Aeneid, Book 5: The Funeral Games

1Interea medium Aeneas iam classe tenebat

certus iter, fluctusque atros Aquilone secabat,

moenia respiciens, quae iam infelicis Elissae

conlucent flammis. Quae tantum accenderit ignem,

5causa latet; duri magno sed amore dolores

polluto, notumque, furens quid femina possit,

triste per augurium Teucrorum pectora ducunt.

Ut pelagus tenuere rates, nec iam amplius ulla

occurrit tellus, maria undique et undique caelum,

10olli caeruleus supra caput adstitit imber,

noctem hiememque ferens, et inhorruit unda tenebris.

Ipse gubernator puppi Palinurus ab alta:

Heu! quianam tanti cinxerunt aethera nimbi?

Quidve, pater Neptune, paras? Sic deinde locutus

15colligere arma iubet validisque incumbere remis,

obliquatque sinus in ventum, ac talia fatur:

Magnanime Aenea, non, si mihi Iuppiter auctor

spondeat, hoc sperem Italiam contingere caelo.

Mutati transversa fremunt et vespere ab atro

20consurgunt venti, atque in nubem cogitur aër.

Nec nos obniti contra, nec tendere tantum

sufficimus. Superat quoniam Fortuna, sequamur,

quoque vocat, vertamus iter. Nec litora longe

fida reor fraterna Erycis portusque Sicanos,

25si modo rite memor servata remetior astra.

Tum pius Aeneas: Equidem sic poscere ventos

iamdudum et frustra cerno te tendere contra:

Flecte viam velis. An sit mihi gratior ulla,

quove magis fessas optem demittere naves,

30quam quae Dardanium tellus mihi servat Acesten,

et patris Anchisae gremio complectitur ossa?

Haec ubi dicta, petunt portus, et vela secundi

intendunt Zephyri; fertur cita gurgite classis,

et tandem laeti notae advertuntur harenae.

1Meanwhile Aeneas, already at mid-sea with his fleet,

held his course and cut the black waves under the North Wind,

looking back at the walls now lit by unhappy Elissa's

flames. What had kindled such a fire remained hidden;

5but bitter anguish when a great love is betrayed,

and what a woman can do in frenzy, all too well known,

filled the Teucrians' hearts with grim foreboding.

When the ships had gained the open sea, and no

land any longer met them, sea on every side and sky on every side,

10over their heads a blue-black rain cloud stood

bearing night and storm, and the wave shuddered in darkness.

Palinurus himself, the helmsman, from the high stern:

"Ah! Why have such great clouds girdled the sky?

Or what, father Neptune, are you preparing?" Then, having spoken so,

15he orders the tackle made fast and the men to lean on the strong oars,

angles the sails across the wind, and speaks these words:

"Great-hearted Aeneas, not even if Jupiter himself

stood guarantor to me would I hope to reach Italy under this sky.

The winds have shifted; they roar across us, and from the dark west

20they rise, and the air is thickening into cloud.

We have no strength to beat against them, no power

to hold our course. Since Fortune has the better of us, let us follow her

where she calls, and turn our route. Nor, I think, far away

are the trusty shores of brother Eryx and the Sicilian harbors,

25if memory serves and I retrace the stars I charted before."

Then dutiful Aeneas: "Indeed, I have long seen

that the winds demand this, and that you strain against them in vain:

bend the course with the sails. Is any land dearer to me,

or where would I rather bring my weary ships down,

30than the land that keeps Dardan Acestes for me,

and in her lap embraces my father Anchises' bones?"

When these words were said, they seek the harbors; favoring

West Winds fill the sails, and the swift fleet rides the swell,

and at last, glad, they turn toward familiar sands.

35At procul ex celso miratus vertice montis

adventum sociasque rates occurrit Acestes,

horridus in iaculis et pelle Libystidis ursae,

Troïa Criniso conceptum flumine mater

quem genuit: veterum non immemor ille parentum

40gratatur reduces, et gaza laetus agresti

excipit, ac fessos opibus solatur amicis.

Postera cum primo stellas Oriente fugarat

clara dies, socios in coetum litore ab omni

advocat Aeneas, tumulique ex aggere fatur:

45Dardanidae magni, genus alto a sanguine divom,

annuus exactis completur mensibus orbis,

ex quo reliquias divinique ossa parentis

Condidimus terra maestasque sacravimus aras.

Iamque dies, nisi fallor, adest, quem semper acerbum,

50semper honoratum—sic di voluistis—habebo.

Hunc ego Gaetulis agerem si Syrtibus exsul,

Argolicove mari deprensus et urbe Mycenae;

annua vota tamen sollemnisque ordine pompas

exsequerer, strueremque suis altaria donis.

55Nunc ultro ad cineres ipsius et ossa parentis,

haud equidem sine mente, reor, sine numine divom,

adsumus et portus delati intramus amicos.

Ergo agite, et laetum cuncti celebremus honorem;

poscamus ventos; atque haec me sacra quotannis

60urbe velit posita templis sibi ferre dicatis.

Bina boum vobis Troia generatus Acestes

dat numero capita in naves; adhibete Penates

et patrios epulis et quos colit hospes Acestes.

Praeterea, si nona diem mortalibus almum

65Aurora extulerit radiisque retexerit orbem,

prima citae Teucris ponam certamina classis;

quique pedum cursu valet, et qui viribus audax

aut iaculo incedit melior levibusque sagittis,

seu crudo fidit pugnam committere caestu,

70cuncti adsint, meritaeque exspectent praemia palmae.

Ore favete omnes, et cingite tempora ramis.

Sic fatus, velat materna tempora myrto;

hoc Elymus facit, hoc aevi maturus Acestes,

hoc puer Ascanius, sequitur quos cetera pubes.

75Ille e concilio multis cum milibus ibat

ad tumulum, magna medius comitante caterva.

Hic duo rite mero libans carchesia Baccho

fundit humi, duo lacte novo, duo sanguine sacro,

purpureosque iacit flores, ac talia fatur:

80Salve, sancte parens: iterum salvete, recepti

nequiquam cineres, animaeque umbraeque paternae.

Non licuit fines Italos fataliaque arva,

nec tecum Ausonium (quicumque est) quaerere Thybrim.

Dixerat haec, adytis cum lubricus anguis ab imis

85septem ingens gyros, septena volumina traxit,

amplexus placide tumulum lapsusque per aras,

caeruleae cui terga notae, maculosus et auro

squamam incendebat fulgor, ceu nubibus arcus

mille iacit varios adverso sole colores.

90Obstipuit visu Aeneas. Ille agmine longo

tandem inter pateras et levia pocula serpens

libavitque dapes, rursusque innoxius imo

successit tumulo, et depasta altaria liquit.

Hoc magis inceptos genitori instaurat honores,

95incertus, geniumne loci famulumne parentis

esse putet: caedit binas de more bidentes,

totque sues, totidem nigrantis terga iuvencos;

vinaque fundebat pateris, animamque vocabat

Anchisae magni Manisque Acheronte remissos.

100Nec non et socii, quae cuique est copia, laeti

dona ferunt, onerant aras, mactantque iuvencos;

ordine aena locant alii, fusique per herbam

subiciunt veribus prunas et viscera torrent.

35But far off, from a high mountain summit, Acestes marvels at

their arrival and the allied ships, and runs to meet them,

bristling with javelins and the hide of a Libyan she-bear,

the man whom a Trojan mother conceived by the river Crimisus

and bore; he, not forgetful of his ancient parents,

40greets them on their return, and gladly, with rustic treasure,

receives them and comforts the weary with friendly stores.

When the next bright day had driven off the stars at first sunrise,

Aeneas calls his comrades from every shore into assembly

and speaks from the mound of the tomb:

45"Great Dardanians, race sprung from the high blood of gods,

the yearly circle is complete, its months fulfilled,

since the remains and bones of my divine father

we buried in earth and consecrated sorrowful altars.

And now, unless I am mistaken, the day is here, a day I shall always keep bitter,

50always marked with honor—so you gods have willed.

If I were spending this day as an exile among the Gaetulian Syrtes,

or caught in the Argolic sea and Mycenae's city,

still I would perform the yearly vows and solemn processions

in order, and pile altars with their proper gifts.

55Now of our own accord we stand before the very ashes and bones of my father,

not, I believe, without the gods' purpose or divine power,

carried here into friendly harbors.

So come, let us all celebrate this glad observance;

let us ask for winds; and may he wish me to bring these rites each year,

60once our city stands, in temples dedicated to him.

Trojan-born Acestes gives you two head of cattle

apiece for each ship; invite to the feasts the Penates,

both our fathers' gods and those our host Acestes worships.

Besides, if the ninth Dawn raises a kindly day

65for mortals and with her rays unveils the world,

first I will set for the Teucrians contests of the swift fleet;

whoever has strength in running on foot, and whoever, bold in force,

excels with the javelin or with light arrows,

or trusts himself to engage battle with the raw-hide caestus,

70let all be present and await the prizes of the deserved palm.

Keep holy silence, all, and bind your temples with branches."

Having spoken so, he wreathes his temples with his mother's myrtle;

So do Elymus and Acestes, ripe in years;

so does the boy Ascanius, and the rest of the youth follow.

75From the assembly Aeneas went with many thousands

to the tomb, at the center of a great attending throng.

There, duly making libation with two goblets of unmixed wine,

he pours two on the ground, two with fresh milk, two with sacred blood,

and scatters purple flowers, and speaks these words:

80"Hail, holy father; again hail, ashes rescued

in vain, my father's spirit and shade.

It was not granted us, with you, to seek Italian bounds and fated fields,

nor the Ausonian Tiber, whatever it may be."

He had spoken these words, when from the depths of the shrine a sleek serpent

85drew seven huge coils, sevenfold windings,

peacefully embracing the tomb and gliding among the altars,

its back marked with blue-black spots, and a gold-flecked gleam

set its scales aflame, as in the clouds a rainbow

throws a thousand shifting colors against the facing sun.

90Aeneas stood amazed at the sight. The serpent, in a long train,

at last winding among bowls and smooth cups,

tasted the feast, and then harmlessly again

withdrew deep into the tomb and left the altars it had fed upon.

For this all the more he redoubles the rites begun for his father,

95uncertain whether to think it the genius of the place or his father's attendant:

according to custom he slays two full-grown sheep,

as many swine, and as many bullocks with black backs;

and he poured wine from bowls, and called on the spirit

of great Anchises and the Manes released from Acheron.

100The comrades too, glad and each according to his means,

bring gifts, load the altars, and sacrifice bullocks;

others set bronze cauldrons in order, and stretched out over the grass,

put coals under spits and roast the entrails.

104Exspectata dies aderat, nonamque serena

105Auroram Phaethontis equi iam luce vehebant,

famaque finitimos et clari nomen Acestae

excierat; laeto complerant litora coetu,

visuri Aeneadas, pars et certare parati.

Munera principio ante oculos circoque locantur

110in medio, sacri tripodes viridesque coronae,

et palmae pretium victoribus, armaque et ostro

perfusae vestes, argenti aurique talenta;

et tuba commissos medio canit aggere ludos.

