The Aeneids of Virgil Part 19

Unto the midmost crown of heaven had climbed the fiery sun, By then the walls, and far-off burg, and few roofs one by one They see; the place raised high as heaven by mightiness of Rome, Where in those days Evander had an unrich, scanty home: 100 So thither swift they turned their prows, and toward the city drew.

That day it chanced the Arcadian King did yearly honour do Unto Amphitryon's mighty son, and on the G.o.d did call In grove before the city-walls: Pallas, his son, withal, The battle-lords, the senate poor of that unwealthy folk Cast incense there; with yet warm blood the altars were a-smoke.

But when they saw the tall s.h.i.+ps glide amidst the dusky shade Of woody banks, and might of men on oars all silent laid, Scared at the sudden sight they rise, and all the boards forsake: But Pallas, of the hardy heart, forbids the feast to break, 110 While he, with weapon caught in haste, flies forth to meet the men, And crieth from a mound afar: "Fellows, what drave you then?

And whither wend ye on your ways by road untried before?

What folk and from what home are ye? and is it peace or war?"

Then spake the father aeneas the lofty deck aboard, As with the peaceful olive-bough he reached his hand abroad; "Troy's folk ye see and weapons whet against the Latin side, Whom they have driven forth by war amid their plenteous pride.

We seek Evander: go ye forth and tell him this, and say That chosen dukes of Troy are come for plighted troth to pray." 120

The sound of such a mighty name smote Pallas with amaze: "Come forth," he said, "whoso ye be: before my father's face Say what ye would; come to our G.o.ds and in our house be guest."

So saying he gave his hand to him, and hard his right hand pressed; Therewith they leave the river-bank, and wend amidst the wood: But spake aeneas to the king fair friendly words and good:

"O best of Greeks, whom fortune wills that I should now beseech, And unto thee the suppliant staff of olive garlands reach, I feared thee not for Arcas' seed or Duke of Danai, Nor for thy being to Atreus' twins a kinsman born anigh: 130 Rather my heart, and holy words that G.o.ds have given forth, Our fathers' kin, the world-wide tale that goeth of thy worth, Bind me to thee, and make me fain of what Fate bids befall.

Now Darda.n.u.s, first setter-up and sire of Ilian wall, Born of Electra, Atlas' child, as Greekish stories say, Came to the Teucrians: Atlas huge Electra gave today, Atlas, who on his shoulders rears the round-wrought heavenly house: But Mercury thy father is, whom Maia glorious Conceived, and shed on earth one day on high Cyllene cold; But Atlas Maia too begot, if we may trow tale told, 140 That very Atlas who the stars of heavenly house doth raise, So from one root the race of us wends on its twofold ways.

Stayed by these things none else I sent, nor guilefully have sought, a.s.saying of thee, but myself unto thyself I brought, And mine own head; and here I stand a suppliant at thy door.

And that same Daunian folk of men drive us with bitter war As fall on thee: if us they chase, what stay but utterly, (So deem they) all the Westland earth beneath their yoke shall lie, With all the upper flood of sea, and nether waters' wash.

Take troth and give it: hearts are we stout in the battle's clash, 150 High-counselled souls, men well beheld in deeds that try the man."

He ended: but Evander's look this long while overran His face, his speaking eyes, and all his body fair to see; Then in few words he answered thus: "How sweet to welcome thee, Best heart of Troy! and how I mind the words, and seem to hear Anchises' voice, and see the face that mighty man did bear: For I remember Priam erst, child of Laomedon, Came to Hesione's abode, to Salamis pa.s.sed on, And thence would wend his ways to seek Arcadia's chilly place.

The blossom of the spring of life then bloomed upon my face, 160 When on the Teucrian lords I looked with joy and wonderment; On Priam, too: but loftier there than any other went Anchises; and his sight in me struck youthful love awake.

I yearned to speak unto the man, and hand in hand to take: So fain I met him, led him in to Phineus' walled place; And he, departing, gave to me a n.o.ble arrow-case And Lycian shafts; a cloak thereto, all shot across with gold, And golden bridles twain, that now Pallas, my son, doth hold.

Lo, then, the right hand that ye sought is joined in troth to thine; And when tomorrow's light once more upon the world shall s.h.i.+ne, 170 Glad, holpen, shall I send you forth and stay you with my store.

Meanwhile, since here ye come our friends, with us the G.o.ds adore At this our hallowed yearly feast, which ill it were to stay: Be kind, and with your fellows' boards make friends without delay."

