BOOK XII

When Turnus sees that the War-god’s enmity has

broken the spirit of Latium, that men are beginning to

claim his promise, and make him the mark of their eyes,

he bursts at once into fury unappeasable, and swells his

pride to the height. As in Punic land, when the hunters 5

have wounded him deep in the breast, the lion at last rouses

himself to fight, tosses with fierce joy his mane from his

neck, snaps fearlessly the brigand’s spear in the wound,

and roars from his gory mouth: even so, Turnus once

kindled, his vehemence grows each moment. Then he 10

addresses the king, and dashes hotly into speech: “Turnus

stops not the way: Æneas and his cowards have no plea

for retracting their challenge or disowning their plighted

word; I meet the combat; bring the sacred things, good

father, and solemnize the truce. Either will I with my own 15

right hand send the Dardan down to Tartarus, the runaway

from Asia—let the Latians sit by and see—and

with my single weapon refute the slander of a nation; or

let the vanquished own their master and Lavinia be the

conqueror’s bride.” 20

With calm dignity of soul the king makes answer:

“Gallant youth, the greater your impetuous valour, the

more watchful must needs be my foresight, the more

anxious my scrutiny of all that may happen. You have

your father Daunus’ kingdom, you have many a town 25

won by your own sword: I that speak have gold and a

heart to give it; in Latium and Laurentum’s land are other

unwedded maidens, of no unworthy lineage. Suffer me

without disguise to give voice to these unwelcome sayings,

and take home what I speak further: I was forbidden by 30

Fate to give my daughter to any of her early suitors;

so sang gods and men alike. Conquered by my love for

you, conquered by the ties of kindred and the sorrow of

my weeping queen, I set all pledges at naught, I snatched

the bride from her plighted husband. I drew the unhallowed 5

sword. From that fatal day you see what troubles,

what wars are let loose upon me; you know the weight of

the sufferings which _you_ are the first to feel. Twice vanquished

in a mighty conflict, we scarce protect by our bulwarks

the hopes of Italy: Tiber’s waters are yet steaming 10

with our blood, and the spacious plains are whitened by

our bones. Whither am I drifting again and again?

what madness turns my brain? If on the death of Turnus

I am ready to welcome these new allies, why should I not

end the strife while he lives and is safe? What will our 15

Rutulian kinsmen say, what the rest of Italy, if—may

Fortune forefend the omen!—I give you up to death,

you, a suitor for my alliance, for my daughter’s hand?

Think of the uncertainties of war; have pity on your aged

sire, now biding forlornly far away in his Ardean home!” 20

These words abate not Turnus’ vehemence a whit: it

starts up fiercer, more virulent for the healing hand.

Soon as he can find utterance, he thus begins: “The care

you take for my sake, best of fathers, lay down for my

sake, I beg, and suffer me to pledge my life for my honour. 25

My hand, too, can scatter darts and fling steel with no

feeble force; my blows, too, fetch blood. He will not have

his goddess-mother within call, to hide her craven son in an

unmanly cloud, and conceal herself by help of treacherous

shadows.” 30

But the queen, appalled by the new hazard of the combat,

was all in tears, clinging to her fiery son-in-law with

the convulsive grasp of death: “Turnus, by these my

tears, by any regard you cherish for Amata—you are

now our only hope, our only solace in our forlorn old age—the 35

honour and power of the king are in your hands;

on you, its one pillar, the whole house leans. I ask but

this—forbear to cross swords with the Teucrians. Whatever

chance waits on you in this unhappy combat, waits

on me, too, my Turnus; along with you I shall leave the

hated light, nor see in Æneas my son-in-law and my

conqueror.”

As Lavinia heard her mother’s voice, her glowing cheeks 5

were bathed in tears; a deep blush kindled a fire, and shot

over her flushing face. As when a man has stained Indian

ivory with blood-red purple, or like a bed of lilies and roses

mixed: such hues were seen on the maiden’s countenance.

He, bewildered with passion, fixes his eyes upon her: the 10

sight makes him burn the more for battle, and thus he

addresses Amata in brief: “Let me not have tears nor

aught so ominous, dear mother, as my escort to the iron

battle; Turnus is not free to postpone the call of death.

Go, Idmon, and bear the Phrygian despot a message that 15

will like him not: Soon as the goddess of to-morrow’s

dawn shall fire the sky with the glow of her chariot, let

him not spur the Teucrians against the Rutulians; let

Teucrian and Rutulian sheath their swords, while we

twain with our own life-blood decide the war. Let 20

Lavinia’s hand be sought and won in yonder field.”

So he spoke, and rushed back within doors: he calls for

his steeds, and joys to look on them snorting and neighing—the

steeds which Orithyia gave as a present to Pilumnus,

to surpass the snows in whiteness, the winds in speed. 25

Round them stand the bustling charioteers, patting their

chests with hollow palms and combing their maned necks.

Next he throws round his shoulders his hauberk, stiff

with scales of gold and dazzling orichalc,[282] and adjusts to

his wear the sword, the shield, and the cones of the crimson 30

crest—that sword the Fire-god’s own hand had made for

his father Daunus, and tempered it glowing in the Stygian

wave. Lastly, the spear which was standing in the

palace-hall, propped by a mighty column, the spoil of

Auruncan Actor, he seizes forcefully, sturdy as it is, 35

and shakes till it quivers, crying aloud: “Now, my good

spear, that hast never failed my call, now is the time;

once wast thou swayed by giant Actor, now by Turnus:

grant that I may lay low the emasculate Phrygian, strip

and rend his hauberk by strength of hand, and soil in the

dust those ringlets curled with hot iron and moist with

myrrh.” So he rages, fury-driven: sparks flash from the

furnace of his countenance, lightnings dart from his 5

fiery eyes; as when a bull in view of a fight raises fearful

bellowing, and calls up rage into his horns by butting against

a tree’s trunk, challenges the wind with his blows, and

spurns the flying sand in prelude for the fray.

With equal fierceness Æneas, clad in his mother’s 10

armour, sharpens valour’s edge, and lashes his heart with

wrath, joying that proffered truce should end the war.

Then he calms his comrades’ fear and the grief of Iulus,

talking of destiny, and sends envoys with an answer to the

Latian king, to name the conditions of peace. 15

Scarce had the next morrow begun to sprinkle the

mountain-tops with light, at the time when the sun’s

steeds first come up from the deep and breathe flakes of

radiance from their upturned nostrils, when Rutulians

and Teucrians were at work, measuring out lists for combat 20

under the ramparts of the mighty town, with hearths

in the midst, and altars of turf for their common gods.

Others were carrying fire and spring water, begirt with

aprons, vervain[283] wreaths on their brows. Forth moves

the Ausonian army, bands with lifted javelins issuing 25

from the crowded gates. From yonder quarters pours the

Trojan and Tuscan force, with the arms of their several

countries, harnessed as if summoned by the War-god’s

bloody fray. In the midst of either squadrons the generals

flash along, glorious in gold and purple, Mnestheus, 30

Assaracus’ seed, and Asilas the brave, and Messapus,

tamer of horses, the progeny of Neptune. At a given

signal each army retreats within its confines; spears are

fixed in the ground, and bucklers rested at ease. Matrons

in yearning eagerness, and unarmed masses, and tottering 35

old men, fill turret and roof, or stand by the lofty portals.

But Juno, from the top of the mount now styled Alban—in

those days it had no name, nor glory, nor honour—was

looking in prospect on the plain, the two armies,

Trojan and Laurentine, and the Latian town. At once

she addressed Turnus’ sister, a goddess herself, who presides

over the pool and the brawling stream—such dignity

Jove, the king of heaven, solemnly made hers in return for 5

violated maidenhood: “Sweet Nymph, glory of the rivers,

favourite of my heart, you know how I have preferred you

to all Latium’s daughters who have climbed the odious bed

of our great Master and have gladly given you a seat in the

sky; and now, Juturna, learn from me your sorrow, for 10

which I am not to blame. So long as Fortune seemed

favourable and Fate allowed Latium to prosper, I spread

my shield over Turnus and these your walls: now I see

the youth engaged with a destiny mightier than his own,

and the day of doom and the power of the enemy are at 15

hand. I cannot look on the combat, nor on the league

that ushers it in. If you have the nerve to dare aught for

your brother, go on; it is a sister’s part: perhaps the downtrodden

have a better lot in store.” Ere she had well

ended Juturna’s tears sprang forth, and thrice and again 20

her hand smote on her lovely breast. “No time for tears,”

cries Saturn’s daughter: “quick, and if any way there be,

snatch your brother from death: or at least revive the war—and

mar the treaty while yet on their lips. Remember,

I warrant the attempt.” With such advice she left her 25

wavering in purpose and staggering under the cruel blow.

Meantime the monarchs appear, the stately form of the

Latian king riding in a four-horse car, his brows gleaming

with a circle of twelve gilded rays, the cognizance of the Sun

his grandsire: Turnus is drawn by a snow-white pair, two 30

spears with broad iron points quivering in his hands. Then

comes father Æneas, the parent stock of the Roman tree,

blazing with his starry shield and celestial armour, and at

his side Ascanius, the second hope of mighty Rome, both

issuing from their camp: while a priest in stainless robe 35

has brought the young of a bristly boar and an unclipped

sheep of two years old, and placed the victims by the

blazing altar. They, turning their eyes to the rising sun,

offer the salted barley, score with the steel the brows of the

cattle, and make libations from their chargers. Then

thus prays good Æneas, his sword drawn in his hand:

“Let the Sun above and the Earth beneath witness my invocation, 5

this very Earth for which I have had the heart

to endure so much, and the almighty Sire, and thou, his

goddess-bride, Saturn’s daughter, now—may I hope it?—now

at last made gracious: thou, too, glorious Mars,

whose princely nod controls every battle: Springs also

and Rivers I invoke, all the majesty of the sky, all the 10

deities of the purple deep: if chance award the victory

to Turnus the Ausonian, reason claims that the vanquished

shall retire to Evander’s town: Iulus shall quit the land,

nor shall Æneas’ children in after-days draw the sword again,

or threaten this realm with war. But should conquest 15

vouchsafe to us the smiles of the battle-field, as I rather

deem, and pray that Heaven will rather grant, I will not bid

the Italians be subject to Troy, nor ask I the crown for

myself: no, let the two great nations, one unconquered as

the other, join on equal terms in an everlasting federation. 20

The gods and their ritual shall be my gift: let my good

father-in-law still wield the sword and the lawful rights of

empire: the Teucrians shall raise me a city, and Lavinia

shall give it her name.” Thus first Æneas: the Latian

king follows, with eyes lifted to heaven, and right hand 25

stretched to the stars: “I swear as you swore, Æneas,

by Land and Ocean and Lights above, Latona’s twofold

offspring, and two-faced Janus, the potency of the gods

below and the shrine of relentless Pluto: and let the

Father too give ear, who ratifies covenants with thunder. 30

My hand is on the altars; I adjure the fires and powers

that part us: so far as rests with Italy, no length of time

shall break this bond of friendship, let things issue as they

may: no violence shall make me swerve in will, not though

deluge and chaos come again, ruining the earth into the 35

water and crushing down heaven into Tartarus: even

as this sceptre”—for a sceptre chanced to be in his hand—“shall

never more burgeon with light foliage into branch

or shade, now that once cut down in the woods it is orphaned

of that which gave it life, and has resigned to the

axe its leaves and its sprays—once a tree, now the workman’s

hand has cased it with seemly brass, and given it to

be wielded by Latium’s elders.” With words like these 5

were they ratifying the treaty, all the nobles looking on.

Then, as the rite ordains, they cut the throats of the

hallowed’ victims into the fire, flay the yet breathing flesh,

and pile the altars with laden chargers.

But the Rutulians have long been thinking the combat 10

unequal: their bosoms are swayed by rival emotions,

all the more, the nearer they observe the ill-matched

champions. Turnus aids the feeling by the quietness of

his step and the downcast reverential look which he turns

on the altar, his wan cheeks, and the pallor of his youthful 15

frame. Soon as his sister Juturna heard such whispers

spreading, and saw the hearts of the multitude wavering

to and fro, she plunges among the ranks, taking the form

of Camers, great in ancestral dignity, great in the name of

his father’s worth, and himself a valiant warrior—plunges 20

among the ranks, knowing well what she would have, and

scatters her sayings abroad in words like these: “Blush

ye not, Rutulians, with souls such as yours, to make one a

sacrifice for all? are we not equal to our foes in strength or

in numbers? See, here is their whole army, Trojan 25

and Arcadian, aye, and that fated band of Eturia, which

seeks Turnus’ life. Though but half of us should engage,

each would scarce have an enemy to fight with. He, no

doubt, will rise on the wings of fame to the gods for whose

altars he gives himself to die, and will live in the mouths 30

of men: we, stripped of our country, shall be the slaves of

haughty masters, we, I say, now seated passively on the

ground.” By such words the flame is fanned more and

more in those young warrior hearts, and murmurs run

from rank to rank: not Rutulian alone, but Laurentian and 35

Latian are changed men. They who a short while since

were hoping for their own repose and their state’s prosperity,

now burn for arms, would have the treaty undone,

and pity Turnus’ cruel fate. And now Juturna gives them

one thing more, even a sign from heaven, no spell so potent

to work on Italian minds and make them dupes of the

marvel. Flying through the ruddy sky, Jove’s golden

bird was chasing the river fowl, a winged noisy multitude, 5

when suddenly swooping on the water he carries off in

his tyrant claws a stately swan. The Italians are all

attention, when lo! the whole mass of birds face about with

a scream, marvellous to see, their wings darkening the air,

and in dense cloud press on their enemy, till overborne by 10

sheer weight he gives way, drops the booty from his talons

into the river, flying aloft, and vanishes in the distant sky.

