Aeneid

Virgil

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

  1. But, lo! a sudden wonder met his eyes:
  2. white gleaming through the grove, with all her brood
  3. white like herself, on the green bank the Sow
  4. stretched prone. The good Aeneas slew her there,
  5. Great Juno, for a sacrifice to thee,
  6. himself the priest, and with the sucklings all
  7. beside shine altar stood. So that whole night
  8. the god of Tiber calmed his swollen wave,
  9. ebbing or lingering in silent flow,
  10. till like some gentle lake or sleeping pool
  11. his even waters lay, and strove no more
  12. against the oarsmen's toil. Upon their way
  13. they speed with joyful sound; the well-oiled wood
  14. slips through the watery floor; the wondering waves,
  15. and all the virgin forests wondering,
  16. behold the warriors in far-shining arms
  17. their painted galleys up the current drive.
  18. O'er the long reaches of the winding flood
  19. their sturdy oars outweary the slow course
  20. of night and day. Fair groves of changeful green
  21. arch o'er their passage, and they seem to cleave
  22. green forests in the tranquil wave below.
  23. Now had the flaming sun attained his way
  24. to the mid-sphere of heaven, when they discerned
  25. walls and a citadel in distant view,
  26. with houses few and far between; 't was there,
  27. where sovran Rome to-day has rivalled Heaven,
  28. Evander's realm its slender strength displayed:
  29. swiftly they turned their prows and neared the town.