Aeneid, Book 2: The Fall of Troy

1Conticuere omnes, intentique ora tenebant.

Inde toro pater Aeneas sic orsus ab alto:

Infandum, regina, iubes renovare dolorem,

Troianas ut opes et lamentabile regnum

5eruerint Danai; quaeque ipse miserrima vidi,

et quorum pars magna fui. Quis talia fando

Myrmidonum Dolopumve aut duri miles Ulixi

temperet a lacrimis? Et iam nox umida caelo

praecipitat, suadentque cadentia sidera somnos.

10Sed si tantus amor casus cognoscere nostros

et breviter Troiae supremum audire laborem,

quamquam animus meminisse horret, luctuque refugit,

incipiam.Fracti bello fatisque repulsi

ductores Danaum, tot iam labentibus annis,

15instar montis equum divina Palladis arte

aedificant, sectaque intexunt abiete costas:

votum pro reditu simulant; ea fama vagatur.

Huc delecta virum sortiti corpora furtim

includunt caeco lateri, penitusque cavernas

20ingentis uterumque armato milite complent.

Est in conspectu Tenedos, notissima fama

insula, dives opum, Priami dum regna manebant,

nunc tantum sinus et statio male fida carinis:

huc se provecti deserto in litore condunt.

25Nos abiisse rati et vento petiisse Mycenas:

ergo omnis longo solvit se Teucria luctu;

panduntur portae; iuvat ire et Dorica castra

desertosque videre locos litusque relictum.

Hic Dolopum manus, hic saevus tendebat Achilles;

30classibus hic locus; hic acie certare solebant.

Pars stupet innuptae donum exitiale Minervae,

et molem mirantur equi; primusque Thymoetes

duci intra muros hortatur et arce locari,

sive dolo, seu iam Troiae sic fata ferebant.

35At Capys, et quorum melior sententia menti,

aut pelago Danaum insidias suspectaque dona

praecipitare iubent, subiectisque urere flammis,

aut terebrare cavas uteri et temptare latebras.

Scinditur incertum studia in contraria volgus.

40Primus ibi ante omnis, magna comitante caterva,

Laocoön ardens summa decurrit ab arce,

et procul: O miseri, quae tanta insania, cives?

Creditis avectos hostis? Aut ulla putatis

dona carere dolis Danaum? Sic notus Ulixes?

45aut hoc inclusi ligno occultantur Achivi,

aut haec in nostros fabricata est machina muros

inspectura domos venturaque desuper urbi,

aut aliquis latet error; equo ne credite, Teucri.

Quicquid id est, timeo Danaos et dona ferentis.

50Sic fatus, validis ingentem viribus hastam

in latus inque feri curvam compagibus alvum

contorsit: stetit illa tremens, uteroque recusso

insonuere cavae gemitumque dedere cavernae.

Et, si fata deum, si mens non laeva fuisset,

55impulerat ferro Argolicas foedare latebras,

Troiaque, nunc stares, Priamique arx alta, maneres.

1All fell silent, their faces fixed in attention.

Then father Aeneas, from his high couch, began:

'Unspeakable grief, queen, you bid me renew:

how the Danaans tore down Trojan power and a kingdom

5made for lament; the horrors I myself saw,

and in which I played so great a part. Who could tell such things

and hold back tears, even a Myrmidon or Dolopian,

even a soldier of relentless Ulysses? And now the dewy night

falls from the sky, and the setting stars counsel sleep.

10But if such great desire is yours to know our disasters

and to hear in brief Troy's final ordeal,

though my mind shudders to remember and recoils in grief,

I will begin. Broken by war and beaten back by fate,

the Danaan captains, after so many years had slipped away,

15built a horse as vast as a mountain by Pallas' divine craft,

weaving its ribs from planks of cut fir.

They pretended it was an offering vowed for their return; so rumor ran.

There the Danaan captains secretly shut chosen men selected by lot

inside its blind flank, and deep within filled the vast inner hollows

20and belly with armed soldiers.

Tenedos lies within sight, an island famed far and wide,

rich in wealth while Priam's realm endured,

now only a bay, an anchorage treacherous to ships.

There they sailed and hid along the empty shore.

25We thought them gone, bound with the wind for Mycenae;

so all the Trojan land shook free of its long grief.

The gates flew open; we delighted to go and see the Dorian camp,

the empty ground, the abandoned shore.

Here stood the Dolopian band; here savage Achilles pitched his camp;

30here lay the fleet; here they used to meet us in battle.

Some stood astonished at virgin Minerva's deadly gift

and marveled at the horse's bulk. Thymoetes was first

to urge that it be drawn within the walls and lodged in the citadel,

whether from treachery or because Troy's fate already drove it so.

35But Capys, and those whose minds held better judgment,

told us either to cast the Danaans' trap, their suspect gift, into the sea,

or set fire beneath it and burn it,

or pierce the hollow belly and probe its hiding places.

The wavering crowd split into rival factions.

40Then, before all the rest, with a great crowd behind him,

Laocoon ran blazing with fury down from the citadel's height

and cried from afar: "Poor wretches, what madness is this, citizens?

Do you believe the enemies have sailed away? Or do you think any

Danaan gifts are free of deceit? Is this how you know Ulysses?

45Achaeans may be hidden, shut inside this timber;

or this engine has been fashioned against our walls,

built to spy into our homes and descend upon the city;

or some other trick lies hidden. Teucrians, do not trust the horse.

Whatever it is, I fear the Danaans, even bearing gifts."

50So he spoke, and with all his strength hurled a massive spear

into the beast's side, into the curved belly where the timbers joined.

It stood there quivering; the womb shook from the blow,

the hollow caverns rang and gave out a groan.

And if the gods' decrees, if our own minds had not been warped,

55he would have driven us to tear the Argive lair open with steel,

and Troy, you would stand now; Priam's high citadel, you would remain.

57Ecce, manus iuvenem interea post terga revinctum

pastores magno ad regem clamore trahebant

Dardanidae, qui se ignotum venientibus ultro,

60hoc ipsum ut strueret Troiamque aperiret Achivis,

obtulerat, fidens animi atque in utrumque paratus,

seu versare dolos, seu certae occumbere morti.

Undique visendi studio Troiana iuventus

circumfusa ruit, certantque inludere capto.

65Accipe nunc Danaum insidias, et crimine ab uno

disce omnes.

Namque ut conspectu in medio turbatus, inermis

constitit atque oculis Phrygia agmina circumspexit:

Heu, quae nunc tellus inquit quae me aequora possunt

70accipere? Aut quid iam misero mihi denique restat,

cui neque apud Danaos usquam locus, et super ipsi

Dardanidae infensi poenas cum sanguine poscunt?

Quo gemitu conversi animi, compressus et omnis

impetus. Hortamur fari; quo sanguine cretus,

75quidve ferat, memoret, quae sit fiducia capto.

Ille haec, deposita tandem formidine, fatur:

Cuncta equidem tibi, Rex, fuerit quodcumque, fatebor

vera, inquit; neque me Argolica de gente negabo:

hoc primum; nec, si miserum Fortuna Sinonem

80finxit, vanum etiam mendacemque improba finget.

Fando aliquod si forte tuas pervenit ad auris

Belidae nomen Palamedis et incluta fama

gloria, quem falsa sub proditione Pelasgi

insontem infando indicio, quia bella vetabat,

85demisere neci, nunc cassum lumine lugent.

Illi me comitem et consanguinitate propinquum

pauper in arma pater primis huc misit ab annis,

dum stabat regno incolumis regumque vigebat

consiliis, et nos aliquod nomenque decusque

90gessimus. Invidia postquam pellacis Ulixi—

haud ignota loquor—superis concessit ab oris,

adflictus vitam in tenebris luctuque trahebam,

et casum insontis mecum indignabar amici.

Nec tacui demens, et me, fors si qua tulisset,

95si patrios umquam remeassem victor ad Argos,

promisi ultorem, et verbis odia aspera movi.

Hinc mihi prima mali labes, hinc semper Ulixes

criminibus terrere novis, hinc spargere voces

in volgum ambiguas, et quaerere conscius arma.

100Nec requievit enim, donec, Calchante ministro—

sed quid ego haec autem nequiquam ingrata revolvo?

Quidve moror, si omnis uno ordine habetis Achivos,

idque audire sat est? Iamdudum sumite poenas,

hoc Ithacus velit, et magno mercentur Atridae.

105Tum vero ardemus scitari et quaerere causas,

ignari scelerum tantorum artisque Pelasgae.

Prosequitur pavitans, et ficto pectore fatur:

Saepe fugam Danai Troia cupiere relicta

moliri, et longo fessi discedere bello;

110fecissentque utinam! Saepe illos aspera ponti

interclusit hiemps, et terruit Auster euntis.

Praecipue, cum iam hic trabibus contextus acernis

staret equus, toto sonuerunt aethere nimbi.

Suspensi Eurypylum scitantem oracula Phoebi

115mittimus, isque adytis haec tristia dicta reportat:

Sanguine placastis ventos et virgine caesa,

cum primum Iliacas, Danai, venistis ad oras;

sanguine quaerendi reditus, animaque litandum

Argolica. Volgi quae vox ut venit ad auris,

120obstipuere animi, gelidusque per ima cucurrit

ossa tremor, cui fata parent, quem poscat Apollo.

Hic Ithacus vatem magno Calchanta tumultu

protrahit in medios; quae sint ea numina divom,

flagitat; et mihi iam multi crudele canebant

125artificis scelus, et taciti ventura videbant.

Bis quinos silet ille dies, tectusque recusat

prodere voce sua quemquam aut opponere morti.

Vix tandem, magnis Ithaci clamoribus actus,

composito rumpit vocem, et me destinat arae.

130Adsensere omnes, et, quae sibi quisque timebat,

unius in miseri exitium conversa tulere.

Iamque dies infanda aderat; mihi sacra parari,

et salsae fruges, et circum tempora vittae:

eripui, fateor, leto me, et vincula rupi,

135limosoque lacu per noctem obscurus in ulva

delitui, dum vela darent, si forte dedissent.

Nec mihi iam patriam antiquam spes ulla videndi,

nec dulcis natos exoptatumque parentem;

quos illi fors et poenas ob nostra reposcent

140effugia, et culpam hanc miserorum morte piabunt.

