Aeneid

Virgil

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

  1. In answer (reading the dissembler's mind
  2. which unto Libyan shores were fain to shift
  3. italia's future throne) thus Venus spoke:
  4. “'T were mad to spurn such favor, or by choice
  5. be numbered with thy foes. But can it be
  6. that fortune on thy noble counsel smiles?
  7. To me Fate shows but dimly whether Jove
  8. unto the Trojan wanderers ordains
  9. a common city with the sons of Tyre,
  10. with mingling blood and sworn, perpetual peace.
  11. His wife thou art; it is thy rightful due
  12. to plead to know his mind. Go, ask him, then!
  13. For humbly I obey!” With instant word
  14. Juno the Queen replied: “Leave that to me!
  15. But in what wise our urgent task and grave
  16. may soon be sped, I will in brief unfold
  17. to thine attending ear. A royal hunt
  18. in sylvan shades unhappy Dido gives
  19. for her Aeneas, when to-morrow's dawn
  20. uplifts its earliest ray and Titan's beam
  21. shall first unveil the world. But I will pour
  22. black storm-clouds with a burst of heavy hail
  23. along their way; and as the huntsmen speed
  24. to hem the wood with snares, I will arouse
  25. all heaven with thunder. The attending train
  26. shall scatter and be veiled in blinding dark,
  27. while Dido and her hero out of Troy
  28. to the same cavern fly. My auspices
  29. I will declare—if thou alike wilt bless;
  30. and yield her in true wedlock for his bride.
  31. Such shall their spousal be!” To Juno's will
  32. Cythera's Queen inclined assenting brow,
  33. and laughed such guile to see. Aurora rose,
  34. and left the ocean's rim. The city's gates
  35. pour forth to greet the morn a gallant train
  36. of huntsmen, bearing many a woven snare
  37. and steel-tipped javelin; while to and fro
  38. run the keen-scented dogs and Libyan squires.
  39. The Queen still keeps her chamber; at her doors
  40. the Punic lords await; her palfrey, brave
  41. in gold and purple housing, paws the ground
  42. and fiercely champs the foam-flecked bridle-rein.
  43. At last, with numerous escort, forth she shines:
  44. her Tyrian pall is bordered in bright hues,
  45. her quiver, gold; her tresses are confined
  46. only with gold; her robes of purple rare
  47. meet in a golden clasp. To greet her come
  48. the noble Phrygian guests; among them smiles
  49. the boy Iulus; and in fair array
  50. Aeneas, goodliest of all his train.
  51. In such a guise Apollo (when he leaves
  52. cold Lycian hills and Xanthus' frosty stream
  53. to visit Delos to Latona dear)
  54. ordains the song, while round his altars cry
  55. the choirs of many islands, with the pied,
  56. fantastic Agathyrsi; soon the god
  57. moves o'er the Cynthian steep; his flowing hair
  58. he binds with laurel garland and bright gold;
  59. upon his shining shoulder as he goes
  60. the arrows ring:—not less uplifted mien
  61. aeneas wore; from his illustrious brow
  62. such beauty shone. Soon to the mountains tall
  63. the cavalcade comes nigh, to pathless haunts
  64. of woodland creatures; the wild goats are seen,
  65. from pointed crag descending leap by leap
  66. down the steep ridges; in the vales below
  67. are routed deer, that scour the spreading plain,
  68. and mass their dust-blown squadrons in wild flight,
  69. far from the mountain's bound. Ascanius
  70. flushed with the sport, spurs on a mettled steed
  71. from vale to vale, and many a flying herd
  72. his chase outspeeds; but in his heart he prays
  73. among these tame things suddenly to see
  74. a tusky boar, or, leaping from the hills,
  75. a growling mountain-lion, golden-maned.