Aeneid

Virgil

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

  1. Then Sire Aeneas willed to make a stay
  2. to so much rage, nor let Entellus' soul
  3. flame beyond bound, but bade the battle pause,
  4. and, rescuing weary Dares, thus he spoke
  5. in soothing words: “Ill-starred! What mad attempt
  6. is in thy mind? Will not thy heart confess
  7. thy strength surpassed, and auspices averse?
  8. Submit, for Heaven decrees!” With such wise words
  9. he sundered the fell strife. But trusty friends
  10. bore Dares off: his spent limbs helpless trailed,
  11. his head he could not lift, and from his lips
  12. came blood and broken teeth. So to the ship
  13. they bore him, taking, at Aeneas' word,
  14. the helmet and the sword—but left behind
  15. Entellus' prize of victory, the bull.
  16. He, then, elate and glorying, spoke forth:
  17. “See, goddess-born, and all ye Teucrians, see,
  18. what strength was mine in youth, and from what death
  19. ye have clelivered Dares.” Saying so,
  20. he turned him full front to the bull, who stood
  21. for reward of the fight, and, drawing back
  22. his right hand, poising the dread gauntlet high,
  23. swung sheer between the horns and crushed the skull;
  24. a trembling, lifeless creature, to the ground
  25. the bull dropped forward dead. Above the fallen
  26. Entellus cried aloud, “This victim due
  27. I give thee, Eryx, more acceptable
  28. than Dares' death to thy benignant shade.
  29. For this last victory and joyful day,
  30. my gauntlets and my art I leave with thee.”