1
Virgil : The Aeneid 2
Translated by A. S. Kline 2002 All Rights Reserved3
This work MAY be FREELY reproduced, stored and transmitted, electronically or otherwise, for any NON-COMMERCIAL purpose.4
This and other texts available at www.tonykline.co.uk5
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Contents7
BkI:1-11 Invocation to the Muse 98
BkI:12-49 The Anger of Juno 99
BkI:50-80 Juno Asks Aeolus for Help 1010
BkI:81-123 Aeolus Raises the Storm 1111
BkI:124-156 Neptune Intervenes 1212
BkI:157-222 Shelter on the Libyan Coast 1313
BkI:223-256 Venus Intercedes with Jupiter 1514
BkI:257-296 Jupiter’s Prophecy 1615
BkI:297-371 Venus Speaks to Aeneas 1716
BkI:372-417 She Directs Him to Dido’s Palace 1917
BkI:418-463 The Temple of Juno 2118
BkI:464-493 The Frieze 2219
BkI:494-519 The Arrival of Queen Dido 2320
BkI:520-560 Ilioneus Asks Her Assistance 2421
BkI:561-585 Dido Welcomes the Trojans 2522
BkI:586-612 Aeneas Makes Himself Known 2623
BkI:613-656 Dido Receives Aeneas 2624
BkI:657-694 Cupid Impersonates Ascanius 2825
BkI:695-722 Cupid Deceives Dido 2926
BkI:723-756 Dido Asks for Aeneas’s Story 3027
BkII:1-56 The Trojan Horse: Laocoön’s Warning 3228
BkII:57-144 Sinon’s Tale 3329
BkII:145-194 Sinon Deludes the Trojans 3630
BkII:195-227 Laocoön and the Serpents 3731
BkII:228-253 The Horse Enters Troy 3832
BkII:254-297 The Greeks Take the City 3933
BkII:298-354 Aeneas Gathers his Comrades 4034
BkII:355-401 Aeneas and his Friends Resist 4235
BkII:402-437 Cassandra is Taken 4336
BkII:438-485 The Battle for the Palace 4437
BkII:486-558 Priam’s Fate 4538
BkII:559-587 Aeneas Sees Helen 4739
BkII:588-623 Aeneas is Visited by his Mother Venus 4840
BkII:624-670 Aeneas Finds his Family 4941
BkII:671-704 The Omen 5142
BkII:705-729 Aeneas and his Family Leave Troy 5243
BkII:730-795 The Loss of Creusa 5344
BkII:796-804 Aeneas Leaves Troy 5445
BkIII:1-18 Aeneas Sails to Thrace 5646
BkIII:19-68 The Grave of Polydorus 5647
BkIII:69-120 The Trojans Reach Delos 5848
BkIII:121-171 The Plague and a Vision 5949
BkIII:172-208 The Trojans Leave Crete for Italy 6150
BkIII:209-277 The Harpies 6251
BkIII:278-293 The Games at Actium 6452
BkIII:294-355 Andromache in Chaonia 6453
BkIII:356-462 The Prophecy of Helenus 6654
BkIII:463-505 The Departure from Chaonia 6955
BkIII:506-547 In Sight of Italy 7056
BkIII:548-587 The Approach to Sicily 7157
BkIII:588-654 Achaemenides 7258
BkIII:655-691 Polyphemus 7459
BkIII:692-718 The Death of Anchises 7560
BkIV:1-53 Dido and Anna Discuss Aeneas 7761
BkIV:54-89 Dido in Love 7862
BkIV:90-128 Juno and Venus 7963
BkIV:129-172 The Hunt and the Cave 8064
BkIV:173-197 Rumour Reaches Iarbas 8265
BkIV:198-218 Iarbas Prays to Jupiter 8266
BkIV:219-278 Jupiter Sends Mercury to Aeneas 8367
BkIV:279-330 Dido Accuses Aeneas 8568
BkIV:331-361 Aeneas Justifies Himself 8669
BkIV:362-392 Dido’s Reply 8770
BkIV:393-449 Aeneas Departs 8871
BkIV:450-503 Dido Resolves to Die 9072
BkIV:504-553 Dido Laments 9173
BkIV:554-583 Mercury Visits Aeneas Again 9374
BkIV:584-629 Dido’s Curse 9375
BkIV:630-705 The Death of Dido 9576
BkV:1-41 Aeneas Returns to Sicily 9877
BkV:42-103 Aeneas Declares the Games 9978
BkV:104-150 The Start of the Games 10179
BkV:151-243 The Boat Race 10280
BkV:244-285 The Prize-Giving for the Boat Race 10581
BkV:286-361 The Foot Race 10682
BkV:362-484 The Boxing Contest 10883
BkV:485-544 The Archery Contest 11184
BkV:545-603 The Exhibition of Horsemanship 11385
BkV:604-663 Juno sends Iris to Fire the Trojan Ships 11586
BkV:664-699 The Fleet is Saved 11687
BkV:700-745 Nautes’ Advice and Anchises’ Ghost 11788
BkV:746-778 Departure from Sicily 11989
BkV:779-834 Venus Seeks Neptune’s Help 12090
BkV:835-871 The Loss of Palinurus 12191
BkVI:1-55 The Temple at Cumae 12392
BkVI:56-97 The Sibyl’s Prophecy 12493
BkVI:98-155 Aeneas Asks Entry to Hades 12594
BkVI:156-182 The Finding of Misenus’s Body 12795
BkVI:183-235 The Funeral Pyre 12896
BkVI:236-263 The Sacrifice to Hecate 12997
BkVI:264-294 The Entrance to Hades 13098
BkVI:295-336 The Shores of Acheron 13199
BkVI:337-383 The Shade of Palinurus 132100
BkVI:384-416 Charon the Ferryman 134101
BkVI:417-439 Beyond the Acheron 135102
BkVI:440-476 The Shade of Dido 135103
BkVI:477-534 The Shade of Deiphobus 136104
BkVI:535-627 The Sibyl Describes Tartarus 138105
BkVI:628-678 The Fields of Elysium 141106
BkVI:679-702 The Meeting with Anchises 142107
BkVI:703-723 The Souls Due for Re-birth 143108
BkVI:724-751 The Transmigration of Souls 143109
BkVI:752-776 The Future Race – The Alban Kings 144110
BkVI:777-807 The Future Race – Romulus and the Caesars 145111
BkVI:808-853 The Future Race – Republic and Beyond 146112
BkVI:854-885 The Future Race – Marcellus 147113
BkVI:886-901 The Gates of Sleep 148114
BkVII:1-36 The Trojans Reach the Tiber 150115
BkVII:37-106 King Latinus and the Oracle 151116
BkVII:107-147 Fulfilment of A Prophecy 153117
BkVII:148-191 The Palace of Latinus 154118
BkVII:192-248 The Trojans Seek Alliance With Latinus 155119
BkVII:249-285 Latinus Offers Peace 157120
BkVII:286-341 Juno Summons Allecto 158121
BkVII:341-405 Allecto Maddens Queen Amata 159122
BkVII:406-474 Allecto Rouses Turnus 161123
BkVII:475-539 Allecto Among the Trojans 163124
BkVII:540-571 Allecto Returns to Hades 165125
BkVII:572-600 Latinus Abdicates 166126
BkVII:601-640 Latium Prepares for War 167127
BkVII:641-782 The Battle-List 168128
BkVII:783-817 Turnus and Camilla Complete the Array 172129
BkVIII:1-25 The Situation in Latium 174130
BkVIII:26-65 Aeneas’s Dream of Tiberinus 174131
BkVIII:66-101 Aeneas Sails to Pallanteum 177132
BkVIII:102-151 Aeneas Meets Evander 178133
BkVIII:152-183 Evander Offers Alliance 180134
BkVIII:184-305 The Tale of Hercules and Cacus 181135
BkVIII:306-369 Pallanteum – the Site of Rome 185136
BkVIII:370-406 Venus Seeks Weapons from Vulcan 187137
BkVIII:407-453 Vulcan’s Smithy 189138
BkVIII:454-519 Evander Proposes Assistance 190139
BkVIII:520-584 The Preliminary Alarms 193140
BkVIII:585-625 Venus’s Gift of Armour 195141
BkVIII:626-670 Vulcan’s Shield: Scenes of Early Rome 196142
BkVIII:671-713 Vulcan’s Shield: The Battle of Actium 198143
BkVIII:714-731 Vulcan’s Shield: Augustus’s Triple Triumph 199144
BkIX:1-24 Iris Urges Turnus to War 201145
BkIX:25-76 Turnus Attacks the Trojan Fleet 201146
BkIX:77-106 Cybele Makes a Plea to Jove 203147
BkIX:107-122 Cybele Transforms the Ships 204148
BkIX:123-167 Turnus Lays Siege to the Camp 205149
BkIX:168-223 Nisus and Euryalus: A Mission Proposed 206150
BkIX:224-313 Nisus and Euryalus: Aletes Consents 208151
BkIX:314-366 Nisus and Euryalus: The Raid 211152
BkIX:367-459 The Death of Euryalus and Nisus 213153
BkIX:460-524 Euryalus’s Mother Laments 216154
BkIX:525-589 Turnus in Battle 218155
BkIX:590-637 Ascanius (Iulus) in Battle 220156
BkIX:638-671 Apollo Speaks to Iulus 222157
BkIX:672-716 Turnus at the Trojan Gates 223158
BkIX:717-755 The Death of Pandarus 225159
BkIX:756-787 Turnus Slaughters the Trojans 226160
BkIX:788-818 Turnus Is Driven Off 227161
BkX:1-95 The Council of the Gods 229162
BkX:96-117 Jupiter Leaves the Outcome to Fate 231163
BkX:118-162 Aeneas Returns From Pallantium 232164
BkX:163-214 The Leaders of the Tuscan Fleet 233165
BkX:215-259 The Nymphs of Cybele 235166
BkX:260-307 Aeneas Reaches Land 236167
BkX:308-425 The Pitched Battle 237168
BkX:426-509 The Death of Pallas 240169
BkX:510-605 Aeneas Rages In Battle 243170
BkX:606-688 Juno Withdraws Turnus from the Fight 245171
BkX:689-754 Mezentius Rages in Battle 248172
BkX:755-832 The Death of Mezentius’s Son, Lausus 250173
BkX:833-908 The Death of Mezentius 252174
BkXI:1-99 Aeneas Mourns Pallas 255175
BkXI:100-138 Aeneas Offers Peace 257176
BkXI:139-181 Evander Mourns Pallas 258177
BkXI:182-224 The Funeral Pyres 260178
BkXI:225-295 An Answer From Arpi 261179
BkXI:296-335 Latinus’s Proposal 263180
BkXI:336-375 Drances Attacks Turnus Verbally 264181
BkXI:376-444 Turnus Replies 265182
BkXI:445-531 The Trojans Attack 267183
BkXI:532-596 Diana’s Concern For Camilla 269184
BkXI:597-647 The Armies Engage 271185
BkXI:648-724 Camilla In Action 273186
BkXI:725-767 Arruns Follows Her 275187
BkXI:768-835 The Death of Camilla 276188
BkXI:836-915 Opis Takes Revenge 278189
BkXII:1-53 Turnus Demands Marriage 281190
BkXII:54-80 He Proposes Single Combat 282191
BkXII:81-112 He Prepares For Battle 283192
BkXII:113-160 Juno Speaks to Juturna 284193
BkXII:161-215 Aeneas and Latinus Sacrifice 285194
BkXII:216-265 The Rutulians Break The Treaty 287195
BkXII:266-310 Renewed Fighting 288196
BkXII:311-382 Aeneas Wounded: Turnus Rampant 289197
BkXII:383-467 Venus Heals Aeneas 292198
BkXII:468-499 Juturna Foils Aeneas 294199
BkXII:500-553 Aeneas And Turnus Amongst The Slaughter 295200
BkXII:554-592 Aeneas Attacks The City 296201
BkXII:593-613 Queen Amata’s Suicide 298202
BkXII:614-696 Turnus Hears Of Amata’s Death 298203
BkXII:697-765 The Final Duel Begins 300204
BkXII:766-790 The Goddesses Intervene 302205
BkXII:791-842 Jupiter And Juno Decide The Future 303206
BkXII:843-886 Jupiter Sends Juturna A Sign 305207
BkXII:887-952 The Death Of Turnus 306208
BkI:1-11 Invocation to the Muse209
I sing of arms and the man, he who, exiled by fate,210
first came from the coast of Troy to Italy, and to211
Lavinian shores – hurled about endlessly by land and sea,212
by the will of the gods, by cruel Juno’s remorseless anger,213
long suffering also in war, until he founded a city214
and brought his gods to Latium: from that the Latin people215
came, the lords of Alba Longa, the walls of noble Rome.216
Muse, tell me the cause: how was she offended in her divinity,217
how was she grieved, the Queen of Heaven, to drive a man,218
noted for virtue, to endure such dangers, to face so many219
trials? Can there be such anger in the minds of the gods?220
BkI:12-49 The Anger of Juno221
There was an ancient city, Carthage (held by colonists from Tyre),222
opposite Italy, and the far-off mouths of the Tiber,223
rich in wealth, and very savage in pursuit of war.224
They say Juno loved this one land above all others,225
even neglecting Samos: here were her weapons226
and her chariot, even then the goddess worked at,227
and cherished, the idea that it should have supremacy228
over the nations, if only the fates allowed.229
Yet she’d heard of offspring, derived from Trojan blood,230
that would one day overthrow the Tyrian stronghold:231
that from them a people would come, wide-ruling, 232
and proud in war, to Libya’s ruin: so the Fates ordained.233
Fearing this, and remembering the ancient war234
she had fought before, at Troy, for her dear Argos,235
(and the cause of her anger and bitter sorrows236
had not yet passed from her mind: the distant judgement237
of Paris stayed deep in her heart, the injury to her scorned beauty,238
her hatred of the race, and abducted Ganymede’s honours)239
the daughter of Saturn, incited further by this,240
hurled the Trojans, the Greeks and pitiless Achilles had left, 241
round the whole ocean, keeping them far from Latium:242
they wandered for many years, driven by fate over all the seas.243
Such an effort it was to found the Roman people.244
They were hardly out of sight of Sicily’s isle, in deeper water,245
joyfully spreading sail, bronze keel ploughing the brine, 246
when Juno, nursing the eternal wound in her breast,247
spoke to herself: ‘Am I to abandon my purpose, conquered,248
unable to turn the Teucrian king away from Italy!249
Why, the fates forbid it. Wasn’t Pallas able to burn250
the Argive fleet, to sink it in the sea, because of the guilt251
and madness of one single man, Ajax, son of Oileus? 252
She herself hurled Jupiter’s swift fire from the clouds,253
scattered the ships, and made the sea boil with storms:254
She caught him up in a water-spout, as he breathed flame255
from his pierced chest, and pinned him to a sharp rock:256
yet I, who walk about as queen of the gods, wife257
and sister of Jove, wage war on a whole race, for so many years.258
Indeed, will anyone worship Juno’s power from now on,259
or place offerings, humbly, on her altars?’260
BkI:50-80 Juno Asks Aeolus for Help261
So debating with herself, her heart inflamed, the goddess262
came to Aeolia, to the country of storms, the place263
of wild gales. Here in his vast cave, King Aeolus,264
keeps the writhing winds, and the roaring tempests,265
under control, curbs them with chains and imprisonment.266
They moan angrily at the doors, with a mountain’s vast murmurs:267
Aeolus sits, holding his sceptre, in his high stronghold,268
softening their passions, tempering their rage: if not,269
they’d surely carry off seas and lands and the highest heavens, 270
with them, in rapid flight, and sweep them through the air.271
But the all-powerful Father, fearing this, hid them272
in dark caves, and piled a high mountain mass over them273
and gave them a king, who by fixed agreement, would know274
how to give the order to tighten or slacken the reins. 275
Juno now offered these words to him, humbly:276
‘Aeolus, since the Father of gods, and king of men,277
gave you the power to quell, and raise, the waves with the winds,278
there is a people I hate sailing the Tyrrhenian Sea,279
bringing Troy’s conquered gods to Italy:280
Add power to the winds, and sink their wrecked boats,281
or drive them apart, and scatter their bodies over the sea.282
I have fourteen Nymphs of outstanding beauty:283
of whom I’ll name Deiopea, the loveliest in looks,284
joined in eternal marriage, and yours for ever, so that, 285
for such service to me as yours, she’ll spend all her years286
with you, and make you the father of lovely children.’287
Aeolus replied: ‘Your task, O queen, is to decide288
what you wish: my duty is to fulfil your orders. 289
You brought about all this kingdom of mine, the sceptre,290
Jove’s favour, you gave me a seat at the feasts of the gods,291
and you made me lord of the storms and the tempests.’292
BkI:81-123 Aeolus Raises the Storm293
When he had spoken, he reversed his trident and struck294
the hollow mountain on the side: and the winds, formed ranks,295
rushed out by the door he’d made, and whirled across the earth.296
They settle on the sea, East and West wind, 297
and the wind from Africa, together, thick with storms, 298
stir it all from its furthest deeps, and roll vast waves to shore:299
follows a cry of men and a creaking of cables.300
Suddenly clouds take sky and day away301
from the Trojan’s eyes: dark night rests on the sea.302
It thunders from the pole, and the aether flashes thick fire,303
and all things threaten immediate death to men.304
Instantly Aeneas groans, his limbs slack with cold:305
stretching his two hands towards the heavens,306
he cries out in this voice: ‘Oh, three, four times fortunate307
were those who chanced to die in front of their father’s eyes308
under Troy’s high walls! O Diomede, son of Tydeus309
bravest of Greeks! Why could I not have fallen, at your hand, 310
in the fields of Ilium, and poured out my spirit, 311
where fierce Hector lies, beneath Achilles’s spear,312
and mighty Sarpedon: where Simois rolls, and sweeps away313
so many shields, helmets, brave bodies, of men, in its waves!’314
Hurling these words out, a howling blast from the north,315
strikes square on the sail, and lifts the seas to heaven:316
the oars break: then the prow swings round and offers317
the beam to the waves: a steep mountain of water follows in a mass.318
Some ships hang on the breaker’s crest: to others the yawning deep319
shows land between the waves: the surge rages with sand.320
The south wind catches three, and whirls them onto hidden rocks321
(rocks the Italians call the Altars, in mid-ocean,322
a vast reef on the surface of the sea) three the east wind drives323
from the deep, to the shallows and quick-sands (a pitiful sight),324
dashes them against the bottom, covers them with a gravel mound.325
A huge wave, toppling, strikes one astern, in front of his very eyes,326
one carrying faithful Orontes and the Lycians. 327
The steersman’s thrown out and hurled headlong, face down:328
but the sea turns the ship three times, driving her round,329
in place, and the swift vortex swallows her in the deep.330
Swimmers appear here and there in the vast waste,331
men’s weapons, planking, Trojan treasure in the waves.332
Now the storm conquers Iloneus’s tough ship, now Achates,333
now that in which Abas sailed, and old Aletes’s:334
their timbers sprung in their sides, all the ships335
let in the hostile tide, and split open at the seams.336
BkI:124-156 Neptune Intervenes337
Neptune, meanwhile, greatly troubled, saw that the sea338
was churned with vast murmur, and the storm was loose339
and the still waters welled from their deepest levels:340
he raised his calm face from the waves, gazing over the deep.341
He sees Aeneas’s fleet scattered all over the ocean,342
the Trojans crushed by the breakers, and the plummeting sky.343
And Juno’s anger, and her stratagems, do not escape her brother.344
He calls the East and West winds to him, and then says:345
‘Does confidence in your birth fill you so? Winds, do you dare,346
without my intent, to mix earth with sky, and cause such trouble,347
now? You whom I – ! But it’s better to calm the running waves:348
you’ll answer to me later for this misfortune, with a different punishment. Hurry, fly now, and say this to your king:349
control of the ocean, and the fierce trident, were given to me,350
by lot, and not to him. He owns the wild rocks, home to you,351
and yours, East Wind: let Aeolus officiate in his palace,352
and be king in the closed prison of the winds.’353
So he speaks, and swifter than his speech, he calms the swollen sea,354
scatters the gathered cloud, and brings back the sun.355
Cymothoë and Triton, working together, thrust the ships356
from the sharp reef: Neptune himself raises them with his trident,357
parts the vast quicksand, tempers the flood,358
and glides on weightless wheels, over the tops of the waves.359
As often, when rebellion breaks out in a great nation,360
and the common rabble rage with passion, and soon stones361
and fiery torches fly (frenzy supplying weapons),362
if they then see a man of great virtue, and weighty service,363
they are silent, and stand there listening attentively:364
he sways their passions with his words and soothes their hearts:365
so all the uproar of the ocean died, as soon as their father,366
gazing over the water, carried through the clear sky, wheeled367
his horses, and gave them their head, flying behind in his chariot.368
BkI:157-222 Shelter on the Libyan Coast369
The weary followers of Aeneas made efforts to set a course370
for the nearest land, and tacked towards the Libyan coast.371
There is a place there in a deep inlet: an island forms a harbour372
with the barrier of its bulk, on which every wave from the deep373
breaks, and divides into diminishing ripples.374
On this side and that, vast cliffs and twin crags loom in the sky,375
under whose summits the whole sea is calm, far and wide:376
then, above that, is a scene of glittering woods, 377
and a dark grove overhangs the water, with leafy shade:378
under the headland opposite is a cave, curtained with rock,379
inside it, fresh water, and seats of natural stone,380
the home of Nymphs. No hawsers moor the weary ships381
here, no anchor, with its hooked flukes, fastens them.382
Aeneas takes shelter here with seven ships gathered383
from the fleet, and the Trojans, with a passion for dry land,384
disembarking, take possession of the sands they longed for, 385
and stretch their brine-caked bodies on the shore.386
At once Achates strikes a spark from his flint,387
catches the fire in the leaves, places dry fuel round it,388
and quickly has flames among the kindling.389
Then, wearied by events, they take out wheat, damaged390
by the sea, and implements of Ceres, and prepare to parch391
the grain over the flames, and grind it on stone.392
Aeneas climbs a crag meanwhile, and searches the whole prospect393
far and wide over the sea, looking if he can see anything394
of Antheus and his storm-tossed Phrygian galleys,395
or Capys, or Caicus’s arms blazoned on a high stern. 396
There’s no ship in sight: he sees three stags wandering397
on the shore: whole herds of deer follow at their back,398
and graze in long lines along the valley.399
He halts at this, and grasps in his hand his bow 400
and swift arrows, shafts that loyal Achates carries,401
and first he shoots the leaders themselves, their heads,402
with branching antlers, held high, then the mass, with his shafts,403
and drives the whole crowd in confusion among the leaves:404
The conqueror does not stop until he’s scattered seven huge405
carcasses on the ground, equal in number to his ships.406
Then he seeks the harbour, and divides them among all his friends.407
Next he shares out the wine that the good Acestes had stowed408
in jars, on the Trinacrian coast, and that hero had given them409
on leaving: and speaking to them, calmed their sad hearts:410
‘O friends (well, we were not unknown to trouble before)411
O you who’ve endured worse, the god will grant an end to this too.412
You’ve faced rabid Scylla, and her deep-sounding cliffs:413
and you’ve experienced the Cyclopes’s rocks:414
remember your courage and chase away gloomy fears:415
perhaps one day you’ll even delight in remembering this.416
Through all these misfortunes, these dangerous times,417
we head for Latium, where the fates hold peaceful lives418
for us: there Troy’s kingdom can rise again. Endure,419
and preserve yourselves for happier days.’420
So his voice utters, and sick with the weight of care, he pretends421
hope, in his look, and stifles the pain deep in his heart.422
They make ready the game, and the future feast:423
they flay the hides from the ribs and lay the flesh bare:424
some cut it in pieces, quivering, and fix it on spits,425
others place cauldrons on the beach, and feed them with flames.426
Then they revive their strength with food, stretched on the grass,427
and fill themselves with rich venison and old wine.428
When hunger is quenched by the feast, and the remnants cleared,429
deep in conversation, they discuss their missing friends, 430
and, between hope and fear, question whether they live,431
or whether they’ve suffered death and no longer hear their name.432
Aeneas, the virtuous, above all mourns the lot of fierce Orontes,433
then that of Amycus, together with Lycus’s cruel fate, 434
and those of brave Gyus, and brave Cloanthus.435
BkI:223-256 Venus Intercedes with Jupiter436
Now, all was complete, when Jupiter, from the heights of the air,437
looked down on the sea with its flying sails, and the broad lands,438
and the coasts, and the people far and wide, and paused, 439
at the summit of heaven, and fixed his eyes on the Libyan kingdom.440
And as he weighed such cares as he had in his heart, Venus spoke441
to him, sadder still, her bright eyes brimming with tears:442
‘Oh you who rule things human, and divine, with eternal law,443
and who terrify them all with your lightning-bolt,444
what can my Aeneas have done to you that’s so serious,445
what have the Trojans done, who’ve suffered so much destruction,446
to whom the whole world’s closed, because of the Italian lands?447
Surely you promised that at some point, as the years rolled by,448
the Romans would rise from them, leaders would rise,449
restored from Teucer’s blood, who would hold power450
over the sea, and all the lands. Father, what thought has changed451
your mind? It consoled me for the fall of Troy, and its sad ruin,452
weighing one destiny, indeed, against opposing destinies:453
now the same misfortune follows these men driven on by such454
disasters. Great king, what end to their efforts will you give?455
Antenor could escape through the thick of the Greek army,456
and safely enter the Illyrian gulfs, and deep into the realms457
of the Liburnians, and pass the founts of Timavus,458
from which the river bursts, with a huge mountainous roar,459
through nine mouths, and buries the fields under its noisy flood.460
Here, nonetheless, he sited the city of Padua, and homes461
for Teucrians, and gave the people a name, and hung up462
the arms of Troy: now he’s calmly settled, in tranquil peace.463
But we, your race, to whom you permit the heights of heaven,464
lose our ships (shameful!), betrayed, because of one person’s anger,465
and kept far away from the shores of Italy.466
Is this the prize for virtue? Is this how you restore our rule?467
The father of men and gods, smiled at her with that look468
with which he clears the sky of storms,469
kissed his daughter’s lips, and then said this:470
BkI:257-296 Jupiter’s Prophecy471
‘Don’t be afraid, Cytherea, your child’s fate remains unaltered:472
You’ll see the city of Lavinium, and the walls I promised,473
and you’ll raise great-hearted Aeneas high, to the starry sky:474
No thought has changed my mind. This son of yours475
(since this trouble gnaws at my heart, I’ll speak,476
and unroll the secret scroll of destiny)477
will wage a mighty war in Italy, destroy proud peoples,478
and establish laws, and city walls, for his warriors,479
until a third summer sees his reign in Latium, and 480
three winter camps pass since the Rutulians were beaten.481
But the boy Ascanius, surnamed Iulus now (He was Ilus482
while the Ilian kingdom was a reality) will imperially483
complete thirty great circles of the turning months,484
and transfer his throne from its site at Lavinium,485
and mighty in power, will build the walls of Alba Longa.486
Here kings of Hector’s race will reign now 487
for three hundred years complete, until a royal priestess,488
Ilia, heavy with child, shall bear Mars twins.489
Then Romulus will further the race, proud in his nurse490
the she-wolf’s tawny pelt, and found the walls of Mars,491
and call the people Romans, from his own name.492
I’ve fixed no limits or duration to their possessions:493
I’ve given them empire without end. Why, harsh Juno494
who now torments land, and sea and sky with fear,495
will respond to better judgement, and favour the Romans,496
masters of the world, and people of the toga, with me.497
So it is decreed. A time will come, as the years glide by,498
when the Trojan house of Assaracus will force Phthia499
into slavery, and be lords of beaten Argos. 500
From this glorious source a Trojan Caesar will be born,501
who will bound the empire with Ocean, his fame with the stars,502
Augustus, a Julius, his name descended from the great Iulus.503
You, no longer anxious, will receive him one day in heaven,504
burdened with Eastern spoils: he’ll be called to in prayer.505
Then with wars abandoned, the harsh ages will grow mild:506
White haired Trust, and Vesta, Quirinus with his brother Remus507
will make the laws: the gates of War, grim with iron, 508
and narrowed by bars, will be closed: inside impious Rage will roar509
frighteningly from blood-stained mouth, seated on savage weapons,510
hands tied behind his back, with a hundred knots of bronze.’511
BkI:297-371 Venus Speaks to Aeneas512
Saying this, he sends Mercury, Maia’s son, down from heaven,513
so that the country and strongholds of this new Carthage 514
would open to the Trojans, as guests, and Dido, unaware of fate, 515
would not keep them from her territory. He flies through the air516
with a beating of mighty wings and quickly lands on Libyan shore.517
And soon does as commanded, and the Phoenicians set aside518
their savage instincts, by the god’s will: the queen above all 519
adopts calm feelings, and kind thoughts, towards the Trojans.520
But Aeneas, the virtuous, turning things over all night,521
decides, as soon as kindly dawn appears, to go out522
and explore the place, to find what shores he has reached,523
on the wind, who owns them (since he sees desert) 524
man or beast, and bring back the details to his friends. 525
He conceals the boats in over-hanging woods526
under an arching cliff, enclosed by trees527
and leafy shadows: accompanied only by Achetes,528
he goes, swinging two broad-bladed spears in his hand.529
His mother met him herself, among the trees, with the face530
and appearance of a virgin, and a virgin’s weapons,531
a Spartan girl, or such as Harpalyce of Thrace, 532
who wearies horses, and outdoes winged Hebrus in flight.533
For she’d slung her bow from her shoulders, at the ready,534
like a huntress, and loosed her hair for the wind to scatter,535
her knees bare, and her flowing tunic gathered up in a knot.536
And she cried first: ‘Hello, you young men, tell me, 537
if you’ve seen my sister wandering here by any chance,538
wearing a quiver, and the hide of a dappled lynx,539
or shouting, hot on the track of a slavering boar?’540
So Venus: and so Venus’s son began in answer:541
‘I’ve not seen or heard any of your sisters, O Virgin –542
or how should I name you? Since your looks are not mortal543
and your voice is more than human: oh, a goddess for certain!544
Or Phoebus’s sister? Or one of the race of Nymphs?545
Be kind, whoever you may be, and lighten our labour,546
and tell us only what sky we’re under, and what shores547
we’ve landed on: we’re adrift here, driven by wind and vast seas,548
knowing nothing of the people or the country:549
many a sacrifice to you will fall at the altars, under our hand.’550
Then Venus said: ‘I don’t think myself worthy of such honours:551
it’s the custom of Tyrian girls to carry a quiver, 552
and lace our calves high up, over red hunting boots. 553
You see the kingdom of Carthage, Tyrians, Agenor’s city:554
but bordered by Libyans, a people formidable in war.555
Dido rules this empire, having set out from Tyre,556
fleeing her brother. It’s a long tale of wrong, with many557
windings: but I’ll trace the main chapters of the story.558
Sychaeus was her husband, wealthiest, in land, of Phoenicians559
and loved with a great love by the wretched girl, 560
whose father gave her as a virgin to him, and wed them561
with great solemnity. But her brother Pygmalion, savage562
in wickedness beyond all others, held the kingdom of Tyre. 563
Madness came between them. The king, blinded by greed for gold,564
killed the unwary Sychaeus, secretly, with a knife, impiously,565
in front of the altars, indifferent to his sister’s affections. 566
He concealed his actions for a while, deceived the lovesick girl,567
with empty hopes, and many evil pretences.568
But the ghost of her unburied husband came to her in dream:569
lifting his pale head in a strange manner, he laid bare the cruelty570
at the altars, and his heart pierced by the knife,571
and unveiled all the secret wickedness of that house.572
Then he urged her to leave quickly and abandon her country,573
and, to help her journey, revealed an ancient treasure574
under the earth, an unknown weight of gold and silver.575
Shaken by all this, Dido prepared her flight and her friends.576
Those who had fierce hatred of the tyrant or bitter fear,577
gathered together: they seized some ships that by chance578
were ready, and loaded the gold: greedy Pygmalion’s riches579
are carried overseas: a woman leads the enterprise.580
The came to this place, and bought land, where you now see581
the vast walls, and resurgent stronghold, of new Carthage,582
as much as they could enclose with the strips of hide583
from a single bull, and from that they called it Byrsa.584
But who then are you? What shores do you come from?585
What course do you take?’ He sighed as she questioned him,586
and drawing the words from deep in his heart he replied:587
BkI:372-417 She Directs Him to Dido’s Palace588
‘O goddess, if I were to start my tale at the very beginning, 589
and you had time to hear the story of our misfortunes,590
Vesper would have shut day away in the closed heavens.591
A storm drove us at whim to Libya’s shores, 592
sailing the many seas from ancient Troy, 593
if by chance the name of Troy has come to your hearing.594
I am that Aeneas, the virtuous, who carries my household gods595
in my ship with me, having snatched them from the enemy, 596
my name is known beyond the sky.597
I seek my country Italy, and a people born of Jupiter on high.598
I embarked on the Phrygian sea with twenty ships,599
following my given fate, my mother, a goddess, showing the way:600
barely seven are left, wrenched from the wind and waves.601
I myself wander, destitute and unknown, in the Libyan desert,602
driven from Europe and Asia.’ Venus did not wait603
for further complaint but broke in on his lament like this:604
‘Whoever you are I don’t think you draw the breath of life605
while hated by the gods, you who’ve reached a city of Tyre.606
Only go on from here, and take yourself to the queen’s threshold,607
since I bring you news that your friends are restored,608
and your ships recalled, driven to safety by the shifting winds,609
unless my parents taught me false prophecies, in vain.610
See, those twelve swans in exultant line, that an eagle,611
Jupiter’s bird, swooping from the heavens,612
was troubling in the clear sky: now, in a long file, they seem613
to have settled, or be gazing down now at those who already have.614
As, returning, their wings beat in play, and they circle the zenith615
in a crowd, and give their cry, so your ships and your people616
are in harbour, or near its entrance under full sail.617
Only go on, turn your steps where the path takes you.’618
She spoke, and turning away she reflected the light 619
from her rose-tinted neck, and breathed a divine perfume620
from her ambrosial hair: her robes trailed down to her feet,621
and, in her step, showed her a true goddess. He recognised622
his mother, and as she vanished followed her with his voice:623
‘You too are cruel, why do you taunt your son with false624
phantoms? Why am I not allowed to join hand625
with hand, and speak and hear true words?’626
So he accuses her, and turns his steps towards the city.627
But Venus veiled them with a dark mist as they walked,628
and, as a goddess, spread a thick covering of cloud around them,629
so that no one could see them, or touch them,630
or cause them delay, or ask them where they were going.631
She herself soars high in the air, to Paphos, and returns to her home632
with delight, where her temple and its hundred altars 633
steam with Sabean incense, fragrant with fresh garlands.634
BkI:418-463 The Temple of Juno635
Meanwhile they’ve tackled the route the path revealed.636
And soon they climbed the hill that looms high over the city,637
and looks down from above on the towers that face it.638
Aeneas marvels at the mass of buildings, once huts,639
marvels at the gates, the noise, the paved roads.640
The eager Tyrians are busy, some building walls,641
and raising the citadel, rolling up stones by hand,642
some choosing the site for a house, and marking a furrow:643
they make magistrates and laws, and a sacred senate:644
here some are digging a harbour: others lay down 645
the deep foundations of a theatre, and carve huge columns646
from the cliff, tall adornments for the future stage.647
Just as bees in early summer carry out their tasks 648
among the flowery fields, in the sun, when they lead out649
the adolescent young of their race, or cram the cells650
with liquid honey, and swell them with sweet nectar,651
or receive the incoming burdens, or forming lines652
drive the lazy herd of drones from their hives:653
the work glows, and the fragrant honey’s sweet with thyme.654
‘O fortunate those whose walls already rise!’655
Aeneas cries, and admires the summits of the city.656
He enters among them, veiled in mist (marvellous to tell)657
and mingles with the people seen by no one.658
There was a grove in the centre of the city, delightful659
with shade, where the wave and storm-tossed Phoenicians660
first uncovered the head of a fierce horse, that regal Juno661
showed them: so the race would be noted in war, 662
and rich in substance throughout the ages.663
Here Sidonian Dido was establishing a great temple664
to Juno, rich with gifts and divine presence,665
with bronze entrances rising from stairways, and beams666
jointed with bronze, and hinges creaking on bronze doors.667
Here in the grove something new appeared that calmed his fears668
for the first time, here for the first time Aeneas dared to hope669
for safety, and to put greater trust in his afflicted fortunes.670
While, waiting for the queen, in the vast temple, he looks671
at each thing: while he marvels at the city’s wealth,672
the skill of their artistry, and the products of their labours,673
he sees the battles at Troy in their correct order,674
the War, known through its fame to the whole world,675
the sons of Atreus, of Priam, and Achilles angered with both.676
He halted, and said, with tears: ‘What place is there,677
Achates, what region of earth not full of our hardships?678
See, Priam! Here too virtue has its rewards, here too679
there are tears for events, and mortal things touch the heart.680
Lose your fears: this fame will bring you benefit.’681
BkI:464-493 The Frieze682
So he speaks, and feeds his spirit with the insubstantial frieze,683
sighing often, and his face wet with the streaming tears.684
For he saw how, here, the Greeks fled, as they fought round Troy,685
chased by the Trojan youth, and, there, the Trojans fled,686
with plumed Achilles pressing them close in his chariot.687
Not far away, through his tears, he recognises Rhesus’s688
white-canvassed tents, that blood-stained Diomede, Tydeus’s son,689
laid waste with great slaughter, betrayed in their first sleep,690
diverting the fiery horses to his camp, before they could eat691
Trojan fodder, or drink from the river Xanthus.692
Elsewhere Troilus, his weapons discarded in flight,693
unhappy boy, unequally matched in his battle with Achilles,694
is dragged by his horses, clinging face-up to the empty chariot,695
still clutching the reins: his neck and hair trailing696
on the ground, and his spear reversed furrowing the dust.697
Meanwhile the Trojan women with loose hair, walked698
to unjust Pallas’s temple carrying the sacred robe,699
mourning humbly, and beating their breasts with their hands.700
The goddess was turned away, her eyes fixed on the ground.701
Three times had Achilles dragged Hector round the walls of Troy,702
and now was selling the lifeless corpse for gold.703
Then Aeneas truly heaves a deep sigh, from the depths of his heart,704
as he views the spoils, the chariot, the very body of his friend,705
and Priam stretching out his unwarlike hands.706
He recognised himself as well, fighting the Greek princes,707
and the Ethiopian ranks and black Memnon’s armour.708
Raging Penthesilea leads the file of Amazons, 709
with crescent shields, and shines out among her thousands, 710
her golden girdle fastened beneath her exposed breasts,711
a virgin warrior daring to fight with men. 712
BkI:494-519 The Arrival of Queen Dido713
While these wonderful sights are viewed by Trojan Aeneas,714
while amazed he hangs there, rapt, with fixed gaze,715
Queen Dido, of loveliest form, reached the temple,716
with a great crowd of youths accompanying her.717
Just as Diana leads her dancing throng on Eurotas’s banks,718
or along the ridges of Cynthus, and, following her,719
a thousand mountain-nymphs gather on either side:720
and she carries a quiver on her shoulder, and overtops721
all the other goddesses as she walks: and delight722
seizes her mother Latona’s silent heart:723
such was Dido, so she carried herself, joyfully,724
amongst them, furthering the work, and her rising kingdom.725
Then, fenced with weapons, and resting on a high throne,726
she took her seat, at the goddess’s doorway, under the central vault.727
She was giving out laws and statutes to the people, and sharing728
the workers labour out in fair proportions, or assigning it by lot:729
when Aeneas suddenly saw Antheus, and Sergestus, 730
and brave Cloanthus, approaching, among a large crowd,731
with others of the Trojans whom the black storm-clouds732
had scattered over the sea and carried far off to other shores. 733
He was stunned, and Achates was stunned as well734
with joy and fear: they burned with eagerness to clasp hands,735
but the unexpected event confused their minds.736
They stay concealed and, veiled in the deep mist, they watch737
to see what happens to their friends, what shore they have left 738
the fleet on, and why they are here: the elect of every ship came739
begging favour, and made for the temple among the shouting. 740
BkI:520-560 Ilioneus Asks Her Assistance741
When they’d entered, and freedom to speak in person742
had been granted, Ilioneus, the eldest, began calmly:743
‘O queen, whom Jupiter grants the right to found744
a new city, and curb proud tribes with your justice, 745
we unlucky Trojans, driven by the winds over every sea,746
pray to you: keep the terror of fire away from our ships,747
spare a virtuous race and look more kindly on our fate.748
We have not come to despoil Libyan homes with the sword,749
or to carry off stolen plunder to the shore: that violence750
is not in our minds, the conquered have not such pride.751
There’s a place called Hesperia by the Greeks,752
an ancient land, strong in men, with a rich soil:753
There the Oenotrians lived: now rumour has it 754
that a later people has called it Italy, after their leader.755
We had set our course there when stormy Orion,756
rising with the tide, carried us onto hidden shoals,757
and fierce winds scattered us far, with the overwhelming surge,758
over the waves among uninhabitable rocks:759
we few have drifted here to your shores.760
What race of men is this? What land is so barbaric as to allow761
this custom, that we’re denied the hospitality of the sands?762
They stir up war, and prevent us setting foot on dry land.763
If you despise the human race and mortal weapons,764
still trust that the gods remember right and wrong.765
Aeneas was our king, no one more just than him766
in his duty, or greater in war and weaponry.767
If fate still protects the man, if he still enjoys the ethereal air,768
if he doesn’t yet rest among the cruel shades, there’s nothing769
to fear, and you’d not repent of vying with him first in kindness.770
Then there are cities and fields too in the region of Sicily, 771
and famous Acestes, of Trojan blood. Allow us772
to beach our fleet, damaged by the storms,773
and cut planks from trees, and shape oars,774
so if our king’s restored and our friends are found775
we can head for Italy, gladly seek Italy and Latium:776
and if our saviour’s lost, and the Libyan seas hold you,777
Troy’s most virtuous father, if no hope now remains from Iulus,778
let us seek the Sicilian straits, from which we were driven,779
and the home prepared for us, and a king, Acestes.’780
So Ilioneus spoke: and the Trojans all shouted with one voice. 781
BkI:561-585 Dido Welcomes the Trojans782
Then, Dido, spoke briefly, with lowered eyes:783
‘Trojans, free your hearts of fear: dispel your cares.784
Harsh events and the newness of the kingdom force me to effect785
such things, and protect my borders with guards on all sides.786
Who doesn’t know of Aeneas’s race, and the city of Troy,787
the bravery, the men, or so great a blaze of warfare,788
indeed, we Phoenicians don’t possess unfeeling hearts,789
the sun doesn’t harness his horses that far from this Tyrian city.790
Whether you opt for mighty Hesperia, and Saturn’s fields,791
or the summit of Eryx, and Acestes for king,792
I’ll see you safely escorted, and help you with my wealth.793
Or do you wish to settle here with me, as equals in my kingdom?794
The city I build is yours: beach your ships:795
Trojans and Tyrians will be treated by me without distinction.796
I wish your king Aeneas himself were here, driven797
by that same storm! Indeed, I’ll send reliable men798
along the coast, and order them to travel the length of Libya,799
in case he’s driven aground, and wandering the woods and towns.’800
Brave Achetes, and our forefather Aeneas, their spirits raised801
by these words, had been burning to break free of the mist.802
Achates was first to speak, saying to Aeneas: ‘Son of the goddess,803
what intention springs to your mind? You see all’s safe,804
the fleet and our friends have been restored to us.805
Only one is missing, whom we saw plunged in the waves:806
all else is in accord with your mother’s words.’807
BkI:586-612 Aeneas Makes Himself Known808
He’d scarcely spoken when the mist surrounding them809
suddenly parted, and vanished in the clear air.810
Aeneas stood there, shining in the bright daylight,811
like a god in shoulders and face: since his mother812
had herself imparted to her son beauty to his hair,813
a glow of youth, and a joyful charm to his eyes:814
like the glory art can give to ivory, or as when silver,815
or Parian marble, is surrounded by gold.816
Then he addressed the queen, suddenly, surprising them all,817
saying: ‘I am here in person, Aeneas the Trojan,818
him whom you seek, saved from the Libyan waves. 819
O Dido, it is not in our power, nor those of our Trojan race,820
wherever they may be, scattered through the wide world,821
to pay you sufficient thanks, you who alone have pitied822
Troy’s unspeakable miseries, and share your city and home823
with us, the remnant left by the Greeks, wearied824
by every mischance, on land and sea, and lacking everything.825
May the gods, and the mind itself conscious of right,826
bring you a just reward, if the gods respect the virtuous,827
if there is justice anywhere. What happy age gave birth828
to you? What parents produced such a child?829
Your honour, name and praise will endure forever,830
whatever lands may summon me, while rivers run831
to the sea, while shadows cross mountain slopes, 832
while the sky nourishes the stars.’ So saying he grasps833
his friend Iloneus by the right hand, Serestus with the left,834
then others, brave Gyus and brave Cloanthus.835
BkI:613-656 Dido Receives Aeneas836
Sidonian Dido was first amazed at the hero’s looks837
then at his great misfortunes, and she spoke, saying:838
‘Son of a goddess, what fate pursues you through all839
these dangers? What force drives you to these barbarous shores?840
Are you truly that Aeneas whom kindly Venus bore841
to Trojan Anchises, by the waters of Phrygian Simois?842
Indeed, I myself remember Teucer coming to Sidon,843
exiled from his country’s borders, seeking a new kingdom844
with Belus’s help: Belus, my father, was laying waste845
rich Cyprus, and, as victor, held it by his authority.846
Since then the fall of the Trojan city is known to me,847
and your name, and those of the Greek kings.848
Even their enemy granted the Teucrians high praise,849
maintaining they were born of the ancient Teucrian stock.850
So come, young lords, and enter our palace.851
Fortune, pursuing me too, through many similar troubles,852
willed that I would find peace at last in this land.853
Not being unknown to evil, I’ve learned to aid the unhappy.’854
So she speaks, and leads Aeneas into the royal house,855
and proclaims, as well, offerings at the god’s temples.856
She sends no less than twenty bulls to his friends857
on the shore, and a hundred of her largest pigs with 858
bristling backs, a hundred fat lambs with the ewes,859
and joyful gifts of wine, but the interior of the palace860
is laid out with royal luxury, and they prepare861
a feast in the centre of the palace: covers worked862
skilfully in princely purple, massive silverware863
on the tables, and her forefathers’ heroic deeds864
engraved in gold, a long series of exploits traced865
through many heroes, since the ancient origins of her people. 866
Aeneas quickly sends Achates to the ships867
to carry the news to Ascanius (since a father’s love868
won’t let his mind rest) and bring him to the city:869
on Ascanius all the care of a fond parent is fixed.870
He commands him to bring gifts too, snatched871
from the ruins of Troy, a figured robe stiff with gold,872
and a cloak fringed with yellow acanthus,873
worn by Helen of Argos, brought from Mycenae874
when she sailed to Troy and her unlawful marriage,875
a wonderful gift from her mother Leda:876
and the sceptre that Ilione, Priam’s eldest daughter,877
once carried, and a necklace of pearls, and a double-coronet878
of jewels and gold. Achates, hastening to fulfil879
these commands, took his way towards the ships.880
BkI:657-694 Cupid Impersonates Ascanius881
But Venus was planning new wiles and stratagems882
in her heart: how Cupid, altered in looks, might arrive883
in place of sweet Ascanius, and arouse the passionate queen884
by his gifts, and entwine the fire in her bones: truly she fears885
the unreliability of this house, and the duplicitous Tyrians:886
unyielding Juno angers her, and her worries increase with nightfall.887
So she speaks these words to winged Cupid:888
‘My son, you who alone are my great strength, my power, 889
a son who scorns mighty Jupiter’s Typhoean thunderbolts,890
I ask your help, and humbly call on your divine will.891
It’s known to you how Aeneas, your brother, is driven892
over the sea, round all the shores, by bitter Juno’s hatred,893
and you have often grieved with my grief.894
Phoenician Dido holds him there, delaying him with flattery, 895
and I fear what may come of Juno’s hospitality: 896
at such a critical turn of events she’ll not be idle.897
So I intend to deceive the queen with guile, and encircle898
her with passion, so that no divine will can rescue her,899
but she’ll be seized, with me, by deep love for Aeneas.900
Now listen to my thoughts on how you can achieve this.901
Summoned by his dear father, the royal child, 902
my greatest concern, prepares to go to the Sidonian city,903
carrying gifts that survived the sea, and the flames of Troy.904
I’ll lull him to sleep and hide him in my sacred shrine905
on the heights of Cythera or Idalium, so he can know906
nothing of my deceptions, or interrupt them mid-way.907
For no more than a single night imitate his looks by art,908
and, a boy yourself, take on the known face of a boy,909
so that when Dido takes you to her breast, joyfully,910
amongst the royal feast, and the flowing wine,911
when she embraces you, and plants sweet kisses on you,912
you’ll breathe hidden fire into her, deceive her with your poison.’913
Cupid obeys his dear mother’s words, sets aside his wings,914
and laughingly trips along with Iulus’s step.915
But Venus pours gentle sleep over Ascanius’s limbs,916
and warming him in her breast, carries him, with divine power,917
to Idalia’s high groves, where soft marjoram smothers him918
in flowers, and the breath of its sweet shade.919
BkI:695-722 Cupid Deceives Dido920
Now, obedient to her orders, delighting in Achetes as guide,921
Cupid goes off carrying royal gifts for the Tyrians.922
When he arrives the queen has already settled herself923
in the centre, on her golden couch under royal canopies.924
Now our forefather Aeneas and the youth of Troy925
gather there, and recline on cloths of purple.926
Servants pour water over their hands: serve bread 927
from baskets: and bring napkins of smooth cloth.928
Inside there are fifty female servants, in a long line,929
whose task it is to prepare the meal, and tend the hearth fires:930
a hundred more, and as many pages of like age,931
to load the tables with food, and fill the cups.932
And the Tyrians too are gathered in crowds through the festive933
halls, summoned to recline on the embroidered couches.934
They marvel at Aeneas’s gifts, marvel at Iulus,935
the god’s brilliant appearance, and deceptive words,936
at the robe, and the cloak embroidered with yellow acanthus.937
The unfortunate Phoenician above all, doomed to future ruin,938
cannot pacify her feelings, and catches fire with gazing,939
stirred equally by the child and by the gifts.940
He, having hung in an embrace round Aeneas’s neck,941
and sated the deceived father’s great love,942
seeks out the queen. Dido, clings to him with her eyes943
and with her heart, taking him now and then on her lap, 944
unaware how great a god is entering her, to her sorrow.945
But he, remembering his Cyprian mother’s wishes,946
begins gradually to erase all thought of Sychaeus, 947
and works at seducing her mind, so long unstirred,948
and her heart unused to love, with living passion.949
BkI:723-756 Dido Asks for Aeneas’s Story950
At the first lull in the feasting, the tables were cleared,951
and they set out vast bowls, and wreathed the wine with garlands.952
Noise filled the palace, and voices rolled out across the wide halls:953
bright lamps hung from the golden ceilings,954
and blazing candles dispelled the night.955
Then the queen asked for a drinking-cup, heavy956
with gold and jewels, that Belus and all Belus’s line957
were accustomed to use, and filled it958
with wine. Then the halls were silent. She spoke:959
‘Jupiter, since they say you’re the one who creates960
the laws of hospitality, let this be a happy day961
for the Tyrians and those from Troy,962
and let it be remembered by our children.963
Let Bacchus, the joy-bringer, and kind Juno be present,964
and you, O Phoenicians, make this gathering festive.’965
She spoke and poured an offering of wine onto the table,966
and after the libation was the first to touch the bowl to her lips,967
then she gave it to Bitias, challenging him: he briskly drained968
the brimming cup, drenching himself in its golden fullness, 969
then other princes drank. Iolas, the long-haired, made 970
his golden lyre resound, he whom great Atlas taught.971
He sang of the wandering moon and the sun’s labours,972
where men and beasts came from, and rain and fire,973
of Arcturus, the rainy Hyades, the two Bears:974
why the winter suns rush to dip themselves in the sea,975
and what delay makes the slow nights linger.976
The Tyrians redoubled their applause, the Trojans too.977
And unfortunate Dido, she too spent the night978
in conversation, and drank deep of her passion,979
asking endlessly about Priam and Hector:980
now about the armour that Memnon, son of the Dawn,981
came with to Troy, what kind were Diomed’s horses,982
how great was Achilles. ‘But come, my guest, tell us983
from the start all the Greek trickery, your men’s mishaps,984
and your wanderings: since it’s the seventh summer now985
that brings you here, in your journey, over every land and sea.’986
BkII:1-56 The Trojan Horse: Laocoön’s Warning987
They were all silent, and turned their faces towards him intently.988
Then from his high couch our forefather Aeneas began:989
‘O queen, you command me to renew unspeakable grief,990
how the Greeks destroyed the riches of Troy, 991
and the sorrowful kingdom, miseries I saw myself,992
and in which I played a great part. What Myrmidon,993
or Dolopian, or warrior of fierce Ulysses, could keep994
from tears in telling such a story? Now the dew-filled night995
is dropping from the sky, and the setting stars urge sleep.996
But if you have such desire to learn of our misfortunes,997
and briefly hear of Troy’s last agonies, though my mind998
shudders at the memory, and recoils in sorrow, I’ll begin.999
‘After many years have slipped by, the leaders of the Greeks,1000
opposed by the Fates, and damaged by the war, 1001
build a horse of mountainous size, through Pallas’s divine art,1002
and weave planks of fir over its ribs:1003
they pretend it’s a votive offering: this rumour spreads.1004
They secretly hide a picked body of men, chosen by lot,1005
there, in the dark body, filling the belly and the huge1006
cavernous insides with armed warriors. 1007
Tenedos is within sight, an island known to fame,1008
rich in wealth when Priam’s kingdom remained,1009
now just a bay and an unsafe anchorage for boats:1010
they sail there, and hide themselves, on the lonely shore.1011
We thought they had gone, and were seeking Mycenae1012
with the wind. So all the Trojan land was free of its long sorrow.1013
The gates were opened: it was a joy to go and see the Greek camp,1014
the deserted site and the abandoned shore.1015
Here the Dolopians stayed, here cruel Achilles,1016
here lay the fleet, here they used to meet us in battle.1017
Some were amazed at virgin Minerva’s fatal gift,1018
and marvel at the horse’s size: and at first Thymoetes, 1019
whether through treachery, or because Troy’s fate was certain,1020
urged that it be dragged inside the walls and placed on the citadel.1021
But Capys, and those of wiser judgement, commanded us1022
to either hurl this deceit of the Greeks, this suspect gift,1023
into the sea, or set fire to it from beneath,1024
or pierce its hollow belly, and probe for hiding places.1025
The crowd, uncertain, was split by opposing opinions.1026
Then Laocoön rushes down eagerly from the heights1027
of the citadel, to confront them all, a large crowd with him,1028
and shouts from far off: ‘O unhappy citizens, what madness?1029
Do you think the enemy’s sailed away? Or do you think1030
any Greek gift’s free of treachery? Is that Ulysses’s reputation?1031
Either there are Greeks in hiding, concealed by the wood,1032
or it’s been built as a machine to use against our walls,1033
or spy on our homes, or fall on the city from above,1034
or it hides some other trick: Trojans, don’t trust this horse.1035
Whatever it is, I’m afraid of Greeks even those bearing gifts.’1036
So saying he hurled his great spear, with extreme force,1037
at the creature’s side, and into the frame of the curved belly.1038
The spear stuck quivering, and at the womb’s reverberation1039
the cavity rang hollow and gave out a groan.1040
And if the gods’ fate, if our minds, had not been ill-omened,1041
he’d have incited us to mar the Greeks hiding-place with steel: 1042
Troy would still stand: and you, high tower of Priam would remain.1043
BkII:57-144 Sinon’s Tale1044
See, meanwhile, some Trojan shepherds, shouting loudly, 1045
dragging a youth, his hands tied behind his back, to the king. 1046
In order to contrive this, and lay Troy open to the Greeks,1047
he had placed himself in their path, calm in mind, and ready1048
for either course: to engage in deception, or find certain death. 1049
The Trojan youth run, crowding round, from all sides,1050
to see him, and compete in mocking the captive.1051
Listen now to Greek treachery, and learn of all their crimes1052
from just this one. Since, as he stood, looking troubled, 1053
unarmed, amongst the gazing crowd, 1054
and cast his eyes around the Phrygian ranks,1055
he said: ‘Ah! What land, what seas would accept me now?1056
What’s left for me at the last in my misery, I who have1057
no place among the Greeks, when the hostile Trojans,1058
themselves, demand my punishment and my blood?1059
At this the mood changed and all violence was checked.1060
We urged him to say what blood he was sprung from,1061
and why he suffered: and tell us what trust could be placed1062
in him as a captive. Setting fear aside at last he speaks:1063
“O king, I’ll tell you the whole truth, whatever happens,1064
and indeed I’ll not deny that I’m of Argive birth:1065
this first of all: if Fortune has made me wretched,1066
she’ll not also wrongly make me false and a liar.1067
If by any chance some mention of Palamedes’s name1068
has reached your ears, son of Belus, and talk1069
of his glorious fame, he whom the Pelasgians,1070
on false charges of treason, by atrocious perjury,1071
because he opposed the war, sent innocent to his death,1072
and who they mourn, now he’s taken from the light:1073
well my father, being poor, sent me here to the war1074
when I was young, as his friend, as we were blood relatives.1075
While Palamades was safe in power, and prospered1076
in the kings’ council, I also had some name and respect.1077
But when he passed from this world above, through1078
the jealousy of plausible Ulysses (the tale’s not unknown)1079
I was ruined, and spent my life in obscurity and grief,1080
inwardly angry at the fate of my innocent friend.1081
Maddened I could not be silent, and I promised, if chance allowed,1082
and if I ever returned as a victor to my native Argos, 1083
to avenge him, and with my words stirred bitter hatred.1084
The first hint of trouble came to me from this, because of it1085
Ulysses was always frightening me with new accusations,1086
spreading veiled rumours among the people, and guiltily1087
seeking to defend himself. He would not rest till, with Calchas1088
as his instrument – but why I do unfold this unwelcome story?1089
Why hinder you? If you consider all Greeks the same,1090
and that’s sufficient, take your vengeance now: that’s what1091
the Ithacan wants, and the sons of Atreus would pay dearly for.”1092
Then indeed we were on fire to ask, and seek the cause,1093
ignorant of such wickedness and Pelasgian trickery.1094
Trembling with fictitious feelings he continued, saying:1095
“The Greeks, weary with the long war, often longed1096
to leave Troy and execute a retreat: if only they had! 1097
Often a fierce storm from the sea land-locked them,1098
and the gale terrified them from leaving:1099
once that horse, made of maple-beams, stood there,1100
especially then, storm-clouds thundered in the sky. 1101
Anxious, we send Eurypylus to consult Phoebus’s oracle,1102
and he brings back these dark words from the sanctuary:1103
‘With blood, and a virgin sacrifice, you calmed the winds,1104
O Greeks, when you first came to these Trojan shores, seek your1105
return in blood, and the well-omened sacrifice of an Argive life.’1106
When this reached the ears of the crowd, their minds were stunned,1107
and an icy shudder ran to their deepest marrow:1108
who readies this fate, whom does Apollo choose? 1109
At this the Ithacan thrust the seer, Calchas, into their midst,1110
demanding to know what the god’s will might be,1111
among the uproar. Many were already cruelly prophesying 1112
that ingenious man’s wickedness towards me, and silently saw1113
what was coming. For ten days the seer kept silence, refusing1114
to reveal the secret by his words, or condemn anyone to death.1115
But at last, urged on by Ulysses’s loud clamour, he broke1116
into speech as agreed, and doomed me to the altar.1117
All acclaimed it, and what each feared himself, they endured1118
when directed, alas, towards one man’s destruction.1119
Now the terrible day arrived, the rites were being prepared1120
for me, the salted grain, and the headbands for my forehead.1121
I confess I saved myself from death, burst my bonds,1122
and all that night hid by a muddy lake among the reeds,1123
till they set sail, if as it happened they did.1124
And now I’ve no hope of seeing my old country again,1125
or my sweet children or the father I long for:1126
perhaps they’ll seek to punish them for my flight,1127
and avenge my crime through the death of these unfortunates.1128
But I beg you, by the gods, by divine power that knows the truth,1129
by whatever honour anywhere remains pure among men, have pity1130
on such troubles, pity the soul that endures undeserved suffering.” 1131
BkII:145-194 Sinon Deludes the Trojans1132
With these tears we grant him his life, and also pity him.1133
Priam himself is the first to order his manacles and tight bonds1134
removed, and speaks these words of kindness to him:1135
“From now on, whoever you are, forget the Greeks, lost to you:1136
you’ll be one of us. And explain to me truly what I ask: 1137
Why have they built this huge hulk of a horse? Who created it?1138
What do they aim at? What religious object or war machine is it?”1139
He spoke: the other, schooled in Pelasgian art and trickery,1140
raised his unbound palms towards the stars, saying:1141
“You, eternal fires, in your invulnerable power, be witness, 1142
you altars and impious swords I escaped,1143
you sacrificial ribbons of the gods that I wore as victim:1144
with right I break the Greek’s solemn oaths,1145
with right I hate them, and if things are hidden1146
bring them to light: I’m bound by no laws of their country.1147
Only, Troy, maintain your assurances, if I speak truth, if I repay1148
you handsomely: kept intact yourself, keep your promises intact.1149
All the hopes of the Greeks and their confidence to begin the war1150
always depended on Pallas’s aid. But from that moment1151
when the impious son of Tydeus, Diomede, and Ulysses1152
inventor of wickedness, approached the fateful Palladium to snatch1153
it from its sacred temple, killing the guards on the citadel’s heights,1154
and dared to seize the holy statue, and touch the sacred ribbons1155
of the goddess with blood-soaked hands: from that moment1156
the hopes of the Greeks receded, and slipping backwards ebbed:1157
their power fragmented, and the mind of the goddess opposed them.1158
Pallas gave sign of this, and not with dubious portents,1159
for scarcely was the statue set up in camp, when glittering flames1160
shone from the upturned eyes, a salt sweat ran over its limbs, 1161
and (wonderful to tell) she herself darted from the ground1162
with shield on her arm, and spear quivering. 1163
Calchas immediately proclaimed that the flight by sea must be1164
attempted, and that Troy cannot be uprooted by Argive weapons,1165
unless they renew the omens at Argos, and take the goddess home,1166
whom they have indeed taken by sea in their curved ships.1167
And now they are heading for their native Mycenae with the wind,1168
obtaining weapons and the friendship of the gods, re-crossing 1169
the sea to arrive unexpectedly, So Calchas reads the omens. 1170
Warned by him, they’ve set up this statue of a horse1171
for the wounded goddess, instead of the Palladium,1172
to atone severely for their sin. And Calchas ordered them1173
to raise the huge mass of woven timbers, raised to the sky,1174
so the gates would not take it, nor could it be dragged1175
inside the walls, or watch over the people in their ancient rites.1176
Since if your hands violated Minerva’s gift,1177
then utter ruin (may the gods first turn that prediction1178
on themselves!) would come to Priam and the Trojans:1179
yet if it ascended into your citadel, dragged by your hands,1180
Asia would come to the very walls of Pelops, in mighty war,1181
and a like fate would await our children.”1182
BkII:195-227 Laocoön and the Serpents1183
Through these tricks and the skill of perjured Sinon, the thing was1184
credited, and we were trapped, by his wiliness, and false tears,1185
we, who were not conquered by Diomede, or Larissan Achilles,1186
nor by the ten years of war, nor those thousand ships.1187
Then something greater and more terrible befalls1188
us wretches, and stirs our unsuspecting souls.1189
Laocoön, chosen by lot as priest of Neptune,1190
was sacrificing a huge bull at the customary altar.1191
See, a pair of serpents with huge coils, snaking over the sea1192
from Tenedos through the tranquil deep (I shudder to tell it),1193
and heading for the shore side by side: their fronts lift high1194
over the tide, and their blood-red crests top the waves,1195
the rest of their body slides through the ocean behind, 1196
and their huge backs arch in voluminous folds.1197
There’s a roar from the foaming sea: now they reach the shore,1198
and with burning eyes suffused with blood and fire,1199
lick at their hissing jaws with flickering tongues.1200
Blanching at the sight we scatter. They move1201
on a set course towards Laocoön: and first each serpent 1202
entwines the slender bodies of his two sons,1203
and biting at them, devours their wretched limbs:1204
then as he comes to their aid, weapons in hand, they seize him too,1205
and wreathe him in massive coils: now encircling his waist twice,1206
twice winding their scaly folds around his throat, 1207
their high necks and heads tower above him.1208
He strains to burst the knots with his hands,1209
his sacred headband drenched in blood and dark venom,1210
while he sends terrible shouts up to the heavens,1211
like the bellowing of a bull that has fled wounded,1212
from the altar, shaking the useless axe from its neck.1213
But the serpent pair escape, slithering away to the high temple,1214
and seek the stronghold of fierce Pallas, to hide there1215
under the goddess’s feet, and the circle of her shield.1216
BkII:228-253 The Horse Enters Troy1217
Then in truth a strange terror steals through each shuddering heart,1218
and they say that Laocoön has justly suffered for his crime1219
in wounding the sacred oak-tree with his spear,1220
by hurling its wicked shaft into the trunk.1221
“Pull the statue to her house”, they shout,1222
“and offer prayers to the goddess’s divinity.”1223
We breached the wall, and opened up the defences of the city.1224
All prepare themselves for the work and they set up wheels1225
allowing movement under its feet, and stretch hemp ropes1226
round its neck. That engine of fate mounts our walls1227
pregnant with armed men. Around it boys, and virgin girls,1228
sing sacred songs, and delight in touching their hands to the ropes:1229
Up it glides and rolls threateningly into the midst of the city.1230
O my country, O Ilium house of the gods, and you,1231
Trojan walls famous in war! Four times it sticks at the threshold1232
of the gates, and four times the weapons clash in its belly:1233
yet we press on regardless, blind with frenzy,1234
and site the accursed creature on top of our sacred citadel.1235
Even then Cassandra, who, by the god’s decree, is never 1236
to be believed by Trojans, reveals our future fate with her lips.1237
We unfortunate ones, for whom that day is our last, 1238
clothe the gods’ temples, throughout the city, with festive branches.1239
Meanwhile the heavens turn, and night rushes from the Ocean,1240
wrapping the earth, and sky, and the Myrmidons’ tricks, 1241
in its vast shadow: through the city the Trojans1242
fall silent: sleep enfolds their weary limbs.1243
BkII:254-297 The Greeks Take the City1244
And now the Greek phalanx of battle-ready ships sailed1245
from Tenedos, in the benign stillness of the silent moon,1246
seeking the known shore, when the royal galley raised1247
a torch, and Sinon, protected by the gods’ unjust doom,1248
sets free the Greeks imprisoned by planks of pine,1249
in the horses’ belly. Opened, it releases them to the air,1250
and sliding down a lowered rope, Thessandrus, and Sthenelus,1251
the leaders, and fatal Ulysses, emerge joyfully1252
from their wooden cave, with Acamas, Thoas, 1253
Peleus’s son Neoptolemus, the noble Machaon,1254
Menelaus, and Epeus who himself devised this trick.1255
They invade the city that’s drowned in sleep and wine,1256
kill the watchmen, welcome their comrades1257
at the open gates, and link their clandestine ranks.1258
It was the hour when first sleep begins for weary mortals,1259
and steals over them as the sweetest gift of the gods.1260
See, in dream, before my eyes, Hector seemed to stand there,1261
saddest of all and pouring out great tears,1262
torn by the chariot, as once he was, black with bloody dust,1263
and his swollen feet pierced by the thongs. 1264
Ah, how he looked! How changed he was 1265
from that Hector who returned wearing Achilles’s armour,1266
or who set Trojan flames to the Greek ships! His beard was ragged,1267
his hair matted with blood, bearing those many wounds he received1268
dragged around the walls of his city.1269
And I seemed to weep myself, calling out to him,1270
and speaking to him in words of sorrow:1271
“Oh light of the Troad, surest hope of the Trojans,1272
what has so delayed you? What shore do you come from1273
Hector, the long-awaited? Weary from the many troubles1274
of our people and our city I see you, oh, after the death1275
of so many of your kin! What shameful events have marred1276
that clear face? And why do I see these wounds?’1277
He does not reply, nor does he wait on my idle questions,1278
but dragging heavy sighs from the depths of his heart, he says:1279
“Ah! Son of the goddess, fly, tear yourself from the flames.1280
The enemy has taken the walls: Troy falls from her high place.1281
Enough has been given to Priam and your country: if Pergama1282
could be saved by any hand, it would have been saved by this.1283
Troy entrusts her sacred relics and household gods to you:1284
take them as friends of your fate, seek mighty walls for them,1285
those you will found at last when you have wandered the seas.”1286
So he speaks, and brings the sacred headbands in his hands1287
from the innermost shrine, potent Vesta, and the undying flame.1288
BkII:298-354 Aeneas Gathers his Comrades1289
Meanwhile the city is confused with grief, on every side,1290
and though my father Anchises’s house is remote, secluded1291
and hidden by trees, the sounds grow clearer and clearer,1292
and the terror of war sweeps upon it.1293
I shake off sleep, and climb to the highest roof-top,1294
and stand there with ears strained:1295
as when fire attacks a wheat-field when the south-wind rages,1296
or the rushing torrent from a mountain stream covers the fields,1297
drowns the ripe crops, the labour of oxen, 1298
and brings down the trees headlong, and the dazed shepherd,1299
unaware, hears the echo from a high rocky peak.1300
Now the truth is obvious, and the Greek plot revealed.1301
Now the vast hall of Deiphobus is given to ruin1302
the fire over it: now Ucalegon’s nearby blazes:1303
the wide Sigean straits throw back the glare.1304
Then the clamour of men and the blare of trumpets rises.1305
Frantically I seize weapons: not because there is much use1306
for weapons, but my spirit burns to gather men for battle1307
and race to the citadel with my friends: madness and anger1308
hurl my mind headlong, and I think it beautiful to die fighting.1309
Now, see, Panthus escaping the Greek spears,1310
Panthus, son of Othrys, Apollo’s priest on the citadel,1311
dragging along with his own hands the sacred relics,1312
the conquered gods, his little grandchild, running frantically1313
to my door: “Where’s the best advantage, Panthus, what position1314
should we take?” I’d barely spoken, when he answered1315
with a groan: “The last day comes, Troy’s inescapable hour.1316
Troy is past, Ilium is past, and the great glory of the Trojans:1317
Jupiter carries all to Argos: the Greeks are lords of the burning city. 1318
The horse, standing high on the ramparts, pours out warriors,1319
and Sinon the conqueror exultantly stirs the flames.1320
Others are at the wide-open gates, as many thousands1321
as ever came from great Mycenae: more have blocked1322
the narrow streets with hostile weapons:1323
a line of standing steel with naked flickering blades1324
is ready for the slaughter: barely the first few guards1325
at the gates attempt to fight, and they resist in blind conflict.”1326
By these words from Othrys’ son, and divine will, I’m thrust1327
amongst the weapons and the flames, where the dismal Fury1328
sounds, and the roar, and the clamour rising to the sky.1329
Friends joined me, visible in the moonlight, Ripheus,1330
and Epytus, mighty in battle, Hypanis and Dymas, 1331
gathered to my side, and young Coroebus, Mygdon’s son:1332
by chance he’d arrived in Troy at that time,1333
burning with mad love for Cassandra, and brought help,1334
as a potential son-in-law, to Priam, and the Trojans,1335
unlucky man, who didn’t listen to the prophecy1336
of his frenzied bride! When I saw them crowded there1337
eager for battle, I began as follows: “Warriors, bravest1338
of frustrated spirits, if your ardent desire is fixed1339
on following me to the end, you can see our cause’s fate.1340
All the gods by whom this empire was supported1341
have departed, leaving behind their temples and their altars:1342
you aid a burning city: let us die and rush into battle.1343
The beaten have one refuge, to have no hope of refuge.”1344
BkII:355-401 Aeneas and his Friends Resist1345
So their young spirits were roused to fury. Then, like ravaging1346
wolves in a dark mist, driven blindly by the cruel rage 1347
of their bellies, leaving their young waiting with thirsty jaws, 1348
we pass through our enemies, to certain death, and make our way1349
to the heart of the city: dark night envelops us in deep shadow.1350
Who could tell of that destruction in words, or equal our pain1351
with tears? The ancient city falls, she who ruled for so many years:1352
crowds of dead bodies lie here and there in the streets,1353
among the houses, and on the sacred thresholds of the gods.1354
Nor is it Trojans alone who pay the penalty with their blood:1355
courage returns at times to the hearts of the defeated1356
and the Greek conquerors die. Cruel mourning is everywhere,1357
everywhere there is panic, and many a form of death. 1358
