The Aeneid - Virgil (13 ebook reader .TXT) š
- Author: Virgil
Book online Ā«The Aeneid - Virgil (13 ebook reader .TXT) šĀ». Author Virgil
His following flock, and leading to the shore:
A monstrous bulk, deformād, deprivād of sight;
His staff a trunk of pine, to guide his steps aright.
His pondārous whistle from his neck descends;
His woolly care their pensive lord attends:
This only solace his hard fortune sends.
Soon as he reachād the shore and touchād the waves,
From his borād eye the guttāring blood he laves:
He gnashād his teeth, and groanād; throā seas he strides,
And scarce the topmost billows touchād his sides.
āSeizād with a sudden fear, we run to sea,
The cables cut, and silent haste away;
The well-deserving stranger entertain;
Then, buckling to the work, our oars divide the main.
The giant harkenād to the dashing sound:
But, when our vessels out of reach he found,
He strided onward, and in vain essayād
Thā Ionian deep, and durst no farther wade.
With that he roarād aloud: the dreadful cry
Shakes earth, and air, and seas; the billows fly
Before the bellowing noise to distant Italy.
The neighbāring Aetna trembling all around,
The winding caverns echo to the sound.
His brother Cyclops hear the yelling roar,
And, rushing down the mountains, crowd the shore.
We saw their stern distorted looks, from far,
And one-eyed glance, that vainly threatenād war:
A dreadful council, with their heads on high;
(The misty clouds about their foreheads fly;)
Not yielding to the towāring tree of Jove,
Or tallest cypress of Dianaās grove.
New pangs of mortal fear our minds assail;
We tug at evāry oar, and hoist up evāry sail,
And take thā advantage of the friendly gale.
Forewarnād by Helenus, we strive to shun
Charybdisā gulf, nor dare to Scylla run.
An equal fate on either side appears:
We, tacking to the left, are free from fears;
For, from Pelorusā point, the North arose,
And drove us back where swift Pantagias flows.
His rocky mouth we pass, and make our way
By Thapsus and Megaraās winding bay.
This passage Achaemenides had shown,
Tracing the course which he before had run.
āRight oāer against Plemmyriumās watāry strand,
There lies an isle once callād thā Ortygian land.
Alpheus, as old fame reports, has found
From Greece a secret passage under ground,
By love to beauteous Arethusa led;
And, mingling here, they roll in the same sacred bed.
As Helenus enjoinād, we next adore
Dianaās name, protectress of the shore.
With prospārous gales we pass the quiet sounds
Of still Elorus, and his fruitful bounds.
Then, doubling Cape Pachynus, we survey
The rocky shore extended to the sea.
The town of Camarine from far we see,
And fenny lake, undrainād by fateās decree.
In sight of the Geloan fields we pass,
And the large walls, where mighty Gela was;
Then Agragas, with lofty summits crownād,
Long for the race of warlike steeds renownād.
We passād Selinus, and the palmy land,
And widely shun the Lilybaean strand,
Unsafe, for secret rocks and moving sand.
At length on shore the weary fleet arrivād,
Which Drepanumās unhappy port receivād.
Here, after endless labours, often tossād
By raging storms, and drivān on evāry coast,
My dear, dear father, spent with age, I lost:
Ease of my cares, and solace of my pain,
Savād throā a thousand toils, but savād in vain
The prophet, who my future woes revealād,
Yet this, the greatest and the worst, concealād;
And dire Celaeno, whose foreboding skill
Denouncād all else, was silent of the ill.
This my last labour was. Some friendly god
From thence conveyād us to your blest abode.ā
Thus, to the listāning queen, the royal guest
His wandāring course and all his toils expressād;
And here concluding, he retirād to rest.
Dido discovers to her sister her passion for Aeneas, and her thoughts of marrying him. She prepares a hunting match for his entertainment. Juno, by Venusā consent, raises a storm, which separates the hunters, and drives Aeneas and Dido into the same cave, where their marriage is supposed to be completed. Jupiter despatches Mercury to Aeneas, to warn him from Carthage. Aeneas secretly prepares for his voyage. Dido finds out his design, and, to put a stop to it, makes use of her own and her sisterās entreaties, and discovers all the variety of passions that are incident to a neglected lover. When nothing could prevail upon him, she contrives her own death, with which this book concludes.
But anxious cares already seizād the queen:
She fed within her veins a flame unseen;
The heroās valour, acts, and birth inspire
Her soul with love, and fan the secret fire.
His words, his looks, imprinted in her heart,
Improve the passion, and increase the smart.
Now, when the purple morn had chasād away
The dewy shadows, and restorād the day,
Her sister first with early care she sought,
And thus in mournful accents easād her thought:
āMy dearest Anna, what new dreams affright
My labāring soul! what visions of the night
Disturb my quiet, and distract my breast
With strange ideas of our Trojan guest!
His worth, his actions, and majestic air,
A man descended from the gods declare.
Fear ever argues a degenerate kind;
His birth is well asserted by his mind.
Then, what he sufferād, when by Fate betrayād!
What brave attempts for falling Troy he made!
Such were his looks, so gracefully he spoke,
That, were I not resolvād against the yoke
Of hapless marriage, never to be curst
With second love, so fatal was my first,
To this one error I might yield again;
For, since Sichaeus was untimely slain,
This only man is able to subvert
The fixād foundations of my stubborn heart.
And, to confess my frailty, to my shame,
Somewhat I find within, if not the same,
Too like the sparkles of my former flame.
But first let yawning earth a passage rend,
And let me throā the dark abyss descend;
First let avenging Jove, with flames from high,
Drive down this body to the nether sky,
Condemnād with ghosts in endless night to lie,
Before I break the plighted faith I gave!
No! he who had my vows shall ever have;
For, whom I lovād on earth, I worship in the grave.ā
She said: the tears ran gushing from her eyes,
And stoppād her speech. Her sister thus replies:
āO dearer than the vital air I breathe,
Will you to grief your blooming years bequeath,
Condemnād to waste in woes your lonely life,
Without the joys of mother or of wife?
Think you these tears, this pompous train of woe,
Are known or valued by the ghosts below?
I grant that, while your sorrows yet were green,
It well became a woman, and a queen,
The vows of Tyrian princes to
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