Prima pares ineunt gravibus certamina remis

115quattuor ex omni delectae classe carinae.

Velocem Mnestheus agit acri remige Pristim,

mox Italus Mnestheus, genus a quo nomine Memmi;

ingentemque Gyas ingenti mole Chimaeram,

urbis opus, triplici pubes quam Dardana versu

120impellunt, terno consurgunt ordine remi;

Sergestusque, domus tenet a quo Sergia nomen,

Centauro invehitur magna, Scyllaque Cloanthus

caerulea, genus unde tibi, Romane Cluenti.

Est procul in pelago saxum spumantia contra

125litora, quod tumidis submersum tunditur olim

fluctibus, hiberni condunt ubi sidera cori;

tranquillo silet, immotaque attollitur unda

campus, et apricis statio gratissima mergis.

Hic viridem Aeneas frondenti ex ilice metam

130constituit signum nautis pater, unde reverti

scirent, et longos ubi circumflectere cursus.

Tum loca sorte legunt, ipsique in puppibus auro

ductores longe effulgent ostroque decori;

cetera populea velatur fronde iuventus,

135nudatosque umeros oleo perfilsa nitescit.

Considunt transtris, intentaque brachia remis;

intenti exspectant signum, exsultantiaque haurit

corda pavor pulsans, laudumque arrecta cupido.

Inde, ubi clara dedit sonitum tuba, finibus omnes,

140haud mora, prosiluere suis; ferit aethera clamor

nauticus, adductis spumant freta versa lacertis.

Infindunt pariter sulcos, totumque dehiscit

convulsum remis rostrisque tridentibus aequor.

Non tam praecipites biiugo certamine campum

145corripuere, ruuntque effusi carcere currus,

nec sic immissis aurigae undantia lora

concussere iugis pronique in verbera pendent.

Tum plausu fremituque virum studiisque faventum

consonat omne nemus, vocemque inclusa volutant

150litora, pulsati colles clamore resultant.

104The awaited day had come, and Phaethon's horses

105now bore the ninth clear Dawn into the light,

and rumor, with the name of famous Acestes,

had stirred the neighboring people; they filled the shore in a glad assembly,

some to see Aeneas' people, some ready to compete.

First the prizes are set before their eyes, in the middle

110of the race ground: sacred tripods and green crowns,

palms, the prize for the victors, arms and garments

steeped in purple, talents of silver and of gold;

and the trumpet from the middle mound proclaims the games begun.

First, with heavy oars, four matched ships enter

115the contest, chosen from the whole fleet.

Mnestheus drives swift Pristis with an eager crew of rowers,

Mnestheus, soon an Italian, from whose name the Memmii spring;

and Gyas drives huge Chimaera, huge in bulk,

a city's work, which Dardan youth in triple tier

120drive on; the oars rise in threefold order;

Sergestus too, from whom the Sergian house keeps its name,

is borne on great Centaur; Cloanthus rides sea-blue Scylla,

from whom, Roman Cluentius, your line comes.

Far out at sea, opposite the foaming shores,

125there is a rock, sometimes submerged and beaten by swelling

waves, when wintry northwest winds hide the stars;

in calm it lies silent, rising above the still water

as a level field, a resting place most welcome to sunning sea birds.

Here father Aeneas planted a green turning post

130of leafy holm oak, a sign from father Aeneas for the sailors,

so they would know where to turn and bend their long courses around.

Then they choose their places by lot, and on the sterns the leaders

themselves gleam far off in gold, splendid in purple;

the rest of the crews are wreathed with poplar leaves,

135and their bare shoulders shine, rubbed over with oil.

They sit on the rowing benches, arms stretched to the oars;

tense, they wait for the signal; pounding fear consumes

their leaping hearts, while desire for praise rises keen.

Then, when the clear trumpet gave its sound, all of them

140sprang at once from their own marks; the sailors' shout strikes the sky,

and the churned waters foam under arms drawn back.

Together they split furrows, and the whole sea gapes open,

convulsed by oars and three-pronged beaks.

Not so headlong, in a two-horse race, have chariots

145seized the plain and rushed, pouring out from the starting gate,

nor so, with teams let loose, have drivers shaken

the billowing reins and hung forward toward the lash.

Then with applause, men's roar, and partisan cries

the whole grove resounds; the enclosing shores roll

150the sound along, and the struck hills echo back the shout.

151Effugit ante alios primisque elabitur undis

turbam inter fremitumque Gyas; quem deinde Cloanthus

consequitur, melior remis, sed pondere pinus

tarda tenet. Post hos aequo discrimine Pristis

155Centaurusque locum tendunt superare priorem;

et nunc Pristis habet, nunc victam praeterit ingens

Centaurus, nunc una ambae iunctisque feruntur

frontibus, et longa sulcant vada salsa carina.

Iamque propinquabant scopulo metamque tenebant,

160cum princeps medioque Gyas in gurgite victor

rectorem navis compellat voce Menoeten:

Quo tantum mihi dexter abis? Huc dirige gressum;

litus ama, et laevas stringat sine palmula cautes;

altum alii teneant. Dixit; sed caeca Menoetes

165saxa timens proram pelagi detorquet ad undas.

Quo diversus abis? iterum Pete saxa, Menoete!

cum clamore Gyas revocabat; et ecce Cloanthum

respicit instantem tergo, et propiora tenentem.

Ille inter navemque Gyae scopulosque sonantes

170radit iter laevum interior, subitoque priorem

praeterit, et metis tenet aequora tuta relictis.

Tum vero exarsit iuveni dolor ossibus ingens,

nec lacrimis caruere genae, segnemque Menoeten,

oblitus decorisque sui sociumque salutis,

175in mare praecipitem puppi deturbat ab alta;

ipse gubernaclo rector subit, ipse magister,

hortaturque viros, clavumque ad litora torquet.

At gravis, ut fundo vix tandem redditus imo est,

iam senior madidaque fluens in veste Menoetes

180summa petit scopuli siccaque in rupe resedit.

Ilium et labentem Teucri et risere natantem,

et salsos rident revomentem pectore fluctus.

Hic laeta extremis spes est accensa duobus,

Sergesto Mnestheique, Gyan superare morantem.

185Sergestus capit ante locum scopuloque propinquat,

nec tota tamen ille prior praeeunte carina;

parte prior, partem rostro premit aemula Pristis.

At media socios incedens nave per ipsos

hortatur Mnestheus: Nunc, nunc insurgite remis,

190Hectorei socii, Troiae quos sorte suprema

delegi comites; nunc illas promite vires,

nunc animos, quibus in Gaetulis Syrtibus usi,

Ionioque mari Maleaeque sequacibus undis.

Non iam prima peto Mnestheus, neque vincere certo;

195quamquam O!—sed superent, quibus hoc, Neptune, dedisti;

extremos pudeat rediisse; hoc vincite, cives,

et prohibete nefas. Olli certamine summo

procumbunt; vastis tremit ictibus aerea puppis,

151Gyas breaks away before the rest and glides over the foremost waves

amid the crowd and roar; after him Cloanthus

follows, better at the oars, but the ship's weight,

the sluggish pine, holds him back. After these, at equal distance, Pristis

155and Centaur strive to overtake the place ahead;

now Pristis holds it, now huge Centaur passes her,

beaten; now both drive on together, prows coupled,

and furrow the salt shallows with their long keels.

And now they were nearing the rock and reaching the marker,

160when Gyas, foremost and victorious in mid-channel,

calls aloud to Menoetes, the ship's helmsman:

"Why are you veering so far to my right? Steer your course here;

hug the shore; let the left oar blade graze the rocks;

let others keep the deep." He spoke; but Menoetes, fearing hidden

165rocks, turns the prow away toward the sea's waves.

"Where are you wandering off? Back toward the rocks, Menoetes!"

Gyas was shouting to call him back; and look, he sees Cloanthus

pressing on his stern and holding the nearer course.

Cloanthus, between Gyas' ship and the sounding rocks,

170skims the left-hand passage, further inside, and suddenly

passes the leader, leaving the marks behind and gaining safe water.

Then indeed huge pain flared in the young man's bones,

tears wet his cheeks; and Menoetes, the laggard,

forgetting his own dignity and his crew's safety,

175he hurls headlong from the high stern into the sea;

he takes the helm himself, steersman himself and master,

urges on the men, and turns the tiller toward the shore.

But heavy Menoetes, once at last he struggled up

from the deep bottom, old now and streaming in soaked clothing,

180makes for the top of the rock and settles on dry stone.

The Teucrians laughed at him as he slipped and as he swam,

and laughed as he spewed the salt water back from his chest.

This kindled glad hope for the two at the rear,

for Sergestus and Mnestheus, of overtaking Gyas as he lagged.

185Sergestus takes the lead and nears the rock,

yet his advancing keel is not wholly ahead;

one part leads, while rival Pristis presses the rest with her ram.

But Mnestheus, moving through his comrades in midship,

urges them on: "Now, now rise on the oars,

190Hector's companions, whom in Troy's final hour

I chose as comrades; now bring out those strengths,

now the courage you used in the Gaetulian Syrtes,

in the Ionian sea and amid Malea's relentless waves.

I do not ask for first place now, nor am I fighting to win;

195though—ah! Let those win, Neptune, to whom you granted this;

be ashamed to come back last. Win this, fellow citizens,

and ward off that disgrace." At the height of the contest

they throw themselves forward; the bronze stern trembles under massive strokes,

199subtrahiturque solum; tum creber anhelitus artus

200aridaque ora quatit, sudor fluit undique rivis.

Attulit ipse viris optatum casus honorem.

Namque furens animi dum proram ad saxa suburguet

interior, spatioque subit Sergestus iniquo,

infelix saxis in procurrentibus haesit.

205Concussae cautes, et acuto in murice remi

obnixi crepuere, inlisaque prora pependit.

Consurgunt nautae et magno clamore morantur,

ferratasque trudes et acuta cuspide contos

expediunt, fractosque legunt in gurgite remos.

210At laetus Mnestheus successuque acrior ipso

agmine remorum celeri ventisque vocatis

prona petit maria et pelago decurrit aperto.

Qualis spelunca subito commota columba,

cui domus et dulces latebroso in pumice nidi,

215fertur in ana volans, plausumque exterrita pennis

dat tecto ingentem, mox aere lapsa quieto

radit iter liquidum, celeres neque commovet alas:

sic Mnestheus, sic ipsa fuga secat ultima Pristis

aequora, sic illam fert impetus ipse volantem.

220Et primum in scopulo luctantem deserit alto

Sergestum, brevibusque vadis frustraque vocantem

auxilia, et fractis discentem currere remis

Inde Gyan ipsamque ingenti mole Chimaeram

consequitur; cedit, quoniam spoliata magistro est.

225Solus iamque ipso superest in fine Cloanthus:

quem petit, et summis adnixus viribus urguet.

Tum vero ingeminat clamor, cunctique sequentem

instigant studiis, resonatque fragoribus aether.

Hi proprium decus et partum indignantur honorem

230ni teneant, vitamque volunt pro laude pacisci;

hos successus alit: possunt, quia posse videntur.

