Capitol’s moveless rock, and a Roman father shall be the
  world’s lord.

  The Rutulian conquerors, enriched with spoil and booty,
  were bearing Volscens’ body to the camp with tears in their
  eyes. Nor less loud is the wailing in the camp, when they              5
  find Rhamnes drained of life, and those many chiefs slain
  by a single carnage—Serranus, Numa, and the rest.
  They flock in crowds to the bodies, the warriors yet breathing,
  the place fresh and reeking with slaughter, and the
  streams of gore full and foaming. They pass the spoils                10
  from hand to hand, and recognize Messapus’ gleaming
  helm, and the trappings which it cost such sweat to recover.

  Now at last the goddess of the dawn was sprinkling the
  world with new-born light, as she rose from Tithonus’                 15
  saffron couch: the sun had streamed in and all was revealed
  by daybreak, when Turnus summons his men to
  arms, himself sheathed in armour; each general musters
  in battle array his brass-mailed bands, and, scattering
  divers speeches, stings them to fury. Nay, more, on                   20
  uplifted spears, most piteous sight, they set up the heads,
  and follow them with deafening shouts—the heads of
  Euryalus and Nisus. Æneas’ sturdy family, on the rampart’s
  left side, set the fight in array—for the right is
  flanked by the river—guard the broad trenches and stand               25
  on the lofty towers, deep in sorrow—touched to see those
  lifted human countenances, which to their grief they knew
  so well, dripping with black corrupted gore.

  Meantime, Fame spreads her wings and flies with the
  news through the wildered settlement, and reaches the                 30
  ears of Euryalus’ mother. At once the vital heat left her
  wretched frame: the shuttle was dashed from her hands,
  and the thread ran back. Forth flies the unhappy dame,
  and with a woman’s piercing shriek, her tresses rent, makes
  madly for the walls and the van of battle, heeding not the            35
  eyes of men, heeding not the peril and the shower of javelins,
  while she fills the heaven with her plaints: “Is it thus,
  Euryalus, that I see you again? have you, the late solace
  of my waning years, had the heart to leave me alone, unpitying?
  nor, when you ventured on such dangerous errand,
  might your wretched mother speak her farewell?
  Alas! on an unknown land you are lying, exposed to the
  ravin[267] of Latium’s dogs and birds; nor have I, your                5
  mother, followed your corpse to the tomb, or closed your
  eyes, or bathed your wounds, shrouding you with the
  robe which I worked so hard to finish day and night, and
  made the loom the medicine of an old wife’s sorrow!
  Where shall I seek you? what land now contains those                  10
  severed limbs, that mutilated corpse? is this the sole relic
  of yourself that you bring back to me, my son? is this
  what I followed over land and sea? Pierce me, if you have
  aught of human feeling—shower on me all your darts, ye
  Rutulians, let the sword make me its first meal; or do                15
  thou, great sire of the gods, have mercy, and with thy
  lightning-bolt strike down to Tartarus this hated life,
  since I cannot otherwise end the cruel pain of being.”
  Her wail shook every heart to its centre; a groan of sorrow
  passed through the ranks; their martial prowess flags                 20
  and faints. At last, as her agony flames higher, Idæus
  and Actor, bidden by Ilioneus and the tearful Iulus, lay
  hold of her, and carry in their arms within.

  But the trumpet from its brazen throat uttered afar a
  tremendous blare; a shout ensues, and heaven returns the              25
  roar. Quick speed the Volscians, carrying in level line
  their penthouse of shields, and strive to fill the moat and
  pluck down the palisade. Some look about for an access,
  and fain would scale the walls with ladders, where the line
  of defence is thin, and the ring of men, not too closely set,         30
  shows a gleaming interval. The Teucrians, on their part,
  shower missiles of every sort, and repulse the assailants
  with strong poles, taught by a long war’s experience how
  to guard their walls. Stones, too, they kept rolling of fatal
  bulk, in hope to break through the foe’s sheltered ranks,             35
  though beneath so firm a penthouse a soldier may well
  smile at all that can betide. Ay, and it ceases to avail
  them: for where a mighty mass threatens the rampart, the
  Teucrians push forward and roll down an enormous
  weight, which made wide havoc among the Rutulians, and
  burst the joints of their harness. And now the bold
  Rutulians care no longer to wage war in the dark, but aim
  at driving them from the ramparts with a storm of missiles.            5
  In another quarter, terrible to look upon, Mezentius waves
  an Etruscan pine and hurls fire and smoke, while Messapus,
  tamer of the steed, of the race of Neptune, plucks
  down the palisade, and calls for ladders to the
  battlement.                                                           10

  Vouchsafe, Calliope and thy heavenly sisterhood, to aid
  me while I sing, what slaughter, what deaths were dealt
  that day in that place by Turnus’ sword, what foes each
  warrior sent down to the grave, and help me to unfold the
  length and breadth of the mighty war.                                 15

  A tower there was, vast to look on from below, with
  lofty bridges, placed on a vantage-ground, which all the
  Italians, with utmost force and utmost strain of might,
  were essaying to storm, while the Trojans, on their side,
  were defending it with stones, and hurling showers of                 20
  darts through its narrow eyelets. Turnus the first flung
  a blazing torch and fastened fire on its side; fanned by
  the wind, the flame seized the planks and lodged in the
  consuming doors. The inmates are all in confusion, and
  in vain seek to escape the mischief. While they huddle                25
  together and retire upon the part which the plague has
  spared, in an instant the tower falls heavily down, and the
  firmament thunders with the crash. Half dead they come
  to the ground, the huge fabric following on their backs,
  pierced by their own weapons, their breasts impaled by the            30
  cruel wood. Barely two escaped, Helenor and Lycus—Helenor
  in prime of youth, whom Licymnia the slave had
  borne secretly to the Mæonian king, and had sent to Troy
  in forbidden arms, with the light accoutrement of a
  naked sword, and a shield uncharged by an escutcheon.                 35
  Soon as he saw himself with Turnus’ thousands round him,
  the armies of Latium standing on this side and on that,
  like a beast that, hemmed in by the hunters’ close-set ring,
  vents her rage on the darts and flings herself deliberately
  on death, and springs from high on the line of spears, even
  thus the doomed youth rushes on the midst of the foe,
  making for where he sees the darts are thickest. But
  Lycus, far swifter of foot, winds among ranks of foes and              5
  showers of steel and gains the wall, and strives to clutch
  the fabric’s summit and reach the hands of his friends.
  Whom Turnus, following him at once with foot and javelin,
  taunts in victorious tone: “Dreamed you, poor fool, that
  you could escape my hands?” and with that he seizes him               10
  as he hangs in air, and pulls him down with a great fragment
  of the wall; just as the bearer of Jove’s thunder
  trusses in his hooked talons a hare or a snow-white swan
  and soars into the sky, or one of Mars’ wolves snatches
  from the fold a lamb which its mother’s bleatings reclaim             15
  in vain. On all sides rises the war-shout. They rush on
  the trenches and fill them with shattered earthworks,
  while others fling brazen firebrands to the roofs. Ilioneus
  with a rock, broken from a mighty mountain, brings
  down Lucetius as he assails the gates and waves his torch.            20
  Liger kills Emathion, Asilas Corynæus, one skilled with the
  javelin, one with the arrow that surprises from a distance.
  Cæneus slays Ortygius, Turnus the conqueror Cæneus,
  Turnus Itys and Clonius, Dioxippus and Promolus, and
  Sagaris, and Idas, who was standing on the turret’s top.              25
  Capys kills Privernus: Themilla’s flying spear had grazed
  him first; he, poor fool, dropped his buckler and clapped
  his hand to the wound, so the arrow came on stealthy
  wing, and the hand was pinned to the left side, and the
  inmost seat of breath is rent asunder by the deadly wound.            30
  There stood the son of Arcens in conspicuous armour,
  his scarf embroidered with needlework, in the glory of
  Hiberian purple, fair of form, sent to war by his father
  Arcens, who had reared him in his mother’s grove by the
  streams of Symæthus, where stands Palicus’ rich and                   35
  gracious altar: flinging his spears aside, Mezentius
  whirled the strained thong of the whizzing sling thrice
  round his head, and with the molten bullet burst in twain
  the forehead of the fronting foe, and stretched him at
  full length on the expanse of sand.

  Then first, they say, Ascanius levelled in war his winged
  arrow, used till then to terrify the beasts of chase, and
  laid low by strength of hand the brave Numanus, Remulus                5
  by surname, who had lately won and wedded Turnus’
  younger sister. He was stalking in front of the host,
  vaunting aloud things meet and unmeet to tell, in the
  insolence of new-blown royalty, and venting his pride in
  clamorous tones: “Are ye not ashamed to be imprisoned                 10
  yet again in leaguer and rampart, twice-captured Phrygians,
  and to put your walls between you and death? Lo, these
  are the men who demand our wives at the sword’s edge!
  What god, what madness, has driven you to Italy? You
  will not find the Atridæ here, nor Ulysses the forger of              15
  speech. A hardy race even from the stock, we bring our
  sons soon as born to the river’s side, and harden them with
  the water’s cruel cold. Our boys spend long days in the
  chase, and weary out the forest; their sport is to rein the
  steed, and level shafts from the bow. Our youth, strong               20
  to labour and schooled by want, subdues the earth with
  the rake, or shakes the city’s walls with battle. All our
  life we ply the steel; with the butt of our spears we belabour
  our cattle; old age, which dulls all else, impairs
  not the force of our hearts or changes our fresh vigour;              25
  the hoary head is clasped by the helmet; our constant
  joy is to bring home new booty and live by rapine. Yours
  are embroidered garments of saffron and gleaming purple;
  sauntering and sloth are your delight; your pleasure is to
  indulge the dance; your tunics have sleeves and your turbans          30
  strings. Phrygian dames in sooth—for Phrygian
  men ye are not—get you to the heights of Dindymus,
  where the pipe utters its two-doored note to your accustomed
  ears. The Idæan mother’s cymbals, the Berecyntian
  flute, are calling you to the revel; leave arms to                    35
  men, and meddle no more with steel.”

  Such boasting and such ill-omened talk Ascanius could
  bear no longer; setting his breast to the bow-string of
  horsehair he levelled his dart, and drawing his arms wide
  apart he stood, having first invoked Jove thus in suppliant
  prayer: “Jove Almighty, smile on my bold essay; with
  my own hand I will bring to thy temple yearly offerings,
  and will set before thine altar a bullock with gilded brow,            5
  snowy white, rearing his head to the height of his mother’s,
  fit to butt with the horn and spurn up sand with the hoof.”
  The father heard and from a cloudless quarter of the sky
  thundered on the left; at the same instant twanged the
  deadly bow. Forth flies the arrow from the string, whizzing           10
  fearfully, passes through the head of Remulus, and cleaves
  with its point his hollow temples. “Go, make valour the
  sport of your boasting; the twice-captured Phrygians
  answer the Rutulians thus.” So far Ascanius: the Teucrians
  second him with a cry, shout for joy, and mount                       15
  heavenward in their exultation. It chanced that then
  in the realm of sky long-haired Apollo was surveying the
  armies of Ausonia and the city, seated on a cloud; and
  thus addressed Iulus in the moment of triumph: “Rejoice,
  brave youth, in your new-won laurels; ’tis thus                       20
  men climb the stars; son of gods that are, sire of gods that
  shall be! Well has Fate ordered that beneath the house
  of Assaracus the wars of the future shall find their end;
  nor can Troy contain your prowess.” So saying he shoots
  down from heaven, parts before him the breathing gales,               25
  and makes for Ascanius. He changes his features to those
  of ancient Butes, who had once been armour-bearer to
  Dardanian Anchises and trusty watcher at the gate;
  thence Ascanius’ sire made him his son’s guardian. Apollo
  moved along, in all things like the aged veteran, the voice,          30
  the colour, the white locks, the fiercely clanking armour;
  and thus he spoke to Iulus’ glowing heart: “Suffice it,
  child of Æneas, that Numanus has met from your darts an
  unrequited death: this your maiden glory great Apollo
  vouchsafes you freely, nor looks with jealousy on weapons             35
  like his own; for the rest abstain from war, as stripling
  should.” So Apollo began, and ere his speech was well
  done parted from mortal eyes, and vanished from sight
  into unsubstantial air. The Dardan chiefs knew the god
  and his divine artillery, and heard his quiver hurtle as he
  fled. So now at Phœbus’ present instance they check
  Ascanius’ ardour for battle; themselves take their place
  in the combat once more, and fling their lives into the                5
  jaws of danger. All over the walls passes the shout from
  rampart to rampart; they bend their sharp-springing
  bows and hurl their lashed javelins—the ground is all
  strewn with darts; shields and hollow helms ring with
  blow on blow; a savage combat is aroused; fierce as the               10
  rain coming from the west at the setting of the showery
  kid-stars[268] scourges the earth, plenteous as the hail which
  the stormclouds discharge into the sea, when Jove in the
  sullenness of southern blasts whirls the watery tempest and
  bursts the misty chambers of the sky.                                 15

  Pandarus and Bitias, sons of Idæan Alcanor, brought up
  by Iæra the wood-nymph in the grove of Jupiter, youths
  tall as the pines and peaks of their birthplace, throw open
  the gate, which the general’s order placed in their charge,
  relying on their good steel, and invite the foe to enter the          20
  town. Themselves within right and left stand before the
  bulwarks, sheathed in iron, the crest waving on their lofty
  heads: even as high in air beside the flowing streams,
  on Padus’[269] banks it may be or by pleasant Athesis,[270] uptower
  two oaks, raising to heaven their unshorn summits                     25
  and nodding their lofty crowns. In rush the Rutulians
  when they see the entry clear. In a moment Quercens and
  Aquicolus in his brilliant armour and headlong Tmarus
  and Hæmon, scion of Mars, with all their followers, are
  routed and turned to flight, or on the threshold of the gate          30
  have resigned their lives. At this the wrath of the combatants
  flames yet higher, and the Trojans rally and muster
  in one spot and venture to engage hand to hand and to
  advance farther into the plain.

  Turnus, the chief, while venting his rage elsewhere and               35
  scattering ranks of warriors, hears tidings that the foe,
  fevered by the taste of blood, has thrown the gates open.
  He leaves the work he had begun, and stirred with giant
  fury hastens to the Dardan gate and the two haughty
  brethren. Hurling his dart, he first slays Antiphates, who
  happened first to meet him, bastard son of great Sarpedon
  by a Theban mother; the shaft of Italian cornel flies
  through the yielding air, and lodging in the throat goes               5
  deep down into the chest; the wound’s dark pit spouts
  forth a foaming torrent, and the cold steel grows warm
  in the lungs it pierces. Then with strong hand he slays
  Merops and Erymas and then Aphidnus, then Bitias
  with his blazing eyes and his boiling valour—not with a               10
  dart, for to a dart he would not have surrendered his life—no;
  it was a whirled phalaric lance that came hurtling
  fiercely, shot like a thunderbolt, which neither two bulls’
  hides nor a trusty corselet with double golden plait could
  withstand: the massive limbs sink and fall: earth groans,             15
  and the vast buckler thunders on the body. Even thus
  sometimes on Baiæ’s Eubœan coast falls a pile of stone,
  which men compact with mighty blocks and then fling
  into the sea; thus it comes down with protracted headlong
  ruin, and dashing on the shallows settles into its                    20
  place; the sea is all disturbed, and the murky sand rises
  to the surface; the crash shakes Prochyta[271] to her depths,
  and Inarime’s[272] rugged bed, laid by Jove’s command upon
  Typhœus.

  Now Mars, the lord of arms, inspires the Latians with                 25
  strength and courage, and plants his stings deep in their
  bosoms, while among the Teucrians, he sends Flight and
  grisly Terror. They flock from this side and from that,
  now that scope for battle is given, and the warrior-god
  comes down on their souls. When Pandarus saw his                      30
  brother’s corpse laid low, and knew the posture of fortune
  and the chance that was swaying the day, with a mighty
  effort he turns the gate on its hinge, pushing with his broad
  shoulders, and leaves outside many of his comrades shut out
  from the camp all in the cruel battle, while others he shuts          35
  in with himself, admitting them as they stream onward—madman,
  to have failed to see the king of the Rutulians in
  the middle of the company storming in, and to have shut
  him wantonly within the walls, like monstrous tiger
  among a herd of helpless cattle! On the instant a strange
  light flashed from the eyes of the foe, and his arms gave a
  fearful clang; on his helm quivers his crest, red as blood,
  and from his shield he darts gleaming lightnings. With                 5
  sudden confusion the children of Æneas recognize that
  hated form and those giant limbs. Then forth springs
  mighty Pandarus, and with all the glow of wrath for his
  brother’s death bespeaks him thus: “This is not the
  bridal palace of Amata, nor is it Ardea that embraces                 10
  Turnus in the walls of his fathers; the enemy’s camp is
  before you; all escape is barred.” To him Turnus, smiling
  in quiet mood: “Begin, if you have courage, and engage in
  combat. Priam shall learn from you that here too you
  have found an Achilles.” Thus he: Pandarus, with the                  15
  full strain of his power, hurls his spear, rugged with knots
  and unpeeled bark. It was launched on the air; but Saturnian
  Juno turned aside the coming wound, and the
  spear lodged in the gate. “But this my weapon you
  shall not escape, swayed as it is by my hand’s full force;            20
  he from whom wound and weapon come is too strong for
  that.” So cries Turnus, and rises high upon his lifted
  sword, and cleaves with the steel the forehead in twain full
  between the temples, parting beardless cheek from cheek
  with a ghastly wound. A crash is heard: earth is shaken               25
  by the enormous weight: the unnerved limbs, the arms
  splashed with gore and brain are stretched in death on the
  ground; and the head, shared in equal parts, hangs right
  and left from either shoulder. The routed Trojans fly
  here and there in wildering terror; and had the thought at            30
  once seized the conqueror, to burst the gates by main
  force and give entrance to his friends, that day would have
  ended a war and a nation both. But rage and mad thirst
  for blood drove him in fury on the foe before him. First
  he surprises Phalaris and hamstrings Gyges; plucks forth              35
  spears and hurls them on the backs of the fliers; Juno
  gives supplies of strength and courage. He sends Halys to
  join them and Phegeus, pierced through the shield, and
  cuts down others as they stand unconscious on the walls
  and stir up the battle, Alcander and Halius, and Noëmon
  and Prytanis. As Lynceus moved to meet him and calls
  on his comrades, with a sweep of his arm from the rampart
  on his right he catches him with his whirling sword; swept             5
  off by a single blow hand to hand, the head with the helmet
  on it lay yards away. Next falls Amycus, the ravager of
  the forest brood, than who was never man more skilled
  to anoint the dart and arm the steel with venom, and
  Clytius, son of Æolus, and Cretheus, darling of the Muses,            10
  Cretheus the Muses’ playmate, whose delight was ever in
  minstrelsy and harp, and in stringing notes on the chord;
  songs of chargers and warrior arms and battles were ever on
  his lips.

  At last the Teucrian leaders, hearing of the slaughter of             15
  their men, come together to the spot, Mnestheus and keen
  Serestus, when they see their comrades flying in confusion,
  and the foe lodged in the camp. Out cries Mnestheus:
  “Whither now, whither are ye making in flight? what
  further city have ye, what walls beyond? Shall it be said             20
  that a single man, and he too, my countrymen, hemmed in
  on all hands by your ramparts, has spread unavenged
  such havoc through your streets, has sent down to death so
  many of your bravest? As ye think of your unhappy
  country, your ancient gods, your great Æneas, is there no             25
  pity, no shame in your sluggish hearts?” Roused by these
  words they rally and halt in close array. Turnus step by
  step withdraws from the fight, making for the river and
  the part round which the water runs. All the more keenly
  the Teucrians press on him with loud shouts and close their           30
  ranks: as when a company of hunters bears down on a
  savage lion javelin in hand: he, struck with fear, yet fierce
  and glaring angrily, gives ground; wrath and courage
  suffer him not to turn his back, nor yet may he charge,
  though he fain would do so, through the huntsmen and the              35
  spears. Not unlike to him Turnus in doubt retraces his
  lingering footsteps, while his heart boils with rage. Even
  then twice had he dashed on the thick of the foe, twice he
  drives their ranks in huddled flight round the walls; but
  the whole army musters in a body from the camp, nor dares
  Saturnian Juno supply him with strength to oppose them;
  for Jove sent down from the sky celestial Iris, with no
  gentle message for his sister’s ear, if Turnus retire not from         5
  the Teucrians’ lofty ramparts. So now the warrior cannot
  hold his own with shield or sword; such a deluge of darts
  overwhelms him. Round his hollow temples the helmet
  echoes with ceaseless ringing; the solid plates of brass
  give way beneath the stones; the horsehair crest is struck            10
  from his head; his shield’s boss cannot stand the blows;
  faster and faster they hail their spears, the Trojans and
  fiery Mnestheus. Over all his frame flows the sweat and
  trickles in a murky stream, while breathe he cannot; his
  sinking limbs are shaken with feeble panting. At last                 15
  with headlong leap he plunged arms and all into the river.
  Tiber with his yellow gulf received the guest, upbore him
  on his buoyant waves, and washing off the stains of carnage,
  restored him in joy to his friends.




BOOK X


  Meantime the palace of strong Olympus is thrown open,
  and the sire of gods and monarch of men summons a
  council to the starry chamber, whence, throned on high,
  he looks down on the length and breadth of earth, the
  camp of the Dardans and the people of Latium. They                     5
  take their seats in the double-gated mansion; he himself
  opens the court: “Mighty denizens of heaven, wherefore
  is your judgment turned backward, and whence such discord
  in your unkindly souls? I had forbidden that Italy
  should meet the Teucrians in the shock of war. What                   10
  strife is this in defiance of my law? What terror has
  prompted these or those to draw the sword and provoke
  the fight? There shall come a rightful time for combat—no
  need for you to hasten it—when fierce Carthage one
  day shall launch on the hills of Rome mighty ruin and the             15
  opening of Alpine barriers. Then will your rancours be
  free to contend, your hands to plunder and ravage; for the
  present let be, and cheerfully ratify the peace that I have
  willed.”

  Thus Jupiter in brief; but not brief was the answer                   20
  of golden Venus: “O Father! O eternal sovereignty of
  man and nature! for what else can there be which is left
  us to implore? Seest thou how the Rutulians insult? how
  Turnus is whirled through the battle by his haughty
  coursers, borne on the floodtide of war? No longer are                25
  the Teucrians safe even in the shelter of their walls; within
  the gates, amidst the very mounds of the ramparts combat
  is waged, and the trenches overflow with carnage. Æneas
  is away in his ignorance. Wilt thou never let us have
  respite from siege? Once more the enemy is stooping over              30
  the walls of our infant Troy, with a second army; once
  more Tydeus’ son from his Ætolian Arpi is rising against
  the Teucrians. Ay, my wounds, I ween, are yet in the
  future, and I, thine own offspring, am delaying the destined
  course of a mortal spear. If it is without your leave and              5
  despite your will that the Trojans have won their way to
  Italy, let them expiate the crime and withdraw from them
  thine aid: but if they have but followed those many oracles
  given by powers above and powers underground, how
  can any now be able to reverse thine ordinance and write              10
  anew the page of fate? Why should I remind thee of our
  fleet consumed on Eryx’ shore? why of the monarch of the
  storms and his raving winds stirred up from Æolia, or of
  Iris sent down from the clouds? Now she is even rousing
  the ghosts below—that portion of the world till then was              15
  untried—and on a sudden Allecto is launched on upper
  air, and rages through the Italian cities. It is not for
  empire that I am disquieted; for that we hoped in the past,
  while our star yet shone: let them conquer whom thou
  wouldst have conquer. If there is no country on earth                 20
  which thy relentless spouse will allow the Teucrians, I adjure
  thee, father, by the smoking ruins of Troy overthrown,
  let me send away Ascanius safe from the war—let my
  grandson survive in life. Æneas, indeed, may be tossed
  on unknown waters, and follow such course as chance may               25
  give him: _him_ let me have the power to screen and withdraw
  from the horrors of battle. Amathus is mine, and
  lofty Paphos, and high Cythera, and the mansion of Idalia:
  there let him pass his days unwarlike and inglorious. Let
  it be thy will that Carthage shall bow Ausonia beneath                30
  her tyrannous sway; the Tyrian cities need fear no resistance
  from him. What has it advantaged him to have
  escaped the plague of war and fled through the hottest of
  the Argive fires, to have drained to the dregs all those
  dangers by sea and on broad earth, while the Teucrians                35
  are in quest of Latium and a restored Pergamus? Give
  back, great sire, to our wretched nation their Xanthus and
  their Simois, and let the Teucrians enact once more the old
  tragedy of Ilium.” Then outspoke queenly Juno, goaded
  by fierce passion: “Why force you me to break my deep
  silence, and give forth in words my buried grief? Your
  Æneas—was it any man or god that compelled him to
  draw the sword, and come down as a foe on the Latian                   5
  king? Grant that he went to Italy at the instance of fate,
  at the impulse, in truth, of mad Cassandra; was it our
  counsel that he should leave his camp and place his life
  at the mercy of the winds? that he should trust the control
  of battle and his city to a boy—should tamper with                    10
  Tyrrhenian loyalty and stir up a quiet nation? What
  god, what cruel tyranny of ours, drove him thither to his
  hurt? is there a trace of Juno here, or of Iris sent down from
  the clouds? Ay, it is foul shame that the Italians should
  throw a belt of flame round the infant Troy—that Turnus               15
  should plant a foot on the soil of his fathers, Turnus, whose
  grandsire was Pilumnus, whose mother the goddess
  Venilia. How call you it for the Trojans to invade
  Latium with their smoking torches, to put their yoke on a
  country that is none of theirs, and harry away its plunder—to         20
  choose at will those whose daughters they would wed,
  and drag the plighted bride from the bosom—to bear
  suppliant tokens in the hand and arm their vessels to the
  teeth? You have power to withdraw Æneas from the
  hands of the Greeks, and offer them clouds and thin winds             25
  for the man they seek—power to turn a fleet of ships into
  a bevy of Nymphs; and is it utterly monstrous for us to
  give the Rutulians a measure of aid in return? Æneas
  is away in ignorance, and in ignorance let him bide away.
  You have your Paphos, your Idalium, your lofty Cythera:               30
  why meddle with a city brimming with war and with ungentle
  hearts? Is it we that are labouring to overturn
  from the foundation your feeble Phrygian fortunes?
  We? or the gallant who brought Greece down on the
  wretched Trojans? What reason was there that Europe                   35
  and Asia should stand up to fight, and a league be broken
  by treachery? Did I lead your Dardan leman to take
  Sparta by storm? did I put weapons in his hand, or fan the
  flame of war with the gales of love? Then had there been
  decency in your fears for your friends; now you are rising
  too late with unjust complaints, and flinging idly the language
  of quarrel.”

  Such was the appeal of Juno: and the whole body of immortals           5
  murmured assent on this side or on that, like new-born
  gales when they murmur, caught in the forest, and
  roll about mysterious sounds, disclosing to the sailor a
  coming storm. Then begins the almighty sire, whose is
  the chief sovereignty of the universe: at opening of his              10
  mouth the lofty palace of the gods grows still, and earth
  shakes to her foundations; silent is the height of ether; the
  Zephyrs are sunk to rest, and Ocean subdues its waves to
  repose. “Take then to your hearts and engrave there
  these my words: since it may not be that Ausonian and                 15
  Teucrian should be united by treaty, and your wranglings
  brook no conclusion, be each man’s fortune to-day what
  it may, be the span of each man’s hope long or short,
  Trojan or Rutulian, I will show favour to neither, whether
  it be by destiny that the Italian leaguer encompasses the             20
  camp, or by Troy’s baneful error and the warnings of hostile
  intelligence. Nor leave I the Rutulians free. Each man’s
  own endeavours shall yield him the harvest of labour or
  fortune. Jove, as king, is alike to all. Destiny shall find
  her own way.” By the river of his Stygian brother, by the             25
  banks that seethe with pitch and are washed by the
  murky torrent, he nodded confirmation, and with his nod
  made all Olympus tremble. So ended their debate.
  Then from his golden throne rises Jove, and the immortals
  gathering round him usher him to his chamber.                         30

  Meantime the Rutulians press round each and all of the
  gates, eager to slaughter the soldiery and belt the ramparts
  with flame. But Æneas’ army is hemmed within the
  leaguered encampment, without hope of escape. In unavailing
  wretchedness they stand guarding the turret’s                         35
  height, and form a thin circle round the walls. Asius son
  of Imbrasus, and Hicetaon’s child Thymœtes, and the two
  Assaraci, and Castor and aged Thymbris are their front
  rank, by their side the two brethren of Sarpedon, Clarus
  and Themon both, come from noble Lycia. There is one
  carrying with the whole strain of his body a mighty rock,
  no small portion of a mountain, Acmon of Lyrnessus, a
  worthy peer of his father Clytius and his brother Menestheus.          5
  Some repel the foe with javelins, some with stones:
  they launch the firebrand, they fit the arrow to the string.
  In the midst is he, Venus’ most rightful care, the royal boy
  of Dardany, his beauteous head uncovered: see him shine
  like a jewel islanded in yellow gold, an ornament for neck            10
  or head, or as gleams ivory set by artist skill in box-wood or
  Orician terebinth[273]: his flowing hair streams over a neck of
  milky white and is gathered up by a ring of ductile gold.
  Thou, too, Ismarus, wast seen by tribes of warriors dealing
  wounds abroad and arming thy arrows with venom, gallant               15
  branch of a Lydian house, from the land whose rich
  soil is broken up by the husbandmen and washed by
  Pactolus’ golden stream. Mnestheus, too, was there, whom
  yesterday’s triumph over Turnus repulsed from the rampart
  exalts to the stars, and Capys, who gives his name to                 20
  Campania’s mother city.

  So they on this side and on that had waged all day the
  conflict of stubborn war; and now at midnight Æneas
  was ploughing the main. For soon as, leaving Evander,
  he entered the Etruscan camp, accosted the king, and told             25
  him of his name and his race, for what he sues and what
  he offers, explains what arms Mezentius musters on his
  side, and what the excess of Turnus’ violence, warns him
  how little faith man can place in fortune, and seconds
  reasoning by entreaty, without a moment’s pause Tarchon               30
  combines his forces and strikes a truce; and at once, freed
  from the spell of destiny, the Lydian race embarks according
  to heaven’s ordinance, under the charge of a foreign
  leader. First sails the vessel of Æneas, Phrygian lions
  harnessed on the prow; above them Ida spreads her shade,              35
  of happiest augury to exiled Troy. There sits great Æneas
  brooding over the doubtful future of the war: and Pallas,
  close cleaving to his left side, keeps questioning him,
  now of the stars, the road-marks of the shadowy night,
  and now of all that he has borne by land and by sea.

