Complete Works of Virgil

by Virgil

  Here a new Xanthus and a second Troy

  your labor fashioned and your eyes may see —

  more blest, I trust, less tempting to our foes!

  If e’er on Tiber and its bordering vales

  I safely enter, and these eyes behold

  our destined walls, then in fraternal bond

  let our two nations live, whose mutual boast

  is one Dardanian blood, one common story.

  Epirus with Hesperia shall be

  one Troy in heart and soul. But this remains

  for our sons’ sons the happy task and care.”

  Forth o’er the seas we sped and kept our course

  nigh the Ceraunian headland, where begins

  the short sea-passage unto Italy.

  Soon sank the sun, while down the shadowed hills

  stole deeper gloom; then making shore, we flung

  our bodies on a dry, sea-bordering sand,

  couched on earth’s welcome breast; the oars were ranged

  in order due; the tides of slumber dark

  o’erflowed our lives. But scarce the chariot

  of Night, on wings of swift, obedient Hours,

  had touched the middle sky, when wakeful sprang

  good Palinurus from his pillowed stone:

  with hand at ear he caught each airy gust

  and questioned of the winds; the gliding stars

  he called by name, as onward they advanced

  through the still heaven; Arcturus he beheld,

  the Hyades, rain-bringers, the twin Bears,

  and vast Orion girt in golden arms.

  He blew a trumpet from his ship; our camp

  stirred to the signal for embarking; soon

  we rode the seas once more with swelling sail.

  Scarce had Aurora’s purple from the sky

  warned off the stars, when Iying very low

  along th’ horizon, the dimmed hills we saw

  of Italy; Achates first gave cry

  “Italia!” with answering shouts of joy,

  my comrades’ voices cried, “Italia, hail!”

  Anchises, then, wreathed a great bowl with flowers

  and filled with wine, invoking Heaven to bless,

  and thus he prayed from our ship’s lofty stern:

  “O Iords of land and sea and every storm!

  Breathe favoring breezes for our onward way!”

  Fresh blew the prayed-for winds. A haven fair

  soon widened near us; and its heights were crowned

  by a Greek fane to Pallas. Yet my men

  furled sail and shoreward veered the pointing prow.

  the port receding from the orient wave

  is curved into a bow; on either side

  the jutting headlands toss the salt sea-foam

  and hide the bay itself. Like double wall

  the towered crags send down protecting arms,

  while distant from the shore the temple stands.

  Here on a green sward, the first omen given,

  I saw four horses grazing through the field,

  each white as snow. Father Anchises cried:

  “Is war thy gift, O new and alien land?

  Horses make war; of war these creatures bode.

  Yet oft before the chariot of peace

  their swift hoofs go, and on their necks they bear

  th’ obedient yoke and rein. Therefore a hope

  of peace is also ours.” Then we implored

  Minerva’s mercy, at her sacred shrine,

  the mail-clad goddess who gave welcome there;

  and at an altar, mantling well our brows

  the Phrygian way, as Helenus ordained,

  we paid the honors his chief counsel urged,

  with blameless rite, to Juno, Argive Queen.

  No tarrying now, but after sacrifice

  we twirled the sailyards and shook out all sail,

  leaving the cities of the sons of Greece

  and that distrusted land. Tarentum’s bay

  soon smiled before us, town of Hercules,

  if fame be true; opposing it uptowers

  Lacinia’s headland unto Juno dear,

  the heights of Caulon, and that sailors’ bane,

  ship-shattering Scylaceum. Thence half seen,

  trinacrian Aetna cleaves th’ horizon line;

  we hear from far the crash of shouting seas,

  where lifted billows leap the tide-swept sand.

  Father Anchises cried: “‘T is none but she —

  Charybdis! Helenus this reef foretold,

  and rocks of dreadful name. O, fly, my men!

  Rise like one man with long, strong sweep of oars!”

  Not unobedient they! First Palinure

  veered to the leftward wave the willing keel,

  and sails and oars together leftward strove.

  We shot to skyward on the arching surge,

  then, as she sank, dropped deeper than the grave;

  thrice bellowed the vast cliffs from vaulted wall;

  thrice saw we spouted foam and showers of stars.

  After these things both wind and sun did fail;

  and weary, worn, not witting of our way,

  we drifted shoreward to the Cyclops’ land.

  A spreading bay is there, impregnable

  to all invading storms; and Aetna’s throat

  with roar of frightful ruin thunders nigh.

  Now to the realm of light it lifts a cloud

  of pitch-black, whirling smoke, and fiery dust,

  shooting out globes of flame, with monster tongues

  that lick the stars; now huge crags of itself,

  out of the bowels of the mountain torn,

  its maw disgorges, while the molten rock

  rolls screaming skyward; from the nether deep

  the fathomless abyss makes ebb and flow.

  Enceladus, his body lightning-scarred,

  lies prisoned under all, so runs the tale:

  o’er him gigantic Aetna breathes in fire

  from crack and seam; and if he haply turn

  to change his wearied side, Trinacria’s isle

  trembles and moans, and thick fumes mantle heaven.

