 Book 4, Part 2 of the Aeneid. Here paused the queen. Unmoved he holds his eyes by Jove's command, nor suffered love to rise though heaving in his heart, and thus at length replies, Fair Queen! You never can enough repeat your boundless favours, or I own my debt, nor can my mind forget Eliza's name, while vital breath inspires this mortal frame. This only let me speak in my defence. I never hoped a secret flight from hence much less pretended to the lawful claim of sacred nuptials or a husband's name, for if indulgent heaven would leave me free and not submit my life to fate's decree, my choice would lead me to the Trojan shore, those relics to review their dust adore, and Priam's ruined palace to restore. But now the Delphian Oracle commands and fate invites me to the Latian lands. That is the promised place to which I steer, and all my vows are terminated there. If you, a Tyrian and a stranger born, with walls and towers a Libyan town adorn, why may not we, like you, a foreign race, like you, seek shelter in a foreign place? As often as the night obscures the skies with humid shades or twinkling stars arise, and Kaisi's angry ghost in dreams appears, chides my delay and fills my soul with fears, and young Ascanius justly may complain, defraud it of his fate and destined reign. Even now the herald of the gods appeared, waking I saw him and his message heard. From Jove he came, commissioned, heavenly bright, with radiant beams and manifest to sight, the sender and the sent I both attest. These walls he entered, and those words expressed, Fair Queen, oppose not what the gods command, forced by my fate I leave your happy land. Thus while he spoke already she began with sparkling eyes to view the guilty man. From head to foot surveyed his personnel, nor longer these outrageous threats forebore. False as thou art, and more than false for sworn, not sprung from noble blood nor goddess born, but hewn from hardened entrails of a rock, and rough hercanean tigers gave thee suck. Why should I fawn? What have I worse to fear? Did he once look or lend a listening ear, sighed when I sobbed or shed one kindly tear? All symptoms of a base ungrateful mind, so foul that which is worst is hard to find. Of man's injustice, why should I complain? The gods and Jove himself behold in vain triumphant treason, yet no thunder flies, nor Juno views my wrongs with equal eyes. Faithless is earth, and faithless are the skies. Justice is fled, and truth is now no more. I saved the shipwrecked exile on my shore, with needful food his hungry Trojans fed. I took the traitor to my throne and bed. Full that I was, it is little to repeat the rest, I stored and rigged his ruined fleet. I rave, I rave. A gods' command he pleads, and makes heaven accessory to his deeds. Now Lycean lots, and now the Deleon gods, now Hermes is employed from Jove's abode to warn him hence, as if the peaceful state of heavenly powers were touched with human fate. But go, thy flight no longer I detain. Go, seek thy promised kingdom through the main. Yet, if the heavens will hear my pious vow, the faithless waves, not half so false as thou, or secret sand shall sepulcus afford to thy proud vessels, and their perjured lord. Then, shout thy call on injured Dido's name. Dido shall come in a black, sulfury flame when death has once dissolved her mortal frame, shall smile to see the traitor vainly weep. Her angry ghost arising from the deep shall haunt thee waking and disturb thy sleep. At least my shade thy punishment shall know, and fame shall spread the pleasing news below. Abruptly here she stops, then turns away her loathing eyes, and shuns the sight of day. Amazed he stood, revolving in his mind what speech to frame, and what excuse to find. Her fearful maids their fainting mistress led, and softly laid her on her ivory bed. But good Aeneas, though he much desired to give that pity which her grief required, though much he mourned and laboured with his love, resolved at length, obeys the will of Jove. Reviews his forces, they with early care unmoor their vessels and for sea prepare. The fleet is soon afloat in all its pride and well-culked galleys in the harbour ride. Then oaks for oars they felled, or as they stood of its green arms to spoil the growing wood studious of flight. The beach is covered oar with Trojan bands that blacken all the shore. On every side a scene descending down thick swarms of soldiers loading from the town. Thus in battalion march embodied ants, fearful of winter and a future once, to invade the corn and to their cells convey the plundered forage of their yellow prey. The sable troops along the narrow tracks scarce bear the weighty birthing on their backs. Some set their shoulders to the ponderous grain, some guard the spoil, some lash the lagging train. All ply their several tasks, and equal toil sustain. What pangs the tender breast of Dido bore, when from the tower she saw the covered shore, and heard the shouts of sailors from afar mixed with the murmurs of the watery war. All powerful love, what changes can thou cause in human hearts subjected to thy laws? Once more her haughty soul the tyrant bends to prayers and mean submission she descends. No female arts or age she left untried, nor councils unexplored before she died. Look Anna, look the Trojans crowd to sea, they spread their canvas and their anchors away. The shouting crew, their ships with garlands bind, invoke the seagods and invite the wind. Could I have thought this threatening blow so near? My tender soul had been forewarned to bear. But do not you my last request, did I, with yon perfidious man your interest try, and bring me news, if I must live or die. You are his favourite, you alone can find the dark recesses of his inmost mind. In all his trusted secrets you have part, and know the soft approaches to his heart. Haste then, and humbly seek my haughty foe. Tell him, I did not with the Grecians go, nor did my fleet against his friends employ, nor swore the ruin of unhappy Troy, nor moved with hands profane his father's dust. Why should he then reject a suit so just? Whom does he shun, and wither would he fly? Can he this last, this only prayer deny? Let him at least his dangerous fright delay, wait better winds, and hope a calmer sea. The nuptials, he disclaims, I urge no more. Let him pursue the promised Latin shore. A short delay is all I ask him now. A pause of grief. An interval from woe. Till my soft soul be tempered to sustain accustomed sorrows and innured to pain. If you in pity grant this one request, my death shall glut the hatred of his breast. This mournful message pious Anna bears, and seconds with her own her sister's tears. But all her arts are still employed in vain. Again she comes, and is refused again. His hardened heart nor prayers nor threatening's move. Fate and the God had stopped his ears to love. As when the winds their airy quarrel tried, jostling from every quarter of the sky, This swear'n that the mountain oak they bend, His bows they shatter, and his branches rend, With leaves and falling mast they spread the ground, The hollow valleys echo to the sound. Unmoved, the royal plant their fury mocks, Or shaken, clings more closely to the rocks. For as he shoots his towering head on high, So deep in earth his fixed foundations lie. No less a storm, the Trojan hero bears. Thick messages and loud complaints he hears, And bandied words still beating on his ears. Size, groans and tears proclaim his inward pains, But the firm purpose of his heart remains. The wretched queen, pursued by cruel fate, Begins at length the light of heaven to hate, And loaths to live. Then dire portents she sees to hasten on the death her soul decrees, Strange to relate. For when, before the shrine, she pours in sacrifice the purple wine, The purple wine is turned to putrid blood, And the white offered milk converts to mud. This dire presage to her alone revealed, From all and even her sister she concealed. A marble temple stood within the grove, Sacred to death and to her murdered love. That honoured chapel she had hung around With snowy fleeces and with garlands crowned. Oft, when she visited this lonely dome, Strange voices issued from her husband's tomb. She thought she heard him summon her away, Invite her to his grave and chide her stay. Hourly toz heard, when with a boding note The solitary screech owl strains her throat, And on a chimney's top or turret's height, With songs obscene disturbs the silence of the night. Besides, old prophecies augment her fears, And sternoneous in her dreams appears Distainful as by day. She seems alone to wander in her sleep Through ways unknown, guideless and dark, Or in a desert plain to seek her subjects And to seek in vain. Like Pentheus, when distracted with his fear, He saw two sons and double thieves appear, Or mad arresties when his mother's ghost Full in his face infernal torch his tossed And shook her snakey locks. He shuns the sight, flies or the stage, Surprised with mortal fright. The furies guard the door and