Aeneid

Virgil

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

  1. Some leaped to horse or chariot and rode
  2. with naked swords in air. Messapus, wild
  3. to break the truce, assailed the Tuscan King,
  4. Aulestes, dressed in kingly blazon fair,
  5. with fearful shock of steeds; the Tuscan dropped
  6. helplessly backward, striking as he fell
  7. his head and shoulders on the altar-stone
  8. that lay behind him. But Messapus flew,
  9. infuriate, a javelin in his hand,
  10. and, towering o'er the suppliant, smote him strong
  11. with the great beam-like spear, and loudly cried:
  12. “Down with him! Ah! no common victim he
  13. to give the mighty gods!” Italia's men
  14. despoiled the dead man ere his limbs were cold.
  15. Then Corynaeus snatched a burning brand
  16. out of the altar, and as Ebysus
  17. came toward him for to strike, he hurled the flame
  18. full in his face: the big beard quickly blazed
  19. with smell of singeing; while the warrior bold
  20. strode over him, and seized with firm left hand
  21. his quailing foe's Iong hair; then with one knee
  22. he pushed and strained, compelled him to the `ground—
  23. and struck straight at his heart with naked steel.
  24. The shepherd Alsus in the foremost line
  25. came leaping through the spears; when o'er him towered
  26. huge Podalirius with a flashing sword
  27. in close pursuit; the mighty battle-axe
  28. clove him with swinging stroke from brow to chin,
  29. and spilt along his mail the streaming gore:
  30. so stern repose and iron slumber fell
  31. upon that shepherd's eyes, and sealed their gaze
  32. in endless night. But good Aeneas now
  33. stretched forth his unarmed hand, and all unhelmed
  34. thus Ioudly to his people called: “What means
  35. this frantic stir, this quarrel rashly bold?
  36. Recall your martial rage! The pledge is given
  37. and all its terms agreed. 'T is only I
  38. do lawful battle here. So let me forth,
  39. and tremble not. My own hand shall confirm
  40. the solemn treaty. For these rites consign
  41. Turnus to none but me.” Yet while he spoke,
  42. behold, a winged arrow, hissing loud,
  43. the hero pierced; but what bold hand impelled
  44. its whirling speed, none knew; nor if it were
  45. chance or some power divine that brought this fame
  46. upon Rutulia; for the glorious deed
  47. was covered o'er with silence: none would boast
  48. an arrow guilty of Aeneas' wound.
  49. When Turnus saw Aeneas from the line
  50. retreating, and the captains in dismay,
  51. with sudden hope he burned: he called for steeds,
  52. for arms, and, leaping to his chariot,
  53. rode insolently forth, the reins in hand.
  54. Many strong heroes he dispatched to die,
  55. as on he flew, and many stretched half-dead,
  56. or from his chariot striking, or from far
  57. raining his javelins on the recreant foe.
  58. As Mars, forth-speeding by the wintry stream
  59. of Hebrus, smites his sanguinary shield
  60. and whips the swift steeds to the front of war,
  61. who, flying past the winds of eve and morn,
  62. scour the wide champaign; the bounds of Thrace
  63. beneath their hoof-beats thunder; the dark shapes
  64. of Terror, Wrath, and Treachery move on
  65. in escort of the god: in such grim guise
  66. bold Turnus lashed into the fiercest fray
  67. his streaming steeds, that pitiful to see
  68. trod down the slaughtered foe; each flying hoof
  69. scattered a bloody dew; their path was laid
  70. in mingled blood and sand. To death he flung
  71. Pholus and Sthenelus and Thamyris:
  72. two smitten in close fight and one from far:
  73. also from far he smote with fatal spear
  74. Glaucus and Lades, the Imbrasidae,
  75. whom Imbrasus himself in Lycia bred,
  76. and honored them with arms of equal skill
  77. when grappling with a foe, or o'er the field
  78. speeding a war-horse faster than the wind.