Oh, then the Rutulians welcome the omen with a shout and

spread their hands on high; and first of all cries the augur

Tolumnius. “Here, here is the thing I have prayed for so 15

often. I embrace it, I own the hand of Heaven. Follow

me—yes, me—and seize your weapons, my poor countrymen,

whom the felon stranger is scaring with battle, as if

ye were feeble birds, and ravaging your coasts. He too

will turn to flight and sail far away on the deep. Close 20

your ranks with one accord, and rally round the prince

of whom the battle robs you.” He spoke, and running forward

hurls his dart full at the enemy: the hurtling cornel

sounds, and cuts the air on no doubtful errand. A deafening

shout follows on the act, the ranks are confused, 25

and men’s hearts stirred with mad bewilderment. On flew

the spear, just where nine goodly brethren chanced to

stand facing it, all born of one true Tuscan mother to

Gylippus the Arcadian. One of these just at the waist

where the quilted belt chafes against the belly and the 30

buckle presses the sides—a youth of goodly form and

clad in refulgent armour—it strikes through the ribs

and lays him grovelling on the yellow sand. But his

brothers, a gallant company and stung by grief, draw their

swords or seize their javelins, and charge in headlong fury. 35

To meet them rush the Laurentian columns: while from

their side surge forth in a flood Trojans and Agyllans and

Arcadians with inlaid harness. All are possessed by one

passion, to try the issue with the steel. The altars are

stripped bare: through the whole sky drives a flickering

storm of weapons and an iron sleet comes thick: bowls

and hearths are carried away. King Latinus flies, bearing

away his gods in discomfiture, the truce unratified. 5

Others rein the chariot or vault on horseback, with swords

ready drawn.

Messapus, all on fire to annul the treaty, spurs his horse

full on the Tuscan Aulestes, a king and wearing kingly

cognizance: he draws quickly back, and gets entangled 10

in piteous sort with the altars that meet him behind,

falling on them head and shoulders. Up flashes Messapus

spear in hand, and towering on horseback brings down on

him the massy beam in the midst of his prayers, and delivers

himself thus: “He is sped: here is a better victim for the 15

mighty gods.” The Italians cluster round, and strip the

yet warm body. As Ebusus comes up and aims a blow,

Corynæus meets him with a brand half-burnt from the

altar and dashes the fire in his face: his long beard burst

into a blaze and made a smell of burning hair: the enemy 20

presses on, grasps in his left hand the locks of the wildered

man and with the impact of his knee pins him to earth;

then buries the stark falchion in his side. Podalirius

gives chase to Alsus the shepherd as he rushed in the first

rank through a shower of darts, and hangs over him with 25

naked sword: he, swinging back his axe, splits full in front

the foe’s forehead and chin, and splashes his arms right

and left with the blood. The heavy rest of iron slumber

settles down on the dying eyes, and their beams are curtained

in everlasting night. 30

But good Æneas, his head bare, was stretching forth

his unarmed hand and shouting to his men: “Whither are

you driving? what is this sudden outburst of strife? Oh,

curb your passions! the truce is stricken, and all the terms

arranged: none but I has a right to engage: give way to 35

me and have done with alarm: my sword shall ratify the

treaty: this sacrifice has put Turnus in my power.”

While he is crying thus and uttering words like these, lo!

full at the chief flies a hurtling arrow, none knew by

what hand launched, by what wind wafted, who graced

the Rutulians so highly, chance or deity: the glory of the

proud achievement was lost, nor was any known to boast

of having wounded Æneas. 5

Soon as Turnus sees Æneas retiring from the battle,

and the Trojan leaders in confusion, he glows with swift

access of hope, calls for horses and armour, bounds like a

conqueror into the chariot, and takes the reins in hand.

Many a heroic frame he slaughters as he whirls along, many 10

he tumbles and leaves to live or die, crushes whole ranks

by the onset of his car, or plucks forth spears and hurls

them at the fliers. Just as storming along by Hebrus’ icy

flood gore-stained Mars smites on his shield, and stirring

battle lets loose his fiery steeds: they fly over the plains 15

faster than winds southern or western: Thrace groans to

her extremity under the beat of their hoofs: around him

circle the frowns of black-visaged Terror, and the powers

of Wrath and Treachery, liege followers of the god: with

like eagerness through the thickest of the battle Turnus 20

whirls his straining horses, trampling in piteous sort on the

slaughtered foe: the flying hoof spirts gory dew, and blood

and sand are kneaded in a mass. Sthenelus he has slain

already, and Thamyris and Pholus, these hand to hand,

that from a distance: a distant death, too, has found the 25

Imbrasidæ, Glaucus and Lades, trained in Lycia by

Imbrasus their sire, and by him harnessed alike, warriors

who could stand and fight or outride the winds. In another

part of the field Eumedes is riding through the fray, the

gallant son of ancient Dolon, with the name of his grandsire, 30

the heart and hand of his sire, who of old, offering

to spy out the Danaan camp, dared to ask Achilles’

chariot as his guerdon; far other guerdon was it with

which Diomed requited his daring, and his hopes are set on

Achilles’ steeds no longer. Marking him at distance along 35

the plain, Turnus first sends after him a flying spear

through the intervening space, then stops the car and dismounts,

comes on the wretch gasping and laid low, and

setting his foot on his neck, wrests the sword from his hand,

bathes it flashing deep in his throat, and thus accompanies

the blow: “Lie there, Trojan, and measure the Hesperian

soil you came to invade: such are their guerdons who

draw their swords on me; so build they up their city.” 5

Then with a spear throw he sends Asbutes to join the dead.

Chloreus and Sybaris and Dares and Thersilochus, Thymœtes

too, thrown off by a restiff horse. As when the

blast of Thracian Boreas roars on the deep Ægean and

drives the billows to the shore, wherever the winds push 10

on, the clouds scurry over the sky, so when Turnus cleaves

his path, the ranks give way, the armies turn in rout; the

motion bears him along, and the gale which blows on the

car tosses his flickering crest. Phegeus, indignant at his

overweening onset, meets the car and grasping the bridle 15

wrenches aside the foaming jaws of the impetuous steeds.

While he is dragged along clinging to the yoke, the broad

spear-head reaches his unguarded breast, cleaves the two-plated

corslet, and tastes the surface of the flesh. Yet he,

his shield before him, kept fronting and threatening the 20

foe, and protecting himself with his drawn sword, when

the wheel careering onward strikes and flings him on the

ground, and Turnus with a sweep of his blade between

the bottom of the helmet and the breastplate’s topmost

rim has lopped the head and left the trunk to welter. 25

While Turnus thus is dealing havoc over the field,

Mnestheus, true Achates, and Ascanius have helped Æneas

to the camp, all bleeding, and staying his halting steps

by the help of a spear. There he frets and struggles to

pull out the broken shaft, and calls for help the readiest 30

way, bidding them enlarge the wound with a broad sword,

cut the weapon’s lodgment to the bottom, and send him

to combat again. And now at his side was Iapis, son of

Iasus, dearest of mankind to Phœbus, he to whom the

god in his passionate fondness would fain have given his 35

own function, his own hand’s cunning, the augur’s insight,

the lyre, the weapons of archery; but he, wishing

to lengthen out the span of his bed-rid sire, chose rather

to know the virtue of simples and the laws of the healing

art, and to practise in silence an unambitious craft.

There stood Æneas, fretting impatiently, propped on his

massy spear, with a warrior concourse about him, and

Iulus all in tears, yet himself unmoved by their sorrow. 5

The aged leech, his garments swathed round him in

Pæon’s fashion, is plying busily the healing hand and

Phœbus’ sovereign remedies all to no end, all to no end

pulling at the dart and griping the steel with the pincer.

No Fortune guides the course of skill, no patron Phœbus 10

lends his aid; and meanwhile the fierce alarms of the field

grow louder and louder, and the mischief is nearer at

hand. They see dust-clouds propping the sky, the horsemen

gallop in, darts fall thick in the midst of the camp,

and heavenward mounts the cruel din of warriors battling 15

or falling in the stern affray:—when, lo! Venus, struck

to the heart by her son’s undeserved suffering, with a

mother’s care plucks dittany[284] from Cretan Ida, a plant

with downy leaves and a purple flower: wild goats know

that simple well, if the flying arrow should lodge in their 20

flesh. Veiled by a dim cloud, the goddess brings it down;

with it she impregnates the spring water gleaming in the

caldron, imparting unseen powers, and sprinkles ambrosia’s[285]

healthful juice and fragrant panacea. The old

man rinsed the wound with the water so transformed, all 25

unwitting, and in a moment all pain was fled from the

frame, and the blood was stanched in the wound. The

arrow obeys the hand, and falls unforced, and strength is

restored as before. “Quick! give the warrior his arms!

why so tardy?” cries Iapis, himself the first to stir up 30

the martial spirit. “No human aid has done this, no

power of leech-craft; it is not my hand, Æneas, that

restores you; a mightier power than man’s is at work,

sending you back to mightier deeds.” The chief, greedy

for the fight, has cased his legs in gold, chafing at delay 35

and brandishing his spear. Soon as the shield is fitted

to his side, the cuirass to his back, he clasps Ascanius to

his mailed breast, and kissing his lips through the helmet

addresses him thus: “Learn valour from me, my son,

and genuine hardihood, success from others. To-day it is

my hand that shall shield you in war and lead you through

the walks of honour; be it your care, when your age has

ripened into manhood, to bear the past in mind, seek 5

patterns among those of your own blood, and be stirred

to action by Æneas your sire and Hector your uncle.”

So having said, he passed towering through the gate,

a huge spear quivering in his hand: Antheus and Mnestheus

close their ranks and rush forth, and the whole 10

multitude streams from the empty camp. The field is

clouded by blinding dust, and earth throbs and shudders

with the tramp of feet. Turnus saw them coming towards

him from their battlements, the Ausonians saw, and a

cold shudder ran through their vitals: first before all the 15

Latians Juturna heard and knew the sound and shrank

back in terror. As a storm-cloud bursting through the

sky sweeps down to earth along the main: hapless husbandmen

know it ere it comes, and shudder at heart;

yes, it will bring havoc to their trees, devastation to their 20

crops, will lay all low far and wide; the winds fly before

it and waft the sound to the shore: with as strong a rush

the Rhœteian chief sweeps his army full on the foe; they

close in firm masses and form severally at his side. Thymbræus’

sword cuts down mighty Osiris, Mnestheus slays 25

Archetius, Achates Epulo, and Gyas Ufens; falls too the

augur Tolumnius, the first to fling his javelin at the

enemy. The din mounts to the sky, and the Rutulians

routed in turn fly through the plains in a whirlwind of

dust. The hero himself neither stoops to slaughter the 30

flying nor encounter such as would fain meet him foot to

foot, weapon in hand: Turnus alone he tracks winding

through the thick darkness, him alone he challenges to

combat. The terror struck Juturna’s manly mind: she

plucks from his seat Metiscus, Turnus’ charioteer, as he 35

drives the horses, and leaves him fallen at distance behind

the car: herself takes his place and handles the

flowing rein, assuming all that Metiscus had, voice and

person and armour. Like a black swallow that flies

through the house of some wealthy man and traverses

the lofty hail, in quest of scraps of food for her twittering

nestlings; now she is heard in the empty cloisters, now

about the watertanks; so drives Juturna through the 5

thick of the foe, and flies on rapid wheel from spot to

spot, now here, now there she gives a glimpse of her victorious

brother, yet never lets him stop and fight, but

whirls far away in the distance. Æneas for his part

winds through sinuous paths in hope to meet him, tracks 10

his steps, and shouts to him aloud across the weltering

ranks. Oft as he spies out the foe and tries by running

to match the horses’ winged speed, each time Juturna

wheels the car aside. What can he do? he tosses in aimless

ebb and flow, thoughts distracting his mind this 15

way and that:—when lo! Messapus, with sudden movement,

happening to carry two limber spear-shafts tipped

with steel, levels one at him and flings it true to its mark.

Æneas stopped and gathered his arms about him, sinking

on his knee; yet the fierce spear took the top of the 20

helmet and struck the crest from the cone. Then at last

his wrath mounts high; and under the duresse of treachery,

as he sees the steeds and chariot whirling away from him,

after many an appeal to Jove and the altars of the violated

league, he falls on the ranks before him, and fanned 25

to dreadful vengeance by the War-god’s breath, lets loose

a carnage cruel and unsparing, and flings the reins on the

neck of his passion.

And now what god will tell me all those horrors and

relate for me in verse the several scenes of slaughter, the 30

deaths of the leaders whom Turnus here, the Trojan hero

there, is chasing over the plain? Was it thy will, great

Jove, that nations destined in time to come to everlasting

amity should first clash in such dread turmoil? Æneas

confronted by Rutulian Sucro[o] (that combat first brought 35

the Trojan onset to a stand) after brief delay catches him

on the side and drives his stubborn sword death’s nearest

way through the ribs that fence the bosom. Turnus in

foot-encounter slays Amycus, whose horse had thrown

him, and his brother Diores, striking one with the spear

ere he came up, the other with the swordblade, lops the

heads of both, hangs them from his car, and carries them

dripping with blood. That sends down Talos to death 5

and Tanais and brave Cethegus, those at one onslaught,

and hapless Onytes, of the house of Echion, brought forth

by Peridia: that kills the brethren who came from

Apollo’s land of Lycia, and young Menœtes the Arcadian,

who shrunk from war in vain; he plied his craft and lived 10

in poverty by the fishy waters of Lerna, a stranger to the

halls of the great; and his father tilled land for hire.

Like two fires launched from different quarters on a dry

forest with bushes of crackling bay, or as when two foaming

rivers pouring from lofty heights crash along and run 15

towards the ocean, each ploughing his own wild channel:

with no less fury rush through the fight Æneas and

Turnus both: now, now the wrath is boiling within them:

their unconquered bosoms swell to bursting: they throw

their whole force on the wounds they deal. This with 20

the whirl and the blow of a mighty rock dashes Murranus

headlong from his car to the ground, Murranus who had

ever on his tongue the ancient names of sires and grandsires

and a lineage stretching through the series of Latium’s

kings: the wheels throw forward the fallen man under the 25

reins and yoke, and he is crushed by the quick hoof-beat

of the steeds that mind not their lord. That meets

Hyllus as he rushed on in vehement fury, and hurls a

javelin at his gold-bound brows: the spear pierced the

helmet and stood fixed in the brain. Nor did your 30

prowess, Cretheus, bravest of Greeks, deliver you from

Turnus, nor did the gods Cupencus worshipped shield

him from the onset of Æneas: his bosom met the steel,

and the check of the brazen buckler stood the wretch in

small stead. You, too, great Æolus, the Laurentian 35

plains looked on in death, spreading your frame abroad

over their surface: fallen are you, whom the Argive bands

could never overthrow, nor Achilles the destroyer of

Priam’s realm: here was your fatal goal: a princely

home under Ida’s shade: at Lyrnesus a princely hope, in

Laurentian soil a sepulchre. The two armies are in hot

conflict: all the Latians, all the sons of Dardanus, Mnestheus, 5

and keen Serestus, and Messapus tamer of the steed,

and brave Asilas, the Tuscan band, and Evander’s Arcad

cavalry, each man for himself straining every nerve: no

stint, no stay; they strive with giant tension.