  Now, ye goddesses, open wide your Helicon,[274] and stir up
  the powers of song, to tell us what the army now following
  Æneas from the Tuscan shores, equipping its ships for                  5
  adventure, and sailing over the sea.

  First comes Massicus, cleaving the waters in his brass-sheathed
  Tiger: in his train a band of a thousand warriors,
  who have left the walls of Clusium and the city Cosæ;
  their weapons a sheaf of arrows, light quivers for the                10
  shoulder, and a bow of deadly aim. With him grim
  Abas: his whole band ablaze with gleaming armour,
  his vessel shining with a gilded Apollo. Populonia had
  sent him six hundred of her sons, all versed in war: Ilva
  three hundred, an island rich in the Chalybes’ unexhausted            15
  mines. Third comes Asilas, the great interpreter
  ’tween gods and men, at whose bidding are the
  victims’ entrails, the stars of the sky, the tongues of augurial
  birds, and the flame of the prophetic lightning. With
  him hurry a thousand in close array, bristling with spears—subjected  20
  to his command by the town of Pisa, which,
  sprung from Alpheus, took root on Etruscan soil. After
  these is Astur, fairest of form, Astur, proud of his steed
  and his glancing armour. Three hundred follow him, all
  with one loyal soul, from those who dwell in Cære and in              25
  the plains of Minio, in ancient Pyrgi, and Gravisca’s
  tainted air.

  I would not leave thee unsung, bravest chief of the Ligurians,
  Cinyras, or Cupavo with scanty retinue, whose helmet
  is surmounted by plumage of the swan: love was your                   30
  joint crime; for love you wear the cognizance of your
  father’s form. For legend tells that Cycnus, all for grief
  over his darling Phaethon, while in the poplar shade and
  the leafage of the brotherless sisters he keeps singing and
  consoling his sad passion by the Muses’ aid, drew over his            35
  form the soft plumage of downy eld, mounting up from
  earth and sending his voice before him to the stars. His
  son, with a band of martial peers sailing at his side,
  propels with his oars the enormous Centaur: the monster
  stands lowering over the water, and threatens the billows
  with a huge rock from his towering eminence, as he ploughs
  the deep sea with the length of his keel.

  Great Ocnus too is leading an army from the coasts of his              5
  fathers, Ocnus, son of Manto the prophetess and the Etruscan
  river, who bestowed on thee, Mantua, thy city walls
  and the name of his mother, Mantua rich in ancestral
  glories: but not all her sons of the same blood; three
  races are there, and under each race range four nations:              10
  herself the queen of the nations, her strength from Etruscan
  blood. Hence, too, Mezentius draws against his life
  five hundred unfriendly swords—Mincius, child of Benacus,
  with his gray covering of reeds, ushers into the deep
  their hostile bark.                                                   15

  On moves strong Aulestes, lashing the water as he rises
  with the stroke of a hundred oars: the sea spouts foam
  from its upturned surface. His bearer is a huge Triton,
  whose shell strikes terror into the green billows; his
  shaggy front, breasting the water, down to the side bespeaks          20
  the man: the belly ends in a sea monster: under
  the half bestial bosom the wave froths and roars.

  So many chosen chiefs were journeying in thirty
  vessels to the succour of Troy, and ploughing with brazen
  beak the expanse of brine.                                            25

  And now the day had withdrawn from the sky, and
  gracious Dian was trampling over the cope of heaven with
  her night-flying steeds: Æneas the while, for care refuses
  slumber to his frame, is seated at his post, himself guiding
  the rudder and trimming the sail—when lo! in the middle               30
  of his voyage he is met by a fair bevy of comrades of his
  own: the Nymphs whom gracious Cybele had invested
  with the deity of the sea, and changed from ships to goddesses,
  were swimming abreast and cleaving the billow,
  a Nymph for each of the brazen prows that erst had                    35
  lined the shore. Far off they recognize their king, and
  come dancing round him in state: Cymodoce, their skilfullest
  in speech, swimming up behind, lays her right hand on
  the stern, herself lifted breast high above the water,
  while with her left she paddles in the noiseless wave.
  Then thus she breaks on his wondering ear: “Wake you,
  Æneas, seed of the gods? be wakeful still, and let the sail-ropes
  go. We it is you see, pines of Ida from the sacred                     5
  summit, Sea-nymphs now, your sometime fleet. When
  the false Rutulian was hot at our backs with fire and sword,
  reluctantly we burst your bonds, and are now in full quest
  of you over the sea. This new shape the great mother gave
  us in her pity, and granted us the state of goddesses and             10
  lives to lead beneath the water. Meantime young Ascanius
  is hemmed in by rampart and trench, with serried
  weapons all around him, and Latians bristling with battle.
  Already the Arcadian horse mixed with the brave Etruscan
  has gained the appointed spot: to bar their way with an               15
  intervening host and cut them off from the camp is
  Turnus’ fixed intent. Rise, and with the earliest approach
  of dawn bid your allies be summoned to arms, and take in
  hand that shield which the Fire-god himself made to
  be invincible and bordered with a marge of gold. The                  20
  morrow’s sun, if you will but give credence to my words,
  shall survey mighty heaps of Rutulian carnage.” Her
  speech was done: and as she parted she gave with her
  hand an impulse to the lofty stern, well knowing the due
  measure of force: on it speeds over the wave, fleeter than            25
  dart and wind-swift arrow both. The rest in order mend
  their speed. Wondering he pauses, the great Trojan of
  Anchises’ line, yet cheers his soul with the omen. Then,
  looking to the vault above, he prays in brief: “Gracious
  mother of the gods, lady of Ida, whose joy is in Dindymus,            30
  and in turreted cities and harnessed lions at thy
  bridle-rein, be thou now to me the controller of the fight,
  do thou bring the presage nigh, and walk beside the
  Phrygians, mighty goddess, with favouring step.” Thus
  much he said: and meanwhile day was returning at speed,               35
  with its light grown to full strength, and night had vanished
  before it.

  First he gives orders to his comrades to obey the
  heavenly token, and nerve their souls for combat, and
  make ready for the fight. And now at last from his
  station on the tall stern he has the Teucrians and his
  camp in view, when on the instant his blazing shield is
  raised high on his left arm. Up goes a shout to heaven                 5
  from the Dardans on their ramparts; the gleam of hope
  quickens wrath to fury; they hurl a shower of javelins:
  even as amid dark clouds cranes from Strymon give token,
  sweeping sonorously over the sky, and flying from the
  southern gale with sequacious clamour. But the Rutulian               10
  king and the Ausonian generals wonder at the sight, till,
  looking back, they behold the stems bearing to the shore,
  and the whole water floating on with vessels. There is a
  blaze on that helmet’s summit, and from the crest on
  high streams the flame, and the shield’s golden boss disgorges        15
  mighty fires, even as when on a clear night blood-hued
  comets glare with gloomy red, or as the Sirian blaze,
  that harbinger of drought and sickness to weak mortality,
  breaks into birth and saddens heaven with its ill-boding
  rays.                                                                 20

  Yet pause was none in bold Turnus’ confidence to forestall
  the landing-place, and beat off the comers from the
  shore. His words are ready at the moment to encourage
  and upbraid: “See here the occasion you longed for, to
  break through them at the sword’s point. A brave man’s                25
  hand is the War-god’s chosen seat. Now let each remember
  wife and home, recall the mighty deeds that made
  your fathers great. Let us meet them at once at the
  water’s edge, while they are in the hurry of landing, and
  the foot falters in its first tread on shore. Valour has              30
  Fortune for its friend:” So saying, he ponders with himself
  whom to lead to the attack, and to whom he may
  trust the leaguer of the walls.

  Meanwhile Æneas is landing his comrades from the tall
  ship-sides by help of bridges. Many of them watch for                 35
  the ebb of the failing sea and venture a leap among the
  shallows; others resort to the oars. Tarchon, spying out
  a place on the beach where the waters seethe not nor the
  broken billows roar, but ocean without let glides gently
  up the shore as the tide advances, suddenly turns his
  prows thither, and exhorts his crew: “Now, ye chosen
  band, ply your stout oars, lift the vessels and carry them
  home: cleave with your beaks this land that hates you;                 5
  let the keel plough its own furrow. Even from shipwreck
  in a roadstead like this I would not shrink, could I once
  get hold of the soil.” Tarchon having thus said, his crew
  rise on their oars and bear down on the Latian plains with
  vessels all foam, till the beaks have gained the dry land,            10
  and every keel has come scatheless to its rest. Not so
  thy ship, Tarchon: for while dashed on a sandbank it
  totters on the unequal ridge, poised in suspense awhile,
  and buffeting the waves, its sides give way, and its men
  are set down in the midst of the water: broken oars and               15
  floating benches entangle them, and their feet are carried
  back by the ebb of the wave.

  No sluggish delay holds Turnus from his work: with
  fiery speed he sweeps his whole army against the Teucrians,
  and plants them in the foe’s face on the shore. The                   20
  clarions sound: first dashed Æneas on the rustic ranks, a
  presage of the fight’s fortune, and disarrayed the Latians,
  slaying Theron, who in his giant strength is assailing
  Æneas: piercing through quilted brass and tunic stiff
  with gold the sword devours his unguarded side. Next                  25
  he strikes Lycus, who was cut from the womb of his
  dead mother and consecrated to thee, Apollo, because his
  baby life had been suffered to scape the peril of the steel.
  Hard by, as iron Cisseus and gigantic Gyas were laying
  low his host with their clubs, he casts them down in                  30
  death: nought availed them; the weapons of Hercules or
  strong hands to wield them, or Melampus their sire,
  Alicides’ constant follower, long as earth found for him
  those grievous tasks. See there, as Pharus is hurling
  forth words without deeds, he flings at him his javelin               35
  and plants it in the bawler’s mouth. Thou, too, Cydon,
  while following with ill-starred quest the blooming Clytius,
  thy latest joy, hadst lain stretched on the ground by the
  Dardan hand, a piteous spectacle, at rest from the passions
  that were ever in thy heart; but thy brethren met
  the foe in close band, the progeny of Phorcus: seven their
  number, seven the darts they throw; some rebound idly
  from shield and helm, some as they grazed the frame were               5
  turned aside by Venus’ gentle power. Quick spoke
  Æneas to true Achates: “Give me store of weapons; not
  one shall my hand hurl in vain against the Rutulians, of
  all that have quivered in Grecian flesh on the plains of
  Troy.” With that he seizes his mighty spear and launches              10
  it: flying on it crashes through the brass of Mæon’s shield
  and rends breastplate and breast at once. Swift comes
  his brother Alcanor and props with his hand the falling
  man: piercing the arm the spear flies onward and holds
  its bloody course, and the dying hand dangles by the                  15
  sinews from the shoulder-blade. Then Numitor, snatching
  the javelin from his brother’s body, assails Æneas;
  yet it might not lodge in the enemy’s front, but just
  grazed the thigh of mighty Achates.

  Now comes Clausus of Cures in the pride of his youthful               20
  frame, and strikes Dryops from a distance under the
  chin with the strong impact of his stark spear, and piercing
  his throat, robs him even as he speaks of life and
  breath alike: the wounded man strikes the earth with
  his forehead and vomits from his lips clotted blood.                  25
  Three, too, from Thrace, of Boreas’ noblest lineage, and
  three sent to battle by Idas their sire and Ismarus their
  country, he lays low by this chance or that. To his side
  runs Halesus and the Auruncan bands; comes to his aid,
  too, the seed of Neptune, steed-famed Messapus. Now                   30
  these, now those, strain to win the ground: the struggle is
  on Ausonia’s very threshold. As in the spacious heaven
  jarring winds meet in battle, alike in spirit and in strength,
  winds, storm-clouds, and ocean, neither yields to the
  other: long doubtful hangs the fight; all stand in death              35
  grips, front to front: even such the meeting of the army
  of Troy and the army of Latium: foot is set close to foot,
  and man massed with man.

  But in another part of the field, where a torrent had
  scattered wide whirling stones and trees uprooted from its
  banks, soon as Pallas saw his Arcadians, unused to wage
  war on foot, flying before the chase of Latium, in that the
  cragginess of the soil had driven them to discard their                5
  steeds, he tries the one remedy in sore distress, and now
  with prayers, now with bitter speeches, inflames their
  valour: “Whither fly ye, mates? By your gallant deeds
  I conjure you—by your chief Evander’s name and victories
  won at his bidding—by my own promise, now                             10
  shooting up in rivalry with my father’s glory—trust not
  to your feet. It is the sword that must hew us a way
  through the foe. Where yonder host of men presses in
  thickest mass is the path by which our noble country is
  calling you and your general Pallas back to her arms.                 15
  No deities sit heavy on us: by a mortal foe we are pressed,
  mortals ourselves: we have as many lives, as many hands
  as they. Lo there! the sea hems us in with mighty
  ocean-barrier; earth is closed to our flight: shall the sea
  or Troy be our goal?” This said, he dashes at the midst               20
  of the hostile throng. The first that meets him is Lagus,
  brought to the spot by fates unkind; him, while tugging
  a stone of enormous weight, he pierces with his whirled
  javelin, just where the spine running down the back was
  parting the ribs, and recovers the weapon from its lodgment           25
  among the bones. Nor can Hisbo surprise him in
  the fact, spite of his hopes; for Pallas catches him rushing
  on in blind fury for the pain of his comrade’s death,
  and buries the sword in his distended lungs. Next his
  blow lights on Sthenelus, and Anchemolus of Rhœtus’                   30
  ancient line, who dared pollute his stepdame’s couch.
  You, too, twin brethren, fell on those Rutulian plains,
  Larides and Thymber, Daucus’ resemblant offspring, undistinguished
  even by your kin, a sweet perplexity to
  those who bore you: but now Pallas has marked you with                35
  a cruel difference; for you, poor Thymber, have your
  head shorn off by the Evandrian sword; your hand,
  Larides, severed from the arm, is looking in vain for you
  its master; the fingers, half alive, are quivering yet and
  closing again on the steel.

  Arcadia’s sons, stung by their chief’s rebuke and gazing
  on his glorious deeds, rush on the foe, strong in the
  armour of mingled rage and shame. Then Pallas strikes                  5
  through Rhœtus as he flies past him on his car. So
  much space and respite from his end did Ilus gain; for
  ’twas at Ilus he had launched from the distance his stalwart
  spear: Rhœtus comes between and catches it, flying
  from thee, noble Teuthras, and Tyres thy brother; and                 10
  tumbled from his car he beats with his dying heel the
  Rutulian plains. Even as when the winds have risen at
  his wish on a summer’s day, a shepherd lets loose his
  scattered flames among the woods, in a moment catching
  all that comes between, the Fire-god’s army in one bristling          15
  line stretches over the broad plains: he from his seat
  beholds the triumphant blaze with a conqueror’s pride:
  even so the valour of thy friends musters from all sides on
  one point to aid thee, Pallas. But Halesus, that fiery
  warrior, moves against their opposing ranks, gathering                20
  himself up into his arms. Ladon he massacres, and
  Pheres, and Demodocus: Strymonius’ right hand, raised
  against his throat, he lops away with his gleaming sword;
  with a stone he strikes the front of Thoas, and has crushed
  the bones mixed with gory brain. Halesus had been                     25
  hidden in the woods by his prophetic sire; when the
  old man closed his whitening eyes in death, the Fates
  claimed their victim, and devoted him to Evander’s darts.
  And now Pallas aims at him, after these words of prayer:
  “Grant, Father Tiber, to the flying steel poised in my                30
  hand a prosperous passage through Halesus’ hardy breast;
  thine oak shall have his arms and his warrior spoils.”
  The god gave ear: while Halesus shielded Imaon, he gives
  his own breast in evil hour unarmed to the Arcadian
  lance.                                                                35

  But Lausus, himself a mighty portion of the war, suffers
  not his troops to be dismayed by the hero’s dreadful
  carnage: first he slays Abas, who had met him front to
  front, the breakwater and barrier of fight. Down go the
  sons of Arcadia, down go the Etruscans, and ye, too
  Teucrians, whose frames Greece could not destroy. The
  armies clash, their leaders and their powers the same.
  The rear ranks close up the battle; nor weapon nor hand                5
  can be moved for the crowd. Here is Pallas pushing and
  pressing, there Lausus over against him: their years
  scarcely differ; each has a comely form; but Fortune had
  already written that neither should return to his home.
  Yet were they not suffered to meet man to man by great                10
  Olympus’ lord: each has his fate assigned him ere long at
  the hand of a mightier enemy.

  Turnus meanwhile is warned by his gracious sister to
  come to Lausus’ aid; and with his flying car he cleaves
  the intervening ranks. Soon as he met his comrades’                   15
  eye: “You may rest from battle now; I alone am coming
  against Pallas. Pallas is my due, and mine alone;
  would that his sire were here to see us fight.” He said;
  and his friends retired from the interdicted space. But
  as the Rutulians withdraw, the young warrior, marvelling              20
  at the haughty command, gazes astonished on Turnus,
  rolls his eyes over that giant frame, and sweeps the whole
  man from afar with fiery glance, and with words like
  these meets the words of the monarch: “I shall soon be
  famous either for kingly trophies won or for an illustrious           25
  death; my sire is equal to either event; a truce to menace.”
  This said, he marches into the middle space; while the
  Arcadians’ blood chills and curdles about their hearts.
  Down from his car leaps Turnus, and addresses himself to
  fight on foot. And as when a lion has seen from a high                30
  watch-tower a bull standing at distance in the field and
  meditating fight, he flies to the spot, even thus looks
  Turnus as he bounds along.

  Soon as he judged his foe would be within reach of his
  spear-throw, Pallas begins the combat, in hope that Fortune           35
  may help the venture of unequal powers, and utters
  these words to the mighty heaven: “By my sire’s hospitality
  and the board where thou satest as a stranger, I
  pray thee, Alcides, stand by me in my great endeavour.
  Let Turnus see me strip the bloody arms from his dying
  frame, and may his glazing eyes endure the sight of
  a conqueror.” Alcides heard the youth, and stifled a
  heavy groan deep down in his breast, and shed forth unavailing         5
  tears. Then the Almighty Father bespeaks
  his son with kindly words: “Each has his fixed day:
  short and irretrievable is the span of all men; but to propagate
  glory by great deeds, this is what worth can do.
  Think of those many sons of gods who fell beneath Troy’s              10
  lofty walls: among whom died even Sarpedon, my own
  offspring. For Turnus, too, the call of his destiny has
  gone forth, and he has reached the term of his allotted
  days.” So he speaks, and turns away his eyes from the
  Rutulian plain.                                                       15

  But Pallas with a mighty effort sends forth his spear,
  and plucks from the hollow scabbard his flashing sword.
  On flies the weapon, strikes where the margin of the
  harness rises toward the shoulder, and forcing its way
  through the buckler’s edge, at last even grazed the mighty            20
  frame of Turnus. Then Turnus, long poising his beam
  with its point of sharp steel, hurls it at Pallas, with these
  words: “See whether our weapon be not the keener.”
  So he: while cleaving those many plates of iron and
  brass, spite of the bull-hides wound oft and oft about,               25
  the point strikes through the shield’s midst with quivering
  impact, and pierces the corselet’s barrier and the
  mighty breast beyond. In vain the youth tears the
  reeking dart from the wound: as it parts, blood and life
  follow on its track. He falls forward on his wound: his               30
  arms resound upon him, and with his bloody jaws in death
  he bites the hostile earth. Standing over him, Turnus
  began: “Men of Arcady, take heed and carry my words
  to Evander: I send back Pallas handled as his sire deserves.
  If there be any honour in a tomb, any solace in                       35
  burial, let him take it freely; his welcome of Æneas will
  be costly notwithstanding.” Then with his left foot as
  he spoke, he trod on the dead, tearing away the belt’s
  huge weight and the crime thereon engraved[o]: that band
  of youths slain foully all on one wedding night, and the
  chambers dabbled with blood: Clonus Eurytides had
  chased it on the broad field of gold: and now Turnus
  triumphs in the prize, and exults in his winning. Blind                5
  are the eyes of man’s soul to destiny and doom to be, nor
  knows it to respect the limit, when upborne by prosperous
  fortune! Turnus shall see the day when he will fain
  have paid a high price for Pallas unharmed, when he will
  hate the spoils and the hour he won them! But Pallas’                 10
  followers, with many a groan and tear, are bearing off
  their chief on his shield in long procession. Oh, vision of
  sorrow and great glory, soon to meet thy father’s eye!
  this day first gave thee to battle, this day withdraws the
  gift, yet vast are the heaps thou leavest of Rutulian                 15
  carnage!

  And now not the mere rumour of a blow so dreadful,
  but surer intelligence flies to Æneas, that his army is but
  a hand-breadth’s remove from death—that it is high
  time to succour the routed Teucrians. With his sword he               20
  mows down all that crosses him, and all on fire hews a
  broad pathway through the ranks with the steel, seeking
  thee, Turnus, fresh flushed with slaughter. Pallas, Evander,
  the whole scene stands before his eyes—the board
  where he had first sate as a stranger, the outstretched               25
  hands of fellowship. At once he takes alive four youths
  born of Sulmo, and other four reared by Ufens, that he
  may offer them as victims to the dead, and sprinkle the
  funeral flame with their captive gore. Next he had
  levelled his spear from afar at Magus. Magus deftly runs              30
  beneath, while the quivering spear flies over his head,
  and clasping the enemy’s knees, utters these words of
  suppliance: “By your dead father’s soul, and the dawning
  promise of Iulus, I pray you spare my poor life for
  my son and my sire. I have a lofty palace: deep in its                35
  vaults lie talents of chased silver; masses of gold are
  mine, wrought and unwrought both. The victory of Troy
  hangs not on my fortunes, nor can a single life make
  difference so great.” He spoke, and Æneas thus makes
  reply: “Those many talents you name of silver and gold,
  keep them for your sons. Turnus was the first to put an
  end to such trading usages of war at the moment when he
  slew Pallas. My sire Anchises’ ghost, and my son Iulus,                5
  speak their thoughts through me.” This said, with his
  left hand he grasps the helmet and drives his sword hilt-deep
  through the suppliant’s back-drawn neck. Hard by
  was Hæmonides, priest of Phœbus and Trivia, his temples
  wreathed with the fillet’s sacred band, glittering all over           10
  with gay raiment and goodly armour. Him he meets,
  drives over the plain, stands over him fallen, sacrifices
  the victim, and whelms him in a mighty shade; the arms
  are stripped and carried off on Serestus’ shoulders, a trophy
  to thee, royal Gradivus. The ranks are rallied by Cæculus,            15
  scion of Vulcan’s stock, and Umbro, who comes from the
  Volscian hills. The Dardan chief puts forth his rage
  against them. Already had he mowed down with his
  sword Anxur’s left hand and the whole orb of the shield
  he bore—that foe, I ween, had uttered a haughty boast,                20
  and deemed that his hand would second his tongue, and
  was swelling in spirit to the stars, with an assured hope
  of gray hairs and length of days—when Tarquitus, in the
  pride of gleaming armour, borne by the nymph Dryope
  to woodland Faunus, crossed his fiery path. Drawing                   25
  back his spear, he hampers the corselet and the buckler’s
  weighty mass; then he sweeps to the ground the head,
  as the lips were vainly praying and essaying to say a
  thousand things, and dashing before him the reeking trunk,
  utters thus the fierceness of his heart: “Lie there, doughty          30
  warrior! never shall your tender mother give you burial,
  or pile your father’s tomb above your limbs; no, you
  will be left to savage birds, or the river will carry you
  whelmed by its eddies, and hungry fish will lick your
  wounds.” Next he hunts down Antæus and Lucas, of                      35
  Turnus’ first rank, and gallant Numa, and yellow Camers,
  son of noble Volscens, who was wealthiest in land of
  Ausonia’s children, and reigned over voiceless Amyclæ.
  Even as Ægæon, who, fable tells, had a hundred arms
  and a hundred hands, and flashed fire through fifty mouths
  from the depths of fifty bosoms, what time against Jove’s
  lightning he thundered on fifty strong shields, and drew
  forth fifty sharp swords, so Æneas slakes his victorious               5
  fury the whole field over, when once his blade had grown
  warm with blood. See! he is advancing against Niphæus’
  four harnessed steeds, and setting his breast
  against theirs. At once they, soon as they saw his lofty
  stride and his fierce gestures, turn round affrighted, and,           10
  rushing backward, unseat their master and hurry the car
  to the beach. Meanwhile Lucagus forces his way into
  the midst, drawn by two white horses, with Liger his
  brother; but the brother guides the steeds with the rein,
  while Lucagus sweeps fiercely round his naked sword.                  15
  Æneas brooked not the fury of their fiery onset, but
  rushed against them, and stood fronting them in his giant
  bulk with threatening spear. To him cried Liger: “These
  are not Diomede’s steeds you see, nor this Achilles’ chariot,
  nor are these the Phrygian plains; your warfare and                   20
  your life shall end here on Italian ground.” So fly abroad
  the random words of frantic Liger. The chief of Troy
  seeks not to meet him with words, but hurls his javelin
  at the foe. Even as Lucagus, bending forward over the
  stroke, pricked on his horses with the steel, and advancing           25
  his left foot prepares himself for fight, the spear
  pierces the last margin of the radiant shield and enters
  the groin at the left: down he falls from the car and
  wallows in death on the plain; while good Æneas bespeaks
  him with words of gall: “So, Lucagus, it is no                        30
  craven flight of your steeds that has played your car false;
  no empty shadow cast by the foe has turned them; no,
  it is you that spring down from the wheels, and leave the
  horses to their fate.” With these words he laid hold of
  the bridles, while the wretched brother, gliding down                 35
  from the car, was stretching his recreant hands: “Oh, by
  yourself, by the parents that gave such greatness birth,
  spare this poor life, brave hero of Troy, and let prayer
  find compassion.” Æneas cut short his entreaties; “Not
  such were your words a moment ago; die, and forsake
  not your brother, as brother should:” and cleaving the
  bosom with his sword, he laid bare the seat of breath.
  Such were the deaths that the Dardan leader dealt about                5
  the plains, storming along like torrent wave or murky
  tempest. At length the prisoners burst forth and leave
  their camp, the young Ascanius and the soldiery beleaguered
  in vain.

  Jupiter meanwhile first addresses Juno: “Sister mine                  10
  and sweetest wife in one, Venus it is, even as thou didst
  suppose—for thy judgment is never at fault—that upholds
  the powers of the Trojans, not the warriors’ own
  keen right hand and the courageous soul that braves
  every peril.” Juno returned, meekly: “Why, my fairest                 15
  lord, dost thou vex a sick spirit that quails before thy
  cruel speeches? Had my love the force it once had, and
  which should still be its own, this at least thou wouldst
  not deny me, almighty as thou art, the power to withdraw
  Turnus from the fight and preserve him in safety                      20
  for Daunus his father. As it is, let him perish, and glut
  the Teucrian vengeance with his righteous blood. Yet
  he draws his name from our lineage, and Pilumnus is his
  grandsire’s grandsire: and often has thy temple been
  loaded with store of offerings from his bounteous hand.”              25
  To whom, in brief reply, the lord of skyey Olympus: “If
  thy prayer for the doomed youth is respite and breathing
  space from present death, and so thou readest my will,
  bear thou Turnus away in flight, and snatch him from
  the destiny that presses on his heels. Thus far is room               30
  for compliance. But if any deeper favour be hidden
  under these prayers of thine, and thou deemest that the
  war’s whole course can be moved or changed, thou art
  nursing an empty hope.” Juno answered with tears:
  “What if thy heart were to grant what thy tongue grudges,             35
  and Turnus’ life were pledged to continue? As it is, a
  heavy doom hangs over his guiltless head, or I am void
  of truth and wandering in delusion. But oh, that I
  might rather be the sport of lying terrors, and thou, who
  canst, lead back thy counsels by a better road!”

  This said, from the lofty sky she shot forthwith, driving
  storm before her through the air and girt with the rain-cloud,
  and sought the army of Ilium and the camp of                           5
  Laurentum. Then, as goddesses may, she fashions a
  thin, strengthless shadow of hollow cloud in the likeness
  of Æneas, a marvel to the eyes, accoutres it with Dardan
  weapons, and counterfeits the shield and the crest of the
  god-like head, gives it empty words and tones without                 10
  soul, and renders to the life the step and the gait: even
  as the shapes that are said to flit when death is past, or
  the dreams that mock the sense of slumber. So the
  phantom strides triumphant in the van, goading the enemy
  with brandished weapons and defiant speech. Turnus                    15
  comes on, and hurls from far his hurtling spear; it turns
  its back and retires. Then, when Turnus thought Æneas
  flying in retreat, and snatched in the vehemence of his
  soul at the empty hope: “Whither so fast, Æneas?”
  cries he: “nay, leave not your promised bridal; this                  20
  hand shall give you the soil you have sought for the
  ocean over.” So with loud shouts he follows, waving his
  drawn sword, nor sees that the winds are bearing off his
  triumph. It chanced that a ship was standing moored to
  the edge of a lofty rock, its ladder let down, its bridge             25
  ready to cross—the ship which had carried king Osinius
  from the borders of Clusium. Hither, as in haste, the
  semblance of the flying Æneas plunged for shelter. Turnus
  follows as fast, bounds over all obstacles, and springs
  across the high-raised bridge. Scarce had he touched the              30
  prow when Saturn’s daughter breaks the mooring and
  sweeps the sundered ship along the receding flood. Æneas
  meanwhile is claiming the combat with his absent foe,
  and sending down to death many a warrior frame that
  crosses his way. Then the airy phantom seeks shelter no               35
  longer, but soaring aloft blends with the murky atmosphere,
  while Turnus is borne by the wind down the middle
  of the tide. Ignorant of the event, and unthankful for
  escape, he looks back, his hands and his voice addressed
  to the sky: “Almighty sire! hast thou judged me worthy
  of an infliction like this, and sentenced me to this depth
  of suffering? Whither am I bound? whence have I
  come? what is this flight that is bearing me home, and                 5
  what does it make of me? Shall I look again on Laurentum’s
  camp and city? what of that warrior troop who
  followed me and my standard? Are they not those
  whom I left—horror to tell—all of them in the jaws
  of a cruel death—whom I now see scattered in rout, and                10
  hear their groans as they fall? What can I do? what
  lowest depth of earth will yawn for me? Nay, do you,
  ye winds, have compassion—on reef, on rock—see, it
  is I, Turnus, who am fain to plead—dash me this vessel,
  and lodge it on the sandbank’s ruthless shoal, where none             15
  that know my shame, Rutuli or rumour, may find me
  out!” So speaking, he sways in spirit to this side and to
  that: should he for disgrace so foul impale his frenzied
  breast on the sword’s point, and drive the stark blade
  through his ribs, or fling himself into the midst of the              20
  waves, and make by swimming for the winding shore,
  and place himself again among the Teucrian swords?
  Thrice he essayed either way: thrice mighty Juno kept
  him back, and of her great pity withheld the youth from
  action. On he flies, ploughing the deep with wave and                 25
  tide to speed him, and is borne safely to the ancient town
  of Daunus his sire.

