Story of Aeneas | Page 9

in lowly reverence upon the ground, and presently they heard a voice saying: "Brave sons of Dar'da-nus, the land which gave birth to your ancestors shall again receive your race in its fertile bosom. Seek out your ancient mother. There the house of AEneas shall rule over every coast, and his children's children and their descendants."
The answers or oracles of the gods were often given in mysterious words, as in the present case. AEneas and his companions did not know what land was meant by the "ancient mother," but Anchises, "revolving in his mind the legends of the men of old," remembered having heard that one of his ancestors, Teu'cer, (the father-in-law of Dardanus), had come from the island of Crete. Believing, therefore, that that was the land referred to in the words of the oracle, they set sail, having first sacrificed to Apollo, to Neptune, god of the ocean, and to the god of storms, that their voyage might be favorable.
A bull to Neptune, an oblation due, Another bull to bright Apollo slew; A milk-white ewe, the western winds to please And one coal-black, to calm the stormy seas. DRYDEN, AEneid, BOOK III.
They arrived safely at Crete (now known as Can'di-a) where they remained a considerable time and built a city which AEneas called Per'ga-mus, the name of the famous citadel or fort of Troy. But here a new misfortune came upon the exiles in the shape of a plague, which threatened destruction to man and beast and the fruits of the field.
Sudden on man's feeble frame From tainted skies a sickness came, On trees and crops a poisonous breath, A year of pestilence and death. CONINGTON, AEneid, BOOK III.
Anchises now proposed that they should return to Delos, and again seek the counsel and aid of Apollo, but that night AEneas had a dream in which the household gods whose images he had carried with him from Troy, appeared to him, and told him that Crete was not the land destined by the gods for him and his people. They also told him where that Hesperia was, of which he had heard from the shade of Creusa.
"A land there is, Hesperia called of old, (The soil is fruitful, and the natives bold-- The OE-no'tri-ans held it once,) by later fame Now called I-ta'li-a, from the leader's name. I-a'si-us there, and Dardanus, were born: From thence we came, and thither must return. Rise, and thy sire with these glad tidings greet: Search Italy: for Jove denies thee Crete." DRYDEN, AEneid, BOOK III.
AEneas made haste to tell this dream to his father, whereupon the old man advised that they should at once depart. So they quickly got their ships in order and set sail for Hesperia--the Land of the West. But scarcely had they lost sight of the shore when a terrible storm arose which drove them out of their course, and for three days and nights the light of heaven was shut from their view. Even the great Pal-i-nu'rus, the pilot of the ship of AEneas, "could not distinguish night from day, or remember his true course in the midst of the wave."
On the fourth day, however, the storm ceased and soon the Trojans sighted land in the distance. It was one of the islands of the Ionian sea, called the Stroph'a-des. Here dwelt the Har'pies, monsters having faces like women, and bodies, wings, and claws like vultures. When the Trojans landed they saw herds of oxen and flocks of goats grazing in the fields. They killed some of them and prepared a feast upon the shore, and having first, in accordance with their invariable custom, made offerings to the gods, they proceeded "to banquet on the rich viands." But they had hardly begun their meal when the Harpies, with noisy flapping of wings and fearful cries, swooped down upon them, snatched off a great portion of the meat, and so spoiled the rest with their unclean touch that it was unfit to eat.
From the mountain-tops with hideous cry, And clattering wings, the hungry Harpies fly: And snatch the meat, defiling all they find, And parting, leave a loathsome stench behind. DRYDEN, AEneid, BOOK III.
The Trojans got ready another meal and again sat down to eat, but the Harpies again came down upon them as before, and did in like manner. AEneas and his companions then resolved to fight, so they took their swords and drove the foul monsters off, though they could not kill any of them, for their skins were proof against wounds. One of them, however, remained behind, and perching on a rock, cried out in words of anger against the intruders. "Do you dare, base Trojans," said she, "to make war upon us after killing our oxen? Do you dare to drive the Harpies from the