Aeneid

Virgil

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

  1. Then good Aeneas, the ship-contest o'er,
  2. turned to a wide green valley, circled round
  3. with clasp of wood-clad hills, wherein was made
  4. an amphitheatre; entering with a throng
  5. of followers, the hero took his seat
  6. in mid-arena on a lofty mound.
  7. For the fleet foot-race, now, his summons flies, —
  8. he offers gifts, and shows the rewards due.
  9. The mingling youth of Troy and Sicily
  10. hastened from far. Among the foremost came
  11. the comrades Nisus and Euryalus,
  12. Euryalus for beauty's bloom renowned,
  13. Nisus for loyal love; close-following these
  14. Diores strode, a prince of Priam's line;
  15. then Salius and Patron, who were bred
  16. in Acarnania and Arcady;
  17. then two Sicilian warriors, Helymus
  18. and Panopes, both sylvan bred and born,
  19. comrades of King Acestes; after these
  20. the multitude whom Fame forgets to tell.
  21. Aeneas, so surrounded, thus spake forth:
  22. “Hear what I purpose, and with joy receive!
  23. of all your company, not one departs
  24. with empty hand. The Cretan javelins
  25. bright-tipped with burnished steel, and battle-axe
  26. adorned with graven silver, these shall be
  27. the meed of all. The three first at the goal
  28. shall bind their foreheads with fair olive green,
  29. and win the rewards due. The first shall lead,
  30. victorious, yon rich-bridled steed away;
  31. this Amazonian quiver, the next prize,
  32. well-stocked with Thracian arrows; round it goes
  33. a baldrick broad and golden,—in its clasp
  34. a lustrous gem. The third man goes away
  35. taking this helmet from the Argive spoil.”