  Prompted meanwhile by Jove, Mezentius, all on fire,
  takes up the war, and charges the triumphant Teucrians.
  The Tyrrhene host flocks to the spot, bending all their               30
  fury, all their showering darts on one, one only man.
  Even as a rock which juts into the mighty deep, exposed
  to the rage of the wind and braving the sea, bears all the
  violence and menace of heaven and ocean, itself unshaken,
  he stands unmoved; now he lays low Hebrus, Dolichaon’s                35
  child, and with him Latagus and craven Palmus: Latagus
  he strikes on the face and front with a stone, a hill’s
  enormous fragment, Palmus he suffers to roll ham-strung
  in his cowardice; their harness he gives to Lausus to
  wear on his shoulders, their crests to adorn his head.
  Euanthes, too, the Phrygian, and Mimas, Paris’ playmate,
  borne by Theano to Amycus his sire, the self-same night
  when Cisseus’ royal daughter, teeming with a firebrand,                5
  gave birth to Paris; he sleeps beneath his father’s walls,
  while Mimas has his rest on Laurentum’s unknown shore.
  Like as the mighty boar driven by fangs of hounds from
  mountain heights, the boar whom pine-crowned Vesulus
  or Laurentum’s pool shelters these many years, pastured               10
  on the reedy jungle, soon as he finds himself among the
  nets, stands at bay, snorting with fury and bristling his
  back; none has the courage to flame forth and come near
  him; at safe distance they press him with their darts
  and their cries; even so of them who hate Mezentius with              15
  a righteous hate, none has the heart to face him with
  drawn steel; with missiles and deafening shouts they
  assail him from afar; while he, undaunted, is pausing
  now here, now there, gnashing his teeth, and shakes off
  the javelins from his buckler’s hide. There was one                   20
  Acron from Corythus’ ancient borders, a Grecian wight,
  who had fled forth leaving his nuptials yet to celebrate;
  him, when Mezentius saw at distance scattering the intervening
  ranks, in pride of crimson plumage and the purple
  of his plighted bride, even as oft a famished lion ranging            25
  through high-built stalls—for frantic hunger is his
  prompter—if he chance to mark a flying goat or towering-antlered
  deer, grins with huge delight, sets up his
  mane, and hangs over the rent flesh, while loathly blood
  laves his insatiate jaws—so joyfully springs Mezentius                30
  on the foe’s clustering mass. Down goes ill-starred Acron,
  spurns the blackened ground in the pangs of death, and
  dyes with blood the broken spear. Nor did the chief
  deign to strike down Orodes as he fled, or deal from a
  spear-throw a wound unseen; full in front he meets him,               35
  and engages him as man should man, prevailing not by
  guile but by sheer force of steel. Then with foot and
  lance planted on the back-flung body: “See, gallants, a
  bulwark of the war has fallen in tall Orodes,” and his
  comrades shout in unison, taking up the triumphal pæan.
  The dying man returns: “Whoever thou art, thy victorious
  boasting shall not be long or unavenged; for thee,
  too, a like fate is watching, and thou shalt soon lie on               5
  these self-same fields.” Mezentius answers, with hate
  mantling in his smile: “Die now. The sire of gods and
  king of men shall make his account with me.” So saying,
  he drew forth the spear from the body: the heavy rest
  of iron slumber settles down on its eyes, and their beams             10
  are curtained in everlasting night.

  Cædicus slaughters Alcathous, Sacrator Hydaspes, Rapo
  kills Parthenius and Orses of iron frame, Messapus slays
  Clonius and Ericetes, Lycaon’s son, that grovelling on the
  ground by a fall from his unbridled steed, this encountered           15
  foot to foot. Prancing forward came Agis of Lycia; but
  Valerus, no unworthy heir of his grandsire’s prowess,
  hurls him down; Thronius falls by Salius, and Salius by
  Nealces, hero of the javelin and the shaft that surprises
  from far.                                                             20

  And now the War-god’s heavy hand was dealing out to
  each equal measures of agony and carnage; alike they
  were slaying, alike falling dead, victors and vanquished
  by turns, flight unthought of both by these and by those.
  The gods in Jove’s palace look pityingly on the idle rage             25
  of the warring hosts—alas, that death-doomed men
  should suffer so terribly! Here Venus sits spectator,
  there over against her Saturnian Juno. Tisiphone, ashy
  pale, is raving among thousands down below. But see!
  Mezentius, shaking his giant spear, is striding into the              30
  field, an angry presence. Think of the stature of Orion,
  as he overtops the billows with his shoulders, when he
  stalks on foot through the very heart of Nereus’ mighty
  depths that part before him, or as carrying an aged ash
  in triumph from the hill-top he plants his tread on the               35
  ground, and hides his head among the clouds above:
  thus it is that Mezentius in enormous bulk shoulders his
  way. Æneas spies him along the length of the battle,
  and makes haste to march against him. He abides undismayed,
  waiting for his gallant foe, and stands like
  column on its base; then, measuring with his eye the
  distance that may suffice for his spear, “Now let my right
  hand, the god of my worship, and the missile dart I am                 5
  poising, vouchsafe their aid! I vow that you, my Lausus,
  clad in spoils torn from yonder robber’s carcase, shall
  stand in your own person the trophy of Æneas.” He
  said, and threw from far his hurtling lance: flying onward,
  it glances aside from the shield, and strikes in the                  10
  distance noble Antores twixt side and flank, Antores,
  comrade of Hercules, who, sent from Argos, had cloven to
  Evander’s fortunes and sat him down in an Italian home.
  Now he falls, ill-fated, by a wound meant for other, and
  gazes on the sky, and dreams in death of his darling Argos.           15
  Then good Æneas hurls his spear; through the hollow
  disk with its triple plating of brass, through the folds of
  linen and the texture wherein three bulls joined, it won
  its way and lodged low down in the groin, but its force
  held not on. In a moment Æneas, gladdened by the sight                20
  of the Tuscan’s blood, plucks his sword from his thigh
  and presses hotly on his unnerved foe.

  Soon as Lausus saw, he gave a heavy groan of tenderness
  for the sire he loved, and tears trickled down his
  face. And here, gallant youth, neither the cruel chance               25
  of thy death, nor thy glorious deeds, if antiquity may
  gain credence for so great a sacrifice, nor thine own most
  worthy memory shall be unsung through fault of mine.
  The father, dragging back his foot, disabled and entangled,
  was quitting the field, his enemy’s spearshaft trailing               30
  from his buckler. Forth dashed the youth and mingled
  in the duel, and even as Æneas was rising with hand and
  body and bringing down a blow from above, met the
  shock of the sword, and gave the swordsman pause; his
  comrades second him with a mighty shout, covering the                 35
  father’s retreat as sheltered by his son’s shield he withdraws
  from the fray, hurl a rain of darts, and strive with
  distant missiles to dislodge the foe. Æneas glows with
  anger, and keeps within the covert of his arms. Even as
  on a time when storm-clouds sweep down in a burst of
  hail, every ploughman, every husbandman has fled scattering
  from the field, and the traveller lies hid in a stronghold
  of safety, either some river bank or vault of lofty                    5
  rock, while the rain is pelting on the lands, in the hope
  that with the returning sun they may task the day once
  more; even so, stormed on by javelins from all sides,
  Æneas endures the thunder-cloud of war till all its artillery
  be spent, and keeps chiding Lausus and threatening                    10
  Lausus: “Whither are you rushing on your death, with
  aims beyond your strength? Your duteous heart blinds
  your reckless valour.” Yet he bates not a jot in his
  frantic onslaught: and now the Dardan leader’s wrath
  surges into fury, and the fatal sisters are gathering up              15
  Lausus’ last thread, for Æneas drives his forceful blade
  sheer through the youth’s body, and buries it wholly
  within him. Pierced is the shield by the edge, the light
  armour he carried so threateningly, and the tunic embroidered
  by his mother with delicate golden thread, and                        20
  his bosom is deluged with blood; and anon the life flits
  through the air regretfully to the shades and the body is
  left tenantless. But when the son of Anchises saw the
  look and countenance of the dying—the countenance
  with its strange and varying hues of pallor—heavily he                25
  groaned for pity and stretched forth his hand, and the
  portraiture of filial love stood before his soul. “What
  now, hapless boy, what shall the good Æneas give you
  worthy of your merit and of a heart like yours? Let the
  arms wherein you took pride be your own still; yourself               30
  I restore to the company of your ancestors, their shades
  and their ashes, if that be aught to you now. This at
  least, ill-starred as you are, shall solace the sadness of
  your death: it is great Æneas’ hand that brings you low.”
  Then without more ado he chides the slackness of his                  35
  comrades, and lifts their young chief from the earth, as
  he lay dabbling his trim locks with gore.

  Meanwhile the father at the wave of Tiber’s flood was
  stanching his wounds with water, and giving ease to his
  frame, leaning on a tree’s trunk. His brazen helmet is hanging
  from a distant bough, and his heavy arms are resting
  on the mead. Round him stand his bravest warriors: he,
  sick and panting, is relieving his neck, while his flowing             5
  beard scatters over his bosom: many a question asks he
  about Lausus, many a messenger he sends to call him off
  and convey to him the charge of his grieving sire. But
  Lausus the while was being carried breathless on his shield
  by a train of weeping comrades, a mighty spirit quelled by            10
  a mighty wound. The distant groan told its tale to that
  ill-boding heart. He defiles his gray hairs with a shower
  of dust, stretches his two palms to heaven, and clings to
  the body. “My son! and was I enthralled by so strong a
  love of life as to suffer you, mine own offspring, to meet the        15
  foeman’s hand in my stead? Are these your wounds
  preserving your sire? is he living through your death?
  Alas! now at length I know the misery of banishment!
  now the iron is driven home! Aye, it was I, my son, that
  stained your name with guilt, driven by the hate I gendered           20
  from the throne and realm of my father! Retribution
  was due to my country and to my subjects’ wrath: would
  that I had let out my forfeit life through all the death-wounds
  they aimed! And now I live on, nor as yet leave
  daylight and humankind—but leave them I will.” So                     25
  saying, he raises himself on his halting thigh, and though
  the deep wound makes his strength flag, calls for his war-horse
  with no downcast mien. This was ever his glory
  and his solace: this still carried him victorious from every
  battle-field. He addresses the grieving creature and bespeaks         30
  it thus: “Long, Rhæbus, have we twain lived, if
  aught be long to those who must die. To-day you shall
  either bear in victory the bloody spoils and head of Æneas
  yonder, and join with me to avenge my Lausus’ sufferings,
  or if our force suffice not to clear the way, we will lie down        35
  together in death: for never, I ween, my gallant one, will
  you stoop to a stranger’s bidding and endure a Teucrian
  lord.” He said, and mounting on its back settled his limbs
  as he was wont, and charged his two hands with pointed
  javelins, his head shining with brass and shaggy with
  horse-hair crest. So he bounded into the midst—his
  heart glowing at once with mighty shame, madness and
  agony commingled. Then with a loud voice he thrice                     5
  called on Æneas: aye, and Æneas knew it, and prays in
  ecstasy: “May the great father of the gods, may royal
  Apollo grant that you come to the encounter!” So
  much said, he marches to meet him with brandished spear.
  The other replies: “Why terrify me, fellest of foes, now              10
  you have robbed me of my son? this was the only way by
  which you could work my ruin. I fear not death, nor give
  quarter to any deity. Enough: I am coming to die, and
  send you this my present first.” He said, and flung a
  javelin at his enemy: then he sends another and another               15
  to its mark, wheeling round in a vast ring: but the golden
  shield bides the blow. Three times, wheeling from right
  to left, he rode round the foe that faced him, flinging
  darts from his hand: three times the hero of Troy moves
  round, carrying with him a vast grove planted on his                  20
  brazen plate. Then, when he begins to tire of the long
  delay and the incessant plucking out of darts, and feels the
  unequal combat press him hard, meditating many things,
  at last he springs from his covert, and hurls his spear full
  between the hollow temples of the warrior-steed. The                  25
  gallant beast rears itself upright, lashes the air with its
  heels, and, flinging the rider, falls on and encumbers him,
  and itself bowed to earth presses with its shoulder the prostrate
  chief. Up flies Æneas, plucks forth his sword from
  its scabbard, and bespeaks the fallen: “Where now is                  30
  fierce Mezentius and that his savage vehemence of spirit?”
  To whom the Tuscan, soon as opening his eyes on the light
  he drank in the heaven and regained his sense: “Insulting
  foe, why reproach me and menace me with death? You
  may kill me without crime: I came not to battle to be                 35
  spared, nor was that the league which my Lausus ratified
  with you for his father. One boon I ask, in the name of
  that grace, if any there be, which is due to a vanquished
  enemy: suffer my corpse to be interred. The hot hatred
  of my subjects, well I know, is blazing all round me: screen
  me, I pray, from their fury, and vouchsafe me a share in
  the tomb of my son.” So saying, with full resolve he welcomes
  the sword to his throat, and spreads his life over his                 5
  armour in broad streams of blood.




BOOK XI


  Meanwhile, the Goddess of Dawn has risen and left the
  ocean. Æneas, though duty presses to find leisure for
  interring his friends, and his mind is still wildered by the
  scene of blood, was paying his vows to heaven as conqueror
  should at the day-star’s rise. A giant oak, lopped all                 5
  round of its branches, he sets up on a mound, and arrays
  it in gleaming arms, the royal spoils of Mezentius, a trophy
  to thee, great Lord of War: thereto he attaches the crest
  yet raining blood, the warrior’s weapons notched and
  broken, and the hauberk stricken and pierced by twelve                10
  several wounds: to the left hand he binds the brazen shield,
  and hangs to the neck the ivory-hilted sword. Then he
  begins thus to give charge to his triumphant friends, for
  the whole company of chiefs had gathered to his side:
  “A mighty deed, gallants, is achieved already: dismiss                15
  all fear for the future: see here the spoils, the tyrant’s
  first-fruits: see here Mezentius as my hands have made
  him. Now our march is to the king and the walls of Latium.
  Set the battle in array in your hearts and let hope
  forestall the fray, that no delay may check your ignorance            20
  at the moment when heaven gives leave to pluck up the
  standards and lead forth our chivalry from the camp, no
  coward resolve palsy your steps with fear. Meanwhile,
  consign we to earth the unburied carcases of our friends,
  that solitary honour which is held in account in the pit              25
  of Acheron. Go,” he says, “grace with the last tribute
  those glorious souls, who have bought for us this our fatherland
  with the price of their blood: and first to Evander’s
  sorrowing town send we Pallas, who, lacking nought of
  manly worth, has been reft by the evil day, and whelmed               30
  in darkness before his time.”

  So he says weeping, and returns to his tent-door, where
  the body of breathless Pallas, duly laid out, was being
  watched by Acœtes the aged, who had in old days been
  armour-bearer to Evander his Arcadian lord, but then in
  an hour less happy was serving as the appointed guardian               5
  of the pupil he loved. Around the corpse were thronging
  the retinue of menials and the Trojan train, and dames
  of Ilion with their hair unbound in mourning fashion.
  But soon as Æneas entered the lofty portal, a mighty
  wail they raise to the stars, smiting on their breasts, and           10
  the royal dwelling groans to its centre with their agony
  of woe. He, when he saw the pillowed head and countenance
  of Pallas in his beauty, and the deep cleft of the
  Ausonian spear in his marble bosom, thus speaks, breaking
  into tears: “Can it be, unhappy boy, that Fortune at the              15
  moment of her triumphant flood-tide has grudged you to
  me, forbidding you to look on my kingdom, and ride back
  victorious to your father’s home? Not such was the parting
  pledge I gave on your behalf to your sire Evander, when,
  clasping me to his heart, he sent me on my way to mighty              20
  empire, and anxiously warned me that the foe was fierce
  and the race we should war with stubborn. And now he
  belike at this very moment in the deep delusion of empty
  hope is making vows to Heaven and piling the altars with
  gifts, while we are following his darling, void of life, and          25
  owing no dues henceforward to any power on high, with
  the vain service of our sorrow. Ill-starred father! your
  eyes shall see what cruel death has made of your son.
  And is this the proud return, the triumph we looked for?
  has my solemn pledge shrunk to this? Yet no beaten                    30
  coward shall you see, Evander, chastised with unseemly
  wounds, nor shall the father pray for death to come in its
  terror while the son survives. Ay me! how strong a defender
  is lost to our Ausonian realm, and lost to you, my
  own Iulus!”                                                           35

  So having wailed his fill, he gives order to lift and bear
  the poor corpse, and sends a thousand men chosen from
  his whole array to attend the last service of woe, and lend
  their countenance to the father’s tears, a scant solace for
  that mighty sorrow, yet not the less the wretched parent’s
  due. Others, nothing slack, plait the framework of a
  pliant bier with shoots of arbute and oaken twigs, and
  shroud the heaped-up bed with a covering of leaves.                    5
  Here place they the youth raised high on his rustic litter,
  even as a flower cropped by maiden’s finger, be it of delicate
  violet or drooping hyacinth, unforsaken as yet of its
  sparkling hue and its graceful outline, though its parent
  earth no longer feeds it or supplies it with strength. Then           10
  brought forth Æneas two garments stiff with gold and purple,
  which Dido had wrought for him in other days with
  her own hands, delighting in the toil, and had streaked
  their webs with threads of gold. Of these the mourner
  spreads one over his youthful friend as a last honour,                15
  and muffles the locks on which the flame must feed: moreover
  he piles in a heap many a spoil from Laurentum’s
  fray, and bids the plunder be carried in long procession.
  The steeds too and weapons he adds of which he had
  stripped the foe. Already had he bound the victims’                   20
  hands behind their backs, doomed as a sacrifice to the
  dead man’s spirit, soon to spill their blood over the fire:
  and now he bids the leaders in person carry tree-trunks
  clad with hostile arms, and has the name of an enemy
  attached to each. There is Acœtes led along, a lorn old               25
  man, marring now his breast with blows, now his face with
  laceration, and anon he throws himself at his full length
  on the ground. They lead too the car, all spattered
  with Rutulian blood. After it the warrior steed, Æthon,
  his trappings laid aside, moves weeping, and bathes his               30
  visage with big round drops. Others carry the spear and
  the helm: for the rest of the harness is Turnus’ prize.
  Then follows a mourning army, the Teucrians, and all the
  Tuscans, and the sons of Arcady with weapons turned
  downward. And now after all the retinue had passed on                 35
  in long array, Æneas stayed, and groaning deeply uttered
  one word more: “We are summoned hence by the same
  fearful destiny of war to shed other tears: I bid you hail
  forever, mightiest Pallas, and forever farewell.” Saying
  this and this only, he turned to the lofty walls again, and
  bent his footsteps campward.

  And now appeared the ambassadors from the town of
  Latium, with the coverings of their olive boughs, entreating           5
  an act of grace: the bodies which were lying over the
  plains as the steel had mowed them down they pray him
  to restore, and suffer them to pass under the mounded
  earth: no man wars with the vanquished and with those
  who have left the sun: let him show mercy to men once                 10
  known as his hosts and the fathers of his bride. The good
  Æneas hearkens to a prayer that merits no rebuke, grants
  them the boon, and withal bespeaks them thus: “What
  undeserved ill chance, men of Latium, has entangled you
  in a war so terrible and made you fly from us your friends?           15
  Ask you peace for the dead, for those on whom the War-god’s
  die has fallen? Nay, I would fain grant it to the
  living too. I were not here had not fate assigned me a
  portion and a home: nor wage I war against your nation:
  it was the king that abandoned our alliance, and sought               20
  shelter rather under Turnus’ banner. Fairer it had been
  that Turnus should have met the death-stroke ye mourn.
  If he seeks to end the war by strength of arm and expel the
  Trojan enemy, duty bade him confront me with weapons
  like mine, and that one should have lived who had earned              25
  life from heaven or his own right hand. Now go and
  kindle the flame beneath your ill-starred townsmen.”
  Æneas’ speech was over: they stood in silent wonder, their
  eyes and countenances steadfastly fixed on each other.
  Then Drances, elder in birth, ever embroiled with the                 30
  youthful Turnus by hatred and taunting word, thus speaks
  in reply: “O mighty in fame’s voice, mightier in your own
  brave deeds, hero of Troy, what praise shall I utter to
  match you with the stars? Shall I first admire your sacred
  love of right, or the toils of your hand in war? Ours it              35
  shall be gratefully to report your answer to our native
  town, and should any favouring chance allow, make you
  the friend of king Latinus. Let Turnus look for alliance
  where he may. Nay, it will be our pride to uprear those
  massive walls of destiny, and heave on our shoulders the
  stones of your new Troy.” He spoke, and the rest all
  murmured assent. For twelve days they make truce, and
  with amity to mediate, Trojans and Latians mingled roam                5
  through the forest on the mountain slopes unharming and
  unharmed. The lofty ash rings with the two-edged steel:
  they bring low pines erst uplifted to the sky, nor is there
  pause in cleaving with wedges the oak and fragrant cedar,
  or in carrying ashen trunks in the groaning wains.                    10

  And now flying Fame, the harbinger of that cruel agony,
  is filling with her tidings the ears of Evander, his palace and
  his city—Fame that but few hours back was proclaiming
  Pallas the conqueror of Latium. Forth stream the Arcadians
  to the gates, with funeral torches in ancient fashion,                15
  snatched up hurriedly; the road gleams with the long
  line of fire, which parts the breath of fields on either hand.
  To meet them comes the train of Phrygians, and joins the
  wailing company. Soon as the matrons saw them pass
  under the shadow of the houses, they set the mourning city            20
  ablaze with their shrieks. But Evander—no force can
  hold him back; he rushes into the midst: there as they
  lay down the bier he has flung himself upon Pallas, and is
  clinging to him with tears and groans, till choking grief
  at last lets speech find her way: “No, my Pallas! this was            25
  not your promise to your sire, to trust yourself with caution
  in the War-god’s savage hands. I knew what a spell
  there lay in the young dawn of a soldier’s glory, the enrapturing
  pride of the first day of battle. Alas for the
  ill-starred first-fruits of youth, the cruel foretaste of the         30
  coming war! alas for those my vows and prayers, that
  found no audience with any of the gods! alas too for thee,
  my blessed spouse, happy as thou art in the death that
  spared thee not for this heavy sorrow! while I, living on,
  have triumphed over my destiny, that I might survive in               35
  solitary fatherhood. Had I but followed the friendly
  standards of Troy, and fallen whelmed by Rutulian javelins!
  had I rendered my own life up, so that this funeral
  train should have borne _me_ home, and not my Pallas!
  Nor yet would I blame you, men of Troy, nor the treaty
  we made, nor the hands we plighted in friendship; it is
  but the portion ordained long ago as fitting for my gray
  hairs. If it was written that my son should die ere his                5
  time, it shall be well that he fell after slaying his Volscian
  thousands, while leading a Teucrian army to the gates of
  Latium. Nay, my Pallas, I would wish for you no
  worthier funeral than that accorded to you by Æneas
  the good and his noble Phrygians, by the Tyrrhene leaders,            10
  and the whole Tyrrhene host. Each bears you a mighty
  trophy whom your right hand sends down to death. And
  you, too, proud Turnus, would be standing at this moment,
  a giant trunk hung round with armour, had your age been
  but as his, the vigour of your years the same. But why                15
  should misery like mine hold back the Teucrians from the
  battle? Go, and remember to bear my message to your
  king. If I still drag the wheels of my hated life now my
  Pallas is slain, it is because of your right hand, which owes
  the debt of Turnus’ life to son and sire, yourself being witness.     20
  This is the one remaining niche for your valour and
  your fortune to fill. I ask not for triumph to gild my life:
  that thought were crime: I ask but for tidings that I
  may bear to my son down in the spectral world.”

  Meantime the Goddess of Dawn had lifted on high her                   25
  kindly light for suffering mortality, recalling them to task
  and toil. Already father Æneas, already Tarchon, have
  set up their funeral piles along the winding shore. Hither
  each man brings the body of friend or kinsman as the rites
  of his sires command; and as the murky flames are applied             30
  below, darkness veils the heights of heaven in gloom.
  Thrice they ran their courses round the lighted pyres,
  sheathed in shining armour; thrice they circled on their
  steeds the mournful funeral flame, and uttered the voice
  of wailing. Sprinkled is the earth with their tears,                  35
  sprinkled is the harness. Upsoars to heaven at once the
  shout of warriors and the blare of trumpets. Others
  fling upon the fire plunder torn from the Latian slain,
  helms and shapely swords and bridle-reins and glowing
  wheels; some bring in offering the things the dead men
  wore, their own shields and the weapons that sped so ill.
  Many carcases of oxen are sacrificed round the piles:
  bristly swine and cattle harried from the country round are            5
  made to bleed into the flame. Then along the whole line
  of coast they gaze on their burning friends, and keep
  sentry over the half-quenched fire-bed, nor let themselves
  be torn away till dewy night rolls round the sky with its
  garniture of blazing stars.                                           10

  With like zeal the ill-starred Latians in a different quarter
  set up countless piles; of the multitude of corpses
  some they bury in the earth, some they lift up and carry
  off to neighbour districts, and send them home to the city;
  the rest, a mighty mass of promiscuous carnage, they burn             15
  uncounted and unhonoured; and thereon the plains
  through their length and breadth gleam with the thickening
  rivalry of funeral fires. The third morrow had withdrawn
  the chill shadows from the sky: the mourners were
  levelling the piles of ashes and sweeping the mingled bones           20
  from the hearths, and heaping over them mounds of earth
  where the heat yet lingers. But within the walls, in the
  city of Latium’s wealthy king, the wailing is preëminent,
  and largest the portion of that long agony. Here are
  mothers and their sons’ wretched brides, here are sisters’            25
  bosoms racked with sorrow and love, and children orphaned
  of their parents, calling down curses on the terrible
  war and on Turnus’ bridal rites; he, he himself, they cry,
  should try the issue with arms and the cold steel, who
  claims for himself the Italian crown and the honours of               30
  sovereignty. Fell Drances casts his weight into the scale,
  and bears witness that Turnus alone is challenged by the
  foe, Turnus alone defied to combat. Against them many
  a judgment is ranged in various phrase on Turnus’ side,
  and the queen’s august name lends him its shadow; many                35
  an applauding voice upholds the warrior by help of the
  trophies he has won.

  Amid all this ferment, when the blaze of popular turmoil
  is at its height, see, as a crowning blow, comes back the
  sorrowing embassy with tidings from Diomede’s mighty
  town: the cost of all their labours has gained them nought:
  gifts and gold and earnest prayers are alike in vain: the
  Latians must look for arms elsewhere, or sue for peace                 5
  from the Trojan chief. King Latinus himself is crushed
  to earth by the weight of agony. The wrath of the gods,
  the fresh-made graves before his eyes, tell him plainly that
  Æneas is the man of destiny, borne on by heaven’s manifest
  will. So he summons by royal mandate a mighty                         10
  council, the chiefs of his nation, and gathers them within
  his lofty doors. They have mustered from all sides, and
  are streaming to the palace through the crowded streets.
  In the midst Latinus takes his seat, at once eldest in years
  and first in kingly state, with a brow that knows not joy.            15
  Hereupon he bids the envoys returned from the Ætolian
  town to report the answers they bear, and bids them repeat
  each point in order. Silence is proclaimed, and Venulus,
  obeying the mandate, begins to speak:

  “Townsmen, we have looked on Diomede and his Argive                   20
  encampment: the journey is overpast, and every chance
  surmounted, and we have touched the hand by which the
  realm of Ilion fell. We found him raising his city of Argyripa,
  the namesake of his ancestral people, in the land of
  Iapygian Garganus which his sword had won. Soon as                    25
  the presence was gained and liberty of speech accorded, we
  proffer our gifts, inform him of our name and country,
  who is our invader, and what cause has led us to Arpi.[275]
  He listened, and returned as follows with untroubled mien:
  ‘O children of fortune, subjects of Saturn’s reign, men of            30
  old Ausonia, what caprice of chance disturbs you in your
  repose, and bids you provoke a war ye know not? Know
  that all of us, whose steel profaned the sanctity of Ilion’s
  soil—I pass the hardships of war, drained to the dregs
  under those lofty ramparts, the brave hearts which that               35
  fatal Simois covers—yea, all of us the wide world over
  have paid the dues of our trespass in agonies unutterable,
  a company that might have wrung pity even from Priam:
  witness Minerva’s baleful star, and the crags of Eubœa,
  and Caphereus the avenger. Discharged from that warfare,
  wandering outcasts on diverse shores, Menelaus,
  Atreus’ son, is journeying in banishment even to the pillars
  of Proteus[276]; Ulysses has looked upon Ætna and her Cyclop           5
  brood. Need I tell of Neoptolemus’ portioned realms,
  of Idomeneus’ dismantled home, of Locrian settlers on
  a Libyan coast? Even the monarch[277] of Mycenæ, the
  leader of the great Grecian name, met death on his very
  threshold at the hand of his atrocious spouse; Asia fell              10
  before him, but the adulterer rose in her room. Cruel gods,
  that would not have me restored to the hearth-fires of my
  home, to see once more the wife of my longing and my own
  fair Calydon! Nay, even my flight is dogged by portents
  of dreadful view; my comrades torn from me are winging                15
  the air and haunting the stream as birds—alas that the
  followers of my fortunes should suffer so!—and making
  the rocks ring with the shrieks of their sorrow. Such was
  the fate I had to look for even from that day when with
  my frantic steel I assailed the flesh of immortals, and impiously     20
  wounded Venus’ sacred hand. Nay, nay, urge
  me no longer to a war like this. Since Pergamus fell, my
  fightings with Troy are ended; I have no thought, no joy,
  for the evils of the past. As for the gifts which you bring
  me from your home, carry them rather to Æneas. I tell                 25
  you, I have stood against the fury of his weapon, and joined
  hand to hand with him in battle; trust one who knows
  how strong is his onset as he rises on the shield, how
  fierce the whirlwind of his hurtling lance. Had Ida’s
  soil borne but two other so valiant, Dardanus would have              30
  marched in his turn to the gates of Inachus, and the tears
  of Greece would be flowing for a destiny reversed. All
  those years of lingering at the walls of stubborn Troy, it
  was Hector’s and Æneas’ hand that clogged the wheels of
  Grecian victory, and delayed her coming till the tenth                35
  campaign had begun. High in courage were both, high
  in the glory of martial prowess; but piety gave _him_ the
  preëminence. Join hand to hand in treaty, if so you may;
  but see that your arms bide not the shock of his.’ Thus,
  gracious sire, have you heard at once the king’s reply,
  and the judgment he passed on this our mighty war.”

