But Dido trembling and wild with her huge undertakings, rolling bloodshot eyes and flecked in respect to her trembling cheeks with blotches and pale with coming death, she breaks over the interior thresholds of the home and, raging, climbs the high pyres and uncovers the Dardanian sword, a gift not sought for these use (lit pl.). Here, after she saw the Trojan clothes and known bed, having delayed a little in tears and thought, she both lay back on the couch and said (these) last words, "Sweet spoils, while the fates and god allowed, receive this spirit and free me from these cares. I have lived and I have completed what course Fortune had given, and now the great image of myself will go under the lands. I have set up a splendid city; I have seen my walls; having avenged my husband, I have received punishments from my hostile brother--lucky, alas too lucky if only Dardanian keels had never touched our shores." She spoke, and having pressed her mouth to the bed, she said, "We die unavenged, but let us die. Thus, thus it is pleasing to go under the shades. Let the cruel Dardanian drink in this fire from the deep with his eyes and let him take with him the omens of our death."
(663) She had spoken, and her companions see that one having fallen on the iron in the middle of such (words) and the sword foaming with gore and her spattered hands. The clamor goes to the high atria: Fame revels through the shaken city. Houses roar with laments and groaning and feminine wailing, the aether resounds with great shrieks, not other than if all Carthage or ancient Tyre rushes with admitted enemies, and raging flames roll both through the rooftops of men and through (the rooftops) of gods. She heard, lifeless and terrified with a fearful run, befouling her face with her nails and her chest with blows, her sister rushes through the midst of them and shouts to the dying one by name, "This was it, sister? You sought me with fraud? That pyre, the fires and altars prepared this, this for me? What first, deserted, will I lament? Dying, did you scorn a sister as companion? You should have called me to the same fates; the same grief and the same hour should have born us both by the iron. I laid (it) out with these hands and called paternal gods with my voice, so that I would be absent with you laid upon (it), cruel one? You have killed yourself and me, sister, and your people and Sidonian fathers and your city. Grant that I bathe your wounds with the waters and that I catch with my mouth if any last breath wanders above." Thus having spoken, she had climbed the high steps and, having embraced her half-dead sister, she kept (her) warm in her lap with a groan and tried to dry the dark gore with her clothing. That one, having tried to lift her heavy eyes, again grew faint; the driven wound hissed under her chest. Three times lifting herself and having leaned upon the bed she rose, three times she fell back upon the bed and with wandering eyes she sought light in the high sky and groaned, (the light) having been found.
(693) Then all-powerful Juno, having pitied the long grief and difficult death (lit. pl.), sent Iris down from Olympus, who was to free the struggling spirit and tied limbs. For since she was dying neither by fate nor by merited death, but wretched before her day and burned by sudden fury, Proserpina had not yet taken the yellow hair from her head and damned her head to Stygian Orcus. Therefore dewy Iris flies downs through the sky on saffron wings, dragging a thousand varied colors against the sun and alights above her head. "I bear this sacrifice to Dis, as ordered, and I release you from this body." Thus she spoke and cut her hair with her right hand, and all at once the heat slipped away and her life receded into the winds.
Sunday, December 27, 2009
Aeneid 4.296-449
But the queen--who could hope to deceive a lover--sensed the tricks, and first picked up on the future moves, fearing everything, although safe. The same impious Rumor reported to the furious one: the fleet is being armed and flight prepared. Destitute in mind and incensed she rages through the whole city, like a Maenad excited by the frenzied rites when, with Bacchus heard, they spur on the revels of alternating years and the nocturnal Cithaeron calls with a shout.
(304) At last with these voices she rebukes Aeneas of her own accord, "Did you even hope to be able to cover such wrong, faithless one, and to silently leave my land? Neither our love (holds) you nor our right hand once given nor does Dido about to die in cruel death hold you? But even with the winter star you hurry to build a fleet and in the midst of the northern winds to go through the deep, cruel one? Why, if you should not seeking foreign fields and unknown homes, and ancient Troy should remain, would Troy be sought by fleets through the wave-filled sea? Do you flee me? Through these tears and your right hand I beg you--since I myself have left myself, now wretched, nothing else--though our wedding, through our begun marriage (both lit. pl), if I have well deserved anything from you or there was anything sweet in me for you, pity (these) perishing homes and cast off that thought, if there is still any place for prayers. On account of you the Libyan tribes and the tyrants of the Nomads hate (us), the Tyrians are enraged; on account of the same you my decency is lost and my prior reputation, by which alone I was going to the stars. Guest--because this name alone remains from husband--to whom do you abandon me, dying? Why do I delay? Either until my brother Pygmalion destroys the walls or Gaetulian Iarbas leads me away as captive? At least if some offspring had been received by me from you before your flight, if some itty-bitty Aeneas were playing in my hall, who at least would bring you back in face, indeed I would not seem altogether vanquished and abandoned."
(331) She had spoken. That one held his eyes unmoved on the warnings of Jove and, resolute, was pressing his care under his heart. At last he returns a few words, "I will never deny that you, queen, deserve the very many things which you prevail to list in your speaking, and it will not displease me to remember Elissa while I myself am mindful of myself, which spirit rules these limbs. I will say a few things for my own case. Neither did I hope to conceal this flight by deceit--don't imagine it--nor did I ever extend marriage torches or come into these pacts. If the fates had allowed me to lead a life by my auspices and to settle my cares by my own will, I would first tend the city of Troy and the sweet remainders of my people, the high homes of Priam would remain, and I would have established reborn Pergama for the conquered by my hand. But now Grynean Apollo (and) Lycian lots have ordered that I seize great Italy, Italy; this is my love, this is my homeland. If the citadels of Carthage and the sight of the Libyan city detain you, a Phoenician, what is the envy that at last Trojans settle in Ausonian land? And it is right that we seek external kingdoms. The gloomy image of my father Anchises admonishes and terrifies me in my dreams as often as night covers the lands with dewy shadows, as often as the fiery stars rise; my boy Ascanius admonishes me and the wrong done to his dear head, whom I cheat of the kingdom of Hesperia and his fated fields. Now even the intermediary of the gods, sent from Jove himself--I swear on each head--has brought orders through the swift breezes: I myself saw the god in the plain light entering the walls and I drank in his voice with these ears. Stop rousing both me and yourself with your complaints; I follow Italy not by my own free will.
(362) Long before, opposite (him), she eyes the one saying such things, rolling her eyes here and there, and roaming him wholly with silent eyes and thus inflamed she speaks out, "You had neither divine parent nor was Dardanus the founder of your race, false one, but on hard reefs the rough Caucasus bore you and Hyrcanian tigers gave (you) their breasts. For why am I to pretend, or for what more am I to reserve myself? Surely he did not groan at our weeping? Surely he did not end his gaze? Surely he did not tears, beaten, or pity his lover? What things shall I put before what? Now, now neither greatest Juno nor the Saturnian father looks at these things with unbiased eyes. Faith is never safe. I took him in, a castaway on the shore, needy, and--mad woman--I placed him in part of the kingdom. I lead back his lost fleet, his allies from death--alas I am born, burned by the furies--now the augur Apollo, now the Lycian lots, and now an intermediary sent by Jove himself bears horrid orders of the gods through the breezes. Perhaps this is work for the gods, this care disturbs those quiet beings. Neither do I hold you nor do I refute your words: go, pursue Italy by the winds, seek kingdoms through the waves. I hope indeed that in the middle of the rocks, if pious powers can (do) anything, you will drink in your punishments and often call Dido by name. I, absent, will follow with black fires and when cold death separates your limbs from your spirit, I will be a shadow present in all places. You will give payment, wicked one. I will hear and this rumor will come to me under the lowest shades." She breaks off her speech in the middle with these words and, ill, flees the breezes and turns herself from his eyes and withdraws, leaving him hesitating much in fear and preparing to say many things. Her household slaves pick (her) up and carry her collapsed limbs to her marble bedchamber and place her on her couches.
(393) But pious Aeneas, although he desires to lighten her grief with solace and to avert her cares with his words, groaning much and shaken in mind by her great love, yet he follows the orders of the gods and returns to the fleet. Then indeed the Trojans press on and lead down the lofty ships along the whole shore. The greased keel swims, they carry leafy oars and, in the zeal for flight, unshaped oaks from the woods. You might see them wandering and rushing from the whole city: and as when ants, mindful of winter, plunder a huge pile of grain and place it in their home, the black column goes in the fields and transports their booty through the grasses on a narrow path; some push large grains with their shoulders, determined, others drive the line and chastise the delays, the whole path teams with work. What feeling then had you, Dido, seeing such things, or what groans were you giving, when widely you saw the shore teaming from the highest citadel, and you saw the whole sea stirred up with such clamors before your eyes! Wicked love, to what do you not drive mortal hearts! Again she is driven to go into tears, again to try by begging and as a suppliant to submit her feelings to her lover, lest in vain about to die she leave anything untried.
