The Aeneids of Virgil Part 15

Then fearfully aeneas stayed, and drank the tumult in: "O tell me, Maiden, what is there? What images of sin? 560 What torments bear they? What the wail yon city casts abroad?"

Then so began the seer to speak: "O glorious Teucrian lord, On wicked threshold of the place no righteous foot may stand: But when great Hecate made me Queen of that Avernus land, She taught me of G.o.d's punishments and led me down the path.

--There Gnosian Rhadamanthus now most heavy lordship hath, And heareth lies, and punisheth, and maketh men confess Their deeds of earth, whereof made glad by foolish wickedness, They thrust the late repentance off till death drew nigh to grip: Those guilty drives Tisiphone, armed with avenging whip, 570 And mocks their writhings, casting forth her other dreadful hand Filled with the snakes, and crying on her cruel sister's band.

And then at last on awful hinge loud-clanging opens wide The Door of Doom:--and lo, behold what door-ward doth abide Within the porch, what thing it is the city gate doth hold!

More dreadful yet the Water-worm, with black mouth fiftyfold, Hath dwelling in the inner parts. Then Tartarus aright Gapes sheer adown; and twice so far it thrusteth under night As up unto the roof of heaven Olympus lifteth high: And there the ancient race of Earth, the t.i.tan children, lie, 580 Cast down by thunder, wallowing in bottomless abode.

There of the twin Aloidae the monstrous bodies' load I saw; who fell on mighty heaven to cleave it with their hands, That they might pluck the Father Jove from out his glorious lands; And Salmoneus I saw withal, paying the cruel pain That fire of Jove and heaven's own voice on earth he needs must feign: He, drawn by fourfold rush of steeds, and shaking torches' glare, Amidmost of the Grecian folks, amidst of Elis fair, Went glorying, and the name of G.o.d and utter worship sought.

O fool! the glory of the storm, and lightning like to nought, 590 He feigned with rattling copper things and beat of h.o.r.n.y hoof.

Him the Almighty Father smote from cloudy rack aloof, But never brand nor pitchy flame of smoky pine-tree cast, As headlong there he drave him down amid the whirling blast.

And t.i.tyon, too, the child of Earth, great Mother of all things, There may ye see: nine acres' s.p.a.ce his mighty frame he flings; His deathless liver still is cropped by that huge vulture's beak That evermore his daily meat doth mid his inwards seek, Fruitful of woe, and hath his home beneath his mighty breast: Whose heart-strings eaten, and new-born shall never know of rest. 600 Of Lapithae, Pirithous, Ixion, what a tale!

O'er whom the black crag hangs, that slips, and slips, and ne'er shall fail To seem to fall. The golden feet of feast beds glitter bright, And there in manner of the kings is glorious banquet dight.

But lo, the Furies' eldest-born is crouched beside it there, And banneth one and all of them hand on the board to bear, And riseth up with tossing torch, and crieth, thundering loud.

Here they that hated brethren sore while yet their life abode, The father-smiters, they that drew the client-catching net, The brooders over treasure found in earth, who never yet 610 Would share one penny with their friends--and crowded thick these are-- Those slain within another's bed; the followers up of war Unrighteous; they no whit ashamed their masters' hand to fail, Here prisoned bide the penalty: seek not to know their tale Of punishment; what fate it is o'erwhelmeth such a folk.

Some roll huge stones; some hang adown, fast bound to tire or spoke Of mighty wheels. There sitteth now, and shall sit evermore Theseus undone: wretch Phlegyas is crying o'er and o'er His warning, and in mighty voice through dim night testifies: 'Be warned, and learn of righteousness, nor holy G.o.ds despise.' 620 This sold his fatherland for gold; this tyrant on it laid; This for a price made laws for men, for price the laws unmade: This broke into his daughter's bed and wedding-tide accursed: All dared to think of monstrous deed, and did the deed they durst.

Nor, had I now an hundred mouths, an hundred tongues at need, An iron voice, might I tell o'er all guise of evil deed, Or run adown the names of woe those evil deeds are worth."

So when Apollo's ancient seer such words had given forth: "Now to the road! fulfil the gift that we so far have brought! 629 Haste on!" she saith, "I see the walls in Cyclops' furnace wrought; And now the opening of the gates is lying full in face, Where we are bidden lay adown the gift that brings us grace."