First, Androgeos, meets us, with a great crowd of Greeks1359
around him, unknowingly thinking us allied troops,1360
and calls to us in friendly speech as well:1361
“Hurry, men! What sluggishness makes you delay so?1362
The others are raping and plundering burning Troy:1363
are you only now arriving from the tall ships?”1364
He spoke, and straight away (since no reply given was1365
credible enough) he knew he’d fallen into the enemy fold.1366
He was stunned, drew back, and stifled his voice.1367
Like a man who unexpectedly treads on a snake in rough briars, 1368
as he strides over the ground, and shrinks back in sudden fear1369
as it rears in anger and swells its dark-green neck,1370
so Androgeos, shuddering at the sight of us, drew back.1371
We charge forward and surround them closely with weapons,1372
and ignorant of the place, seized by terror, as they are, we slaughter1373
them wholesale. Fortune favours our first efforts.1374
And at this Coroebus, exultant with courage and success, cries:1375
“Oh my friends, where fortune first points out the path to safety,1376
and shows herself a friend, let us follow. Let’s change our shields1377
adopt Greek emblems. Courage or deceit: who’ll question it in war?1378
They’ll arm us themselves.” With these words, he takes up Androgeos’s plumed helmet, his shield with its noble markings,1379
and straps the Greek’s sword to his side. Ripheus does likewise,1380
Dymas too, and all the warriors delight in it. Each man1381
arms himself with the fresh spoils. We pass on1382
mingling with the Greeks, with gods that are not our known,1383
and clash, in many an armed encounter, in the blind night,1384
and we send many a Greek down to Orcus.1385
Some scatter to the ships, and run for safer shores,1386
some, in humiliated terror, climb the vast horse again1387
and hide in the womb they know. 1388
BkII:402-437 Cassandra is Taken1389
“Ah, put no faith in anything the will of the gods opposes!1390
See, Priam’s virgin daughter dragged, with streaming hair,1391
from the sanctuary and temple of Minerva,1392
lifting her burning eyes to heaven in vain:1393
her eyes, since cords restrained her gentle hands.1394
Coroebus could not stand the sight, maddened in mind,1395
and hurled himself among the ranks, seeking death.1396
We follow him, and, weapons locked, charge together.1397
Here, at first, we were overwhelmed by Trojan spears,1398
hurled from the high summit of the temple,1399
and wretched slaughter was caused by the look of our armour,1400
and the confusion arising from our Greek crests.1401
Then the Danaans, gathering from all sides, groaning with anger1402
at the girl being pulled away from them, rush us, 1403
Ajax the fiercest, the two Atrides, all the Greek host:1404
just as, at the onset of a tempest, conflicting winds clash, the west,1405
the south, and the east that joys in the horses of dawn:1406
the forest roars, brine-wet Nereus rages with his trident,1407
and stirs the waters from their lowest depths.1408
Even those we have scattered by a ruse, in the dark of night,1409
and driven right through the city, re-appear: for the first time1410
they recognise our shields and deceitful weapons,1411
and realise our speech differs in sound to theirs.1412
In a moment we’re overwhelmed by weight of numbers:1413
first Coroebus falls, by the armed goddess’s altar, at the hands1414
of Peneleus: and Ripheus, who was the most just of all the Trojans,1415
and keenest for what was right (the gods’ vision was otherwise):1416
Hypanis and Dymas die at the hands of allies:1417
and your great piety, Panthus, and Apollo’s sacred headband1418
can not defend you in your downfall.1419
Ashes of Ilium, death flames of my people, be witness1420
that, at your ruin, I did not evade the Danaan weapons,1421
nor the risks, and, if it had been my fate to die,1422
I earned it with my sword. Then we are separated,1423
Iphitus and Pelias with me, Iphitus weighed down by the years,1424
and Pelias, slow-footed, wounded by Ulysses:1425
immediately we’re summoned to Priam’s palace by the clamour.1426
BkII:438-485 The Battle for the Palace1427
Here’s a great battle indeed, as if the rest of the war were nothing,1428
as if others were not dying throughout the whole city,1429
so we see wild War and the Greeks rushing to the palace,1430
and the entrance filled with a press of shields.1431
Ladders cling to the walls: men climb the stairs under the very1432
doorposts, with their left hands holding defensive shields1433
against the spears, grasping the sloping stone with their right.1434
In turn, the Trojans pull down the turrets and roof-tiles1435
of the halls, prepared to defend themselves even in death,1436
seeing the end near them, with these as weapons:1437
and send the gilded roof-beams down, the glory1438
of their ancient fathers. Others with naked swords block1439
the inner doors: these they defend in massed ranks.1440
Our spirits were reinspired, to bring help to the king’s palace,1441
to relieve our warriors with our aid, and add power to the beaten.1442
There was an entrance with hidden doors, and a passage in use1443
between Priam’s halls, and a secluded gateway beyond,1444
which the unfortunate Andromache, while the kingdom stood,1445
often used to traverse, going, unattended, to her husband’s parents,1446
taking the little Astyanax to his grandfather.1447
I reached the topmost heights of the pediment from which1448
the wretched Trojans were hurling their missiles in vain.1449
A turret standing on the sloping edge, and rising from the roof1450
to the sky, was one from which all Troy could be seen,1451
the Danaan ships, and the Greek camp: and attacking its edges1452
with our swords, where the upper levels offered weaker mortar,1453
we wrenched it from its high place, and sent it flying:1454
falling suddenly it dragged all to ruin with a roar,1455
and shattered far and wide over the Greek ranks.1456
But more arrived, and meanwhile neither the stones1457
nor any of the various missiles ceased to fly. 1458
In front of the courtyard itself, in the very doorway of the palace,1459
Pyrrhus exults, glittering with the sheen of bronze:1460
like a snake, fed on poisonous herbs, in the light, 1461
that cold winter has held, swollen, under the ground,1462
and now, gleaming with youth, its skin sloughed,1463
ripples its slimy back, lifts its front high towards the sun,1464
and darts its triple-forked tongue from its jaws. 1465
Huge Periphas, and Automedon the armour-bearer,1466
driver of Achilles’s team, and all the Scyrian youths,1467
advance on the palace together and hurl firebrands onto the roof.1468
Pyrrhus himself among the front ranks, clutching a double-axe,1469
breaks through the stubborn gate, and pulls the bronze doors1470
from their hinges: and now, hewing out the timber, he breaches1471
the solid oak and opens a huge window with a gaping mouth.1472
The palace within appears, and the long halls are revealed:1473
the inner sanctums of Priam, and the ancient kings, appear,1474
and armed men are seen standing on the very threshold.1475
BkII:486-558 Priam’s Fate1476
But, inside the palace, groans mingle with sad confusion,1477
and, deep within, the hollow halls howl1478
with women’s cries: the clamour strikes the golden stars.1479
Trembling mothers wander the vast building, clasping 1480
the doorposts, and placing kisses on them. Pyrrhus drives forward,1481
with his father Achilles’s strength, no barricades nor the guards1482
themselves can stop him: the door collapses under the ram’s blows,1483
and the posts collapse, wrenched from their sockets.1484
Strength makes a road: the Greeks, pour through, force a passage,1485
slaughter the front ranks, and fill the wide space with their men.1486
A foaming river is not so furious, when it floods, 1487
bursting its banks, overwhelms the barriers against it,1488
and rages in a mass through the fields, sweeping cattle and stables1489
across the whole plain. I saw Pyrrhus myself, on the threshold,1490
mad with slaughter, and the two sons of Atreus:1491
I saw Hecuba, her hundred women, and Priam at the altars,1492
polluting with blood the flames that he himself had sanctified.1493
Those fifty chambers, the promise of so many offspring,1494
the doorposts, rich with spoils of barbarian gold,1495
crash down: the Greeks possess what the fire spares. 1496
And maybe you ask, what was Priam’s fate.1497
When he saw the end of the captive city, the palace doors1498
wrenched away, and the enemy among the inner rooms,1499
the aged man clasped his long-neglected armour1500
on his old, trembling shoulders, and fastened on his useless sword, 1501
and hurried into the thick of the enemy seeking death.1502
In the centre of the halls, and under the sky’s naked arch,1503
was a large altar, with an ancient laurel nearby, that leant1504
on the altar, and clothed the household gods with shade.1505
Here Hecuba, and her daughters, like doves driven1506
by a dark storm, crouched uselessly by the shrines,1507
huddled together, clutching at the statues of the gods.1508
And when she saw Priam himself dressed in youthful armour1509
she cried: “What mad thought, poor husband, urges you1510
to fasten on these weapons? Where do you run? 1511
The hour demands no such help, nor defences such as these,1512
not if my own Hector were here himself. Here, I beg you,1513
this altar will protect us all or we’ll die together.” 1514
So she spoke and drew the old man towards her,1515
and set him down on the sacred steps.1516
See, Polites, one of Priam’s sons, escaping Pyrrhus’s slaughter,1517
runs down the long hallways, through enemies and spears,1518
and, wounded, crosses the empty courts.1519
Pyrrhus chases after him, eager to strike him,1520
and grasps at him now, and now, with his hand, at spear-point.1521
When finally he reached the eyes and gaze of his parents,1522
he fell, and poured out his life in a river of blood.1523
Priam, though even now in death’s clutches,1524
did not spare his voice at this, or hold back his anger:1525
“If there is any justice in heaven, that cares about such things,1526
may the gods repay you with fit thanks, and due reward1527
for your wickedness, for such acts, you who have1528
made me see my own son’s death in front of my face, 1529
and defiled a father’s sight with murder. 1530
Yet Achilles, whose son you falsely claim to be, was no1531
such enemy to Priam: he respected the suppliant’s rights, 1532
and honour, and returned Hector’s bloodless corpse 1533
to its sepulchre, and sent me home to my kingdom.”1534
So the old man spoke, and threw his ineffectual spear1535
without strength, which immediately spun from the clanging bronze1536
and hung uselessly from the centre of the shield’s boss. 1537
Pyrrhus spoke to him: “Then you can be messenger, carry1538
the news to my father, to Peleus’s son: remember to tell him1539
of degenerate Pyrrhus, and of my sad actions:1540
now die.” Saying this he dragged him, trembling, 1541
and slithering in the pool of his son’s blood, to the very altar,1542
and twined his left hand in his hair, raised the glittering sword1543
in his right, and buried it to the hilt in his side.1544
This was the end of Priam’s life: this was the death that fell to him1545
by lot, seeing Troy ablaze and its citadel toppled, he who was1546
once the magnificent ruler of so many Asian lands and peoples.1547
A once mighty body lies on the shore, the head1548
shorn from its shoulders, a corpse without a name.1549
BkII:559-587 Aeneas Sees Helen1550
Then for the first time a wild terror gripped me. 1551
I stood amazed: my dear father’s image rose before me1552
as I saw a king, of like age, with a cruel wound,1553
breathing his life away: and my Creusa, forlorn, 1554
and the ransacked house, and the fate of little Iulus.1555
I looked back, and considered the troops that were round me.1556
They had all left me, wearied, and hurled their bodies to earth,1557
or sick with misery dropped into the flames.1558
So I was alone now, when I saw the daughter of Tyndareus,1559
Helen, close to Vesta’s portal, hiding silently1560
in the secret shrine: the bright flames gave me light,1561
as I wandered, gazing everywhere, randomly.1562
Afraid of Trojans angered at the fall of Troy, 1563
Greek vengeance, and the fury of a husband she deserted,1564
she, the mutual curse of Troy and her own country,1565
had concealed herself and crouched, a hated thing, by the altars.1566
Fire blazed in my spirit: anger rose to avenge my fallen land,1567
and to exact the punishment for her wickedness.1568
“Shall she, unharmed, see Sparta again and her native Mycenae,1569
and see her house and husband, parents and children,1570
and go in the triumphant role of a queen,1571
attended by a crowd of Trojan women and Phrygian servants?1572
When Priam has been put to the sword? Troy consumed with fire?1573
The Dardanian shore soaked again and again with blood?1574
No. Though there’s no great glory in a woman’s punishment,1575
and such a conquest wins no praise, still I will be praised1576
for extinguishing wickedness and exacting well-earned1577
punishment, and I’ll delight in having filled my soul1578
with the flame of revenge, and appeased my people’s ashes.”1579
BkII:588-623 Aeneas is Visited by his Mother Venus1580
I blurted out these words, and was rushing on with raging mind,1581
when my dear mother came to my vision, never before so bright1582
to my eyes, shining with pure light in the night,1583
goddess for sure, such as she may be seen by the gods,1584
and taking me by the right hand, stopped me, and, then,1585
imparted these words to me from her rose-tinted lips:1586
“My son, what pain stirs such uncontrollable anger?1587
Why this rage? Where has your care for what is ours vanished?1588
First will you not see whether Creusa, your wife, and your child1589
Ascanius still live, and where you have left your father Anchises1590
worn-out with age? The Greek ranks surround them on all sides,1591
and if my love did not protect them, the flames would have caught1592
them before now, and the enemy swords drunk of their blood.1593
You do not hate the face of the Spartan daughter of Tyndareus,1594
nor is Paris to blame: the ruthlessness of the gods, of the gods,1595
brought down this power, and toppled Troy from its heights.1596
See (for I’ll tear away all the mist that now, shrouding your sight,1597
dims your mortal vision, and darkens everything with moisture:1598
don’t be afraid of what your mother commands, or refuse to obey1599
her wisdom): here, where you see shattered heaps of stone1600
torn from stone, and smoke billowing mixed with dust,1601
Neptune is shaking the walls, and the foundations, stirred1602
by his mighty trident, and tearing the whole city up by it roots.1603
There, Juno, the fiercest, is first to take the Scaean Gate, and,1604
sword at her side, calls on her troops from the ships, in rage.1605
Now, see, Tritonian Pallas, standing on the highest towers,1606
sending lightning from the storm-cloud, and her grim Gorgon1607
breastplate. Father Jupiter himself supplies the Greeks with1608
courage, and fortunate strength, himself excites the gods against1609
the Trojan army. Hurry your departure, son, and put an end 1610
to your efforts. I will not leave you, and I will place you1611
safe at your father’s door.” She spoke, and hid herself1612
in the dense shadows of night. Dreadful shapes appeared,1613
and the vast powers of gods opposed to Troy.1614
BkII:624-670 Aeneas Finds his Family1615
Then in truth all Ilium seemed to me to sink in flames,1616
and Neptune’s Troy was toppled from her base:1617
just as when foresters on the mountain heights1618
compete to uproot an ancient ash tree, struck1619
time and again by axe and blade, it threatens continually1620
to fall, with trembling foliage and shivering crown,1621
till gradually vanquished by the blows it groans at last,1622
and torn from the ridge, crashes down in ruin.1623
I descend, and, led by a goddess, am freed from flames1624
and enemies: the spears give way, and the flames recede.1625
And now, when I reached the threshold of my father’s house,1626
and my former home, my father, whom it was my first desire 1627
to carry into the high mountains, and whom I first sought out,1628
refused to extend his life or endure exile, since Troy had fallen.1629
“Oh, you,” he cried, “whose blood has the vigour of youth,1630
and whose power is unimpaired in its force, it’s for you1631
to take flight. As for me, if the gods had wished to lengthen1632
the thread of my life, they’d have spared my house. It is1633
more than enough that I saw one destruction, and survived1634
one taking of the city. Depart, saying farewell to my body1635
lying here so, yes so. I shall find death with my own hand:1636
the enemy will pity me, and look for plunder. The loss1637
of my burial is nothing. Clinging to old age for so long,1638
I am useless, and hated by the gods, ever since1639
the father of the gods and ruler of men breathed the winds 1640
of his lightning-bolt onto me, and touched me with fire.”1641
So he persisted in saying, and remained adamant.1642
We, on our side, Creusa, my wife, and Ascanius, all our household,1643
weeping bitterly, determined that he should not destroy everything1644
along with himself, and crush us by urging our doom.1645
He refused and clung to his place and his purpose.1646
I hurried to my weapons again, and, miserably, longed for death,1647
since what tactic or opportunity was open to us now?1648
“ Did you think I could leave you, father, and depart?1649
Did such sinful words fall from your lips?1650
If it pleases the gods to leave nothing of our great city standing,1651
if this is set in your mind, if it delights you to add yourself1652
and all that’s yours to the ruins of Troy, the door is open1653
to that death: soon Pyrrhus comes, drenched in Priam’s blood,1654
he who butchers the son in front of the father, the father at the altar. 1655
Kind mother, did you rescue me from fire and sword1656
for this, to see the enemy in the depths of my house, 1657
and Ascanius, and my father, and Creusa, slaughtered, 1658
thrown together in a heap, in one another’s blood?1659
Weapons men, bring weapons: the last day calls to the defeated.1660
Lead me to the Greeks again: let me revisit the battle anew.1661
This day we shall not all perish unavenged.”1662
BkII:671-704 The Omen1663
So, again, I fasten on my sword, slip my left arm1664
into the shield’s strap, adjust it, and rush from the house.1665
But see, my wife clings to the threshold, clasps my foot,1666
and holds little Iulus up towards his father:1667
“If you go to die, take us with you too, at all costs: but if1668
as you’ve proved you trust in the weapons you wear,1669
defend this house first. To whom do you abandon little Iulus,1670
and your father, and me, I who was once spoken of as your wife?”1671
Crying out like this she filled the whole house with her groans,1672
when suddenly a wonder, marvellous to speak of, occurred.1673
See, between the hands and faces of his grieving parents,1674
a gentle light seemed to shine from the crown1675
of Iulus’s head, and a soft flame, harmless in its touch, 1676
licked at his hair, and grazed his forehead. 1677
Trembling with fear, we hurry to flick away the blazing strands,1678
and extinguish the sacred fires with water.1679
But Anchises, my father, lifts his eyes to the heavens, in delight,1680
and raises his hands and voice to the sky:1681
“All-powerful Jupiter, if you’re moved by any prayers,1682
see us, and, grant but this: if we are worthy through our virtue,1683
show us a sign of it, Father, and confirm your omen.”1684
The old man had barely spoken when, with a sudden crash, 1685
it thundered on the left, and a star, through the darkness, 1686
slid from the sky, and flew, trailing fire, in a burst of light.1687
We watched it glide over the highest rooftops,1688
and bury its brightness, and the sign of its passage,1689
in the forests of Mount Ida: then the furrow of its long track1690
gave out a glow, and, all around, the place smoked with sulphur.1691
At this my father, truly overcome, raised himself towards the sky,1692
and spoke to the gods, and proclaimed the sacred star.1693
“Now no delay: I follow, and where you lead, there am I.1694
Gods of my fathers, save my line, save my grandson.1695
This omen is yours, and Troy is in your divine power.1696
I accept, my son, and I will not refuse to go with you.”1697
BkII:705-729 Aeneas and his Family Leave Troy1698
He speaks, and now the fire is more audible,1699
through the city, and the blaze rolls its tide nearer.1700
“Come then, dear father, clasp my neck: I will1701
carry you on my shoulders: that task won’t weigh on me.1702
Whatever may happen, it will be for us both, the same shared risk,1703
and the same salvation. Let little Iulus come with me,1704
and let my wife follow our footsteps at a distance.1705
You servants, give your attention to what I’m saying.1706
At the entrance to the city there’s a mound, an ancient temple1707
of forsaken Ceres, and a venerable cypress nearby,1708
protected through the years by the reverence of our fathers:1709
let’s head to that one place by diverse paths.1710
You, father, take the sacred objects, and our country’s gods,1711
in your hands: until I’ve washed in running water,1712
it would be a sin for me, coming from such fighting 1713
and recent slaughter, to touch them.” So saying, bowing my neck,1714
I spread a cloak made of a tawny lion’s hide over my broad shoulders, and bend to the task: little Iulus clasps his hand1715
in mine, and follows his father’s longer strides. 1716
My wife walks behind. We walk on through the shadows1717
of places, and I whom till then no shower of spears, 1718
nor crowd of Greeks in hostile array, could move, 1719
now I’m terrified by every breeze, and startled by every noise,1720
anxious, and fearful equally for my companion and my burden.1721
BkII:730-795 The Loss of Creusa1722
And now I was near the gates, and thought I had completed 1723
my journey, when suddenly the sound of approaching feet1724
filled my hearing, and, peering through the darkness,1725
my father cried: “My son, run my son, they are near us:1726
I see their glittering shields and gleaming bronze.”1727
Some hostile power, at this, scattered my muddled wits.1728
for while I was following alleyways, and straying 1729
from the region of streets we knew, did my wife Creusa halt,1730
snatched away from me by wretched fate?1731
Or did she wander from the path or collapse with weariness?1732
Who knows? She was never restored to our sight,1733
nor did I look back for my lost one, or cast a thought behind me,1734
until we came to the mound, and ancient Ceres’s sacred place.1735
Here when all were gathered together at last, one was missing,1736
and had escaped the notice of friends, child and husband.1737
What man or god did I not accuse in my madness:1738
what did I know of in the city’s fall crueller than this?1739
I place Ascanius, and my father Anchises, and the gods of Troy,1740
in my companions’ care, and conceal them in a winding valley:1741
I myself seek the city once more, and take up my shining armour.1742
I’m determined to incur every risk again, and retrace1743
all Troy, and once more expose my life to danger.1744
First I look for the wall, and the dark threshold of the gate1745
from which my path led, and I retrace the landmarks1746
of my course in the night, scanning them with my eye. 1747
Everywhere the terror in my heart, and the silence itself, 1748
dismay me. Then I take myself homewards, in case 1749
by chance, by some chance, she has made her way there. 1750
The Greeks have invaded, and occupied, the whole house.1751
Suddenly eager fire, rolls over the rooftop, in the wind:1752
the flames take hold, the blaze rages to the heavens.1753
I pass by and see again Priam’s palace and the citadel.1754
Now Phoenix, and fatal Ulysses, the chosen guards, watch over1755
the spoils, in the empty courts of Juno’s sanctuary.1756
Here the Trojan treasures are gathered from every part,1757
ripped from the blazing shrines, tables of the gods,1758
solid gold bowls, and plundered robes. 1759
Mothers and trembling sons stand round in long ranks.1760
I even dared to hurl my shouts through the shadows,1761
filling the streets with my clamour, and in my misery, 1762
redoubling my useless cries, again and again.1763
Searching, and raging endlessly among the city roofs,1764
the unhappy ghost and true shadow of Creusa1765
appeared before my eyes, in a form greater than I’d known.1766
I was dumbfounded, my hair stood on end, and my voice1767
stuck in my throat. Then she spoke and with these words1768
mitigated my distress: “Oh sweet husband, what use is it 1769
to indulge in such mad grief? This has not happened1770
without the divine will: neither its laws nor the ruler1771
of great Olympus let you take Creusa with you,1772
away from here. Yours is long exile, you must plough1773
a vast reach of sea: and you will come to Hesperia’s land,1774
where Lydian Tiber flows in gentle course among the farmers’ 1775
rich fields. There, happiness, kingship and a royal wife 1776
will be yours. Banish these tears for your beloved Creusa.1777
I, a Trojan woman, and daughter-in-law to divine Venus,1778
shall never see the noble halls of the Dolopians,1779
or Myrmidons, or go as slave to some Greek wife:1780
instead the great mother of the gods keeps me on this shore.1781
Now farewell, and preserve your love for the son we share.”1782
When she had spoken these words, leaving me weeping1783
and wanting to say so many things, she faded into thin air.1784
Three times I tried to throw my arms about her neck:1785
three times her form fled my hands, clasped in vain,1786
like the light breeze, most of all like a winged dream.1787
So at last when night was done, I returned to my friends.1788
BkII:796-804 Aeneas Leaves Troy1789
And here, amazed, I found that a great number of new1790
companions had streamed in, women and men, 1791
a crowd gathering for exile, a wretched throng.1792
They had come from all sides, ready, with courage and wealth,1793
for whatever land I wished to lead them to, across the seas.1794
And now Lucifer was rising above the heights of Ida,1795
bringing the dawn, and the Greeks held the barricaded1796
entrances to the gates, nor was there any hope of rescue.1797
I desisted, and, carrying my father, took to the hills.1798
BkIII:1-18 Aeneas Sails to Thrace1799
After the gods had seen fit to destroy Asia’s power1800
and Priam’s innocent people, and proud Ilium had fallen,1801
and all of Neptune’s Troy breathed smoke from the soil,1802
we were driven by the gods’ prophecies to search out1803
distant exile, and deserted lands, and we built a fleet1804
below Antandros and the peaks of Phrygian Ida, unsure 1805
where fate would carry us, or where we’d be allowed to settle, 1806
and we gathered our forces together. Summer had barely begun, 1807
when Anchises, my father, ordered us to set sail with destiny:1808
I left my native shore with tears, the harbour and the fields1809
where Troy once stood. I travelled the deep, an exile,1810
with my friends and my son, and the great gods of our house.1811
Far off is a land of vast plains where Mars is worshipped1812
(worked by the Thracians) once ruled by fierce Lycurgus,1813
a friend of Troy in the past, and with gods who were allies,1814
while fortune lasted. I went there, and founded my first city1815
named Aeneadae from my name, on the shore1816
in the curving bay, beginning it despite fate’s adversity.1817
BkIII:19-68 The Grave of Polydorus1818
I was making a sacrifice to the gods, and my mother Venus, 1819
Dione’s daughter, with auspices for the work begun, and had killed1820
a fine bull on the shore, for the supreme king of the sky-lords.1821
By chance, there was a mound nearby, crowned with cornel1822
bushes, and bristling with dense spikes of myrtle.1823
I went near, and trying to tear up green wood from the soil1824
to decorate the altar with leafy branches, I saw1825
a wonder, dreadful and marvellous to tell of.1826
From the first bush, its broken roots torn from the ground,1827
drops of dark blood dripped, and stained the earth with fluid.1828
An icy shiver gripped my limbs, and my blood chilled with terror.1829
Again I went on to pluck a stubborn shoot from another,1830
probing the hidden cause within: and dark blood1831
flowed from the bark of the second. Troubled greatly1832
in spirit, I prayed to the Nymphs of the wild,1833
and father Gradivus, who rules the Thracian fields,1834
to look with due kindness on this vision, and lessen1835
its significance. But when I attacked the third1836
with greater effort, straining with my knees against the sand1837
(to speak or be silent?), a mournful groan was audible1838
from deep in the mound, and a voice came to my ears: 1839
“Why do you wound a poor wretch, Aeneas? Spare me now1840
in my tomb, don’t stain your virtuous hands, Troy bore me,1841
who am no stranger to you, nor does this blood flow from 1842
some dull block. Oh, leave this cruel land: leave this shore1843
of greed. For I am Polydorus. Here a crop of iron spears1844
carpeted my transfixed corpse, and has ripened into sharp spines.”1845
Then truly I was stunned, my mind crushed by anxious dread,1846
my hair stood up on end, and my voice stuck in my throat. 1847
Priam, the unfortunate, seeing the city encircled by the siege, 1848
and despairing of Trojan arms, once sent this Polydorus, secretly, 1849
with a great weight of gold, to be raised, by the Thracian king.1850
When the power of Troy was broken, and her fortunes ebbed,1851
the Thracian broke every divine law, to follow Agamemnon’s1852
cause, and his victorious army, murders Polydorus, and takes1853
the gold by force. Accursed hunger for gold, to what do you 1854
not drive human hearts! When terror had left my bones1855
I referred this divine vision to the people’s appointed leaders,1856
my father above all, and asked them what they thought.1857
All were of one mind, to leave this wicked land, and depart1858
a place of hospitality defiled, and sail our fleet before the wind.1859
So we renewed the funeral rites for Polydorus, and piled1860
the earth high on his barrow: sad altars were raised1861
to the Shades, with dark sacred ribbons and black cypress, 1862
the Trojan women around, hair streaming, 1863
as is the custom: we offered foaming bowls of warm milk,1864
and dishes of sacrificial blood, and bound the spirit1865
to its tomb, and raised a loud shout of farewell. 1866
BkIII:69-120 The Trojans Reach Delos1867
Then as soon as we’ve confidence in the waves, and the winds1868
grant us calm seas, and the soft whispering breeze calls to the deep,1869
my companions float the ships and crowd to the shore.1870
We set out from harbour, and lands and cities recede.1871
In the depths of the sea lies a sacred island, dearest of all1872
to the mother of the Nereids, and Aegean Neptune,1873
that wandered by coasts and shores, until Apollo,1874
affectionately, tied it to high Myconos, and Gyaros,1875
making it fixed and inhabitable, scorning the storms.1876
I sail there: it welcomes us peacefully, weary as we are,1877
to its safe harbour. Landing, we do homage to Apollo’s city.1878
King Anius, both king of the people and high-priest of Apollo,1879
his forehead crowned with the sacred headband and holy laurel,1880
meets us, and recognises an old friend in Anchises:1881
we clasp hands in greeting and enter his house.1882
I paid homage to the god’s temple of ancient stone:1883
“Grant us a true home, Apollo, grant a weary people walls, 1884
and a race, and a city that will endure: protect this second1885
citadel of Troy, that survives the Greeks and pitiless Achilles.1886
Whom should we follow? Where do you command us to go? 1887
Where should we settle? Grant us an omen, father, to stir our hearts.1888
I had scarcely spoken: suddenly everything seemed to tremble,1889
the god’s thresholds and his laurel crowns, and the whole hill1890
round us moved, and the tripod groaned as the shrine split open.1891
Humbly we seek the earth, and a voice comes to our ears:1892
“Enduring Trojans, the land which first bore you from its1893
parent stock, that same shall welcome you, restored, to its1894
fertile breast. Search out your ancient mother.1895
There the house of Aeneas shall rule all shores,1896
his children’s children, and those that are born to them.”1897
So Phoebus spoke: and there was a great shout of joy mixed1898
with confusion, and all asked what walls those were, and where1899
it is Phoebus calls the wanderers to, commanding them to return.1900
Then my father, thinking of the records of the ancients, said:1901
“Listen, O princes, and learn what you may hope for.1902
Crete lies in the midst of the sea, the island of mighty Jove,1903
where Mount Ida is, the cradle of our race.1904
They inhabit a hundred great cities, in the richest of kingdoms,1905
from which our earliest ancestor, Teucer, if I remember the tale1906
rightly, first sailed to Trojan shores, and chose a site1907
for his royal capital. Until then Ilium and the towers of the citadel1908
did not stand there: men lived in the depths of the valleys.1909
The Mother who inhabits Cybele is Cretan, and the cymbals1910
of the Corybantes, and the grove of Ida: from Crete came1911
the faithful silence of her rites, and the yoked lions1912
drawing the lady’s chariot. So come, and let us follow1913
where the god’s command may lead, let us placate1914
the winds, and seek out the Cretan kingdom. 1915
It is no long journey away: if only Jupiter is with us,1916
the third dawn will find our fleet on the Cretan shores.”1917
So saying, he sacrificed the due offerings at the altars,1918
a bull to Neptune, a bull to you, glorious Apollo, a black sheep1919
to the Storm god, a white to the auspicious Westerlies.1920
BkIII:121-171 The Plague and a Vision1921
A rumour spread that Prince Idomeneus had been driven1922
from his father’s kingdom, and the Cretan shores were deserted,1923
her houses emptied of enemies, and the abandoned homes1924
waiting for us. We left Ortygia’s harbour, and sped over the sea,1925
threading the foaming straits thick with islands, Naxos1926
with its Bacchic worship in the hills, green Donysa, Olearos,1927
snow-white Paros, and the Cyclades, scattered over the waters.1928
The sailors’ cries rose, as they competed in their various tasks:1929
the crew shouted: “We’re headed for Crete, and our ancestors.”1930
A wind rising astern sent us on our way, and at last 1931
we glided by the ancient shores of the Curetes.1932
Then I worked eagerly on the walls of our chosen city, and called1933
it Pergamum, and exhorted my people, delighting in the name, 1934
to show love for their homes, and build a covered fortress.1935
Now the ships were usually beached on the dry sand:1936
the young men were busy with weddings and their fresh fields:1937
I was deciding on laws and homesteads: suddenly, 1938
from some infected region of the sky, came a wretched plague,1939
corrupting bodies, trees, and crops, and a season of death.1940
They relinquished sweet life, or dragged their sick limbs1941
around: then Sirius blazed over barren fields:1942
the grass withered, and the sickly harvest denied its fruits.1943
My father urged us to retrace the waves, and revisit1944
the oracle of Apollo at Delos, and beg for protection,1945
ask where the end might be to our weary fate, where he commands1946
that we seek help for our trouble, where to set our course.1947
It was night, and sleep had charge of earth’s creatures:1948
The sacred statues of the gods, the Phrygian Penates,1949
that I had carried with me from Troy, out of the burning city,1950
seemed to stand there before my eyes, as I lay in sleep,1951
perfectly clear in the light, where the full moon1952
streamed through the window casements: then they spoke1953
to me and with their words dispelled my cares:1954
“Apollo speaks here what he would say to you, on reaching Delos,1955
and sends us besides, as you see, to your threshold.1956
When Try burned we followed you and your weapons,1957
we crossed the swelling seas with you on your ships,1958
we too shall raise your descendants yet to be, to the stars,1959
and grant empire to your city. Build great walls for the great,1960
and do not shrink from the long labour of exile.1961
Change your country. These are not the shores that Delian1962
Apollo urged on you, he did not order you to settle in Crete.1963
There is a place the Greeks call Hesperia by name,1964
an ancient land powerful in arms and in richness of the soil:1965
There the Oenotrians lived: now the rumour is that1966
a younger race has named it Italy after their leader.1967
That is our true home, Dardanus and father Iasius, 1968
from whom our race first came, sprang from there.1969
Come, bear these words of truth joyfully to your old father,1970
that he might seek Corythus and Ausonia’s lands:1971
Jupiter denies the fields of Dicte to you.”1972
BkIII:172-208 The Trojans Leave Crete for Italy1973
Amazed by such a vision, and the voices of the gods,1974
(it was not a dream, but I seemed to recognise their expression,1975
before me, their wreathed hair, their living faces:1976
then a cold sweat bathed all my limbs)1977
my body leapt from the bed, and I lifted my voice1978
and upturned palms to heaven, and offered pure 1979
gifts on the hearth-fire. The rite completed, with joy1980
I told Anchises of this revelation, revealing it all in order.1981
He understood about the ambiguity in our origins, and the dual1982
descent, and that he had been deceived by a fresh error, 1983
about our ancient country. Then he spoke: “My son, troubled 1984
by Troy’s fate, Only Cassandra prophesied such an outcome.1985
Now I remember her foretelling that this was destined for our race,1986
and often spoke of Hesperia, and the Italian kingdom.1987
Who’d believe that Trojans would travel to Hesperia’s shores?1988
Who’d have been moved by Cassandra, the prophetess, then? 1989
Let’s trust to Apollo, and, warned by him, take the better course.”1990
So he spoke, and we were delighted to obey his every word.1991
We departed this home as well, and, leaving some people behind,1992
set sail, and ran through the vast ocean in our hollow ships.1993
When the fleet had reached the high seas and the land1994
was no longer seen, sky and ocean on all sides, then 1995
a dark-blue rain cloud settled overhead, bringing1996
night and storm, and the waves bristled with shadows.1997
Immediately the winds rolled over the water and great seas rose:1998
we were scattered here and there in the vast abyss.1999
Storm-clouds shrouded the day, and the night mists2000
hid the sky: lightning flashed again from the torn clouds.2001
We were thrown off course, and wandered the blind waves.2002
Palinurus himself was unable to tell night from day in the sky,2003
and could not determine his path among the waves.2004
So for three days, and as many starless nights, 2005
we wandered uncertainly, in a dark fog, over the sea.2006
At last, on the fourth day, land was first seen to rise,2007
revealing far off mountains and rolling smoke.2008
The sails fell, we stood to the oars: without pause, the sailors, 2009
at full stretch, churned the foam, and swept the blue sea.2010
BkIII:209-277 The Harpies2011
Free of the waves I’m welcomed first by the shores2012
of the Strophades, the Clashing Islands. The Strophades2013
are fixed now in the great Ionian Sea, but are called2014
by the Greek name. There dread Celaeno and the rest2015
of the Harpies live, since Phineus’s house was denied them,2016
and they left his tables where they fed, in fear.2017
No worse monsters than these, no crueller plague,2018
ever rose from the waters of Styx, at the gods’ anger.2019
These birds have the faces of virgin girls,2020
foulest excrement flowing from their bellies, 2021
clawed hands, and faces always thin with hunger.2022
Now when, arriving here, we enter port,2023
we see fat herds of cattle scattered over the plains,2024
and flocks of goats, unguarded, in the meadows.2025
We rush at them with our swords, calling on Jove himself2026
and the gods to join us in our plunder: then we build2027
seats on the curving beach, and feast on the rich meats.2028
But suddenly the Harpies arrive, in a fearsome swoop2029
from the hills, flapping their wings with a huge noise,2030
snatching at the food, and fouling everything with their2031
filthy touch: then there’s a deadly shriek amongst the foul stench.2032
We set out the tables again, and relight the altar fires,2033
in a deep recess under an overhanging rock,2034
closed off by trees and trembling shadows:2035
again from another part of the sky, some hidden lair,2036
the noisy crowd hovers, with taloned feet around their prey,2037
polluting the food with their mouths. Then I order my friends2038
to take up their weapons and make war on that dreadful race.2039
They do exactly that, obeying orders, placing hidden swords2040
in the grass, and burying their shields out of sight.2041
Then when the birds swoop, screaming, along the curved beach,2042
Misenus, from his high lookout, gives the signal on hollow bronze.2043
My friends charge, and, in a new kind of battle, attempt2044
to wound these foul ocean birds with their swords.2045
But they don’t register the blows to their plumage, or the wounds2046
to their backs, they flee quickly, soaring beneath the heavens, 2047
leaving behind half-eaten food, and the traces of their filth.2048
Only Celaeno, ominous prophetess, settles on a high cliff, 2049
and bursts out with this sound from her breast:2050
“Are you ready to bring war to us, sons of Laomedon, is it war, 2051
for the cows you killed, the bullocks you slaughtered,2052
driving the innocent Harpies from their father’s country?2053
Take these words of mine to your hearts then, and set them there.2054
I, the eldest of the Furies, reveal to you what the all-powerful2055
Father prophesied to Apollo, and Phoebus Apollo to me.2056
Italy is the path you take, and, invoking the winds,2057
you shall go to Italy, and enter her harbours freely:2058
but you will not surround the city granted you with walls2059
until dire hunger, and the sin of striking at us, force you2060
to consume your very tables with devouring jaws.”2061
She spoke, and fled back to the forest borne by her wings.2062
But my companions’ chill blood froze with sudden fear:2063
their courage dropped, and they told me to beg for peace,2064
with vows and prayers, forgoing weapons,2065
no matter if these were goddesses or fatal, vile birds.2066
And my father Anchises, with outstretched hands, on the shore,2067
called to the great gods and declared the due sacrifice:2068
“Gods, avert these threats, gods, prevent these acts,2069
and, in peace, protect the virtuous!” Then he ordered us2070
to haul in the cables from the shore, unfurl and spread the sails.2071
South winds stretched the canvas: we coursed over foaming seas,2072
wherever the winds and the helmsman dictated our course.2073
Now wooded Zacynthus appeared amongst the waves,2074
Dulichium, Same and Neritos’s steep cliffs.2075
We ran past Laertes’s kingdom, Ithacas’s reefs,2076
and cursed the land that reared cruel Ulysses.2077
Soon the cloudy heights of Mount Leucata were revealed,2078
as well, and Apollo’s headland, feared by sailors.2079
We headed wearily for it, and approached the little town:2080
the anchor was thrown from the prow, the stern rested on the beach.2081
BkIII:278-293 The Games at Actium2082
So, beyond hope, achieving land at last, we purify2083
ourselves for Jove, and light offerings on the altars, 2084
and celebrate Trojan games on the shore of Actium.2085
My naked companions, slippery with oil,2086
indulge in the wrestling-bouts of their homeland:2087
it’s good to have slipped past so many Greek cities2088
and held our course in flight through the midst of the enemy.2089
Meanwhile the sun rolls through the long year2090
and icy winter stirs the waves with northerly gales:2091
I fix a shield of hollow bronze, once carried by mighty Abas,2092
on the entrance pillars, and mark the event with a verse:2093
AENEAS OFFERS THIS ARMOUR FROM CONQUERING GREEKS2094
then I order them to man the benches and leave harbour:2095
in rivalry, my friends strike the sea and sweep the waves.2096
We soon leave behind the windblown heights of Phaeacia,2097
pass the shores of Epirus, enter Chaonia’s harbour2098
and approach the lofty city of Buthrotum. 2099
BkIII:294-355 Andromache in Chaonia2100
Here a rumour of something unbelievable greeted our ears:2101
Priam’s son, Helenus, reigning over Greek cities,2102
having won the wife and kingdom of Pyrrhus, Aeacus’s scion, 2103
Andromache being given again to a husband of her race.2104
I was astounded, and my heart burned with an amazing passion2105
to speak to the man, and learn of such events.2106
I walked from the harbour, leaving the fleet and the shore,2107
when, by chance, in a sacred grove near the city, by a false Simois,2108
Andromache was making an annual offering, sad gifts,2109
to Hector’s ashes, and calling his spirit to the tomb,2110
an empty mound of green turf, and twin altars, she had sanctified,2111
a place for tears. When she saw me approaching and recognised,2112
with amazement, Trojan weapons round her, she froze as she gazed,2113
terrified by these great wonders, and the heat left her limbs.2114
She half-fell and after a long while, scarcely able to, said:2115
“Are you a real person, a real messenger come here to me,2116
son of the goddess? Are you alive? Or if the kindly light has faded,2117
where then is Hector?” She spoke, and poured out her tears,2118
and filled the whole place with her weeping. Given her frenzy,2119
I barely replied with a few words, and, moved, I spoke disjointedly:2120
“Surely, I live, and lead a life full of extremes: don’t be unsure,2121
for you see truly. Ah! What fate has overtaken you, fallen2122
from so great a husband? Or has good fortune worthy enough2123
for Hector’s Andromache, visited you again? Are you still2124
Pyrrhus’s wife?” She lowered her eyes and spoke quietly:2125
“O happy beyond all others was that virgin daughter2126
of Priam, commanded to die beside an enemy tomb, 2127
under Troy’s high walls, who never suffered fate’s lottery, 2128
or, as a prisoner, reached her victorious master’s bed!2129
Carried over distant seas, my country set afire, I endured2130
the scorn of Achilles’s son, and his youthful arrogance,2131
giving birth as a slave: he, who then, pursuing Hermione,2132
Helen’s daughter, and a Spartan marriage, transferred me2133
to Helenus’s keeping, a servant to a servant. 2134
But Orestes, inflamed by great love for his stolen bride, 2135
and driven by the Furies for his crime, caught him,2136
unawares, and killed him by his father’s altar.2137
At Pyrrhus’s death a part of the kingdom passed, by right2138
to Helenus, who named the Chaonian fields, and all2139
Chaonia, after Chaon of Troy, and built a Pergamus,2140
and this fortress of Ilium, on the mountain ridge. 2141
But what winds, what fates, set your course for you?2142
Or what god drives you, unknowingly, to our shores?2143
What of the child, Ascanius? Does he live, and graze on air,2144
he whom Creusa bore to you in vanished Troy?2145
Has he any love still for his lost mother? 2146
Have his father Aeneas and his uncle Hector roused2147
in him any of their ancient courage or virile spirit?”2148
Weeping, she poured out these words, and was starting2149
a long vain lament, when heroic Helenus, Priam’s son,2150
approached from the city, with a large retinue,2151
and recognised us as his own, and lead us, joyfully,2152
to the gates, and poured out tears freely at every word.2153
I walked on, and saw a little Troy, and a copy of the great2154
citadel, and a dry stream, named after the Xanthus,2155
and embraced the doorposts of a Scaean Gate.2156
My Trojans enjoyed the friendly city with me no less.2157
The king received them in a broad colonnade:2158
they poured out cups of wine in the centre of a courtyard,2159
and held out their dishes while food was served on gold.2160
BkIII:356-462 The Prophecy of Helenus2161
Now day after day has gone by, and the breezes call2162
to the sails, and the canvas swells with a rising Southerly:2163
I go to Helenus, the seer, with these words and ask:2164
“Trojan-born, agent of the gods, you who know Apollo’s will,2165
the tripods, the laurels at Claros, the stars, the language2166
of birds, and the omens of their wings in flight,2167
come, speak (since a favourable oracle told me 2168
all my route, and all the gods in their divinity urged me2169
to seek Italy, and explore the furthest lands:2170
only the Harpy, Celaeno, predicts fresh portents, 2171
evil to tell of, and threatens bitter anger2172
and vile famine) first, what dangers shall I avoid?2173
Following what course can I overcome such troubles?”2174
Helenus, first sacrificing bullocks according to the ritual,2175
obtained the gods’ grace, then loosened the headband2176
from his holy brow, and led me, anxious at so much2177
divine power, with his own hand, to your threshold Apollo,2178
and then the priest prophesied this, from the divine mouth:2179
“Son of the goddess, since the truth is clear, that you sail2180
the deep blessed by the higher powers (so the king of the gods2181
allots our fates, and rolls the changes, so the order alters),2182
I’ll explain a few things of many, in my words to you,2183
so you may travel foreign seas more safely, and can find2184
rest in an Italian haven: for the Fates forbid Helenus2185
to know further, and Saturnian Juno denies him speech.2186
Firstly, a long pathless path, by long coastlines, separates2187
you from that far-off Italy, whose neighbouring port 2188
you intend to enter, unknowingly thinking it nearby. 2189
Before you can build your city in a safe land,2190
you must bend the oar in Sicilian waters,2191
and pass the levels of the Italian seas, in your ships,2192
the infernal lakes, and Aeaean Circe’s island.2193
I’ll tell you of signs: keep them stored in your memory.2194
When, in your distress, you find a huge sow lying on the shore,2195
by the waters of a remote river, under the oak trees,2196
that has farrowed a litter of thirty young, a white sow,2197
lying on the ground, with white piglets round her teats,2198
that place shall be your city, there’s true rest from your labours.2199
And do not dread that gnawing of tables, in your future:2200
the fates will find a way, Apollo will be there at your call.2201
But avoid these lands, and this nearer coastline2202
of the Italian shore, washed by our own2203
ocean tide: hostile Greeks inhabit every town.2204
The Narycian Locri have built a city here,2205
and Lyctian Idomeneus has filled the plain 2206
with soldiers: here is that little Petelia, of Philoctetes, 2207
leader of the Meliboeans, relying on its walls.2208
Then when your fleet has crossed the sea, and anchored2209
and the altars are raised for your offerings on the shore,2210
veil your hair, clothed in your purple robes, so that2211
in worshipping the gods no hostile face may intrude2212
among the sacred flames, and disturb the omens.2213
Let your friends adopt this mode of sacrifice, and yourself:2214
and let your descendants remain pure in this religion.2215
But when the wind carries you, on leaving, to the Sicilian shore,2216
and the barriers of narrow Pelorus open ahead, 2217
make for the seas and land to port, in a long circuit: 2218
avoid the shore and waters on the starboard side.2219
They say, when the two were one continuous stretch of land,2220
they one day broke apart, torn by the force of a vast upheaval2221
(time’s remote antiquity enables such great changes).2222
The sea flowed between them with force, and severed2223
the Italian from the Sicilian coast, and a narrow tideway2224
washes the cities and fields on separate shores.2225
Scylla holds the right side, implacable Charybdis the left,2226
who, in the depths of the abyss, swallows the vast flood2227
three times into the downward gulf and alternately lifts2228
it to the air, and lashes the heavens with her waves.2229
But a cave surrounds Scylla with dark hiding-places,2230
and she thrusts her mouths out, and drags ships onto the rocks.2231
Above she has human shape, and is a girl, with lovely breasts,2232
a girl, down to her sex, below it she is a sea-monster of huge size,2233
with dolphins’ tails joined to a belly formed of wolves. 2234
It is better to round the point of Pachynus,2235
lingering, and circling Sicily on a long course,2236
than to once catch sight of hideous Scylla in her vast cave2237
and the rocks that echo to her sea-dark hounds.2238
Beyond this, if Helenus has any knowledge, if the seer2239
can be believed, if Apollo fills his spirit with truth,2240
son of the goddess, I will say this one thing, this one thing2241
that is worth all, and I’ll repeat the warning again and again,2242
honour great Juno’s divinity above all, with prayer, and recite 2243
your vows to Juno freely, and win over that powerful lady2244
with humble gifts: so at last you’ll leave Sicily behind2245
and reach the coast of Italy, victorious. 2246
Once brought there, approach the city of Cumae,2247
the ghostly lakes, and Avernus, with its whispering groves,2248
gaze on the raving prophetess, who sings the fates2249
deep in the rock, and commits names and signs to leaves.2250
Whatever verses the virgin writes on the leaves,2251
she arranges in order, and stores them high up in her cave.2252
They stay in place, motionless, and keep in rank:2253
but once a light breeze ruffles them, at the turn of a hinge,2254
and the opening door disturbs the delicate leaves, she never 2255
thinks to retrieve them, as they flutter through the rocky cave, 2256
or to return them to their places, or reconstitute the prophecies:2257
men go away unanswered, and detest the Sibyl’s lair.2258
Though your friends complain, and though your course2259
calls your sails urgently to the deep, and a following wind2260
might fill the canvas, don’t overvalue the loss in any delay,2261
but visit the prophetess, and beg her with prayers to speak2262
the oracle herself, and loose her voice through willing lips.2263
She will rehearse the peoples of Italy, the wars to come,2264
and how you might evade or endure each trial,2265
and, shown respect, she’ll grant you a favourable journey.2266
These are the things you can be warned of by my voice.2267
Go now, and by your actions raise great Troy to the stars.”2268
BkIII:463-505 The Departure from Chaonia2269
After the seer had spoken these words with benign lips,2270
he ordered heavy gifts of gold and carved ivory2271
to be carried to our ships, and stored massive silverware2272
in the holds, cauldrons from Dodona, a hooked breastplate2273
woven with triple-linked gold, and a fine conical helmet2274
with a crest of horse-hair, Pyrrhus’s armour. 2275
There were gifts of his own for my father too.2276
Helenus added horses and sea-pilots: he manned2277
our oars: he also equipped my friends with weapons.2278
Meanwhile Anchises ordered us to rig sails on the ships,2279
so the rushing wind would not be lost, by our delay.2280
Apollo’s agent spoke to him with great respect:2281
“Anchises, worthy of proud marriage with Venus,2282
cared for by the gods, twice saved from the ruins of Troy,2283
behold your land of Italy: sail and take it.2284
But still you must slide past it on the seas:2285
the part of Italy that Apollo named is far away.2286
Go onward, happy in your son’s love. Why should I say more,2287
and delay your catching the rising wind?”2288
Andromache also, grieved at this final parting, brought robes2289
embroidered with gold weave, and a Phrygian cloak2290
for Ascanius, nor did she fail to honour him, 2291
and loaded him down with gifts of cloth, and said:2292
“Take these as well, my child, remembrances for you2293
from my hand, and witness of the lasting love of Andromache,2294
Hector’s wife. Take these last gifts from your kin,2295
O you, the sole image left to me of my Astyanax.2296
He had the same eyes, the same hands, the same lips:2297
and now he would be growing up like you, equal in age.”2298
My tears welled as I spoke these parting words:2299
“Live happily, you whose fortunes are already determined:2300
we are summoned onwards from destiny to destiny.2301
For you, peace is achieved: you’ve no need to plough the levels2302
of the sea, you’ve no need to seek Italy’s ever-receding fields.2303
I wish that you might gaze at your likeness of Xanthus,2304
and a Troy built by your own hands, under happier auspices,2305
one which might be less exposed to the Greeks.2306
If I ever reach the Tiber, and the Tiber’s neighbouring fields,2307
and gaze on city walls granted to my people, we’ll one day2308
make one Troy, in spirit, from each of our kindred cities2309
and allied peoples, in Epirus, in Italy, who have the same Dardanus2310
for ancestor, the same history: let it be left to our descendants care.”2311
BkIII:506-547 In Sight of Italy2312
We sail on over the sea, close to the Ceraunian cliffs nearby,2313
on course for Italy, and the shortest path over the waves.2314
Meanwhile the sun is setting and the darkened hills are in shadow.2315
Having shared oars, we stretch out, near the waves, on the surface2316
of the long-desired land, and, scattered across the dry beach,2317
we rest our bodies: sleep refreshes our weary limbs.2318
Night, lead by the Hours, is not yet in mid-course:2319
Palinurus rises alertly from his couch, tests all 2320
the winds, and listens to the breeze: he notes2321
all the stars gliding through the silent sky,2322
Arcturus, the rainy Pleiades, both the Bears,2323
and surveys Orion, armed with gold. When he sees 2324
that all tallies, and the sky is calm, he sounds2325
a loud call from the ship’s stern: we break camp, 2326
attempt our route, and spread the winged sails.2327
And now Dawn blushes as she puts the stars to flight,2328
when we see, far off, dark hills and low-lying Italy.2329
First Achates proclaims Italy, then my companions2330
hail Italy with a joyful shout. Then my father Anchises2331
took up a large bowl, filled it with wine,2332
and standing in the high stern, called to the heavens:2333
“You gods, lords of the sea and earth and storms, carry us 2334
onward on a gentle breeze, and breathe on us with kindness!”2335
The wind we longed-for rises, now as we near, a harbour opens,2336
and a temple is visible on Minerva’s Height.2337
My companions furl the sails and turn the prows to shore.2338
The harbour is carved in an arc by the eastern tides:2339
its jutting rocks boil with salt spray, so that it itself is hidden:2340
towering cliffs extend their arms in a twin wall,2341
and the temple lies back from the shore.2342
Here I see four horses in the long grass, white as snow, 2343
grazing widely over the plain, our first omen.2344
And my father Anchises cries: “O foreign land, you bring us war:2345
horses are armed for war, war is what this herd threatens.2346
Yet those same creatures one day can be yoked to a chariot,2347
and once yoked will suffer the bridle in harmony:2348
there’s also hope of peace.” Then we pray to the sacred power2349
of Pallas, of the clashing weapons, first to receive our cheers,2350
and clothed in Phrygian robes we veiled our heads before the altar,2351
and following the urgent command Helenus had given,2352
we duly made burnt offerings to Argive Juno as ordered. 2353
BkIII:548-587 The Approach to Sicily2354
Without delay, as soon as our vows are fully paid,2355
we haul on the ends of our canvas-shrouded yard-arms,2356
and leave the home of the Greek race, and the fields we mistrust.2357
Then Tarentum’s bay is seen, Hercules’s city if the tale is true:2358
Lacinian Juno’s temple rises against it, Caulon’s fortress,2359
and Scylaceum’s shore of shipwreck.2360
Then far off Sicilian Etna appears from the waves,2361
and we hear the loud roar of the sea, and the distant2362
tremor of the rocks, and the broken murmurs of the shore,2363
the shallows boil, and sand mixes with the flood.2364
Then my father, Anchises, said: “This must be Charybdis:2365
these are the cliffs, these are the horrendous rocks Helenus foretold.2366
Pull away, O comrades, and stand to the oars together.”2367
They do no less than they’re asked, and Palinurus is the first2368
to heave his groaning ship into the portside waves:2369
all our company seek port with oars and sail.2370
We climb to heaven on the curving flood, and again2371
sink down with the withdrawing waves to the depths of Hades.2372
The cliffs boom three times in their rocky caves,2373
three times we see the spray burst, and the dripping stars.2374
Then the wind and sunlight desert weary men,2375
and not knowing the way we drift to the Cyclopes’s shore.2376
There’s a harbour, itself large and untroubled by the passing winds,2377
but Etna rumbles nearby with fearsome avalanches,2378
now it spews black clouds into the sky, smoking,2379
with pitch-black turbulence, and glowing ashes,2380
and throws up balls of flame, licking the stars:2381
now it hurls high the rocks it vomits, and the mountain’s 2382
torn entrails, and gathers molten lava together in the air2383
with a roar, boiling from its lowest depths.2384
The tale is that Enceladus’s body, scorched by the lightning-bolt,2385
is buried by that mass, and piled above him, mighty Etna2386
breathes flames from its riven furnaces,2387
and as often as he turns his weary flank, all Sicily2388
quakes and rumbles, and clouds the sky with smoke.2389
That night we hide in the woods, enduring the dreadful shocks,2390
unable to see what the cause of the sound is,2391
since there are no heavenly fires, no bright pole2392
in the starry firmament, but clouds in a darkened sky,2393
and the dead of night holds the moon in shroud.2394
BkIII:588-654 Achaemenides2395
Now the next day was breaking with the first light of dawn,2396
and Aurora had dispersed the moist shadows from the sky,2397
when suddenly the strange form of an unknown man came out2398
of the woods, exhausted by the last pangs of hunger, 2399
pitifully dressed, and stretched his hands in supplication 2400
towards the shore. We looked back. Vile with filth, his beard uncut,2401
his clothing fastened together with thorns: but otherwise a Greek,2402
once sent to Troy in his country’s armour.2403
When he saw the Dardan clothes and Trojan weapons, far off,2404
he hesitated a moment, frightened at the sight, 2405
and checked his steps: then ran headlong to the beach, 2406
with tears and prayers: “The stars be my witness,2407
the gods, the light in the life-giving sky, Trojans, 2408
take me with you: carry me to any country whatsoever,2409
that will be fine by me. I know I’m from one of the Greek ships,2410
and I confess that I made war against Trojan gods,2411
if my crime is so great an injury to you, scatter me2412
over the waves for it, or drown me in the vast ocean:2413
if I die I’ll delight in dying at the hands of men.”2414
He spoke and clung to my knees, embracing them 2415
and grovelling there. We urged him to say who he was,2416
born of what blood, then to say what fate pursued him.2417
Without much delay, my father Anchises himself gave2418
the young man his hand, lifting his spirits by this ready trust.2419
At last he set his fears aside and told us:2420
“I’m from the land of Ithaca, a companion of unlucky Ulysses,2421
Achaemenides by name, and, my father Adamastus being poor,2422
(I wish fate had kept me so!) I set out for Troy.2423
My comrades left me here in the Cyclops’ vast cave,2424
forgetting me, as they hurriedly left that grim2425
threshold. It’s a house of blood and gory feasts,2426
vast and dark inside. He himself is gigantic, striking against2427
the high stars – gods, remove plagues like that from the earth! –2428
not pleasant to look at, affable to no one.2429
He eats the dark blood and flesh of wretched men.2430
I saw myself how he seized two of our number in his huge hands,2431
and reclining in the centre of the cave, broke them2432
on the rock, so the threshold, drenched, swam with blood:2433
I saw how he gnawed their limbs, dripping with dark clots2434
of gore, and the still-warm bodies quivered in his jaws.2435
Yet he did not go unpunished: Ulysses didn’t suffer it,2436
nor did the Ithacan forget himself in a crisis. 2437
As soon as the Cyclops, full of flesh and sated with wine,2438
relaxed his neck, and lay, huge in size, across the cave,2439
drooling gore and blood and wine-drenched fragments 2440
in his sleep, we prayed to the great gods, and our roles fixed,2441
surrounded him on all sides, and stabbed his one huge eye,2442
solitary, and half-hidden under his savage brow,2443
like a round Greek shield, or the sun-disc of Phoebus,2444
with a sharpened stake: and so we joyfully avenged2445
the spirits of our friends. But fly from here, wretched men,2446
and cut your mooring ropes. Since, like Polyphemus, who pens2447
woolly flocks in the rocky cave, and milks their udders, there are2448
a hundred other appalling Cyclopes, the same in shape and size,2449
everywhere inhabiting the curved bay, and wandering the hills.2450
The moon’s horns have filled with light three times now, while I2451
have been dragging my life out in the woods, among the lairs 2452
and secret haunts of wild creatures, watching the huge Cyclopes2453
from the cliffs, trembling at their voices and the sound of their feet. 2454
The branches yield a miserable supply of fruits and stony cornelian2455
cherries, and the grasses, torn up by their roots, feed me.2456
Watching for everything, I saw, for the first time, this fleet 2457
approaching shore. Whatever might happen, I surrendered myself2458
to you: it’s enough for me to have escaped that wicked people.2459
I’d rather you took this life of mine by any death whatsoever.”2460
BkIII:655-691 Polyphemus2461
He’d barely spoken, when we saw the shepherd Polyphemus2462
himself, moving his mountainous bulk on the hillside2463
among the flocks, and heading for the familiar shore,2464
a fearful monster, vast and shapeless, robbed of the light.2465
A lopped pine-trunk in his hand steadied and guided2466
his steps: his fleecy sheep accompanied him: 2467
his sole delight and the solace for his evils. 2468
As soon as he came to the sea and reached the deep water,2469
he washed away the blood oozing from the gouged eye-socket,2470
groaning and gnashing his teeth. Then he walked through2471
the depths of the waves, without the tide wetting his vast thighs.2472
Anxiously we hurried our departure from there, accepting 2473
the worthy suppliant on board, and cutting the cable in silence:2474
then leaning into our oars, we vied in sweeping the sea.2475
He heard, and bent his course towards the sound of splashing.2476
But when he was denied the power to set hands on us,2477
and unable to counter the force of the Ionian waves, in pursuit,2478
he raised a mighty shout, at which the sea and all the waves2479
shook, and the land of Italy was frightened far inland,2480
and Etna bellowed from its winding caverns, but the tribe2481
of Cyclopes, roused from their woods and high mountains, 2482
rushed to the harbour, and crowded the shore.2483
We saw them standing there, impotently, wild-eyed,2484
the Aetnean brotherhood, heads towering into the sky,2485
a fearsome gathering: like tall oaks rooted on a summit,2486
or cone-bearing cypresses, in Jove’s high wood or Diana’s grove.2487
Acute fear drove us on to pay out the ropes on whatever tack2488
and spread our sails to any favourable wind. 2489
Helenus’s orders warned against taking a course between2490
Scylla and Charybdis, a hair’s breadth from death2491
on either side: we decided to beat back again.2492
When, behold, a northerly arrived from the narrow2493
headland of Pelorus: I sailed past the natural rock mouth2494
of the Pantagias, Megara’s bay, and low-lying Thapsus.2495
Such were the shores Achaemenides, the friend of unlucky Ulysses,2496
showed me, sailing his wandering journey again, in reverse.2497
BkIII:692-718 The Death of Anchises2498
An island lies over against wave-washed Plemyrium,2499
stretched across a Sicilian bay: named Ortygia by men of old.2500
The story goes that Alpheus, a river of Elis, forced2501
a hidden path here under the sea, and merges 2502
with the Sicilian waters of your fountain Arethusa.2503
As commanded we worshipped the great gods of this land,2504
and from there I passed marshy Helorus’s marvellously rich soil.2505
Next we passed the tall reefs and jutting rocks of Pachynus,2506
and Camerina appeared in the distance, granted2507
immoveable, by prophecy, and the Geloan plains, 2508
and Gela named after its savage river.2509
Then steep Acragas, once the breeder of brave horses,2510
showed its mighty ramparts in the distance:2511
and granted the wind, I left palmy Selinus, and passed2512
the tricky shallows of Lilybaeum with their blind reefs.2513
Next the harbour of Drepanum, and its joyless shore,2514
received me. Here, alas, I lost my father, Anchises, 2515
my comfort in every trouble and misfortune, I, who’d2516
been driven by so many ocean storms: here you left me, 2517
weary, best of fathers, saved from so many dangers in vain!2518
Helenus, the seer, did not prophesy this grief of mine,2519
when he warned me of many horrors, nor did grim Celaeno.2520
This was my last trouble, this the end of my long journey:2521
leaving there, the god drove me to your shores.’2522
So our ancestor Aeneas, as all listened to one man,2523
recounted divine fate, and described his journey.2524
At last he stopped, and making an end here, rested.2525
BkIV:1-53 Dido and Anna Discuss Aeneas2526
But the queen, wounded long since by intense love, 2527
feeds the hurt with her life-blood, weakened by hidden fire.2528
The hero’s courage often returns to mind, and the nobility2529
of his race: his features and his words cling fixedly to her heart,2530
and love will not grant restful calm to her body.2531
The new day’s Dawn was lighting the earth with Phoebus’s2532
brightness, and dispelling the dew-wet shadows from the sky,2533
when she spoke ecstatically to her sister, her kindred spirit:2534
“Anna, sister, how my dreams terrify me with anxieties!2535
Who is this strange guest who has entered our house,2536
with what boldness he speaks, how resolute in mind and warfare!2537
Truly I think – and it’s no idle saying – that he’s born of a goddess.2538
Fear reveals the ignoble spirit. Alas! What misfortunes test him!2539
What battles he spoke of, that he has undergone!2540
If my mind was not set, fixedly and immovably,2541
never to join myself with any man in the bonds of marriage,2542
because first-love betrayed me, cheated me through dying:2543
if I were not wearied by marriage and bridal-beds,2544
perhaps I might succumb to this one temptation.2545
Anna, yes I confess, since my poor husband Sychaeus’s death 2546
when the altars were blood-stained by my murderous brother,2547
he’s the only man who’s stirred my senses, troubled my2548
wavering mind. I know the traces of the ancient flame.2549
But I pray rather that earth might gape wide for me, to its depths,2550
or the all-powerful father hurl me with his lightning-bolt2551
down to the shadows, to the pale ghosts, and deepest night2552
of Erebus, before I violate you, Honour, or break your laws.2553
He who first took me to himself has stolen my love:2554
let him keep it with him, and guard it in his grave.”2555
So saying her breast swelled with her rising tears.2556
Anna replied: “O you, who are more beloved to your sister2557
than the light, will you wear your whole youth away 2558
in loneliness and grief, and not know Venus’s sweet gifts2559
or her children? Do you think that ashes or sepulchral spirits care?2560
Granted that in Libya or Tyre before it, no suitor ever2561
dissuaded you from sorrowing: and Iarbas and the other lords 2562
whom the African soil, rich in fame, bears, were scorned:2563
will you still struggle against a love that pleases?2564
Do you not recall to mind in whose fields you settled?2565
Here Gaetulian cities, a people unsurpassed in battle,2566
unbridled Numidians, and inhospitable Syrtis, surround you:2567
there, a region of dry desert, with Barcaeans raging around.2568
And what of your brother’s threats, and war with Tyre imminent?2569
The Trojan ships made their way here with the wind,2570
with gods indeed helping them I think, and with Juno’s favour.2571
What a city you’ll see here, sister, what a kingdom rise,2572
with such a husband! With a Trojan army marching with us,2573
with what great actions Punic glory will soar!2574
Only ask the gods for their help, and, propitiating them2575
with sacrifice, indulge your guest, spin reasons for delay,2576
while winter, and stormy Orion, rage at sea, 2577
while the ships are damaged, and the skies are hostile.”2578
BkIV:54-89 Dido in Love2579
By saying this she inflames the queen’s burning heart with love2580
and raises hopes in her anxious mind, and weakens her sense2581
of shame. First they visit the shrines and ask for grace at the altars:2582
they sacrifice chosen animals according to the rites,2583
to Ceres, the law-maker, and Phoebus, and father Lycaeus,2584
and to Juno above all, in whose care are the marriage ties:2585
Dido herself, supremely lovely, holding the cup in her hand,2586
pours the libation between the horns of a white heifer2587
or walks to the rich altars, before the face of the gods,2588
celebrates the day with gifts, and gazes into the opened2589
chests of victims, and reads the living entrails.2590
Ah, the unknowing minds of seers! What use are prayers2591
or shrines to the impassioned? Meanwhile her tender marrow 2592
is aflame, and a silent wound is alive in her breast.2593
Wretched Dido burns, and wanders frenzied through the city,2594
like an unwary deer struck by an arrow, that a shepherd hunting2595
with his bow has fired at from a distance, in the Cretan woods,2596
leaving the winged steel in her, without knowing.2597
She runs through the woods and glades of Dicte:2598
the lethal shaft hangs in her side.2599
Now she leads Aeneas with her round the walls2600
showing her Sidonian wealth and the city she’s built:2601
she begins to speak, and stops in mid-flow:2602
now she longs for the banquet again as day wanes,2603
yearning madly to hear about the Trojan adventures once more2604
and hangs once more on the speaker’s lips.2605
Then when they have departed, and the moon in turn2606
has quenched her light and the setting constellations urge sleep,2607
she grieves, alone in the empty hall, and lies on the couch2608
he left. Absent she hears him absent, sees him,2609
or hugs Ascanius on her lap, taken with this image2610
of his father, so as to deceive her silent passion.2611
The towers she started no longer rise, the young men no longer2612
carry out their drill, or work on the harbour and the battlements2613
for defence in war: the interrupted work is left hanging,2614
the huge threatening walls, the sky-reaching cranes.2615
BkIV:90-128 Juno and Venus2616
As soon as Juno, Jupiter’s beloved wife, saw clearly that Dido2617
was gripped by such heart-sickness, and her reputation2618
no obstacle to love, she spoke to Venus in these words:2619
“You and that son of yours, certainly take the prize, and plenty2620
of spoils: a great and memorable show of divine power,2621
whereby one woman’s trapped by the tricks of two gods.2622
But the truth’s not escaped me, you’ve always held the halls2623
of high Carthage under suspicion, afraid of my city’s defences.2624
But where can that end? Why such rivalry, now?2625
Why don’t we work on eternal peace instead, and a wedding pact?2626
You’ve achieved all that your mind was set on:2627
Dido’s burning with passion, and she’s drawn the madness2628
into her very bones. Let’s rule these people together 2629
with equal sway: let her be slave to a Trojan husband,2630
and entrust her Tyrians to your hand, as the dowry.”2631
Venus began the reply to her like this (since she knew2632
she’d spoken with deceit in her mind to divert the empire2633
from Italy’s shores to Libya’s): “Who’d be mad enough2634
to refuse such an offer or choose to make war on you,2635
so long as fate follows up what you say with action?2636
But fortune makes me uncertain, as to whether Jupiter wants2637
a single city for Tyrians and Trojan exiles, and approves2638
