Ovid: METAMORPHOSES

Iamque Giganteis iniectam faucibus Aetnen
arvaque Cyclopum, quid rastra, quid usus aratri,
nescia nec quicquam iunctis debentia bubus
liquerat Euboicus tumidarum cultor aquarum,
liquerat et Zanclen adversaque moenia Regi

And now Etna, cast upon the Giants’ jaws,
and the fields of the Cyclopes, knowing not what rakes are, what the use of the plow is,
and owing nothing at all to yoked oxen,
had the Euboean cultivator of the swelling waters left behind;
he had left Zancle too, and the facing walls of Rhegium.

navifragumque fretum, gemino quod litore pressum
Ausoniae Siculaeque tenet confinia terrae.
inde manu magna Tyrrhena per aequora vectus
herbiferos adiit colles atque atria Glaucus
Sole satae Circes, variarum plena ferarum.

and the ship-wrecking strait, which, pressed by twin shores,
holds the confines of Ausonian and Sicilian land.
thence, with a great band carried across the Tyrrhenian waters,
Glaucus approached the herb-bearing hills and the atria of Circe,
sown by the Sun, full of various wild beasts.

quam simul adspexit, dicta acceptaque salute,
'diva, dei miserere, precor! nam sola levare
tu potes hunc,' dixit 'videar modo dignus, amorem.
quanta sit herbarum, Titani, potentia, nulli
quam mihi cognitius, qui sum mutatus ab illis.

whom as soon as he beheld, a greeting spoken and received,
'goddess, have mercy, I pray, on a god! for you alone can relieve
this love,' he said, 'only let me seem worthy.
how great is the potency of herbs, O child of Titan, to no one
better known than to me, who am changed by them.

neve mei non nota tibi sit causa furoris:
litore in Italico, Messenia moenia contra,
Scylla mihi visa est. pudor est promissa precesque
blanditiasque meas contemptaque verba referre;
at tu, sive aliquid regni est in carmine, carmen

and lest the cause of my frenzy be unknown to you:
on the Italian shore, with the Messenian walls opposite,
Scylla appeared to me. I am ashamed to recount my promises and prayers
and my blandishments and my contemned words;
but you, if there is any sovereignty in song, song

ore move sacro, sive expugnacior herba est,
utere temptatis operosae viribus herbae
nec medeare mihi sanesque haec vulnera mando,
fine nihil opus est: partem ferat illa caloris.'
at Circe (neque enim flammis habet aptius ulla

move your sacred mouth, or, if there is a more conquering herb,
use the tested forces of the painstaking herb;
nor do I command that you medicate me and heal these wounds—
there is no need of an end: let it carry off a portion of the heat.'
but Circe (for no woman is more apt to flames

talibus ingenium, seu causa est huius in ipsa,
seu Venus indicio facit hoc offensa paterno,)
talia verba refert: 'melius sequerere volentem
optantemque eadem parilique cupidine captam.
dignus eras ultro (poteras certeque) rogari,

at such things her temperament, whether the cause of this is in herself, or Venus, offended at her father, makes this an indication,) relates such words: ‘you would do better to follow one willing, desiring the same things, and seized by an equal cupidity. you were worthy to be asked unbidden (you surely could) be asked,’

et, si spem dederis, mihi crede, rogaberis ultro.
neu dubites absitque tuae fiducia formae,
en ego, cum dea sim, nitidi cum filia Solis,
carmine cum tantum, tantum quoque gramine possim,
ut tua sim, voveo. spernentem sperne, sequenti

and, if you give hope, believe me, you will be asked unbidden.
nor doubt, nor let confidence in your form be absent,
lo, I, though I am a goddess, the daughter of the gleaming Sun,
since by charm and likewise by herb I can so much,
I vow to be yours. spurn one who spurns; to one who follows

redde vices, unoque duas ulciscere facto.'
talia temptanti 'prius' inquit 'in aequore frondes'
Glaucus 'et in summis nascentur montibus algae,
Sospite quam Scylla nostri mutentur amores.'
indignata dea est et laedere quatenus ipsum