intercept his flight. Now, sinking underneath a load of grief, From death alone she seeks her last relief. The time and means resolved within her breast She to her mournful sister thus addressed, Dissembling hope, her cloudy front she clears And a false vigor in her eyes appears. Rejoice, she said, Instructed from above my lover I shall gain Or lose my love. Nigh rising atlas next to falling sun, Long tracks of Ethiopian climates run. There a messillian priestess I have found Honoured for age, for magic arts renowned. The Hesperian temples her trusted care, Twas she supplied the wakeful dragons fair. She poppy seeds in honey taught to steep, Reclaimed his rage, and soothed him into sleep. She watched the golden fruit. Her charms unbind the chains of love Or fix them on the mind. She stops the torrents, leaves the channel dry, Repels the stars and backwards bears the sky, The yawning earth rebellows to her call, Pale ghosts ascend and mountain ashes fall. Witness ye gods, and thou my better part, How loath I am to try this impious art. Within the secret court with silent care Erect a lofty pile exposed in air, Hang on the topmost part the trojan vest Spoils arms and presents of my faithless guest. Next, under those the bridal bed be placed Where I my ruin in his arms embraced. All relics of the wretch are doomed to fire, For so the priestess and her charms require. Thus far she said, and farther speech for bears. A mortal paleness in her face appears. Yet the mistrustless Anna could not find The secret funeral in these rites designed, Nor thought so dire a rage possessed her mind. Unknowing of a train concealed so well, She feared no worse than when sequels fell, Therefore a bays. The fatal pile they rear within the secret court Exposed in air. The cloven homes and pines are heaped on high And garlands on the hollow spaces lie. Sad cypress, verven, you compose the wreath, And every baleful green denoting death. The queen determined to the fatal deed The spoils and sword he left in order spread, And the man's image on the nuptial bed. And now, the sacred altars placed around, The priestess enters, with her hair unbound, And thrice invokes the powers below the ground Night, Erebus, and Chaos she proclaims, And threefold hecket with her hundred names, And three Diana's. Next she sprinkles round with feigned avernian drops, The hallowed ground. Culls, hoary, simples, found by Phoebe's light, With brazen sickles reaped at noon of night, Then mixes baleful juices in the bowl, And cuts the forad of a newborn foal, Robbing the mother's love. The destined queen observes, Assisting at the right subscene. Elevened cake in her devoted hands she holds, And next the highest altar stands, One tender foot was shod, the other bare, Goet was her gathered gown and loose her hair. Thus dressed she summoned with her dying breath The heavens and planets conscious of her death, And every power, if any rules above, Who minds or who revenges, injured love. It was dead of night, when weary bodies Close their eyes in barmy sleep and soft repose. The winds no longer whisper through the woods, Nor murmuring tides disturb the gentle floods. The stars in silent order moved around, And peace with downy wings was brooding on the ground. The flocks and herds and party-coloured fowl Which haunt the woods or swim the weedy pool, Stretched on the quiet earth securely lay, Forgetting the past labours of the day. All else of nature's common gift partake, Unhappy Dido was alone awake. Nor sleep nor ease the furious queen can find, Sleep fled her eyes as quiet fled her mind, Despair and rage and love divide her heart, Despair and rage had some, but love the greater part. Then thus she said within her secret mind, What shall I do, what sucker can I find? Become a suppliant to Yabba's pride, And take my turn to court and be denied? Shall I with this ungrateful trojan go? Forsake an empire and attend a foe? Himself I refuged, and his train relieved, His true, but am I sure to be received? Can gratitude in trojan souls have place? Leomidon still lives in all his race. Or shall I seek alone the churlish crew, Or with my fleet their flying sails pursue? What force have I but those whom scarce before I drew reluctant from their native shore? Will they again embark at my desire? Once more sustain the seas and quit their second tire? Rather with steel thy guilty breast invade, And take the fortune thou thyself hast made? Your pity, sister, first seduced my mind, Or seconded too well what I designed. These dear-bought pleasures had I never known, Had I continued free and still my own, Avoiding love I had not found despair, But shared with savage beasts the common air, Like them a lonely life I might have led, Not mourned the living, nor disturbed the dead. These thoughts she brooded in her anxious breast. On board the trojan found more easy rest, Resolved to sail, in sleep he passed the night, And ordered all things for his early flight. To whom once more the winged god appears, His former youthful mean and shape he wears, And with this new alarm invades his ears. Sleepst thou, O goddess born, And can't thou drown thy needful cares, So near a hostile town, beset with foes? Nor hearst the western gales invite thy passage And inspire thy sails? She harbours in her heart a furious hate, And thou shalt find the dire effects too late, Fixed on revenge and obstinate to die, Haste swiftly hence whilst thou has power to fly, The sea with ships will soon be covered o'er, And blazing firebrands kindle all the shore, Prevent her rage while night obscures the skies, And sail before the purple mourn arise, Who knows what hazards thy delay may bring, Women's avarious and a changeful thing. Thus Hermes in the dream then took his flight, A loft in air unseen and mixed with night. Twice warned by the celestial messenger, The pious prince arose with hasty fear, Then roused his drowsy train without delay, Haste to your banks, your crooked anchors' way, And spread your flying sails and stand to sea, A god commands, he stood before my sight, And urged us once again to speedy flight. O sacred power, what power so are thou art? To thy blessed orders I resign my heart. Lead thou the way, protect thy Trojan bands, And prosper the design thy will commands. He said, and drawing forth his flaming sword, His thundering arm divides the many twisted cord. An emulating zeal inspires his train, They run, they snatch, they rush into the main. With headlong haste they leave the desert shores And brush the liquid seas with laboring oars. Aurora now had left her saffron bed, And beams of early light the heavens are spread, When from a tower the queen with wakeful eyes Saw day point upward from the rosy skies. She looked to seaward, but the sea was void, And scarce in Ken the sailing ships described, Stung with despite and furious with despair She struck her trembling breast and tore her hair. And shall the ungrateful traitor go, she said, My land forsaken and my love betrayed. Shall we not arm, not rush from every street To follow, sink, and burn his perjured fleet? Haste, haul my galleys out, pursue the foe, Bring flaming brand, set sail, and swiftly row. What have I said? Where am I? Few returns my brain and my distempered bosom burns. Then, when I gave my person and my throne, This hate, this rage had been more timely shown. See now the promised faith, the vaunted name, The pious man who rushing through the flame Preserved his gods, and to the frigid shawl The burden of his feeble father bore. I should have torn him piecemeal, God in floods his scattered limbs all left exposed in woods, Destroyed his friends and son, and from the fire Have set the reeking boy before the sire. Events are doubtful which on battles wait, Yet wears the doubt to souls secure of fate. My Tyrians at their injured queen's command Had tossed their fires amid the Trojan band, At once extinguished all the faithless name, My myself in vengeance of my shame Had fallen upon the pile to mend the funeral flame. Thou, son, who've used at once the world below, Thou, Juno, guardian of the nuptial vow, Thou, Hecate, harken from thy darker bodes, Ye furies, fiends, and violated gods, All powers invoked with Dido's dying breath, Attend her curses, and avenge her death. If so the fates ordain, Jove command, the ungrateful wretch should find The Latin lands, yet let a race untamed And haughty foes his peaceful entrance With dire arms oppose. Oppressed with numbers in the unequal field, His men discouraged and himself expelled, Let him for succour sue from place to place, Torn from his subject and his son's embrace. First let him see his friends in battle slain, And their untimely fate lament in vain, And when at length the cruel war shall cease, On hard conditions may he buy his peace. Nor let them then enjoy supreme command, But fall untimely by some hostile hand, And lie unburied on the barren sand. These are my prayers and this my dying will, And you, my Tyrians, every curse fulfil. Perpetual hate and mortal