Aeneid

Virgil

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

  1. Scarce had he said, when through the foeman's line
  2. Saces dashed forth upon a foaming steed,
  3. his face gashed by an arrow. He cried loud
  4. on Turnus' name: “O Turnus, but in thee
  5. our last hope lies. Have pity on the woe
  6. of all thy friends and kin! Aeneas hurls
  7. his thunderbolt of war, and menaces
  8. to crush the strongholds of all Italy,
  9. and lay them low; already where we dwell
  10. his firebrands are raining. Unto thee
  11. the Latins Iook, and for thy valor call.
  12. The King sits dumb and helpless, even he,
  13. in doubt which son-in-law, which cause to choose.
  14. Yea, and the Queen, thy truest friend, is fallen
  15. by her own hand; gone mad with grief and fear,
  16. she fled the light of day. At yonder gates
  17. Messapus only and Atinas bear
  18. the brunt of battle; round us closely draw
  19. the serried ranks; their naked blades of steel
  20. are thick as ripening corn; wilt thou the while
  21. speed in thy chariot o'er this empty plain?”
  22. Dazed and bewildered by such host of ills,
  23. Turnus stood dumb; in his pent bosom stirred
  24. shame, frenzy, sorrow, a despairing love
  25. goaded to fury, and a warrior's pride
  26. of valor proven.
  1. But when first the light
  2. of reason to his blinded soul returned,
  3. he strained his flaming eyeballs to behold
  4. the distant wall, and from his chariot gazed
  5. in wonder at the lordly citadel.
  6. For, lo, a pointed peak of flame uprolled
  7. from tier to tier, and surging skyward seized
  8. a tower—the very tower his own proud hands
  9. had built of firm-set beams and wheeled in place,
  10. and slung its Iofty bridges high in air.
  11. “Fate is too strong, my sister! Seek no more
  12. to stay the stroke. But let me hence pursue
  13. that path where Heaven and cruel Fortune call.
  14. Aeneas I must meet; and I must bear
  15. the bitterness of death, whate'er it be.
  16. O sister, thou shalt look upon my shame
  17. no longer. But first grant a madman's will!”
  18. He spoke; and leaping from his chariot, sped
  19. through foes and foemen's spears, not seeing now
  20. his sister's sorrow, as in swift career
  21. he burst from line to line. Thus headlong falls
  22. a mountain-boulder by a whirlwind flung
  23. from lofty peak, or loosened by much rain,
  24. or by insidious lapse of seasons gone;
  25. the huge, resistless crag goes plunging down
  26. by leaps and bounds, o'erwhelming as it flies
  27. tall forests, Bocks and herds, and mortal men:
  28. so through the scattered legions Turnus ran
  29. straight to the city walls, where all the ground
  30. was drenched with blood, and every passing air
  31. shrieked with the noise of spears. His lifted hand
  32. made sign of silence as he loudly called:
  33. “Refrain, Rutulians! O ye Latins all,
  34. your spears withhold! The issue of the fray
  35. is all my own. I only can repair
  36. our broken truce by judgment of the sword.”
  37. Back fell the hostile lines, and cleared the field.