‘repay in turn, and with one act avenge two.’
to her attempting such things, ‘sooner,’ says Glaucus, ‘in the sea leaves
and on the highest mountains seaweed will be born,
than, Scylla being safe, my loves be altered.’
the goddess was indignant, and inasmuch as to wound him himself

non poterat (nec vellet amans), irascitur illi,
quae sibi praelata est; venerisque offensa repulsa,
protinus horrendis infamia pabula sucis
conterit et tritis Hecateia carmina miscet
caerulaque induitur velamina perque ferarum

she could not (nor would a lover wish it) be angry with him,
but with her who had been preferred to herself; and, offended at the repulse of love,
straightway she grinds infamous fodders with horrendous juices
and mixes Hecatean incantations with ground herbs
and puts on cerulean veils and through the wild beasts

agmen adulantum media procedit ab aula
oppositumque petens contra Zancleia saxa
Region ingreditur ferventes aestibus undas,
in quibus ut solida ponit vestigia terra
summaque decurrit pedibus super aequora siccis.

a column of adulating attendants proceeds from the midst of the hall,
and seeking the opposite, toward the Zanclean rocks,
she enters at Rhegium the waves boiling with tides,
in which she sets her footprints as if on solid ground,
and runs over the topmost waters with dry feet.

parvus erat gurges, curvos sinuatus in arcus,
grata quies Scyllae: quo se referebat ab aestu
et maris et caeli, medio cum plurimus orbe
sol erat et minimas a vertice fecerat umbras.
hunc dea praevitiat portentificisque venenis

There was a small pool, winding into curved arches,
a welcome repose for Scylla: to which she would withdraw herself from the heat
both of sea and of sky, when in the middle of the orb
the sun was at his fullest and had made the smallest shadows from overhead.
This the goddess pre-corrupts and with portentous poisons.

inquinat; hic pressos latices radice nocenti
spargit et obscurum verborum ambage novorum
ter noviens carmen magico demurmurat ore.
Scylla venit mediaque tenus descenderat alvo,
cum sua foedari latrantibus inguina monstris

she pollutes it; here she sprinkles the pressed waters with a noxious root,
and with an obscure circumlocution of novel words
three times nine she murmurs down the charm with a magic mouth.
Scylla comes and had descended as far as her mid-belly,
when her own loins were befouled with barking monsters

adspicit ac primo credens non corporis illas
esse sui partes, refugitque abigitque timetque
ora proterva canum, sed quos fugit, attrahit una
et corpus quaerens femorum crurumque pedumque
Cerbereos rictus pro partibus invenit illis:

she beholds, and at first, believing those were not parts of her own body,
she both shrinks back and drives them off and fears the insolent mouths of the dogs;
but those whom she flees, she at the same time drags along,
and, seeking the body of thighs and shanks and feet,
she finds Cerberean jaws instead of those parts:

statque canum rabie subiectaque terga ferarum
inguinibus truncis uteroque exstante coercet.
Flevit amans Glaucus nimiumque hostiliter usae
viribus herbarum fugit conubia Circes;
Scylla loco mansit cumque est data copia, primum

and she stands, and with the rage of dogs she restrains the backs of the wild beasts set beneath by truncated loins and a protruding womb.
The loving Glaucus wept, and he fled the connubial bonds of Circe, who had used the powers of herbs too hostilely;
Scylla remained in the place, and when opportunity was given, first

in Circes odium sociis spoliavit Ulixem;
mox eadem Teucras fuerat mersura carinas,
ni prius in scopulum, qui nunc quoque saxeus exstat,
transformata foret: scopulum quoque navita vitat.
Hunc ubi Troianae remis avidamque Charybdin

into Circe’s hatred she despoiled Ulysses of his comrades;
soon that same one would have submerged the Teucrian keels,
if she had not first been transformed into a rock, which even now stands forth stony,
a rock which the sailor too avoids.
This one, when the Trojan [ships] by oars and greedy Charybdis

evicere rates, cum iam prope litus adessent
Ausonium, Libycas vento referuntur ad oras.
excipit Aenean illic animoque domoque
non bene discidium Phrygii latura mariti
Sidonis; inque pyra sacri sub imagine facta

the ships won through, when now they were near the Ausonian shore;
they are borne back by the wind to the Libyan coasts.
there the Sidonian woman receives Aeneas, and in spirit and in house,
not going to bear well the sundering from her Phrygian husband;
and upon a pyre made under the image of sacred rite

incubuit ferro deceptaque decipit omnes.
rursus harenosae fugiens nova moenia terrae
ad sedemque Erycis fidumque relatus Acesten
sacrificat tumulumque sui genitoris honorat.
quasque rates Iris Iunonia paene cremarat,

she sank upon the iron, and, deceived, she deceives all.
again, fleeing the new walls of the sandy land,
and borne back to the seat of Eryx and trusty Acestes,
he sacrifices and honors the tomb of his own begetter.
and the ships which Juno's Iris had almost burned,

solvit et Hippotadae regnum terrasque calenti
sulphure fumantis Acheloiadumque relinquit
Sirenum scopulos, orbataque praeside pinus
Inarimen Prochytenque legit sterilique locatas
colle Pithecusas, habitantum nomine dictas.