wars proclaim Against the prince, the people, and the name, These grateful offerings on my grave bestow, Nor league nor love the hostile nations know. Now and from hence in every future age When rage excites your arms and strength Supplies the rage, rise some avenger Of our Libyan blood, with fire and sword Pursue the perjured brood. Our arms, our seas, our shores are posed to theirs, And the same hate descend on all our heirs. This said within her anxious mind She weighs the means of cutting short her odious days. Then to Sikeia's nurse she briefly said, For when she left her country hers was dead. Go, Barkie, call my sister. Let her care the solemn rites of sacrifice prepare, The sheep and all the atoning offerings bring. Sprinkling her body from the crystal spring With living drops, then let her come, And thou with sacred fillets bind thy hoary brow. Thus will I pay my vows to Stygian Jove, And end the cares of my disastrous love, Then cast the trojan image on the fire. And as that burns my passions shall expire. The nurse moves onward, with a vicious care, And all the speed her aged limbs can bear. But furious Dider, with dark thoughts involved, Shook the mighty mischief she resolved, With livid spots distinguished was her face, Red were her rolling eyes and discomposed her pace. Gastly she gazed, with pain she drew her breath, And nature shivered at approaching death. Then swiftly to the fatal place she passed, And mounts the funeral pile with furious haste, Unsheathed the sword the trojan left behind, Not for so dire an enterprise designed. But when she viewed the garments loosely spread, Which once he wore, and saw the conscious bed, She paused, and with a sigh the robes embraced. Then on the couch her trembling body cast, Repressed the ready tears, and spoke her last. Dear pledges of my love, while heaven so pleased, Receive a soul of mortal anguish eased. My fatal course is finished, and I go, A glorious name among the ghosts below. A lofty city by my hands is raised, Pygmalion punished, and my lord appeased. What could my fortune have afforded more, Had the false trojan never touched my shore? Then kissed the couch, and, Must I die, she said, and unrevenged, Tis doubly to be dead. Yet even this death with pleasure I receive, On any terms, tis better than to live. These flames from far may the false trojan view, These boding omens his base flight pursue. She said, and struck. Deep entered in her side the piercing steel, With reeking purple dyed. Clogged in the wound the cruel weapon stands. The spouting blood came streaming on her hands. Her sad attendance saw the deadly stroke, And with loud cries the sounding palace shook. Distracted from the fatal sight they fled, And through the town the dismal rumour spread. First from the frighted court the yell began, Redoubled thence from house to house it ran, The groans of men with shrieks, laments, And cries of mixing women mount the vaulted skies. Not less the clamour than if ancient tire Or the new carthage set by foes on fire, The rolling ruin with their loved abodes Involved the blazing temples of their gods. Her sister hears, and furious with despair She beats her breast and rends her yellow hair, And calling on Eliza's name aloud Runs breathless to the place and breaks the crowd. Was all that pomp of woe for this prepared? These fires, this funeral pile, these altars reared? Was all this train of plots contrived, said she, All only to deceive unhappy me? Which is the worst? Didst thou in death pretend to scorn thy sister, Or delude thy friend? Thy summoned sister and thy friend had come. One sword had served as both one common tomb. Was I to raise the pile the powers invoke? Not to be present at the fatal stroke. At once thou hast destroyed thyself and me, Thy town, thy senate, and thy colony. Bring water, bathe the wound, while I in death Lay close my lips to hers and catch the flying breath. Dissed she mounts the pile with eager haste, And in her arms the gasping queen embraced. Her temples chafed and her own garments tore To staunch the streaming blood and cleansed the gore. Thrice Dido tried to raise her drooping head, And fainting Thrice fell groveling on the bed. Thrice oped her heavy eyes and sought the light, But having found it, sickened at the sight, And closed her lids at last in endless night. Then Juno, grieving that she should sustain A death so lingering and so full of pain, Sent Iris down to free her from the strife Of laboring nature and dissolve her life. For since she died not doomed by heaven's decree Of her own crime, but human casualty And rage of love that plunged her in despair, The sisters had not cut the topmost hair Which prosopene and they can only know, Nor made her sacred to the shades below. Downward the various goddess took her flight And drew a thousand colours from the light, Then stood above the dying lover's head, And said, I thus devote thee to the dead, This offering to the infernal gods I bear. Thus while she spoke she cut the fatal hair. The struggling soul was loosed, And life dissolved in air. End of book four. Early falls Church, Virginia. The Aeneid by Publius Virgilius Maro, Translated by John Dryden. Book five. Games and a conflagration. Part one. Meantime the Trojan cuts his watery way, Fixed on his voyage through the curling sea. Then, casting back his eyes with dire amaze, Sees on the Punic shore the mounting blaze. The cause unknown, yet his presaging mind, The fate of Dido from the fire divine. He knew the stormy souls of womankind, What secret springs their eager passions move, How capable of death for injured love. Dire auguries from thence the Trojans draw, Till neither fires nor shining shores they saw. Now seas and skies their prospect only bound, An empty space above a floating field around. But soon the heavens with shadows were all spread, A swelling cloud hung hovering o'er their head. Livid it looked, the threatening of a storm, Then night and horror, oceans faced deformed. The pilot, Palanuras, cried aloud, What gusts of weather from that gathering cloud? My thoughts pre-sage, Air yet the tempest roars, Stand to your tackle, mates, And stretch your oars, Contract your swelling sails and love to win. The frighted crew performed the task assigned, Then to his fearless chief, Not heaven said he, Though Jove himself should promise Italy, Can stem the torrent of this raging sea, Mark how the shifting winds from west arise, And what collected night involves the skies. Nor can our shaken vessels live at sea Much less against the tempest force their way. To his fate diverts a course, And fate we must obey. Not far from hence, if I observed a right, The salving of the stars and polar light, Cecilia lies, Whose hospitable shores in safety We may reach with struggling oars. Aeneas then replied, Too sure, I find, we strive in vain Against the seas and wine. Now, shift your sails. What place can please me more Than what you promise the Sicilian shore, Whose hallowed earth and Kaisi's bone contains, And where a prince of Trojan lineage reigns, The coarsed resolve, before the western wind, They scud amain and make the port a sign. Meanwhile, a cestes from a lofty stand Beheld the fleet descending on the land, And not unmindful of his ancient race, Down from the cliff he ran with eager pace, And held the hero in a strict embrace, Of a rough Libyan bear the spoils he wore In either hand a pointed javelin bore. His mother was a dame of Darden blood, His sire Crenesius, a Sicilian flood. He welcomes his returning friends ashore, With plentyous country-kates and homely store. Now, when the following morn Had chased away the flying stars, And light restored the day, A naus called the Trojan troops around, And thus bespoke them from a rising ground. Hothspring of heaven, divine Dardanian race, The sun revolving through the arterial space, The shining circle of the year has filled, Since first this isle my father's ashes held. And now the rising day renews the year, A day forever sad, forever dear. This would I celebrate with annual games, With gifts on altars piled and holy flames, Though banished to Gatulia's barren sands, Caught on the Grecian seas or hostile lands. But since this happy storm our fleet has driven, Not as I deem, without the will of heaven, Upon these friendly shores and flowery plains, Which hide Anchizes and his blessed remains, Let us with joy perform his honors due, And pray for prosperous winds our voyage to renew, Pray that in towns and temples of our own, The name of great Anchizes may be known, And yearly games may spread the gods' renown. Our sports assesties of the Trojan race, With royal gifts ordained is pleased to grace. Two steers on every ship the king bestows, His gods and ours shall share your equal vows. Besides, if, nine days hence, The rosy morn shall with unclouded light the skies adorn, That day with solemn sports I mean to grace, Light galleys on the seas shall run a watery race, Some shall in swiftness for the gold contend, And others try the twanging