Et fors aequatis cepissent praemia rostris,

ni palmas ponto tendens utrasque Cloanthus

fudissetque preces, divosque in vota vocasset:

235Di, quibus imperium est pelagi, quorum aequora curro,

vobis laetus ego hoc candentem in litore taurum

constituam ante aras, voti reus, extaque salsos

porriciam in fluctus et vina liquentia fundam.

Dixit, eumque imis sub fluctibus audiit omnis

240Nereidum Phorcique chorus Panopeaque virgo,

et pater ipse manu magna Portunus euntem

impulit; illa Noto citius volucrique sagitta

ad terram fugit, et portu se condidit alto.

Tum satus Anchisa, cunctis ex more vocatis,

245victorem magna praeconis voce Cloanthum

declarat viridique advelat tempora lauro,

muneraque in naves ternos optare iuvencos,

vinaque et argenti magnum dat ferre talentum.

Ipsis praecipuos ductoribus addit honores:

250victori chlamydem auratam, quam plurima circum

purpura maeandro duplici Meliboea cucurrit,

intextusque puer frondosa regius Ida

veloces iaculo cervos cursuque fatigat,

acer, anhelanti similis, quem praepes ab Ida

255sublimem pedibus rapuit Iovis armiger uncis;

longaevi palmas nequiquam ad sidera tendunt

custodes, saevitque canum latratus in auras.

At qui deinde locum tenuit virtute secundum,

levibus huic hamis consertam auroque trilicem

260loricam, quam Demoleo detraxerat ipse

victor apud rapidum Simoënta sub Ilio alto,

donat habere viro, decus et tutamen in armis.

Vix illam famuli Phegeus Sagarisque ferebant

multiplicem, conixi umeris; indutus at olim

265Demoleos cursu palantes Troas agebat.

Tertia dona facit geminos ex aere lebetas,

cymbiaque argento perfecta atque aspera signis.

Iamque adeo donati omnes opibusque superbi

puniceis ibant evincti tempora taenis,

270cum saevo e scopulo multa vix arte revolsus,

amissis remis atque ordine debilis uno,

inrisam sine honore ratem Sergestus agebat.

Qualis saepe viae deprensus in aggere serpens,

aerea quem obliquum rota transiit, aut gravis ictu

275seminecem liquit saxo lacerumque viator;

nequiquam longos fugiens dat corpore tortus,

parte ferox, ardensque oculis, et sibila colla

arduus attollens, pars volnere clauda retentat

nexantem nodis seque in sua membra plicantem:

280tali remigio navis se tarda movebat;

vela facit tamen, et velis subit ostia plenis.

Sergestum Aeneas promisso munere donat,

servatam ob navem laetus sociosque reductos.

Olli serva datur, operum haud ignara Minervae,

285Cressa genus, Pholoë, geminique sub ubere nati.

199and the ground slips away beneath them; then thick panting shakes their limbs

200and dry mouths, and sweat streams everywhere in rivulets.

Chance itself brought the men the honor they had hoped for.

For while Sergestus, frantic in spirit, crowds his prow inward toward the rocks

and, taking the inside, cramps himself into too tight a channel,

luckless, he caught fast on the jutting rocks.

205The reefs were shaken, and the oars, straining against sharp

jagged stone, cracked; the battered prow hung fast.

The sailors spring up, shouting, and the ship stalls;

and get out iron-shod poles and boat-hooks with sharp points,

and collect the broken oars from the surge.

210But Mnestheus, elated and sharpened by success,

with his swift rank of oars and the winds called in,

makes for open water and races down the sea.

As when a dove, suddenly startled from a cave,

whose home and sweet nest lie in the caverned pumice,

215flies out into the fields, and, terrified, with her wings

beats a huge clatter beneath the roof; soon, gliding through quiet air,

she skims a clear path and does not stir her swift wings:

so Mnestheus, so Pristis herself in her flight cuts the final

waters, so momentum itself bears her flying on.

220First he leaves Sergestus struggling on the high rock,

calling vainly for help amid the shallow shoals,

and learning to run with broken oars.

Then he overtakes Gyas and Chimaera herself in her massive bulk;

she gives way, since she has been robbed of her helmsman.

225Now Cloanthus alone remains, right at the finish;

Mnestheus aims for him and, straining with all his strength, presses hard.

Then the shouting truly doubles, and everyone spurs the pursuer on

with eager partisanship, and the sky echoes with the din.

One crew resents not keeping its own glory and the honor already won,

230and is willing to bargain life for praise;

success feeds the other crew: they can, because they believe they can.

And perhaps they would have taken the prizes with prows level,

had Cloanthus not stretched both palms toward the sea,

poured out prayers, and invoked the gods in his vow:

235"Gods who command the sea, whose waters I race over,

for you I will gladly set this white bull on the shore

before your altars; bound by my vow, I will cast its entrails into the salt

waves and pour clear wine."

He spoke, and beneath the deepest waves the whole

240chorus of Nereids and Phorcus heard him, and maiden Panopea,

and father Portunus himself drove the ship on with his great hand;

the ship, faster than the South Wind and a winged arrow,

fled toward land and hid herself in the deep harbor.

Then the son of Anchises, after all had been summoned according to custom,

245declares Cloanthus victor by the herald's loud voice

and wreathes his temples with green laurel,

and lets each crew choose three bullocks as its share,

and gives them wine and a great talent of silver to carry away.

To the captains themselves he adds special honors:

250for the victor, a gold-embroidered cloak, around whose border

rich Meliboean purple ran in a double meander,

and woven there, the royal boy on leafy Ida

wearies swift deer with javelin and running,

keen and seeming to pant—the boy whom, swooping from Ida,

255Jupiter's armor-bearer snatched aloft in hooked talons;

in vain his aged guardians stretch their palms to the stars,

and the barking of the dogs rages into the air.

But to the man who next held second place by valor,

he gives a corslet linked with smooth hooks and triple-woven

260with gold, which he himself, victorious, had stripped from Demoleos

beside the swift Simois under high Ilium,

for him to have, a glory and safeguard in arms.

Scarcely could the servants Phegeus and Sagaris carry it,

many-layered, straining on their shoulders; yet once, wearing it,

265Demoleos drove scattered Trojans at a run.

For third prize he sets out twin cauldrons of bronze,

and silver bowls, finished and embossed with figures.

And now indeed, all enriched by gifts and proud in their prizes,

they were going with their temples bound in crimson ribbons,

270when, with great skill barely wrenched free from the cruel rock,

his oars lost and one whole bank disabled,

Sergestus drove his mocked ship in without honor.

As often when a snake, caught on a road's raised bank,

run over sidelong by a bronze-bound wheel, or left

275half-dead and mangled by a traveler's heavy stone-blow;

trying vainly to flee, it makes long coils with its body,

fierce in one part, eyes blazing, and lifting high

its hissing neck; the part crippled by the wound holds it back

as it knots itself and folds into its own limbs:

280with such rowing the ship moved sluggishly on;

yet she makes sail, and under full sail enters the harbor-mouth.

Aeneas gives Sergestus the promised gift,

glad for the ship saved and the comrades brought back.

To him is given an enslaved woman, not unskilled in Minerva's works,

285Cretan by birth, Pholoe, with twin sons at her breast.

286Hoc pius Aeneas misso certamine tendit

gramineum in campum, quem collibus undique curvis

cingebant silvae, mediaque in valle theatri

circus erat; quo se multis cum milibus heros

290consessu medium tulit exstructoque resedit.

Hic, qui forte velint rapido contendere cursu,

invitat pretiis animos, et praemia ponit.

Undique conveniunt Teucri mixtique Sicani,

Nisus et Euryalus primi,

295Euryalus forma insignis viridique iuventa,

Nisus amore pio pueri; quos deinde secutus

regius egregia Priami de stirpe Diores;

hunc Salius simul et Patron, quorum alter Acarnan,

alter ab Arcadio Tegeaeae sanguine gentis;

300tum duo Trinacrii iuvenes, Helymus Panopesque,

adsueti silvis, comites senioris Acestae;

multi praeterea, quos fama obscura recondit.

Aeneas quibus in mediis sic deinde locutus:

Accipite haec animis, laetasque advertite mentes:

305nemo ex hoc numero mihi non donatus abibit.

Gnosia bina dabo levato lucida ferro

spicula caelatamque argento ferre bipennem;

omnibus hic erit unus honos. Tres praemia primi

accipient flavaque caput nectentur oliva.

310Primus equum phaleris insignem victor habeto;

alter Amazoniam pharetram plenamque sagittis

Threïciis, lato quam circum amplectitur auro

balteus et tereti subnectit fibula gemma;

tertius Argolica hac galea contentus abito.

315Haec ubi dicta, locum capiunt, signoque repente

corripiunt spatia audito, limenque relinquunt,

effusi nimbo similes, simul ultima signant.

Primus abit longeque ante omnia corpora Nisus

emicat, et ventis et fulminis ocior alis;

320proximus huic, longo sed proxumus intervallo,

insequitur Salius; spatio post deinde relicto

tertius Euryalus:

Euryalumque Helymus sequitur; quo deinde sub ipso

ecce volat calcemque terit iam calce Diores,

325incumbens umero, spatia et si plura supersint,

transeat elapsus prior, ambiguumque relinquat.

Iamque fere spatio extremo fessique sub ipsam

finem adventabant, levi cum sanguine Nisus

labitur infelix, caesis ut forte iuvencis

330fusus humum viridisque super madefecerat herbas.

Hic iuvenis iam victor ovans vestigia presso

haud tenuit titubata solo, sed pronus in ipso

concidit immundoque fimo sacroque cruore.

Non tamen Euryali, non ille oblitus amorum;

335nam sese opposuit Salio per lubrica surgens;

ille autem spissa iacuit revolutus harena.

Emicat Euryalus, et munere victor amici

prima tenet, plausuque volat fremituque secundo.

Post Helymus subit, et nunc tertia palma Diores.

340Hic totum caveae consessum ingentis et ora

prima patrum magnis Salius clamoribus implet,

ereptumque dolo reddi sibi poscit honorem.

Tutatur favor Euryalum, lacrimaeque decorae,

gratior et pulchro veniens in corpore virtus.

345Adiuvat et magna proclamat voce Diores,

qui subiit palmae, frustraque ad praemia venit

ultima, si primi Salio reddentur honores.

Tum pater Aeneas Vestra inquit munera vobis

certa manent, pueri, et palmam movet ordine nemo;

350me liceat casus misereri insontis amici.

Sic fatus, tergum Gaetuli immane leonis

dat Salio, villis onerosum atque unguibus aureis.

Hic Nisus, Si tanta inquit sunt praemia victis,

et te lapsorum miseret, quae munera Niso

355digna dabis, primam merui qui laude coronam,

ni me, quae Salium, fortuna inimica tulisset?

Et simul his dictis faciem ostentabat et udo

turpia membra fimo. Risit pater optimus olli

et clipeum efferri iussit, Didymaonis artem,

360Neptuni sacro Danais de poste refixum.

Hoc iuvenem egregium praestanti munere donat;

286With that contest dismissed, dutiful Aeneas makes his way

to a grassy field, enclosed on every side by curving hills

and woods; in the middle of the valley

lay a theater-like racecourse. There the hero, with many thousands,

290entered the center of the assembly and sat on a raised seat.

