Aeneid

Virgil

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

  1. Meanwhile at every gate the Rutule foe
  2. urges the slaughter on, and closes round
  3. the battlements with ring of flame. The host
  4. of Trojans, prisoned in the palisades,
  5. lies in strict siege and has no hope to fly.
  6. In wretched plight they man the turrets tall,
  7. to no avail, and with scant garrison
  8. the ramparts crown. In foremost line of guard
  9. are Asius Imbrasides, the twin
  10. Assaraci, and Hicetaon's son
  11. Thymoetes, and with Castor at his side
  12. the veteran Thymbris; then the brothers both
  13. of slain Sarpedon, and from Lycian steep
  14. Clarus and Themon. With full-straining thews
  15. lifting a rock, which was of some huge hill
  16. no fragment small, Lyrnesian Acmon stood;
  17. nor less than Clytius his sire he seemed,
  18. nor Mnestheus his great brother. Some defend
  19. the wall with javelins; some hurl down stones
  20. or firebrands, or to the sounding string
  21. fit arrows keen. But lo! amid the throng,
  22. well worth to Venus her protecting care,
  23. the Dardan boy, whose princely head shone forth
  24. without a helm, like radiant jewel set
  25. in burnished gold for necklace or for crown;
  26. or like immaculate ivory inclosed
  27. in boxwood or Orician terebinth;
  28. his tresses o'er his white neck rippled down,
  29. confined in circlet of soft twisted gold.
  30. Thee, too, the warrior nations gaze upon,
  31. high-nurtured Ismarus, inflicting wounds
  32. with shafts of venomed reed: Maeonia's vale
  33. thy cradle was, where o'er the fruitful fields
  34. well-tilled and rich, Pactolus pours his gold.
  35. Mnestheus was there, who, for his late repulse
  36. of Turnus from the rampart, towered forth
  37. in glory eminent; there Capys stood,
  38. whose name the Capuan citadel shall bear.
  1. While these in many a shock of grievous war
  2. hotly contend, Aeneas cleaves his way
  3. at midnight through the waters. He had fared
  4. from old Evander to th' Etruscan folk,
  5. addressed their King, and to him told the tale
  6. of his own race and name, his suit, his powers;
  7. of what allies Mezentius had embraced,
  8. and Turnus' lawless rage. He bids him know
  9. how mutable is man, and warning gives,
  10. with supplication joined. Without delay
  11. Tarchon made amity and sacred league,
  12. uniting with his cause. The Lydian tribe,
  13. now destined from its tyrant to be free,
  14. embarked, obedient to the gods, and gave
  15. allegiance to the foreign King. The ship
  16. Aeneas rode moved foremost in the line:
  17. its beak a pair of Phrygian lions bore;
  18. above them Ida rose, an emblem dear
  19. to exiled Trojans. On his Iofty seat
  20. was great Aeneas, pondering the events
  21. of changeful war; and clinging to his side
  22. the youthful Pallas fain would learn the lore
  23. of stars, the highway of dark night, and asks
  24. the story of his toils on land and sea.