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the victorā€™s lust, sustainā€™d the scorn:
Thus I submitted to the lawless pride
Of Pyrrhus, more a handmaid than a bride.
Cloyā€™d with possession, he forsook my bed,
And Helenā€™s lovely daughter sought to wed;
Then me to Trojan Helenus resignā€™d,
And his two slaves in equal marriage joinā€™d;
Till young Orestes, piercā€™d with deep despair,
And longing to redeem the promisā€™d fair,
Before Apolloā€™s altar slew the ravisher.
By Pyrrhusā€™ death the kingdom we regainā€™d:
At least one half with Helenus remainā€™d.
Our part, from Chaon, he Chaonia calls,
And names from Pergamus his rising walls.
But you, what fates have landed on our coast?
What gods have sent you, or what storms have tossā€™d?
Does young Ascanius life and health enjoy,
Savā€™d from the ruins of unhappy Troy?
O tell me how his motherā€™s loss he bears,
What hopes are promisā€™d from his blooming years,
How much of Hector in his face appears?ā€™
She spoke; and mixā€™d her speech with mournful cries,
And fruitless tears came trickling from her eyes.

ā€œAt length her lord descends upon the plain,
In pomp, attended with a numā€™rous train;
Receives his friends, and to the city leads,
And tears of joy amidst his welcome sheds.
Proceeding on, another Troy I see,
Or, in less compass, Troyā€™s epitome.
A rivā€™let by the name of Xanthus ran,
And I embrace the Scaean gate again.
My friends in porticoes were entertainā€™d,
And feasts and pleasures throā€™ the city reignā€™d.
The tables fillā€™d the spacious hall around,
And golden bowls with sparkling wine were crownā€™d.
Two days we passā€™d in mirth, till friendly gales,
Blown from the south supplied our swelling sails.
Then to the royal seer I thus began:
ā€˜O thou, who knowā€™st, beyond the reach of man,
The laws of heavā€™n, and what the stars decree;
Whom Phoebus taught unerring prophecy,
From his own tripod, and his holy tree;
Skillā€™d in the wingā€™d inhabitants of air,
What auspices their notes and flights declare:
O sayā ā€”for all religious rites portend
A happy voyage, and a prospā€™rous end;
And evā€™ry power and omen of the sky
Direct my course for destinā€™d Italy;
But only dire Celaeno, from the gods,
A dismal famine fatally forebodesā ā€”
O say what dangers I am first to shun,
What toils vanquish, and what course to run.ā€™

ā€œThe prophet first with sacrifice adores
The greater gods; their pardon then implores;
Unbinds the fillet from his holy head;
To Phoebus, next, my trembling steps he led,
Full of religious doubts and awful dread.
Then, with his god possessā€™d, before the shrine,
These words proceeded from his mouth divine:
ā€˜O goddess-born, (for Heavā€™nā€™s appointed will,
With greater auspices of good than ill,
Foreshows thy voyage, and thy course directs;
Thy fates conspire, and Jove himself protects,)
Of many things some few I shall explain,
Teach thee to shun the dangers of the main,
And how at length the promisā€™d shore to gain.
The rest the fates from Helenus conceal,
And Junoā€™s angry powā€™r forbids to tell.
First, then, that happy shore, that seems so nigh,
Will far from your deluded wishes fly;
Long tracts of seas divide your hopes from Italy:
For you must cruise along Sicilian shores,
And stem the currents with your struggling oars;
Then round thā€™ Italian coast your navy steer;
And, after this, to Circeā€™s island veer;
And, last, before your new foundations rise,
Must pass the Stygian lake, and view the nether skies.
Now mark the signs of future ease and rest,
And bear them safely treasurā€™d in thy breast.
When, in the shady shelter of a wood,
And near the margin of a gentle flood,
Thou shalt behold a sow upon the ground,
With thirty sucking young encompassā€™d round;
The dam and offspring white as falling snowā ā€”
These on thy city shall their name bestow,
And there shall end thy labours and thy woe.
Nor let the threatenā€™d famine fright thy mind,
For Phoebus will assist, and Fate the way will find.
Let not thy course to that ill coast be bent,
Which fronts from far thā€™ Epirian continent:
Those parts are all by Grecian foes possessā€™d;
The salvage Locrians here the shores infest;
There fierce Idomeneus his city builds,
And guards with arms the Salentinian fields;
And on the mountainā€™s brow Petilia stands,
Which Philoctetes with his troops commands.
Evā€™n when thy fleet is landed on the shore,
And priests with holy vows the gods adore,
Then with a purple veil involve your eyes,
Lest hostile faces blast the sacrifice.
These rites and customs to the rest commend,
That to your pious race they may descend.

ā€˜When, parted hence, the wind, that ready waits
For Sicily, shall bear you to the straits
Where proud Pelorus opes a wider way,
Tack to the larboard, and stand off to sea:
Veer starboard sea and land. Thā€™ Italian shore
And fair Siciliaā€™s coast were one, before
An earthquake causā€™d the flaw: the roaring tides
The passage broke that land from land divides;
And where the lands retirā€™d, the rushing ocean rides.
Distinguishā€™d by the straits, on either hand,
Now rising cities in long order stand,
And fruitful fields: so much can time invade
The mouldā€™ring work that beauteous Nature made.
Far on the right, her dogs foul Scylla hides:
Charybdis roaring on the left presides,
And in her greedy whirlpool sucks the tides;
Then spouts them from below: with fury drivā€™n,
The waves mount up and wash the face of heavā€™n.
But Scylla from her den, with open jaws,
The sinking vessel in her eddy draws,
Then dashes on the rocks. A human face,
And virgin bosom, hides her tailā€™s disgrace:
Her parts obscene below the waves descend,
With dogs inclosā€™d, and in a dolphin end.
ā€™Tis safer, then, to bear aloof to sea,
And coast Pachynus, thoā€™ with more delay,
Than once to view misshapen Scylla near,
And the loud yell of watā€™ry wolves to hear.

ā€œā€Šā€˜Besides, if faith to Helenus be due,
And if prophetic Phoebus tell me true,
Do not this precept of your friend forget,
Which therefore more than once I must repeat:
Above the rest, great Junoā€™s name adore;
Pay vows to Juno; Junoā€™s aid implore.
Let gifts be to the mighty queen designā€™d,
And mollify with prayā€™rs her haughty mind.
Thus, at the length, your passage shall be free,
And you shall safe descend on Italy.
Arrivā€™d at Cumae, when you view the flood
Of black Avernus, and the sounding wood,
The mad prophetic Sibyl you shall find,
Dark in a cave, and on a rock reclinā€™d.
She sings the fates, and, in her frantic fits,
The notes and names, inscribā€™d, to leafs commits.
What she commits to leafs, in order laid,
Before the cavernā€™s entrance are displayā€™d:
Unmovā€™d they lie; but, if a blast of wind
Without, or vapours issue from behind,
The leafs are borne aloft in liquid air,
And she resumes no

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