Quod te per superos et conscia numina veri,

per si qua est quae restet adhuc mortalibus usquam

intemerata fides, oro, miserere laborum

tantorum, miserere animi non digna ferentis.

57Meanwhile, look: Dardanian shepherds dragged a young man

toward the king with loud cries, his hands bound behind his back,

a stranger who had deliberately placed himself in their path

60to contrive this very plot and open Troy to the Achaeans;

confident in spirit and prepared for either outcome,

whether to work his deception or meet certain death.

From every side the Trojan youth, eager to see him,

rushed in and swarmed around, each vying to jeer at the captive.

65Now hear the Danaans' treachery, and from one man's crime

learn what they all are.

For when he stood unarmed and shaken amid their staring eyes

and looked around at the Phrygian ranks, he cried:

"Ah, what land now," he said, "what sea can

70receive me? Or what is left for wretched me now at last,

when there is no place for me anywhere among the Danaans, and now

the hostile Dardanians themselves demand vengeance in my blood?"

At that lament their feelings changed, and every

violent impulse was checked. We urged him to speak: what blood had sired him,

75what news did he bring, what grounds for trust could a captive have?

At last, laying his fear aside, he spoke:

"The whole truth, king, whatever comes of it, I will confess to you,"

he said. "I will not deny that I am of Argive stock.

That first. But though cruel Fortune has made Sinon wretched,

80she will not also make him false and a liar.

If by chance some tale has brought to your ears

the name of Palamedes, descendant of Belus, and his renowned

glory: on a false charge of treason the Pelasgians

condemned the innocent man to death on infamous testimony because he opposed the war;

85now that he is robbed of light, they mourn him.

Because I was his companion and near to him in blood,

my poor father sent me here to war in my earliest years.

While Palamedes stood secure in royal power and flourished

in the councils of kings, I too enjoyed some name

90and honor. But when, through the envy of deceitful Ulysses—

I tell no unknown story—he departed from the world above,

I was crushed and dragged out life in darkness and grief,

brooding inwardly over my innocent friend's fall.

Madman that I was, I did not keep silent; if chance ever allowed,

95if I ever returned victorious to my native Argos,

I pledged myself as avenger, and with my words stirred bitter hates.

This was the first seed of ruin for me. From then on Ulysses

kept terrifying me with fresh charges, scattering

ambiguous rumors among the crowd and, knowing his guilt, seeking means against me.

100Nor indeed did he rest until, with Calchas assisting him—

but why do I rehearse these bitter, useless memories?

Why delay? If you count all Achaeans in one rank

and hearing that name is enough, take your vengeance now:

the Ithacan would wish it, and the sons of Atreus would pay well for it."

105Then we burned to question him and learn the cause,

ignorant of such wickedness and Pelasgian craft.

Trembling, he went on, speaking from a lying heart:

"Often the Danaans longed to abandon Troy,

contrive their flight, and leave, worn down by the long war;

110if only they had! Often the sea's harsh winter weather

hemmed them in, and the South Wind terrified them as they tried to leave.

Above all, once this horse of woven maple beams

stood finished, storm clouds thundered across the whole sky.

In suspense we sent Eurypylus to consult Phoebus' oracle,

115and from the sanctuary he brought back these grim words:

'With blood you appeased the winds, with a maiden slain,

when first you came, Danaans, to the Ilian shores;

with blood your return must be won, and with an Argive

life must be offered.' When that report reached the crowd's ears,

120their spirits were stunned, and an icy trembling ran through

the marrow of their bones: whom did fate prepare, whom did Apollo demand?

Then the Ithacan, amid great uproar, dragged the seer Calchas

before them all and demanded what the gods' command might mean.

Already many were foretelling for me

125the plotter's cruel crime, silently seeing what would come.

For ten days Calchas kept silent and, sheltering himself, refused

to name anyone in his own voice or condemn him to death.

At last, barely, driven by the Ithacan's loud demands,

he broke his silence as arranged and marked me for the altar.

130All agreed, and what each had feared for himself

they bore once it was turned toward one wretched man's destruction.

Now the unspeakable day had come; the rites were being prepared for me,

the salted grain, and the fillets around my temples;

I escaped death, I confess it, and broke my bonds.

135All night I hid unseen in the reeds of a muddy pool,

waiting for them to set sail, if indeed they should.

No hope remains now of seeing my ancient homeland,

nor my sweet children and longed-for father;

perhaps those men will make them pay for my escape

140and expiate my guilt with the deaths of those innocent souls.

So by the gods above and powers that know the truth,

by whatever uncorrupted faith still remains anywhere

among mortals, I beg you, pity such suffering,

pity a spirit bearing what it never deserved."

145His lacrimis vitam damus, et miserescimus ultro.

Ipse viro primus manicas atque arta levari

vincla iubet Priamus, dictisque ita fatur amicis:

Quisquis es, amissos hinc iam obliviscere Graios;

noster eris, mihique haec edissere vera roganti:

150Quo molem hanc immanis equi statuere? Quis auctor?

Quidve petunt? Quae religio, aut quae machina belli?

Dixerat. Ille, dolis instructus et arte Pelasga,

sustulit exutas vinclis ad sidera palmas:

Vos, aeterni ignes, et non violabile vestrum

155testor numen ait vos arae ensesque nefandi,

quos fugi, vittaeque deum, quas hostia gessi:

fas mihi Graiorum sacrata resolvere iura,

fas odisse viros, atque omnia ferre sub auras,

si qua tegunt; teneor patriae nec legibus ullis.

160Tu modo promissis maneas, servataque serves

Troia fidem, si vera feram, si magna rependam.

Omnis spes Danaum et coepti fiducia belli

Palladis auxiliis semper stetit. Impius ex quo

Tydides sed enim scelerumque inventor Ulixes,

165fatale adgressi sacrato avellere templo

Palladium, caesis summae custodibus arcis,

corripuere sacram effigiem, manibusque cruentis

virgineas ausi divae contingere vittas;

ex illo fluere ac retro sublapsa referri

170spes Danaum, fractae vires, aversa deae mens.

Nec dubiis ea signa dedit Tritonia monstris.

Vix positum castris simulacrum, arsere coruscae

luminibus flammae arrectis, salsusque per artus

sudor iit, terque ipsa solo—mirabile dictu—

175emicuit, parmamque ferens hastamque trementem.

Extemplo temptanda fuga canit aequora Calchas,

nec posse Argolicis exscindi Pergama telis,

omina ni repetant Argis, numenque reducant,

quod pelago et curvis secum avexere carinis.

180Et nunc, quod patrias vento petiere Mycenas,

arma deosque parant comites, pelagoque remenso

improvisi aderunt: ita digerit omina Calchas.

Hanc pro Palladio moniti, pro numine laeso

effigiem statuere, nefas quae triste piaret.

185Hanc tamen immensam Calchas attollere molem

roboribus textis caeloque educere iussit,

ne recipi portis, aut duci in moenia possit,

neu populum antiqua sub religione tueri.

Nam si vestra manus violasset dona Minervae,

190tum magnum exitium (quod di prius omen in ipsum

convertant!) Priami imperio Phrygibusque futurum;

sin manibus vestris vestram ascendisset in urbem,

ultro Asiam magno Pelopea ad moenia bello

venturam, et nostros ea fata manere nepotes.

195Talibus insidiis periurique arte Sinonis

credita res, captique dolis lacrimisque coactis,

quos neque Tydides, nec Larisaeus Achilles,

non anni domuere decem, non mille carinae.

145For these tears we granted him life and freely gave our pity.

Priam himself first ordered the man's shackles and tight

bonds removed, then addressed him with friendly words:

"Whoever you are, from now on forget the Greeks you have lost.

You will be one of us. Answer what I ask, and tell me truly:

150Why did they raise this monstrous bulk of a horse? Who devised it?

What is its aim? What sacred offering is it, or what engine of war?"

He finished. Sinon, schooled in deception and Pelasgian craft,

lifted to the stars his palms now freed from bonds:

"You eternal fires and your inviolable divine power,

155I call you to witness," he said, "and you altars and accursed blades

that I escaped, and the gods' fillets I wore as a sacrificial victim:

Sacred law allows me to break the Greeks' consecrated bonds,

allows me to hate those men and bring into the open

whatever they conceal. No law of homeland binds me now.

160Only stand by your promises, Troy, and once preserved, keep

faith with me, if I speak truth and richly repay you.

All Danaan hope and confidence in the war they began

always rested on Pallas' aid. But once the impious

son of Tydeus and Ulysses, inventor of crimes,

165dared to wrench the fateful Palladium

from its sacred temple, killing the guards of the high citadel,

and seized the holy image, daring with bloodstained hands

to touch the virgin fillets of the goddess,

from then on Danaan hope ebbed and slipped away,

170their strength broke, and the goddess turned against them.

Tritonia gave unmistakable signs of it.

Scarcely was the image set in camp when flickering flames

blazed from its staring eyes and salt sweat

ran over its limbs; three times—strange to tell—the image

175sprang from the ground, bearing shield and quivering spear.

At once Calchas declared they must venture flight by sea,

that Pergamum could not be uprooted by Argive weapons

unless they returned to Argos for fresh omens and restored the divine power

they had carried away across the sea in their curved ships.

180And now that they have sailed with the wind for their native Mycenae,

they are arming themselves and gathering the gods as allies; once the sea is crossed again,

they will arrive unannounced. So Calchas interpreted the omens.

Warned by him, they set up this image in place of the Palladium,

to appease her offended power and atone for their grim sacrilege.

185Yet Calchas ordered them to rear the mass to this enormous size,

building it of joined oak and lifting it toward the sky,

so it could not pass through your gates or be led within the walls

to shield your people beneath their ancient worship.

For if your hands violated Minerva's gift,

190then great destruction—may the gods first turn that omen against Calchas—

would come upon Priam's realm and the Phrygians;

but if by your hands it climbed into your city,

Asia would march of her own accord against the walls of Pelops in mighty

war, and that fate would await our descendants."

195By such treachery and perjured Sinon's craft

the story won belief; we were captured by deceit and counterfeit tears,

we whom neither the son of Tydeus nor Larisaean Achilles,

nor ten years, nor a thousand keels had subdued.