the mixing of races and their joining in league together.2639
You’re his wife: you can test his intent by asking.2640
Do it: I’ll follow.” Then royal Juno replied like this:2641
“That task’s mine. Now listen and I’ll tell you briefly2642
how the purpose at hand can be achieved. 2643
Aeneas and poor Dido plan to go hunting together 2644
in the woods, when the sun first shows tomorrow’s2645
dawn, and reveals the world in his rays.2646
While the lines are beating, and closing the thickets with nets,2647
I’ll pour down dark rain mixed with hail from the sky,2648
and rouse the whole heavens with my thunder.2649
They’ll scatter, and be lost in the dark of night:2650
Dido and the Trojan leader will reach the same cave.2651
I’ll be there, and if I’m assured of your good will,2652
I’ll join them firmly in marriage, and speak for her as his own:2653
this will be their wedding-night.” Not opposed to what she wanted,2654
Venus agreed, and smiled to herself at the deceit she’d found.2655
BkIV:129-172 The Hunt and the Cave2656
Meanwhile Dawn surges up and leaves the ocean.2657
Once she has risen, the chosen men pour from the gates:2658
Massylian horsemen ride out, with wide-meshed nets, 2659
snares, broad-headed hunting spears, and a pack 2660
of keen-scented hounds. The queen lingers in her rooms,2661
while Punic princes wait at the threshold: her horse stands there,2662
bright in purple and gold, and champs fiercely at the foaming bit.2663
At last she appears, with a great crowd around her,2664
dressed in a Sidonian robe with an embroidered hem.2665
Her quiver’s of gold, her hair knotted with gold,2666
a golden brooch fastens her purple tunic.2667
Her Trojan friends and joyful Iulus are with her:2668
Aeneas himself, the most handsome of them all, 2669
moves forward and joins his friendly troop with hers.2670
Like Apollo, leaving behind the Lycian winter, 2671
and the streams of Xanthus, and visiting his mother’s Delos,2672
to renew the dancing, Cretans and Dryopes and painted2673
Agathyrsians, mingling around his altars, shouting:2674
he himself striding over the ridges of Cynthus,2675
his hair dressed with tender leaves, and clasped with gold,2676
the weapons rattling on his shoulder: so Aeneas walks,2677
as lightly, beauty like the god’s shining from his noble face.2678
When they reach the mountain heights and pathless haunts,2679
see the wild goats, disturbed on their stony summits,2680
course down the slopes: in another place deer speed 2681
over the open field, massing together in a fleeing herd 2682
among clouds of dust, leaving the hillsides behind.2683
But the young Ascanius among the valleys, delights2684
in his fiery horse, passing this rider and that at a gallop, hoping2685
that amongst these harmless creatures a boar, with foaming mouth,2686
might answer his prayers, or a tawny lion, down from the mountain.2687
Meanwhile the sky becomes filled with a great rumbling:2688
rain mixed with hail follows, and the Tyrian company2689
and the Trojan men, with Venus’s Dardan grandson, 2690
scatter here and there through the fields, in their fear, 2691
seeking shelter: torrents stream down from the hills.2692
Dido and the Trojan leader reach the very same cave.2693
Primeval Earth and Juno of the Nuptials give their signal:2694
lightning flashes, the heavens are party to their union,2695
and the Nymphs howl on the mountain heights.2696
That first day is the source of misfortune and death.2697
Dido’s no longer troubled by appearances or reputation,2698
she no longer thinks of a secret affair: she calls it marriage:2699
and with that name disguises her sin.2700
BkIV:173-197 Rumour Reaches Iarbas2701
Rumour raced at once through Libya’s great cities,2702
Rumour, compared with whom no other is as swift.2703
She flourishes by speed, and gains strength as she goes:2704
first limited by fear, she soon reaches into the sky,2705
walks on the ground, and hides her head in the clouds.2706
Earth, incited to anger against the gods, so they say,2707
bore her last, a monster, vast and terrible, fleet-winged2708
and swift-footed, sister to Coeus and Enceladus,2709
who for every feather on her body has as many2710
watchful eyes below (marvellous to tell), as many2711
tongues speaking, as many listening ears. 2712
She flies, screeching, by night through the shadows2713
between earth and sky, never closing her eyelids2714
in sweet sleep: by day she sits on guard on tall roof-tops2715
or high towers, and scares great cities, as tenacious2716
of lies and evil, as she is messenger of truth.2717
Now in delight she filled the ears of the nations2718
with endless gossip, singing fact and fiction alike:2719
Aeneas has come, born of Trojan blood, a man whom2720
lovely Dido deigns to unite with: now they’re spending2721
the whole winter together in indulgence, forgetting2722
their royalty, trapped by shameless passion.2723
The vile goddess spread this here and there on men’s lips.2724
Immediately she slanted her course towards King Iarbas2725
and inflamed his mind with words and fuelled his anger.2726
BkIV:198-218 Iarbas Prays to Jupiter2727
He, a son of Jupiter Ammon, by a raped Garamantian Nymph,2728
had set up a hundred great temples, a hundred altars, to the god,2729
in his broad kingdom, and sanctified ever-living fires, the gods’2730
eternal guardians: the floors were soaked with sacrificial blood,2731
and the thresholds flowery with mingled garlands.2732
They say he often begged Jove humbly with upraised hands,2733
in front of the altars, among the divine powers,2734
maddened in spirit and set on fire by bitter rumour:2735
“All-powerful Jupiter, to whom the Moors, on their embroidered2736
divans, banqueting, now pour a Bacchic offering,2737
do you see this? Do we shudder in vain when you hurl 2738
your lightning bolts, father, and are those idle fires in the clouds2739
that terrify our minds, and flash among the empty rumblings?2740
A woman, wandering within my borders, who paid to found 2741
a little town, and to whom we granted coastal lands 2742
to plough, to hold in tenure, scorns marriage with me,2743
and takes Aeneas into her country as its lord. 2744
And now like some Paris, with his pack of eunuchs,2745
a Phrygian cap, tied under his chin, on his greasy hair,2746
he’s master of what he’s snatched: while I bring gifts indeed 2747
to temples, said to be yours, and cherish your empty reputation.2748
BkIV:219-278 Jupiter Sends Mercury to Aeneas2749
As he gripped the altar, and prayed in this way, 2750
the All-powerful one listened, and turned his gaze towards2751
the royal city, and the lovers forgetful of their true reputation.2752
Then he spoke to Mercury and commanded him so:2753
“Off you go, my son, call the winds and glide on your wings,2754
and talk to the Trojan leader who malingers in Tyrian Carthage2755
now, and gives no thought to the cities the fates will grant him,2756
and carry my words there on the quick breeze.2757
This is not what his loveliest of mothers suggested to me, 2758
nor why she rescued him twice from Greek armies:2759
he was to be one who’d rule Italy, pregnant with empire,2760
and crying out for war, he’d produce a people of Teucer’s 2761
high blood, and bring the whole world under the rule of law.2762
If the glory of such things doesn’t inflame him,2763
and he doesn’t exert himself for his own honour,2764
does he begrudge the citadels of Rome to Ascanius?2765
What does he plan? With what hopes does he stay2766
among alien people, forgetting Ausonia and the Lavinian fields?2767
Let him sail: that’s it in total, let that be my message.”2768
He finished speaking. The god prepared to obey his great 2769
father’s order, and first fastened the golden sandals to his feet2770
that carry him high on the wing over land and sea, like the storm.2771
Then he took up his wand: he calls pale ghosts from Orcus2772
with it, sending others down to grim Tartarus,2773
gives and takes away sleep, and opens the eyes of the dead.2774
Relying on it, he drove the winds, and flew through2775
the stormy clouds. Now in his flight he saw the steep flanks2776
and the summit of strong Atlas, who holds the heavens2777
on his head, Atlas, whose pine-covered crown is always wreathed2778
in dark clouds and lashed by the wind and rain:2779
fallen snow clothes his shoulders: while rivers fall2780
from his ancient chin, and his rough beard bristles with ice.2781
There Cyllenian Mercury first halted, balanced on level wings:2782
from there, he threw his whole body headlong 2783
towards the waves, like a bird that flies low close 2784
to the sea, round the coasts and the rocks rich in fish.2785
So the Cyllenian-born flew between heaven and earth2786
to Libya’s sandy shore, cutting the winds, coming2787
from Atlas, his mother Maia’s father.2788
As soon as he reached the builders’ huts, on his winged feet,2789
he saw Aeneas establishing towers and altering roofs.2790
His sword was starred with tawny jasper, 2791
and the cloak that hung from his shoulder blazed2792
with Tyrian purple, a gift that rich Dido had made,2793
weaving the cloth with golden thread.2794
Mercury challenged him at once: “For love of a wife 2795
are you now building the foundations of high Carthage2796
and a pleasing city? Alas, forgetful of your kingdom and fate!2797
The king of the gods himself, who bends heaven and earth2798
to his will, has sent me down to you from bright Olympus:2799
he commanded me himself to carry these words through2800
the swift breezes. What do you plan? With what hopes2801
do you waste idle hours in Libya’s lands? If you’re not stirred2802
by the glory of destiny, and won’t exert yourself for your own2803
fame, think of your growing Ascanius, and the expectations2804
of him, as Iulus your heir, to whom will be owed the kingdom 2805
of Italy, and the Roman lands.” So Mercury spoke,2806
and, while speaking, vanished from mortal eyes,2807
and melted into thin air far from their sight.2808
BkIV:279-330 Dido Accuses Aeneas2809
Aeneas, stupefied at the vision, was struck dumb,2810
and his hair rose in terror, and his voice stuck in his throat.2811
He was eager to be gone, in flight, and leave that sweet land,2812
shocked by the warning and the divine command.2813
Alas! What to do? With what speech dare he tackle 2814
the love-sick queen? What opening words should he choose?2815
And he cast his mind back and forth swiftly, 2816
considered the issue from every aspect, and turned it every way.2817
This seemed the best decision, given the alternatives:2818
he called Mnestheus, Sergestus and brave Serestus,2819
telling them to fit out the fleet in silence, gather the men2820
on the shore, ready the ships’ tackle, and hide the reason2821
for these changes of plan. He in the meantime, since 2822
the excellent Dido knew nothing, and would not expect2823
the breaking off of such a love, would seek an approach,2824
the tenderest moment to speak, and a favourable means.2825
They all gladly obeyed his command at once, and did his bidding.2826
But the queen sensed his tricks (who can deceive a lover?)2827
and was first to anticipate future events, fearful even of safety.2828
That same impious Rumour brought her madness:2829
they are fitting out the fleet, and planning a journey.2830
Her mind weakened, she raves, and, on fire, runs wild2831
through the city: like a Maenad, thrilled by the shaken emblems2832
of the god, when the biennial festival rouses her, and, hearing the Bacchic cry, Mount Cithaeron summons her by night with its noise.2833
Of her own accord she finally reproaches Aeneas in these words:2834
“Faithless one, did you really think you could hide2835
such wickedness, and vanish from my land in silence?2836
Will my love not hold you, nor the pledge I once gave you,2837
nor the promise that Dido will die a cruel death? 2838
Even in winter do you labour over your ships, cruel one,2839
so as to sail the high seas at the height of the northern gales?2840
Why? If you were not seeking foreign lands and unknown2841
settlements, but ancient Troy still stood, would Troy2842
be sought out by your ships in wave-torn seas? 2843
Is it me you run from? I beg you, by these tears, by your own2844
right hand (since I’ve left myself no other recourse in my misery),2845
by our union, by the marriage we have begun,2846
if ever I deserved well of you, or anything of me 2847
was sweet to you, pity this ruined house, and if 2848
there is any room left for prayer, change your mind. 2849
The Libyan peoples and Numidian rulers hate me because of you:2850
my Tyrians are hostile: because of you all shame too is lost,2851
the reputation I had, by which alone I might reach the stars.2852
My guest, since that’s all that is left me from the name of husband,2853
to whom do you relinquish me, a dying woman?2854
Why do I stay? Until Pygmalion, my brother, destroys2855
the city, or Iarbas the Gaetulian takes me captive?2856
If I’d at least conceived a child of yours2857
before you fled, if a little Aeneas were playing 2858
about my halls, whose face might still recall yours, 2859
I’d not feel myself so utterly deceived and forsaken.”2860
BkIV:331-361 Aeneas Justifies Himself2861
She had spoken. He set his gaze firmly on Jupiter’s2862
warnings, and hid his pain steadfastly in his heart.2863
He replied briefly at last: “O queen, I will never deny2864
that you deserve the most that can be spelt out in speech,2865
nor will I regret my thoughts of you, Elissa,2866
while memory itself is mine, and breath controls these limbs.2867
I’ll speak about the reality a little. I did not expect to conceal2868
my departure by stealth (don’t think that), nor have I ever2869
held the marriage torch, or entered into that pact. 2870
If the fates had allowed me to live my life under my own2871
auspices, and attend to my own concerns as I wished,2872
I should first have cared for the city of Troy and the sweet relics2873
of my family, Priam’s high roofs would remain, and I’d have 2874
recreated Pergama, with my own hands, for the defeated. 2875
But now it is Italy that Apollo of Grynium, 2876
Italy, that the Lycian oracles, order me to take:2877
that is my desire, that is my country. If the turrets of Carthage2878
and the sight of your Libyan city occupy you, a Phoenician,2879
why then begrudge the Trojans their settling of Ausonia’s lands?2880
It is right for us too to search out a foreign kingdom.2881
As often as night cloaks the earth with dew-wet shadows,2882
as often as the burning constellations rise, the troubled image2883
of my father Anchises warns and terrifies me in dream:2884
about my son Ascanius and the wrong to so dear a person,2885
whom I cheat of a Hesperian kingdom, and pre-destined fields.2886
Now even the messenger of the gods, sent by Jupiter himself,2887
(I swear it on both our heads), has brought the command2888
on the swift breeze: I saw the god himself in broad daylight2889
enter the city and these very ears drank of his words.2890
Stop rousing yourself and me with your complaints.2891
I do not take course for Italy of my own free will.”2892
BkIV:362-392 Dido’s Reply2893
As he was speaking she gazed at him with hostility,2894
casting her eyes here and there, considering the whole man2895
with a silent stare, and then, incensed, she spoke:2896
“Deceiver, your mother was no goddess, nor was Dardanus2897
the father of your race: harsh Caucasus engendered you2898
on the rough crags, and Hyrcanian tigers nursed you.2899
Why pretend now, or restrain myself waiting for something worse?2900
Did he groan at my weeping? Did he look at me?2901
Did he shed tears in defeat, or pity his lover?2902
What is there to say after this? Now neither greatest Juno, indeed,2903
nor Jupiter, son of Saturn, are gazing at this with friendly eyes.2904
Nowhere is truth safe. I welcomed him as a castaway on the shore,2905
a beggar, and foolishly gave away a part of my kingdom:2906
I saved his lost fleet, and his friends from death.2907
Ah! Driven by the Furies, I burn: now prophetic Apollo,2908
now the Lycian oracles, now even a divine messenger sent2909
by Jove himself carries his orders through the air.2910
This is the work of the gods indeed, this is a concern to trouble2911
their calm. I do not hold you back, or refute your words:2912
go, seek Italy on the winds, find your kingdom over the waves.2913
Yet if the virtuous gods have power, I hope that you2914
will drain the cup of suffering among the reefs, and call out Dido’s2915
name again and again. Absent, I’ll follow you with dark fires, 2916
and when icy death has divided my soul and body, my ghost2917
will be present everywhere. Cruel one, you’ll be punished.2918
I’ll hear of it: that news will reach me in the depths of Hades.”2919
Saying this, she broke off her speech mid-flight, and fled2920
the light in pain, turning from his eyes, and going,2921
leaving him fearful and hesitant, ready to say more.2922
Her servants received her and carried her failing body 2923
to her marble chamber, and laid her on her bed.2924
BkIV:393-449 Aeneas Departs2925
But dutiful Aeneas, though he desired to ease her sadness2926
by comforting her and to turn aside pain with words, still, 2927
with much sighing, and a heart shaken by the strength of her love,2928
followed the divine command, and returned to the fleet.2929
Then the Trojans truly set to work and launched the tall ships2930
all along the shore. They floated the resinous keels,2931
and ready for flight, they brought leafy branches2932
and untrimmed trunks, from the woods, as oars.2933
You could see them hurrying and moving from every part2934
of the city. Like ants that plunder a vast heap of grain,2935
and store it in their nest, mindful of winter: a dark column2936
goes through the fields, and they carry their spoils2937
along a narrow track through the grass: some heave2938
with their shoulders against a large seed, and push, others tighten2939
the ranks and punish delay, the whole path’s alive with work.2940
What were your feelings Dido at such sights, what sighs2941
did you give, watching the shore from the heights 2942
of the citadel, everywhere alive, and seeing the whole 2943
sea, before your eyes, confused with such cries!2944
Cruel Love, to what do you not drive the human heart:2945
to burst into tears once more, to see once more if he can2946
be compelled by prayers, to humbly submit to love,2947
lest she leave anything untried, dying in vain.2948
“Anna, you see them scurrying all round the shore:2949
they’ve come from everywhere: the canvas already invites2950
the breeze, and the sailors, delighted, have set garlands2951
on the sterns. If I was able to foresee this great grief,2952
sister, then I’ll be able to endure it too. Yet still do one thing2953
for me in my misery, Anna: since the deceiver cultivated2954
only you, even trusting you with his private thoughts:2955
and only you know the time to approach the man easily.2956
Go, sister, and speak humbly to my proud enemy.2957
I never took the oath, with the Greeks at Aulis,2958
to destroy the Trojan race, or sent a fleet to Pergama,2959
or disturbed the ashes and ghost of his father Anchises:2960
why does he pitilessly deny my words access to his hearing?2961
Where does he run to? Let him give his poor lover this last gift:2962
let him wait for an easy voyage and favourable winds.2963
I don’t beg now for our former tie, that he has betrayed,2964
nor that he give up his beautiful Latium, and abandon2965
his kingdom: I ask for insubstantial time: peace and space2966
for my passion, while fate teaches my beaten spirit to grieve.2967
I beg for this last favour (pity your sister):2968
when he has granted it me, I’ll repay all by dying.”2969
Such are the prayers she made, and such are those2970
her unhappy sister carried and re-carried. But he was not2971
moved by tears, and listened to no words receptively:2972
Fate barred the way, and a god sealed the hero’s gentle hearing.2973
As when northerly blasts from the Alps blowing here and there2974
vie together to uproot an oak tree, tough with the strength of years:2975
there’s a creak, and the trunk quivers and the topmost leaves2976
strew the ground: but it clings to the rocks, and its roots2977
stretch as far down to Tartarus as its crown does towards2978
the heavens: so the hero was buffeted by endless pleas 2979
from this side and that, and felt the pain in his noble heart. 2980
His purpose remained fixed: tears fell uselessly.2981
BkIV:450-503 Dido Resolves to Die2982
Then the unhappy Dido, truly appalled by her fate, 2983
prayed for death: she was weary of gazing at the vault of heaven.2984
And that she might complete her purpose, and relinquish the light2985
more readily, when she placed her offerings on the altar alight2986
with incense, she saw (terrible to speak of!) the holy water blacken,2987
and the wine she had poured change to vile blood.2988
She spoke of this vision to no one, not even her sister.2989
There was a marble shrine to her former husband in the palace,2990
that she’d decked out, also, with marvellous beauty,2991
with snow-white fleeces, and festive greenery:2992
from it she seemed to hear voices and her husband’s words2993
calling her, when dark night gripped the earth:2994
and the lonely owl on the roofs often grieved2995
with ill-omened cries, drawing out its long call in a lament:2996
and many a prophecy of the ancient seers terrified her2997
with its dreadful warning. Harsh Aeneas himself persecuted2998
her, in her crazed sleep: always she was forsaken, alone with2999
herself, always she seemed to be travelling companionless on some3000
long journey, seeking her Tyrian people in a deserted landscape:3001
like Pentheus, deranged, seeing the Furies file past,3002
and twin suns and a twin Thebes revealed to view,3003
or like Agamemnon’s son Orestes driven across the stage when he3004
flees his mother’s ghost armed with firebrands and black snakes,3005
while the avenging Furies crouch on the threshold.3006
So that when, overcome by anguish, she harboured the madness,3007
and determined on death, she debated with herself over the time3008
and the method, and going to her sorrowful sister with a face 3009
that concealed her intent, calm, with hope on her brow, said:3010
“Sister, I’ve found a way (rejoice with your sister)3011
that will return him to me, or free me from loving him.3012
Near the ends of the Ocean and where the sun sets3013
Ethiopia lies, the furthest of lands, where Atlas, 3014
mightiest of all, turns the sky set with shining stars:3015
I’ve been told of a priestess, of Massylian race, there, 3016
a keeper of the temple of the Hesperides, who gave3017
the dragon its food, and guarded the holy branches of the tree,3018
scattering the honeydew and sleep-inducing poppies.3019
With her incantations she promises to set free 3020
what hearts she wishes, but bring cruel pain to others:3021
to stop the rivers flowing, and turn back the stars:3022
she wakes nocturnal Spirits: you’ll see earth yawn3023
under your feet, and the ash trees march from the hills.3024
You, and the gods, and your sweet life, are witness,3025
dear sister, that I arm myself with magic arts unwillingly.3026
Build a pyre, secretly, in an inner courtyard, open to the sky, 3027
and place the weapons on it which that impious man left 3028
hanging in my room, and the clothes, and the bridal bed 3029
that undid me: I want to destroy all memories3030
of that wicked man, and the priestess commends it.”3031
Saying this she fell silent: at the same time a pallor spread3032
over her face. Anna did not yet realise that her sister 3033
was disguising her own funeral with these strange rites,3034
her mind could not conceive of such intensity, 3035
and she feared nothing more serious than when 3036
Sychaeus died. So she prepared what was demanded.3037
BkIV:504-553 Dido Laments3038
But when the pyre of cut pine and oak was raised high, 3039
in an innermost court open to the sky, the queen3040
hung the place with garlands, and wreathed it 3041
with funereal foliage: she laid his sword and clothes3042
and picture on the bed, not unmindful of the ending.3043
Altars stand round about, and the priestess, with loosened hair,3044
intoned the names of three hundred gods, of Erebus, Chaos,3045
and the triple Hecate, the three faces of virgin Diana.3046
And she sprinkled water signifying the founts of Avernus:3047
there were herbs too acquired by moonlight, cut3048
with a bronze sickle, moist with the milk of dark venom:3049
and a caul acquired by tearing it from a newborn colt’s brow,3050
forestalling the mother’s love. She herself, near the altars,3051
with sacred grain in purified hands, one foot free of constraint,3052
her clothing loosened, called on the gods to witness3053
her coming death, and on the stars conscious of fate: 3054
then she prayed to whatever just and attentive power 3055
there might be, that cares for unrequited lovers.3056
It was night, and everywhere weary creatures were enjoying3057
peaceful sleep, the woods and the savage waves were resting, 3058
while stars wheeled midway in their gliding orbit,3059
while all the fields were still, and beasts and colourful birds,3060
those that live on wide scattered lakes, and those that live3061
in rough country among the thorn-bushes, were sunk in sleep3062
in the silent night. But not the Phoenician, unhappy in spirit, 3063
she did not relax in sleep, or receive the darkness into her eyes3064
and breast: her cares redoubled, and passion, alive once more, 3065
raged, and she swelled with a great tide of anger.3066
So she began in this way turning it over alone in her heart:3067
“See, what can I do? Be mocked trying my former suitors,3068
seeking marriage humbly with Numidians whom I 3069
have already disdained so many times as husbands?3070
Shall I follow the Trojan fleet then and that Teucrian’s3071
every whim? Because they might delight in having been3072
helped by my previous aid, or because gratitude 3073
for past deeds might remain truly fixed in their memories?3074
Indeed who, given I wanted to, would let me, or would take3075
one they hate on board their proud ships? Ah, lost girl,3076
do you not know or feel yet the treachery of Laomedon’s race?3077
What then? Shall I go alone, accompanying triumphant sailors?3078
Or with all my band of Tyrians clustered round me?3079
Shall I again drive my men to sea in pursuit, those3080
whom I could barely tear away from their Sidonian city,3081
and order them to spread their sails to the wind? 3082
Rather die, as you deserve, and turn away sorrow with steel.3083
You, my sister, conquered by my tears, in my madness, you 3084
first burdened me with these ills, and exposed me to my enemy.3085
I was not allowed to pass my life without blame, free of marriage, 3086
in the manner of some wild creature, never knowing such pain:3087
I have not kept the vow I made to Sychaeus’s ashes.”3088
Such was the lament that burst from her heart.3089
BkIV:554-583 Mercury Visits Aeneas Again3090
Now that everything was ready, and he was resolved on going,3091
Aeneas was snatching some sleep, on the ship’s high stern.3092
That vision appeared again in dream admonishing him,3093
similar to Mercury in every way, voice and colouring,3094
golden hair, and youth’s graceful limbs:3095
“Son of the Goddess, can you consider sleep in this disaster,3096
can’t you see the danger of it that surrounds you, madman3097
or hear the favourable west winds blowing?3098
Determined to die, she broods on mortal deceit and sin,3099
and is tossed about on anger’s volatile flood.3100
Won’t you flee from here, in haste, while you can hasten?3101
Soon you’ll see the water crowded with ships, 3102
cruel firebrands burning, soon the shore will rage with flame,3103
if the Dawn finds you lingering in these lands. Come, now,3104
end your delay! Woman is ever fickle and changeable.” 3105
So he spoke, and blended with night’s darkness. 3106
Then Aeneas, terrified indeed by the sudden apparition,3107
roused his body from sleep, and called to his friends:3108
“ Quick, men, awake, and man the rowing-benches: run 3109
and loosen the sails. Know that a god, sent from the heavens,3110
urges us again to speed our flight, and cut the twisted hawsers. 3111
We follow you, whoever you may be, sacred among the gods,3112
and gladly obey your commands once more. Oh, be with us, 3113
calm one, help us, and show stars favourable to us in the sky.” 3114
He spoke, and snatched his shining sword from its sheath,3115
and struck the cable with the naked blade. All were possessed3116
at once with the same ardour: They snatched up their goods,3117
and ran: abandoning the shore: the water was clothed with ships:3118
setting to, they churned the foam and swept the blue waves.3119
BkIV:584-629 Dido’s Curse3120
And now, at dawn, Aurora, leaving Tithonus’s saffron bed,3121
was scattering fresh daylight over the earth.3122
As soon as the queen saw the day whiten, from her tower, 3123
and the fleet sailing off under full canvas, and realised 3124
the shore and harbour were empty of oarsmen, she3125
struck her lovely breast three or four times with her hand,3126
and tearing at her golden hair, said: “Ah, Jupiter, is he to leave,3127
is a foreigner to pour scorn on our kingdom? Shall my Tyrians3128
ready their armour, and follow them out of the city, and others drag3129
our ships from their docks? Go, bring fire quickly, hand out the3130
weapons, drive the oars! What am I saying? Where am I?3131
What madness twists my thoughts? Wretched Dido, is it now3132
that your impious actions hurt you? The right time was then, 3133
when you gave him the crown. So this is the word and loyalty3134
of the man whom they say bears his father’s gods around,3135
of the man who carried his age-worn father on his shoulders? 3136
Couldn’t I have seized hold of him, torn his body apart,3137
and scattered him on the waves? And put his friends to the sword,3138
and Ascanius even, to feast on, as a course at his father’s table?3139
True the fortunes of war are uncertain. Let them be so:3140
as one about to die, whom had I to fear? I should have set fire3141
to his camp, filled the decks with flames, and extinguishing3142
father and son, and their whole race, given up my own life as well.3143
O Sun, you who illuminate all the works of this world,3144
and you Juno, interpreter and knower of all my pain,3145
and Hecate howled to, in cities, at midnight crossroads,3146
you, avenging Furies, and you, gods of dying Elissa,3147
acknowledge this, direct your righteous will to my troubles,3148
and hear my prayer. If it must be that the accursed one3149
should reach the harbour, and sail to the shore: 3150
if Jove’s destiny for him requires it, there his goal:3151
still, troubled in war by the armies of a proud race, 3152
exiled from his territories, torn from Iulus’s embrace,3153
let him beg help, and watch the shameful death of his people: 3154
then, when he has surrendered, to a peace without justice, 3155
may he not enjoy his kingdom or the days he longed for,3156
but let him die before his time, and lie unburied on the sand.3157
This I pray, these last words I pour out with my blood.3158
Then, O Tyrians, pursue my hatred against his whole line3159
and the race to come, and offer it as a tribute to my ashes. 3160
Let there be no love or treaties between our peoples.3161
Rise, some unknown avenger, from my dust, who will pursue3162
the Trojan colonists with fire and sword, now, or in time3163
to come, whenever the strength is granted him.3164
I pray that shore be opposed to shore, water to wave,3165
weapon to weapon: let them fight, them and their descendants.”3166
BkIV:630-705 The Death of Dido3167
She spoke, and turned her thoughts this way and that,3168
considering how to destroy her hateful life.3169
Then she spoke briefly to Barce, Sychaeus’s nurse,3170
since dark ashes concealed her own, in her former country:3171
“Dear nurse, bring my sister Anna here: tell her3172
to hurry, and sprinkle herself with water from the river,3173
and bring the sacrificial victims and noble offerings.3174
Let her come, and you yourself veil your brow with sacred ribbons.3175
My purpose is to complete the rites of Stygian Jupiter,3176
that I commanded, and have duly begun, and put an end3177
to sorrow, and entrust the pyre of that Trojan leader to the flames.”3178
So she said. The old woman zealously hastened her steps.3179
But Dido restless, wild with desperate purpose,3180
rolling her bloodshot eyes, her trembling cheeks3181
stained with red flushes, yet pallid at approaching death,3182
rushed into the house through its inner threshold, furiously 3183
climbed the tall funeral pyre, and unsheathed 3184
a Trojan sword, a gift that was never acquired to this end.3185
Then as she saw the Ilian clothing and the familiar couch,3186
she lingered a while, in tears and thought, then 3187
cast herself on the bed, and spoke her last words:3188
“Reminders, sweet while fate and the god allowed it,3189
accept this soul, and loose me from my sorrows.3190
I have lived, and I have completed the course that Fortune granted,3191
and now my noble spirit will pass beneath the earth.3192
I have built a bright city: I have seen its battlements,3193
avenging a husband I have exacted punishment3194
on a hostile brother, happy, ah, happy indeed 3195
if Trojan keels had never touched my shores!”3196
She spoke, and buried her face in the couch. 3197
“I shall die un-avenged, but let me die,” she cried.3198
“So, so I joy in travelling into the shadows.3199
Let the cruel Trojan’s eyes drink in this fire, on the deep,3200
and bear with him the evil omen of my death.”3201
She had spoken, and in the midst of these words, 3202
her servants saw she had fallen on the blade, 3203
the sword frothed with blood, and her hands were stained.3204
A cry rose to the high ceiling: Rumour, run riot, struck the city.3205
The houses sounded with weeping and sighs and women’s cries,3206
the sky echoed with a mighty lamentation,3207
as if all Carthage or ancient Tyre were falling 3208
to the invading enemy, and raging flames were rolling3209
over the roofs of men and gods.3210
Her sister, terrified, heard it, and rushed through the crowd,3211
tearing her cheeks with her nails, and beating her breast,3212
and called out to the dying woman in accusation:3213
“So this was the meaning of it, sister? Did you aim to cheat me?3214
This pyre of yours, this fire and altar were prepared for my sake?3215
What shall I grieve for first in my abandonment? Did you scorn3216
your sister’s company in dying? You should have summoned me3217
to the same fate: the same hour the same sword’s hurt should have3218
taken us both. I even built your pyre with these hands, 3219
and was I calling aloud on our father’s gods, 3220
so that I would be absent, cruel one, as you lay here?3221
You have extinguished yourself and me, sister: your people,3222
your Sidonian ancestors, and your city. I should bathe3223
your wounds with water and catch with my lips 3224
whatever dying breath still hovers.” So saying she climbed3225
the high levels, and clasped her dying sister to her breast,3226
sighing, and stemming the dark blood with her dress.3227
Dido tried to lift her heavy eyelids again, but failed:3228
and the deep wound hissed in her breast.3229
Lifting herself three times, she struggled to rise on her elbow: 3230
three times she fell back onto the bed, searching for light in 3231
the depths of heaven, with wandering eyes, and, finding it, sighed.3232
Then all-powerful Juno, pitying the long suffering 3233
of her difficult death, sent Iris from Olympus, to release 3234
the struggling spirit, and captive body. For since3235
she had not died through fate, or by a well-earned death, 3236
but wretchedly, before her time, inflamed with sudden madness, 3237
Proserpine had not yet taken a lock of golden hair 3238
from her head, or condemned her soul to Stygian Orcus. 3239
So dew-wet Iris flew down through the sky, on saffron wings,3240
trailing a thousand shifting colours across the sun,3241
and hovered over her head. “ I take this offering, sacred to Dis,3242
as commanded, and release you from the body that was yours.”3243
So she spoke, and cut the lock of hair with her right hand.3244
All the warmth ebbed at once, and life vanished on the breeze.3245
BkV:1-41 Aeneas Returns to Sicily3246
Meanwhile Aeneas with the fleet was holding a fixed course3247
now in the midst of the sea, cutting the waves, dark in a northerly3248
wind, looking back at the city walls that were glowing now with3249
unhappy Dido’s funeral flames. The reason that such a fire had3250
been lit was unknown: but the cruel pain when a great love is3251
profaned, and the knowledge of what a frenzied woman might do,3252
drove the minds of the Trojans to sombre forebodings.3253
When the ships reached deep water and land was no longer3254
in sight, but everywhere was sea, and sky was everywhere,3255
then a dark-blue rain cloud hung overhead, bringing3256
night and storm, and the waves bristled with shadows.3257
Palinurus the helmsman himself from the high stern cried:3258
‘Ah! Why have such storm clouds shrouded the sky?3259
What do you intend, father Neptune?’ So saying, next3260
he ordered them to shorten sail, and bend to the heavy oars,3261
then tacked against the wind, and spoke as follows:3262
‘Brave Aeneas, I would not expect to make Italy3263
with this sky, though guardian Jupiter promised it.3264
The winds, rising from the darkened west, have shifted 3265
and roar across our path, and the air thickens for a storm.3266
We cannot stand against it, or labour enough to weather it.3267
Since Fortune overcomes us, let’s go with her, 3268
and set our course wherever she calls. I think your brother Eryx’s3269
friendly shores are not far off, and the harbours of Sicily,3270
if I only remember the stars I observed rightly.’3271
Then virtuous Aeneas replied: ‘For my part I’ve seen for some time3272
that the winds required it, and you’re steering into them in vain.3273
Alter the course we sail. Is any land more welcome to me,3274
any to which I’d prefer to steer my weary fleet,3275
than that which protects my Trojan friend Acestes,3276
and holds the bones of my father Anchises to its breast?”3277
Having said this they searched out the port, and following winds3278
filled their sails: the ships sailed swiftly on the flood,3279
and they turned at last in delight towards known shores.3280
But Alcestes, on a high hill in the distance, wondered at the arrival3281
of friendly vessels, and met them, armed with javelins,3282
in his Libyan she-bear’s pelt: he whom a Trojan3283
mother bore, conceived of the river-god Crinisius. 3284
Not neglectful of his ancient lineage he rejoiced3285
at their return, entertained them gladly with his rural riches,3286
and comforted the weary with the assistance of a friend.3287
BkV:42-103 Aeneas Declares the Games3288
When, in the following Dawn, bright day had put the stars3289
to flight, Aeneas called his companions together, 3290
from the whole shore, and spoke from a high mound:3291
“Noble Trojans, people of the high lineage of the gods,3292
the year’s cycle is complete to the very month 3293
when we laid the bones, all that was left of my divine father, 3294
in the earth, and dedicated the sad altars. And now3295
the day is here (that the gods willed) if I am not wrong, 3296
which I will always hold as bitter, always honoured.3297
If I were keeping it, exiled in Gaetulian Syrtes,3298
or caught on the Argive seas, or in Mycenae’s city,3299
I’d still conduct the yearly rite, and line of solemn3300
procession, and heap up the due offerings on the altar.3301
Now we even stand by the ashes and bones of my father3302
(not for my part I think without the will and power of the gods)3303
and carried to this place we have entered a friendly harbour.3304
So come and let us all celebrate the sacrifice with joy:3305
let us pray for a wind, and may he will me to offer these rites 3306
each year when my city is founded, in temples that are his.3307
Acestes, a Trojan born, gives you two head of oxen 3308
for every ship: Invite the household gods to our feast, 3309
our own and those whom Acestes our host worships.3310
Also, when the ninth Dawn raises high the kindly light3311
for mortal men, and reveals the world in her rays,3312
I will declare a Trojan Games: first a race between the swift ships:3313
then those with ability in running, and those, daring in strength,3314
who step forward, who are superior with javelin and slight arrows,3315
or trust themselves to fight with rawhide gloves:3316
let everyone be there and hope for the prize of a well-deserved3317
palm branch. All be silent now, and wreathe your brows.”3318
So saying he veiled his forehead with his mother’s myrtle.3319
Helymus did likewise, Acestes of mature years, the boy3320
Ascanius, and the rest of the people followed.3321
Then he went with many thousands, from the gathering3322
to the grave-mound, in the midst of the vast accompanying throng.3323
Here with due offering he poured two bowls of pure wine3324
onto the ground, two of fresh milk, two of sacrificial blood,3325
and, scattering bright petals, he spoke as follows:3326
“Once more, hail, my sacred father: hail, spirit,3327
ghost, ashes of my father, whom I rescued in vain.3328
I was not allowed to search, with you, for Italy’s borders,3329
our destined fields, or Ausonia’s Tiber, wherever it might be.”3330
He had just finished speaking when a shining snake unwound 3331
each of its seven coils from the base of the shrine,3332
in seven large loops, placidly encircling the mound, and gliding3333
among the altars, its back mottled with blue-green markings,3334
and its scales burning with a golden sheen, as a rainbow forms3335
a thousand varied colours in clouds opposite the sun.3336
Aeneas was stunned by the sight. Finally, with a long glide3337
among the bowls and polished drinking cups, the serpent 3338
tasted the food, and, having fed, departed the altar, 3339
retreating harmlessly again into the depths of the tomb. 3340
Aeneas returned more eagerly to the tribute to his father, 3341
uncertain whether to treat the snake as the guardian of the place, 3342
or as his father’s attendant spirit: he killed two sheep as customary,3343
two pigs, and as many black-backed heifers:3344
and poured wine from the bowls, and called on the spirit3345
and shadow of great Anchises, released from Acheron.3346
And his companions as well, brought gifts gladly, of which3347
each had a store, piling high the altars, sacrificing bullocks:3348
others set out rows of cauldrons, and scattered among the grass,3349
placed live coals under the spits, and roasted the meat. 3350
BkV:104-150 The Start of the Games3351
The eagerly-awaited day had arrived, and now 3352
Phaethon’s horses brought a ninth dawn of cloudless light,3353
and Acestes’s name and reputation had roused the countryside:3354
they thronged the shore, a joyous crowd,3355
some to see Aeneas and his men, others to compete.3356
First the prizes were set out for them to see in the centre3357
of the circuit, sacred tripods, green crowns and palms,3358
rewards for the winners, armour, and clothes dyed with purple, 3359
and talents of silver and gold: and a trumpet sang out, 3360
from a central mound, that the games had begun. 3361
Four well-matched ships with heavy oars 3362
were chosen from the fleet for the first event.3363
Mnesthus, soon to be Mnesthus of Italy from whom 3364
the Memmian people are named, captains the Sea-Serpent, 3365
with its eager crew: Gyas, the vast Chimaera of huge bulk,3366
a floating city, rowed by the Trojan men 3367
on three decks, with the oars raised in triple rows:3368
Sergestus, from whom the house of Sergia gets its name,3369
sails in the great Centaur, and Cloanthus from whom 3370
your family derives, Cluentius of Rome, in the sea-green Scylla.3371
There’s a rock far out at sea opposite the foaming shore,3372
which, lashed by the swollen waves, is sometimes drowned,3373
when wintry north-westerlies hide the stars: 3374
it is quiet in calm weather and flat ground is raised above3375
the motionless water, a welcome haunt for sun-loving sea-birds.3376
Here our ancestor Aeneas set up a leafy oak-trunk3377
as a mark, as a sign for the sailors to know where 3378
to turn back, and circle round the long course. 3379
Then they chose places by lot, and the captains themselves, on 3380
the sterns, gleamed from a distance, resplendent in purple and gold:3381
the rest of the men were crowned with poplar leaves,3382
and their naked shoulders glistened, shining with oil.3383
They manned the benches, arms ready at the oars:3384
readied for action they waited for the signal, and pounding fear,3385
and the desire aroused for glory, devoured their leaping hearts.3386
Then when the clear trumpet gave the signal, all immediately3387
shot forward from the starting line, the sailor’s shouts3388
struck the heavens, as arms were plied the waters turned to foam.3389
they cut the furrows together, and the whole surface 3390
gaped wide, ploughed by the oars and the three-pronged beaks.3391
The speed is not as great when the two horse chariots 3392
hit the field in their race, shooting from their stalls:3393
and the charioteers shake the rippling reins over their3394
galloping team, straining forward to the lash.3395
So the whole woodland echoes with applause, the shouts3396
of men, and the partisanship of their supporters,3397
the sheltered beach concentrates the sound 3398
and the hills, reverberating, return the clamour.3399
BkV:151-243 The Boat Race3400
Gyas runs before the pack, and glides forward on the waves,3401
amongst the noise and confusion: Cloanthus follows next,3402
his ship better manned, but held back by its weight.3403
After them separated equally the Sea-Serpent 3404
and the Centaur strain to win a lead:3405
now the Sea-Serpent has it, now the huge Centaur wins in front,3406
now both sweep on together their bows level,3407
their long keels ploughing the salt sea.3408
Now they near the rock and are close to the marker,3409
when Gyas, the leader, winning at the half-way point,3410
calls out loudly to his pilot Menoetes:3411
“Why so far adrift to starboard? Steer her course this way:3412
hug the shore and graze the crags to port, oars raised:3413
let others keep to deep water.” He spoke, but Menoetes3414
fearing unseen reefs wrenched the prow towards the open sea.3415
“Why so far adrift?” again, “Head for the rocks, Menoetes!”3416
he shouts to him forcefully, and behold, he sees Cloanthus3417
right at his back and taking the riskier course.3418
He squeezed a path between Gyas’s ship and the booming rocks3419
inside to starboard, suddenly passing the leader,3420
and, leaving the marker behind, reached safe water.3421
Then indeed great indignation burned in the young man’s marrow,3422
and there were tears on his cheeks, and forgetting his own pride3423
and his crew’s safety he heaved the timid Menoetes3424
headlong into the sea from the high stern:3425
he stood to the helm, himself captain and steersman,3426
urged on his men, and turned for the shore.3427
But when Menoetes old as he was, clawed his way back heavily3428
and with difficulty at last from the sea floor, he climbed to the top3429
of the crag and sat down on the dry rock dripping, in his wet3430
clothing. The Trojans laughed as he fell, and swam3431
and laughed as he vomited the seawater from his chest.3432
At this a joyful hope of passing Gyas, as he stalled,3433
is aroused in Sergestus and Mnestheus, the two behind,3434
Sergestus takes the leading place and nears the rock,3435
still he’s not a full ship’s length in front, only part:3436
the rival Sea-Serpent closes on him with her prow.3437
Then, Mnesthus walking among his crew amidships3438
exhorted them: “Now, now rise to the oars, comrades3439
of Hector, you whom I chose as companions at Troy’s3440
last fatal hour: now, exert all that strength, 3441
that spirit you showed in the Gaetulian shoals, 3442
the Ionian Sea, and Cape Malea’s pursuing waves.3443
Now I, Mnesthus, do not seek to be first or try to win –3444
let those conquer whom you have granted to do so, Neptune –3445
but oh, it would be shameful to return last: achieve this for us,3446
countrymen, and prevent our disgrace.” They bend to it 3447
with fierce rivalry: the bronze stern shudders at their powerful3448
strokes: and the sea-floor drops away beneath them: 3449
then shallow breathing makes limbs and parched lips quiver.3450
and their sweat runs down in streams. 3451
Chance brings the men the glory that they long for.3452
When Segestus, his spirit raging, forces his bows, 3453
on the inside, towards the rocks, and enters3454
dangerous water, unhappily he strikes the jutting reef.3455
The cliff shakes, the oars jam against them, and snap3456
on the sharp edges of stone, and the prow hangs there, snagged.3457
The sailors leap up, and, shouting aloud at the delay,3458
gather iron-tipped poles and sharply-pointed boathooks,3459
and rescue their smashed oars from the water.3460
But Mnesthus, delighted, and made eager by his success,3461
with a swift play of oars, and a prayer to the winds.3462
heads for home waters and courses the open sea,3463
as a dove, whose nest and sweet chicks are hidden 3464
among the rocks, suddenly startled from some hollow,3465
takes flight for the fields, frightened from her cover,3466
and beats her wings loudly, but soon gliding in still air3467
skims her clear path, barely moving her swift pinions:3468
in this way Mnestheus and the Sea-Dragon herself furrow 3469
the final stretch of water in flight, and her impetus3470
alone, carries her on her winged path. Firstly3471
he leaves Segestus behind struggling on the raised rock3472
then in shoal water, calling vainly for help,3473
and learning how to race with shattered oars.3474
Then he overhauls Gyas and the Chimaera’s huge bulk:3475
which, deprived of her helmsman now, gives way.3476
Now Cloanthus alone is left ahead, near to the finish,3477
Mnestheus heads for him and chases closely3478
exerting all his powers. Then indeed the shouts redouble,3479
and together all enthusiastically urge on the pursuer.3480
The former crew are unhappy lest they fail to keep3481
the honour that is theirs and the glory already 3482
in their possession, and would sell their lives for fame.3483
the latter feed on success: they can because they think they can.3484
And with their prow alongside they might have snatched the prize,3485
if Cleanthus had not stretched out his hands over the sea3486
and poured out his prayers, and called to the gods in longing.3487
“Gods, whose empire is the ocean, whose waters I course,3488
On shore, I will gladly set a snow-white bull 3489
before your altars, in payment of my vows, 3490
throw the entrailsinto the saltwater, and pour out pure wine.” 3491
He spoke, and all the Nereids, Phorcus’s choir, and virgin Panopea,3492
heard him in the wave’s depths, and father Portunus drove him3493
on his track, with his great hand: the ship ran to shore, swifter3494
than south wind or flying arrow, and plunged into the deep harbour.3495
BkV:244-285 The Prize-Giving for the Boat Race3496
Then Anchises’s son, calling them all together as is fitting,3497
by the herald’s loud cry declares Cloanthus the winner,3498
and wreathes his forehead with green laurel, and tells him3499
to choose three bullocks, and wine, and a large talent of silver3500
as gifts for the ships. He adds special honours for the captains:3501
a cloak worked in gold for the victor, edged 3502
with Meliboean deep purple in a double meandering line,3503
Ganymede the boy-prince woven on it, as if breathless 3504
with eagerness, running with his javelin, chasing the swift stags3505
on leafy Ida: whom Jupiter’s eagle, carrier of the lightning-bolt,3506
has now snatched up into the air, from Ida, with taloned feet:3507
his aged guards stretch their hands to the sky in vain,3508
and the barking dogs snap at the air. He gives to the warrior, 3509
who took second place by his prowess, a coat of mail for his own,3510
with polished hooks, in triple woven gold, a beautiful thing3511
and a defence in battle, that he himself as victor had taken3512
from Demoleos, by the swift Simois, below the heights of Ilium.3513
Phegeus and Sagaris, his servants, can barely carry its folds,3514
on straining shoulders: though, wearing it, Demoleus 3515
used to drive the scattered Trojans at a run. 3516
He grants the third prize of a pair of bronze cauldrons3517
and bowls made of silver with designs in bold relief.3518
Now they have all received their gifts and are walking off,3519
foreheads tied with scarlet ribbons, proud of their new wealth,3520
when Segestus, who showing much skill has with difficulty3521
got clear of the cruel rock, oars missing and one tier useless,3522
brings in his boat, to mockery and no glory. 3523
As a snake, that a bronze-rimmed wheel has crossed obliquely,3524
is often caught on the curb of a road, or like one that a passer-by3525
has crushed with a heavy blow from a stone and left half-dead, 3526
writhes its long coils, trying in vain to escape, part aggressive, 3527
with blazing eyes, and hissing, its neck raised high in the air,3528
part held back by the constraint of its wounds, struggling3529
to follow with its coils, and twining back on its own length:3530
so the ship moves slowly on with wrecked oars:3531
nevertheless she makes sail, and under full sail reaches harbour.3532
Aeneas presents Sergestus with the reward he promised,3533
happy that the ship is saved, and the crew rescued.3534
He is granted a Cretan born slave-girl, Pholoe, not unskilled3535
in the arts of Minerva, nursing twin boys at her breast.3536
BkV:286-361 The Foot Race3537
Once this race was done Aeneas headed for a grassy space,3538
circled round about by curving wooded hillsides,3539
forming an amphitheatre at the valley’s centre: 3540
the hero took himself there in the midst of the throng 3541
many thousands strong, and occupied a raised throne. 3542
Here if any by chance wanted to compete in the footrace3543
he tempted their minds with the reward, and set the prizes.3544
Trojans and Sicilians gathered together from all sides,3545
Nisus and Euryalus the foremost among them,3546
Euryalus famed for his beauty, and in the flower of youth,3547
Nisus famed for his devoted affection for the lad: next3548
came princely Diores, of Priam’s royal blood,3549
then Salius and Patron together, one an Arcanian,3550
the other of Arcadian blood and Tegean race:3551
then two young Sicilians, Helymus and Panopes,3552
used to the forests, companions of old Acestes:3553
and many others too, whose fame is lost in obscurity.3554
Then Aeneas amongst them spoke as follows:3555
“Take these words to heart, and give pleasurable attention.3556
None of your number will go away without a reward from me.3557
I’ll give two Cretan arrows, shining with polished steel, 3558
for each man, to take away, and a double-headed axe chased 3559
with silver: all who are present will receive the same honour. 3560
The first three will share prizes, and their heads will be crowned3561
with pale-green olive: let the first as winner take a horse3562
decorated with trappings: the second an Amazonian quiver,3563
filled with Thracian arrows, looped with a broad belt of gold3564
and fastened by a clasp with a polished gem:3565
let the third leave content with this Argive helmet.”3566
When he had finished they took their places and, suddenly,3567
on hearing the signal, they left the barrier and shot onto the course,3568
streaming out like a storm cloud, gaze fixed on the goal.3569
Nisus was off first, and darted away, ahead of all the others,3570
faster than the wind or the winged lightning-bolt:3571
Salius followed behind him, but a long way behind:3572
then after a space Euryalus was third: Helymus 3573
pursued Euryalus, and there was Diores speeding near him,3574
now touching foot to foot, leaning at his shoulder: 3575
if the course had been longer he’d have 3576
slipped past him, and left the outcome in doubt.3577
Now, wearied, almost at the end of the track, 3578
they neared the winning post itself, when the unlucky Nisus3579
fell in some slippery blood, which when the bullocks were killed3580
had chanced to drench the ground and the green grass. 3581
Here the youth, already rejoicing at winning, failed to keep3582
his sliding feet on the ground, but fell flat, 3583
straight in the slimy dirt and sacred blood. 3584
But he didn’t forget Euryalus even then, nor his love:3585
but, picking himself up out of the wet, obstructed Salius,3586
who fell head over heels onto the thick sand.3587
Euryalus sped by and, darting onwards to applause and the shouts3588
of his supporters, took first place, winning with his friend’s help.3589
Helymus came in behind him, then Diores, now in third place.3590
At this Salius filled the whole vast amphitheatre, and the faces3591
of the foremost elders, with his loud clamour,3592
demanding to be given the prize stolen from him by a trick.3593
His popularity protects Euryalus, and fitting tears,3594
and ability is more pleasing in a beautiful body.3595
Diores encourages him, and protests in a loud voice,3596
having reached the palm, but claiming the last prize in vain,3597
if the highest honour goes to Salius.3598
Then Aeneas the leader said, “Your prizes are still yours,3599
lads, and no one is altering the order of attainment:3600
but allow me to take pity on an unfortunate friend’s fate.”3601
So saying he gives Salius the huge pelt of a Gaetulian lion,3602
heavy with shaggy fur, its claws gilded.3603
At this Nisus comments: “If these are the prizes for losing,3604
and you pity the fallen, what fitting gift will you grant to Nisus,3605
who would have earned first place through merit3606
if ill luck had not dogged me, as it did Salius?”3607
And with that he shows his face and limbs drenched3608
with foul mud. The best of leaders smiles at him,3609
and orders a shield to be brought, the work of Didymaon,3610
once unpinned by the Greeks from Neptune’s sacred threshold:3611
this outstanding prize he gives to the noble youth.3612
BkV:362-484 The Boxing Contest3613
When the races were done and the gifts allotted,3614
Aeneas cried: “Now, he who has skill and courage in his heart,3615
let him stand here and raise his arms, his fists bound in hide.”3616
So saying he set out the double prize for the boxing,3617
a bullock for the winner, dressed with gold and sacred ribbons,3618
and a sword and a noble helmet to console the defeated.3619
Without delay Dares, hugely strong, raised his face3620
and rose, to a great murmur from the crowd,3621
he who alone used to compete with Paris,3622
and by that same mound where mighty Hector lies3623
he struck the victorious Butes, borne of the Bebrycian3624
race of Amycus, as he came forward, vast in bulk,3625
and stretched him dying on the yellow sand. 3626
Such was Dares who lifted his head up for the bout at once,3627
showed his broad shoulders, stretched his arms out, sparring3628
to right and left, and threw punches at the air.3629
A contestant was sought for him, but no one from all that crowd3630
dared face the man, or pull the gloves on his hands.3631
So, cheerfully thinking they had all conceded the prize, he stands3632
before Aeneas, and without more delay holds the bullock’s horn 3633
in his left hand and says: “Son of the goddess, if no one dare3634
commit himself to fight, when will my standing here end? 3635
How long is it right for me to be kept waiting? Order me to lead3636
your gift away.” All the Trojans together shout their approval, 3637
and demand that what was promised be granted him.3638
At this Entellus upbraids Acestes, sitting next to him 3639
on a stretch of green grass, with grave words:3640
“Entellus, once the bravest of heroes, was it all in vain,3641
will you let so great a prize be carried off without a struggle,3642
and so tamely? Where’s our divine master, Eryx, now,3643
famous to no purpose? Where’s your name throughout Sicily,3644
and why are those spoils of battle hanging in your house?”3645
To this Entellus replies: “It’s not that quelled by fear, pride or love3646
of fame has died: but my chill blood is dull with age’s sluggishness,3647
and the vigour in my body is lifeless and exhausted.3648
If I had what I once had, which that boaster enjoys 3649
and relies on, if that youthfulness were mine now, 3650
then I’d certainly have stepped forward, but not seduced3651
by prizes or handsome bullocks: I don’t care about gifts.”3652
Having spoken he throws a pair of gloves of immense weight3653
which fierce Eryx, binding the tough hide onto his hands, 3654
used to fight in, into the middle of the ring. Their minds 3655
are stunned: huge pieces of hide from seven massive oxen 3656
are stiff with the iron and lead sewn into them. Above all 3657
Dares himself is astonished, and declines the bout from a distance,3658
and Anchises’s noble son turns the huge volume 3659
and weight of the gloves backwards and forwards.3660
Then the older man speaks like this, from his heart:3661
“What if you’d seen the arms and gloves of Hercules 3662
himself, and the fierce fight on this very shore?3663
Your brother Eryx once wore these (you see that3664
they’re still stained with blood and brain matter)3665
He faced great Hercules in them: I used to fight in them3666
when more vigorous blood granted me strength,3667
and envious age had not yet sprinkled my brow with snow.3668
But if a Trojan, Dares, shrinks from these gloves of ours,3669
and good Aeneas accepts it, and Acestes my sponsor agrees,3670
let’s level the odds. I’ll forgo the gloves of Eryx 3671
(banish your fears): you, throw off your Trojan ones.”3672
So speaking he flings his double-sided cloak from his shoulders,3673
baring the massive muscles of his limbs, his thighs3674
with their huge bones, and stands, a giant, in the centre of the arena.3675
Then our ancestor, Anchises’s son, lifts up a like pair of gloves,3676
and protects the hands of both contestants equally.3677
Immediately each takes up his stance, poised on his toes,3678
and fearlessly raises his arms high in front of him.3679
Keeping their heads up and well away from the blows3680
they begin to spar, fist to fist, and provoke a battle,3681
the one better at moving his feet, relying on his youth,3682
the other powerful in limbs and bulk: but his slower legs quiver,3683
his knees are unsteady, and painful gasps shake his huge body. 3684
They throw many hard punches at each other but in vain,3685
they land many on their curved flanks, or their chests 3686
are thumped loudly, gloves often stray to ears3687
and brows, and jaws rattle under the harsh blows.3688
Entellus stands solidly, not moving, in the same stance,3689
avoiding the blows with his watchful eyes and body alone.3690
Dares, like someone who lays siege to a towering city,3691
or surrounds a mountain fortress with weapons,3692
tries this opening and that, seeking everywhere, with his art, 3693
and presses hard with varied but useless assaults.3694
Then Entellus standing up to him, extends his raised right:3695
the other, foreseeing the downward angle of the imminent blow,3696
slides his nimble body aside, and retreats:3697
Entellus wastes his effort on the air and the heavy man3698
falls to the ground heavily, with his whole weight,3699
as a hollow pine-tree, torn up by its roots, sometimes falls3700
on Mount Erymanthus or mighty Mount Ida.3701
The Trojans and the Sicilan youths leap up eagerly:3702
a shout lifts to the sky, and Acestes is the first to run forward3703
and with sympathy raises his old friend from the ground.3704
But that hero, not slowed or deterred by his fall,3705
returns more eagerly to the fight, and generates power from anger.3706
Then shame and knowledge of his own ability revive his strength,3707
and he drives Dares in fury headlong across the whole arena,3708
doubling his punches now, to right and left. No pause, or rest:3709
like the storm clouds rattling their dense hailstones on the roof,3710
as heavy are the blows from either hand, as the hero3711
continually batters at Dares and destroys him.3712
Then Aeneas, their leader, would not allow the wrath to continue3713
longer, nor Entellus to rage with such bitterness of spirit,3714
but put an end to the contest, and rescued the weary Dares,3715
speaking gently to him with these words:3716
“Unlucky man, why let such savagery depress your spirits?3717
Don’t you see another has the power: the gods have changed sides?3718
Yield to the gods.” He spoke and, speaking, broke up the fight.3719
But Dare’s loyal friends led him away to the ships, 3720
his weakened knees collapsing, his head swaying from side to side,3721
spitting out clots of blood from his mouth, teeth amongst them.3722
Called back they accept the helmet and sword, 3723
leaving the winner’s palm and the bullock for Entellus.3724
At this the victor exultant in spirit and glorying in the bullock,3725
said: “Son of the Goddess, and all you Trojans, 3726
know now what physical strength I had in my youth, 3727
and from what fate you’ve recalled and rescued Dares.” 3728
He spoke and planted himself opposite the bullock,3729
still standing there as prize for the bout, then, drawing back 3730
his right fist, aimed the hard glove between the horns3731
and broke its skull scattering the brains: the ox3732
fell quivering to the ground, stretched out lifeless.3733
Standing over it he poured these words from his chest:3734
“Eryx, I offer you this, the better animal, for Dares’s life:3735
the winner here, I relinquish the gloves and my art.”3736
BkV:485-544 The Archery Contest3737
Immediately Aeneas invites together all who might wish 3738
to compete with their swift arrows, and sets out the prizes.3739
With a large company he raises a mast from Serestus’s ship,3740
and ties a fluttering dove, at which they can aim3741
their shafts, to a cord piercing the high mast. 3742
The men gather and a bronze helmet receives the lots3743
tossed into it: the first of them all to be drawn,3744
to cheers of support, is Hippocoon son of Hyrtaces,3745
followed by Mnestheus, the winner of the boat race 3746
a while ago: Mnestheus crowned with green olive.3747
Eurytion’s the third, your brother, O famous Pandorus,3748
who, ordered to wreck the treaty, in the past,3749
was the first to hurl his spear amongst the Greeks.3750
Acestes is the last name out from the depths of the helmet,3751
daring to try his own hand at the youthful contest.3752
Then they take arrows from their quivers, and, each man3753
for himself, with vigorous strength, bends the bow into an arc,3754
and first through the air from the twanging string3755
the son of Hyrcanus’s shaft, cutting the swift breeze,3756
reaches the mark, and strikes deep into the mast.3757
The mast quivered, the bird fluttered its wings in fear,3758
and there was loud applause from all sides.3759
Then Mnestheus eagerly took his stand with bent bow,3760
aiming high, his arrow notched level with his eyes.3761
But to his dismay he was not able to hit the bird 3762
herself with the shaft, but broke the knots of hemp cord3763
that tied her foot as it hung from the mast:3764
she fled to the north wind and the dark clouds, in flight.3765
Then Eurytion who had been holding his bow ready, with drawn3766
arrow for some time, called on his brother to note his vow,3767
quickly eyed the dove, enjoying the freedom of the skies, 3768
and transfixed her, as she beat her wings beneath a dark cloud. 3769
She dropped lifeless, leaving her spirit with the starry heavens,3770
and, falling, brought back to earth the shaft that pierced her.3771
Acestes alone remained: the prize was lost:3772
yet he still shot his arrow high into the air,3773
showing an older man’s skill, the bow twanging. Then 3774
a sudden wonder appeared before their eyes, destined to be3775
of great meaning: the time to come unveiled its crucial outcome,3776
and great seers of the future celebrated it as an omen.3777
The arrow, flying through the passing clouds, caught fire3778
marked out its path with flames, then vanished into thin air,3779
as shooting stars, loosed from heaven often transit3780
the sky, drawing their tresses after them. Astonished,3781
the Trinacrians and Trojans stood rooted to the spot, 3782
praying to the gods: nor did their great leader Aeneas3783
reject the sign, but embracing the joyful Acestes,3784
loaded him with handsome gifts and spoke as follows:3785
“Take these, old man: since the high king of Olympus shows,3786
by these omens, that he wishes you to take extraordinary honours.3787
You shall have this gift, owned by aged Anchises himself, 3788
a bowl engraved with figures, that Cisseus of Thrace3789
once long ago gave Anchises my father as a memento3790
of himself, and as a pledge of his friendship.”3791
So saying he wreathed his brow with green laurel3792
and proclaimed Acestes the highest victor among them all.3793
Nor did good Eurytion begrudge the special prize,3794
though he alone brought the bird down from the sky.3795
Next he who cut the cord stepped forward for his reward,3796
and lastly he who’s swift shaft had transfixed the mast.3797
BkV:545-603 The Exhibition of Horsemanship 3798
But before the match is complete Aeneas the leader3799
calls Epytides to him, companion and guardian 3800
of young Iulus, and speaks into his loyal ear:3801
“Off! Go! Tell Ascanius, if he has his troop of boys3802
ready with him, and is prepared for the horse-riding3803
to show himself with his weapons, and lead them out3804
in honour of his grandfather.” He himself orders the whole 3805
crowd of people to leave the lengthy circuit, emptying the field. 3806
The boys arrive, and glitter together on their bridled horses3807
under their fathers’ gaze, and the men of Troy 3808
and Sicily murmur in admiration as they go by.3809
They all have their hair properly circled by a cut garland:3810
they each carry two cornel-wood spears tipped with steel,3811
some have shining quivers on their shoulders: a flexible3812
torque of twisted gold sits high on their chests around the neck.3813
The troops of horse are three in number, and three leaders3814
ride ahead: two groups of six boys follow each,3815
commanded alike and set out in gleaming ranks.3816
One line of youths is led joyfully by little Priam,3817
recalling his grandfather’s name, your noble child,3818
Polites, seed of the Italians: whom a piebald 3819
Thracian horse carries, showing white pasterns3820
as it steps, and a high white forehead. 3821
Next is Atys, from whom the Latin Atii trace their line,3822
little Atys, a boy loved by the boy Iulus.3823
Last, and most handsome of all in appearance,3824
Iulus himself rides a Sidonian horse, that radiant Dido3825
had given him as a remembrance of herself, 3826
and a token of her love. The rest of the youths3827
ride the Sicilian horses of old Acestes.3828
The Trojans greet the shy lads with applause, and delight3829
in gazing at them, seeing their ancient families in their faces.3830
When they have ridden happily round the whole assembly 3831
under the eyes of their kin, Epytides with a prolonged cry3832
gives the agreed signal and cracks his whip.3833
They gallop apart in two equal detachments, the three3834
groups parting company, and dissolving their columns,3835
then, recalled, they wheel round, and charge with level lances.3836
Then they perform other figures and counter-figures3837
in opposing ranks, and weave in circles inside counter-circles,3838
and perform a simulated battle with weapons.3839
Now their backs are exposed in flight, now they turn3840
their spears to charge, now ride side by side in peace.3841
Like the Labyrinth in mountainous Crete, they say, 3842
that contained a path winding between blind walls,3843
wandering with guile through a thousand turnings,3844
so that undetected and irretraceable errors 3845
might foil any guidelines that might be followed:3846
so the Trojan children twine their steps in just such a pattern,3847
weaving battle and flight, in their display, like dolphins3848
swimming through the ocean streams, cutting the Carpathian3849
and Lybian waters, and playing among the waves.3850
Ascanius first revived this kind of riding, and this contest,3851
when he encircled Alba Longa with walls, and taught the Early3852
Latins to celebrate it in the way he and the Trojan youth 3853
had done together: the Albans taught their children: mighty Rome3854
received it from them in turn, and preserved the ancestral rite:3855
and today the boys are called ‘Troy’ and their procession ‘Trojan’.3856
So the games are completed celebrating Aeneas’s sacred father.3857
BkV:604-663 Juno sends Iris to Fire the Trojan Ships3858
Here Fortune first alters, switching loyalties. While they, 3859
with their various games, are paying due honours to the tomb,3860
Saturnian Juno sends Iris down from the sky to the Trojan fleet,3861
breathing out a breeze for her passage, thinking deeply3862
about her ancient grievance which is yet unsatisfied.3863
Iris, hurrying on her way along a rainbow’s thousand colours3864
speeds swiftly down her track, a girl unseen.3865
She views the great crowd, and scans the shore,3866
sees the harbour deserted, and the ships abandoned.3867
But far away on the lonely sands the Trojan women3868
are weeping Anchises’s loss, and all, weeping, gaze3869
at the deep ocean. “Ah, what waves and seas are still left3870
for weary folk!” They are all of one voice. They pray for 3871
a city: they tire of enduring suffering on the waves.3872
So Iris, not ignorant of mischief, darts among them,3873
setting aside the appearance and robes of a goddess:3874
becoming Beroe, the old wife of Tmarian Doryclus,3875
who had once had family, sons, and a famous name. 3876
and as such moves among the Trojan mothers, saying:3877
“O wretched ones, whom Greek hands failed to drag3878
to death in the war beneath our native walls! 3879
O unhappy people what fate does Fortune reserve for you?3880
The seventh summer is on the turn since Troy’s destruction,3881
and we endure the crossing of every sea and shore, so many inhospitable stones and stars, while we chase over the vast sea 3882
after an Italy that flees from us, tossing upon the waves.3883
Here are the borders of our brother Eryx and our host Acestes:3884
what stops us building walls and granting our citizens a city?3885
O fatherland, O gods of our houses, rescued from the enemy 3886
in vain, will no city now be called Troy? Shall I see3887
nowhere a Xanthus or a Simois, Hector’s rivers?3888
Come now, and burn these accursed ships with me.3889
For the ghost of Cassandra, the prophetess, seemed to hand me3890
burning torches in dream: ‘Seek Troy here: here is 3891
your home’ she said. Now is the time for deeds, 3892
not delay, given such portents. See, four altars to Neptune:3893
the god himself lends us fire and the courage.”3894
So saying she first of all firmly seizes the dangerous flame3895
and, straining to lift it high, brandishes it, and hurls it.3896
The minds of the Trojan women are startled, and their wits3897
stunned. Here, one of the crowd, Pyrgo, the eldest,3898
the royal nurse of so many of Priam’s sons, says:3899
“This is not Beroe, you women, this is no wife3900
of Rhoetitian Doryclus: look at the signs of divine beauty3901
and the burning eyes, the spirit she possesses,3902
her form, the sound of her voice, her footsteps as she moves.3903
Just now I myself left Beroe, sick and unhappy, that she alone3904
was missing so important a rite and could not pay Anchises 3905
the offerings due to him.” So she speaks. At first the women3906
gaze in uncertainty at the ships, with angry glances, 3907
torn between a wretched yearning for the land 3908
they have reached, and the kingdom fate calls them to,3909
when the goddess, climbs the sky on soaring wings,3910
cutting a giant rainbow in her flight through the clouds.3911
Then truly amazed at the wonder, and driven by madness,3912
they cry out and some snatch fire from the innermost hearths,3913
others strip the altars, and throw on leaves and twigs 3914
and burning brands. Fire rages unchecked among 3915
the benches, and oars, and the hulls of painted pine.3916
BkV:664-699 The Fleet is Saved3917
Eumelus carries the news of the burning ships to Anchises’s tomb3918
and the ranks of the ampitheatre, and looking behind them3919
they themselves see dark ash floating upwards in a cloud.3920
