Aeneid
Virgil
Vergil. The Aeneid of Virgil. Williams, Theodore, C, translator. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1910.
- Now open Helicon and move my song,
- ye goddesses, to tell what host in arms
- followed Aeneas from the Tuscan shore,
- and manned his ships and traveiled o'er the sea!
- First Massicus his brazen Tigress rode,
- cleaving the brine; a thousand warriors
- were with him out of Clusium's walls, or from
- the citadel of Coste, who for arms
- had arrows, quivers from the shoulder slung,
- and deadly bows. Grim Abas near him sailed;
- his whole band wore well-blazoned mail; his ship
- displayed the form of Phoebus, all of gold:
- to him had Populonia consigned
- (His mother-city, she) six hundred youth
- well-proven in war; three hundred Elba gave,
- an island rich in unexhausted ores
- of iron, like the Chalybes. Next came
- Asilas, who betwixt the gods and men
- interprets messages and reads clear signs
- in victims' entrails, or the stars of heaven,
- or bird-talk, or the monitory flames
- of lightning: he commands a thousand men
- close lined, with bristling spears, of Pisa all,
- that Tuscan city of Alpheus sprung.
- Then Astur followed, a bold horseman he,
- Astur in gorgeous arms, himself most fair:
- three hundred are his men, one martial mind
- uniting all: in Caere they were bred
- and Minio's plain, and by the ancient towers
- of Pyrgo or Gravisca's storm-swept hill.
- Nor thy renown may I forget, brave chief
- of the Ligurians, Cinyrus; nor thine,
- Cupavo, with few followers, thy crest
- the tall swan-wings, of love unblest the sign
- and of a father fair: for legends tell
- that Cycnus, for his Phaethon so dear
- lamenting loud beneath the poplar shade
- of the changed sisters, made a mournful song
- to soothe his grief and passion: but erewhile,
- in his old age, there clothed him as he sang
- soft snow-white plumes, and spurning earth he soared
- on high, and sped in music through the stars.
- His son with bands of youthful peers urged on
- a galley with a Centaur for its prow,
- which loomed high o'er the waves, and seemed to hurl
- a huge stone at the water, as the keel
- ploughed through the deep. Next Ocnus summoned forth
- a war-host from his native shores, the son
- of Tiber, Tuscan river, and the nymph
- Manto, a prophetess: he gave good walls,
- O Mantua, and his mother's name, to thee,—
- to Mantua so rich in noble sires,
- but of a blood diverse, a triple breed,
- four stems in each; and over all enthroned
- she rules her tribes: her strength is Tuscan born.
- Hate of Mezentius armed against his name
- five hundred men: upon their hostile prow
- was Mincius in a cloak of silvery sedge,—
- Lake Benacus the river's source and sire.
- Last good Aulestes smites the depths below,
- with forest of a hundred oars: the flood
- like flowing marble foams; his Triton prow
- threatens the blue waves with a trumpet-shell;
- far as the hairy flanks its form is man,
- but ends in fish below—the parting waves
- beneath the half-brute bosom break in foam.
- Such chosen chiefs in thirty galleys ploughed
- the salt-wave, bringing help to Trojan arms.
- Day now had left the sky. The moon benign
- had driven her night-wandering chariot
- to the mid-arch of heaven. Aeneas sate,
- for thought and care allowed him no repose,
- holding the helm and tending his own sails.
- but, as he sped, behold, the beauteous train,
- lately his own, of nymphs, anon transformed
- by kind Cybebe to sea-ruling powers.
- In even ranks they swam the cloven wave,—
- nymphs now, but once as brazen galleys moored
- along the sandy shore. With joy they knew
- their King from far, and with attending train
- around him drew. Cymodocea then,
- best skilled in mortal speech, sped close behind,
- with her right hand upon the stern, uprose
- breast-high, and with her left hand deeply plied
- the silent stream, as to the wondering King
- she called: “So late on watch, O son of Heaven,
- Aeneas? Slack thy sail, but still watch on!
- We were the pine-trees on the holy top
- of Ida's mountain. Sea-nymphs now are we,
- and thine own fleet. When, as we fled, the flames
- rained o'er us from the false Rutulian's hand
- 't was all unwillingly we cast away
- thy serviceable chains: and now once more
- we follow thee across the sea. These forms
- our pitying mother bade us take, with power
- to haunt immortally the moving sea.
