Aeneid

Virgil

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

  1. But now a new adversity befell
  2. the weary Latins, which with common woe
  3. shook the whole city to its heart. The Queen,
  4. when at her hearth she saw the close assault
  5. of enemies, the walls beset, and fire
  6. spreading from roof to roof, but no defence
  7. from the Rutulian arms, nor front of war
  8. with Turnus leading,—she, poor soul, believed
  9. her youthful champion in the conflict slain;
  10. and, mad with sudden sorrow, shrieked aloud
  11. against herself, the guilty chief and cause
  12. of all this ill; and, babbling her wild woe
  13. in endless words, she rent her purple pall,
  14. and with her own hand from the rafter swung
  15. a noose for her foul death. The tidings dire
  16. among the moaning wives of Latium spread,
  17. and young Lavinia's frantic fingers tore
  18. her rose-red cheek and hyacinthine hair.
  19. Then all her company of women shrieked
  20. in anguish, and the wailing echoed far
  21. along the royal seat; from whence the tale
  22. of sorrow through the peopled city flew;
  23. hearts sank; Latinus rent his robes, appalled
  24. to see his consort's doom, his falling throne;
  25. and heaped foul dust upon his hoary hair.