Ascanius is first to turn his horse eagerly towards the troubled3921
encampment, as joyfully as he led his galloping troop,3922
and his breathless guardians cannot reign him back.3923
“What new madness is this? He cries. “What now, what do you 3924
aim at, wretched women? You’re burning your own hopes3925
not the enemy, nor a hostile Greek camp. See I am3926
your Ascanius!” And he flung his empty helmet in front of his feet,3927
that he’d worn as he’d inspired his pretence of battle in play.3928
Aeneas hurries there too, and the Trojan companies.3929
But the women scatter in fear here and there along the shore,3930
and stealthily head for the woods and any cavernous rocks:3931
they hate what they’ve done and the light, with sober minds3932
they recognise their kin, and Juno is driven from their hearts.3933
But the roaring flames don’t lose their indomitable fury3934
just for that: the pitch is alight under the wet timbers,3935
slowly belching smoke, the keel is gradually burned,3936
and the pestilence sinks through a whole hull,3937
nor are heroic strength or floods of water any use.3938
Then virtuous Aeneas tears the clothes from his chest,3939
and calls on the gods for help, lifting his hands:3940
“All-powerful Jupiter, if you don’t hate the Trojans3941
to a man, if your former affection has regard 3942
for human suffering, let the fleet escape the flames now,3943
Father, and save our slender Trojan hopes from ruin:3944
or if I deserve this, send what is left of us to death with your3945
angry lightning-bolt, and overwhelm us with your hand.”3946
He had barely spoken, when a dark storm with pouring rain3947
rages without check and the high hills and plains 3948
quake with thunder: a murky downpour falls 3949
from the whole sky, the blackest of heavy southerlies,3950
and the ships are brimming, the half-burnt timbers soaked,3951
until all the heat is quenched, and all the hulls3952
except four, are saved from the pestilence.3953
BkV:700-745 Nautes’ Advice and Anchises’ Ghost 3954
But Aeneas, the leader, stunned by the bitter blow,3955
pondered his great worries, turning them this way3956
and that in his mind. Should he settle in Sicily’s fields,3957
forgetting his destiny, or strike out for Italian shores?3958
Then old Nautes, whom alone Tritonian Pallas had taught,3959
and rendered famous for his great skill (she gave him 3960
answers, telling what the great gods’ anger portended, 3961
or what the course of destiny demanded),3962
began to solace Aeneas with these words:3963
“Son of the Goddess, let us follow wherever fate ebbs or flows,3964
whatever comes, every fortune may be conquered by endurance.3965
You have Trojan Acestes of the line of the gods:3966
let him share your decisions and be a willing partner,3967
entrust to him those who remain from the lost ships, 3968
and those tired of your great venture and your affairs:3969
Select also aged men and women exhausted by the sea,3970
and anyone with you who is frail, or afraid of danger,3971
and let the weary have their city in this land:3972
and if agreed they will call it by Acestes’s name.”3973
Then roused by such words from an aged friend,3974
Aeneas’s heart was truly torn between so many cares. 3975
And now black Night in her chariot, borne upwards,3976
occupied the heavens: and the likeness of his father Anchises3977
seemed to glide down from the sky, and speak so:3978
“Son, dearer to me than life, when life remained, 3979
my son, troubled by Troy’s fate, I come here 3980
at Jove’s command, he who drove the fire from the ships, 3981
and at last takes pity on you from high heaven.3982
Follow the handsome advice that old Nautus gives:3983
take chosen youth, and the bravest hearts, to Italy.3984
In Latium you must subdue a tough race, harshly trained. 3985
Yet, first, go to the infernal halls of Dis, and in deep 3986
Avernus seek a meeting with me, my son. For impious3987
Tartarus, with its sad shades, does not hold me, 3988
I live in Elysium, and the lovely gatherings of the blessed.3989
Here the chaste Sibyl will bring you, with much blood of3990
black sheep. Then you’ll learn all about your race, 3991
and the city granted you. Now: farewell. Dew-wet Night3992
turns mid-course, and cruel Morning, with panting steeds,3993
breathes on me.” He spoke and fled like smoke into thin air.3994
“Where are you rushing to? Aeneas cried, “Where are you3995
hurrying? Who do you flee? Who bars you from my embrace?”3996
So saying he revived the embers of the slumbering fires, and 3997
paid reverence, humbly, with sacred grain and a full censer, 3998
to the Trojan Lar, and the inner shrine of white-haired Vesta.3999
BkV:746-778 Departure from Sicily4000
Immediately he summoned his companions, Acestes first of all,4001
and told them of Jove’s command, and his dear father’s counsel,4002
and the decision he had reached in his mind. There was little delay4003
in their discussions, and Acestes did not refuse to accept his orders.4004
They transferred the women to the new city’s roll, and settled4005
there those who wished, spirits with no desire for great glory.4006
They themselves, thinned in their numbers, but with manhood4007
fully alive to war, renewed the rowing benches, and replaced4008
the timbers of the ships burnt by fire, and fitted oars and rigging.4009
Meanwhile Aeneas marked out the city limits with a plough4010
and allocated houses: he declared that this was Ilium 4011
and this place Troy. Acestes the Trojan revelled in his kingdom,4012
appointed a court, and gave out laws to the assembled senate.4013
Then a shrine of Venus of Idalia was dedicated,4014
close to the stars, on the tip of Eryx, and they added4015
a stretch of sacred grove, and a priest, to Anchises’s tomb.4016
When all the people had feasted for nine days, and offerings4017
had been made at the altars, gentle winds calmed the waves4018
and a strong Southerly called them again to sea.4019
A great weeping rose along the curving shore:4020
a day and a night they clung together in delay.4021
Now the women themselves, to whom the face of the ocean4022
had once seemed cruel, and its name intolerable,4023
wish to go and suffer all the toils of exile.4024
Good Aeneas comforts them with kind words4025
and commends them to his kinsman Acestes with tears.4026
Then he orders three calves to be sacrificed to Eryx,4027
a lamb to the Storm-gods, and for the hawsers to be duly freed.4028
He himself, standing some way off on the prow, his brow4029
wreathed with leaves of cut olive, holds a cup, throws the entrails4030
into the salt waves, and pours out the clear wine.4031
A wind, rising astern, follows their departure: his friends4032
in rivalry, strike the waves, and sweep the waters.4033
BkV:779-834 Venus Seeks Neptune’s Help4034
But meanwhile Venus, tormented by anxiety speaks4035
to Neptune, and pours out her complaints in this manner:4036
“O Neptune, Juno’s heavy anger, and her implacable4037
heart, force me to descend to every kind of prayer,4038
she whom no length of time nor any piety can move,4039
nor does she rest, unwearied by fate or Jove’s commands.4040
It’s not enough that in her wicked hatred she’s consumed a city, 4041
at the heart of Phrygia, and dragged the survivors of Troy 4042
through extremes of punishment: she pursues the bones and ashes4043
of the slaughtered. She alone knows the reason for such fury.4044
You yourself are witness to the trouble she stirred lately4045
in Libyan waters: she confused the whole sea4046
with the sky, daring to do this within your realm,4047
relying vainly on Aeolus’s violent storm-winds.4048
See, how, rousing the Trojan women, in her wickedness,4049
and disgracefully, she has burnt their fleet, and, with ships lost,4050
to leave their friends behind on an unknown shore.4051
I beg you to let the rest sail safely through your seas, 4052
let them reach Laurentine Tiber, if I ask4053
what is allowed, if the Fates grant them their city.”4054
Then the son of Saturn, the master of the deep oceans,4055
said this: “You’ve every right to trust in my realms, Cytherea, 4056
from which you draw your own origin. Also I’ve earned it:4057
I’ve often controlled the rage and fury of sea and sky.4058
Nor has my concern been less for your Aeneas on land4059
(I call Xanthus and Simois as witnesses). When Achilles4060
chased the Trojan ranks, in their panic, forcing them to the wall,4061
and sent many thousands to death, and the rivers choked and4062
groaned, and Xanthus could not find his course 4063
or roll down to the sea, then it was I who caught up Aeneas4064
in a thick mist, as he met that brave son of Peleus,4065
when neither the gods nor his own strength favoured him,4066
though I longed to destroy the walls of lying Troy,4067
that my hands had built, from the ground up.4068
Now also my mind remains the same: dispel your fears.4069
He will reach the harbours of Avernus, safely, as you ask.4070
There will only be one, lost in the waves, whom you 4071
will look for: one life that will be given for the many.”4072
When he had soothed the goddess’s heart, she joying at his words,4073
Father Neptune yoked his wild horses with gold, set the bits4074
in their foaming mouths, and, with both hands, gave them free rein.4075
He sped lightly over the ocean in his sea-green chariot,4076
the waves subsided and the expanse of swollen waters4077
grew calm under the thunderous axle:4078
the storm-clouds vanished from the open sky. 4079
Then came his multi-formed followers, great whales,4080
Glaucus’s aged band, Palaemon Ino’s son,4081
the swift Tritons, and all of Phorcus’s host:4082
the left hand taken by Thetis, Melite and virgin Panopea,4083
Nesaea, and Spio, Thalia, and Cymodoce.4084
At this, soothing joy in turn pervaded father Aeneas’s 4085
anxious mind: he ordered all to raise their masts4086
quickly, and the sails to be unfurled from the yard-arms.4087
Together they hauled on the ropes and let out the canvas as one,4088
now to port and now to starboard: together they swung 4089
the high yards about: benign winds drove the fleet along.4090
Palinurus, first of them all, led the close convoy:4091
the rest were ordered to set their course by his.4092
BkV:835-871 The Loss of Palinurus4093
And now dew-wet Night had just reached her zenith4094
in the sky: the sailors relaxed their limbs in quiet rest4095
stretched out on the hard benches beneath the oars:4096
when Sleep, gliding lightly down from the heavenly stars,4097
parted the gloomy air, and scattered the shadows, 4098
seeking you, bringing you dark dreams, Palinurus, 4099
though you were innocent: the god settled on the high stern,4100
appearing as Phorbas, and poured these words from his mouth:4101
“Palinurus, son of Iasus, the seas themselves steer the fleet,4102
the breezes blow steadily, this hour is granted for rest.4103
Lay down your head and rob your weary eyes of labour.4104
For a little while, I myself will take on your duty for you.”4105
Palinurus, barely lifting his gaze, spoke to him:4106
“Do you tell me to trust the sea’s placid face, 4107
the calm waves? Shall I set my faith on this monster?4108
Why should I entrust Aeneas to the deceptive breeze,4109
I whom a clear sky has deceived so often?”4110
So he spoke and clinging hard to the tiller4111
never relaxed his hold, and held his sight on the stars.4112
Behold, despite his caution, the god shook a branch, 4113
wet with Lethe’s dew, soporific with Styx’s power, 4114
over his brow, and set free his swimming eyes.4115
The first sudden drowse had barely relaxed his limbs,4116
when Sleep leant above him and threw him headlong4117
into the clear waters, tearing away the tiller 4118
and part of the stern, he calling to his friends often, in vain:4119
while the god raised his wings in flight into the empty air.4120
The fleet sailed on its way over the sea, as safely as before,4121
gliding on, unaware, as father Neptune had promised.4122
And now drawn onwards it was close to the Sirens’s cliffs, tricky4123
of old, and white with the bones of many men, (now the rocks, 4124
far off, boomed loud with the unending breakers) when the leader4125
realised his ship was wallowing adrift, her helmsman lost, 4126
and he himself steered her through the midnight waters, 4127
sighing deeply, and shocked at heart by his friend’s fate:4128
“Oh, far too trustful of the calm sea, and the sky,4129
you’ll lie naked, Palinurus, on an unknown shore.”4130
BkVI:1-55 The Temple at Cumae4131
So Aeneas spoke, weeping, gave his fleet full rein, and glided4132
at last to the shores of Euboean Cumae. They turned4133
their prows to the sea, secured the ships’ anchors,4134
by the grip of their flukes, and the curved boats 4135
lined the beach. The youthful band leapt eagerly4136
to the Hesperian shore: some sought the means of fire4137
contained in veins of flint, some raided the woods4138
the dense coverts of game, pointing out streams they found.4139
But pious Aeneas sought the summits, where Apollo 4140
rules on high, and the vast cavern nearby, the secret place 4141
of the terrifying Sibyl, in whom the Delian prophet 4142
inspires greatness of mind and spirit, and reveals the future.4143
Soon they entered the grove of Diana, and the golden house.4144
Daedalus, so the story goes, fleeing from Minos’s kingdom,4145
dared to trust himself to the air on swift wings,4146
and, gliding on unknown paths to the frozen North,4147
hovered lightly at last above the Chalcidian hill.4148
First returning to earth here, he dedicated his oar-like wings4149
to you Phoebus, and built a gigantic temple.4150
On the doors the Death of Androgeos: then the Athenians,4151
Crecrops’s descendants, commanded, sadly, to pay annual tribute4152
of seven of their sons: there the urn stands with the lots drawn.4153
Facing it, rising from the sea, the Cretan land is depicted:4154
and here the bull’s savage passion, Pasiphae’s 4155
secret union, and the Minotaur, hybrid offspring,4156
that mixture of species, proof of unnatural relations:4157
the artwork here is that palace, and its inextricable maze:4158
and yet Daedalus himself, pitying the noble princess4159
Ariadne’s love, unravelled the deceptive tangle of corridors,4160
guiding Theseus’s blind footsteps with the clue of thread.4161
You’d have shared largely in such a work, Icarus, if grief 4162
had allowed, he’d twice attempted to fashion your fate4163
in gold, twice your father’s hands fell. Eyes would have read4164
the whole continuously, if Achetes had not arrived 4165
from his errand, with Deiophobe, Glaucus’s daughter,4166
the priestess of Phoebus and Diana, who spoke to the leader:4167
‘This moment doesn’t require your sightseeing: it would4168
be better to sacrifice seven bullocks from a virgin herd, 4169
and as many carefully chosen two-year old sheep.’4170
Having spoken to Aeneas in this way (without delay they sacrificed4171
as ordered) the priestess called the Trojans to her high shrine.4172
The vast flank of the Euboean cliff is pitted with caves,4173
from which a hundred wide tunnels, a hundred mouths lead,4174
from which as many voices rush: the Sibyl’s replies.4175
They had come to the threshold, when the virgin cried out:4176
‘It is time to question the Oracle, behold, the god, the god!’4177
As she so spoke in front of the doors, suddenly neither her face4178
nor colour were the same, nor did her hair remain bound, 4179
but her chest heaved, her heart swelled with wild frenzy,4180
she seemed taller, and sounded not-human, for now4181
the power of the god is closer. ‘Are you slow with your4182
vows and prayers, Aeneas of Troy, are you slow?’ 4183
she cried. ‘The great lips of the House of Inspiration 4184
will not open without.’ And so saying she fell silent. 4185
An icy shudder ran to the Trojans’ very spines,4186
and their leader poured out heartfelt prayers:4187
BkVI:56-97 The Sibyl’s Prophecy4188
‘Phoebus, you who always pitied Troy’s intense suffering,4189
who guided the hand of Paris, and the Dardan arrow,4190
against Achilles’s body, with you as leader I entered4191
all those seas, encircling vast lands, and penetrated 4192
the remote Massilian tribes and the fields edged by Syrtes:4193
now at last we have the coast of elusive Italy in our grasp:4194
Troy’s ill fortune only followed us as far as here.4195
You too with justice can spare the Trojan race, and all you gods4196
and goddesses to whom the great glory of Ilium and Dardania 4197
was an offence. O most sacred of prophetesses, 4198
you who see the future, (I ask for no lands not owed me4199
by my destiny) grant that we Trojans may settle Latium,4200
with the exiled gods and storm-tossed powers of Troy.4201
Then I’ll dedicate a temple of solid marble to Phoebus4202
and Diana Trivia, and sacred days in Phoebus’s name.4203
A noble inner shrine waits for you too in our kingdom.4204
There, gracious one, I will place your oracles, and mystic4205
utterances spoken to my people, and consecrate picked men.4206
Only do not write your verses on the leaves, lest they fly,4207
disordered playthings of the rushing winds: chant them 4208
from your own mouth.’ He put an end to his mouth’s speaking.4209
But the wild prophetess raged in her cavern, not yet4210
submitting to Phoebus, as if she might shake the great god 4211
from her spirit: yet he exhausted her raving mouth 4212
all the more, taming her wild heart, shaping her by constraint.4213
And now the shrine’s hundred mighty lips have opened4214
of themselves, and carry the seer’s answer through the air:4215
‘Oh, you who are done with all the perils of the sea,4216
(yet greater await you on land) the Trojans will come4217
to the realm of Lavinium (put that care from your heart):4218
but will not enjoy their coming. War, fierce war,4219
I see: and the Tiber foaming with much blood.4220
You will not lack a Simois, a Xanthus, a Greek camp:4221
even now another Achilles is born in Latium,4222
he too the son of a goddess: nor will Juno, the Trojans’ bane,4223
be ever far away, while you, humbled and destitute,4224
what races and cities of Italy will you not beg in!4225
Once again a foreign bride is the cause of all 4226
these Trojan ills, once more an alien marriage.4227
Do not give way to misfortunes, meet them more bravely,4228
as your destiny allows. The path of safety will open up4229
for you from where you least imagine it, a Greek city.’4230
BkVI:98-155 Aeneas Asks Entry to Hades4231
With such words, the Sibyl of Cumae chants fearful enigmas, 4232
from her shrine, echoing from the cave,4233
tangling truths and mysteries: as she raves, Apollo4234
thrashes the reins, and twists the spur under her breast.4235
When the frenzy quietens, and the mad mouth hushes,4236
Aeneas, the Hero, begins: ‘O Virgin, no new, unexpected4237
kind of suffering appears: I’ve foreseen them all4238
and travelled them before, in my own spirit.4239
One thing I ask: for they say the gate of the King of Darkness4240
is here, and the shadowy marsh, Acheron’s overflow:4241
let me have sight of my dear father, his face: show me the way, 4242
open wide the sacred doors. I saved him, brought him4243
out from the thick of the enemy, through the flames, 4244
on these shoulders, with a thousand spears behind me:4245
companion on my journey, he endured with me4246
all the seas, all the threats of sky and ocean, weak, 4247
beyond his power, and his allotted span of old age.4248
He ordered me, with prayers, to seek you out, humbly, 4249
and approach your threshold: I ask you, kindly one,4250
pity both father and son: since you are all power, not for4251
nothing has Hecate set you to rule the groves of Avernus.4252
If Orpheus could summon the shade of his wife,4253
relying on his Thracian lyre, its melodious strings:4254
if Pollux, crossing that way, and returning, so often, 4255
could redeem his brother by dying in turn – and great Theseus,4256
what of him, or Hercules? – well, my race too is Jupiter’s on high.’4257
With these words he prayed, and grasped the altar,4258
as the priestess began to speak: ‘Trojan son of Anchises,4259
sprung from the blood of the gods, the path to hell is easy:4260
black Dis’s door is open night and day:4261
but to retrace your steps, and go out to the air above,4262
that is work, that is the task. Some sons of the gods have done it,4263
whom favouring Jupiter loved, or whom burning virtue4264
lifted to heaven. Woods cover all the middle part,4265
and Cocytus is round it, sliding in dark coils.4266
But if such desire is in your mind, such a longing4267
to sail the Stygian lake twice, and twice see Tartarus,4268
and if it delights you to indulge in insane effort,4269
listen to what you must first undertake. Hidden in a dark tree4270
is a golden bough, golden in leaves and pliant stem,4271
sacred to Persephone, the underworld’s Juno, all the groves4272
shroud it, and shadows enclose the secret valleys.4273
But only one who’s taken a gold-leaved fruit from the tree4274
is allowed to enter earth’s hidden places.4275
This lovely Proserpine has commanded to be brought to her4276
as a gift: a second fruit of gold never fails to appear 4277
when the first one’s picked, the twig’s leafed with the same metal.4278
So look for it up high, and when you’ve found it with your eyes,4279
take it, of right, in your hand: since, if the Fates have chosen you,4280
it will come away easily, freely of itself: otherwise you 4281
won’t conquer it by any force, or cut it with the sharpest steel.4282
And the inanimate body of your friend lies there4283
(Ah! You do not know) and taints your whole fleet with death,4284
while you seek advice and hang about our threshold.4285
Carry him first to his place and bury him in the tomb.4286
Lead black cattle there: let those be your first offerings of atonement.4287
Only then can you look on the Stygian groves, and the realms 4288
forbidden to the living.’ She spoke and with closed lips fell silent.4289
BkVI:156-182 The Finding of Misenus’s Body4290
Leaving the cave, Aeneas walked away, 4291
with sad face and downcast eyes, turning their dark fate4292
over in his mind. Loyal Achates walked at his side 4293
and fashioned his steps with similar concern. 4294
They engaged in intricate discussion between them,4295
as to who the dead friend, the body to be interred, was,4296
whom the priestess spoke of. And as they passed along4297
they saw Misenus, ruined by shameful death, on the dry sand,4298
Misenus, son of Aeolus, than whom none was more outstanding4299
in rousing men with the war-trumpet, kindling conflict with music.4300
He was great Hector’s friend: with Hector 4301
he went to battle, distinguished by his spear and trumpet.4302
When victorious Achilles despoiled Hector of life,4303
this most courageous hero joined the company4304
of Trojan Aeneas, serving no lesser a man. But when, 4305
by chance, he foolishly made the ocean sound4306
to a hollow conch-shell, and called gods to compete4307
in playing, if the tale can be believed, Triton overheard him4308
and drowned him in the foaming waves among the rocks.4309
So, with pious Aeneas to the fore, they all mourned 4310
round the body with loud clamour. Then, without delay, weeping,4311
they hurried to carry out the Sibyl’s orders, and laboured to pile4312
tree-trunks as a funeral pyre, raising it to the heavens.4313
They enter the ancient wood, the deep coverts of wild creatures: 4314
the pine-trees fell, the oaks rang to the blows of the axe,4315
ash trunks and fissile oak were split with wedges, 4316
and they rolled large rowan trees down from the hills.4317
BkVI:183-235 The Funeral Pyre4318
Aeneas was no less active in such efforts, encouraging4319
his companions, and employing similar tools.4320
And he turned things over in his own saddened mind,4321
gazing at the immense forest, and by chance prayed so:4322
‘If only that golden bough would show itself to us4323
now, on some such tree, among the woods! For the prophetess4324
spoke truly of you Misenus, alas, only too truly.’4325
He had barely spoken when by chance a pair of doves 4326
came flying down from the sky, beneath his very eyes,4327
and settled on the green grass. Then the great hero knew 4328
they were his mother’s birds, and prayed in his joy:4329
‘O be my guides, if there is some way, and steer a course4330
through the air, to that grove where the rich branch4331
casts its shadow on fertile soil. And you mother, O goddess,4332
don’t fail me in time of doubt.’ So saying he halted his footsteps,4333
observing what signs the doves might give, and which direction4334
they might take. As they fed they went forward in flight4335
just as far as, following, his eyes could keep them in sight.4336
Then, when they reached the foul jaws of stinking Avernus,4337
they quickly rose and, gliding through the clear air,4338
perched on the longed-for dual-natured tree, from which4339
the alien gleam of gold shone out, among the branches.4340
Just as mistletoe, that does not form a tree of its own,4341
grows in the woods in the cold of winter, with a foreign leaf, 4342
and surrounds a smooth trunk with yellow berries:4343
such was the vision of this leafy gold in the dark4344
oak-tree, so the foil tinkled in the light breeze.4345
Aeneas immediately plucked it, eagerly breaking the tough4346
bough, and carried it to the cave of the Sibylline prophetess.4347
Meanwhile, on the shore, the Trojans were weeping bitterly 4348
for Misenus and paying their last respects to his senseless ashes.4349
First they raised a huge pyre, heavy with cut oak and pine,4350
weaving the sides with dark foliage, set funereal cypress in front,4351
and decorated it above with shining weapons.4352
Some heated water, making the cauldrons boil on the flames,4353
and washed and anointed the chill corpse. They made lament.4354
Then, having wept, they placed his limbs on the couch,4355
and threw purple robes over them, his usual dress.4356
Some raised the great bier, a sad duty,4357
and, with averted faces, set a torch below, 4358
in ancestral fashion. Gifts were heaped on the flames,4359
of incense, foodstuffs, bowls brimming with olive-oil.4360
When the ashes collapsed, and the blaze died, they washed4361
the remains of the parched bones in wine, and Corynaeus,4362
collecting the fragments, closed them in a bronze urn.4363
Also he circled his comrades three times with pure water4364
to purify them, sprinkling fine dew from a full olive branch,4365
and spoke the words of parting. And virtuous Aeneas4366
heaped up a great mound for his tomb, with the hero’s4367
own weapons, his trumpet and oar, beneath a high mountain4368
which is called Misenus now after him, and preserves4369
his ever-living name throughout the ages.4370
BkVI:236-263 The Sacrifice to Hecate4371
This done, he quickly carried out the Sibyl’s orders.4372
There was a deep stony cave, huge and gaping wide,4373
sheltered by a dark lake and shadowy woods,4374
over which nothing could extend its wings in safe flight,4375
since such a breath flowed from those black jaws, 4376
and was carried to the over-arching sky, that the Greeks 4377
called it by the name Aornos, that is Avernus, or the Bird-less.4378
Here the priestess first of all tethered four black heifers,4379
poured wine over their foreheads, and placed 4380
the topmost bristles that she plucked, growing4381
between their horns, in the sacred fire, as a first offering,4382
calling aloud to Hecate, powerful in Heaven and Hell.4383
Others slit the victim’s throats and caught the warm blood4384
in bowls. Aeneas himself sacrificed a black-fleeced lamb4385
to Night, mother of the Furies, and Earth, her mighty sister,4386
and a barren heifer to you, Persephone.4387
Then he kindled the midnight altars for the Stygian King,4388
and placed whole carcasses of bulls on the flames,4389
pouring rich oil over the blazing entrails.4390
See now, at the dawn light of the rising sun,4391
the ground bellowed under their feet, the wooded hills began4392
to move, and, at the coming of the Goddess, dogs seemed to howl4393
in the shadows. ‘Away, stand far away, O you profane ones,’4394
the priestess cried, ‘absent yourselves from all this grove:4395
and you now, Aeneas, be on your way, and tear your sword4396
from the sheathe: you need courage, and a firm mind, now.’4397
So saying, she plunged wildly into the open cave:4398
he, fearlessly, kept pace with his vanishing guide.4399
BkVI:264-294 The Entrance to Hades4400
You gods, whose is the realm of spirits, and you, dumb shadows,4401
and Chaos, Phlegethon, wide silent places of the night, 4402
let me tell what I have heard: by your power, let me 4403
reveal things buried in the deep earth, and the darkness.4404
On they went, hidden in solitary night, through gloom,4405
through Dis’s empty halls, and insubstantial kingdom,4406
like a path through a wood, in the faint light 4407
under a wavering moon, when Jupiter has buried the sky4408
in shadow, and black night has stolen the colour from things.4409
Right before the entrance, in the very jaws of Orcus,4410
Grief and vengeful Care have made their beds,4411
and pallid Sickness lives there, and sad Old Age,4412
and Fear, and persuasive Hunger, and vile Need,4413
forms terrible to look on, and Death and Pain:4414
then Death’s brother Sleep, and Evil Pleasure of the mind,4415
and, on the threshold opposite, death-dealing War,4416
and the steel chambers of the Furies, and mad Discord,4417
her snaky hair entwined with blood-wet ribbons.4418
In the centre a vast shadowy elm spreads its aged trunks4419
and branches: the seat, they say, that false Dreams hold,4420
thronging, clinging beneath every leaf.4421
And many other monstrous shapes of varied creatures,4422
are stabled by the doors, Centaurs and bi-formed Scylla,4423
and hundred-armed Briareus, and the Lernean Hydra,4424
hissing fiercely, and the Chimaera armed with flame,4425
Gorgons, and Harpies, and the triple bodied shade, Geryon.4426
At this, trembling suddenly with terror, Aeneas grasped 4427
his sword, and set the naked blade against their approach:4428
and, if his knowing companion had not warned him4429
that these were tenuous bodiless lives flitting about4430
with a hollow semblance of form, he would have rushed at them,4431
and hacked at the shadows uselessly with his sword.4432
BkVI:295-336 The Shores of Acheron4433
From here there is a road that leads to the waters 4434
of Tartarean Acheron. Here thick with mud a whirlpool seethes 4435
in the vast depths, and spews all its sands into Cocytus.4436
A grim ferryman watches over the rivers and streams,4437
Charon, dreadful in his squalor, with a mass of unkempt4438
white hair straggling from his chin: flames glow in his eyes,4439
a dirty garment hangs, knotted from his shoulders.4440
He poles the boat and trims the sails himself,4441
and ferries the dead in his dark skiff,4442
old now, but a god’s old age is fresh and green.4443
Here all the crowd streams, hurrying to the shores,4444
women and men, the lifeless bodies of noble heroes,4445
boys and unmarried girls, sons laid on the pyre4446
in front of their father’s eyes: as many as the leaves that fall4447
in the woods at the first frost of autumn, as many as the birds4448
that flock to land from ocean deeps, when the cold of the year4449
drives them abroad and despatches them to sunnier countries.4450
They stood there, pleading to be first to make the crossing,4451
stretching out their hands in longing for the far shore.4452
But the dismal boatman accepts now these, now those,4453
but driving others away, keeps them far from the sand.4454
Then Aeneas, stirred and astonished at the tumult, said: 4455
‘O virgin, tell me, what does this crowding to the river mean?4456
What do the souls want? And by what criterion do these leave4457
the bank, and those sweep off with the oars on the leaden stream?4458
The ancient priestess spoke briefly to him, so:4459
‘Son of Anchises, true child of the gods, you see 4460
the deep pools of Cocytus, and the Marsh of Styx,4461
by whose name the gods fear to swear falsely.4462
All this crowd, you see, were destitute and unburied:4463
that ferryman is Charon: those the waves carry were buried:4464
he may not carry them from the fearful shore on the harsh waters4465
before their bones are at rest in the earth. They roam4466
for a hundred years and flit around these shores: only then4467
are they admitted, and revisit the pools they long for.’4468
The son of Anchises halted, and checked his footsteps,4469
thinking deeply, and pitying their sad fate in his heart.4470
He saw Leucaspis and Orontes, captain of the Lycian fleet,4471
there, grieving and lacking honour in death, whom a Southerly4472
overwhelmed, as they sailed together from Troy on the windswept 4473
waters, engulfing both the ship and crew in the waves.4474
BkVI:337-383 The Shade of Palinurus4475
Behold, there came the helmsman, Palinurus, 4476
who fell from the stern on the Libyan passage,4477
flung into the midst of the waves, as he watched the stars.4478
When Aeneas had recognised him with difficulty4479
sorrowing among the deep shadows, he spoke first, saying:4480
‘What god tore you from us, Palinurus, and drowned you 4481
mid-ocean? For in this one prophecy Apollo has misled me,4482
he whom I never found false before, he said that you would be safe4483
at sea and reach Ausonia’s shores. Is this the truth of his promise?’ 4484
But he replied: ‘Phoebus’s tripod did not fail you, Anchises,4485
my captain, nor did a god drown me in the deep.4486
By chance the helm was torn from me with violence,4487
as I clung there, on duty as ordered, steering our course,4488
and I dragged it headlong with me. I swear by the cruel sea4489
that I feared less for myself than for your ship,4490
lest robbed of its gear, and cleared of its helmsman,4491
it might founder among such surging waves.4492
The Southerly drove me violently through the vast seas4493
for three stormy nights: high on the crest of a wave,4494
in the fourth dawn, I could just make out Italy.4495
Gradually I swam to shore: grasped now at safety,4496
but as I caught at the sharp tips of the rocks, weighed down4497
by my water-soaked clothes, the savage people4498
attacked me with knives, ignorantly thinking me a prize.4499
Now the waves have me, and the winds roll me along the shore.4500
Unconquered one, I beg you, by the sweet light and air of heaven,4501
by your father, and your hopes in Iulus to come,4502
save me from this evil: either find Velia’s harbour again4503
(for you can) and sprinkle earth on me, or if there is some way,4504
if your divine mother shows you one (since you’d not attempt to sail4505
such waters, and the Stygian marsh, without a god’s will, I think)4506
then give this wretch your hand and take me with you through the waves4507
that at least I might rest in some quiet place in death.’4508
So he spoke, and the priestess began to reply like this:4509
‘Where does this dire longing of yours come from, O Palinurus?4510
Can you see the Stygian waters, unburied, or the grim 4511
river of the Furies, Cocytus, or come unasked to the shore?4512
Cease to hope that divine fate can be tempered by prayer.4513
But hold my words in your memory, as a comfort in your hardship: 4514
the nearby peoples, from cities far and wide, will be moved 4515
by divine omens to worship your bones, and build a tomb, 4516
and send offerings to the tomb, and the place will have4517
Palinurus as its everlasting name.’ His anxiety was quelled 4518
by her words, and, for a little while, grief was banished 4519
from his sad heart: he delighted in the land being so named.4520
BkVI:384-416 Charon the Ferryman4521
So they pursued their former journey, and drew near the river.4522
Now when the Boatman saw them from the Stygian wave4523
walking through the silent wood, and directing their footsteps4524
towards its bank, he attacked them verbally, first, and unprompted,4525
rebuking them: ‘Whoever you are, who come armed to my river,4526
tell me, from over there, why you’re here, and halt your steps.4527
This is a place of shadows, of Sleep and drowsy Night:4528
I’m not allowed to carry living bodies in the Stygian boat.4529
Truly it was no pleasure for me to take Hercules on his journey4530
over the lake, nor Theseus and Pirithous, though they may4531
have been children of gods, unrivalled in strength.4532
The first came for Cerberus the watchdog of Tartarus,4533
and dragged him away quivering from under the king’s throne:4534
the others were after snatching our Queen from Dis’s chamber.’4535
To this the prophetess of Amphrysian Apollo briefly answered:4536
‘There’s no such trickery here (don’t be disturbed),4537
our weapons offer no affront: your huge guard-dog 4538
can terrify the bloodless shades with his eternal howling:4539
chaste Proserpine can keep to her uncle’s threshold.4540
Aeneas the Trojan, renowned in piety and warfare,4541
goes down to the deepest shadows of Erebus, to his father.4542
If the idea of such affection does not move you, still you 4543
must recognise this bough.’ (She showed the branch, hidden 4544
in her robes.) Then the anger in his swollen breast subsided. 4545
No more was said. Marvelling at the revered offering,4546
of fateful twigs, seen again after so long, he turned the stern4547
of the dark skiff towards them and neared the bank. 4548
Then he turned off the other souls who sat on the long benches,4549
cleared the gangways: and received mighty Aeneas 4550
on board. The seamed skiff groaned with the weight4551
and let in quantities of marsh-water through the chinks.4552
At last, the river crossed, he landed the prophetess and the hero4553
safe, on the unstable mud, among the blue-grey sedge.4554
BkVI:417-439 Beyond the Acheron4555
Huge Cerberus sets these regions echoing with his triple-throated 4556
howling, crouching monstrously in a cave opposite.4557
Seeing the snakes rearing round his neck, the prophetess4558
threw him a pellet, a soporific of honey and drugged wheat.4559
Opening his three throats, in rabid hunger, he seized 4560
what she threw and, flexing his massive spine, sank to earth 4561
spreading his giant bulk over the whole cave-floor.4562
With the guard unconscious Aeneas won to the entrance,4563
and quickly escaped the bank of the river of no return.4564
Immediately a loud crying of voices was heard, the spirits4565
of weeping infants, whom a dark day stole at the first4566
threshold of this sweet life, those chosen to be torn 4567
from the breast, and drowned in bitter death.4568
Nearby are those condemned to die on false charges.4569
Yet their place is not ordained without the allotted jury:4570
Minos, the judge, shakes the urn: he convenes the voiceless court,4571
and hears their lives and sins. Then the next place 4572
is held by those gloomy spirits who, innocent of crime, 4573
died by their own hand, and, hating the light, threw away4574
their lives. How willingly now they’d endure4575
poverty and harsh suffering, in the air above!4576
Divine Law prevents it, and the sad marsh and its hateful4577
waters binds them, and nine-fold Styx confines them.4578
BkVI:440-476 The Shade of Dido4579
Not far from there the Fields of Mourning are revealed,4580
spread out on all sides: so they name them.4581
There, those whom harsh love devours with cruel pining4582
are concealed in secret walkways, encircled by a myrtle grove:4583
even in death their troubles do not leave them.4584
Here Aeneas saw Phaedra, and Procris, and sad Eriphyle,4585
displaying the wounds made by her cruel son,4586
Evadne, and Pasiphae: with them walked Laodamia,4587
and Caeneus, now a woman, once a young man,4588
returned by her fate to her own form again.4589
Among them Phoenician Dido wandered, in the great wood,4590
her wound still fresh. As soon as the Trojan hero stood near her4591
and knew her, shadowy among the shadows, like a man who sees,4592
or thinks he sees, the new moon rising through a cloud, as its month 4593
begins, he wept tears and spoke to her with tender affection:4594
‘Dido, unhappy spirit, was the news, that came to me 4595
of your death, true then, taking your life with a blade? 4596
Alas, was I the cause of your dying? I swear by the stars, 4597
by the gods above, by whatever truth may be in the depths4598
of the earth, I left your shores unwillingly, my queen.4599
I was commanded by gods, who drove me by their decrees,4600
that now force me to go among the shades, through places4601
thorny with neglect, and deepest night: nor did I think 4602
my leaving there would ever bring such grief to you.4603
Halt your footsteps and do not take yourself from my sight. 4604
What do you flee? This is the last speech with you that fate allows.’4605
With such words Aeneas would have calmed4606
her fiery spirit and wild looks, and provoked her tears.4607
She turned away, her eyes fixed on the ground,4608
no more altered in expression by the speech he had begun4609
than if hard flint stood there, or a cliff of Parian marble.4610
At the last she tore herself away, and, hostile to him,4611
fled to the shadowy grove where Sychaeus, her husband4612
in former times, responded to her suffering, and gave her4613
love for love. Aeneas, no less shaken by the injustice of fate,4614
followed her, far off, with his tears, and pitied her as she went.4615
BkVI:477-534 The Shade of Deiphobus4616
From there he laboured on the way that was granted them. 4617
And soon they reached the most distant fields,4618
the remote places where those famous in war4619
crowd together. Here Tydeus met him, Parthenopaeus4620
glorious in arms, and the pale form of Adrastus:4621
here were the Trojans, wept for deeply above, fallen in war,4622
whom, seeing them all in their long ranks, he groaned at,4623
Glaucus, Medon and Thersilochus, the three sons of Antenor,4624
Polyboetes, the priest of Ceres, and Idaeus4625
still with his chariot, and his weapons. 4626
The spirits stand there in crowds to left and right.4627
They are not satisfied with seeing him only once:4628
they delight in lingering on, walking beside him,4629
and learning the reason for his coming.4630
But the Greek princes and Agamemnon’s phalanxes,4631
trembled with great fear, when they saw the hero,4632
and his gleaming weapons, among the shades:4633
some turned to run, as they once sought their ships: some raised4634
a faint cry, the noise they made belying their gaping mouths.4635
And he saw Deiphobus there, Priam’s son, his whole body4636
mutilated, his face brutally torn, his face and hands both, the ears4637
ripped from his ruined head, his nostrils sheared by an ugly wound.4638
Indeed Aeneas barely recognised the quivering form, hiding its dire4639
punishment, even as he called to him, unprompted, in familiar tones: 4640
‘Deiphobus, powerful in war, born of Teucer’s noble blood,4641
who chose to work such brutal punishment on you?4642
Who was allowed to treat you so? Rumour has it 4643
that on that final night, wearied by endless killing of Greeks,4644
you sank down on a pile of the slaughtered.4645
Then I set up an empty tomb on the Rhoetean shore,4646
and called on your spirit three times in a loud voice.4647
Your name and weapons watch over the site: I could not 4648
see you, friend, to set you, as I left, in your native soil.’4649
To this Priam’s son replied: ‘O my friend, you’ve neglected4650
nothing: you’ve paid all that’s due to Deiophobus4651
and a dead man’s spirit. My own destiny, 4652
and that Spartan woman’s deadly crime, drowned me4653
in these sorrows: she left me these memorials.4654
You know how we passed that last night in illusory joy:4655
and you must remember it only too well.4656
When the fateful Horse came leaping the walls of Troy,4657
pregnant with the armed warriors it carried in its womb,4658
she led the Trojan women about, wailing in dance,4659
aping the Bacchic rites: she held a huge torch in their midst,4660
signalling to the Greeks from the heights of the citadel.4661
I was then in our unlucky marriage-chamber, worn out with care,4662
and heavy with sleep, a sweet deep slumber weighing on me4663
as I lay there, the very semblance of peaceful death.4664
Meanwhile that illustrious wife of mine removed every weapon4665
from the house, even stealing my faithful sword from under my head:4666
she calls Menelaus into the house and throws open the doors,4667
hoping I suppose it would prove a great gift for her lover,4668
and in that way the infamy of her past sins might be erased.4669
Why drag out the tale? They burst into the room, and with them4670
Ulysses the Aeolid, their co-inciter to wickedness. Gods, so repay4671
the Greeks, if these lips I pray for vengeance with are virtuous. 4672
But you, in turn, tell what fate has brought you here, living.4673
Do you come here, driven by your wandering on the sea,4674
or exhorted by the gods? If not, what misfortune torments you,4675
that you enter these sad sunless houses, this troubled place?’4676
BkVI:535-627 The Sibyl Describes Tartarus4677
While they spoke Aurora and her rosy chariot had passed 4678
the zenith of her ethereal path, and they might perhaps4679
have spent all the time allowed in such talk, but the Sibyl,4680
his companion, warned him briefly saying: 4681
‘Night approaches, Aeneas: we waste the hours with weeping.4682
This is the place where the path splits itself in two:4683
there on the right is our road to Elysium, that runs beneath4684
the walls of mighty Dis: but the left works punishment4685
on the wicked, and sends them on to godless Tartarus.’4686
Deiophobus replied: ‘Do not be angry, great priestess:4687
I will leave: I will make up the numbers, and return to the darkness.4688
Go now glory of our race: enjoy a better fate.’4689
So he spoke, and in speaking turned away.4690
Aeneas suddenly looked back, and, below the left hand cliff,4691
he saw wide battlements, surrounded by a triple wall,4692
and encircled by a swift river of red-hot flames,4693
the Tartarean Phlegethon, churning with echoing rocks.4694
A gate fronts it, vast, with pillars of solid steel,4695
that no human force, not the heavenly gods themselves,4696
can overturn by war: an iron tower rises into the air,4697
and seated before it, Tisiphone, clothed in a blood-wet dress,4698
keeps guard of the doorway, sleeplessly, night and day.4699
Groans came from there, and the cruel sound of the lash,4700
then the clank of iron, and dragging chains.4701
Aeneas halted, and stood rooted, terrified by the noise.4702
‘What evil is practised here? O Virgin, tell me: by what torments4703
are they oppressed? Why are there such sounds in the air?’4704
Then the prophetess began to speak as follows: ‘Famous leader4705
of the Trojans, it is forbidden for the pure to cross the evil threshold:4706
but when Hecate appointed me to the wood of Avernus,4707
she taught me the divine torments, and guided me through them all.4708
Cretan Rhadamanthus rules this harshest of kingdoms,4709
and hears their guilt, extracts confessions, and punishes 4710
whoever has deferred atonement for their sins too long4711
till death, delighting in useless concealment, in the world above.4712
Tisiphone the avenger, armed with her whip, leaps on the guilty immediately, lashes them, and threatening them with the fierce4713
snakes in her left hand, calls to her savage troop of sisters.4714
Then at last the accursed doors open, screeching on jarring hinges. 4715
You comprehend what guardian sits at the door, what shape watches 4716
the threshold? Well still fiercer is the monstrous Hydra inside, 4717
with her fifty black gaping jaws. There Tartarus itself 4718
falls sheer, and stretches down into the darkness:4719
twice as far as we gaze upwards to heavenly Olympus.4720
Here the Titanic race, the ancient sons of Earth,4721
hurled down by the lightning-bolt, writhe in the depths.4722
And here I saw the two sons of Aloeus, giant forms,4723
who tried to tear down the heavens with their hands,4724
and topple Jupiter from his high kingdom.4725
And I saw Salmoneus paying a savage penalty4726
for imitating Jove’s lightning, and the Olympian thunder.4727
Brandishing a torch, and drawn by four horses4728
he rode in triumph among the Greeks, through Elis’s city,4729
claiming the gods’ honours as his own, a fool,4730
who mimicked the storm-clouds and the inimitable thunderbolt4731
with bronze cymbals and the sound of horses’ hoof-beats.4732
But the all-powerful father hurled his lighting from dense cloud,4733
not for him fiery torches, or pine-branches’ smoky light4734
and drove him headlong with the mighty whirlwind.4735
And Tityus was to be seen as well, the foster-child4736
of Earth, our universal mother, whose body stretches4737
over nine acres, and a great vulture with hooked beak4738
feeds on his indestructible liver, and his entrails ripe4739
for punishment, lodged deep inside the chest, groping 4740
for his feast, no respite given to the ever-renewing tissue.4741
Shall I speak of the Lapiths, Ixion, Pirithous,4742
over whom hangs a dark crag that seems to slip and fall?4743
High couches for their feast gleam with golden frames,4744
and a banquet of royal luxury is spread before their eyes: 4745
nearby the eldest Fury, crouching, prevents their fingers touching4746
the table: rising up, and brandishing her torch, with a voice of thunder.4747
Here are those who hated their brothers, in life, 4748
or struck a parent, or contrived to defraud a client, 4749
or who crouched alone over the riches they’d made,4750
without setting any aside for their kin (their crowd is largest),4751
those who were killed for adultery, or pursued civil war,4752
not fearing to break their pledges to their masters:4753
shut in they see their punishment. Don’t ask to know4754
that punishment, or what kind of suffering drowns them.4755
Some roll huge stones, or hang spread-eagled 4756
on wheel-spokes: wretched Theseus sits still, and will sit4757
for eternity: Phlegyas, the most unfortunate, warns them all4758
and bears witness in a loud voice among the shades:4759
“Learn justice: be warned, and don’t despise the gods.”4760
Here’s one who sold his country for gold, and set up4761
a despotic lord: this one made law and remade it for a price:4762
he entered his daughter’s bed and a forbidden marriage:4763
all of them dared monstrous sin, and did what they dared.4764
Not if I had a hundred tongues, a hundred mouths,4765
a voice of iron, could I tell all the forms of wickedness4766
or spell out the names of every torment.’4767
BkVI:628-678 The Fields of Elysium4768
When she had spoken of this, the aged priestess of Apollo said:4769
‘But come now, travel the road, and complete the task set for you:4770
let us hurry, I see the battlements that were forged 4771
in the Cyclopean fires, and the gates in the arch opposite us4772
where we are told to set down the gifts as ordered.’4773
She spoke and keeping step they hastened along the dark path4774
crossing the space between and arriving near the doors.4775
Aeneas gained the entrance, sprinkled fresh water4776
over his body, and set up the branch on the threshold before him.4777
Having at last achieved this, the goddess’s task fulfilled,4778
they came to the pleasant places, the delightful grassy turf4779
of the Fortunate Groves, and the homes of the blessed.4780
Here freer air and radiant light clothe the plain,4781
and these have their own sun, and their own stars.4782
Some exercise their bodies in a grassy gymnasium,4783
compete in sports and wrestle on the yellow sand:4784
others tread out the steps of a dance, and sing songs.4785
There Orpheus too, the long-robed priest of Thrace,4786
accompanies their voices with the seven-note scale,4787
playing now with fingers, now with the ivory quill.4788
Here are Teucer’s ancient people, loveliest of children,4789
great-hearted heroes, born in happier years,4790
Ilus, Assaracus, and Dardanus founder of Troy.4791
Aeneas marvels from a distance at their idle chariots4792
and their weapons: their spears fixed in the ground,4793
and their horses scattered freely browsing over the plain:4794
the pleasure they took in chariots and armour while alive,4795
the care in tending shining horses, follows them below the earth.4796
Look, he sees others on the grass to right and left, feasting, 4797
and singing a joyful paean in chorus, among the fragrant 4798
groves of laurel, out of which the Eridanus’s broad river 4799
flows through the woodlands to the world above.4800
Here is the company of those who suffered wounds fighting4801
for their country: and those who were pure priests, while they lived, 4802
and those who were faithful poets, singers worthy of Apollo, 4803
and those who improved life, with discoveries in Art or Science,4804
and those who by merit caused others to remember them:4805
the brows of all these were bound with white headbands.4806
As they crowded round, the Sibyl addressed them,4807
Musaeus above all: since he holds the centre of the vast crowd, 4808
all looking up to him, his tall shoulders towering above:4809
‘Blessed spirits, and you, greatest of Poets, 4810
say what region or place contains Anchises. We have 4811
come here, crossing the great rivers of Erebus, for him.’4812
And the hero replied to her briefly in these words:4813
‘None of us have a fixed abode: we live in the shadowy woods,4814
and make couches of river-banks, and inhabit fresh-water meadows.4815
But climb this ridge, if your hearts-wish so inclines,4816
and I will soon set you on an easy path.’4817
He spoke and went on before them, and showed them4818
the bright plains below: then they left the mountain heights.4819
BkVI:679-702 The Meeting with Anchises4820
But deep in a green valley his father Anchises 4821
was surveying the spirits enclosed there, destined4822
for the light above, thinking carefully, and was reviewing4823
as it chanced the numbers of his own folk, his dear grandsons,4824
and their fate and fortunes as men, and their ways and works.4825
And when he saw Aeneas heading towards him over the grass4826
he stretched out both his hands eagerly, his face4827
streaming with tears, and a cry issued from his lips:4828
‘Have you come at last, and has the loyalty your father expected4829
conquered the harsh road? Is it granted me to see your face, 4830
my son, and hear and speak in familiar tones?4831
I calculated it in my mind, and thought it would be so,4832
counting off the hours, nor has my trouble failed me.4833
From travel over what lands and seas, do I receive you!4834
What dangers have hurled you about, my son!4835
How I feared the realms of Libya might harm you!’4836
He answered: ‘Father, your image, yours, appearing to me4837
so often, drove me to reach this threshold:4838
My ships ride the Etruscan waves. Father, let me clasp4839
your hand, let me, and do not draw away from my embrace.’4840
So speaking, his face was also drowned in a flood of tears.4841
Three times he tries to throw his arms round his father’s neck,4842
three times, clasped in vain, that semblance slips though his hands,4843
like the light breeze, most of all like a winged dream.4844
BkVI:703-723 The Souls Due for Re-birth4845
And now Aeneas saw a secluded grove 4846
in a receding valley, with rustling woodland thickets,4847
and the river of Lethe gliding past those peaceful places.4848
Innumerable tribes and peoples hovered round it:4849
just as, in the meadows, on a cloudless summer’s day, 4850
the bees settle on the multifarious flowers, and stream4851
round the bright lilies, and all the fields hum with their buzzing.4852
Aeneas was thrilled by the sudden sight, and, in ignorance,4853
asked the cause: what the river is in the distance,4854
who the men are crowding the banks in such numbers.4855
Then his father Anchises answered: ‘They are spirits, 4856
owed a second body by destiny, and they drink4857
the happy waters, and a last forgetting, at Lethe’s stream.4858
Indeed, for a long time I’ve wished to tell you of them,4859
and show you them face to face, to enumerate my children’s4860
descendants, so you might joy with me more at finding Italy.’4861
‘O father, is it to be thought that any spirits go from here4862
to the sky above, returning again to dull matter?’4863
‘Indeed I’ll tell you, son, not keep you in doubt,’4864
Anchises answered, and revealed each thing in order.4865
BkVI:724-751 The Transmigration of Souls4866
‘Firstly, a spirit within them nourishes the sky and earth,4867
the watery plains, the shining orb of the moon, 4868
and Titan’s star, and Mind, flowing through matter,4869
vivifies the whole mass, and mingles with its vast frame.4870
From it come the species of man and beast, and winged lives,4871
and the monsters the sea contains beneath its marbled waves.4872
The power of those seeds is fiery, and their origin divine,4873
so long as harmful matter doesn’t impede them4874
and terrestrial bodies and mortal limbs don’t dull them.4875
Through those they fear and desire, and grieve and joy,4876
and enclosed in night and a dark dungeon, can’t see the light.4877
Why, when life leaves them at the final hour,4878
still all of the evil, all the plagues of the flesh, alas,4879
have not completely vanished, and many things, long hardened4880
deep within, must of necessity be ingrained, in strange ways.4881
So they are scourged by torments, and pay the price 4882
for former sins: some are hung, stretched out, 4883
to the hollow winds, the taint of wickedness is cleansed4884
for others in vast gulfs, or burned away with fire:4885
each spirit suffers its own: then we are sent4886
through wide Elysium, and we few stay in the joyous fields,4887
for a length of days, till the cycle of time, 4888
complete, removes the hardened stain, and leaves 4889
pure ethereal thought, and the brightness of natural air.4890
All these others the god calls in a great crowd to the river Lethe,4891
after they have turned the wheel for a thousand years, 4892
so that, truly forgetting, they can revisit the vault above,4893
and begin with a desire to return to the flesh.’4894
BkVI:752-776 The Future Race – The Alban Kings4895
Anchises had spoken, and he drew the Sibyl and his son, both4896
together, into the middle of the gathering and the murmuring crowd,4897
and chose a hill from which he could see all the long ranks 4898
opposite, and watch their faces as they came by him.4899
‘Come, I will now explain what glory will pursue the children4900
of Dardanus, what descendants await you of the Italian race,4901
illustrious spirits to march onwards in our name, and I will teach4902
you your destiny. See that boy, who leans on a headless spear,4903
he is fated to hold a place nearest the light, first to rise 4904
to the upper air, sharing Italian blood, Silvius, of Alban name,4905
your last-born son, who your wife Lavinia, late in your old age,4906
will give birth to in the wood, a king and the father of kings,4907
through whom our race will rule in Alba Longa.4908
Next to him is Procas, glory of the Trojan people,4909
and Capys and Numitor, and he who’ll revive your name,4910
Silvius Aeneas, outstanding like you in virtue and arms,4911
if he might at last achieve the Alban throne. 4912
What men! See what authority they display, 4913
their foreheads shaded by the civic oak-leaf crown!4914
They will build Nomentum, Gabii, and Fidenae’s city:4915
Collatia’s fortress in the hills, Pometii 4916
and the Fort of Inus, and Bola, and Cora.4917
Those will be names that are now nameless land.4918
BkVI:777-807 The Future Race – Romulus and the Caesars4919
Yes, and a child of Mars will join his grandfather to accompany him,4920
Romulus, whom his mother Ilia will bear, of Assaracus’s line. 4921
See how Mars’s twin plumes stand on his crest, and his father 4922
marks him out for the world above with his own emblems?4923
Behold, my son, under his command glorious Rome 4924
will match earth’s power and heaven’s will, and encircle 4925
seven hills with a single wall, happy in her race of men: 4926
as Cybele, the Berecynthian ‘Great Mother’, crowned 4927
with turrets, rides through the Phrygian cities, delighting4928
in her divine children, clasping a hundred descendants, 4929
all gods, all dwelling in the heights above.4930
Now direct your eyes here, gaze at this people,4931
your own Romans. Here is Caesar, and all the offspring4932
of Iulus destined to live under the pole of heaven.4933
This is the man, this is him, whom you so often hear4934
promised you, Augustus Caesar, son of the Deified, 4935
who will make a Golden Age again in the fields4936
where Saturn once reigned, and extend the empire beyond4937
the Libyans and the Indians (to a land that lies outside the zodiac’s belt,4938
beyond the sun’s ecliptic and the year’s, where sky-carrying Atlas4939
turns the sphere, inset with gleaming stars, on his shoulders):4940
Even now the Caspian realms, and Maeotian earth, 4941
tremble at divine prophecies of his coming, and 4942
the restless mouths of the seven-branched Nile are troubled.4943
Truly, Hercules never crossed so much of the earth,4944
though he shot the bronze-footed Arcadian deer, brought peace4945
to the woods of Erymanthus, made Lerna tremble at his bow:4946
nor did Bacchus, who steers his chariot, in triumph, with reins 4947
made of vines, guiding his tigers down from Nysa’s high peak.4948
Do we really hesitate still to extend our power by our actions,4949
and does fear prevent us settling the Italian lands? 4950
BkVI:808-853 The Future Race – Republic and Beyond4951
Who is he, though, over there, distinguished by his olive branches,4952
carrying offerings? I know the hair and the white-bearded chin4953
of a king of Rome, Numa, called to supreme authority 4954
from little Cures’s poverty-stricken earth, who will secure4955
our first city under the rule of law. Then Tullus 4956
will succeed him who will shatter the country’s peace, 4957
and call to arms sedentary men, ranks now unused to triumphs.4958
The over-boastful Ancus follows him closely, 4959
delighting too much even now in the people’s opinion.4960
Will you look too at Tarquin’s dynasty, and the proud spirit4961
of Brutus the avenger, the rods of office reclaimed?4962
He’ll be the first to win a consul’s powers and the savage axes,4963
and when the sons foment a new civil war, the father4964
will call them to account, for lovely freedom’s sake:4965
ah, to be pitied, whatever posterity says of his actions:4966
his love of country will prevail, and great appetite for glory. 4967
Ah, see over there, the Decii and Drusi, and Torquatus4968
brutal with the axe, and Camillus rescuing the standards.4969
But those others, you can discern, shining in matching armour,4970
souls in harmony now, while they are cloaked in darkness,4971
ah, if they reach the light of the living, what civil war4972
what battle and slaughter, they’ll cause, Julius Caesar,4973
the father-in-law, down from the Alpine ramparts, from the fortress4974
of Monoecus: Pompey, the son-in-law, opposing with Eastern forces.4975
My sons, don’t inure your spirits to such wars,4976
never turn the powerful forces of your country on itself:4977
You be the first to halt, you, who derive your race from heaven:4978
hurl the sword from your hand, who are of my blood!4979
There’s Mummius: triumphing over Corinth, he’ll drive his chariot,4980
victorious, to the high Capitol, famed for the Greeks he’s killed:4981
and Aemilius Paulus, who, avenging his Trojan ancestors, and Minerva’s4982
desecrated shrine, will destroy Agamemnon’s Mycenae, and Argos, 4983
and Perseus the Aeacid himself, descendant of war-mighty Achilles.4984
Who would pass over you in silence, great Cato, or you Cossus,4985
or the Gracchus’s race, or the two Scipios, war’s lightning bolts,4986
the scourges of Libya, or you Fabricius, powerful in poverty,4987
or you, Regulus Serranus, sowing your furrow with seed?4988
Fabii, where do you hurry my weary steps? You, Fabius 4989
Maximus, the Delayer, are he who alone renew our State.4990
Others (I can well believe) will hammer out bronze that breathes4991
with more delicacy than us, draw out living features 4992
from the marble: plead their causes better, trace with instruments4993
the movement of the skies, and tell the rising of the constellations:4994
remember, Roman, it is for you to rule the nations with your power,4995
(that will be your skill) to crown peace with law,4996
to spare the conquered, and subdue the proud.’4997
BkVI:854-885 The Future Race – Marcellus4998
So father Anchises spoke, and while they marvelled, added:4999
‘See, how Claudius Marcellus, distinguished by the Supreme Prize,5000
comes forward, and towers, victorious, over other men.5001
As a knight, he’ll support the Roman State, turbulent5002
with fierce confusion, strike the Cathaginians and rebellious Gauls,5003
and dedicate captured weapons, a third time, to father Quirinus.’5004
And, at this, Aeneas said (since he saw a youth of outstanding5005
beauty with shining armour, walking with Marcellus,5006
but his face lacking in joy, and his eyes downcast):5007
‘Father, who is this who accompanies him on his way?5008
His son: or another of his long line of descendants?5009
What murmuring round them! What presence he has!5010
But dark night, with its sad shadows, hovers round his head.’5011
Then his father Aeneas, with welling tears, replied:5012
‘O, do not ask about your people’s great sorrow, my son.5013
The Fates will only show him to the world, not allow him5014
to stay longer. The Roman people would seem5015
too powerful to you gods, if this gift were lasting.5016
What mourning from mankind that Field of Mars will 5017
deliver to the mighty city! And what funeral processions5018
you, Tiber, will see, as you glide past his new-made tomb!5019
No boy of the line of Ilius shall so exalt his Latin 5020
ancestors by his show of promise, nor will Romulus’s5021
land ever take more pride in one of its sons.5022
Alas for virtue, alas for the honour of ancient times, 5023
and a hand invincible in war! No one might have attacked him5024
safely when armed, whether he met the enemy on foot,5025
or dug his spurs into the flank of his foaming charger.5026
Ah, boy to be pitied, if only you may shatter harsh fate,5027
you’ll be a Marcellus! Give me handfuls of white lilies,5028
let me scatter radiant flowers, let me load my scion’s spirit5029
with those gifts at least, in discharging that poor duty.’5030
BkVI:886-901 The Gates of Sleep5031
So they wander here and there through the whole region,5032
over the wide airy plain, and gaze at everything.5033
And when Anchises has led his son through each place,5034
and inflamed his spirit with love of the glory that is to come,5035
he tells him then of the wars he must soon fight,5036
and teaches him about the Laurentine peoples,5037
and the city of Latinus, and how to avoid or face each trial.5038
There are two gates of Sleep: one of which is said to be of horn,5039
through which an easy passage is given to true shades, the other5040
gleams with the whiteness of polished ivory, but through it5041
the Gods of the Dead send false dreams to the world above.5042
After his words, Anchises accompanies his son there, and,5043
frees him, together with the Sibyl, through the ivory gate.5044
Aeneas makes his way to the ships and rejoins his friends:5045
then coasts straight to Caieta’s harbour along the shore.5046
The anchors are thrown from the prows: on the shore the sterns rest. 5047
BkVII:1-36 The Trojans Reach the Tiber5048
Caieta, Aeneas’s nurse, you too have granted 5049
eternal fame to our shores in dying: 5050
tributes still protect your grave, and your name5051
marks your bones in great Hesperia, if that is glory.5052
Now, as soon as the open sea was calm, having paid 5053
the last rites due to custom, and raised a funeral mound,5054
Aeneas the good left the harbour and sailed on his way.5055
The breezes blew through the night, and a radiant moon was no5056
inhibitor to their voyage, the sea gleaming in the tremulous light.5057
The next shores they touched were Circe’s lands,5058
where that rich daughter of the sun makes the hidden groves5059
echo with continual chanting, and burns fragrant cedar5060
for nocturnal light in her proud palace, as she sets5061
her melodious shuttle running through the fine warp.5062
From there the angry roar of lions could be heard,5063
chafing at their ropes, and sounding late into the night,5064
and the rage of bristling wild-boars, and caged bears,5065
and the howling shapes of huge wolves,5066
whom Circe, cruel goddess, had altered from human appearance 5067
to the features and forms of creatures, using powerful herbs.5068
But Neptune filled their sails with following winds, so that5069
Troy’s virtuous race should not suffer so monstrous a fate5070
entering the harbour, and disembarking on that fatal shore,5071
and carried them past the boiling shallows, granting them escape.5072
Now the sea was reddening with the sun’s rays, and saffron Aurora5073
in her rose-coloured chariot, shone from the heights of heaven,5074
when the winds dropped and every breeze suddenly fell away,5075
and the oars laboured slowly in the water. At this moment,5076
gazing from the sea, Aeneas saw a vast forest. Through it 5077
the Tiber’s lovely river, with swirling eddies full of golden sand,5078
bursts to the ocean. Countless birds, around and above,5079
that haunt the banks and streams, were delighting 5080
the heavens with their song and flying through the groves.5081
He ordered his friends to change course and turn their prows5082
towards land, and joyfully entered the shaded river.5083
BkVII:37-106 King Latinus and the Oracle5084
Come now, Erato, and I’ll tell of the kings, the times, 5085
the state of ancient Latium, when that foreign5086
troop first landed on Ausonia’s shores, and I’ll recall5087
the first fighting from its very beginning. You goddess, 5088
you must prompt your poet. I’ll tell of brutal war,5089
I’ll tell of battle action, and princes driven to death 5090
by their courage, of Trojan armies, and all of Hesperia5091
forced to take up arms. A greater order of things5092
is being born, greater is the work that I attempt.5093
King Latinus, now old in years, ruled fields5094
and towns, in the tranquillity of lasting peace.5095
We hear he was the child of Faunus and the Laurentine5096
nymph, Marica. Faunus’s father was Pictus, and he boasts5097
you, Saturn, as his, you the first founder of the line.5098
By divine decree, Latinus had no male heir, his son 5099
having been snatched from him in the dawn of first youth.5100
There was only a daughter to keep house in so noble a palace,5101
now ready for a husband, now old enough to be a bride.5102
Many sought her hand, from wide Latium and all Ausonia,5103
Turnus above all, the most handsome, of powerful ancestry,5104
whom the queen hastened to link to her as her son-in-law5105
with wonderful affection. But divine omens, with their many5106
terrors, prevented it. There was a laurel, with sacred leaves, 5107
in the high inner court in the middle of the palace, 5108
that had been guarded with reverence for many years.5109
It was said that Lord Latinus himself had discovered it,5110
when he first built his fortress, and dedicated it to Apollo,5111
and from it had named the settlers Laurentines.5112
A dense cloud of bees (marvellous to tell) borne5113
through the clear air, with a mighty humming,5114
settled in the very top of the tree, and hung there,5115
their feet all tangled together, in a sudden swarm.5116
Immediately the prophet cried: ‘I see a foreign hero,5117
approaching, and, from a like direction, an army5118
seeks this same place, to rule from the high citadel.’5119
Then as he lit the altars with fresh pine torches,5120
as virgin Lavinia stood there next to her father5121
she seemed (horror!) to catch the fire in her long tresses,5122
and all her finery to burn in crackling flame, her royally5123
dressed tresses set alight, her crown alight, remarkable5124
for its jewels: then wreathed in smoke and yellow light,5125
she seemed to scatter sparks through all the palace.5126
Truly it was talked of as a shocking and miraculous sight:5127
for they foretold she would be bright with fame and fortune,5128
but it signified a great war for her people.5129
Then the king, troubled by the wonder, visited the oracle5130
of Faunus, his far-speaking father, and consulted the groves5131
below high Albunea, mightiest of forests, that echoed5132
with the sacred fountain, and breathed a deadly vapour from the dark.5133
The people of Italy, and all the Oenotrian lands, sought answers5134
to their doubts, from that place: when the priest brought5135
offerings there, and, found sleep, in the silent night, lying5136
on spread fleeces of sacrificed sheep, he saw there many ghosts5137
flitting in marvellous forms, and heard various voices, had speech5138
with the gods, and talked with Acheron, in the depths of Avernus.5139
And here the king, Latinus, himself seeking an answer,5140
slaughtered a hundred woolly sheep according to the rite,5141
and lay there supported by their skins and woolly fleeces:5142
Suddenly a voice emerged from the deep wood:5143
‘O my son, don’t try to ally your daughter in a Latin marriage,5144
don’t place your faith in the intended wedding:5145
strangers will come to be your kin, who’ll lift our name5146
to the stars by their blood, and the children 5147
of whose race shall see all, where the circling sun5148
views both oceans, turning obediently beneath their feet.’5149
Latinus failed to keep this reply of his Father’s quiet,5150
this warning given in the silent night, and already5151
Rumour flying far and wide had carried it through5152
the Ausonian cities, when the children of Laomedon 5153
came to moor their ships by the river’s grassy banks.5154
BkVII:107-147 Fulfilment of A Prophecy5155
Aeneas, handsome Iulus, and the foremost leaders,5156
settled their limbs under the branches of a tall tree,5157
and spread a meal: they set wheat cakes for a base5158
under the food (as Jupiter himself inspired them) 5159
and added wild fruits to these tables of Ceres.5160
When the poor fare drove them to set their teeth5161
into the thin discs, the rest being eaten, and to break 5162
the fateful circles of bread boldly with hands and jaws,5163
not sparing the quartered cakes, Iulus, jokingly,5164
said no more than: ‘Ha! Are we eating the tables too?’5165
That voice on first being heard brought them to the end5166
of their labours, and his father, as the words fell 5167
from the speaker’s lips, caught them up 5168
and stopped him, awestruck at the divine will. 5169
Immediately he said: ‘Hail, land destined to me5170
by fate, and hail to you, O faithful gods of Troy:5171
here is our home, here is our country. For my father5172
Anchises (now I remember) left this secret of fate with me:5173
‘Son, when you’re carried to an unknown shore, food is lacking, 5174
and you’re forced to eat the tables, then look for a home5175
in your weariness: and remember first thing to set your hand5176
on a site there, and build your houses behind a rampart.’ 5177
This was the hunger he prophesied, the last thing remaining,5178
to set a limit to our ruin…come then,5179
and with the sun’s dawn light let’s cheerfully discover5180
what place this is, what men live here, where this people’s city is,5181
and let’s explore from the harbour in all directions.5182
Now pour libations to Jove and call, with prayer, 5183
on my father Anchises, then set out the wine once more.5184
So saying he wreathed his forehead with a leafy spray,5185
and prayed to the spirit of the place, and to Earth the oldest5186
of goddesses, and to the Nymphs, and the yet unknown rivers:5187
then he invoked Night and Night’s rising constellations,5188
and Idaean Jove, and the Phrygian Mother, in order,5189
and his two parents, one in heaven, one in Erebus.5190
At this the all-powerful Father thundered three times5191
from the clear sky, and revealed a cloud in the ether,5192
bright with rays of golden light, shaking it with his own hand.5193
Then the word ran suddenly through the Trojan lines5194
that the day had come to found their destined city.5195
They rivalled each other in celebration of the feast, and delighted5196
by the fine omen, set out the bowls and crowned the wine-cups.5197
BkVII:148-191 The Palace of Latinus5198
Next day when sunrise lit the earth with her first flames,5199
they variously discovered the city, shores and limits 5200
of this nation: here was the pool of Numicius’s fountain,5201
this was the River Tiber, here the brave Latins lived.5202
Then Anchises’s son ordered a hundred envoys, chosen5203