There, with prizes, he stirs the courage of any who might wish

to compete in a swift race, and sets the rewards before them.

From every side Teucrians and Sicanians together gather,

Nisus and Euryalus first,

295Euryalus, marked out by beauty and fresh youth,

Nisus by devoted love for the boy; after them followed

royal Diores from the noble stock of Priam;

then Salius along with Patron, one of them Acarnanian,

the other from Arcadian blood, of Tegean race;

300then two Trinacrian young men, Helymus and Panopes,

men used to the woods, companions of aged Acestes;

and many besides, whom dim report hides away.

Aeneas, in their midst, then spoke:

"Hear this, and turn glad hearts to what I say:

305no one from this company will leave ungifted by me.

To each I will give two Cnossian javelins, bright

with polished iron, to carry, and a double axe chased with silver;

this honor will be the same for all. The first three

will receive prizes and bind their heads with yellow olive.

310The first victor shall have a horse splendid with trappings;

the second an Amazonian quiver filled

with Thracian arrows, around which a broad gold

belt runs, and a clasp fastens it with a rounded gem;

let the third depart content with this Argolic helmet."

315When these words were spoken, they take their places; suddenly,

as the signal sounds, they seize the course and leave the line,

pouring out like a storm-cloud, all fixing on the finish.

Nisus starts first, and far ahead of every runner

flashes out, swifter than the winds and wings of lightning;

320next to him, yet next by a long interval,

Salius follows; then, after a space is left behind,

Euryalus comes third:

Helymus follows Euryalus; and just behind him

see, Diores flies and now treads heel on heel,

325leaning in over his shoulder; if more course remained,

he would slip past ahead and leave the outcome uncertain.

And now, weary and almost at the last stretch, toward the very

finish they came, when Nisus, on slippery blood,

unlucky, slipped; as it happened, from slaughtered bullocks

330it had poured over the ground and soaked the green grass.

There the young man, already exulting in victory, failed to

hold his stumbling steps on the trampled ground; headlong, on the spot,

fell in the filthy dung and sacred blood.

Yet he had not forgotten Euryalus, not he, nor their bond of love;

335for, rising through the slickness, he threw himself in Salius' way;

and Salius went tumbling and lay in the thick sand.

Euryalus flashes out and, victor through his friend's service,

holds first place, and flies on with applause and favoring roar.

After him Helymus comes up, and now Diores has the third palm.

340At this Salius fills the great theater's whole seated crowd

and the front ranks of the elders with loud shouts,

demanding that the honor stolen by trickery be returned to him.

Public favor protects Euryalus, as do the tears graceful on his face,

and courage is more winning when it comes in a beautiful body.

345Diores too helps him, and cries out in a loud voice,

the man who came in for the palm and has come in vain

to the last prizes, if first honors are restored to Salius.

Then father Aeneas said, "Your prizes remain

fixed for you, boys, and no one shifts the palm from its order;

350allow me to pity our friend's undeserved misfortune."

So he spoke, and gives Salius the huge hide

of a Gaetulian lion, heavy with shaggy hair and golden claws.

At this Nisus said, "If such great prizes are for the beaten,

and you pity those who have slipped, what gifts

355worthy of Nisus will you give, since I would have earned the first crown by merit,

had hostile fortune not borne me off, as it did Salius?"

And with these words he displayed his face and his limbs

fouled with wet dung. The kindly father laughed at him

and ordered a shield brought out, the work of Didymaon,

360unfastened by the Greeks from Neptune's sacred doorpost.

With this surpassing gift he honors the distinguished youth;

362Post, ubi confecti cursus, et dona peregit:

Nunc, si cui virtus animusque in pectore praesens,

adsit, et evinctis attollat brachia palmis.

365Sic ait, et geminum pugnae proponit honorem,

victori velatum auro vittisque iuvencum,

ensem atque insignem galeam solacia victo.

Nec mora: continuo vastis cum viribus effert

ora Dares, magnoque virum se murmure tollit;

370solus qui Paridem solitus contendere contra,

idemque ad tumulum, quo maximus occubat Hector,

victorem Buten immani corpore, qui se

Bebrycia veniens Amyci de gente ferebat,

perculit, et fulva moribundum extendit harena.

375Talis prima Dares caput altum in proelia tollit,

ostenditque umeros latos, alternaque iactat

brachia protendens, et verberat ictibus auras.

Quaeritur huic alius; nec quisquam ex agmine tanto

audet adire virum manibusque inducere caestus.

380Ergo alacris, cunctosque putans excedere palma,

Aeneae stetit ante pedes, nec plura moratus

tum laeva taurum cornu tenet, atque ita fatur:

Nate dea, si nemo audet se credere pugnae,

quae finis standi? Quo me decet usque teneri?

385Ducere dona iube. Cuncti simul ore fremebant

Dardanidae, reddique viro promissa iubebant.

Hic gravis Entellum dictis castigat Acestes,

proximus ut viridante toro consederat herbae:

Entelle, heroum quondam fortissime frustra,

390tantane tam patiens nullo certamine tolli

dona sines? Ubi nunc nobis deus ille magister

nequiquam memoratus Eryx? Ubi fama per omnem

Trinacriam, et spolia illa tuis pendentia tectis?

Ille sub haec: Non laudis amor, nec gloria cessit

395pulsa metu; sed enim gelidus tardante senecta

sanguis hebet, frigentque effetae in corpore vires.

Si mihi, quae quondam fuerat, quaque improbus iste

exsultat fidens, si nunc foret illa iuventas,

haud equidem pretio inductus pulchroque iuvenco

400venissem, nec dona moror. Sic deinde locutus

in medium geminos immani pondere caestus

proiecit, quibus acer Eryx in proelia suetus

ferre manum, duroque intendere brachia tergo.

Obstipuere animi: tantorum ingentia septem

405terga boum plumbo insuto ferroque rigebant.

Ante omnes stupet ipse Dares, longeque recusat;

magnanimusque Anchisiades et pondus et ipsa

huc illuc vinclorum immensa volumina versat.

Tum senior talis referebat pectore voces:

410Quid, si quis caestus ipsius et Herculis arma

vidisset, tristemque hoc ipso in litore pugnam?

Haec germanus Eryx quondam tuus arma gerebat;—

sanguine cernis adhuc sparsoque infecta cerebro;—

his magnum Alciden contra stetit; his ego suetus,

415dum melior vires sanguis dabat, aemula necdum

temporibus geminis canebat sparsa senectus.

Sed si nostra Dares haec Troius arma recusat,

idque pio sedet Aeneae, probat auctor Acestes,

aequemus pugnas. Erycis tibi terga remitto;

420solve metus; et tu Troianos exue caestus.

Haec fatus, duplicem ex umeris reiecit amictum

et magnos membrorum artus, magna ossa lacertosque

exuit, atque ingens media consistit harena.

362Afterward, once the races were finished and he had awarded the prizes:

"Now, if any man has courage and a ready spirit in his breast,

let him come forward and lift his arms with hands wrapped."

365So he spoke, and set out a double prize for the bout,

for the victor, a bullock dressed with gold and ribbons,

and for the beaten man, as consolation, a sword and splendid helmet.

No pause: Dares, immense in strength, steps forward at once

and holds his head high amid the men's loud murmur;

370he alone had been used to facing Paris in combat,

and he was the man who, by the mound where mighty Hector lies,

struck down Butes, a champion of monstrous body, who claimed

to come from Amycus' Bebrycian stock,

and stretched him dying on the tawny sand.

375Such was Dares when first he raised his proud head for battle,

shows his broad shoulders, and swings one arm, then the other,

thrusting them forward, and beats the air with blows.

An opponent is sought for him; but from so great a company no one

dares approach the man and draw caestus over his own hands.

380So, eager and thinking that all were yielding him the palm,

he stood before Aeneas' feet; waiting no longer,

he grasped the bull by the horn in his left hand and spoke:

"Son of the goddess, if no one dares entrust himself to the fight,

what limit is there to standing here? How long should I be held back?

385Order me to carry off the prizes." At once all the Dardanians murmured

with one voice, demanding that the promised prizes be handed over to the man.

At this stern Acestes rebuked Entellus with words,

as he sat nearby on a green couch of grass:

"Entellus, once the bravest of heroes—was it all for nothing? Will you calmly

390allow such prizes to be carried off with no contest?

Where now is that god, our master,

Eryx, named by us in vain? Where is your fame throughout all

Trinacria, and those spoils hanging in your house?"

He answered: "My love of praise has not left me; glory has not

395been beaten back by fear. But age has chilled and slowed my blood,

and worn-out strength has gone cold in my body.

If I now had the youth that once was mine, in which that insolent man

exults so confidently—if that youth were mine now,

I certainly would not have come, drawn by the prize and handsome bullock,

400nor do I care for gifts." Then, having spoken so,

he threw into the middle twin caestus of monstrous weight,

with which fierce Eryx used to arm his hands for battle

and brace his arms with tough hide.

Their hearts were stunned: the seven huge hides

405of mighty oxen were stiff with sewn-in lead and iron.

Dares himself was stunned before all the rest, and drew far back;

and great-hearted Anchises' son hefted the weight and turned

the straps' immense coils this way and that.

Then the old man answered from the heart:

410"What if someone had seen the caestus and weapons of Hercules himself,

and the grim fight on this very shore?

These are the weapons your brother Eryx once wore;

you see them still stained with blood and spattered with brain-matter;

with these he stood against great Alcides; with these I used to fight,

415while younger blood gave me strength, before jealous old age had

scattered gray across both my temples.

But if Trojan Dares refuses these weapons of ours,

and if dutiful Aeneas agrees, with Acestes approving as sponsor,

let us equalize the fight. For you I give up Eryx's hides;

420set fear aside; and you too take off the Trojan caestus."

Having said this, he threw the double cloak back from his shoulders

and bared the great frame of his limbs, great bones and arms,

and stood, huge, in the middle of the sand.

424Tum satus Anchisa caestus pater extulit aequos,

425et paribus palmas amborum innexuit armis.

Constitit in digitos extemplo arrectus uterque,

brachiaque ad superas interritus extulit auras.

Abduxere retro longe capita ardua ab ictu,

immiscentque manus manibus, pugnamque lacessunt.

430Ille pedum melior motu, fretusque iuventa;

hic membris et mole valens, sed tarda trementi

genua labant, vastos quatit aeger anhelitus artus.

Multa viri nequiquam inter se volnera iactant,

multa cavo lateri ingeminant, et pectore vastos

435dant sonitus, erratque auris et tempora circum

crebra manus, duro crepitant sub volnere malae.

Stat gravis Entellus nisuque immotus eodem,

corpore tela modo atque oculis vigilantibus exit.

Ille, velut celsam oppugnat qui molibus urbem,

440aut montana sedet circum castella sub armis,

nunc hos, nunc illos aditus, omnemque pererrat

arte locum, et variis adsultibus inritus urguet.

Ostendit dextram insurgens Entellus, et alte

extulit: ille ictum venientem a vertice velox

445praevidit, celerique elapsus corpore cessit.