  The envoys had scarcely finished when a diverse murmur
  runs along the quivering lips of the sons of Ausonia, as,              5
  when rapid streams are checked by rocks in their course,
  confused sounds rise from the imprisoned torrent, and
  neighbouring banks reëcho with the babbling of the waves.
  Soon as their passions were allayed, and their chafed countenances
  settled in calm, the monarch, first invoking                          10
  heaven, begins from his lofty throne:

  “To have taken your judgment, Latians, ere this on the
  state of the common-weal, would have been my pleasure,
  and our truer interest, rather than summon a council at a
  crisis like this, when the foe has sat down before our walls.         15
  A grievous war, my countrymen, we are waging with the
  seed of heaven, a nation unsubdued, whom no battles
  overtire, nor even in defeat can they be made to drop the
  sword. For any hope ye have cherished in the alliance of
  Ætolian arms, resign it forever. Each is his own hope;                20
  and how slender is this ye may see for yourselves. As
  to all beside, with what utter ruin it is stricken is palpable
  to the sight of your eyes, to the touch of your hands. I
  throw the blame on none: manly worth has done the utmost
  it could: all the sinews of the realm have been strained              25
  in the contest. Now then I will set forth what is the judgment
  of my wavering mind, and show you it in few words,
  if ye will lend me your attention. There is an ancient
  territory of mine bordering on the Tuscan river, extending
  lengthwise to the west, even beyond the Sicanian frontier;            30
  Auruncans and Rutulians are its tillers, subduing with the
  ploughshare its stubborn hills, and pasturing their flocks
  on the rugged slopes. Let this whole district, with the
  lofty mountain and its belt of pines, be our friendly gift
  to the Teucrians; let us name equal terms of alliance, and            35
  invite them to share our kingdom; let them settle here, if
  their passion is so strong, and build them a city. But if
  they have a mind to compass other lands and another
  nation, and are free to quit our soil, let us build twenty ships
  of Italian timber, or more if they have men to fill them:
  there is the wood ready felled by the river side; let themselves
  prescribe the size and the number; let us provide
  brass, and hands, and naval trim. Moreover, to convey                  5
  our proffers and ratify the league, I would have an embassy
  of a hundred Latians of the first rank sent with peaceful
  branches in their hands, carrying also presents, gold and
  ivory, each a talent’s weight, and the chair and striped
  robe that are badges of our royalty. Give free counsel                10
  and help to support a fainting commonwealth.”

  Then Drances, hostile as ever, whom the martial fame
  of Turnus was ever goading with the bitter stings of sidelong
  envy, rich, and prodigal of his riches, a doughty
  warrior with the tongue, but a feeble hand in the heat of             15
  battle, esteemed no mean adviser in debate, and powerful
  in the arts of faction: his mother’s noble blood made proud
  a lineage which on his father’s side was counted obscure:—he
  rises, and with words like these piles and heaps anger
  high:                                                                 20

  “A matter obscure to none, and needing no voice of ours
  to make it plain is this that you propound, gracious king.
  All own that they know what is the bearing of the state’s
  fortune; but their tongues can only mutter. Let him
  accord freedom of speech, and bate his angry blasts, to               25
  whose ill-omened leadership and inauspicious temper—aye,
  I _will_ speak, let him threaten me with duel and death
  as he may—we owe it that so many of our army’s stars
  have set before our eyes, and the whole city is sunk in
  mourning, while he is making his essay of the Trojan camp,            30
  with flight always in reserve, and scaring heaven with the
  din of his arms. One gift there is over and above that
  long catalogue which you would have us send and promise
  to the Dardans: add but this to them, most excellent
  sovereign, nor let any man’s violence prevent you from                35
  bestowing your daughter in the fulness of a father’s right
  on a noble son-in-law and a worthy alliance, and basing
  the peace we seek on a covenant which shall last forever.
  Nay, if the reign of terror is so absolute over our minds
  and hearts, let us go straight to him with our adjurations
  and ask for grace at his own hands—ask him to yield, and
  allow king and country to exercise their rights. Why
  fling your wretched countrymen again and again into                    5
  danger’s throat, you, the head and wellspring of the ills
  which Latium has to bear? There is no hope from war;
  peace we ask of you, one and all—yes, Turnus, peace,
  and the one surety that can make peace sacred. See,
  first of all I, whom you give out to be your enemy—and                10
  I care not though I be—come and throw myself at your
  feet. Pity those of your own kin, bring down your
  pride, and retire as beaten man should. Routed we are;
  we have looked on corpses enough, and have left leagues
  enough of land unpeopled. Or if glory stirs you, if you               15
  can call up into your breast the courage needed, if the
  dowry of a palace lies so near your heart, be bold for once,
  and advance with bosom manned to meet the foe. What!
  that Turnus may have the blessing of a queenly bride, are
  we, poor paltry lives, a herd unburied and unwept, to lie             20
  weltering on the plain? It is your turn: if you have any
  strength, any touch of the War-god of your sires, look him
  in the face who sends you his challenge.”

  At these words Turnus’ violence blazed out: heaving a
  groan, he vents from the bottom of his heart such utterance           25
  as this: “Copious, Drances, ever is your stream of
  speech in the hour when war is calling for hands; when the
  senate is summoned, you are first in the field. Yet we
  want not men to fill our court with talk, that big talk
  which you hurl from a safe vantage-ground, while the rampart          30
  keeps off the foe and the moat is not foaming with
  carnage. Go on pealing your eloquence, as your wont is:
  let Drances brand Turnus with cowardice, for it is Drances’
  hand that has piled those very heaps of Teucrian slaughter,
  and is planting the fields all over with its trophies. What           35
  is the power of glowing valour, experience may show
  you: enemies in sooth are not far to seek: they are standing
  all about the walls. Well, are we marching to the
  encounter? why so slow? will you never lodge the War-god
  better than in that windy tongue, those flying feet?
  What? beaten? I? who, foulest of slanderers, will justly
  brand me as beaten, that shall look on Tiber still swelling
  with Ilion’s best blood, on Evander’s whole house prostrate            5
  root and branch, and his Arcadians stripped naked of their
  armour? It was no beaten arm that Bitias and giant
  Pandarus found in me, or the thousand that I sent to
  death in a single day with my conquering hand, shut up
  within their walls, pent in by the rampart of the foe. No             10
  hope from war? Croak your bodings, madman, in the
  ears of the Dardan and of your own fortunes. Ay, go
  on without cease, throwing all into measureless panic,
  heightening the prowess of a nation twice conquered already,
  and dwarfing no less the arms of your king. See,                      15
  now the lords of the Myrmidons[278] are quaking at the martial
  deeds of Phrygia, Tydeus’ son, Thessalian Achilles,
  and the rest, and river Aufidus is in full retreat from the
  Hadrian sea. Or listen when the trickster in his villany
  feigns himself too weak to face a quarrel with me, and                20
  points his charges with the sting of terror. Never, I
  promise you, shall you lose such life as yours by hand of
  mine—be troubled no longer—let it dwell with you and
  retain its home in that congenial breast. Now, gracious
  sire, I return to you and the august matter that asks our             25
  counsel. If you have no hope beyond in aught our arms
  can do, if we are so wholly forlorn, destroyed root and
  branch by one reverse, and our star can never rise again,
  then pray we for peace and stretch craven hands in suppliance.
  Yet, oh, had we but one spark of the worth that                       30
  once was ours, that man I would esteem blest beyond
  others in his service and princely of soul, who, sooner than
  look on aught like this, has lain down in death and once
  for all bitten the dust. But if we have still store of power,
  and a harvest of youth yet unreaped, if there are cities              35
  and nations of Italy yet to come to our aid, if the Trojans
  as well as we have won their glory at much bloodshed’s
  cost—for they too have their deaths—the hurricane has
  swept over all alike—why do we merely falter on the
  threshold? why are we seized with shivering ere the
  trumpet blows? Many a man’s weal has been restored
  by time and the changeful struggles of shifting days: many
  a man has Fortune, fair and foul by turns, made her sport              5
  and then once more placed on a rock. Grant that we shall
  have no help from the Ætolian and his Arpi: but we shall
  from Messapus, and the blest Tolumnius, and all the
  leaders that those many nations have sent us; nor small
  shall be the glory which will wait on the flower of Latium            10
  and the Laurentine land. Ay, and we have Camilla,[279] of
  the noble Volscian race, with a band of horsemen at her
  back and troops gleaming with brass. If it is I alone that
  the Teucrians challenge to the fight, and such is your will,
  and my life is indeed the standing obstacle to the good of            15
  all, Victory has not heretofore fled with such loathing from
  my hands that I should refuse to make my venture for a
  hope so glorious. No, I will confront him boldly, though he
  should prove great as Achilles, and don harness like his, the
  work of Vulcan’s art. To you and to my royal father-in-law            20
  have I here devoted this my life, I, Turnus, second in
  valour to none that went before me. ‘For me alone Æneas
  calls.’ Vouchsafe that he may so call! nor let Drances
  in my stead, if the issue be Heaven’s vengeance, forfeit
  his life, or, if it be prowess and glory, bear that prize             25
  away!”

  So were these contending over matters of doubtful debate:
  Æneas was moving his army from camp to field.
  See, there runs a messenger from end to end of the palace
  amid wild confusion, and fills the town with a mighty                 30
  terror, how that in marching array the Trojans and the
  Tuscan force are sweeping down from Tiber’s stream
  over all the plain. In an instant the minds of the people
  are confounded, their bosoms shaken to the core, their
  passions goaded by no gentle stings. They clutch at arms,             35
  clamour for arms: arms are the young men’s cry: the
  weeping fathers moan and mutter. And now a mighty
  din, blended of discordant voices, soars up to the skies,
  even as when haply flocks of birds have settled down in a
  lofty grove, or on the fishy stream of Padusa hoarse swans
  make a noise along the babbling waters, “Ay, good citizens,”
  cries Turnus, seizing on his moment, “assemble
  your council and sit praising peace; they are rushing on               5
  the realm sword in hand.” Without further speech he
  dashed away and issued swiftly from the lofty gate.
  “You, Volusus,” he cries, “bid the Volscian squadrons arm,
  and lead out the Rutulians. You, Messapus, and you,
  Coras[280] and your brother, spread the horse in battle array         10
  over the breadth of the plain. Let some guard the inlets
  of the city and man the towers; the rest attack with me in
  the quarter for which I give the word.” At once there is
  a rush to the ramparts from every part of the city: king
  Latinus leaves the council and the high debate unfinished,            15
  and wildered with the unhappy time, adjourns to another
  day, ofttimes blaming himself that he welcomed not with
  open arms Æneas the Dardan, and bestowed on the city
  a husband for the daughter of Latium. Others dig
  trenches before the gates or shoulder stones and stakes.              20
  The hoarse trumpet gives its deathful warning for battle.
  The walls are hemmed by a motley ring of matrons and
  boys: the call of the last struggle rings in each one’s ear.
  Moreover the queen among a vast train of Latian mothers
  is drawn to the temple, even to Pallas’ tower on the height,          25
  with presents in her hand, and at her side the maid Lavinia,
  cause of this cruel woe, her beauteous eyes cast down.
  The matrons enter the temple and make it steam with
  incense, and pour from the august threshold their plaints
  of sorrow: “Lady of arms, mistress of the war, Tritonian[o]           30
  maiden, stretch forth thy hand and break the spear of the
  Phrygian freebooter, lay him prostrate on the ground,
  and leave him to grovel under our lofty portals.” Turnus
  with emulous fury arms himself for the battle. And now
  he has donned his ruddy corslet, and is bristling with                35
  brazen scales; his calves have been sheathed in gold, his
  temples yet bare, and his sword had been girded to his
  side, and he shines as he runs all golden from the steep
  of the citadel, bounding high with courage, and in hope
  already forestalls the foe: even as when a horse, bursting
  his tether, escapes from the stall, free at last and master
  of the open champaign,[281] either wends where the herds of
  mares pasture, or wont to bathe in the well-known river                5
  darts forth and neighs with head tossed on high in wanton
  frolic, while his mane plays loosely about neck and shoulders.
  His path Camilla crosses, a Volscian army at her
  back, and dismounts from her horse at the gate with
  queenly gesture; the whole band follow her lead, quit                 10
  their horses, and alight to earth, while she bespeaks him
  thus: “Turnus, if the brave may feel faith in themselves,
  I promise boldly to confront the cavalry of Troy and
  singly ride to meet the Tyrrhene horse. Let me essay
  the first hazard of the combat; do you on foot remain by              15
  the walls and be the city’s guard.” Turnus replies, gazing
  steadfastly on the dreadful maid: “O maiden, glory
  of Italy, what thanks shall I strive to speak or render?
  but seeing that soul of yours soars above all, partake the
  toil with me. Æneas, as rumour and missioned spies tell               20
  me for truth, has cunningly sent on his light-armed cavalry
  to scour the plain, while he, surmounting the lonely
  steeps of the hill, is marching townward. I meditate a
  stratagem of war in that woodland gorge, to beset the
  narrow thoroughfare with an armed band. Do you in                     25
  battle array receive the Tuscan horse. With you will
  be keen Messapus, and the Latian cavalry, and Tiburtus’
  troop: take your share of a general’s charge.” This said,
  he exhorts Messapus and the federate leaders with like
  words to the fight, and advances to meet the enemy.                   30
  A glen there is, narrow and winding, suited for ambush
  and stratagems of arms, pent in on both sides by a mountain-wall
  black with dense foliage; a scant pathway leads
  to it, with straitened gorge and jealous inlet. Above it
  on the mountain’s watch-tower height lies a concealed                 35
  table-land, a post of sheltered privacy, whether one be
  minded to face the battle right and left, or, standing on
  the slope, to roll down enormous stones. Hither repairs
  the warrior along the well-known road: he has occupied
  the spot and sat him down in the treacherous forest.

  Meantime, in the mansions above Latona’s daughter
  was addressing Opis the swift, a maiden comrade of her
  sacred train, and was uttering these words in tones of                 5
  sorrow: “Ah, maiden, Camilla is on her way to the ruthless
  war; in vain she girds herself with the arms of our
  sisterhood, dear to me that she is beyond all beside: for
  no new tenderness this that has come on Diana, nor sudden
  the spell wherewith it stirs her heart. When Metabus,                 10
  exiled for the hate which tyranny genders, was parting
  from Privernum, his ancient city, as he fled from the heart
  of the combat, he bore away his infant child to share his
  banishment, and varying Casmilla, her mother’s name,
  called her Camilla. The father, carrying her in his bosom,            15
  was making for the long mountain slopes of the solitary
  woods, while bitter javelins were showering all around him,
  and the Volscians with circling soldiery hovering about:
  when lo! intercepting his flight was Amasenus, brimming
  and foaming over its banks, so vast a deluge of rain had              20
  burst from the clouds. Preparing to plunge in, he is
  checked by tenderness for his child, and fears for the precious
  load. At last, as he pondered over every course,
  he hit suddenly on this resolve. There was a huge weapon,
  which he chanced to be carrying in his stalwart hand                  25
  as warriors use, sturdy with knots and seasoned timber:
  to it he fastens his daughter, enclosed in the cork-tree’s
  forest bark, and binds her neatly round the middle
  of the shaft; then, poising it in a giant’s grasp, he thus
  exclaims to heaven: ‘Gracious lady, dweller in the woods,             30
  Latona’s maiden daughter, I vow to thy service this my
  child: thine are the first weapons that she wields as she
  flies from the foe through air to thy protection. Receive,
  I conjure thee, as thine own her whom I now entrust to the
  uncertain gale.’ He said, and, drawing back his arm,                  35
  hurled the javelin: loud roared the waves, while over the
  furious stream fled poor Camilla on the hurtling dart.
  But Metabus, pressed closer and closer by the numerous
  band, leaps into the river, and in triumph plucks from the
  grassy bank his offering to Trivia, the javelin and the maid.
  No cities opened to him house or stronghold, for his wild
  nature had never brooked submission: among the shepherds’
  lonely mountains he passed his days. There in the                      5
  woods, among beasts’ savage lairs, he reared his daughter
  on milk from the breast of an untamed mare, squeezing
  the udder into her tender lips. And soon as the child
  first stood on her feet, he armed her hands with a pointed
  javelin, and hung from her baby shoulder a quiver and a               10
  bow. For the golden brooch in her hair, for the long
  sweeping mantle, there hang from her head adown her
  back a tiger’s spoils. Even then she launched with tiny
  hand her childish missiles, swung round her head the sling’s
  well-turned thong, and brought down a crane from Strymon              15
  or a snow-white swan. Many a mother in Tyrrhene
  town has wooed her for her son in vain: with no thought
  but for Dian, she cherishes in unsullied purity her love for
  the hunter’s and the maiden’s life. Would she had never
  been pressed for warfare like this, essaying to strike a blow         20
  at the Teucrians: so had she still been my darling and a
  sister of my train. But come, since cruel destiny is darkening
  round her, glide down, fair nymph, from the sky,
  and repair to the Latian frontier, where now in an evil hour
  the tearful battle is joining. Take these arms, and draw              25
  from the quiver an avenging shaft: therewith let the foe,
  whoever he be, Trojan or Italian, that shall profane with
  the stroke of death that sacred person, make to me in like
  manner the atonement of his blood. Afterwards in the
  hollow of a cloud I will bear off the body of my lost favourite       30
  undespoiled of its arms, and lay her down in her
  own land.” Thus she: and Opis hurtled downward through
  the buoyant air, a black whirlwind enswathing her form.

  But the Trojan band meanwhile is nearing the walls
  with the Etruscan chiefs and the whole array of cavalry,              35
  marshalled into companies. Steeds are prancing and
  neighing the whole champaign over, and chafing against
  the drawn bridle as they face hither and thither: the field,
  all iron, bristles far and wide with spears, and the plains
  are ablaze with arms reared on high. Likewise Messapus
  on the other side and the swift-paced Latians, and Coras
  and his brother, and maid Camilla’s force appear in the
  plain against them, couching the lance in their backdrawn              5
  hands and brandishing the javelin: and the onset of warriors
  and the neighing of steeds begin to wax hot. And
  now each army had halted within a spear-throw of the
  other: with a sudden shout they dash forward, and put
  spurs to their fiery steeds: missiles are showered from all           10
  sides in a moment, thick as snow-flakes, and heaven is
  curtained with the shade. Instantly Tyrrhenus and fierce
  Aconteus charge each other spear in hand, and foremost
  of all crash together with sound as of thunder, so that the
  chest of either steed is burst against his fellow’s; Aconteus,        15
  flung off like the levinbolt or a stone hurled from an engine,
  tumbles headlong in the distance, and scatters his life in
  air. At once the line of battle is broken, and the Latians,
  turned to flight, sling their shields behind them and set
  their horses’ heads cityward. The Trojans give them                   20
  chase: Asilas in the van leads their bands. And now
  they were nearing the gates, when the Latians in turn set
  up a shout, and turn their chargers’ limber necks; the
  others fly, and retreat far away at full speed. As when
  the sea, advancing with its tide that ebbs and flows, one             25
  while sweeps towards the land, deluges the rocks with a
  shower of spray, and sprinkles the sandy margin with the
  contents of its bosom, one while flees in hasty retreat,
  dragging back into the gulf the recaptured stones, and
  with ebbing waters leaves the shore. Twice the Tuscans                30
  drove the Rutulians in rout to their walls; twice, repulsed,
  they look behind as they sling their shields backward.
  But when in the shock of a third encounter the entire
  armies grapple each other, and man has singled out man,
  then in truth upsoar the groans of the dying, and arms and            35
  bodies and death-stricken horses blended with human
  carnage welter in pools of gore: and a savage combat is
  aroused. Orsilochus hurls a spear at Remulus’ horse—for
  the rider he feared to encounter—and leaves the steel
  lodged under the ear. Maddened by the blow, the beast
  rears erect, and, uplifting its breast, flings its legs on high
  in the uncontrolled agony of the wound: Remulus unseated
  rolls on earth, Catillus dismounts Iollas, and likewise                5
  Herminius, giant in courage, and giant too in stature
  and girth: his bare head streams with yellow locks, and
  his shoulders also are bare: wounds have no terrors for
  him, so vast the surface he offers to the weapon. Through
  his broad shoulders comes the quivering spear, and bows               10
  the impaled hero double with anguish. Black streams
  of gore gush on all sides: the combatants spread slaughter
  with the steel, and rush on glorious death through a storm
  of wounds.

  But Camilla, with a quiver at her back, and one breast                15
  put forth for the combat, leaps for joy like an Amazon in
  the midst of carnage: now she scatters thick volleys of
  quivering javelins, now her arm whirls unwearied the
  massy two-edged axe: while from her shoulder sounds the
  golden bow, the artillery of Dian. Nay, if ever she be                20
  beaten back and retreating rearward, she turns her bow
  and aims shafts in her flight. Around her are her chosen
  comrades, maid Larina, and Tulla, and Tarpeia, wielding
  the brazen-helved hatchet, daughters of Italy, whom
  glorious Camilla herself chose to be her joy and pride, able          25
  to deal alike with peace and war: even as the Amazons
  of Thrace when they thunder over the streams of Thermōdon
  and battle with her blazoned arms, encompassing
  Hippolyte, or when Penthesilea, the War-god’s darling,
  is careering to and fro in her chariot, and the woman                 30
  army, amid a hubbub of shrill cries, are leaping in ecstasy
  and shaking their moony shields. Who first, who last,
  fierce maiden, is unhorsed by your dart? How many stalwart
  bodies lay you low in death? The first was Eunēus,
  Clytius’ son, whose unguarded breast as he stood fronting             35
  her she pierces with her long pine-wood spear. Down he
  goes, disgorging streams of blood, closes his teeth on the
  gory soil, and dying writhes upon his wound. Then
  Liris, and Pagasus on his body: while that, flung from
  his stabbed charger, is gathering up the reins, and this is
  coming to the rescue and stretching his unarmed hand to
  his falling comrade, they are overthrown in one headlong
  ruin. To these she adds Amastrus, son of Hippotas:                     5
  then, pressing on the rout, pursues with her spear-throw
  Tereus, and Harpalycus, and Demophoon, and Chromis:
  for every dart she launched from her maiden hand there
  fell a Phrygian warrior. In the distance rides Ornytus
  accoutred strangely in hunter fashion on an Iapygian                  10
  steed: a hide stripped from a bullock swathes his broad
  shoulders in the combat, his head is sheltered by a wolf’s
  huge grinning mouth and jaws with the white teeth projecting,
  and a rustic pike arms his hand: he goes whirling
  through the ranks, his whole head overtopping them.                   15
  Him she catches, an easy task when the hosts are entangled
  in rout, pierces him through, and thus bespeaks the
  fallen in the fierceness of her spirit: “Tuscan, you thought
  yourself still chasing beasts in the forest, but the day is
  come which shall refute the vaunts of your nation by a                20
  woman’s weapons. Yet no slight glory shall you carry
  down to your fathers’ shades, that you have fallen by the
  dart of Camilla.” Next follow Orsilochus and Butes, two
  of the hugest frames of Troy: Butes she speared behind
  ’twixt corslet and helm, where the sitter’s neck is seen              25
  gleaming, and the shield is hanging from the left arm:
  Orsilochus, as she pretends to fly and wheels round in a
  mighty ring, she baffles by ever circling inwards, and chases
  him that chases her: at last, rising to the stroke, she brings
  down on the wretch again and again, spite of all his prayers,         30
  her massy battle-axe that rives armour and bone: the
  brain spouts over the face through the ghastly wound.
  Now there stumbles upon her, and pauses in terror at the
  sudden apparition, the warrior son of Aunus, dweller on
  the Apennine, not the meanest of Liguria’s children while             35
  Fate prospered his trickery. He, when he sees no speed
  of flight can escape the combat, or avoid the onset of the
  dreadful queen, essaying to gain his base end by policy
  and stratagem, thus begins: “What great glory is it
  after all, if you, a woman, trust your mettled steed? Put
  away the chance of flight, and dare to meet me hand to
  hand on equal ground, and gird you for battle on foot:
  soon shall you see which of us gains honour from this                  5
  windy boasting.” He said: but she, all on fire, stung with
  bitter grief, gives her horse to her comrade, and stands
  ready to meet him in arms, fearless though on foot, with
  naked sword and maiden shield. But the youth, deeming
  that his wiles had sped, darts away without more ado,                 10
  and turning his bridle, rides off in flight, and wearies his
  beast with the strokes of his iron heel. “False Ligurian,
  vainly puffed up with overweening fancies, to no end have
  you tried your sire’s slippery craft, nor shall your lying
  bring you safe to Aunus the liar.” So cries the maiden,               15
  and with lightning-like pace crosses at full speed the horse’s
  path, and seizing the reins, fronts and encounters him,
  and gluts her vengeance with his hated blood: easily as a
  hawk, the bird of augury, darting from a lofty rock, comes
  up with a dove high in the clouds, holds her in his gripe,            20
  and with crooked talons tears out her heart, while gore and
  plucked feathers come tumbling from the sky.

  But no blind spectator of the scene is sitting throned on
  high Olympus, even the father of men and gods. The sire
  urges Tarchon the Tuscan to the ruthless fray, and goads              25
  him to wrath by no gentle stings. So among heaps of
  carnage and yielding bands Tarchon goes riding, and
  rouses the cavalry with words of diverse purport, calling
  each by his name, and gives the beaten new strength for
  battle. “What terror, O ye Tuscan hearts that will not                30
  feel, that will still be sluggish, what strange cowardice has
  come on you? To what end is this steel, these idle weapons
  our right hands bear? But slow ye are not to hear the
  call of love, or when the wry-necked fife gives the word for
  the Bacchic dance: ay, there is your passion, there your              35
  delight, till the favouring seer announce the sacrificial
  feast, and the fat victim invite you to the tall trees of the
  grove.” So saying, he spurs his steed into the midst,
  ready for the death he brings to others, and charges in
  fury on Venulus, snatches the foe from his horse, folds his
  arms round him, and carries him on his saddle before him
  with wild and violent speed. Upsoars a shout to heaven,
  and every Latian eye is turned to the scene. Over the                  5
  plain like lightning flies Tarchon, bearing the warrior
  and his arms. Then from the top of the chiefs own spear
  he breaks off the point, and feels for an unguarded part
  where to plant the deadly blow: the foe, struggling, keeps
  off Tarchon’s hand from his throat, and repels force with             10
  force. As when the golden eagle soaring on high carries
  a serpent he has caught, trussing it in his claws, and adhering
  with his taloned gripe; the wounded reptile writhes
  its spiral coils, stiffens with erected scales, and hisses from
  its mouth, surging and swelling; the eagle, undismayed,               15
  plies it despite its struggles with his hooked beak, while
  his pinions beat the air: even thus Tarchon carries his
  prize in triumph from the bands of Tibur’s folk. Following
  their chief’s auspicious lead, the sons of Mæonia charge
  the foe. Then Arruns, the man of fate, compasses swift                20
  Camilla about, dart in hand, with many a forestalling wile,
  and tries what chance may be readiest. Wherever the
  fiery maid dashes into the midst of the battle, Arruns
  threads his way after her, and scans her steps in silence:
  wherever she returns in triumph, escaping safely from the             25
  foe, that way the youth turns his swift and stealthy rein;
  now makes proof of this approach, now of that, and traverses
  the whole circle, and shakes with relentless malice
  his inevitable lance. It chanced that one Chloreus, sacred
  to Cybele and once her priest, was shining conspicuous                30
  from afar in Phrygian armour, urging on a foaming charger,
  whose covering was a skin adorned with golden clasp and
  brazen scales set plume-wise. He, in the blaze of foreign
  purple, was launching Gortynian shafts from a Lycian bow;
  golden was the bow that rang from his shoulder, golden the            35
  helm on his sacred head; his saffron scarf with its rustling
  gauzy folds was gathered up by a golden brooch, and his
  tunic and his hose decked with barbaric broidery. He it
  was that the maiden, eager, it may be, to fasten on the
  temple-gate the arms of Troy, or to flaunt herself in the
  golden spoil, singled out from all the battle, and was following
  with a hunter’s blind devotion, raging recklessly
  through the ranks, enkindled with a woman’s love for prey              5
  and plunder; when at length, seizing his opportunity,
  Arruns awakes his dart from its ambush, and thus prays
  aloud to heaven: “Greatest of gods, Apollo, guardian of
  divine Soracte, whom we are the first to worship, for whom
  the pine-tree glow is fed by heaps of wood, while ourselves,          10
  thy votaries, strong in our piety, walk through the flame
  over living embers, grant, all-powerful sire, that my arms
  may wipe this scandal away. I seek no plunder or spoil,
  no trophy for the conquest of a maid; the rest of my deeds
  shall secure my fame; let but this terrible fiend fall vanquished     15
  by wound of mine, I will return to the cities of my
  fathers an unhonoured man.” Phœbus heard, and vouchsafed
  in his heart that half the vow should speed, while
  half he scattered among the flying breezes: to strike and
  slay Camilla with sudden death-wound, so much he grants               20
  the suppliant: to return and meet the eyes of his noble
  fatherland, this he allows not; the gusts of air turned the
  accents into wind. So when the spear, launched from the
  hand, was heard along the sky, each keen Volscian mind
  flew to one centre, every Volscian eye was bent on the                25
  queen. She alone had no thought for wind or sound or
  weapon sweeping down from heaven, till the spear had
  made its passage and lodged beneath her protruded breast,
  and deeply driven, drank her maiden blood. Her comrades
  run together in alarm, and support their falling mistress.            30
  Arruns, more terrified than all, flies away, half joy,
  half fear, nor puts further confidence in his lance, nor dares
  to meet the darts of the maiden. Even as the caitiff
  wolf, ere the weapons of vengeance can follow him, has
  fled at once to the pathless privacy of the mountain steep,           35
  on slaying a shepherd or mighty bullock, conscious of his
  daring deed, and drawing back his quivering tail with
  lithe action has clapped it to his belly and made for the
  woods, in like manner Arruns all wildered has stolen away
  from sight, and contented to escape has plunged into the
  thick of the battle. With dying hand the maiden pulls
  at the spear; but the steely point stands lodged among the
  bones at the ribs in the deep wound it made. Drained of                5
  blood, she sinks to earth; sink, too, her death-chilled eyes;
  her once bright bloom has left her face. Then at her last
  gasp she accosts Acca, one of her maiden train, who beyond
  the rest was Camilla’s friend and shared her thoughts,
  and speaks on this wise; “Thus far, sister Acca, has                  10
  strength been given me: now the cruel wound overcomes
  me; and all around me grows dim and dark. Haste and
  carry Turnus my dying charge, to take my place in the
  battle and keep off the Trojans from the town. And now
  farewell.” As she spoke she dropped the bridle, swimming              15
  down to earth with no willing act. Then as the death-chill
  grows she gradually discumbers herself of the entire weight
  of the body, droops her unstrung neck and her head on
  which fate has seized, quitting too her armour, and her
  soul, resenting its lot, flies groaningly to the shades. Then         20
  indeed, rising unmeasured, the uproar strikes the golden
  stars: Camilla overthrown, the fight waxes fiercer: on
  they rush thickening, at once the whole force of the Teucrians,
  and the Tyrrhene leaders, and Evander’s Arcad
  cavalry.                                                              25

  But Trivia’s sentinel Opis has long been seated high on
  the mountain top, an undismayed spectator of the combat.
  And when far off, deep among the din of raging
  warriors, she spied Camilla shent by ruthless death, she
  groaned, and fetched these words from the bottom of her               30
  breast: “Poor maiden! too, too cruel the penalty you
  have paid for provoking the Teucrians to battle. Nought
  has it bestead you at your need to have served Dian in the
  forest, and carried on your shoulder the shafts of our sisterhood.
  Yet not unhonoured has your queen left you even                       35
  here in death’s extremity; nor shall this your end be without
  its glory in the world, nor yourself bear the ignominy
  of the unrevenged; for he, whoever he be, whose wound
  has profaned your person, shall atone it by the death he
  has earned.” Under the lofty mountain’s shade there
  stood a vast mound of earth, the tomb of Dercennus, an
  old Laurentine king, shrouded with dark ilex: here the
  beauteous goddess first alights with a rapid bound, and                5
  spies out Arruns from the barrow’s height. Soon as she
  saw him gleaming in his armour, and swelling with vanity,
  “Why stray from the path?” cries she; “turn your feet
  hitherward! come hither to your death, and receive
  Camilla’s guerdon! Alack! and are you too to be slain                 10
  by the shafts of Dian?” She said, and with the skill of
  Thracian maiden drew a swift arrow from her gilded quiver,
  bent the bow with deadly aim, and drew it far apart, till
  the arching ends met together, and with her two hands
  she touched, the barb of steel with her left, her breast with         15
  her right and the bowstring. Forthwith the hurtling of
  the shaft and the rush of the breeze reached Arruns’ ear
  at the moment the steel lodged in his body. Him gasping
  and groaning his last his comrades leave unthinking in the
  unmarked dust of the plain: Opis spreads her wings, and               20
  is borne to skyey Olympus.