199Hic aliud maius miseris multoque tremendum

200obicitur magis, atque improvida pectora turbat.

Laocoön, ductus Neptuno sorte sacerdos,

sollemnis taurum ingentem mactabat ad aras.

Ecce autem gemini a Tenedo tranquilla per alta—

horresco referens—immensis orbibus angues

205incumbunt pelago, pariterque ad litora tendunt;

pectora quorum inter fluctus arrecta iubaeque

sanguineae superant undas; pars cetera pontum

pone legit, sinuatque immensa volumine terga.

Fit sonitus spumante salo; iamque arva tenebant,

210ardentisque oculos suffecti sanguine et igni,

sibila lambebant linguis vibrantibus ora.

Diffugimus visu exsangues: illi agmine certo

Laocoönta petunt; et primum parva duorum

corpora natorum serpens amplexus uterque

215implicat, et miseros morsu depascitur artus;

post ipsum auxilio subeuntem ac tela ferentem

corripiunt, spirisque ligant ingentibus; et iam

bis medium amplexi, bis collo squamea circum

terga dati, superant capite et cervicibus altis.

220Ille simul manibus tendit divellere nodos,

perfusus sanie vittas atroque veneno,

clamores simul horrendos ad sidera tollit:

quales mugitus, fugit cum saucius aram

taurus, et incertam excussit cervice securim.

225At gemini lapsu delubra ad summa dracones

effugiunt saevaeque petunt Tritonidis arcem,

sub pedibusque deae clipeique sub orbe teguntur.

Tum vero tremefacta novus per pectora cunctis

insinuat pavor, et scelus expendisse merentem

230Laocoönta ferunt, sacrum qui cuspide robur

laeserit, et tergo sceleratam intorserit hastam.

Ducendum ad sedes simulacrum orandaque divae

numina conclamant.

Dividimus muros et moenia pandimus urbis.

235Accingunt omnes operi, pedibusque rotarum

subiciunt lapsus, et stuppea vincula collo

intendunt: scandit fatalis machina muros,

feta armis. Pueri circum innuptaeque puellae

sacra canunt, funemque manu contingere gaudent.

240Illa subit, mediaeque minans inlabitur urbi.

O patria, O divom domus Ilium, et incluta bello

moenia Dardanidum, quater ipso in limine portae

substitit, atque utero sonitum quater arma dedere:

instamus tamen inmemores caecique furore,

245et monstrum infelix sacrata sistimus arce.

Tunc etiam fatis aperit Cassandra futuris

ora, dei iussu non umquam credita Teucris.

Nos delubra deum miseri, quibus ultimus esset

ille dies, festa velamus fronde per urbem.

199Then another sight, greater and far more dreadful,

200was thrust upon us in our misery and shook our unguarded hearts.

Laocoon, chosen by lot as Neptune's priest,

was sacrificing a massive bull at the appointed altar.

Then look: from Tenedos, across the tranquil deep, two snakes—

I shudder to tell it—with immense coils

205pressed over the sea and together made for shore;

their breasts, reared among the waves, and their blood-red crests

rose above the water; the rest of each body swept the sea behind

and coiled its vast back in rolling folds.

Foam roared on the water; now they reached the fields,

210their burning eyes suffused with blood and fire,

licking their hissing jaws with flickering tongues.

We scattered, drained of blood at the sight; they, on an unwavering course,

made for Laocoon. First, each serpent seized

one of his two young sons in its embrace,

215entangling and devouring their wretched limbs with its bite.

Then, as Laocoon came armed to help them,

they seized him too and bound him in enormous coils:

twice wound around his waist, twice their scaly backs

coiled about his neck, they towered over him with heads held high.

220Meanwhile he strained with both hands to wrench the knots apart,

his fillets drenched with gore and black venom,

and raised appalling cries to the stars,

like the bellowing of a wounded bull that flees the altar

after shaking the ill-aimed axe from its neck.

225But the twin serpents glided away to the high shrines

and sought the citadel of fierce Tritonia,

finding cover beneath the goddess's feet and the round of her shield.

Then a strange fear crept through the shaken hearts

of all. Laocoon, they said, had deservedly paid for his crime,

230because he had wounded the sacred timber with his spearpoint

and driven a wicked spear into its flank.

They shouted that the image must be led to its sanctuary and the goddess's

favor implored.

We breached the walls and laid the city's defenses open.

235All braced themselves for the work. Under its feet

they slipped rolling wheels, and around its neck

stretched hempen ropes. The fatal engine climbed our walls,

pregnant with weapons. Around it boys and unwed girls

sang sacred songs and delighted to lay hands on the rope.

240It entered, gliding ominously into the city's heart.

O fatherland, O Ilium, home of gods, O walls of the Dardans

renowned in war: four times on the very threshold of the gate

it halted, and four times weapons sounded from its womb.

Yet we pressed on, heedless and blind with frenzy,

245and stationed the disastrous monster on the sacred citadel.

Then Cassandra too spoke of the fates to come,

but by the god's decree the Teucrians never believed her.

We wretches, for whom that day would be the last, went through the city

draping the gods' shrines in festive greenery.

250Vertitur interea caelum et ruit oceano nox,

involvens umbra magna terramque polumque

Myrmidonumque dolos; fusi per moenia Teucri

conticuere, sopor fessos complectitur artus:

et iam Argiva phalanx instructis navibus ibat

255a Tenedo tacitae per amica silentia lunae

litora nota petens, flammas cum regia puppis

extulerat, fatisque deum defensus iniquis

inclusos utero Danaos et pinea furtim

laxat claustra Sinon. Illos patefactus ad auras

260reddit equus, laetique cavo se robore promunt

Thessandrus Sthenelusque duces, et dirus Ulixes,

demissum lapsi per funem, Acamasque, Thoasque,

Pelidesque Neoptolemus, primusque Machaon,

et Menelaus, et ipse doli fabricator Epeos.

265Invadunt urbem somno vinoque sepultam;

caeduntur vigiles, portisque patentibus omnis

accipiunt socios atque agmina conscia iungunt.

Tempus erat, quo prima quies mortalibus aegris

incipit, et dono divom gratissima serpit.

270In somnis, ecce, ante oculos maestissimus Hector

visus adesse mihi, largosque effundere fletus,

raptatus bigis, ut quondam, aterque cruento

pulvere, perque pedes traiectus lora tumentis.

Ei mihi, qualis erat, quantum mutatus ab illo

275Hectore, qui redit exuvias indutus Achilli,

vel Danaum Phrygios iaculatus puppibus ignis,

squalentem barbam et concretos sanguine crinis

volneraque illa gerens, quae circum plurima muros

accepit patrios. Ultro flens ipse videbar

280Compellare virum et maestas expromere voces:

O lux Dardaniae, spes O fidissima Teucrum,

quae tantae tenuere morae? Quibus Hector ab oris

exspectate venis? Ut te post multa tuorum

funera, post varios hominumque urbisque labores

285defessi aspicimus! Quae causa indigna serenos

foedavit voltus? Aut cur haec volnera cerno?

Ille nihil, nec me quaerentem vana moratur,

sed graviter gemitus imo de pectore ducens,

Heu fuge, nate dea, teque his, ait, eripe flammis.

290Hostis habet muros; ruit alto a culmine Troia.

Sat patriae Priamoque datum: si Pergama dextra

defendi possent, etiam hac defensa fuissent.

Sacra suosque tibi commendat Troia penatis:

hos cape fatorum comites, his moenia quaere

295magna, pererrato statues quae denique ponto.

Sic ait, et manibus vittas Vestamque potentem

aeternumque adytis effert penetralibus ignem.

250Meanwhile the sky wheeled, and night rushed up from Ocean,

wrapping earth and heaven in its vast shadow

and the Myrmidons' deception. Scattered throughout the city, the Teucrians

fell silent; sleep embraced their weary limbs.

And now the Argive battle line moved in its ordered ships

255from Tenedos through the friendly silence of the moon,

making for the familiar shore, when the royal ship raised

its signal flame. Shielded by the gods' hostile decrees,

Sinon stealthily released the Danaans shut in the womb

and loosened the pinewood bolts. Open to the air,

260the horse gave them back; gladly they emerged from the hollow timber:

the captains Thessandrus and Sthenelus, and dire Ulysses,

sliding down a lowered rope, with Acamas and Thoas,

Achilles' son Neoptolemus, and Machaon first,

and Menelaus, and Epeos himself, maker of the trick.

265They stormed a city buried in sleep and wine;

the guards were cut down; through gates flung open they received

all their comrades and joined the forces in league with them.

It was the hour when first rest comes to weary mortals

and, the gods' sweetest gift, steals over them.

270In sleep, there before my eyes, Hector, grief-stricken,

seemed to stand there, pouring out a flood of tears,

dragged by the chariot as once before, black with bloodstained

dust, the thongs bored through his swollen feet.

Ah, what a sight he was, how changed from that Hector

275who returned wearing Achilles' spoils,

or hurled Phrygian fire against the Danaan ships:

his beard unkempt, his hair matted with blood,

bearing all those wounds he had received around his native

walls. Weeping, I seemed to address him of my own accord

280and pour out words of grief:

"O light of Dardania, O surest hope of the Teucrians,

what long delays have held you? From what shore, Hector,

long awaited, have you come? After so many deaths among your people,

after all the trials of our people and our city,

285how worn we are as we look on you! What shameful cause has marred

your serene features? Or why do I see these wounds?"

He said nothing and did not linger over my useless questions,

but, drawing heavy groans from deep in his chest,

"Ah, flee, goddess-born," he said. "Tear yourself from these flames.

290The enemy holds the walls; Troy is falling from her lofty height.

Enough has been given to fatherland and Priam. If any hand

could have defended Pergamum, mine would have defended it.

Troy entrusts to you her sacred things and her Penates.

Take them as companions of your fate; seek for them the great walls

295you will at last establish when your wandering over the sea is done."

So he spoke, and in his hands brought forth the fillets, mighty Vesta,

and the eternal flame from the innermost shrine.

298Diverso interea miscentur moenia luctu,

et magis atque magis, quamquam secreta parentis

300Anchisae domus arboribusque obtecta recessit,

clarescunt sonitus, armorumque ingruit horror.