he casts off and leaves the realm of Hippotades and the lands
smoking with hot sulphur, and he leaves the crags of the Achelous-born Sirens;
and the pine, bereft of its guardian, coasts past Inarime and Prochyta
and the Pithecusae set on a sterile hill,
named from their inhabitants.

quippe deum genitor, fraudem et periuria quondam
Cercopum exosus gentisque admissa dolosae,
in deforme viros animal mutavit, ut idem
dissimiles homini possent similesque videri,
membraque contraxit naresque a fronte resimas

for indeed the father of the gods, once hating the fraud and perjuries of the Cercopes and the misdeeds committed by that deceitful clan, transformed the men into a misshapen animal, so that the same beings might be able to seem both unlike to man and yet like, and he contracted their limbs and made their noses snubbed back from the forehead

contudit et rugis peraravit anilibus ora
totaque velatos flaventi corpora villo
misit in has sedes nec non prius abstulit usum
verborum et natae dira in periuria linguae;
posse queri tantum rauco stridore reliquit.

he battered and furrowed with anile wrinkles their faces
and their whole bodies, veiled in tawny hair,
he sent into these abodes; and moreover he first took away the use
of words and of the tongue born for dire perjuries;
he left them only able to complain with a raucous screech.

100

Has ubi praeteriit et Parthenopeia dextra
moenia deseruit, laeva de parte canori
Aeolidae tumulum et, loca feta palustribus ulvis,
litora Cumarum vivacisque antra Sibyllae
intrat et, ut manes adeat per Averna paternos,

When he had passed these and left the Parthenopean walls on the right,
on the left-hand side he enters the tomb of the tuneful Aeolides,
and the places teeming with marshy sedge,
the shores of Cumae and the caves of the long-lived Sibyl,
and, that he may approach his paternal Manes through Avernus,

105

orat. at illa diu vultum tellure moratum
erexit tandemque deo furibunda recepto
'magna petis,' dixit, 'vir factis maxime, cuius
dextera per ferrum, pietas spectata per ignes.
pone tamen, Troiane, metum: potiere petitis

he prays. but she, her countenance long lingering on the earth,
raised it, and at last, raging with the god received,
'you seek great things,' she said, 'man most great in deeds, whose
right hand through iron, piety proven through fires.
yet put aside, Trojan, fear: you shall obtain the things sought

110

Elysiasque domos et regna novissima mundi
me duce cognosces simulacraque cara parentis.
invia virtuti nulla est via.' dixit et auro
fulgentem ramum silva Iunonis Avernae
monstravit iussitque suo divellere trunco.

and the Elysian homes and the farthest realms of the world
you will come to know with me as guide, and the dear likeness of your parent.
'For virtue no way is pathless.' she said, and the bough gleaming with gold in the grove of Juno of Avernus
she showed and bade him tear it from its own trunk.

115

paruit Aeneas et formidabilis Orci
vidit opes atavosque suos umbramque senilem
magnanimi Anchisae; didicit quoque iura locorum,
quaeque novis essent adeunda pericula bellis.
inde ferens lassos averso tramite passus

Aeneas obeyed and saw the might of formidable Orcus
and his forefathers and the aged shade
of magnanimous Anchises; he also learned the laws of the places,
and what perils had to be approached in new wars.
Thence bearing his weary steps by a reversed path

120

cum duce Cumaea mollit sermone laborem.
dumque iter horrendum per opaca crepuscula carpit,
'seu dea tu praesens, seu dis gratissima,' dixit,
'numinis instar eris semper mihi, meque fatebor
muneris esse tui, quae me loca mortis adire,

with the Cumaean guide he softens the labor with speech.
and while he traverses the horrendous journey through shadowy twilights,
“whether you are a present goddess, or most pleasing to the gods,” he said,
“you will always be to me the likeness of a divinity, and I will confess myself
to be of your gift, you who make me approach the places of death,