bow to bend. The strong with iron gauntlets on shall stand, Opposed in combat on the yellow sand. Let all be present at their games prepared, And joyful victors wait the just reward. But now assist the rites with garland's crown. He said, and first his brows with myrtle-bound, Then helimus by his example led, And all assesties each adorned his head. Thus young Ascanius with a sprightly grace His temples tied in all the Trojan race. Ascanius then advanced amidst the train, By thousands followed through the fruitful plain To great Ankaizi's tomb, which when he found He poured tobaccos on the hallowed ground Two bowls of sparkling wine of milk to more, And two from offered bowls of purple gore, With roses then the sepulcher he strode, And thus his father's ghost he spoke aloud. Hail, O ye holy monas, hail again! Paternal ashes now reviewed in vain. The gods permitted not that you with me Should reach the promised shores of Italy, Or Tybers flood what flood so ere it be. Scarce had he finished when, with speckle-pride, A serpent from the tomb began to glide. His hugey bulk on seven high volumes rolled, Blue was his breath of back but street with gold. Thus, riding on his curls, he seemed to pass A rolling fire along and singe the grass. More various colors through his body run Than iris with a bow and bives the sun. He twix the rising altars and around The sacred monsters shot along the ground With harmless play amidst the bowls he passed And with his lowling tongue assayed the taste. Thus, fed with holy food, the wondrous guest Within the hollow tomb retired to rest. The pious prince, surprised at what he viewed, The funeral honors with more zeal renewed. Doubtful if this the place's genius were Or guardian of his father's supple cur. Two sheep, according to the rites, He slew as many swine and steers of sable hue. New generous wine he from the goblets poured And called his father's ghost from hell restored. The glad attendance in long order come, Offering the gifts at great Ankhaisi's tomb. Some add more oxen, some divide the spoils. Some place the charges on the grassy soil. Some blow the fire, and offered entrails broil. Now came the day desired. The skies were bright with rosy lustre Of the rising light. The bordering people roused by sounding fame Of Trojan feasts and great Assesti's name. The crowded shore with acclamations fill Part to behold and part to prove their skill. And first the gifts in public view they place Green laurel wreaths and palm, the victor's grace. Within the circle arms and tripods lie Ingotts of gold and silver heaped on high And vests embroidered of the Tyrian dye. The trumpets clangor then the feast proclaims And all prepare for their appointed games. Four galleys first with equal rowers bare Advancing in the watery lists appear. The speedy dolphin that outstrips The wind-born and nestless author Of the Mamean kind. Gaius the Vaskimera's bulk commands Which rising like a towering city stands. Three Trojans tug at every laboring oar. Three banks in three degrees the sailors bore Beneath their sturdy strokes the billows roar. Sir Jestus who began the Sergian race In the great centaur took the leading place. Cloanthus on the sea-green silla stood From whom Cloentheus draws his Trojan blood. Far in the sea against the foaming shore There stands a rock the raging billows roar Above his head in storms, but when tis clear Uncurl their riggy backs and at his foot appear. In peace below the gentle waters run The Comorants above lie basking in the sun. On this the hero fixed an oak in sight. The mark to guide the mariners aright. To bear with this the seamen stretch their oars Then round the rock they steer And seek the former shore. The lots decide their place. Above the rest each leader shining in his Tyrian vest. The common crew with wreaths of poplar brows Their temples crown and shade their sweaty brows. Be smeared with oil their naked shoulders shine. All take their seats and wait the sounding sigh. They grip their oars and every panting breast Is raised by turns by hope by turns with fear depressed. The clanger of the trumpet gives the sigh At once they start advancing in a line With shouts the sailors rend the starry skies Lashed with their oars the smoky billows rise. Sparkles the briny mane and the vexed ocean fries. Exact in time with equal strokes they row. At once the brushing oars and brazen prow Dash up the sandy waves and oak the depths below. Not fiery coarsers in a chariot race Invade the field with half so swift a pace. Nor the fierce driver with more fury Lends the sounding lash and ere the stroke descends Low to the wheels his pliant body bends. A partial crowd their hopes and fears divide And aid with eager shouts the favored sigh. Cries murmurs clamors with a mixing sound From woods to woods from hills to hills rebound. Amidst the loud applause of the shore Gaius outstripped the rest and sprung before. Cloanthus, better man, pursued him fast But his oremastered galley checked his haste. The centaur and the dolphin brush the brine With equal oars advancing in a line. And now the mighty centaur seems to lead And now the speedy dolphin gets ahead. Now, board to board the rival vessel's row The billows lave the skies and ocean groans below. They reach the mark. Proud Gaius and his train in triumph Road the victors of the main. But, steering round, he charged his pilot stand More close to shore and skim along the sand. Let others bear to see. Menotes heard, but secret shelves Too cautiously he feared, and fearing sought the deep. And still aloof he steered. With louder cries the captain called again Bear to the rocky shore and shun the main. He spoke, and speaking at his stern He saw the bold Cloanthus near the shelving's drawer. Between the mark and him the Scylla stood. And in a closer compass plowed the flood. He passed the mark, and wheeling got before. Gaius blast-femed the gods, Devotely swore, cried out for anger And his hair he tore. Mindless of others' lives so high Was grown his rising rage and careless of his own The trembling daughter to the deck he drew Then hoisted up and overboard he threw. This done he seized the helm. His fellows cheered, turned short Upon the shelves, and madly steered. Hardly his head the plunging pilot rears, Clogged with his clothes and combered with his ears. Now, at dripping wet, he climbs the cliff with pain. The crowd that saw him fall and float again Shout from the distant shore and loudly laugh To see his heaving breast disgorge the briny draught. The following centaur and the dolphin's crew Their vanished hopes of victory renew. While Gaius lags they kindle in the race To reach the mark, Suggestus takes the place. Menesthes pursues, and while around They whine, comes up, not half his galley's length behind. Then on the deck amidst his baits appeared And thus their drooping courage he cheered. My friends and hectors follow us here to fore. Exert your vigor, tug the laboring oar. Stretch to your strokes my still unconquered crew Whom from the flaming walls of Troy I drew. In this, our common interest, let me find That strength of hand, that courage of the mind As when you stem the strong Malayan flood And o'er the serity's broken billows rolled. I seek not now the foremost palm to gain, Though yet, but are that haughty wish's vain. Let those enjoy it whom the gods ordain. But to be last, the lags of all the race Redeem yourselves and me from that disgrace. Now, one and all, they lug a mane. They row at the full stretch And shake the brazen prow. The sea beneath them sinks, Their laboring sides are swelled And sweat runs guttering down in tides. Chance aids their daring with unholy success. Suggestus, eager with his beak to press, Betwixt the rival galley and the rock Shuts up the unwieldy centaur in the lock. The vessel struck and with the dreadful shock Her oars she shivered and her head she broke. The trembling rowers from their banks arise And anxious for themselves renounce the prize. With iron poles they heaver off the shores And gather from the sea their floating oars. The crew of Manestus with elated minds Urge their success and call the willing wines. Then ply their oars and cut their liquid way In large compass on the roomy sea As when the dove, her rocky hole for sakes, We roused in a fright her sounding rings, she sakes. The cavern rings with clattering, Out she flies and leaves her callow care And cleaves the skies. At first she flutters, but at length she springs To smooth the flight and shoots upon her wings. So Manestus in the dolphin cuts the sea And flying with a force that force Manestus assists his way. Suggestus in the centaurs soon he passed, Wedged in the rocky shoals and sticking fast. In vain the victor he with cries implores And practices to row with shattered oars. Then Manestus bears with Gaius and out flies. The ship without a pilot yields the prize. Unvanquicilla now alone remains. Her he pursues and all his vigor strain. Shouts from the favoring multitude arise. Applauding echo to the