Aeneid

Virgil

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

  1. Thus from her shrine Cumaea's prophetess
  2. Chanted the dark decrees; the dreadful sound
  3. Reverberated through the bellowing cave,
  4. Commingling truth with ecstasies obscure.
  5. Apollo, as she raged, flung loosened rein,
  6. And thrust beneath her heart a quickening spur.
  7. When first her madness ceased, and her wild lips
  8. Were still at last, the hero thus began :
  9. “No tribulations new, 0 Sibyl blest,
  10. Can now confront me; every future pain
  11. I have foretasted; my prophetic soul
  12. Endured each stroke of fate before it fell.
  13. One boon I ask. If of th' infernal King
  14. This be the portal where the murky wave
  15. Of swollen Acheron o'erflows its bound,
  16. Here let me enter and behold the face
  17. Of my loved sire. Thy hand may point the way;
  18. Thy word will open wide yon holy doors.
  19. My father through the flames and falling spears,
  20. Straight through the centre of our foes, I bore
  21. Upon these shoulders. My long flight he shared
  22. From sea to sea, and suffered at my side
  23. The anger of rude waters and dark skies,—
  24. Though weak—0 task too great for old and gray!
  25. Thus as a suppliant at thy door to stand,
  26. Was his behest and prayer. On son and sire,
  27. 0 gracious one, have pity,—for thy rule
  28. Is over all; no vain authority
  29. Hadst thou from Trivia o'er th' Avernian groves.
  30. If Orpheus could call back his loved one's shade,
  31. Emboldened by the lyre's melodious string :
  32. If Pollux by the interchange of death
  33. Redeemed his twin, and oft repassed the way :
  34. If Theseus—but why name him? why recall
  35. Alcides' task? I, too, am sprung from Jove.”