125

quae loca me visae voluisti evadere mortis.
pro quibus aerias meritis evectus ad auras
templa tibi statuam, tribuam tibi turis honores.'
respicit hunc vates et suspiratibus haustis
'nec dea sum,' dixit 'nec sacri turis honore

who have willed me to escape the places of death I have seen.
for which, by your merits, borne aloft to airy breezes,
I will set up temples to you, I will bestow upon you the honors of incense.'
the seer looks back at him and, after drawing sighs,
'I am not a goddess,' she said, 'nor [do I seek] the honor of sacred incense

130

humanum dignare caput, neu nescius erres,
lux aeterna mihi carituraque fine dabatur,
si mea virginitas Phoebo patuisset amanti.
dum tamen hanc sperat, dum praecorrumpere donis
me cupit, "elige," ait "virgo Cumaea, quid optes: 135
optatis potiere tuis." ego pulveris hausti
ostendens cumulum, quot haberet corpora pulvis,
tot mihi natales contingere vana rogavi;
excidit, ut peterem iuvenes quoque protinus annos.
hos tamen ille mihi dabat aeternamque iuventam,

deign to regard a human head, nor, unknowing, wander astray;
eternal light, and one destined to lack an end, was being granted to me,
if my virginity had lain open to Phoebus in love.
while, however, he hopes for this, while he longs to pre-corrupt me with gifts,
he says, "choose, Cumaean maiden, what you desire: 135
you shall obtain your wishes." I, showing a heap of dust
that I had scooped up, asked vainly that as many birthdays should befall me
as bodies the dust contained; it slipped my mind to ask straightway
for youthful years as well. yet he was granting me these, and eternal youth,

140

si Venerem paterer: contempto munere Phoebi
innuba permaneo; sed iam felicior aetas
terga dedit, tremuloque gradu venit aegra senectus,
quae patienda diu est. nam iam mihi saecula septem
acta, tamen superest, numeros ut pulveris aequem,

if I should suffer Venus: with the gift of Phoebus contemned I remain unwed; but now the happier age has turned its back, and with a trembling step sickly senescence comes, which must be endured for a long time. for now seven centuries have been spent for me, yet there remains, that I may match the numbers of the dust,

145

ter centum messes, ter centum musta videre.
tempus erit, cum de tanto me corpore parvam
longa dies faciet, consumptaque membra senecta
ad minimum redigentur onus: nec amata videbor
nec placuisse deo, Phoebus quoque forsitan ipse

to see thrice a hundred harvests, thrice a hundred musts.
there will be a time, when from so great a body long
time will make me small, and limbs consumed by old age
will be reduced to the least burden: nor shall I seem beloved
nor to have pleased the god; perhaps even Phoebus himself

150

vel non cognoscet, vel dilexisse negabit:
usque adeo mutata ferar nullique videnda,
voce tamen noscar; vocem mihi fata relinquent.'
Talia convexum per iter memorante Sibylla
sedibus Euboicam Stygiis emergit in urbem

either he will not recognize, or he will deny that he loved:
so greatly shall I be changed, and to be seen by no one,
by my voice, however, I shall be known; the Fates will leave my voice to me.'
Such things, while the Sibyl was recounting along the vaulted path,
from the Stygian seats he emerges into the Euboean city

155

Troius Aeneas sacrisque ex more litatis
litora adit nondum nutricis habentia nomen.
hic quoque substiterat post taedia longa laborum
Neritius Macareus, comes experientis Ulixis.
desertum quondam mediis qui rupibus Aetnae

Trojan Aeneas, and with the sacred rites, according to custom, having been propitiated,
approaches shores not yet bearing the name of his nurse.
Here too had halted, after the long tedium of labors,
Neritian Macareus, companion of experienced Ulysses,
who once had been deserted amidst the crags of Aetna.

160

noscit Achaemeniden inprovisoque repertum
vivere miratus, 'qui te casusve deusve
servat, Achaemenide? cur' inquit 'barbara Graium
prora vehit? petitur vestra quae terra carina?'
talia quaerenti, iam non hirsutus amictu,

he recognizes Achaemenides and, found unexpectedly, marveling that he lives, 'what chance or what god
preserves you, Achaemenides? why,' he says, 'does a barbarian prow carry a Greek?
what land is sought by your keel?'
to one asking such things, now no longer shaggy in dress,

165

iam suus et spinis conserto tegmine nullis,
fatur Achaemenides: 'iterum Polyphemon et illos
adspiciam fluidos humano sanguine rictus,
hac mihi si potior domus est Ithaceque carina,
si minus Aenean veneror genitore, nec umquam

now himself again, and with no covering interwoven with thorns,
Achaemenides speaks: 'Again shall I behold Polyphemus and those
jaws flowing with human blood,
if this is the preferable home for me, and the Ithacan keel,
if I venerate Aeneas less than my begetter, and never