And now Æneas had a thought inspired by his beauteous

mother, to march to the walls, throw his force 10

rapidly on the town, and stun the Latians with a sudden

blow. Tracking Turnus through the ranks he swept his

eyes round and round, and beholds the city enjoying

respite from all that furious war, and lying in unchallenged

repose. At once his mind is fired with the vision of a 15

grander battle: Mnestheus he summons and Sergestus

and brave Serestus, the first in command, and mounts an

eminence round which the rest of the Teucrian army

gathers in close ranks, not laying shield or dart aside.

Standing on the tall mound, he thus bespeaks them: 20

“Let nothing stay my orders; the hand of Jove is here;

nor let any move slower because the enterprise is sudden.

The town, the cause of the war, the royal home of the

Latian king, unless they submit the yoke and confess

themselves vanquished, I will overthrow this day, and lay 25

its smoking turrets level with the ground. What? am I

to wait till Turnus choose to bide the combat, and once

conquered, meet me a second time? This, my men, is

the well-spring, this the head and front of the monstrous

war. Bring torches with speed, and reclaim the treaty 30

fire in hand.” He said, and all with emulous spirit of

union close their ranks and stream to the walls in compact

mass. Scaling ladders and brands are produced

suddenly and in a moment. Some run to the several

gates and slay those stationed there: some hurl the steel 35

and overshadow the sky with javelins. Æneas himself

among the foremost lifts up his hand under the city wall,

loudly upbraids the king, and calls the gods to witness

that he is once more forced into battle, the Italians twice

his foes, the second treaty broken like the first. Strife

arises among the wildered citizens: some are for throwing

open the town and unbarring the gates to the Dardans:

nay, they even drag the monarch to the ramparts: others 5

draw the sword and prepare to guard the walls: as when

a countryman has tracked out bees concealed in a cavernous

rock and filled their hiding-place with pungent smoke,

they in alarm for the common wealth flit about their

waxen realm and stir themselves to wrath by vehement 10

buzzing: the murky smell winds from chamber to chamber:

a dull blind noise fills the cavern: vapours ascend

into the void of air.

Yet another stroke fell on Latium’s wearied sons,

shaking with its agony the city to her foundations. When 15

the queen from her palace saw the enemy draw near, the

walls assailed, flames flying roofward, the Rutulian army,

the soldiers of Turnus nowhere in sight, she deemed, poor

wretch, her warrior slain in the combat, and maddened

with the access of grief, cries aloud that she alone is the 20

guilty cause, the fountainhead of all this evil; and flinging

out wild words in the fury of her frenzied anguish,

rends with desperate hand her purple raiment, and fastens

from a lofty beam the noose of hideous death. Soon as

Latium’s wretched dames knew the blow that had fallen, 25

her daughter Lavinia is first to rend yellow hair and

roseate cheek, and the rest about her ran as wildly: the

palace re-echoes their wail. The miserable story spreads

through the town: every heart sinks: there goes the old

king with garments rent, all confounded by his consort’s 30

death and his city’s ruin: he soils his hoary locks with

showers of unseemly dust, and oft and oft upbraids himself

that he embraced not sooner Æneas the Dardan nor

took him for son-in-law of his own free will.

Turnus, meantime, is plying the war far away on the 35

plain, following here and there a straggler with abated

zeal, himself and his steeds alike less buoyant. The air

wafted to him the confused din, inspiring unknown terror,

and on his quickened ears smote the sound of the city’s

turmoil and the noise not of joy. “Alas! what is this

mighty agony that shakes the walls? what these loud

shouts pouring from this quarter and that?” So he cries,

and drawing his bridle halts bewildered. His sister, just 5

as she stood in guise of Metiscus the driver, guiding car,

horse, and reins, thus meets his question: “Proceed we

still, Turnus, to chase the Trojans, where victory’s dawn

shows us the way: others there are whose hands can

guard the city: Æneas bears down on the Italians and 10

stirs up the battle: let us send havoc as cruel among his

Teucrians: so shall your slain be as many and your martial

fame as high.” Turnus answered: “Sister, I both

knew you long since, when at first you artfully disturbed

the truce and flung yourself into our quarrel, and now 15

you vainly hide the goddess from my eyes. But tell me

by whose will you are sent from Olympus to cope with

toils like this? Is it that you may look on the cruel end

of your hapless brother? For what can I do? what

chance is there left to give me hope of safety? With my 20

own eyes I saw Murranus die, his giant frame laid low

by a giant wound: he called me by name, he, than whom

I had no dearer friend. Dead, too, is ill-starred Ufens,

all because he would not see me disgraced: his body and

his arms are the Teucrians’ prize. Am I to let the nation’s 25

homes be razed to the ground, the one drop that was

wanting to the cup, and not rather with my own right

hand give Drances’ words the lie? Shall I turn my back?

shall this land see Turnus flying? is death after all so

bitter? Be gracious to me, gentle powers of the grave, 30

since the gods above are against me! Yes, I will come

down to you a stainless spirit, guiltless of that base charge,

worthy in all my acts of my great forefathers.”

Scarce had he spoken, when lo! there flies through the

midst of the foe, on a foaming steed, Saces, with an arrow 35

full in his face: up he spurs, imploring Turnus by name:

“Turnus, our last hope is in you: have compassion on

your army. Æneas thunders with sword and spear, and

threatens that he will level in dust and give to destruction

the Italians’ topmost battlements: even now brands

are flying to the roofs. Every Latian face, every eye

turns to you: the king himself mutters in doubt whom

to call his son-in-law, to whose alliance to incline. Nay, 5

more, your fastest friend the queen is dead by her own

hand, scared and driven out of life. Only Messapus and

keen Atinas are at the gates to uphold our forces. About

them are closed ranks, and an iron harvest of naked

blades: you are rolling your car over a field from which 10

war has ebbed.” Turnus stood still with silent dull regard,

wildered by the thoughts that crowd on his mind:

deep shame, grief and madness, frenzy-goaded passion

and conscious wrath all surging at once. Soon as the

shadows parted and light came back to his intelligence, 15

he darted his blazing eyes cityward with restless vehemence,

and looked back from his car to the wide-stretching

town. Lo! there was a cone of fire spreading from story

to story and flaring to heaven: the flame was devouring

the turret which he had built himself of planks welded 20

together, put wheels beneath it, and furnished it with

lofty bridges. “Fate is too strong for me, sister, too

strong: hold me back no longer: we needs must follow

where Heaven and cruel Fortune are calling us. Yes, I

_will_ meet Æneas: I will endure the full bitterness of 25

death: no more, my love, shall you see me disgraced:

suffer me first to have my hour of madness.” He said,

and in a moment leapt to the ground, rushes on through

foes, through javelins, leaves his sister to her sorrow, and

dashes at full speed through the intervening ranks. Even 30

as from a mountain’s top down comes a rock headlong,

torn off by the wind, or washed down by vehement rain,

or loosened by the lapse of creeping years; down the steep

it crashes with giant impulse, that reckless stone, bounding

over the ground and rolling along with it trees, herds, 35

and men: so, dashing the ranks apart, rushes Turnus to

the city walls, where the earth is wet with plashy blood,

and the gale hurtles with spears: he beckons with his

hand, and cries with a mighty voice: “Have done, ye

Rutulians! ye Latians, hold back your darts! whatever

Fortune brings she brings to me: ’tis juster far that I in

your stead should singly expiate the treaty’s breach and

try the issue of the steel.” All at the word part from the 5

midst, and leave him a clear space.

But father Æneas, hearing Turnus’ name, quits his

hold on the walls and the battlements that crown them,

flings delay to the winds and breaks off the work of war,

steps high in triumph, and makes his arms peal dread 10

thunder: vast as Athos, vast as Eryx, vast as father

Apennine himself, when he roars with his quivering holms[286]

and lifts his snowy crest exultingly to the sky. All turn

their eyes with eager contention. Rutulians, Trojans, and

Italians, those alike who were manning the towers and 15

those whose battering-rams were assailing the foundations.

All unbrace their armour. Latinus himself stands amazed

to see two men so mighty, born in climes so distant each

from each, thus met together to try the steel’s issue. At

once, when a space is cleared on the plain, first hurling 20

their spears, they advance with swift onset, and dash into

the combat with shield and ringing harness. Earth groans

beneath them; their swords hail blow on blow: chance

and valour mingle pell-mell. As when on mighty Sila or

Taburnus’ summit two bulls, lowering their brows for 25

combat, engage fiercely: the herdsmen retreat in dread:

the cattle all stand dumb with terror, the heifers wait in

suspense who is to be the monarch of the woodland,

whom the herds are to follow henceforth: they each in

turn give furious blows, push and lodge their horns, and 30

bathe neck and shoulders with streams of blood: the

sound makes the forest bellow again: with no less fury

Æneas the Trojan, and the Daunian chief clash shield on

shield: the enormous din fills the firmament. Jupiter

himself holds aloft his scales poised and level, and lays 35

therein the destinies of the two, to see whom the struggle

dooms, and whose the weight that death bears down.

Forth darts Turnus, deeming it safe, rises with his whole

frame on the uplifted sword, and strikes, Trojans and

eager Latians shout aloud: both armies gaze expectant.

But the faithless sword snaps in twain and fails its fiery

lord midway in the stroke, unless flight should come to

his aid. Off he flies swifter than the wind, seeing an unknown 5

hilt in his defenceless hand. Men say that in his

headlong haste, when first he was mounting the car harnessed

for battle, he left behind his father’s falchion and

snatched up the steel of Metiscus, his charioteer: so long

as the Teucrians fled straggling before him, the weapon 10

did good service; soon as it came to the divine Vulcanian

armour, the mortal blade, like brittle ice, flew asunder at

the stroke: the fragments sparkle on the yellow sand.

So now in his distraction Turnus flies here and there

over the plain, weaving vague circles in this place and in 15

that: for the Trojans have closed in circle about him,

and here is a spreading marsh, there lofty ramparts to

bar the way.

Nor is Æneas wanting, though at times the arrow

wound slackens his knees and robs them of their power 20

to run: no, he follows on, and presses upon the flier foot

for foot: as when a hound has got a stag pent in by a

river, or hedged about by the terror of crimson plumage,

and chases him running and barking: the stag, frighted

by the snare and the steep bank, doubles a thousand times: 25

the keen Umbrian clings open-mouthed to his skirts, all

but seizes him, and as though in act to seize, snaps his

teeth, and is baffled to find nothing in their gripe. Then,

if ever, uprises a shout, echoing along bank and marsh,

and heaven rings again with the noise. Turnus, even as 30

he flies, calls fiercely on the Rutulians, addressing by

name, and clamors for his well-known sword. Æneas,

for his part, threatens death and instant destruction,

should any come near, and terrifies his trembling foes,

swearing that he will raze their city to the ground, and 35

presses on in spite of his wound. Five times they circle

round, five times they retrace the circle: for no trivial

prize is at stake, no guerdon of a game: the contest is

for Turnus’ life, for his very heart’s blood. It chanced

that there had stood there a wild olive with its bitter

leaves, sacred to Faunus, a tree in old days reverenced by

seamen, where when saved from ocean they used to fasten

their offerings to the Laurentian god and hang up their 5

votive garments: but the unrespecting Trojans had lately

lopped the hallowed trunk, that the lists might be clear

for combat. There was lodged Æneas’ spear: thither its

force had carried it, and was now holding it fast in the

unyielding root. The Dardan chief bent over it, fain to 10

wrench forth the steel that his weapon may catch whom

his foot cannot overtake. Then cried Turnus in the

moment of frenzied agony: “Have mercy, I conjure thee,

good Faunus, and thou, most gracious earth, hold fast

the steel if I have ever reverenced your sanctities, which 15

Æneas’ crew for their part have caused battle to desecrate.”

He said, nor were his vows unanswered by heavenly aid.

Hard as he struggled, long as he lingered over the stubborn

stock, by no force could Æneas make the wood unclose

its fangs. While he strains with keen insistence, the 20

Daunian goddess, resuming the guise of charioteer Metiscus,

runs forward and restores to her brother his sword.

Then Venus, resenting the freedom taken by the presumptuous

Nymph, came nigh, and plucks the weapon

from the depth of the root. And now towering high, 25

with restored weapons and recruited force, this in strong

reliance on his sword, that fiercely waving his spear tall

as he, the two stand front to front in the breath-draining

conflict of war.

Meanwhile the king of almighty Olympus accosts Juno, 30

as from a golden cloud she gazes on the battle: “Where

is this to end, fair spouse? what last stroke have you in

store? you know yourself, by your own confession, that

Æneas has his place assured in heaven among Italia’s

native gods, that destiny is making him a ladder to the 35

stars. What plan you now? what hope keeps you seated

on those chilly clouds? was it right that mortal wound

should harm a god, or that Turnus—for what power

could Juturna have apart from you?—should receive

back his lost sword and the vanquished should feel new

forces? At length have done, and let my prayers bow

your will. Let this mighty sorrow cease to devour you

in silence: let me hear sounds of sullen disquiet less often 5

from your lovely lips. The barrier has been reached.

