amorous cares, and returns her love for love. Æneas, nevertheless, in commotion for her disastrous fate, with weeping eyes, pursues her far, and melts with pity towards her as she goes from him. Hence he holds on his destined way; and now they had reached the last fields, which by themselves apart renowned warriors frequent. Here Tydeus appears to him, here Parthenopaus illustrious in arms, and the ghost of pale Adrastus. Here appear those Trojans, who had died in the field of battle, much lamented in the upper world; whom when he beheld all together in a numerous body, he inwardly groaned; particularly when he saw Glaucus, Medon, Thersilochus, the three sons of Antenor, and Polybotes devoted to Ceres, and Idæus still handling his chariot, still his armour. The ghosts in crowds around him stand on the right and left: nor are they satisfied with seeing him once: they wish to detain him long, to come into close conference with him, and learn the reasons of his visit. But as soon as the Grecian chiefs and Agamemnon's battalions saw the hero, and his arms gleaming through the shades, they quaked with dire dismay; some turned their backs, as when they fled once to their ships; some raise their slender voices; the scream just begun dies in their gasping throats. And here he espies Deiphobus, the son of Priam, mangled in every limb, his face and both his hands cruelly torn, his temples slashed, his ears cropped, and his nostrils slit with a hideously-deformed wound. Thus he hardly knew him quaking for fear of being discovered, and seeking to hide his ghastly scars; and thus he first accosts him with well-known accents: Deiphobus, great in arms, sprung from Teucer's noble blood, who could choose to inflict on you such cruelties? or who was allowed to exercise such power over you? To me, in that last night, a report was brought that you, tired with the vast slaughter of the Greeks, had fallen at last on a heap of mingled carcases. Then, with my own hands, I raised to you an empty tomb on the Rhotean shore, 510 515 Constitui, et magnâ Manes ter voce vocavi. Sed te qui vivum casus, age fare vicissim, 520 525 530 535 510. Funeris. Taken for the corpse itself; as in Aen. IX. 491. 524. Capiti subduxerat ensem. The ancient warriors slept with their swords under their pillows. Your she and thrice with loud voice I invoked your manes. name and arms possess the place. Your body, my friend, I could not find, or, at my departure, deposit in thy native land. And upon this the son of Priam said: Nothing, my friend, has been omitted by you: you have discharged every duty to Deiphobus, and to the shadow of a corpse. But my own unhappy fate, and the cursed wickedness of Helen, plunged me in these woes: hath left me these monuments of her love. For how we passed that last night amidst false ill-grounded joys you know, and must remember but too well, when the fatal horse came bounding over our lofty walls, and pregnant brought armed infantry in its womb. She pretending to celebrate a mingled dance, led her train of Phrygian matrons yelling around the orgies: herself in the midst of them held a large flaming torch, and called to the Greeks from the lofty tower. I, being at that time oppressed with care, and overpowered with sleep, was lodged in my unfortunate bed-chamber, where rest, balmy, profound, and the perfect image of a calm peaceful death, pressed me as I lay. Meanwhile my incomparable wife removes all arms from my palace, and had withdrawn my trusty sword from my head: she calls Menelaus into the palace, and throws open the gates; hoping, no doubt, that would be a mighty favour to her amorous husband, and that thus the infamy of her former wicked deeds might be extinguished. In short, they burst into my chamber: that traitor of the race of Æolus, the promoter of villany, is joined in company with them. Ye gods, requite these cruelties to the Greeks, if I supplicate vengeance with pious lips! But come, now in thy turn, say what adventure hath brought thee hither alive. Dost thou come driven by the capricious casualties of the main, or by the direction of the gods? or what fortune stimulates thee to visit these dreary