170

esse satis potero, praestem licet omnia, gratus.
quod loquor et spiro caelumque et sidera solis
respicio, possimne ingratus et inmemor esse?
ille dedit, quod non anima haec Cyclopis in ora
venit, et ut iam nunc lumen vitale relinquam,

I shall be able to be enough, grateful though I should perform everything.
Because I speak and breathe and look upon the sky and the stars of the sun,
could I be ingrate and unmindful?
He granted that this soul did not come into the Cyclops’s jaws,
and that even now I might leave the vital light,

175

aut tumulo aut certe non illa condar in alvo.
quid mihi tunc animi (nisi si timor abstulit omnem
sensum animumque) fuit, cum vos petere alta relictus
aequora conspexi? volui inclamare, sed hosti
prodere me timui: vestrae quoque clamor Ulixis

either in a tomb or at least I would not be laid in that belly.
what spirit had I then (unless fear took away all
sense and spirit), when, left behind, I beheld you make for the deep
waters? I wished to cry out, but I feared to betray myself to the foe: even the clamor of Ulysses, your Ulysses

180

paene rati nocuit. vidi, cum monte revulsum
inmanem scopulum medias permisit in undas;
vidi iterum veluti tormenti viribus acta
vasta Giganteo iaculantem saxa lacerto
et, ne deprimeret fluctus ventusve carinam,

almost harmed the ship. I saw, when, torn from the mountain,
he sent an immense crag into the midst of the waves;
I saw again, as if driven by the forces of a war-engine,
him hurling vast stones with a Gigantean arm,
and, lest the wave or the wind should press down the keel,

185

pertimui, iam me non esse oblitus in illa.
ut vero fuga vos a certa morte reduxit,
ille quidem totam gemebundus obambulat Aetnam
praetemptatque manu silvas et luminis orbus
rupibus incursat foedataque bracchia tabo

I was terrified, now remembering that I was there.
and when indeed flight brought you back from certain death,
he indeed, groaning, prowls all Aetna
and with his hand feels ahead the forests, bereft of light,
he runs against the crags and his arms, defiled with gore

190

in mare protendens gentem exsecratur Achivam
atque ait: "o si quis referat mihi casus Ulixem,
aut aliquem e sociis, in quem mea saeviat ira,
viscera cuius edam, cuius viventia dextra
membra mea laniem, cuius mihi sanguis inundet

stretching out into the sea he execrates the Achaean race
and says: "O if some chance would bring back to me Ulysses,
or someone of his comrades, against whom my savage wrath may rage,
whose viscera I might eat, whose living limbs my right hand might rend,
whose blood may inundate me

195

guttur, et elisi trepident sub dentibus artus:
quam nullum aut leve sit damnum mihi lucis ademptae!"
haec et plura ferox, me luridus occupat horror
spectantem vultus etiamnum caede madentes
crudelesque manus et inanem luminis orbem

the throat, and may the crushed limbs quake beneath my teeth:
“how no, or only slight, would be the damage to me of light taken away!”
These things and more, fierce, a livid horror seizes me
as I behold faces still dripping with slaughter
and the cruel hands and the empty orb of light

200

membraque et humano concretam sanguine barbam.
mors erat ante oculos, minimum tamen illa malorum,
et iam prensurum, iam nunc mea viscera rebar
in sua mersurum, mentique haerebat imago
temporis illius, quo vidi bina meorum

and the limbs and a beard clotted with human blood.
death was before my eyes, yet that was the least of evils,
and I thought he was now about to seize, even now, my entrails
and to plunge them into his own, and the image stuck to my mind
of that time, when I saw the two of my own

205

ter quater adfligi sociorum corpora terrae,
cum super ipse iacens hirsuti more leonis
visceraque et carnes cumque albis ossa medullis
semianimesque artus avidam condebat in alvum;
me tremor invasit: stabam sine sanguine maestus,

thrice and four times the bodies of my comrades were dashed to the earth,
while he himself, lying on top, in the manner of a hirsute lion,
both the viscera and the flesh, and the bones along with their white marrows,
and the half-alive limbs he was packing into his avid maw;
a tremor seized me: I stood bloodless, sorrowful,