To toss the Trojans over land and sea, to kindle an unhallowed

war, to plunge a home in mourning, to blend a

dirge with the bridal song, this it has been yours to do:

all further action I forbid.” So spake Jupiter: and so in 10

return Saturn’s daughter with downcast look: “Even

because I knew, great Jove, that such was your pleasure,

have I withdrawn against my will from Turnus and from

earth: else you would not see me now in the solitude of

my airy throne, exposed to all that comes, meet or unmeet: 15

armed with firebrands, I should stand in the very

line of battle, and force the Teucrians into the hands of

their foes. As for Juturna, I counselled her, I own, to

succour her wretched brother, and warranted an unusual

venture where life was at stake: but nought was said of 20

aiming the shaft or bending the bow: I swear by the inexpiable

fountain-head of Styx, the one sanction that

binds us powers above. And now I yield indeed, and

quit this odious struggle. Yet there is a boon I would

ask, a boon which destiny forefends not. I ask it for 25

the sake of Latium, for the dignity of your own people:

when at last peace shall be ratified with a happy bridal,

for happy let it be: when bonds of treaty shall be knit

at last, let it not be thy will that the native Latians

should change their ancient name, become Trojans or 30

take the Teucrian style: let not them alter their language

or their garb. Let there be Latium still: let there be

centuries of Alban kings: let there be a Roman stock,

strong with the strength of Italian manhood: but let

Troy be fallen as she is, name and nation alike.” The 35

Father of men and nature answered with a smile: “Aye,

you are Jove’s own sister, the other branch of Saturn’s

line; such billows of passion surge in your bosom! but

come,—let this ineffectual frenzy give way: I grant your

wish, and submit myself in willing obedience. The

Ausonians shall keep their native tongue, their native

customs: the name shall remain as it is: the Teucrians

shall merge in the nation they join—that and no more: 5

their rites and worship shall be my gift: all shall be Latians

and speak the Latian tongue. The race that shall arise

from this admixture of Ausonian blood shall transcend in

piety earth and heaven itself, nor shall any nation pay

you such honours as they.” Juno nodded assent, and 10

turned her sullenness to pleasure; meanwhile she departs

from the sky, and quits the cloud where she sat.

This done, the sire meditates a further resolve, and

prepares to part Juturna from her brother’s side. There

are two fiends known as the Furies, whom with Tartarean 25

Megæra dismal Night brought forth at one and the same

birth, wreathing them alike with coiling serpents, and

equipping them with wings that fan the air. They are

seen beside Jove’s throne, at the threshold of his angry

sovereignty, goading frail mortality with stings of terror, 20

oft as the monarch of the gods girds himself to send forth

disease and frightful death, or appals guilty towns with

war. One of these Jove sped with haste from heaven’s

summit, and bade her confront Juturna in token of his

will. Forth she flies, borne earthward on the blast of a 25

whirlwind. Swift as the arrow from the string cleaves

the cloud, sent forth by Parthian—Parthian or Cydonian—tipped

with fell poison’s gall, the dealer of a wound

incurable, and skims the flying vapours hurtling and unforeseen,

so went the Daughter of Night and made her 30

way to earth. Soon as she sees the forces of Troy and

the army of Turnus, she huddles herself suddenly into the

shape of a puny bird, which oft on tombstone or lonely

roof sitting by night screams restlessly through the gloom;

in this disguise the fiend again and again flies flapping in 35

Turnus’ face, and beats with her wings on his shield. A

strange chilly terror unknits his frame, his hair stands

shudderingly erect, and his utterance cleaves to his jaws.

But when Juturna knew from far the rustling of those

Fury pinions, she rends, hapless maid, her dishevelled

tresses, marring, in all a sister’s agony, her face with her

nails, her breast with her clenched hands: “What now,

my Turnus, can your sister avail? what more remains for 5

an obdurate wretch like me? by what expedient can I

lengthen your span? can I face a portent like this? At

last, at last I quit the field. Cease to appal my fluttering

soul, ye birds of ill omen: I know the flapping of your

wings and its deathful noise; nor fail I to read great 10

Jove’s tyrannic will. Is this his recompense for lost virginity?

why gave he me life to last for ever? why was

the law of death annulled? else might I end this moment

the tale of my sorrows, and travel to the shades hand in

hand with my poor brother. Can immortality, can aught 15

that I have to boast give me joy without him? Oh, that

earth would but yawn deep enough, and send me down,

goddess though I be, to the powers of the grave!” So

saying, she shrouded her head in her azure robe, with many

a groan, and vanished beneath the river of her deity. 20

Æneas presses on, front to front, shaking his massy,

tree-like spear, and thus speaks in the fierceness of his

spirit: “What is to be the next delay? why does Turnus

still hang back? ours is no contest of speed, but of stern

soldiership, hand to hand. Take all disguises you can; 25

muster all your powers of courage or of skill: mount on

wing, if you list, to the stars aloft, or hide in the cavernous

depth of earth.” Shaking his head, he replied: “I quail

not at your fiery words, insulting foe: it is Heaven that

makes me quail, and Jove my enemy.” No more he 30

spoke: but, sweeping his eyes round, espies a huge stone,

a stone ancient and huge, which chanced to be lying on

the plain, set as some field’s boundary, to forefend disputes

of ownership: scarce could twelve picked men lift

it on their shoulders, such puny frames as earth produces 35

now-a-days: he caught it up with hurried grasp and

flung it at his foe, rising as he threw, and running rapidly,

as hero might. And yet all the while he knows not that

he is running or moving, lifting up or stirring the enormous

stone: his knees totter under him, and his blood

chills and freezes: and so the mass from the warrior’s

hand, whirled through the empty void, passed not through

all the space between nor carried home the blow. Even 5

as in dreams, at night, when heavy slumber has weighed

down the eyes, we seem vainly wishing to make eager

progress forward and midway in the effort fail helplessly;

our tongue has no power, our wonted strength stands not

our frames in stead, nor do words or utterance come at 10

our call: so it is with Turnus: whatever means his valour

tries, the fell fiend bars them of their issue. And now

confused images whirl through his brain: he looks to his

Rutulians and to the city, and falters with dread, and

quails at the threatening spear: how to escape he knows 15

not, nor how to front the foe, nor sees he anywhere his

car or the sister who drives it.

Full in that shrinking face Æneas shakes his fatal

weapon, taking aim with his eye, and with an effort of

his whole frame hurls it forth. Never stone flung from 20

engine of siege roars so loud, never peal so rending follows

the thunderbolt. On flies the spear like dark whirlwind

with fell destruction on its wing, pierces the edge of the

corslet, and the outermost circle of the seven-fold shield,

and with a rush cleaves through the thigh. Down with 25

his knee doubled under him comes Turnus to earth, all

his length prostrated by the blow. Up start the Rutulians,

groaning as one man: the whole mountain round

rebellows, and the depths of the forest send back the

sound far and wide. He in lowly suppliance lifts up eye 30

and entreating hand: “It is my due,” he cries, “and I

ask not to be spared it: take what fortune gives you.

Yet, if you _can_ feel for a parent’s misery—your father,

Anchises was once in like plight—have mercy on Daunus’

hoary hairs, and let me, or if you choose my breathless 35

body, be restored to my kin. You are conqueror: the

Ausonians have seen my conquered hands outstretched:

the royal bride is yours: let hatred be pressed no further.”

Æneas stood still, a fiery warrior, his eyes rolling, and

checked his hand: and those suppliant words were working

more and more on his faltering purpose, when, alas!

the ill-starred belt was seen high on the shoulder, and

light flashed from the well-known studs—the belt of 5

young Pallas, whom Turnus conquered and struck down

to earth, and bore on his breast the badge of triumphant

enmity. Soon as his eyes caught the spoil and drank in

the recollection of that cruel grief, kindled into madness

and terrible in his wrath: “What, with my friend’s 10

trophies upon you, would you escape my hand? It is

Pallas, Pallas, who with this blow makes you his victim,

and gluts his vengeance with your accursed blood.”

With these words, fierce as flame, he plunged the steel into

the breast that lay before him. That other’s frame grows 15

chill and motionless, and the soul,[287] resenting its lot, flies

groaningly to the shades.

FOOTNOTES

[A] “Like footsteps upon wool.”—Tennyson, _Œnone_.

[B] Mr. Conington has missed a line, which may be rendered thus: “who

knowest the divine will of Apollo—his tripods and his laurels.”—[E. S. S.]

[C] Another line omitted in the translation:—“huge as Greek shield or

sun-god’s torch.”—[E. S. S.]

[D] A caret in the Ms. notes the omission of _Urbis opus_: “A city in

itself.”—[E. S. S.]

[E] Three lines omitted in the Ms.: “Then on Mount Eryx, towering to the

stars, is reared a temple to Idalian Venus, and for Anchises’ tomb a

priest appointed, with dedication of broad-acred grove.”—[E. S. S.]

[F] For the omitted lines Conington’s verses are inserted.—[E. S. S.]

NOTES

BOOK I

[1] 1:1. =Arms and the man I sing.= Compare the following opening lines

of great epics:—

“O goddess, sing the wrath of Peleus’ son,

Achilles; sing the deadly wrath that brought

Woes numberless upon the Greeks.”

—_Iliad_, Bryant’s Trans.

“Tell me, O muse, of that sagacious man

Who, having overthrown the sacred town

Of Ilium, wandered far and visited

The capitals of many nations, learned

The customs of their dwellers, and endured

Great sufferings on the deep.”

—HOMER, _Odyssey_.

“Of love and ladies, knights and arms, I sing,

Of courtesies and many a daring feat.”

—ARIOSTO, _Orlando Furioso_.

“I sing the pious arms and chief, who freed

The Sepulchre of Christ from thrall profane;

Much did he toil in thought and much in deed,

Much in the glorious enterprise sustain.”

—TASSO, _Jerusalem Delivered_.

“Of man’s first disobedience, and the fruit

Of that forbidden tree, whose mortal taste

Brought death into the world, and all our woe,

...

Sing, heavenly muse.”

—MILTON, _Paradise Lost_.

“I, who erewhile the happy garden sung,

By one man’s disobedience lost, now sing

Recovered Paradise to all mankind,

By one man’s firm obedience.”

—MILTON, _Paradise Regained_.

[2] 1:1. =Troy.= A city in northwest Asia Minor where the famous Trojan

war took place.

[3] 1:3. =Latian.= The broad plain near the mouth of the Tiber, in Italy.

[4] 1:5. =Juno.= Queen of the gods; wife and sister of Jupiter.

[5] 1:5. =Much.=

“Much there he suffered,

And many perilles past in forreine landes,

To save his people sad from victours vengefull handes,”

—SPENSER, _Faerie Queene_.

[6] 1:8. =Alba.= Alba Longa, a long ridge some fifteen miles southeast of

Rome. The successors of Æneas reigned there until the founding of Rome.

[7] 1:10. =Muse.= One of the nine Muses. Greek and Latin poets often

profess to be merely the mouthpiece of the Muses.

[8] 1:14. =Hate.=

“And in soft bosoms dwell such mighty rage?”

—POPE, _Rape of the Lock_.

“In heavenly spirits could such perverseness dwell?”

—MILTON, _Paradise Lost_.

[9] 1:17. =Tyre.= Carthage was sprung from Tyre, an old and prosperous

city on the coast of Phœnicia. The founders of Carthage and their

descendants are termed indifferently by Virgil Phœnicians, Sidonians,

Pœni, or Tyrians.

[10] 1:19. =War’s.=

“An old and haughty nation proud in arms.”

—MILTON, _Comus_.

[11] 1:21. =Samos.= A large island off the west coast of Asia Minor. Here

were the most ancient temple and worship of Juno, here she was nurtured,

and here she was married to Jupiter.

[12] 1:28. =Libya.= North Africa.

[13] 2:1. =Fate’s.=

“Those three fatall Sisters, whose sad hands

Doo weave the direful threads of destinie

And in their wrath brake off the vitall bands.”

—SPENSER, _Daphnaïda_.

“Comes the blind Fury with the abhorred shears

And slits the thin-spun life.”

—MILTON, _Lycidas_.

“Sad Clotho held the rocke [distaff], the whiles the thrid

By griesly Lachesis was spun with paine,

That cruell Atropos eftsoones undid,

With cursed knife cutting the twist in twaine.”

—SPENSER, _Faerie Queene_.

[14] 2:1. =Saturn.= An ancient Italian god of agriculture, identified

later with the Greek god Cronos.

[15] 2:3. =Argos.= A city of Argolis in the Peloponnesus. One of Juno’s

favorite cities. Juno’s love for Argos played the same part in the Trojan

war as her regard for Carthage plays in the _Æneid_. It is used here

poetically for the name of the people, _i.e._ = Greeks.

[16] 2:6. =Paris.= A son of Priam, king of Troy, who eloped with Helen

and caused the Trojan war. The judgment was the award of the golden

apple, prize of beauty, to Venus as against Juno and Minerva.

“Here eke that famous golden apple grew,

The which emongest the gods, false Ate threw;

For which th’ Idæan Ladies disagreed,

Till partiall Paris dempt it Venus dew,

And had of her fayre Helen for his meed.”

—SPENSER, _Faerie Queene_.

In Tennyson’s _Œnone_, Juno offers—

“from all neighbor crowns

Alliance and allegiance till thy hand

Fail from the sceptre-staff.”

And Minerva—

“Self-reverence, self-knowledge, self-control.”

But Venus—

“I promise thee

The fairest and most loving wife in Greece.”

[17] 2:9. =Ganymede.= A Trojan prince; was carried off to Olympus by

Jupiter’s eagle. He was made cup-bearer to the gods in place of Hebe,

daughter of Juno.

“And godlike Ganymede, most beautiful

Of men; the gods beheld and caught him up

To heaven, so beautiful was he, to pour

The wine to Jove, and ever dwell with them.”

—HOMER, _Iliad_.

“flushed Ganymede, his rosy thigh

Half-buried in the Eagle’s down,

Sole as a flying star shot thro’ the sky

Above the pillar’d town.”

—TENNYSON, _Palace of Art_.

[18] 2:10. =Danaan.= Greek. Danaus, an ancient city of Argos. Conington

transliterates various proper names, such as Argives, Achæans,

Pelasgians, all meaning Greeks. Vergil uses the originals now to secure

variety, now to meet the metrical requirement.

[19] 2:11. =Achilles.= Son of Peleus, king of Thessaly, and Thetis, a sea

nymph, chief champion of the Greeks before Troy.

[20] 2:22. =Teucrians.= Teucer, an ancient king of Troy; he came to Troy

from Crete. He was father-in-law of Dardanus, and is often called founder

of the Trojans.