from every rank, all veiled in Pallas’s olive leaves5204
to go to the king’s noble fortress, carrying gifts 5205
for a hero, and requesting peace towards the Trojans. 5206
Without delay, they hastened as ordered, travelling 5207
at a swift pace. He himself marked out walls with a shallow ditch,5208
toiled at the site, and surrounded the first settlement on those shores5209
with a rampart and battlement, in the style of a fortified camp.5210
And now his men had pursued their journey and they saw5211
Latinus’s turrets and high roofs, and arrived beneath the walls.5212
Boys, and men in the flower of youth, were practising5213
horsemanship outside the city, breaking in their mounts 5214
in clouds of dust, or bending taut bows, or hurling firm spears 5215
with their arms, challenging each other to race or box:5216
when a messenger, racing ahead on his horse, reported5217
to the ears of the aged king that powerful warriors in unknown5218
dress had arrived. The king ordered them to be summoned5219
to the palace, and took his seat, in the centre, on his ancestral throne.5220
Huge and magnificent, raised on a hundred columns, 5221
his roof was the city’s summit, the palace of Laurentian Picus,5222
sanctified by its grove and the worship of generations.5223
It was auspicious for a king to receive the sceptre here and first lift5224
the fasces, the rods of office: this shrine was their curia,5225
their senate house, the place of their sacred feasts, here the elders,5226
after lambs were sacrificed, sat down at an endless line of tables.5227
There standing in ranks at the entrance were the statues of ancestors 5228
of old, in ancient cedar-wood, Italus, and father Sabinus, the vine-grower,5229
depicted guarding a curved pruning-hook, and aged Saturn, 5230
and the image of Janus bi-face, and other kings from the beginning, 5231
and heroes wounded in battle, fighting for their country.5232
Many weapons too hung on the sacred doorposts,5233
captive chariots, curved axes, helmet crests, the massive bars5234
of city gates, spears, shields and the ends of prows torn from ships.5235
There Picus, the Horse-Tamer, sat, holding the lituus, the augur’s5236
Quirinal staff, and clothed in the trabea, the purple-striped toga,5237
and carrying the ancile, the sacred shield, in his left hand,5238
he, whom his lover, Circe, captivated by desire, struck 5239
with her golden rod: changed him with magic drugs5240
to a woodpecker, and speckled his wings with colour.5241
BkVII:192-248 The Trojans Seek Alliance With Latinus 5242
Such was the temple of the gods in which Latinus, seated5243
on the ancestral throne, called the Trojans to him in the palace,5244
and as they entered spoke first, with a calm expression:5245
‘Sons of Dardanus (for your city and people are not unknown5246
to us, and we heard of your journey towards us on the seas),5247
what do you wish? What reason, what need has brought 5248
your ships to Ausonian shores, over so many azure waves?5249
Whether you have entered the river mouth, and lie in harbour,5250
after straying from your course, or driven here by storms,5251
such things as sailors endure on the deep ocean,5252
don’t shun our hospitality, and don’t neglect the fact5253
that the Latins are Saturn’s people, just, not through constraint or law,5254
but of our own free will, holding to the ways of the ancient god.5255
And I remember in truth (though the tale is obscured by time)5256
that the Auruncan elders told how Dardanus, sprung 5257
from these shores, penetrated the cities of Phrygian Ida,5258
and Thracian Samos, that is now called Samothrace.5259
Setting out from here, from his Etruscan home, Corythus,5260
now the golden palace of the starlit sky grants him a throne,5261
and he increases the number of divine altars.’5262
He finished speaking, and Ilioneus, following, answered so:5263
‘King, illustrious son of Faunus, no dark tempest, driving5264
us though the waves, forced us onto your shores,5265
no star or coastline deceived us in our course:5266
we travelled to this city by design, and with willing hearts,5267
exiled from our kingdom, that was once the greatest5268
that the sun gazed on, as he travelled from the edge of heaven.5269
The founder of our race is Jove, the sons of Dardanus enjoy5270
Jove as their ancestor, our king himself is of Jove’s high race:5271
Trojan, Aeneas, sends us to your threshold.5272
The fury of the storm that poured from fierce Mycenae,5273
and crossed the plains of Ida, and how the two worlds of Europe5274
and Asia clashed, driven by fate, has been heard by those whom5275
the most distant lands banish to where Ocean circles back,5276
and those whom the zone of excessive heat, stretched 5277
between the other four, separates from us. 5278
Sailing out of that deluge, over many wastes of sea,5279
we ask a humble home for our country’s gods, and a harmless5280
stretch of shore, and air and water accessible to all.5281
We’ll be no disgrace to the kingdom, nor will your reputation5282
be spoken of lightly, nor gratitude for such an action fade,5283
nor Ausonia regret taking Troy to her breast.5284
I swear by the destiny of Aeneas, and the power of his right hand,5285
whether proven by any man in loyalty, or war and weapons,5286
many are the peoples, many are the nations (do not scorn us5287
because we offer peace-ribbons, and words of prayer, unasked)5288
who themselves sought us and wished to join with us:5289
but through divine destiny we sought out your shores5290
to carry out its commands. Dardanus sprang from here,5291
Apollo recalls us to this place, and, with weighty orders, drives us5292
to Tuscan Tiber, and the sacred waters of the Numician fount. 5293
Moreover our king offers you these small tokens of his5294
former fortune, relics snatched from burning Troy.5295
His father Anchises poured libations at the altar from this gold,5296
this was Priam’s burden when by custom he made laws5297
for the assembled people, the sceptre, and sacred turban,5298
and the clothes, laboured on by the daughters of Ilium.’5299
BkVII:249-285 Latinus Offers Peace5300
At Ilioneus’s words Latinus kept his face set firmly5301
downward, fixed motionless towards the ground, moving his eyes5302
alone intently. It is not the embroidered purple that moves5303
the king nor Priam’s sceptre, so much as his dwelling5304
on his daughter’s marriage and her bridal-bed,5305
and he turns over in his mind old Faunus’s oracle:5306
this must be the man, from a foreign house, prophesied5307
by the fates as my son-in-law, and summoned to reign5308
with equal powers, whose descendants will be illustrious5309
in virtue, and whose might will take possession of all the world.5310
At last he spoke, joyfully: ‘May the gods favour this beginning,5311
and their prophecy. Trojan, what you wish shall be granted.5312
I do not reject your gifts: you will not lack the wealth5313
of fertile fields, or Troy’s wealth, while Latinus is king.5314
Only, if Aeneas has such longing for us, if he is eager5315
to join us in friendship and be called our ally, let him come5316
himself and not be afraid of a friendly face: it will be5317
part of the pact, to me, to have touched your leader’s hand.5318
Now you in turn take my reply to the king:5319
I have a daughter whom the oracles from my father’s shrine,5320
and many omens from heaven, will not allow to unite5321
with a husband of our race: sons will come from foreign shores,5322
whose blood will raise our name to the stars: this they prophesy5323
is in store for Latium,. I both think and, if my mind foresees 5324
the truth, I hope that this is the man destiny demands.’5325
So saying the king selected stallions from his whole stable5326
(three hundred stood there sleekly in their high stalls):5327
immediately he ordered one to be led to each Trojan by rank,5328
caparisoned in purple, swift-footed, with embroidered housings5329
(gold collars hung low over their chests, covered in gold,5330
they even champed bits of yellow gold between their teeth),5331
and for the absent Aeneas there was a chariot, with twin horses,5332
of heaven’s line, blowing fire from their nostrils,5333
bastards of that breed of her father’s, the Sun, that cunning5334
Circe had produced, by mating them with a mortal mare.5335
The sons of Aeneas, mounting the horses, rode back5336
with these words and gifts of Latinus, bearing peace.5337
BkVII:286-341 Juno Summons Allecto5338
But behold, the ferocious wife of Jove returning 5339
from Inachus’s Argos, winging her airy way,5340
saw the delighted Aeneas and his Trojan fleet,5341
from the distant sky, beyond Sicilian Pachynus.5342
She gazed at them, already building houses, already confident5343
in their land, the ships deserted: she halted pierced by a bitter pang.5344
Then shaking her head, she poured these words from her breast:5345
‘Ah loathsome tribe, and Trojan destiny, opposed to my5346
own destiny! Could they not have fallen on the Sigean plains,5347
could they not have been held as captives? Could burning Troy5348
not have consumed these men? They find a way through 5349
the heart of armies and flames. And I think my powers must5350
be exhausted at last, or I have come to rest, my anger sated.5351
Why, when they were thrown out of their country I ventured5352
to follow hotly through the waves, and challenge them on every ocean.5353
The forces of sea and sky have been wasted on these Trojans.5354
What use have the Syrtes been to me, or Scylla, or gaping5355
Charybdis? They take refuge in their longed-for Tiber’s channel,5356
indifferent to the sea and to me. Mars had the power 5357
to destroy the Lapiths’ vast race, the father of the gods himself5358
conceded ancient Calydon, given Diana’s anger, 5359
and for what sin did the Lapiths or Calydon, deserve all that?5360
But I, Jove’s great Queen, who in my wretchedness had the power5361
to leave nothing untried, who have turned myself to every means,5362
am conquered by Aeneas. But if my divine strength is not 5363
enough, I won’t hesitate to seek help wherever it might be:5364
if I cannot sway the gods, I’ll stir the Acheron.5365
I accept it’s not granted to me to withhold the Latin kingdom,5366
and by destiny Lavinia will still, unalterably, be his bride:5367
but I can draw such things out and add delays,5368
and I can destroy the people of these two kings.5369
Let father and son-in-law unite at the cost of their nations’ lives:5370
virgin, your dowry will be Rutulian and Trojan blood,5371
and Bellona, the goddess of war, waits to attend your marriage.5372
Nor was it Hecuba, Cisseus’s daughter, alone who was pregnant5373
with a fire-brand, or gave birth to nuptial flames.5374
Why, Venus is alike in her child, another Paris,5375
another funeral torch for a resurrected Troy.’5376
When she had spoken these words, fearsome, she sought the earth:5377
and summoned Allecto, the grief-bringer, from the house 5378
of the Fatal Furies, from the infernal shadows: in whose5379
mind are sad wars, angers and deceits, and guilty crimes.5380
A monster, hated by her own father Pluto, hateful 5381
to her Tartarean sisters: she assumes so many forms,5382
her features are so savage, she sports so many black vipers.5383
Juno roused her with these words, saying:5384
‘Grant me a favour of my own, virgin daughter of Night,5385
this service, so that my honour and glory are not weakened,5386
and give way, and the people of Aeneas cannot woo5387
Latinus with intermarriage, or fill the bounds of Italy.5388
You’ve the power to rouse brothers, who are one, to conflict, 5389
and overturn homes with hatred: you bring the scourge5390
and the funeral torch into the house: you’ve a thousand names,5391
and a thousand noxious arts. Search your fertile breast,5392
shatter the peace accord, sow accusations of war:5393
let men in a moment need, demand and seize their weapons.’5394
BkVII:341-405 Allecto Maddens Queen Amata5395
So Allecto, steeped in the Gorgon’s poison, first searches out5396
Latium and the high halls of the Laurentine king,5397
and sits at the silent threshold of Queen Amata, whom5398
concerns and angers have troubled, with a woman’s passion,5399
concerning the Trojan’s arrival, and Turnus’s marriage. 5400
The goddess flings a snake at her from her dark locks,5401
and plunges it into the breast, to her innermost heart, so that5402
maddened by the creature, she might trouble the whole palace.5403
Sliding between her clothing, and her polished breast,5404
it winds itself unfelt and unknown to the frenzied woman,5405
breathing its viperous breath: the powerful snake becomes her5406
twisted necklace of gold, becomes the loop of her long ribbon,5407
knots itself in her hair, and roves slithering down her limbs.5408
And while at first the sickness, sinking within as liquid venom,5409
pervades her senses, and clasps her bones with fire,5410
and before her mind has felt the flame through all its thoughts,5411
she speaks, softly, and in a mother’s usual manner, 5412
weeping greatly over the marriage of her daughter to the Trojan:5413
‘O, have you her father no pity for your daughter or yourself?5414
Have you no pity for her mother, when the faithless seducer5415
will leave with the first north-wind, seeking the deep, with the girl5416
as prize? Wasn’t it so when Paris, that Phrygian shepherd,5417
entered Sparta, and snatched Leda’s Helen off to the Trojan cities?5418
What of your sacred pledge? What of your former care for your own5419
people, and your right hand given so often to your kinsman Turnus?5420
If a son-in-law from a foreign tribe is sought for the Latins,5421
and it’s settled, and your father Faunus’s command weighs on you,5422
then I myself think that every land free of our rule 5423
that is distant, is foreign: and so the gods declare. 5424
And if the first origins of his house are traced, Inachus 5425
and Acrisius are ancestors of Turnus, and Mycenae his heartland.’5426
When, though trying in vain with words, she sees Latinus5427
stand firm against her, and when the snake’s maddening venom5428
has seeped deep into her flesh, and permeated throughout,5429
then, truly, the unhappy queen, goaded by monstrous horrors,5430
rages madly unrestrainedly through the vast city.5431
As a spinning-top, sometimes, that boys intent on play thrash 5432
in a circle round an empty courtyard, turns under the whirling lash,5433
- driven with the whip it moves in curving tracks: and the childish crowd5434
marvel over it in innocence, gazing at the twirling boxwood:5435
and the blows grant it life: so she is driven through the heart5436
of cities and proud peoples, on a course that is no less swift.5437
Moreover, she runs to the woods, pretending Bacchic possession,5438
setting out on a greater sin, and creating a wider frenzy,5439
and hides her daughter among the leafy mountains,5440
to rob the Trojans of their wedding and delay the nuptials,5441
shrieking ‘Euhoe’ to Bacchus, crying ‘You alone are worthy5442
of this virgin: it’s for you in truth she lifts the soft thyrsus,5443
you she circles in the dance, for you she grows her sacred hair.’5444
Rumour travels: and the same frenzy drives all the women, 5445
inflamed, with madness in their hearts, to seek strange shelter.5446
They leave their homes, and bare their head and neck to the winds:5447
while others are already filling the air with vibrant howling5448
carrying vine-wrapped spears, and clothed in fawn-skins.5449
The wild Queen herself brandishes a blazing pine-branch 5450
in their midst, turning her bloodshot gaze on them, and sings5451
the wedding-song for Turnus and her daughter, and, suddenly5452
fierce, cries out: ‘O, women of Latium, wherever you are, hear me: 5453
if you still have regard for unhappy Amata in your pious hearts, 5454
if you’re stung with concern for a mother’s rights,5455
loose the ties from your hair, join the rites with me.’5456
So Allecto drives the Queen with Bacchic goad, far and wide,5457
through the woods, among the wild creatures’ lairs.5458
BkVII:406-474 Allecto Rouses Turnus5459
When she saw she had stirred these first frenzies enough,5460
and had disturbed Latinus’s plans, and his whole household,5461
the grim goddess was carried from there, at once, on dark wings,5462
to the walls of Turnus, the brave Rutulian, the city they say5463
that Danae, blown there by a violent southerly, built5464
with her Acrisian colonists. The place was once called Ardea5465
by our ancestors, and Ardea still remains as a great name,5466
its good-fortune past. Here, in the dark of night, 5467
Turnus was now in a deep sleep, in his high palace.5468
Allecto changed her fierce appearance and fearful shape,5469
transformed her looks into those of an old woman,5470
furrowed her ominous brow with wrinkles, assumed5471
white hair and sacred ribbon, then twined an olive spray there:5472
she became Calybe, Juno’s old servant, and priestess of her temple,5473
and offered herself to the young man’s eyes with these words:5474
‘Turnus, will you see all your efforts wasted in vain,5475
and your sceptre handed over to Trojan settlers?5476
The king denies you your bride and the dowry looked for5477
by your race, and a stranger is sought as heir to the throne.5478
Go then, be despised, offer yourself, un-thanked, to danger:5479
go, cut down the Tuscan ranks, protect the Latins with peace!5480
This that I now say to you, as you lie there in the calm of night,5481
Saturn’s all-powerful daughter herself ordered me to speak openly.5482
So rise, and ready your men, gladly, to arm and march 5483
from the gates to the fields, and set fire to the painted ships5484
anchored in our noble river, and the Trojan leaders with them.5485
The vast power of the gods demands it. Let King Latinus 5486
himself feel it, unless he agrees to keep his word and give you5487
your bride, and let him at last experience Turnus armed.’5488
At this the warrior, mocking the priestess, opened his mouth in turn:5489
‘The news that a fleet has entered Tiber’s waters 5490
has not escaped my notice, as you think: 5491
don’t imagine it’s so great a fear to me. 5492
Nor is Queen Juno unmindful of me.5493
But you, O mother, old age, conquered by weakness5494
and devoid of truth, troubles with idle cares, and mocks5495
a prophetess, amidst the wars of kings, with imaginary terrors.5496
Your duty’s to guard the gods’ statues and their temples:5497
men will make war and peace, by whom war’s to be made.’ 5498
Allecto blazed with anger at these words.5499
And, as the young man spoke, a sudden tremor seized his body,5500
and his eyes became fixed, the Fury hissed with so many snakes,5501
such a form revealed itself: then turning her fiery gaze on him,5502
she pushed him away as he hesitated, trying to say more,5503
and raised up a pair of serpents amidst her hair,5504
and cracked her whip, and added this through rabid lips:5505
‘See me, conquered by weakness, whom old age, devoid of truth,5506
mocks with imaginary terrors amongst the wars of kings.5507
Look on this: I am here from the house of the Fatal Sisters,5508
and I bring war and death in my hand.’5509
So saying, she flung a burning branch at the youth,5510
and planted the brand, smoking with murky light, in his chest.5511
An immense terror shattered his sleep, and sweat, pouring 5512
from his whole body drenched flesh and bone.5513
Frantic, he shouted for weapons, looked for weapons by the bedside,5514
and through the palace: desire for the sword raged in him, 5515
and the accursed madness of war, anger above all: 5516
as when burning sticks are heaped, with a fierce crackling,5517
under the belly of a raging cauldron, and the depths5518
dance with the heat, the smoking mixture seethes inside,5519
the water bubbles high with foam, the liquid can no longer5520
contain itself, and dark vapour rises into the air.5521
So, violating the peace, he commanded his young leaders5522
to march against King Latinus, and ordered the troops to be readied,5523
to defend Italy, to drive the enemy from her borders:5524
his approach itself would be enough for both Trojans and Latins.5525
When he gave the word, and called the gods to witness his vows,5526
the Rutuli vied in urging each other to arm. 5527
This man is moved by Turnus’s youth and outstanding nobility5528
of form, that by his royal line, this one again by his glorious deeds.5529
BkVII:475-539 Allecto Among the Trojans5530
While Turnus was rousing the Rutulians with fiery courage,5531
Allecto hurled herself towards the Trojans, on Stygian wings,5532
spying out, with fresh cunning, the place on the shore5533
where handsome Iulus was hunting wild beasts on foot with nets.5534
Hades’s Virgin drove his hounds to sudden frenzy,5535
touching their muzzles with a familiar scent, 5536
so that they eagerly chased down a stag: this was a prime5537
cause of trouble, rousing the spirits of the countrymen to war.5538
There was a stag of outstanding beauty, with huge antlers,5539
that, torn from its mother’s teats, Tyrrhus and his sons had raised, 5540
the father being the man to whom the king’s herds submitted,5541
and who was trusted with managing his lands far and wide.5542
Silvia, their sister, training it to her commands with great care,5543
adorned its antlers, twining them with soft garlands, grooming 5544
the wild creature, and bathing it in a clear spring. Tame to the hand, 5545
and used to food from the master’s table, it wandered the woods, 5546
and returned to the familiar threshold, by itself, however late at night.5547
Now while it strayed far a-field, Iulus the huntsman’s5548
frenzied hounds started it, by chance, as it moved 5549
downstream, escaping the heat by the grassy banks. 5550
Iulus himself inflamed also with desire for high5551
honours, aimed an arrow from his curved bow,5552
the goddess unfailingly guiding his errant hand, 5553
and the shaft, flying with a loud hiss, pierced flank and belly.5554
But the wounded creature fleeing to its familiar home, 5555
dragged itself groaning to its stall, and, bleeding, filled5556
the house with its cries, like a person begging for help.5557
Silvia, the sister, beating her arms with her hands in distress, was5558
the first to call for help, summoning the tough countrymen.5559
They arrived quickly (since a savage beast haunted the silent woods)5560
one with a fire-hardened stake, one with a heavy knotted staff:5561
anger made a weapon of whatever each man found 5562
as he searched around. Tyrrhus called out his men:5563
since by chance he was quartering an oak by driving5564
wedges, he seized his axe, breathing savagely.5565
Then the cruel goddess, seeing the moment to do harm,5566
found the stable’s steep roof, and sounded the herdsmen’s5567
call, sending a voice from Tartarus through the twisted horn,5568
so that each grove shivered, and the deep woods echoed:5569
Diana’s distant lake at Nemi heard it: white Nar’s river, 5570
with its sulphurous waters, heard: and the fountains of Velinus:5571
while anxious mothers clasped their children to their breasts.5572
Then the rough countrymen snatching up their weapons, gathered 5573
more quickly, and from every side, to the noise with which5574
that dread trumpet sounded the call, nor were the Trojan5575
youth slow to open their camp, and send out help to Ascanius.5576
The lines were deployed. They no longer competed5577
with solid staffs, and fire-hardened stakes, in a rustic quarrel,5578
but fought it out with double-edged blades, and a dark crop5579
of naked swords bristled far and wide: bronze shone 5580
struck by the sun, and hurled its light up to the clouds:5581
as when a wave begins to whiten at the wind’s first breath,5582
and the sea swells little by little, and raises higher waves,5583
then surges to heaven out of its profoundest depths.5584
Here young Almo, in the front ranks, the eldest 5585
of Tyrrhus’s sons, was downed by a hissing arrow:5586
the wound opened beneath his throat, choking the passage5587
of liquid speech, and failing breath, with blood.5588
The bodies of many men were round him, old Galaesus5589
among them, killed in the midst of offering peace, who was5590
one of the most just of men, and the wealthiest in Ausonian land:5591
five flocks bleated for him, five herds returned 5592
from his fields, and a hundred ploughs furrowed the soil.5593
BkVII:540-571 Allecto Returns to Hades5594
While they fought over the plain, in an equally-matched contest,5595
the goddess, having, by her actions, succeeded in what she’d promised,5596
having steeped the battle in blood, and brought death in the first skirmish,5597
left Hesperia, and wheeling through the air of heaven5598
spoke to Juno, in victory, in a proud voice:5599
‘Behold, for you, discord is completed with sad war:5600
tell them now to unite as friends, or join in alliance.5601
Since I’ve sprinkled the Trojans with Ausonian blood,5602
I’ll even add this to it, if I’m assured that it’s your wish 5603
I’ll bring neighbouring cities into the war, with rumour,5604
inflaming their minds with love of war’s madness, so that they come5605
with aid from every side: I’ll sow the fields with weapons.’5606
Then Juno answered: ‘That’s more than enough terror and treachery:5607
the reasons for war are there: armed, they fight hand to hand,5608
and the weapons that chance first offered are stained with fresh blood.5609
Such be the marriage, such be the wedding-rites that this 5610
illustrious son of Venus, and King Latinus himself, celebrate.5611
The Father, the ruler of high Olympus, does not wish you5612
to wander too freely in the ethereal heavens.5613
Leave this place. Whatever chance for trouble remains5614
I will handle.’ So spoke Saturn’s daughter:5615
Now, the Fury raised her wings, hissing with serpents,5616
and sought her home in Cocytus, leaving the heights above.5617
There’s a place in Italy, at the foot of high mountains,5618
famous, and mentioned by tradition, in many lands,5619
the valley of Amsanctus: woods thick with leaves hem it in,5620
darkly, on both sides, and in the centre a roaring torrent5621
makes the rocks echo, and coils in whirlpools.5622
There a fearful cavern, a breathing-hole for cruel Dis,5623
is shown, and a vast abyss, out of which Acheron bursts,5624
holds open its baleful jaws, into which the Fury, 5625
that hated goddess, plunged, freeing earth and sky.5626
BkVII:572-600 Latinus Abdicates5627
Meanwhile Saturn’s royal daughter was no less active, 5628
setting a final touch to the war. The whole band of herdsmen5629
rushed into the city from the battle, bringing back the dead,5630
the boy Almo, and Galaesus, with a mangled face,5631
and invoking the gods, and entreating Latinus.5632
Turnus was there, and ,at the heart of the outcry,5633
he redoubled their terror of fire and slaughter:5634
‘Trojans are called upon to reign: Phrygian stock5635
mixes with ours: I am thrust from the door.’5636
Then those whose women, inspired by Bacchus, pranced about5637
in the pathless woods, in the god’s dance (for Amata’s name is not trivial),5638
drawing together from every side, gathered to make their appeal to Mars.5639
Immediately, with perverse wills, all clamoured for war’s 5640
atrocities, despite the omens, despite the god’s decrees,.5641
They vied together in surrounding King Latinus’s palace:5642
like an immoveable rock in the ocean, he stood firm,5643
like a rock in the ocean, when a huge breaker falls, 5644
holding solid amongst a multitude of howling waves,5645
while round about the cliffs and foaming reefs roar, in vain,5646
and seaweed, hurled against its sides, is washed back again.5647
As no power was really granted him to conquer5648
their blind will, and events moved to cruel Juno’s orders, 5649
with many appeals to the gods and the helpless winds,5650
the old man cried: ‘Alas, we are broken by fate, and swept away5651
by the storm! Oh, wretched people, you’ll pay the price yourselves5652
for this, with sacrilegious blood. You, Turnus, your crime and its punishment await you, and too late you’ll entreat the gods with prayers.5653
My share is rest, yet at the entrance to the harbour5654
I’m robbed of all contentment in dying.’ Speaking no more5655
he shut himself in the palace, and let fall the reins of power.5656
BkVII:601-640 Latium Prepares for War5657
There was a custom in Hesperian Latium, which 5658
the Alban cities always held sacred, as great Rome 5659
does now, when they first rouse Mars to battle, 5660
whether they prepare to take sad war in their hands 5661
to the Getae, the Hyrcanians, or the Arabs, or to head East5662
pursuing the Dawn, to reclaim their standards from Parthia:5663
there are twin gates of War (so they are named),5664
sanctified by religion, and by dread of fierce Mars:5665
a hundred bars of bronze, and iron’s eternal strength,5666
lock them, and Janus the guardian never leaves the threshold.5667
When the final decision of the city fathers is for battle, 5668
the Consul himself, dressed in the Quirine toga, folded5669
in the Gabine manner, unbars these groaning doors, himself,5670
and himself invokes the battle: then the rest of the men 5671
do so too, and bronze horns breathe their hoarse assent.5672
Latinus was also commanded to declare war in this way 5673
on Aeneas’s people, and unbolt the sad gates, 5674
but the old man held back his hand, and shrank 5675
from the vile duty, hiding himself in dark shadows. 5676
Then the Queen of the gods, gliding from the sky,5677
set the reluctant doors in motion, with her own hand:5678
Saturn’s daughter forced open the iron gates of War5679
on their hinges. Italy, once peaceful and immoveable, was alight.5680
Some prepared to cross the plains on foot, others stirred 5681
the deep dust on noble horses: all demanded weapons.5682
Others polished smooth shields, and bright javelins,5683
with thick grease, and sharpened axes on grindstones:5684
they delighted in carrying standards and hearing the trumpet call.5685
So five great cities set up anvils and forged 5686
new weapons: powerful Atina, proud Tibur, 5687
Ardea, Crustumeri, and towered Antemnae.5688
They beat out helmets to protect their heads, and wove5689
wickerwork frames for shields: others hammered5690
breastplates of bronze, and shiny greaves of malleable silver:5691
to this they yielded pride in the share’s blade and the sickle, all their 5692
passion for the plough: they recast their father’s swords in the furnace.5693
And now the trumpets began to sound, the word that signalled war 5694
went round: this man, in alarm, snatched his helmet from his home, 5695
another harnessed quivering horses to the yoke, took up his shield,5696
and triple-linked coat of mail, and fastened on his faithful sword. 5697
BkVII:641-782 The Battle-List5698
Now Muses, open wide Helicon, and begin a song5699
of kings who were roused to war: what ranks of followers5700
each one had, filling the plain: with what men even then5701
Italy’s rich earth flowered: with what armies she shone:5702
since, goddesses, you remember, and have the power to tell:5703
while a faint breath of their fame has barely reached us.5704
First fierce Mezentius enters the war, that scorner of gods,5705
from the Tuscan shore, and rouses his troops to arms.5706
His son, Lausus, is beside him, than whom no other is5707
more handsome in form, except Laurentine Turnus.5708
Lausus, the tamer of horses, who subdues wild beasts,5709
leads a thousand men from Agylla’s town, who follow him5710
in vain, deserving to be happier than under his father’s 5711
rule, a father who might perhaps not be a Mezentius.5712
Aventinus follows them, the handsome son of handsome Hercules,5713
displaying his palm-crowned chariot and victorious horses,5714
over the turf, and carries his father’s emblem on his shield: 5715
a hundred snakes, and the Hydra wreathed with serpents:5716
the priestess Rhea brought him to the shores of light,5717
in a secret birth, in the woods, on the Aventine Hill,5718
a woman mated to a god when Tyrinthian Hercules,5719
the conqueror who slew Geryon, came to the Laurentine fields,5720
and bathed his Spanish cattle in the Tuscan stream. 5721
His men carry javelins and grim pikes, in their hands, to war,5722
and fight with polished swords and Sabellian spears.5723
He himself, on foot, a huge lion skin swinging,5724
with terrifying unkempt mane, and with its white teeth5725
crowning his head, enters the royal palace, just like that,5726
a savage, with Hercules’s clothing fastened round his shoulders.5727
Then twin-brothers, Catillus, and brave Coras, 5728
Argive youths, leaving the walls of Tibur, 5729
and a people named after their brother Tiburtus,5730
borne into the forefront of the army, among the dense spears,5731
like cloud-born Centaurs descending from a high peak 5732
in the mountains, leaving Homole and snow-covered Othrys5733
in their swift course: the vast woods give way as they go,5734
and, with a loud crash, the thickets yield to them.5735
Nor is Caeculus the founder of Praeneste’s city missing,5736
who as every age has believed was born a king, to Vulcan, 5737
among the wild cattle, and discovered on the hearth,5738
he’s followed by a rustic army drawn from far and wide,5739
men who live in steep Praeneste, and the fields of Juno5740
of Gabii, and beside cool Anio, and among the Hernican rocks5741
dew-wet from the streams: those you nurture, rich Anagnia, 5742
and you father Amasenus. They don’t all have weapons5743
or shields, or rumbling chariots: most fling pellets of blue lead,5744
some carry twin darts in their hand, and have reddish 5745
caps of wolf-skin for headgear: the left foot is bare 5746
as they walk, a boot of raw hide protects the other.5747
And Messapus, Neptune’s son, tamer of horses,5748
whom no one’s permitted to fell with fire or steel,5749
now suddenly calls to arms his settled tribes, and troops5750
unused to war, and grasps the sword again.5751
These hold Fescennium’s lines and Aequi Falisci’s,5752
those Soracte’s heights and Flavinium’s fields,5753
and Ciminus’s lake and hill, and Capena’s groves.5754
They march to a steady beat, and sing of their king:5755
as the river Cayster and the Asian meadows, struck from afar,5756
echo sometimes, when the snowy swans, among the flowing clouds,5757
return from pasture, and make melodious music from their long throats.5758
No one would think that bronze-clad ranks were joined5759
in such a crowd, but an airy cloud of strident birds5760
driving shore-wards from the deep gulf.5761
Behold, Clausus, of ancient Sabine blood, leading5762
a great army, and worth a great army in his own right.5763
Now the Claudian tribe and race has spread, from him,5764
through Latium, since Rome was shared with the Sabines.5765
With him, a vast company from Amiternum, and ancient Quirites5766
from Cures, all the forces of Eretum, and olive-clad Mutusca:5767
those who live in Nomentum town, and the Rosean fields, by Lake 5768
Velinus, those from Tetrica’s bristling cliffs, and from Mount Severus,5769
and Casperia and Foruli, and from beside Himella’s stream,5770
those who drink the Tiber and Fabaris, those cold Nursia sent,5771
and the armies of Horta and the Latin peoples, 5772
and those whom Allia, unlucky name, flows between and divides:5773
as many as the waves that swell in Libya’s seas,5774
when fierce Orion’s buried by the wintry waters,5775
or thick as the ears of corn scorched by the early sun,5776
in the plain of Hermus, or Lycia’s yellow fields.5777
The shields clang, and the earth is terrified by the tramp of feet.5778
Next Halaesus, Agamemnon’s son, hostile to the Trojan name,5779
harnesses his horses to his chariot, and hastens a thousand5780
warlike tribes to Turnus, men who turn the fertile5781
Massic soil for Bacchus, and those the Auruncan elders5782
have sent from the high hills, and the Sidicine levels nearby,5783
those who have left Cales behind, and those who live5784
by Volturnus’s shallow river, and by their side the rough 5785
Saticulan and the Oscan men. Polished javelins are their 5786
weapons, but their custom is to attach a flexible leash. 5787
A shield protects their left, with curved swords for close fighting.5788
Nor shall you, Oebalus, go un-sung in our verses,5789
you whom they say the nymph Sebethis bore to Telon,5790
who is old now, when he held the throne of Teleboan 5791
Capreae: but not content with his father’s fields, 5792
even then the son exercised his power over 5793
the Sarrastrian peoples, and the plains that Sarnus waters,5794
and those who hold Rufrae and Batulum and Celemna’s fields,5795
who are used to throwing their spears in the Teuton fashion:5796
and those apple-growers that the ramparts of Abella look down on,5797
whose head-cover is bark stripped from a cork-tree:5798
and their bronze shields gleam, their swords gleam with bronze.5799
And you too Ufens, sent to battle from mountainous Nersae,5800
well known to fame, and fortunate in arms, whose people5801
of the hard Aequian earth, are especially 5802
tough, and hunt extensively in the forests.5803
They plough the earth while armed, and always delight5804
in carrying off fresh spoils, and living on plunder.5805
There came a priest as well, of the Marruvian race,5806
sent by King Archippus, sporting a frond of fruitful olive5807
above his helmet, Umbro the most-valiant,5808
who, by incantation and touch, was able to shed sleep5809
on the race of vipers and water-snakes with poisonous breath,5810
soothing their anger, and curing their bites, by his arts. 5811
But he had no power to heal a blow from a Trojan spear-point,5812
nor did sleep-inducing charms, or herbs found on Marsian hills, 5813
help him against wounds. For you, Angitia’s grove wept: 5814
Fucinus’s glassy wave, for you: for you, the crystal lakes. 5815
And Virbius, Hippolytus’s son, most handsome, went5816
to the war, whom his mother Aricia sent in all his glory,5817
He was reared in Egeria’s groves, round the marshy shores,5818
where Diana’s altar stands, rich and forgiving.5819
For they tell in story that Hippolytus, after he had fallen prey5820
to his stepmother Phaedra’s cunning, and, torn apart by stampeding 5821
horses, had paid the debt due to his father with his blood,5822
came again to the heavenly stars, and the upper air beneath5823
the sky, recalled by Apollo’s herbs and Diana’s love.5824
Then the all-powerful father, indignant that any mortal5825
should rise from the shadows to the light of life,5826
hurled Aesculapius, Apollo’s son, the discoverer 5827
of such skill and healing, down to the Stygian waves.5828
But kindly Diana hid Hippolytus in a secret place,5829
and sent him to the nymph Egeria, to her grove,5830
where he might spend his life alone, unknown, 5831
in the Italian woods, his name altered to Virbius.5832
So too horses are kept away from the temple of Diana 5833
Trivia, and the sacred groves, they who, frightened 5834
by sea-monsters, spilt chariot and youth across the shore.5835
BkVII:783-817 Turnus and Camilla Complete the Array5836
Turnus himself went to and from, among the front ranks, grasping5837
his weapons, pre-eminent in form, overtopping the rest by a head. 5838
His tall helmet was crowned with a triple plume, holding up5839
a Chimaera, breathing the fires of Etna from its jaws,5840
snarling the more, and the more savage with sombre flames5841
the more violent the battle becomes, the more blood is shed.5842
But on his polished shield was Io, with uplifted horns,5843
fashioned in gold, already covered with hair, already a heifer,5844
a powerful emblem, and Argus, that virgin’s watcher,5845
and old Inachus pouring his river out of an engraved urn. 5846
A cloud of infantry followed, and the ranks with shields5847
were thick along the plain, Argive men 5848
and Auruncan troops, Rutulians and old Sicanians,5849
and the Sacranian lines, and Labicians, their shields painted:5850
and those who farmed your woodland pastures, Tiber,5851
and Numicius’s holy shore, and those whose ploughshare5852
turns Rutulian hills or Circe’s headland, those whose fields5853
Jupiter of Anxur guards, or Feronia, pleased with her green groves:5854
those from where Satura’s black marsh lies, and from where 5855
chill Ufens finds his valley’s course, and is buried in the sea.5856
Besides all these came Camilla, of the Volscian race,5857
leading her line of horse, and troops gleaming with bronze,5858
a warrior girl, her hands not trained to Minerva’s distaff,5859
and basket of wool, but toughened to endure a fight,5860
and, with her quickness of foot, out-strip the winds.5861
She might have skimmed the tips of the stalks of uncut5862
corn, and not bruised their delicate ears with her running:5863
or, hanging above the swelling waves, taken her path through5864
the heart of the deep, and not dipped her quick feet in the sea.5865
All of the young men flooding from houses and fields, 5866
and the crowds of women marvelled, and gazed, at her as she went by,5867
in open-mouthed wonder at how the splendour of royal purple5868
draped her smooth shoulders, how her brooch clasped her hair5869
with gold, how she herself carried her Lycian quiver,5870
and a shepherd’s myrtle staff, tipped with the point of a spear.5871
BkVIII:1-25 The Situation in Latium5872
When Turnus raised the war-banner on the Laurentine 5873
citadel, and the trumpets blared out their harsh music,5874
when he roused his fiery horses and clashed his weapons,5875
hearts were promptly stirred, all Latium together5876
swore allegiance in restless commotion, and young men 5877
raged wildly. The main leaders, Messapus, Ufens5878
and Mezentius, scorner of gods, gathered their forces5879
from every side, stripping the broad acres of farmers.5880
And Venulus was sent to great Diomedes’s city, Arpi,5881
to seek help, and explain that the Trojans were planted in Latium,5882
Aeneas had arrived with his fleet, carrying his vanquished gods,5883
and pronouncing himself a king summoned by destiny,5884
that many tribes were joining the Trojan hero,5885
and his name was spreading far and wide in Latium.5886
What Aeneas was intending given these beginnings,5887
what outcome he desired from the war, if fortune5888
followed him, might be seen more clearly by Diomedes,5889
himself, than by King Turnus or King Latinus. 5890
So it was in Latium. Meanwhile the Trojan hero of Laomedon’s 5891
line, seeing all this, tosses on a vast sea of cares, 5892
and swiftly casts his mind this way and that, seizing5893
on various ideas, turning everything over: 5894
as when tremulous light from the water in a bronze bowl,5895
thrown back by sunshine, or the moon’s radiant image,5896
flickers far and wide over everything, then angles 5897
upwards, and strikes the panelled ceiling overhead.5898
BkVIII:26-65 Aeneas’s Dream of Tiberinus5899
It was night, and through all the land, deep sleep gripped weary 5900
creatures, bird and beast, when Aeneas, the leader, lay down5901
on the river-bank, under the cold arch of the heavens, his heart5902
troubled by war’s sadness, and at last allowed his body to rest.5903
Old Tiberinus himself, the god of the place, appeared to him, 5904
rising from his lovely stream, among the poplar leaves 5905
(fine linen cloaked him in a blue-grey 5906
mantle, and shadowy reeds hid his hair),5907
Then he spoke, and with his words removed all cares:5908
‘O seed of the race of gods, who bring our Trojan city5909
back from the enemy, and guard the eternal fortress,5910
long looked-for on Laurentine soil, and in Latin fields,5911
here is your house, and your house’s gods, for sure 5912
(do not desist), don’t fear the threat of war,5913
the gods’ swollen anger has died away.5914
And now, lest you think this sleep’s idle fancy, you’ll find 5915
a huge sow lying on the shore, under the oak trees, 5916
that has farrowed a litter of thirty young, a white sow, 5917
lying on the ground, with white piglets round her teats,5918
That place shall be your city, there’s true rest from your labours.5919
By this in a space of thirty years Ascanius 5920
will found the city of Alba, bright name.5921
I do not prophesy unsurely. Now (attend), in a few words5922
I’ll explain how you can emerge the victor from what will come.5923
Arcadians have chosen a site on this coast, a race descended 5924
from Pallas, friends of King Evander, who followed 5925
his banner, and located their city in the hills,5926
named, from their ancestor Pallas, Pallantium. 5927
They wage war endlessly with the Latin race: summon them 5928
as allies to your camp, and join in league with them.5929
I’ll guide you myself along the banks by the right channels,5930
so you can defeat the opposing current with your oars.5931
Rise, now, son of the goddess, and, as the first stars set,5932
offer the prayers due to Juno, and with humble vows5933
overcome her anger and her threats. Pay me honour as victor.5934
I am him whom you see scouring the banks, 5935
with my full stream, and cutting through rich farmlands,5936
blue Tiber, the river most dear to heaven. Here is 5937
my noble house, my fount flows through noble cities.’5938
BkVIII:66-101 Aeneas Sails to Pallanteum5939
He spoke: then the river plunged into a deep pool,5940
seeking its floor: night and sleep left Aeneas.5941
He rose and, looking towards the heavenly sun’s5942
eastern light, raised water from the stream 5943
in his cupped hands, and poured out this prayer to heaven:5944
‘Nymphs, Laurentine Nymphs, from whom come the tribe 5945
of rivers, and you, O Father Tiber, and your sacred stream, 5946
receive Aeneas, and shield him at last from danger.5947
In whatever fountain the water holds you, pitying our trials,5948
from whatever soil you flow in your supreme beauty,5949
you will always be honoured by my tributes, by my gifts,5950
horned river, ruler of the Hesperian waters.5951
O, only be with me and prove your will by your presence.’5952
So he spoke, and chose two galleys from his fleet, manned them5953
with oarsmen, and also equipped his men with weapons.5954
But behold a sudden wonder, marvellous to the sight,5955
gleaming white through the trees, a sow the same colour5956
as her white litter, seen lying on the green bank: dutiful Aeneas, 5957
carrying the sacred vessel, sets her with her young before the altar 5958
and sacrifices her to you, to you indeed, most powerful Juno.5959
Tiber calmed his swelling flood all that night long, 5960
and flowing backwards stilled his silent wave, so that5961
he spread his watery levels as in a gentle pool,5962
or placid swamp, so it would be effortless for the oars.5963
Therefore they sped on the course begun, with happy5964
murmurs, the oiled pine slipped through the shallows:5965
the waves marvelled, the woods marvelled, unused to the far-gleaming5966
shields of heroes, and the painted ships floating in the river.5967
They wore out a night and a day with their rowing5968
navigated long bends, were shaded by many kinds of trees,5969
and cut through the green woods, over the calm levels.5970
The fiery sun had climbed to the mid-point of the sky’s arc,5971
when they saw walls and a fort in the distance, and the scattered5972
roofs of houses, which Roman power has now raised heavenwards:5973
then Evander owned a poor affair. They turned the prows5974
quickly towards land, and approached the town.5975
BkVIII:102-151 Aeneas Meets Evander5976
By chance that day the Arcadian king was making solemn offering5977
to Hercules, Amphitryon’s mighty son, and other gods in a grove 5978
in front of the city. His son Pallas was with him, and with him 5979
were all the leading young men, and his impoverished senate 5980
offering incense, and the warm blood smoked on the altars.5981
When they saw the noble ships: that they were gliding 5982
through the shadowy woods, rowing with silent oars:5983
they were alarmed at the sudden sight and rose together,5984
leaving the tables. But proud Pallas ordered them not to break off5985
the rites, and seizing his spear flew off to meet the strangers himself, 5986
and at some distance shouted from a hillock: ‘Warriors what motive5987
drives you to try unknown paths? Where are you heading? 5988
What people are you? Where from? Do you bring peace or war?’ 5989
Then Aeneas the leader spoke from the high stern,5990
holding out a branch of olive in peace: ‘You are looking5991
at men of Trojan birth, and spears hostile to the Latins,5992
men whom they force to flee through arrogant warfare.5993
We seek Evander. Take my message and say that the chosen5994
leaders of Troy have come, asking for armed alliance.’5995
Pallas was amazed, awestruck by that great name:5996
‘O whoever you may be, disembark, and speak to my father5997
face to face, and come beneath our roof as a guest.’5998
And he took his hand and gripped it tight in welcome:5999
they left the river, and went on into the grove.6000
Then Aeneas spoke to King Evander, in words of friendship:6001
‘Noblest of the sons of Greece, whom Fortune determines me6002
to make request of, offering branches decked with sacred ribbons:6003
indeed I did not fear your being a leader of Greeks, 6004
an Arcadian, and joined to the race of the twin sons of Atreus,6005
since my own worth, and the god’s holy oracles,6006
our fathers being related, your fame known throughout the world,6007
connect me to you, and bring me here willingly, through destiny.6008
Dardanus, our early ancestor, and leader of Troy’s city,6009
born of Atlantean Electra, as the Greeks assert, voyaged6010
to Troy’s Teucrian people: and mightiest Atlas begot Electra, 6011
he who supports the heavenly spheres on his shoulders.6012
Your ancestor is Mercury, whom lovely Maia conceived,6013
and gave birth to on Cyllene’s cold heights:6014
and Atlas, if we credit what we hear, begot Maia,6015
that same Atlas who lifts the starry sky. 6016
So both our races branch from the one root.6017
Relying on this, I decided on no envoys, no prior attempts6018
through diplomacy: myself, I set before you, myself6019
and my own life, and come humbly to your threshold.6020
The same Daunian race pursues us with war, as you yourself,6021
indeed they think if they drive us out, nothing will stop them6022
bringing all Hesperia completely under their yoke,6023
and owning the seas that wash the eastern and western shores.6024
Accept and offer friendship. We have brave hearts6025
in battle, soldiers and spirits proven in action.’6026
BkVIII:152-183 Evander Offers Alliance6027
Aeneas spoke. Evander scanned his face, eyes6028
and form, for a long time with his gaze, as he was speaking.6029
Then he replied briefly, so: ‘How gladly I know, and 6030
welcome you, bravest of Trojans! How it brings back 6031
your father’s speech, the voice and features of noble Anchises!6032
For I recall how Priam, son of Laomedon, visiting the realms6033
of his sister, Hesione, and seeking Salamis, 6034
came on further to see the chill territories of Arcadia.6035
In those days first youth clothed my cheeks with bloom,6036
and I marvelled at the Trojan leaders, and marvelled6037
at the son of Laomedon himself: but Anchises as he walked6038
was taller than all. My mind burned with youthful desire6039
to address the hero, and clasp his hand in mine:6040
I approached and led him eagerly inside the walls of Pheneus.6041
On leaving he gave me a noble quiver 6042
of Lycian arrows, a cloak woven with gold, 6043
and a pair of golden bits, that my Pallas now owns.6044
So the hand of mine you look for is joined in alliance,6045
and when tomorrow’s dawn returns to the earth,6046
I’ll send you off cheered by my help, and aid you with stores.6047
Meanwhile, since you come to us as friends, favour us 6048
by celebrating this annual festival, which it is wrong 6049
to delay, and become accustomed to your friends’ table.’6050
When he had spoken he ordered the food and drink6051
that had been removed to be replaced, and seated6052
the warriors himself on the turf benches. 6053
He welcomed Aeneas as the principal guest, and invited him6054
to a maple-wood throne covered by a shaggy lion’s pelt.6055
Then the altar priest with young men he had chosen 6056
competed to bring on the roast meat from the bulls, 6057
pile the baked bread in baskets, and serve the wine. 6058
Aeneas and the men of Troy feasted on an entire6059
chine of beef, and the sacrificial organs.6060
BkVIII:184-305 The Tale of Hercules and Cacus6061
When hunger had been banished, and desire for food sated,6062
King Evander said: ‘No idle superstition, or ignorance 6063
of the ancient gods, forced these solemn rites of ours,6064
this ritual banquet, this altar to so great a divinity, upon us.6065
We perform them, and repeat the honours due, 6066
Trojan guest, because we were saved from cruel perils. 6067
Now look first at this rocky overhanging cliff, how its bulk 6068
is widely shattered, and the mountain lair stands deserted, 6069
and the crags have been pulled down in mighty ruin.6070
There was a cave here, receding to vast depths,6071
untouched by the sun’s rays, inhabited by the fell shape6072
of Cacus, the half-human, and the ground was always warm6073
with fresh blood, and the heads of men, insolently 6074
nailed to the doors, hung there pallid with sad decay.6075
Vulcan was father to this monster: and, as he moved6076
his massive bulk, he belched out his dark fires.6077
Now at last time brought what we wished, the presence6078
and assistance of a god. Hercules, the greatest of avengers,6079
appeared, proud of the killing and the spoils of three-fold 6080
Geryon, driving his great bulls along as victor, 6081
and his cattle occupied the valley and the river.6082
And Cacus, his mind mad with frenzy, lest any 6083
wickedness or cunning be left un-dared or un-tried6084
drove off four bulls of outstanding quality, and as many 6085
heifers of exceptional beauty, from their stalls.6086
and, so there might be no forward-pointing spoor, the thief6087
dragged them into his cave by the tail, and, reversing6088
the signs of their tracks, hid them in the stony dark:6089
no one seeking them would find a trail to the cave.6090
Meanwhile, as Hercules, Amphitryon’s son, was moving 6091
the well-fed herd from their stalls, and preparing to leave,6092
the cattle lowed as they went out, all the woods were filled6093
with their complaining, and the sound echoed from the hills.6094
One heifer returned their call, and lowed from the deep cave,6095
and foiled Cacus’s hopes from her prison.6096
At this Hercules’s indignation truly blazed, with a venomous6097
dark rage: he seized weapons in his hand, and his heavy6098
knotted club, and quickly sought the slopes of the high mountain.6099
Then for the first time my people saw Cacus afraid, confusion6100
in his eyes: he fled at once, swifter than the East Wind,6101
heading for his cave: fear lent wings to his feet.6102
As he shut himself in, and blocked the entrance securely,6103
throwing against it a giant rock, hung there in chains 6104
by his father’s craft, by shattering the links, behold6105
Hercules arrived in a tearing passion, turning his head6106
this way and that, scanning every approach, and gnashing6107
his teeth. Hot with rage, three times he circled the whole 6108
Aventine Hill, three times he tried the stony doorway in vain,6109
three times he sank down, exhausted, in the valley.6110
A sharp pinnacle of flint, the rock shorn away 6111
on every side, stood, tall to see, rising behind 6112
the cave, a suitable place for vile birds to nest.6113
He shook it, where it lay, it’s ridge sloping towards the river 6114
on the left, straining at it from the right, loosening its deepest6115
roots, and tearing it out, then suddenly hurling it away, 6116
the highest heavens thundered with the blow,6117
the banks broke apart, and the terrified river recoiled.6118
But Cacus’s den and his vast realm stood revealed,6119
and the shadowy caverns within lay open,6120
no differently than if earth, gaping deep within, 6121
were to unlock the infernal regions by force, and disclose6122
the pallid realms, hated by the gods, and the vast abyss6123
be seen from above, and the spirits tremble at incoming light.6124
So Hercules, calling upon all his weapons, hurled missiles 6125
at Cacus from above, caught suddenly in unexpected daylight, 6126
penned in the hollow rock, with unaccustomed howling, 6127
and rained boughs and giant blocks of stone on him.6128
He on the other hand, since there was no escape now 6129
from the danger, belched thick smoke from his throat 6130
(marvellous to tell) and enveloped the place in blind darkness,6131
blotting the view from sight, and gathering 6132
smoke-laden night in the cave, a darkness mixed with fire.6133
Hercules in his pride could not endure it, and he threw himself,6134
with a headlong leap, through the flames, where the smoke6135
gave out its densest billows, and black mist heaved in the great cavern.6136
Here, as Cacus belched out useless flame in the darkness,6137
Hercules seized him in a knot-like clasp, and, clinging, choked him6138
the eyes squeezed, and the throat drained of blood.6139
Immediately the doors were ripped out, and the dark den exposed,6140
the stolen cattle, and the theft Cacus denied, were revealed 6141
to the heavens, and the shapeless carcass dragged out 6142
by the feet. The people could not get their fill of gazing6143
at the hideous eyes, the face, and shaggy bristling chest6144
of the half-man, and the ashes of the jaw’s flames.6145
Because of that this rite is celebrated, and happy posterity6146
remembers the day: and Potitius, the first, the founder, with 6147
the Pinarian House as guardians of the worship of Hercules,6148
set up this altar in the grove, which shall be spoken of for ever6149
by us as ‘The Mightiest’, and the mightiest it shall be for ever.6150
Come now, O you young men, wreathe your hair with leaves,6151
hold out wine-cups in your right hands, in honour of such great glory,6152
and call on the god we know, and pour out the wine with a will.’6153
He spoke, while grey-green poplar veiled his hair 6154
with Hercules’s own shade, hanging down in a knot of leaves, 6155
and the sacred cup filled his hand. Quickly they all poured 6156
a joyful libation on the table, and prayed to the gods.6157
Meanwhile, evening drew nearer in the heavens,6158
and now the priests went out, Potitius leading,6159
clothed in pelts as customary, and carrying torches.6160
They restarted the feast, bringing welcome offerings6161
as a second course, and piled the altars with heaped plates.6162
Then the Salii, the dancing priests, came to sing round 6163
the lighted altars, their foreheads wreathed with sprays6164
of poplar, one band of youths, another of old men, who praised6165
the glories and deeds of Hercules in song: how as an infant he strangled6166
the twin snakes in his grip, monsters sent by Juno his stepmother:6167
how too he destroyed cities incomparable in war,6168
Troy and Oechalia: how he endured a thousand hard labours6169
destined for him by cruel Juno, through King Eurystheus:6170
‘You, unconquerable one, you slew the cloud-born Centaurs,6171
bi-formed Hylaeus and Pholus, with your hand: the monstrous6172
Cretan Bull: and the huge lion below the cliffs of Nemea.6173
The Stygian Lake trembled before you: Cerberus, Hell’s guardian,6174
lying on half-eaten bones in his blood-drenched cave:6175
No shape, not Typheus himself, armed and towering 6176
upwards, daunted you: your brains were not lacking 6177
when Lerna’s Hydra surrounded you with its swarm of heads.6178
Hail, true child of Jove, a glory added to the gods,6179
visit us and your rites with grace and favouring feet.’6180
Such things they celebrated in song, adding to all this6181
Cacus’s cave, and the fire-breather himself.6182
All the grove rang with sound, and the hills echoed.6183
BkVIII:306-369 Pallanteum – the Site of Rome6184
Then they all returned to the city, the sacred rites complete.6185
The king walked clothed with years, and kept Aeneas and his son6186
near him for company, lightening the road with various talk.6187
Aeneas marvelled, and scanned his eyes about 6188
eagerly, captivated by the place, and delighted 6189
to enquire about and learn each tale of the men of old.6190
So King Evander, founder of Rome’s citadel, said:6191
‘The local Nymphs and Fauns once lived in these groves,6192
and a race of men born of trees with tough timber,6193
who had no laws or culture, and didn’t know how 6194
to yoke oxen or gather wealth, or lay aside a store, 6195
but the branches fed them, and the hunter’s wild fare.6196
Saturn was the first to come down from heavenly Olympus,6197
fleeing Jove’s weapons, and exiled from his lost realm.6198
He gathered together the untaught race, scattered among6199
the hills, and gave them laws, and chose to call it Latium,6200
from latere, ‘to hide’, since he had hidden in safety on these shores.6201
Under his reign was the Golden Age men speak of:6202
in such tranquil peace did he rule the nations,6203
until little by little an inferior, tarnished age succeeded,6204
with war’s madness, and desire for possessions.6205
Then the Ausonian bands came, and the Siconian tribes,6206
while Saturn’s land of Latium often laid aside her name:6207
then the kings, and savage Thybris, of vast bulk,6208
after whom we Italians call our river by the name 6209
of Tiber: the ancient Albula has lost her true name.6210
As for me, exiled from my country and seeking 6211
the limits of the ocean, all-powerful Chance, 6212
and inescapable fate, settled me in this place,6213
driven on by my mother the Nymph Carmentis’s 6214
dire warnings, and my guardian god Apollo.’6215
He had scarcely spoken when advancing he pointed out6216
the altar and what the Romans call the Carmental Gate,6217
in ancient tribute to the Nymph Carmentis, 6218
the far-seeing prophetess, who first foretold6219
the greatness of Aeneas’s sons, the glory of Pallanteum.6220
Next he pointed to a vast grove, which brave Romulus would restore 6221
as a sanctuary, and the Lupercal, the Wolf’s Cave, under a cold cliff,6222
named in the Arcadian way for the wolf-god, Lycaean Pan.6223
And he also pointed out the grove of sacred Argiletum6224
calling the place to witness, relating the death of Argus his guest. 6225
He leads him from here to the Tarpeian Rock and the Capitol,6226
now all gold, once bristling with wild thorns.6227
Even then the dreadful holiness of the place awed the fearful 6228
country folk, even then they trembled at the wood and the rock.6229
‘A god inhabits this grove,’ he said, ‘ and this hill with its leafy summit,6230
(which god is unknown): my Arcadians believe they have seen6231
Jove himself, as his right hand has often shaken6232
his darkening shield, and called up the storm clouds.6233
Moreover you can see in these two townships 6234
with broken walls, the memorials and relics of men of old. 6235
Father Janus built this fort, Saturn that:6236
this was named the Janiculum, that the Saturnia.’6237
Talking among themselves they came to the house6238
of the impoverished Evander, and saw cattle here and there, lowing6239
where the Roman Forum and the fashionable Carinae would be.6240
When they reached the house, Evander said: ‘Victorious Hercules6241
stooped to entering this doorway, this palace charmed him.6242
My guest, dare to scorn wealth, and make yourself worthy too6243
to be a god: don’t be scathing about the lack of possessions.’6244
He spoke, and led mighty Aeneas beneath the confines 6245
of his sloping roof, and allotted him a mattress 6246
stuffed with leaves, and the pelt of a Libyan bear:6247
Night fell, and embraced the earth with her darkening wings.6248
BkVIII:370-406 Venus Seeks Weapons from Vulcan6249
Now Venus, a mother fearful, and not without reason, in her mind,6250
troubled by the Laurentine threats, and fierce uprising,6251
spoke to Vulcan, her husband, in their golden bridal chamber,6252
beginning this way, breathing divine passion into her words:6253
‘I didn’t ask weapons of your skill or power, dearest husband,6254
nor any help for my poor people, while the Argive kings6255
destroyed doomed Troy in the war, her citadel fated6256
to fall to hostile flames: no, I didn’t want to exercise6257
you or your skills in vain, though I owed much indeed6258
to Priam’s sons, and often wept at Aeneas’s cruel suffering.6259
Now at Jove’s command he has set foot on Rutulian shores,6260
so I come likewise as a suppliant and ask arms of the power6261
sacred to me, a mother on behalf of her son. Thetis, Nereus’s6262
daughter, and Aurora, Tithonus’s wife, could move you with tears.6263
See what nations gather, what cities, closing their gates, 6264
are sharpening their swords against me, to destroy my people.’6265
She had spoken, and as he hesitated, the goddess caressed him6266
in a tender embrace, on this side and on that, in her snowy arms.6267
At once he felt the familiar flame, and that warmth he knew6268
penetrated him to the marrow, and ran through his melting bones,6269
no differently than when, with a peal of thunder, a forked 6270
streak of fire tears through the storm-clouds with dazzling light:6271
his partner felt it, delighted with her cleverness and conscious6272
of her beauty. Then old Vulcan spoke, chained by immortal love:6273
‘Why do you seek instances from the past? Goddess, where 6274
has your faith in me gone? If your anxiety then was the same,6275
it would have been right for me too to arm the Trojans then:6276
neither fate nor the almighty Father refused to let Troy stand,6277
or Priam live, ten years more. And so now, if war is your intent,6278
and your mind is set on it, cease to doubt your powers, entreating6279
whatever care I can promise in my craft, whatever can be made 6280
of iron and molten electrum, whatever fire and air can do.’6281
Saying these words he gave her a desired embrace, and sinking6282
onto his wife’s breast, sought gentle sleep in every limb.6283
BkVIII:407-453 Vulcan’s Smithy6284
When, in vanishing night’s mid-course, first rest 6285
has conquered the need for sleep: when a woman, 6286
who supports life with distaff and the humble work6287
Minerva imposes, first wakes the ashes, and slumbering flames,6288
adding night hours to her toil, and maintains her servants6289
at their endless task, by lamplight, to keep her husband’s bed6290
pure, and raise her young sons: just so, the god, 6291
with the power of fire, rose now from his soft bed, 6292
no idler at that hour, to labour at the forge.6293
An island, its rocks smoking, rises steeply by6294
the Sicilian coast, near the flanks of Aeolian Lipare.6295
Beneath it a cave, and the galleries of Etna, eaten at6296
by the Cyclopean furnaces, resound, and the groans from6297
the anvils are heard echoing the heavy blows,6298
and masses of Chalybean steel hiss in the caverns,6299
and fire breathes through the furnaces. It is Vulcan’s home 6300
and called Vulcania. Here then the god 6301
with the power of fire descended from the heavens.6302
In the huge cave the Cyclopes, Brontes, Steropes, 6303
and bare-limbed Pyrcamon, were forging iron.6304
They held a lightning-bolt, shaped with their hands, 6305
like many of those the Father hurls from all over6306
the sky, part of it polished, part still left to do.6307
They’d added three shafts of spiralling rain, three of watery6308
cloud, three of reddening fire, and the winged south wind.6309
now they were blending terrifying flashes, into the work,6310
sounds and fears, and fury with following flames.6311
Elsewhere they pressed on with a chariot for Mars, with winged wheels,6312
with which he rouses men, with which he rouses cities:6313
and a chilling aegis, the breastplate of Pallas,6314
competing to burnish its serpent scales of gold,6315
its interwoven snakes, and the Gorgon herself6316
on the goddess’s breast, with severed neck and rolling eyes:6317
‘Away with all this,’ he shouts, ‘remove the work 6318
you’ve started, Cyclopes of Etna, and turn your minds to this:6319
you’re to make arms for a brave hero. Now you 6320
need strength, swift hands now, all the art now of a master.6321
An end to delay.’ He said no more, but they all 6322
bent quickly to the toil, and shared the labour equally.6323
Bronze and golden ore flowed in streams, 6324
and steel, that deals wounds, melted in a vast furnace.6325
They shaped a giant shield, one to stand against all6326
the weapons of Latium, layering it seven times,6327
disc on disc. Some sucked in air and blew it out6328
again with panting bellows, others dipped the hissing bronze6329
in the lake: the cavern groaned beneath the weight of anvils.6330
With mighty force they lifted their arms together in rhythm,6331
and turned the mass of metal, gripping it with pincers.6332
BkVIII:454-519 Evander Proposes Assistance6333
While the lord of Lemnos hastened the work on the Aeolian6334
shore, the kindly light, and the dawn song of the birds6335
beneath the eaves, called Evander from his humble house.6336
The old man rose, clothed his body in a tunic6337
and strapped Tyrrhenian sandals to the soles of his feet.6338
Then he fastened his Tegaean sword over his shoulder 6339
and to his side, flinging back a panther’s hide on the left.6340
Two guard dogs besides ran ahead from the high6341
threshold, and accompanied their master’s steps.6342
The hero made his way to his guest Aeneas’s6343
secluded lodging, thinking of his words, 6344
and the help he had promised. Aeneas was no less6345
early to rise: his son Pallas walked with the one, 6346
Achates with the other. They clasped hands as they met, 6347
sat down among the houses, and finally enjoyed 6348
open conversation. The king was the first to begin, so:6349
‘Greatest leader of the Teucrians, for my part while you’re safe6350
and sound I’ll never accept that the kingdom and power of Troy 6351
have been overthrown, our strength in war is inadequate to such 6352
a name: on this side we are shut in by the Tuscan river, while on that6353
the Rutulian presses us, and thunders in arms round our walls. 6354
But I propose to affiliate mighty peoples to you, 6355
and a war-camp rich in kingships, help that chance 6356
unpredictably reveals. You arrive at fate’s command. 6357
Not far from here is the site of Argylla’s city, 6358
built of ancient stone, where the Lydian race, 6359
famous in war, once settled the Etruscan heights.6360
For many years it flourished, until King Mezentius6361
ruled it with arrogant power, and savage weaponry. 6362
Why recount the tyrant’s wicked murders and vicious acts?6363
May the gods reserve such for his life and race!6364
He even tied corpses to living bodies, as a means6365
of torture, placing hand on hand and face against face,6366
so killing by a lingering death, in that wretched6367
embrace, that ooze of disease and decomposition.6368
But the weary citizens at last armed themselves6369
surrounded the atrocious madman in his palace,6370
mowed down his supporters, and fired the roof.6371
Amongst the carnage he escaped and fled 6372
to Rutulian soil, protected by Turnus’s allied army.6373
So all Etruria has risen in rightful anger, demanding 6374
the king for punishment, with the threat of immediate war.6375
Aeneas, I’ll make you leader of those thousands.6376
For their ships clamour densely on the shore,6377
and they order the banners to advance, but an aged6378
soothsayer holds them back, singing of destiny:6379
‘O chosen warriors of Maeonia, the flower, the honour6380
of our ancient race, whom just resentment sends against6381
the enemy, and whom Mezentius fires with rightful anger,6382
no man of Italy may control such a people as you: choose6383
foreigners as leaders.’ So the Etruscan ranks camped 6384
on that plain, fearful of this warning from the gods.6385
Tarchon himself has sent ambassadors to me, with the royal 6386
sceptre and crown, entrusting me with the insignia:6387
I to come to the camp, and take the Tuscan throne.6388
But the slow frost of old age wearied by the years, and strength6389
now beyond acts of valour, begrudge me the command. 6390
I would urge my son to it, except that of mixed blood 6391
with a Sabine mother, he takes part of his nationality from her. 6392
You, O bravest leader of Trojans and Italians, to whose race 6393
and years destiny is favourable, whom the divine will calls, 6394
accept. Moreover I’ll add Pallas here, our hope and comfort:6395
let him become accustomed under your guidance 6396
to endure military service, and the grave work of war, 6397
witness your actions, and admire you from his early years.6398
I’ll grant him two hundred Arcadian horsemen, the choice flower 6399
of our manhood, and Pallas will grant the same to you himself.’6400
BkVIII:520-584 The Preliminary Alarms6401
He had scarcely finished, and Aeneas, Anchises’s son,6402
and loyal Achates, with eyes downcast, were thinking6403
of many a difficulty, in their own sombre minds,6404
when Cytherea sent a sign from a cloudless sky.6405
For lightning came flashing unexpectedly from heaven,6406
with thunder, and suddenly all seemed to quake,6407
and, through the air, a Tyrrhenian trumpet blast seemed to bray.6408
They looked upwards, a great crash sounded again and again.6409
In a calm region of the sky among the clouds they saw6410
weapons reddening in the bright air, and heard the noise of blows.6411
The others were astounded but the Trojan hero knew6412
the sounds as those of things which his mother had promised.6413
Then he cried: ‘My friend, indeed, do not wonder I beg you6414
as to what these marvels might prophesy: I am called 6415
by Olympus. The goddess who bore me foretold 6416
she would send this sign if war was near, and bring6417
weapons from Vulcan through the air to aid me.6418
Alas what slaughter awaits the wretched Laurentines!6419
What a price you’ll pay me, Turnus! What shields and helmets6420
and bodies of the brave you’ll roll beneath your waves, 6421
father Tiber! Let them ask for battle and break their treaties.’6422
Having spoken, he raised himself from his high throne, 6423
and firstly revived the dormant altars with Herculean fire, 6424
then gladly visited yesterday’s Lar and the humble 6425
household gods. Evander and the Trojan warriors6426
equally sacrificed chosen ewes according to the rite.6427
Next he went to the ships and met again with his comrades,6428
choosing the most outstanding in courage to follow him6429
to war: the others slipped downstream, floating effortlessly 6430
on the helpful current, carrying news to Ascanius6431
of his father and his fortunes. Horses were granted 6432
to the Trojans who were to take the Tyrrhenian field:6433
They lead out a choice mount for Aeneas, clothed6434
in a tawny lion’s pelt with gleaming gilded claws.6435
A rumour suddenly flew through the little town, proclaiming6436
that horsemen were riding fast to the Tyrrhene king’s shores.6437
Mothers, in alarm, redoubled their prayers, and fear drew near6438
with danger, and now the war god’s image loomed larger.6439
Then old Evander, clasping his son’s hand as he departed,6440
clung to him weeping incessantly and spoke as follows:6441
‘O, if Jupiter would bring back the years that have vanished,6442
I to be as I was when I felled the foremost ranks under Praeneste’s6443
very walls, and as victor heaped up the shields,6444
and sent King Erulus down to Tartarus, by this right hand,6445
he to whom at his birth his mother Feronia (strange to tell)6446
gave three lives, triple weapons to wield – to be three times6447
brought low in death: who at last in a moment this right hand 6448
stripped of all his lives, and equally of all his weapons:6449
I would never be torn as now from your sweet embrace, my son,6450
never would Mezentius have poured insults on 6451
this neighbour’s head, caused so many cruel deaths 6452
with the sword, or widowed the city of so many of her sons.6453
But you, powers above, and you, Jupiter, mighty ruler of the gods,6454
take pity I beg you on this Arcadian king, and hear 6455
a father’s prayer. If your will, and fate, keep my Pallas safe,6456
if I live to see him and be together with him, I ask for life: 6457
I have the patience to endure any hardship.6458
But if you threaten any unbearable disaster, Fortune,6459
now, oh now, let me break the thread of cruel existence,6460
while fear hangs in doubt, while hope’s uncertain of the future.6461
while you, beloved boy, my late and only joy, are held 6462
in my embrace, and let no evil news wound my ears.’ 6463
These were the words the father poured out at their last parting:6464
then his servants carried him, overcome, into the palace.6465
BkVIII:585-625 Venus’s Gift of Armour6466