210

mandentemque videns eiectantemque cruentas
ore dapes et frusta mero glomerata vomentem:
talia fingebam misero mihi fata parari
perque dies multos latitans omnemque tremiscens
ad strepitum mortemque timens cupidusque moriri

and seeing him chewing and ejecting bloody
banquets from his mouth and vomiting fragments conglomerated with neat wine:
I was imagining such fates being prepared for wretched me,
and through many days hiding and trembling at every sound,
fearing at a rattle and death, and eager to die

215

glande famem pellens et mixta frondibus herba
solus inops exspes leto poenaeque relictus
hanc procul adspexi longo post tempore navem
oravique fugam gestu ad litusque cucurri,
et movi: Graiumque ratis Troiana recepit!                220
tu quoque pande tuos, comitum gratissime, casus
et ducis et turbae, quae tecum est credita ponto.'
     Aeolon ille refert Tusco regnare profundo,
Aeolon Hippotaden, cohibentem carcere ventos;
quos bovis inclusos tergo, memorabile munus,

warding off hunger with acorn and with herb mixed with fronds
alone, destitute, hopeless, left to death and punishment,
from afar after a long time I caught sight of this ship
and by gesture I begged for flight and I ran to the shore,
and I moved them: and the Trojan raft received a Greek! 220
you too unfold your fortunes, most dear of companions,
both of the leader and of the crowd which with you has been entrusted to the deep.'
He relates that Aeolus rules the Tuscan deep,
Aeolus, Hippotades, confining the winds in a prison;
which, enclosed in an oxhide, a memorable gift,

225

Dulichium sumpsisse ducem flatuque secundo
lucibus isse novem et terram aspexisse petitam;
proxima post nonam cum sese aurora moveret,
invidia socios praedaeque cupidine victos
esse; ratos aurum, dempsisse ligamina ventis;

they had taken a Dulichian guide, and with a favorable breeze
had gone for 9 days and had sighted the sought land;
when next Dawn, after the 9th, set herself in motion,
their comrades had been overcome by envy and by cupidity for plunder,
thinking it gold, they removed the ligatures from the winds;

230

cum quibus isse retro, per quas modo venerat undas,
Aeoliique ratem portus repetisse tyranni.
'inde Lami veterem Laestrygonis' inquit 'in urbem
venimus: Antiphates terra regnabat in illa.
missus ad hunc ego sum, numero comitante duorum,

with whom he went back, through the waves by which he had just come,
and brought the ship back to the harbors of the Aeolian tyrant.
'thence,' he says, 'to the ancient city of Lamus the Laestrygonian
we came: Antiphates was reigning in that land.
I was sent to him, with the number of two accompanying,'

235

vixque fuga quaesita salus comitique mihique,
tertius e nobis Laestrygonis inpia tinxit
ora cruore suo. fugientibus instat et agmen
concitat Antiphates; coeunt et saxa trabesque
coniciunt merguntque viros merguntque carinas.

and scarcely was safety by flight secured for my comrade and for me,
a third of us stained the impious mouth of the Laestrygonian with his own blood.
Antiphates presses upon us as we flee and stirs up the host;
they come together and hurl rocks and beams
and they submerge men, and they submerge the ships.

240

una tamen, quae nos ipsumque vehebat Ulixem,
effugit. amissa sociorum parte dolentes
multaque conquesti terris adlabimur illis,
quas procul hinc cernis (procul est, mihi crede, videnda
insula visa mihi!) tuque o iustissime Troum,

one ship, however, which bore us and Ulysses himself, escaped.
with part of our companions lost, grieving,
and having lamented much, we drift to those lands,
which you see far from here (believe me, the island that appeared to me is to be looked at from afar!)
and you, O most just of the Trojans,

245

nate dea, (neque enim finito Marte vocandus
hostis es, Aenea) moneo, fuge litora Circes!
nos quoque Circaeo religata in litore pinu,
Antiphatae memores inmansuetique Cyclopis,
ire negabamus; sed tecta ignota subire

son of a goddess, (for indeed, with Mars finished, you are not to be called an enemy, Aeneas) I warn you, flee the shores of Circe!
we too, with our ship moored on the Circaean shore to a pine,
mindful of Antiphates and the untamed Cyclops,
refused to go; but to enter unknown roofs