Excutior somno, et summi fastigia tecti

ascensu supero, atque arrectis auribus adsto:

in segetem veluti cum flamma furentibus austris

305incidit, aut rapidus montano flumine torrens

sternit agros, sternit sata laeta boumque labores,

praecipitisque trahit silvas, stupet inscius alto

accipiens sonitum saxi de vertice pastor.

Tum vero manifesta fides, Danaumque patescunt

310insidiae. Iam Deiphobi dedit ampla ruinam

Volcano superante domus; iam proxumus ardet

Ucalegon; Sigea igni freta lata relucent.

Exoritur clamorque virum clangorque tubarum.

Arma amens capio; nec sat rationis in armis,

315sed glomerare manum bello et concurrere in arcem

cum sociis ardent animi; furor iraque mentem

praecipitant, pulchrumque mori succurrit in armis.

Ecce autem telis Panthus elapsus Achivom,

Panthus Othryades, arcis Phoebique sacerdos,

320sacra manu victosque deos parvumque nepotem

ipse trahit, cursuque amens ad limina tendit.

Quo res summa, loco, Panthu? Quam prendimus arcem?

Vix ea fatus eram, gemitu cum talia reddit:

Venit summa dies et ineluctabile tempus

325Dardaniae: fuimus Troes, fuit Ilium et ingens

gloria Teucrorum; ferus omnia Iuppiter Argos

transtulit; incensa Danai dominantur in urbe.

Arduus armatos mediis in moenibus adstans

fundit equus, victorque Sinon incendia miscet

330insultans; portis alii bipatentibus adsunt,

milia quot magnis umquam venere Mycenis;

obsedere alii telis angusta viarum

oppositi; stat ferri acies mucrone corusco

stricta, parata neci; vix primi proelia temptant

335portarum vigiles, et caeco Marte resistunt.

Talibus Othryadae dictis et numine divom

in flammas et in arma feror, quo tristis Erinys,

quo fremitus vocat et sublatus ad aethera clamor.

Addunt se socios Rhipeus et maximus armis

340Epytus oblati per lunam Hypanisque Dymasque,

et lateri adglomerant nostro, iuvenisque Coroebus,

Mygdonides: illis ad Troiam forte diebus

venerat, insano Cassandrae incensus amore,

et gener auxilium Priamo Phrygibusque ferebat,

345infelix, qui non sponsae praecepta furentis

audierit.

Quos ubi confertos audere in proelia vidi,

incipio super his: Iuvenes, fortissima frustra

pectora, si vobis audentem extrema cupido

350certa sequi, quae sit rebus fortuna videtis:

excessere omnes, adytis arisque relictis,

di, quibus imperium hoc steterat; succurritis urbi

incensae; moriamur et in media arma ruamus.

Una salus victis, nullam sperare salutem.

298Meanwhile, from another quarter, grief threw the city into turmoil,

more and more, though the secluded house of my father

300Anchises, screened by trees, stood withdrawn,

the noise grew clearer, and the terror of arms pressed in.

I shook off sleep and climbed

to the roof's highest ridge, where I stood listening intently:

as when flame falls on a grainfield beneath raging south winds,

305or a torrent, rushing from a mountain river,

flattens fields, flattens the flourishing crops and oxen's labor,

and drags forests headlong; the shepherd, unknowing, stands stunned

on a high rock, hearing the roar.

Then the truth stood clear, and the Danaans'

310trap lay open. Already the broad house of Deiphobus

had fallen as fire overwhelmed it; already next door

Ucalegon burned; the broad Sigean straits reflected the blaze.

Men's shouting rose, and trumpets blared.

Out of my mind, I seized my weapons; there was little reason in arms,

315yet my spirit burned to gather a band for battle and rush the citadel

with my comrades. Frenzy and anger drove my mind

headlong, and the thought came: a death in arms is glorious.

But look: Panthus, escaping the Achaeans' weapons,

Panthus, son of Othrys, priest of the citadel and of Phoebus,

320bore the sacred things and conquered gods, leading his little grandson

by the hand as he raced frantically toward my threshold.

"How stands the cause, Panthus? What stronghold can we seize?"

Scarcely had I spoken when, with a groan, he answered:

"The last day has come, the inescapable hour

325of Dardania. We were Trojans; Ilium was; the great

glory of the Teucrians was. Fierce Jupiter has handed all to Argos.

The Danaans rule the burning city.

The horse, towering in the heart of the city,

poured out armed men, while victorious Sinon scattered fire

330in triumph. Others were at the gates flung wide,

thousands, as many as ever came from mighty Mycenae.

Others, weapons leveled against us, held the narrow lanes.

The line of steel stood drawn, its points flashing,

ready to kill. Scarcely did the first guards at the gates

335attempt battle and resist in the blind confusion of war."

By these words from Othrys' son and by the gods' will,

I was swept into flames and arms, wherever grim Fury,

the roar, and the shout rising to heaven called me.

Rhipeus and Epytus, mighty in arms, joined me,

340appearing in the moonlight; Hypanis and Dymas

pressed to my side as well, and young Coroebus,

son of Mygdon: by chance in those days he had come to Troy,

burning with a mad love for Cassandra,

and, hoping to be his son-in-law, brought aid to Priam and the Phrygians,

345unhappy man, who did not listen to the warnings

of his frenzied bride.

When I saw them packed close and daring battle,

I began: "Young men, bravest hearts, but brave in vain,

if your resolve is fixed to follow one who dares the last extreme,

350you see the fortune of our cause.

All the gods who sustained this realm have gone,

leaving shrines and altars. You rush to aid a city

already burning. Let us die and rush into the heart of battle.

The one safety for the conquered is to hope for no safety."

355Sic animis iuvenum furor additus: inde, lupi ceu

raptores atra in nebula, quos improba ventris

exegit caecos rabies, catulique relicti

faucibus exspectant siccis, per tela, per hostis

vadimus haud dubiam in mortem, mediaeque tenemus

360urbis iter; nox atra cava circumvolat umbra.

Quis cladem illius noctis, quis funera fando

explicet, aut possit lacrimis aequare labores?

Urbs antiqua ruit, multos dominata per annos;

plurima perque vias sternuntur inertia passim

365corpora, perque domos et religiosa deorum

limina. Nec soli poenas dant sanguine Teucri;

quondam etiam victis redit in praecordia virtus

victoresque cadunt Danai: crudelis ubique

luctus, ubique pavor, et plurima mortis imago.

370Primus se, Danaum magna comitante caterva,

Androgeos offert nobis, socia agmina credens

inscius, atque ultro verbis compellat amicis:

Festinate, viri: nam quae tam sera moratur

segnities? Alii rapiunt incensa feruntque

375Pergama; vos celsis nunc primum a navibus itis.

Dixit, et extemplo, neque enim responsa dabantur

fida satis, sensit medios delapsus in hostis.

Obstipuit, retroque pedem cum voce repressit:

inprovisum aspris veluti qui sentibus anguem

380pressit humi nitens, trepidusque repente refugit

attollentem iras et caerula colla tumentem;

haud secus Androgeos visu tremefactus abibat.

Inruimus, densis et circumfundimur armis,

ignarosque loci passim et formidine captos

385sternimus: adspirat primo fortuna labori.

Atque hic successu exsultans animisque Coroebus,

O socii, qua prima inquit fortuna salutis

monstrat iter, quoque ostendit se dextra, sequamur

mutemus clipeos, Danaumque insignia nobis

390aptemus: dolus an virtus, quis in hoste requirat?

Arma dabunt ipsi. Sic fatus, deinde comantem

Androgei galeam clipeique insigne decorum

induitur, laterique Argivum accommodat ensem.

Hoc Rhipeus, hoc ipse Dymas omnisque iuventus

395laeta facit; spoliis se quisque recentibus armat.

Vadimus immixti Danais haud numine nostro,

multaque per caecam congressi proelia noctem

conserimus, multos Danaum demittimus Orco.

Diffugiunt alii ad navis, et litora cursu

400fida petunt: pars ingentem formidine turpi

scandunt rursus equum et nota conduntur in alvo.

355So frenzy entered the young men's hearts. Then, like ravening wolves

in black mist, driven blindly out by the savage

hunger of their bellies, while the cubs left behind

wait with parched throats, through weapons and enemies

we went into certain death, holding our course

360through the city's heart; black night flew around us in hollow shadow.

Who could unfold in words that night's ruin and deaths,

or match its suffering with tears?

The ancient city fell, after ruling through so many years.

Everywhere through the streets lay numberless lifeless

365bodies, through the houses too and on the gods'

sacred thresholds. Nor did the Teucrians alone pay in blood:

at times courage returned even to conquered hearts,

and victorious Danaans fell. Everywhere was cruel

grief, everywhere terror, and death in a thousand forms.

370First Androgeos, with a great company of Danaans behind him,

met us, unaware and taking us for allied troops,

and of his own accord addressed us with friendly words:

"Hurry, men! What sluggishness has delayed you so long?

Others are plundering and carrying off burning

375Pergamum; are you only now coming from the high ships?"

He spoke, and at once, since our answers did not ring

true enough, he knew he had stumbled among enemies.

He froze, drawing back both step and voice,

like a man who unknowingly treads on a hidden snake

380in rough brambles and suddenly recoils in terror

as it rears in fury and swells its blue-black neck.

Just so Androgeos, shaken by the sight, drew back.

We rushed in and surrounded them with weapons massed,

and, lost in the streets and seized by fear,

385struck them down on every side. Fortune favored our first effort.

Then Coroebus, exultant in our success, cried:

"Comrades, where Fortune first reveals

a path to safety and shows herself favorable, let us follow.

Let us exchange shields and put on Greek insignia.

390Deceit or valor—who asks which against an enemy?

They themselves will furnish our arms." So he spoke, then

put on Androgeos' plumed helmet and the handsome emblem

of his shield, and fitted an Argive sword at his side.

Rhipeus did the same, and Dymas, and all our young men,

395eagerly arming themselves in the fresh-won spoils.

We moved among the Danaans under no favoring god,

and through the blind night met them in battle

again and again, sending many Danaans down to Orcus.

