Aeneid

Virgil

Vergil. The Aeneid of Virgil. Williams, Theodore, C, translator. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1910.

  1. In ages gone an ancient city stood—
  2. Carthage, a Tyrian seat, which from afar
  3. made front on Italy and on the mouths
  4. of Tiber's stream; its wealth and revenues
  5. were vast, and ruthless was its quest of war.
  6. 'T is said that Juno, of all lands she loved,
  7. most cherished this,—not Samos' self so dear.
  8. Here were her arms, her chariot; even then
  9. a throne of power o'er nations near and far,
  10. if Fate opposed not, 't was her darling hope
  11. to 'stablish here; but anxiously she heard
  12. that of the Trojan blood there was a breed
  13. then rising, which upon the destined day
  14. should utterly o'erwhelm her Tyrian towers,
  15. a people of wide sway and conquest proud
  16. should compass Libya's doom;—such was the web
  17. the Fatal Sisters spun. Such was the fear
  18. of Saturn's daughter, who remembered well
  19. what long and unavailing strife she waged
  20. for her loved Greeks at Troy. Nor did she fail
  21. to meditate th' occasions of her rage,
  22. and cherish deep within her bosom proud
  23. its griefs and wrongs: the choice by Paris made;
  24. her scorned and slighted beauty; a whole race
  25. rebellious to her godhead; and Jove's smile
  26. that beamed on eagle-ravished Ganymede.
  27. With all these thoughts infuriate, her power
  28. pursued with tempests o'er the boundless main
  29. the Trojans, though by Grecian victor spared
  30. and fierce Achilles; so she thrust them far
  31. from Latium; and they drifted, Heaven-impelled,
  32. year after year, o'er many an unknown sea—
  33. O labor vast, to found the Roman line!
  1. Below th' horizon the Sicilian isle
  2. just sank from view, as for the open sea
  3. with heart of hope they sailed, and every ship
  4. clove with its brazen beak the salt, white waves.
  5. But Juno of her everlasting wound
  6. knew no surcease, but from her heart of pain
  7. thus darkly mused: “Must I, defeated, fail
  8. of what I will, nor turn the Teucrian King
  9. from Italy away? Can Fate oppose?
  10. Had Pallas power to lay waste in flame
  11. the Argive fleet and sink its mariners,
  12. revenging but the sacrilege obscene
  13. by Ajax wrought, Oileus' desperate son?
  14. She, from the clouds, herself Jove's lightning threw,
  15. scattered the ships, and ploughed the sea with storms.
  16. Her foe, from his pierced breast out-breathing fire,
  17. in whirlwind on a deadly rock she flung.
  18. But I, who move among the gods a queen,
  19. Jove's sister and his spouse, with one weak tribe
  20. make war so long! Who now on Juno calls?
  21. What suppliant gifts henceforth her altars crown?”