Therewith he bids bring forth once more the wine-cups and the meat, And he himself sets down the men upon a gra.s.sy seat; But chiefly to the bed bedight with s.h.a.ggy lion's skin He draws aeneas, bidding him the throne of maple win.

Then vie the chosen youth-at-arms, the altar-priest brings aid; They bear in roasted flesh of bulls, and high the baskets lade 180 With gifts of Ceres fas.h.i.+oned well, and serve the Bacchus' joy; So therewithal aeneas eats and men-at-arms of Troy Of undivided oxen chines and inwards of the feast.

But when the l.u.s.t of meat was dulled and hunger's gnawing ceased, Saith King Evander: "This high-tide that we are holding thus, This ordered feast, this altar raised to G.o.d all-glorious, No idle task of witch-work is, that knoweth not the G.o.ds Of ancient days: O Trojan chief, we, saved from fearful odds, Here wors.h.i.+p, and give glory new to deeds done gloriously.

Note first the crag, whose world of stones o'ertoppleth there anigh; 190 What stone-heaps have been cast afar, how waste and wild is grown The mountain-house, what mighty wrack the rocks have dragged adown.

Therein a cave was erst, that back a long way burrowing ran, Held by the dreadful thing, the shape of Cacus, monster-man.

A place the sun might never see, for ever warm and wet With reek of murder newly wrought; o'er whose proud doorways set The heads of men were hanging still wan mid the woeful gore.

Vulcan was father of this fiend; his black flame did he pour Forth from his mouth, as monster-great he wended on his ways.

But to our aid, as whiles it will, brought round the lapse of days 200 The help and coming of a G.o.d: for that most mighty one, All glorious with the death and spoils of threefold Geryon, Alcides, our avenger came, driving the victor's meed, His mighty bulls, who down the dale and river-bank did feed.

But Cacus, mad with furious heart, that nought undared might be Of evil deeds, or nought untried of guile and treachery, Drave from the fold four head of bulls of bodies excellent, And e'en so many lovely kine, whose fas.h.i.+on all outwent; Which same, that of their rightful road the footprints clean might lack, Tail-foremost dragged he to his den, turning their way-marks back; 210 And so he hid them all away amid that stonydark, Nor toward the cave might he that sought find any four-foot mark.

"Meanwhile, his beasts all satiate, from fold Amphitryon's son Now gets them ready for the road, and busks him to be gone; When lo, the herd falls bellowing, and with its sorrow fills The woodland as it goes away, and lowing leaves the hills.

Therewith a cow gave back the sound, and in the cavern hid Lowed out, and in despite his heed all Cacus' hope undid.

Then verily Alcides' ire and gall of heart outbroke In fury, and his arms he caught and weight of knotty oak, 220 And running, sought the hill aloft that thrusteth toward the skies.

Then first our folk saw Cacus scared and trouble in his eyes, And in a twinkling did he flee, no eastern wind as fleet, Seeking his den, and very fear gave wings unto his feet; But scarcely was he shut therein, and, breaking down the chains, Had dropped the monstrous rock that erst his crafty father's pains Hung there with iron; scarce had he blocked the doorway with the same, When lo, the man of Tiryns there, who with his heart aflame Eyed all the entries, here and there turning about his face, Gnas.h.i.+ng his teeth: afire with wrath, thrice all that hilly place 230 Of Aventine he eyeth o'er, thrice tries without avail The rocky door, thrice sits him down awearied in the dale.

"There was a peaked rock of flint with ragged edges dight, Which at the cave's back rose aloft exceeding high to sight, A dwelling meet for evil fowl amidst their nests to bide; This, that hung o'er the brow above the river's leftward side, Hard from the right he beareth on, and shakes, and from its roots Wrencheth it loose, and suddenly adown the bent side shoots.

Then ringeth all the mighty heaven with thunder of its wrack, The banks are rent, the frighted stream its waters casteth back; 240 But Cacus' den and kingly house showed all uncovered there, The inmost of the shadowy cave was laid undoored and bare: As if the inner parts of earth 'neath mighty stroke should gape, Unlocking all the house of h.e.l.l, showing that country's shape, The wan land all forlorn of G.o.d: there shows the unmeasured pit, And ghosts aquake with light of day shot through the depths of it.

