O tandem magnis pelagi defuncte perîclis ! Tu ne cede malis; sed contrà audentior ito, 90 95 100 105 110 88. Non Simois, etc. The Tyber and the Numicus shall witness similar scenes to those on the Xanthus and Simois, Turnus shall be another Achilles, and Lavinia a second Helen. overpassed the vast perils of the ocean! yet more afflictive trials by land await thee. The Trojans shall come to the realms of Lavinium (dismiss that concern from your breast); but they shall wish too they had never come thither. Wars, horrid wars I foresee, and Tyber foaming with a deluge of blood. Neither Simois, nor Xanthus, nor Grecian camps, shall be wanting to you there. Another Achilles is prepared for thee in Latium; he too the son of a goddess. Nor shall Juno, the appointed scourge of the Trojans, leave them wherever they are while in your distress, which of the Italian states, which of its cities, shall you not humbly supplicate for aid? Once more shall a consort, a hostess, once more shall a foreign match be the cause of so great calamity to the Trojans. Sink not under the weight of your sufferings, but encounter them with the greater fortitude, the more that fortune shall oppose you. What you least expect, your first means of deliverance shall arise from a Grecian city. Thus from her holy cell the Cumaan Sibyl delivers her awfully mysterious oracles, and, wrapping up truth in obscurity, bellows in her cave: with such rigour Apollo shakes the reins over her as she wildly rages, and deep in her breast exerts his stimulating power. As soon as her fury ceased, and her maddening tongue was silent, the hero Eneas begins: To me, O virgin, no shape of sufferings can arise new or unexpected: I have anticipated all the ills of life, and acted them over beforehand in my mind. My sole request is (since here the gate of the infernal king is said to be, and the darksome lake arising from the overflowing of Acheron), that I may be so happy as to come into the sight and presence of my dear father; that you would shew the way, and open to me the sacred avenues. On these shoulders I rescued him, through flames and a thousand darts pursuing, and saved him from the midst of the enemy. He accompanied my path, attended me in all my voyages, and, though weak and infirm, bore all the terrors both of the sea and sky, beyond what the Invalidus, vires ultra sortemque senectæ. Quin, ut te supplex peterem, et tua limina adirem, 115 Alma, precor miserere: potes namque omnia; nec te Itque reditque viam toties: quid Thesea, magnum 120 Quid memorem Alciden? et mî genus ab Jove summo. Talibus orabat dictis, arasque tenebat. Tum sic orsa loqui vates: Sate sanguine Divûm, 125 Tros Anchisiade, facilis descensus Averni; Noctes atque dies patet atri janua Ditis: Sed revocare gradum, superasque evadere ad auras, Hoc opus, hic labor est. Pauci, quos æquus amavit Jupiter, aut ardens evexit ad æthera virtus, 130 Dis geniti, potuere. Tenent media omnia sylvæ, Quod si tantus amor menti, si tanta cupido est, Bis Stygios innare lacus, bis nigra videre Tartara, et insano juvat indulgere labori, 135 Accipe, quæ peragenda priùs. Latet arbore opacâ Aureus et foliis et lento vimine ramus, Junoni infernæ dictus sacer: hunc tegit omnis Lucus, et obscuris claudunt convallibus umbræ. 140 Auricomos quàm quis decerpserit arbore fetus. Hoc sibi pulchra suum ferri Proserpina munus 145 Carpe manu; namque ipse volens facilisque sequetur, 138. Junoni infernae. As Pluto is styled Jupiter Stygius, so Proserpine is called Infernal Juno, power and condition of old age can usually bear. Nay more, he it was who earnestly requested and enjoined me to come to thee a suppliant, and visit thy temple. Propitious virgin, pity, I pray, the son and the sire: for thy power is unlimited; nor hath Hecate in vain given thee charge of the Avernian groves. If Orpheus had power to recall to light his consort's ghost, assisted by his Thracian harp and harmonious strings; if Pollux redeemed his brother Castor by alternate death, and goes and comes this way so often; I hope I may also be allowed to go and return: why need I mention Theseus, or great Alcides? I too derive my birth as well as they from Jove supreme. In these terms he prayed, and held the altar, when thus the prophetess began to speak: Offspring of the gods, Trojan prince, son of Anchises, easy is the path that leads down to hell; grim Pluto's gate stands open night and day but to re-ascend, and escape thence to the upper regions, this is a work, this is a task indeed. Yet some few, whom favouring Jove loved, or illustrious virtue advanced to heaven, the sons of the gods, have effected it. Woods cover all the intervening space, and Cocytus gliding with his black winding flood surrounds it. But if your soul be possessed with so strong a love, so ardent a desire, twice to sail across the Stygian lake, twice to visit gloomy Tartarus, and you will needs fondly pursue the desperate enterprise, learn what first is to be done. On a tree of deepening shade there lies concealed a bough, with leaves and limber twigs of gold, pronounced sacred to infernal Juno: this the whole grove covers, and shades in dark valleys enclose. But to none is it given to enter the hidden recesses of the earth, till from the tree he pluck the bough with its golden locks. Fair Proserpine hath ordained this to be presented to her as her peculiar present. When the first is torn off, a second likewise of gold soon succeeds; and a new twig shoots forth leaves of the same metal. Therefore search for it with eyes erect, and, when found, pluck it with the hand in a proper manner; for, if the fates invite you, Si te fata vocant: aliter, non viribus ullis 150 155 It comes, et paribus curis vestigia figit. Multa inter sese vario sermone serebant; 160 Quem socium exanimum vates, quod corpus humandum Diceret. Atque illi Misenum in litore sicco, Ut venêre, vident indignâ morte peremtum; 165 Postquam illum victor vitâ spoliavit Achilles, 170 Sed tum, forte cavâ dum personat æquora conchâ Demens, et cantu vocat in certamina Divos, Emulus exceptum Triton (si credere dignum est) 175 171. Concha. Shell-trumpets were in use before those instruments were made of brass. 177. Aramque sepulcri. The funeral pile; so called because it was built in the form of an altar. |