Aeneid

Virgil

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

  1. Here wondrous tidings met us, that the son
  2. of Priam, Helenus, held kingly sway
  3. o'er many Argive cities, having wed
  4. the Queen of Pyrrhus, great Achilles' son,
  5. and gained his throne; and that Andromache
  6. once more was wife unto a kindred lord.
  7. Amazement held me; all my bosom burned
  8. to see the hero's face and hear this tale
  9. of strange vicissitude. So up I climbed,
  10. leaving the haven, fleet, and friendly shore.
  11. That self-same hour outside the city walls,
  12. within a grove where flowed the mimic stream
  13. of a new Simois, Andromache,
  14. with offerings to the dead, and gifts of woe,
  15. poured forth libation, and invoked the shade
  16. of Hector, at a tomb which her fond grief
  17. had consecrated to perpetual tears,
  18. though void; a mound of fair green turf it stood,
  19. and near it rose twin altars to his name.
  20. She saw me drawing near; our Trojan helms
  21. met her bewildered eyes, and, terror-struck
  22. at the portentous sight, she swooning fell
  23. and lay cold, rigid, lifeless, till at last,
  24. scarce finding voice, her lips addressed me thus :
  25. “Have I true vision? Bringest thou the word
  26. Of truth, O goddess-born? Art still in flesh?
  27. Or if sweet light be fled, my Hector, where?”
  28. With flood of tears she spoke, and all the grove
  29. reechoed to her cry. Scarce could I frame
  30. brief answer to her passion, but replied
  31. with broken voice and accents faltering:
  32. “I live, 't is true. I lengthen out my days
  33. through many a desperate strait. But O, believe
  34. that what thine eyes behold is vision true.
  35. Alas! what lot is thine, that wert unthroned
  36. from such a husband's side? What after-fate
  37. could give thee honor due? Andromache,
  38. once Hector's wife, is Pyrrhus still thy lord?”