The Aeneids of Virgil Part 5

Farewell, and love the son we loved together once, we twain.'

She left me when these words were given, me weeping sore, and fain 790 To tell her much, and forth away amid thin air she pa.s.sed: And there three times about her neck I strove mine arms to cast, And thrice away from out my hands the gathered image streams, E'en as the breathing of the wind or winged thing of dreams.

And so at last, the night all spent, I meet my folk anew; And there I found great mult.i.tude that fresh unto us drew, And wondered thereat: wives were there, and men, and plenteous youth; All gathered for the faring forth, a hapless crowd forsooth: From everywhere they draw to us, with goods and courage set, To follow o'er the sea where'er my will may lead them yet. 800

And now o'er Ida's topmost ridge at last the day-star rose With dawn in hand: all gates and doors by host of Danaan foes Were close beset, and no more hope of helping may I bide.

I turned and took my father up and sought the mountain-side.

BOOK III.

ARGUMENT.

aeNEAS TELLS OF HIS WANDERINGS AND MISHAPS BY LAND AND BY SEA.

Now after it had pleased the G.o.ds on high to overthrow The Asian weal and sackless folk of Priam, and alow Proud Ilium lay, and Neptune's Troy was smouldering on the ground, For diverse outlands of the earth and waste lands are we bound, Driven by omens of the G.o.ds. Our fleet we built beneath Antandros, and the broken steeps of Phrygian Ida's heath, Unwitting whither Fate may drive, or where the G.o.ds shall stay And there we draw together men.

Now scarce upon the way Was summer when my father bade spread sails to Fate at last.

Weeping I leave my fatherland, and out of haven pa.s.sed 10 Away from fields where Troy-town was, an outcast o'er the deep, With folk and son and Household G.o.ds and Greater G.o.ds to keep.

Far off a peopled land of Mars lies midst its mighty plain, Tilled of the Thracians; there whilom did fierce Lycurgus reign.

'Twas ancient guesting-place of Troy: our G.o.ds went hand in hand While bloomed our weal: there are we borne, and on the hollow strand I set my first-born city down, 'neath evil fates begun, And call the folk aeneadae from name myself had won.

Unto Dione's daughter there, my mother, and the rest, I sacrificed upon a day to gain beginning blest, 20 And to the King of Heavenly folk was slaying on the sh.o.r.e A glorious bull: at hand by chance a mound at topmost bore A cornel-bush and myrtle stiff with shafts close set around: Thereto I wend and strive to pluck a green shoot from the ground, That I with leafy boughs thereof may clothe the altars well; When lo, a portent terrible and marvellous to tell!

For the first stem that from the soil uprooted I tear out Oozes black drops of very blood, that all the earth about Is stained with gore: but as for me, with sudden horror chill My limbs fall quaking, and my blood with freezing fear stands still. 30 Yet I go on and strive from earth a new tough shoot to win, That I may search out suddenly what causes lurk within; And once again from out the bark blood followeth as before.

I turn the matter in my mind: the Field-Nymphs I adore, And him, Gradivus, father dread, who rules the Thracian plain, And pray them turn the thing to good and make its threatenings vain.

But when upon a third of them once more I set my hand, And striving hard thrust both my knees upon the opposing sand-- --Shall I speak now or hold my peace?--a piteous groan is heard From out the mound, and to mine ears is borne a dreadful word: 40 'Why manglest thou a wretched man? O spare me in my tomb!

Spare to beguilt thy righteous hand, aeneas! Troy's own womb Bore me, thy kinsman; from this stem floweth no alien gore: Woe's me! flee forth the cruel land, flee forth the greedy sh.o.r.e; For I am Polydore: pierced through, by harvest of the spear O'ergrown, that such a crop of shafts above my head doth bear.'

I stood amazed: the wildering fear the heart in me down-weighed.

My hair rose up, my frozen breath within my jaws was stayed.

Unhappy Priam privily had sent this Polydore, For fostering to the Thracian king with plenteous golden store. 50 In those first days when he began to doubt the Dardan might, Having the leaguered walls of Troy for ever in his sight.

This king, as failed the weal of Troy and fortune fell away, Turned him about to conquering arms and Agamemnon's day.

He brake all right, slew Polydore, and all the gold he got Perforce: O thou gold-hunger cursed, and whither driv'st thou not The hearts of men?

But when at length the fear from me did fall, Unto the chosen of the folk, my father first of all, I show those portents of the G.o.ds and ask them of their will, All deem it good that we depart that wicked land of ill, 60 And leave that blighted guesting-place and give our ships the breeze.

Therefore to Polydore we do the funeral services, The earth is heaped up high in mound; the Death-G.o.ds' altars stand Woeful with bough of cypress black and coal-blue holy band; The wives of Ilium range about with due dishevelled hair; Cups of the warm and foaming milk unto the dead we bear, And bowls of holy blood we bring, and lay the soul in grave, And cry a great farewell to him, the last that he shall have.