shouts replies. Shouts wishes and applause run Rattling through the skies. These clamors with disdain the silla heard Much grudge the praise, but more the robbed reward. Resolved to hold their own They mend their pace all obstinate to die Or gain the race. Raised with success the dolphin swiftly ran For they can conquer who believe they can. Both urge their oars and fortune both supplies And both perhaps had shared an equal prize When to the seas clohanthus holds his hands And succour from the watery powers demand. Gods of the liquid realms on which I row If, given by you, the laurel bind my brow Assist to make me guilty of my vow. A snow-white bull shall on your shore be slain His offered entrails cast into the mane And ruddy wine from golden goblets Throne your grateful gift and my return shall own. The choir of nymphs and focus from below With virgin Panopia heard this vow. An old portunus with his breath of hand Pushed on and sped the galley to the land Swift as a shaft, o winged wing she flies And darting to the port obtains the prize. The herald summons all and then proclaims Clohanthus, conqueror of the naval games. The prince with laurel crowns the victor's head And three fat steers are to his vessel led The ship's reward with generous wine Beside and sums of silver which the crew divide The leaders are distinguished from the rest The victor honored with a noble vest Where gold and purple strive in equal rows And needlework its happy cost bestows. There Ganymede is wrought with living art Chasing through Ida's groves the trembling heart. Breathless he seems yet eager to pursue When from aloft descends in open view The bird of Jove and sowsing on his prey With crooked talons bears the boys away. In vain with lifted hands and gazing eyes His guards behold him soaring through the skies And dogs pursue his flight with imitated cry. Menesthes the second victor was declared And summoned there the second prize he shared. A coat of mail which brave Demolius bore More brave Aeneas from his shoulders tore In single combat on the Trojan shore. This was ordained for Menesthes to possess In war for his defense, for ornament in peace. Rich was the gift and glorious to behold But yet so ponderous with its plates of gold That scarce to servants could the weight sustain Yet loaded thus Demolius or the plain pursued And lightly seized the Trojan train. The third succeeding to the last reward Two goodly bowls of massy silver sheared With figures prominent and richly wrought And two brass cauldrons from Dodona brought. Thus all rewarded by the hero's hands Their conquering temples bound with purple bands. And now Sir Jestus clearing from the rock Brought back his galley shattered with the shot. Forlorn she looked without an aiding oar And hooted by the vulgar made to shore. As when a snake surprised upon the road Is crushed upon her body by the load Of heavy wheels or with a mortal wound Her belly bruised and trodden to the ground In vain with loose and curled she crawls along Yet fierce above she brandishes her tongue Glares with her eyes and bristles with her scales But, groveling in the dust, her parts unsound She trailed so slowly to the port The centawe stands. But what she wants in oars with sails Amends. Yet for his galley saved the grateful prince Is pleased the unhappy chief to recompense. Flolo the Cretan slave rewards his care Beauty as his self with lovely twins as fair. From thence his way the Trojan hero Bent into the neighbouring plain with mountains pent Whose sides were shaded with surrounding wood. Full in the midst of this fair valley stood A native theatre which rising slow by just Degrees or looked the ground below. I, on a sylvan throne, the leader, Sate, a numerous train attend in solemn state. Here those that in the rapid course Delight, desire of honour and the prize Invite. The rival runners without order stand The Trojans mixed with the Sicilian band. First Nisus with Uralus appears Uralus a boy of blooming years With sprightly grace an equal beauty crown Nisus, for friendship to the youth renown Dior is next of Priam's royal race Then Sallias joined with Patron took their place But Patron in Arcadia had his birth And Sallias is from Arcananian earth When two Sicilian youths, the names of those Swift Hellimus and lovely Panopas Both Jolly Huntsman both in forest bread And owning all Assestes for the head And several others of ignobler name Whom time has not delivered or to faith. To these the hero thus his thoughts explained In words with general approbation gained. One common largesse is for all designed The vanquished and the victor shall be joined Two darts of polished steel and Ganossian wood, a silver studded axe A light bestowed. The foremost three have olive wreaths Decreed. The first of these obtains A stately steed adorned with trappings And the next in fame the quiver of An Amazonian dame with feathered Tratian arrows well supplied A golden belt shall gird his manly Side which with a sparkling diamond shall be tied The third, this Grecian helmet shall Content, he said, to their appointed base They went with beating hearts the expected Sign received and starting all at once The barrier leave, spread out as on The winged winds they flew and Seized the distant goal with greedy view Shot from the crowd swift nicest All or past, nor storms nor Thunder equal half his haste The next, but though the next Yet far disjoined came Salleous and Euralius behind Then Hellimus, who young Diorus Plied, step after step And almost side by side His shoulders pressing and In longer space had won Or left at least a dubious race Now spent, the gold they Almost reached at last When Eganesus hapless in his haste Slipped first and slipping fell On the plane, soaked with the blood Of oxen newly slain The careless Victor had not marked his way But treading where the treacherous puddle lay His heels flew up and on the grassy floor He fell besmeared with filth and holy gold Not mindless then, Euralius of thee Nor of the sacred bonds of amity He strove the immediate rival's hope to cross And caught the foot of Salleous as he rolled So Salleous lay extended on the plane Euralus springs out the prize to gain And leaves the crowd Applauding peels attend the Victor to his goal Who vanquished by his friend Next Hellimus, then Diorus came By two misfortunes made the third In fame But Salleous enters and exclaiming loud For justice deafens and disturbs the crowd Urges his cause may in the court be heard And pleads the prize is wrongfully conferred But favour for Euralius appears His blooming beauty with his tender years Had bribed the judges for the promised prize Besides Diorus fills the court with cries Who vainly reaches at the last reward If the first palm on Salleous be conferred Then thus the Prince, let no disputes arise Where fortune placed it, I award the prize But fortune's errors give me leave to mend At least to pity my deserving friend He said, and from among the spoils he draws Pondrous with shaggy mane and golden paws A lion's hide to Salleous this he gives Nesis with envy sees the gift and grieves If such rewards to vanquished men are due He said, and falling is to rise by you What prize may Nesis from your bounty claim Who merited first rewards and fame In falling both an equal fortune tried Would fortune for my fall so well provide With this he pointed to his face and showed His hand and all his habits smeared with blood The indulgent father of the people Smiled and caused to be produced An ample shield of wondrous art But did he may unwrote long since From Neptune's bars in triumph brought This, given to Nesis, he divides the rest An equal justice in his gifts expressed The race thus ended and rewards bestowed Once more the prince bespeaks the attentive crowd If there be here whose dauntless courage dare In gauntlet fight with limbs and body bear His opposite sustain an open view Stand forth the champion and the game's renew Two prizes I propose and thus divide Full with gilded horns and fillets tied Shall be the portion of the conquering chief A sword and helm shall cheer the loser's grief Then haughty Dara's in the lists appears Stalking his strides, his head erected bears His nervous arms the weighty gauntlet wield And loud applause his echo through the field Dara's alone in combat used to stand The match of mighty Paris hand to hand The same at Hector's funerals undertook Gigantic boutes of the Ametian stock And by the stroke of his resistless hand Stretch the vast bulk upon the yellow sand Such Dara's was and such he strode along And drew the wonder of the gazing throne His brawny back and ample breast he shows His lifted arms around his heady throes And deals in whistling air his empty blows His match is sought but through the trembling band Not one dares answer to the proud demand Presuming of his force with sparkling eyes Already he devours the promise prize He claims the ball with allless insolence And having seized his horns accosts the prince If none my matchless vala dares