mansions, troublous regions, where the sun never shines? In this conversation the sun in his rosy chariot had now passed the meridian in his etherial course; and they perhaps would in this manner have passed the whole time Sed comes admonuit breviterque affata Sibylla est: Nox ruit, Ænea: nos flendo ducimus horas. Hic locus est, partes ubi se via findit in ambas : Dextera, quæ Ditis magni sub monia tendit; Hac iter Elysium nobis: at læva malorum Exercet pœnas, et ad impia Tartara mittit. Deiphobus contra: Ne sævi, magna sacerdos; Discedam, explebo numerum, reddarque tenebris. I, decus, i, nostrum; melioribus utere fatis! Tantum effatus, et in verbo vestigia torsit. Respicit Æneas subitò, et sub rupe sinistrâ Moenia lata videt, triplici circumdata muro, Quæ rapidus flammis ambit torrentibus amnis Tartareus Phlegethon, torquetque sonantia saxa. Porta adversa, ingens, solidoque adamante columnæ, Vis ut nulla virûm, non ipsi exscindere ferro Coelicolæ valeant. Stat ferrea turris ad auras: Tisiphoneque sedens pallâ succincta cruentâ, Vestibulum exsomnis servat noctesque diesque. Hinc exaudiri gemitus, et sæva sonare Verbera; tum stridor ferri, tractæque catenæ. Constitit Æneas, strepitumque exterritus hausit: Quæ scelerum facies? O virgo, effare; quibusve Urgentur pœnis? quis tantus plangor ad auras? Tum vates sic orsa loqui: Dux inclyte Teucrûm, Nulli fas casto sceleratum insistere limen: Sed me, cum lucis Hecate præfecit Avernis, Ipsa Deûm pœnas docuit, perque omnia duxit. Gnosius hæc Rhadamanthus habet durissima regna; 540 545 550 555 560 565 Castigatque auditque dolos; subigitque fateri, Distulit in seram commissa piacula mortem. 570 553. Vis ut nulla. By this Virgil intimates that the pains of Tartarus were everlasting, and that neither gods nor men could release prisoners who were once condemned to that place of torment. 568. Furto inani. All secret clandestine acts of vice go under the name of furtum, theft. The epithet inani means unavailing, because, however secret, they were known to the gods. assigned them; but the Sibyl, his companion, put him in mind, and thus briefly spoke: Æneas, the night comes on apace, while we waste the hours in vain lamentations. This is the place where the path divides in two: the right is what leads to great Pluto's walls; by this our way to Elysium lies: but the left carries on the punishments of the wicked, and conveys to cursed Tartarus. On the other hand Deiphobus said, Be not incensed, great priestess; I shall be gone; fill up the number of those disconsolate ghosts among whom I dwell, and be rendered back to my former darkness. Pass on, pass on, thou glory of our nation; mayest thou prove the fates more kind! This only he spoke, and at the word turned his steps. Æneas on a sudden looks back, and under a rock on the left sees spacious prisons inclosed with a triple wall, which Tartarean Phlegethon's rapid flood environs with torrents of flame, and whirls roaring rocks along. Fronting is a gate of huge dimensions, with columns of solid adamant, that no strength of men, nor the gods themselves, can with steel demolish. An iron tower rises high; and there Tisiphone, a wakeful Fury, clad in a bloody robe, sits to watch the gate both night and day. Hence groans are heard; the cruel lashes resound; the grating too of iron, and clank of dragging chains. Eneas stopped short, and starting, listened to the din. What scenes of guilt are these? O virgin, say; with what pains are they chastened? what hideous yelling ascends to the skies? Then thus the prophetess began: Renowned leader of the Trojans, no holy person is allowed to tread the accursed threshold: but Hecate, when she set me over the groves of Avernus, taught me herself the punishments appointed by the gods, and led me through every part. Cretan Rhadamanthus possesses these ruthless realms; examines and punishes frauds; and forces every one to confess what crimes committed in the upper world he had left unatoned till the late hour of death, hugging himself in secret crimes of no avail. Forthwith avenging Tisiphone, armed with her whip, scourges the guilty with cruel insult, and in her left-hand shaking over them |