  First flies, its mistress lost, Camilla’s light-armed company;
  fly the Rutules in rout, flies keen Atinas; leaders
  in disarray and troops in devastation make for shelter,
  turn round, and gallop to the walls. None can sustain                 25
  in combat the Teucrians’ deadly onset or resist the stream;
  they throw their unstrung bows on their unnerved
  shoulders, and the hoof of four-foot steeds shakes the
  crumbling plain. On rolls to the ramparts a cloud of dust,
  thick and murky; and the matrons from their sentry-posts,             30
  smiting on their breasts, raise a shriek as women
  wont to the stars of heaven. Who first pour at speed
  through the open gates are whelmed by a multitude of
  foemen that blends its crowd with theirs; they scape not
  the agony of death, but on the very threshold, with their             35
  native walls around them, in the sanctuary of home, they
  breathe away their lives. Some close the gates: they dare
  not give ingress to their friends nor take them within the
  walls, implore as they may: and a piteous carnage ensues,
  these guarding the approach sword in hand, those rushing
  on the sword’s point. Some, borne on by the deluge,
  stream headlong into the moat; some in blind agony,
  spurring their horses, charge as with battering-rams the               5
  portals and their stubborn barriers. Nay, the very matrons
  on the walls in the intensity of the struggle, prompted
  by true patriot spirit at sight of Camilla, fling darts from
  their quivering hands, and make hard oak-stakes and
  seared truncheons do the work of steel, hot and headlong,             10
  and fain would be the first to die for their city.

  Meantime the cruel news floods Turnus’ ears in his forest-ambush,
  as Acca tells the warrior her tale of mighty terror:
  the Volscian ranks destroyed, Camilla slain, the enemy
  coming on like a torrent, sweeping all before their victorious        15
  onslaught, the alarm already wafted to the walls.
  He, all on fire (for even such is Jove’s stern requirement),
  quits his post on the hills, leaves the impregnable forest.
  Scarce had he passed from their sight and occupied the
  plain, when father Æneas, entering the unguarded pass,                20
  scales the hill-top, and issues through the shadowy wood.
  So the two rivals march cityward at full speed, each with
  all his army, nor long is the intervening distance; at the
  same moment Æneas looked far over the plains all smoking
  with dust, and saw the host of Laurentum, and Turnus was              25
  aware of fell Æneas in battle array, and heard the onward
  tramp of feet and the neighing of steeds. Instantly they
  were for closing in fight and throwing for the stake of combat;
  but the time was come for reddening Phœbus to bathe
  his wearied team in the Hiberian flood, and bring back                30
  night on the steps of retreating day. So they encamp
  before the city, and make their ramparts strong.




BOOK XII


  When Turnus sees that the War-god’s enmity has
  broken the spirit of Latium, that men are beginning to
  claim his promise, and make him the mark of their eyes,
  he bursts at once into fury unappeasable, and swells his
  pride to the height. As in Punic land, when the hunters                5
  have wounded him deep in the breast, the lion at last rouses
  himself to fight, tosses with fierce joy his mane from his
  neck, snaps fearlessly the brigand’s spear in the wound,
  and roars from his gory mouth: even so, Turnus once
  kindled, his vehemence grows each moment. Then he                     10
  addresses the king, and dashes hotly into speech: “Turnus
  stops not the way: Æneas and his cowards have no plea
  for retracting their challenge or disowning their plighted
  word; I meet the combat; bring the sacred things, good
  father, and solemnize the truce. Either will I with my own            15
  right hand send the Dardan down to Tartarus, the runaway
  from Asia—let the Latians sit by and see—and
  with my single weapon refute the slander of a nation; or
  let the vanquished own their master and Lavinia be the
  conqueror’s bride.”                                                   20

  With calm dignity of soul the king makes answer:
  “Gallant youth, the greater your impetuous valour, the
  more watchful must needs be my foresight, the more
  anxious my scrutiny of all that may happen. You have
  your father Daunus’ kingdom, you have many a town                     25
  won by your own sword: I that speak have gold and a
  heart to give it; in Latium and Laurentum’s land are other
  unwedded maidens, of no unworthy lineage. Suffer me
  without disguise to give voice to these unwelcome sayings,
  and take home what I speak further: I was forbidden by                30
  Fate to give my daughter to any of her early suitors;
  so sang gods and men alike. Conquered by my love for
  you, conquered by the ties of kindred and the sorrow of
  my weeping queen, I set all pledges at naught, I snatched
  the bride from her plighted husband. I drew the unhallowed             5
  sword. From that fatal day you see what troubles,
  what wars are let loose upon me; you know the weight of
  the sufferings which _you_ are the first to feel. Twice vanquished
  in a mighty conflict, we scarce protect by our bulwarks
  the hopes of Italy: Tiber’s waters are yet steaming                   10
  with our blood, and the spacious plains are whitened by
  our bones. Whither am I drifting again and again?
  what madness turns my brain? If on the death of Turnus
  I am ready to welcome these new allies, why should I not
  end the strife while he lives and is safe? What will our              15
  Rutulian kinsmen say, what the rest of Italy, if—may
  Fortune forefend the omen!—I give you up to death,
  you, a suitor for my alliance, for my daughter’s hand?
  Think of the uncertainties of war; have pity on your aged
  sire, now biding forlornly far away in his Ardean home!”              20

  These words abate not Turnus’ vehemence a whit: it
  starts up fiercer, more virulent for the healing hand.
  Soon as he can find utterance, he thus begins: “The care
  you take for my sake, best of fathers, lay down for my
  sake, I beg, and suffer me to pledge my life for my honour.           25
  My hand, too, can scatter darts and fling steel with no
  feeble force; my blows, too, fetch blood. He will not have
  his goddess-mother within call, to hide her craven son in an
  unmanly cloud, and conceal herself by help of treacherous
  shadows.”                                                             30

  But the queen, appalled by the new hazard of the combat,
  was all in tears, clinging to her fiery son-in-law with
  the convulsive grasp of death: “Turnus, by these my
  tears, by any regard you cherish for Amata—you are
  now our only hope, our only solace in our forlorn old age—the         35
  honour and power of the king are in your hands;
  on you, its one pillar, the whole house leans. I ask but
  this—forbear to cross swords with the Teucrians. Whatever
  chance waits on you in this unhappy combat, waits
  on me, too, my Turnus; along with you I shall leave the
  hated light, nor see in Æneas my son-in-law and my
  conqueror.”

  As Lavinia heard her mother’s voice, her glowing cheeks                5
  were bathed in tears; a deep blush kindled a fire, and shot
  over her flushing face. As when a man has stained Indian
  ivory with blood-red purple, or like a bed of lilies and roses
  mixed: such hues were seen on the maiden’s countenance.
  He, bewildered with passion, fixes his eyes upon her: the             10
  sight makes him burn the more for battle, and thus he
  addresses Amata in brief: “Let me not have tears nor
  aught so ominous, dear mother, as my escort to the iron
  battle; Turnus is not free to postpone the call of death.
  Go, Idmon, and bear the Phrygian despot a message that                15
  will like him not: Soon as the goddess of to-morrow’s
  dawn shall fire the sky with the glow of her chariot, let
  him not spur the Teucrians against the Rutulians; let
  Teucrian and Rutulian sheath their swords, while we
  twain with our own life-blood decide the war. Let                     20
  Lavinia’s hand be sought and won in yonder field.”

  So he spoke, and rushed back within doors: he calls for
  his steeds, and joys to look on them snorting and neighing—the
  steeds which Orithyia gave as a present to Pilumnus,
  to surpass the snows in whiteness, the winds in speed.                25
  Round them stand the bustling charioteers, patting their
  chests with hollow palms and combing their maned necks.
  Next he throws round his shoulders his hauberk, stiff
  with scales of gold and dazzling orichalc,[282] and adjusts to
  his wear the sword, the shield, and the cones of the crimson          30
  crest—that sword the Fire-god’s own hand had made for
  his father Daunus, and tempered it glowing in the Stygian
  wave. Lastly, the spear which was standing in the
  palace-hall, propped by a mighty column, the spoil of
  Auruncan Actor, he seizes forcefully, sturdy as it is,                35
  and shakes till it quivers, crying aloud: “Now, my good
  spear, that hast never failed my call, now is the time;
  once wast thou swayed by giant Actor, now by Turnus:
  grant that I may lay low the emasculate Phrygian, strip
  and rend his hauberk by strength of hand, and soil in the
  dust those ringlets curled with hot iron and moist with
  myrrh.” So he rages, fury-driven: sparks flash from the
  furnace of his countenance, lightnings dart from his                   5
  fiery eyes; as when a bull in view of a fight raises fearful
  bellowing, and calls up rage into his horns by butting against
  a tree’s trunk, challenges the wind with his blows, and
  spurns the flying sand in prelude for the fray.

  With equal fierceness Æneas, clad in his mother’s                     10
  armour, sharpens valour’s edge, and lashes his heart with
  wrath, joying that proffered truce should end the war.
  Then he calms his comrades’ fear and the grief of Iulus,
  talking of destiny, and sends envoys with an answer to the
  Latian king, to name the conditions of peace.                         15

  Scarce had the next morrow begun to sprinkle the
  mountain-tops with light, at the time when the sun’s
  steeds first come up from the deep and breathe flakes of
  radiance from their upturned nostrils, when Rutulians
  and Teucrians were at work, measuring out lists for combat            20
  under the ramparts of the mighty town, with hearths
  in the midst, and altars of turf for their common gods.
  Others were carrying fire and spring water, begirt with
  aprons, vervain[283] wreaths on their brows. Forth moves
  the Ausonian army, bands with lifted javelins issuing                 25
  from the crowded gates. From yonder quarters pours the
  Trojan and Tuscan force, with the arms of their several
  countries, harnessed as if summoned by the War-god’s
  bloody fray. In the midst of either squadrons the generals
  flash along, glorious in gold and purple, Mnestheus,                  30
  Assaracus’ seed, and Asilas the brave, and Messapus,
  tamer of horses, the progeny of Neptune. At a given
  signal each army retreats within its confines; spears are
  fixed in the ground, and bucklers rested at ease. Matrons
  in yearning eagerness, and unarmed masses, and tottering              35
  old men, fill turret and roof, or stand by the lofty portals.

  But Juno, from the top of the mount now styled Alban—in
  those days it had no name, nor glory, nor honour—was
  looking in prospect on the plain, the two armies,
  Trojan and Laurentine, and the Latian town. At once
  she addressed Turnus’ sister, a goddess herself, who presides
  over the pool and the brawling stream—such dignity
  Jove, the king of heaven, solemnly made hers in return for             5
  violated maidenhood: “Sweet Nymph, glory of the rivers,
  favourite of my heart, you know how I have preferred you
  to all Latium’s daughters who have climbed the odious bed
  of our great Master and have gladly given you a seat in the
  sky; and now, Juturna, learn from me your sorrow, for                 10
  which I am not to blame. So long as Fortune seemed
  favourable and Fate allowed Latium to prosper, I spread
  my shield over Turnus and these your walls: now I see
  the youth engaged with a destiny mightier than his own,
  and the day of doom and the power of the enemy are at                 15
  hand. I cannot look on the combat, nor on the league
  that ushers it in. If you have the nerve to dare aught for
  your brother, go on; it is a sister’s part: perhaps the downtrodden
  have a better lot in store.” Ere she had well
  ended Juturna’s tears sprang forth, and thrice and again              20
  her hand smote on her lovely breast. “No time for tears,”
  cries Saturn’s daughter: “quick, and if any way there be,
  snatch your brother from death: or at least revive the war—and
  mar the treaty while yet on their lips. Remember,
  I warrant the attempt.” With such advice she left her                 25
  wavering in purpose and staggering under the cruel blow.

  Meantime the monarchs appear, the stately form of the
  Latian king riding in a four-horse car, his brows gleaming
  with a circle of twelve gilded rays, the cognizance of the Sun
  his grandsire: Turnus is drawn by a snow-white pair, two              30
  spears with broad iron points quivering in his hands. Then
  comes father Æneas, the parent stock of the Roman tree,
  blazing with his starry shield and celestial armour, and at
  his side Ascanius, the second hope of mighty Rome, both
  issuing from their camp: while a priest in stainless robe             35
  has brought the young of a bristly boar and an unclipped
  sheep of two years old, and placed the victims by the
  blazing altar. They, turning their eyes to the rising sun,
  offer the salted barley, score with the steel the brows of the
  cattle, and make libations from their chargers. Then
  thus prays good Æneas, his sword drawn in his hand:
  “Let the Sun above and the Earth beneath witness my invocation,        5
  this very Earth for which I have had the heart
  to endure so much, and the almighty Sire, and thou, his
  goddess-bride, Saturn’s daughter, now—may I hope it?—now
  at last made gracious: thou, too, glorious Mars,
  whose princely nod controls every battle: Springs also
  and Rivers I invoke, all the majesty of the sky, all the              10
  deities of the purple deep: if chance award the victory
  to Turnus the Ausonian, reason claims that the vanquished
  shall retire to Evander’s town: Iulus shall quit the land,
  nor shall Æneas’ children in after-days draw the sword again,
  or threaten this realm with war. But should conquest                  15
  vouchsafe to us the smiles of the battle-field, as I rather
  deem, and pray that Heaven will rather grant, I will not bid
  the Italians be subject to Troy, nor ask I the crown for
  myself: no, let the two great nations, one unconquered as
  the other, join on equal terms in an everlasting federation.          20
  The gods and their ritual shall be my gift: let my good
  father-in-law still wield the sword and the lawful rights of
  empire: the Teucrians shall raise me a city, and Lavinia
  shall give it her name.” Thus first Æneas: the Latian
  king follows, with eyes lifted to heaven, and right hand              25
  stretched to the stars: “I swear as you swore, Æneas,
  by Land and Ocean and Lights above, Latona’s twofold
  offspring, and two-faced Janus, the potency of the gods
  below and the shrine of relentless Pluto: and let the
  Father too give ear, who ratifies covenants with thunder.             30
  My hand is on the altars; I adjure the fires and powers
  that part us: so far as rests with Italy, no length of time
  shall break this bond of friendship, let things issue as they
  may: no violence shall make me swerve in will, not though
  deluge and chaos come again, ruining the earth into the               35
  water and crushing down heaven into Tartarus: even
  as this sceptre”—for a sceptre chanced to be in his hand—“shall
  never more burgeon with light foliage into branch
  or shade, now that once cut down in the woods it is orphaned
  of that which gave it life, and has resigned to the
  axe its leaves and its sprays—once a tree, now the workman’s
  hand has cased it with seemly brass, and given it to
  be wielded by Latium’s elders.” With words like these                  5
  were they ratifying the treaty, all the nobles looking on.
  Then, as the rite ordains, they cut the throats of the
  hallowed’ victims into the fire, flay the yet breathing flesh,
  and pile the altars with laden chargers.

  But the Rutulians have long been thinking the combat                  10
  unequal: their bosoms are swayed by rival emotions,
  all the more, the nearer they observe the ill-matched
  champions. Turnus aids the feeling by the quietness of
  his step and the downcast reverential look which he turns
  on the altar, his wan cheeks, and the pallor of his youthful          15
  frame. Soon as his sister Juturna heard such whispers
  spreading, and saw the hearts of the multitude wavering
  to and fro, she plunges among the ranks, taking the form
  of Camers, great in ancestral dignity, great in the name of
  his father’s worth, and himself a valiant warrior—plunges             20
  among the ranks, knowing well what she would have, and
  scatters her sayings abroad in words like these: “Blush
  ye not, Rutulians, with souls such as yours, to make one a
  sacrifice for all? are we not equal to our foes in strength or
  in numbers? See, here is their whole army, Trojan                     25
  and Arcadian, aye, and that fated band of Eturia, which
  seeks Turnus’ life. Though but half of us should engage,
  each would scarce have an enemy to fight with. He, no
  doubt, will rise on the wings of fame to the gods for whose
  altars he gives himself to die, and will live in the mouths           30
  of men: we, stripped of our country, shall be the slaves of
  haughty masters, we, I say, now seated passively on the
  ground.” By such words the flame is fanned more and
  more in those young warrior hearts, and murmurs run
  from rank to rank: not Rutulian alone, but Laurentian and             35
  Latian are changed men. They who a short while since
  were hoping for their own repose and their state’s prosperity,
  now burn for arms, would have the treaty undone,
  and pity Turnus’ cruel fate. And now Juturna gives them
  one thing more, even a sign from heaven, no spell so potent
  to work on Italian minds and make them dupes of the
  marvel. Flying through the ruddy sky, Jove’s golden
  bird was chasing the river fowl, a winged noisy multitude,             5
  when suddenly swooping on the water he carries off in
  his tyrant claws a stately swan. The Italians are all
  attention, when lo! the whole mass of birds face about with
  a scream, marvellous to see, their wings darkening the air,
  and in dense cloud press on their enemy, till overborne by            10
  sheer weight he gives way, drops the booty from his talons
  into the river, flying aloft, and vanishes in the distant sky.
  Oh, then the Rutulians welcome the omen with a shout and
  spread their hands on high; and first of all cries the augur
  Tolumnius. “Here, here is the thing I have prayed for so              15
  often. I embrace it, I own the hand of Heaven. Follow
  me—yes, me—and seize your weapons, my poor countrymen,
  whom the felon stranger is scaring with battle, as if
  ye were feeble birds, and ravaging your coasts. He too
  will turn to flight and sail far away on the deep. Close              20
  your ranks with one accord, and rally round the prince
  of whom the battle robs you.” He spoke, and running forward
  hurls his dart full at the enemy: the hurtling cornel
  sounds, and cuts the air on no doubtful errand. A deafening
  shout follows on the act, the ranks are confused,                     25
  and men’s hearts stirred with mad bewilderment. On flew
  the spear, just where nine goodly brethren chanced to
  stand facing it, all born of one true Tuscan mother to
  Gylippus the Arcadian. One of these just at the waist
  where the quilted belt chafes against the belly and the               30
  buckle presses the sides—a youth of goodly form and
  clad in refulgent armour—it strikes through the ribs
  and lays him grovelling on the yellow sand. But his
  brothers, a gallant company and stung by grief, draw their
  swords or seize their javelins, and charge in headlong fury.          35
  To meet them rush the Laurentian columns: while from
  their side surge forth in a flood Trojans and Agyllans and
  Arcadians with inlaid harness. All are possessed by one
  passion, to try the issue with the steel. The altars are
  stripped bare: through the whole sky drives a flickering
  storm of weapons and an iron sleet comes thick: bowls
  and hearths are carried away. King Latinus flies, bearing
  away his gods in discomfiture, the truce unratified.                   5
  Others rein the chariot or vault on horseback, with swords
  ready drawn.

  Messapus, all on fire to annul the treaty, spurs his horse
  full on the Tuscan Aulestes, a king and wearing kingly
  cognizance: he draws quickly back, and gets entangled                 10
  in piteous sort with the altars that meet him behind,
  falling on them head and shoulders. Up flashes Messapus
  spear in hand, and towering on horseback brings down on
  him the massy beam in the midst of his prayers, and delivers
  himself thus: “He is sped: here is a better victim for the            15
  mighty gods.” The Italians cluster round, and strip the
  yet warm body. As Ebusus comes up and aims a blow,
  Corynæus meets him with a brand half-burnt from the
  altar and dashes the fire in his face: his long beard burst
  into a blaze and made a smell of burning hair: the enemy              20
  presses on, grasps in his left hand the locks of the wildered
  man and with the impact of his knee pins him to earth;
  then buries the stark falchion in his side. Podalirius
  gives chase to Alsus the shepherd as he rushed in the first
  rank through a shower of darts, and hangs over him with               25
  naked sword: he, swinging back his axe, splits full in front
  the foe’s forehead and chin, and splashes his arms right
  and left with the blood. The heavy rest of iron slumber
  settles down on the dying eyes, and their beams are curtained
  in everlasting night.                                                 30

  But good Æneas, his head bare, was stretching forth
  his unarmed hand and shouting to his men: “Whither are
  you driving? what is this sudden outburst of strife? Oh,
  curb your passions! the truce is stricken, and all the terms
  arranged: none but I has a right to engage: give way to               35
  me and have done with alarm: my sword shall ratify the
  treaty: this sacrifice has put Turnus in my power.”
  While he is crying thus and uttering words like these, lo!
  full at the chief flies a hurtling arrow, none knew by
  what hand launched, by what wind wafted, who graced
  the Rutulians so highly, chance or deity: the glory of the
  proud achievement was lost, nor was any known to boast
  of having wounded Æneas.                                               5

  Soon as Turnus sees Æneas retiring from the battle,
  and the Trojan leaders in confusion, he glows with swift
  access of hope, calls for horses and armour, bounds like a
  conqueror into the chariot, and takes the reins in hand.
  Many a heroic frame he slaughters as he whirls along, many            10
  he tumbles and leaves to live or die, crushes whole ranks
  by the onset of his car, or plucks forth spears and hurls
  them at the fliers. Just as storming along by Hebrus’ icy
  flood gore-stained Mars smites on his shield, and stirring
  battle lets loose his fiery steeds: they fly over the plains          15
  faster than winds southern or western: Thrace groans to
  her extremity under the beat of their hoofs: around him
  circle the frowns of black-visaged Terror, and the powers
  of Wrath and Treachery, liege followers of the god: with
  like eagerness through the thickest of the battle Turnus              20
  whirls his straining horses, trampling in piteous sort on the
  slaughtered foe: the flying hoof spirts gory dew, and blood
  and sand are kneaded in a mass. Sthenelus he has slain
  already, and Thamyris and Pholus, these hand to hand,
  that from a distance: a distant death, too, has found the             25
  Imbrasidæ, Glaucus and Lades, trained in Lycia by
  Imbrasus their sire, and by him harnessed alike, warriors
  who could stand and fight or outride the winds. In another
  part of the field Eumedes is riding through the fray, the
  gallant son of ancient Dolon, with the name of his grandsire,         30
  the heart and hand of his sire, who of old, offering
  to spy out the Danaan camp, dared to ask Achilles’
  chariot as his guerdon; far other guerdon was it with
  which Diomed requited his daring, and his hopes are set on
  Achilles’ steeds no longer. Marking him at distance along             35
  the plain, Turnus first sends after him a flying spear
  through the intervening space, then stops the car and dismounts,
  comes on the wretch gasping and laid low, and
  setting his foot on his neck, wrests the sword from his hand,
  bathes it flashing deep in his throat, and thus accompanies
  the blow: “Lie there, Trojan, and measure the Hesperian
  soil you came to invade: such are their guerdons who
  draw their swords on me; so build they up their city.”                 5
  Then with a spear throw he sends Asbutes to join the dead.
  Chloreus and Sybaris and Dares and Thersilochus, Thymœtes
  too, thrown off by a restiff horse. As when the
  blast of Thracian Boreas roars on the deep Ægean and
  drives the billows to the shore, wherever the winds push              10
  on, the clouds scurry over the sky, so when Turnus cleaves
  his path, the ranks give way, the armies turn in rout; the
  motion bears him along, and the gale which blows on the
  car tosses his flickering crest. Phegeus, indignant at his
  overweening onset, meets the car and grasping the bridle              15
  wrenches aside the foaming jaws of the impetuous steeds.
  While he is dragged along clinging to the yoke, the broad
  spear-head reaches his unguarded breast, cleaves the two-plated
  corslet, and tastes the surface of the flesh. Yet he,
  his shield before him, kept fronting and threatening the              20
  foe, and protecting himself with his drawn sword, when
  the wheel careering onward strikes and flings him on the
  ground, and Turnus with a sweep of his blade between
  the bottom of the helmet and the breastplate’s topmost
  rim has lopped the head and left the trunk to welter.                 25

  While Turnus thus is dealing havoc over the field,
  Mnestheus, true Achates, and Ascanius have helped Æneas
  to the camp, all bleeding, and staying his halting steps
  by the help of a spear. There he frets and struggles to
  pull out the broken shaft, and calls for help the readiest            30
  way, bidding them enlarge the wound with a broad sword,
  cut the weapon’s lodgment to the bottom, and send him
  to combat again. And now at his side was Iapis, son of
  Iasus, dearest of mankind to Phœbus, he to whom the
  god in his passionate fondness would fain have given his              35
  own function, his own hand’s cunning, the augur’s insight,
  the lyre, the weapons of archery; but he, wishing
  to lengthen out the span of his bed-rid sire, chose rather
  to know the virtue of simples and the laws of the healing
  art, and to practise in silence an unambitious craft.
  There stood Æneas, fretting impatiently, propped on his
  massy spear, with a warrior concourse about him, and
  Iulus all in tears, yet himself unmoved by their sorrow.               5
  The aged leech, his garments swathed round him in
  Pæon’s fashion, is plying busily the healing hand and
  Phœbus’ sovereign remedies all to no end, all to no end
  pulling at the dart and griping the steel with the pincer.
  No Fortune guides the course of skill, no patron Phœbus               10
  lends his aid; and meanwhile the fierce alarms of the field
  grow louder and louder, and the mischief is nearer at
  hand. They see dust-clouds propping the sky, the horsemen
  gallop in, darts fall thick in the midst of the camp,
  and heavenward mounts the cruel din of warriors battling              15
  or falling in the stern affray:—when, lo! Venus, struck
  to the heart by her son’s undeserved suffering, with a
  mother’s care plucks dittany[284] from Cretan Ida, a plant
  with downy leaves and a purple flower: wild goats know
  that simple well, if the flying arrow should lodge in their           20
  flesh. Veiled by a dim cloud, the goddess brings it down;
  with it she impregnates the spring water gleaming in the
  caldron, imparting unseen powers, and sprinkles ambrosia’s[285]
  healthful juice and fragrant panacea. The old
  man rinsed the wound with the water so transformed, all               25
  unwitting, and in a moment all pain was fled from the
  frame, and the blood was stanched in the wound. The
  arrow obeys the hand, and falls unforced, and strength is
  restored as before. “Quick! give the warrior his arms!
  why so tardy?” cries Iapis, himself the first to stir up              30
  the martial spirit. “No human aid has done this, no
  power of leech-craft; it is not my hand, Æneas, that
  restores you; a mightier power than man’s is at work,
  sending you back to mightier deeds.” The chief, greedy
  for the fight, has cased his legs in gold, chafing at delay           35
  and brandishing his spear. Soon as the shield is fitted
  to his side, the cuirass to his back, he clasps Ascanius to
  his mailed breast, and kissing his lips through the helmet
  addresses him thus: “Learn valour from me, my son,
  and genuine hardihood, success from others. To-day it is
  my hand that shall shield you in war and lead you through
  the walks of honour; be it your care, when your age has
  ripened into manhood, to bear the past in mind, seek                   5
  patterns among those of your own blood, and be stirred
  to action by Æneas your sire and Hector your uncle.”