Some scattered to the ships, racing for

400the safety of the shore; some, in shameful fear, climbed

back into the monstrous horse and hid in its familiar belly.

402Heu nihil invitis fas quemquam fidere divis!

Ecce trahebatur passis Priameïa virgo

crinibus a templo Cassandra adytisque Minervae,

405ad caelum tendens ardentia lumina frustra,—

lumina, nam teneras arcebant vincula palmas.

Non tulit hanc speciem furiata mente Coroebus,

et sese medium iniecit periturus in agmen.

Consequimur cuncti et densis incurrimus armis.

410Hic primum ex alto delubri culmine telis

nostrorum obruimur, oriturque miserrima caedes

armorum facie et Graiarum errore iubarum.

Tum Danai gemitu atque ereptae virginis ira

undique collecti invadunt, acerrimus Aiax,

415et gemini Atridae, Dolopumque exercitus omnis;

adversi rupto ceu quondam turbine venti

confligunt, Zephyrusque Notusque et laetus Eois

Eurus equis; stridunt silvae, saevitque tridenti

spumeus atque imo Nereus ciet aequora fundo.

420Illi etiam, si quos obscura nocte per umbram

fudimus insidiis totaque agitavimus urbe,

apparent; primi clipeos mentitaque tela

adgnoscunt, atque ora sono discordia signant.

Ilicet obruimur numero; primusque Coroebus

425Penelei dextra divae armipotentis ad aram

procumbit; cadit et Rhipeus, iustissimus unus

qui fuit in Teucris et servantissimus aequi:

dis aliter visum; pereunt Hypanisque Dymasque

confixi a sociis; nec te tua plurima, Panthu,

430labentem pietas nec Apollinis infula texit.

Iliaci cineres et flamma extrema meorum,

testor, in occasu vestro nec tela nec ullas

vitavisse vices Danaum, et, si fata fuissent

ut caderem, meruisse manu. Divellimur inde,

435Iphitus et Pelias mecum, quorum Iphitus aevo

iam gravior, Pelias et volnere tardus Ulixi;

protinus ad sedes Priami clamore vocati.

Hic vero ingentem pugnam, ceu cetera nusquam

bella forent, nulli tota morerentur in urbe.

440Sic Martem indomitum, Danaosque ad tecta ruentis

cernimus, obsessumque acta testudine limen.

Haerent parietibus scalae, postisque sub ipsos

nituntur gradibus, clipeosque ad tela sinistris

protecti obiciunt, prensant fastigia dextris.

445Dardanidae contra turris ac tota domorum

culmina convellunt; his se, quando ultima cernunt,

extrema iam in morte parant defendere telis;

auratasque trabes, veterum decora alta parentum,

devolvunt; alii strictis mucronibus imas

450obsedere fores; has servant agmine denso.

Instaurati animi, regis succurrere tectis,

auxilioque levare viros, vimque addere victis.

Limen erat caecaeque fores et pervius usus

tectorum inter se Priami, postesque relicti

455a tergo, infelix qua se, dum regna manebant,

saepius Andromache ferre incomitata solebat

ad soceros, et avo puerum Astyanacta trahebat.

Evado ad summi fastigia culminis, unde

tela manu miseri iactabant inrita Teucri.

460Turrim in praecipiti stantem summisque sub astra

eductam tectis, unde omnis Troia videri

et Danaum solitae naves et Achaia castra,

adgressi ferro circum, qua summa labantis

iuncturas tabulata dabant, convellimus altis

465sedibus, impulimusque; ea lapsa repente ruinam

cum sonitu trahit et Danaum super agmina late

incidit: ast alii subeunt, nec saxa, nec ullum

telorum interea cessat genus.

402Alas, no one may trust in anything when the gods oppose it.

Look: Cassandra, Priam's virgin daughter, was being dragged

from Minerva's temple and inner shrine, her hair streaming loose,

405lifting blazing eyes to heaven in vain—

her eyes, for bonds restrained her tender hands.

Coroebus, driven mad, could not endure the sight

and hurled himself, doomed to die, into the center of the column.

We all followed, charging in with weapons massed.

410Then, for the first time, from the shrine's high roof,

our own men's missiles overwhelmed us, and a pitiful slaughter began

because our armor and Greek plumes deceived them.

Then the Greeks, groaning with rage at the maiden snatched from them,

gathered from every side and attacked: fiercest Ajax,

415and the twin sons of Atreus, and the whole army of the Dolopes;

as when opposing winds, released by a bursting storm,

collide—Zephyr and Notus and Eurus exulting

in his eastern horses; the forests shriek, and foaming Nereus

rages with his trident, churning the sea from its deepest floor.

420Those too whom, through the dark night's shadows,

we had routed by ambush and hunted across the city,

now appeared. First they recognized the shields and counterfeit weapons,

then marked our alien speech by its sound.

At once numbers overwhelmed us. Coroebus fell first,

425struck by Peneleus' hand at the altar of the war-mighty goddess.

Rhipeus fell too, the one man most just

among the Trojans and most devoted to justice,

but the gods judged otherwise. Hypanis and Dymas perished too,

pierced by their own comrades. Nor, Panthus, did your deep

430devotion or Apollo's fillet shield you as you fell.

Ashes of Ilium and last flame of my people,

I call you to witness: in your fall I avoided neither weapons

nor any hazard of Greek attack; and if fate had willed

that I should fall, my deeds had earned it. From there we were torn away,

435Iphitus and Pelias with me; of these, Iphitus was already

weighed down by age, and Pelias slowed by a wound from Ulysses;

and a shout summoned us at once to Priam's palace.

There we saw a colossal battle, as though nowhere else

was there war, as though no one were dying across the city.

440We saw war unbridled, Greeks rushing the palace,

and the threshold besieged beneath an advancing shield wall.

Ladders clung to the walls; beneath the very doorposts

men strained up the rungs, their left hands holding shields

against the missiles while their right hands gripped the eaves.

445The Dardanians, in answer, tore down towers and whole

sections of roof; seeing the end upon them,

they prepared these as missiles in death's last extremity,

rolling down gilded beams, the proud adornments of their forefathers.

Others, with swordpoints drawn, occupied

450the lower doors and guarded them in a dense formation.

Our courage revived: we must hurry to the king's palace,

bring relief to its defenders, and lend strength to the beaten.

There was a threshold with hidden doors and a passage running

between Priam's buildings, a rear entrance left

455unguarded. While the kingdom stood, unhappy

Andromache often passed through it alone

to Hector's parents, leading little Astyanax to his grandfather.

I climbed to the roof's highest ridge, from where

the desperate Trojans hurled their useless missiles.

460A tower stood on the sheer edge, raised from the highest roofs

toward the stars; from there all Troy could be seen,

the familiar Danaan ships, and the Achaean camp.

We attacked it with iron all around, where the upper stories

were sagging and exposed their joints. We tore it from its lofty

465base and drove it over; suddenly it fell with a crash,

dragging ruin onto the Greek ranks far and wide.

But others came on; stones never ceased,

nor did any kind of weapon cease.

469Vestibulum ante ipsum primoque in limine Pyrrhus

470exsultat, telis et luce coruscus aëna;

qualis ubi in lucem coluber mala gramina pastus

frigida sub terra tumidum quem bruma tegebat,

nunc, positis novus exuviis nitidusque iuventa,

lubrica convolvit sublato pectore terga

475arduus ad solem, et linguis micat ore trisulcis.

Una ingens Periphas et equorum agitator Achillis,

armiger Automedon, una omnis Scyria pubes

succedunt tecto, et flammas ad culmina iactant.

Ipse inter primos correpta dura bipenni

480limina perrumpit, postisque a cardine vellit

aeratos; iamque excisa trabe firma cavavit

robora, et ingentem lato dedit ore fenestram.

Adparet domus intus, et atria longa patescunt;

adparent Priami et veterum penetralia regum,

485armatosque vident stantis in limine primo.

At domus interior gemitu miseroque tumultu

miscetur, penitusque cavae plangoribus aedes

femineis ululant; ferit aurea sidera clamor.

Tum pavidae tectis matres ingentibus errant;

490amplexaeque tenent postis atque oscula figunt.

Instat vi patria Pyrrhus; nec claustra, neque ipsi

custodes sufferre valent; labat ariete crebro

ianua, et emoti procumbunt cardine postes.

Fit via vi; rumpunt aditus, primosque trucidant

495immissi Danai, et late loca milite complent.

Non sic, aggeribus ruptis cum spumeus amnis

exiit, oppositasque evicit gurgite moles,

fertur in arva furens cumulo, camposque per omnis

cum stabulis armenta trahit. Vidi ipse furentem

500caede Neoptolemum geminosque in limine Atridas;

vidi Hecubam centumque nurus, Priamumque per aras

sanguine foedantem, quos ipse sacraverat, ignis.

Quinquaginta illi thalami, spes tanta nepotum,

barbarico postes auro spoliisque superbi,

505procubuere; tenent Danai, qua deficit ignis.

Forsitan et Priami fuerint quae fata requiras.

Urbis uti captae casum convolsaque vidit

limina tectorum et medium in penetralibus hostem,

arma diu senior desueta trementibus aevo

510circumdat nequiquam umeris, et inutile ferrum

cingitur, ac densos fertur moriturus in hostis.

Aedibus in mediis nudoque sub aetheris axe

ingens ara fuit iuxtaque veterrima laurus,

incumbens arae atque umbra complexa Penatis.

515Hic Hecuba et natae nequiquam altaria circum,

praecipites atra ceu tempestate columbae,

condensae et divom amplexae simulacra sedebant.

Ipsum autem sumptis Priamum iuvenalibus armis

ut vidit, Quae mens tam dira, miserrime coniunx,

520impulit his cingi telis? Aut quo ruis? inquit;

Non tali auxilio nec defensoribus istis

tempus eget, non, si ipse meus nunc adforet Hector.

Huc tandem concede; haec ara tuebitur omnis,

aut moriere simul. Sic ore effata recepit

525ad sese et sacra longaevum in sede locavit.

Ecce autem elapsus Pyrrhi de caede Polites,

unus natorum Priami, per tela, per hostis

porticibus longis fugit, et vacua atria lustrat

saucius: illum ardens infesto volnere Pyrrhus

530insequitur, iam iamque manu tenet et premit hasta.

