Aeneid
Virgil
Vergil. The Aeneid of Virgil. Williams, Theodore, C, translator. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1910.
- A spreading bay is there, impregnable
- to all invading storms; and Aetna's throat
- with roar of frightful ruin thunders nigh.
- Now to the realm of light it lifts a cloud
- of pitch-black, whirling smoke, and fiery dust,
- shooting out globes of flame, with monster tongues
- that lick the stars; now huge crags of itself,
- out of the bowels of the mountain torn,
- its maw disgorges, while the molten rock
- rolls screaming skyward; from the nether deep
- the fathomless abyss makes ebb and flow.
- Enceladus, his body lightning-scarred,
- lies prisoned under all, so runs the tale:
- o'er him gigantic Aetna breathes in fire
- from crack and seam; and if he haply turn
- to change his wearied side, Trinacria's isle
- trembles and moans, and thick fumes mantle heaven.
- That night in screen and covert of a grove
- we bore the dire convulsion, unaware
- whence the loud horror came. For not a star
- its lamp allowed, nor burned in upper sky
- the constellated fires, but all was gloom,
- and frowning night confined the moon in cloud.
- When from the eastern waves the light of morn
- began to peer, and from the upper sky
- Aurora flamed away the dark and dew,
- out of the forest sprang a startling shape
- of hunger-wasted misery; a man
- in wretched guise, who shoreward came with hands
- outstretched in supplication. We turned back
- and scanned him well. All grime and foulness he,
- with long and tangled beard, his savage garb
- fastened with thorns; but in all else he seemed
- a Greek, and in his country's league of arms
- sent to the seige of Troy. Then he beheld
- the Dardan habit, and our Trojan steel,
- he somewhat paused, as if in dread dismay
- such sight to see, and falteringly moved;
- but soon with headlong steps he sought the shore,
- ejaculating broken sobs and prayers:
- “By stars above! By gods on high! O, hear!
- By this bright heavenly air we mortals breathe,
- save me, sweet Trojans! Carry me away
- unto what land ye will! I ask no more.
- I came, I know it, in the ships of Greece;
- and I did war, 't is true, with Ilium's gods.
- O, if the crime deserve it, fling my corse
- on yonder waves, and in the boundless brine
- sink me forever! Give me in my death
- the comfort that by human hands I die.”
- He clasped our knees, and writhing on his own
- clung fast. We bid him tell his race and name,
- and by what fate pursued. Anchises gave
- his own right hand in swift and generous aid,
- and by prompt token cheered the exile's heart,
- who, banishing his fears, poured forth this tale :—
- “My home was Ithaca, and I partook
- the fortunes of Ulysses evil-starred.
- My name is Achemenides, my sire
- was Adamastus, and I sailed for Troy,
- being so poor,—O, that I ne'er had change
- the lot I bore! In yon vast Cyclops' cave
- my comrades, flying from its gruesome door,
- left me behind, forgotten. 'T is a house
- of gory feasts of flesh, 't is deep and dark,
- and vaulted high. He looms as high as heaven;
- I pray the blessed gods to rid the earth
- of the vile monster! None can look on him,
- none speak with him. He feeds on clotted gore
- of disembowelled men. These very eyes
- saw him seize two of our own company,
- and, as he lolled back in the cave, he clutched
- and dashed them on the stones, fouling the floor
- with torrent of their blood; myself I saw him
- crunch with his teeth the dripping, bloody limbs
- still hot and pulsing on his hungry jaw.
- But not without reward! For such a sight
- Ulysses would not brook, and Ithaca
- forgot not in such strait the name he bore.
- For soon as, gorged with feasting and o'ercome
- with drunken slumber, the foul giant lay
- sprawled through the cave, his head dropped helpless down,
- disgorging as he slept thick drool of gore
- and gobbets drenched with bloody wine; then we,
- calling on Heaven and taking place by lot,
- drew round him like one man, and with a beam
- sharpened at end bored out that monster eye,
- which, huge and sole, lay under the grim brow,
- round as an Argive shield or Phoebus' star.
- Thus took we joyful vengeance for the shades
- of our lost mates. But, O ill-fated men!