And now the horsemen had ridden from the opened gates,6467
Aeneas, and loyal Achetes, among the first: then the other6468
princes of Troy, Pallas himself travelling mid-column,6469
notable in his cloak and engraved armour,6470
like the Morning-Star, whom Venus loves above all6471
the other starry fires, when, having bathed in Ocean’s wave,6472
he raises his sacred head in heaven, and melts the dark.6473
Mothers stand fearfully on the battlements, and with their eyes6474
follow the cloud of dust, the squadrons bright with bronze.6475
The armed men pass through the undergrowth where the route6476
is most direct: a shout rises, and they form column,6477
and with the thunder of their hooves shake the broken ground.6478
There’s a large grove by the chilly stream of Caere, held sacred6479
far and wide, in ancestral reverence: the hollow hills enclose it6480
on all sides, and surround the wood with dark fir trees.6481
The tale is that the ancient Pelasgians, who once held6482
the Latin borders, dedicated this wood and a festive day6483
to Silvanus, god of the fields and the herds. 6484
Not far from here, Tarchon and the Tyrrhenians were camped6485
in a safe place, and now all their troops could be seen, 6486
from the high ground, scattered widely over the fields.6487
Aeneas, the leader, and the young men chosen for war,6488
arrived, and refreshed their horses and their weary bodies. 6489
Then Venus, bright goddess, came bearing gifts through6490
the ethereal clouds: and when she saw her son from far away6491
who had retired in secret to the valley by the cool stream,6492
she went to him herself, unasked, and spoke these words:6493
‘See the gifts brought to perfection by my husband’s6494
skill, as promised. You need not hesitate, my son, to quickly 6495
challenge the proud Laurentines, or fierce Turnus, to battle.’6496
Cytherea spoke, and invited her son’s embrace, and placed6497
the shining weapons under an oak tree opposite.6498
He cannot have enough of turning his gaze over each item,6499
delighting in the goddess’s gift and so high an honour,6500
admiring, and turning the helmet over with hands and arms,6501
with its fearsome crest and spouting flames,6502
and the fateful sword, the stiff breastplate of bronze,6503
dark-red and huge, like a bluish cloud when it’s lit6504
by the rays of the sun, and glows from afar:6505
then the smooth greaves, of electrum and refined gold,6506
the spear, and the shield’s indescribable detail.6507
BkVIII:626-670 Vulcan’s Shield: Scenes of Early Rome6508
There the lord with the power of fire, not unversed6509
in prophecy, and knowledge of the centuries to come,6510
had fashioned the history of Italy, and Rome’s triumphs:6511
there was every future generation of Ascanius’s stock,6512
and the sequence of battles they were to fight. 6513
He had also shown the she-wolf, having just littered,6514
lying on the ground, in the green cave of Mars,6515
the twin brothers, Romulus and Remus, playing, hanging6516
on her teats, and fearlessly sucking at their foster-mother.6517
Bending her neck back smoothly she caressed them6518
in turn, and licked their limbs with her tongue.6519
Not far from that he had placed Rome, the Sabine women,6520
lawlessly snatched from the seated crowd, when the great games 6521
were held in the Circus: and the sudden surge of fresh warfare6522
between Romulus’s men, and the aged Tatius and his austere Cures.6523
Next, the same two kings stood armed in front of Jove’s altar,6524
holding the wine-cups and joined in league, sacrificing a sow,6525
the new-built palace bristling with Romulus’s thatch.6526
Then, not far from that, four-horse chariots driven 6527
in different directions tore Mettus apart (Alban, you should6528
have kept your word, though!), and Tullus dragged the liar’s6529
entrails through the woods, the briars wet with sprinkled blood.6530
There was Porsenna too, ordering Rome to admit the banished6531
Tarquin, and gripping the city in a mighty siege:6532
the scions of Aeneas running on the sword for freedom’s sake.6533
You could see Porsenna in angry, and in threatening, posture,6534
because Cocles dared to tear down the bridge,6535
because Cloelia broke her restraints and swam the river.6536
At the top Manlius, guardian of the Tarpeian Citadel,6537
stood before the temple, defending the high Capitol.6538
And there the silvery goose, flying through the gilded6539
colonnades, cackled that the Gauls were at the gate.6540
The Gauls were there in the gorse, taking the Citadel,6541
protected by the dark, the gift of shadowy night.6542
Their hair was gold, and their clothes were gold,6543
they shone in striped cloaks, their white necks6544
torqued with gold, each waving two Alpine javelins6545
in his hand, long shields defending their bodies.6546
Here he had beaten out the leaping Salii and naked Luperci,6547
the woolly priest’s caps, and the oval shields that fell6548
from heaven, chaste mothers in cushioned carriages6549
leading sacred images through the city. Far from these6550
he had added the regions of Tartarus, the high gates of Dis,6551
the punishment for wickedness, and you Catiline, hanging6552
from a threatening cliff, trembling at the sight of the Furies:6553
and the good, at a distance, Cato handing out justice.6554
BkVIII:671-713 Vulcan’s Shield: The Battle of Actium6555
The likeness of the swollen sea flowed everywhere among these, 6556
in gold, though the flood foamed with white billows,6557
and dolphins in bright silver swept the waters 6558
round about with arching tails, and cut through the surge.6559
In the centre bronze ships could be seen, the Battle of Actium,6560
and you could make out all Leucate in feverish6561
preparation for war, the waves gleaming with gold.6562
On one side Augustus Caesar stands on the high stern, 6563
leading the Italians to the conflict, with him the Senate,6564
the People, the household gods, the great gods, his happy brow 6565
shoots out twin flames, and his father’s star is shown on his head.6566
Elsewhere Agrippa, favoured by the winds and the gods6567
leads his towering column of ships, his brow shines 6568
with the beaks of the naval crown, his proud battle distinction.6569
On the other side Antony, with barbarous wealth and strange weapons,6570
conqueror of eastern peoples and the Indian shores, bringing Egypt, 6571
and the might of the Orient, with him, and furthest Bactria:6572
and his Egyptian consort follows him (the shame).6573
All press forward together, and the whole sea foams, 6574
churned by the sweeping oars and the trident rams.6575
They seek deep water: you’d think the Cycladic islands were uprooted 6576
and afloat on the flood, or high mountains clashed with mountains,6577
so huge the mass with which the men attack the towering sterns.6578
Blazing tow and missiles of winged steel shower from their hands,6579
Neptune’s fields grow red with fresh slaughter.6580
The queen in the centre signals to her columns with the native 6581
sistrum, not yet turning to look at the twin snakes at her back.6582
Barking Anubis, and monstrous gods of every kind6583
brandish weapons against Neptune, Venus, 6584
and Minerva. Mars rages in the centre of the contest, 6585
engraved in steel, and the grim Furies in the sky, 6586
and Discord in a torn robe strides joyously, while 6587
Bellona follows with her blood-drenched whip.6588
Apollo of Actium sees from above and bends his bow: at this 6589
all Egypt, and India, all the Arabs and Sabaeans turn and flee.6590
The queen herself is seen to call upon the winds,6591
set sail, and now, even now, spread the slackened canvas.6592
The lord with the power of fire has fashioned her pallid6593
with the coming of death, amidst the slaughter,6594
carried onwards by the waves and wind of Iapyx,6595
while before her is Nile, mourning with his vast extent,6596
opening wide his bays, and, with his whole tapestry, calling6597
the vanquished to his dark green breast, and sheltering streams.6598
BkVIII:714-731 Vulcan’s Shield: Augustus’s Triple Triumph6599
Next Augustus, entering the walls of Rome in triple triumph,6600
is dedicating his immortal offering to Italy’s gods,6601
three hundred great shrines throughout the city.6602
The streets are ringing with joy, playfulness, applause:6603
a band of women in every temple, altars in every one:6604
before the altars sacrificial steers cover the ground.6605
He himself sits at the snow-white threshold of shining Apollo,6606
examines the gifts of nations, and hangs them on the proud gates.6607
The conquered peoples walk past in a long line, as diverse 6608
in language as in weapons, or the fashion of their clothes.6609
Here Vulcan has shown the Nomad race and loose-robed Africans,6610
there the Leleges and Carians and Gelonians with their quivers:6611
Euphrates runs with quieter waves, and the Morini, 6612
remotest of mankind, the double-horned Rhine,6613
the untamed Dahae, and Araxes, resenting its restored bridge.6614
Aeneas marvels at such things on Vulcan’s shield, his mother’s gift,6615
and delights in the images, not recognising the future events,6616
lifting to his shoulder the glory and the destiny of his heirs.6617
BkIX:1-24 Iris Urges Turnus to War6618
While all these things were happening in various places, 6619
Saturnian Juno sent Iris from heaven to brave Turnus, 6620
who chanced to be sitting in a sacred valley, a grove to Pilumnus 6621
his father. To him Thaumas’s daughter spoke, from her rosy lips:6622
‘Turnus, see, the circling days, unasked, have brought6623
what you wished, but what no god dared to promise.6624
Aeneas leaving the city, his friends and ships,6625
seeks the Palatine kingdom, and Evander’s house.6626
Unsatisfied he has reached Corythus’s furthest cities,6627
and, gathering men from the country, arms Lydian troops.6628
Why wait? Now is the time to call on horse and chariot.6629
End all delays: seize their camp, in its confusion.’6630
She spoke, and rose into the sky on level wings,6631
tracing a vast arc against the clouds in her flight.6632
The youth knew her, raised both his hands to the heavens,6633
and sent these words after her as she flew:6634
‘Iris, glory of the sky, who sent you down through6635
the clouds, to me, on earth? Where does this sudden 6636
bright moment spring from? I see the sky split apart6637
at its zenith, and the stars that roam the pole. I follow6638
so mighty an omen, whoever calls me to arms.’6639
Saying this he went to the river and scooped water6640
from the surface of the stream, calling often6641
to the gods, and weighting the air with prayers.6642
BkIX:25-76 Turnus Attacks the Trojan Fleet6643
Now the whole army, rich in horses, rich in ornate clothes, 6644
and gold, was engaged in moving over the open fields: 6645
Messapus controlling the front ranks, Tyrrhus’s sons6646
the rear, Turnus, the leader, in the centre of the line:6647
like the deep Ganges, swelling in silence, through 6648
his seven placid streams, or Nile when his rich stream 6649
inundates the fields, soon sinking down into his course.6650
The Trojans suddenly see a black dust cloud 6651
gathering there, and darkness rising over the plain.6652
Caicus shouted first from the forward rampart:6653
‘What’s that rolling mass of black fog, countrymen?6654
Bring your swords, quickly: hand out spears: mount the walls:6655
ah, the enemy is here!’ With a great clamour the Trojans6656
retreated through the gates, and filled the ramparts.6657
For Aeneas, wisest in warfare, had commanded, on leaving,6658
if anything chanced in the meantime, they were not to dare6659
to form ranks or trust themselves to the open field: they were6660
only to guard the camp and walls, safe behind the ramparts.6661
So, though anger and shame counselled the troops to fight,6662
still they shut the gates and followed his orders,6663
awaiting the enemy, armed, within their hollow turrets.6664
But Turnus had galloped forward ahead of his slow column,6665
accompanied by twenty chosen horsemen, and reached6666
the city unexpectedly: a piebald Thracian horse carried him,6667
a golden helmet with a crimson crest protected his head.6668
‘Men,’ he shouted, ‘is there anyone who’ll be first with me6669
among the enemy – ? Look,’ and twirling a javelin sent it6670
skyward to start the fight, and rode proudly over the field.6671
His friends welcomed him with a shout, and followed 6672
with fearful battle-cries: marvelling at the Trojan’s dull souls,6673
not trusting themselves to a level field, nor facing men 6674
carrying weapons, but hugging the camp. He rode to and fro6675
wildly round the walls, seeking a way in where there was none.6676
Like a wolf, lying in wait by a full sheepfold, that snarls6677
by the pens at midnight, enduring the wind and rain,6678
the lambs bleating safe beneath their mothers, 6679
and rages against the prey out of reach, fierce and persistent6680
in its anger, tormented by its dry, bloodless jaws,6681
and the fierceness of its long-increasing hunger:6682
so as Turnus scanned the wall and camp, the Rutulian’s anger6683
was alight, and indignation burned in his harsh marrow.6684
How could he try and enter, and hurl the penned-up 6685
Trojans from their rampart, and scatter them over the plain?6686
He attacked the ships, that lay close to a flank of the camp,6687
defended by earthworks, and the flowing river,6688
calling out to his exultant friends for fire,6689
and fervently grasped a blazing pine-brand in his hand.6690
Then they set to (urged on by Turnus’s presence)6691
and all the men armed themselves with dark torches.6692
They stripped the hearths: the smoking branches threw6693
a pitchy glow, and Vulcan hurled the cloud of ashes to heaven.6694
BkIX:77-106 Cybele Makes a Plea to Jove6695
O Muse, what god, turned away such fierce flames 6696
from the Trojans? Who drove such savage fires from the ships?6697
Tell me: belief in the story’s ancient, its fame is eternal.6698
In the days when Aeneas first built his fleet on Phrygian Ida6699
and prepared to set out over the deep ocean,6700
they say the Mother of the gods herself, Berecyntian Cybele,6701
spoke so to great Jupiter: ‘My son, lord of Olympus, 6702
grant what your dear mother asks of you in request.6703
There was a pine-forest a delight to me for many years6704
a grove on the summit of the mountain, where they brought6705
offerings, dark with blackened firs and maple trunks.6706
I gave these gladly to the Trojan youth, since he lacked6707
a fleet: now, troubled, anxious fear torments me.6708
Relieve my fears, and let your mother by her prayers ensure6709
they are not destroyed, shattered by voyaging or violent storm:6710
let their origin on our mountain be of aid to them.’6711
Her son, who turns the starry globe, replied: 6712
‘O, my mother, to what do you summon fate? What do you seek 6713
for them? Should keels made by mortal hands have eternal rights?6714
Should Aeneas travel in certainty through uncertain6715
dangers? To what god are such powers permitted?6716
No, one day when they’ve served their purpose, 6717
and reached an Italian haven, I’ll take away, from those6718
that escape the waves, and bear the Trojan chief 6719
to Laurentine fields, their mortal shape, and command 6720
them to be goddesses of the vast ocean, like Doto, Nereus’s6721
child, and Galatea, who part the foaming sea with their breasts.’6722
He spoke, and swore his assent, by his Stygian brother’s rivers,6723
by the banks that seethe with pitch on the black abyss,6724
and with his nod shook all Olympus.6725
BkIX:107-122 Cybele Transforms the Ships6726
So the day he had promised came, and the Fates fulfilled6727
their appointed hour, when Turnus’s injury to the sacred fleet6728
prompted the Mother to defend them from the flames. 6729
At first a strange light flared to the watchers, and a huge cloud6730
was seen to travel across the sky from the east,6731
with bands of her Idaean attendants: then a terrible voice6732
rang through the air, echoing among the Trojan and Rutulian lines:6733
‘Trojans, don’t rush to defend the ships, or take up arms.6734
Turnus can burn the ocean, sooner than my sacred pines. Go free,6735
you Goddesses of the sea: your mother commands it.’ And at once6736
each ship tore her cable loose from the bank: they dipped their noses6737
like dolphins, and sought the watery deep. Then (strange wonder)6738
as many virgin shapes re-surfaced, and swam about the sea.6739
BkIX:123-167 Turnus Lays Siege to the Camp6740
The Rutulians were amazed in mind, Messapus himself6741
was awe-struck, his horses panicked: and even the noisy flow6742
of the river halted, as Tiber retreated from the deep.6743
But brave Turnus’s confidence never wavered:6744
and he raised their spirits as well, and chided them:6745
‘These marvels are aimed at the Trojans, Jupiter himself6746
has deprived them of their usual allies: those didn’t wait6747
for Rutulian missiles and fires. So the seas are impassable6748
for the Trojans, and they have no hope of flight: other regions6749
are lost to them, and this land is in our hands, so many6750
thousands of Italy’s peoples are in arms. I’m not afraid6751
of all the fateful omens from the gods these Phrygians 6752
openly boast of: enough has been granted to Venus and the Fates,6753
since the Trojans have reached Ausonia’s fertile fields.6754
I have my own counter destiny, to root out the guilty race,6755
that has snatched my bride, with the sword. That’s a sorrow6756
that doesn’t touch Atrides alone, nor is Mycenae alone allowed6757
to take up arms. ‘But to die once is enough.’? To have sinned6758
before should be enough for these men, to whom confidence 6759
in a dividing wall, and slight obstacles to death, defensive moats,6760
grant courage, to utterly detest well-nigh the whole tribe 6761
of women. Did they not witness the work of Neptune’s 6762
hands, the battlements of Troy, sink in flames? But you, 6763
O chosen ones, which of you is ready to uproot the ramparts6764
with your steel, and invade their terrified camp with me?6765
I don’t need Vulcan’s arms, or a thousand ships,6766
against Trojans. Let all Etruria join them now in alliance.6767
They need not fear darkness, or cowardly theft6768
‘of their Palladium, killing guards on the citadel’s heights’,6769
we won’t hide in the dark belly of a horse:6770
I intend to circle their walls in broad daylight with fire.6771
I’ll make them concede its not Greeks, Pelasgic youth,6772
they’re dealing with, whom Hector held till the tenth year.6773
Now, since the best part of the day’s gone, men, 6774
refresh yourselves with what’s left, pleased with work6775
well done, and look forward to starting the battle.6776
Meanwhile the order was given to Messapus to picket6777
the gates alertly with sentries and ring the ramparts with flames.6778
Fourteen Rutulians were chosen to guard the walls6779
with their men, each with a hundred soldiers 6780
under them, purple-plumed and glittering with gold. 6781
They ran about, took turns on watch, or lifted 6782
the bronze bowls and enjoyed their wine, 6783
stretched out on the grass. The fires shone, 6784
while the guards spent the watchful night in games. 6785
BkIX:168-223 Nisus and Euryalus: A Mission Proposed6786
The armed Trojans held the heights, looking down 6787
on this from above, and also with anxious fears, 6788
checked the gates, built bulwarks and bridges, 6789
and disposed their weapons. Mnestheus and brave Serestus,6790
whom Aeneas their leader appointed to command the army6791
and state, if adversity ever required it, urged them on. 6792
Sharing the risk, the whole company kept watch and served6793
in turn, at whatever point was to be guarded by each.6794
Nisus, bravest of warriors, son of Hyrtacus, was a guard6795
at the gates, he whom Ida the huntress had sent 6796
to accompany Aeneas, agile with javelin and light darts,6797
and Euryalus was with him, than whom none was 6798
more beautiful among the Aenedae, or wearing Trojan armour,6799
a boy, whose unshaven face, showed the first bloom of youth.6800
One love was theirs, and they charged side by side into battle:6801
now they were also guarding the gate at the same sentry-post. 6802
Nisus said: ‘Euryalus, do the gods set this fire in our hearts,6803
or does each man’s fatal desire become godlike to him?6804
My mind has long urged me to rush to battle, or high6805
adventure, and is not content with peace and quiet.6806
You see what confidence the Rutulians have in events:6807
their lights shine far apart, and they lie drowned in sleep6808
and wine, everywhere is quiet. Listen to what I’m now6809
thinking, and what purpose comes to mind. The army6810
and the council all demand Aeneas be recalled, 6811
and men be sent to report the facts to him.6812
If they were to grant what I suggest to you (the glory 6813
of doing it is enough for me) I think I could find a way, 6814
beyond that hill, to the walls and ramparts of Pallanteum.’6815
Euryalus was dazzled, struck by a great desire for glory,6816
and replied to his ardent friend at once, like this:6817
‘Nisus, do you shun my joining in this great deed,6818
then? Shall I send you into such danger alone?6819
That’s not how my father Opheltes, seasoned in war,6820
educated me, raising me among Greek terrors 6821
and Troy’s ordeals, nor have I conducted myself so6822
with you, following noble Aeneas and the ends of fate.6823
This is my spirit, one scornful of the day, that thinks6824
the honour you aim at well bought with life itself.’6825
Nisus replied: ‘Indeed I had no such doubts of you,6826
that would be wrong: not so will great Jupiter, or whoever6827
looks at this action with favourable gaze, bring me back to you6828
in triumph: but if (as you often see in such crises) 6829
if chance or some god sweeps me to disaster,6830
I want you to survive: your youth is more deserving of life.6831
Let there be someone to entrust me to earth, my body6832
rescued from conflict, or ransomed for a price,6833
or if Fortune denies the customary rites, to perform 6834
them in my absence, and honour me with a stone.6835
And don’t let me be a cause of grief to your poor mother,6836
my boy, who alone among many mothers dared to follow 6837
you, without thought of staying in great Acestes’s city.’6838
But the lad said: ‘You weave your excuses in vain,6839
my purpose won’t change or yield to yours. Let’s hurry’, 6840
and he roused guards, who came up to take their place:6841
leaving his post he walked by Nisus’s side to seek the prince.6842
BkIX:224-313 Nisus and Euryalus: Aletes Consents6843
Every other creature, throughout the land, was easing6844
its cares with sleep, its heart forgetful of toil:6845
the Trojans’ chief captains, the pick of their manhood,6846
were holding council on the most serious affairs of state,6847
what to do, and who should go now as messenger to Aeneas.6848
They stood, between the camp and the plain, leaning 6849
on their long spears, holding their shields. Nisus and Euryalus, 6850
together, begged eagerly to be admitted at once:6851
the matter being important, and worth the delay. Iulus was first6852
to welcome the impatient pair, and ordered Nisus to speak. 6853
So the son of Hyrtacus said: ‘Followers of Aeneas, listen6854
with fair minds, and don’t judge my words by our years.6855
The Rutulians are quiet, drowned in sleep and wine.6856
We ourselves have seen a place for a sortie: it opens 6857
in a fork of the road by the nearest gate to the sea.6858
There’s a gap between the fires, and black smoke rises6859
to the stars. If you allow us to seize the chance,6860
you’ll soon see us back again burdened with spoils6861
after carrying out vast slaughter. The road will not 6862
deceive us as we seek Aeneas and Pallanteum’s walls. 6863
In our frequent hunting through the secret valleys6864
we’ve seen the outskirts of the city, and know the whole river.’6865
To this Aletes, heavy with years and wise in mind, replied:6866
‘Gods of our fathers, under whose power Troy lies,6867
you do not intend to obliterate the Trojan race as yet6868
since you bring us such courage in our young men and such 6869
firm hearts.’ So saying, he took them both by the shoulder6870
and hand while tears flooded his cheeks and lips.6871
‘What possible prize could I consider worthy6872
to be granted you men for such a glorious action?6873
The gods and tradition will give you the first 6874
and most beautiful one: then good Aeneas, and Ascanius,6875
who’s untouched by the years and never unmindful 6876
of such service, will immediately award the rest.’6877
Ascanius interrupted: ‘Rather I entreat you both, Nisus,6878
since my well-being depends on my father’s return, 6879
by the great gods of our house, by the Lar of Assaracus, 6880
and by grey-haired Vesta’s innermost shrine, I lay 6881
all my fortune and my promise in your lap, call my father back,6882
give me a sight of him: there’s no sorrow if he’s restored.6883
I’ll give you a pair of wine-cups, all of silver, with figures6884
in relief, that my father captured when Arisba was taken,6885
and twin tripods, two large talents of gold, 6886
and an antique bowl Sidonian Dido gave me.6887
If we truly manage to capture Italy, and take the sceptre,6888
and assign the spoils by lot, you have seen the horse 6889
golden Turnus rode, and the armour he wore, I’ll separate6890
from this moment, from the lots, that same horse, the shield, 6891
and the crimson plumes as your reward, Nisus.6892
Moreover my father will give you twelve women 6893
of choicest person, and male captives all with their own armour,6894
and, beyond that, whatever land King Latinus owns himself.6895
But now I truly welcome you wholly to my heart, Euryalus,6896
a boy to be revered, whose age I come closer to in time,6897
and embrace you as a friend for every occasion.6898
I’ll never seek glory in my campaigns without you:6899
whether I enjoy peace or war, you’ll have my firmest trust6900
in word and action.’ Euryalus spoke like this in reply:6901
‘No day will ever find me separated from such6902
bold action: inasmuch as fortune proves kind 6903
and not cruel. But I ask one gift above all from you:6904
I have a mother, of Priam’s ancient race, unhappy woman,6905
whom neither the land of Troy, nor King Acestes’s city6906
could keep from accompanying me. I leave her now,6907
ignorant of whatever risk to me there might be,6908
and of my farewell, since ( this night and your 6909
right hand bear witness) I could not bear 6910
a mother’s tears. But I beg you, comfort 6911
her helplessness and aid her loss. Let me carry 6912
this hope I place in you with me, I will meet all dangers 6913
more boldly.’ Their spirits affected, the Trojans6914
shed tears, noble Iulus above all, and this image 6915
of filial love touched his heart. Then he said:6916
‘Be sure I’ll do everything worthy of your great venture.6917
She’ll be as my mother to me, only lacking her name Creusa:6918
no small gratitude’s due to her for bearing such a son.6919
Whatever the outcome of your action, I swear by this life,6920
by which my father used once to swear: what I promised 6921
to you when you return, your campaign successful,6922
that same will accrue to your mother and your house.’ 6923
So he spoke, in tears: and at the same time stripped the gilded6924
sword from his shoulder, that Lycaon of Cnossos had made 6925
with marvellous art, and equipped for use with an ivory sheath.6926
Mnestheus gave Nisus a pelt, taken from a shaggy lion,6927
loyal Aletes exchanged helmets. They armed, and left 6928
immediately: and the whole band of leaders, young and old,6929
escorted them to the gate as they went, with prayers. 6930
And noble Iulus too, with mature mind and duties 6931
beyond his years, gave them many commissions 6932
to carry to his father: but the winds were to scatter 6933
them all, and blow them vainly to the clouds.6934
BkIX:314-366 Nisus and Euryalus: The Raid6935
Leaving, they crossed the ditches, seeking the enemy camp6936
in the shadow of night, destined yet to first bring many deaths.6937
They saw bodies in drunken sleep, stretched here and there 6938
on the grass, chariots tilted upwards on the shore, men, among6939
wheels and harness, and weapons and wine-cups lying about. 6940
Nisus, Hyrtacus’s son, spoke first, saying: 6941
‘Euryalus, now the occasion truly calls for a daring 6942
right hand. This is our road. You must see that no arm’s6943
raised against us at our back, and keep watch carefully:6944
I’ll deal destruction here, and cut you a wide path.’6945
So he spoke, and checked his speech, and at once 6946
drove his sword at proud Rhamnes, who chanced to be6947
breathing deeply in sleep, piled with thick coverlets,6948
He was King Turnus’s best-beloved augur, and a king 6949
himself, but he could not avert destruction with augury.6950
Nisus killed three of his servants nearby, lying careless6951
among their weapons, and Remus’s armour bearer, and his charioteer, 6952
found at the horses’ feet: he severed lolling necks with his sword. 6953
Then he struck off the head of their lord himself, and left 6954
the trunk spurting blood, the ground and the bed drenched 6955
with dark warm blood. And Lamyrus too, and Lamum,6956
and young Serranus, noted for his beauty, who had sported 6957
much that night, and lay there limbs drowned by much wine –6958
happy if he’d carried on his game all night till dawn:6959
So a starving lion churning through a full sheepfold, (driven 6960
by its raging hunger) gnaws and tears at the feeble flock 6961
mute with fear, and roars from its bloodstained mouth.6962
Nor was Euryalus’s slaughter any less: he too raged, ablaze,6963
and among the nameless crowd he attacked Fadus,6964
and Herbesus, and Abaris, while they were unconscious:6965
and Rhoetus, but Rhoetus was awake and saw it all,6966
but crouched in fear behind a huge wine-bowl. As he rose, 6967
in close encounter, Euryalus plunged his whole blade6968
into Rhoetus’s chest, and withdrew it red with death. Rhoetus6969
choked out his life in dark blood, and, dying, brought up wine6970
mixed with gore: the other pressed on fervently and stealthily.6971
Now he approached Messapus’s followers: there he saw6972
the outermost fires flickering, and the horses, duly tethered,6973
cropping the grass: Nisus (seeing him carried away 6974
by slaughter and love of the sword’s power) said briefly:6975
‘Let’s go, since unhelpful dawn is near. Enough: vengeance 6976
has been satisfied: a path has been made through the enemy.’6977
They left behind many of the men’s weapons 6978
fashioned from solid silver, and wine-bowls and splendid hangings.6979
Euryalus snatched Rhamnes’s trappings, and gold-studded6980
sword-belt, gifts that wealthy Caedicus had once sent to Remulus6981
of Tibur, expressing friendship in absence: he when dying 6982
gave them to his grandson as his own, and after his death in turn6983
the Rutulians captured them during the war in battle: now6984
Euryalus fitted them over his brave shoulders, though in vain. 6985
Then he put on Messapus’s excellent helmet with its handsome 6986
plumes. The left the camp and headed for safety.6987
BkIX:367-459 The Death of Euryalus and Nisus6988
Meanwhile riders arrived, sent out from the Latin city,6989
while the rest of the army waited in readiness, 6990
on the plain, bringing a reply for King Turnus:6991
three hundred, carrying shields, led by Volcens.6992
They were already near the camp, and below the walls,6993
when they saw the two men turning down a path on the left:6994
his helmet, gleaming in the shadow of night, betrayed6995
the unthinking Euryalus, and reflected back the rays.6996
It was not seen in vain. Volcens shouted from his column:6997
‘You men, halt, what’s the reason for your journey? Who are you,6998
you’re armed? Where are you off to?’ They offered no response,6999
but hastened their flight to the woods, trusting to the dark.7000
The riders closed off the known junctions, on every side,7001
and surrounded each exit route with guards.7002
The forest spread out widely, thick with brambles 7003
and holm-oaks, the dense thorns filling it on every side:7004
there the path glinted through the secret glades.7005
Euryalus was hampered by shadowy branches, and the weight7006
of his plunder, and his fear confused the path’s direction.7007
Nisus was clear: and already unaware had escaped the enemy,7008
and was at the place later called Alba from Alba Longa7009
(at that time King Latinus had his noble stalls there)7010
when he stopped, and looked back vainly for his missing friend.7011
‘Euryalus, unhappy boy, where did I separate from you? 7012
Which way shall I go?’ he said, considering all the tangled tracks7013
of the deceptive wood, and at the same time scanning 7014
the backward traces he could see, criss-crossing the silent thickets.7015
He heard horses, heard the cries and signals of pursuit:7016
and it was no great time before a shout reached his ears7017
and he saw Euryalus, betrayed by the ground and the night,7018
confused by the sudden tumult, whom the whole troop7019
were dragging away, overpowered, struggling violently in vain.7020
What can he do? With what force, or weapons, can he dare 7021
to rescue the youth? Should he hurl himself to his death among7022
the swords, and by his wounds hasten to a glorious end?7023
He swiftly drew back his spear arm and gazing upwards7024
at the moon above, prayed, with these words:7025
‘O you, goddess, O you, Latona’s daughter, glory of the stars,7026
and keeper of the woods, be here and help us in our trouble.7027
If ever my father, Hyrtacus, brought offerings on my behalf7028
to your altars, if ever I added to them from my own hunting, 7029
hung them beneath your dome, or fixed them to the sacred eaves,7030
let me throw their troop into confusion, guide my spear through the air.’7031
He spoke and flung the steel, straining with his whole body.7032
The flying javelin divided the shadows, struck Sulmo’s back,7033
as he turned, and snapped, the broken shaft piercing the heart.7034
He rolled over, a hot stream pouring from his chest,7035
and deep gasps shook his sides, as he grew cold. 7036
They gazed round them, in every direction. See, Nisus, 7037
all the more eager, levelled another spear against his ear.7038
While they hesitated, the javelin hissed through both7039
of Tagus’s temples, and fixed itself still warm in the pierced7040
brain. Fierce Volcens raged, but could not spy out the author 7041
of the act, nor any place that he could vent his fire.7042
He rushed at Euryalus with his naked sword, as he7043
cried out: ‘In the mean time you’ll pay in hot blood 7044
and give me revenge for both your crimes.’7045
Then, truly maddened with fear, Nisus shouted aloud, unable7046
to hide himself in the dark any longer, or endure such agony:7047
On me, Rutulians, turn your steel on me, me who did the deed!7048
The guilt is all mine, he neither dared nor had the power:7049
the sky and the all-knowing stars be witnesses:7050
he only loved his unfortunate friend too much.’7051
He was still speaking, but the sword, powerfully driven,7052
passed through the ribs and tore the white breast.7053
Euryalus rolled over in death, and the blood flowed 7054
down his lovely limbs, and his neck, drooping, 7055
sank on his shoulder, like a bright flower scythed7056
by the plough, bowing as it dies, or a poppy weighed 7057
down by a chance shower, bending its weary head.7058
But Nisus rushed at them, seeking Volcens 7059
above all, intent on Volcens alone.7060
The enemy gathered round him, to drive him off,7061
in hand to hand conflict. He attacked none the less, whirling 7062
his sword like lightning, until he buried it full in the face7063
of the shrieking Rutulian, and, dying, robbed his enemy of life. 7064
Then, pierced through, he threw himself on the lifeless body7065
of his friend, and found peace at last in the calm of death.7066
Happy pair! If my poetry has the power, 7067
while the House of Aeneas lives beside the Capitol’s 7068
immobile stone, and a Roman leader rules the Empire,7069
no day will raze you from time’s memory.7070
The victorious Rutulians, gaining new plunder, and the spoils,7071
weeping carried the lifeless Volcens to the camp.7072
Nor was there less grief in that camp when Rhamnes7073
was discovered, drained of blood, and so many other leaders,7074
killed in a single slaughter, with Serranus and Numa. A huge 7075
crowd rushed towards the corpses and the dying, and the place7076
fresh with hot killing, and foaming streams full of blood. 7077
Between them they identified the spoils, Messapus’s 7078
gleaming helmet, and his trappings re-won with such sweat.7079
BkIX:460-524 Euryalus’s Mother Laments7080
And now Aurora, early, leaving Tithonus’s saffron bed, 7081
sprinkled her fresh rays onto the earth. And now7082
as the sun streamed down, now as day revealed all things,7083
Turnus armed himself, and roused his heroes to arms:7084
they gathered their bronze-clad troops for the battle,7085
each his own, and whetted their anger with various tales.7086
They even fixed the heads of Euryalus and Nisus 7087
on raised spears (wretched sight), and followed7088
behind them, making a great clamour.7089
The tough sons of Aeneas had fixed their opposing lines7090
on the left side of the ramparts (the right bordered on the river)7091
and they held the wide ditches and stood grieving 7092
on the high turrets: moved as one, made wretched by seeing the heads 7093
of men they know only too well transfixed and streaming dark blood.7094
Meanwhile winged Rumour, flying through the anxious town,7095
sped the news, and stole to the ears of Euryalus’s mother.7096
And suddenly all warmth left her helpless bones,7097
the shuttle was hurled from her hands, the thread unwound.7098
The wretched woman rushed out and sought the ramparts7099
and the front line, shrieking madly, her hair dishevelled:7100
she ignored the soldiers, the danger, the weapons, 7101
then she filled the heavens with her lament:’7102
‘Is it you I see, Euryalus? You who brought peace7103
at last to my old age, how could you bring yourself7104
to leave me alone, cruel child? Why did you not give 7105
your poor mother the chance for a final goodbye 7106
when you were being sent into so much danger?7107
Ah, you lie here in a strange land, given as prey to the carrion 7108
birds and dogs of Latium! I, your mother, did not escort you7109
in funeral procession, or close your eyes, or bathe your wounds, 7110
or shroud you with the robes I laboured at night and day 7111
for you, soothing the cares of old age at the loom.7112
Where shall I go? What earth now holds your body,7113
your torn limbs, your mangled corpse? My son, 7114
is this what you bring home to me? Is this why I followed you7115
by land and sea? O Rutulians, if you have feelings, pierce me: 7116
hurl all your spears at me: destroy me above all with your steel:7117
or you, great father of the gods, pity me, and with 7118
your lightning bolt, hurl this hated being down to Tartarus,7119
since I can shatter this cruel life no other way.’7120
This wailing shook their hearts, and a groan of sorrow swept 7121
them all: their strength for battle was numbed and weakened.7122
She was igniting grief and Idaeus and Actor, 7123
at Ilioneus’s order, with Iulus weeping bitterly, 7124
caught her up, and carried her inside in their arms. 7125
But the war-trumpet, with its bronze singing, rang out7126
its terrible sound, a clamour followed, that the sky re-echoed.7127
The Volscians, raising their shields in line, ran forward,7128
ready to fill in the ditches, and tear down the ramparts:7129
Some tried for an entrance, and to scale the wall with ladders,7130
where the ranks were thin, and a less dense cordon of men7131
allowed the light through. The Trojans accustomed to defending7132
their walls by endless warfare, hurled missiles at them7133
of every sort, and fended them off with sturdy poles.7134
They rolled down stones too, deadly weights, 7135
in the hope of breaking through the well-protected ranks,7136
which under their solid shields, however, rejoiced7137
in enduring every danger. But soon even they were inadequate7138
since the Trojans rolled a vast rock to where a large formation7139
threatened, and hurled it down, felling the Rutulians 7140
far and wide, and breaking their armoured shell. 7141
The brave Rutulians no longer cared to fight blindly, 7142
but tried to clear the ramparts with missiles.7143
Elsewhere, Mezentius, deadly to behold, brandished7144
Tuscan pine, and hurled smoking firebrands:7145
while Messapus, tamer of horses, scion of Neptune,7146
tore at the rampart, and called for scaling ladders.7147
BkIX:525-589 Turnus in Battle7148
I pray to you, O Calliope, Muses, inspire my singing7149
of the slaughter, the deaths Turnus dealt with his sword7150
that day, and who each warrior was, that he sent down to Orcus,7151
and open the lips of mighty war with me,7152
since, goddesses, you remember, and have the power to tell:7153
There was a turret, tall to look at, with high access-ways,7154
and a good position, that all the Italians tried with utmost power7155
to storm, and to dislodge with the utmost power of their efforts:7156
the Trojans in turn defended themselves with stones7157
and hurled showers of missiles through the open loopholes.7158
Turnus was first to throw a blazing torch and root the flames7159
in its flank, that, fanned by a strong wind, seized7160
the planking, and clung to the entrances they devoured.7161
The anxious men inside were afraid, and tried in vain7162
to escape disaster. While they clung together and retreated7163
to the side free from damage, the turret suddenly 7164
collapsed, and the whole sky echoed to the crash.7165
Half-dead they fell to earth, the huge mass following,7166
pierced by their own weapons, and their chests impaled 7167
on the harsh wood. Only Helenor and Lycus managed 7168
to escape: Helenor being in the prime of youth, one7169
whom a Licymnian slave had secretly borne to the Maeonian king,7170
and sent to Troy, with weapons he’d been forbidden,7171
lightly armed with naked blade, and anonymous white shield.7172
When he found himself in the midst of Turnus’s thousands,7173
Latin ranks standing to right and left of him,7174
as a wild creature, hedged in by a close circle of hunters,7175
rages against theirs weapons, and hurls itself, consciously, 7176
to death, and is carried by its leap on to the hunting spears,7177
so the youth rushed to his death among the enemy,7178
and headed for where the weapons appeared thickest.7179
But Lycus, quicker of foot, darting among the enemy7180
and their arms reached the wall, and tried to grasp 7181
the high parapet with his hands, to reach his comrades’ grasp.7182
Turnus following him closely on foot, with his spear,7183
taunted in triumph: ‘Madman, did you hope to escape7184
my reach?’ He seized him, there and then, as he hung,7185
and pulled him down, with a large piece of the wall,7186
like an eagle, carrier of Jove’s lightning bolt, soaring high,7187
lifting a hare or the snow-white body of a swan in its talons,7188
or a wolf, Mars’s creature, snatching a lamb from the fold,7189
that its mother searches for endlessly bleating. A shout rose7190
on all sides: the Rutulians drove forwards, some filling7191
the ditches with mounds of earth, others throwing burning brands7192
onto the roofs. Ilioneus felled Lucetius with a rock, a vast fragment7193
of the hillside, as he neared the gate, carrying fire, Liger7194
killed Emathion, Asilas killed Corynaeus, the first skilled 7195
with the javelin, the other with deceptive long-range arrows:7196
Caenus felled Ortygius, Turnus victorious Caeneus, and Itys7197
and Clonius, Dioxippus and Promolus, and Sagaris, and Idas7198
as he stood on the highest tower, and Capys killed Privernus.7199
Themillas had grazed him slightly first with his spear, foolishly7200
he threw his shield down, and placed his hand on the wound:7201
so the arrow winged silently, fixed itself deep in his left side,7202
and, burying itself within, tore the breathing passages 7203
with a lethal wound. Arcens son stood there too in glorious7204
armour, his cloak embroidered with scenes, bright with Spanish blue,7205
a youth of noble features, whom his father Arcens had sent,7206
reared in Mars’s grove by Symaethus’s streams,7207
where the rich and gracious altars of Palicus stand:7208
Mezentius, dropping his spears, whirled a whistling sling7209
on its tight thong, three times round his head, and split 7210
his adversary’s forehead open in the middle, with 7211
the now-molten lead, stretching him full length in the deep sand.7212
BkIX:590-637 Ascanius (Iulus) in Battle7213
Then they say Ascanius first aimed his swift arrows 7214
in war, used till now to terrify wild creatures in flight,7215
and with his hand he felled brave Numanus,7216
who was surnamed Remulus, and had 7217
lately won Turnus’s sister as his wife.7218
Numanus marched ahead of the front rank,7219
shouting words that were fitting and unfitting 7220
to repeat, his heart swollen with new-won royalty7221
and boasting loudly of his greatness:7222
‘Twice conquered Trojans aren’t you ashamed to be besieged7223
and shut behind ramparts again, fending off death with walls?7224
Behold, these are the men who’d demand our brides through war!7225
What god, what madness has driven you to Italy?7226
Here are no Atrides, no Ulysses, maker of fictions:7227
a race from hardy stock, we first bring our newborn sons 7228
to the river, and toughen them with the water’s fierce chill:7229
as children they keep watch in the chase, and weary the forest,7230
their play is to wheel their horses and shoot arrows from the bow:7231
but patient at work, and used to little, our young men7232
tame the earth with the hoe, or shake cities in battle.7233
All our life we’re abraded by iron: we goad our bullocks’7234
flanks with a reversed spear, and slow age7235
doesn’t weaken our strength of spirit, or alter our vigour:7236
we set a helmet on our white hairs, and delight7237
in collecting fresh spoils, and living on plunder.7238
You wear embroidered saffron and gleaming purple,7239
idleness pleases you, you delight in the enjoyment of dance,7240
and your tunics have sleeves, and your hats have ribbons.7241
O truly you Phrygian women, as you’re not Phrygian men,7242
run over the heights of Dindymus, where a double-reed7243
makes music for accustomed ears. The timbrels call to you,7244
and the Berecynthian boxwood flute of the Mother of Ida:7245
leave weapons to men and abandon the sword.’7246
Ascanius did not tolerate such boastful words and dire warnings,7247
but facing him, fitted an arrow to the horsehair string, and, 7248
straining his arms apart, paused, and first prayed humbly to Jove7249
making these vows: ‘All-powerful Jupiter, assent to my bold attempt.7250
I myself will bring gifts each year to your temple,7251
and I’ll place before your altar a snow-white bullock 7252
with gilded forehead, carrying his head as high as his mother,7253
already butting with his horns, and scattering sand with his hooves.’7254
The Father heard, and thundered on the left 7255
from a clear sky, as one the fatal bow twanged.7256
The taut arrow sped onwards with a dreadful hiss,7257
and passed through Remulus’s brow, and split the hollow7258
temples with its steel. ‘Go on, mock at virtue with proud words!7259
This is the reply the twice-conquered Phrygians send the Rutulians’:7260
Ascanius said nothing more. The Trojans followed this 7261
with cheers, shouted for joy, and raised their spirits to the skies.7262
BkIX:638-671 Apollo Speaks to Iulus7263
Now, by chance, long-haired Apollo, seated in the cloudy7264
skies, looked down on the Italian ranks and the town,7265
and spoke to the victorious Iulus as follows:7266
‘Blessings on your fresh courage, boy, scion of gods7267
and ancestor of gods yet to be, so it is man rises 7268
to the stars. All the wars that destiny might bring 7269
will rightly cease under the rule of Assaracus’s house,7270
Troy does not limit you.’ With this he launched himself7271
from high heaven, parted the living air, and found 7272
Ascanius: then changed the form of his features7273
to old Butes. He was once armour-bearer to Trojan 7274
Anchises, and faithful guardian of the threshold:7275
then Ascanius’s father made him the boy’s companion.7276
As he walked Apollo was like the old man in every way,7277
in voice and colouring, white hair, and clanging of harsh 7278
weapons, and he spoke these words to the ardent Iulus:7279
‘Enough, son of Aeneas, that Numanus has fallen to your bow7280
and is un-avenged. Mighty Apollo grants you this first glory,7281
and does not begrudge you your like weapons:7282
but avoid the rest of the battle, boy.’ So Apollo 7283
spoke and in mid-speech left mortal sight 7284
and vanished far from men’s eyes into clear air. 7285
The Trojan princes recognised the god and his celestial 7286
weapons, and heard his quiver rattling as he flew.7287
So, given the god’s words and his divine will, they stopped7288
Ascanius, eager for the fight, while themselves returning 7289
to the battle, and openly putting their lives at risk.7290
The clamour rang through the towers along the whole wall,7291
they bent their bows quickly and whirled their slings.7292
The whole earth was strewn with spears: shields and hollow7293
helmets clanged as they clashed together, the battle grew fierce: 7294
vast as a rainstorm from the west, lashing the ground 7295
beneath watery Auriga, and dense as the hail the clouds hurl7296
into the waves, when Jupiter, bristling with southerlies,7297
twirls the watery tempest, and bursts the sky’s cavernous vapours. 7298
BkIX:672-716 Turnus at the Trojan Gates7299
Pandarus and Bitias, sons of Alcanor from Ida, whom Iaera 7300
the wood-nymph bore in Jupiter’s grove, youths tall 7301
as the pine-trees on their native hills, threw open the gate7302
entrusted to them by their leader’s command, and, relying on7303
their weapons, drew the Rutulian enemy within the walls.7304
They themselves stood in the gate, in front of the towers to right7305
and left, steel armoured, with plumes waving on their noble heads:7306
just as twin oaks rise up into the air, by flowing rivers,7307
on the banks of the Po, or by delightful Athesis, lifting7308
their shaggy heads to the sky, and nodding their tall crowns.7309
When they saw the entrance clear the Rutulians rushed through.7310
At once Quercens and Aquicolus, handsome in his armour,7311
Tmarus, impulsive at heart, and Haemon, a son of Mars,7312
were routed with all their Rutulian ranks, and took to their heels,7313
or laid down their lives on the very threshold of the gate.7314
Then the anger grew fiercer in their fighting spirits,7315
and soon the Trojans gathering massed in the same place,7316
and dared to fight hand to hand, and advance further outside. 7317
The news reached Turnus, the Rutulian leader, as he raged7318
and troubled the lines in a distant part of the field, that the enemy,7319
hot with fresh slaughter, were laying their doors wide open.7320
He left what he had begun, and, roused to savage fury,7321
he ran towards the Trojan gate, and the proud brothers.7322
And first he brought Antiphates down with a spear throw,7323
(since he was first to advance), bastard son of noble Sarpedon7324
by a Theban mother: the Italian cornel-wood shaft flew through7325
the clear air and, fixing in his belly, ran deep up into his chest:7326
the hollow of the dark wound released a foaming flow,7327
and the metal became warm in the pierced lung.7328
Then he overthrew Meropes and Erymas with his hand,7329
and then Aphidnus, then Bitias, fire in his eyes, clamour7330
in his heart, not to a spear (he would never have lost his life7331
to a spear) but a javelin arrived with a great hiss, hurled7332
and driven like a thunderbolt, that neither two bulls’ hides 7333
nor the faithful breastplate with double scales of gold7334
could resist: the mighty limbs collapsed and fell,7335
earth groaned and the huge shield clanged above him.7336
So a rock pile sometimes falls on Baiae’s Euboic shore,7337
first constructed of huge blocks, then toppled into the sea:7338
as it falls it trails havoc behind, tumbles into the shallows7339
and settles in the depths: the sea swirls in confusion, 7340
and the dark sand rises upwards, then Procida’s 7341
lofty island trembles at the sound and Ischia’s isle’s7342
harsh floor, laid down over Typhoeus, at Jove’s command. 7343
BkIX:717-755 The Death of Pandarus7344
At this Mars, powerful in war, gave the Latins strength7345
and courage, and twisted his sharp goad in their hearts,7346
and sent Rout and dark Fear against the Trojans. 7347
Given the chance for action, the Latins came together7348
from every side, and the god of battle possessed their souls.7349
Pandarus, seeing his brother’s fallen corpse, and which side7350
fortune was on, and what fate was driving events,7351
pushed with a mighty heave of his broad shoulders7352
and swung the gate on its hinges, leaving many a comrade7353
locked outside the wall in the cruel conflict: but the rest7354
he greeted as they rushed in and shut in there, with himself,7355
foolishly, not seeing the Rutulian king bursting through7356
among the mass, freely closing him inside the town,7357
like a huge tiger among a helpless herd.7358
At once fresh fire flashed from Turnus’s eyes7359
his weapons clashed fearfully, the blood-red plumes7360
on his helmet quivered, and lightning glittered from his shield.7361
In sudden turmoil the sons of Aeneas recognised that hated form7362
and those huge limbs. Then great Pandarus sprang forward,7363
blazing with anger at his brother’s death, shouting:7364
This is not Queen Amata’s palace, given in dowry, or the heart 7365
of Ardea, surrounding Turnus with his native walls.7366
You see an enemy camp: you can’t escape from here.’7367
Turnus, smiling, his thoughts calm, replied to him:7368
‘Come then, if there’s courage in your heart, close with me:7369
you can go tell Priam that, here too, you found an Achilles.’7370
He spoke. Pandarus, straining with all his force, hurled 7371
his spear rough with knots and un-stripped bark:7372
the wind took it, Saturnian Juno deflected 7373
the imminent blow, and the spear stuck fast in the gate.7374
Turnus cried: ‘But you’ll not escape this weapon7375
my right arm wields with power, the source of this weapon 7376
and wound is not such as you.’: and he towered up, his sword7377
lifted, and, with the blade, cleft the forehead in two between 7378
the temples, down to the beardless jaw, in an evil wound.7379
There was a crash: the ground shook under the vast weight.7380
Pandarus, dying, lowered his failing limbs and brain-spattered7381
weapons to the ground, and his skull split in half 7382
hung down on either side over both his shoulders. 7383
BkIX:756-787 Turnus Slaughters the Trojans7384
The Trojans turned and fled in sudden terror,7385
and if Turnus had thought at once to burst the bolts7386
by force, and let in his comrades through the gates,7387
that would have been the end of the war and the nation.7388
But rage and insane desire for slaughter drove him,7389
passionate, against the enemy. First he caught Phaleris7390
and Gyges whom he hamstrung, then flung their spears,7391
which he seized, at the backs of the fleeing crowd.7392
Juno aided him in strength and spirit. He sent7393
Halys and Phegeus, his shield pierced, to join them, 7394
then Alcander and Halius, Noemon and Prytanis7395
unawares, as they roused those on the walls to battle.7396
As Lynceus calling to his comrades moved towards him,7397
he anticipated him with a stroke of his glittering sword7398
from the right-hand rampart, Lynceus’s head, severed7399
by the single blow at close quarters, fell to the ground7400
with the helmet some distance away. Then Amycus,7401
that threat to wild creatures, than whom none was better7402
at coating spears and arming steel with poison,7403
and Clytius, son of Aeolus, and Cretheus, friend to the Muses,7404
Cretheus the Muses’ follower, to whom song and lyre7405
and striking measures on the strings were always a delight,7406
always he sang of horses, of soldiers’ weapons and battles.7407
At last the Trojan leaders, Mnestheus and brave Serestus,7408
hearing of this slaughter of their men, arrived to see 7409
their troops scattered and the enemy within. 7410
Mnestheus shouted: ‘Where are you running to, off where?7411
What other walls or battlements do you have, but these? 7412
O citizens, shall one man, hemmed in on all sides by ramparts,7413
cause such carnage through this our city, and go unpunished? 7414
Shall he send so many of our noblest youths to Orcus?7415
Cowards, have you no pity, no shame, for your wretched 7416
country, for your ancient gods, for great Aeneas?’ 7417
BkIX:788-818 Turnus Is Driven Off7418
Inflamed by such words they were strengthened, and they halted,7419
densely packed. Turnus little by little retreated from the fight,7420
heading for the river, and a place embraced by the waves.7421
The Trojans pressed towards him more fiercely, with a great clamour,7422
and massed together, as a crowd of hunters with levelled spears7423
close in on a savage lion: that, fearful but fierce, glaring in anger,7424
gives ground, though fury and courage won’t let it turn its back,7425
nor will men and spears allow it to attack, despite its wish. 7426
So Turnus wavering retraced his steps 7427
cautiously, his mind seething with rage.7428
Even then he charged amongst the enemy twice,7429
and twice sent them flying a confused rabble along the walls:7430
but the whole army quickly gathered en masse from the camp,7431
and Saturnian Juno didn’t dare empower him against them,7432
since Jupiter sent Iris down through the air from heaven,7433
carrying no gentle commands for his sister, if Turnus did not leave7434
the high Trojan ramparts. Therefore the warrior, overwhelmed 7435
by so many missiles hurled from every side, couldn’t so much as 7436
hold his own with shield and sword-arm. The helmet protecting7437
his hollow temples rang with endless noise, the solid bronze gaped7438
from the hail of stones, his crest was torn off, and his shield-boss7439
couldn’t withstand the blows: the Trojans, with deadly Mnestheus 7440
himself, redoubled their rain of javelins. Then the sweat ran all over7441
Turnus’s body, and flowed in a dark stream (he’d no time to breathe)7442
and an agonised panting shook his exhausted body.7443
Then, finally, leaping headlong, he plunged down into the river7444
in full armour. The Tiber welcomed him to its yellow flood 7445
as he fell, lifted him on its gentle waves, and, washing away7446
the blood, returned him, overjoyed, to his friends.7447
BkX:1-95 The Council of the Gods7448
Meanwhile the palace of all-powerful Olympus7449
was opened wide, and the father of the gods, and king of men,7450
called a council in his starry house, from whose heights7451
he gazed at every land, at Trojan camp, and Latin people.7452
They took their seats in the hall with doors at east and west,7453
and he began: ‘Great sky-dwellers, why have you changed7454
your decision, competing now, with such opposing wills? 7455
I commanded Italy not to make war on the Trojans.7456
Why this conflict, against my orders? What fear7457
has driven them both to take up arms and incite violence?7458
The right time for fighting will arrive (don’t bring it on)7459
when fierce Carthage, piercing the Alps, will launch 7460
great destruction on the Roman strongholds:7461
then it will be fine to compete in hatred, and ravage things.7462
Now let it alone, and construct a treaty, gladly, as agreed.’7463
Jupiter’s speech was brief as this: but golden Venus’s reply was not:7464
‘O father, eternal judge of men and things7465
(for who else is there I can make my appeal to now?)7466
you see how the Rutulians exult, how Turnus is drawn7467
by noble horses through the crowd, and, fortunate in war,7468
rushes on proudly. Barred defences no longer protect the Trojans:7469
rather they join battle within the gates, and on the rampart 7470
walls themselves, and the ditches are filled with blood.7471
Aeneas is absent, unaware of this. Will you never let the siege7472
be raised? A second enemy once again menaces and harasses 7473
new-born Troy, and again, from Aetolian Arpi, a Diomede rises.7474
I almost think the wound I had from him still awaits me:7475
your child merely delays the thrust of that mortal’s weapon.7476
If the Trojans sought Italy without your consent, and despite7477
your divine will, let them expiate the sin: don’t grant them help.7478
But if they’ve followed the oracles of powers above and below,7479
why should anyone change your orders now, and forge new destinies?7480
Shall I remind you of their fleet, burned on the shores of Eryx?7481
Or the king of the storms and his furious winds roused 7482
from Aeolia, or Iris sent down from the clouds?7483
Now Juno even stirs the dead (the only lot still left to use)7484
and Allecto too, suddenly loosed on the upper world,7485
runs wild through all the Italian cities.7486
I no longer care about Empire. Though that was my hope7487
while fortune was kind. Let those you wish to win prevail.7488
Father, if there’s no land your relentless queen will grant the Trojans,7489
I beg, by the smoking ruins of shattered Troy, let me bring7490
Ascanius, untouched, from among the weapons: let my grandson live.7491
Aeneas, yes, may be tossed on unknown seas, and go7492
wherever Fortune grants a road: but let me have the power7493
to protect the child and remove him from the fatal battle.7494
Amathus is mine, high Paphos and Cythera are mine,7495
and Idalia’s temple: let him ground his weapons there,7496
and live out inglorious years. Command that Carthage,7497
with her great power, crush Italy: then there’ll be 7498
no obstacle to the Tyrian cities. What was the use in their escaping7499
the plague of war, fleeing through the heart of Argive flames,7500
enduring the dangers at sea, and in desolate lands,7501
as long as the Trojans seek Latium and Troy re-born?7502
Wouldn’t it have been better to build on those last embers7503
of their country, on the soil where Troy once stood?7504
Give Xanthus and Simois back to these unfortunates, 7505
father, I beg you, and let the Trojans re-live the course of Ilium.’7506
Then royal Juno goaded to savage frenzy, cried out:7507
‘Why do you make me shatter my profound silence,7508
and utter words of suffering to the world?7509
Did any god or man force Aeneas to make war7510
and attack King Latinus as an enemy?7511
He sought Italy prompted by the Fates (so be it)7512
impelled by Cassandra’s ravings: was he urged by me7513
to leave the camp, and trust his life to the winds?7514
To leave the outcome of war, and their defences to a child:7515
to disturb Tuscan good faith, and peaceful tribes?7516
What goddess, what harsh powers of mine drove him7517
to harm? Where is Juno in this, or Iris sent from the clouds?7518
If it’s shameful that the Italians surround new-born Troy7519
with flames, and Turnus make a stand on his native soil,7520
he whose ancestor is Pilumnus, divine Venilia his mother:7521
what of the Trojans with smoking brands using force against the Latins,7522
planting their yoke on others’ fields and driving off their plunder?7523
Deciding whose daughters to marry, and dragging betrothed girls7524
from their lover’s arms, offering peace with one hand, 7525
but decking their ships with weapons? You can steal7526
Aeneas away from Greek hands and grant them fog and empty air7527
instead of a man, and turn their fleet of ships into as many nymphs:7528
is it wrong then for me to have given some help to the Rutulians?7529
“Aeneas is absent, unaware of this.” Let him be absent and unaware.7530
Paphos, Idalium, and high Cythera are yours? Why meddle then7531
with a city pregnant with wars and fierce hearts?7532
Is it I who try to uproot Troy’s fragile state from its base? 7533
Is it I? Or he who exposed the wretched Trojans to the Greeks?7534
What reason was there for Europe and Asia to rise up7535
in arms, and dissolve their alliance, through treachery?7536
Did I lead the Trojan adulterer to conquer Sparta?7537
Did I give him weapons, or foment a war because of his lust?7538
Then, you should have feared for your own: now, too late,7539
you raise complaints without justice, and provoke useless quarrels.’7540
BkX:96-117 Jupiter Leaves the Outcome to Fate7541
So Juno argued, and all the divinities of heaven murmured7542
their diverse opinions, as when rising gales murmur in the woods7543
and roll out their secret humming, warning sailors of coming storms. 7544
Then the all-powerful father, who has prime authority over things,7545
began (the noble hall of the gods fell silent as he spoke,7546
earth trembled underground, high heaven fell silent,7547
the Zephyrs too were stilled, the sea calmed its placid waters).7548
‘Take my words to heart and fix them there. 7549
Since Italians and Trojans are not allowed to join 7550
in alliance, and your disagreement has no end,7551
I will draw no distinction between them, Trojan or Rutulian,7552
whatever luck each has today, whatever hopes they pursue,7553
whether the camp’s under siege, because of Italy’s fortunes,7554
or Troy’s evil wanderings and unhappy prophecies.7555
Nor will I absolve the Rutulians. What each has instigated7556
shall bring its own suffering and success. Jupiter is king of all, 7557
equally: the fates will determine the way.’ He nodded, 7558
swearing it by the waters of his Stygian brother, 7559
by the banks that seethe with pitch, and the black chasm7560
and made all Olympus tremble at his nod.7561
So the speaking ended. Jupiter rose from his golden throne,7562
and the divinities led him to the threshold, among them.7563
BkX:118-162 Aeneas Returns From Pallantium7564
Meanwhile the Rutulians gathered round every gate,7565
to slaughter the men, and circle the walls with flames,7566
while Aeneas’s army was held inside their stockade,7567
imprisoned, with no hope of escape. Wretchedly they stood7568
there on the high turrets, and circling the walls, a sparse ring.7569
Asius, son of Imbrasus, Thymoetes, son of Hicetaon,7570
the two Assaraci, and Castor with old Thymbris were the front rank:7571
Sarpedon’s two brothers, Clarus and Thaemon, from noble Lycia, 7572
were at their side. Acmon of Lyrnesus, no less huge than his father 7573
Clytius, or his brother Mnestheus, lifted a giant rock, 7574
no small fragment of a hillside, straining his whole body.7575
Some tried to defend with javelins, some with stones,7576
hurling fire and fitting arrows to the bow.7577
See, the Trojan boy, himself, in their midst, 7578
Venus’s special care, his handsome head uncovered,7579
sparkling like a jewel set in yellow gold 7580
adorning neck or forehead, gleaming like ivory, 7581
inlaid skilfully in boxwood or Orician terebinth: 7582
his milk-white neck, and the circle of soft gold7583
clasping it, received his flowing hair. 7584
Your great-hearted people saw you too Ismarus,7585
dipping reed-shafts in venom, and aiming them 7586
to wound, from a noble Lydian house, there where men7587
till rich fields, that the Pactolus waters with gold. There was 7588
Mnestheus as well, whom yesterday’s glory, of beating 7589
Turnus back from the wall’s embankment, exalted highly, 7590
and Capys: from him the name of the Campanian city comes.7591
Men were fighting each other in the conflict of bitter war:7592
while Aeneas, by night, was cutting through the waves.7593
When, on leaving Evander and entering the Tuscan camp,7594
he had met the king, announced his name and race,7595
the help he sought, and that he himself offered, 7596
what forces Mezentius was gathering to him, 7597
and the violence in Turnus’s heart, and then had warned7598
how little faith can be placed in human powers,7599
and had added his entreaties, Tarchon, joined forces with him7600
without delay, and agreed a treaty: then fulfilling their fate7601
the Lydian people took to their ships by divine command,7602
trusting to a ‘foreign’ leader. Aeneas’s vessel took the van,7603
adorned with Phrygian lions below her beak, Mount Ida 7604
towering above them, a delight to the exiled Trojans.7605
There great Aeneas sat and pondered the varying issues7606
of the war, and Pallas sticking close to his left side, asked him7607
now about the stars, their path through the dark night,7608
and now about his adventures on land and sea.7609
BkX:163-214 The Leaders of the Tuscan Fleet7610
Now, goddesses, throw Helicon wide open: begin your song7611
of the company that followed Aeneas from Tuscan shores,7612
arming the ships and riding over the seas.7613
Massicus cut the waters at their head, in the bronze-armoured Tiger,7614
a band of a thousand warriors under him, leaving the walls7615
of Clusium, and the city of Cosae, whose weapons are arrows,7616
held in light quivers over their shoulders, and deadly bows.7617
Grim Abas was with him: whose ranks were all splendidly 7618
armoured, his ship aglow with a gilded figure of Apollo.7619
Populonia, the mother-city, had given him six hundred7620
of her offspring, all expert in war, and the island of Ilva, rich 7621
with the Chalybes’ inexhaustible mines, three hundred.7622
Asilas was third, that interpreter of gods and men,7623
to whom the entrails of beasts were an open book, the stars7624
in the sky, the tongues of birds, the prophetic bolts of lightning.7625
He hurried his thousand men to war, dense ranks bristling with spears.7626
Pisa ordered them to obey, city of Alphean foundation,7627
set on Etruscan soil. Then the most handsome Astur7628
followed, Astur relying on horse and iridescent armour.7629
Three hundred more (minded to follow as one) were added 7630
by those with their home in Caere, the fields 7631
by the Minio, ancient Pyrgi, unhealthy Graviscae. 7632
I would not forget you, Cunerus, in war the bravest 7633
Ligurian leader, or you with your small company, Cupavo, 7634
on whose crest the swan plumes rose, a sign of your father’s 7635
transformation (Cupid, your and your mother’s crime).7636
For they say that Cycnus wept for his beloved Phaethon,7637
singing amongst the poplar leaves, those shades of Phaethon’s7638
sisters, consoling his sorrowful passion with the Muse,7639
and drew white age over himself, in soft plumage,7640
relinquishing earth, and seeking the stars with song.7641
His son, Cupavo, drove on the mighty Centaur, following 7642
the fleet, with troops of his own age: the figurehead towered 7643
over the water, threatening from above to hurl a huge rock 7644
into the waves, the long keel ploughing through the deep ocean.7645
Ocnus, also, called up troops from his native shores,7646
he, the son of Manto the prophetess and the Tuscan river,7647
who gave you your walls, Mantua, and his mother’s name,7648
Mantua rich in ancestors, but not all of one race:7649
there were three races there, under each race four tribes,7650
herself the head of the tribes, her strength from Tuscan blood.7651
From there too Mezentius drove five hundred to arm against him,7652
lead in pine warships through the sea by a figure, the River Mincius, 7653
the child of Lake Benacus, crowned with grey-green reeds.7654
Aulestes ploughed on weightily, lashing the waves as he surged7655
to the stroke of a hundred oars: the waters foamed as the surface churned.7656
He sailed the huge Triton, whose conch shell alarmed the blue waves,7657
it’s carved prow displayed a man’s form down to the waist, 7658
as it sailed on, its belly ending in a sea-creature’s, while 7659
under the half-man’s chest the waves murmured with foam.7660
Such was the count of princes chosen to sail in the thirty ships7661
to the aid of Troy, and plough the salt plains with their bronze rams.7662
BkX:215-259 The Nymphs of Cybele7663
Now daylight had vanished from the sky and kindly Phoebe7664
was treading mid-heaven with her nocturnal team:7665
Aeneas (since care allowed his limbs no rest) sat there7666
controlling the helm himself, and tending the sails.7667
And see, in mid-course, a troop of his own friends7668
appeared: the nymphs, whom gracious Cybele7669
had commanded to be goddesses of the sea,7670
to be nymphs not ships, swam beside him and cut the flood,7671
as many as the bronze prows that once lay by the shore.7672
They knew the king from far off, and circled him dancing:7673
and Cymodocea, following, most skilful of them in speech, 7674
caught at the stern with her right hand, lifted her length herself, 7675
and paddled along with her left arm under the silent water.7676
Then she spoke to the bemused man, so: ‘Are you awake, Aeneas,7677
child of the gods? Be awake: loose the sheets: make full sail.7678
We are your fleet, now nymphs of the sea, once pines of Ida, 7679
from her sacred peak. Against our will we broke our bonds7680
when the treacherous Rutulian was pressing us hard,7681
with fire and sword, and we have sought you over the waves.7682
Cybele, the Mother, refashioned us in this form, from pity,7683
granting that we became goddesses, spending life under the waves.7684
Now, your son Ascanius is penned behind walls and ditches,7685
among weapons, and Latins bristling for a fight.7686
The Arcadian Horse, mixed with brave Etruscans already hold7687
the positions commanded: while Turnus’s certain purpose7688
is to send his central squadrons against them, lest they reach the camp.7689
Up then, in the rising dawn, call your friends with an order7690
to arm, and take your invincible shield that the lord of fire7691
gave you himself, that he circled with a golden rim.7692
If you don’t think my words idle, tomorrow’s light7693
will gaze on a mighty heap of Rutulian dead.’7694
She spoke, and, knowing how, with her right hand, 7695
thrust the high stern on, as she left: it sped through the waves7696
faster than a javelin, or an arrow equalling the wind.7697
Then the others quickened speed. Amazed, the Trojan son7698
of Anchises marvelled, yet his spirits lifted at the omen.7699
Then looking up to the arching heavens he briefly prayed:7700
‘Kind Cybele, Mother of the gods, to whom Dindymus,7701
tower-crowned cities, and harnessed lions are dear,7702
be my leader now in battle, duly further this omen,7703
and be with your Trojans, goddess, with your favouring step.’7704
He prayed like this, and meanwhile the wheeling day7705
rushed in with a flood of light, chasing away the night:7706
first he ordered his comrades to obey his signals,7707
prepare their spirits for fighting, and ready themselves for battle.7708
BkX:260-307 Aeneas Reaches Land7709
Now, he stood on the high stern, with the Trojans and his fort7710
in view, and at once lifted high the blazing shield, in his left hand.7711
The Trojans on the walls raised a shout to the sky, new hope 7712
freshened their fury, they hurled their spears, just as Strymonian7713
cranes under dark clouds, flying through the air, give noisy 7714
cries, and fleeing the south wind, trail their clamour.7715
This seemed strange to the Rutulian king and the Italian7716
leaders, until looking behind them they saw the fleet 7717
turned towards shore, and the whole sea alive with ships.7718
Aeneas’s crest blazed, and a dark flame streamed from the top,7719
and the shield’s gold boss spouted floods of fire:7720
just as when comets glow, blood-red and ominous in the clear night,7721
or when fiery Sirius, bringer of drought and plague 7722
to frail mortals, rises and saddens the sky with sinister light.7723
Still, brave Turnus did not lose hope of seizing the shore first,7724
and driving the approaching enemy away from land.7725
And he raised his men’s spirits as well, and chided them:7726
‘What you asked for in prayer is here, to break through 7727
with the sword. Mars himself empowers your hands, men!7728
Now let each remember his wife and home, now recall7729
the great actions, the glories of our fathers. And let’s 7730
meet them in the waves, while they’re unsure and 7731
their first steps falter as they land. Fortune favours the brave.’7732
So he spoke, and asked himself whom to lead in attack7733
and whom he could trust the siege of the walls. 7734
Meanwhile Aeneas landed his allies from the tall ships7735
using gangways. Many waited for the spent wave to ebb7736
and trusted themselves to the shallow water: others rowed.7737
Tarchon, noting a strand where no waves heaved 7738
and no breaking waters roared, but the sea swept in7739
