Aeneid

Virgil

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

  1. Scarce had Aurora's purple from the sky
  2. warned off the stars, when Iying very low
  3. along th' horizon, the dimmed hills we saw
  4. of Italy; Achates first gave cry
  5. “Italia!” with answering shouts of joy,
  6. my comrades' voices cried, “Italia, hail!”
  7. Anchises, then, wreathed a great bowl with flowers
  8. and filled with wine, invoking Heaven to bless,
  9. and thus he prayed from our ship's lofty stern:
  10. “O Iords of land and sea and every storm!
  11. Breathe favoring breezes for our onward way!”
  12. Fresh blew the prayed-for winds. A haven fair
  13. soon widened near us; and its heights were crowned
  14. by a Greek fane to Pallas. Yet my men
  15. furled sail and shoreward veered the pointing prow.
  16. the port receding from the orient wave
  17. is curved into a bow; on either side
  18. the jutting headlands toss the salt sea-foam
  19. and hide the bay itself. Like double wall
  20. the towered crags send down protecting arms,
  21. while distant from the shore the temple stands.
  22. Here on a green sward, the first omen given,
  23. I saw four horses grazing through the field,
  24. each white as snow. Father Anchises cried:
  25. “Is war thy gift, O new and alien land?
  26. Horses make war; of war these creatures bode.
  27. Yet oft before the chariot of peace
  28. their swift hoofs go, and on their necks they bear
  29. th' obedient yoke and rein. Therefore a hope
  30. of peace is also ours.” Then we implored
  31. Minerva's mercy, at her sacred shrine,
  32. the mail-clad goddess who gave welcome there;
  33. and at an altar, mantling well our brows
  34. the Phrygian way, as Helenus ordained,
  35. we paid the honors his chief counsel urged,
  36. with blameless rite, to Juno, Argive Queen.
  1. No tarrying now, but after sacrifice
  2. we twirled the sailyards and shook out all sail,
  3. leaving the cities of the sons of Greece
  4. and that distrusted land. Tarentum's bay
  5. soon smiled before us, town of Hercules,
  6. if fame be true; opposing it uptowers
  7. Lacinia's headland unto Juno dear,
  8. the heights of Caulon, and that sailors' bane,
  9. ship-shattering Scylaceum. Thence half seen,
  10. trinacrian Aetna cleaves th' horizon line;
  11. we hear from far the crash of shouting seas,
  12. where lifted billows leap the tide-swept sand.
  13. Father Anchises cried: “'T is none but she—
  14. Charybdis! Helenus this reef foretold,
  15. and rocks of dreadful name. O, fly, my men!
  16. Rise like one man with long, strong sweep of oars!”
  17. Not unobedient they! First Palinure
  18. veered to the leftward wave the willing keel,
  19. and sails and oars together leftward strove.
  20. We shot to skyward on the arching surge,
  21. then, as she sank, dropped deeper than the grave;
  22. thrice bellowed the vast cliffs from vaulted wall;
  23. thrice saw we spouted foam and showers of stars.
  24. After these things both wind and sun did fail;
  25. and weary, worn, not witting of our way,
  26. we drifted shoreward to the Cyclops' land.
  1. A spreading bay is there, impregnable
  2. to all invading storms; and Aetna's throat
  3. with roar of frightful ruin thunders nigh.
  4. Now to the realm of light it lifts a cloud
  5. of pitch-black, whirling smoke, and fiery dust,
  6. shooting out globes of flame, with monster tongues
  7. that lick the stars; now huge crags of itself,
  8. out of the bowels of the mountain torn,
  9. its maw disgorges, while the molten rock
  10. rolls screaming skyward; from the nether deep
  11. the fathomless abyss makes ebb and flow.
  12. Enceladus, his body lightning-scarred,
  13. lies prisoned under all, so runs the tale:
  14. o'er him gigantic Aetna breathes in fire
  15. from crack and seam; and if he haply turn
  16. to change his wearied side, Trinacria's isle
  17. trembles and moans, and thick fumes mantle heaven.
  18. That night in screen and covert of a grove
  19. we bore the dire convulsion, unaware
  20. whence the loud horror came. For not a star
  21. its lamp allowed, nor burned in upper sky
  22. the constellated fires, but all was gloom,
  23. and frowning night confined the moon in cloud.