oppose How long shall Dara's weight his dastard foes? Permit me, chief, permit without delay To lead this uncontested gift away The crowd ascents and with redoubled cries For the proud challenger demands the prize End of book five, part one Book five, part two of the Aeneid This is a LibriVox recording All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer Please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Joseph Early, Falls Church, Virginia The Aeneid by Publius Virgilius Maro Translated by John Dryden Book five, Games and a Conflagration Part two, Assestes fired with justice stain To see the palm usurped without a victory Approached and tell us thus, whose sight beside And heard and saw unmoved the Trojan's pride Once but in vain a champion of renown So tamely can you bear the ravished crown A prize in triumph born before your sight And shun for fear the danger of the fight Where is our Erics now, the boasted name The God who taught your thundering arm the game Where now your baffled honor Where the spoil that filled your house And fame that filled our isle And tell us thus, my soul is still the same Unmoved with fear and moved with martial fame But my chill blood is curdled in my veins And scarce the shadow of a man remains Oh, could I turn to that fair prime again That prime of which this boaster is so vain The brave who this decrepit age defies Should feel my force without the promised prize He said, and rising at the word He threw two ponderous gauntlets down in open view Gauntlets which Erics want in fight to wield And sheed his hand with in the listed field With fear and wonder seized the crowd beholds The gloves of death with seven distinguished folds Of tough bull hides, the space within is spread With iron or with loads of heavy lead Dara's himself was daunted at the sight Renounced his challenge and refused to fight Astonished at their weight the hero stands And poise the ponderous engines in his hands What had your wonder said and tell us Bean had you the gauntlets of Alcides seen Or viewed the stern debate on this unhappy green These which I bear your brother Erics' gaw Still marked with battered brains and wringled gaw With these he longed sustained the herculean arm And these I wielded while my blood was warm This languaged frame while better spirits fed Air age unstrung my nerves or time or snowed my head But if the challenger these arms refuse And cannot wield their weight or dare not use If great Honeis and Assesti's join in his request These gauntlets I resign Let us with equal arms perform the fight And let him leave to fear since I resign my right This said and tell us for the strife prepares Stripped of his quilted coat his body bears Composed of mighty bones and brawn he stands A goodly towering object on the sands Then just an aeus equal arms supplied Which round their shoulders to their wrists they tied Both on the tiptoe stand at full extent Their arms aloft, their bodies inly bent Their heads from aiming blows they bear afar With clashing gauntlets then provoke the war One on his youth and pliant limbs relies One on his sinews and his giant sighs The last is still with age his motion slow He heaves for breath he staggers to and fro And clouds of issuing smoke his nostrils loudly blow Yet equal in success they ward they strike Their ways are different but their art alike Before behind the blows are dealt Around their hollow sides the rattling thumps resound A storm of strokes well meant with fury flies And urrs about their temples ears and eyes Nor always urrs for off the gauntlet draws A sweeping stroke along the crackling jaws heavy with age And tell us stands his ground But with his warping body wards the wound His hand and watchful eye keep even pace While Dara's traverses and shifts his place And like a captain who beleaguers round Some strong built castle on a rising ground Views all the approaches with observing eyes This and that other part in vain he tries And more an industry than force relies With hands on high and tell us threats the foe But Dara's watched the motion from below And slipped aside and shunned the long descending blow And tell us wastes his forces on the wind And thus deluded of the stroke designed headlong and heavy fell His ample breast and weighty limbs his ancient mother pressed So falls a hollow pine that long had stood on Ida's height For Arrimantas would, torn from the roots The differing nations rise and shouts and mingled murmurs Wren the skies, a cestus runs with eager haste To raise the fallen companion of his youthful days Dauntless he rose and to the fight return With shame his glowing cheeks his eyes with fury burned Distain and conscious virtue fired his breast With redoubled force his foe he pressed He lays on load with either hand domain And headlong drives the Trojan or the plain Nor stops nor stays nor rests nor breath allows But storm of stroke descend about his brows A rattling tempest and a hail of blows But now the prince who saw the wild increase of wounds Commands the combatants to cease And bounds and tell us wrath and bids the peace First to the Trojan spent with toil he came And soothed his sorrow for the suffered shame What fury seized my friend the gods said he To him propitious and averse to thee Have given his arms superior force to thy Just as madness to contend with strength divine The gauntlet fight thus ended from the shore His faithful friend's unhappy daughter's bore His mouth and nostrils poured a purple flood And pounded teeth came rushing with his blood Faintly he staggered through the hissing throng And hung his head and trailed his legs along Lord and cask are carried by his train But with his foe the palm and ox remain The champion then before Aeneas came Proud of his prize but prouder of his fame O goddess born and you, Dardanian host Walk with attention and forgive my boast Learn what I was by what remains And know from what impending fate you saved my foe Sternly he spoke and then confronts the bull And on his ample forehead aiming full The deadly stroke descending pierced the skull Down drops the beast nor needs a second wound But sprawls in pangs of death and spurns the ground Then thus In Dara's stead I offer this Erex, accept a noble sacrifice Take the last gift my weathered arms can yield Thy gauntlets I resign and here renounce the field This done Aeneas orders for the close The strife of archers with contending bows The mast suggestus shattered galley bore With his own hands he raises on the shore A fluttering dove upon the top they tie The living mark at which their arrows fly The rival archers in a line advance Their turn of shooting to receive from chance A helmet holds their names the lots are drawn On the first scroll was read Hippokuan The people shout upon the next was found Young Menestus late with naval honors crown The third contain Eurethians noble name Thy brother Pandaris and next in fame Whom Pallas urged the treaty to confound And send among the gifts a feathered wound Assestes in the bottom last remained Whom not his age from youthful sports Restrain. Soon all with vigor bend their trusty bows And from the quiver each his arrow chose Hippokuans was the first with forceful sway It flew and whizzing cut the liquid way Fixed in the mast the feathered weapon stands The fearful pigeon flutters in her bands And the tree trembled and the shouting cries Of the pleased people rend the vaulted skies Then Menestus to the head his arrow drove With lifted eyes and took his aim above But made a glancing shot and missed the dove Yet missed so narrow that he cut the cord Which fastened by the foot the flitting bird The captive thus released away she flies And beats with clapping wings the yielding skies His bow already bent Eurethians stood And having first invoked his brother God His winged shaft with eager haste he sped The fatal message reached her as she fled She leaves her life aloft She strikes the ground and renders back The weapon in the wound Assestes grudging at his lot remains Without a prize to gratify his pains Yet shooting upward sends his shaft To show an archer's art and boast his twanging bow The feathered arrow gave a dire portent And letter-orgers judged from this event Chafed by the speed it fired And as it flew a trail of following flames Ascending drew kindling they mount And marked the shiny way across the skies As falling meteors play And vanish into wind or in a blazed decay The Trojans and Sicilians wildly stare And trembling turned their wonder into prayer The Darden Prince put on a smiling face And strained assestes with a close embrace Then honoring him with gifts above the rest Turned the bad omen nor his fears confessed The God said he, this miracle have wrought And ordered you the prize without the lot Accept this goblet, rough with figured gold Which Traciancicius gave my sire of old This pledge of ancient amity receive Which to my second sire I justly give He said, and with the trumpet's cheerful sound Proclaimed him victor and with laurel