But now, when we may trust the sea and winds the ocean keep Unangered, and the South bids on light whispering to the deep, 70 Our fellows crowd the sea-beach o'er and run the ships adown, And from the haven are we borne, and fadeth field and town.

Amid the sea a land there lies, sweet over everything, Loved of the Nereids' mother, loved by that aegean king Great Neptune: this, a-wandering once all coasts and sh.o.r.es around, The Bow-Lord good to Gyaros and high Myconos bound, And bade it fixed to cherish folk nor fear the wind again: There come we; and that gentlest isle receives us weary men; In haven safe we land, and thence Apollo's town adore; King Anius, who, a king of men, Apollo's priesthood bore, 80 His temples with the fillets done and crowned with holy bays, Meets us, and straight Anchises knows, his friend of early days.

So therewith hand to hand we join and houseward get us gone.

There the G.o.d's fane I pray unto, the place of ancient stone: 'Thymbraean, give us house and home, walls to the weary give, In folk and city to endure: let Pergamus twice live, In Troy twice built, left of the Greeks, left of Achilles' wrath!

Ah, whom to follow? where to go? wherein our home set forth?

O Father, give us augury and sink into our heart!

Scarce had I said the word, when lo all doors with sudden start 90 Fell trembling, and the bay of G.o.d, and all the mountain side, Was stirred, and in the opened shrine the holy tripod cried: There as a voice fell on our ears we bowed ourselves to earth: 'O hardy folk of Darda.n.u.s, the land that gave you birth From root and stem of fathers old, its very bosom kind, Shall take you back: go fare ye forth, your ancient mother find: There shall aeneas' house be lords o'er every earth and sea, The children of his children's sons, and those that thence shall be.'

So Phoebus spake, and mighty joy arose with tumult mixed, As all fell wondering where might be that seat of city fixed, 100 Where Phoebus called us wandering folk, bidding us turn again.

Thereat my father, musing o'er the tales of ancient men, Saith: 'Hearken, lords, and this your hope a little learn of me!

There is an isle of mightiest Jove called Crete amid the sea; An hundred cities great it hath, that most abundant place; And there the hill of Ida is, and cradle of our race.

Thence Teucer our first father came, if right the tale they tell, When borne to those Rhoetean sh.o.r.es he chose a place to dwell A very king: no Ilium was, no Pergamus rose high; He and his folk abode as then in dales that lowly lie: 110 Thence came Earth-mother Cybele and Corybantian bra.s.s, And Ida's thicket; thence the hush all hallowed came to pa.s.s, And thence the lions yoked and tame, the Lady's chariot drag.

On then! and led by G.o.d's command for nothing let us lag!

Please we the winds, and let our course for Gnosian land be laid; Nor long the way shall be for us: with Jupiter to aid, The third-born sun shall stay our ships upon the Cretan sh.o.r.e.'

So saying, all the offerings due he to the altar bore, A bull to Neptune, and a bull to thee, Apollo bright, A black ewe to the Storm of sea, to Zephyr kind a white. 120 Fame went that Duke Idomeneus, thrust from his fathers' land, Had gone his ways, and desert now was all the Cretan strand, That left all void of foes to us those habitations lie.

Ortygia's haven then we leave, and o'er the sea we fly By Naxos of the Bacchus ridge, Donusa's green-hued steep, And Olearon, and Paros white, and scattered o'er the deep All Cyclades; we skim the straits besprent with many a folk; And diverse clamour mid the ships seafarers striving woke; Each eggs his fellow; On for Crete, and sires of time agone!

And rising up upon our wake a fair wind followed on. 130

And so at last we glide along the old Curetes' strand, And straightway eager do I take the city wall in hand, And call it Pergamea, and urge my folk that name who love, For love of hearth and home to raise a burg their walls above.

And now the more part of the ships are hauled up high and dry, To wedding and to work afield the folk fall presently, And I give laws and portion steads; when suddenly there fell From poisoned heaven a wasting plague, a wretched thing to tell, On limbs of men, on trees and fields; and deadly was the year, And men must leave dear life and die, or weary sick must bear 140 Their bodies on: then Sirius fell to burn the acres dry; The gra.s.s was parched, the harvest sick all victual did deny.

Then bids my father back once more o'er the twice-measured main, To Phoebus and Ortygia's strand, some grace of prayer to gain: What end to our outworn estate he giveth? whence will he That we should seek us aid of toil; where turn to o'er the sea?

Night falleth, and all lives of earth doth sleep on bosom bear, When lo, the holy images, the Phrygian House-G.o.ds there, E'en them I bore away from Troy and heart of burning town, Were present to the eyes of me in slumber laid adown, 150 Clear shining in the plenteous light that over all was shed By the great moon anigh her full through windows fashioned.

Then thus they fall to speech with me, end of my care to make:

'The thing that in Ortygia erst the seer Apollo spake Here telleth he, and to thy doors come we of his good will: Thee and thine arms from Troy aflame fast have we followed still.

