The Aeneid - Virgil (13 ebook reader .TXT) š
- Author: Virgil
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He said no more. And now renewing day
Had chasād the shadows of the night away.
He chargād the soldiers, with preventing care,
Their flags to follow, and their arms prepare;
Warnād of thā ensuing fight, and bade āem hope the war.
Now, his lofty poop, he viewād below
His camp incompassād, and thā inclosing foe.
His blazing shield, imbracād, he held on high;
The camp receive the sign, and with loud shouts reply.
Hope arms their courage: from their towārs they throw
Their darts with double force, and drive the foe.
Thus, at the signal givān, the cranes arise
Before the stormy south, and blacken all the skies.
King Turnus wonderād at the fight renewād,
Till, looking back, the Trojan fleet he viewād,
The seas with swelling canvas coverād oāer,
And the swift ships descending on the shore.
The Latians saw from far, with dazzled eyes,
The radiant crest that seemād in flames to rise,
And dart diffusive fires around the field,
And the keen glittāring of the golden shield.
Thus threatāning comets, when by night they rise,
Shoot sanguine streams, and sadden all the skies:
So Sirius, flashing forth sinister lights,
Pale humankind with plagues and with dry famine fright:
Yet Turnus with undaunted mind is bent
To man the shores, and hinder their descent,
And thus awakes the courage of his friends:
āWhat you so long have wishād, kind Fortune sends;
In ardent arms to meet thā invading foe:
You find, and find him at advantage now.
Yours is the day: you need but only dare;
Your swords will make you masters of the war.
Your sires, your sons, your houses, and your lands,
And dearest wifes, are all within your hands.
Be mindful of the race from whence you came,
And emulate in arms your fathersā fame.
Now take the time, while staggāring yet they stand
With feet unfirm, and prepossess the strand:
Fortune befriends the bold.ā Nor more he said,
But balancād whom to leave, and whom to lead;
Then these elects, the landing to prevent;
And those he leaves, to keep the city pent.
Meantime the Trojan sends his troops ashore:
Some are by boats exposād, by bridges more.
With labāring oars they bear along the strand,
Where the tide languishes, and leap a-land.
Tarchon observes the coast with careful eyes,
And, where no ford he finds, no water fries,
Nor billows with unequal murmurs roar,
But smoothly slide along, and swell the shore,
That course he steerād, and thus he gave command:
āHere ply your oars, and at all hazard land:
Force on the vessel, that her keel may wound
This hated soil, and furrow hostile ground.
Let me securely landā āI ask no more;
Then sink my ships, or shatter on the shore.ā
This fiery speech inflames his fearful friends:
They tug at evāry oar, and evāry stretcher bends;
They run their ships aground; the vessels knock,
(Thus forcād ashore,) and tremble with the shock.
Tarchonās alone was lost, that stranded stood,
Stuck on a bank, and beaten by the flood:
She breaks her back; the loosenād sides give way,
And plunge the Tuscan soldiers in the sea.
Their broken oars and floating planks withstand
Their passage, while they labour to the land,
And ebbing tides bear back upon thā uncertain sand.
Now Turnus leads his troops without delay,
Advancing to the margin of the sea.
The trumpets sound: Aeneas first assailād
The clowns new-raisād and raw, and soon prevailād.
Great Theron fell, an omen of the fight;
Great Theron, large of limbs, of giant height.
He first in open field defied the prince:
But armour scalād with gold was no defence
Against the fated sword, which openād wide
His plated shield, and piercād his naked side.
Next, Lichas fell, who, not like others born,
Was from his wretched mother rippād and torn;
Sacred, O Phoebus, from his birth to thee;
For his beginning life from biting steel was free.
Not far from him was Gyas laid along,
Of monstrous bulk; with Cisseus fierce and strong:
Vain bulk and strength! for, when the chief assailād,
Nor valour nor Herculean arms availād,
Nor their famād father, wont in war to go
With great Alcides, while he toilād below.
The noisy Pharos next receivād his death:
Aeneas writhād his dart, and stoppād his bawling breath.
Then wretched Cydon had receivād his doom,
Who courted Clytius in his beardless bloom,
And sought with lust obscene polluted joys:
The Trojan sword had curd his love of boys,
Had not his sevān bold brethren stoppād the course
Of the fierce champions, with united force.
Sevān darts were thrown at once; and some rebound
From his bright shield, some on his helmet sound:
The rest had reachād him; but his motherās care
Prevented those, and turnād aside in air.
The prince then callād Achates, to supply
The spears that knew the way to victoryā ā
āThose fatal weapons, which, inurād to blood,
In Grecian bodies under Ilium stood:
Not one of those my hand shall toss in vain
Against our foes, on this contended plain.ā
He said; then seizād a mighty spear, and threw;
Which, wingād with fate, throā Maeonās buckler flew,
Piercād all the brazen plates, and reachād his heart:
He staggerād with intolerable smart.
Alcanor saw; and reachād, but reachād in vain,
His helping hand, his brother to sustain.
A second spear, which kept the former course,
From the same hand, and sent with equal force,
His right arm piercād, and holding on, bereft
His use of both, and pinionād down his left.
Then Numitor from his dead brother drew
Thā ill-omenād spear, and at the Trojan threw:
Preventing fate directs the lance awry,
Which, glancing, only markād Achatesā thigh.
In pride of youth the Sabine Clausus came,
And, from afar, at Dryops took his aim.
The spear flew hissing throā the middle space,
And piercād his throat, directed at his face;
It stoppād at once the passage of his wind,
And the free soul to flitting air resignād:
His forehead was the first that struck the ground;
Lifeblood and life rushād mingled throā the wound.
He slew three brothers of the Borean race,
And three, whom Ismarus, their native place,
Had sent to war, but all the sons of Thrace.
Halesus, next, the bold Aurunci leads:
The son of Neptune to his aid succeeds,
Conspicuous on his horse. On either hand,
These fight to keep, and those to win, the land.
With mutual blood thā Ausonian soil is dyed,
While on its borders each their claim decide.
As wintry winds, contending in the sky,
With equal force of lungs their titles try:
They rage, they roar; the doubtful rack of heavān
Stands without motion, and the tide undrivān:
Each bent to conquer, neither side to yield,
They long suspend the fortune of the field.
Both armies
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