Aeneid

Virgil

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

  1. Aeneas straightway from his lofty ships
  2. lets down his troop by bridges. Some await
  3. the ebbing of slack seas, and boldly leap
  4. into the shallows; others ply the oar.
  5. Tarchon a beach discovers, where the sands
  6. sing not, nor waves with broken murmur fall,
  7. but full and silent swells the gentle sea.
  8. Steering in haste that way, he called his crews:
  9. “Now bend to your stout oars, my chosen brave.
  10. Lift each ship forward, till her beak shall cleave
  11. yon hostile shore; and let her keel's full weight
  12. the furrow drive. I care not if we break
  13. our ship's side in so sure an anchorage,
  14. if once we land.” While Tarchon urged them thus,
  15. the crews bent all together to their blades
  16. and sped their foaming barks to Latium's plain,
  17. till each beak gripped the sand and every keel
  18. lay on dry land unscathed:—all save thine own,
  19. O Tarchon! dashed upon a sand-bar, she!
  20. Long poised upon the cruel ridge she hung,
  21. tilted this way or that and beat the waves,
  22. then split, and emptied forth upon the tide
  23. her warriors; and now the drifting wreck
  24. of shattered oars and thwarts entangles them,
  25. or ebb of swirling waters sucks them down.
  1. Turnus no lingering knows, but fiercely hurls
  2. his whole line on the Teucrians, and makes stand
  3. along the shore. Now peals the trumpet's call.
  4. Aeneas in the van led on his troop
  5. against the rustic foe, bright augury
  6. for opening war, and laid the Latins low,
  7. slaughtering Theron, a huge chief who dared
  8. offer Aeneas battle; through the scales
  9. of brazen mail and corselet stiff with gold
  10. the sword drove deep, and gored the gaping side.
  11. Then smote he Lichas, from his mother's womb
  12. ripped in her dying hour, and unto thee,
  13. O Phoebus, vowed, because his infant days
  14. escaped the fatal steel. Hard by him fell
  15. stout Cisseus and gigantic Gyas; these
  16. to death were hurled, while with their knotted clubs
  17. they slew opposing hosts; but naught availed
  18. Herculean weapons, nor their mighty hands,
  19. or that Melampus was their sire, a peer
  20. of Hercules, what time in heavy toils
  21. through earth he roved. See next how Pharon boasts!
  22. But while he vainly raves, the whirling spear
  23. smites full on his loud mouth. And also thou,
  24. Cydon, wast by the Trojan stroke o'erthrown,
  25. while following in ill-omened haste the steps
  26. of Clytius, thy last joy, whose round cheek wore
  27. its youthful golden down: soon hadst thou lain
  28. in death, unheeding of thy fancies fond
  29. which ever turned to youth;—but now arose
  30. the troop of all thy brothers, Phorcus' sons,
  31. a close array of seven, and seven spears
  32. they hurled: some from Aeneas' helm or shield
  33. glanced off in vain; some Venus' kindly power,
  34. just as they touched his body, turned away.
  35. Aeneas then to true Achates cried:
  36. “Bring on my spears: not one shall fruitless fly
  37. against yon Rutules, even as they pierced
  38. the breasts of Greeks upon the Ilian plain.”
  39. Then one great shaft he seized and threw; it sped
  40. straight into Maeon's brazen shield, and clove
  41. his mail-clad heart. Impetuous to his aid
  42. brother Alcanor came, and lifted up
  43. with strong right hand his brother as he fell:
  44. but through his arm a second skilful shaft
  45. made bloody way, and by the sinews held
  46. the lifeless right hand from the shoulder swung.
  47. Then from his brother's body Numitor
  48. the weapon plucked and hurled it, furious,
  49. upon Aeneas; but it could not strike
  50. the hero's self, and grazed along the thigh
  51. of great Achates. Next into the fight
  52. Clausus of Cures came, in youthful bloom
  53. exulting, and with far-thrown javelin
  54. struck Dryops at the chin, and took away
  55. from the gashed, shrieking throat both life and voice;
  56. the warrior's fallen forehead smote the dust;
  57. his lips poured forth thick blood. There also fell
  58. three Thracians, odspring of the lordly stem
  59. of Boreas, and three of Idas' sons
  60. from Ismara, by various doom struck down.
  61. Halaesus here his wild Auruncans brings;
  62. and flying to the fight comes Neptune's son,
  63. Messapus, famous horseman. On both sides
  64. each charges on the foe. Ausonia's strand
  65. is one wide strife. As when o'er leagues of air
  66. the envious winds give battle to their peers,
  67. well-matched in rage and power; and neither they
  68. nor clouds above, nor plunging seas below
  69. will end the doubtful war, but each withstands
  70. the onset of the whole—in such wild way
  71. the line of Trojans on the Latian line
  72. hurls itself, limb on limb and man on man.