250

sorte sumus lecti: sors me fidumque Politen
Eurylochumque simul nimiique Elpenora vini
bisque novem socios Circaea ad moenia misit.
quae simul attigimus stetimusque in limine tecti,
mille lupi mixtaeque lupis ursaeque leaeque

sorte sumus lecti: the lot chose us: the lot sent me and faithful Polites,
and Eurylochus together, and Elpenor, over-much of wine,
and twice nine comrades to the Circaean walls.
which as soon as we reached and stood upon the threshold of the dwelling,
a thousand wolves, and with the wolves mingled bears and lionesses

255

occursu fecere metum, sed nulla timenda
nullaque erat nostro factura in corpore vulnus;
quin etiam blandas movere per aera caudas
nostraque adulantes comitant vestigia, donec
excipiunt famulae perque atria marmore tecta

at their encounter they made fear, but none were to be feared,
and none was about to make a wound upon our body;
nay even they moved their fawning tails through the air
and, adulating, accompany our footsteps, until
the handmaids receive us and through atria roofed with marble

260

ad dominam ducunt: pulchro sedet illa recessu
sollemni solio pallamque induta nitentem
insuper aurato circumvelatur amictu.
Nereides nymphaeque simul, quae vellera motis
nulla trahunt digitis nec fila sequentia ducunt:

they lead me to the lady: she sits in a beautiful recess
upon a solemn throne, and, clothed in a gleaming palla,
above she is wrapped all around with a gilded mantle.
Nereids and nymphs as well, who with fingers in motion
draw no fleeces nor lead the following threads:

265

gramina disponunt sparsosque sine ordine flores
secernunt calathis variasque coloribus herbas;
ipsa, quod hae faciunt, opus exigit, ipsa, quis usus
quove sit in folio, quae sit concordia mixtis,
novit et advertens pensas examinat herbas.

they arrange the grasses and set apart into baskets the flowers scattered without order
and the herbs varied in colors;
she herself exacts the work that these perform, she herself—what the use is
and in which leaf, what concord there is in the mixed—
knows, and, attending, she examines the weighed herbs.

270

haec ubi nos vidit, dicta acceptaque salute
diffudit vultus et reddidit omina votis.
nec mora, misceri tosti iubet hordea grani
mellaque vimque meri cum lacte coagula passo,
quique sub hac lateant furtim dulcedine, sucos

when she saw us, after words were spoken and the salutation accepted,
she diffused her features and made the omens answer to the vows.
no delay: she orders roasted barley-grain to be mixed,
and honey and the vigor of neat wine, with milk curdled by raisin-wine,
and the juices which may secretly lie hidden beneath this sweetness.

275

adicit. accipimus sacra data pocula dextra.
quae simul arenti sitientes hausimus ore,
et tetigit summos virga dea dira capillos,
(et pudet et referam) saetis horrescere coepi,
nec iam posse loqui, pro verbis edere raucum 280
murmur et in terram toto procumbere vultu,
osque meum sensi pando occallescere rostro,
colla tumere toris, et qua modo pocula parte
sumpta mihi fuerant, illa vestigia feci
cumque eadem passis (tantum medicamina possunt!)

she adds. We receive the sacred cups given by her right hand.
Which, as soon as we, thirsting, drained with a parched mouth,
and the dire goddess’s wand touched the tips of our hair,
(both I am ashamed and I will relate it) I began to bristle with bristles,
and no longer to be able to speak, in place of words to utter a hoarse 280
murmur, and to fall forward to the earth with my whole face,
and I felt my mouth grow callous with a curving snout,
my neck to swell with muscles, and with that part with which just now the cups
had been taken by me, with that I made tracks,
and with those same, outspread (so much can medicaments do!)

285

claudor hara, solumque suis caruisse figura
vidimus Eurylochum: solus data pocula fugit;
quae nisi vitasset, pecoris pars una manerem
nunc quoque saetigeri, nec tantae cladis ab illo
certior ad Circen ultor venisset Ulixes.

i am shut in a sty, and we saw that Eurylochus alone had lacked the swine-shape
he alone fled the proffered cups;
which, if he had not avoided, I would even now remain a part of the bristly herd,
nor would Ulysses, the avenger, made more certain by him of so great a calamity,
have come to Circe.