"But Cacus, caught unwares by day whereof he had no doubt, Imprisoned in the hollow rock, in strange voice bellowing out, Alcides fell on from above, calling all arms to aid, And plenteous cast of boughs and stones upon the monster laid; 250 While he, since now no flight availed to 'scape that peril's hold, Pours from his mouth a mighty smoke, O wondrous to be told!

Enwrapping all the house about with blinding misty shroud, s.n.a.t.c.hing the sight from eyes of men, and rolling on the cloud, A reeking night with heart of fire and utter blackness blent.

Alcides' spirit bore it nought; his body swift he sent With headlong leap amid the fire where thickest rolled the wave Of smoke, and with its pitchy mist was flooding all the cave; Cacus he catcheth in the dark spueing out fire in vain, And knitteth him in knot about, and, strangling him, doth strain 260 The starting eyes from out of him, and throat that blood doth lack: Then the mirk house is opened wide; the doors are torn aback; The stolen kine, that prey his oath foreswore to heaven are shown, And by the feet is dragged today the body hideous grown; Nor may men satiate their hearts by gazing on the thing; His fearful eyes, the face of him, the man-beast's fas.h.i.+oning Of bristled breast; those jaws of his, whence faded is the flame.

"Hence is this honour celebrate, and they that after came Still kept the day all joyfully; Pot.i.tius wrought it first, This feast of mighty Hercules; the house Pinarian nursed, 270 The altar of the grove he reared, which Mightiest yet we call, And ever more, in very sooth, shall mightiest be of all.

So come, O youths, these glorious deeds I bid you glorify: Wreathe round your hair, put forth your hands and raise the cup on high!

Call on the G.o.d whom all we love, and give the wine full fain!"

He spake: the leaf of Hercules, the poplar coloured twain, Shaded his hair; the leaves entwined hung down aback his head; The holy beaker filled his hand: then merry all men sped, And on the table poured their gift, and called the G.o.ds to hear.

Meanwhile unto the slopes of heaven the Western Star drew near, 280 And then the priests, and chief thereof, Pot.i.tius, thither came, All clad in skins, as due it was, and bearing forth the flame.

New feast they dight, and gifts beloved of second service bring, And on the altar pile again the plates of offering.

The Salii then to singing-tide heart-kindled go around The altars; every brow of them with poplar leaf.a.ge bound: And here the youths, the elders there, set up the song of praise, And sing the deeds of Hercules: How, on his first of days, The monsters twain his stepdame sent, the snakes, he crushed in hand; And how in war he overthrew great cities of the land, 290 Troy and Oechalia: how he won through thousand toils o'ergreat, That King Eurystheus laid on him by bitter Juno's fate.

"O thou Unconquered, thou whose hand beat down the cloud-born two, Pholeus, Hylaeus, twin-wrought things, and Cretan monsters slew: O thou who slew'st the lion huge 'neath that Nemean steep, The Stygian mere hath quaked at thee, the ward of Orcus deep Quaked in his den above his bed of half-gnawed bones and blood.

At nothing fas.h.i.+oned wert thou feared; not when Typhoeus stood Aloft in arms: nor from thine heart fell any rede away When round thee headed-manifold the Worm of Lerna lay. 300 O very child of Jupiter, O Heaven's new glory, hail!

Fail not thy feast with friendly foot, nor us, thy lovers, fail!"

With such-like song they sing the praise, and add to all the worth The cave of Cacus, and the beast that breathed the wildfire forth.

The woods sing with them as they sing; the hills are light with song.

So, all the holy things fulfilled, they wend their ways along Unto the city: the old king afoot was with them there, And bade aeneas and his son close to his side to fare, And as he went made light the way with talk of many a thing.

aeneas wonders, and his eyes go lightly wandering 310 O'er all; but here and there they stay, as, joyful of his ways, He asks and hears of tokens left by men of earlier days.

Then spake the King Evander, he who built up Rome of old: "These woods the earth-born Fauns and Nymphs in time agone did hold, And men from out the tree-trunk born and very heart of oak; No fas.h.i.+on of the tilth they knew, nor how the bulls to yoke, Nor how to win them store of wealth, or spare what they had got; The tree-boughs only cherished them and rugged chase and hot.

Then from Olympus of the heavens first Saturn came adown, Fleeing the war of Jupiter and kingdom overthrown: 320 He laid in peace the rugged folk amid the mountains steep Scattered about, and gave them laws, and willed them well to keep The name of Latium, since he lay safe hidden on that sh.o.r.e.

