Sunday, September 23, 2007

Aeneid lines 1.254-96 (class translation)

Smiling at her, the father of men and gods, with the countenance with which he brightens the sky and storms, pours little kisses on his daughter, hence says such things: Spare your fear, Cytherean: the fates of your people remain for you; you will see the city and promised walls of Lavinium, you will bear great-hearted Aeneas aloft to the stars of the sky; no purpose turns me. (For I will speak more, because this care gnaws at you, and rolling out [the scroll] I will reveal the secrets of the fates.) This man will wage a vast war in Italy for you and will crush the fierce peoples, and he will establish customs and walls for his people, while three summers see him ruling in Latium and three winters pass by for the subdued Rutulians. But the boy Ascanius, to whom now the surname Iulus is added—it was Ilus, while the Trojan state stood in power—will fill out thirty great cycles with their swift passing months in power, and he will transfer the kingdom from the seat of Lavinium, and he will fortify Alba Longa with great power. Here now for 300 full years royal power will be exercised under Hectors race, until the Trojan queen, priestess, pregnant by Mars, will give twin offspring at birth. Thence rejoicing in the tawny hide of his nursemaid the wolf, Romulus will take up the race and will establish the walls of Mars, and he will call the Romans from his name.

I place neither limits of affairs nor times for these men: I have given power without end. But even cruel Juno, who now harasses the sea and lands and sky with fear, will turn her plans for the better, and will cherish the Romans with me, the lords of the world’s affairs, the toga-ed people. Thus is it settled. The age will come with the sacred seasons slipping by when the home of Assaracus will subdue Phthia and famous Mycenae in servitude and will rule over the defeated Argives. A Trojan Caesar will be born from a beautiful origin, who will limit (the reach of) his power with the ocean and his fame with the stars—Julius, the name derived from the great Iulus. You, untroubled, will receive this man burdened by the spoils of the Orient to the sky one day; this man will also be called in prayers. With wars set aside, then will the rough ages become mild; grey Faith and Vesta, Quirinus with his brother Remus will give the laws. The awful gates of war will be closed with iron and skillful seams; impious Fury, sitting deep within over savage weapons and bound with 100 bronze knots behind his back will rage horribly with his bloody mouth.

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