Aeneid

Virgil

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

  1. “Thou in whose hands the Father of all gods
  2. and Sovereign of mankind confides the power
  3. to calm the waters or with winds upturn,
  4. great Aeolus! a race with me at war
  5. now sails the Tuscan main towards Italy,
  6. bringing their Ilium and its vanquished powers.
  7. Uprouse thy gales. Strike that proud navy down!
  8. Hurl far and wide, and strew the waves with dead!
  9. Twice seven nymphs are mine, of rarest mould;
  10. of whom Deiopea, the most fair,
  11. I give thee in true wedlock for thine own,
  12. to mate thy noble worth; she at thy side
  13. shall pass long, happy years, and fruitful bring
  14. her beauteous offspring unto thee their sire.”
  1. Then Aeolus: “'T is thy sole task, O Queen,
  2. to weigh thy wish and will. My fealty
  3. thy high behest obeys. This humble throne
  4. is of thy gift. Thy smiles for me obtain
  5. authority from Jove. Thy grace concedes
  6. my station at your bright Olympian board,
  7. and gives me lordship of the darkening storm.”
  1. Replying thus, he smote with spear reversed
  2. the hollow mountain's wall; then rush the winds
  3. through that wide breach in long, embattled line,
  4. and sweep tumultuous from land to land:
  5. with brooding pinions o'er the waters spread,
  6. east wind and south, and boisterous Afric gale
  7. upturn the sea; vast billows shoreward roll;
  8. the shout of mariners, the creak of cordage,
  9. follow the shock; low-hanging clouds conceal
  10. from Trojan eyes all sight of heaven and day;
  11. night o'er the ocean broods; from sky to sky
  12. the thunders roll, the ceaseless lightnings glare;
  13. and all things mean swift death for mortal man.
  14. Straightway Aeneas, shuddering with amaze,
  15. groaned loud, upraised both holy hands to Heaven,
  16. and thus did plead: “O thrice and four times blest,
  17. ye whom your sires and whom the walls of Troy
  18. looked on in your last hour! O bravest son
  19. Greece ever bore, Tydides! O that I
  20. had fallen on Ilian fields, and given this life
  21. struck down by thy strong hand! where by the spear
  22. of great Achilles, fiery Hector fell,
  23. and huge Sarpedon; where the Simois
  24. in furious flood engulfed and whirled away
  25. so many helms and shields and heroes slain!”
  1. While thus he cried to Heaven, a shrieking blast
  2. smote full upon the sail. Up surged the waves
  3. to strike the very stars; in fragments flew
  4. the shattered oars; the helpless vessel veered
  5. and gave her broadside to the roaring flood,
  6. where watery mountains rose and burst and fell.
  7. Now high in air she hangs, then yawning gulfs
  8. lay bare the shoals and sands o'er which she drives.
  9. Three ships a whirling south wind snatched and flung
  10. on hidden rocks,—altars of sacrifice
  11. Italians call them, which lie far from shore
  12. a vast ridge in the sea; three ships beside
  13. an east wind, blowing landward from the deep,
  14. drove on the shallows,—pitiable sight,—
  15. and girdled them in walls of drifting sand.
  16. That ship, which, with his friend Orontes, bore
  17. the Lycian mariners, a great, plunging wave
  18. struck straight astern, before Aeneas' eyes.
  19. Forward the steersman rolled and o'er the side
  20. fell headlong, while three times the circling flood
  21. spun the light bark through swift engulfing seas.
  22. Look, how the lonely swimmers breast the wave!
  23. And on the waste of waters wide are seen
  24. weapons of war, spars, planks, and treasures rare,
  25. once Ilium's boast, all mingled with the storm.
  26. Now o'er Achates and Ilioneus,
  27. now o'er the ship of Abas or Aletes,
  28. bursts the tempestuous shock; their loosened seams
  29. yawn wide and yield the angry wave its will.
  1. Meanwhile how all his smitten ocean moaned,
  2. and how the tempest's turbulent assault
  3. had vexed the stillness of his deepest cave,
  4. great Neptune knew; and with indignant mien
  5. uplifted o'er the sea his sovereign brow.
  6. He saw the Teucrian navy scattered far
  7. along the waters; and Aeneas' men
  8. o'erwhelmed in mingling shock of wave and sky.
  9. Saturnian Juno's vengeful stratagem
  10. her brother's royal glance failed not to see;
  11. and loud to eastward and to westward calling,
  12. he voiced this word:“What pride of birth or power
  13. is yours, ye winds, that, reckless of my will,
  14. audacious thus, ye ride through earth and heaven,
  15. and stir these mountain waves? Such rebels I—
  16. nay, first I calm this tumult! But yourselves
  17. by heavier chastisement shall expiate
  18. hereafter your bold trespass. Haste away
  19. and bear your king this word! Not unto him
  20. dominion o'er the seas and trident dread,
  21. but unto me, Fate gives. Let him possess
  22. wild mountain crags, thy favored haunt and home,
  23. O Eurus! In his barbarous mansion there,
  24. let Aeolus look proud, and play the king
  25. in yon close-bounded prison-house of storms!”