Aeneid
Virgil
Vergil. The Aeneid of Virgil. Williams, Theodore, C, translator. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1910.
- Deep in the face of that Euboean crag
- A cavern vast is hollowed out amain,
- With hundred openings, a hundred mouths,
- Whence voices flow, the Sibyl's answering songs.
- While at the door they paused, the virgin cried :
- “Ask now thy doom!—the god! the god is nigh!”
- So saying, from her face its color flew,
- Her twisted locks flowed free, the heaving breast
- Swelled with her heart's wild blood; her stature seemed
- Vaster, her accent more than mortal man,
- As all th' oncoming god around her breathed :
- “On with thy vows and prayers, 0 Trojan, on!
- For only unto prayer this haunted cave
- May its vast lips unclose.” She spake no more.
- An icy shudder through the marrow ran
- Of the bold Trojans; while their sacred King
- Poured from his inmost soul this plaint and prayer :
- “Phoebus, who ever for the woes of Troy
- Hadst pitying eyes! who gavest deadly aim
- To Paris when his Dardan shaft he hurled
- On great Achilles! Thou hast guided me
- Through many an unknown water, where the seas
- Break upon kingdoms vast, and to the tribes
- Of the remote Massyli, whose wild land
- To Syrtes spreads. But now; because at last
- I touch Hesperia's ever-fleeting bound,
- May Troy's ill fate forsake me from this day!
- 0 gods and goddesses, beneath whose wrath
- Dardania's glory and great Ilium stood,
- Spare, for ye may, the remnant of my race!
- And thou, most holy prophetess, whose soul
- Foreknows events to come, grant to my prayer
- (Which asks no kingdom save what Fate decrees)
- That I may stablish in the Latin land
- My Trojans, my far-wandering household-gods,
- And storm-tossed deities of fallen Troy.
- Then unto Phoebus and his sister pale
- A temple all of marble shall be given,
- And festal days to Phoebus evermore.
- Thee also in my realms a spacious shrine
- Shall honor; thy dark books and holy songs
- I there will keep, to be my people's law;
- And thee, benignant Sibyl for all time
- A company of chosen priests shall serve.
- O, not on leaves, light leaves, inscribe thy songs!
- Lest, playthings of each breeze, they fly afar
- In swift confusion! Sing thyself, I pray.”
- So ceased his voice;the virgin through the cave,
- Scarce bridled yet by Phoebus' hand divine,
- Ecstatic swept along, and vainly stove
- To fing its potent master from her breast;
- But he more strongly plied his rein and curb
- Upon her frenzied lips, and soon subdued
- Her spirit fierce, and swayed her at his will.
- Free and self-moved the cavern's hundred adoors
- Swung open wide, and uttered to the air
- The oracles the virgin-priestess sung :
- “Thy long sea-perils thou hast safely passed;
- But heavier woes await thee on the land.
- Truly thy Trojans to Lavinian shore
- Shall come—vex not thyself thereon—but, oh!
- Shall rue their coming thither! war, red war!
- And Tiber stained with bloody foam I see.
- Simois, Xanthus, and the Dorian horde
- Thou shalt behold; a new Achilles now
- In Latium breathes,—he, too, of goddess born;
- And Juno, burden of the sons of Troy,
- Will vex them ever; while thyself shalt sue
- In dire distress to many a town and tribe
- Through Italy; the cause of so much ill
- Again shall be a hostess-queen, again
- A marriage-chamber for an alien bride.
- Oh! yield not to thy woe, but front it ever,
- And follow boldly whither Fortune calls.
- Thy way of safety, as thou least couldst dream,
- Lies through a city of the Greeks, thy foes.”