Entellus vires in ventum effudit, et ultro

ipse gravis graviterque ad terram pondere vasto

concidit, ut quondam cava concidit aut Erymantho,

aut Ida in magna, radicibus eruta pinus.

450Consurgunt studiis Teucri et Trinacria pubes;

it clamor caelo, primusque accurrit Acestes,

aequaevumque ab humo miserans attollit amicum.

At non tardatus casu neque territus heros

acrior ad pugnam redit ac vim suscitat ira.

455Tum pudor incendit vires et conscia virtus,

praecipitemque Daren ardens agit aequore toto,

nunc dextra ingeminans ictus, nunc ille sinistra;

nec mora, nec requies: quam multa grandine nimbi

culminibus crepitant, sic densis ictibus heros

460creber utraque manu pulsat versatque Dareta.

Tum pater Aeneas procedere longius iras

et saevire animis Entellum haud passus acerbis;

sed finem imposuit pugnae, fessumque Dareta

eripuit mulcens dictis, ac talia fatur:

465Infelix, quae tanta animum dementia cepit?

Non vires alias conversaque numina sentis?

Cede deo. Dixitque et proelia voce diremit.

Ast illum fidi aequales, genua aegra trahentem,

iactantemque utroque caput, crassumque cruorem

470ore eiectantem mixtosque in sanguine dentes,

ducunt ad naves; galeamque ensemque vocati

accipiunt; palmam Entello taurumque relinquunt.

Hic victor, superans animis tauroque superbus:

Nate dea, vosque haec inquit cognoscite, Teucri,

475et mihi quae fuerint iuvenali in corpore vires,

et qua servetis revocatum a morte Dareta.

Dixit, et adversi contra stetit ora iuvenci,

qui donum adstabat pugnae, durosque reducta

libravit dextra media inter cornua caestus,

480arduus, effractoque inlisit in ossa cerebro.

sternitur exanimisque tremens procumbit humi bos.

Ille super tales effundit pectore voces:

Hanc tibi, Eryx, meliorem animam pro morte Daretis

persolvo; hic victor caestus artemque repono.

424Then Father Aeneas, Anchises' son, brought out matched caestus,

425and laced both men's palms into equal gear.

At once each man stood on tiptoe, drawn upright,

and fearless lifted his arms toward the high air.

They drew their heads high and far back from the blow,

then closed hand to hand and opened the fight.

430Dares was quicker on his feet, trusting in youth;

Entellus was strong in limb and bulk, but his slow knees,

trembling, gave way, and painful panting shook his huge frame.

The men traded many blows in vain,

and many they drove into hollow flanks; from their chests

435came huge thuds, while rapid fists ranged around

ears and temples; jaws cracked beneath the hard blow.

Heavy Entellus stood, fixed and unmoved in the same stance,

escaping the blows only with his body and watchful eyes.

The other, like a man attacking a high city with siegeworks,

440or surrounding mountain strongholds with troops under arms,

searches now these approaches, now those, and ranges over every place

with craft, pressing in vain with varied assaults.

Entellus rose and showed his right hand, lifting it

high: quick Dares foresaw the blow coming from above

445and slipped aside, giving way with his swift body.

Entellus spent his strength on the wind, and with his own momentum

he himself, heavy and heavily, under his vast weight

crashed to earth, as once on hollow Erymanthus

or on great Ida a pine torn up by the roots falls.

450The Trojans and the Trinacrian youth sprang up in excitement;

a shout went to the sky, and Acestes ran up first,

pitying his friend and age-mate, and lifted him from the ground.

But the hero, neither slowed nor frightened by the fall,

returned fiercer to the fight, and anger roused his force.

455Then shame and confidence in his prowess fired his strength,

and, blazing, he drove Dares headlong across the whole arena,

now doubling blows with his right hand, now with his left;

no delay, no rest: as clouds with heavy hail

rattle on rooftops, so with dense blows the hero,

460rapid with both hands, battered and spun Dares around.

Then father Aeneas did not allow anger to run farther

or Entellus to rage on in his bitter spirit;

but put an end to the fight, and worn-out Dares

he rescued, soothing him with words, and spoke like this:

465"Unhappy man, what madness so great has seized your mind?

Do you not feel another strength, and the gods turned against you?

Yield to the god." He spoke, and with his voice broke off the battle.

But his faithful comrades, as he dragged his weakened knees,

and tossed his head from side to side, while thick blood

470he spewed from his mouth, with teeth mixed in the blood,

led him to the ships; and, summoned, they received the helmet and sword;

they left the palm and the bull to Entellus.

Then the victor, exulting in spirit and proud of the bull:

"Son of the goddess," he said, "and you Trojans, mark this:

475both what strength was once mine in a youthful body,

and from what a death you have called Dares back."

He spoke, and stood facing the head of the young bull,

which stood by as the prize of the fight; drawing back

his right hand, he balanced the hard caestus between the horns,

480towering, and smashed it into the bones, shattering the brain.

The bull was struck down; lifeless and trembling, it fell to the ground.

Over it he poured these words from his chest:

"This nobler life, Eryx, I pay in full to you in place of Dares' death;

here, as victor, I lay down the caestus and the craft."

485Protinus Aeneas celeri certare sagitta

invitat qui forte velint, et praemia ponit,

ingentique manu malum de nave Seresti

erigit, et volucrem traiecto in fune columbam,

quo tendant ferrum, malo suspendit ab alto.

490Convenere viri, deiectamque aerea sortem

accepit galea; et primus clamore secundo

Hyrtacidae ante omnes exit locus Hippocoöntis;

quem modo navali Mnestheus certamine victor

consequitur, viridi Mnestheus evinctus oliva.

495Tertius Eurytion, tuus, o clarissime, frater,

Pandare, qui quondam, iussus confundere foedus,

in medios telum torsisti primus Achivos.

Extremus galeaque ima subsedit Acestes,

ausus et ipse manu iuvenum temptare laborem.

500Tum validis flexos incurvant viribus arcus

pro se quisque viri, et depromunt tela pharetris.

Primaque per caelum, nervo stridente, sagitta

Hyrtacidae iuvenis volucres diverberat auras;

et venit, adversique infigitur arbore mali.

505Intremuit malus, timuitque exterrita pennis

ales, et ingenti sonuerunt omnia plausu.

Post acer Mnestheus adducto constitit arcu,

alta petens, pariterque oculos telumque tetendit.

Ast ipsam miserandus avem contingere ferro

510non valuit: nodos et vincula linea rupit,

quis innexa pedem malo pendebat ab alto:

illa notos atque alta volans in nubila fugit.

Tum rapidus, iamdudum arcu contenta parato

tela tenens, fratrem Eurytion in Pota vocavit,

515iam vacuo laetam caelo speculatus, et alis

plaudentem nigra figit sub nube columbam.

Decidit exanimis, vitamque reliquit in astris

aetheriis, fixamque refert delapsa sagittam.

Amissa solus palma superabat Acestes;

520qui tamen aerias telum contendit in auras,

ostentans artemque pater arcumque sonantem.

Hic oculis subito obicitur magnoque futurum

augurio monstrum; docuit post exitus ingens,

seraque terrifici cecinerunt omina vates.

525Namque volans liquidis in nubibus arsit harundo,

signavitque viam flammis, tenuisque recessit

consumpta in ventos, caelo ceu saepe refixa

transcurrunt crinemque volantia sidera ducunt.

Attonitis haesere animis, superosque precati

530Trinacrii Teucrique viri; nec maximus omen

abnuit Aeneas; sed laetum amplexus Acesten

muneribus cumulat magnis, ac talia fatur:

Sume, pater; nam te voluit rex magnus Olympi

talibus auspiciis exsortem ducere honores.

535Ipsius Anchisae longaevi hoc munus habebis,

cratera impressum signis, quem Thracius olim

Anchisae genitori in magno munere Cisseus

ferre sui dederat monumentum et pignus amoris.

Sic fatus cingit viridanti tempora lauro,

540et primum ante omnes victorem appellat Acesten.

Nec bonus Eurytion praelato invidit honori,

quamvis solus avem caelo deiecit ab alto.

Proximus ingreditur donis, qui vincula rupit;

extremus, volucri qui fixit arundine malum.

485Immediately Aeneas invites any who might wish

to compete with swift arrows, and he sets out the prizes,

and with his mighty hand raises a mast from Serestus' ship,

and, with a cord passed through the fluttering dove,

hangs her from the high mast as the mark for their steel.

490The men assembled, and a bronze helmet received the cast lots;

then first, amid approving shouts,

the lot of Hippocoon, Hyrtacus' son, came out before all;

Mnestheus, just now victor in the ship race,

followed him, Mnestheus wreathed with green olive.

495Third came Eurytion, your brother, most renowned

Pandarus, you who once, ordered to break the truce,

first hurled your shaft into the midst of the Achaeans.

Last, at the bottom of the helmet, Acestes' lot settled,

and he too dared try the young men's task with his hand.

500Then with mighty strength the men bent their arched bows,

each for himself, and drew arrows from their quivers.

The first arrow through the sky, with bowstring whistling,

the young Hyrtacid's, lashed the winged air;

it flew on and fixed itself in the wood of the facing mast.

505The mast shuddered; frightened, the bird thrashed her wings,

and everything rang with mighty applause.

After him keen Mnestheus took his stand with bow drawn,

aiming high, and trained eyes and shaft together.

But poor Mnestheus could not touch the bird herself

510with the iron; he broke the knots and linen tethers

by which she hung from the high mast, tied by the foot:

she flew away on the winds and into the high clouds.

Then swift Eurytion, long poised with a shaft

drawn on his ready bow, called on his brother in prayer,

515having now sighted the dove rejoicing in the open sky

and beating her wings; he pierced her beneath a black cloud.

Lifeless she fell, and left her life among the stars

of the upper air, and dropping brought back the arrow fixed in her.

With victory already out of reach, Acestes alone remained,

520yet he aimed his shaft into the upper air,

the elder displaying his skill and the twanging bow.

Then suddenly a portent met their eyes, destined

to prove a mighty omen; later the great outcome taught its meaning,

and seers sang its dreadful signs when it was too late.

525For the reed, flying among the clear clouds, caught fire,

marked its path with flames, and faded to a thread,

consumed into the winds, as often stars unfastened from the sky

shoot across and, flying, trail their hair.

Stunned at heart, they stood fast and prayed to the gods above,

530Sicilian and Teucrian men; nor did great Aeneas

reject the omen; glad, he embraced Acestes,

heaped him with great gifts, and spoke these words:

"Take this, father; for the great king of Olympus has willed

that you receive honors apart from the lot under such auspices.

535You shall have this gift of aged Anchises himself,

a mixing bowl stamped with figures, which Thracian Cisseus

once gave to my father Anchises as a great present,

to carry as a memorial and pledge of his love."

Having spoken thus, he wreathed Acestes' temples with green laurel,

540and proclaimed Acestes victor before all others.

Nor did good Eurytion envy the honor set ahead of him,

though he alone had struck the bird down from the high sky.

After him, the man who broke the tethers advanced for gifts;

last came the one who fixed the mast with his flying reed.