Ut tandem ante oculos evasit et ora parentum,

concidit, ac multo vitam cum sanguine fudit.

Hic Priamus, quamquam in media iam morte tenetur,

non tamen abstinuit, nec voci iraeque pepercit:

535At tibi pro scelere, exclamat, pro talibus ausis,

di, si qua est caelo pietas, quae talia curet,

persolvant grates dignas et praemia reddant

debita, qui nati coram me cernere letum

fecisti et patrios foedasti funere voltus.

540At non ille, satum quo te mentiris, Achilles

talis in hoste fuit Priamo; sed iura fidemque

supplicis erubuit, corpusque exsangue sepulchro

reddidit Hectoreum, meque in mea regna remisit.

Sic fatus senior, telumque imbelle sine ictu

545coniecit, rauco quod protinus aere repulsum

e summo clipei nequiquam umbone pependit.

Cui Pyrrhus: Referes ergo haec et nuntius ibis

Pelidae genitori; illi mea tristia facta

degeneremque Neoptolemum narrare memento.

550Nunc morere. Hoc dicens altaria ad ipsa trementem

traxit et in multo lapsantem sanguine nati,

implicuitque comam laeva, dextraque coruscum

extulit, ac lateri capulo tenus abdidit ensem.

Haec finis Priami fatorum; hic exitus illum

555sorte tulit, Troiam incensam et prolapsa videntem

Pergama, tot quondam populis terrisque superbum

regnatorem Asiae. Iacet ingens litore truncus,

avolsumque umeris caput, et sine nomine corpus.

At me tum primum saevus circumstetit horror

560Obstipui; subiit cari genitoris imago,

ut regem aequaevum crudeli volnere vidi

vitam exhalantem; subiit deserta Creüsa,

et direpta domus, et parvi casus Iuli.

Respicio, et quae sit me circum copia lustro.

565Deseruere omnes defessi, et corpora saltu

ad terram misere aut ignibus aegra dedere.

469Before the entrance itself, on the outer threshold, Pyrrhus

470exulted, flashing with weapons and brazen light,

like a snake fed on poisonous herbs, emerging into the light,

swollen beneath cold earth where winter had concealed it.

Now, its old skin shed and gleaming with youth,

it coiled its slippery back, lifting its breast

475high toward the sun, its triple-forked tongue flickering from its mouth.

Beside him came huge Periphas and Achilles' charioteer,

the armor-bearer Automedon, and all the Scyrian youth,

advancing on the palace and hurling fire to the rooftops.

Pyrrhus himself, among the first, seized a heavy double axe

480and smashed through the threshold, wrenching bronze-bound posts

from their hinges. Cutting through a beam, he gouged

the solid oak and opened a vast, broad-mouthed breach.

The house within came into view; its long courts opened wide.

Priam's inner chambers and those of ancient kings appeared,

485and they saw armed men standing at the first threshold.

But the inner house seethed with groans and anguished tumult,

and deep within the hollow halls rang with women's wailing.

Their cries struck the golden stars.

Terrified mothers wandered through the vast palace,

490clasping the doorposts and pressing kisses upon them.

Pyrrhus pressed on with his father's force. Neither barriers nor

guards could withstand him; beneath the repeated ram the door

shuddered, and the posts, torn from their hinges, crashed forward.

Violence made a way. The Danaans burst in and slaughtered the first defenders,

495then flooded the halls with soldiers.

Not with such force does a foaming river, once its banks are burst,

break out and overwhelm the opposing dikes with its flood,

rushing in a raging mass across the fields and plains,

dragging herds away with their stalls. I myself saw Neoptolemus raging

500through slaughter, and the two sons of Atreus at the threshold.

I saw Hecuba and her hundred daughters-in-law, and Priam at the altars,

fouling with blood the fires he himself had consecrated.

Those fifty marriage chambers, so great a hope for descendants,

the doorposts proud with barbaric gold and spoils,

505had fallen. The Danaans held whatever the fire spared.

Perhaps you ask as well what fate befell Priam.

When he saw his captured city's fall,

his palace doors torn down and the enemy deep within,

the old man, in vain, set long-unused armor

510on shoulders trembling with age and girded on a useless sword,

then rushed to die amid the massed enemy.

In the palace court, beneath the open sky,

stood a great altar, with a very ancient laurel beside it,

leaning over the altar and enfolding the Penates in shade.

515Here Hecuba and her daughters, clustered vainly around the altar

like doves driven headlong by a black storm,

sat huddled together, embracing the images of the gods.

But when Hecuba saw Priam himself wearing a young man's arms,

she cried: "What dreadful thought, my poor husband,

520drove you to put on these weapons? Where are you rushing?

This hour has no need of such help or defenders,

not even if my Hector himself were here.

Come here at last. This altar will protect us all,

or you will die with us." So, when she had spoken, she drew him

525close and seated the old man in the sacred place.

But look: Polites, escaping Pyrrhus' slaughter,

one of Priam's sons, through weapons, through enemies,

fled down the long colonnades and crossed the empty courts,

wounded. Pyrrhus, burning to strike the fatal blow,

530pursued, almost seized him, and pressed him with the spear.

When at last Polites reached the sight of his parents,

he fell and poured out his life in a flood of blood.

At this Priam, though death already closed around him,

did not hold back or spare his voice and anger:

535"For this crime," he cried, "for such an outrage,

may the gods, if heaven holds any justice that cares for such deeds,

repay you as you deserve and render the reward

you are owed, you who made me watch my son's death

and fouled a father's sight with murder.

540But Achilles, whose son you falsely claim to be,

did not treat his enemy Priam so. He respected the rights

and sacred trust of a suppliant, and returned Hector's bloodless body

for burial, sending me home to my kingdom."

So the old man spoke and hurled a feeble, powerless spear,

545which the clanging bronze at once repelled,

leaving it hanging uselessly from the shield's high boss.

Pyrrhus answered: "Then carry this report as messenger

to my father, Peleus' son. Tell him of my savage deeds,

and remember to call Neoptolemus degenerate.

550Now die." With that he dragged Priam trembling to the altar,

slipping in the pooled blood of his son.

With his left hand he seized Priam's hair; with his right

he raised the flashing sword and buried it to the hilt in his side.

This was the end of Priam's fate; this death fell to him

555by lot, after he had seen Troy burning and Pergamum

fallen—he who once ruled in pride over so many peoples and lands,

the ruler of Asia. A huge trunk lies on the shore,

the head torn from its shoulders, a body without a name.

Then for the first time savage horror closed around me.

560I stood stunned. The image of my dear father rose before me

as I saw the king, his equal in age, cruelly wounded

and breathing out his life. I thought of Creusa, abandoned,

my ravaged home, and little Iulus in danger.

I looked back and searched for what force remained around me.

565All had left me, worn out; some had leapt

to the ground, others surrendered their exhausted bodies to the flames.

567Iamque adeo super unus eram, cum limina Vestae

servantem et tacitam secreta in sede latentem

Tyndarida aspicio: dant clara incendia lucem

570erranti passimque oculos per cuncta ferenti.

Illa sibi infestos eversa ob Pergama Teucros

et poenas Danaum et deserti coniugis iras

praemetuens, Troiae et patriae communis Erinys,

abdiderat sese atque aris invisa sedebat.

575Exarsere ignes animo; subit ira cadentem

ulcisci patriam et sceleratas sumere poenas.

Scilicet haec Spartam incolumis patriasque Mycenas

aspiciet, partoque ibit regina triumpho,

coniugiumque, domumque, patres, natosque videbit,

580Iliadum turba et Phrygiis comitata ministris?

Occiderit ferro Priamus, Troia arserit igni?

Dardanium totiens sudarit sanguine litus?

Non ita: namque etsi nullum memorabile nomen

feminea in poena est, nec habet victoria laudem,

585extinxisse nefas tamen et sumpsisse merentis

laudabor poenas, animumque explesse iuvabit

ultricis flammae, et cineres satiasse meorum.

Talia iactabam, et furiata mente ferebar:

cum mihi se, non ante oculis tam clara, videndam

590obtulit et pura per noctem in luce refulsit

alma parens, confessa deam, qualisque videri

caelicolis et quanta solet, dextraque prehensum

continuit, roseoque haec insuper addidit ore:

Nate, quis indomitas tantus dolor excitat iras?

595Quid furis, aut quonam nostri tibi cura recessit?

Non prius aspicies, ubi fessum aetate parentem

liqueris Anchisen; superet coniunxne Creüsa,

Ascaniusque puer? Quos omnes undique Graiae

circum errant acies, et, ni mea cura resistat,

600iam flammae tulerint inimicus et hauserit ensis.

Non tibi Tyndaridis facies invisa Lacaenae

culpatusve Paris: divom inclementia, divom,

has evertit opes sternitque a culmine Troiam.

Aspice—namque omnem, quae nunc obducta tuenti

605mortalis hebetat visus tibi et umida circum

caligat, nubem eripiam; tu ne qua parentis

iussa time, neu praeceptis parere recusa:—

hic, ubi disiectas moles avolsaque saxis

saxa vides mixtoque undantem pulvere fumum.

610Neptunus muros magnoque emota tridenti

fundamenta quatit, totamque a sedibus urbem

eruit; hic Iuno Scaeas saevissima portas

prima tenet, sociumque furens a navibus agmen

ferro accincta vocat.

615Iam summas arces Tritonia, respice, Pallas

insedit, nimbo effulgens et Gorgone saeva.

Ipse pater Danais animos viresque secundas

sufficit, ipse deos in Dardana suscitat arma.

Eripe, nate, fugam, finemque impone labori.

620Nusquam abero, et tutum patrio te limine sistam.

Dixerat, et spissis noctis se condidit umbris.

Adparent dirae facies inimicaque Troiae

numina magna deum.

Tum vero omne mihi visum considere in ignis

625Ilium et ex imo verti Neptunia Troia;

ac veluti summis antiquam in montibus ornum

cum ferro accisam crebrisque bipennibus instant

eruere agricolae certatim,—illa usque minatur

et tremefacta comam concusso vertice nutat,

630volneribus donec paulatim evicta, supremum

congemuit, traxitque iugis avolsa ruinam.

