Subsidunt undæ, tumidumque sub axe tonanti 820 825 830 835 840 845 850 824. Phorcique exercitus omnis. All the Nereids, whom Phorcus the sea-god was wont at times to muster. 827. Vicissim. After his anxiety on account of the burning of the ships. 829. Brachia. The sail-yards that stretch across the mast like arms. 830. Fecere signifies, They worked, they stretched. Pes is the rope by which the sails move. 844. Aequatae spirant aurae. The wind blows directly in the stern, not stronger on one side than on the other. seas he nimbly glides in his azure car. The waves subside, and the swelling ocean smooths its liquid pavement under the thundering axle: the clouds fly off the face of the expanded sky. Then appear the various forms of his retinue, unwieldy whales, and the aged train of Glaucus, and Palemon, Ino's son, the swift Tritons, and the whole band of Phorcus. On the left are Thetis, Melite, and the virgin Panopea, Nesæe, Spio, Thalia, and Cymodoce. Upon this, soft joys in their turn diffuse themselves through the anxious soul of father Æneas. Forthwith he orders all the masts to be set up, and the sails to be stretched along the yards. At once they all tug at their halsers, and together unfurl sometimes the left-hand sheets, sometimes the right: at once they turn the high extremities of the sail-yards, sometimes to the one side, sometimes to the other: friendly gales waft the fleet forward. Palinurus, the master-pilot, led the closely united squadron: towards him the rest were ordered to steer their course. And now the dewy night had almost reached the middle of her course; the weary sailors, stretched along the hard benches under the oars, relaxed their limbs in peaceful repose; when the god of sleep, gliding down from the ethereal stars, parted the dusky air, and dispelled the shades; to you, O Palinurus, directing his course, visiting you, though innocent, with dismal dreams; and the god took his seat on the lofty stern, in the similitude of Phorbas, and poured forth these words: Palinurus, son of Iasius, the seas themselves carry forward the fleet; the gales blow fair and steady, the hour for rest is given you. Recline your head and steal your weary eyes from labour. Myself a while will discharge your duty. To whom Palinurus, with difficulty lifting up his eyes, answers: Would you then have me a stranger to the face of the sea smiling as it now appears, and its waves thus still and calm? shall I confide in this extraordinary apparition! Why should I trust Eneas to the mercy of the fallacious winds, particularly after having been so often deceived by the treacherous aspect of a serene sky? 855 Talia dicta dabat; clavumque affixus et hærens 865 870 856. Natantia. Bedimmed with vapours and confused images. 857. Primos artus. Sleep is here represented as creeping or diffusing itself over the body, and relaxing the limbs one after another. These words he uttered, while fixed and clinging he did not part with the rudder, and held his eyes directed to the stars; when lo! the god shakes over both his temples a branch drenched in the dew of Lethe, and impregnated with a soporific Stygian quality; and, while he is dallying with sleep, dissolves his swimming eyes. Scarcely had soft slumber, stealing on him by surprise, relaxed his first limbs, when the god incumbent on him, with part of the stern broken off, together with the helm, plunged him into the crystal waves headlong, and often calling on his friends in vain: then taking flight, he raised himself on his wings aloft into the thin air. Meanwhile the fleet runs its watery course on the liquid plain with equal security, and fearless is conducted by virtue of father Neptune's promises. And now wafted forward it was even coming up to the rocks of the Sirens, once of difficult access, and white with the bones of many whom they had drawn to suffer shipwreck (at that time the hoarse rocks resounded far by the continual buffeting of the briny waves); when father Eneas perceived the fluctuating galley to reel, having lost its pilot; and he himself steered her through the darkened waves, deeply affected and wounded in his soul for the misfortune of his friend: Ah Palinurus, says he, who hast too much confided in the fair aspect of the skies and sea! naked and unburied shalt thou lie on an unknown barbarous coast! P. VIRGILII MARONIS ENEIDOS. LIBER VI. Sic fatur lacrymans, classique immittit habenas; Prætexunt puppes. Juvenum manus emicat ardens 10 Antrum immane, petit; magnam cui mentem animumque Jam subeunt Triviæ lucos, atque aurea tecta. 15 20 2. Euboicis Cumarum. Megasthenes of Chalcis in Euboea trans planted a colony into Italy, and built Cumae. 11. Mentem animumque. By animus Virgil means the soul in general; by mens the intellectual faculties. 19. Remigium alarum. Those wings wherewith he had cut through the air, as oars divide the waves. |