She spake, and through the dusk of ways on side by side they wend, And wear the s.p.a.ce betwixt, and reach the doorway in the end.

aeneas at the entering in bedews his body o'er With water fresh, and sets the bough in threshold of the door.

So, all being done, the G.o.ddess' gift well paid in manner meet, They come into a joyous land, and green-sward fair and sweet Amid the happiness of groves, the blessed dwelling-place.

Therein a more abundant heaven clothes all the meadows' face 640 With purple light, and their own sun and their own stars they have.

Here some in games upon the gra.s.s their bodies breathing gave; Or on the yellow face of sand they strive and play the play; Some beat the earth with dancing foot, and some, the song they say: And there withal the Thracian man in flowing raiment sings Unto the measure of the dance on seven-folded strings; And now he smites with finger-touch, and now with ivory reed.

And here is Teucer's race of old, most lovely sons indeed; High-hearted heroes born on earth in better days of joy: Ilus was there, a.s.saracus, and he who builded Troy, 650 E'en Darda.n.u.s. Far off are seen their empty wains of war And war-weed: stand the spears in earth, unyoked the horses are, And graze the meadows all about; for even as they loved Chariot and weapons, yet alive, and e'en as they were moved To feed sleek horses, under earth doth e'en such joy abide.

Others he saw to right and left about the meadows wide Feasting; or joining merry mouths to sing the battle won Amidst the scented laurel grove, whence earthward rolleth on The full flood that Erida.n.u.s athwart the wood doth pour.

Lo, they who in their country's fight sword-wounded bodies bore; 660 Lo, priests of holy life and chaste, while they in life had part; Lo, G.o.d-loved poets, men who spake things worthy Phoebus' heart: And they who bettered life on earth by new-found mastery; And they whose good deeds left a tale for men to name them by: And all they had their brows about with snowy fillets bound.

Now unto them the Sibyl spake as there they flowed around,-- Unto Musaeus first; for him midmost the crowd enfolds Higher than all from shoulders up, and reverently beholds: "Say, happy souls, and thou, O bard, the best earth ever bare, What land, what place Anchises hath? for whose sake came we here, 670 And swam the floods of Erebus and every mighty wave."

Then, lightly answering her again, few words the hero gave: "None hath a certain dwelling-place; in shady groves we bide, And meadows fresh with running streams, and beds by river-side: But if such longing and so sore the heart within you hath, O'ertop yon ridge and I will set your feet in easy path."

He spake and footed it afore, and showeth from above The shining meads; and thence away from hill-top down they move.

But Sire Anchises deep adown in green-grown valley lay, And on the spirits prisoned there, but soon to wend to day, 680 Was gazing with a fond desire: of all his coming ones There was he reckoning up the tale, and well-loved sons of sons: Their fate, their haps, their ways of life, their deeds to come to pa.s.s.

But when he saw aeneas now draw nigh athwart the gra.s.s, He stretched forth either palm to him all eager, and the tears Poured o'er his cheeks, and speech withal forth from his mouth there fares:

"O come at last, and hath the love, thy father hoped for, won O'er the hard way, and may I now look on thy face, O son, And give and take with thee in talk, and hear the words I know?

So verily my mind forebode, I deemed 'twas coming so, 690 And counted all the days thereto; nor was my longing vain.

And now I have thee, son, borne o'er what lands, how many a main!

How tossed about on every side by every peril still!

Ah, how I feared lest Libyan land should bring thee unto ill!"

Then he: "O father, thou it was, thine image sad it was, That, coming o'er and o'er again, drave me these doors to pa.s.s: My ships lie in the Tyrrhene salt--ah, give the hand I lack!

Give it, my father; neither thus from my embrace draw back!"

His face was wet with plenteous tears e'en as the word he spake, And thrice the neck of him beloved he strove in arms to take; 700 And thrice away from out his hands the gathered image streams, E'en as the breathing of the wind or winged thing of dreams.

But down amid a hollow dale meanwhile aeneas sees A secret grove, a thicket fair, with murmuring of the trees, And Lethe's stream that all along that quiet place doth wend; O'er which there hovered countless folks and peoples without end: And as when bees amid the fields in summer-tide the bright Settle on diverse flowery things, and round the lilies white Go streaming; so the fields were filled with mighty murmuring.

Unlearned aeneas fell aquake at such a wondrous thing, 710 And asketh what it all may mean, what rivers these may be, And who the men that fill the banks with such a company.