Descendo, ac ducente deo flammam inter et hostis

expedior; dant tela locum, flammaeque recedunt.

567Now I alone remained, when by Vesta's threshold

I saw, hidden and silent in a secluded place,

the daughter of Tyndareus. The bright fires lit my way

570as I wandered, searching every corner.

Fearing Trojans made hostile by ruined Pergamum,

Danaan punishment, and the anger of the husband she had deserted,

she, the common Fury of Troy and her own homeland,

had concealed herself and sat, hated, beside the altar.

575Fire blazed in my heart; anger came over me to avenge my fallen

fatherland and exact the penalty for her crime.

"So will she see Sparta unharmed and her native Mycenae,

and go as queen in the triumph she has won?

Will she see husband, home, parents, and children,

580attended by a train of Trojan women and Phrygian servants?

Shall Priam have fallen to the sword, and Troy burned in fire?

Shall the Dardanian shore have sweated blood so often?

No. Though no memorable renown lies

in punishing a woman, no glory in such a victory,

585still I will win praise for extinguishing this evil

and exacting deserved punishment. I will rejoice to fill my heart

with the flame of vengeance and appease my people's ashes."

So I raved, swept onward in a frenzy,

when my gracious mother appeared, never before so clear to sight,

590and shone through the night in pure light,

revealing the goddess, in the form

and stature in which she appears to heaven's dwellers. Grasping my right hand,

she held me back and spoke from her rosy lips:

"Son, what grief has roused such ungoverned anger?

595Why do you rage? Where has your care for us gone?

Will you not first see where you left Anchises,

your father worn with age, whether your wife Creusa survives,

and the boy Ascanius? Greek battle lines

range around them on every side; if my care did not shield them,

600flames would already have carried them off and the hostile sword devoured them.

It is not the hated face of the Spartan daughter of Tyndareus,

nor Paris, though blamed: it is the gods' cruelty, the gods',

that overthrows this realm and casts Troy down from her height.

Look. I will tear away the whole cloud now drawn over your sight,

605blunting your mortal vision and wrapping you in dank darkness.

Do not fear any command of your mother,

or refuse to obey her words.

Here, where you see shattered masses and blocks of stone

wrenched apart, with smoke billowing through the dust,

610Neptune shakes the walls and with his great trident

strikes the foundations loose, uprooting the whole city from its base.

Here fiercest Juno is first to hold the Scaean gates,

and, raging and girt with steel, calls the allied column

from the ships.

615Now look back: Tritonian Pallas has taken her seat

on the highest citadel, blazing from a storm cloud with the savage Gorgon.

The Father himself supplies the Danaans with courage and victorious strength;

he himself rouses the gods against Dardan arms.

Take flight, son, and put an end to your struggle.

620I will not leave you; I will bring you safely to your father's door."

She spoke and hid herself in the thick shadows of night.

Dreadful forms appeared, the great divine powers

of gods hostile to Troy.

Then all Ilium seemed to sink into fire,

625and Neptune's Troy to be overturned from its foundations,

like an ancient ash on the mountain heights

when farmers press hard with steel and stroke on stroke of their axes,

competing to bring it down: it keeps threatening to fall,

trembling and nodding its crown of leaves,

630until, slowly overcome by wounds, it gives a final

groan and, torn from the ridge, crashes down in ruin.

I descended, and with a goddess leading me, made my way through flame and enemies.

Weapons gave way, and flames withdrew.

634Atque ubi iam patriae perventum ad limina sedis

635antiquasque domos, genitor, quem tollere in altos

optabam primum montis primumque petebam,

abnegat excisa vitam producere Troia

exsiliumque pati. Vos O, quibus integer aevi

sanguis, ait solidaeque suo stant robore vires,

640vos agitate fugam:

me si caelicolae voluissent ducere vitam,

has mihi servassent sedes. Satis una superque

vidimus exscidia et captae superavimus urbi.

Sic O, sic positum adfati discedite corpus.

645Ipse manu mortem inveniam; miserebitur hostis

exuviasque petet; facilis iactura sepulcri.

Iam pridem invisus divis et inutilis annos

demoror, ex quo me divom pater atque hominum rex

fulminis adflavit ventis et contigit igni.

650Talia perstabat memorans, fixusque manebat.

Nos contra effusi lacrimis, coniunxque Creüsa

Ascaniusque omnisque domus, ne vertere secum

cuncta pater fatoque urguenti incumbere vellet.

Abnegat, inceptoque et sedibus haeret in isdem.

655Rursus in arma feror, mortemque miserrimus opto:

nam quod consilium aut quae iam fortuna dabatur?

Mene efferre pedem, genitor, te posse relicto

sperasti, tantumque nefas patrio excidit ore?

Si nihil ex tanta Superis placet urbe relinqui,

660et sedet hoc animo, perituraeque addere Troiae

teque tuosque iuvat, patet isti ianua leto,

iamque aderit multo Priami de sanguine Pyrrhus,

natum ante ora patris, patrem qui obtruncat ad aras.

Hoc erat, alma parens, quod me per tela, per ignis

665eripis, ut mediis hostem in penetralibus, utque

Ascanium patremque meum iuxtaque Creüsam

alterum in alterius mactatos sanguine cernam?

Arma, viri, ferte arma; vocat lux ultima victos.

Reddite me Danais; sinite instaurata revisam

670proelia: Numquam omnes hodie moriemur inulti.

Hinc ferro accingor rursus clipeoque sinistram

insertabam aptans, meque extra tecta ferebam.

Ecce autem complexa pedes in limine coniunx

haerebat, parvumque patri tendebat Iulum:

675Si periturus abis, et nos rape in omnia tecum;

sin aliquam expertus sumptis spem ponis in armis,

hanc primum tutare domum. Cui parvus Iulus,

cui pater et coniunx quondam tua dicta relinquor?

Talia vociferans gemitu tectum omne replebat,

680cum subitum dictuque oritur mirabile monstrum.

Namque manus inter maestorumque ora parentum

ecce levis summo de vertice visus Iuli

fundere lumen apex, tactuque innoxia mollis

lambere flamma comas et circum tempora pasci.

685Nos pavidi trepidare metu, crinemque flagrantem

excutere et sanctos restinguere fontibus ignis.

At pater Anchises oculos ad sidera laetus

extulit, et caelo palmas cum voce tetendit:

Iuppiter omnipotens, precibus si flecteris ullis,

690aspice nos; hoc tantum, et, si pietate meremur,

da deinde auxilium, pater, atque haec omina firma.

Vix ea fatus erat senior, subitoque fragore

intonuit laevum, et de caelo lapsa per umbras

stella facem ducens multa cum luce cucurrit.

695Illam, summa super labentem culmina tecti,

cernimus Idaea claram se condere silva

signantemque vias; tum longo limite sulcus

dat lucem, et late circum loca sulphure fumant.

Hic vero victus genitor se tollit ad auras,

700adfaturque deos et sanctum sidus adorat.

Iam iam nulla mora est; sequor et qua ducitis adsum.

Di patrii, servate domum, servate nepotem.

Vestrum hoc augurium, vestroque in numine Troia est.

Cedo equidem, nec, nate, tibi comes ire recuso.

705Dixerat ille; et iam per moenia clarior ignis

auditur, propiusque aestus incendia volvunt.

Ergo age, care pater, cervici imponere nostrae;

ipse subibo umeris, nec me labor iste gravabit:

quo res cumque cadent, unum et commune periclum,

710una salus ambobus erit. Mihi parvus Iulus

sit comes, et longe servet vestigia coniunx:

vos, famuli, quae dicam, animis advertite vestris.

Est urbe egressis tumulus templumque vetustum

desertae Cereris, iuxtaque antiqua cupressus

715religione patrum multos servata per annos.

Hanc ex diverso sedem veniemus in unam.

Tu, genitor, cape sacra manu patriosque Penatis;

me, bello e tanto digressum et caede recenti,

attrectare nefas, donec me flumine vivo

720abluero.

Haec fatus, latos umeros subiectaque colla

veste super fulvique insternor pelle leonis,

succedoque oneri; dextrae se parvus Iulus

implicuit sequiturque patrem non passibus aequis;

725pone subit coniunx: ferimur per opaca locorum;

et me, quem dudum non ulla iniecta movebant

tela neque adverso glomerati ex agmine Grai,

nunc omnes terrent aurae, sonus excitat omnis

634When at last I reached the threshold of my ancestral home

635and its ancient halls, my father—whom above all I longed

to carry into the high mountains, whom first I sought—

refused to prolong his life after Troy's destruction

and endure exile. "You whose blood is untouched

by age," he said, "whose strength stands firm in its own vigor,

640you must press on in flight.

If heaven's dwellers had wished me to live on,

they would have preserved this home for me. Enough, more than enough:

I have seen one destruction and outlived a captured city.

Say farewell to this body as it lies, yes, so, and go.

645I will find death by the sword; some enemy will pity me

by seeking my spoils. I can easily bear the loss of burial.

Long hated by the gods and useless, I linger out my years,

ever since the father of gods, the king of men,

blasted me with the thunderbolt's wind and touched me with fire."

650So he persisted, rooted in his resolve.

Against him we poured out tears—my wife Creusa,

Ascanius, and the whole household—begging our father not

to bring everything down with himself and lend his weight to the fate already pressing us.

He refused and clung to his purpose and his place.

655Again I was swept toward arms and, in misery, longed for death.

For what plan, what hope of fortune, was left?

"Did you think I could take one step away, father,

leaving you behind? Could such sacrilege fall from a father's lips?

If the gods above decree that nothing remain of so great a city,

660and this is fixed in your mind, if it pleases you

to add yourself and your family to dying Troy, the door to that death stands open.

Soon Pyrrhus will be here, drenched in Priam's blood,

who butchered the son before his father's face and the father at the altar.

Was it for this, gracious mother, that through weapons and fire

665you rescued me—to see the enemy in the heart of my home,

and Ascanius, my father, and Creusa beside them,

each slaughtered in the other's blood?

Arms, men, bring arms! The last light calls the conquered.

Give me back to the Danaans; let me return to battle.

670Not all of us will die today unavenged."