[21] 2:23. =Pallas.= Epithet of the Greek goddess Athena. Sometimes

identified with the Latin goddess of wisdom, Minerva.

[22] 2:26. =Ajax.= Oïleus’ son. Had, on the night Troy was taken,

assaulted Priam’s daughter Cassandra, who had taken refuge in Minerva’s

temple.

[23] 2:27. =Jove.= Jupiter, chief of the Olympian gods. Son of Cronos

or Saturnus. He is father omnipotent, father of gods, and king of men.

The lightning and the thunderbolt, fashioned for him by Vulcan, are his

weapons. The eagle is his messenger. Apparently Jupiter, the Sky-father,

is the personification of the sky. Cicero quotes Ennius as follows: “This

shining vault on high which all men call upon in prayer as Jupiter.”

[24] 2:30. =Rock’s.=

“caught in a fierce tempest shall be hurled

Each on his rock transfixed, the sport and prey

Of rocking whirlwinds.”

—MILTON, _Paradise Lost_.

[25] 2:38. =Æolia.= Home of the winds,—=Lipara=. One of the Æolian

islands north of Sicily.

[26] 2:38. =Cavern.=

“In a cavern under is fettered the thunder,

It struggles and howls by fits.”

—SHELLEY, _The Cloud_.

[27] 2:38. =Æolus.= King of the winds.

[28] 3:2. =Bond.=

“And wild winds bound within their cell.”

—TENNYSON, _Mariana_.

[29] 3:19. =Tyrrhene sea.= Also Tuscan sea; the part of the Mediterranean

which extended from Liguria to Sicily.

[30] 3:19. =Ilion.= Troy.

[31] 3:30. =Bidding.=

“Father eternal, thine is to decree;

Mine, both in heaven and earth, to do thy will.”

—MILTON, _Paradise Lost_.

[32] 3:36. =Rush forth.=

“Nor slept the winds

Within their stormy caves, but rushed abroad

From the four hinges of the world, and fell

On the vexed wilderness.”

—MILTON, _Paradise Lost_.

“With howling sound, high carnival to keep,

And in wild uproar all embroil both land and deep.”

—TASSO, _Jerusalem Delivered_.

“Then forth it breakes, and with his furious blast

Confounds both land and seas, and skyes doth overcast.”

—SPENSER, _Faerie Queene_.

[33] 3:38. =Fall.=

“The winds, as at their hour of birth,

Leaning upon the ridged sea.”

—TENNYSON.

[34] 4:5. =Daylight.=

“And tosse the deepes, and teare the firmament,

And all the world confound with wide uprore.”

—SPENSER, _Faerie Queene_.

“The clouds their gloomy veil above them strain,

Nor suffer sun or star to cheer the view.

...

While aye descending night, with deeper shade,

The vext and fearful billows overlayed.”

—ARIOSTO, _Orlando Furioso_.

[35] 4:9. =Æneas.= Son of Venus and Anchises, hero of the _Æneid_.

[36] 4:9. =Chilled.=

“His bold Æneas on like billows tossed

In a tall ship, and all his country lost

Dissolves with fear; and, both his hands upheld,

Proclaims them happy when the Greeks had quelled

In honorable fight.”

—WALLER, _Of the Dangers his Majesty Escaped_.

[37] 4:12. =Thrice.=

“Thrice happy, four times happy, they who fell

On Troy’s wide field warring for Atreus’ sons:

O, had I met my fate and perished there.”

—HOMER, _Odyssey_.

[38] 4:14. =Tydeus’ son.= Diomedes, with whom Æneas had fought in single

combat and been saved by direct intervention of Venus.

[39] 4:16. =Hector.= Son of Priam, king of Troy, and Hecuba. Hector was

the bravest champion of Troy, and was slain by Achilles.

[40] 4:17. =Æacides.= A descendant of Æacus (king of Ægina and father of

Peleus). Virgil applies the name to (1) Achilles, (2) Pyrrhus, son of

Achilles, (3) Perseus, king of Macedonia.

[41] 4:18. =Sarpedon.= Son of Jupiter, and king of the Lycians; an ally

of Troy slain by Patroclus, friend of Achilles.

[42] 4:18. =Simois.= The famous river that flows by Troy.

“And Simoïs, in whose bed lay many shields

And helms and bodies of slain demigods.”

—HOMER, _Iliad_.

[43] 4:23. =Stars.= Hyperbole; cf.—

“The chidden billow seems to pelt the clouds;

The wind-shaked surge, with high and monstrous mane,

Seems to cast water on the burning Bear

And quench the guards of the ever-fixed pole.”

—SHAKESPEARE, _Othello_.

[44] 4:26. =Crest.=

“Now quivering o’er the topmost waves she rides

While deep beneath the enormous gulf divides:

Now launching headlong down the horrid vale,

Becalmed she hears no more the howling gale.”

—FALCONER, _Shipwreck_.

[45] 4:33. =Syrtes.= Two shallow bays on the north coast of Africa

distinguished as Major and Minor,—dangerous to navigation.

[46] 5:8. =Side-jointings.=

“The chinks suck destruction. The heavy dead hulk

On the living sea rolls an inanimate bulk.”

—SHELLEY, _Vision of the Sea_.

“The sides convulsive shook on groaning beams,

And, rent with labour, yawn’d their pitchy seams.”

—FALCONER, _Shipwreck_.

[47] 5:11. =Neptune.= God of the sea,—brother of Juno.

[48] 5:22. =Confound.=

“I heard the wrack,

As earth and sky would mingle.”

—MILTON, _Paradise Lost_.

“While oft in whirls the mad tornado flies,

Mingling the ravaged landscape with the skies.”

—GOLDSMITH, _Deserted Village_.

[49] 5:29. =Eurus.= The east wind. It is the poet’s way to single out one

wind and use it as general word for winds. One example of the use of the

specific for the generic.

[50] 5:33. =Routs.=

“Thou frownest, and old Æolus thy foe

Skulks to his cavern, ’mid the gruff complaint

Of all his rebel tempests. Dark clouds faint

When, from thy diadem, a silver gleam

Slants over blue dominion.”

—KEATS, _Endymion_.

[51] 5:34. =Cymothoë and Triton.= Lesser sea deities.

“From thy dead lips a clearer note is born

Than ever Triton blew from wreathèd horn.”

—HOLMES, _Chambered Nautilus_.

[52] 5:37. =Trident.=

“It seem’d as there the British Neptune stood,

With all his hosts of waters at command,

Beneath them to submit th’ officious flood;

And with his trident shov’d them off the sand.”

—DRYDEN, _Annus Mirabilis_.

[53] 6:4. =Weapon.=

“Rage prompted them at length, and found them arms

Against such hellish mischief fit to oppose.”

—MILTON, _Paradise Lost_.

[54] 6:15. =Haven.=

“It was a still

And calmy bay, on the one side sheltered

With the brode shadow of an hoarie hill;

On th’ other side an high rock towred still,

That twixt them both a pleasaunt port they made,

And did like an halfe theatre fulfill.”

—SPENSER, _Faerie Queene_.

“And overhead upgrew

Insuperable height of loftiest shade,

Cedar, and pine, and fir, and branching palm,

A sylvan scene, and as the ranks ascend

Shade above shade, a woody theatre

Of stateliest view.”

—MILTON, _Paradise Lost_.

“Its uplands sloping deck the mountain’s side,

Woods over woods in gay theatric pride.”

—GOLDSMITH, _Traveller_.

“In one they find a lone sequestered place,

Where, to a crescent curved, the shore extends

Two moony horns, that in their sweep embrace

A spacious bay,—a rock the port defends;

Inward it fronts, and broad to ocean bends

Its back, whereon each dashing billow dies,

When the wind rises and the storm descends;

While here and there two lofty crags arise,

Whose towers, far out at sea, salute the sailor’s eyes.

Safe sleep the silent seas beneath; above,

Black arching woods o’ershade the circled scene:

Within, a grotto opens, in the grove,

Pleasant with flowers, with moss, with ivies green,

And waters warbling in the depths unseen;

Needed nor twisted rope nor anchor there

For weary ships.”

—TASSO, _Jerusalem Delivered_.

[55] 6:25. =Cable.=

“And there is a safe haven where no need

Of cable is; no anchor there is cast,

Nor hawsers fastened to the strand.”

—HOMER, _Odyssey_.

[56] 7:3. =Biremes.= Ships having two tiers of oars.

[57] 7:23. =Scylla.= A sea-monster, residing in a cave in certain rocks,

also called Scylla, between Italy and Sicily. The upper part of this

monster resembled a lovely woman. About the waist was a circle of dogs or

wolves; below was the tail of a dolphin. The wolves reach out and seize

passing ships and drag them on the rocks. Virgil’s Scylla is adopted by

Milton as a description of one of the monsters guarding the gates of Hell.

[58] 7:25. =Cyclops.= Certain giants of cannibal nature who dwelt in

Sicily near Ætna. They had a single large round eye in the middle of the

forehead.

[59] 7:27. =Remembered.=

“A time will come, not distantly descried,

When to remember ev’ry past dismay

Will be no less a pleasure than a pride;

Hold then courageous on, and keep, I pray,

Your noble hearts in cheer for that victorious day.”

—TASSO, _Jerusalem Delivered_.

[60] 7:33. =Heart-sick.=

“So spoke the apostate angel, though in pain,

Vaunting aloud, but racked with deep despair.”

—MILTON, _Paradise Lost_.

[61] 8:15. =Ether.=

“Now had the Almighty Father from above,

From the pure empyrean where he sits

High throned above all highth, bent down his eye,

His own works and their works at once to view.”

—MILTON, _Paradise Lost_.

[62] 8:26. =Barred.=

“In vain—for rude adversity’s command

Still, on the margin, of each famous land,

With unrelenting ire his steps opposed,

And every gate of hope against him closed.”

—FALCONER, _Shipwreck_.

[63] 8:37. =Antenor.= Nephew of Priam. After the capture of Troy, he

sailed up the Adriatic Sea, established a new people called the Veneti,

and founded Patavium (Padua).

[64] 9:8. =Arms.=

“And in thy tempul I wol my banur hong,

And all the armes of my companye.”

—CHAUCER, _Knight’s Tale_.

“In my heart’s temple I suspend to thee

These votive wreaths of withered memory.”

—SHELLEY, _Epipsychidion_.

[65] 9:13. =Piety.=

“False Jupiter, rewardst thou virtue so?

What, is not piety exempt from woe?”

—MARLOWE AND NASH, _Dido_.

[66] 9:18. =Cythera.= An island south of Laconia, near which, the

tradition is, Venus rose from the foam of the sea.

[67] 9:20. =Lavinium.= A city of Latium, represented as founded by Æneas

and named by him for his wife Lavinia, daughter of King Latinus. It was

Latinus’ promise of Lavinia to Æneas that caused the wars of the last six

books of the Æneid.

[68] 9:29. =Rutulians.= A Volscian people whose chief city was Antium.

They with their King Turnus were the chief antagonists of Æneas when he

was trying to settle in Italy.

[69] 9:30. =Ascanius.= Son of Æneas.

[70] 9:36. =Hector’s.=

“There in stout Hector’s race three hundred years

The Roman sceptre royal shall remain.”

—MARLOWE AND NASH, _Dido_.

[71] 10:11. =Assaracus.= A Trojan king of Phrygia; he was grandfather of

Anchises, hence the expression “house of Assaracus” means the descendants

of Æneas. And as the Julian clan was thought to be derived from Iulus,

Æneas’ son, this included Julius Cæsar and his adopted son Augustus.

[72] 10:11. =Phthia.= A city and district in Thessaly, Greece, over

which, it is said, Achilles ruled.

[73] 10:12. =Mycenæ.= A famous city ruled by Agamemnon, in the Morea

(southern Greece).

[74] 10:12. =Argos.= A city of Argolis, in the Peloponnesus. One of

Juno’s favorite cities. So fate wills that the descendants of the Trojans

shall take vengeance for the destruction of Troy on the descendants of

the great Greek leaders.

[75] 10:15. =Stars.=

“He shall ascend

The throne hereditary, and bound his reign

With Earth’s wide bounds, his glory with the heavens.”

—MILTON, _Paradise Lost_.

[76] 10:19. =War.=

“All loved virtue, no man was affray’d

Of force, ne fraud in wight was to be found:

No warre was known, no dreadfull trompets sound;

Peace universall rayn’d mongst men and beasts.”

—SPENSER, _Faerie Queene_.

“No war, or battle’s sound

Was heard the world around;

The idle spear and shield were high up hung;

The hookèd chariot stood,

Unstained with hostile blood;

The trumpet spake not to the armèd throng,

And kings sat still with awful eye,

As if they surely knew their sovran Lord was by.”

—MILTON, _Hymn on Nativity_.

[77] 10:20. =Vesta.= Goddess of the hearth.

[78] 10:20. =Quirinus.= Name given to Romulus after he was translated

from earth to heaven. Romulus, the legendary founder of Rome. Cicero

tells us that after his translation, Romulus appeared on the Quirinal

Hill and stated that his name as god was Quirinus, and gave instructions

that a temple should be erected to him on that hill—hence the name of the

hill and the palace, once home of the popes, now of the monarchs of Italy.

[79] 10:26. =Son of Maia.= Mercury, swift-winged messenger of the gods.

“The Sonne of Maia, soone as he receiv’d

That word, streight with his azure wings he cleav’d

The liquid clowdes, and lucid firmament;

Ne staid, till that he came with steep descent

Unto the place where his prescript did showe.”

—SPENSER, _Mother Hubbard’s Tale_.

[80] 10:28. =Dido.= Daughter of Belus, king of Tyre; widow of Sychæus.

According to story, she led the Phœnician colony to Carthage.

[81] 10:33. =Punic.= Carthaginian. So the three Punic wars of Rome

against Carthage.

[82] 11:17. =Ho.=

“Ho, young men! saw you, as you came,

Any of all my sisters wandering here,

Having a quiver girded to her side,

And clothed in a spotted leopard’s skin?”

—MARLOWE AND NASH, _Dido_.

[83] 11:26. =Goddess.=

“Most sure, the goddess

On whom these airs attend! Vouchsafe my prayer

May know if you remain upon this island.”

