Aeneid

Virgil

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

  1. Soon from the travelling heavens the western star
  2. glowed nearer, and Potitius led forth
  3. the priest-procession, girt in ancient guise
  4. with skins of beasts and carrying burning brands.
  5. new feasts are spread, and altars heaped anew
  6. with gifts and laden chargers. Then with song
  7. the Salian choir surrounds the blazing shrine,
  8. their foreheads wreathed with poplar. Here the youth,
  9. the elders yonder, in proud anthem sing
  10. the glory and the deeds of Hercules:
  11. how first he strangled with strong infant hand
  12. two serpents, Juno's plague; what cities proud,
  13. Troy and Oechalia, his famous war
  14. in pieces broke; what labors numberless
  15. as King Eurystheus' bondman he endured,
  16. by cruel Juno's will. “Thou, unsubdued,
  17. didst strike the twy-formed, cloud-bred centaurs down,
  18. Pholus and tall Hylaeus. Thou hast slain
  19. the Cretan horror, and the lion huge
  20. beneath the Nemean crag. At sight of thee
  21. the Stygian region quailed, and Cerberus,
  22. crouching o'er half-picked bones in gory cave.
  23. Nothing could bid thee fear. Typhoeus towered
  24. in his colossal Titan-panoply
  25. o'er thee in vain; nor did thy cunning fail
  26. when Lema's wonder-serpent round thee drew
  27. its multudinous head. Hail, Jove's true son!
  28. New glory to the gods above, come down,
  29. and these thine altars and thy people bless!”
  30. Such hymns they chanted, telling oft the tale
  31. of Cacus' cave and blasting breath of fire:
  32. while hills and sacred grove the note prolong.