545At pater Aeneas, nondum certamine misso,

custodem ad sese comitemque impubis Iuli

Epytiden vocat, et fidam sic fatur ad aurem:

Vade age, et Ascanio, si iam puerile paratum

agmen habet secum, cursusque instruxit equorum,

550ducat avo turmas, et sese ostendat in armis,

dic ait. Ipse omnem longo decedere circo

infusum populum, et campos iubet esse patentes.

Incedunt pueri, pariterque ante ora parentum

frenatis lucent in equis, quos omnis euntes

555Trinacriae mirata fremit Troiaeque iuventus.

omnibus in morem tonsa coma pressa corona;

cornea bina ferunt praefixa hastilia ferro;

pars levis umero pharetras; it pectore summo

flexilis obtorti per collum circulus auri.

560Tres equitum numero turmae, ternique vagantur

ductores: pueri bis seni quemque secuti

agmine partito fulgent paribusque magistris.

Una acies iuvenum, ducit quam parvus ovantem

nomen avi referens Priamus,—tua clara, Polite,

565progenies, auctura Italos,—quem Thracius albis

portat equus bicolor maculis, vestigia primi

alba pedis frontemque ostentans arduus albam.

Alter Atys, genus unde Atii duxere Latini,

parvus Atys, pueroque puer dilectus Iulo.

570Extremus, formaque ante omnis pulcher, Iulus

Sidonio est invectus equo, quem candida Dido

esse sui dederat monumentum et pignus amoris.

Cetera Trinacrii pubes senioris Acestae

fertur equis.

575Excipiunt plausu pavidos, gaudentque tuentes

Dardanidae, veterumque adgnoscunt ora parentum.

Postquam omnem laeti consessum oculosque suorum

lustravere in equis, signum clamore paratis

Epytides longe dedit insonuitque flagello.

580Olli discurrere pares, atque agmina terni

diductis solvere choris, rursusque vocati

convertere vias infestaque tela tulere.

Inde alios ineunt cursus aliosque recursus

adversi spatiis, alternosque orbibus orbes

585impediunt, pugnaeque cient simulacra sub armis;

et nunc terga fuga nudant, nunc spicula vertunt

infensi, facta pariter nunc pace feruntur.

Ut quondam Creta fertur Labyrinthus in alta

parietibus textum caecis iter, ancipitemque

590mille viis habuisse dolum, qua signa sequendi

falleret indeprensus et inremeabilis error;

haud alio Teucrum nati vestigia cursu

impediunt texuntque fugas et proelia ludo,

delphinum similes, qui per maria umida nando

595Carpathium Libycumque secant, luduntque per undas.

Hunc morem cursus atque haec certamina primus

Ascanius, Longam muris cum cingeret Albam,

rettulit, et priscos docuit celebrare Latinos,

quo puer ipse modo, secum quo Troïa pubes;

600Albani docuere suos; hinc maxima porro

accepit Roma, et patrium servavit honorem;

Troiaque nunc pueri, Troianum dicitur agmen.

Hac celebrata tenus sancto certamina patri.

545But father Aeneas, the contest not yet dismissed,

summons to himself the guardian and companion of young Iulus,

Epytiades, and speaks this into his trusted ear:

"Go now, and say to Ascanius: if he already has ready

the boys' company with him and has marshaled the horse formations,

550let him lead the squadrons for his grandfather and show himself in arms,"

he says. He himself orders the whole crowd, spread through the long race ground,

to withdraw, and commands the fields to stand open.

The boys advance, and all alike before their parents' eyes

they shine on bridled horses; as they go, the whole youth

555of Trinacria and Troy marvels and roars.

Each has hair trimmed to custom and bound by a wreath;

they carry pairs of cornel shafts tipped with iron;

some carry light quivers at the shoulder; across each upper chest

curves a pliant torque of twisted gold around the neck.

560There are three troops of horsemen in number, and three leaders

range the field: twelve boys follow each one

and gleam in divided formation under matched commanders.

One cheering troop of youths is led by little Priam,

bearing his grandfather's name—your famed offspring, Polites,

565destined to increase the Italians—whom a Thracian horse

carries, two-colored with white spots, showing white marks

of its forefeet, and, high-headed, a white forehead.

The second is Atys, from whom the Latin Atii traced their line,

little Atys, a boy dear to the boy Iulus.

570Last came Iulus, surpassing all in beauty,

riding a Sidonian horse, which fair Dido

had given as a memorial and pledge of her love.

The rest of the company, Sicilian youths of aged Acestes,

are borne on horses.

575The Dardanians receive the anxious boys with applause, and rejoice

as they watch, recognizing their forefathers' faces.

After, mounted and glad, they had made a circuit before

the whole assembly and their kinsmen's eyes, Epytiades

gave the ready boys the signal from afar with a shout and cracked his whip.

580They dashed apart in matched ranks, and in threes

opened their columns into separated bands; called back again,

they reversed their paths and presented hostile weapons.

Then they begin new charges and countercharges,

facing one another across the spaces, and circle with circle

585they interlace in alternation and raise mock battles under arms;

now in flight they bare their backs, now they turn their spearpoints

as attackers, now, peace made, they ride side by side.

As once in high Crete the Labyrinth is said

to have held a path woven through blind walls

590and a maze of a thousand ways, where every sign

for following failed amid inescapable, pathless error;

with no other course the sons of the Teucrians

entangle their tracks and weave flight and battle in play,

like dolphins that, swimming, cleave the Carpathian

595and Libyan seas and play through the waves.

Ascanius first revived this pattern of riding and these contests

when he was walling Alba Longa,

and taught the ancient Latins to celebrate,

the way he had as a boy with the Trojan youth;

600the Albans taught their own; from them mighty Rome

in turn received it and preserved the ancestral honor;

now the boys are called 'Troy,' and the troop 'Trojan.'

Thus far the contests were celebrated for the sacred father.

604Hic primum fortuna fidem mutata novavit.

605Dum variis tumulo referunt sollemnia ludis,

Irim de caelo misit Saturnia Iuno

Iliacam ad classem, ventosque adspirat eunti,

multa movens, necdum antiquum saturata dolorem.

Illa, viam celerans per mille coloribus arcum,

610nulli visa cito decurrit tramite virgo.

Conspicit ingentem concursum, et litora lustrat,

desertosque videt portus classemque relictam.

At procul in sola secretae Troades acta

amissum Anchisen flebant, cunctaeque profundum

615pontum adspectabant flentes. Heu tot vada fessis

et tantum superesse maris! vox omnibus una.

Urbem orant; taedet pelagi perferre laborem.

Ergo inter medias sese haud ignara nocendi

conicit, et faciemque deae vestemque reponit;

620fit Beroë, Tmarii coniunx longaeva Dorycli,

cui genus et quondam nomen natique fuissent;

ac sic Dardanidum mediam se matribus infert:

O miserae, quas non manus inquit Achaïca bello

traxerit ad letum patriae sub moenibus! O gens

625infelix, cui te exitio Fortuna reservat?

Septuma post Troiae exscidium iam vertitur aestas,

cum freta, cum terras omnes, tot inhospita saxa

sideraque emensae ferimur, dum per mare magnum

Italiam sequimur fugientem, et volvimur undis.

630Hic Erycis fines fraterni, atque hospes Acestes:

quis prohibet muros iacere et dare civibus urbem?

O patria et rapti nequiquam ex hoste Penates,

nullane iam Troiae dicentur moenia? Nusquam

Hectoreos amnes, Xanthum et Simoenta, videbo?

635Quin agite et mecum infaustas exurite puppes.

Nam mihi Cassandrae per somnum vatis imago

ardentes dare visa faces: Hic quaerite Troiam;

hic domus est inquit vobis. Iam tempus agi res,

nec tantis mora prodigiis. En quattuor arae

640Neptuno; deus ipse faces animumque ministrat.

Haec memorans, prima infensum vi corripit ignem,

sublataque procul dextra conixa coruscat,

et iacit: arrectae mentes stupefactaque corda

Iliadum. Hic una e multis, quae maxima natu,

645Pyrgo, tot Priami natorum regia nutrix:

Non Beroë vobis, non haec Rhoeteïa, matres,

est Dorycli coniunx; divini signa decoris

ardentesque notate oculos; qui spiritus illi,

qui voltus, vocisque sonus, vel gressus eunti.

650Ipsa egomet dudum Beroen digressa reliqui

aegram, indignantem, tali quod sola careret

munere, nec meritos Anchisae inferet honores.

Haec effata.

At matres primo ancipites oculisque malignis

655ambiguae spectare rates miserum inter amorem

praesentis terrae fatisque vocantia regna,

cum dea se paribus per caelum sustulit alis,

ingentemque fuga secuit sub nubibus arcum.

Tum vero attonitae monstris actaeque furore

660conclamant, rapiuntque focis penetralibus ignem;

pars spoliant aras, frondem ac virgulta facesque

coniciunt. Furit immissis Volcanus habenis

transtra per et remos et pictas abiete puppes.

Nuntius Anchisae ad tumulum cuneosque theatri

665incensas perfert naves Eumelus, et ipsi

respiciunt atram in nimbo volitare favillam.

Primus et Ascanius, cursus ut laetus equestres

ducebat, sic acer equo turbata petivit

castra, nec exanimes possunt retinere magistri.

670Quis furor iste novus? Quo nunc, quo tenditis inquit,

heu, miserae cives? Non hostem inimicaque castra

Argivum, vestras spes uritis. En, ego vester

Ascanius! Galeam ante pedes proiecit inanem,

qua ludo indutus belli simulacra ciebat;

675accelerat simul Aeneas, simul agmina Teucrum.

Ast illae diversa metu per litora passim

diffugiunt, silvasque et sicubi concava furtim

saxa petunt; piget incepti lucisque, suosque

mutatae adgnoscunt, excussaque pectore Iuno est.

680Sed non idcirco flammae atque incendia vires

indomitas posuere; udo sub robore vivit

stuppa vomens tardum fumum, lentusque carinas

est vapor, et toto descendit corpore pestis,

nec vires heroum infusaque flumina prosunt.

685Tum pius Aeneas umeris abscindere vestem,

auxilioque vocare deos, et tendere palmas:

Iuppiter omnipotens, si nondum exosus ad unum

Troianos, si quid pietas antiqua labores

respicit humanos, da flammam evadere classi

690nunc, Pater, et tenues Teucrum res eripe leto.

Vel tu, quod superest infesto fulmine morti,

si mereor, demitte, tuaque hic obrue dextra.

Vix haec ediderat, cum effusis imbribus atra

tempestas sine more furit, tonitruque tremescunt

695ardua terrarum et campi; ruit aethere toto

turbidus imber aqua densisque nigerrimus austris;

implenturque super puppes; semiusta madescunt

robora; restinctus donec vapor omnis, et omnes,

quattuor amissis, servatae a peste carinae.

604Here for the first time Fortune changed and proved false.

605While they were paying solemn honors at the tomb with varied games,

Saturnian Juno sent Iris down from heaven

to the Ilian fleet, and breathed winds behind her as she went,

brooding on much, not yet sated in her ancient grief.

She hurried her path along the bow of a thousand colors;

610unseen by anyone, the maiden ran down her swift track.

