Aeneid

Virgil

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

  1. Night's course half run, soon as the first repose
  2. had banished sleep,—what time some careful wife
  3. whose distaff and Minerva's humble toil
  4. must earn her bread, rekindling her warm hearth,
  5. adds a night-burden to her laboring day,
  6. and by the torch-light cheers her maidens on
  7. to their long tasks; that so her husband's bed
  8. she may in honor keep, and train to power
  9. her dear men-children—at such prime of morn,
  10. with not less eager mind the Lord of Fire
  11. fled his soft couch and to his forges tried.
  12. An island near Aeolian Lipara
  13. not far from a Sicilian headland lies,
  14. where smoking rocks precipitously tower
  15. above a vast vault, which the Cyclops' skill
  16. outhollowed large as Aetna's thunderous caves.
  17. There ring the smitten anvils, and the roof
  18. re-echoes, roaring loud. Chalybian ores
  19. hiss in the gloom, and from the furnace mouths
  20. puff the hot-panting fires. 'T is Vulcan's seat,
  21. and all that island is Vulcania.
  22. Thither descended now the god of fire
  23. from height of heaven. At their task were found
  24. the Cyclops in vast cavern forging steel,
  25. naked Pyracmon and gigantic-limbed
  26. Brontes and Steropes; beneath their blows
  27. a lightning-shaft, half-shaped, half-burnished lay,
  28. such as the Thunderer is wont to fling
  29. in numbers from the sky, but formless still.
  30. Three strands of whirling storm they wove with three
  31. of bursting cloud, and three did interfuse
  32. of ruddy-gleaming fires and winged winds;
  33. then fearful lightnings on the skilful forge
  34. they welded with loud horror, and with flames
  35. that bear swift wrath from Jove. Elsewhere a crew
  36. toiled at the chariot and winged wheel
  37. wherewith the war-god wakens from repose
  38. heroes and peopled cities. Others wrought
  39. the awful Aegis, herald of dismay,
  40. by angry Pallas worn; they burnished bright
  41. the golden serpent-scales and wreathing snakes,
  42. till from the corselet of the goddess glared
  43. the Gorgon's severed head and rolling eyes.
  44. “Cyclops of Aetna,” Vulcan cried, “have done!
  45. Leave ev'ry task unfinished, and receive
  46. my new command! Good armor must be forged
  47. for warrior brave. For this I need to use
  48. your utmost sinew and your swiftest hand,
  49. with all your master skill. No lingering now!”
  50. Swift the command, and swiftly they divide
  51. to each his portion, and united urge
  52. the common task. Forth fow the molten streams
  53. of brass and gold, and, melted in fierce fiame,
  54. the deeply-wounding steel like liquid flows.
  55. A mighty shield took shape, its single orb
  56. sufficient to withstand the gathered shock
  57. of all the Latin arms; for seven times
  58. they welded ring with ring. Some deftly ply
  59. the windy bellows, which receive and give
  60. the roaring blasts; some plunge in cooling pond
  61. the hissing metal, while the smithy floor
  62. groans with the anvil's weight, as side by side
  63. they lift their giant arms in numbered blows
  64. and roll with gripe of tongs the ponderous bars.