The Aeneid of Virgil | Page 8

the sounding rocks and deluges the plain.
XXXIII. "Yet there he built Patavium, yea, and named
The nation, and the Trojan arms laid down,?And now rests happy in the town he framed.?But we, thy progeny, to whom alone?Thy nod hath promised a celestial throne,?Our vessels lost, from Italy are barred,?O shame! and ruined for the wrath of one.?Thus, thus dost thou thy plighted word regard,?Our sceptred realms restore, our piety reward?"
XXXIV. Then Jove, soft-smiling with the look that clears
The storms, and gently kissing her, replies;?"Firm are thy fates, sweet daughter; spare thy fears.?Thou yet shalt see Lavinium's walls arise,?And bear thy brave AEneas to the skies.?My purpose shifts not. Now, to ease thy woes,?Since sorrow for his sake hath dimmed thine eyes,?More will I tell, and hidden fates disclose.?He in Italia long shall battle with his foes,
XXXV. "And crush fierce tribes, and milder ways ordain,
And cities build and wield the Latin sway,?Till the third summer shall have seen him reign,?And three long winter-seasons passed away?Since fierce Rutulia did his arms obey.?Then, too, the boy Ascanius, named of late?Iulus--Ilus was he in the day?When firm by royalty stood Ilium's state--?Shall rule till thirty years complete the destined date.
XXXVI. "He from Lavinium shall remove his seat,
And gird Long Alba for defence; and there?'Neath Hector's kin three hundred years complete?The kingdom shall endure, till Ilia fair,?Queen-priestess, twins by Mars' embrace shall bear.?Then Romulus the nation's charge shall claim,?Wolf-nursed and proud her tawny hide to wear,?And build a city of Mavortian fame,?And make the Roman race remembered by his name.
XXXVII. "To these no period nor appointed date,
Nor bounds to their dominion I assign;?An endless empire shall the race await.?Nay, Juno, too, who now, in mood malign,?Earth, sea and sky is harrying, shall incline?To better counsels, and unite with me?To cherish and uphold the imperial line,?The Romans, rulers of the land and sea,?Lords of the flowing gown. So standeth my decree.
XXXVIII. "In rolling ages there shall come the day
When heirs of old Assaracus shall tame?Phthia and proud Mycene to obey,?And terms of peace to conquered Greeks proclaim.?Caesar, a Trojan,--Julius his name,?Drawn from the great Iulus--shall arise,?And compass earth with conquest, heaven with fame,?Him, crowned with vows and many an Eastern prize,?Thou, freed at length from care, shalt welcome to the skies.
XXXIX. "Then wars shall cease and savage times grow mild,
And Remus and Quirinus, brethren twain,?With hoary Faith and Vesta undefiled,?Shall give the law. With iron bolt and chain?Firm-closed the gates of Janus shall remain.?Within, the Fiend of Discord, high reclined?On horrid arms, unheeded in the fane,?Bound with a hundred brazen knots behind,?And grim with gory jaws, his grisly teeth shall grind."
XL. So saying, the son of Maia down he sent,
To open Carthage and the Libyan state,?Lest Dido, weetless of the Fates' intent,?Should drive the Trojan wanderers from her gate.?With feathered oars he cleaves the skies, and straight?On Libya's shores alighting, speeds his hest.?The Tyrians, yielding to the god, abate?Their fierceness. Dido, more than all the rest,?Warms to her Phrygian friends, and wears a kindly breast.
XLI. But good AEneas, pondering through the night
Distracting thoughts and many an anxious care,?Resolved, when daybreak brought the gladsome light,?To search the coast, and back sure tidings bear,?What land was this, what habitants were there,?If man or beast, for, far as the eye could rove,?A wilderness the region seemed, and bare.?His ships he hides within a sheltering cove,?Screened by the caverned rock, and shadowed by the grove,
XLII. Then wielding in his hand two broad-tipt spears,
Alone with brave Achates forth he strayed,?When lo, before him in the wood appears?His mother, in a virgin's arms arrayed,?In form and habit of a Spartan maid,?Or like Harpalyce, the pride of Thrace,?Who tires swift steeds, and scours the woodland glade,?And outstrips rapid Hebrus in the race.?So fair the goddess seemed, apparelled for the chase.
XLIII. Bare were her knees, and from her shoulders hung
The wonted bow, kept handy for the prey?Her flowing raiment in a knot she strung,?And loosed her tresses with the winds to play.?"Ho, Sirs!" she hails them, "saw ye here astray?Ought of my sisters, girt in huntress wise?With quiver and a spotted lynx-skin gay,?Or following on the foaming boar with cries?"?Thus Venus spake, and thus fair Venus' son replies;
XLIV. "Nought of thy sisters have I heard or seen.
What name, O maiden, shall I give to thee,?For mortal never had thy voice or mien??O Goddess surely, whether Nymph I see,?Or Phoebus' sister; whosoe'er thou be,?Be kind, for strangers and in evil case?We roam, tost hither by the stormy sea.?Say, who the people, what the clime and place,?And many a victim's blood thy hallowed shrine shall grace."
XLV. "Nay, nay, to no such honour I aspire."
Said Venus, "But a simple maid am I,?And 'tis the manner of the maids of Tyre?To wear, like me, the quiver, and to tie?The purple buskin round the ankles high.?The realm thou see'st is