Story of Aeneas | Page 8

flames.
Then he hurried on through the streets, in his distress calling aloud the
name of Creusa. Suddenly her figure started up before him, larger than
when in life, for it was her spirit he saw. Appalled at the sight, Aeneas
stood in silence gazing at the apparition while it thus spoke:
"Beloved husband, why do you give way to grief? What has happened
is by the decree of heaven. It was not the will of the gods that I should
accompany you. You have a long journey to make, and a wide extent of
sea to cross, before you reach the shores of Hes-pe'ri-a, where the
Ti'ber flows in gentle course through the rich fields of a warlike race.
There prosperity awaits you, and you shall take to yourself a wife of a
royal line. Weep not for me. The mother of the gods keeps me in this

land to serve her. And now farewell, and fail not to love and watch over
our son."
Then the form of Creusa melted into air, and the sorrowing husband
returned to the place where his father and son awaited him. There he
found a number of his fellow-citizens prepared to follow him into exile.
They first took refuge in the forests of Mount I'da, not far from the
ruined city. In this place they spent the winter, and they built a fleet of
ships at An-tan'dros, a coast town at the foot of the mountain.
"Near old Antandros, and at Ida's foot, The timber of the sacred groves
we cut, And build our fleet-uncertain yet to find What place the gods
for our repose assigned." DRYDEN, AEneid, BOOK III.
It is remarkable that Vergil does not tell how Creusa came by her death.
Apparently we are left to infer that she was killed by the Greeks.

II. AENEAS LEAVES TROY--THE HARPIES--PROPHECY OF
HELENUS-THE GIANT POLYPHEMUS.
In the early days of summer--the fleet being ready and all preparations
complete--Anchises gave the order for departure, and so they set sail,
piously carrying with them the images of their household gods and of
the "great gods" of their nation. The first land they touched was the
coast of Thrace, not far from Troy. AEneas thought he would build a
city and make a settlement here, as the country had been, from early
times, connected by ties of friendship with his own. To obtain the
blessing of heaven on an undertaking of such importance, he set about
performing religious services in honor of his mother Venus and the
other gods, sacrificing a snow-white bull as an offering to Jupiter.
Close by the place there happened to be a little hill, on the top of which
was a grove of myrtle, bristling with thick-clustering, spear-like shoots.
Wishing to have some of those plants to decorate his altars, AEneas
pulled one up from the ground, whereupon he beheld drops of blood
oozing from the torn roots. Though horrified at the sight he plucked
another bough, and again blood oozed out as before. Then praying to
the gods to save himself and his people from whatever evil there might
be in the omen, he proceeded to tear up a third shoot, when from out
the earth at his feet a voice uttered these words:
"O, AEneas! why do you tear an unhappy wretch? Spare me, now that I
am in my grave; forbear to pollute your pious hands. It is from no tree-

trunk that the blood comes. Quit this barbarous land with all speed.
Know that I am Pol-y-do'rus. Here I was slain by many arrows, which
have taken root and grown into a tree."
Deep was the horror of AEneas while he listened to this dreadful story,
for he knew that Polydorus was one of the younger sons of Priam.
Early in the war, his father, fearing that the Trojans might be defeated,
had sent him for protection to the court of the king of Thrace. At the
same time he sent the greater part of his treasures, including a large
sum of money, to be taken care of by the king till the war should be
over. But as soon as the Thracian monarch heard of the fall of Troy he
treacherously slew the young prince and seized all his father's treasure.
False to divine and human laws, The traitor joins the conqueror's cause,
Lays impious hands on Polydore, And grasps by force the golden store.
Fell lust of gold! abhorred, accurst! What will not men to slake such
thirst? CONINGTON, AEneid, BOOK III.
When AEneas related this story to his father and the other Trojan chiefs,
they all agreed to depart forthwith from a land polluted by so black a
crime. But first they performed funeral rites on the grave of Polydorus,
erecting two altars