With that I girded myself again with steel and fitted the shield,

slipping my left arm through as I moved outside the house.

But there on the threshold my wife clung to me,

embracing my feet and holding little Iulus toward his father:

675"If you go to die, take us with you into every danger.

But if experience lets you place any hope in the arms you have taken,

then guard this house first. To whom are little Iulus,

your father, and I—once called your wife—to be left?"

Crying out these words, she filled the whole house with grief,

680when a sudden omen rose, marvelous to tell.

For there, between the hands and faces of his grieving parents,

a weightless crest seemed to pour light

from the crown of Iulus' head; harmless to the touch, a gentle

flame licked his hair and fed around his temples.

685Terrified, we rushed to shake out

his burning hair and quench the sacred fire with water.

But father Anchises, rejoicing, lifted his eyes

to the stars and stretched his hands to heaven as he cried:

"Almighty Jupiter, if you are moved by any prayers,

690look upon us—only this—and, if our devotion has earned it,

grant us help, Father, and confirm this omen."

Scarcely had the old man spoken when, with a sudden crash,

thunder sounded on the left, and from the sky through the shadows

a star raced, trailing a torch of brilliant light.

695We watched it glide over the highest roof ridges,

bright, and bury itself in the forest of Ida,

marking the way. Along its long path a furrow

gave light, and the whole region smoked with sulfur.

Then my father, overcome, raised himself,

700addressed the gods, and worshiped the holy star.

"Now, now there is no delay. I follow; where you lead, I am ready.

Gods of my fathers, preserve this house, preserve my grandson.

This augury is yours, and Troy rests in your divine power.

I yield, my son, and do not refuse to go with you."

705He spoke; and now across the city the roar of fire

sounded clearer, and the burning heat rolled nearer.

"Come then, dear father, climb upon my neck.

I will take you on my shoulders; that burden will not weigh on me.

However events may fall, one common danger,

710one salvation will be ours together. Let little Iulus

walk beside me, and let my wife follow our steps at a distance.

You servants, mark what I tell you.

Outside the city stands a mound and an ancient temple

of forsaken Ceres, and beside it an old cypress

715preserved for many years by our fathers' reverence.

We will come to that single place by different paths.

You, father, take in your hands the sacred things and our ancestral Penates.

For me, coming from so fierce a battle and fresh slaughter,

it is sacrilege to touch them until in running water

720I wash myself."

When I had spoken, over my broad shoulders and bowed neck

I spread a cloak and the hide of a tawny lion,

then took up the burden. Little Iulus clasped

my right hand and followed his father with unequal steps.

725My wife came behind. We moved through the shadowed ways,

and I, whom a little before no shower of weapons

nor Greeks massed against me could move,

now feared every breeze and started at every sound,

729suspensum et pariter comitique onerique timentem.

730Iamque propinquabam portis, omnemque videbar

evasisse viam, subito cum creber ad auris

visus adesse pedum sonitus, genitorque per umbram

prospiciens; Nate exclamat, fuge nate, propinquant.

Ardentis clipeos atque aera micantia cerno!—

735Hic mihi nescio quod trepido male numen amicum

confusam eripuit mentem. Namque avia cursu

dum sequor, et nota excedo regione viarum,

heu, misero coniunx fatone erepta Creüsa

substitit, erravitne via, seu lassa resedit,

740incertum; nec post oculis est reddita nostris.

Nec prius amissam respexi animumque reflexi,

quam tumulum antiquae Cereris sedemque sacratam

venimus; hic demum collectis omnibus una

defuit, et comites natumque virumque fefellit.

745Quem non incusavi amens hominumque deorumque,

aut quid in eversa vidi crudelius urbe?

Ascanium Anchisenque patrem Teucrosque Penatis

commendo sociis et curva valle recondo;

ipse urbem repeto et cingor fulgentibus armis.

750Stat casus renovare omnis, omnemque reverti

per Troiam, et rursus caput obiectare periclis.

Principio muros obscuraque limina portae,

qua gressum extuleram, repeto, et vestigia retro

observata sequor per noctem et lumine lustro.

755Horror ubique animo, simul ipsa silentia terrent.

Inde domum, si forte pedem, si forte tulisset,

me refero: inruerant Danai, et tectum omne tenebant.

Ilicet ignis edax summa ad fastigia vento

volvitur; exsuperant flammae, furit aestus ad auras.

760Procedo et Priami sedes arcemque reviso.

Et iam porticibus vacuis Iunonis asylo

custodes lecti Phoenix et dirus Ulixes

praedam adservabant. Huc undique Troia gaza

incensis erepta adytis, mensaeque deorum,

765crateresque auro solidi, captivaque vestis

congeritur; pueri et pavidae longo ordine matres

stant circum.

Ausus quin etiam voces iactare per umbram

implevi clamore vias, maestusque Creüsam

770nequiquam ingeminans iterumque iterumque vocavi.

Quaerenti et tectis urbis sine fine furenti

infelix simulacrum atque ipsius umbra Creüsae

visa mihi ante oculos et nota maior imago.

Obstipui, steteruntque comae et vox faucibus haesit.

775Tum sic adfari et curas his demere dictis :

Quid tantum insano iuvat indulgere dolori,

O dulcis coniunx? Non haec sine numine divom

eveniunt; nec te hinc comitem asportare Creüsam

fas, aut ille sinit superi regnator Olympi.

780Longa tibi exsilia, et vastum maris aequor arandum,

et terram Hesperiam venies, ubi Lydius arva

inter opima virum leni fluit agmine Thybris:

illic res laetae regnumque et regia coniunx

parta tibi. Lacrimas dilectae pelle Creüsae.

785Non ego Myrmidonum sedes Dolopumve superbas

aspiciam, aut Graiis servitum matribus ibo,

Dardanis, et divae Veneris nurus.

Sed me magna deum genetrix his detinet oris:

iamque vale, et nati serva communis amorem.

790Haec ubi dicta dedit, lacrimantem et multa volentem

dicere deseruit, tenuisque recessit in auras.

Ter conatus ibi collo dare bracchia circum:

ter frustra comprensa manus effugit imago,

par levibus ventis volucrique simillima somno.

795Sic demum socios consumpta nocte reviso.

Atque hic ingentem comitum adfluxisse novorum

invenio admirans numerum, matresque virosque,

collectam exsilio pubem, miserabile volgus.

Undique convenere, animis opibusque parati,

800in quascumque velim pelago deducere terras.

Iamque iugis summae surgebat Lucifer Idae

ducebatque diem, Danaique obsessa tenebant

limina portarum, nec spes opis ulla dabatur;

cessi, et sublato montes genitore petivi.

729anxious alike for the child beside me and the father I bore.

730Now I was nearing the gates and seemed

to have passed the whole way safely, when suddenly

the heavy tramp of feet sounded close. My father, peering

through the shadows, cried: "Son, flee, my son! They are closing in.

I see blazing shields and flashing bronze!"

735Then some hostile divine power—I do not know what—

confounded my mind. For as I ran along

trackless ground and left the familiar streets,

whether my wife Creusa, alas, was torn from me by wretched fate,

or stopped, strayed from the path, or sank down exhausted,

740I do not know; afterward she was never restored to our sight.

I did not look back for my lost wife or think of her

until we reached the mound and sacred precinct of ancient Ceres.

There at last, when everyone had gathered, she alone

was missing; she had escaped the notice of companions, son, and husband.

745Whom among men and gods did I not accuse in my madness?

What had I seen more cruel in the fallen city?

Ascanius, father Anchises, and Troy's Penates

I entrusted to my companions and hid in a hollow valley.

I myself returned to the city and girded on my gleaming arms.

750I resolved to face every danger again, to retrace my way

through all Troy and once more expose my life to peril.

First I returned to the walls and dark threshold of the gate

by which I had left. I followed my tracks backward,

watching them through the night and searching with my eyes.

755Everywhere dread gripped my heart; even the silence terrified me.

Then I went back home, in case perhaps, perhaps she had made her way there.

The Danaans had stormed it and held the whole house.

At once devouring fire, driven by the wind, rolled

to the highest roof peaks; flames towered, the heat raged skyward.

760I went on and revisited Priam's palace and the citadel.

There, in the empty colonnades of Juno's sanctuary,

the chosen guards Phoenix and grim Ulysses

watched the plunder. There, from every side, Troy's treasure,

snatched from burning shrines, the tables of the gods,

765bowls of solid gold, and captured garments

were heaped together. Boys and frightened mothers in a long line

stood around them.

I even dared to hurl my voice through the darkness,

filling the streets with cries. In grief I called Creusa,

770in vain, her name again and again.

As I searched and raged without end through the city's houses,

the sorrowful image, the shade of Creusa herself,

appeared before my eyes, larger than the form I knew.

I stood stunned; my hair rose, and my voice caught in my throat.

775Then she addressed me thus and dispelled my cares with these words:

"Why indulge this frantic grief so far,

my dear husband? None of this happens without the gods' will.

Sacred law does not allow you to carry Creusa from here as your companion,

nor does the ruler of high Olympus permit it.

780Long exile lies before you, and the vast plain of the sea must be plowed.

You will come to Hesperian land, where Lydian Tiber

flows in a gentle course through the rich fields of men.

There happiness, a kingdom, and a royal wife

await you. Put away your tears for beloved Creusa.

785I will not see the proud homes of Myrmidons or Dolopians,

nor go to serve Greek women,

I, a Dardan woman and daughter-in-law of divine Venus.

The great Mother of the Gods keeps me on these shores.

And now farewell. Guard your love for the son we share."

790When she had spoken, she left me weeping and longing

to say so much, and faded into the insubstantial air.

Three times I tried to throw my arms around her neck;

three times her image escaped my useless grasp,

light as the wind, most like a fleeting dream.

795So at last, when the night was spent, I returned to my companions.

There in wonder I found that a vast number

of new companions had gathered, women and men,

a people assembled for exile, a pitiable crowd.

They had come from every side, ready in spirit and resources

800for whatever land I wished to lead them to across the sea.

And now the Morning Star rose above the ridges of high Ida,

leading on the day. The Danaans held the blockaded

gateways, and no hope of aid remained.

I yielded and, with my father raised on my shoulders, made for the mountains.