crown Nor good Eurytheon envied him the prize Though he transfixed the pigeon in the sky Who cut the line with second gifts was graced The third was his whose arrow pierced the mast The chief before the games were wholly done Called Parifantes, tutor to his son, and whispered thus With speed Ascanius fined, and if his childish troop Be ready joined, on horseback let him grace His grand size day and lead his equals Armed in just array He said, and calling out the cirque he clears The crowd withdrawn, an open plain appears And now the noble youths of formed divine Advanced before their fathers in a line The riders grace the steeds, the steeds with glory shine Thus marching on in military pride Shouts of applause resound from side to side Their casks adorned with laurel wreaths they wear Each brandishing aloft a cornelled spear Some at their backs their gilded quivers bore Their chains of burnished gold hung down before Three graceful troops they formed upon the green Three graceful leaders at their head were seen Twelve followed every chief and left a space between The first young Priam led, a lovely boy whose Grandsire was the unhappy king of Troy His race in aftertimes was known to fame New honors adding to the Latzian name And well the royal boy his Thracian steed became White with a fatlocks of his feet before And on his front a snowy star he bore Then beautyous Attis, with eulous bread Of equal age the second squadron led The last in order but the first in place First in the lovely features of his face Road fair Ascanius on a fiery steed Queen Dido's gift and of the Tyrian breed Shore courses for the rest the king ordained With golden bits adorned and purple Reigns. The pleased spectators Peels of shouts renew and all the parents In the children view them, mate their motions And their sprightly grace and hopes And fears alternate in their face The unfledged commanders and their Marshal train first make the circuit of the sandy plane Around their sires and at the appointed sign Drawn up in beautyous order form a line The second signal sounds the troop divides In three distinguished parts with three distinguished guides Again they close and once again disjoint In troop to troop opposed and line to line they meet They wheel, they throw their dots afar with The rage and well dissembled war Then in a round the mingled bodies run Flying they follow and pursuing shun Broken they break and rallying they renew In other forms the military shoe At last in order undisturbed they join And march together in a friendly line These in many a winding fold Involved the weary feet without redress In a round error which denied recess So fought the Trojan boys in war-like play Turned and returned and still a different way Thus dolphins in the deep each other chase In circles when they swim around the watery race Tought and building alba to the Latins brought Showed what he learned the Latin sires impart To their succeeding sons the graceful art From these imperial Rome received the game Which Troy the youths the Trojan troop they name Thus far the sacred sports they celebrate But fortune soon resumed her ancient hate May their dead his annual dues Those envied right Saturnian Juno views And sends the goddess of the various bow To try new methods of revenge below Supplies the winds to wing her airy way Where in the port secure the navy lay Swiftly fair Iris down her arch And undersurned her fatal voyage ends She saw the gathering crowd And gliding thence the desert shore And fleet without defense The Trojan matrons on the sands alone With sighs and tears and Kaisi's death Then turning to the sea their weeping eyes And the news they cries Alas said one what oceans yet remain for us To sail what labors to sustain All take the word and with a general groan Employ the gods for peace and places of their own The goddess great in mischief views their pains And in a woman's form her heavenly limbs restrains In face and shape or baroe she becomes Doriclus wife a venerable dame Once blessed with riches and a mother's name Thus changed amidst the crying crowd she ran Mixed with the matrons and these words began O wretched we whom not the Grecian power Nor flames destroyed in Troy's unhappy hour O wretched we reserved by cruel fate Beyond the ruins of the sinking state Now seven revolving years our holy run Since this improsperous voyage we begun Since tossed from shores to shores from lands to lands In hospitable rocks and barren sands Wandering and exiled through the stormy sea In Italy Now cast by fortune on this kindred land What should our rest and rising walls withstand Or hinder here to fix our banished ban O country lost and gods redeemed in vain If still in endless exile we remain Shall we no more the Trojan walls renew Some dissembled simoyous view Hey, join with me, the unhappy flake consume Cassandra bids and I declare her doom In sleep I saw her, she supplied my hands For this I more than dreamt With flaming brands, with these said she These wandering ships destroy Fatal seats, and this your Troy Time calls you now, the precious our employ Slack not the good pre-sage while heaven inspires Our minds to dare and gives the ready fires See, Neptune's altars minister their brands The god is pleased, the god supplies our hands And from the pile of flaming fire she drew And tossed in air amidst the galleys through Wrapped in a maze the matrons wildly stare Then Praigo reverenced for her hoary hair Praigo, the nurse of Priam's numerous race No better way this, though she belies her face What terrors from her frowning front arise Behold a goddess in her ardent eyes What rays around her heavenly face are seen Mark her majestic voice and more than mortal mean Better away but now I left whom Pined with pain, her age and anguish From these rites detain She said, the matrons seized with new amaze roll Magnet eyes and on the navy gaze They fear and hope and neither part obey They hope the fated land but fear the fatal way The goddess, having done her task below, mounts up on equal wings And bends the painted bowl Struck with the sight and seized with rage divine The matrons prosecute their mad design The hands, the food of altars, fires and flaming Brands, green boughs and saplings mingled In their haste and smoking torches on the ships they cast The flame, unstopped at first More fury gains, and Vulcan rides at lodge With loosened reins, triumphant To the painted sterns he soars and seizes This way the banks and crackling oars U. Mellis was the first the news to bear While yet they crowd the rural theatre Then what they hear is witnessed by their eyes A storm of sparkles and of flames arise Ascanius took the alarm while yet he led His early warriors on his prancing steed Nor could his frighted friends reclaim his haste Soon as the royal youth appeared in view He sent his voice before him as he flew What madness moves you, matrons, to destroy The last remainders of unhappy Troy Not hostile fleets but your own hopes you burn And on your friends your fatal fury turn Ascanius, while he said he drew his glittering helmet From his head in which the youth's two sportful arms He led. By this Aneus and his train appear And now the women seized with shame and fear dispersed To woods and cavern take their flight, abhor Their actions and avoid the light Their friends acknowledge and their error find Not so the raging fires their fury cease But lurking in the seams with seeming peace Work on their way amidst the smoldering toll Sure in destruction but in motion slow The silent plague through the green timber eats And vomits out a tardy flame by fits Down to the keels and upward to the sails The fire descends or mounts but still prevails Nor buckets poured nor strength of human hand Can the victorious element withstand The pious hero rends his robe and throws to heavens His hand and with his friends his vows Oh, Jove, he cried, if prayers can yet have place If thou abhorrest not all the Darden race If any spark of pity still remain If gods are gods and not invoked in vain Yet spare the relics of the Trojan train Yet from the flames our burning vessels free Or let thy fury fall alone on me At this devoted head thy thunder throw And send the willing sacrifice below Scares had he said when southern storms arise From pole to pole the forky lightning flies Loud rattling shakes the mountains and the plain Heaven bellies downward and descends in rain Holds sheets of water from the clouds are sent Which hissing through the planks the flames Prevent and stop the fiery pest Four ships alone burnt to the waste And for the fleet atone But doubtful thoughts the hero's heart divide If he should still in Sicily reside Forgetful of his fates or tempt the main In hope the promised Italy to gain Then Nottes, old and wise to whom alone The will of heaven by palace was foreshown First importance experienced and inspired To tell events and what the fates required Thus while he stood to neither part Clined with cheerful words relieved his laboring mind O