(416) Anna, you see things rushed all around on the whole shore: they have gathered from everywhere; the canvass now calls the winds and the happy sailors have put garlands on the sterns. If I was able to anticipate this grief so great, I will be able even to endure, sister. Seek yet this one thing for wretched me; for that false man cherished you alone, he entrusted his secret feelings even to you; you alone know the soft approaches and times of the man. Go, sister, and as a suppliant speak to our proud enemy: I did not swear with the Greeks at Aulis to cut down the Trojan race or send a fleet to Pergama, nor did I tear up the ash and shades of his father Anchises: why does he deny that my words reach his hard ears? Where does he rush? Let him give this last gift to his lover: let him await both an easy flight and favorable winds. I ask no longer for our old marriage, which he has betrayed, nor that he lack his dear Latium and leave his kingdom: I seek empty time, rest and a space for my fury, while my fortune teaches beaten me to grieve. I ask this last favor--pity a sister--which when to me he has given (it) I will repay increased at my death."
(437) She was begging with such words, and her most wretched sister carries such tears and carries (them) again. But that man is moved by no tears nor tractable does he hear any words; the fates stand in the way and the god stops the easy ears of the man. And as when the Alpine north winds strive among themselves to rip out a strong oak tree with ancient strength now here now there with the blasts; the screech rises and high leaves from the shaken trunk cover the land; the tree itself clings to the cliffs and reaches as high to the airy breezes with its top as it holds into Tartarus with its root: hardly otherwise, this way and that, is the hero pounded by these constant voices, and he feels the cares in his great heart; his mind remains unmoved, empty tears roll down.
(304) At last with these voices she rebukes Aeneas of her own accord, "Did you even hope to be able to cover such wrong, faithless one, and to silently leave my land? Neither our love (holds) you nor our right hand once given nor does Dido about to die in cruel death hold you? But even with the winter star you hurry to build a fleet and in the midst of the northern winds to go through the deep, cruel one? Why, if you should not seeking foreign fields and unknown homes, and ancient Troy should remain, would Troy be sought by fleets through the wave-filled sea? Do you flee me? Through these tears and your right hand I beg you--since I myself have left myself, now wretched, nothing else--though our wedding, through our begun marriage (both lit. pl), if I have well deserved anything from you or there was anything sweet in me for you, pity (these) perishing homes and cast off that thought, if there is still any place for prayers. On account of you the Libyan tribes and the tyrants of the Nomads hate (us), the Tyrians are enraged; on account of the same you my decency is lost and my prior reputation, by which alone I was going to the stars. Guest--because this name alone remains from husband--to whom do you abandon me, dying? Why do I delay? Either until my brother Pygmalion destroys the walls or Gaetulian Iarbas leads me away as captive? At least if some offspring had been received by me from you before your flight, if some itty-bitty Aeneas were playing in my hall, who at least would bring you back in face, indeed I would not seem altogether vanquished and abandoned."
(331) She had spoken. That one held his eyes unmoved on the warnings of Jove and, resolute, was pressing his care under his heart. At last he returns a few words, "I will never deny that you, queen, deserve the very many things which you prevail to list in your speaking, and it will not displease me to remember Elissa while I myself am mindful of myself, which spirit rules these limbs. I will say a few things for my own case. Neither did I hope to conceal this flight by deceit--don't imagine it--nor did I ever extend marriage torches or come into these pacts. If the fates had allowed me to lead a life by my auspices and to settle my cares by my own will, I would first tend the city of Troy and the sweet remainders of my people, the high homes of Priam would remain, and I would have established reborn Pergama for the conquered by my hand. But now Grynean Apollo (and) Lycian lots have ordered that I seize great Italy, Italy; this is my love, this is my homeland. If the citadels of Carthage and the sight of the Libyan city detain you, a Phoenician, what is the envy that at last Trojans settle in Ausonian land? And it is right that we seek external kingdoms. The gloomy image of my father Anchises admonishes and terrifies me in my dreams as often as night covers the lands with dewy shadows, as often as the fiery stars rise; my boy Ascanius admonishes me and the wrong done to his dear head, whom I cheat of the kingdom of Hesperia and his fated fields. Now even the intermediary of the gods, sent from Jove himself--I swear on each head--has brought orders through the swift breezes: I myself saw the god in the plain light entering the walls and I drank in his voice with these ears. Stop rousing both me and yourself with your complaints; I follow Italy not by my own free will.
(362) Long before, opposite (him), she eyes the one saying such things, rolling her eyes here and there, and roaming him wholly with silent eyes and thus inflamed she speaks out, "You had neither divine parent nor was Dardanus the founder of your race, false one, but on hard reefs the rough Caucasus bore you and Hyrcanian tigers gave (you) their breasts. For why am I to pretend, or for what more am I to reserve myself? Surely he did not groan at our weeping? Surely he did not end his gaze? Surely he did not tears, beaten, or pity his lover? What things shall I put before what? Now, now neither greatest Juno nor the Saturnian father looks at these things with unbiased eyes. Faith is never safe. I took him in, a castaway on the shore, needy, and--mad woman--I placed him in part of the kingdom. I lead back his lost fleet, his allies from death--alas I am born, burned by the furies--now the augur Apollo, now the Lycian lots, and now an intermediary sent by Jove himself bears horrid orders of the gods through the breezes. Perhaps this is work for the gods, this care disturbs those quiet beings. Neither do I hold you nor do I refute your words: go, pursue Italy by the winds, seek kingdoms through the waves. I hope indeed that in the middle of the rocks, if pious powers can (do) anything, you will drink in your punishments and often call Dido by name. I, absent, will follow with black fires and when cold death separates your limbs from your spirit, I will be a shadow present in all places. You will give payment, wicked one. I will hear and this rumor will come to me under the lowest shades." She breaks off her speech in the middle with these words and, ill, flees the breezes and turns herself from his eyes and withdraws, leaving him hesitating much in fear and preparing to say many things. Her household slaves pick (her) up and carry her collapsed limbs to her marble bedchamber and place her on her couches.
(393) But pious Aeneas, although he desires to lighten her grief with solace and to avert her cares with his words, groaning much and shaken in mind by her great love, yet he follows the orders of the gods and returns to the fleet. Then indeed the Trojans press on and lead down the lofty ships along the whole shore. The greased keel swims, they carry leafy oars and, in the zeal for flight, unshaped oaks from the woods. You might see them wandering and rushing from the whole city: and as when ants, mindful of winter, plunder a huge pile of grain and place it in their home, the black column goes in the fields and transports their booty through the grasses on a narrow path; some push large grains with their shoulders, determined, others drive the line and chastise the delays, the whole path teams with work. What feeling then had you, Dido, seeing such things, or what groans were you giving, when widely you saw the shore teaming from the highest citadel, and you saw the whole sea stirred up with such clamors before your eyes! Wicked love, to what do you not drive mortal hearts! Again she is driven to go into tears, again to try by begging and as a suppliant to submit her feelings to her lover, lest in vain about to die she leave anything untried.
(416) Anna, you see things rushed all around on the whole shore: they have gathered from everywhere; the canvass now calls the winds and the happy sailors have put garlands on the sterns. If I was able to anticipate this grief so great, I will be able even to endure, sister. Seek yet this one thing for wretched me; for that false man cherished you alone, he entrusted his secret feelings even to you; you alone know the soft approaches and times of the man. Go, sister, and as a suppliant speak to our proud enemy: I did not swear with the Greeks at Aulis to cut down the Trojan race or send a fleet to Pergama, nor did I tear up the ash and shades of his father Anchises: why does he deny that my words reach his hard ears? Where does he rush? Let him give this last gift to his lover: let him await both an easy flight and favorable winds. I ask no longer for our old marriage, which he has betrayed, nor that he lack his dear Latium and leave his kingdom: I seek empty time, rest and a space for my fury, while my fortune teaches beaten me to grieve. I ask this last favor--pity a sister--which when to me he has given (it) I will repay increased at my death."
(437) She was begging with such words, and her most wretched sister carries such tears and carries (them) again. But that man is moved by no tears nor tractable does he hear any words; the fates stand in the way and the god stops the easy ears of the man. And as when the Alpine north winds strive among themselves to rip out a strong oak tree with ancient strength now here now there with the blasts; the screech rises and high leaves from the shaken trunk cover the land; the tree itself clings to the cliffs and reaches as high to the airy breezes with its top as it holds into Tartarus with its root: hardly otherwise, this way and that, is the hero pounded by these constant voices, and he feels the cares in his great heart; his mind remains unmoved, empty tears roll down.
Aeneid 4.160-295
Meanwhile with a great murmur the sky begins to be mixed, a cloud follows with hail mixed in, and the Tyrian companions and Trojan youth and the Dardanian grandson of Venus everywhere sought in fear various roofs through the fields; the rivers rush from the mountains. Dido and the Trojan leader will find the same cave. Both first Earth and bridal Juno give the sign; fires gleamed and the aether was witness to the ceremonies and the Nymphs howled from the highest peak. That day first was the cause of death and first of evils; for neither by appearance nor reputation is Dido moved and now she does not think on a secret love: she calls it marriage; by this name she covered her fault.
(173) Immediately Rumor goes through the great cities of Libya, Rumor, than whom not any other evil is faster: she thrives by moving and seeks strength by going, small by fear at first, soon she lifts herself into the breezes and walks on the ground and lifts her head among the clouds. Earth, her parent, provoked by anger at the gods, bore that one last, as the say, sister to Coeus and Enceladus, swift on feel and agile wings, a horrible monster, huge, who has as many watchful eyes below as there are feathers on her body--wondrous to say--as many tongues, just as many mouths sound, as many ears raise up. She flies at night midway between the sky and earth, screeching through the shadow, and she does not lower her eyes in sweet sleep; she sits as guard by day either at the top of the highest roof or in high towers, and she terrifies great cities, as persistent in fiction and distortion as a messenger of truth. Then this one was filling the peoples with her shifting story, rejoicing, and was singing equally deeds and things not done: Aeneas has come, created from the blood of Troy, to whom beautiful Dido deigns to join herself; now they warm the winter between themselves with indulgence, however long, forgetful of kingdoms and captured by shameful desire. The foul goddess everywhere pours these things into the faces of men. Straightway she bends her courses to king Iarbas and fires his mind with words and heaps up his angers.
(198) This one, begotten by Hammon by a raped Garamantian nymph, has placed a hundred immense temples to Jove in his wide kingdoms, a hundred altars, and had sanctified watchful fire, eternal sentries of the gods; the ground was rich with the blood of sheep and the thresholds flower with mixed garlands. And this one, mad in heart and burned by bitter rumor is said before the altars among the middle of the powers of the gods, with hands upturned, to have begged Jove many times as a suppliant, "Jupiter all-powerful, to whom now the Moorish race, having feasted on painted couches, pour out Bacchic honor--do you see these things? Father, when you hurl lightening, can it be that we fear you in vain, and do unseeing fires in the clouds frighten our minds and mix the empty rumblings? The woman, who established her tiny city for a price, wandering into our territory, to whom we gave a plowable coast and to whom (we gave) laws of the place, spurns our marriages and received Aeneas as her lord in the kingdom. And now that Paris with his eunuch band, bound at the chin and wet hair by a Maeonian mitra, becomes master of the thing he has stolen: we bring gifts to your temples, as you see, and cherish an empty story.
(219) The all-powerful one heard the one praying with such words and gripping the altars, and turned his eyes to the royal walls and lovers having forgotten better reputation. Then he speaks thus to Mercury and entrusts such: "Go, go, son, call the Zephyr and glide to the Dardanian leader on your wings, who waits now in Tyrian Carthage and does not look to cities given by the fates, speak and carry my words through the swift breezes. His most beautiful mother did not promise that sort of a man to us and not for that reason did she twice claim (him) from the weapons of the Greeks, but he would be the one who ruled Italy pregnant with empires and clamoring for war, he would produce a race from the high blood of Teucer, and he would send the whole world under the laws. If no glory of such affairs inflames (him) and besides he himself does not undertake the labor for his own praise, does the father begrudge Roman citadels for Ascanius? What does he plan? Or with what hope does he delay among a hostile race and look upon neither Ausonian offspring nor Lavinian fields? Let him sail! This is the last; let this be our message."
(238) He had spoken. Than one was preparing to obey the order of his great father; and first he ties the golden sandals to his feet, which carry him aloft with wing over either seas or land equally with the rapid breeze. Then he seizes his wand: with this that one calls pale spirits from Orcus, he sends others down to sad Tartarus, he gives and withdraws dreams and he unseals eyes from death. Relying on that, he drives the winds and passes through turbulent clouds. And now flying, he sees the summit and lofty sides of hard Atlas, who supports the sky on his head, of Atlas, whose pine-bearing head is constantly girt with black clouds and beaten by wind and rain, poured snow covers his shoulders, then rivers flow from the chin of the old man and his rough beard is stiff with ice. Here first gleaming Cyllenius stops on even wings; from here with his whole body he sent himself headlong to the waters like a bird which flies low near the waters around the shores, around the rocks teaming with fish. Hardly otherwise was he flying between the lands and sky near the sandy shore of Libya, he was cutting the winds, the Cyllenian offspring coming from his maternal grandfather.
(259) As soon as he touched the huts with winged feet he sees Aeneas founding citadels and creating homes. And that man had a sword starry with yellow stone and a cloak, hung from his shoulders, was blazing with Tyrian purple, riches which Dido had made as gifts and she had marked the web with thin gold. He immediately attacked, "Do you now place the foundations of lofty Carthage and build her beautiful city, uxorious one? Alas, one forgetful of your kingdom and your affairs! The ruler of the gods himself, who turns the sky and lands by his will, sends me down to you from bright Olympus, he himself orders that I bear these commands through the swift breezes: what do you plan? Or with what hope do you wear out in Libyan lands? If no glory of such affairs moves you--and besides you yourself do not undertake the labor for your own praise--look to growing Ascanius and the hope of your heir Iulus, to whom the kingdom of Italy and the Roman land is owed." Cyllenius spoke with such a speech; in the middle of the speech he left mortal sight and far from their eyes vanished into thin air.
(279) But indeed Aeneas frantic at the sight was dumbstruck, and his hair stood up with fright and his voice stuck in his throat (lit. pl.) He burns to go in flight and leave the sweet lands, struck by such a warning and the command of the gods. Alas, what should he do? With what speech now should he dare solicit the mad queen? What first beginnings should he take up? And he divides his speedy mind now this way, now that and hurries in to various directions and turns through everything. This opinion seemed more powerful to the one wavering: he calls Mnestheus and Sergestes and brave Serestus, let them silently fit the fleet and gather the allies to the shores, let them prepare arms and let them hide what cause there is for the new circumstances; meanwhile because best Dido does not know and does not hope for such loves to be broken, he will try (to find) approaches and what times are softest for speaking, what method right for the circumstances. Too quickly everyone happily obeys his command and eagerly performs his orders.
(173) Immediately Rumor goes through the great cities of Libya, Rumor, than whom not any other evil is faster: she thrives by moving and seeks strength by going, small by fear at first, soon she lifts herself into the breezes and walks on the ground and lifts her head among the clouds. Earth, her parent, provoked by anger at the gods, bore that one last, as the say, sister to Coeus and Enceladus, swift on feel and agile wings, a horrible monster, huge, who has as many watchful eyes below as there are feathers on her body--wondrous to say--as many tongues, just as many mouths sound, as many ears raise up. She flies at night midway between the sky and earth, screeching through the shadow, and she does not lower her eyes in sweet sleep; she sits as guard by day either at the top of the highest roof or in high towers, and she terrifies great cities, as persistent in fiction and distortion as a messenger of truth. Then this one was filling the peoples with her shifting story, rejoicing, and was singing equally deeds and things not done: Aeneas has come, created from the blood of Troy, to whom beautiful Dido deigns to join herself; now they warm the winter between themselves with indulgence, however long, forgetful of kingdoms and captured by shameful desire. The foul goddess everywhere pours these things into the faces of men. Straightway she bends her courses to king Iarbas and fires his mind with words and heaps up his angers.
(198) This one, begotten by Hammon by a raped Garamantian nymph, has placed a hundred immense temples to Jove in his wide kingdoms, a hundred altars, and had sanctified watchful fire, eternal sentries of the gods; the ground was rich with the blood of sheep and the thresholds flower with mixed garlands. And this one, mad in heart and burned by bitter rumor is said before the altars among the middle of the powers of the gods, with hands upturned, to have begged Jove many times as a suppliant, "Jupiter all-powerful, to whom now the Moorish race, having feasted on painted couches, pour out Bacchic honor--do you see these things? Father, when you hurl lightening, can it be that we fear you in vain, and do unseeing fires in the clouds frighten our minds and mix the empty rumblings? The woman, who established her tiny city for a price, wandering into our territory, to whom we gave a plowable coast and to whom (we gave) laws of the place, spurns our marriages and received Aeneas as her lord in the kingdom. And now that Paris with his eunuch band, bound at the chin and wet hair by a Maeonian mitra, becomes master of the thing he has stolen: we bring gifts to your temples, as you see, and cherish an empty story.
(219) The all-powerful one heard the one praying with such words and gripping the altars, and turned his eyes to the royal walls and lovers having forgotten better reputation. Then he speaks thus to Mercury and entrusts such: "Go, go, son, call the Zephyr and glide to the Dardanian leader on your wings, who waits now in Tyrian Carthage and does not look to cities given by the fates, speak and carry my words through the swift breezes. His most beautiful mother did not promise that sort of a man to us and not for that reason did she twice claim (him) from the weapons of the Greeks, but he would be the one who ruled Italy pregnant with empires and clamoring for war, he would produce a race from the high blood of Teucer, and he would send the whole world under the laws. If no glory of such affairs inflames (him) and besides he himself does not undertake the labor for his own praise, does the father begrudge Roman citadels for Ascanius? What does he plan? Or with what hope does he delay among a hostile race and look upon neither Ausonian offspring nor Lavinian fields? Let him sail! This is the last; let this be our message."
(238) He had spoken. Than one was preparing to obey the order of his great father; and first he ties the golden sandals to his feet, which carry him aloft with wing over either seas or land equally with the rapid breeze. Then he seizes his wand: with this that one calls pale spirits from Orcus, he sends others down to sad Tartarus, he gives and withdraws dreams and he unseals eyes from death. Relying on that, he drives the winds and passes through turbulent clouds. And now flying, he sees the summit and lofty sides of hard Atlas, who supports the sky on his head, of Atlas, whose pine-bearing head is constantly girt with black clouds and beaten by wind and rain, poured snow covers his shoulders, then rivers flow from the chin of the old man and his rough beard is stiff with ice. Here first gleaming Cyllenius stops on even wings; from here with his whole body he sent himself headlong to the waters like a bird which flies low near the waters around the shores, around the rocks teaming with fish. Hardly otherwise was he flying between the lands and sky near the sandy shore of Libya, he was cutting the winds, the Cyllenian offspring coming from his maternal grandfather.
(259) As soon as he touched the huts with winged feet he sees Aeneas founding citadels and creating homes. And that man had a sword starry with yellow stone and a cloak, hung from his shoulders, was blazing with Tyrian purple, riches which Dido had made as gifts and she had marked the web with thin gold. He immediately attacked, "Do you now place the foundations of lofty Carthage and build her beautiful city, uxorious one? Alas, one forgetful of your kingdom and your affairs! The ruler of the gods himself, who turns the sky and lands by his will, sends me down to you from bright Olympus, he himself orders that I bear these commands through the swift breezes: what do you plan? Or with what hope do you wear out in Libyan lands? If no glory of such affairs moves you--and besides you yourself do not undertake the labor for your own praise--look to growing Ascanius and the hope of your heir Iulus, to whom the kingdom of Italy and the Roman land is owed." Cyllenius spoke with such a speech; in the middle of the speech he left mortal sight and far from their eyes vanished into thin air.
(279) But indeed Aeneas frantic at the sight was dumbstruck, and his hair stood up with fright and his voice stuck in his throat (lit. pl.) He burns to go in flight and leave the sweet lands, struck by such a warning and the command of the gods. Alas, what should he do? With what speech now should he dare solicit the mad queen? What first beginnings should he take up? And he divides his speedy mind now this way, now that and hurries in to various directions and turns through everything. This opinion seemed more powerful to the one wavering: he calls Mnestheus and Sergestes and brave Serestus, let them silently fit the fleet and gather the allies to the shores, let them prepare arms and let them hide what cause there is for the new circumstances; meanwhile because best Dido does not know and does not hope for such loves to be broken, he will try (to find) approaches and what times are softest for speaking, what method right for the circumstances. Too quickly everyone happily obeys his command and eagerly performs his orders.
Aeneid 4.1-159
But the queen, long since wounded with heavy care, nourishes the wound in her veins and she is harried by a blind fire. The great courage of the man and the great honor of his race returns to her mind. His looks and words cling, fixed in her heart, and her care does not give placid rest to her limbs.
(6) Next Aurora with Phoebus' light was illuminating the lands and had removed the dewy shadow from the sky, when thus the hardly sane woman speaks to her loving sister, "Sister Anna, what visions frighten anxious me! Who! this new guest enters our homes, bearing what a self in his face, how brave in heart and arms! I believe indeed--and it is no empty faith--that his is the race of the gods. Fear reveals degenerate spirits. Alas, with what fates that man has been shaken! Of what endured wars he was singing! If not to my mind it were set fixed and immovable not to wish to join myself to anyone in marriage bond, after my first love deceived disappointed me with death, if there had not been weariness of the marriage bed and torch, I was able to succumb to this one fault, perhaps. For I will admit it-Anna, after the fates of wretched Sychaeus, my husband, and Penates spattered with slaughter committed by a brother, this one alone has bent my feelings and pushed my slipping mind. I recognize the traces of the old flame. But I would first wish either that the lowest earth cleave open to me or the all-powerful father drive me to the shades with lightening, the pale shades in Erebus and the profound night, before I violate you, Shame, or I disperse your oaths. That man, who first joined me to himself, has stolen my loves; let that man have (them) with him and protect (them) in the grave." Thus having spoken, she filled her lap with risen tears.
(31) Anna responds, "O woman more cherished by her sister than the light, will you alone, mourning, be worn away in perpetual youth and know neither the sweet children of Venus nor her prizes? Do you believe that ash or sepulchral spirits care about this? So be it! no mates ever bent you in your illness, not in Libya not in Tyre before; Iarbus was scorned and the other leaders, whom Africa nourishes, a land rich in triumphs: will you fight still a pleasing love? Does it not come into your mind in whose fields you have settled? On this side the Gaetulian cities, a race unconquerable in war, and the unbridled Numidians and the inhospitable Syrtis surround; on that side a region wasted with drought and Barcaeans raging widely. What should I say about the wars rising from Tyre and the threats of your brother? I think with the gods as augers and Juno favorable the Trojan keeps held this course by the wind. What a city, this one you will see rise, sister, what kingdoms from such a marriage! With the arms of the Teucrians accompanying, with what great accomplishments Punic glory will lift itself! You only ask the gods for pardon, and, having made sacred offerings, indulge the guest and weave reasons for delaying, while the winter rages on the sea and Orion is rainy and the ships are shaken, while the sky is not manageable.
(54) With these things having been said, she inflamed her burning spirit with love and gave hope to a hesitating mind and released her shame. First they go to the shrines and seek peace through the altars; they sacrifice chosen sheep by custom to Ceres and Phoebus and father Lycaeus, to Juno before all, for whom are marriage bonds (for) a care. Most beautiful Dido herself, holding the bowl in her right hand, pours between the middle of the horns or the white cow, or before the faces of the gods approaches the rich altars and renews the day with gifts and, with the chests of the beasts opened, gazing, consults the breathing entrails. Alas, ignorant minds of seers! How do vows, how do shrines aid the maddened?
(67) Meanwhile a flame eats her soft marrows and a silent wound lives under her chest Unlucky Dido burns and wanders the whole city, raging, like a doe with a cast arrow, whom incautious among the Cretan woods from afar a shepherd hunting with his javelins has pierced and leaves the flying weapon unaware: that one in flight wanders the woods and Dictaean groves; the lethal shaft clings to her side. Now she leads Aeneas with her through the midst of her walls and shows off Sidonian wealth and her prepared city, she begins to speak and stops in the middle of her speech; now with the day slipping by she seeks the same banquets and demented demands to hear Trojan labors again and again she hangs from the lip of the narrator. After when they have left and the dark moon presses her light in turn and the falling stars persuade sleep, she alone grieves in the empty home and lies upon abandoned couches. Absent she both hears and sees that one absent, or with a groan she detains Ascanius, captured by the image of his father, (as) if she could deceive unspeakable love. Begun turrets do not rise, youth do not practice arms or prepare ports or safe defenses for war: interrupted works and huge threats of walls and machine equal to the sky hang down.
(90) Whom, as soon as the dear wife of Jove sensed that (she was) held with such disease and reputation did not prevent her madness, with such words Saturnia approaches Venus, "You and your boy take back outstanding praise indeed and ample spoils indeed--a great and memorable power--if one woman has been conquered by the trick of two gods. And truly it does not deceive me that you, fearing our walls, consider the homes of high Carthage as suspicious. But what will be the end, or to what purpose now (do we struggle) in such a contest? Why not rather we cultivate eternal peace and pledged weddings? You have what you sought with your whole mind: loving Dido burns and has drug madness through her bones. Therefore let us rule this people in common and with equal auspices; let it be permitted that she slave for a Phrygian husband and hand over Tyrians as dowry to your right hand."
(105) Thus--for she sensed that she spoke with pretended intention in order that she avert the kingdom of Italy to Libyan shores--in response to her Venus began, "Who, mad, would refuse such things or prefer to contend with you in war, if only fortune might follow as a deed what you recount? But I am tossed uncertain by the fates, if Jupiter wants there to be one city for Tyrians and those having set out from Troy or he approves that the people be mixed or pacts be joined. You are his wife, it is right for you to try his mind by asking. Go on, I will follow."
(115) Then thus queen Juno picked up, "That will be a labor for me. Now by what means what presses can be accomplished, I will teach in a few (words)--pay attention. Aeneas and most wretched Dido together prepare to go to the forest to hunt, when tomorrow's Titan will have brought out his first risings and uncovered the region with his rays. I will pour down on these from above a black cloud with hail mixed in, while the wings are beating and they circle the forest with the net, and I will rouse the whole sky with thunder. The companions will flee and be covered with dark night: Dido and the Trojan leader will come to the same cave. I will be there and, if your will is sure to me, I will join (them) in steady wedlock and I will call her his own. This will be a marriage." Not averse to the one seeking, Cytheria nodded and laughed at the found tricks.
(129) Meanwhile Aurora, rising, left Ocean. Chosen youth go from the ports at risen daylight; wide-meshed nets, traps, hunting spears with wide iron, and Massylian horsemen rush and the scenting force of dogs. The first of the Poeni await the queen, lingering at the threshold of her bedchamber, her horse stands (lit. the one making sounds with its feet, distinguished with purple and gold, and chomps the foaming harnesses fiercely. At last she advances, with a great crowd accompanying, wearing (lit. surrounded in respect to) a Sidonian cloak with embroidered border; whose quiver is gold, her hair is (lit. pl.) knotted in gold, gold pins fasten her purple clothes. And indeed (lit. not not) both the Phrygian companions and happy Iulus approach. Aeneas himself, most handsome before all others, brings himself in as an ally and unites the bands. As when Apollo leaves wintery Lycia and the streams of the Xanthus and visits maternal Delos and renews the chorus, and, mixed around the altars, both the Cretans and Dryopes and the painted Agathyrsi clamor; he himself steps along the ridges of Cynthus and, grooming, he presses his flowing hair with soft leaf and winds (it) with gold, his weapons sound on his shoulders: Aeneas was going hardly more sluggish than that one, just so his glory shines from his distinguished face. After it is come into the high mountains and pathless wilderness, look! wild goats dislodged from the top of the rock ran down from the ridges; from another part dusty herds of hind pass over open fields at a run and gather in flight and leave the mountains. But the boy Ascanius in the middle of the valleys rejoices in his fierce horse and pass by now these, now those at a run, and he hopes a foaming boar be given to his prayers among the helpless herds or that a tawny lion descend from the mountain.
(6) Next Aurora with Phoebus' light was illuminating the lands and had removed the dewy shadow from the sky, when thus the hardly sane woman speaks to her loving sister, "Sister Anna, what visions frighten anxious me! Who! this new guest enters our homes, bearing what a self in his face, how brave in heart and arms! I believe indeed--and it is no empty faith--that his is the race of the gods. Fear reveals degenerate spirits. Alas, with what fates that man has been shaken! Of what endured wars he was singing! If not to my mind it were set fixed and immovable not to wish to join myself to anyone in marriage bond, after my first love deceived disappointed me with death, if there had not been weariness of the marriage bed and torch, I was able to succumb to this one fault, perhaps. For I will admit it-Anna, after the fates of wretched Sychaeus, my husband, and Penates spattered with slaughter committed by a brother, this one alone has bent my feelings and pushed my slipping mind. I recognize the traces of the old flame. But I would first wish either that the lowest earth cleave open to me or the all-powerful father drive me to the shades with lightening, the pale shades in Erebus and the profound night, before I violate you, Shame, or I disperse your oaths. That man, who first joined me to himself, has stolen my loves; let that man have (them) with him and protect (them) in the grave." Thus having spoken, she filled her lap with risen tears.
(31) Anna responds, "O woman more cherished by her sister than the light, will you alone, mourning, be worn away in perpetual youth and know neither the sweet children of Venus nor her prizes? Do you believe that ash or sepulchral spirits care about this? So be it! no mates ever bent you in your illness, not in Libya not in Tyre before; Iarbus was scorned and the other leaders, whom Africa nourishes, a land rich in triumphs: will you fight still a pleasing love? Does it not come into your mind in whose fields you have settled? On this side the Gaetulian cities, a race unconquerable in war, and the unbridled Numidians and the inhospitable Syrtis surround; on that side a region wasted with drought and Barcaeans raging widely. What should I say about the wars rising from Tyre and the threats of your brother? I think with the gods as augers and Juno favorable the Trojan keeps held this course by the wind. What a city, this one you will see rise, sister, what kingdoms from such a marriage! With the arms of the Teucrians accompanying, with what great accomplishments Punic glory will lift itself! You only ask the gods for pardon, and, having made sacred offerings, indulge the guest and weave reasons for delaying, while the winter rages on the sea and Orion is rainy and the ships are shaken, while the sky is not manageable.
(54) With these things having been said, she inflamed her burning spirit with love and gave hope to a hesitating mind and released her shame. First they go to the shrines and seek peace through the altars; they sacrifice chosen sheep by custom to Ceres and Phoebus and father Lycaeus, to Juno before all, for whom are marriage bonds (for) a care. Most beautiful Dido herself, holding the bowl in her right hand, pours between the middle of the horns or the white cow, or before the faces of the gods approaches the rich altars and renews the day with gifts and, with the chests of the beasts opened, gazing, consults the breathing entrails. Alas, ignorant minds of seers! How do vows, how do shrines aid the maddened?
(67) Meanwhile a flame eats her soft marrows and a silent wound lives under her chest Unlucky Dido burns and wanders the whole city, raging, like a doe with a cast arrow, whom incautious among the Cretan woods from afar a shepherd hunting with his javelins has pierced and leaves the flying weapon unaware: that one in flight wanders the woods and Dictaean groves; the lethal shaft clings to her side. Now she leads Aeneas with her through the midst of her walls and shows off Sidonian wealth and her prepared city, she begins to speak and stops in the middle of her speech; now with the day slipping by she seeks the same banquets and demented demands to hear Trojan labors again and again she hangs from the lip of the narrator. After when they have left and the dark moon presses her light in turn and the falling stars persuade sleep, she alone grieves in the empty home and lies upon abandoned couches. Absent she both hears and sees that one absent, or with a groan she detains Ascanius, captured by the image of his father, (as) if she could deceive unspeakable love. Begun turrets do not rise, youth do not practice arms or prepare ports or safe defenses for war: interrupted works and huge threats of walls and machine equal to the sky hang down.
(90) Whom, as soon as the dear wife of Jove sensed that (she was) held with such disease and reputation did not prevent her madness, with such words Saturnia approaches Venus, "You and your boy take back outstanding praise indeed and ample spoils indeed--a great and memorable power--if one woman has been conquered by the trick of two gods. And truly it does not deceive me that you, fearing our walls, consider the homes of high Carthage as suspicious. But what will be the end, or to what purpose now (do we struggle) in such a contest? Why not rather we cultivate eternal peace and pledged weddings? You have what you sought with your whole mind: loving Dido burns and has drug madness through her bones. Therefore let us rule this people in common and with equal auspices; let it be permitted that she slave for a Phrygian husband and hand over Tyrians as dowry to your right hand."
(105) Thus--for she sensed that she spoke with pretended intention in order that she avert the kingdom of Italy to Libyan shores--in response to her Venus began, "Who, mad, would refuse such things or prefer to contend with you in war, if only fortune might follow as a deed what you recount? But I am tossed uncertain by the fates, if Jupiter wants there to be one city for Tyrians and those having set out from Troy or he approves that the people be mixed or pacts be joined. You are his wife, it is right for you to try his mind by asking. Go on, I will follow."
(115) Then thus queen Juno picked up, "That will be a labor for me. Now by what means what presses can be accomplished, I will teach in a few (words)--pay attention. Aeneas and most wretched Dido together prepare to go to the forest to hunt, when tomorrow's Titan will have brought out his first risings and uncovered the region with his rays. I will pour down on these from above a black cloud with hail mixed in, while the wings are beating and they circle the forest with the net, and I will rouse the whole sky with thunder. The companions will flee and be covered with dark night: Dido and the Trojan leader will come to the same cave. I will be there and, if your will is sure to me, I will join (them) in steady wedlock and I will call her his own. This will be a marriage." Not averse to the one seeking, Cytheria nodded and laughed at the found tricks.
(129) Meanwhile Aurora, rising, left Ocean. Chosen youth go from the ports at risen daylight; wide-meshed nets, traps, hunting spears with wide iron, and Massylian horsemen rush and the scenting force of dogs. The first of the Poeni await the queen, lingering at the threshold of her bedchamber, her horse stands (lit. the one making sounds with its feet, distinguished with purple and gold, and chomps the foaming harnesses fiercely. At last she advances, with a great crowd accompanying, wearing (lit. surrounded in respect to) a Sidonian cloak with embroidered border; whose quiver is gold, her hair is (lit. pl.) knotted in gold, gold pins fasten her purple clothes. And indeed (lit. not not) both the Phrygian companions and happy Iulus approach. Aeneas himself, most handsome before all others, brings himself in as an ally and unites the bands. As when Apollo leaves wintery Lycia and the streams of the Xanthus and visits maternal Delos and renews the chorus, and, mixed around the altars, both the Cretans and Dryopes and the painted Agathyrsi clamor; he himself steps along the ridges of Cynthus and, grooming, he presses his flowing hair with soft leaf and winds (it) with gold, his weapons sound on his shoulders: Aeneas was going hardly more sluggish than that one, just so his glory shines from his distinguished face. After it is come into the high mountains and pathless wilderness, look! wild goats dislodged from the top of the rock ran down from the ridges; from another part dusty herds of hind pass over open fields at a run and gather in flight and leave the mountains. But the boy Ascanius in the middle of the valleys rejoices in his fierce horse and pass by now these, now those at a run, and he hopes a foaming boar be given to his prayers among the helpless herds or that a tawny lion descend from the mountain.
Saturday, December 26, 2009
Aeneid 12.791-842 and 887-952
(791) Meanwhile the all-powerful king of Olympus speaks to Juno, viewing the fights from a yellow cloud, "What end will there now be, wife? What finally remains? You yourself know and admit you know that Aeneas is owed to the sky as a native god and is born by the fates to the stars. What do you construct? Or to what hope do you cling in the cold clouds? Was it right that a god be violated by a mortal wound? or that the rescued sword--for what might Juturna avail without you--be returned to Turnus and that strength grow for the conquered? Stop now at last and bend to our prayers lest such grief consume you in silence and your sad cares flow back to me often from your sweet mouth. It is come to the end. You have been able to drive the Trojans on the lands or the seas, to summon unspeakable war, to mar a home and to mix wedding songs with grief: I forbid that you try farther."
(807) Thus Jupiter began; thus the Saturnian goddess with downcast face in reply, "Since indeed that your will was known to me, great Jupiter, I unwillingly left Turnus and the lands; nor would you see me alone now in my airy seat enduring worthy (and) unworthy things, but I would stand, girt with flames, under the battle-line itself and drawing the Teucrians into the hostile battles. I persuaded Juturna--I admit it--to help her wretched brother and approved that she dare greater things for his life, yet not that she contend with arrows, not with the bow; I swear by the implacable head of the Stygian fountain, which one superstition there is for the gods above. And now I yield, indeed, and I abandon the fights in loathing. I beg of you that which is held by no law of fate, for Latium, for the majesty of your peoples: when now they will construct peace by happy marriages (so be it), when now they will join laws and treaties, do not order that the native Latins change their old name, nor that they become Trojans and be called Teucrians or that the men change their language or alter their clothes. Let Latium be, let there be Alban kings through the ages, let Roman offspring be powerful with Italian virtue: Troy has fallen and you should allow that it has fallen with its name.
(829) Smiling at her, the originator of men and things: "You are the twin sister of Jove and the other offspring of Saturn, you roll such waves of anger under your heart. But come and calm this rage begun in vain: I give what you want, and I both beaten and willingly submit myself. The Ausonians will hold paternal speech and manners, and, as is their name, (so) will it be; the Teucrians will subside, only mixed with the body. I will add custom and rites of the sacred and I will make all Latins with one face. Hence you will see the race which will rise, mixed with Ausonian blood, go above men, above gods in piety, and not any race will celebrate your honors equally." Juno assented to these and happily changed her mind; meanwhile she left the sky and left her cloud.
(887) Aeneas pursues, opposite, and brandishes his huge, tree-like spear, and speaks thus from his savage chest, "What now then is the delay? Or why now, Turnus, do you retreat? Not by running, but with savage arms it must be contended face-to-face. Turn yourself into every shape and summon whatever powers whether in spirits or art; wish to follow lofty stars by wings and hide yourself shut in the hollow earth."
(894) That one, shaking his head, "Your hot words do not frighten me, fierce one; the gods scare me, and Jupiter as my enemy." And not having said more, he catches sight of a huge rock, a huge ancient rock, which lay by chance in the field, a boundary placed in the field to settle disputes in the fields. Scarcely twice six chosen men could lift it to their neck such bodies of men does now the earth produce; that hero turned it seized with a trembling hand against the enemy, riding higher and having moved at a run. But he recognized himself neither running nor going nor lifting with his hand nor moving the huge rock; his knees slip; his icy blood congeals with cold. Then the man's stone itself, rolling through the empty air, neither covered the whole space nor struck a blow.
(908) And just as in dreams when languid rest has pressed eyes in the night we seem to want to extend eager courses in vain and in the middle of our trials we give way, ill; the tongue is not strong and known strength is lacking in the body, neither voice nor words follow: thus Turnus, by whatever virtue he sought a way, the dread goddess denies success. Then various feelings turn in his chest; he sees the Rutulians and the city and delays with fear and trembles at death pressing in, and he does not ever see either where he might snatch himself, nor by any strength he might hold against the enemy, nor his chariot or his sister charioteer.
(919) Aeneas shakes his deadly spear at the wavering one, having chosen fortune with his eyes, and he launches from a great distance with his whole body. Rocks impelled from a city-battering siege engine never roar thus nor do such crashes burst forth from lightening. Like a black whirlwind the spear bearing harsh death flies and pierced the layers of the breastplate and the outer rings of his seven-layered shield; hissing it passes through the middle of his thigh. Huge Turnus falls to the ground, struck, on bent knee. The Rutulians rise with a groan and the whole mountain groans around and the high woods send back the call widely.
(930) That man, a humble suppliant, stretching forth his eyes and entreating right hand, says, "Indeed I deserve this and I do not beg off; use your advantage (lit. lot). If any care of a wretched parent can touch you, I beg--such a father even was Anchises to you--pity old Daunus and return me to my people, or if your prefer, a body despoiled of the light. You have won and the Ausonians have seen me, conquered, stretching out my palms; Lavinia is your wife; do not reach farther in hate (lit. pl.).
(939) Aeneas stood fierce in arms, rolling his eyes, and he repressed his right hand; and now and now more he had begun to bend the hesitating man with his speech, when the unlucky baldric appeared on his high shoulder and the straps of the boy Pallas gleamed with the known studs, whom Turnus had laid low, beaten by his wound, and he was wearing the hostile emblem on his shoulders. That one, after he drank in with his eyes the monuments and spoils of savage grief, burned with furies and terrible with anger: "Are you, wearing the spoils of my people, to be ripped hence from me? Pallas with this wound, Pallas sacrifices you and takes punishment from evil blood." Saying this, he buries the sword under the chest opposite, boiling hot; but the limbs of that man are loosened with chill, and his life flees with a groan, indignant, down to the shades.
(807) Thus Jupiter began; thus the Saturnian goddess with downcast face in reply, "Since indeed that your will was known to me, great Jupiter, I unwillingly left Turnus and the lands; nor would you see me alone now in my airy seat enduring worthy (and) unworthy things, but I would stand, girt with flames, under the battle-line itself and drawing the Teucrians into the hostile battles. I persuaded Juturna--I admit it--to help her wretched brother and approved that she dare greater things for his life, yet not that she contend with arrows, not with the bow; I swear by the implacable head of the Stygian fountain, which one superstition there is for the gods above. And now I yield, indeed, and I abandon the fights in loathing. I beg of you that which is held by no law of fate, for Latium, for the majesty of your peoples: when now they will construct peace by happy marriages (so be it), when now they will join laws and treaties, do not order that the native Latins change their old name, nor that they become Trojans and be called Teucrians or that the men change their language or alter their clothes. Let Latium be, let there be Alban kings through the ages, let Roman offspring be powerful with Italian virtue: Troy has fallen and you should allow that it has fallen with its name.
(829) Smiling at her, the originator of men and things: "You are the twin sister of Jove and the other offspring of Saturn, you roll such waves of anger under your heart. But come and calm this rage begun in vain: I give what you want, and I both beaten and willingly submit myself. The Ausonians will hold paternal speech and manners, and, as is their name, (so) will it be; the Teucrians will subside, only mixed with the body. I will add custom and rites of the sacred and I will make all Latins with one face. Hence you will see the race which will rise, mixed with Ausonian blood, go above men, above gods in piety, and not any race will celebrate your honors equally." Juno assented to these and happily changed her mind; meanwhile she left the sky and left her cloud.
(887) Aeneas pursues, opposite, and brandishes his huge, tree-like spear, and speaks thus from his savage chest, "What now then is the delay? Or why now, Turnus, do you retreat? Not by running, but with savage arms it must be contended face-to-face. Turn yourself into every shape and summon whatever powers whether in spirits or art; wish to follow lofty stars by wings and hide yourself shut in the hollow earth."
(894) That one, shaking his head, "Your hot words do not frighten me, fierce one; the gods scare me, and Jupiter as my enemy." And not having said more, he catches sight of a huge rock, a huge ancient rock, which lay by chance in the field, a boundary placed in the field to settle disputes in the fields. Scarcely twice six chosen men could lift it to their neck such bodies of men does now the earth produce; that hero turned it seized with a trembling hand against the enemy, riding higher and having moved at a run. But he recognized himself neither running nor going nor lifting with his hand nor moving the huge rock; his knees slip; his icy blood congeals with cold. Then the man's stone itself, rolling through the empty air, neither covered the whole space nor struck a blow.
(908) And just as in dreams when languid rest has pressed eyes in the night we seem to want to extend eager courses in vain and in the middle of our trials we give way, ill; the tongue is not strong and known strength is lacking in the body, neither voice nor words follow: thus Turnus, by whatever virtue he sought a way, the dread goddess denies success. Then various feelings turn in his chest; he sees the Rutulians and the city and delays with fear and trembles at death pressing in, and he does not ever see either where he might snatch himself, nor by any strength he might hold against the enemy, nor his chariot or his sister charioteer.
(919) Aeneas shakes his deadly spear at the wavering one, having chosen fortune with his eyes, and he launches from a great distance with his whole body. Rocks impelled from a city-battering siege engine never roar thus nor do such crashes burst forth from lightening. Like a black whirlwind the spear bearing harsh death flies and pierced the layers of the breastplate and the outer rings of his seven-layered shield; hissing it passes through the middle of his thigh. Huge Turnus falls to the ground, struck, on bent knee. The Rutulians rise with a groan and the whole mountain groans around and the high woods send back the call widely.
(930) That man, a humble suppliant, stretching forth his eyes and entreating right hand, says, "Indeed I deserve this and I do not beg off; use your advantage (lit. lot). If any care of a wretched parent can touch you, I beg--such a father even was Anchises to you--pity old Daunus and return me to my people, or if your prefer, a body despoiled of the light. You have won and the Ausonians have seen me, conquered, stretching out my palms; Lavinia is your wife; do not reach farther in hate (lit. pl.).
(939) Aeneas stood fierce in arms, rolling his eyes, and he repressed his right hand; and now and now more he had begun to bend the hesitating man with his speech, when the unlucky baldric appeared on his high shoulder and the straps of the boy Pallas gleamed with the known studs, whom Turnus had laid low, beaten by his wound, and he was wearing the hostile emblem on his shoulders. That one, after he drank in with his eyes the monuments and spoils of savage grief, burned with furies and terrible with anger: "Are you, wearing the spoils of my people, to be ripped hence from me? Pallas with this wound, Pallas sacrifices you and takes punishment from evil blood." Saying this, he buries the sword under the chest opposite, boiling hot; but the limbs of that man are loosened with chill, and his life flees with a groan, indignant, down to the shades.
Aeneid 10.420-509
Whom thus Pallas seeks, having prayed before: “Give now luck and a path through the chest of tough Halaesus, father Thybrus, to the iron, which I poise, about to be sent. Your oak will have these weapons and the spoils of the man.” The god heard these words; while Halaesus protected Imaon the unlucky man gave his unarmed chest to the Arcadian spear.
(426) But Lausus, a huge part of the war, does not desert his troops, terrified by such slaughter of the man; first he destroys Abas, opposite, both the knot and the delayer of the battle. The offspring of Arcadia is laid low, the Etruscans (are cut down) and you, Teucrians, bodies not destroyed by the Greeks. The lines join battle with both equal leaders and strength; the rear columns close up and the crowd does not allow weapons and hands be moved. On this side Pallas presses and urges on, on that side Lausus opposes, and their age does not differ much, (both) excellent in form, but to whom Fortune denies return into the homeland. Yet not at all did the ruler of great Olympus allow those men to fight against the other (lit. themselves); soon their fates await them under a greater enemy.
(439) Meanwhile his gentle sister warns Turnus to aid Lausus, who cuts the middle of the line with his flying chariot. As he saw the allies, "It is time to cease from the fight; I alone am born against Pallas, Pallas is owed to me alone. I could wish that his parent himself was present as a witness." Thus he says, and the allies yielded from the ordered level (area). But then, at the withdrawal of the Rutulians, the youth, wondering at the proud commands, is astounded at Turnus and rolls his eyes over the huge body and goes over everything at the savage sight from afar, and with such words now he proceeds against the words of the tyrant: "Either I will be praised now for the best captured spoils or for an outstanding death: my father is equal to each lot. Remove your threats." Having spoken, he advances into the middle of the level (space); cold blood congeals in the hearts of the Arcandians. Turnus jumped down from his chariot, he readies his feet to go face to face; and as a lion, when from a high vantage-point he has seen a bull practicing for battles, standing afar in the plains, flies forth, hardly other is the image of Turnus coming.
(457) When he trusted that this man would be in range of his sent spear, Pallas went first, if in any way chance might aid him daring with unequal strength, and thus he speaks to the great sky, "Through the hospitality and tables of my father, which you have come to as a stranger, I pray to you, Hercules, (that) you be present for my huge undertakings. Let him see me seize the bloody arms from his half-dead self and let the dying eyes of Turnus endure (me) as victor." Hercules heard the youth and pressed a huge groan under his inmost heart and poured down empty tears. Then the father says to his son with friendly words, "His own day stands for each, there is a short and irretrievable time of life for all; but to extend fame by deeds, this is the work of virtue. Under the high walls of Troy so many sons of the gods fell, in fact Sarpedon fell at the same time, my son; his own fates call even Turnus, and he has arrived at the turning point of his given life." Thus he speaks and turns his eyes back tot he fields of the Rutulians. But Pallas sends out his spear with great strength and snatches his gleaming sword from its hollow sheath. That flying (spear) strikes where the top coverings of the shoulder rises and, forcing a ways through the layers of the shield, at last grazed off the great body of Turnus.
(479) Here Turnus throws the oak tipped with sharp iron at Pallas, long balancing, and thus speaks, "See whether our weapon is more piercing." He had spoken; but the shield--which so many coverings of iron, so many of bronze, a hide of bull, having encircled, surrounded so many times--with shuddering blow the spear-point pierced the middle and punctures the delays of the breastplate and his huge chest. That one snatches the hot weapon from the wound in vain: by one and the same path his blood and spirit follow. He collapses on his wound--his weapons gave a sound over (him)--and dying he seeks the ground with his bloody mouth.
(490) Over whom Turnus, standing, says, "Arcadians, remembering, take back these my words to Evander: I send back Pallas just as he deserved. Whatever honor of the tomb, whatever solace of burial there is, I bestow. Hardly little will hospitality for Aeneas cost him." And having said this he pressed the dead with his left foot, snatching the immense weight and engraved impiety of the baldric: under one nuptial night a band of young men foully slaughtered and bloody bedchambers, which Clonus son of Eurytus had engraved with much gold; having gotten which booty Turnus now celebrates and rejoices.
(501) Mind of men, unknowing of fate and future lot and how to keep measure, lifted up by favorable events! There will be a time for great Turnus when he will have wished that an untouched Pallas had been bought and when he will have hated those spoils and (that) day. But with a great groan and tears the allies thronging around bore back Pallas placed on a shield. O grief and great glory about to return to your father, this first day gave you to war, this same (day) bears you away, when yet you leave the huge heaps of Rutulians!
(426) But Lausus, a huge part of the war, does not desert his troops, terrified by such slaughter of the man; first he destroys Abas, opposite, both the knot and the delayer of the battle. The offspring of Arcadia is laid low, the Etruscans (are cut down) and you, Teucrians, bodies not destroyed by the Greeks. The lines join battle with both equal leaders and strength; the rear columns close up and the crowd does not allow weapons and hands be moved. On this side Pallas presses and urges on, on that side Lausus opposes, and their age does not differ much, (both) excellent in form, but to whom Fortune denies return into the homeland. Yet not at all did the ruler of great Olympus allow those men to fight against the other (lit. themselves); soon their fates await them under a greater enemy.
(439) Meanwhile his gentle sister warns Turnus to aid Lausus, who cuts the middle of the line with his flying chariot. As he saw the allies, "It is time to cease from the fight; I alone am born against Pallas, Pallas is owed to me alone. I could wish that his parent himself was present as a witness." Thus he says, and the allies yielded from the ordered level (area). But then, at the withdrawal of the Rutulians, the youth, wondering at the proud commands, is astounded at Turnus and rolls his eyes over the huge body and goes over everything at the savage sight from afar, and with such words now he proceeds against the words of the tyrant: "Either I will be praised now for the best captured spoils or for an outstanding death: my father is equal to each lot. Remove your threats." Having spoken, he advances into the middle of the level (space); cold blood congeals in the hearts of the Arcandians. Turnus jumped down from his chariot, he readies his feet to go face to face; and as a lion, when from a high vantage-point he has seen a bull practicing for battles, standing afar in the plains, flies forth, hardly other is the image of Turnus coming.
(457) When he trusted that this man would be in range of his sent spear, Pallas went first, if in any way chance might aid him daring with unequal strength, and thus he speaks to the great sky, "Through the hospitality and tables of my father, which you have come to as a stranger, I pray to you, Hercules, (that) you be present for my huge undertakings. Let him see me seize the bloody arms from his half-dead self and let the dying eyes of Turnus endure (me) as victor." Hercules heard the youth and pressed a huge groan under his inmost heart and poured down empty tears. Then the father says to his son with friendly words, "His own day stands for each, there is a short and irretrievable time of life for all; but to extend fame by deeds, this is the work of virtue. Under the high walls of Troy so many sons of the gods fell, in fact Sarpedon fell at the same time, my son; his own fates call even Turnus, and he has arrived at the turning point of his given life." Thus he speaks and turns his eyes back tot he fields of the Rutulians. But Pallas sends out his spear with great strength and snatches his gleaming sword from its hollow sheath. That flying (spear) strikes where the top coverings of the shoulder rises and, forcing a ways through the layers of the shield, at last grazed off the great body of Turnus.
(479) Here Turnus throws the oak tipped with sharp iron at Pallas, long balancing, and thus speaks, "See whether our weapon is more piercing." He had spoken; but the shield--which so many coverings of iron, so many of bronze, a hide of bull, having encircled, surrounded so many times--with shuddering blow the spear-point pierced the middle and punctures the delays of the breastplate and his huge chest. That one snatches the hot weapon from the wound in vain: by one and the same path his blood and spirit follow. He collapses on his wound--his weapons gave a sound over (him)--and dying he seeks the ground with his bloody mouth.
(490) Over whom Turnus, standing, says, "Arcadians, remembering, take back these my words to Evander: I send back Pallas just as he deserved. Whatever honor of the tomb, whatever solace of burial there is, I bestow. Hardly little will hospitality for Aeneas cost him." And having said this he pressed the dead with his left foot, snatching the immense weight and engraved impiety of the baldric: under one nuptial night a band of young men foully slaughtered and bloody bedchambers, which Clonus son of Eurytus had engraved with much gold; having gotten which booty Turnus now celebrates and rejoices.
(501) Mind of men, unknowing of fate and future lot and how to keep measure, lifted up by favorable events! There will be a time for great Turnus when he will have wished that an untouched Pallas had been bought and when he will have hated those spoils and (that) day. But with a great groan and tears the allies thronging around bore back Pallas placed on a shield. O grief and great glory about to return to your father, this first day gave you to war, this same (day) bears you away, when yet you leave the huge heaps of Rutulians!
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Aeneid 2.730-804
And now I near the gates and seemed to have escaped every path, when suddenly a constant sound of feet seemed to be in my ears, and my father, looking forward through the shadow, exclaims, 'Son, flee, son; they are near; I see shining shields and flashing bronze.' Here some hostile (lit. badly friendly) power snatched away from me my confused mind. For while I follow the trackless way at a run and leave the known region of the paths, alas, unlucky Creusa, snatched by wretched fate, either stopped or she wandered from the path or she sank down exhausted--it is uncertain; she was neither returned afterward to our eyes, nor did I catch sight of her lost or bend back my mind before we came to the mound of ancient Ceres and her sacred seat. Here finally, with everyone collected, was that one missing, and she slipped away from her companions and child and husband. Whom of both men and the gods did I not accuse, crazed, or what crueler thing in the overturned city did I see?
(747) I entrust Ascanius and Anchises my parent and the Teucrian Penates to my allies and hide (them) away in the curved valley; I myself seek again the city and put on gleaming arms. It stands to renew all misfortunes and to return through all Troy and the subject my head again to the dangers. In the beginning I seek again the walls and the dark thresholds of the gate by which I had lead out my step, and I follow back tracks observed through the night and scan with my eye: everywhere the terror in my mind and the silence itself terrify me at the same time. Then I took myself home, if by chance, if by chance she had returned (there); the Greeks had invaded and held my whole house. Suddenly consuming fire rolls to the top peaks with the wind; the flames tower above, the heat rages to the airs. I advance and revisit the homes and citadel of Priam: and now in the empty porticos , the sanctuary of Iuno, chosen watchmen, Phoenix and hard ulysses, were protecting the booty. To this place from everywhere Trojan treasure, snatched from burning shrines is gathered, and the tables of the gods and mixing bowls of solid gold, and captured clothing. Boys and fearful mothers stand around in a long line.
(768) In fact I dared even to throw voices through the shadow and filled the streets with a clamor, and I called 'Creusa" in vain, mournful, groaning again and again. To me seeking and rushing to/from houses without end, the unlucky ghost of Creusa herself appeared before my eyes and the image, greater than as known. I stopped silent and my hair stood up and my voice clung in my throat. Then thus she spoke and lessened my cares with these words: 'Why is it pleasing to indulge so in insane grief, o sweet husband? These things do not happen without the will of the gods; and it is not right for you to carry Creusa as a companion hence, nor does the ruler himself of Olympus above allow (it). Long exiles and the vast water of the sea must be plowed by you, and you will come to Hesperia, where a Lydian Tiber flows among the best fields of men with a gentle line. There happy circumstances and a kingdom and a royal wife have been created for you; put aside tears for your cherishe Creusa. I will not see the proud homes of the Myrmidons or of the Dolopians nor will I go to serve Greek mothers, a Dardanian and daughter-in-law of the goddess Venus; but the great mother of the gods detains me on these shores. And now goodbye and keep the love of our common child.' When she gave these words, she left me crying and wishing to say many things, and receded into the thin breezes. Three times then I tried to put arms around her neck; three times in vain the grasped image fled my hands, equal to light winds, and most like a flying dream. Thus at last I revisit my allies, the night having been used up.
(796) And here I find a huge, astonishing number of new companions had streamed together, both mothers and men, the youth collected for exile, a wretched crowd. From everywhere they came together prepared in hearts and resources for whatever lands I should wish to lead them by the sea. And now Lucifer was rising from the ridges of highest Ida and was leading the day, and the Greeks were holding the besieged thresholds of the gates and not any hope of aid was given. I yielded and sought the mountains with my uplifted father.
(747) I entrust Ascanius and Anchises my parent and the Teucrian Penates to my allies and hide (them) away in the curved valley; I myself seek again the city and put on gleaming arms. It stands to renew all misfortunes and to return through all Troy and the subject my head again to the dangers. In the beginning I seek again the walls and the dark thresholds of the gate by which I had lead out my step, and I follow back tracks observed through the night and scan with my eye: everywhere the terror in my mind and the silence itself terrify me at the same time. Then I took myself home, if by chance, if by chance she had returned (there); the Greeks had invaded and held my whole house. Suddenly consuming fire rolls to the top peaks with the wind; the flames tower above, the heat rages to the airs. I advance and revisit the homes and citadel of Priam: and now in the empty porticos , the sanctuary of Iuno, chosen watchmen, Phoenix and hard ulysses, were protecting the booty. To this place from everywhere Trojan treasure, snatched from burning shrines is gathered, and the tables of the gods and mixing bowls of solid gold, and captured clothing. Boys and fearful mothers stand around in a long line.
(768) In fact I dared even to throw voices through the shadow and filled the streets with a clamor, and I called 'Creusa" in vain, mournful, groaning again and again. To me seeking and rushing to/from houses without end, the unlucky ghost of Creusa herself appeared before my eyes and the image, greater than as known. I stopped silent and my hair stood up and my voice clung in my throat. Then thus she spoke and lessened my cares with these words: 'Why is it pleasing to indulge so in insane grief, o sweet husband? These things do not happen without the will of the gods; and it is not right for you to carry Creusa as a companion hence, nor does the ruler himself of Olympus above allow (it). Long exiles and the vast water of the sea must be plowed by you, and you will come to Hesperia, where a Lydian Tiber flows among the best fields of men with a gentle line. There happy circumstances and a kingdom and a royal wife have been created for you; put aside tears for your cherishe Creusa. I will not see the proud homes of the Myrmidons or of the Dolopians nor will I go to serve Greek mothers, a Dardanian and daughter-in-law of the goddess Venus; but the great mother of the gods detains me on these shores. And now goodbye and keep the love of our common child.' When she gave these words, she left me crying and wishing to say many things, and receded into the thin breezes. Three times then I tried to put arms around her neck; three times in vain the grasped image fled my hands, equal to light winds, and most like a flying dream. Thus at last I revisit my allies, the night having been used up.
(796) And here I find a huge, astonishing number of new companions had streamed together, both mothers and men, the youth collected for exile, a wretched crowd. From everywhere they came together prepared in hearts and resources for whatever lands I should wish to lead them by the sea. And now Lucifer was rising from the ridges of highest Ida and was leading the day, and the Greeks were holding the besieged thresholds of the gates and not any hope of aid was given. I yielded and sought the mountains with my uplifted father.
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