The Aeneid of Virgil | Page 6

And strewed the ships. Him, from his riven breast
The flames
outgasping, with a whirlwind's sweep
She caught and fixed upon a
rock's sharp crest.
But I, who walk the Queen of Heaven confessed,

Jove's sister-spouse, shall I forevermore
With one poor tribe keep
warring without rest?
Who then henceforth shall Juno's power adore?

Who then her fanes frequent, her deity implore?"
VIII. Such thoughts revolving in her fiery mind,
Straightway the Goddess to AEolia passed,
The storm-clouds'
birthplace, big with blustering wind. Here AEolus within a dungeon
vast
The sounding tempest and the struggling blast
Bends to his
sway and bridles them with chains.
They, in the rock reverberant held
fast,
Moan at the doors. Here, throned aloft, he reigns;
His sceptre
calms their rage, their violence restrains:
IX. Else earth and sea and all the firmament
The winds together through the void would sweep.
But, fearing this,
the Sire omnipotent
Hath buried them in caverns dark and deep,

And o'er them piled huge mountains in a heap,
And set withal a
monarch, there to reign,
By compact taught at his command to keep

Strict watch, and tighten or relax the rein.
Him now Saturnia
sought, and thus in lowly strain:

X. "O AEolus, for Jove, of human kind
And Gods the sovran Sire, hath given to thee
To lull the waves and
lift them with the wind,
A hateful people, enemies to me,
Their
ships are steering o'er the Tuscan sea,
Bearing their Troy and
vanquished gods away
To Italy. Go, set the storm-winds free,
And
sink their ships or scatter them astray,
And strew their corpses forth,
to weltering waves a prey.
XI. "Twice seven nymphs have I, beautiful to see;
One, Deiopeia, fairest of the fair,
In lasting wedlock will I link to thee,

Thy life-long years for such deserts to share,
And make thee parent
of an offspring fair."--
"Speak, Queen," he answered, "to obey is mine.

To thee I owe this sceptre and whate'er
Of realm is here; thou
makest Jove benign,
Thou giv'st to rule the storms and sit at feasts
divine."
XII. So spake the God and with her hest complied,
And turned the massive sceptre in his hand
And pushed the hollow
mountain on its side.
Out rushed the winds, like soldiers in a band,

In wedged array, and, whirling, scour the land.
East, West and squally
South-west, with a roar,
Swoop down on Ocean, and the surf and
sand
Mix in dark eddies, and the watery floor
Heave from its depths,
and roll huge billows to the shore.
XIII. Then come the creak of cables and the cries
Of seamen. Clouds the darkened heavens have drowned,
And
snatched the daylight from the Trojans' eyes.
Black night broods on
the waters; all around
From pole to pole the rattling peals resound

And frequent flashes light the lurid air.
All nature, big with instant
ruin, frowned
Destruction. Then AEneas' limbs with fear
Were
loosened, and he groaned and stretched his hands in prayer:

XIV. "Thrice, four times blest, who, in their fathers' face
Fell by the walls of Ilion far away!
O son of Tydeus, bravest of the
race,
Why could not I have perished, too, that day
Beneath thine
arm, and breathed this soul away
Far on the plains of Troy, where
Hector brave
Lay, pierced by fierce AEacides, where lay
Giant
Sarpedon, and swift Simois' wave
Rolls heroes, helms and shields,
whelmed in one watery grave?"
XV. E'en as he cried, the hurricane from the North
Struck with a roar against the sail. Up leap
The waves to heaven; the
shattered oars start forth;
Round swings the prow, and lets the waters
sweep
The broadside. Onward comes a mountain heap
Of billows,
gaunt, abrupt. These, horsed astride
A surge's crest, rock pendent o'er
the deep;
To those the wave's huge hollow, yawning wide,
Lays
bare the ground below; dark swells the sandy tide.
XVI. Three ships the South-wind catching hurls away
On hidden rocks, which (Latins from of yore
Have called them
"Altars") in mid ocean lay,
A huge ridge level with the tide. Three
more
Fierce Eurus from the deep sea dashed ashore
On quicks and
shallows, pitiful to view,
And round them heaped the sandbanks. One,
that bore
The brave Orontes and his Lycian crew,
Full in AEneas'
sight a toppling wave o'erthrew.
XVII. Dashed from the tiller, down the pilot rolled.
Thrice round the billow whirled her, as she lay,
Then whelmed below.
Strewn here and there behold
Arms, planks, lone swimmers in the
surges grey,
And treasures snatched from Trojan homes away.
Now
fail the ships wherein Achates ride
And Abas; old Aletes' bark gives
way,
And brave Ilioneus'. Each loosened side
Through many a
gaping seam lets in the baleful tide.

XVIII. Meanwhile great Neptune, sore amazed, perceived
The storm let loose, the turmoil of the sky,
And ocean from its lowest
depths upheaved.
With calm brow lifted o'er the sea, his eye

Beholds Troy's navy scattered far and nigh,
And by the waves and
ruining heaven oppressed
The Trojan crews. Nor failed he to espy

His sister's wiles and hatred. East and West
He summoned to his
throne, and thus his wrath expressed.
XIX. "What pride of birth possessed you, Earth and air
Without my leave to mingle in affray,
And