- Lo, thy Ascanius lies close besieged
- in moated walls, assailed by threatening arms
- and Latium's front of war. Arcadia,
- her horsemen with the bold Etruscan joined,
- stands at the place appointed. Turnus means,
- with troop opposing, their advance to bar
- and hold them from the camp. Arouse thee, then,
- and with the rising beams of dawn call forth
- thy captains and their followers. Take that shield
- victorious, which for thee the Lord of Fire
- forged for a gift and rimmed about with gold.
- To-morrow's light—deem not my words be vain!—
- shall shine on huge heaps of Rutulia's dead.”
- So saying, she pushed with her right hand the stern
- with skilful thrust, and vanished. The ship sped
- swift as a spear, or as an arrow flies
- no whit behind the wind: and all the fleet
- quickened its course. Anchises' princely son,
- dumb and bewildered stood, but took good heart
- at such an omen fair. Then in few words
- with eyes upturned to heaven he made his prayer:
- “Mother of gods, O Ida's Queen benign,
- who Iovest Dindymus and towns with towers,
- and lion-yokes obedient to thy rein,
- be thou my guide in battle, and fulfil
- thine augury divine. In Phrygia's cause
- be present evermore with favoring power!”
- He spoke no more. For now the wheels of day
- had sped full circle into perfect light,
- the dark expelling. Then, for his first care,
- he bade his captains heed the signal given,
- equip their souls for war, and wait in arms
- the coming fray. Now holds he full in view
- his Trojans and their fortress, as he stands
- upon his towering ship. With his left hand
- he lifts his radiant shield; then from the wall
- the Dardan warriors send a battle-cry
- that echoes to the stars, as kindling hope
- their rage renews. A flight of spears they hurl:
- 't was like the cranes of Strymon, through dark clouds
- each other calling, when they cleave the skies
- vociferous, outwinging as they fly
- the swift south winds—Ioud music them pursues.
- Amazement on Ausonia's captains fell
- and Turnus, as they gazed. But soon they saw
- ships pointing shoreward and the watery plain
- all stirring with a fleet. Aeneas' helm
- uplifted its bright peak,—like streaming flame
- the crimson crest; his shield of orbed gold
- poured forth prodigious fire: it seemed as when
- in cloudless night a comet's blood-red beam
- makes mournful splendor, or the Dog-star glows,
- which rises to bring drought and pestilence
- to hapless men, and with ill-omened ray
- saddens the sky. But Turnus, undismayed,
- trusted not less to hurl th' invaders back
- and hold the shore against them. “Look!” he cried,
- your prayer is come to pass,—that sword in hand
- ye now may shatter them. The might of Mars
- is in a true man's blow. Remember well
- each man his home and wife! Now call to mind
- the glory and great deeds of all your sires!
- Charge to yon river-bank, while yet they take
- with weak and fearful steps their shoreward way!
- Fortune will help the brave.” With words like these,
- he chose, well-weighing, who should lead the charge,
- who at the leaguered walls the fight sustain.
- Aeneas straightway from his lofty ships
- lets down his troop by bridges. Some await
- the ebbing of slack seas, and boldly leap
- into the shallows; others ply the oar.
- Tarchon a beach discovers, where the sands
- sing not, nor waves with broken murmur fall,
- but full and silent swells the gentle sea.
- Steering in haste that way, he called his crews:
- “Now bend to your stout oars, my chosen brave.
- Lift each ship forward, till her beak shall cleave
- yon hostile shore; and let her keel's full weight
- the furrow drive. I care not if we break
- our ship's side in so sure an anchorage,
- if once we land.” While Tarchon urged them thus,
- the crews bent all together to their blades
- and sped their foaming barks to Latium's plain,
- till each beak gripped the sand and every keel
- lay on dry land unscathed:—all save thine own,
- O Tarchon! dashed upon a sand-bar, she!
- Long poised upon the cruel ridge she hung,
- tilted this way or that and beat the waves,
- then split, and emptied forth upon the tide
- her warriors; and now the drifting wreck
- of shattered oars and thwarts entangles them,
- or ebb of swirling waters sucks them down.