Aeneid

Virgil

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

  1. After these toils, they hasten to fulfil
  2. What else the Sibyl said. Straightway they find
  3. A cave profound, of entrance gaping wide,
  4. O'erhung with rock, in gloom of sheltering grove,
  5. Near the dark waters of a lake, whereby
  6. No bird might ever pass with scathless wing,
  7. So dire an exhalation is breathed out
  8. From that dark deep of death to upper air :—
  9. Hence, in the Grecian tongue, Aornos called.
  10. Here first four youthful bulls of swarthy hide
  11. Were led for sacrifice; on each broad brow
  12. The priestess sprinkled wine; 'twixt the two horns
  13. Outplucked the lifted hair, and cast it forth
  14. Upon the holy flames, beginning so
  15. Her offerings; then loudly sued the power
  16. of Hecate, a Queen in heaven and hell.
  17. Some struck with knives, and caught in shallow bowls
  18. The smoking blood. Aeneas' lifted hand
  19. Smote with a sword a sable-fleeced ewe
  20. To Night, the mother of th' Eumenides,
  21. And Earth, her sister dread; next unto thee,
  22. O Proserpine, a curst and barren cow;
  23. Then unto Pluto, Stygian King, he built
  24. An altar dark, and piled upon the flames
  25. The ponderous entrails of the bulls, and poured
  26. Free o'er the burning flesh the goodly oil.
  27. Then lo! at dawn's dim, earliest beam began
  28. Beneath their feet a groaning of the ground :
  29. The wooded hill-tops shook, and, as it seemed,
  30. She-hounds of hell howled viewless through the shade ,
  31. To hail their Queen. “Away, 0 souls profane!
  32. Stand far away!” the priestess shrieked, “nor dare
  33. Unto this grove come near! Aeneas, on!
  34. Begin thy journey! Draw thy sheathed blade!
  35. Now, all thy courage! now, th' unshaken soul!”
  36. She spoke, and burst into the yawning cave
  37. With frenzied step; he follows where she leads,
  38. And strides with feet unfaltering at her side.