—SHAKESPEARE, _Tempest_.

[84] 11:27. =Phœbus’ sister.= Diana, sister of Phœbus Apollo.

[85] 12:1. =Agenor.= Twin brother of Belus and founder of Sidon, from

whom Dido was descended.

[86] 12:18. =Hope.=

“Poor girl! put on thy stifling widow’s weed,

And ’scape at once from Hope’s accursed bands,

To-day thou wilt not see him, nor to-morrow,

And the next day will be a day of sorrow.”

—KEATS, _Isabella_.

[87] 12:33. =Woman.= “Dux femina facti,”—motto on the medal in 1588, in

honor of Elizabeth’s victories over the Spanish Armada. Cf. Kingsley’s

_Westward Ho!_

[88] 12:36. =Byrsa.= A word which in the Carthaginian language meant

citadel, but sounded like a Greek word meaning bull’s hide. From this

confusion, apparently, arose the story that Dido cut a bull’s hide into

very thin strings and so encompassed much ground for her new city.

[89] 13:24. =Breath of life.=

“So drew mankind in vain _the vital air_,

Unformed, unfriended by those kindly cares,

That health and vigor to the soul impart.”

—GRAY, _Education and Government_.

[90] 13:31. =Jove.=

“The bird of Jove, stooped from his airy tour.

Two birds of gayest plume before him drove.”

—MILTON, _Paradise Lost_.

[91] 13:36. =Wings.=

“Around, around in ceaseless circles wheeling

With clang of wings and scream, the eagle sailed.”

—SHELLEY, _The Revolt of Islam_.

“Whilst with their clang the air resounds.”

—WORDSWORTH, _Excursion_.

[92] 14:6. =Walk.=

“In gliding state she wins her easy way.”

—GRAY, _Progress of Poesy_.

[93] 14:18. =Paphos.= A city in Cyprus.

[94] 14:20. =Sabæan incense.= Arabian frankincense.

“Sabean odoures, from the spicy shore

Of Arabie the blest.”

—MILTON, _Paradise Lost_.

[95] 14:37. =Bees.=

“All hands employ’d the royal work grows warm:

Like labouring bees on a long summer’s day.

Some sound the trumpet for the rest to swarm,

And some on bells of tasted lilies play;

With glewy wax some new foundation lay

Of virgin combs, which from the roof are hung;

Some arm’d within doors upon duty stay,

Or tend the sick, or educate the young.”

—DRYDEN, _Annus Mirabilis_.

[96] 15:18. =Sidon.= Tyre and Sidon were the chief cities of Phœnicia.

Adjectives formed from them are used interchangeably with Phœnician and

Carthaginian for the sake of variety or to meet metrical requirements.

[97] 15:37. =Tears.=

“Yet tears to human suffering are due;

And mortal hopes defeated and o’erthrown

Are mourned by man.”

—WORDSWORTH, _Laodamia_.

“The Virgilian cry,

The sense of tears in mortal things.”

—MATTHEW ARNOLD, _Geist’s Grave_.

“Thou majestic in thy sadness at the doubtful doom of human kind.”

—TENNYSON.

[98] 16:4. =Pergamus.= Troy.

[99] 16:12. =Xanthus.= A river near Troy.

[100] 16:13. =Troilus.= Shakespeare’s _Troilus_ draws plot from Chaucer.

[101] 16:19. =Pallas.= Minerva, goddess of wisdom, friend of the Greeks.

[102] 16:32. =Memnon.= Leader of the Æthiopian allies of Troy. Was son of

Tithonus and Aurora.

[103] 16:33. =Penthesilea.= Queen of the Amazons who fought for Troy.

Achilles slew both Memnon and Penthesilea.

[104] 17:6. =Diana.=

“Such as Diana by the sandy shore

Of swift Eurotas, or on Cynthus greene,

Where all the nymphs have her unwares forlore [left],

Wandreth alone with bow and arrowes keene,

To seeke her game.”

—SPENSER, _Faerie Queene_.

[105] 17:9. =Latona.= Mother of Apollo and Diana. The type of perfect

mother love.

[106] 18:10. =Orion.= A hunter famous in ancient myth, armed with belt

and sword, translated to the heavens as a constellation, thought to bring

storms.

[107] 19:36. =Shone.=

“When sea-born Venus guided o’er

Her warrior to the Punic shore,

Around that radiant head she threw

In deep’ning clouds ambrosial dew:

But when the Tyrian queen drew near,

The light pour’d round him fresh and clear.”

—LANDOR.

“Not great Æneas stood in plainer day,

When, the dark mantling mist dissolved away,

He to the Tyrians showed his sudden face,

Shining with all his goddess mother’s grace:

For she herself had made his countenance bright,

Breathed honor on his eyes, and her own purple light.”

—DRYDEN, _Britannia Rediviva_.

[108] 20:4. =Enchased.=

“Like to a golden border did appeare,

Framed in goldsmithes forge with cunning hand.”

—SPENSER, _Faerie Queene_.

[109] 21:9. =Learning.=

“Who by the art of known and feeling sorrows,

Are pregnant to good pity.”

—SHAKESPEARE, _King Lear_.

“What sorrow wast thou had’st her know,

And from her own she learned to melt at others’ woe.”

—GRAY, _Hymn to Adversity_.

[110] 21:30. =Acanthus.= A plant now called bear’s-foot, or

bear’s-breech; grows in southern Europe, Asia Minor, and India. Its leaf

was a common form in embroidery and sculpture, and is well known from

its use in the Corinthian capital.

[111] 21:31. =Helen.= Most beautiful of women, daughter of Jupiter and

Leda, was wife of Menelaus of Sparta. She was carried off by Paris as

Venus’ reward to him for his decision in her favor in the question of the

Golden Apple. This breach of hospitality by Paris was the cause of the

Trojan war.

[112] 22:1. =Cupid.= Son of Venus; god of love.

[113] 22:10. =Typhœan.= Thunderbolts of Jove, called Typhœan because they

slew the giant Typhœus at the time of the great fight for the throne of

heaven between Jupiter and the Olympian gods and “the earth-born Titan

brood.”

“Phœbus resigns his darts, and Jove

His thunder to the god of love.”

—DENHAM, _Friendship_.

[114] 22:38. =Poison.=

“Through her bones the false instilled fire

Did spred it selfe and venime close inspire.”

—SPENSER, _Faerie Queene_.

[115] 23:4. =Slumber.=

“She sent the gentle sleep from Heaven

That slid into my soul.”

—COLERIDGE, _Ancient Mariner_.

[116] 23:29. =Gazing.=

“And her eyes on all my motions with a mute observance hung.”

—TENNYSON, _Locksley Hall_.

[117] 23:35. =Lap.=

“But both Dione honored they and Cupid,

That as her mother, this one as her son,

And said that he had sat in Dido’s lap.”

—DANTE, _Paradiso_.

[118] 24:6. =Lamps.=

“As heaven with stars, the roof with jewels glows,

And ever-living lamps depend in rows.”

—POPE, _Temple of Fame_.

[119] 24:15. =Bacchus.= Son of Jupiter and Semele, god of wine, and, by

metonymy, used to mean wine. (Name of god for his realm, as Vulcan for

fire, etc.).

“Nor the coy maid, half willing to be prest,

Shall kiss the cup to pass it to the rest.”

—GOLDSMITH, _Deserted Village_.

[120] 24:25. =Atlas.= A king of Mauretania; father of the Pleiades; he

supported the heavens on his shoulders. He was skilled in astronomy.

Personification of Mount Atlas.

[121] 24:25. =Song.=

“He sung the secret seeds of Nature’s frame:

How seas, and earth, and air, and active flame,

Fell through the mighty void, and in their fall

Were blindly gathered in this goodly ball.

The tender soil, then stiff’ning by degrees,

Shut from the bounded earth, the bounding seas.

Then earth and ocean various forms disclose;

And a new sun to the new world arose;

And mists, condensed to clouds, obscure the sky,

And clouds, dissolved, the thirsty ground supply.

The rising trees the lofty mountains grace;

The lofty mountains feed the savage race,

Yet few, and strangers, in th’ unpeopled place.

From thence the birth of man the song pursued,

And how the world was lost, and how renewed.”

—DRYDEN, Translation of Ecl. VI. Cf. Æn. VI.

BOOK II

[122] 26:8. =Myrmidons or the Dolopes.= The soldiers of Achilles, who was

the fiercest of the Greeks.

[123] 26:9. =Ulysses.= King of “Ithaca’s rocky isle,” husband of

“faithful Penelope.” His wanderings are the subject of Homer’s _Odyssey_.

Homer’s stock epithet is “the very crafty.”

[124] 27:18. =Laocoon.= A priest of Apollo appointed to act as priest of

Neptune. The famous group of Laocoon and his two sons in the coils of

the twin serpents, of the Pergamenian type of sculpture, was discovered

in the baths of the Emperor Titus, and stands in the Belvidere of the

Vatican Museum.

[125] 29:8. =Calchas.= Priest of the Greeks.

[126] 29:14. =Sons of Atreus.= Agamemnon, king of Mycenæ,

commander-in-chief of the Greeks, and his brother Menelaus of Sparta,

former husband of Helen.

[127] 29:27. =Phœbus.= Apollo, god of prophecy.

[128] 31:16. =Palladium.= Statue of Pallas, the Greek goddess identified

by the Romans with Minerva, goddess of wisdom, of household arts, and of

war. Also called Tritonia.

[129] 32:7. =Pelops.= Son of Tantalus and father of Atreus. He was served

up as food for the gods by his father, restored to life by Jupiter,

and furnished with an ivory shoulder in place of the one eaten at the

banquet. He gained control of the Peloponnesus, or Morea, which was named

for him. The use here, another case of the specific for the generic, is

in place of Greece itself.

[130] 33:27. =Cassandra.= Daughter of Priam and Hecuba. Priestess of

Apollo. When she offended Apollo, he could not take back the prophetic

power which he had given her, but he decreed that her prophecies should

never be believed.

[131] 34:17. =Hector.= Of this passage Fénelon wrote, “Can one read this

passage without being moved?” Châteaubriand called the scene “a kind of

epitome of Virgil’s genius.”

[132] 35:9. =Vesta.= So Æneas is to be apostle to the heathen. Even the

early Christians reverenced the vestal sisters, prototype of church

sisterhoods. The institution known as the Vestal Virgins was the purest

element of the Roman religion; even emperors intrusted their last wills

to their sacred keeping as the most inviolable of safeguards. Their

convent has recently been excavated near the Roman Forum.

[133] 38:36. =Nereus.= A sea-god, father of the Nereids.

[134] 40:3. =Andromache.= Daughter of King Eëtion, wife of Hector, the

eldest son of Priam and the most famous warrior of the Trojans, finally

slain by Achilles and dragged around the walls of Troy.

[135] 40:17. =Pyrrhus.= Son of Achilles. Also called Neoptolemus. After

fighting in the Trojan war, he founded a kingdom in Epirus.

[136] 41:17. =Hecuba.= Chief wife of Priam. She really was the mother of

nineteen children. Poetic license treats her as the queen mother of all

Priam’s fifty daughters-in-law and fifty daughters, and finally includes

them all under the term daughters-in-law.

[137] 43:13. =Creusa.= Wife of Æneas and mother of Ascanius or Iulus.

[138] 43:21. =Tyndareus.= Father of Helen.

[139] 46:2. =Flame.= In this passage Virgil makes Anchises refer to a

previous capture of Troy by the Greek hero Hercules, at which time King

Laomedon was slain; and, secondly, to Jupiter’s punishment of Anchises

himself for boasting of the love of Venus. Jupiter crippled him by a

thunderbolt.

BOOK III

The time covers about six years. It begins with events immediately

following the fall of Troy, June, B.C. 1184.

[140] 51:7. =Antandros.= A city on the southern side of Mount Ida, near

Troy.

[141] 51:19. =Lycurgus.= An early king of Thrace who stoutly opposed the

introduction of the rites of Bacchus into his realm, was blinded and

afterward destroyed by Jupiter. The present king was Polymnestor, who had

married Priam’s daughter Ilione.

[142] 51:24. =Æneadæ.= Literally, descendants of Æneas, translated by

Conington in Book I, line 157, as “the family of Æneas.” Really used to

mean the “household” of Æneas, or followers of Æneas, nation of Æneas. So

Greek artists of the early time called themselves Dædalides, or followers

of Dædalus. One is reminded of the tale of Jacob with his “household”

meeting Esau with his “household.” Indeed, the Romans themselves were

sometimes called Romulides, followers of Romulus.

[143] 51:25. =Dione.= Mother of Venus.

[144] 52:13. =Gradivus.= Mars, god of war, who decides the issue of all

battles, and goes forth to war with giant strides. Gradivus is derived

from a Latin word meaning to march, Mars was father of Romulus and Remus

by Rhea Sylvia.

[145] 53:11. =Manes.= The souls of the dead, also the spirit or shade of

a single person.

[146] 53:16. =Farewell call.= The cry _valē_, made three times at the

funeral pyre as a final farewell to the dead.

[147] 53:35. =Thymbra.= A city near Troy having a famous temple of Apollo.

[148] 64:35. =Gnossus.= A common name for Crete, from one of its towns.

[149] 55:4. =Idomeneus.= A king of Crete, leader of the Cretan forces

against Troy. On his return to Crete, in accordance with a vow, he

sacrificed his son to the gods. Because of the pestilence that followed

this act, the Cretans banished Idomeneus.

[150] 56:17. =Hesperia.= Land of the evening star, or western land,

Italy. Also called Ausonia.

[151] 56:25. =Corythus.= Legendary ancestor of the Trojans.

[152] 56:26. =Dicte.= A mountain in the eastern part of Crete.

[153] 57:32. =Celæno.= Queen of the Harpies, which were foul winged

monsters described as daughters of Electra and Oceanus.

[154] 57:33. =Phineus.= King of Salmydessus in Thrace. He put out the

eyes of his son, and so was himself blinded by the gods, and the Harpies

were sent to torment him by carrying off or defiling all his food. The

house of Phineus was shut to the Harpies when they were driven off by the

Argonauts.