  That night in screen and covert of a grove

  we bore the dire convulsion, unaware

  whence the loud horror came. For not a star

  its lamp allowed, nor burned in upper sky

  the constellated fires, but all was gloom,

  and frowning night confined the moon in cloud.

  When from the eastern waves the light of morn

  began to peer, and from the upper sky

  Aurora flamed away the dark and dew,

  out of the forest sprang a startling shape

  of hunger-wasted misery; a man

  in wretched guise, who shoreward came with hands

  outstretched in supplication. We turned back

  and scanned him well. All grime and foulness he,

  with long and tangled beard, his savage garb

  fastened with thorns; but in all else he seemed

  a Greek, and in his country’s league of arms

  sent to the seige of Troy. Then he beheld

  the Dardan habit, and our Trojan steel,

  he somewhat paused, as if in dread dismay

  such sight to see, and falteringly moved;

  but soon with headlong steps he sought the shore,

  ejaculating broken sobs and prayers:

  “By stars above! By gods on high! O, hear!

  By this bright heavenly air we mortals breathe,

  save me, sweet Trojans! Carry me away

  unto what land ye will! I ask no more.

  I came, I know it, in the ships of Greece;

  and I did war, ‘t is true, with Ilium’s gods.

  O, if the crime deserve it, fling my corse

  on yonder waves, and in the boundless brine

  sink me forever! Give me in my death

&nb
sp; the comfort that by human hands I die.”

  He clasped our knees, and writhing on his own

  clung fast. We bid him tell his race and name,

  and by what fate pursued. Anchises gave

  his own right hand in swift and generous aid,

  and by prompt token cheered the exile’s heart,

  who, banishing his fears, poured forth this tale : —

  “My home was Ithaca, and I partook

  the fortunes of Ulysses evil-starred.

  My name is Achemenides, my sire

  was Adamastus, and I sailed for Troy,

  being so poor, — O, that I ne’er had change

  the lot I bore! In yon vast Cyclops’ cave

  my comrades, flying from its gruesome door,

  left me behind, forgotten. ‘T is a house

  of gory feasts of flesh, ‘t is deep and dark,

  and vaulted high. He looms as high as heaven;

  I pray the blessed gods to rid the earth

  of the vile monster! None can look on him,

  none speak with him. He feeds on clotted gore

  of disembowelled men. These very eyes

  saw him seize two of our own company,

  and, as he lolled back in the cave, he clutched

  and dashed them on the stones, fouling the floor

  with torrent of their blood; myself I saw him

  crunch with his teeth the dripping, bloody limbs

  still hot and pulsing on his hungry jaw.

  But not without reward! For such a sight

  Ulysses would not brook, and Ithaca

  forgot not in such strait the name he bore.

  For soon as, gorged with feasting and o’ercome

  with drunken slumber, the foul giant lay

  sprawled through the cave, his head dropped helpless down,

  disgorging as he slept thick drool of gore

  and gobbets drenched with bloody wine; then we,

  calling on Heaven and taking place by lot,

  drew round him like one man, and with a beam

  sharpened at end bored out that monster eye,

  which, huge and sole, lay under the grim brow,

  round as an Argive shield or Phoebus’ star.

  Thus took we joyful vengeance for the shades

  of our lost mates. But, O ill-fated men!

  Fly, I implore, and cut the cables free

  along the beach! For in the land abide,

  like Polyphemus, who in hollow cave

  kept fleecy sheep, and milked his fruitful ewes,

  a hundred other, huge as he, who rove

  wide o’er this winding shore and mountains fair:

  Cyclops accursed, bestial! Thrice the moon

  has filled her horns with light, while here I dwell

  in lonely woods and lairs of creatures wild;

  or from tall cliffs out-peering I discern

  the Cyclops, and shrink shuddering from the sound

  of their vast step and cry. My sorry fare

  is berries and hard corners dropped from trees,

  or herb-roots torn out from the niggard ground.

  Though watching the whole sea, only today

  Have I had sight of ships. To you I fled.

  Whate’er ye be, it was my only prayer

  to ‘scape that monster brood. I ask no more.

  O, set me free by any death ye will!”

  He scarce had said, when moving o’er the crest

  of a high hill a giant shape we saw:

  that shepherd Polyphemus, with his flocks

  down-wending to the well-known water-side;

  huge, shapeless, horrible, with blinded eye,

  bearing a lopped pine for a staff, he made

  his footing sure, while the white, fleecy sheep,

  sole pleasure now, and solace of his woes,

  ran huddling at his side.

  Soon to the vast flood of the level brine

  he came, and washed the flowing gore away

  from that out-hollowed eye; he gnashed his teeth,

  groaning, and deep into the watery way

  stalked on, his tall bulk wet by scarce a wave.

  We fled in haste, though far, and with us bore

  the truthful suppliant; cut silently

  the anchor-ropes, and, bending to the oar,

  swept on with eager strokes clean out to sea.

  Aware he was, and toward our loud halloo

  whirled sudden round; but when no power had he

  to seize or harm, nor could his fierce pursuit

  o’ertake the Ionian surges as they rolled,

  he raised a cry incredible; the sea

  with all its billows trembled; the wide shore

  of Italy from glens and gorges moaned,

  and Aetna roared from every vaulted cave.