We 'neath thy care and in thy keel have climbed the swelling sea, And we shall bear unto the stars thy sons that are to be, And give thy city majesty: make ready mighty wall For mighty men, nor toil of way leave thou, though long it fall. 160 Shift hence abode; the Delian-born Apollo ne'er made sweet These sh.o.r.es for thee, nor bade thee set thy city down in Crete: There is a place, the Westland called of Greeks in days that are, An ancient land, a fruitful soil, a mighty land of war; Oenotrian folk first tilled the land, whose sons, as rumours run, Now call it nought but Italy, from him who led them on.

This is our very due abode: thence Darda.n.u.s outbroke, Iasius our father thence, beginner of our folk.

Come rise, and glad these tidings tell unto thy father old, No doubtful tale: now Corythus, Ausonian field and fold 170 Let him go seek, for Jupiter banneth Dictaean mead.'

All mazed was I with sight and voice of G.o.ds; because indeed This was not sleep, but face to face, as one a real thing sees.

I seemed to see their coifed hair and very visages, And over all my body too cold sweat of trembling flowed.

I tore my body from the bed, and, crying out aloud, I stretched my upturned hands to heaven and unstained gifts I spilled Upon the hearth, and joyfully that worship I fulfilled.

Anchises next I do to wit and all the thing unlock; And he, he saw the twi-branched stem, twin fathers of our stock, 180 And how by fault of yesterday through steads of old he strayed.

'O son, well learned in all the lore of Ilium's fate,' he said, 'Ca.s.sandra only of such hap would sing; I mind me well Of like fate meted to our folk full oft would she foretell; And oft would call to Italy and that Hesperian home.

But who believed that Teucrian folk on any day might come Unto Hesperia's sh.o.r.es? or who might trow Ca.s.sandra then?

Yield we to Phoebus, follow we as better counselled men The better part.'

We, full of joy, obey him with one mind; From this seat too we fare away and leave a few behind; 190 With sail abroad in hollow tree we skim the ocean o'er.

But when our keels the deep sea made, nor had we any more The land in sight, but sea around, and sky around was spread, A coal-blue cloud drew up to us that, hanging overhead, Bore night and storm, and mirky gloom o'er all the waters cast: Therewith the winds heap up the waves, the seas are rising fast And huge; and through the mighty whirl scattered we toss about; The storm-clouds wrap around the day, and wet mirk blotteth out The heavens, and mid the riven clouds the ceaseless lightnings live.

So are we blown from out our course, through might of seas we drive, 200 Nor e'en might Palinurus self the day from night-tide sift, Nor have a deeming of the road atwixt the watery drift.

Still on for three uncertain suns, that blind mists overlay, And e'en so many starless nights, across the sea we stray; But on the fourth day at the last afar upon us broke The mountains of another land, mid curling wreaths of smoke.

Then fall the sails, we rise on oars, no sloth hath any place, The eager seamen toss the spray and sweep the blue sea's face; And me first saved from whirl of waves the Strophades on strand Now welcome; named by Greekish name Isles of the Sea, they stand 210 Amid the great Ionian folk: Celaeno holds the sh.o.r.es, And others of the Harpies grim, since shut were Phineus' doors Against them, and they had to leave the tables they had won.

No monster woefuller than they, and crueller is none Of all G.o.d's plagues and curses dread from Stygian waters sent.

A winged thing with maiden face, whose bellies' excrement Is utter foul; and hooked hands, and face for ever pale With hunger that no feeding stints.

Borne thither, into haven come, we see how everywhere The merry wholesome herds of neat feed down the meadows fair, 220 And all untended goatish flocks amid the herbage bite.

With point and edge we fall on them, and all the G.o.ds invite, Yea very Jove, to share the spoil, and on the curved strand We strew the beds, and feast upon rich dainties of the land.

When lo, with sudden dreadful rush from out the mountains hap The Harpy folk, and all about their clanging wings they flap, And foul all things with filthy touch as at the food they wrench, And riseth up their grisly voice amid the evilest stench.

Once more then 'neath a hollow rock at a long valley's head, 229 Where close around the boughs of trees their quavering shadows shed, We dight the boards, and once again flame on the altars raise.

Again from diverse parts of heaven, from dusky lurking-place, The shrieking rout with hooked feet about the prey doth fly, Fouling the feast with mouth: therewith I bid my company To arms, that with an evil folk the war may come to pa.s.s.

They do no less than my commands, and lay along the gra.s.s Their hidden swords, and therewithal their bucklers cover o'er.

Wherefore, when swooping down again, they fill the curved sh.o.r.e With noise, Misenus blows the call from off a watch-stead high With hollow bra.s.s; our folk fall on and wondrous battle try, 240 Striving that sea-fowl's filthy folk with point and edge to spill.

But nought will bite upon their backs, and from their feathers still Glanceth the sword, and swift they flee up 'neath the stars of air, Half-eaten meat and token foul leaving behind them there.