smoothly with the rising tide, suddenly turned 7740
his prow towards it, exhorting his men: 7741
‘Now, O chosen band, bend to your sturdy oars:7742
lift, drive your boats, split this enemy shore 7743
with your beaks, let the keel itself plough a furrow.7744
I don’t shrink from wrecking the ship in such a harbour7745
once I’ve seized the land.’ When Tarchon had finished7746
speaking so, his comrades rose to the oars and drove 7747
their foam-wet ships onto the Latin fields,7748
till the rams gained dry ground and all the hulls7749
came to rest unharmed. But not yours, Tarchon,7750
since, striking the shallows, she hung on an uneven ridge7751
poised for a while, unbalanced, and, tiring the waves,7752
broke and pitched her crew into the water,7753
broken oars and floating benches obstructed them7754
and at the same time the ebbing waves sucked at their feet.7755
BkX:308-425 The Pitched Battle7756
But the long delay didn’t keep Turnus back: swiftly he moved7757
his whole front against the Trojans, and stood against them on the shore.7758
The trumpets sounded. Aeneas, first, attacked the ranks 7759
of farmers, as a sign of battle, and toppled the Latins,7760
killing Theron, noblest of men, who unprompted 7761
sought out Aeneas. The sword drank from his side, pierced7762
through the bronze joints, and the tunic scaled with gold.7763
Then he struck Lichas, who had been cut from the womb7764
of his dead mother and consecrated to you, Phoebus: why7765
was he allowed to evade the blade at birth? Soon after,7766
he toppled in death tough Cisseus, and huge Gyas, as they7767
laid men low with their clubs: Hercules’s weapons 7768
were no help, nor their stout hands nor Melampus their father,7769
Hercules’s friend, while earth granted him heavy labours.7770
See, Aeneas hurled his javelin as Pharus uttered 7771
words in vain, and planted it in his noisy gullet.7772
You too, unhappy Cydon, as you followed Clytius, your new 7773
delight, his cheeks golden with youthful down, you too7774
would have fallen beneath the Trojan hand, and lain there, 7775
wretched, free of that love of youth that was ever yours, 7776
had the massed ranks of your brothers, not opposed him,7777
the children of Phorcus, seven in number, seven the spears7778
they threw: some glanced idly from helmet and shield,7779
some gentle Venus deflected, so they only grazed 7780
his body. Aeneas spoke to faithful Achates:7781
‘Supply me with spears, those that lodged in the bodies7782
of Greeks on Ilium’s plain: my right hand won’t hurl7783
any at these Rutulians in vain.’ Then he grasped a great javelin7784
and threw it: flying on, it crashed through the bronze7785
of Maeon’s shield, smashing breastplate and breast in one go.7786
His brother Alcanor was there, supporting his brother 7787
with his right arm as he fell: piercing the arm, the spear 7788
flew straight on, keeping its blood-wet course, 7789
and the lifeless arm hung by the shoulder tendons.7790
Then Numitor, ripping the javelin from his brother’s body,7791
aimed at Aeneas: but he could not strike at him 7792
in return, and grazed great Achates’s thigh.7793
Now Clausus of Cures approached, relying on his youthful7794
strength, and hit Dryopes under the chin from a distance away,7795
with his rigid spear, driven with force, and, piercing his throat 7796
as he spoke, took his voice and life together: he hit the ground7797
with his forehead, and spewed thick blood from his mouth.7798
Clausus toppled, in various ways, three Thracians too, 7799
of Boreas’s exalted race, and three whom Idas their father 7800
and their native Ismarus sent out. Halaesus ran to join him,7801
and the Auruncan Band, and Messapus, Neptune’s scion,7802
with his glorious horses. Now one side, now the other strained7803
to push back the enemy: the struggle was at the very 7804
threshold of Italy. As warring winds, equal in force 7805
and purpose, rise to do battle in the vast heavens7806
and between them neither yield either clouds or sea:7807
the battle is long in doubt, all things stand locked in conflict:7808
so the ranks of Troy clashed with the Latin ranks,7809
foot against foot, man pressed hard against man.7810
But in another place, where a torrent had rolled and scattered 7811
boulders, with bushes torn from the banks, far and wide,7812
Pallas, seeing his Arcadians unused to charging in ranks7813
on foot turning to run from the pursuing Latins, because 7814
the nature of the ground, churned by water, had persuaded them to leave7815
their horses for once, now with prayers, and now with bitter words,7816
the sole recourse in time of need, fired their courage:7817
‘Friends, where are you running to? Don’t trust to flight,7818
by your brave deeds, by King Evander’s name,7819
and the wars you’ve won, and my hopes, now seeking7820
to emulate my father’s glory. We must hack a way through7821
the enemy with our swords. Your noble country calls you7822
and your leader Pallas, to where the ranks of men are densest.7823
No gods attack us. We are mortals driven before a mortal foe:7824
we have as many lives, as many hands as they do.7825
Look, the ocean closes us in with a vast barrier of water,7826
there’s no land left to flee to: shall we seek the seas or Troy?’7827
He spoke, and rushed into the midst of the close-packed enemy.7828
Lagus met him first, drawn there by a hostile fate.7829
As he tore at a huge weight of stone, Pallas pierced him 7830
where the spine parts the ribs in two, with the spear he hurled,7831
and plucked out the spear again as it lodged in the bone.7832
Nor did Hisbo surprise him from above, hopeful though he was,7833
since, as he rushed in, raging recklessly at his friend’s cruel death,7834
Pallas intercepted him first, and buried his sword in his swollen chest.7835
Next Pallas attacked Sthenius, and Anchemolus, of Rhoetus’s7836
ancient line, who had dared to violate his step-mother’s bed.7837
You, twin brothers, also fell in the Rutulian fields, Laridus7838
and Thymber, the sons of Daucus, so alike you were 7839
indistinguishable to kin, and a dear confusion to your parents:7840
but now Pallas has given you a cruel separateness.7841
For Evander’s sword swept off your head, Thymber:7842
while your right hand, Laridus, sought its owner,7843
and the dying fingers twitched and clutched again at the sword.7844
Fired by his rebuke and seeing his glorious deeds, a mixture 7845
of remorse and pain roused the Arcadians against their enemy. 7846
Then Pallas pierced Rhoetus as he shot past in his chariot.7847
Ilus gained that much time and that much respite,7848
since he had launched his solid spear at Ilus from far off,7849
which Rhoetus received, as he fled from you, noble Teuthras7850
and your brother Tyres, and rolling from the chariot7851
he struck the Rutulian fields with his heels as he died.7852
As in summer, when a hoped-for wind has risen,7853
the shepherd sets scattered fires in the woods,7854
the spaces between catch light, and Vulcan’s bristling 7855
ranks extend over the broad fields, while the shepherd sits7856
and gazes down in triumph over the joyful flames:7857
so all your comrades’ courage united as one 7858
to aid you Pallas. But Halaesus, fierce in war,7859
advanced against them and gathered himself behind his shield.7860
He killed Ladon, Pheres and Demodocus, struck off7861
Strymonius’s right hand, raised towards his throat,7862
with his shining sword, and smashed Thoas in the face 7863
with a stone, scattering bone mixed with blood and brain.7864
Halaesus’s father, prescient of fate, had hidden him in the woods:7865
but when, in white-haired old age, the father closed his eyes in death,7866
the Fates laid their hands on Halaesus and doomed him7867
to Evander’s spear. Pallas attacked him first praying:7868
‘Grant luck to the spear I aim to throw, father Tiber, 7869
and a path through sturdy Halaesus’s chest. Your oak7870
shall have the these weapons and the soldier’s spoils.’7871
The god heard his prayer: while Halaesus covered Imaon7872
he sadly exposed his unshielded chest to the Arcadian spear.7873
BkX:426-509 The Death of Pallas7874
But Lausus, a powerful force in the war, would not allow7875
his troops to be dismayed by the hero’s great slaughter:7876
first he killed Abas opposite, a knotty obstacle in the battle.7877
The youth of Arcadia fell, the Etruscans fell, and you, 7878
O Trojans, men not even destroyed by the Greeks.7879
The armies met, equal in leadership and strength:7880
the rear and front closed ranks, and the crush prevented7881
weapons or hands from moving. Here, Pallas pressed and urged,7882
there Lausus opposed him, not many years between them,7883
both of outstanding presence, but Fortune had denied them7884
a return to their country. Yet the king of great Olympos7885
did not allow them to meet face to face: their fate 7886
was waiting for them soon, at the hand of a greater opponent.7887
Meanwhile Turnus’s gentle sister Juturna adjured him to help 7888
Lausus, and he parted the ranks between in his swift chariot.7889
When he saw his comrades he cried: ‘It’s time to hold back7890
from the fight: it’s for me alone to attack Pallas, Pallas 7891
is mine alone: I wish his father were here to see it.’7892
And his comrades drew back from the field as ordered.7893
When the Rutulians retired, then the youth, amazed at that proud7894
command, marvelled at Turnus, casting his eyes over 7895
the mighty body, surveying all of him from the distance 7896
with a fierce look, and answered the ruler’s words with these:7897
‘I’ll soon be praised for taking rich spoils, or for a glorious death:7898
my father is equal to either fate for me: away with your threats.’7899
So saying he marched down the centre of the field: 7900
the blood gathered, chill, in Arcadian hearts.7901
Turnus leapt from his chariot, preparing to close on foot,7902
and the sight of the advancing Turnus, was no different7903
than that of a lion, seeing from a high point a bull far off 7904
on the plain contemplating battle, and rushing down.7905
But Pallas came forward first, when he thought Turnus might 7906
be within spear-throw, so that chance might help him, in venturing7907
his unequal strength, and so he spoke to the mighty heavens:7908
‘I pray you, Hercules, by my father’s hospitality and the feast7909
to which you came as a stranger, assist my great enterprise.7910
Let me strip the blood-drenched armour from his dying limbs,7911
and let Turnus’s failing sight meet its conqueror.’7912
Hercules heard the youth, and stifled a heavy sigh 7913
deep in his heart, and wept tears in vain.7914
Then Jupiter the father spoke to Hercules, his son,7915
with kindly words: ‘Every man has his day, the course7916
of life is brief and cannot be recalled: but virtue’s task7917
is this, to increase fame by deeds. So many sons of gods7918
fell beneath the high walls of Troy, yes, and my own son7919
Sarpedon among them: fate calls even for Turnus,7920
and he too has reached the end of the years granted to him.’7921
So he spoke, and turned his eyes from the Rutulian fields.7922
Then Pallas threw his spear with all his might,7923
and snatched his gleaming sword from its hollow sheath.7924
The shaft flew and struck Turnus, where the top of the armour7925
laps the shoulder, and forcing a way through the rim7926
of his shield at last, even grazed his mighty frame.7927
At this, Turnus hurled his oak spear tipped 7928
with sharp steel, long levelled at Pallas, saying:7929
‘See if this weapon of mine isn’t of greater sharpness.’7930
The spear-head, with a quivering blow, tore through7931
the centre of his shield, passed through all the layers 7932
of iron, of bronze, all the overlapping bull’s-hide,7933
piercing the breastplate, and the mighty chest.7934
Vainly he pulled the hot spear from the wound:7935
blood and life followed, by one and the same path.7936
He fell in his own blood (his weapons clanged over him)7937
and he struck the hostile earth in death with gory lips.7938
Then Turnus, standing over him, cried out: 7939
‘Arcadians, take note, and carry these words of mine7940
to Evander: I return Pallas to him as he deserves.7941
I freely give whatever honours lie in a tomb, whatever7942
solace there is in burial. His hospitality to Aeneas7943
will cost him greatly.’ So saying he planted his left foot on the corpse,7944
and tore away the huge weight of Pallas’s belt, engraved 7945
with the Danaids’ crime: that band of young men foully murdered7946
on the same wedding night: the blood-drenched marriage chambers:7947
that Clonus, son of Eurytus had richly chased in gold.7948
Now Turnus exulted at the spoil, and gloried in winning.7949
Oh, human mind, ignorant of fate or fortune to come,7950
or of how to keep to the limits, exalted by favourable events!7951
The time will come for Turnus when he’d prefer to have bought7952
an untouched Pallas at great price, and will hate those spoils7953
and the day. So his friends crowded round Pallas with many 7954
groans and tears, and carried him back, lying on his shield.7955
O the great grief and glory in returning to your father:7956
that day first gave you to warfare, the same day took you from it,7957
while nevertheless you left behind vast heaps of Rutulian dead!7958
BkX:510-605 Aeneas Rages In Battle7959
Now not merely a rumour of this great evil, but a more trustworthy7960
messenger flew to Aeneas, saying that his men were a hair’s breadth 7961
from death, that it was time to help the routed Trojans. Seeking you,7962
Turnus, you, proud of your fresh slaughter, he mowed down 7963
his nearest enemies, with the sword, and fiercely drove a wide path7964
through the ranks with its blade. Pallas, Evander, all was before 7965
his eyes, the feast to which he had first come as a stranger,7966
the right hands pledged in friendship. Then he captured7967
four youths alive, sons of Sulmo, and as many reared 7968
by Ufens, to sacrifice to the shades of the dead, and sprinkle7969
the flames of the pyre with the prisoners’ blood. 7970
Next he aimed a hostile spear at Magus from a distance:7971
Magus moved in cleverly, and the spear flew over him, quivering,7972
and he clasped the hero’s knees as a suppliant, and spoke as follows:7973
‘I beg you, by your father’s shade, by your hope in your boy 7974
Iulus, preserve my life, for my son and my father.7975
I have a noble house: talents of chased silver lie buried there:7976
I have masses of wrought and unwrought gold. Troy’s victory7977
does not rest with me: one life will not make that much difference.’7978
Aeneas replied to him in this way: ‘Keep those many talents7979
of silver and gold you mention for your sons. Turnus, before we spoke,7980
did away with the courtesies of war, the moment he killed Pallas.7981
So my father Anchises’s spirit thinks, so does Iulus.’7982
Saying this he held the helmet with his left hand and, bending7983
the suppliant’s neck backwards, drove in his sword to the hilt.7984
Haemon’s son, a priest of Apollo and Diana, was not far away,7985
the band with its sacred ribbons circling his temples, and all 7986
his robes and emblems shining white. Aeneas met him and drove him7987
over the plain, then, standing over the fallen man, killed him and cloaked7988
him in mighty darkness: Serestus collected and carried off 7989
his weapons on his shoulders, a trophy for you, King Gradivus.7990
Caeculus, born of the race of Vulcan, and Umbro 7991
who came from the Marsian hills restored order, 7992
the Trojan raged against them: his sword sliced off Anxur’s7993
left arm, it fell to the ground with the whole disc of his shield7994
(Anxur had shouted some boast, trusting the power 7995
of words, lifting his spirit high perhaps, promising7996
himself white-haired old age and long years):7997
then Tarquitus nearby, proud in his gleaming armour,7998
whom the nymph Dryope had born to Faunus of the woods,7999
exposed himself to fiery Aeneas. He, drawing back his spear,8000
pinned the breastplate and the huge weight of shield together:8001
then as the youth begged in vain, and tried to utter a flow of words,8002
he struck his head to the ground and, rolling the warm trunk over,8003
spoke these words above him, from a hostile heart:8004
‘Lie there now, one to be feared. No noble mother will bury you8005
in the earth, nor weight your limbs with an ancestral tomb:8006
you’ll be left for the carrion birds, or, sunk in the abyss,8007
the flood will bear you, and hungry fish suck your wounds.’8008
Then he caught up with Antaeus, and Lucas, in Turnus’s8009
front line, brave Numa and auburn Camers, son of noble Volcens,8010
the wealthiest in Ausonian land, who ruled silent Amyclae.8011
Once his sword was hot, victorious Aeneas raged 8012
over the whole plain, like Aegeaon, who had a hundred 8013
arms and a hundred hands they say, and breathed fire8014
from fifty chests and mouths, when he clashed 8015
with as many like shields of his and drew as many swords8016
against Jove’s lightning-bolts. See now he was headed 8017
towards the four horse team of Niphaeus’s chariot 8018
and the opposing front. And when the horses saw him taking 8019
great strides in his deadly rage, they shied and galloped in fear,8020
throwing their master, and dragging the chariot to the shore.8021
Meanwhile Lucagus and his brother Liger entered the fray8022
in their chariot with two white horses: Liger handling 8023
the horses’ reins, fierce Lucagus waving his naked sword.8024
Aeneas could not tolerate such furious hot-headedness:8025
he rushed at them, and loomed up gigantic with levelled spear.8026
Liger said to him: ‘These are not Diomedes’s horses 8027
that you see, nor Achille’s chariot, nor Phrygia’s plain:8028
now you’ll be dealt an end to your war and life.’ 8029
Such were the words that flew far, from foolish8030
Liger’s lips. But the Trojan hero did not ready 8031
words in reply, he hurled his spear then against his enemies.8032
While Lucagus urged on his horses, leaning forward8033
towards the spear’s blow, as, with left foot advanced,8034
he prepared himself for battle, the spear entered the lower 8035
rim of his bright shield, then pierced the left thigh:8036
thrown from the chariot he rolled on the ground in death:8037
while noble Aeneas spoke bitter words to him:8038
‘Lucagus, it was not the flight of your horses in fear that betrayed8039
your chariot, or the enemy’s idle shadow that turned them:8040
it was you, leaping from the wheels, who relinquished the reins.’ 8041
So saying he grasped at the chariot: the wretched brother, 8042
Liger, who had fallen as well, held, out his helpless hands:8043
‘Trojan hero, by your own life, by your parents who bore8044
such a son, take pity I beg you, without taking this life away.’ 8045
As he begged more urgently, Aeaneas said: ‘Those were not8046
the words you spoke before. Die and don’t let brother desert brother.’8047
Then he sliced open his chest where the life is hidden.8048
Such were the deaths the Trojan leader caused across 8049
that plain, raging like a torrent of water or a dark8050
tempest. At last his child, Ascanius, and the men 8051
who were besieged in vain, breaking free, left the camp.8052
BkX:606-688 Juno Withdraws Turnus from the Fight8053
Meanwhile Jupiter, unasked, spoke to Juno:8054
‘O my sister, and at the same time my dearest wife,8055
as you thought (your judgement is not wrong)8056
it is Venus who sustains the Trojans’ power, 8057
not their own right hands, so ready for war,8058
nor their fierce spirits, tolerant of danger.’8059
Juno spoke submissively to him: ‘O loveliest of husbands8060
why do you trouble me, who am ill, and fearful of your 8061
harsh commands? If my love had the power it once had,8062
that is my right, you, all-powerful, would surely not8063
deny me this, to withdraw Turnus from the conflict8064
and save him, unharmed, for his father, Daunus.8065
Let him die then, let him pay the Trojans in innocent blood.8066
Yet he derives his name from our line: Pilumnus 8067
was his ancestor four generations back, and often weighted8068
your threshold with copious gifts from a lavish hand.’8069
The king of heavenly Olympus briefly replied to her like this:8070
‘If your prayer is for reprieve from imminent death8071
for your doomed prince, and you understand I so ordain it,8072
take Turnus away, in flight, snatch him from oncoming fate:8073
there’s room for that much indulgence. But if thought8074
of any greater favour hides behind your prayers, and you think8075
this whole war may be deflected or altered, you nurture a vain hope.’8076
And Juno, replied, weeping: ‘Why should your mind not grant8077
what your tongue withholds, and life be left to Turnus?8078
Now, guiltless, a heavy doom awaits him or I stray empty8079
of truth. Oh, that I might be mocked by false fears, 8080
and that you, who are able to, might harbour kinder speech!8081
When she had spoken these words, she darted down at once8082
from high heaven through the air, driving a storm before her,8083
and wreathed in cloud, and sought the ranks of Ilium 8084
and the Laurentine camp. Then from the cavernous mist8085
the goddess decked out a weak and tenuous phantom,8086
in the likeness of Aeneas, with Trojan weapons (a strange8087
marvel to behold), simulated his shield, and the plumes8088
on his godlike head, gave it insubstantial speech,8089
gave it sound without mind, and mimicked the way 8090
he walked: like shapes that flit, they say, after death, 8091
or dreams that in sleep deceive the senses. 8092
And the phantom flaunted itself exultantly8093
in front of the leading ranks, provoking Turnus 8094
with spear casts, and exasperating him with words. 8095
Turnus ran at it, and hurled a hissing spear 8096
from the distance: it turned its heels in flight.8097
Then, as Turnus thought that Aeneas had retreated8098
and conceded, and in his confusion clung to this idle hope 8099
in his mind, he cried: ‘Where are you off to, Aeneas?8100
Don’t desert your marriage pact: this hand of mine8101
will grant you the earth you looked for over the seas.’8102
He pursued him, calling loudly, brandishing his naked sword,8103
not seeing that the wind was carrying away his glory.8104
It chanced that the ship, in which King Osinius sailed8105
from Clusium’s shores, was moored to a high stone pier,8106
with ladders released and gangway ready. The swift phantom8107
of fleeing Aeneas sank into it to hide, and Turnus followed 8108
no less swiftly, conquering all obstacles and leapt 8109
up the high gangway. He had barely reached the prow8110
when Saturn’s daughter snapped the cable,8111
and, snatching the ship, swept it over the waters.8112
Then the vague phantom no longer tried to hide8113
but, flying into the air, merged with a dark cloud.8114
Meanwhile Aeneas himself was challenging his missing enemy8115
to battle: and sending many opposing warriors to their deaths,8116
while the storm carried Turnus over the wide ocean.8117
Unaware of the truth, and ungrateful for his rescue,8118
he looked back and raised clasped hands and voice to heaven:8119
‘All-powerful father, did you think me so worthy of punishment,8120
did you intend me to pay such a price? Where am I being taken?8121
From whom am I escaping? Why am I fleeing: how will I return?8122
Will I see the walls and camp of Laurentium again?8123
What of that company of men that followed me, and my standard?8124
Have I left them all (the shame of it) to a cruel death,8125
seeing them scattered now, hearing the groans as they fall?8126
What shall I do? Where is the earth that could gape 8127
wide enough for me? Rather have pity on me, O winds:8128
Drive the ship on the rocks, the reefs (I, Turnus, beg you, freely)8129
or send it into the vicious quicksands, where no Rutulian,8130
nor any knowing rumour of my shame can follow me?8131
So saying he debated this way and that in his mind,8132
whether he should throw himself on his sword, mad8133
with such disgrace, and drive the cruel steel through his ribs,8134
or plunge into the waves, and, by swimming, gain 8135
the curving bay, and hurl himself again at the Trojan weapons.8136
Three times he attempted each: three times great Juno8137
held him back, preventing him from heartfelt pity. He glided on, 8138
with the help of wave and tide, cutting the depths, 8139
and was carried to his father Daunus’s ancient city.8140
BkX:689-754 Mezentius Rages in Battle8141
But meanwhile fiery Mezentius, warned by Jupiter,8142
took up the fight, and attacked the jubilant Trojans.8143
The Etruscan ranks closed up, and concentrated8144
all their hatred, and showers of missiles, on him alone.8145
He (like a vast cliff that juts out into the vast deep,8146
confronting the raging winds, and exposed to the waves,8147
suffering the force and threat of sky and sea,8148
itself left unshaken) felled Hebrus, son of Dolichaon,8149
to the earth, with him were Latagus and swift Palmus,8150
but he anticipated Latagus, with a huge fragment of rock8151
from the hillside in his mouth and face, while he hamstrung8152
Palmus and left him writhing helplessly: he gave Lausus the armour 8153
to protect his shoulders, and the plumes to wear on his crest.8154
He killed Evanthes too, the Phrygian, and Mimas, Paris’s8155
friend and peer, whom Theano bore to his father Amycus8156
on the same night Hecuba, Cisseus’s royal daughter, pregnant8157
with a firebrand, gave birth to Paris: Paris lies in the city 8158
of his fathers, the Laurentine shore holds the unknown Mimas.8159
And as a boar, that piny Vesulus has sheltered 8160
for many years and Laurentine marshes have nourished8161
with forests of reeds, is driven from the high hills, 8162
by snapping hounds, and halts when it reaches the nets,8163
snorts fiercely, hackles bristling, no one brave enough 8164
to rage at it, or approach it, but all attacking it with spears, 8165
and shouting from a safe distance: halts, unafraid,8166
turning in every direction, grinding its jaws,8167
and shaking the spears from its hide: so none of those 8168
who were rightly angered with Mezentius had the courage 8169
to meet him with naked sword, but provoked him 8170
from afar with their missiles, and a mighty clamour.8171
Acron, a Greek had arrived there from the ancient lands8172
of Corythus, an exile, his marriage ceremony left incomplete.8173
When Mezentius saw him in the distance, embroiled8174
among the ranks, with crimson plumes, and in purple robes8175
given by his promised bride, he rushed eagerly into the thick8176
of the foe, as a ravenous lion often ranges the high coverts8177
(since a raging hunger drives it) and exults, with vast gaping jaws,8178
if it chances to see a fleeing roe-deer, or a stag with immature horns,8179
then clings crouching over the entrails, with bristling mane,8180
its cruel mouth stained hideously with blood.8181
Wretched Acron fell, striking the dark earth with his heels8182
in dying, drenching his shattered weapons with blood.8183
And he did not even deign to kill Orodes as he fled,8184
or inflict a hidden wound with a thrust of his spear:8185
he ran to meet him on the way, and opposed him man to man,8186
getting the better of him by force of arms not stealth.8187
Then setting his foot on the fallen man, and straining at his spear,8188
he called out: ‘Soldiers, noble Orodes lies here, he was no small part8189
of this battle.’ His comrades shouted, taking up the joyful cry:8190
Yet Orodes, dying, said: ‘Whoever you are, winner here, 8191
I’ll not go unavenged, nor will you rejoice for long: 8192
a like fate watches for you: you’ll soon lie in these same fields.’8193
Mezentius replied, grinning with rage: ‘Die now,8194
as for me, the father of gods and king of men will see to that.’8195
So saying he withdrew his spear from the warrior’s body.8196
Enduring rest, and iron sleep, pressed on Orodes’s eyes,8197
and their light was shrouded in eternal night.8198
Caedicus killed Alcathous: Sacrator killed Hydapses:8199
Rapo killed Parthenius, and Orses of outstanding strength.8200
Messapus killed Clonius, and Ericetes, son of Lycaon,8201
one lying on the ground fallen from his bridle-less horse,8202
the other still on his feet. Lycian Agis had advanced his feet8203
but Valerus overthrew him, with no lack of his ancestors’ skill:8204
Salius killed Thronius, and Nealces, famed for the javelin,8205
and the deceptive long-distance arrow, in turn killed Salcius.8206
BkX:755-832 The Death of Mezentius’s Son, Lausus8207
Now grievous War dealt grief and death mutually:8208
they killed alike, and alike they died, winners and losers,8209
and neither one nor the other knew how to flee.8210
The gods in Jupiter’s halls pitied the useless anger of them both,8211
and that such pain existed for mortal beings:8212
here Venus gazed down, here, opposite, Saturnian Juno.8213
Pale Tisiphone raged among the warring thousands. 8214
And now Mezentius shaking his mighty spear,8215
advanced like a whirlwind over the field. Great as Orion,8216
when he strides through Ocean’s deepest chasms, forging a way,8217
his shoulders towering above the waves, or carrying 8218
an ancient manna ash down from the mountain heights, 8219
walking the earth, with his head hidden in the clouds,8220
so Mezentius advanced in his giant’s armour.8221
Aeneas, opposite, catching sight of him in the far ranks8222
prepared to go and meet him. Mezentius stood there unafraid,8223
waiting for his great-hearted enemy, firm in his great bulk:8224
and measuring with his eye what distance would suit his spear,8225
saying: ‘Now let this right hand that is my god, and the weapon8226
I level to throw, aid me! I vow that you yourself, Lausus, as token8227
of my victory over Aeneas, shall be dressed in the spoils stripped 8228
from that robber’s corpse.’ He spoke, and threw the hissing spear 8229
from far out. But, flying on, it glanced from the shield, 8230
and pierced the handsome Antores, nearby, between flank8231
and thigh, Antores, friend of Hercules, sent from Argos8232
who had joined Evander, and settled in an Italian city.8233
Unhappy man, he fell to a wound meant for another, 8234
and dying, gazing at the sky, remembered sweet Argos.8235
Then virtuous Aeneas hurled a spear: it passed through 8236
Mezentius’s curved shield of triple-bronze, through linen, 8237
and the interwoven layers of three bull’s hides, and lodged8238
deep in the groin, but failed to drive home with force.8239
Aeneas, joyful at the sight of the Tuscan blood, 8240
snatched the sword from his side, and pressed 8241
his shaken enemy hotly. Lausus, seeing it, groaned heavily8242
for love of his father, and tears rolled down his cheeks – 8243
and here I’ll not be silent, for my part, about your harsh death,8244
through fate, nor, if future ages place belief in such deeds, your actions, 8245
so glorious, nor you yourself, youth, worthy of remembrance – 8246
his father was retreating, yielding ground, helpless,8247
hampered, dragging the enemy lance along with his shield.8248
The youth ran forward, and plunged into the fray,8249
and, just as Aeneas’s right hand lifted to strike a blow,8250
he snatched at the sword-point, and checked him in delay:8251
his friends followed with great clamour, and, with a shower 8252
of spears, forced the enemy to keep his distance till the father8253
could withdraw, protected by his son’s shield.8254
Aeneas raged, but kept himself under cover.8255
As every ploughman and farmer runs from the fields8256
when storm-clouds pour down streams of hail,8257
and the passer by shelters in a safe corner, under a river 8258
bank or an arch of high rock, while the rain falls to earth, 8259
so as to pursue the day’s work when the sun returns:8260
so, overwhelmed by missiles from every side, 8261
Aeneas endured the clouds of war, while they all thundered,8262
and rebuked Lausus, and threatened Lausus, saying:8263
‘Why are you rushing to death, with courage beyond your strength?8264
Your loyalty’s betraying you to foolishness.’ Nevertheless8265
the youth raged madly, and now fierce anger rose higher8266
in the Trojan leader’s heart, and the Fates gathered together8267
the last threads of Lausus’s life. For Aeneas drove his sword8268
firmly through the youth’s body, and buried it to the hilt:8269
the point passed through his shield, too light for his threats,8270
and the tunic of soft gold thread his mother had woven,8271
blood filled its folds: then life left the body and fled, 8272
sorrowing, through the air to the spirits below.8273
And when Anchises’s son saw the look on his dying face,8274
that face pale with the wonderment of its ending,8275
he groaned deeply with pity and stretched out his hand,8276
as that reflection of his own love for his father touched 8277
his heart. ‘Unhappy child, what can loyal Aeneas grant8278
to such a nature, worthy of these glorious deeds of yours?8279
Keep the weapons you delighted in: and if it is something you are8280
anxious about, I return you to the shades and ashes of your ancestors. 8281
This too should solace you, unhappy one, for your sad death:8282
you died at the hands of great Aeneas.’ Also he rebuked 8283
Lausus’s comrades, and lifted their leader from the earth, 8284
where he was soiling his well-ordered hair with blood.8285
BkX:833-908 The Death of Mezentius8286
Meanwhile the father, Mezentius, staunched his wounds8287
by the waters of Tiber’s river, and rested his body 8288
by leaning against a tree trunk. His bronze helmet hung8289
on a nearby branch, and his heavy armour lay peacefully on the grass.8290
The pick of his warriors stood around: he himself, weak and panting8291
eased his neck, his flowing beard streaming over his chest.8292
Many a time he asked for Lausus, and many times sent men 8293
to carry him a sorrowing father’s orders and recall him.8294
But his weeping comrades were carrying the dead Lausus, 8295
on his armour, a great man conquered by a mighty wound.8296
The mind prescient of evil, knew their sighs from far off.8297
Mezentius darkened his white hair with dust, and lifted8298
both hands to heaven, clinging to the body:8299
‘My son, did such delight in living possess me,8300
that I let you face the enemy force in my place,8301
you whom I fathered? Is this father of yours alive8302
through your death, saved by your wounds? Ah, now at last 8303
my exile is wretchedly driven home: and my wound, deeply!8304
My son, I have also tarnished your name by my crime,8305
driven in hatred from my fathers’ throne and sceptre.8306
I have long owed reparation to my country and my people’s hatred:8307
I should have yielded my guilty soul to death in any form!8308
Now I live: I do not leave humankind yet, or the light,8309
but I will leave.’ So saying he raised himself weakly on his thigh,8310
and, despite all, ordered his horse to be brought, though his strength8311
ebbed from the deep wound. His mount was his pride, 8312
and it was his solace, on it he had ridden victorious from every battle.8313
He spoke to the sorrowful creature, in these words:8314
‘Rhaebus, we have lived a long time, if anything lasts long8315
for mortal beings. Today you will either carry the head of Aeneas,8316
and his blood-stained spoils, in victory, and avenge Lausus’s pain8317
with me, or die with me, if no power opens that road to us:8318
I don’t think that you, the bravest of creatures, will deign8319
to suffer a stranger’s orders or a Trojan master.’8320
He spoke, then, mounting, disposed his limbs as usual,8321
and weighted each hand with a sharp javelin,8322
his head gleaming with bronze, bristling with its horsehair crest.8323
So he launched himself quickly into the fray. In that one heart8324
a vast flood of shame and madness merged with grief.8325
And now he called to Aeneas in a great voice.8326
Aeneas knew him and offered up a joyous prayer:8327
‘So let the father of the gods himself decree it, so8328
noble Apollo! You then begin the conflict….’8329
He spoke those words and moved against him with level spear.8330
But Mezentius replied: ‘How can you frighten me, most savage 8331
of men, me, bereft of my son? That was the only way you could8332
destroy me: I do not shrink from death, or halt for any god.8333
Cease, since I come here to die, and bring you, first,8334
these gifts.’ He spoke, and hurled a spear at his enemy:8335
then landed another and yet another, wheeling 8336
in a wide circle, but the gilded shield withstood them.8337
He rode three times round his careful enemy, widdershins,8338
throwing darts from his hand: three times the Trojan hero8339
dragged round the huge thicket of spears fixed in his bronze shield.8340
Then tired of all that drawn-out delay, and burdened 8341
by the unequal conflict, he thought hard, and finally broke free,8342
hurling his spear straight between the war horse’s curved temples.8343
The animal reared, and lashed the air with its hooves,8344
and throwing its rider, followed him down, from above,8345
entangling him, collapsing headlong onto him, its shoulder thrown.8346
Trojans and Latins ignited the heavens with their shouts.8347
Aeneas ran to him, plucking his sword from its sheath8348
and standing over him, cried: ‘Where is fierce Mezentius, now,8349
and the savage force of that spirit?’ The Tuscan replied, as, lifting8350
his eyes to the sky, and gulping the air, he regained his thoughts:8351
‘Bitter enemy, why taunt, or threaten me in death?8352
There is no sin in killing: I did not come to fight believing so,8353
nor did my Lausus agree any treaty between you and me.8354
I only ask, by whatever indulgence a fallen enemy might claim,8355
that my body be buried in the earth. I know that my people’s8356
fierce hatred surrounds me: protect me, I beg you, 8357
from their anger, and let me share a tomb with my son.’8358
So he spoke, and in full awareness received the sword in his throat,8359
and poured out his life, over his armour, in a wave of blood.8360
BkXI:1-99 Aeneas Mourns Pallas8361
Meanwhile Dawn rose and left the ocean waves:8362
though Aeneas’s sorrow urged him to spend his time8363
on his comrades’ burial, and his mind was burdened by death,8364
as victor, at first light, he discharged his vows to the gods.8365
He planted a great oak trunk, its branches lopped all round,8366
on a tumulus, and decked it out as a trophy to you, great god of war, 8367
in the gleaming armour stripped from the leader, Mezentius: 8368
he fastened the crests to it, dripping with blood, the warrior’s8369
broken spears, and the battered breastplate, pierced 8370
in twelve places: he tied the bronze shield to its left side, 8371
and hung the ivory-hilted sword from its neck.8372
Then he began to encourage his rejoicing comrades:8373
‘We have done great things, men: banish all fear of what’s left8374
to do: these are the spoils of a proud king, the first fruits of victory,8375
and this is Mezentius, fashioned by my hands.8376
Now our path is towards King Latinus and his city walls.8377
Look to your weapons, spiritedly, make war your expectation,8378
so when the gods above give us the sign to take up our standards,8379
and lead out our soldiers from the camp, no delay may halt us8380
unawares, or wavering purpose hold us back through fear.8381
Meanwhile let us commit to earth the unburied bodies8382
of our friends, the only tribute recognised in Acheron’s depths.8383
Go,’ he said, ‘grace these noble spirits with your last gifts,8384
who have won this country for us with their blood,8385
and first let Pallas’s body be sent to Evander’s grieving city,8386
he, whom a black day stole, though no way lacking8387
in courage, and plunged in death’s bitterness.’8388
So he spoke, weeping, and retraced his steps to the threshold8389
where Pallas’s lifeless corpse was laid, watched8390
by old Acoetes, who before had been armour-bearer8391
to Arcadian Evander, but then, under less happy auspices,8392
set out as the chosen guardian for his dear foster-child.8393
All the band of attendants, and the Trojan crowd, stood around,8394
and the Ilian women, hair loosened as customary in mourning.8395
As Aeneas entered the tall doorway they struck 8396
their breasts, and raised a great cry to the heavens, 8397
and the royal pavilion rang with sad lamentation. 8398
When he saw the pillowed face and head of Pallas,8399
pale as snow, and the open wound of the Ausonian spear8400
in his smooth chest, he spoke, his tears rising:8401
‘Unhappy child, when Fortune entered smiling was it she8402
who begrudged you to me, so that you would not see 8403
my kingdom, or ride, victorious, to your father’s house? 8404
This was not the last promise I made your father, Evander,8405
on leaving, when he embraced me, sending me off8406
to win a great empire, and warned me with trepidation8407
that the enemy were brave, a tough race.8408
And now, greatly deluded by false hopes, he perhaps8409
is making vows, piling the altars high with gifts,8410
while we, grieving, follow his son in vain procession,8411
one who no longer owes any debt to the gods.8412
Unhappy one, you will see the bitter funeral of your child!8413
Is this how we return, is this our hoped-for triumph?8414
Is this what my great promise amounted to? 8415
Yet, Evander, your eyes will not see a son struck down8416
with shameful wounds, nor be a father praying for death,8417
accursed because your son came home alive. Alas, how great8418
was the protector, who is lost to you, Ausonia, and you, Iulus.’8419
When he had ended his lament, he ordered them to lift8420
the sad corpse, and he sent a thousand men, chosen8421
from the ranks, to attend the last rites, and share the father’s tears,8422
a meagre solace for so great a grief, but owed a father’s sorrow.8423
Others, without delay, interwove the frame of a bier 8424
with twigs of oak, and shoots of arbutus, shading 8425
the bed they constructed with a covering of leaves.8426
Here they placed the youth high on his rustic couch:8427
like a flower plucked by a young girl’s fingers,8428
a sweet violet or a drooping hyacinth, whose brightness8429
and beauty have not yet faded, but whose native earth 8430
no longer nourishes it, or gives it strength.8431
Then Aeneas brought two robes of rigid gold and purple8432
that Sidonian Dido had made for him once, with her own hands,8433
delighting in the labour, interweaving the fabric with gold thread.8434
Sorrowing, he draped the youth with one of these as a last honour,8435
and veiled that hair, which would be burned, with its cloth,8436
and heaped up many gifts as well from the Laurentine battle8437
and ordered the spoils to be carried in a long line:8438
he added horses and weapons stripped from the enemy.8439
He had the hands of those he sent as offerings to the shades,8440
to sprinkle the flames with blood in dying, bound behind their backs,8441
and ordered the leaders themselves to carry tree-trunks8442
draped with enemy weapons, with the names of the foe attached.8443
Unhappy Acoetes, wearied with age, was led along, 8444
now bruising his chest with his fists, now marring his face 8445
with his nails, until he fell, full-length on the ground:8446
and they led chariots drenched with Rutulian blood.8447
Behind went the war-horse, Aethon, without his trappings,8448
mourning, wetting his face with great tear drops.8449
Others carried Pallas’s spear and helmet, the rest Turnus8450
held as victor. Then a grieving procession followed,8451
Trojans, Etruscans, and Arcadians with weapons reversed.8452
When all the ranks of his comrades had advanced far ahead,8453
Aeneas halted, and added this, with a deep sigh:8454
‘This same harsh fate of warfare calls me from here8455
to other weeping: my salute for eternity to you, noble Pallas,8456
and for eternity, farewell.’ Without speaking more he turned8457
his steps toward the camp and headed for the walls.8458
BkXI:100-138 Aeneas Offers Peace8459
And now ambassadors, shaded with olive branches, 8460
came from the Latin city, seeking favours: they asked him 8461
to return the bodies of men, felled by the sword, overflowing 8462
the plain, and allow them to be buried under a mound of earth.8463
there could be no quarrel with the lost, devoid of the light:8464
let him spare those who were once hosts and fathers of brides.8465
Aeneas courteously granted prayers he could not refuse,8466
and added these words as well: ‘Latins, what shameful 8467
mischance has entangled you in a war like this, 8468
so that you fly from being our friends? Do you 8469
seek peace for your dead killed by fate in battle?8470
I would gladly grant it to the living too. I would not8471
be here, if fate had not granted me a place, a home,8472
nor do I wage war on your people: your king abandoned 8473
our friendship, and thought Turnus’s army greater.8474
It would have been more just for Turnus himself to meet 8475
this death. If he seeks to end the war by force, and drive out8476
the Trojans, he should have fought me with these weapons, he 8477
whom the gods, or his right hand granted life, would have survived. 8478
Now go and light the fires for your unfortunate countrymen.’8479
Aeneas had spoken. They were silent, struck dumb,8480
and kept their faces and their gaze fixed on one another.8481
Then Drances, an elder, always hostile to young Turnus,8482
shown in his dislike and reproaches, replied in turn, so:8483
‘O, Trojan hero, great in fame, greater in battle,8484
how can I praise you to the skies enough? Should I 8485
wonder first at your justice, or your efforts in war?8486
Indeed we will gratefully carry these words back 8487
to our native city, and if Fortune offers a way, we will8488
ally you to our king. Let Turnus seek treaties for himself.8489
It will be a delight even to raise those massive walls8490
and lift the stones of Troy on our shoulders.’8491
He spoke, and they all murmured assent with one voice.8492
They fixed a twelve day truce, and with peace as mediator,8493
Trojans and Latins wandered together, in safety, 8494
through the wooded hills. The tall ash rang to the two-edged axe,8495
they felled pine-trees towering to the heavens, and they never 8496
ceased splitting the oaks, and fragrant cedars, with wedges,8497
or carrying away the manna ash in rumbling wagons.8498
BkXI:139-181 Evander Mourns Pallas8499
And now Rumour filled Evander’s ears, and the palace’s 8500
and the city’s, flying there, bringing news of that great grief:8501
Rumour, that a moment since was carrying Pallas’s victory8502
to Latium. The Arcadians ran to the gates, and following 8503
ancient custom, seized torches for the funeral: the road shone8504
with the long ranks of flames, parting the distant fields.8505
The Trojan column, approaching, merged its files of mourners8506
with them. When the women saw them nearing 8507
the houses, grief set the city ablaze with its clamour.8508
But no force could restrain Evander, and he ran into their midst,8509
flung himself on Pallas’s body, once the bier was set down,8510
clinging to it with tears and groans, till at last, he spoke,8511
his grief scarcely allowing a path for his voice:8512
‘O Pallas, this was not the promise you made your father,8513
that you would enter this savage war with caution.8514
I am not ignorant how great new pride in weapons8515
can be, and honour won in a first conflict is very sweet.8516
Alas for the first fruits of your young life, and your8517
harsh schooling in a war so near us, and for my vows8518
and prayers unheard by any god! Happy were you, O my 8519
most sacred Queen, in a death that saved you from this sorrow!8520
I, by living on, have exceeded my fate, to survive as father8521
without son. I should have marched with the allied armies 8522
of Troy and been killed by those Rutulian spears! I should have8523
given my life, and this pomp should have carried me, not Pallas, home!8524
Yet I do not blame you, Trojans, or our treaty, or the hands8525
we clasped in friendship: my white hairs are the cause of this.8526
And if an untimely death awaited my son it is my joy that he fell8527
leading the Trojans into Latium, killing Volscians in thousands.8528
Indeed, Pallas, I thought you worthy of no other funeral 8529
than this that virtuous Aeneas, the great Phyrgians, 8530
the Etruscan leaders and all the Etruscans chose. 8531
Those, whom your right hand dealt death to, bring great trophies:8532
Turnus, you too would be standing here, a vast tree-trunk hung with8533
weapons, if years and mature strength had been alike in both.8534
But why in my unhappiness do I keep the Trojans from war? 8535
Go, and remember to take this message to your king:8536
if I prolong a life that’s hateful to me, now Pallas is dead,8537
it’s because you know your right hand owes father and son 8538
the death of Turnus. That is the one path of kindness to me 8539
and success for you that lies open. I don’t ask for joy while alive,8540
(that’s not allowed me) but to carry it to my son deep among the shades.’8541
BkXI:182-224 The Funeral Pyres8542
Dawn, meanwhile, had raised her kindly light on high8543
for wretched men, calling them again to work and toil:8544
now Aeneas the leader, now Tarchon, had erected pyres8545
on the curving bay. Here according to ancestral custom they each 8546
brought the bodies of their people, and as the gloomy fires 8547
were lit beneath, the high sky was veiled in a dark mist.8548
Three times they circled the blazing piles, clad in gleaming8549
armour, three times they rounded the mournful 8550
funeral flames on horseback, and uttered wailing cries.8551
Tears sprinkled the earth, and sprinkled the armour,8552
the clamour of men and blare of trumpets climbed to the heavens.8553
Then some flung spoils, stripped from the slaughtered Latins,8554
onto the fire, helmets and noble swords, bridles and swift wheels:8555
others, gifts familiar to the dead, their shields and luckless weapons.8556
Many head of cattle were sacrificed round these, to Death.8557
They cut the throats of bristling boars, and flocks culled 8558
from the whole country, over the flames. Then they watched 8559
their comrades burn, all along the shore, and kept guard 8560
over the charred pyres, and could not tear themselves away8561
till dew-wet night wheeled the sky round, inset with shining stars.8562
Elsewhere too the wretched Latins built innumerable pyres.8563
Some of the many corpses they buried in the earth, some they took8564
and carried to the fields nearby, or sent onwards to the city. 8565
The rest, a vast pile of indiscriminate dead, they burnt8566
without count, and without honours: then the wide fields8567
on every side shone thick with fires, in emulation.8568
The third dawn dispelled chill shadows from the sky:8569
grieving, they raked the bones, mixed with a depth of ash,8570
from the pyres, and heaped a mound of warm earth over them.8571
Meanwhile, the main clamour, and the heart of their prolonged 8572
lamentation, was inside the walls, in the city of rich Latinus.8573
Here mothers and unhappy daughters-in-law, here the loving hearts8574
of grieving sisters, and boys robbed of their fathers, cursed the dreadful8575
war, and the marriage Turnus had intended, and demanded that he 8576
and he alone should fight it out with armour and blade, he who 8577
claimed for himself the kingdom of Italy, and the foremost honours.8578
Cruelly, Drances added to this and testified that Turnus alone8579
was summoned, that he alone was challenged to battle.8580
At the same time many an opinion in varied words was against it,8581
and for Turnus, and the Queen’s noble name protected him,8582
while his great fame, and the trophies he’d earned, spoke for him. 8583
BkXI:225-295 An Answer From Arpi8584
Amongst this stir, at the heart of the blaze of dissension,8585
behold, to crown it all, the ambassadors brought an answer8586
from Diomedes’s great city, sad that nothing had been achieved8587
at the cost of all their efforts, presents and gold 8588
and heartfelt prayers had been useless, the Latins must find8589
other armies or seek peace with the Trojan king.8590
King Latinus sank beneath this vast disappointment.8591
The angry gods and the fresh graves before his eyes, had given8592
warning that this fateful Aeneas was clearly sent by divine will. 8593
So, summoning his high council, the leaders of his people, 8594
by royal command, he gathered them within his tall gates.8595
They convened, streaming to the king’s palace, through8596
the crowded streets. Latinus, the oldest and most powerful,8597
seated himself at their centre, with no pleasure in his aspect.8598
And he ordered the ambassadors, back from the Aetolian city,8599
to tell their news, asking for all the answers in order.8600
Then all tongues fell silent, and, obeying 8601
his order, Venulus began as follows:8602
‘O citizens, we have seen Diomedes and his Argive camp,8603
completed our journey, overcome all dangers,8604
and grasped that hand by which the land of Troy fell.8605
As victor over the Iapygian fields, by the Garganus hills, he was8606
founding the city of Argyripa, named after his father’s people.8607
When we had entered, and were given leave to speak to him8608
in person, we offered our gifts, and declared our name and country:8609
who had made war on us: and what had brought us to Arpi.8610
He listened and replied in this way with a calm look:8611
“O fortunate nations, realms of Saturn, ancient peoples8612
of Ausonia, what fortune troubles your peace8613
and persuades you to invite base war?8614
We who violated the fields of Troy with our blades,8615
(forgetting what we endured in battle beneath her high walls,8616
or those warriors Simois drowned) have paid in atrocious suffering,8617
and every kind of punishment, for our sins, throughout the world,8618
a crew that even Priam would have pitied: Minerva’s dark star8619
and that cliff of Euboea, Caphereus the avenger, know it. 8620
Menelaus, son of Atreus, driven from that warfare to distant shores,8621
was exiled as far as Egypt, and the Pillars of Proteus,8622
while Ulysses has viewed the Cyclopes of Aetna.8623
Even Mycenean Agamemnon, leader of the mighty Greeks,8624
was struck down at the hand of his wicked wife, when barely8625
over the threshold: he conquered Asia, but an adulterer lurked.8626
Need I speak of the kingdom of Neoptolemus, Idomeneus’s8627
household overthrown, or the Locrians living on Libya’s coast?8628
How the gods begrudged me my return to my country’s 8629
altars: the wife I longed for: and lovely Calydon?8630
Even now visitations pursue me, dreadful to see:8631
my lost comrades, as birds, sought the sky with their wings8632
or haunt the streams (alas a dire punishment for my people!)8633
and fill the cliffs with their mournful cries.8634
This was the fate I should have expected from that moment8635
when, in madness, I attacked Venus’s heavenly body8636
with my sword, and harmed her hand by wounding it.8637
Do not, in truth, do not urge me to such conflict. Since Troy’s 8638
towers have fallen I have no quarrel with Teucer’s race,8639
nor have I joyful memories of those ancient evils.8640
Take the gifts your bring me, from your country,8641
to Aeneas. I have withstood his cruel weapons and fought him8642
hand to hand: trust my knowledge of how he looms8643
tall above his shield, with what power he hurls his spear. 8644
Had the Troad produced two other men like him, 8645
the Trojans would have reached the Greek cities,8646
and Greece would be grieving, their fates reversed. 8647
During all that time we spent facing the walls of enduring Troy8648
a Greek victory was stalled at the hands of Hector 8649
and Aeneas, and denied us till the tenth year.8650
Both were outstanding in courage and weaponry:8651
Aeneas was first in virtue. Join hands with him in confederation,8652
as best you can, but beware of crossing swords with him.”8653
Noblest of kings, you have heard, in one, what their king replies8654
and what his counsels are concerning this great war.’8655
BkXI:296-335 Latinus’s Proposal8656
The ambassadors had scarcely finished speaking when diverse 8657
murmurs passed swiftly among the troubled Italian faces, just as8658
when rocks detain a flowing river a muttering rises from the imprisoned8659
eddies, and the banks, that border it echo with splashing waves. 8660
As soon as thoughts were calmer and anxious lips were quiet, the king8661
began to speak, from his high throne, first calling on the gods:8662
‘Latins, I wish we had decided on this vital matter before now,8663
and it would have been better not to convene the council at such8664
a moment, when the enemy is settled in front of our walls. 8665
Citizens we are waging a wrong-headed war with a divine race,8666
unconquered warriors whom no battles weary, and who8667
will not relinquish the sword even when beaten.8668
If you had hopes of the alliance with Aetolian armies,8669
forgo them. Each has his own hopes: but see how slight they are.8670
As for the rest of our affairs, the utter ruin they lie in8671
is in front of your eyes and under your hands.8672
I accuse no one: what the utmost courage could do has 8673
been done: the conflict has taken all the strength of our kingdom.8674
So let me explain the decision of my deliberating mind,8675
and I will outline it briefly (apply your thoughts to it).8676
There’s an ancient domain of mine along the Tuscan river,8677
stretching westward, to the Sicanian border and beyond:8678
Auruncans and Rutulians work the stubborn hills with the plough,8679
sow seed there, and use the roughest slopes as pasture. 8680
Let us yield all this region, with the pine-clad tract of high hills,8681
to the Trojans in friendship, and spell out the just terms 8682
of a treaty, and invite them to share our kingdom:8683
let them settle, if their desire is such, and build their city.8684
But if their wish is to conquer other territories 8685
and some other nation, and they might leave our soil,8686
let us fashion twenty ships of Italian oak: or more if they8687
can fill them, all the timber lies close to the water:8688
let them set out the number and design of their fleet8689
themselves: we’ll give the labour, the shipyard and the bronze.8690
Moreover, I want a hundred envoys to go to carry the news8691
and seal the pact, Latins of noblest birth, holding out branches8692
as peace tokens in their hands, and bearing gifts, talents8693
of ivory and gold, and the throne and the robe, symbols of royalty.8694
Consult together, and repair our weary fortunes.’8695
BkXI:336-375 Drances Attacks Turnus Verbally8696
Then Drances, whom Turnus’s glory provoked with the bitter8697
sting of secret envy, rose, hostile as before,: lavish 8698
of his wealth, and a better speaker, but with a hand 8699
frozen in battle: held to be no mean adviser in council,8700
and powerful in a quarrel (his mother’s high birth8701
granted him nobility, his father’s origin was uncertain):8702
and with these words added weight and substance to their anger:8703
‘O gracious king, you consult us on a subject clear to all,8704
and needing no speech from us: everyone acknowledges8705
they know what the public good demands, but shrink from speech.8706
Let that man, through whose inauspicious leadership8707
and perverse ways (speak I will though he threaten me 8708
with violence or death) we have seen so many glorious leaders8709
fall, and the city sunk in mourning, while he attacks the Trojan camp,8710
trusting in flight, and frightens heaven with his weapons, let him8711
grant freedom of speech, and cease his arrogance.8712
Add one further gift to the many you order us to send8713
and communicate to the Trojans, one more, gracious king,8714
why not, as a father may, and let no man’s violence prevent you,8715
give your daughter to an illustrious man in a marriage 8716
worthy of her, binding this peace with an everlasting contract.8717
But if fear of doing such possesses our minds and hearts,8718
let us appeal to the prince, and beg permission from him:8719
to yield, and give up his rights in favour of his king and his country.8720
O Turnus, you who are the source and reason for all these problems8721
for Latium, why do you so often hurl your wretched countrymen8722
into obvious danger? There’s no remedy in war, we all ask you8723
for peace, together with the sole inviolable pledge of peace.8724
I first of all, whom you imagine to be your enemy (and I8725
will not contest it) come as a suppliant. Pity your people,8726
set your pride aside, and conquered, give way. Routed,8727
we have seen enough of death and made broad acres desolate.8728
Or, if glory stirs you, if you harbour such strength of feeling,8729
and if a palace as dowry is so dear to you, be bold,8730
and carry yourself confidently against the enemy.8731
Surely we whose lives are worthless should be scattered8732
over the fields, unburied and unwept, so that Turnus8733
might gain his royal bride? And you too, if you have8734
any strength, if you have any of your father’s warlike spirit, 8735
you must look into the face of your challenger.’8736
BkXI:376-444 Turnus Replies8737
Turnus’s fury blazed at such a speech. He gasped8738
and from the depths of his heart gave vent to these words:8739
‘Drances, it’s true you always have more than plenty to say 8740
whenever war calls for men, and you’re first to appear when the senate 8741
is called together. But there’s no need to fill the council-house with words,8742
that fly so freely from you when you are safe, when the rampart walls8743
keep the enemy off and the ditches are not yet drowned in blood.8744
So thunder away, eloquently (as is your wont) Drances, and charge8745
me with cowardice when your hand has produced like mounds8746
of Trojan dead, and dotted the fields everywhere 8747
with trophies. You’re free to try what raw courage can do,8748
and certainly we don’t need to search far for enemies:8749
they’re surrounding the walls on every side.8750
Shall we go against them? Why hesitate? 8751
Will your appetite for war always remain 8752
in your airy tongue and fleeing feet?8753
I, beaten? You total disgrace, can anyone who sees 8754
the Tiber swollen with Trojan blood, and all Evander’s 8755
house and race toppled, and the Arcadians stripped 8756
of weapons, say with justice I am beaten?8757
Bitias, and giant Pandarus, and the thousand men that I as victor8758
sent down to Tartarus in one day, did not find it so, imprisoned 8759
though I was by the walls, and hedged by enemy ramparts.8760
No safety in war? Madman, sing such about the Trojan’s life,8761
and your possessions. Go on then, troubling everyone8762
with your great fears, and extolling the powers of a race8763
twice-defeated, while disparaging Latinus’s army.8764
Now even Myrmidon princes, now Diomede, Tydeus’s 8765
son, and Larissean Achilles, tremble at Trojan weapons,8766
and Aufidus’s river flows backwards from the Adriatic waves.8767
And what when he pretends he’s afraid to quarrel with me,8768
the cunning rascal, and intensifies the charge with false terror.8769
You’ll not lose a life like yours to my right hand 8770
(don’t shrink) keep it, let it remain in your breast.8771
Now, old father, I return to you and your great debate.8772
If you place no further hope in our forces,8773
if we’re so desolate, if one reverse for our troops8774
has utterly destroyed us, and our Fortunes cannot return,8775
let’s stretch out our helpless hands, and sue for peace.8776
Oh if only our traditional courage was here, though.8777
That man to me would be happy in his efforts, and outstanding 8778
in spirit, who had fallen in death, so as not to see8779
such things, and who had bitten the dust once and for all.8780
Yet if we still have our wealth and manhood intact8781
and nations and cities of Italy are still our allies,8782
if the Trojans won glory with great bloodshed,8783
(they too have their dead, the storm of war’s the same for all)8784
why do we lose heart, shamefully, on the very threshold?8785
Why does fear seize our limbs before the trumpets sound?8786
Many things change for the better with time, and the various8787
labours of altering years: Fortune toys with many a man,8788
then, visiting him in turn, sets him on solid ground again.8789
The Aetolian and his Arpi will be no help to us:8790
but Messapus will, and Tolumnius, the fortunate,8791
and all those leaders sent by many a people: no little glory8792
will accrue to the flower of Latium and Laurentine fields.8793
We have Camilla too, of the glorious Volscian nation,8794
leading her troop of riders, and squadrons bright with bronze.8795
But if the Trojans only call me to fight, and that’s your wish,8796
if I’m so great an obstacle to the common good, Victory is far8797
from having fled these hands of mine with such hatred 8798
that I should refuse to try anything for a hope so sweet.8799
I’d face him with courage though he outclassed great Achilles,8800
and wore armour to match, fashioned by Vulcan’s hands.8801
I, Turnus, not second in virtue to any of my ancestors,8802
dedicate my life to you all, and to Latinus, father of my bride,8803
Aeneas challenges me alone? I pray that he does so challenge:8804
and, if the gods’ anger is in this, that it is not Drances rather than I8805
who appeases them in death, or if there’s worth and glory, takes it all. 8806
BkXI:445-531 The Trojans Attack8807
Arguing among themselves, they debated the issues 8808
in doubt: while Aeneas was moving his camp and lines.8809
See, a messenger runs through the royal palace,8810
with great commotion, filling the city with huge alarm:8811
the Trojans, ready for battle, and the Etruscan ranks8812
were sweeping down from the river Tiber, over the plain.8813
At once people’s minds were troubled, their hearts shaken,8814
and their deep anger roused by the ungentle shock.8815
Anxiously they called for weapons: weapons the young men8816
shouted, while their sad fathers wept and murmured. 8817
And now a great clamour filled with discord rose to heaven 8818
on every side, as when a flock of birds settles by chance 8819
in some tall grove, or when the swans give their hoarse calls,8820
among noisy pools, by Padusa’s fish-filled streams.8821
‘Yes, oh citizens,’ Turnus cried, seizing his moment, 8822
‘convene your council and sit there praising peace:8823
while they attack us with weapons.’ He said no more8824
but sprang up and went swiftly from the high halls.8825
‘You, Volusus,’ he shouted, ‘tell the Volscian troops to arm, 8826
and lead the Rutulians. Messapus, and Coras with your brother, 8827
deploy the cavalry, under arms, over the wide plain. 8828
Let some secure the city gates, and occupy the towers:8829
the rest carry their weapons with me, where I order.’8830
At once there was a rush to the walls all over the city.8831
King Latinus himself left the council, dismayed by the darkness8832
of the hour, and abandoned his great plan, reproaching himself8833
again and again for not having freely received Trojan Aeneas,8834
and adopted him as his son-in-law for the city’s sake.8835
Some dug trenches in front of the gates or carried stones8836
and stakes. The harsh trumpet gave the cruel call to war.8837
Then a diverse circle of mothers and sons 8838
ringed the walls: this final trial summoned them all.8839
Moreover the Queen, with a great crowd of women, 8840
drove to Pallas’s temple on the heights of the citadel8841
carrying gifts, virgin Lavinia next to her as her companion,8842
a source of so much trouble, her beautiful eyes cast down.8843
The women climbed to the temple, filled it with incense 8844
fumes, and poured out sad prayers from the high threshold:8845
‘Tritonian Virgin, mighty in weapons, ruler of war, shatter8846
the spear of the Trojan robber, with your hand, hurl him flat8847
on the earth, stretch him prone beneath our high gates.’8848
Turnus, in a fury of zeal, armed himself for battle.8849
He was already dressed in his glowing breastplate, 8850
bristling with bronze scales, his legs sheathed in gold,8851
his temples still bare, his sword buckled to his side,8852
shining, splendid, as he ran down from the citadel’s heights,8853
exultant in spirit, already anticipating the enemy in hope:8854
like a stallion, breaking his tether and fleeing his stall,8855
free at last, lord of the open plain, who either heads8856
for the pastures and the herds of mares, or, used to bathing8857
in some familiar river, gallops away, and, with head held high,8858
neighs with pleasure, his mane playing over neck and shoulder.8859
Camilla sped to meet him, accompanied by her Volscian 8860
troops, and alighted from her horse close by the gates, 8861
all her company leaving their mounts at her example,8862
and slipping to earth: then she spoke as follows:8863
‘Turnus, if the brave may rightly have faith in themselves,8864
I dare to, and promise to, encounter Aeneas’s cavalry,8865
and ride to meet the Etruscan horsemen alone.8866
Let me attempt the first dangers of the battle with my hand8867
while you stay by the walls and protect the ramparts.’8868
Turnus replied, his gaze fixed on this amazing girl:8869
‘O virgin glory of Italy, how should I attempt 8870
to thank you or repay you? But as your spirit8871
soars beyond us all, share the task with me.8872
Aeneas, so rumour says, and scouts sent out confirm,8873
has deployed his light cavalry to search the plains8874
thoroughly: he himself climbing the ridge, marches8875
through the desolate heights towards the town.8876
I am preparing an ambush on a deep track in the woods,8877
so as to block both entrances to the gorge with armed men:8878
you must wait for the Etruscan cavalry charge:8879
brave Messapus will be with you, and the Latin troops,8880
and Tiburtus’s band, and you must take command as leader.’8881
So he spoke, and exhorted Messapus and all the allied generals8882
to battle, with similar words, then moved against the enemy.8883
There’s a valley with a winding bend, suitable for the tricks8884
and stratagems of warfare, crowded on both sides 8885
by a dark wall of dense leaves, to which a narrow track8886
leads: it has a confined floor, and a difficult entrance.8887
Above it, among the look-outs of the high mountain tops,8888
lies a hidden level and a secure shelter,8889
whether one wishes to attack to right or left,8890
or make a stand on the ridge and roll huge boulders down.8891
Here the warrior hurried by a well known network of paths8892
and taking position he occupied the treacherous woods.8893
BkXI:532-596 Diana’s Concern For Camilla8894
Meanwhile, in heaven’s halls, Diana, Latona’s daughter,8895
spoke to swift Opis, one of her sacred band of virgin 8896
followers, and gave voice to these sorrowful words:8897
‘O girl, Camilla, is going to the cruel war, and takes up8898
my weapons in vain. She’s dearer to me than all others, 8899
and this is no new love that comes to Diana, 8900
or moves my spirit with sudden sweetness.8901
When Metabus was driven from his throne by hatred8902
of his tyrannical power, and was leaving Privernum,8903
his ancient city, fleeing amidst the conflict of war,8904
he took his child to share his exile, and, slightly altering8905
her mother’s name Casmilla, called her Camilla.8906
Carrying her in front of him at his breast he sought a long ridge8907
of lonely forests: fierce weapons threatened him on every side, 8908
and the Volscians hovered round him with their troops.8909
While they were still in mid-flight, see, the Ausenus overflowed,8910
foaming to the top of its banks, so great a downpour burst 8911
from the clouds. He, preparing to swim across, was held back8912
by love of his child, and fear for his dear burden. Quickly,8913
debating all options with himself, he settled reluctantly8914
on this idea: the warrior fastened his daughter to the giant spear,8915
solid with knots and of seasoned oak, he chanced to be carrying8916
in his strong hand, wrapping her in the bark of a cork-tree8917
from the woods, and tying her wisely to the middle of the shaft:8918
then balancing it in his mighty hand he cried out to the heavens:8919
‘Kind virgin daughter of Latona, dweller in the woods, I her father8920
dedicate this child to your service: fleeing the enemy through the air,8921
yours is the first weapon she clasps as a suppliant. Goddess I beg you8922
to accept as your own this that I now commit to the uncertain breeze.’8923
He spoke, and drawing back his arm hurled the spinning shaft:8924
the waters roared, and the wretched Camilla flew 8925
over the rushing river on the hissing steel. And Metabus, 8926
with a great crowd of his enemies pressing him closely, 8927
gave himself to the flood, and victoriously snatched his gift8928
to Diana from the grassy turf, the spear and the little maid.8929
No city would accept him within their houses or their walls,8930
(nor would he in his savagery have given himself up to them)8931
he passed his life among shepherds on the lonely mountains.8932
Here, among the thickets of savage lairs, he nourished 8933
his child at the udders of a mare from the herd, and milk 8934
from wild creatures, squeezing the teats into her delicate mouth.8935
As soon as the infant had taken her first steps, 8936
he placed a sharp lance in her hands, and hung 8937
bow and quiver from the little one’s shoulder.8938
A tiger’s pelt hung over head and down her back8939
instead of a gold clasp for her hair, and a long trailing robe.8940
Even then she was hurling childish spears with tender hand,8941
whirling a smooth-thonged sling round her head,8942
bringing down Strymonian cranes and snowy swans.8943
Many a mother in Etruscan fortresses wished for her8944
as a daughter-in-law in vain: she, pure, content with Diana8945
alone, cherished her love of her weapons and maidenhood.8946
I wish she had not been swept up into such warfare, 8947
trying to challenge the Trojans: she would be 8948
my darling, and one of my company still.8949
Come now, nymph, since bitter fate drives her on,8950
slip from the sky and seek out the Latin borders,8951
where with evil omen they join in sad battle.8952
Take these weapons and draw an avenging arrow from the quiver, 8953
and if anyone violates her sacred flesh by wounding her, 8954
Trojan or Italian, pay me with their equal punishment in blood. 8955
Then I’ll carry the body and untouched weapons of the poor girl8956
in a cavernous cloud to a sepulchre, and bury her in her own land.’8957
She spoke, and Opis slid down with a sound through 8958
heaven’s light air, her body veiled in a dark whirlwind.8959
BkXI:597-647 The Armies Engage8960
In the meantime the Trojan band with the Etruscan8961
leaders, and all the cavalry, approached the walls,8962
marshalled in squadrons troop by troop. Warhorses8963
neighing, cavorted over the whole area, fighting the tight rein,8964
prancing this way and that: the field bristled far and wide8965
with the steel of spears, and the plain blazed with lifted weapons.8966
On the other side, also, Messapus, and the swift Latins, 8967
Coras with his brother, and virgin Camilla’s wing appeared,8968
opposing them on the plain, and drawing their right arms far back8969
they thrust their lances forward, the spear-points quivered:8970
the march of men and the neighing of horses increased.8971
And now both halted their advance within a spear’s throw:8972
they ran forward with a sudden shout and spurred on 8973
their maddened horses, spears showered from all sides at once8974
as dense as snowflakes, and the sky was veiled in darkness.8975
Immediately Tyrrhenus and brave Aconteus charged 8976
each other, with levelled spears, and were the first to fall8977
with a mighty crash, shattering their horses’ breastbones8978
as they collided: Aconteus, hurled like a thunderbolt8979
or a heavy stone shot from a catapult, was thrown 8980
some distance, and wasted his breath of life on the air.8981
At once the ranks wavered, and the Latins slung their shields8982
behind them, and turned their mounts towards the walls.8983
The Trojans pursued, Asilas their leader heading the squadrons.8984
Now they were nearing the gates when the Latins again8985
raised a shout, and turned their horse’s responsive necks:8986
the Trojans now fled, and retreated to a distance with loose reins,8987
like the sea running in with alternate waves, 8988
now rushing to shore, dashing over the rocks 8989
in a foaming flood, drenching the furthest sands 8990
with its swell, now retreating quickly, sucking rolling8991
pebbles in its wash, leaving dry sand as the shallows ebbed:8992
twice the Tuscans drove the routed Rutulians to the city, twice,8993
repulsed, they looked behind, defending their backs with their shields.8994
But when they clashed in a third encounter their lines 8995