  Then rallied from the grove-clad, Iofty isle

  the Cyclops’ clan, and lined the beach and bay.

  We saw each lonely eyeball glare in vain,

  as side by side those brothers Aetna-born

  stood towering high, a conclave dark and dire:

  as when, far up some mountain’s famous crest,

  wind-fronting oaks or cone-clad cypresses

  have made assembling in the solemn hills,

  Jove’s giant wood or Dian’s sacred grove.

  We, terror-struck, would fly we knew not where,

  with loosened sheet and canvas swelling strong

  before a welcome wind; but Helenus

  bade us both Scylla and Charybdis fear,

  where ‘twixt the twain death straitly hems the way;

  and so the counsel was to veer our bark

  the course it came. But lo! a northern gale

  burst o’er us from Pelorus’ narrowed side,

  and on we rode far past Pantagia’s bay

  of unhewn rock, and past the haven strong

  of Megara, and Thapsus Iying low.

  Such were the names retold, and such the shores

  shown us by Achemenides, whose fate

  made him familiar there, for he had sailed

  with evil-starred Ulysses o’er that sea.

  Off the Sicilian shore an island lies,

  wave-washed Plemmyrium, called in olden days

  Ortygia; here Alpheus, river-god,

  from Elis flowed by secret sluice, they say,

  beneath the sea, and mingles at thy mouth,

  fair Arethusa! with Sicilian waves.

  Our voices hailed the great gods of the land

  with reverent prayer; then skirted we the shore,

  where smooth Helorus floods the fruitful plain.

  Under Pachynus’ beetling precipice

  we kept our course; then Camarina rose

  in distant view, firm-seated evermore

  by Fate’s decree; and that far-spreading vale

  of Gela, with the name of power it takes

  from its wide river; and, uptowering far,

  the ramparts of proud Acragas appeared,

  where fiery steeds were bred in days of old.

  Borne by the winds, along thy coast I fled,

  Selinus, green with palm! and past the shore

  of Lilybaeum with its treacherous reef;

  till at the last the port of Drepanum

  received me to its melancholy strand.

  Here, woe is me I outworn by stormful seas,

  my sire, sole comfort of my grievous doom,

  Anchises ceased to be. O best of sires!

  Here didst thou leave me in the weary way;

  through all our perils — O the bitter loss! —

  borne safely, but in vain. King Helenus,

  whose prophet-tongue of dark events foretold,

  spoke not this woe; nor did Celeno’s curse

  of this forebode. Such my last loss and pain;

  such, of my weary way, the destined goal.

  From thence departing, the divine behest

  impelled m
e to thy shores, O listening queen!

  Such was, while all gave ear, the tale sublime

  father Aeneas, none but he, set forth

  of wanderings and of dark decrees divine:

  silent at last, he ceased, and took repose.

  BOOK IV

  Now felt the Queen the sharp, slow-gathering pangs

  of love; and out of every pulsing vein

  nourished the wound and fed its viewless fire.

  Her hero’s virtues and his lordly line

  keep calling to her soul; his words, his glance,

  cling to her heart like lingering, barbed steel,

  and rest and peace from her vexed body fly.

  A new day’s dawn with Phoebus’ lamp divine

  lit up all lands, and from the vaulted heaven

  Aurora had dispelled the dark and dew;

  when thus unto the ever-answering heart

  of her dear sister spoke the stricken Queen:

  “Anna, my sister, what disturbing dreams

  perplex me and alarm? What guest is this

  new-welcomed to our house? How proud his mien!

  What dauntless courage and exploits of war!

  Sooth, I receive it for no idle tale

  that of the gods he sprang. ‘T is cowardice

  betrays the base-born soul. Ah me! How fate

  has smitten him with storms! What dire extremes

  of war and horror in his tale he told!

  O, were it not immutably resolved

  in my fixed heart, that to no shape of man

  I would be wed again (since my first love

  left me by death abandoned and betrayed);

  loathed I not so the marriage torch and train,

  I could — who knows? — to this one weakness yield.

  Anna, I hide it not! But since the doom

  of my ill-starred Sichaeus, when our shrines

  were by a brother’s murder dabbled o’er,

  this man alone has moved me; he alone

  has shaken my weak will. I seem to feel

  the motions of love’s lost, familiar fire.

  But may the earth gape open where I tread,

  and may almighty Jove with thunder-scourge

  hurl me to Erebus’ abysmal shade,

  to pallid ghosts and midnight fathomless,

  before, O Chastity! I shall offend

  thy holy power, or cast thy bonds away!

  He who first mingled his dear life with mine

  took with him all my heart. ‘T is his alone —

  o, let it rest beside him in the grave!”

  She spoke: the bursting tears her breast o’erflowed.

  “O dearer to thy sister than her life,”

  Anna replied, “wouldst thou in sorrow’s weed

  waste thy long youth alone, nor ever know

  sweet babes at thine own breast, nor gifts of love?

  Will dust and ashes, or a buried ghost