They call the days the Golden Days that 'neath that king outwore, Amid such happiness of peace o'er men-folk did he reign.

But worsened time as on it wore, and gathered many a stain; And then the battle-rage was born, and l.u.s.t of gain outbroke: Then came the host Ausonian; then came Sicanian folk; And oft and o'er again the land of Saturn cast its name. 329 Then kings there were, and Thybris fierce, of monstrous body came, From whom the Tiber flood is named by us of Italy, Its old true name of Albula being perished and gone by.

Me, driven from my land, and strayed about the ocean's ends, Almighty Fortune and the Fate no struggling ever bends Set in these steads; my mother's word well wors.h.i.+pped hither drave, The nymph Carmentis; and a G.o.d, Apollo, wayfare gave."

Now, as he spake, hard thereunto the altar-stead doth show, And gate that by Carmentis' name the Roman people know; An honour of the olden time to nymph Carmentis, she, The faithful seer, who first foretold what mighty men should be 340 aeneas' sons; how great a name from Pallanteum should come.

Then the great grove that Romulus hallowed the fleer's home He showeth, and Lupercal set beneath the cliff acold, Called of Lycaean Pan in wise Parrhasia used of old.

Thereafter Argiletum's grove he shows and bids it tell, A very witness, where and how the guesting Argus fell.

Next, then, to the Tarpeian stead and Capitol they went, All golden now, but wild of yore with thickets' tanglement: E'en then at its dread holiness the folk afield would quake And tremble sore to look upon its cliff-besetting brake. 350

"This grove," saith he, "this hill thou seest with thicket-covered brow, Some G.o.dhead haunts, we know not who: indeed Arcadians trow That very Jove they there have seen, when he his blackening s.h.i.+eld Hath shaken whiles and stirred the storm amidst the heavenly field.

Look therewithal on those two burgs with broken walls foredone!

There thou beholdest tokens left by folk of long agone: For one did Father Ja.n.u.s old, and one did Saturn raise, Janiculum, Saturnia, they hight in ancient days."

Amid such talk they reach the roofs whereunder did abide Unrich Evander; and they see the herd-beasts feeding wide 360 And lowing through the Roman Courts amid Carinae's s.h.i.+ne.

But when they came unto the house, "Beneath these doors of mine Conquering Alcides went," he said; "this king's house took him in.

Have heart to scorn world's wealth, O guest, and strive thou too to win A G.o.dhead's worth: take thou no scorn of our unrich estate."

He spake, and 'neath the narrow roof aeneas' body great He led withal, and set him down; and such a bed was there As 'twas of leaves, and overlaid with skin of Libyan bear.

Night falleth, and its dusky wings spreads o'er the face of earth, When Venus, fearful in her soul (nor less than fear 'twas worth), 370 Sore troubled by Laurentine threats and all the tumult dread, Bespeaketh Vulcan, as she lay upon his golden bed, And holiness of very love amidst her words she bore:

"When Argive kings were wasting Troy predestined with their war, Were wracking towers foredoomed to fall mid flames of hating men, No help of thine for hapless ones, no arms I asked for then, Wrought by thy craft and mastery: nor would I have thee spend Thy labour, O beloved spouse, to win no happy end; Though many things to Priam's house meseemeth did I owe, And oftentimes I needs must weep aeneas' pain and woe. 380 But now that he by Jove's command Rutulian sh.o.r.es hath won, I am thy suppliant, asking arms, a mother for her son, Praying thy G.o.dhead's holiness: time was when Nereus' seed, t.i.thonus' wife, with many tears could bend thee to thy need.

Look round, what peoples gather now; what cities shut within Their barred gates are whetting sword to slay me and my kin."

She spake: with snowy arms of G.o.d she fondled him about, And wound him in her soft embrace, while yet he hung in doubt: Sudden the wonted fire struck home; unto his inmost drew The old familiar heat, and all his melting bones ran through: 390 No otherwise than whiles it is when rolls the thunder loud, And gleaming of the fiery rent breaks up the world of cloud.

In glory of her loveliness she felt her guile had gained.

Then spake the Father, overcome by Love that ne'er hath waned:

"Why fish thy reasons from the deep? where is thy trust in me, I prithee, O my G.o.d and Love? Had such wish weighed on thee, Then, also, had it been my part to arm the Teucrian hand, Nor had the Almighty Sire nor Fate forbidden Troy to stand, And Priam might have held it out another ten years yet.