Then spake Anchises: "These are souls to whom fate oweth now New bodies: there they drink the draught by Lethe's quiet flow, The draught that is the death of care, the long forgetfulness.

And sure to teach thee of these things, and show thee all their press, And of mine offspring tell the tale, for long have I been fain, That thou with me mightst more rejoice in thine Italia's gain."

"O Father, may we think it then, that souls may get them hence To upper air and take once more their bodies' hinderance? 720 How can such mad desire be to win the worldly day?"

"Son, I shall tell thee all thereof, nor hold thee on the way."

Therewith he takes the tale and all he openeth orderly:

"In the beginning: earth and sky and flowing fields of sea, And stars that t.i.tan fashioned erst, and gleaming moony ball, An inward spirit nourisheth, one soul is shed through all, That quickeneth all the ma.s.s, and with the mighty thing is blent: Thence are the lives of men and beasts and flying creatures sent, And whatsoe'er the sea-plain bears beneath its marble face; Quick in these seeds is might of fire and birth of heavenly place, 730 Ere earthly bodies' baneful weight upon them comes to lie, Ere limbs of earth bewilder them and members made to die.

Hence fear they have, and love, and joy, and grief, and ne'er may find The face of heaven amid the dusk and prison strait and blind: Yea, e'en when out of upper day their life at last is borne, Not all the ill of wretched men is utterly outworn, Not all the bane their bodies bred; and sure in wondrous wise The plenteous ill they bore so long engrained in them it lies: So therefore are they worn by woes and pay for ancient wrong: And some of them are hung aloft the empty winds among; 740 And some, their stain of wickedness amidst the water's heart Is washed away; amidst the fire some leave their worser part; And each his proper death must bear: then through Elysium wide Are we sent forth; a scanty folk in joyful fields we bide, Till in the fulness of the time, the day that long hath been Hath worn away the inner stain and left the spirit clean, A heavenly essence, a fine flame of all unmingled air.

All these who now have turned the wheel for many and many a year G.o.d calleth unto Lethe's flood in mighty company, That they, remembering nought indeed, the upper air may see 750 Once more, and long to turn aback to worldly life anew."

Anchises therewithal his son, and her the Sibyl drew Amid the concourse, the great crowd that such a murmuring sent, And took a mound whence they might see the spirits as they went In long array, and learn each face as 'neath their eyes it came.

"Come now, and I of Dardan folk will tell the following fame, And what a folk from Italy the world may yet await, Most glorious souls, to bear our name adown the ways of fate.

Yea, I will set it forth in words, and thou thy tale shalt hear: Lo ye, the youth that yonder leans upon the headless spear, 760 Fate gives him nighest place today; he first of all shall rise, Blent blood of Troy and Italy, unto the earthly skies: Silvius is he, an Alban name, thy son, thy latest born; He whom thy wife Lavinia now, when thin thy life is worn, Beareth in woods to be a king and get a kingly race, Whence comes the lordship of our folk within the Long White Place.

And Procas standeth next to him, the Trojan people's fame; Then Capys, Numitor, and he who bringeth back thy name, Silvius aeneas, great in war, and great in G.o.dliness, If ever he in that White Stead may bear the kingdom's stress. 770 Lo ye, what youths! what glorious might unto thine eyes is shown!

But they who shade their temples o'er with civic oaken crown, These build for thee Nomentum's walls, and Gabii, and the folk Fidenian, and the mountains load with fair Collatia's yoke: Pometii, Bola, Cora, there shall rise beneath their hands, And Inuus' camp: great names shall spring amid the nameless lands.

"Then Mavors' child shall come on earth, his grandsire following, When Ilia's womb, a.s.saracus' own blood, to birth shall bring That Romulus:--lo, see ye not the twin crests on his head, And how the Father hallows him for day with his own dread 780 E'en now? Lo, son! those signs of his; lo, that renowned Rome!

Whose lordship filleth all the earth, whose heart Olympus' home, And with begirdling of her wall girds seven great burgs to her, Rejoicing in her man-born babes: e'en as the Earth-Mother Amidst the Phrygian cities goes with car and towered crown, Glad in the G.o.ds, whom hundred-fold she kisseth for her own.

All heaven-abiders, all as kings within the house of air.

Ah, turn thine eyeb.a.l.l.s. .h.i.therward, look on this people here, Thy Roman folk! Lo Caesar now! Lo all Iulus' race, Who 'neath the mighty vault of heaven shall dwell in coming days. 790 And this is he, this is the man thou oft hast heard foretold, Augustus Caesar, sprung from G.o.d to bring the age of gold Aback unto the Latin fields, where Saturn once was king.

