Aeneid

Virgil

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

  1. These words he gave, and summoned Maia's son,
  2. the herald Mercury, who earthward flying,
  3. should bid the Tyrian realms and new-built towers
  4. welcome the Trojan waifs; lest Dido, blind
  5. to Fate's decree, should thrust them from the land.
  6. He takes his flight, with rhythmic stroke of wing,
  7. across th' abyss of air, and soon draws near
  8. unto the Libyan mainland. He fulfils
  9. his heavenly task; the Punic hearts of stone
  10. grow soft beneath the effluence divine;
  11. and, most of all, the Queen, with heart at ease
  12. awaits benignantly her guests from Troy.
  1. But good Aeneas, pondering all night long
  2. his many cares, when first the cheerful dawn
  3. upon him broke, resolved to take survey
  4. of this strange country whither wind and wave
  5. had driven him,—for desert land it seemed,—
  6. to learn what tribes of man or beast possess
  7. a place so wild, and careful tidings bring
  8. back to his friends. His fleet of ships the while,
  9. where dense, dark groves o'er-arch a hollowed crag,
  10. he left encircled in far-branching shade.
  11. Then with no followers save his trusty friend
  12. Achates, he went forth upon his way,
  13. two broad-tipped javelins poising in his hand.
  14. Deep to the midmost wood he went, and there
  15. his Mother in his path uprose; she seemed
  16. in garb and countenance a maid, and bore,
  17. like Spartan maids, a weapon; in such guise
  18. Harpalyce the Thracian urges on
  19. her panting coursers and in wild career
  20. outstrips impetuous Hebrus as it flows.
  21. Over her lovely shoulders was a bow,
  22. slender and light, as fits a huntress fair;
  23. her golden tresses without wimple moved
  24. in every wind, and girded in a knot
  25. her undulant vesture bared her marble knees.
  26. She hailed them thus: “Ho, sirs, I pray you tell
  27. if haply ye have noted, as ye came,
  28. one of my sisters in this wood astray?
  29. She bore a quiver, and a lynx's hide
  30. her spotted mantle was; perchance she roused
  31. some foaming boar, and chased with loud halloo.”
  1. So Venus spoke, and Venus' son replied:
  2. “No voice or vision of thy sister fair
  3. has crossed my path, thou maid without a name!
  4. Thy beauty seems not of terrestrial mould,
  5. nor is thy music mortal! Tell me, goddess,
  6. art thou bright Phoebus' sister? Or some nymph,
  7. the daughter of a god? Whate'er thou art,
  8. thy favor we implore, and potent aid
  9. in our vast toil. Instruct us of what skies,
  10. or what world's end, our storm-swept lives have found!
  11. Strange are these lands and people where we rove,
  12. compelled by wind and wave. Lo, this right hand
  13. shall many a victim on thine altar slay!”