Aeneid

Virgil

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

  1. Hail, Erato! while olden kings and thrones
  2. and all their sequent story I unfold!
  3. How Latium's honor stood, when alien ships
  4. brought war to Italy, and from what cause
  5. the primal conflict sprang, O goddess, breathe
  6. upon thy bard in song. Dread wars I tell,
  7. array of battle, and high-hearted kings
  8. thrust forth to perish, when Etruria's host
  9. and all Hesperia gathered to the fray.
  10. Events of grander march impel my song,
  11. and loftier task I try. Latinus, then
  12. an aged king, held long-accepted sway
  13. o'er tranquil vales and towns. He was the son
  14. of Faunus, so the legend tells, who wed
  15. the nymph Marica of Laurentian stem.
  16. Picus was Faunus' father, whence the line
  17. to Saturn's Ioins ascends. O heavenly sire,
  18. from thee the stem began! But Fate had given
  19. to King Latinus' body no heirs male:
  20. for taken in the dawning of his day
  21. his only son had been; and now his home
  22. and spacious palace one sole daughter kept,
  23. who was grown ripe to wed and of full age
  24. to take a husband. Many suitors tried
  25. from all Ausonia and Latium's bounds;
  26. but comeliest in all their princely throng
  27. came Turnus, of a line of mighty sires.
  28. Him the queen mother chiefly loved, and yearned
  29. to call him soon her son. But omens dire
  30. and menaces from Heaven withstood her will.
  31. A laurel-tree grew in the royal close,
  32. of sacred leaf and venerated age,
  33. which, when he builded there his wall and tower,
  34. Father Latinus found, and hallowed it
  35. to Phoebus' grace and power, wherefrom the name
  36. Laurentian, which his realm and people bear.
  37. Unto this tree-top, wonderful to tell,
  38. came hosts of bees, with audible acclaim
  39. voyaging the stream of air, and seized a place
  40. on the proud, pointing crest, where the swift swarm,
  41. with interlacement of close-clinging feet,
  42. swung from the leafy bough. “Behold, there comes,”
  43. the prophet cried, “a husband from afar!
  44. To the same region by the self-same path
  45. behold an arm'd host taking lordly sway
  46. upon our city's crown!” Soon after this,
  47. when, coming to the shrine with torches pure,
  48. Lavinia kindled at her father's side
  49. the sacrifice, swift seemed the flame to burn
  50. along her flowing hair—O sight of woe!
  51. Over her broidered snood it sparkling flew,
  52. lighting her queenly tresses and her crown
  53. of jewels rare: then, wrapt in flaming cloud,
  54. from hall to hall the fire-god's gift she flung.
  55. This omen dread and wonder terrible
  56. was rumored far: for prophet-voices told
  57. bright honors on the virgin's head to fall
  58. by Fate's decree, but on her people, war.