Aeneid

Virgil

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

  1. He spoke. The god a prompt obedience gave
  2. to his great sire's command. He fastened first
  3. those sandals of bright gold, which carry him
  4. aloft o'er land or sea, with airy wings
  5. that race the fleeting wind; then lifted he
  6. his wand, wherewith he summons from the grave
  7. pale-featured ghosts, or, if he will, consigns
  8. to doleful Tartarus; or by its power
  9. gives slumber or dispels; or quite unseals
  10. the eyelids of the dead: on this relying,
  11. he routs the winds or cleaves th' obscurity
  12. of stormful clouds. Soon from his flight he spied
  13. the summit and the sides precipitous
  14. of stubborn Atlas, whose star-pointing peak
  15. props heaven; of Atlas, whose pine-wreathed brow
  16. is girdled evermore with misty gloom
  17. and lashed of wind and rain; a cloak of snow
  18. melts on his shoulder; from his aged chin
  19. drop rivers, and ensheathed in stiffening ice
  20. glitters his great grim beard. Here first was stayed
  21. the speed of Mercury's well-poising wing;
  22. here making pause, from hence he headlong flung
  23. his body to the sea; in motion like
  24. some sea-bird's, which along the levelled shore
  25. or round tall crags where rove the swarming fish,
  26. flies Iow along the waves: o'er-hovering so
  27. between the earth and skies, Cyllene's god
  28. flew downward from his mother's mountain-sire,
  29. parted the winds and skimmed the sandy merge
  30. of Libya. When first his winged feet
  31. came nigh the clay-built Punic huts, he saw
  32. Aeneas building at a citadel,
  33. and founding walls and towers; at his side
  34. was girt a blade with yellow jaspers starred,
  35. his mantle with the stain of Tyrian shell
  36. flowed purple from his shoulder, broidered fair
  37. by opulent Dido with fine threads of gold,
  38. her gift of love; straightway the god began:
  39. “Dost thou for lofty Carthage toil, to build
  40. foundations strong? Dost thou, a wife's weak thrall,
  41. build her proud city? Hast thou, shameful loss!
  42. Forgot thy kingdom and thy task sublime?
  43. From bright Olympus, I. He who commands
  44. all gods, and by his sovran deity
  45. moves earth and heaven—he it was who bade
  46. me bear on winged winds his high decree.
  47. What plan is thine? By what mad hope dost thou
  48. linger so Iong in lap of Libyan land?
  49. If the proud reward of thy destined way
  50. move not thy heart, if all the arduous toil
  51. to thine own honor speak not, Iook upon
  52. Iulus in his bloom, thy hope and heir
  53. Ascanius. It is his rightful due
  54. in Italy o'er Roman lands to reign.”
  55. After such word Cyllene's winged god
  56. vanished, and e'er his accents died away,
  57. dissolved in air before the mortal's eyes.