  So having said, he passed towering through the gate,
  a huge spear quivering in his hand: Antheus and Mnestheus
  close their ranks and rush forth, and the whole                       10
  multitude streams from the empty camp. The field is
  clouded by blinding dust, and earth throbs and shudders
  with the tramp of feet. Turnus saw them coming towards
  him from their battlements, the Ausonians saw, and a
  cold shudder ran through their vitals: first before all the           15
  Latians Juturna heard and knew the sound and shrank
  back in terror. As a storm-cloud bursting through the
  sky sweeps down to earth along the main: hapless husbandmen
  know it ere it comes, and shudder at heart;
  yes, it will bring havoc to their trees, devastation to their         20
  crops, will lay all low far and wide; the winds fly before
  it and waft the sound to the shore: with as strong a rush
  the Rhœteian chief sweeps his army full on the foe; they
  close in firm masses and form severally at his side. Thymbræus’
  sword cuts down mighty Osiris, Mnestheus slays                        25
  Archetius, Achates Epulo, and Gyas Ufens; falls too the
  augur Tolumnius, the first to fling his javelin at the
  enemy. The din mounts to the sky, and the Rutulians
  routed in turn fly through the plains in a whirlwind of
  dust. The hero himself neither stoops to slaughter the                30
  flying nor encounter such as would fain meet him foot to
  foot, weapon in hand: Turnus alone he tracks winding
  through the thick darkness, him alone he challenges to
  combat. The terror struck Juturna’s manly mind: she
  plucks from his seat Metiscus, Turnus’ charioteer, as he              35
  drives the horses, and leaves him fallen at distance behind
  the car: herself takes his place and handles the
  flowing rein, assuming all that Metiscus had, voice and
  person and armour. Like a black swallow that flies
  through the house of some wealthy man and traverses
  the lofty hail, in quest of scraps of food for her twittering
  nestlings; now she is heard in the empty cloisters, now
  about the watertanks; so drives Juturna through the                    5
  thick of the foe, and flies on rapid wheel from spot to
  spot, now here, now there she gives a glimpse of her victorious
  brother, yet never lets him stop and fight, but
  whirls far away in the distance. Æneas for his part
  winds through sinuous paths in hope to meet him, tracks               10
  his steps, and shouts to him aloud across the weltering
  ranks. Oft as he spies out the foe and tries by running
  to match the horses’ winged speed, each time Juturna
  wheels the car aside. What can he do? he tosses in aimless
  ebb and flow, thoughts distracting his mind this                      15
  way and that:—when lo! Messapus, with sudden movement,
  happening to carry two limber spear-shafts tipped
  with steel, levels one at him and flings it true to its mark.
  Æneas stopped and gathered his arms about him, sinking
  on his knee; yet the fierce spear took the top of the                 20
  helmet and struck the crest from the cone. Then at last
  his wrath mounts high; and under the duresse of treachery,
  as he sees the steeds and chariot whirling away from him,
  after many an appeal to Jove and the altars of the violated
  league, he falls on the ranks before him, and fanned                  25
  to dreadful vengeance by the War-god’s breath, lets loose
  a carnage cruel and unsparing, and flings the reins on the
  neck of his passion.

  And now what god will tell me all those horrors and
  relate for me in verse the several scenes of slaughter, the           30
  deaths of the leaders whom Turnus here, the Trojan hero
  there, is chasing over the plain? Was it thy will, great
  Jove, that nations destined in time to come to everlasting
  amity should first clash in such dread turmoil? Æneas
  confronted by Rutulian Sucro[o] (that combat first brought            35
  the Trojan onset to a stand) after brief delay catches him
  on the side and drives his stubborn sword death’s nearest
  way through the ribs that fence the bosom. Turnus in
  foot-encounter slays Amycus, whose horse had thrown
  him, and his brother Diores, striking one with the spear
  ere he came up, the other with the swordblade, lops the
  heads of both, hangs them from his car, and carries them
  dripping with blood. That sends down Talos to death                    5
  and Tanais and brave Cethegus, those at one onslaught,
  and hapless Onytes, of the house of Echion, brought forth
  by Peridia: that kills the brethren who came from
  Apollo’s land of Lycia, and young Menœtes the Arcadian,
  who shrunk from war in vain; he plied his craft and lived             10
  in poverty by the fishy waters of Lerna, a stranger to the
  halls of the great; and his father tilled land for hire.
  Like two fires launched from different quarters on a dry
  forest with bushes of crackling bay, or as when two foaming
  rivers pouring from lofty heights crash along and run                 15
  towards the ocean, each ploughing his own wild channel:
  with no less fury rush through the fight Æneas and
  Turnus both: now, now the wrath is boiling within them:
  their unconquered bosoms swell to bursting: they throw
  their whole force on the wounds they deal. This with                  20
  the whirl and the blow of a mighty rock dashes Murranus
  headlong from his car to the ground, Murranus who had
  ever on his tongue the ancient names of sires and grandsires
  and a lineage stretching through the series of Latium’s
  kings: the wheels throw forward the fallen man under the              25
  reins and yoke, and he is crushed by the quick hoof-beat
  of the steeds that mind not their lord. That meets
  Hyllus as he rushed on in vehement fury, and hurls a
  javelin at his gold-bound brows: the spear pierced the
  helmet and stood fixed in the brain. Nor did your                     30
  prowess, Cretheus, bravest of Greeks, deliver you from
  Turnus, nor did the gods Cupencus worshipped shield
  him from the onset of Æneas: his bosom met the steel,
  and the check of the brazen buckler stood the wretch in
  small stead. You, too, great Æolus, the Laurentian                    35
  plains looked on in death, spreading your frame abroad
  over their surface: fallen are you, whom the Argive bands
  could never overthrow, nor Achilles the destroyer of
  Priam’s realm: here was your fatal goal: a princely
  home under Ida’s shade: at Lyrnesus a princely hope, in
  Laurentian soil a sepulchre. The two armies are in hot
  conflict: all the Latians, all the sons of Dardanus, Mnestheus,        5
  and keen Serestus, and Messapus tamer of the steed,
  and brave Asilas, the Tuscan band, and Evander’s Arcad
  cavalry, each man for himself straining every nerve: no
  stint, no stay; they strive with giant tension.

  And now Æneas had a thought inspired by his beauteous
  mother, to march to the walls, throw his force                        10
  rapidly on the town, and stun the Latians with a sudden
  blow. Tracking Turnus through the ranks he swept his
  eyes round and round, and beholds the city enjoying
  respite from all that furious war, and lying in unchallenged
  repose. At once his mind is fired with the vision of a                15
  grander battle: Mnestheus he summons and Sergestus
  and brave Serestus, the first in command, and mounts an
  eminence round which the rest of the Teucrian army
  gathers in close ranks, not laying shield or dart aside.
  Standing on the tall mound, he thus bespeaks them:                    20
  “Let nothing stay my orders; the hand of Jove is here;
  nor let any move slower because the enterprise is sudden.
  The town, the cause of the war, the royal home of the
  Latian king, unless they submit the yoke and confess
  themselves vanquished, I will overthrow this day, and lay             25
  its smoking turrets level with the ground. What? am I
  to wait till Turnus choose to bide the combat, and once
  conquered, meet me a second time? This, my men, is
  the well-spring, this the head and front of the monstrous
  war. Bring torches with speed, and reclaim the treaty                 30
  fire in hand.” He said, and all with emulous spirit of
  union close their ranks and stream to the walls in compact
  mass. Scaling ladders and brands are produced
  suddenly and in a moment. Some run to the several
  gates and slay those stationed there: some hurl the steel             35
  and overshadow the sky with javelins. Æneas himself
  among the foremost lifts up his hand under the city wall,
  loudly upbraids the king, and calls the gods to witness
  that he is once more forced into battle, the Italians twice
  his foes, the second treaty broken like the first. Strife
  arises among the wildered citizens: some are for throwing
  open the town and unbarring the gates to the Dardans:
  nay, they even drag the monarch to the ramparts: others                5
  draw the sword and prepare to guard the walls: as when
  a countryman has tracked out bees concealed in a cavernous
  rock and filled their hiding-place with pungent smoke,
  they in alarm for the common wealth flit about their
  waxen realm and stir themselves to wrath by vehement                  10
  buzzing: the murky smell winds from chamber to chamber:
  a dull blind noise fills the cavern: vapours ascend
  into the void of air.

  Yet another stroke fell on Latium’s wearied sons,
  shaking with its agony the city to her foundations. When              15
  the queen from her palace saw the enemy draw near, the
  walls assailed, flames flying roofward, the Rutulian army,
  the soldiers of Turnus nowhere in sight, she deemed, poor
  wretch, her warrior slain in the combat, and maddened
  with the access of grief, cries aloud that she alone is the           20
  guilty cause, the fountainhead of all this evil; and flinging
  out wild words in the fury of her frenzied anguish,
  rends with desperate hand her purple raiment, and fastens
  from a lofty beam the noose of hideous death. Soon as
  Latium’s wretched dames knew the blow that had fallen,                25
  her daughter Lavinia is first to rend yellow hair and
  roseate cheek, and the rest about her ran as wildly: the
  palace re-echoes their wail. The miserable story spreads
  through the town: every heart sinks: there goes the old
  king with garments rent, all confounded by his consort’s              30
  death and his city’s ruin: he soils his hoary locks with
  showers of unseemly dust, and oft and oft upbraids himself
  that he embraced not sooner Æneas the Dardan nor
  took him for son-in-law of his own free will.

  Turnus, meantime, is plying the war far away on the                   35
  plain, following here and there a straggler with abated
  zeal, himself and his steeds alike less buoyant. The air
  wafted to him the confused din, inspiring unknown terror,
  and on his quickened ears smote the sound of the city’s
  turmoil and the noise not of joy. “Alas! what is this
  mighty agony that shakes the walls? what these loud
  shouts pouring from this quarter and that?” So he cries,
  and drawing his bridle halts bewildered. His sister, just              5
  as she stood in guise of Metiscus the driver, guiding car,
  horse, and reins, thus meets his question: “Proceed we
  still, Turnus, to chase the Trojans, where victory’s dawn
  shows us the way: others there are whose hands can
  guard the city: Æneas bears down on the Italians and                  10
  stirs up the battle: let us send havoc as cruel among his
  Teucrians: so shall your slain be as many and your martial
  fame as high.” Turnus answered: “Sister, I both
  knew you long since, when at first you artfully disturbed
  the truce and flung yourself into our quarrel, and now                15
  you vainly hide the goddess from my eyes. But tell me
  by whose will you are sent from Olympus to cope with
  toils like this? Is it that you may look on the cruel end
  of your hapless brother? For what can I do? what
  chance is there left to give me hope of safety? With my               20
  own eyes I saw Murranus die, his giant frame laid low
  by a giant wound: he called me by name, he, than whom
  I had no dearer friend. Dead, too, is ill-starred Ufens,
  all because he would not see me disgraced: his body and
  his arms are the Teucrians’ prize. Am I to let the nation’s           25
  homes be razed to the ground, the one drop that was
  wanting to the cup, and not rather with my own right
  hand give Drances’ words the lie? Shall I turn my back?
  shall this land see Turnus flying? is death after all so
  bitter? Be gracious to me, gentle powers of the grave,                30
  since the gods above are against me! Yes, I will come
  down to you a stainless spirit, guiltless of that base charge,
  worthy in all my acts of my great forefathers.”

  Scarce had he spoken, when lo! there flies through the
  midst of the foe, on a foaming steed, Saces, with an arrow            35
  full in his face: up he spurs, imploring Turnus by name:
  “Turnus, our last hope is in you: have compassion on
  your army. Æneas thunders with sword and spear, and
  threatens that he will level in dust and give to destruction
  the Italians’ topmost battlements: even now brands
  are flying to the roofs. Every Latian face, every eye
  turns to you: the king himself mutters in doubt whom
  to call his son-in-law, to whose alliance to incline. Nay,             5
  more, your fastest friend the queen is dead by her own
  hand, scared and driven out of life. Only Messapus and
  keen Atinas are at the gates to uphold our forces. About
  them are closed ranks, and an iron harvest of naked
  blades: you are rolling your car over a field from which              10
  war has ebbed.” Turnus stood still with silent dull regard,
  wildered by the thoughts that crowd on his mind:
  deep shame, grief and madness, frenzy-goaded passion
  and conscious wrath all surging at once. Soon as the
  shadows parted and light came back to his intelligence,               15
  he darted his blazing eyes cityward with restless vehemence,
  and looked back from his car to the wide-stretching
  town. Lo! there was a cone of fire spreading from story
  to story and flaring to heaven: the flame was devouring
  the turret which he had built himself of planks welded                20
  together, put wheels beneath it, and furnished it with
  lofty bridges. “Fate is too strong for me, sister, too
  strong: hold me back no longer: we needs must follow
  where Heaven and cruel Fortune are calling us. Yes, I
  _will_ meet Æneas: I will endure the full bitterness of               25
  death: no more, my love, shall you see me disgraced:
  suffer me first to have my hour of madness.” He said,
  and in a moment leapt to the ground, rushes on through
  foes, through javelins, leaves his sister to her sorrow, and
  dashes at full speed through the intervening ranks. Even              30
  as from a mountain’s top down comes a rock headlong,
  torn off by the wind, or washed down by vehement rain,
  or loosened by the lapse of creeping years; down the steep
  it crashes with giant impulse, that reckless stone, bounding
  over the ground and rolling along with it trees, herds,               35
  and men: so, dashing the ranks apart, rushes Turnus to
  the city walls, where the earth is wet with plashy blood,
  and the gale hurtles with spears: he beckons with his
  hand, and cries with a mighty voice: “Have done, ye
  Rutulians! ye Latians, hold back your darts! whatever
  Fortune brings she brings to me: ’tis juster far that I in
  your stead should singly expiate the treaty’s breach and
  try the issue of the steel.” All at the word part from the             5
  midst, and leave him a clear space.

  But father Æneas, hearing Turnus’ name, quits his
  hold on the walls and the battlements that crown them,
  flings delay to the winds and breaks off the work of war,
  steps high in triumph, and makes his arms peal dread                  10
  thunder: vast as Athos, vast as Eryx, vast as father
  Apennine himself, when he roars with his quivering holms[286]
  and lifts his snowy crest exultingly to the sky. All turn
  their eyes with eager contention. Rutulians, Trojans, and
  Italians, those alike who were manning the towers and                 15
  those whose battering-rams were assailing the foundations.
  All unbrace their armour. Latinus himself stands amazed
  to see two men so mighty, born in climes so distant each
  from each, thus met together to try the steel’s issue. At
  once, when a space is cleared on the plain, first hurling             20
  their spears, they advance with swift onset, and dash into
  the combat with shield and ringing harness. Earth groans
  beneath them; their swords hail blow on blow: chance
  and valour mingle pell-mell. As when on mighty Sila or
  Taburnus’ summit two bulls, lowering their brows for                  25
  combat, engage fiercely: the herdsmen retreat in dread:
  the cattle all stand dumb with terror, the heifers wait in
  suspense who is to be the monarch of the woodland,
  whom the herds are to follow henceforth: they each in
  turn give furious blows, push and lodge their horns, and              30
  bathe neck and shoulders with streams of blood: the
  sound makes the forest bellow again: with no less fury
  Æneas the Trojan, and the Daunian chief clash shield on
  shield: the enormous din fills the firmament. Jupiter
  himself holds aloft his scales poised and level, and lays             35
  therein the destinies of the two, to see whom the struggle
  dooms, and whose the weight that death bears down.
  Forth darts Turnus, deeming it safe, rises with his whole
  frame on the uplifted sword, and strikes, Trojans and
  eager Latians shout aloud: both armies gaze expectant.
  But the faithless sword snaps in twain and fails its fiery
  lord midway in the stroke, unless flight should come to
  his aid. Off he flies swifter than the wind, seeing an unknown         5
  hilt in his defenceless hand. Men say that in his
  headlong haste, when first he was mounting the car harnessed
  for battle, he left behind his father’s falchion and
  snatched up the steel of Metiscus, his charioteer: so long
  as the Teucrians fled straggling before him, the weapon               10
  did good service; soon as it came to the divine Vulcanian
  armour, the mortal blade, like brittle ice, flew asunder at
  the stroke: the fragments sparkle on the yellow sand.
  So now in his distraction Turnus flies here and there
  over the plain, weaving vague circles in this place and in            15
  that: for the Trojans have closed in circle about him,
  and here is a spreading marsh, there lofty ramparts to
  bar the way.

  Nor is Æneas wanting, though at times the arrow
  wound slackens his knees and robs them of their power                 20
  to run: no, he follows on, and presses upon the flier foot
  for foot: as when a hound has got a stag pent in by a
  river, or hedged about by the terror of crimson plumage,
  and chases him running and barking: the stag, frighted
  by the snare and the steep bank, doubles a thousand times:            25
  the keen Umbrian clings open-mouthed to his skirts, all
  but seizes him, and as though in act to seize, snaps his
  teeth, and is baffled to find nothing in their gripe. Then,
  if ever, uprises a shout, echoing along bank and marsh,
  and heaven rings again with the noise. Turnus, even as                30
  he flies, calls fiercely on the Rutulians, addressing by
  name, and clamors for his well-known sword. Æneas,
  for his part, threatens death and instant destruction,
  should any come near, and terrifies his trembling foes,
  swearing that he will raze their city to the ground, and              35
  presses on in spite of his wound. Five times they circle
  round, five times they retrace the circle: for no trivial
  prize is at stake, no guerdon of a game: the contest is
  for Turnus’ life, for his very heart’s blood. It chanced
  that there had stood there a wild olive with its bitter
  leaves, sacred to Faunus, a tree in old days reverenced by
  seamen, where when saved from ocean they used to fasten
  their offerings to the Laurentian god and hang up their                5
  votive garments: but the unrespecting Trojans had lately
  lopped the hallowed trunk, that the lists might be clear
  for combat. There was lodged Æneas’ spear: thither its
  force had carried it, and was now holding it fast in the
  unyielding root. The Dardan chief bent over it, fain to               10
  wrench forth the steel that his weapon may catch whom
  his foot cannot overtake. Then cried Turnus in the
  moment of frenzied agony: “Have mercy, I conjure thee,
  good Faunus, and thou, most gracious earth, hold fast
  the steel if I have ever reverenced your sanctities, which            15
  Æneas’ crew for their part have caused battle to desecrate.”
  He said, nor were his vows unanswered by heavenly aid.
  Hard as he struggled, long as he lingered over the stubborn
  stock, by no force could Æneas make the wood unclose
  its fangs. While he strains with keen insistence, the                 20
  Daunian goddess, resuming the guise of charioteer Metiscus,
  runs forward and restores to her brother his sword.
  Then Venus, resenting the freedom taken by the presumptuous
  Nymph, came nigh, and plucks the weapon
  from the depth of the root. And now towering high,                    25
  with restored weapons and recruited force, this in strong
  reliance on his sword, that fiercely waving his spear tall
  as he, the two stand front to front in the breath-draining
  conflict of war.

  Meanwhile the king of almighty Olympus accosts Juno,                  30
  as from a golden cloud she gazes on the battle: “Where
  is this to end, fair spouse? what last stroke have you in
  store? you know yourself, by your own confession, that
  Æneas has his place assured in heaven among Italia’s
  native gods, that destiny is making him a ladder to the               35
  stars. What plan you now? what hope keeps you seated
  on those chilly clouds? was it right that mortal wound
  should harm a god, or that Turnus—for what power
  could Juturna have apart from you?—should receive
  back his lost sword and the vanquished should feel new
  forces? At length have done, and let my prayers bow
  your will. Let this mighty sorrow cease to devour you
  in silence: let me hear sounds of sullen disquiet less often           5
  from your lovely lips. The barrier has been reached.
  To toss the Trojans over land and sea, to kindle an unhallowed
  war, to plunge a home in mourning, to blend a
  dirge with the bridal song, this it has been yours to do:
  all further action I forbid.” So spake Jupiter: and so in             10
  return Saturn’s daughter with downcast look: “Even
  because I knew, great Jove, that such was your pleasure,
  have I withdrawn against my will from Turnus and from
  earth: else you would not see me now in the solitude of
  my airy throne, exposed to all that comes, meet or unmeet:            15
  armed with firebrands, I should stand in the very
  line of battle, and force the Teucrians into the hands of
  their foes. As for Juturna, I counselled her, I own, to
  succour her wretched brother, and warranted an unusual
  venture where life was at stake: but nought was said of               20
  aiming the shaft or bending the bow: I swear by the inexpiable
  fountain-head of Styx, the one sanction that
  binds us powers above. And now I yield indeed, and
  quit this odious struggle. Yet there is a boon I would
  ask, a boon which destiny forefends not. I ask it for                 25
  the sake of Latium, for the dignity of your own people:
  when at last peace shall be ratified with a happy bridal,
  for happy let it be: when bonds of treaty shall be knit
  at last, let it not be thy will that the native Latians
  should change their ancient name, become Trojans or                   30
  take the Teucrian style: let not them alter their language
  or their garb. Let there be Latium still: let there be
  centuries of Alban kings: let there be a Roman stock,
  strong with the strength of Italian manhood: but let
  Troy be fallen as she is, name and nation alike.” The                 35
  Father of men and nature answered with a smile: “Aye,
  you are Jove’s own sister, the other branch of Saturn’s
  line; such billows of passion surge in your bosom! but
  come,—let this ineffectual frenzy give way: I grant your
  wish, and submit myself in willing obedience. The
  Ausonians shall keep their native tongue, their native
  customs: the name shall remain as it is: the Teucrians
  shall merge in the nation they join—that and no more:                  5
  their rites and worship shall be my gift: all shall be Latians
  and speak the Latian tongue. The race that shall arise
  from this admixture of Ausonian blood shall transcend in
  piety earth and heaven itself, nor shall any nation pay
  you such honours as they.” Juno nodded assent, and                    10
  turned her sullenness to pleasure; meanwhile she departs
  from the sky, and quits the cloud where she sat.

  This done, the sire meditates a further resolve, and
  prepares to part Juturna from her brother’s side. There
  are two fiends known as the Furies, whom with Tartarean               25
  Megæra dismal Night brought forth at one and the same
  birth, wreathing them alike with coiling serpents, and
  equipping them with wings that fan the air. They are
  seen beside Jove’s throne, at the threshold of his angry
  sovereignty, goading frail mortality with stings of terror,           20
  oft as the monarch of the gods girds himself to send forth
  disease and frightful death, or appals guilty towns with
  war. One of these Jove sped with haste from heaven’s
  summit, and bade her confront Juturna in token of his
  will. Forth she flies, borne earthward on the blast of a              25
  whirlwind. Swift as the arrow from the string cleaves
  the cloud, sent forth by Parthian—Parthian or Cydonian—tipped
  with fell poison’s gall, the dealer of a wound
  incurable, and skims the flying vapours hurtling and unforeseen,
  so went the Daughter of Night and made her                            30
  way to earth. Soon as she sees the forces of Troy and
  the army of Turnus, she huddles herself suddenly into the
  shape of a puny bird, which oft on tombstone or lonely
  roof sitting by night screams restlessly through the gloom;
  in this disguise the fiend again and again flies flapping in          35
  Turnus’ face, and beats with her wings on his shield. A
  strange chilly terror unknits his frame, his hair stands
  shudderingly erect, and his utterance cleaves to his jaws.
  But when Juturna knew from far the rustling of those
  Fury pinions, she rends, hapless maid, her dishevelled
  tresses, marring, in all a sister’s agony, her face with her
  nails, her breast with her clenched hands: “What now,
  my Turnus, can your sister avail? what more remains for                5
  an obdurate wretch like me? by what expedient can I
  lengthen your span? can I face a portent like this? At
  last, at last I quit the field. Cease to appal my fluttering
  soul, ye birds of ill omen: I know the flapping of your
  wings and its deathful noise; nor fail I to read great                10
  Jove’s tyrannic will. Is this his recompense for lost virginity?
  why gave he me life to last for ever? why was
  the law of death annulled? else might I end this moment
  the tale of my sorrows, and travel to the shades hand in
  hand with my poor brother. Can immortality, can aught                 15
  that I have to boast give me joy without him? Oh, that
  earth would but yawn deep enough, and send me down,
  goddess though I be, to the powers of the grave!” So
  saying, she shrouded her head in her azure robe, with many
  a groan, and vanished beneath the river of her deity.                 20

  Æneas presses on, front to front, shaking his massy,
  tree-like spear, and thus speaks in the fierceness of his
  spirit: “What is to be the next delay? why does Turnus
  still hang back? ours is no contest of speed, but of stern
  soldiership, hand to hand. Take all disguises you can;                25
  muster all your powers of courage or of skill: mount on
  wing, if you list, to the stars aloft, or hide in the cavernous
  depth of earth.” Shaking his head, he replied: “I quail
  not at your fiery words, insulting foe: it is Heaven that
  makes me quail, and Jove my enemy.” No more he                        30
  spoke: but, sweeping his eyes round, espies a huge stone,
  a stone ancient and huge, which chanced to be lying on
  the plain, set as some field’s boundary, to forefend disputes
  of ownership: scarce could twelve picked men lift
  it on their shoulders, such puny frames as earth produces             35
  now-a-days: he caught it up with hurried grasp and
  flung it at his foe, rising as he threw, and running rapidly,
  as hero might. And yet all the while he knows not that
  he is running or moving, lifting up or stirring the enormous
  stone: his knees totter under him, and his blood
  chills and freezes: and so the mass from the warrior’s
  hand, whirled through the empty void, passed not through
  all the space between nor carried home the blow. Even                  5
  as in dreams, at night, when heavy slumber has weighed
  down the eyes, we seem vainly wishing to make eager
  progress forward and midway in the effort fail helplessly;
  our tongue has no power, our wonted strength stands not
  our frames in stead, nor do words or utterance come at                10
  our call: so it is with Turnus: whatever means his valour
  tries, the fell fiend bars them of their issue. And now
  confused images whirl through his brain: he looks to his
  Rutulians and to the city, and falters with dread, and
  quails at the threatening spear: how to escape he knows               15
  not, nor how to front the foe, nor sees he anywhere his
  car or the sister who drives it.

  Full in that shrinking face Æneas shakes his fatal
  weapon, taking aim with his eye, and with an effort of
  his whole frame hurls it forth. Never stone flung from                20
  engine of siege roars so loud, never peal so rending follows
  the thunderbolt. On flies the spear like dark whirlwind
  with fell destruction on its wing, pierces the edge of the
  corslet, and the outermost circle of the seven-fold shield,
  and with a rush cleaves through the thigh. Down with                  25
  his knee doubled under him comes Turnus to earth, all
  his length prostrated by the blow. Up start the Rutulians,
  groaning as one man: the whole mountain round
  rebellows, and the depths of the forest send back the
  sound far and wide. He in lowly suppliance lifts up eye               30
  and entreating hand: “It is my due,” he cries, “and I
  ask not to be spared it: take what fortune gives you.
  Yet, if you _can_ feel for a parent’s misery—your father,
  Anchises was once in like plight—have mercy on Daunus’
  hoary hairs, and let me, or if you choose my breathless               35
  body, be restored to my kin. You are conqueror: the
  Ausonians have seen my conquered hands outstretched:
  the royal bride is yours: let hatred be pressed no further.”
  Æneas stood still, a fiery warrior, his eyes rolling, and
  checked his hand: and those suppliant words were working
  more and more on his faltering purpose, when, alas!
  the ill-starred belt was seen high on the shoulder, and
  light flashed from the well-known studs—the belt of                    5
  young Pallas, whom Turnus conquered and struck down
  to earth, and bore on his breast the badge of triumphant
  enmity. Soon as his eyes caught the spoil and drank in
  the recollection of that cruel grief, kindled into madness
  and terrible in his wrath: “What, with my friend’s                    10
  trophies upon you, would you escape my hand? It is
  Pallas, Pallas, who with this blow makes you his victim,
  and gluts his vengeance with your accursed blood.”
  With these words, fierce as flame, he plunged the steel into
  the breast that lay before him. That other’s frame grows              15
  chill and motionless, and the soul,[287] resenting its lot, flies
  groaningly to the shades.




FOOTNOTES


[A] “Like footsteps upon wool.”—Tennyson, _Œnone_.

[B] Mr. Conington has missed a line, which may be rendered thus: “who
knowest the divine will of Apollo—his tripods and his laurels.”—[E. S. S.]

[C] Another line omitted in the translation:—“huge as Greek shield or
sun-god’s torch.”—[E. S. S.]

[D] A caret in the Ms. notes the omission of _Urbis opus_: “A city in
itself.”—[E. S. S.]

[E] Three lines omitted in the Ms.: “Then on Mount Eryx, towering to the
stars, is reared a temple to Idalian Venus, and for Anchises’ tomb a
priest appointed, with dedication of broad-acred grove.”—[E. S. S.]

[F] For the omitted lines Conington’s verses are inserted.—[E. S. S.]




NOTES


BOOK I

[1] 1:1. =Arms and the man I sing.= Compare the following opening lines
of great epics:—

    “O goddess, sing the wrath of Peleus’ son,
    Achilles; sing the deadly wrath that brought
    Woes numberless upon the Greeks.”

                        —_Iliad_, Bryant’s Trans.

    “Tell me, O muse, of that sagacious man
    Who, having overthrown the sacred town
    Of Ilium, wandered far and visited
    The capitals of many nations, learned
    The customs of their dwellers, and endured
    Great sufferings on the deep.”

                              —HOMER, _Odyssey_.

    “Of love and ladies, knights and arms, I sing,
    Of courtesies and many a daring feat.”

                       —ARIOSTO, _Orlando Furioso_.

    “I sing the pious arms and chief, who freed
    The Sepulchre of Christ from thrall profane;
    Much did he toil in thought and much in deed,
    Much in the glorious enterprise sustain.”

                    —TASSO, _Jerusalem Delivered_.

    “Of man’s first disobedience, and the fruit
    Of that forbidden tree, whose mortal taste
    Brought death into the world, and all our woe,
    ...
    Sing, heavenly muse.”

                          —MILTON, _Paradise Lost_.

    “I, who erewhile the happy garden sung,
    By one man’s disobedience lost, now sing
    Recovered Paradise to all mankind,
    By one man’s firm obedience.”

                 —MILTON, _Paradise Regained_.

[2] 1:1. =Troy.= A city in northwest Asia Minor where the famous Trojan
war took place.

[3] 1:3. =Latian.= The broad plain near the mouth of the Tiber, in Italy.

[4] 1:5. =Juno.= Queen of the gods; wife and sister of Jupiter.

[5] 1:5. =Much.=

                  “Much there he suffered,
    And many perilles past in forreine landes,
    To save his people sad from victours vengefull handes,”

                                 —SPENSER, _Faerie Queene_.

[6] 1:8. =Alba.= Alba Longa, a long ridge some fifteen miles southeast of
Rome. The successors of Æneas reigned there until the founding of Rome.

[7] 1:10. =Muse.= One of the nine Muses. Greek and Latin poets often
profess to be merely the mouthpiece of the Muses.

[8] 1:14. =Hate.=

    “And in soft bosoms dwell such mighty rage?”

                      —POPE, _Rape of the Lock_.

    “In heavenly spirits could such perverseness dwell?”

                               —MILTON, _Paradise Lost_.

[9] 1:17. =Tyre.= Carthage was sprung from Tyre, an old and prosperous
city on the coast of Phœnicia. The founders of Carthage and their
descendants are termed indifferently by Virgil Phœnicians, Sidonians,
Pœni, or Tyrians.