[155] 59:5. =Tables.= Not so dreadful a portent as it seemed. See page

153.

[156] 59:18. =Zacynthos.= The island Zante.

[157] 59:29. =Actium.= Actium is introduced here because of the

epoch-making battle of Actium between Augustus and Antony, and the fact

that Augustus, after the victory, initiated games there.

[158] 60:5. =Phæacian.= The island Corfu.

[159] 61:4. =Daughter.= Polyxene, sacrificed at the tomb of Achilles.

[160] 61:11. =Hermione.= Granddaughter of Leda, daughter of Menelaus and

Helen; had been betrothed in Menelaus’ absence to Orestes. Menelaus, not

knowing this, gave her to Pyrrhus Neoptolemus, Achilles’ son.

[161] 61:36. =Scæan gate.= Famous gate of Troy.

[162] 63:4. =Circe.= The famous sorceress, who by her magic cake turned

men into animals. She was called Ææan, from Æa, a city in Colchis, in

Asia Minor, famous for its magic. Circe came from Colchis. Her island is

fabled to have become a promontory of Latium.

[163] 64:5. =Scylla and Charybdis.= Whirlpools, bordering the straits of

Messina, dangerous to the ancient navigator. This is the description of

Scylla used by Milton in describing one of the guardians of the gate of

Hell.

[164] 64:15. =Trinacrian.= Sicilian. The word is of Greek origin, and

signifies triangular, referring to the contour of Sicily. Pachynus itself

was the southeastern point of Sicily, the modern Capo di Passaro.

[165] 66:8. =Astyanax.= Son of Hector and Andromache, who perished in the

sack of Troy.

[166] 67:8. =Aurora.= Goddess of the dawn. Wife of Tithonus.

[167] 68:32. =Enceladus.= One of the giants who was defeated by Jupiter

and imprisoned in a burning cave beneath Mount Ætna. See Longfellow’s

_Enceladus_.

“Under Mount Etna he lies,

It is slumber, it is not death;

For he struggles at times to arise,

And above him the lurid skies

Are hot with his fiery breath.”

All this region, as has been newly shown by the late terrible earthquake,

is peculiarly subject to seismic disturbances.

[168] 72:17. =Arethusa.= According to fable, pursued by Alpheus,

river-god of Elis in Greece, was turned into a subterranean river, still

pursued by the river-god under the Ægean until she emerged harmoniously

blent with her pursuer in the famous fountain of Ortygia. Shelley uses

the legend as follows in his _Arethusa_:—

“And now from their fountains

In Enna’s mountains,

Down one vale where the morning basks,

Like friends once parted

Grown single-hearted,

They ply their watery tasks.

At sunrise they leap

From their cradles steep

In the cave of the shelving hill;

At noontide they flow

Through the woods below

And the meadows of asphodel;

And at night they sleep

In the rocking deep

Beneath the Ortygian shore:—

Like spirits that lie

In the azure sky

Where they love but live no more.”

BOOK IV

This portion of the _Æneid_ was written when the memory of Antony and

Cleopatra was still fresh, and many traits of royal, imperious Dido seem

suggestive of the Egyptian queen. Cf. Shakespeare’s _Cleopatra_, and

Chaucer’s _Legend of Good Women_.

[169] 74:8. =Dawn-goddess.= Aurora, with Phœbus’ torch. Apollo is

constantly identified with the sun-god.

[170] 75:3. =Erebus.= God of darkness, son of Chaos and brother of Night.

Synonymous with darkness, especially that of the underworld.

[171] 76:5. =Lyæus.= Bacchus. As the god that makes men unbend and frees

them from care, he is called Father Lyæus.

[172] 78:9. =Hymen.= God of marriage.

[173] 79:24. =Fame.= Cf. Bacon, _Fragment of an Essay of Fame_. “The

poets make Fame a monster. They describe her in part finely and

elegantly, and in part gravely and sententiously. They say, look how many

feathers she hath, so many eyes she hath underneath; so many tongues; so

many voices; she pricks up so many ears. This is a flourish; there follow

excellent parables; as that she gathereth strength in going; that she

goeth upon the ground, and yet hideth her head in the clouds, that in the

day-time she sitteth in a watch-tower, and flieth most by night; that she

mingleth things done with things not yet done, and that she is a terror

to great cities.”

[174] 79:31. =Cœus.= One of the Titans; was father of Latona.

[175] 80:34. =Mæonian cap.= Mæonia, part of Lydia, Asia Minor. Since

Lydia and Phrygia were adjacent, Mæonian = Phrygian = Trojan.

[176] 81:15. =The laws.= Rome, the world’s lawgiver.

[177] 83:18. =Mænad.= Mænads, or Bacchantes, women worshipping Bacchus in

wild and orgiastic fashion in the woods or on mountain slopes of Cithæron.

[178] 84:19. =Elissa.= Dido.

[179] 84:31. =Grynean.= Refers to oracle of Apollo at Gryneum.

[180] 89:29. =Hecate.= Diana, moon-goddess, is identified with Hecate,

also moon-goddess. As goddess of cross-roads, Hecate was called Trivia,

and is represented by three statues standing back to back. Hecate is

especially a goddess of the underworld and of witchcraft.

[181] 90:28. =Laomedon.= The father of Priam. He was notorious for his

trickery and broken promises. Hence Trojans in a derogatory, scornful

sense were termed race of Laomedon.

[182] 91:38. =Tithonus.= Son of Laomedon, husband of Aurora.

[183] 95:10. =Iris.= Goddess of the rainbow, the messenger of Juno.

[184] 95:14. =Proserpine.= Daughter of Ceres, wife of Pluto, and hence

queen of underworld.

BOOK V

Æneas sees the flames of Dido’s pyre and guesses their meaning. In

Sicily, he institutes funeral games to Anchises. Compare funeral games

of Patroclus in 23d book of _Iliad_. The contest of the ships and the

equestrian exhibition are wholly original, however. The burning of the

fleet was part of an old Trojan legend.

[185] 99:8. =Acheron’s prison.= The underworld.

[186] 99:14. =Phaethon.= The sun-god.

[187] 99:23. =Talent.= A weight, not coin, of silver or gold. The Attic

silver talent was worth over $1000.

[188] 103:2. =Feel that they are thought strong.= The translation here

is poor, the correct rendering being, “They can, because they think they

can.” Virgil’s is a classical expression of the power of belief.

[189] 103:12. =Portunus=, a god of harbors, is here associated with the

other divinities of the deep.

[190] 103:24. =The royal boy.= Ganymede, a favorite subject of art.

[191] 106:38. =Amycus.= A famous boxer of Bebrycii killed by Pollux.

[192] 107:35. =Eryx.= A Sicilian king, son of Venus; was killed by

Hercules in a boxing contest.

[193] 113:8. =Labyrinth in Crete.= The Labyrinth, a maze built by Dædalus

for King Minos at Gnossus in Crete to contain the Minotaur.

[194] 113:25. =Solemn.= Sacred festival, required each year.

[195] 117:20. =Dis.= Ruler of the underworld, variously called Orcus,

Acheron, Erebus, Avernus. Dis, or Pluto, brother of Jupiter, is called

Jupiter Stygius.

[196] 117:22. =Tartarus.= The abode of the wicked in the underworld.

[197] 117:24. =Elysium.= The abode of the good in the underworld.

[198] 120:11. =Glaucus.= A prophetic sea-god, said to be completely

incrusted by “shellfish, seaweed, and stones,” so that he is used by

Plato (_Rep._ X, p. 116) as the image of a soul incrusted with sin.

[199] 120:12. =Ino’s Palæmon.= Ino with his son Palæmon were transformed

into sea divinities. The following names are of sea divinities.

[200] 121:7. =Lethe.= A river of the underworld whose waters bring

forgetfulness. Styx. The main river in the underworld.

[201] 121:17. =Sirens’ isle.= The Sirens were monsters with heads of

women and bodies of birds who dwelt on some rocks off the Campanian

coast, by the bay of Naples. Their sweet singing enticed mariners on to

the rocks to be destroyed.

[202] 121:24. =Naked corpse.= Burial thought essential to spirit’s peace.

BOOK VI

Visit of Æneas to Anchises in the world of the dead. Much of the

philosophy is Stoic pantheism. The theory of the vision appears to

include the Pythagorean doctrine of metempsychosis. Ulysses in _Odyssey_,

Book XI, visited the world of shades.

[203] 122:11. =Sibyl.= Through the Cumæan Sibyl, Deïphobe, as the guide

of Æneas through the lower world, Virgil exalts the use of the Sibylline

Books in the Roman religion. It is interesting to note that the position

given the Sibyl, as guide of Æneas, Dante in turn gives to Virgil as his

own guide in the lower world.

[204] 122:24. =Sons of Cecrops.= The Athenians yearly surrendered seven

youths and seven maidens to be sent to Crete to be devoured by the

Minotaur, because the Athenians, through envy of his success in the

public games, had murdered Androgeus, son of Minos, king of Crete, and

Minos had made this the condition of peace.

[205] 122:31. =The edifice= is the Labyrinth, in which the Minotaur was

confined.

[206] 123:5. =Icarus.= Son of Dædalus, who sought to escape with his

father from Crete, but flew so near the sun that the wax by which his

wings were fastened on was melted, and he fell and perished in the sea

called from his name Icarian.

[207] 123:35. =Dardan.= Trojan. The Trojans are called by Virgil

sometimes descendants of Dardanus, sometimes of Laomedon, sometimes of

Anchises, again of Æneas, now Teucrians, and now Phrygians.

[208] 123:36. =Æacides.= A patronymic, applied by Virgil, now to

Achilles, as here, now to Pyrrhus Neoptolemus, meaning descendant of

Æacus.

[209] 124:35. =Dorian.= Greek.

[210] 125:36. =Alcides.= Hercules.

[211] 126:10. =Cocytus.= A river of the underworld.

[212] 127:29. =Fissile.= Easy to split.

[213] 129:19. =Aornos.= Greek word, meaning without birds.

[214] 129:28. =Furies.= The Furies were the goddesses of Vengeance, named

Allecto, Megæra, and Tisiphonë.

[215] 130:31. =Briareus.= Giant, son of Earth.

[216] 130:31. =Lerna.= A lake and marsh near Argos in Greece. Here dwelt

the Hydra, a nine-headed monster, whose breath was poisonous. Hercules

finally slew it. Possibly an idealized tradition of the draining of the

marsh Lerna.

[217] 130:32. =Chimæra.= A fabulous monster which breathed forth fire.

In front it was a lion, in the hinder part a dragon, and in the middle a

goat. The monster was slain by Bellerophon.

[218] 130:33. =Gorgons.= Three mythical women of Libya, having some

resemblance to the Furies. The chief was Medusa, slain by Perseus. Her

head with serpent hair was placed in the shield or Ægis of Jove and

Minerva.

[219] 134:31. =Cerberus.= Three-headed dog that guarded the entrance to

the underworld.

[220] 136:10. =Minos.= King of Crete; after death became one of the

judges in the underworld.

[221] 136:19. =Marpessa.= The mountain in Paros which contained the

famous marble quarries, Marpesian, Parian.

[222] 138:12. =Æolus.= Ulysses was descended from Æolus.

[223] 140:20. =Ixion.= Ixion was father of Pirithous, king of the

Lapithæ. Examples of men who have incurred the wrath of the gods.

[224] 141:31. =Priest.= Orpheus. Legendary poet and musician. ’Twas he

who so charmed Proserpine that she allowed him to lead forth from the

lower world his wife Eurydice.

[225] 142:9. =Eridanus.= A river issuing from the underworld,

variously identified by ancient writers with the Po, the Rhine, or the

Rhone,—usually with the Po.

[226] 143:26. =Lethe.= Quaffing its waters brought forgetfulness. See

page 144.

[227] 146:1. =Berecyntian mother.= Cybele, a Phrygian goddess, worshipped

as mother of the gods. So called from Berecyntus, a mountain in Phrygia,

sacred to Cybele.

[228] 146:37. =Fasces.= The bundles of rods from which an axe protruded,

carried by the lictor before certain magistrates when they appeared in

public. Symbol of authority.

[229] 147:5. =Drusi.= A Roman family mentioned here in compliment to

their descendent Livia, wife of Augustus.

[230] 147:5. =Decii.= The Decii, father, son, and grandson, solemnly

devoted themselves to death, each to win a doubtful battle, in the wars

of the Latins, of the Samnites, and of Pyrrhus respectively.

[231] 147:5. =Torquatus.= (T. Manlius) won his title (with a gold

neck-chain) by slaying a gigantic Gaul.

[232] 147:6. =Camillus=, returning from banishment, drove back the

victorious Gauls, winning back the captured standards.

[233] 147:12. =Father-in-law and son-in-law.= Cæsar and Pompey.

[234] 147:30. =Fabii.= Quintus Fabius wore out the strength of Hannibal,

constantly refusing to be drawn into a pitched battle. Hence “Fabian

policy” means delay.

[235] 148:10. =Quirinus.= Romulus.

[236] 149:7. =Laurentian.= Laurentum, a town on the coast of Latium, a

city of King Latinus.

[237] 149:14. =Gate of ivory.=

“A recent writer has reminded us that dreams after midnight

were accounted true both by the Greeks and the Romans. Hence

he concluded that Virgil, in making Æneas issue by the gate

of false dreams, is indicating that Æneas comes forth from

the underworld before midnight. As to the time of Æneas’ stay

in the lower world see lines 255, 535-539. He is in the land

of the shades from dawn until nearly midnight.”—KNAPP.

“By those who think this book a symbolic exhibition of certain

mysteries, the legend of the Gate, with the dismissal of Æneas

from the ivory one, is considered a warning that the language

may not be taken literally, or understood except by the

initiated.”—GREENOUGH.

“Anchises conducts Æneas and the Sibyl to the ivory gate as

the one which affords the easiest and quickest ascent to the

upper world. They are thus saved the toil of ascending by the

way they came, which, according to the words of the Sibyl, 128,

129, would have been a work of great labor.”—FRIEZE.

BOOK VII

Arrival of Æneas in Latium and commencement of hostilities between the

Latins and Trojans.

[238] 150:1. =Caieta.= Æneas buries his nurse on a promontory of Latium

which he called after her—now called Gaeta.

