Aeneid

Virgil

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

  1. With drooping brows and lowly voice she cried :
  2. “O, happy only was that virgin blest,
  3. daughter of Priam, summoned forth to die
  4. in sight of Ilium, on a foeman's tomb!
  5. No casting of the lot her doom decreed,
  6. nor came she to her conqueror's couch a slave.
  7. Myself from burning Ilium carried far
  8. o'er seas and seas, endured the swollen pride
  9. of that young scion of Achilles' race,
  10. and bore him as his slave a son. When he
  11. sued for Hermione, of Leda's line,
  12. and nuptial-bond with Lacedaemon's Iords,
  13. I, the slave-wife, to Helenus was given,
  14. and slave was wed with slave. But afterward
  15. Orestes, crazed by loss of her he loved,
  16. and ever fury-driven from crime to crime,
  17. crept upon Pyrrhus in a careless hour
  18. and murdered him upon his own hearth-stone.
  19. Part of the realm of Neoptolemus
  20. fell thus to Helenus, who called his lands
  21. Chaonian, and in Trojan Chaon's name
  22. his kingdom is Chaonia. Yonder height
  23. is Pergamus, our Ilian citadel.
  24. What power divine did waft thee to our shore,
  25. not knowing whither? Tell me of the boy
  26. Ascanius! Still breathes he earthly air?
  27. In Troy she bore him—is he mourning still
  28. that mother ravished from his childhood's eyes?
  29. what ancient valor stirs the manly soul
  30. of thine own son, of Hector's sister's child?”
  31. Thus poured she forth full many a doleful word
  32. with unavailing tears. But as she ceased,
  33. out of the city gates appeared the son
  34. of Priam, Helenus, with princely train.
  35. He welcomed us as kin, and glad at heart
  36. gave guidance to his house, though oft his words
  37. fell faltering and few, with many a tear.
  38. Soon to a humbler Troy I lift my eyes,
  39. and of a mightier Pergamus discern
  40. the towering semblance; there a scanty stream
  41. runs on in Xanthus' name, and my glad arms
  42. the pillars of a Scaean gate embrace.
  43. My Teucrian mariners with welcome free
  44. enjoyed the friendly town; his ample halls
  45. our royal host threw wide; full wine-cups flowed
  46. within the palace; golden feast was spread,
  47. and many a goblet quaffed. Day followed day,
  48. while favoring breezes beckoned us to sea,
  49. and swelled the waiting canvas as they blew.
  50. Then to the prophet-priest I made this prayer:
  51. “Offspring of Troy, interpreter of Heaven!
  52. Who knowest Phoebus' power, and readest well
  53. the tripod, stars, and vocal laurel leaves
  54. to Phoebus dear, who know'st of every bird
  55. the ominous swift wing or boding song,
  56. o, speak! For all my course good omens showed,
  57. and every god admonished me to sail
  58. in quest of Italy's far-distant shores;
  59. but lone Celaeno, heralding strange woe,
  60. foretold prodigious horror, vengeance dark,
  61. and vile, unnatural hunger. How elude
  62. such perils? Or by what hard duty done
  63. may such huge host of evils vanquished be?”
  64. Then Helenus, with sacrifice of kine
  65. in order due, implored the grace of Heaven,
  66. unloosed the fillets from his sacred brow,
  67. and led me, Phoebus, to thy temple's door,
  68. awed by th' o'er-brooding godhead, whose true priest,
  69. with lips inspired, made this prophetic song: