P. VIRGILII MARONIS ENEIDOS. LIBER XI. 10 OCEANUM interea surgens Aurora reliquit. Eneas (quanquam et sociis dare tempus humandis Præcipitant curæ, turbataque funere mens est) Vota Deûm primo victor solvebat Eöo. Ingentem quercum, decisis undique ramis, Constituit tumulo, fulgentiaque induit arma, Mezentî ducis exuvias; tibi, magne, tropæum, Bellipotens! aptat rorantes sanguine cristas, Telaque trunca viri, et bis sex thoraca petitum Perfossumque locis; clypeumque ex ære sinistræ Subligat, atque ensem collo suspendit eburnum. Tum socios (namque omnis eum stipata tegebat Turba ducum) incipiens hortatur ovantes: Maxima res effecta, viri: timor omnis abesto. Quod superest; hæc sunt spolia, et de rege superbo 15 Primitiæ; manibusque meis Mezentius hic est. Nunc iter ad regem nobis murosque Latinos: Arma parate, animis et spe præsumite bellum, Ne qua mora ignaros, ubi primùm vellere signa Annuerint Superi, pubemque educere castris, Impediat, segnesque metu sententia tardet. Interea socios, inhumataque corpora, terræ 20 20 15. Haec spolia, etc. By the rex superbus here some understand Turnus: from him he had won the spoils in general, to which he first points; then to the trophy representing Mezentius, of which he says, Manibusque meis Mezentius hic est. 20. Annuerint Superi. They never raised the standard to march without augury, THE ENEID OF VIRGIL. BOOK XI. MEANWHILE Aurora rising left the ocean. Æneas (though both his princely cares hurry him to allot time for interring his friends, and his mind is perplexed about the funeral of Pallas) first, in consequence of his victory, paid to the gods his vows soon as the dawn appeared. A huge oak, with its boughs on every side lopped off, he erected on a rising ground, and adorned it with shining arms, the spoils of king Mezentius: to thee a trophy, thou great warrior-god! He fits to the trunk his crest distilling blood, and the hero's shattered arms, and his breast-plate in twice six places dented and transfixed; and to the left-arm he fastens his target of brass, and from the neck suspends his ivory-hilted sword. Then thus beginning he encourages his joyous friends (for all the chiefs in a crowded body enclosed him): Illustrious warriors, our most important work is done: henceforth all fear be banished. For what remains, these are the spoils, and first-fruits of victory won from that insolent tyrant; and to this state the redoubted Mezentius is by my arm reduced. Now to the king and the walls of Latium our way lies open: your arms make ready for the siege, and with stout hearts and hopes anticipate the war, that obstacles may not detain you unprovided, or a wavering resolution retard you clogged with fear, when first the gods permit us to pluck up the standard, and from the camp to lead forth the youth. Meanwhile let us to earth commit our friends, and the unburied corpses Mandemus; qui solus honos Acheronte sub imo est. 25 Sic ait illacrymans, recipitque ad limina gressum, Corpus ubi exanimi positum Pallantis Acœtes 30 Armiger antè fuit, sed non felicibus æquè Tum comes auspiciis caro datus ibat alumno. Circum omnis famulûmque manus, Trojanaque turba, 35 Et mæstæ Iliades crinem de more soluta. 40 45 Discedens dederam, cum me complexus euntem Et nunc ille quidem, spe multùm captus inani, Hi nostri reditus, expectatique triumphi? 50 Hæc mea magna fides? At non, Evandre, pudendis 55 Vulneribus pulsum aspicies; nec sospite dirum 29. Ad limina. It was the custom to lay out a dead body in the vestibule before the door, after it was washed, anointed, and crowned with garlands. 51. Nil jam coelestibus ullis debentem. No more a subject of the gods above, but in subjection to the infernal powers. Or perhaps it means, that he was now discharged of every vow he had made to the celestial gods. of the slain; which is the sole honour regarded in the infernal world. Go, he says, with the last duties grace those illustrious souls who for us have won this country with their blood; and first to the mourning city of Evander let Pallas be conveyed, whom, not deficient in heroic virtue, a black inauspicious day cut off, and sunk in an untimely death. Thus weeping he speaks, and to the threshold takes his way, where aged Acotes watched the corpse of lifeless Pallas laid out; Acates, who formerly was armour-bearer to Arcadian Evander, and now with less auspicious omens came to the war, appointed guardian to his darling foster-son. Around the dead the whole retinue of his servants stood, a band of Trojans and mourning dames of Ilium with tresses in usual form dishevelled. But soon as Æneas entered the lofty gates, beating their breasts they raise to heaven a hideous groan, and the palace rings with mournful lamentation. When he himself beheld the bolstered head and face of Pallas, white and cold as snow, and in his smooth breast the gaping wound of the Ausonian spear, he thus with gushing tears begins: Oh, lamented youth, how envious was Fortune, just when she began to smile, to snatch thee from me, that thou shouldest not see my kingdom, nor be borne in triumph to thy paternal seats? Not such things of thee I at parting promised to thy sire Evander, when, taking leave of me with embraces, he sent me against a mighty empire, and trembling warned me that the men we had to do with were fierce, and that we were to engage a rough and warlike nation. And now he, highly deceived with empty hope, is, perhaps, both making vows, and loading the altars with offerings; while we in grief with unavailing pomp attend the youth, a lifeless corpse, and now released from his allegiance to the powers above. Ill-fated sire, thou shalt see the dismal funeral of thy own son! Is it thus we return? are these our promised triumphs? is this my boasted confidence? Yet for thy consolation, Evander, thou shalt not see him with inglorious wounds repulsed; nor on thy son thus saved by disgrace shalt thou in spite of paternal Ff VOL. II. Optabis nato funus pater. Hei mihi, quantum Hic juvenem agresti sublimem in stramine ponunt; 60 65 Cui neque fulgor adhuc, necdum sua forma recessit; 70 Ipsa suis quondam manibus Sidonia Dido Harum unam juveni, supremum, moestus, honorem, 75 Induit, arsurasque comas obnubit amictu. Indutosque jubet truncos hostilibus armis Ipsos ferre duces, inimicaque nomina figi. 85 Pectora nunc fœdans pugnis, nunc unguibus ora; Post bellator equus, positis insignibus, Æthon 90 |