Aeneid
Virgil
Vergil. The Aeneid of Virgil. Williams, Theodore, C, translator. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1910.
- Arrived the wished-for day; through cloudless sky
- the coursers of the Sun's bright-beaming car
- bore upward the ninth morn. The neighboring folk
- thronged eager to the shore; some hoped to see
- Aeneas and his warriors, others fain
- would their own prowess prove in bout and game.
- Conspicuous lie the rewards, ranged in sight
- in the mid-circus; wreaths of laurel green,
- the honored tripod, coronals of palm
- for conquerors' brows, accoutrements of war,
- rare robes of purple stain, and generous weight
- of silver and of gold. The trumpet's call
- proclaimed from lofty mound the opening games.
- First, side by side, with sturdy, rival oars,
- four noble galleys, pride of all the fleet,
- come forward to contend. The straining crew
- of Mnestheus bring his speedy Pristis on, —
- Mnestheus in Italy erelong the sire
- of Memmius' noble line. Brave Gyas guides
- his vast Chimaera, a colossal craft,
- a floating city, by a triple row
- of Dardan sailors manned, whose banks of oars
- in triple order rise. Sergestus, he
- of whom the Sergian house shall after spring,
- rides in his mighty Centaur. Next in line,
- on sky-blue Scylla proud Cloanthus rides —
- whence thy great stem, Cluentius of Rome!