[10] 1:19. =War’s.=

    “An old and haughty nation proud in arms.”

                             —MILTON, _Comus_.

[11] 1:21. =Samos.= A large island off the west coast of Asia Minor. Here
were the most ancient temple and worship of Juno, here she was nurtured,
and here she was married to Jupiter.

[12] 1:28. =Libya.= North Africa.

[13] 2:1. =Fate’s.=

    “Those three fatall Sisters, whose sad hands
    Doo weave the direful threads of destinie
    And in their wrath brake off the vitall bands.”

                             —SPENSER, _Daphnaïda_.

    “Comes the blind Fury with the abhorred shears
    And slits the thin-spun life.”

                                 —MILTON, _Lycidas_.

    “Sad Clotho held the rocke [distaff], the whiles the thrid
    By griesly Lachesis was spun with paine,
    That cruell Atropos eftsoones undid,
    With cursed knife cutting the twist in twaine.”

                                      —SPENSER, _Faerie Queene_.

[14] 2:1. =Saturn.= An ancient Italian god of agriculture, identified
later with the Greek god Cronos.

[15] 2:3. =Argos.= A city of Argolis in the Peloponnesus. One of Juno’s
favorite cities. Juno’s love for Argos played the same part in the Trojan
war as her regard for Carthage plays in the _Æneid_. It is used here
poetically for the name of the people, _i.e._ = Greeks.

[16] 2:6. =Paris.= A son of Priam, king of Troy, who eloped with Helen
and caused the Trojan war. The judgment was the award of the golden
apple, prize of beauty, to Venus as against Juno and Minerva.

    “Here eke that famous golden apple grew,
    The which emongest the gods, false Ate threw;
    For which th’ Idæan Ladies disagreed,
    Till partiall Paris dempt it Venus dew,
    And had of her fayre Helen for his meed.”

                        —SPENSER, _Faerie Queene_.

In Tennyson’s _Œnone_, Juno offers—

          “from all neighbor crowns
    Alliance and allegiance till thy hand
    Fail from the sceptre-staff.”

And Minerva—

    “Self-reverence, self-knowledge, self-control.”

But Venus—

                  “I promise thee
    The fairest and most loving wife in Greece.”

[17] 2:9. =Ganymede.= A Trojan prince; was carried off to Olympus by
Jupiter’s eagle. He was made cup-bearer to the gods in place of Hebe,
daughter of Juno.

    “And godlike Ganymede, most beautiful
    Of men; the gods beheld and caught him up
    To heaven, so beautiful was he, to pour
    The wine to Jove, and ever dwell with them.”

                                —HOMER, _Iliad_.

        “flushed Ganymede, his rosy thigh
      Half-buried in the Eagle’s down,
    Sole as a flying star shot thro’ the sky
      Above the pillar’d town.”

                   —TENNYSON, _Palace of Art_.

[18] 2:10. =Danaan.= Greek. Danaus, an ancient city of Argos. Conington
transliterates various proper names, such as Argives, Achæans,
Pelasgians, all meaning Greeks. Vergil uses the originals now to secure
variety, now to meet the metrical requirement.

[19] 2:11. =Achilles.= Son of Peleus, king of Thessaly, and Thetis, a sea
nymph, chief champion of the Greeks before Troy.

[20] 2:22. =Teucrians.= Teucer, an ancient king of Troy; he came to Troy
from Crete. He was father-in-law of Dardanus, and is often called founder
of the Trojans.

[21] 2:23. =Pallas.= Epithet of the Greek goddess Athena. Sometimes
identified with the Latin goddess of wisdom, Minerva.

[22] 2:26. =Ajax.= Oïleus’ son. Had, on the night Troy was taken,
assaulted Priam’s daughter Cassandra, who had taken refuge in Minerva’s
temple.

[23] 2:27. =Jove.= Jupiter, chief of the Olympian gods. Son of Cronos
or Saturnus. He is father omnipotent, father of gods, and king of men.
The lightning and the thunderbolt, fashioned for him by Vulcan, are his
weapons. The eagle is his messenger. Apparently Jupiter, the Sky-father,
is the personification of the sky. Cicero quotes Ennius as follows: “This
shining vault on high which all men call upon in prayer as Jupiter.”

[24] 2:30. =Rock’s.=

        “caught in a fierce tempest shall be hurled
    Each on his rock transfixed, the sport and prey
    Of rocking whirlwinds.”

                            —MILTON, _Paradise Lost_.

[25] 2:38. =Æolia.= Home of the winds,—=Lipara=. One of the Æolian
islands north of Sicily.

[26] 2:38. =Cavern.=

    “In a cavern under is fettered the thunder,
    It struggles and howls by fits.”

                          —SHELLEY, _The Cloud_.

[27] 2:38. =Æolus.= King of the winds.

[28] 3:2. =Bond.=

    “And wild winds bound within their cell.”

                        —TENNYSON, _Mariana_.

[29] 3:19. =Tyrrhene sea.= Also Tuscan sea; the part of the Mediterranean
which extended from Liguria to Sicily.

[30] 3:19. =Ilion.= Troy.

[31] 3:30. =Bidding.=

    “Father eternal, thine is to decree;
    Mine, both in heaven and earth, to do thy will.”

                           —MILTON, _Paradise Lost_.

[32] 3:36. =Rush forth.=

                    “Nor slept the winds
    Within their stormy caves, but rushed abroad
    From the four hinges of the world, and fell
    On the vexed wilderness.”

                         —MILTON, _Paradise Lost_.

    “With howling sound, high carnival to keep,
    And in wild uproar all embroil both land and deep.”

                         —TASSO, _Jerusalem Delivered_.

    “Then forth it breakes, and with his furious blast
    Confounds both land and seas, and skyes doth overcast.”

                                 —SPENSER, _Faerie Queene_.

[33] 3:38. =Fall.=

    “The winds, as at their hour of birth,
      Leaning upon the ridged sea.”

                                —TENNYSON.

[34] 4:5. =Daylight.=

    “And tosse the deepes, and teare the firmament,
    And all the world confound with wide uprore.”

                          —SPENSER, _Faerie Queene_.

    “The clouds their gloomy veil above them strain,
    Nor suffer sun or star to cheer the view.
    ...
    While aye descending night, with deeper shade,
    The vext and fearful billows overlayed.”

                         —ARIOSTO, _Orlando Furioso_.

[35] 4:9. =Æneas.= Son of Venus and Anchises, hero of the _Æneid_.

[36] 4:9. =Chilled.=

    “His bold Æneas on like billows tossed
    In a tall ship, and all his country lost
    Dissolves with fear; and, both his hands upheld,
    Proclaims them happy when the Greeks had quelled
    In honorable fight.”

        —WALLER, _Of the Dangers his Majesty Escaped_.

[37] 4:12. =Thrice.=

    “Thrice happy, four times happy, they who fell
    On Troy’s wide field warring for Atreus’ sons:
    O, had I met my fate and perished there.”

                                  —HOMER, _Odyssey_.

[38] 4:14. =Tydeus’ son.= Diomedes, with whom Æneas had fought in single
combat and been saved by direct intervention of Venus.

[39] 4:16. =Hector.= Son of Priam, king of Troy, and Hecuba. Hector was
the bravest champion of Troy, and was slain by Achilles.

[40] 4:17. =Æacides.= A descendant of Æacus (king of Ægina and father of
Peleus). Virgil applies the name to (1) Achilles, (2) Pyrrhus, son of
Achilles, (3) Perseus, king of Macedonia.

[41] 4:18. =Sarpedon.= Son of Jupiter, and king of the Lycians; an ally
of Troy slain by Patroclus, friend of Achilles.

[42] 4:18. =Simois.= The famous river that flows by Troy.

    “And Simoïs, in whose bed lay many shields
    And helms and bodies of slain demigods.”

                                —HOMER, _Iliad_.

[43] 4:23. =Stars.= Hyperbole; cf.—

    “The chidden billow seems to pelt the clouds;
    The wind-shaked surge, with high and monstrous mane,
    Seems to cast water on the burning Bear
    And quench the guards of the ever-fixed pole.”

                                 —SHAKESPEARE, _Othello_.

[44] 4:26. =Crest.=

    “Now quivering o’er the topmost waves she rides
    While deep beneath the enormous gulf divides:
    Now launching headlong down the horrid vale,
    Becalmed she hears no more the howling gale.”

                              —FALCONER, _Shipwreck_.

[45] 4:33. =Syrtes.= Two shallow bays on the north coast of Africa
distinguished as Major and Minor,—dangerous to navigation.

[46] 5:8. =Side-jointings.=

    “The chinks suck destruction. The heavy dead hulk
    On the living sea rolls an inanimate bulk.”

                         —SHELLEY, _Vision of the Sea_.

    “The sides convulsive shook on groaning beams,
    And, rent with labour, yawn’d their pitchy seams.”

                               —FALCONER, _Shipwreck_.

[47] 5:11. =Neptune.= God of the sea,—brother of Juno.

[48] 5:22. =Confound.=

              “I heard the wrack,
    As earth and sky would mingle.”

          —MILTON, _Paradise Lost_.

    “While oft in whirls the mad tornado flies,
    Mingling the ravaged landscape with the skies.”

                    —GOLDSMITH, _Deserted Village_.

[49] 5:29. =Eurus.= The east wind. It is the poet’s way to single out one
wind and use it as general word for winds. One example of the use of the
specific for the generic.

[50] 5:33. =Routs.=

    “Thou frownest, and old Æolus thy foe
    Skulks to his cavern, ’mid the gruff complaint
    Of all his rebel tempests. Dark clouds faint
    When, from thy diadem, a silver gleam
    Slants over blue dominion.”

                                 —KEATS, _Endymion_.

[51] 5:34. =Cymothoë and Triton.= Lesser sea deities.

    “From thy dead lips a clearer note is born
    Than ever Triton blew from wreathèd horn.”

                  —HOLMES, _Chambered Nautilus_.

[52] 5:37. =Trident.=

    “It seem’d as there the British Neptune stood,
    With all his hosts of waters at command,
    Beneath them to submit th’ officious flood;
    And with his trident shov’d them off the sand.”

                        —DRYDEN, _Annus Mirabilis_.

[53] 6:4. =Weapon.=

    “Rage prompted them at length, and found them arms
    Against such hellish mischief fit to oppose.”

                               —MILTON, _Paradise Lost_.

[54] 6:15. =Haven.=

                          “It was a still
    And calmy bay, on the one side sheltered
    With the brode shadow of an hoarie hill;
    On th’ other side an high rock towred still,
    That twixt them both a pleasaunt port they made,
    And did like an halfe theatre fulfill.”

                           —SPENSER, _Faerie Queene_.

                    “And overhead upgrew
    Insuperable height of loftiest shade,
    Cedar, and pine, and fir, and branching palm,
    A sylvan scene, and as the ranks ascend
    Shade above shade, a woody theatre
    Of stateliest view.”

                         —MILTON, _Paradise Lost_.

    “Its uplands sloping deck the mountain’s side,
    Woods over woods in gay theatric pride.”

                           —GOLDSMITH, _Traveller_.

    “In one they find a lone sequestered place,
    Where, to a crescent curved, the shore extends
    Two moony horns, that in their sweep embrace
    A spacious bay,—a rock the port defends;
    Inward it fronts, and broad to ocean bends
    Its back, whereon each dashing billow dies,
    When the wind rises and the storm descends;
    While here and there two lofty crags arise,
    Whose towers, far out at sea, salute the sailor’s eyes.
    Safe sleep the silent seas beneath; above,
    Black arching woods o’ershade the circled scene:
    Within, a grotto opens, in the grove,
    Pleasant with flowers, with moss, with ivies green,
    And waters warbling in the depths unseen;
    Needed nor twisted rope nor anchor there
    For weary ships.”

                              —TASSO, _Jerusalem Delivered_.

[55] 6:25. =Cable.=

    “And there is a safe haven where no need
    Of cable is; no anchor there is cast,
    Nor hawsers fastened to the strand.”

                            —HOMER, _Odyssey_.

[56] 7:3. =Biremes.= Ships having two tiers of oars.

[57] 7:23. =Scylla.= A sea-monster, residing in a cave in certain rocks,
also called Scylla, between Italy and Sicily. The upper part of this
monster resembled a lovely woman. About the waist was a circle of dogs or
wolves; below was the tail of a dolphin. The wolves reach out and seize
passing ships and drag them on the rocks. Virgil’s Scylla is adopted by
Milton as a description of one of the monsters guarding the gates of Hell.

[58] 7:25. =Cyclops.= Certain giants of cannibal nature who dwelt in
Sicily near Ætna. They had a single large round eye in the middle of the
forehead.

[59] 7:27. =Remembered.=

    “A time will come, not distantly descried,
    When to remember ev’ry past dismay
    Will be no less a pleasure than a pride;
    Hold then courageous on, and keep, I pray,
    Your noble hearts in cheer for that victorious day.”

                          —TASSO, _Jerusalem Delivered_.

[60] 7:33. =Heart-sick.=

    “So spoke the apostate angel, though in pain,
    Vaunting aloud, but racked with deep despair.”

                        —MILTON, _Paradise Lost_.

[61] 8:15. =Ether.=

    “Now had the Almighty Father from above,
    From the pure empyrean where he sits
    High throned above all highth, bent down his eye,
    His own works and their works at once to view.”

                             —MILTON, _Paradise Lost_.

[62] 8:26. =Barred.=

    “In vain—for rude adversity’s command
    Still, on the margin, of each famous land,
    With unrelenting ire his steps opposed,
    And every gate of hope against him closed.”

                        —FALCONER, _Shipwreck_.

[63] 8:37. =Antenor.= Nephew of Priam. After the capture of Troy, he
sailed up the Adriatic Sea, established a new people called the Veneti,
and founded Patavium (Padua).

[64] 9:8. =Arms.=

    “And in thy tempul I wol my banur hong,
    And all the armes of my companye.”

                  —CHAUCER, _Knight’s Tale_.

    “In my heart’s temple I suspend to thee
    These votive wreaths of withered memory.”

                   —SHELLEY, _Epipsychidion_.

[65] 9:13. =Piety.=

    “False Jupiter, rewardst thou virtue so?
    What, is not piety exempt from woe?”

                   —MARLOWE AND NASH, _Dido_.

[66] 9:18. =Cythera.= An island south of Laconia, near which, the
tradition is, Venus rose from the foam of the sea.

[67] 9:20. =Lavinium.= A city of Latium, represented as founded by Æneas
and named by him for his wife Lavinia, daughter of King Latinus. It was
Latinus’ promise of Lavinia to Æneas that caused the wars of the last six
books of the Æneid.

[68] 9:29. =Rutulians.= A Volscian people whose chief city was Antium.
They with their King Turnus were the chief antagonists of Æneas when he
was trying to settle in Italy.

[69] 9:30. =Ascanius.= Son of Æneas.

[70] 9:36. =Hector’s.=

    “There in stout Hector’s race three hundred years
    The Roman sceptre royal shall remain.”

                             —MARLOWE AND NASH, _Dido_.

[71] 10:11. =Assaracus.= A Trojan king of Phrygia; he was grandfather of
Anchises, hence the expression “house of Assaracus” means the descendants
of Æneas. And as the Julian clan was thought to be derived from Iulus,
Æneas’ son, this included Julius Cæsar and his adopted son Augustus.

[72] 10:11. =Phthia.= A city and district in Thessaly, Greece, over
which, it is said, Achilles ruled.

[73] 10:12. =Mycenæ.= A famous city ruled by Agamemnon, in the Morea
(southern Greece).

[74] 10:12. =Argos.= A city of Argolis, in the Peloponnesus. One of
Juno’s favorite cities. So fate wills that the descendants of the Trojans
shall take vengeance for the destruction of Troy on the descendants of
the great Greek leaders.

[75] 10:15. =Stars.=

                        “He shall ascend
    The throne hereditary, and bound his reign
    With Earth’s wide bounds, his glory with the heavens.”

                                 —MILTON, _Paradise Lost_.

[76] 10:19. =War.=

    “All loved virtue, no man was affray’d
    Of force, ne fraud in wight was to be found:
    No warre was known, no dreadfull trompets sound;
    Peace universall rayn’d mongst men and beasts.”

                           —SPENSER, _Faerie Queene_.

    “No war, or battle’s sound
    Was heard the world around;
    The idle spear and shield were high up hung;
    The hookèd chariot stood,
    Unstained with hostile blood;
    The trumpet spake not to the armèd throng,
    And kings sat still with awful eye,
    As if they surely knew their sovran Lord was by.”

                         —MILTON, _Hymn on Nativity_.

[77] 10:20. =Vesta.= Goddess of the hearth.

[78] 10:20. =Quirinus.= Name given to Romulus after he was translated
from earth to heaven. Romulus, the legendary founder of Rome. Cicero
tells us that after his translation, Romulus appeared on the Quirinal
Hill and stated that his name as god was Quirinus, and gave instructions
that a temple should be erected to him on that hill—hence the name of the
hill and the palace, once home of the popes, now of the monarchs of Italy.

[79] 10:26. =Son of Maia.= Mercury, swift-winged messenger of the gods.

    “The Sonne of Maia, soone as he receiv’d
    That word, streight with his azure wings he cleav’d
    The liquid clowdes, and lucid firmament;
    Ne staid, till that he came with steep descent
    Unto the place where his prescript did showe.”

                       —SPENSER, _Mother Hubbard’s Tale_.

[80] 10:28. =Dido.= Daughter of Belus, king of Tyre; widow of Sychæus.
According to story, she led the Phœnician colony to Carthage.

[81] 10:33. =Punic.= Carthaginian. So the three Punic wars of Rome
against Carthage.

[82] 11:17. =Ho.=

    “Ho, young men! saw you, as you came,
    Any of all my sisters wandering here,
    Having a quiver girded to her side,
    And clothed in a spotted leopard’s skin?”

                   —MARLOWE AND NASH, _Dido_.

[83] 11:26. =Goddess.=

                              “Most sure, the goddess
    On whom these airs attend! Vouchsafe my prayer
    May know if you remain upon this island.”

                               —SHAKESPEARE, _Tempest_.

[84] 11:27. =Phœbus’ sister.= Diana, sister of Phœbus Apollo.

[85] 12:1. =Agenor.= Twin brother of Belus and founder of Sidon, from
whom Dido was descended.

[86] 12:18. =Hope.=

    “Poor girl! put on thy stifling widow’s weed,
    And ’scape at once from Hope’s accursed bands,
    To-day thou wilt not see him, nor to-morrow,
    And the next day will be a day of sorrow.”

                                —KEATS, _Isabella_.

[87] 12:33. =Woman.= “Dux femina facti,”—motto on the medal in 1588, in
honor of Elizabeth’s victories over the Spanish Armada. Cf. Kingsley’s
_Westward Ho!_

[88] 12:36. =Byrsa.= A word which in the Carthaginian language meant
citadel, but sounded like a Greek word meaning bull’s hide. From this
confusion, apparently, arose the story that Dido cut a bull’s hide into
very thin strings and so encompassed much ground for her new city.

[89] 13:24. =Breath of life.=

    “So drew mankind in vain _the vital air_,
    Unformed, unfriended by those kindly cares,
    That health and vigor to the soul impart.”

              —GRAY, _Education and Government_.

[90] 13:31. =Jove.=

    “The bird of Jove, stooped from his airy tour.
    Two birds of gayest plume before him drove.”

                          —MILTON, _Paradise Lost_.

[91] 13:36. =Wings.=

    “Around, around in ceaseless circles wheeling
    With clang of wings and scream, the eagle sailed.”

                      —SHELLEY, _The Revolt of Islam_.

    “Whilst with their clang the air resounds.”

                      —WORDSWORTH, _Excursion_.

[92] 14:6. =Walk.=

    “In gliding state she wins her easy way.”

                  —GRAY, _Progress of Poesy_.

[93] 14:18. =Paphos.= A city in Cyprus.

[94] 14:20. =Sabæan incense.= Arabian frankincense.

    “Sabean odoures, from the spicy shore
    Of Arabie the blest.”

                  —MILTON, _Paradise Lost_.

[95] 14:37. =Bees.=

    “All hands employ’d the royal work grows warm:
    Like labouring bees on a long summer’s day.
    Some sound the trumpet for the rest to swarm,
    And some on bells of tasted lilies play;
    With glewy wax some new foundation lay
    Of virgin combs, which from the roof are hung;
    Some arm’d within doors upon duty stay,
    Or tend the sick, or educate the young.”

                        —DRYDEN, _Annus Mirabilis_.

[96] 15:18. =Sidon.= Tyre and Sidon were the chief cities of Phœnicia.
Adjectives formed from them are used interchangeably with Phœnician and
Carthaginian for the sake of variety or to meet metrical requirements.

[97] 15:37. =Tears.=

    “Yet tears to human suffering are due;
    And mortal hopes defeated and o’erthrown
    Are mourned by man.”

                      —WORDSWORTH, _Laodamia_.

            “The Virgilian cry,
    The sense of tears in mortal things.”

        —MATTHEW ARNOLD, _Geist’s Grave_.

    “Thou majestic in thy sadness at the doubtful doom of human kind.”

                                                           —TENNYSON.

[98] 16:4. =Pergamus.= Troy.

[99] 16:12. =Xanthus.= A river near Troy.

[100] 16:13. =Troilus.= Shakespeare’s _Troilus_ draws plot from Chaucer.

[101] 16:19. =Pallas.= Minerva, goddess of wisdom, friend of the Greeks.

[102] 16:32. =Memnon.= Leader of the Æthiopian allies of Troy. Was son of
Tithonus and Aurora.

[103] 16:33. =Penthesilea.= Queen of the Amazons who fought for Troy.
Achilles slew both Memnon and Penthesilea.

[104] 17:6. =Diana.=

    “Such as Diana by the sandy shore
    Of swift Eurotas, or on Cynthus greene,
    Where all the nymphs have her unwares forlore [left],
    Wandreth alone with bow and arrowes keene,
    To seeke her game.”

                                —SPENSER, _Faerie Queene_.

[105] 17:9. =Latona.= Mother of Apollo and Diana. The type of perfect
mother love.

[106] 18:10. =Orion.= A hunter famous in ancient myth, armed with belt
and sword, translated to the heavens as a constellation, thought to bring
storms.

[107] 19:36. =Shone.=

    “When sea-born Venus guided o’er
    Her warrior to the Punic shore,
    Around that radiant head she threw
    In deep’ning clouds ambrosial dew:
    But when the Tyrian queen drew near,
    The light pour’d round him fresh and clear.”

                                       —LANDOR.

    “Not great Æneas stood in plainer day,
    When, the dark mantling mist dissolved away,
    He to the Tyrians showed his sudden face,
    Shining with all his goddess mother’s grace:
    For she herself had made his countenance bright,
    Breathed honor on his eyes, and her own purple light.”

                            —DRYDEN, _Britannia Rediviva_.

[108] 20:4. =Enchased.=

    “Like to a golden border did appeare,
    Framed in goldsmithes forge with cunning hand.”

                         —SPENSER, _Faerie Queene_.

[109] 21:9. =Learning.=

    “Who by the art of known and feeling sorrows,
    Are pregnant to good pity.”

                        —SHAKESPEARE, _King Lear_.

    “What sorrow wast thou had’st her know,
    And from her own she learned to melt at others’ woe.”

                              —GRAY, _Hymn to Adversity_.

[110] 21:30. =Acanthus.= A plant now called bear’s-foot, or
bear’s-breech; grows in southern Europe, Asia Minor, and India. Its leaf
was a common form in embroidery and sculpture, and is well known from
its use in the Corinthian capital.

[111] 21:31. =Helen.= Most beautiful of women, daughter of Jupiter and
Leda, was wife of Menelaus of Sparta. She was carried off by Paris as
Venus’ reward to him for his decision in her favor in the question of the
Golden Apple. This breach of hospitality by Paris was the cause of the
Trojan war.

[112] 22:1. =Cupid.= Son of Venus; god of love.

[113] 22:10. =Typhœan.= Thunderbolts of Jove, called Typhœan because they
slew the giant Typhœus at the time of the great fight for the throne of
heaven between Jupiter and the Olympian gods and “the earth-born Titan
brood.”

    “Phœbus resigns his darts, and Jove
    His thunder to the god of love.”

                   —DENHAM, _Friendship_.

[114] 22:38. =Poison.=

    “Through her bones the false instilled fire
    Did spred it selfe and venime close inspire.”

                       —SPENSER, _Faerie Queene_.

[115] 23:4. =Slumber.=

    “She sent the gentle sleep from Heaven
    That slid into my soul.”

              —COLERIDGE, _Ancient Mariner_.

[116] 23:29. =Gazing.=

    “And her eyes on all my motions with a mute observance hung.”

                                      —TENNYSON, _Locksley Hall_.

[117] 23:35. =Lap.=

    “But both Dione honored they and Cupid,
    That as her mother, this one as her son,
    And said that he had sat in Dido’s lap.”

                         —DANTE, _Paradiso_.

[118] 24:6. =Lamps.=

    “As heaven with stars, the roof with jewels glows,
    And ever-living lamps depend in rows.”

                               —POPE, _Temple of Fame_.

[119] 24:15. =Bacchus.= Son of Jupiter and Semele, god of wine, and, by
metonymy, used to mean wine. (Name of god for his realm, as Vulcan for
fire, etc.).

    “Nor the coy maid, half willing to be prest,
    Shall kiss the cup to pass it to the rest.”

                —GOLDSMITH, _Deserted Village_.

[120] 24:25. =Atlas.= A king of Mauretania; father of the Pleiades; he
supported the heavens on his shoulders. He was skilled in astronomy.
Personification of Mount Atlas.

[121] 24:25. =Song.=

    “He sung the secret seeds of Nature’s frame:
    How seas, and earth, and air, and active flame,
    Fell through the mighty void, and in their fall
    Were blindly gathered in this goodly ball.
    The tender soil, then stiff’ning by degrees,
    Shut from the bounded earth, the bounding seas.
    Then earth and ocean various forms disclose;
    And a new sun to the new world arose;
    And mists, condensed to clouds, obscure the sky,
    And clouds, dissolved, the thirsty ground supply.
    The rising trees the lofty mountains grace;
    The lofty mountains feed the savage race,
    Yet few, and strangers, in th’ unpeopled place.
    From thence the birth of man the song pursued,
    And how the world was lost, and how renewed.”

         —DRYDEN, Translation of Ecl. VI. Cf. Æn. VI.


BOOK II

[122] 26:8. =Myrmidons or the Dolopes.= The soldiers of Achilles, who was
the fiercest of the Greeks.

[123] 26:9. =Ulysses.= King of “Ithaca’s rocky isle,” husband of
“faithful Penelope.” His wanderings are the subject of Homer’s _Odyssey_.
Homer’s stock epithet is “the very crafty.”

[124] 27:18. =Laocoon.= A priest of Apollo appointed to act as priest of
Neptune. The famous group of Laocoon and his two sons in the coils of
the twin serpents, of the Pergamenian type of sculpture, was discovered
in the baths of the Emperor Titus, and stands in the Belvidere of the
Vatican Museum.

[125] 29:8. =Calchas.= Priest of the Greeks.

[126] 29:14. =Sons of Atreus.= Agamemnon, king of Mycenæ,
commander-in-chief of the Greeks, and his brother Menelaus of Sparta,
former husband of Helen.

[127] 29:27. =Phœbus.= Apollo, god of prophecy.

[128] 31:16. =Palladium.= Statue of Pallas, the Greek goddess identified
by the Romans with Minerva, goddess of wisdom, of household arts, and of
war. Also called Tritonia.

[129] 32:7. =Pelops.= Son of Tantalus and father of Atreus. He was served
up as food for the gods by his father, restored to life by Jupiter,
and furnished with an ivory shoulder in place of the one eaten at the
banquet. He gained control of the Peloponnesus, or Morea, which was named
for him. The use here, another case of the specific for the generic, is
in place of Greece itself.

[130] 33:27. =Cassandra.= Daughter of Priam and Hecuba. Priestess of
Apollo. When she offended Apollo, he could not take back the prophetic
power which he had given her, but he decreed that her prophecies should
never be believed.

[131] 34:17. =Hector.= Of this passage Fénelon wrote, “Can one read this
passage without being moved?” Châteaubriand called the scene “a kind of
epitome of Virgil’s genius.”

[132] 35:9. =Vesta.= So Æneas is to be apostle to the heathen. Even the
early Christians reverenced the vestal sisters, prototype of church
sisterhoods. The institution known as the Vestal Virgins was the purest
element of the Roman religion; even emperors intrusted their last wills
to their sacred keeping as the most inviolable of safeguards. Their
convent has recently been excavated near the Roman Forum.

[133] 38:36. =Nereus.= A sea-god, father of the Nereids.

[134] 40:3. =Andromache.= Daughter of King Eëtion, wife of Hector, the
eldest son of Priam and the most famous warrior of the Trojans, finally
slain by Achilles and dragged around the walls of Troy.

[135] 40:17. =Pyrrhus.= Son of Achilles. Also called Neoptolemus. After
fighting in the Trojan war, he founded a kingdom in Epirus.

[136] 41:17. =Hecuba.= Chief wife of Priam. She really was the mother of
nineteen children. Poetic license treats her as the queen mother of all
Priam’s fifty daughters-in-law and fifty daughters, and finally includes
them all under the term daughters-in-law.

[137] 43:13. =Creusa.= Wife of Æneas and mother of Ascanius or Iulus.

[138] 43:21. =Tyndareus.= Father of Helen.

[139] 46:2. =Flame.= In this passage Virgil makes Anchises refer to a
previous capture of Troy by the Greek hero Hercules, at which time King
Laomedon was slain; and, secondly, to Jupiter’s punishment of Anchises
himself for boasting of the love of Venus. Jupiter crippled him by a
thunderbolt.


BOOK III

The time covers about six years. It begins with events immediately
following the fall of Troy, June, B.C. 1184.

[140] 51:7. =Antandros.= A city on the southern side of Mount Ida, near
Troy.

[141] 51:19. =Lycurgus.= An early king of Thrace who stoutly opposed the
introduction of the rites of Bacchus into his realm, was blinded and
afterward destroyed by Jupiter. The present king was Polymnestor, who had
married Priam’s daughter Ilione.

[142] 51:24. =Æneadæ.= Literally, descendants of Æneas, translated by
Conington in Book I, line 157, as “the family of Æneas.” Really used to
mean the “household” of Æneas, or followers of Æneas, nation of Æneas. So
Greek artists of the early time called themselves Dædalides, or followers
of Dædalus. One is reminded of the tale of Jacob with his “household”
meeting Esau with his “household.” Indeed, the Romans themselves were
sometimes called Romulides, followers of Romulus.