Yea, and the Garamantian folk and Indians shall he bring Beneath his sway: beyond the stars, beyond the course of years, Beyond the Sun-path lies the land, where Atlas heaven upbears, And on his shoulders turns the pole with burning stars bestrown.

Yea, and e'en now the Caspian realms quake at his coming, shown By oracles of G.o.d; and quakes the far Maeotic mere, 799 And sevenfold Nile through all his mouths quakes in bewildered fear.

Not so much earth did Hercules o'erpa.s.s, though he prevailed To pierce the brazen-footed hind, and win back peace that failed The Erymanthus' wood, and shook Lerna with draught of bow; Nor Liber turning vine-wreathed reins when he hath will to go Adown from Nysa's lofty head in tiger-yoked car.-- Forsooth then shall we doubt but deeds shall spread our valour far?

Shall fear forsooth forbid us rest in that Ausonian land?

"But who is this, the olive-crowned, that beareth in his hand The holy things? I know the hair and h.o.a.ry beard of eld Of him, the Roman king, who first a law-bound city held, 810 Sent out from little Cures' garth, that unrich land of his, Unto a mighty lordship: yea, and Tullus next is this, Who breaks his country's sleep and stirs the slothful men to fight; And calleth on the weaponed hosts unused to war's delight But next unto him Ancus fares, a boaster overmuch; Yea and e'en now the people's breath too nigh his heart will touch.

And wilt thou see the Tarquin kings and Brutus' lofty heart, And fasces brought aback again by his avenging part?

He first the lordship consular and dreadful axe shall take; 819 The father who shall doom the sons, that war and change would wake, To pain of death, that he thereby may freedom's fairness save.

Unhappy! whatso tale of thee the after-time may have, The love of country shall prevail, and boundless l.u.s.t of praise.

"Drusi and Decii lo afar! On hard Torquatus gaze, He of the axe: Camillus lo, the banner-rescuer!

But note those two thou seest shine in arms alike and clear, Now souls of friends, and so to be while night upon them weighs: Woe's me! what war shall they awake if e'er the light of days They find: what host each sets 'gainst each, what death-field shall they dight!

The father from the Alpine wall, and from Monoecus' height 830 Comes down; the son against him turns the East's embattlement.

O children, in such evil war let not your souls be spent, Nor turn the valour of your might against the heart of home.

Thou first, refrain, O thou my blood from high Olympus come; Cast thou the weapons from thine hand!

"Lo to the Capitol aloft, for Corinth triumphing, One glorious with Achaean deaths in victor's chariot goes; Mycenae, Agamemnon's house, and Argos he o'erthrows, Yea and aeacides himself the great Achilles' son; Avenging so the sires of Troy and Pallas' house undone. 840 Great Cato, can I leave thee then untold? pa.s.s Cossus o'er?

Or house of Gracchus? Yea, or ye, twin thunderbolts of war, Ye Scipios, bane of Libyan land? Fabricius, poor and strong?

Or thee, Serra.n.u.s, casting seed adown the furrows long?

Fabii, where drive ye me outworn? Thou Greatest, thou art he, Who bringest back thy country's weal by tarrying manfully.

"Others, I know, more tenderly may beat the breathing bra.s.s, And better from the marble block bring living looks to pa.s.s; Others may better plead the cause, may compa.s.s heaven's face, And mark it out, and tell the stars, their rising and their place: 850 But thou, O Roman, look to it the folks of earth to sway; For this shall be thine handicraft, peace on the world to lay, To spare the weak, to wear the proud by constant weight of war."

So mid their marvelling he spake, and added furthermore: "Marcellus lo! neath Spoils of Spoils how great and glad he goes, And overtops all heroes there, the vanquisher of foes: Yea, he shall prop the Roman weal when tumult troubleth all, And ride amid the Punic ranks, and crush the rising Gaul, And hang in sire Quirinus' house the third war-taken gear."

Then spake aeneas, for he saw following Marcellus near 860 A youth of beauty excellent, with gleaming arms bedight, Yet little glad of countenance with eyes that shunned the light: "O father, who is he that wends beside the hero's hem, His son belike, or some one else from out that mighty stem?

What murmuring of friends about! How mighty is he made!