Aeneid

Virgil

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

  1. Him the god Ammon got by forced embrace
  2. upon a Libyan nymph; his kingdoms wide
  3. possessed a hundred ample shrines to Jove,
  4. a hundred altars whence ascended ever
  5. the fires of sacrifice, perpetual seats
  6. for a great god's abode, where flowing blood
  7. enriched the ground, and on the portals hung
  8. garlands of every flower. The angered King,
  9. half-maddened by malignant Rumor's voice,
  10. unto his favored altars came, and there,
  11. surrounded by the effluence divine,
  12. upraised in prayer to Jove his suppliant hands.
  13. “Almighty Jupiter, to whom each day,
  14. at banquet on the painted couch reclined,
  15. Numidia pours libation! Do thine eyes
  16. behold us? Or when out of yonder heaven,
  17. o sire, thou launchest the swift thunderbolt,
  18. is it for naught we fear thee? Do the clouds
  19. shoot forth blind fire to terrify the soul
  20. with wild, unmeaning roar? O, Iook upon
  21. that woman, who was homeless in our realm,
  22. and bargained where to build her paltry town,
  23. receiving fertile coastland for her farms,
  24. by hospitable grant! She dares disdain
  25. our proffered nuptial vow. She has proclaimed
  26. Aeneas partner of her bed and throne.
  27. And now that Paris, with his eunuch crew,
  28. beneath his chin and fragrant, oozy hair
  29. ties the soft Lydian bonnet, boasting well
  30. his stolen prize. But we to all these fanes,
  31. though they be thine, a fruitless offering bring,
  32. and feed on empty tales our trust in thee.”