- Fly, I implore, and cut the cables free
- along the beach! For in the land abide,
- like Polyphemus, who in hollow cave
- kept fleecy sheep, and milked his fruitful ewes,
- a hundred other, huge as he, who rove
- wide o'er this winding shore and mountains fair:
- Cyclops accursed, bestial! Thrice the moon
- has filled her horns with light, while here I dwell
- in lonely woods and lairs of creatures wild;
- or from tall cliffs out-peering I discern
- the Cyclops, and shrink shuddering from the sound
- of their vast step and cry. My sorry fare
- is berries and hard corners dropped from trees,
- or herb-roots torn out from the niggard ground.
- Though watching the whole sea, only today
- Have I had sight of ships. To you I fled.
- Whate'er ye be, it was my only prayer
- to 'scape that monster brood. I ask no more.
- O, set me free by any death ye will!”
- He scarce had said, when moving o'er the crest
- of a high hill a giant shape we saw:
- that shepherd Polyphemus, with his flocks
- down-wending to the well-known water-side;
- huge, shapeless, horrible, with blinded eye,
- bearing a lopped pine for a staff, he made
- his footing sure, while the white, fleecy sheep,
- sole pleasure now, and solace of his woes,
- ran huddling at his side.
- Soon to the vast flood of the level brine
- he came, and washed the flowing gore away
- from that out-hollowed eye; he gnashed his teeth,
- groaning, and deep into the watery way
- stalked on, his tall bulk wet by scarce a wave.
- We fled in haste, though far, and with us bore
- the truthful suppliant; cut silently
- the anchor-ropes, and, bending to the oar,
- swept on with eager strokes clean out to sea.
- Aware he was, and toward our loud halloo
- whirled sudden round; but when no power had he
- to seize or harm, nor could his fierce pursuit
- o'ertake the Ionian surges as they rolled,
- he raised a cry incredible; the sea
- with all its billows trembled; the wide shore
- of Italy from glens and gorges moaned,
- and Aetna roared from every vaulted cave.
- Then rallied from the grove-clad, Iofty isle
- the Cyclops' clan, and lined the beach and bay.
- We saw each lonely eyeball glare in vain,
- as side by side those brothers Aetna-born
- stood towering high, a conclave dark and dire:
- as when, far up some mountain's famous crest,
- wind-fronting oaks or cone-clad cypresses
- have made assembling in the solemn hills,
- Jove's giant wood or Dian's sacred grove.
- We, terror-struck, would fly we knew not where,
- with loosened sheet and canvas swelling strong
- before a welcome wind; but Helenus
- bade us both Scylla and Charybdis fear,
- where 'twixt the twain death straitly hems the way;
- and so the counsel was to veer our bark
- the course it came. But lo! a northern gale
- burst o'er us from Pelorus' narrowed side,
- and on we rode far past Pantagia's bay
- of unhewn rock, and past the haven strong
- of Megara, and Thapsus Iying low.
- Such were the names retold, and such the shores
- shown us by Achemenides, whose fate
- made him familiar there, for he had sailed
- with evil-starred Ulysses o'er that sea.
- Off the Sicilian shore an island lies,
- wave-washed Plemmyrium, called in olden days
- Ortygia; here Alpheus, river-god,
- from Elis flowed by secret sluice, they say,
- beneath the sea, and mingles at thy mouth,
- fair Arethusa! with Sicilian waves.
- Our voices hailed the great gods of the land
- with reverent prayer; then skirted we the shore,
- where smooth Helorus floods the fruitful plain.
- Under Pachynus' beetling precipice
- we kept our course; then Camarina rose
- in distant view, firm-seated evermore
- by Fate's decree; and that far-spreading vale
- of Gela, with the name of power it takes
- from its wide river; and, uptowering far,
- the ramparts of proud Acragas appeared,
- where fiery steeds were bred in days of old.
- Borne by the winds, along thy coast I fled,
- Selinus, green with palm! and past the shore
- of Lilybaeum with its treacherous reef;
- till at the last the port of Drepanum
- received me to its melancholy strand.
- Here, woe is me I outworn by stormful seas,
- my sire, sole comfort of my grievous doom,
- Anchises ceased to be. O best of sires!
- Here didst thou leave me in the weary way;
- through all our perils—O the bitter loss! —
- borne safely, but in vain. King Helenus,
- whose prophet-tongue of dark events foretold,
- spoke not this woe; nor did Celeno's curse
- of this forebode. Such my last loss and pain;
- such, of my weary way, the destined goal.
- From thence departing, the divine behest
- impelled me to thy shores, O listening queen!
- Such was, while all gave ear, the tale sublime
- father Aeneas, none but he, set forth
- of wanderings and of dark decrees divine:
- silent at last, he ceased, and took repose.