[143] 51:25. =Dione.= Mother of Venus.

[144] 52:13. =Gradivus.= Mars, god of war, who decides the issue of all
battles, and goes forth to war with giant strides. Gradivus is derived
from a Latin word meaning to march, Mars was father of Romulus and Remus
by Rhea Sylvia.

[145] 53:11. =Manes.= The souls of the dead, also the spirit or shade of
a single person.

[146] 53:16. =Farewell call.= The cry _valē_, made three times at the
funeral pyre as a final farewell to the dead.

[147] 53:35. =Thymbra.= A city near Troy having a famous temple of Apollo.

[148] 64:35. =Gnossus.= A common name for Crete, from one of its towns.

[149] 55:4. =Idomeneus.= A king of Crete, leader of the Cretan forces
against Troy. On his return to Crete, in accordance with a vow, he
sacrificed his son to the gods. Because of the pestilence that followed
this act, the Cretans banished Idomeneus.

[150] 56:17. =Hesperia.= Land of the evening star, or western land,
Italy. Also called Ausonia.

[151] 56:25. =Corythus.= Legendary ancestor of the Trojans.

[152] 56:26. =Dicte.= A mountain in the eastern part of Crete.

[153] 57:32. =Celæno.= Queen of the Harpies, which were foul winged
monsters described as daughters of Electra and Oceanus.

[154] 57:33. =Phineus.= King of Salmydessus in Thrace. He put out the
eyes of his son, and so was himself blinded by the gods, and the Harpies
were sent to torment him by carrying off or defiling all his food. The
house of Phineus was shut to the Harpies when they were driven off by the
Argonauts.

[155] 59:5. =Tables.= Not so dreadful a portent as it seemed. See page
153.

[156] 59:18. =Zacynthos.= The island Zante.

[157] 59:29. =Actium.= Actium is introduced here because of the
epoch-making battle of Actium between Augustus and Antony, and the fact
that Augustus, after the victory, initiated games there.

[158] 60:5. =Phæacian.= The island Corfu.

[159] 61:4. =Daughter.= Polyxene, sacrificed at the tomb of Achilles.

[160] 61:11. =Hermione.= Granddaughter of Leda, daughter of Menelaus and
Helen; had been betrothed in Menelaus’ absence to Orestes. Menelaus, not
knowing this, gave her to Pyrrhus Neoptolemus, Achilles’ son.

[161] 61:36. =Scæan gate.= Famous gate of Troy.

[162] 63:4. =Circe.= The famous sorceress, who by her magic cake turned
men into animals. She was called Ææan, from Æa, a city in Colchis, in
Asia Minor, famous for its magic. Circe came from Colchis. Her island is
fabled to have become a promontory of Latium.

[163] 64:5. =Scylla and Charybdis.= Whirlpools, bordering the straits of
Messina, dangerous to the ancient navigator. This is the description of
Scylla used by Milton in describing one of the guardians of the gate of
Hell.

[164] 64:15. =Trinacrian.= Sicilian. The word is of Greek origin, and
signifies triangular, referring to the contour of Sicily. Pachynus itself
was the southeastern point of Sicily, the modern Capo di Passaro.

[165] 66:8. =Astyanax.= Son of Hector and Andromache, who perished in the
sack of Troy.

[166] 67:8. =Aurora.= Goddess of the dawn. Wife of Tithonus.

[167] 68:32. =Enceladus.= One of the giants who was defeated by Jupiter
and imprisoned in a burning cave beneath Mount Ætna. See Longfellow’s
_Enceladus_.

    “Under Mount Etna he lies,
    It is slumber, it is not death;
    For he struggles at times to arise,
    And above him the lurid skies
    Are hot with his fiery breath.”

All this region, as has been newly shown by the late terrible earthquake,
is peculiarly subject to seismic disturbances.

[168] 72:17. =Arethusa.= According to fable, pursued by Alpheus,
river-god of Elis in Greece, was turned into a subterranean river, still
pursued by the river-god under the Ægean until she emerged harmoniously
blent with her pursuer in the famous fountain of Ortygia. Shelley uses
the legend as follows in his _Arethusa_:—

      “And now from their fountains
      In Enna’s mountains,
    Down one vale where the morning basks,
      Like friends once parted
      Grown single-hearted,
    They ply their watery tasks.
      At sunrise they leap
      From their cradles steep
    In the cave of the shelving hill;
      At noontide they flow
      Through the woods below
    And the meadows of asphodel;
      And at night they sleep
      In the rocking deep
    Beneath the Ortygian shore:—
      Like spirits that lie
      In the azure sky
    Where they love but live no more.”


BOOK IV

This portion of the _Æneid_ was written when the memory of Antony and
Cleopatra was still fresh, and many traits of royal, imperious Dido seem
suggestive of the Egyptian queen. Cf. Shakespeare’s _Cleopatra_, and
Chaucer’s _Legend of Good Women_.

[169] 74:8. =Dawn-goddess.= Aurora, with Phœbus’ torch. Apollo is
constantly identified with the sun-god.

[170] 75:3. =Erebus.= God of darkness, son of Chaos and brother of Night.
Synonymous with darkness, especially that of the underworld.

[171] 76:5. =Lyæus.= Bacchus. As the god that makes men unbend and frees
them from care, he is called Father Lyæus.

[172] 78:9. =Hymen.= God of marriage.

[173] 79:24. =Fame.= Cf. Bacon, _Fragment of an Essay of Fame_. “The
poets make Fame a monster. They describe her in part finely and
elegantly, and in part gravely and sententiously. They say, look how many
feathers she hath, so many eyes she hath underneath; so many tongues; so
many voices; she pricks up so many ears. This is a flourish; there follow
excellent parables; as that she gathereth strength in going; that she
goeth upon the ground, and yet hideth her head in the clouds, that in the
day-time she sitteth in a watch-tower, and flieth most by night; that she
mingleth things done with things not yet done, and that she is a terror
to great cities.”

[174] 79:31. =Cœus.= One of the Titans; was father of Latona.

[175] 80:34. =Mæonian cap.= Mæonia, part of Lydia, Asia Minor. Since
Lydia and Phrygia were adjacent, Mæonian = Phrygian = Trojan.

[176] 81:15. =The laws.= Rome, the world’s lawgiver.

[177] 83:18. =Mænad.= Mænads, or Bacchantes, women worshipping Bacchus in
wild and orgiastic fashion in the woods or on mountain slopes of Cithæron.

[178] 84:19. =Elissa.= Dido.

[179] 84:31. =Grynean.= Refers to oracle of Apollo at Gryneum.

[180] 89:29. =Hecate.= Diana, moon-goddess, is identified with Hecate,
also moon-goddess. As goddess of cross-roads, Hecate was called Trivia,
and is represented by three statues standing back to back. Hecate is
especially a goddess of the underworld and of witchcraft.

[181] 90:28. =Laomedon.= The father of Priam. He was notorious for his
trickery and broken promises. Hence Trojans in a derogatory, scornful
sense were termed race of Laomedon.

[182] 91:38. =Tithonus.= Son of Laomedon, husband of Aurora.

[183] 95:10. =Iris.= Goddess of the rainbow, the messenger of Juno.

[184] 95:14. =Proserpine.= Daughter of Ceres, wife of Pluto, and hence
queen of underworld.


BOOK V

Æneas sees the flames of Dido’s pyre and guesses their meaning. In
Sicily, he institutes funeral games to Anchises. Compare funeral games
of Patroclus in 23d book of _Iliad_. The contest of the ships and the
equestrian exhibition are wholly original, however. The burning of the
fleet was part of an old Trojan legend.

[185] 99:8. =Acheron’s prison.= The underworld.

[186] 99:14. =Phaethon.= The sun-god.

[187] 99:23. =Talent.= A weight, not coin, of silver or gold. The Attic
silver talent was worth over $1000.

[188] 103:2. =Feel that they are thought strong.= The translation here
is poor, the correct rendering being, “They can, because they think they
can.” Virgil’s is a classical expression of the power of belief.

[189] 103:12. =Portunus=, a god of harbors, is here associated with the
other divinities of the deep.

[190] 103:24. =The royal boy.= Ganymede, a favorite subject of art.

[191] 106:38. =Amycus.= A famous boxer of Bebrycii killed by Pollux.

[192] 107:35. =Eryx.= A Sicilian king, son of Venus; was killed by
Hercules in a boxing contest.

[193] 113:8. =Labyrinth in Crete.= The Labyrinth, a maze built by Dædalus
for King Minos at Gnossus in Crete to contain the Minotaur.

[194] 113:25. =Solemn.= Sacred festival, required each year.

[195] 117:20. =Dis.= Ruler of the underworld, variously called Orcus,
Acheron, Erebus, Avernus. Dis, or Pluto, brother of Jupiter, is called
Jupiter Stygius.

[196] 117:22. =Tartarus.= The abode of the wicked in the underworld.

[197] 117:24. =Elysium.= The abode of the good in the underworld.

[198] 120:11. =Glaucus.= A prophetic sea-god, said to be completely
incrusted by “shellfish, seaweed, and stones,” so that he is used by
Plato (_Rep._ X, p. 116) as the image of a soul incrusted with sin.

[199] 120:12. =Ino’s Palæmon.= Ino with his son Palæmon were transformed
into sea divinities. The following names are of sea divinities.

[200] 121:7. =Lethe.= A river of the underworld whose waters bring
forgetfulness. Styx. The main river in the underworld.

[201] 121:17. =Sirens’ isle.= The Sirens were monsters with heads of
women and bodies of birds who dwelt on some rocks off the Campanian
coast, by the bay of Naples. Their sweet singing enticed mariners on to
the rocks to be destroyed.

[202] 121:24. =Naked corpse.= Burial thought essential to spirit’s peace.


BOOK VI

Visit of Æneas to Anchises in the world of the dead. Much of the
philosophy is Stoic pantheism. The theory of the vision appears to
include the Pythagorean doctrine of metempsychosis. Ulysses in _Odyssey_,
Book XI, visited the world of shades.

[203] 122:11. =Sibyl.= Through the Cumæan Sibyl, Deïphobe, as the guide
of Æneas through the lower world, Virgil exalts the use of the Sibylline
Books in the Roman religion. It is interesting to note that the position
given the Sibyl, as guide of Æneas, Dante in turn gives to Virgil as his
own guide in the lower world.

[204] 122:24. =Sons of Cecrops.= The Athenians yearly surrendered seven
youths and seven maidens to be sent to Crete to be devoured by the
Minotaur, because the Athenians, through envy of his success in the
public games, had murdered Androgeus, son of Minos, king of Crete, and
Minos had made this the condition of peace.

[205] 122:31. =The edifice= is the Labyrinth, in which the Minotaur was
confined.

[206] 123:5. =Icarus.= Son of Dædalus, who sought to escape with his
father from Crete, but flew so near the sun that the wax by which his
wings were fastened on was melted, and he fell and perished in the sea
called from his name Icarian.

[207] 123:35. =Dardan.= Trojan. The Trojans are called by Virgil
sometimes descendants of Dardanus, sometimes of Laomedon, sometimes of
Anchises, again of Æneas, now Teucrians, and now Phrygians.

[208] 123:36. =Æacides.= A patronymic, applied by Virgil, now to
Achilles, as here, now to Pyrrhus Neoptolemus, meaning descendant of
Æacus.

[209] 124:35. =Dorian.= Greek.

[210] 125:36. =Alcides.= Hercules.

[211] 126:10. =Cocytus.= A river of the underworld.

[212] 127:29. =Fissile.= Easy to split.

[213] 129:19. =Aornos.= Greek word, meaning without birds.

[214] 129:28. =Furies.= The Furies were the goddesses of Vengeance, named
Allecto, Megæra, and Tisiphonë.

[215] 130:31. =Briareus.= Giant, son of Earth.

[216] 130:31. =Lerna.= A lake and marsh near Argos in Greece. Here dwelt
the Hydra, a nine-headed monster, whose breath was poisonous. Hercules
finally slew it. Possibly an idealized tradition of the draining of the
marsh Lerna.

[217] 130:32. =Chimæra.= A fabulous monster which breathed forth fire.
In front it was a lion, in the hinder part a dragon, and in the middle a
goat. The monster was slain by Bellerophon.

[218] 130:33. =Gorgons.= Three mythical women of Libya, having some
resemblance to the Furies. The chief was Medusa, slain by Perseus. Her
head with serpent hair was placed in the shield or Ægis of Jove and
Minerva.

[219] 134:31. =Cerberus.= Three-headed dog that guarded the entrance to
the underworld.

[220] 136:10. =Minos.= King of Crete; after death became one of the
judges in the underworld.

[221] 136:19. =Marpessa.= The mountain in Paros which contained the
famous marble quarries, Marpesian, Parian.

[222] 138:12. =Æolus.= Ulysses was descended from Æolus.

[223] 140:20. =Ixion.= Ixion was father of Pirithous, king of the
Lapithæ. Examples of men who have incurred the wrath of the gods.

[224] 141:31. =Priest.= Orpheus. Legendary poet and musician. ’Twas he
who so charmed Proserpine that she allowed him to lead forth from the
lower world his wife Eurydice.

[225] 142:9. =Eridanus.= A river issuing from the underworld,
variously identified by ancient writers with the Po, the Rhine, or the
Rhone,—usually with the Po.

[226] 143:26. =Lethe.= Quaffing its waters brought forgetfulness. See
page 144.

[227] 146:1. =Berecyntian mother.= Cybele, a Phrygian goddess, worshipped
as mother of the gods. So called from Berecyntus, a mountain in Phrygia,
sacred to Cybele.

[228] 146:37. =Fasces.= The bundles of rods from which an axe protruded,
carried by the lictor before certain magistrates when they appeared in
public. Symbol of authority.

[229] 147:5. =Drusi.= A Roman family mentioned here in compliment to
their descendent Livia, wife of Augustus.

[230] 147:5. =Decii.= The Decii, father, son, and grandson, solemnly
devoted themselves to death, each to win a doubtful battle, in the wars
of the Latins, of the Samnites, and of Pyrrhus respectively.

[231] 147:5. =Torquatus.= (T. Manlius) won his title (with a gold
neck-chain) by slaying a gigantic Gaul.

[232] 147:6. =Camillus=, returning from banishment, drove back the
victorious Gauls, winning back the captured standards.

[233] 147:12. =Father-in-law and son-in-law.= Cæsar and Pompey.

[234] 147:30. =Fabii.= Quintus Fabius wore out the strength of Hannibal,
constantly refusing to be drawn into a pitched battle. Hence “Fabian
policy” means delay.

[235] 148:10. =Quirinus.= Romulus.

[236] 149:7. =Laurentian.= Laurentum, a town on the coast of Latium, a
city of King Latinus.

[237] 149:14. =Gate of ivory.=

    “A recent writer has reminded us that dreams after midnight
    were accounted true both by the Greeks and the Romans. Hence
    he concluded that Virgil, in making Æneas issue by the gate
    of false dreams, is indicating that Æneas comes forth from
    the underworld before midnight. As to the time of Æneas’ stay
    in the lower world see lines 255, 535-539. He is in the land
    of the shades from dawn until nearly midnight.”—KNAPP.

    “By those who think this book a symbolic exhibition of certain
    mysteries, the legend of the Gate, with the dismissal of Æneas
    from the ivory one, is considered a warning that the language
    may not be taken literally, or understood except by the
    initiated.”—GREENOUGH.

    “Anchises conducts Æneas and the Sibyl to the ivory gate as
    the one which affords the easiest and quickest ascent to the
    upper world. They are thus saved the toil of ascending by the
    way they came, which, according to the words of the Sibyl, 128,
    129, would have been a work of great labor.”—FRIEZE.


BOOK VII

Arrival of Æneas in Latium and commencement of hostilities between the
Latins and Trojans.

[238] 150:1. =Caieta.= Æneas buries his nurse on a promontory of Latium
which he called after her—now called Gaeta.

[239] 151:8. =Erato.= Name of one of the Muses.

[240] 151:14. =Tyrrhenian.= The Tyrrheni were a people of Asia who had
settled in Etruria, a district north of Italy. Hence used synonymously
for Etrurian, Tuscan—Italian. Œnotrian is still another term.

[241] 151:29. =Turnus.= Son of Daunus and the nymph Venilia, was king
of the Rutulians, a people of Latium. He led the Italian forces against
Æneas, but was at last slain by Æneas in single combat, as described in
the last of Book XII.

[242] 153:19. =The eating of tables= was foretold by the Harpy and
Anchises, in Book III, page 59.

[243] 159:19. =Bellona.= Goddess of war and bloodshed, an old Italian
deity—sister of Mars.

[244] 159:26. =Allecto.= One of the Furies. Her sisters were Megæra and
Tisiphonë.

[245] 160:11. =Amata.= Queen of Latium, wife of King Latinus.

[246] 165:15-17. =Trivia’s lake= (= Diana’s), =Nar=, =Veline=.

    “The lake of Diana on the Alban Mount, far to the southeast of
    the Tiber, and the Nar and Velinus far to the northeast, i.e.
    the whole country around heard the sound. The lake of Diana is
    now called Lake Nemi, near Ariccia, 15 miles south of Rome. The
    river Nar runs between Umbria and the Sabine country, and falls
    into the Tiber. The lake Velinus was produced by the overflow
    of the river Velinus and was led into the Nar by a channel cut
    through a ledge of rock by the consul M. Curius Denatus, B.C.
    270. This produced the celebrated fall of Terni.”—FRIEZE.

[247] 168:7. =Janus.= An Italian god of beginnings and
gateways—two-headed, since gates fall two ways. Is especially the
guardian of the gates of the temple of war.

[248] 168:10. =Gabine cincture.= A peculiar way of adjusting the toga.

[249] 169:6 to 175:18. For this portion, omitted in the prose version, we
use Conington’s verse translation.


BOOK VIII

Alliance of Æneas and Evander. Vulcan makes a shield for Æneas.

[250] 179:9. =Amphitryon’s child.= Hercules—the stepson of Amphitryon.

[251] 180:12. =Maia.= Daughter of Atlas.

[252] 181:3. =Pheneus.= A town of Arcadia.

[253] 182:8. =Geryon.= A giant monster of Gades (Cadiz) in Spain, the
keeper of beautiful cattle. He was slain by Hercules, who took the cattle
across the Alps to the valley of the Tiber.

[254] 182:36. =Tiryns.= In Argolis, the early home of Hercules.

[255] 186:2. =Hests.= Commands.

[256] 186:22. =Ægis.= Famous shield of Jupiter (worn also by Minerva),
bearing in the centre the baneful head of the Gorgon Medusa. The Ægis
when shaken wrought terror and dismay on the wearer’s foes. The shaking
was accompanied by thunder and lightning—thus the Ægis was the symbol of
the whirlwind that drives the storm-cloud.

[257] 189:19. =Lemnos.= An island in the Ægean Sea, the home of Vulcan.

[258] 194:21. =Cuishes.= Greaves, or leg coverings.

[259] 198:12. =Cocles.= Horatius. See Macaulay’s _Lays of Ancient Rome_.

[260] 196:19. =Egyptian spouse.= Cleopatra.

[261] 196:31. =Anubis.= An Egyptian god, with a dog’s head.

[262] 196:34. =Mavors.= Mars.

[263] 197:2. =Saba.= In Arabia.


BOOK IX

The attack of Turnus on the Trojan camp.

[264] 198:5. =Child.= Iris.

[265] 198:29. =Messapus.= A Tyrrhenian chief whose followers are from
Fescennium and other places on the right bank of the Tiber. See Book VII.

[266] 203:19. =Wont.= Were wont.

[267] 212:5. =Ravin.= Ravages.

[268] 217:12. =Kid-stars.= The Kids were two stars in the hand of Auriga,
the setting of which in December was attended with heavy rains.

[269] 217:24. =Padus.= The Po.

[270] 217:24. =Athesis.= A river in northern Italy, now the Adige.

[271] 218:22. =Prochyta.= A small island off the west of Campania, near
the promontory of Micenum.

[272] 218:23. =Inarime.= An island off the Campanian coast, now Ischia.


BOOK X

Council of the gods.

[273] 226:12. =Terebinth.= Turpentine tree.

[274] 227:3. =Helicon.= A mountain of Bœotia sacred to Apollo and the
Muses.


BOOK XI

Funeral honors to the dead. The truce broken by renewal of hostilities.

[275] 257:27. =Arpi.= A town of Apulia.

[276] 268:5. =The pillars of Proteus= are the island of Pharos and the
coast of Egypt, whither Menelaus was driven.

[277] 258:8. =Monarch of Mycenæ.= Agamemnon.

[278] 262:16. =Myrmidons.= See page 325.

[279] 263:11. =Camilla.= A warrior princess of the Volsci.

[280] 264:10. =Coras.= See page 170.

[281] 265:4. =Champaign.= Plain.


BOOK XII

Final conflict between Æneas and Turnus.

[282] 279:29. =Orichalc.= Copper.

[283] 280:24. =Vervain.= Verbena, leafy twig, sacred bough (of laurel,
olive, myrtle, or cypress).

[284] 288:18. =Dittany.= Herb growing on Mount Dicte in Crete.

[285] 288:24. =Ambrosia.= Sustenance of immortal life, food of the gods,
as nectar is their drink.

[286] 296:12. =Holms.= Oaks, holm-oak, “great scarlet oak.”

[287] 303:16. =Soul.= Cf. the Emperor Hadrian’s _Address to his Soul_,
translated by Byron, Prior, Pope, Merivale, Carnarvon, etc.

    “Soul of mine, pretty one, flitting one,
      Guest and partner of my clay,
      Whither wilt thou hie away,—
    Pallid one, rigid one, naked one—
      Never to play again, never to play?”

                               —MERIVALE.

    “Yes, thou goest, Spirit—yes,
    In thy paleness, nakedness—
      Mirth is banished,
      Jest hath vanished
    Into gloom and dreariness.”

                      —CARNARVON.

    “Wee wan’erin’ winsome elf, my saul,
    Thou’s made this clay long hoose an’ hall,
    But whar, oh whar art now to dwall,
      Thy bield now bare?
    Gaun’ flickterin’ feckless, shiverin’ caul,
      Nae cantrips mair.”

=Transcriber’s Note:= Endnotes indicated by [o] are missing.





INDEX TO NOTES


  Acanthus, 322.

  Acheron’s prison, 333.

  Achilles, 309.

  Actium, 329.

  Æacides, 311, 335.

  Ægis, 340.

  Æneadæ, 327.

  Æneas, 311.

  Æolia, 309.

  Æolus, 310, 336.

  Agenor, 319.

  Ajax, 309.

  Alba, 306.

  Alcides, 335.

  Allecto, 339.

  Amata, 339.

  Ambrosia, 342.

  Amphitryon’s child, 340.

  Amycus, 333.

  Andromache, 326.

  Antandros, 327.

  Antenor, 316.

  Anubis, 340.

  Aornos, 335.

  Arethusa, 330.

  Argos, 307, 317.

  ARIOSTO, 305, 311.

  Arms, 305, 316.

  ARNOLD (Matthew), 321.

  Arpi, 342.

  Ascanius, 317.

  Assaracus, 317.

  Astyanax, 329.

  Athesis, 341.

  Atlas, 324.

  Atreus, sons of, 325.

  Aurora, 330.


  Bacchus, 324.

  BACON, 331.

  Barred, 316.

  Bees, 320.

  Bellona, 339.

  Berecyntian mother, 337.

  Bidding, 310.

  Biremes, 315.

  Bond, 310.

  Breath of life, 319.

  Briareus, 336.

  Byrsa, 319.


  Cable, 315.

  Caieta, 338.

  Calchas, 325.

  Camilla, 342.

  Camillus, 337.

  CARNARVON, 343.

  Cassandra, 326.

  Cavern, 309.

  Cecrops, sons of, 335.

  Celæno, 328.

  Cerberus, 336.

  Champaign, 342.

  CHAUCER, 316.

  Child, 341.

  Chilled, 311.

  Chimæra, 336.

  Circe, 329.

  Cocles, 340.

  Cocytus, 335.

  Cœus, 332.

  COLERIDGE, 323.

  Confound, 312.

  CONINGTON (verse), 339.

  Coras, 342.

  Corythus, 328.

  Crest, 312.

  Creusa, 326.

  Cuishes, 340.

  Cupid, 323.

  Cyclops, 315.

  Cymothoë and Triton, 313.

  Cythera, 316.


  Danaan, 308.

  DANTE, 324.

  Dardan, 335.

  Daughter, 329.

  Dawn-goddess, 331.

  Daylight, 310.

  Decii, 337.

  DENHAM, 323.

  Diana, 321.

  Dicte, 328.

  Dido, 318.

  Dione, 327.

  Dis, 333.

  Dittany, 342.

  Dorian, 335.

  Drusi, 337.

  DRYDEN, 313, 320, 322, 324.


  Eating of tables, 329, 339.

  Edifice, 335.

  Egyptian spouse, 340.

  Elissa, 332.

  Elysium, 334.

  Enceladus, 330.

  Enchased, 322.

  Erato, 338.

  Erebus, 331.

  Eridanus, 337.

  Eryx, 333.

  Ether, 315.

  Eurus, 313.


  Fabii, 337.

  FALCONER, 312, 316.

  Fate’s, 307.

  Fall, 310.

  Fame, 331.

  Farewell call, 328.

  Fasces, 337.

  Father-in-law and Son-in-law, 337.

  Feel that they are thought strong, 333.

  Fissile, 335.

  Flame, 327.

  FRIEZE, 338.

  Furies, 336.


  Gabine cincture, 339.

  Ganymede, 308.

  Gate of ivory, 338.

  Gazing, 323.

  Geryon, 340.

  Glaucus, 334.

  Gnossus, 328.

  Goddess, 319.

  GOLDSMITH, 313, 314, 324.

  Gorgons, 336.

  Gradivus, 327.

  GRAY, 319, 320, 322.

  GREENOUGH, 338.

  Grynean, 332.


  Hate, 306.

  Haven, 314.

  Heart-sick, 315.

  Hecate, 332.

  Hector, 311, 317, 326.

  Hecuba, 326.

  Helen, 323.

  Helicon, 341.

  Hermione, 329.

  Hesperia, 328.

  Hests, 340.

  Ho, 318-319.

  HOLMES, 313.

  Holms, 342.

  HOMER, 305, 308, 311, 312, 315.

  Hope, 319.

  Hymen, 331.


  Icarus, 335.

  Idomeneus, 328.

  Ilion, 310.

  Inarime, 341.

  Ino’s Palæmon, 334.

  Iris, 332.

  Ixion, 336.


  Janus, 339.

  Jove, 309, 320.

  Juno, 306.


  KEATS, 313, 319.

  Kid-stars, 341.

  KNAPP, 338.


  Labyrinth in Crete, 333.

  Lamps, 324.

  LANDOR, 322.

  Laocoon, 325.

  Laomedon, 332.

  Lap, 323.

  Latian, 306.

  Latona, 321.

  Laurentian, 337.

  Lavinium, 316.

  Laws, 332.

  Learning, 322.

  Lemnos, 340.

  Lerna, 336.

  Lethe, 334, 337.

  Libya, 307.

  LONGFELLOW, 330.

  Lyæus, 331.

  Lycurgus, 327.


  Mænad, 332.

  Mæonian cap, 332.

  Maia, 318, 340.

  Manes, 328.

  MARLOWE, 316, 317, 319.

  Marpessa, 336.

  Mavors, 341.

  Memnon, 321.

  MERIVALE, 343.

  Messapus, 341.

  MILTON, 305, 306, 307, 309, 310, 313, 314, 315, 317, 318, 320.

  Minos, 336.

  Monarch of Mycenæ, 342.

  Much, 306.

  Muse, 306.

  Mycenæ, 317, 342.

  Myrmidons, 325, 342.


  Naked Corpse, 334.

  NASH, 316, 317, 319.

  Neptune, 312.

  Nereus, 326.


  Orichalc, 342.

  Orion, 322.


  Padus, 341.

  Palladium, 325.

  Pallas, 309, 321.

  Paphos, 320.

  Paris, 307.

  Pelops, 325.

  Penthesilea, 321.

  Pergamus, 321.

  Phæacian, 329.

  Phaethon, 333.

  Pheneus, 340.

  Phineus, 328.

  Phœbus, 325.

  Phœbus’ sister, 319.

  Phthia, 317.

  Piety, 316.

  Proteus, pillars of, 342.

  Poison, 323.

  POPE, 306, 324.

  Portunus, 333.

  Priest, 336.

  Prochyta, 341.

  Proserpine, 332.

  Punic, 318.

  Pyrrhus, 326.


  Quirinus, 318, 337.


  Ravin, 341.

  Remembered, 315.

  Rock’s, 309.

  Routs, 313.

  Royal boy, 333.

  Rush forth, 310.

  Rutulians, 316.


  Saba, 341.

  Sabæan incense, 320.

  Samos, 307.

  Sarpedon, 312.

  Saturn, 307.

  Scæan gate, 329.

  Scylla, 315.

  Scylla and Charybdis, 329.

  SHAKESPEARE, 312, 319, 322.

  SHELLEY, 309, 312, 316, 320, 330.

  Shone, 322.

  Side-jointings, 312.

  Sibyl, 334.

  Sidon, 320.

  Simois, 312.

  Sirens’ isle, 334.

  Slumber, 323.

  Solemn, 333.

  Song, 324.

  Soul, 342.

  SPENSER, 306, 307, 308, 310, 314, 317, 318, 321, 322, 323.

  Stars, 312, 317.

  Styx, 334.

  Syrtes, 312.


  Talent, 333.

  Tartarus, 334.

  TASSO, 305, 310, 314, 315.

  Tears, 321.

  TENNYSON, 308, 310, 321, 323.

  Terebinth, 341.

  Teucrians, 309.

  Thrice, 311.

  Thymbra, 328.

  Tiryns, 340.

  Tithonus, 332.

  Torquatus, 337.

  Trident, 313.

  Trinacrian, 329.

  Trivia’s lake, 339.

  Troilus, 321.

  Troy, 306.

  Turnus, 339.

  Tydeus’ son, 311.

  Tyndareus, 327.

  Typhœan, 323.

  Tyre, 306.

  Tyrrhene Sea, 310.

  Tyrrhenian, 338.


  Ulysses, 325.


  Vervain, 342.

  Vesta, 318, 326.


  Walk, 320.

  WALLER, 311.

  War, 307, 317.

  Weapon, 313.

  Wings, 320.

  Woman, 319.

  Wont, 341.

  WORDSWORTH, 320, 321.


  Xanthus, 321.


  Zacynthos, 329.

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