[239] 151:8. =Erato.= Name of one of the Muses.

[240] 151:14. =Tyrrhenian.= The Tyrrheni were a people of Asia who had

settled in Etruria, a district north of Italy. Hence used synonymously

for Etrurian, Tuscan—Italian. Œnotrian is still another term.

[241] 151:29. =Turnus.= Son of Daunus and the nymph Venilia, was king

of the Rutulians, a people of Latium. He led the Italian forces against

Æneas, but was at last slain by Æneas in single combat, as described in

the last of Book XII.

[242] 153:19. =The eating of tables= was foretold by the Harpy and

Anchises, in Book III, page 59.

[243] 159:19. =Bellona.= Goddess of war and bloodshed, an old Italian

deity—sister of Mars.

[244] 159:26. =Allecto.= One of the Furies. Her sisters were Megæra and

Tisiphonë.

[245] 160:11. =Amata.= Queen of Latium, wife of King Latinus.

[246] 165:15-17. =Trivia’s lake= (= Diana’s), =Nar=, =Veline=.

“The lake of Diana on the Alban Mount, far to the southeast of

the Tiber, and the Nar and Velinus far to the northeast, i.e.

the whole country around heard the sound. The lake of Diana is

now called Lake Nemi, near Ariccia, 15 miles south of Rome. The

river Nar runs between Umbria and the Sabine country, and falls

into the Tiber. The lake Velinus was produced by the overflow

of the river Velinus and was led into the Nar by a channel cut

through a ledge of rock by the consul M. Curius Denatus, B.C.

270. This produced the celebrated fall of Terni.”—FRIEZE.

[247] 168:7. =Janus.= An Italian god of beginnings and

gateways—two-headed, since gates fall two ways. Is especially the

guardian of the gates of the temple of war.

[248] 168:10. =Gabine cincture.= A peculiar way of adjusting the toga.

[249] 169:6 to 175:18. For this portion, omitted in the prose version, we

use Conington’s verse translation.

BOOK VIII

Alliance of Æneas and Evander. Vulcan makes a shield for Æneas.

[250] 179:9. =Amphitryon’s child.= Hercules—the stepson of Amphitryon.

[251] 180:12. =Maia.= Daughter of Atlas.

[252] 181:3. =Pheneus.= A town of Arcadia.

[253] 182:8. =Geryon.= A giant monster of Gades (Cadiz) in Spain, the

keeper of beautiful cattle. He was slain by Hercules, who took the cattle

across the Alps to the valley of the Tiber.

[254] 182:36. =Tiryns.= In Argolis, the early home of Hercules.

[255] 186:2. =Hests.= Commands.

[256] 186:22. =Ægis.= Famous shield of Jupiter (worn also by Minerva),

bearing in the centre the baneful head of the Gorgon Medusa. The Ægis

when shaken wrought terror and dismay on the wearer’s foes. The shaking

was accompanied by thunder and lightning—thus the Ægis was the symbol of

the whirlwind that drives the storm-cloud.

[257] 189:19. =Lemnos.= An island in the Ægean Sea, the home of Vulcan.

[258] 194:21. =Cuishes.= Greaves, or leg coverings.

[259] 198:12. =Cocles.= Horatius. See Macaulay’s _Lays of Ancient Rome_.

[260] 196:19. =Egyptian spouse.= Cleopatra.

[261] 196:31. =Anubis.= An Egyptian god, with a dog’s head.

[262] 196:34. =Mavors.= Mars.

[263] 197:2. =Saba.= In Arabia.

BOOK IX

The attack of Turnus on the Trojan camp.

[264] 198:5. =Child.= Iris.

[265] 198:29. =Messapus.= A Tyrrhenian chief whose followers are from

Fescennium and other places on the right bank of the Tiber. See Book VII.

[266] 203:19. =Wont.= Were wont.

[267] 212:5. =Ravin.= Ravages.

[268] 217:12. =Kid-stars.= The Kids were two stars in the hand of Auriga,

the setting of which in December was attended with heavy rains.

[269] 217:24. =Padus.= The Po.

[270] 217:24. =Athesis.= A river in northern Italy, now the Adige.

[271] 218:22. =Prochyta.= A small island off the west of Campania, near

the promontory of Micenum.

[272] 218:23. =Inarime.= An island off the Campanian coast, now Ischia.

BOOK X

Council of the gods.

[273] 226:12. =Terebinth.= Turpentine tree.

[274] 227:3. =Helicon.= A mountain of Bœotia sacred to Apollo and the

Muses.

BOOK XI

Funeral honors to the dead. The truce broken by renewal of hostilities.

[275] 257:27. =Arpi.= A town of Apulia.

[276] 268:5. =The pillars of Proteus= are the island of Pharos and the

coast of Egypt, whither Menelaus was driven.

[277] 258:8. =Monarch of Mycenæ.= Agamemnon.

[278] 262:16. =Myrmidons.= See page 325.

[279] 263:11. =Camilla.= A warrior princess of the Volsci.

[280] 264:10. =Coras.= See page 170.

[281] 265:4. =Champaign.= Plain.

BOOK XII

Final conflict between Æneas and Turnus.

[282] 279:29. =Orichalc.= Copper.

[283] 280:24. =Vervain.= Verbena, leafy twig, sacred bough (of laurel,

olive, myrtle, or cypress).

[284] 288:18. =Dittany.= Herb growing on Mount Dicte in Crete.

[285] 288:24. =Ambrosia.= Sustenance of immortal life, food of the gods,

as nectar is their drink.

[286] 296:12. =Holms.= Oaks, holm-oak, “great scarlet oak.”

[287] 303:16. =Soul.= Cf. the Emperor Hadrian’s _Address to his Soul_,

translated by Byron, Prior, Pope, Merivale, Carnarvon, etc.

“Soul of mine, pretty one, flitting one,

Guest and partner of my clay,

Whither wilt thou hie away,—

Pallid one, rigid one, naked one—

Never to play again, never to play?”

—MERIVALE.

“Yes, thou goest, Spirit—yes,

In thy paleness, nakedness—

Mirth is banished,

Jest hath vanished

Into gloom and dreariness.”

—CARNARVON.

“Wee wan’erin’ winsome elf, my saul,

Thou’s made this clay long hoose an’ hall,

But whar, oh whar art now to dwall,

Thy bield now bare?

Gaun’ flickterin’ feckless, shiverin’ caul,

Nae cantrips mair.”

=Transcriber’s Note:= Endnotes indicated by [o] are missing.

INDEX TO NOTES

Acanthus, 322.

Acheron’s prison, 333.

Achilles, 309.

Actium, 329.

Æacides, 311, 335.

Ægis, 340.

Æneadæ, 327.

Æneas, 311.

Æolia, 309.

Æolus, 310, 336.

Agenor, 319.

Ajax, 309.

Alba, 306.

Alcides, 335.

Allecto, 339.

Amata, 339.

Ambrosia, 342.

Amphitryon’s child, 340.

Amycus, 333.

Andromache, 326.

Antandros, 327.

Antenor, 316.

Anubis, 340.

Aornos, 335.

Arethusa, 330.

Argos, 307, 317.

ARIOSTO, 305, 311.

Arms, 305, 316.

ARNOLD (Matthew), 321.

Arpi, 342.

Ascanius, 317.

Assaracus, 317.

Astyanax, 329.

Athesis, 341.

Atlas, 324.

Atreus, sons of, 325.

Aurora, 330.

Bacchus, 324.

BACON, 331.

Barred, 316.

Bees, 320.

Bellona, 339.

Berecyntian mother, 337.

Bidding, 310.

Biremes, 315.

Bond, 310.

Breath of life, 319.

Briareus, 336.

Byrsa, 319.

Cable, 315.

Caieta, 338.

Calchas, 325.

Camilla, 342.

Camillus, 337.

CARNARVON, 343.

Cassandra, 326.

Cavern, 309.

Cecrops, sons of, 335.

Celæno, 328.

Cerberus, 336.

Champaign, 342.

CHAUCER, 316.

Child, 341.

Chilled, 311.

Chimæra, 336.

Circe, 329.

Cocles, 340.

Cocytus, 335.

Cœus, 332.

COLERIDGE, 323.

Confound, 312.

CONINGTON (verse), 339.

Coras, 342.

Corythus, 328.

Crest, 312.

Creusa, 326.

Cuishes, 340.

Cupid, 323.

Cyclops, 315.

Cymothoë and Triton, 313.

Cythera, 316.

Danaan, 308.

DANTE, 324.

Dardan, 335.

Daughter, 329.

Dawn-goddess, 331.

Daylight, 310.

Decii, 337.

DENHAM, 323.

Diana, 321.

Dicte, 328.

Dido, 318.

Dione, 327.

Dis, 333.

Dittany, 342.

Dorian, 335.

Drusi, 337.

DRYDEN, 313, 320, 322, 324.

Eating of tables, 329, 339.

Edifice, 335.

Egyptian spouse, 340.

Elissa, 332.

Elysium, 334.

Enceladus, 330.

Enchased, 322.

Erato, 338.

Erebus, 331.

Eridanus, 337.

Eryx, 333.

Ether, 315.

Eurus, 313.

Fabii, 337.

FALCONER, 312, 316.

Fate’s, 307.

Fall, 310.

Fame, 331.

Farewell call, 328.

Fasces, 337.

Father-in-law and Son-in-law, 337.

Feel that they are thought strong, 333.

Fissile, 335.

Flame, 327.

FRIEZE, 338.

Furies, 336.

Gabine cincture, 339.

Ganymede, 308.

Gate of ivory, 338.

Gazing, 323.

Geryon, 340.

Glaucus, 334.

Gnossus, 328.

Goddess, 319.

GOLDSMITH, 313, 314, 324.

Gorgons, 336.

Gradivus, 327.

GRAY, 319, 320, 322.

GREENOUGH, 338.

Grynean, 332.

Hate, 306.

Haven, 314.

Heart-sick, 315.

Hecate, 332.

Hector, 311, 317, 326.

Hecuba, 326.

Helen, 323.

Helicon, 341.

Hermione, 329.

Hesperia, 328.

Hests, 340.

Ho, 318-319.

HOLMES, 313.

Holms, 342.

HOMER, 305, 308, 311, 312, 315.

Hope, 319.

Hymen, 331.

Icarus, 335.

Idomeneus, 328.

Ilion, 310.

Inarime, 341.

Ino’s Palæmon, 334.

Iris, 332.

Ixion, 336.

Janus, 339.

Jove, 309, 320.

Juno, 306.

KEATS, 313, 319.

Kid-stars, 341.

KNAPP, 338.

Labyrinth in Crete, 333.

Lamps, 324.

LANDOR, 322.

Laocoon, 325.

Laomedon, 332.

Lap, 323.

Latian, 306.

Latona, 321.

Laurentian, 337.

Lavinium, 316.

Laws, 332.

Learning, 322.

Lemnos, 340.

Lerna, 336.

Lethe, 334, 337.

Libya, 307.

LONGFELLOW, 330.

Lyæus, 331.

Lycurgus, 327.

Mænad, 332.

Mæonian cap, 332.

Maia, 318, 340.

Manes, 328.

MARLOWE, 316, 317, 319.

Marpessa, 336.

Mavors, 341.

Memnon, 321.

MERIVALE, 343.

Messapus, 341.

MILTON, 305, 306, 307, 309, 310, 313, 314, 315, 317, 318, 320.

Minos, 336.

Monarch of Mycenæ, 342.

Much, 306.

Muse, 306.

Mycenæ, 317, 342.

Myrmidons, 325, 342.

Naked Corpse, 334.

NASH, 316, 317, 319.

Neptune, 312.

Nereus, 326.

Orichalc, 342.

Orion, 322.

Padus, 341.

Palladium, 325.

Pallas, 309, 321.

Paphos, 320.

Paris, 307.

Pelops, 325.

Penthesilea, 321.

Pergamus, 321.

Phæacian, 329.

Phaethon, 333.

Pheneus, 340.

Phineus, 328.

Phœbus, 325.

Phœbus’ sister, 319.

Phthia, 317.

Piety, 316.

Proteus, pillars of, 342.

Poison, 323.

POPE, 306, 324.

Portunus, 333.

Priest, 336.

Prochyta, 341.

Proserpine, 332.

Punic, 318.

Pyrrhus, 326.

Quirinus, 318, 337.

Ravin, 341.

Remembered, 315.

Rock’s, 309.

Routs, 313.

Royal boy, 333.

Rush forth, 310.

Rutulians, 316.

Saba, 341.

Sabæan incense, 320.

Samos, 307.

Sarpedon, 312.

Saturn, 307.

Scæan gate, 329.

Scylla, 315.

Scylla and Charybdis, 329.

SHAKESPEARE, 312, 319, 322.

SHELLEY, 309, 312, 316, 320, 330.

Shone, 322.

Side-jointings, 312.

Sibyl, 334.

Sidon, 320.

Simois, 312.

Sirens’ isle, 334.

Slumber, 323.

Solemn, 333.

Song, 324.

Soul, 342.

SPENSER, 306, 307, 308, 310, 314, 317, 318, 321, 322, 323.

Stars, 312, 317.

Styx, 334.

Syrtes, 312.

Talent, 333.

Tartarus, 334.

TASSO, 305, 310, 314, 315.

Tears, 321.

TENNYSON, 308, 310, 321, 323.

Terebinth, 341.

Teucrians, 309.

Thrice, 311.

Thymbra, 328.

Tiryns, 340.

Tithonus, 332.

Torquatus, 337.

Trident, 313.

Trinacrian, 329.

Trivia’s lake, 339.

Troilus, 321.

Troy, 306.

Turnus, 339.

Tydeus’ son, 311.

Tyndareus, 327.

Typhœan, 323.

Tyre, 306.

Tyrrhene Sea, 310.

Tyrrhenian, 338.

Ulysses, 325.

Vervain, 342.

Vesta, 318, 326.

Walk, 320.

WALLER, 311.

War, 307, 317.

Weapon, 313.

Wings, 320.

Woman, 319.

Wont, 341.

WORDSWORTH, 320, 321.

Xanthus, 321.

Zacynthos, 329.

Printed in the United States of America.