locked tight, and man marked man, then truly, the battle8996
swelled fiercely among the groans of the dying, 8997
with weapons, bodies, and horses in their death-throes, 8998
in pools of blood, entangled with slaughtered riders.8999
Orsilochus hurled a lance at Remulus’s horse, fearing9000
to attack the man, and left the point embedded beneath its ear:9001
The rearing charger, maddened by the blow, and unable to bear9002
the wound, lifted its chest, and thrashed high with its forelegs,9003
Remulus thrown clear, rolled on the ground. Catillus9004
felled Iollas and Herminius, a giant in courage, a giant 9005
in torso and limbs, tawny hair on his head, his shoulders bare,9006
for whom wounds held no terror he spread so wide in his armour. 9007
The driven spear passed quivering through his broad shoulders,9008
and, piercing him, doubled him up with pain. Dark blood 9009
streamed everywhere: clashing with swords, they dealt death 9010
and sought a glorious ending through their wounds.9011
BkXI:648-724 Camilla In Action9012
But an Amazon exulted in the midst of the slaughter, 9013
with one breast bared for battle: Camilla, armed with her quiver:9014
now she showered sturdy javelins, scattering them from her hands,9015
now she lifted a strong battle-axe in her unwearied grasp:9016
and Diana’s weapon, a golden bow, rattled on her shoulder.9017
Even when she retreated, attacked from behind,9018
she reversed her bow and fired arrows while fleeing.9019
And around her were chosen comrades, virgin Larina,9020
and Tulla, and Tarpeia wielding her axe of bronze,9021
the Italides, daughters of Italy, whom noble Camilla 9022
chose herself as her glory, faithful servants in peace or war:9023
such were the Amazons of Thrace, treading Thermodon’s 9024
streams, and fighting with ornate weapons, around 9025
Hippolyte, or when Penthesilea returned, in her chariot,9026
and the ranks of women with crescent shields exulted.9027
Whom did you strike, first and last, with your spear, fierce girl?9028
How many bodies did you spill over the earth?9029
Euneus, son of Clytius, was the first, whose exposed chest9030
she pierced with her long shaft of pine, as he faced her.9031
He fell, spewing streams of blood, and bit9032
the gory dust, and, dying, writhed on his wound.9033
Then she killed Liris and Pagasus too, one gathering9034
the reins of his wounded horse as he rolled from it, the other 9035
nearing to stretch out a defenceless hand to the falling man,9036
both flung headlong together. She added to them Amastrus, 9037
son of Hippotas, and, leaning forward to throw, sent her spear 9038
after Tereus, Harpalycus, Demophoon and Cromis:9039
and as many spears as the girl sent spinning from her hand, 9040
so many Trojan warriors fell. The huntsman Ornytus9041
was riding far off, in unfamiliar armour, on his Iapygian9042
horse, the hide stripped from a bullock covering his broad9043
shoulders, his head protected by a wolf’s huge gaping mask,9044
and white-toothed jaws, a rustic’s hunting-spear in his hand:9045
he moved along in the centre of the army, a full head 9046
above the rest. Catching him she struck him (no effort9047
in the routed ranks) then with pitiless heart spoke above him:9048
‘Did you think you chased prey in the forest, Tuscan?9049
The day is here that proves your words wrong, with9050
a woman’s weapons. But you’ll carry no small fame9051
to your father’s shades, you fell to Camilla’s spear.’9052
Then she killed Orsilochus and Butes, two of the largest Trojans,9053
Butes she fixed with a spear in the back, between 9054
breastplate and helmet, where the rider’s neck 9055
gleams and the shield hangs from the left arm:9056
while fleeing from Orsilochus, chased in a wide circle, 9057
she eluded him, wheeling inside, pursuing the pursuer:9058
then, lifting herself higher, drove her strong axe, again and again,9059
through armour and bone, as he begged and prayed desperately:9060
the wounds staining his face with warm brain-matter.9061
Now the warrior son of Aunus, met her, and suddenly9062
halted, terrified at the sight, he a man of the Apennines,9063
not the least of the lying Ligurians while fate allowed it.9064
When he saw he couldn’t escape a fight by a turn of speed,9065
or divert the queen from her attack, he tried to devise9066
a stratagem with wit and cunning, as follows:9067
‘What’s so great about relying on a strong horse, woman?9068
Forget flight, and trust yourself to fighting me 9069
on level ground, equip yourself to battle on foot:9070
you’ll soon know whose windy boasting’s an illusion.’9071
He spoke, and she, raging and burning with bitter resentment,9072
handed her horse to a friend, and faced him with equal weapons.9073
on foot and unafraid, with naked sword and plain shield.9074
But the youth, sure he had won by guile, sped off 9075
(instantly), flicking his reins, took to flight, 9076
pricking his horse to a gallop with spurs of steel.9077
The girl shouted: ‘Stupid Ligurian, uselessly vaunting9078
your boastful spirit, you’ve tried your slippery native wiles9079
in vain, and cunning won’t carry you back to Aunus unharmed.’9080
And like lightening she intercepted the horse’s path, on swift feet,9081
and seizing the reins from in front tackled him, and took vengeance9082
on the blood she hated: as light as a falcon, Apollo’s sacred bird, 9083
swooping from a tall rock, overtaking a dove in flight in the high cloud,9084
holding her in its talons, and tearing her heart out with its curved talons:9085
while blood and torn feathers shower from the sky.9086
BkXI:725-767 Arruns Follows Her9087
But the father of gods and men with watchful eyes9088
sat throned on high Olympus observing it all.9089
The maker stirred the Etruscan, Tarchon, to fierce battle9090
and goaded him to anger with no gentle spur.9091
So Tarchon rode amidst the slaughter and the wavering ranks,9092
inciting his squadrons with varied shouts, and calling 9093
each man by name, rallying the routed to the fight.9094
‘What fear, what utter cowardice has filled your hearts,9095
O, you ever-sluggish Tuscans, O you who are never ashamed?9096
Can a woman drive you in disorder and turn your ranks?9097
Why do we bear swords and spears idle in our right hands?9098
But you are not slow to love or for nocturnal battles, nor when 9099
the curved pipe proclaims the Bacchic dance. Wait then for the feast 9100
and wine-cups on the loaded tables, (that is your passion 9101
and your pleasure) while the happy seer reports the sacred9102
omens, and the rich sacrifice calls you into the deep grove!’9103
So saying, and ready to die, he spurred his mount into the press,9104
tore at Venulus like a whirlwind, and snatched him from his horse, 9105
and, clasping his enemy to his chest with his right arm,9106
and stirring himself to a mighty effort, carried him off.9107
A shout rose to the skies and all the Latins turned their gaze9108
that way. Tarchon flew over the plain like lightning, 9109
carrying weapons and man: then he broke of the iron tip 9110
of his enemy’s spear, and searched for an unguarded opening9111
where he might deal a deadly wound: Venulus, struggling with him,9112
kept the hand from his throat, meeting force with force.9113
As when a tawny eagle soaring high carries a snake it has caught,9114
entwined in its feet, with talons clinging, while the wounded serpent 9115
writhes in sinuous coils, and rears its bristling scales, hissing9116
with its mouth as it rises up, and none the less attacks 9117
its struggling prey, with curved beak, while its wings beat the air:9118
so Tarchon carried his prize in triumph from the Tiburtian ranks.9119
Emulating their leader’s example and success, the Etruscans charged.9120
And now Arruns, a man whose life was owed to the fates,9121
began to circle swift Camilla, with his javelin, 9122
with skilful cunning, trying for the easiest of chances.9123
Wherever the girl rode among the ranks, in her fury,9124
there Arruns shadowed her, and followed her track in silence:9125
wherever she returned in triumph or withdrew from the foe,9126
there the youth secretly turned his quick reins.9127
He tried this approach and that, travelling the whole circuit9128
on every side, relentlessly brandishing his sure spear. 9129
BkXI:768-835 The Death of Camilla9130
It chanced that Chloreus, once a priest, sacred to Cybele,9131
glittered some distance away splendid in Phrygian armour,9132
spurring his foam-flecked horse, that a hide, plumed 9133
with bronze scales, and clasped with gold, protected.9134
He himself, shining with deep colours and foreign purple,9135
fired Gortynian arrows from a Lycian bow:9136
the weapon was golden on his shoulder, and golden9137
the seer’s helm: his saffron cloak and its rustling folds of linen9138
were gathered into a knot with yellow gold, his tunic9139
and barbaric leg-coverings embroidered by the needle.9140
The virgin huntress singling him out from all the press 9141
of battle, either hoping to hang his Trojan weapons 9142
in the temple, or to display herself in captured gold, 9143
pursued him blindly, and raged recklessly through the ranks,9144
with a feminine desire for prizes and spoil, 9145
when Arruns, finally seizing his chance, raised his spear9146
from ambush and prayed aloud, like this, to heaven:9147
‘Highest of gods, Apollo, guardian of holy Soracte,9148
whose chief followers are we for whom the blaze of the pine-wood 9149
fire is fed, and who as worshippers, confident in our faith,9150
plant our steps on deep embers among the flames, 9151
all-powerful father grant that this shame be effaced 9152
by our weapons. I seek no prize, no trophy of the girl’s defeat,9153
no spoils: some other deed will bring me fame: 9154
only let this dreadful scourge fall wounded under my blow,9155
and I’ll return without glory to the cities of my ancestors.’9156
Phoebus heard him, and granted the success of half the prayer9157
in his mind, half he scattered on the passing breeze: he agreed9158
to the prayer that Arruns might bring Camilla to sudden death’s ruin:9159
but did not grant that his noble country should see him return, 9160
and the gusts carried his words away on the southerly winds.9161
So as the spear whistled through the air, speeding from his hand,9162
all the Volscians turned their eager eyes and minds 9163
towards the queen. She herself noticed neither breeze9164
nor sound, nor the weapon falling from the sky, 9165
till the spear went home, fixing itself under her naked9166
breast, and driven deep, drank of her virgin blood.9167
Her friends rushed to her anxiously and caught 9168
their falling queen. Arruns, more fearful than the rest,9169
fled in joy and terror, not daring to trust 9170
his spear further, or meet the virgin’s weapons. 9171
And as a wolf that has killed a shepherd, or a great bullock,9172
immediately hides itself deep in the pathless mountains9173
before the hostile spears can reach it, conscious9174
of its audacious actions, and holds its lowered tail9175
quivering between its legs, as it heads for the woods:9176
so Arruns, in turmoil, stole away from sight,9177
and, content to escape, plunged into the midst of the army.9178
Camilla tugged at the weapon with dying hands, 9179
but the iron point was fixed between the bones,9180
near the ribs, deep in the wound. She sank back9181
bloodless, her eyes sank, chill with death,9182
the once radiant colour had left her cheeks.9183
Then, expiring, she spoke to Acca, one of her peers, faithful9184
to Camilla beyond all others, sole sharer of her sorrows, 9185
and uttered these words to her: ‘Acca, my sister, 9186
my strength lasted this far: now the bitter wound 9187
exhausts me, and all around me darkens with shadows.9188
Fly, and carry my final commands to Turnus: he must take9189
my place in the battle, and keep the Trojans from the city.9190
Now farewell.’ With these words she let go the reins, slipping 9191
helplessly to earth. Then, little by little, growing cold she loosed 9192
herself from her body completely, dipping the unresponsive neck9193
and that head death had seized, letting go her weapons, 9194
and with a sob her life fled angrily to the shades below.9195
Then indeed an immense shout rose, reaching 9196
the golden stars: with Camilla fallen, the battle swelled:9197
the Trojan host, the Etruscan leaders, and Evander’s9198
Arcadian squadrons rushed on in a mass together.9199
BkXI:836-915 Opis Takes Revenge9200
Now Opis, Diana’s sentinel, had been seated there 9201
on a mountain, for a long time, watching the battle fearlessly.9202
And when she saw far off, amongst the clamour of raging armies,9203
that Camilla had paid the penalty of death, she sighed9204
and uttered these words from the depths of her heart:9205
‘Ah too cruel, virgin girl, too cruel the sacrifice 9206
you have made, for trying to challenge the Trojans in war!9207
It has not helped you that you worshipped Diana 9208
in the lonely woods and wore our quiver on your shoulder.9209
Yet your queen has not left you without honour now 9210
in the extremes of death, nor will your loss be without fame9211
among the people, nor will you suffer the infamy of dying 9212
un-avenged. For whoever desecrated your body with this wound9213
will pay the price of death.’ An earthen mound, covered 9214
with shadowy holm-oak, stood beneath the high mountain, 9215
the vast tomb of Dercennus, an ancient Laurentine king:9216
here the loveliest of goddesses, after swift flight, first set foot9217
and caught sight of Arruns from the high tumulus.9218
When she saw him shining in armour, swollen with pride,9219
she cried: ‘Why go so far away? Turn your steps here,9220
come this way to destruction, and receive your reward,9221
worthy of Camilla. May even you not die by Diana’s weapons?’9222
She spoke: then the Thracian goddess took a winged arrow9223
from her golden quiver, and stretched the bow in anger,9224
drawing it far back, until the curving horns met, 9225
and now with levelled arms she touched the steel tip9226
with her left hand, and her breast and the bow-string with her right.9227
At the same moment as Arruns heard the hissing dart,9228
and the rushing air, both one, the steel was fixed in his body.9229
His allies, oblivious, left him on the unmemorable dust9230
of the plain, gasping and groaning in extremity:9231
while Opis winged her way to heavenly Olympus.9232
Camilla’s light cavalry were first to flee, their mistress lost,9233
the Rutulians fled in turmoil, brave Atinas fled,9234
scattered leaders and abandoned troops sought safety,9235
and, wheeling their horses about, headed for the walls.9236
No one could check the pursuing, death-dealing 9237
Trojans with weapons, or stand against them 9238
but slung their unstrung bows on bowed shoulders,9239
and their horses’ hooves shook the crumbling earth in flight. 9240
A cloud of dark murky dust rolled towards the walls,9241
and mothers, from the watchtowers, raised the womens’ 9242
cry to the stars in heaven, as they beat their breasts.9243
The enemy host pressed hard on those who first broke at speed 9244
through the open gates, mixing with their lines, so they did not9245
escape a pitiful death, but, pierced through, gasped away their lives9246
on the very threshold, their country’s walls around them, within 9247
the shelter of their houses. Some closed the gates, and dared not9248
open a path for their friends or let them inside the walls, 9249
though they begged, and the most pitiful death followed, of those 9250
defending the entrance in arms, and those rushing onto the swords.9251
Some driven by the rout, shut out, in front of the gaze 9252
and the weeping faces of their parents, rolled headlong 9253
into the ditches, others charging blindly with loose reins 9254
battered at the gates and the tough gate-posts barring their way.9255
The women themselves when they saw Camilla from the walls9256
in fierce emulation (true love of country guided them)9257
threw weapons with their weak hands, and in their haste9258
used poles of tough oak and fire-hardened stakes instead of steel,9259
and were ablaze to die in the forefront defending the walls.9260
Meanwhile in the forest, the bitterest of messages filled Turnus’s 9261
thoughts: Acca had brought the warrior her news of the mighty rout:9262
the Volscian ranks annihilated, Camilla killed, the enemy9263
advancing fiercely, sweeping all before them 9264
in the fortune of war, panic now reaching the city.9265
Maddened he abandoned the ambush among the hills9266
(so Jove’s cruel will demanded) and left the wild forest.9267
He had scarcely passed from view, in reaching the plain,9268
when Aeneas, the leader, mounted the ridge, after entering9269
the unguarded gorge, and emerging from the dense woods.9270
So they both marched quickly towards the walls, 9271
in full force, and with no great distance between them:9272
and at that moment Aeneas saw the plain, far off,9273
smoking with dust, and caught sight of the Laurentine army,9274
and Turnus realised that fatal Aeneas was in arms,9275
and heard the march of feet, and the sound of horses.9276
They would have joined battle at once and attempted combat,9277
but rosy Phoebus was already bathing his weary team9278
in the Spanish deeps, and, day waning, brought back the night.9279
They camped before the city, and strengthened their defences.9280
BkXII:1-53 Turnus Demands Marriage9281
When Turnus saw the Latins exhausted, and weakened9282
by their military reverse, himself the subject of every gaze, his own9283
promise to them yet unfulfilled, he burned implacably,9284
and unprompted, and raised his courage. As a lion, in the African9285
bush, severely hurt by huntsmen with a wound to the chest, 9286
only then rouses himself to battle, tosses his shaggy mane 9287
over his neck, in joy, and, unafraid, snaps off the spear 9288
some poacher has planted in him, roaring from blood-stained jaws:9289
so the violence grew in Turnus’s inflamed heart.9290
Then he spoke to the king, beginning turbulently like this:9291
‘There’s no reluctance here, in Turnus: there’s no reason9292
for Aeneas’s coward crew to take back their words9293
or renounce their pact: I go to meet him. Carry out 9294
the holy rite, father, and draw up the marriage contract. 9295
I’ll either send this Trojan, this Asian deserter, 9296
to Tartarus, (let the Latins sit and watch) and 9297
with my sword, alone, dispel the nation’s shame,9298
or let him possess the defeated, let Lavinia go then as his bride.’9299
Latinus replied to him with calm in his heart:9300
‘O youth of noble spirit, the more you excel9301
in fierce courage, the more it is right for me to take9302
careful thought, and weigh every event with caution.9303
You have your father Daunus’s kingdom, you have9304
the many fortresses you captured by force, 9305
and Latinus is not short of gold and generosity:9306
there are other unmarried girls, not ignoble in birth, 9307
in the fields of Latium and Laurentium. Allow me to say this, 9308
un-gently, openly stripped of all guile, and take it to heart:9309
it was forbidden for me to ally my daughter to any9310
of her former suitors, and all gods and men decreed it.9311
Conquered by love for you, conquered by kinship, and the tears9312
of a sorrowful wife, I broke all bounds: I snatched the betrothed 9313
girl from my son-in-law to be, and drew the impious sword.9314
You see, Turnus, what events, what war dogs me,9315
what a heavy burden you above all bear.9316
Defeated in two great battles we can hardly preserve9317
the hopes of Italy in our city: Tiber’s streams are yet warm9318
with our blood, the vast plains whitened by our bones.9319
Why did I waver so often? What madness changed my decision?9320
If I’d be ready to accept the Trojans as allies with Turnus 9321
dead, why not rather end the conflict while he’s alive?9322
What would your Rutulian kin say, and the rest of Italy, 9323
if I betrayed you to death (let chance deny those words!)9324
while seeking my daughter in marriage?9325
Consider the fortunes of war: pity your aged father,9326
whom his native Ardea keeps apart from us, sorrowing.’9327
Turnus’s fury was unaffected by these words:9328
it mounted higher, inflamed by the treatment.9329
As soon as he was able to speak, he began like this:9330
‘Most gracious one, that concern you feel for me, I beg you,9331
for me, set it aside, and allow me to barter death for glory.9332
I too can scatter spears and no lack of steel, from my hand, 9333
father, and blood flows from the wounds I make as well.9334
His goddess mother will be far from him, she who covers9335
his flight with mist, like a woman, and hides in empty shadows.’9336
BkXII:54-80 He Proposes Single Combat9337
But the queen wept, terrified by the new terms of conflict,9338
and clung to her ardent son, as if she were dying:9339
‘Turnus, one thing I beg of you, by these tears, by any respect9340
for Amata that touches your heart: you are my only hope,9341
the peace of my sad old age, the honour and power of Latinus9342
is in your hands, our whole tottering house rests on you:9343
do not engage in combat with the Trojans.9344
Whatever danger awaits you in that battle awaits me too,9345
Turnus: I would leave this hateful light with you9346
and will never, as a prisoner, see Aeneas as my son-in-law.’9347
Lavinia listened to her mother’s words, her burning 9348
cheeks wet with tears, while a deep blush kindled 9349
their fire, and spread over her glowing face.9350
Her virgin looks showed such colour as when one9351
stains Indian ivory with crimson dye, or as9352
white lilies redden when mixed with many a rose.9353
Love stirred Turnus, and he fixed his gaze on the girl:9354
fired still more for battle, he spoke briefly to Amata:9355
‘O mother, I beg you not to send me off with tears,9356
or like ill omens, as I leave for the battles of a bitter war:9357
Turnus is not free to delay his hour of death.9358
Idmon, as a messenger, carry my unwelcome words 9359
to the Trojan leader. When tomorrow’s Dawn, riding9360
her crimson chariot, reddens in the sky, do not lead9361
Trojans against Rutulians, let Trojan and Rutulian9362
weapons rest: let us resolve this war with our own blood,9363
on that field let Lavinia be sought as bride.’9364
BkXII:81-112 He Prepares For Battle9365
When he had spoken, and returned quickly to the palace, he called 9366
for his horses, and delighted in seeing them, neighing before him,9367
horses Orithyia herself gave Pilumnus, as a glory,9368
surpassing the snow in whiteness, and the wind for speed.9369
Their charioteers stood around eagerly patting their echoing chests,9370
with the flat of their hands, and combing their flowing manes.9371
Turnus drew a breastplate, stiff with gold and pale bronze,9372
over his shoulders, fitted his sword and shield in position,9373
and the horns with their crimson crest: the god with the power9374
of fire had wrought the sword for his father, Daunus, 9375
and dipped it, glowing, in the waters of the Styx.9376
Then Turnus gripped his strong spear firmly, that stood 9377
leaning on a great column in the middle of the hall,9378
a spoil won from the Auruncan, Actor, shook it till it quivered9379
and shouted: ‘Now, o spear that never failed my call,9380
now the time has come: Actor, the mightiest, carried you,9381
and now the right hand of Turnus: allow me to lay low 9382
the body of that Phrygian eunuch, tear off and shatter 9383
his breastplate with my powerful hand, and defile his hair 9384
with dust, that’s curled with a heated iron, and drowned in myrrh.’9385
He was driven by frenzy, glowing sparks shot 9386
from his whole aspect, fire flashed from his fierce eyes, 9387
like a bull, before a fight, that starts its formidable 9388
bellowing and, trying its anger with its horns, 9389
charges a tree-trunk, lashes the air with its blows,9390
and scatters the sand, as it practises for the battle.9391
Meanwhile Aeneas, no less fierce, armed with the weapons,9392
his mother’s gift, sharpened himself for conflict, and roused 9393
his anger, happy the war might be settled by the means on offer.9394
Then he comforted his friends, and Iulus’s anxious fears,9395
speaking of destiny, and ordered them to take a firm reply9396
to King Latinus, and declare his conditions for peace.9397
BkXII:113-160 Juno Speaks to Juturna9398
The next dawn had scarcely begun to sprinkle the mountain9399
summits with its rays, at that time when the horses of the sun 9400
first rise from the deep ocean, and breathe light from lifted nostrils:9401
the Rutulians and Trojans had measured out the field 9402
of combat, under the massive walls of the city, 9403
and were preparing hearths and turf altars for their mutual gods.9404
Others wearing priest’s aprons, their foreheads wreathed 9405
with vervain, brought spring water and fiery embers.9406
The Ausonian army marched out, and their ranks, armed 9407
with spears, poured through the crowded gates. All the host9408
of Trojans and Tuscans streamed out on the other side, arrayed 9409
in their various armour, equipped with steel, as if the bitter conflict9410
of war called out to them. And the captains too, among their many9411
thousands, darted about, brilliant in gold and purple,9412
Mnestheus of Assaracus’s line, brave Asilas,9413
and Messapus, tamer of horses, son of Neptune.9414
As soon as each had retired to their own ground, at the given signal,9415
they planted their spears in the earth, and leant their shields on them.9416
Then women, and weak old men, and the unarmed crowd, 9417
poured out eagerly, and gathered on towers 9418
and rooftops, or stood on the summit of the gates.9419
But Juno, gazed at the plain, looking from the top of a hill9420
(called Alban now, then without name, honour or glory)9421
at the twin ranks of Laurentum and Troy, and Latinus’s city.9422
Immediately, goddess to goddess, she spoke to Turnus’s sister, 9423
who ruled over lakes and echoing rivers (Jupiter, the king9424
of high heaven, gave her that honour for stealing her virginity):9425
‘Nymph, glory of rivers, dearest of all to my heart,9426
you know how I’ve preferred you alone of all the Latin girls9427
who’ve mounted unwelcome to the couch of great-hearted Jove,9428
and I have freely granted you a place in a part of the sky:9429
lest you blame me, Juturna, learn of impending grief.9430
Whenever Fortune allowed, and the Fates permitted9431
the Latin state to prosper, I protected Turnus and your city.9432
Now I see a warrior meeting with an unequal destiny,9433
and a day of Fate and inimical force draws near.9434
I cannot look at this combat, they agreed to, with my eyes.9435
If you dare do anything more for your brother in person, 9436
go on: it’s fitting. Perhaps better things will follow for the wretched.’9437
She had scarcely spoken, when Juturna’s eyes flowed with tears,9438
and her hand struck her lovely breast three or four times.9439
‘This is not the moment for tears,’ said Saturnian Juno:9440
‘Run, and, if there’s a way, snatch your brother from death:9441
or stir conflict and shatter the treaty they’ve made.9442
I teach you daring.’ Having urged her thus, she left her9443
uncertain and troubled, sadly hurt at heart.9444
BkXII:161-215 Aeneas and Latinus Sacrifice9445
Meanwhile the kings drove out: Latinus in a four-horsed chariot9446
of massive size (twelve golden rays circling his shining brow,9447
emblems of his ancestor, the Sun), Turnus behind a snow-white9448
team, brandishing two spears with broad steel blades in his hand.9449
On the other side, Aeneas, the leader, ancestor of the Roman race,9450
came from the camp, ablaze with starry shield and heavenly9451
armour, Ascanius with him, Rome’s second great hope, 9452
while a priest in pure robes brought the offspring 9453
of a bristly boar, and also an unshorn two-year sheep,9454
and tethered the animals next to the blazing altars.9455
The heroes turned their gaze towards the rising sun, sprinkled 9456
salt meal with their hands, marked the victims’ foreheads9457
with a knife, and poured libations from cups onto the altars.9458
Then pious Aeneas, with sword drawn, prayed like this:9459
‘Sun, be my witness, and this country that I call on,9460
for which I have been able to endure such labours,9461
and the all-powerful Father, and you Juno, his wife,9462
(now goddess, now, be kinder, I pray) and you, glorious Mars,9463
you, father, who control all warfare with your will:9464
I call on founts and rivers, on all the holiness 9465
of high heaven, and the powers in the blue ocean:9466
if by chance Victory falls to Turnus of Italy,9467
it is agreed the defeated will withdraw to Evander’s city,9468
Iulus will leave the land, and the people of Aeneas will never9469
bring renewed war in battle, or attack this realm with the sword.9470
But if victory agrees that our contest is mine (as I think 9471
more likely, and may the gods by their will prove it so),9472
I will not command the Italians to submit to Trojans nor do I9473
seek a kingdom for myself: let both nations, undefeated, 9474
put in place an eternal treaty. I will permit your gods 9475
and their rites: Latinus my father-in-law will keep his weapons,9476
my father-in-law will keep his accustomed power: the Trojans9477
will build walls for me, and Lavinia will give her name to a city.9478
So Aeneas was first to speak, then Latinus followed him, thus,9479
raising his eyes to heaven, and stretching his right hand to the sky:9480
‘I also swear, Aeneas, by the same earth, sea, and sky, 9481
by Latona’s twin offspring, and by two-faced Janus, 9482
by the power of the gods below, and the shrines of cruel Dis: 9483
may the Father, who ratifies treaties with his lightning, hear me.9484
I touch the altar: I call as witness the gods, and the flames 9485
between us, no day shall break this peace or truce on Italy’s side,9486
however things may fall out: nor will any power9487
deflect my will, not if it plunges the earth, drowned 9488
in flood, into the waves, and dissolves heaven in hell,9489
just as this sceptre (since he chanced to hold the sceptre in his hand)9490
hewn, once and for all, from the lowest stem in the woods,9491
having lost its parent trunk, and shedding its leaves and twigs 9492
to the knife, will never, now the craftsman’s hand has sheathed it9493
in fine bronze, and given it to the elders of Latium 9494
to carry, extend shoots or shade from light foliage.’9495
They sealed the treaty between them with these words9496
in full view of the leaders. Then with due rite they slaughtered9497
the sacrificial beasts over the flames, tore out the entrails, 9498
while they were alive, and piled the alters with heaped dishes.9499
BkXII:216-265 The Rutulians Break The Treaty9500
But the duel had for a long time seemed unfair to the Rutulians, 9501
and their hearts were torn by varied emotions, more so9502
when they saw the combatants’ unequal strength near to.9503
Turnus added to the unrest, in advancing with silent tread9504
and venerating the altar humbly, with downcast eyes,9505
and by his wasted cheeks and the pallor of his youthful body.9506
As soon as his sister, Juturna, was aware that talk was spreading9507
and the minds of the multitude were wavering in doubt,9508
she entered the heart of the army, in the guise of Camers,9509
whose birth was of noble ancestry, his father’s name9510
famous for virtue, and he himself of the bravest in arms,9511
she entered the heart of the army, not ignorant of her task,9512
sowing various rumours and speaking as follows: 9513
‘O Rutulians, aren’t you ashamed to sacrifice one life9514
on behalf of so many of you ? Aren’t we their equals9515
in numbers and might? See, all the Trojans and Arcadians9516
are here, and the Etrurian band led by fate, and hostile to Turnus:9517
if every other man attacks, there’s barely an opponent for each of them.9518
Turnus will climb in glory to the gods, at whose altars9519
he has dedicated his life, and live borne on men’s lips:9520
but we will be forced to submit to proud masters, 9521
our country lost, we who now sit inactive in the field.’9522
The will of the young men was roused by these words, 9523
more and more so, and a murmur spread through the ranks:9524
even the Laurentines and the Latins changed their minds.9525
Those who had lately hoped for rest from battle, and a safe existence, 9526
now longed for weapons, prayed for the treaty to be broken,9527
and pitied Turnus’s unjust fate. Juturna added another greater spur,9528
showing a sign in the depths of the sky, none more significant9529
to disturb Italian minds, and charm them by the wonder of it.9530
Jove’s tawny eagle, flying through reddened air, 9531
stirred the shore-birds, with noisy confusion 9532
in their winged ranks, when suddenly diving to the water9533
he seized the most outstanding swan cruelly in his curved talons. 9534
The Italians paid attention, and (amazing to see) 9535
all the birds wheeled, clamouring, in flight and, in a cloud,9536
drove their enemy through the air, darkening the sky 9537
with their wings, until, defeated by force and the weight,9538
the bird gave way, and, dropping the prey 9539
from his talons into the river, fled deep into the clouds. 9540
Then the Rutulians truly hailed this omen with a shout 9541
and spread wide their hands, and Tolumnius the augur was first 9542
to cry out: ‘This, this was what my prayers have often sought.9543
I understand it, and recognise the gods: snatch up the sword 9544
with me, with me at your head, o unhappy race, fragile birds,9545
whom a cruel foreigner terrifies with war, ravaging9546
your coast with violence. He will take flight and sail9547
far away over the deep. Close ranks, together, and defend 9548
the king who has been snatched from you, in battle.9549
BkXII:266-310 Renewed Fighting9550
He spoke, and running forward hurled his spear 9551
at the enemy: the hissing cornel shaft sang, and cut unerringly9552
through the air, At one with this, at one, was a mighty shout9553
the army all in uproar, and hearts hot with the turmoil.9554
The spear flew on, to where, by chance, nine handsome brothers9555
stood in its path, all of whom one faithful 9556
Tuscan wife had borne to Arcadian Gylippus,9557
It struck one of them, a youth of great beauty, in shining armour,9558
at the waist, where a stitched belt rubbed against 9559
his stomach, and the buckle bit into the overlapping ends,9560
pierced his ribs, and hurled him to the yellow sand.9561
But his spirited band of brothers, fired by grief,9562
drew their swords or snatched their iron spears,9563
and rushed forward blindly. The Laurentine ranks9564
charged them: Trojans and Agyllines and Arcadians9565
in decorated armour, poured in from the other side:9566
so all had one longing, to let the sword decide.9567
They stripped the altars, there was a fierce storm 9568
of spears in the whole sky, and a steely rain fell:9569
wine-bowls and hearthstones were carried off:9570
Latinus himself fled, taking his defeated gods, 9571
the treaty void. Others harnessed their chariots or leapt9572
on their horses, and waited with drawn swords.9573
Messapus, keen to destroy the truce, charging on his horse, 9574
scared off Auletes, an Etruscan king with a king’s emblems:9575
the unfortunate man, as he backed away, entangled, fell, 9576
head and shoulders, on to the altar behind him: and Messapus 9577
flew at him furiously, spear in hand, and from his horse’s height9578
struck mightily at him with the massive weapon,9579
as Auletes begged piteously, and spoke like this, over him:9580
‘He’s done for: this nobler victim is given to the great gods.’9581
The Italians crowded round and stripped the warm body.9582
Against them, Corynaeus snatched a charred brand 9583
from an altar, and aiming a blow at the charging Ebyso9584
dashed flames in his face: his great beard flared9585
and gave off a smell of burning. Corynaeus following through9586
his blow, clutched the hair of his stunned enemy in his left hand9587
and brought him to earth with a thrust of his bent knee:9588
then stabbed him in the side with his straight sword.9589
Podalirius, towered over the shepherd Alsus, pursuing him9590
with naked steel as he ran through the shower of spears9591
in the front rank: but Alsus swung his axe back,9592
and sliced through the front of his enemy’s brow and chin,9593
drenching his armour with widely spouting blood.9594
Harsh repose and iron slumber pressed on his eyes9595
and their light was sunk in everlasting night.9596
BkXII:311-382 Aeneas Wounded: Turnus Rampant9597
But virtuous Aeneas his head bared, unarmed, stretched out 9598
his right hand, and called loudly to his troops:9599
‘Where are you running to? Why this sudden tide of discord?9600
O, control your anger! The agreement has already been struck,9601
and its terms fixed. I alone have the right to fight:9602
Let me do so: banish your fears. I’ll prove the treaty sound9603
with this right hand: these rites mean Turnus is already mine.’9604
Amidst these cries and words, see, a hissing arrow 9605
winged its way towards him, launched by what hand,9606
sent whirling by whom, was unknown, as was the chance9607
or god that brought the Rutulians such honour:9608
the glorious pride in it was kept concealed,9609
and no one boasted of wounding Aeneas.9610
As soon as Turnus saw Aeneas leave the ranks, his captains 9611
in confusion, he blazed with the fervour of sudden hope:9612
he called for weapons and horses as one, leapt proudly 9613
into his chariot, and gripped the reins in his hands.9614
He gave many a brave man death in his swift passage.9615
Many he overturned half-alive, crushed the ranks under his chariot,9616
or seizing his spears showered them on those fleeing.9617
Just as when blood-drenched Mars is roused, and clashes9618
his shield, by the icy streams of Hebrus and, inciting war, 9619
gives rein to his frenzied horses, so that they fly over the open plain9620
outrunning the south and west winds, and farthest Thrace groans9621
to the beat of their hooves, while around him the forms of black 9622
Terror, Anger and Treachery, speed, the companions of the god:9623
with the same swiftness Turnus lashed his horses, 9624
smoking with sweat, through the midst of the conflict, 9625
trampling on enemies piteously slain, while the galloping hooves 9626
splashed bloody dew, and trampled the gore mixed with sand.9627
Next he gave Sthenelus to death, Thamyrus, and Pholus, the latter9628
close to, the former at a distance, from a distance too9629
both sons of Imbrasas, Glaucus and Laudes, whom Imbrasus9630
himself had raised in Lycia, and equipped with matching armour, 9631
to fight hand to hand, or outstrip the wind on horseback.9632
Elsewhere Eumedes rode through the midst of the battle,9633
famous in warfare, the son of aged Dolon, 9634
recalling the grandfather in name, his father in courage9635
and skill, he who, in going as a spy that time to the Greek camp, 9636
dared to ask for Achilles’s chariot as his reward:9637
but Diomedes paid him a different reward for his daring9638
and he no longer aspired to Achilles’s team.9639
When Turnus saw Eumedes, far over the open plain, he first 9640
sent a light javelin after him across the long space between, 9641
then halted his paired horses, leapt from his chariot,9642
onto the half-dead, fallen man, and, planting his foot on his neck,9643
tore the sword from his hand, and bloodied the bright blade9644
deep in his throat, adding these words as well:9645
‘See the fields, that Western Land, you sought in war:9646
lie there and measure it: this is the prize for those9647
who dare to cross swords with me, thus they build their walls.’9648
Then with a cast of his spear he sent Asbytes to keep him company,9649
Chloreus and Sybaris, Dares and Thersilochus, and Thymoetes9650
who was flung from the neck of his rearing horse.9651
As when the blast of the Edonian northerly sounds9652
over the Aegean deep, and drives the breakers to shore,9653
while brooding gusts in the sky put the clouds to flight,9654
so, wherever Turnus cut a path, the lines gave way,9655
and the ranks turned and ran: his own speed carried him on,9656
and, as the chariot met it, the wind tossed his flowing plume.9657
Phegeus could not endure his attack or his spirited war-cry:9658
he threw himself at the chariot and with his right hand wrenched9659
the heads of the swift horses aside, as they foamed at the bit.9660
While he was dragged along, hanging from the yoke,9661
Turnus’s broad-headed lance reached for his exposed flank,9662
tore open the double-stranded mail where it entered,9663
and grazed the surface of the flesh in a wound.9664
Phegeus still turned towards his enemy, his shield raised,9665
and was trying to protect himself with his drawn sword,9666
when the wheel and the onrush of the spinning axle 9667
sent him headlong, throwing him to the ground, and Turnus,9668
following through, struck off his head with a sweep of his blade9669
between the rim of the helmet and the chain-mail’s 9670
upper edge, and left the body lying on the sand.9671
BkXII:383-467 Venus Heals Aeneas9672
While Turnus was victoriously dealing death over the plain,9673
Mnestheus and loyal Achates, with Ascanius9674
by their side, set Aeneas down inside the camp,9675
bleeding, supporting alternate steps with his long spear.9676
he struggled furiously to pull out the head of the broken 9677
shaft, and called for the quickest means of assistance:9678
to cut open the wound with a broadsword, lay open 9679
the arrow-tip’s buried depths, and send him back to war.9680
Now Iapyx, Iasus’s son, approached, dearest of all to Apollo,9681
to whom the god himself, struck by deep love, long ago9682
offered with delight his own arts, his own gifts, 9683
his powers of prophecy, his lyre, and swift arrows.9684
But Iapyx, in order to delay the fate of his dying father,9685
chose knowledge of the virtues of herbs, and the use 9686
of medicine, and, without fame, to practise the silent arts.9687
Aeneas stood leaning on his great spear, complaining bitterly,9688
amongst a vast crowd of soldiers, with Iulus sorrowing,9689
himself unmoved by the tears. The aged Iapyx, his robe rolled back9690
in Paeonian fashion, tried hard in vain with healing fingers 9691
and Apollo’s powerful herbs: he worked at the arrow uselessly 9692
with his hand, and tugged at the metal with tightened pincers.9693
No luck guided his course, nor did Apollo his patron help,9694
while cruel terror grew greater and greater over the plain,9695
and evil drew near. Now they saw the sky standing on9696
columns of dust: the horsemen neared and arrows fell9697
thickly in the midst of the camp. A dismal cry rose to heaven9698
of men fighting and falling under Mars’s harsh hand.9699
At this Aeneas’s mother, Venus, shaken by her son’s 9700
cruel pain, culled a dittany plant from Cretan Ida,9701
with downy leaves and purple flowers: a herb9702
not unknown to the wild goats when winged9703
arrows have fixed themselves in their sides.9704
This Venus brought, her face veiled in dark mist,9705
this, with its hidden curative powers, she steeped 9706
in river water, poured into a glittering basin, and sprinkled9707
there healing ambrosial juice and fragrant panacea.9708
Aged Iapyx bathed the wound with this liquid,9709
not knowing its effect, and indeed all pain fled9710
from Aeneas’s body, all the flow of blood ceased deep9711
in the wound. Now, without force, the arrowhead9712
slipped from the wound, following the motion of his hand,9713
and fresh strength returned to Aeneas, such as before.9714
Iapyx cried: ‘Quickly, bring our hero weapons. Why are you9715
standing there?’ and was first to excite their courage against9716
the enemy. ‘Aeneas, this cure does not come by human aid,9717
nor guiding art, it is not my hand that saved you: a god, 9718
a greater one, worked this, and sends you out again to glorious deeds.’9719
Aeneas, eager for battle, had sheathed his legs in gold,9720
left and right, and scornful of delay, brandished his spear.9721
As soon as his shield was fixed at his side, the chain mail 9722
to his back, he clasped Ascanius in his armed embrace,9723
and, kissing his lips lightly through the helmet, said:9724
‘My son, learn courage from me and true labour:9725
good fortune from others. Now my hand will protect you 9726
in war, and lead you to great rewards. Make sure later, 9727
when your years have reached maturity, that you remember: 9728
let your father Aeneas, and your uncle Hector9729
inspire your soul, by recalling their example.’9730
When he spoken these words, he rushed out through the gate,9731
in all his strength, brandishing a great spear in his hand:9732
Antheus and Mnestheus with him, and their massed ranks, and all 9733
the army streamed from the camp. Then the plain was a chaos9734
of blinding dust, and the quaking earth shook under the tramp of feet.9735
Turnus saw them advance, from the rampart opposite:9736
the Ausonians saw, and a cold tremor ran to the marrow9737
of their bones: Juturna was the first of all the Latins 9738
to hear and recognise the sound, and she fled in fear.9739
Aeneas flew ahead, racing his dark ranks over the open plain,9740
As when the weather breaks and a storm cloud moves towards9741
land, over the deep ocean (ah, the hearts of wretched farmers9742
know if from far off, and shudder: it brings ruin to trees, 9743
and havoc to harvests, everything far and wide is destroyed),9744
the gales run before it and carry their roar to the shore:9745
so the Trojan leader drove his ranks against the foe,9746
thickly they all gathered to him in dense columns.9747
Thymbreus struck mighty Osiris with his sword,9748
Mnestheus killed Arcetius: Achates killed Epulo,9749
Gyas killed Ufens: even Tolumnius the augur fell,9750
first to hurl his spear straight at the enemy.9751
A shout rose to heaven, and in turn the routed Rutulians9752
turned their backs in a cloud of dust, fleeing over the field.9753
Aeneas himself did not deign to send the fugitives to their death,9754
nor did he attack the foot-soldiers, cavalry or those hurling 9755
missiles: he tracked only Turnus, searching through 9756
the dense gloom, Turnus alone he summoned to combat.9757
BkXII:468-499 Juturna Foils Aeneas9758
Juturna, the warrior maiden, her mind stricken with fear,9759
knocked Turnus’s charioteer, Metiscus, from the reins, at this,9760
so that he slipped from the beam, and left him far behind:9761
she herself took his place, and guided the flowing reins 9762
with her hands, assuming Meniscus’s voice, form, weapons, all.9763
As when a dark swallow flies through the great house 9764
of some rich lord, winging her way through lofty halls9765
gathering tiny crumbs and scraps of food for her noisy young,9766
now twittering in the empty courtyards, now by the damp ponds:9767
so Juturna was drawn by the horses through the enemy centre9768
and, flying in her swift chariot, criss-crossed the whole plain,9769
now here, now there, she gives evidence of her triumphant brother,9770
not allowing him close combat, flying far away.9771
Nevertheless Aeneas traversed her winding course to meet him,9772
tracking him, calling him loudly among the ranks.9773
As often as he set eyes on his enemy, and tried to match9774
the flight of the swift horses in his course, as often9775
Juturna turned and wheeled the chariot. 9776
Ah, what to do? Vainly he fluctuated on the shifting tide,9777
and diverse concerns called his thoughts away.9778
Messapus, who happened to be carrying two strong spears9779
tipped with steel, advanced lightly towards him,9780
levelled one, and hurled it with unerring aim.9781
Aeneas stopped, and gathered himself behind his shield9782
sinking on one knee: the swift spear still took off the tip9783
of his helmet, and knocked the plumes from the crest.9784
Then his anger truly surged, and incited by all this treachery,9785
seeing his enemy’s chariot and horses driven far off,9786
calling loudly on Jove, and the altars of the broken treaty, 9787
as witness, he plunged at last into the fray, 9788
and, aided by Mars, he awoke dreadful, savage, 9789
indiscriminate slaughter, and gave full rein to his wrath.9790
BkXII:500-553 Aeneas And Turnus Amongst The Slaughter9791
What god can now relate for me such bitter things as these,9792
who can tell of such varied slaughter, the deaths of generals,9793
whom Turnus now, and now the Trojan hero, drove in turn9794
over the field? Jupiter was it your will that races who would live9795
together in everlasting peace should meet in so great a conflict?9796
Aeneas meeting Rutulian Sucro (in the first battle 9797
that brought the Trojan attack to a halt) quickly struck him9798
in the side, and drove the cruel steel through the ribs9799
that protect the heart, where death come fastest. 9800
Turnus threw Amycus from his horse, and Diores his brother, 9801
attacking them on foot, striking one with the long lance 9802
as he advanced, the other with his sword, then hanging both 9803
their severed heads from his chariot carried them away9804
dripping with blood. Aeneas sent Talos and Tanais 9805
and brave Cethegus to death, three in one attack, 9806
and sad Onites of Theban name, whose mother was Peridia:9807
Turnus killed the brothers sent from Lycia, Apollo’s fields,9808
and Menoetes of Arcadia, who had hated war, but in vain:9809
his humble home and his living were round Lerna’s9810
fish-filled streams, never knowing the patronage 9811
of the great, and his father farmed rented land. 9812
Like fires set burning from opposite sides of a dry forest9813
into the thickets of crackling laurel, or foaming rivers9814
falling swiftly from the mountain heights, roaring9815
and racing seawards, each leaving its path of destruction,9816
so Aeneas and Turnus with no less fury swept through the battle:9817
now anger surged within: now their hearts which knew no defeat 9818
were bursting: now with all their strength they set out to do harm.9819
As he boasted of his fathers, and the antiquity of his ancestors’ 9820
names, and all his race traced back through Latin kings,9821
Aeneas sent Murranus headlong with a stone, a great whirling rock,9822
and hurled him to the ground: beneath the reins and yoke,9823
the wheels churned him round, and the horses’ hooves,9824
forgetful of their master, trampled him under with many a blow.9825
Turnus met Hyllus as he charged, roaring with boundless pride,9826
and hurled a spear at his gilded forehead: piercing 9827
the helmet the weapon lodged in his brain. Cretheus,9828
bravest of Greeks, your right hand did not save you 9829
from Turnus, nor did the gods hide Cupencus when Aeneas9830
came: he set his chest against the weapon’s track, 9831
and the bronze shield’s resistance profited the wretch nothing.9832
The Laurentine field saw you fall also, Aeolus,9833
on your back, sprawled wide on the ground.9834
You fell, whom the Greek battalions could not lay low, nor Achilles 9835
who overturned Priam’s kingdom: here was the boundary 9836
of death for you: your noble house was below Mount Ida, 9837
that noble house at Lyrnesus, your grave in Laurentine soil. 9838
All the lines turned towards battle, the whole of the Latins,9839
the whole of the Trojans, Mnestheus and fierce Serestus,9840
Messapus, tamer of horses, and brave Asilas,9841
the Tuscan phalanx, Evander’s Arcadian squadron,9842
each for himself, men straining with all their strength:9843
no respite and no rest: exerting themselves in one vast conflict.9844
BkXII:554-592 Aeneas Attacks The City9845
Now his loveliest of mothers set in his mind the idea 9846
of moving against the walls, and turning his army on the city,9847
swiftly, to confound the Latins with sudden ruin.9848
While he tracked Turnus here and there through the ranks9849
and swept his glance this way and that, he could see9850
the city, free of fierce warfare and peacefully unharmed.9851
Suddenly an image of a more ambitious act of war inflamed him:9852
he called the generals Mnestheus, Sergestus and brave Serestus,9853
and positioned himself on a hillock, where the rest of the Trojan army9854
gathered round in a mass, without dropping their shields or spears.9855
Standing amongst them on the high mound he cried:9856
‘Let nothing impede my orders, Jupiter is with us, and let 9857
no one be slower to advance because this attempt is so sudden.9858
Today I will overthrow that city, a cause of war, Latinus’s 9859
capital itself, and lay its smoking roofs level with the ground,9860
unless they agree to accept our rule, and submit, in defeat.9861
Do you think I can wait until Turnus can face battle with me,9862
and chooses to meet with me again, though defeated before?9863
O citizens, this man is the fountainhead and source of this wicked war.9864
Quickly, bring burning brands, and re-establish the treaty, with fire.’9865
He spoke, and all his troops adopted wedge-formation, hearts 9866
equal in emulation, and advanced in a dense mass towards the walls:9867
in a flash, scaling ladders and sudden flames appeared.9868
Some ran to the gates and cut down the leading defenders,9869
others hurled steel, and darkened the sky with missiles.9870
Aeneas himself, among the leaders, raised his hand, at the foot9871
of the wall, accused Latinus in a loud voice, and called the gods9872
to witness that he was being forced into battle again,9873
that the Italians were doubly enemies, another treaty was broken.9874
Dissension rose among the fearful citizens: some commanded 9875
the city be opened, and the gates be thrown wide9876
to the Trojans, and they dragged the king himself to the ramparts:9877
others brought weapons and hurried to defend the walls,9878
as when a shepherd, who’s tracked a swarm to its lair 9879
concealed in the rock, fills it with acrid smoke:9880
the bees inside, anxious for safety, rush round9881
their wax fortress, and sharpen their anger in loud buzzing:9882
the reeking darkness rolls through their hive, the rocks9883
echo within to a blind humming, and fumes reach the clear air. 9884
BkXII:593-613 Queen Amata’s Suicide9885
Now further misfortune befell the weary Latins,9886
and shook the whole city to its foundations with grief.9887
When Queen Amata, from the palace, saw the enemy 9888
approaching, the walls assaulted, flames mounting to the roofs,9889
but no opposing Rutulian lines, nor Turnus’s army,9890
the unhappy queen thought Turnus had been killed 9891
in combat, and, her mind distraught, in sudden anguish,9892
she cried out that she was the cause, the guilty one, the source9893
of evil, and uttering many wild words in the frenzy 9894
of grief, wanting to die, she tore her purple robes,9895
and fastened a hideous noose of death to a high beam.9896
As soon as the wretched Latin women knew of the disaster,9897
first her daughter Lavinia fell into a frenzy, tearing at her golden9898
tresses and rosy cheeks with her hands, then all the crowd9899
around her: the wide halls echoed to their lamentations.9900
From there the unhappy rumour spread throughout the city:9901
Spirits sank: Latinus went about with rent clothing,9902
stunned by his wife’s fate and his city’s ruin,9903
fouling his white hair with clouds of vile dust,9904
reproaching himself again and again for not having freely9905
received Trojan Aeneas, and adopted him as his son-in-law.9906
BkXII:614-696 Turnus Hears Of Amata’s Death9907
Meanwhile Turnus, fighting at the edge of the plain,9908
was pursuing the stragglers now, more slowly,9909
and rejoicing less and less in his horses’ advance.9910
The breeze bore a clamour to him mingled 9911
with an unknown dread, and the cheerless sounds 9912
of a city in chaos met his straining ears. 9913
‘Ah, what is this great grief that shakes the walls?9914
What is this clamour that rises from the distant city?’9915
So he spoke, anxiously grasping the reins and halting.9916
At this his sister, controlling chariot, horses and reins9917
disguised in the shape of his charioteer, Metiscus, 9918
countered with these words: ‘Turnus, this way, let us chase9919
the sons of Troy, where victory forges the way ahead:9920
there are others with hands to defend our homes.9921
Aeneas is attacking the Italians, and stirring conflict:9922
let our hands too deal cruel death to the Trojans.9923
You will not leave the field inferior in battle honours9924
or the number you have killed’ Turnus replied to this:9925
‘O sister, I recognised you long ago, when you first 9926
wrecked the truce with your guile, and dedicated yourself to warfare,9927
and now too you hide your divinity in vain. But who desired9928
you to be sent down from Olympus to suffer such labours?9929
Was it so you might see your unlucky brother’s death?9930
What can I do? What chance can offer me life?9931
I saw Murranus fall, before my very eyes, calling out9932
to me, loudly, no one more dear to me than him remains,9933
a mighty man, and overwhelmed by a mighty wound. 9934
Unfortunate Ufens fell, so he might not witness our shame:9935
the Trojans captured his body and his armour.9936
Shall I endure the razing of our homes (the one thing left)9937
and not deny Drances’s words with my sword?9938
Shall I turn my back, and this country see Turnus run?9939
Is it indeed so terrible to die? Oh be good to me, you Shades9940
below, since the gods above have turned their faces from me.9941
I will descend to you, a virtuous soul, innocent9942
of blame, never unworthy of my great ancestors.’9943
He had barely spoken when Saces sped by, carried on a foaming 9944
horse through the thick of the enemy, wounded full in the face9945
by an arrow, and calling to Turnus by name as he rushed on:9946
‘Turnus, in you our last hope lies, pity your people.9947
Aeneas is explosive in arms, and threatens to throw down9948
Italy’s highest citadel and deliver it to destruction, even now 9949
burning brands fly towards the roofs. The Latins turn their faces 9950
to you, their eyes are on you: King Latinus mutters to himself, 9951
wavering as to whom to call his sons, towards what alliance to lean.9952
Moreover the queen, most loyal to you, has fallen 9953
by her own hand, and fled, in horror of the light.9954
Messapus and brave Atinas, alone in front of the gates9955
sustain our lines. Around them dense squadrons stand9956
on every side, a harvest of steel that bristles with naked swords,9957
while you drive your chariot over the empty turf.’9958
Stunned and amazed by this vision of multiple disaster,9959
Turnus stood silently gazing: fierce shame surged9960
in that solitary heart, and madness mingled with grief,9961
love stung to frenzy, consciousness of virtue.9962
As soon as the shadows dispersed, and light returned to his mind,9963
he turned his gaze, with blazing eyes, towards the walls,9964
and looked back on the mighty city from his chariot.9965
See, now, a spiralling crest of flame fastened 9966
on a tower, and rolled skyward through the stories, 9967
a tower he had built himself with jointed beams,9968
set on wheels, and equipped with high walkways.9969
He spoke: ‘Now, sister, now fate triumphs: no more delays:9970
where god and cruel fortune calls, let me follow.9971
I’m determined on meeting Aeneas, determined to suffer9972
death, however bitter: you’ll no longer see me ashamed, sister.9973
I beg you let me rage before I am maddened.’9974
And, leaping swiftly from his chariot to the ground,9975
he ran through enemy spears, deserting his grieving sister,9976
and burst, in his quick passage, through the ranks.9977
As when a rock torn from the mountaintop by a storm9978
hurtles downward, washed free by a tempest of rain9979
or loosened in time by the passage of the years,9980
and the wilful mass plunges down the slope in a mighty rush9981
and leaps over the ground, rolling trees, herds and men9982
with it: so Turnus ran to the city walls through the broken ranks,9983
where the soil was most drenched with blood, and the air9984
shrill with spears, signalled with his hand and began shouting aloud:9985
‘Rutulians stop now, and you Latins hold back your spears.9986
Whatever fate is here, is mine: it is better that I alone9987
make reparation for the truce and decide it with the sword.’9988
All drew back, and left a space in their midst.9989
BkXII:697-765 The Final Duel Begins9990
Now Aeneas the leader hearing the name of Turnus9991
left the walls, and left the high fortress,9992
cast aside all delay, broke off from every task,9993
and exultant with delight clashed his weapons fiercely:9994
vast as Mount Athos, or Mount Eryx, or vast as old Apennine9995
himself when he roars through the glittering holm-oaks9996
and joys in lifting his snowy summit to heaven.9997
Now all truly turned their eyes, stripping the armour 9998
from their shoulders, Rutulians, Trojans and Italians, 9999
those who held the high ramparts and those whose ram 10000
battered at the walls beneath. Latinus himself was amazed10001
at these mighty men, born at opposite ends of the world,10002
meeting and deciding the outcome with their swords.10003
As soon as the field was clear on the open plain,10004
they both dashed quickly forward, hurling their spears first10005
from a distance, rushing, with shield and ringing bronze, 10006
to battle. The earth groaned: they redoubled their intense10007
sword-strokes, chance and skill mingled together.10008
And as when two bulls charge head to head in mortal battle,10009
on mighty Sila or on Taburnus’s heights, and in terror10010
their keepers retreat, the whole herd stand silent with fear,10011
and the heifers wait, mute, to see who will be 10012
lord of the forest, whom all the herds will follow,10013
as they deal wounds to each other with immense force,10014
gore with butting horns, and bathe neck and shoulders10015
in streaming blood, while all the wood echoes to their bellowing:10016
so Trojan Aeneas and the Daunian hero, Turnus, 10017
clashed their shields, and the mighty crash filled the sky.10018
Jupiter himself held up two evenly balanced scales10019
before him, and placed in them the diverse fates of the two,10020
to see whom the effort doomed, with whose weight death sank down. 10021
Turnus leapt forward thinking himself safe, rose to the full height 10022
of his body with uplifted sword, and struck: the Trojans 10023
and the anxious Latins cried out, both armies were roused. 10024
But the treacherous blade snapped, and would have left the eager10025
warrior defenceless in mid-stroke, if immediate flight 10026
had not saved him. He ran swifter than the east wind, 10027
when he saw that strange hilt in his exposed right hand.10028
The tale is that in headlong haste, when he first mounted10029
behind his yoked team for battle, he left his father’s sword10030
behind, and snatched up the blade of his charioteer, Metiscus:10031
and that served him for a long while as the straggling Trojans10032
turned their backs, but the mortal blade flew apart10033
like brittle ice at the stroke, on meeting Vulcan’s 10034
divine armour: and the fragments gleamed on the yellow sand.10035
So Turnus ran madly this way and that over the plain, winding10036
aimless circles here and there: on all sides the Trojans 10037
imprisoned him in their crowded ring, and a vast marsh10038
penned him on one side, on the other the steep ramparts.10039
Aenaeas, no less, though his knees, slowed at times10040
by the arrow wound, failed him and denied him speed,10041
pursued and pressed his anxious enemy hotly, foot to foot:10042
as when a hound in the hunt presses on a stag, chasing 10043
and barking, one found trapped by the river or hedged in 10044
by fear of the crimson feathers: the stag, terrified 10045
by the snares and the high banks, flies backwards and forwards10046
a thousand ways, but the eager Umbrian clings close10047
with gaping mouth, almost has him, and snaps his jaws10048
as though he holds him, baffled and biting empty air:10049
Then a clamour breaks out indeed, the pools and banks10050
around echo, and the whole sky rings with the tumult.10051
As he fled Turnus chided the Rutulians, calling on each10052
by name and calling out for his own familiar sword.10053
Aeneas in turn threatened death and immediate destruction10054
if any one approached, and terrified his trembling enemies10055
threatening to raze the city, and pressing on though wounded.10056
They completed five circuits, and unwound as many,10057
this way and that: since they sought for no paltry prize 10058
at the games, but vied for Turnus’s life blood.10059
BkXII:766-790 The Goddesses Intervene10060
By chance this was the place where a bitter-leaved10061
wild olive, sacred to Faunus, had stood, a tree revered10062
by sailors of old, where, when saved from the sea, they used10063
to hang their gifts to the Laurentine god, and the votive garments:10064
but the Trojans had removed the sacred trunk, allowing10065
of no exceptions, in order to fight on open ground.10066
Here stood Aeneas’s spear, its impetus had carried it there,10067
fixed and held fast by the tough roots. The Trojan halted,10068
intending to pluck out the steel with his hand,10069
and pursue the man he couldn’t catch by running, 10070
with his javelin. Then Turnus mad with anxiety indeed cried: 10071
‘Faunus, pity me, I pray, and you, most gracious Earth10072
if I have every honoured your rites that the sons of Aeneas10073
have instead defiled by war, retain the steel.’10074
He spoke, and did not invoke the power of heaven in vain,10075
since Aeneas could not prise open the wood’s grip,10076
by any show of strength, though he wrestled long and lingered10077
over the strong stump. While he tugged and strained fiercely, Juturna,10078
the Daunian goddess, changing again to the shape of Metiscus,10079
the charioteer, ran forward and restored his sword to her brother.10080
But Venus, enraged that this was allowed the audacious nymph,10081
approached, and plucked the javelin from the deep root.10082
Refreshed with weapons and courage, one relying on his sword,10083
the other towering fiercely with his spear, both breathing hard,10084
they stood, tall, face to face, in martial conflict. 10085
BkXII:791-842 Jupiter And Juno Decide The Future10086
The king of almighty Olympus meanwhile was speaking 10087
to Juno, as she gazed at the fighting from a golden cloud:10088
‘Wife, what will the end be now? What will be left in the end?10089
You know yourself, and confess you know, that Aeneas,10090
is destined for heaven as the nation’s god: the Fates raise him to the stars.10091
What are you planning? What hope do you cling to in the cold clouds?10092
Was it right that this god be defiled by a mortal’s wound?10093
Or that the lost sword (for what could Juturna achieve without you?)10094
be restored to Turnus, the defeated gaining new strength?10095
Now cease, at last, and give way to my entreaties,10096
lest such sadness consume you in silence, and your bitter10097
woes stream back to me often from your sweet lips.10098
It has reached its end. You have had the power to drive10099
the Trojans over land and sea, to stir up evil war,10100
to mar a house, and mix marriage with grief:10101
I forbid you to attempt more.’ So Jupiter spoke:10102
so, with humble look, the Saturnian goddess replied:10103
‘Great Jupiter, truly, it was because I knew it was your wish10104
that I parted reluctantly from Turnus and the Earth:10105
or you would not see me alone now, on my celestial perch,10106
enduring the just and the unjust, but I’d be standing, wreathed in flame,10107
in the battle line itself, and drawing the Trojans into deadly combat.10108
I counselled Juturna (I confess) to help her unfortunate brother10109
and approved greater acts of daring for the sake of his life,10110
yet not for her to contend with the arrow or the bow:10111
I swear it by the implacable fountainhead of Styx, 10112
that alone is held in awe by the gods above.10113
And now I yield, yes, and leave the fighting I loathe.10114
Yet I beg this of you, for Latium’s sake, for the majesty 10115
of your own kin: since it is not prohibited by any law of fate: 10116
when they soon make peace with happy nuptials (so be it)10117
when they join together soon in laws and treaties,10118
don’t order the native Latins to change their ancient name,10119
to become Trojans or be called Teucrians,10120
or change their language, or alter their clothing.10121
Let Latium still exist, let there be Alban kings through the ages,10122
let there be Roman offspring strong in Italian virtue:10123
Troy has fallen, let her stay fallen, along with her name.’10124
Smiling at her, the creator of men and things replied:10125
‘You are a true sister of Jove, another child of Saturn,10126
such waves of anger surge within your heart.10127
Come, truly, calm this passion that was needlessly roused:10128
I grant what you wish, and I relent, willingly defeated.10129
Ausonia’s sons will keep their father’s speech and manners,10130
as their name is, so it will be: the Trojans shall sink, merged10131
into the mass, only. I will add sacred laws and rites,10132
and make them all Latins of one tongue.10133
From them a race will rise, merged with Ausonian blood,10134
that you will see surpass men and gods in virtue,10135
no nation will celebrate your rites with as much devotion.’10136
Juno agreed it, and joyfully altered her purpose:10137
then left her cloud, and departed from the sky.10138
BkXII:843-886 Jupiter Sends Juturna A Sign10139
This done the Father turns something else over in his mind10140
and prepares to take Juturna from her brother’s side.10141
Men speak of twin plagues, named the Dread Ones,10142
whom Night bore untimely, in one birth with Tartarean Megaera,10143
wreathing them equally in snaky coils, and adding wings swift10144
as the wind. They wait by Jove’s throne on the fierce king’s10145
threshold, and sharpen the fears of weak mortals 10146
whenever the king of the gods sends plagues 10147
and death’s horrors, or terrifies guilty cities with war.10148
Jupiter sent one of them quickly down from heaven’s heights10149
and ordered her to meet with Juturna as a sign:10150
she flew, and darted to earth in a swift whirlwind.10151
Like an arrow loosed from the string, through the clouds,10152
that a Parthian, a Parthian or a Cydonian, fired,10153
hissing, and leaping unseen through the swift shadows,10154
a shaft beyond all cure, armed with cruel poison’s venom:10155
so sped the daughter of Night, seeking the earth.10156
As soon as she saw the Trojan ranks and Turnus’s troops,10157
she changed her shape, suddenly shrinking to the form of that10158
small bird that perching at night on tombs or deserted rooftops, 10159
often sings her troubling song so late among the shadows – 10160
and the fiend flew screeching to and fro in front 10161
of Turnus’s face, and beat at his shield with her wings.10162
A strange numbness loosed his limbs in dread,10163
his hair stood up in terror, and his voice clung to his throat.10164
But when his wretched sister Juturna recognised the Dread One’s10165
whirring wings in the distance, she tore at her loosened hair, marring10166
her face with her nails, and her breasts with her clenched hands:10167
‘What help can your sister give you now, Turnus?10168
What is left for me who have suffered so? With what art10169
can I prolong your life? Can I stand against such a portent?10170
Now at last I leave the ranks. Bird of ill-omen, do not you 10171
terrify me who already am afraid: I know your wing-beats10172
and their fatal sound, and I do not mistake the proud command10173
of great-hearted Jupiter. Is this his reward for my virginity?10174
Why did he grant me eternal life? Why is the mortal condition10175
taken from me? Then, at least, I could end such pain10176
and go through the shadows at my poor brother’s side!10177
An immortal, I? Can anything be sweet to me without you10178
my brother? Oh what earth can gape deep enough for me,10179
to send a goddess down to the deepest Shades?’10180
So saying she veiled her head in a grey mantle, and the goddess,10181
with many a cry of grief, plunged into the river’s depths.10182
BkXII:887-952 The Death Of Turnus10183
Aeneas pressed on, brandishing his great spear like a tree,10184
and, angered at heart, he cried out in this way: 10185
‘Why now yet more delay? Why do you still retreat, Turnus? 10186
We must compete hand to hand with fierce weapons, not by running.10187
Change into every form: summon up all your powers 10188
of mind and art, wing your way if you wish 10189
to the high stars, or hide in earth’s hollow prison.’10190
Turnus shook his head: ‘Fierce man, your fiery words10191
don’t frighten me: the gods terrify me and Jupiter’s enmity.’10192
Saying no more he looked round seeing a great rock,10193
a vast ancient stone, that happened to lie there in the plain,10194
set up as a boundary marker, to distinguish fields in dispute.10195
Twelve picked men, men of such form as Earth 10196
now produces, could scarcely have lifted it on their shoulders,10197
but the hero, grasping it quickly, rising to his full height 10198
and as swiftly as he could, hurled it at his enemy.10199
But he did not know himself, running or moving10200
raising the great rock in his hands, or throwing:10201
his knees gave way, his blood was frozen cold.10202
The stone itself, whirled by the warrior through the empty air,10203
failed to travel the whole distance, or drive home with force.10204
As in dreams when languid sleep weighs down our eyes at night,10205
we seem to try in vain to follow our eager path,10206
and collapse helpless in the midst of our efforts,10207
the tongue won’t work, the usual strength is lacking10208
from our limbs, and neither word nor voice will come:10209
so the dread goddess denied Turnus success,10210
however courageously he sought to find a way.10211
Then shifting visions whirled through his brain:10212
he gazed at the Rutulians, and at the city, faltered10213
in fear, and shuddered at the death that neared,10214
he saw no way to escape, no power to attack his enemy,10215
nor sign of his chariot, nor his sister, his charioteer.10216
As he wavered, Aeneas shook his fateful spear,10217
seeing a favourable chance, and hurled it from the distance10218
with all his might. Stone shot from a siege engine10219
never roared so loud, such mighty thunder never burst10220
from a lightning bolt. Like a black hurricane the spear flew on10221
bearing dire destruction, and pierced the outer circle 10222
of the seven-fold shield, the breastplate’s lower rim,10223
and, hissing, passed through the centre of the thigh.10224
Great Turnus sank, his knee bent beneath him, under the blow.10225
The Rutulians rose up, and groaned, and all the hills around 10226
re-echoed, and, far and wide, the woods returned the sound.10227
He lowered his eyes in submission and stretched out his right hand:10228
‘I have earned this, I ask no mercy’ he said, 10229
‘seize your chance. If any concern for a parent’s grief10230
can touch you (you too had such a father, in Anchises)10231
I beg you to pity Daunus’s old age and return me,10232
or if you prefer it my body robbed of life, to my people.10233
You are the victor, and the Ausonians have seen me 10234
stretch out my hands in defeat: Lavinia is your wife,10235
don’t extend your hatred further.’ Aeneas stood, fierce10236
in his armour, his eyes flickered, and he held back his hand:10237
and even now, as he paused, the words began to move him10238
more deeply, when high on Turnus’s shoulder young Pallas’s10239
luckless sword-belt met his gaze, the strap glinting with its familiar10240
decorations, he whom Turnus, now wearing his enemy’s emblems10241
on his shoulder, had wounded and thrown, defeated, to the earth.10242
As soon as his eyes took in the trophy, a memory of cruel grief,10243
Aeneas, blazing with fury, and terrible in his anger, cried:10244
‘Shall you be snatched from my grasp, wearing the spoils10245
of one who was my own? Pallas it is, Pallas, who sacrifices you10246
with this stroke, and exacts retribution from your guilty blood.’10247
So saying, burning with rage, he buried his sword deep10248
in Turnus’s breast: and then Turnus’s limbs grew slack 10249
with death, and his life fled, with a moan, angrily, to the Shades.10250
Comments
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The whole Aeneid?! I don't think I have the time or the attention span to read it all, but I love mythology. It was a cool idea posting it here, but maybe it would be better in chapters?
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