goddess born, resigned in every state With patience bare with prudence push your fate By suffering well our fortune we subdue Fly when she frowns and when she calls pursue Your friend Assestes is of Trojan kind To him disclose the secrets of your mind Trust in his hands your old and useless train To numerous for the ships which yet remain The feeble old indulgent of their ease The dames who dread the dangers of the seas With all the dastard crew who dare not stand The shock of battle with your foes by land Here you may build a common town for all And from Assesti's name Assesta call The reasons with his friend's experience joined Encouraged much but more disturbed his mind To his dead of night when to his slumbering eyes His father's shade descended from the skies And thus he spoke, all more than vital breath Loved while I lived and dear even after death O son in various toils and troubles tossed The king of heaven employs my careful ghost On his command, the God who saved from fire Your flaming fleet and heard your just desire The wholesome counsel of your friend receive And hear the coward train and women leave The chosen youth and those who nobly dare Transport to tempt the dangers of the war The stern Italians will their courage try Rough other manners and their minds are high But first to Pluto's palace you shall go And seek my shade among the blessed below For not with impious ghosts my soul remains Nor suffered with the damned perpetual pains But breeze the living air of soft Elysian plains The chaste sabila shall your steps convey And blood of offered victims free the way There shall you know what rounds the God's sign And learn the fates and fortunes of your line But now farewell I vanish with the night And feel the blast of heaven's approaching light He said, and mixed with shades and took his eerie flight Wither so fast the filial duty cried And why, ah, why, the wished embrace denied He said, and rose as holy zeal inspires He rakes hot embers and renews the fires His country gods and vests then adores With cakes and incense and their aid implores Next for his friends and royal host He sent, revealed his vision and the God's intent With his own purpose, all without delay The will of Job and his desires obey They list with women each degenerate name Who dares not hazard life for future fame These they cashier, the brave remaining few Ours, banks, and cables have consumed renew The prince designs a city with the plow The lots their several tenements allow This part is named from Ilium, that from Troy And the new king ascends the throne with joy A chosen senate from the people draws Appoints the judges and ordains the laws Then, on the top of irks they begin A rising temple to the Puffy and Queen And Kaisie's last is honored as a god A priest is added, annual gifts bestowed And groves are planted round his blessed abode Nine days they pass in feasts, their temples crowned And fumes of incense in the faines abound Then from the south arose a gentle breeze That curled the smoothness of the glassy sea The rising winds a ruffling gale afford And call the married mariners aboard Now, loud laments along the shores Resound of parting friends in close embraces bound The trembling women, the degenerate train Who shun the frightful dangers of the main Even those desire to sail and take their share Of the rough passage and the promised war Whom good Aeneas cheers and recommends To their new masters care his fearful friends An erics alters three fat calves he lays A lamb new-fallen to the stormy seas Then slips his horses and his anchors' ways High on the deck the godlike hero Stands with olive crowned a charger in his hands Then casts the reeking entrails in the brine And poured the sacrifice of purple wine Fresh gales arise with equal strokes they vie And brush the buxom seas and o'er the billows fly Meantime the mother goddess, full of fears To Neptune thus addressed with tender tears The pride of Jove's imperious queen And rage the malice which no sufferings can assuage Compel need due to these prayers Since neither fate nor time nor pity Can remove her hate In Jove is thwarted by his haughty wife Still vanquished yet she renews the strife As if to a little to consume the town Which awed the world and wore the imperial crown She prosecutes the ghost of Troy with pains and gnaws Even to the bones the last remains Let her the causes of her hatred tell But you can witness its effects too well You saw the storm she raised on Libyan floods That mixed the mounting billows with the clouds When bribing Aeolus she shook the mane And moved rebellion in your watery rain With fury she possessed the Darden Dames To burn their fleet with exerable flames And forced Aeneas when his ships were lost To leave his followers on a foreign coast For what remains your godhead I implore And trust my son to your protecting power If neither Jove nor fate's decree Will withstand secure this passage to the Latzi in land Then thus the mighty ruler of the mane What may not Venus hope from Neptune's reign My kingdom claims your birth My late defense of your endangered fleet May claim your confidence Nor less by land than see my deeds declare How much your loved Aeneas is my care The, Xanthus and the, Simos, I attest Your Trojan troops, when proud Achilles pressed And drove before him headlong on the plain And dashed against the walls the trembling train When floods were filled with bodies of the slain When crimson Xanthus, doubtful of its way Stood up on ridges to behold the sea New heaps came tumbling in and choked his way When your Aeneas fought, but fought With odds of force unequal and unequal gods I spread a cloud before the victor's sight Sustained a vanquished and secured his flight Even then secured him when I sought with joy The vowed destruction of ungrateful Troy My will's the same, fair goddess, fear no more Your fleet shall safely gain the Latzian shore Their lives are given, one destined head alone Shall perish and for the multitudes atone Thus having armed with hopes her anxious mind His finny team, Saturnian Neptune joined Then adds the foamy bridle to their jaws And to the loosened reins permits the laws High on the waves his azure car he guides Its axles thunder and the sea subsides And the smooth ocean rolls her silent tides The tempests fly before their father's face Trains of inferior gods his triumph grace And monster whales before their master play And choirs of tritons crowd the watery way The marshalled powers in equal troops divide To right and left the gods his better side enclose And on the worse the nymphs and Nereads ride Now smiling hope with sweet vicissitude Within the hero's mind his joys renew He calls to raise the masts, the sheets display The cheerful crew with diligence obey They scud before the wind and sail in open sea Ahead of all the master pilot steers And as he leads the following navy veers The steeds of night had traveled half the sky The drowsy rowers on their benches lie When the soft god of sleep with easy flight descends And draws behind a trail of light Thou, Palanuras, ought his destined prey To thee alone he takes his fatal way Dire dreams to thee and iron sleep he bears And lighting on the prow the form of four-boss wears Then thus the traitor god began his tale The winds, my friend, inspire a pleasing gale The ships without thy care securely sail Now steal an hour of sweet repose And I will take the rudder and thy room supply To whom the yawning pilot half asleep Me dust thou bid to trust the treacherous deep The harlot smiles of her dissembling faith And to her faith commit the Trojan race Shall I believe the siren south again And off betrayed not know the monster main? He said, his fastened hands the rudder keep And fixed on heaven his eyes repel invading sleep The god was wroth and at his temples threw A branch in lethy dipped and drunk with Stygian dew The pilot vanquished by the power divine Soon closed his swimming eyes and lay supine The scarce were his limbs extended at their length The god, insulting with superior strength, fell heavy on him Plunged him in the sea and with the stern The rudder tore away. Headlong he fell and struggling in the main Cried out for helping hands but cried in vain The victor demon mounts obscure in air While the ship sails without the pilot's care On Neptune's faith the floating fleet relies But what the man forsook the god supplies And all the danger is deep secure the navy flies Guides by the siren's cliffs a shelfy coast Long infamous for ships and sailors lost And white with bones the impetuous ocean roars And rocks rebello from the sounding shores The watchful hero felt the knocks and found The tossing vessel sailed on showly ground Sure of his pilot's loss he takes himself The helm and steers aloof and shuns the shelf Inly he grieved and groaning from the breast Deplored his death and thus his pain expressed For faith reposed on seas and on the flattering sky Thy naked corpse is doomed on shores unknown to lie End of book five