She saw the vast gathering and scanned the shores,

and saw the harbors deserted and the fleet abandoned.

But far away, withdrawn on the lonely beach, the Trojan women

were mourning lost Anchises; all of them

615looked out, weeping, over the deep sea. "Alas, for us weary ones,

that so many shoals and so much sea still remain!" This was one voice from all.

They begged for a city; they were sick of enduring the sea's labor.

So Iris, knowing well how to harm, threw herself

into their midst and laid aside the goddess' face and dress;

620she became Beroe, the aged wife of Tmarian Doryclus,

who once had lineage, a name, and children;

and so she slipped among the Dardan mothers:

"Wretched women, whom no Achaean hand," she said,

"dragged to death beneath your homeland's walls in war! O unhappy

625people, for what ruin does Fortune keep you in reserve?

The seventh summer is already turning since Troy's fall,

while, after measuring every strait, every land, so many hostile rocks

and stars, we are driven on, while over the great sea

we chase an Italy that flees and are rolled by the waves.

630Here are the lands of brother Eryx, and Acestes is our host:

who forbids us to lay walls and give our citizens a city?

O fatherland and Penates snatched in vain from the enemy,

will no walls now be called Troy's? Nowhere

shall I see Hector's rivers, Xanthus and Simois?

635Come then, and burn the ill-starred ships with me.

For in sleep the image of Cassandra the prophetess

seemed to hand me blazing torches: 'Seek Troy here;

here is your home,' she said. Now is the time for action;

there must be no delay after such great portents. Look, four altars

640stand to Neptune; the god himself supplies torches and courage."

Saying this, she was first to seize the deadly fire with force,

and, lifting her right hand high, straining, made it flash

and hurled it; the minds of the Trojan women were roused,

their hearts stunned. Then one of the many, eldest in years,

645Pyrgo, royal nurse of so many sons of Priam:

"Mothers, this is not Beroe, not this Rhoetean woman,

Doryclus' wife; mark the signs of divine beauty

and her burning eyes; what spirit is hers,

what a face, what sound of voice, what gait as she walks.

650I myself just now left Beroe as I came away,

sick, indignant that she alone was missing such

a rite and could not bring Anchises his deserved honors."

She spoke these words.

But the mothers at first, wavering and with baleful eyes,

655looked uncertainly at the ships, caught between wretched love

of the land before them and the kingdoms calling by fate,

when the goddess lifted herself on balanced wings through the sky

and in flight cut a vast arc beneath the clouds.

Then truly, stunned by the signs and driven by frenzy,

660they shout and snatch fire from the inner hearths;

some strip the altars; they hurl leaves, brushwood,

and torches. Vulcan rages with his reins let loose

through benches and oars and the painted hulls of fir.

To Anchises' tomb and the theater tiers

665Eumelus brings word that the ships are ablaze; and they themselves

look back and see black ash whirling in a cloud.

Ascanius was first; just as joyfully he had been leading

the mounted courses, so fiercely on horseback he made for the troubled

camp, and his breathless tutors cannot hold him back.

670He said, "What new madness is this? Where now, where are you rushing?

Alas, poor fellow citizens! You are not burning the enemy or hostile camps

of Argives; you are burning your own hopes. Look, I am your

Ascanius!" He threw the empty helmet before their feet,

which he had worn in play as he stirred up the semblance of war;

675at once Aeneas hastens, at once the ranks of the Teucrians.

But the women, scattered in fear, flee everywhere along the shores

and stealthily seek the woods and, wherever they can, hollow

rocks; they are ashamed of their deed and of daylight, and, changed,

recognize their own people; Juno is shaken from their hearts.

680Yet even after that, the flames and fires did not lay down

their untamed force; beneath the wet timber the tow still smolders,

breathing sluggish smoke, while stubborn heat grips the hulls,

and ruin runs down through the whole frame,

nor do the heroes' strength or streams poured over them avail.

685Then dutiful Aeneas tore the garment from his shoulders,

called the gods to aid, and stretched out his palms:

"Almighty Jupiter, if you do not yet hate the Trojans

to the last man, if your ancient faithfulness still regards

human suffering, grant that the fleet escape the flame

690now, Father, and snatch the frail fortunes of the Teucrians from death.

Or else, if I deserve it, send what remains down to death

with your hostile thunderbolt, and bury us here with your own hand."

He had scarcely uttered this, when a black storm

bursts with outpoured rain beyond all measure, and with thunder

695the mountains and plains tremble; from the whole sky

a turbid downpour rushes, black with water and dense south winds;

the ships are filled from above; the half-burned timbers grow wet

until every heat is quenched, and all the hulls,

four lost, are saved from the plague.

700At pater Aeneas, casu concussus acerbo,

nunc huc ingentes, nunc illuc pectore curas

mutabat versans, Siculisne resideret arvis,

oblitus fatorum, Italasne capesseret oras.

Tum senior Nautes, unum Tritonia Pallas

705quem docuit multaque insignem reddidit arte,

haec responsa dabat, vel quae portenderet ira

magna deum, vel quae fatorum posceret ordo;

isque his Aenean solatus vocibus infit:

Nate dea, quo fata trahunt retrahuntque, sequamur;

710quidquid erit, superanda omnis fortuna ferendo est.

Est tibi Dardanius divinae stirpis Acestes:

hunc cape consiliis socium et coniunge volentem;

huic trade, amissis superant qui navibus, et quos

pertaesum magni incepti rerumque tuarum est;

715longaevosque senes ac fessas aequore matres,

et quidquid tecum invalidum metuensque pericli est,

delige, et his habeant terris sine moenia fessi:

urbem appellabunt permisso nomine Acestam.

Talibus incensus dictis senioris amici,

720tum vero in curas animo diducitur omnes.

Et nox atra polum bigis subvecta tenebat:

visa dehinc caelo facies delapsa parentis

Anchisae subito tales effundere voces:

Nate, mihi vita quondam, dum vita manebat,

725care magis, nate, Iliacis exercite fatis,

imperio Iovis huc venio, qui classibus ignem

depulit, et caelo tandem miseratus ab alto est.

Consiliis pare, quae nunc pulcherrima Nautes

dat senior; lectos iuvenes, fortissima corda,

730defer in Italiam; gens dura atque aspera cultu

debellanda tibi Latio est. Ditis tamen ante

infernas accede domos, et Averna per alta

congressus pete, nate, meos. Non me impia namque

Tartara habent, tristes umbrae, sed amoena piorum

735concilia Elysiumque colo. Huc casta Sibylla

nigrarum multo pecudum te sanguine ducet:

tum genus omne tuum, et quae dentur moenia, disces.

Iamque vale: torquet medios Nox humida cursus,

et me saevus equis Oriens adflavit anhelis.

740Dixerat, et tenuis fugit, ceu fumus, in auras.

Aeneas, Quo deinde ruis, quo proripis? inquit,

Quem fugis, aut quis te nostris complexibus arcet?

Haec memorans cinerem et sopitos suscitat ignes,

Pergameumque Larem et canae penetralia Vestae

745farre pio et plena supplex veneratur acerra.

Extemplo socios primumque arcessit Acesten,

et Iovis imperium et cari praecepta parentis

edocet, et quae nunc animo sententia constet.

Haud mora consiliis, nec iussa recusat Acestes.

750Transcribunt urbi matres, populumque volentem

deponunt, animos nil magnae laudis egentes.

Ipsi transtra novant, flammisque ambesa reponunt

robora navigiis, aptant remosque rudentesque,

exigui numero, sed bello vivida virtus.

755Interea Aeneas urbem designat aratro

sortiturque domos; hoc Ilium et haec loca Troiam

esse iubet. Gaudet regno Troianus Acestes,

indicitque forum et patribus dat iura vocatis.

Tum vicina astris, Erycino in vertice sedes

760fundatur Veneri Idaliae, tumuloque sacerdos

ac lucus late sacer additur Anchiseo.

Iamque dies epulata novem gens omnis, et aris

factus honos: placidi straverunt aequora venti,

creber et adspirans rursus vocat Auster in altum.

765Exoritur procurva ingens per litora fletus;

complexi inter se noctemque diemque morantur.

Ipsae iam matres, ipsi, quibus aspera quondam

visa maris facies et non tolerabile nomen,

ire volunt, omnemque fugae perferre laborem.

770Quos bonus Aeneas dictis solatur amicis,

et consanguineo lacrimans commendat Acestae.

Tris Eryci vitulos et Tempestatibus agnam

caedere deinde iubet, solvique ex ordine funem.

Ipse, caput tonsae foliis evinctus olivae,

775stans procul in prora pateram tenet, extaque salsos

proiicit in fluctus ac vina liquentia fundit.

Prosequitur surgens a puppi ventus euntes.

Certatim socii feriunt mare et aequora verrunt.

700But father Aeneas, shaken by the bitter disaster,

kept turning great cares in his breast, now this way,

now that, weighing whether he should settle in Sicilian fields,

forgetful of the fates, or make for Italian shores.

Then aged Nautes, whom alone Tritonian Pallas

705had taught and made renowned for wide-ranging skill,

would explain what the great anger

of the gods portended, or what the ordered course of fate required;

and he began, comforting Aeneas with these words:

"Son of the goddess, wherever the fates draw us on and draw us back, let us follow;

710whatever comes, every turn of Fortune must be mastered by endurance.

You have Dardan Acestes, born of divine stock:

take him as partner in your plans and join him to you, willing as he is;

to him entrust those who remain after the ships have been lost, and those

who are weary of the great undertaking and of your fortunes;

715the old men of great age, the mothers worn out by the sea,

and all in your company that is weak and afraid of danger;

choose them out, and let the weary have walls in this land:

with your leave they shall call the city Acesta."

Kindled by such words from his aged friend,

720then more than ever his mind was drawn apart by every care.

And black Night, borne upward in her two-horse car, held the sky:

then the likeness of his father Anchises, gliding down from heaven,

suddenly seemed to pour out these words:

"Son, once to me, while life remained,

725dearer than life, son, tried by Ilium's fates,

I come here by Jupiter's command; he drove the fire

from the fleet and at last had pity from high heaven.

Obey the excellent counsel aged Nautes now gives;

take chosen young men, the bravest hearts,

730to Italy; in Latium a people hard and rough in their ways

must be subdued by you. Yet first approach

the underworld halls of Dis, and through deep Avernus

come to meet me, son. For impious

Tartarus does not hold me, nor do the sorrowful shades; I dwell among the pleasant

735assemblies of the righteous and in Elysium. Here the chaste Sibyl

will lead you with abundant blood of black victims:

then you will learn all your race, and what walls are granted.

And now farewell: damp Night is wheeling through mid-course,

and cruel Dawn, with panting horses, has breathed upon me."

740He had spoken, and fled, thin as smoke, into the air.

Aeneas said, "Where are you hurrying now? Where do you break away?

Whom do you flee, or who bars you from our embraces?"

Saying this, he wakes the ashes and the sleeping fires,

and, as a suppliant, honors the Pergamean Lar and the inner shrine of ancient Vesta

745with holy meal and a full incense-box.

At once he summons his comrades, and Acestes first,

and explains Jupiter's command and his dear father's instructions,

and what decision now stands firm in his mind.

There is no delay in their plans, and Acestes does not refuse the commands.

750They enroll the mothers for the city and disembark a willing

people, spirits with no longing for great renown.

They themselves repair the benches and replace in the ships

the timbers eaten by flames; they fit oars and rigging,

few in number, but their valor keen for war.

755Meanwhile Aeneas marks out the city with a plow

and allots homes by lot; this he orders to be Ilium, these places

to be Troy. Trojan Acestes rejoices in his kingdom,

proclaims a forum, and gives laws to the summoned fathers.

Then near the stars, on Eryx's summit, a temple

760is founded for Idalian Venus, and to Anchises' mound

a priest and a grove, sacred far and wide, are added.

And now all the people had feasted for nine days, and at the altars

honor had been paid: gentle winds had smoothed the seas,

and a steady, favoring South Wind again called them to the deep.

765A great weeping rises along the bending shores;

embracing one another, they linger through night and day.

Now the mothers themselves, and the men themselves to whom once

the sea's rough face and its very name had seemed unbearable,

want to go and endure every hardship of exile.

770Good Aeneas comforts them with friendly words,

and, weeping, entrusts them to his kinsman Acestes.

Then he orders three calves slain for Eryx and a lamb

for the Storms, and the cable loosed in due order.

He himself, his head wreathed with leaves of trimmed olive,

775stands apart at the prow holding the libation bowl, and the entrails

he casts into the salt waves and pours clear wine.

A wind rising from astern escorts them as they go.

The comrades vie to strike the sea and sweep the waters.

779At Venus interea Neptunum exercita curis

780adloquitur, talesque effundit pectore questus:

Iunonis gravis ira nec exsaturabile pectus

cogunt me, Neptune, preces descendere in omnes;

quam nec longa dies, pietas nec mitigat ulla,

nec Iovis imperio fatisque infracta quiescit.

785Non media de gente Phrygum exedisse nefandis

urbem odiis satis est, nec poenam traxe per omnem:

reliquias Troiae, cineres atque ossa peremptae

insequitur: causas tanti sciat illa furoris.

Ipse mihi nuper Libycis tu testis in undis

790quam molem subito excierit: maria omnia caelo

miscuit, Aeoliis nequiquam freta procellis,

in regnis hoc ausa tuis.

Per scelus ecce etiam Troianis matribus actis

exussit foede puppes, et classe subegit

795amissa socios ignotae linquere terrae.

Quod superest, oro, liceat dare tuta per undas

vela tibi, liceat Laurentem attingere Thybrim:

si concessa peto, si dant ea moenia Parcae.

Tum Saturnius haec domitor maris edidit alti:

800Fas omne est, Cytherea, meis te fidere regnis,

unde genus ducis: merui quoque; saepe furores

compressi, et rabiem tantam caelique marisque.

Nec minor in terris, Xanthum Simoëntaque testor,

Aeneae mihi cura tui. Cum Troia Achilles

805exanimata sequens impingeret agmina muris,

milia multa daret leto, gemerentque repleti

amnes, nec reperire viam atque evolvere posset

in mare se Xanthus, Pelidae tunc ego forti

congressum Aenean nec dis nec viribus aequis

810nube cava rapui, cuperem cum vertere ab imo

structa meis manibus periurae moenia Troiae.

Nunc quoque mens eadem perstat mihi: pelle timores.

Tutus, quos optas, portus accedet Averni.

Unus erit tantum, amissum quem gurgite quaeres;

815unum pro multis dabitur caput.

His ubi laeta deae permulsit pectora dictis,

iungit equos auro genitor, spumantiaque addit

frena feris, manibusque omnes effundit habenas.

Caeruleo per summa levis volat aequora curru;

820subsidunt undae, tumidumque sub axe tonanti

sternitur aequor aquis; fugiunt vasto aethere nimbi.

Tum variae comitum facies, immania cete,

et senior Glauci chorus, Inousque Palaemon,

Tritonesque citi, Phorcique exercitus omnis;

825laeva tenent Thetis, et Melite, Panopeaque virgo,

Nisaee, Spioque, Thaliaque, Cymodoceque.

779But meanwhile Venus, harried by cares, addresses

780Neptune and pours these complaints from her heart:

"Juno's fierce anger and insatiable heart

force me, Neptune, to stoop to every kind of prayer;

no length of days, no devotion softens her,

nor does she rest, unbowed by Jupiter's command and the fates.

785It is not enough that with unspeakable hatred she has devoured

a city from the Phrygian people and dragged it through every punishment:

she still pursues the remnants of fallen Troy, its ashes

and bones. She alone may know the causes of such fury.

You yourself are my witness: just now, on the Libyan waves,

790what vast upheaval she suddenly stirred up: she mixed every sea

with the sky, relying in vain on Aeolian storms,

daring this in your own realms.

Look, she even drove the Trojan mothers into crime,

foully burned the ships and, with the fleet lost,

795forced the Trojans to leave comrades in an unknown land.

For what remains, I beg: let them entrust their sails safely

to you across the waves; let them reach the Laurentian Tiber,

if I ask what has been granted, if the Fates grant those walls."

Then the Saturnian, master of the deep sea, gave this reply:

800"It is wholly right, Cytherea, that you trust my realms,

from which you draw your origin. I have deserved it too:

often I have checked the fury and such madness of sky and sea.

Nor on land has my care for your Aeneas

been less; Xanthus and Simois are my witnesses. When Achilles,

805pursuing Troy's breathless ranks, drove them against the walls,

gave many thousands to death, and the rivers, filled,

groaned, and Xanthus could not find his channel

and pour himself into the sea, then I snatched Aeneas,

who had met the brave son of Peleus with neither gods nor strength equal,

810away in a hollow cloud, though I longed to overturn from the base

the walls of perjured Troy, built by my own hands.

Now too the same purpose remains fixed in me: put away your fears.

Safe, he will reach the harbors of Avernus that you desire.

There will be only one whom, lost in the deep, you will seek;

815one life will be given for many."

When with these words he had soothed and gladdened the goddess's heart,

the Father yokes his horses with gold and fits foaming

bits to the wild team, and from his hands lets all the reins run free.

Light in his sea-blue chariot, he flies over the surface of the waters;

820the waves sink down, and beneath his thundering axle

the swollen sea is spread level; clouds flee through the vast air.

Then come the varied shapes of his companions: huge sea-beasts,

Glaucus' ancient company, Palaemon son of Ino,

swift Tritons, and the whole army of Phorcus;

825on the left hold station Thetis, Melite, and maiden Panopea,

Nisaee, Spio, Thalia, and Cymodoce.

827Hic patris Aeneae suspensam blanda vicissim

gaudia pertemptant mentem: iubet ocius omnes

attolli malos, intendi brachia velis.

830Una omnes fecere pedem pariterque sinistros,

nunc dextros solvere sinus; una ardua torquent

cornua detorquentque; ferunt sua flamina classem.

Princeps ante omnes densum Palinurus agebat

agmen; ad hunc alii cursum contendere iussi.

835Iamque fere mediam caeli Nox humida metam

contigerat; placida laxabant membra quiete

sub remis fusi per dura sedilia nautae:

cum levis aetheriis delapsus Somnus ab astris

aëra dimovit tenebrosum et dispulit umbras,

840te, Palinure, petens, tibi somnia tristia portans

insonti; puppique deus consedit in alta,

Phorbanti similis, funditque has ore loquelas:

Iaside Palinure, ferunt ipsa aequora classem;

aequatae spirant aurae; datur hora quieti.

845Pone caput, fessosque oculos furare labori:

ipse ego paulisper pro te tua munera inibo.

Cui vix attollens Palinurus lumina fatur:

Mene salis placidi voltum fluctusque quietos

ignorare iubes? Mene huic confidere monstro?

850Aenean credam quid enim fallacibus auris

et caelo, totiens deceptus fraude sereni?

Talia dicta dabat, clavumque affixus et haerens

nusquam amittebat, oculosque sub astra tenebat.

Ecce deus ramum Lethaeo rore madentem,

855vique soporatum Stygia, super utraque quassat

tempora, cunctantique natantia lumina solvit.

Vix primos inopina quies laxaverat artus,

et super incumbens cum puppis parte revolsa,

cumque gubernaclo, liquidas proiecit in undas

860praecipitem ac socios nequiquam saepe vocantem;

ipse volans tenues se sustulit ales ad auras.

Currit iter tutum non secius aequore classis,

promissisque patris Neptuni interrita fertur.

Iamque adeo scopulos Sirenum advecta subibat,

865difficiles quondam multorumque ossibus albos,

tum rauca adsiduo longe sale saxa sonabant:

cum pater amisso fluitantem errare magistro

sensit, et ipse ratem nocturnis rexit in undis,

multa gemens, casuque animum concussus amici

870O nimium caelo et pelago confise sereno,

nudus in ignota, Palinure, iacebis harena!

827Then, in turn, gentle gladness steals through father Aeneas'

anxious mind; he orders every mast quickly

raised, the yardarms spread with sails.

830Together every crew set the sheet, and together loosed

the sails now left, now right; as one they swung

the high yardarms to either tack; favoring breezes bore the fleet.

Foremost before them all, Palinurus led the close-packed

column; the others were ordered to match their course to his.

835And now damp Night had almost touched the midpoint

of heaven; in peaceful rest the sailors relaxed their limbs,

sprawled beneath their oars across the hard benches:

when Sleep, gliding lightly down from the stars of heaven,

parted the dark air and drove the shadows aside,

840seeking you, Palinurus, bringing grim dreams to you

though innocent; the god settled on the high stern,

in Phorbas' likeness, and poured these words from his mouth:

"Palinurus, son of Iasus, the seas themselves are carrying the fleet;

the breezes blow steady and even; the hour is given to rest.

845Lay down your head, and steal your weary eyes from toil:

I myself, for a little while, will take up your duties for you."

To him Palinurus, scarcely lifting his eyes, replied:

"Would you have me misread a calm sea's face

and quiet waves? Do you ask me to trust this monster?

850Why should I entrust Aeneas to treacherous winds

and sky, deceived so often by the fraud of fair weather?"

So he spoke, and, fixed to the tiller and clinging there,

he never let it go, and kept his eyes up under the stars.

Look: the god shakes over both his temples a branch wet

855with Lethean dew and drugged with Stygian power,

and, despite his resistance, loosens his swimming eyes.

Unexpected sleep had barely slackened his limbs

when the god, leaning over him from above, with part of the stern torn away

and with the rudder, flung him into the clear waves,

860headlong, calling his comrades again and again in vain;

then, winged, he flew off and rose into the thin air.

Still the fleet runs its safe course over the sea,

borne on unafraid by father Neptune's promises.

And now, carried onward, it was approaching the Sirens' rocks,

865once hard to pass and white with the bones of many,

then the hoarse rocks rang far off with ceaseless surf:

when father Aeneas sensed the ship adrift, wandering without its helmsman,

and took the helm himself through the night waves,

groaning long, his spirit shaken by his friend's fall:

870"O too trusting in clear sky and calm sea,

naked, Palinurus, you will lie on unknown sand!"