290

pacifer huic dederat florem Cyllenius album:
moly vocant superi, nigra radice tenetur;
tutus eo monitisque simul caelestibus intrat
ille domum Circes et ad insidiosa vocatus
pocula conantem virga mulcere capillos

the peace-bearing Cyllenian had given to him a white flower:
the gods above call it moly, it is held by a black root;
safe by it and by heavenly counsels as well he enters
the house of Circe, and, summoned to the insidious cups,
as she was trying with her wand to stroke his hair

295

reppulit et stricto pavidam deterruit ense.
inde fides dextraeque datae thalamoque receptus
coniugii dotem sociorum corpora poscit.
spargimur ignotae sucis melioribus herbae
percutimurque caput conversae verbere virgae,

he drove her back and with drawn sword deterred the fearful woman.
then faith and right hands were given, and, received into the bridal chamber,
he demands as the dowry of the marriage the bodies of his comrades.
we are sprinkled with the better juices of an unknown herb
and our heads are smitten by the stroke of the reversed rod,

300

verbaque dicuntur dictis contraria verbis.
quo magis illa canit, magis hoc tellure levati
erigimur, saetaeque cadunt, bifidosque relinquit
rima pedes, redeunt umeri et subiecta lacertis
bracchia sunt: flentem flentes amplectimur ipsi

and words are spoken, words contrary to the spoken words.
the more she sings, the more we, lifted from the earth,
are raised up, and the bristles fall, and a fissure leaves
our cloven feet; shoulders return, and beneath the upper-arms
the forearms are set: we, weeping, ourselves embrace the one weeping

305

haeremusque ducis collo nec verba locuti
ulla priora sumus quam nos testantia gratos.
annua nos illic tenuit mora, multaque praesens
tempore tam longo vidi, multa auribus hausi,
hoc quoque cum multis, quod clam mihi rettulit una

and we cling to the leader’s neck, nor did we utter
any words prior to those attesting that we were grateful.
an annual delay held us there, and, being present,
in so long a time I saw many things, many I imbibed with my ears,
this too among many, which one woman secretly reported to me

310

quattuor e famulis ad talia sacra paratis.
cum duce namque meo Circe dum sola moratur,
illa mihi niveo factum de marmore signum
ostendit iuvenale gerens in vertice picum,
aede sacra positum multisque insigne coronis.

four of the household-servants prepared for such sacred rites.
for while my leader remained alone with Circe,
she showed to me an image made from snowy marble,
youthful, bearing on its crown a woodpecker,
set in a sacred shrine and marked by many crowns.

315

quis foret et quare sacra coleretur in aede,
cur hanc ferret avem, quaerenti et scire volenti
"accipe" ait, "Macareu, dominaeque potentia quae sit
hinc quoque disce meae; tu dictis adice mentem!
'"Picus in Ausoniis, proles Saturnia, terris

who he was and for what reason sacred rites were observed in the shrine,
why he bore this bird, as I asked and wished to know,
"Receive," she said, "Macareus, and from this too learn what the potency of my mistress is;
add your mind to my words!
'"Picus in the Ausonian lands, a Saturnian offspring,

320

rex fuit, utilium bello studiosus equorum;
forma viro, quam cernis, erat: licet ipse decorem
adspicias fictaque probes ab imagine verum;
par animus formae; nec adhuc spectasse per annos
quinquennem poterat Graia quater Elide pugnam.

he was a king, studious of horses useful in war;
his form, which you see, was such: you yourself may behold the comeliness
and from the fashioned image approve the truth;
a spirit equal to his form; nor yet through his years
could he have seen the quinquennial contest four times in Greek Elis.

325

ille suos dryadas Latiis in montibus ortas
verterat in vultus, illum fontana petebant
numina, naiades, quas Albula, quasque Numici,
quas Anienis aquae cursuque brevissimus Almo
Narve tulit praeceps et opacae Farfarus umbrae,

he had turned his own Dryads, born on Latin mountains, toward his face;
him the fountain numina sought, the Naiads, whom Albula, and whom the Numicus,
whom the waters of Anien and, shortest in course, the Almo,
the headlong Nar bore, and the shaded shades of Farfarus,

330

quaeque colunt Scythicae stagnum nemorale Dianae
finitimosque lacus; spretis tamen omnibus unam
ille colit nymphen, quam quondam in colle Palati
dicitur ancipiti peperisse Venilia Iano.
haec ubi nubilibus primum maturuit annis,

and those who haunt the woodland pool of Scythian Diana
and the neighboring lakes; nevertheless, with all spurned, one
nymph he courts, whom once on the Palatine hill
Venilia is said to have borne to two-faced Janus.
when she first matured in nubile years,

335

praeposito cunctis Laurenti tradita Pico est,
rara quidem facie, sed rarior arte canendi,
unde Canens dicta est: silvas et saxa movere
et mulcere feras et flumina longa morari
ore suo volucresque vagas retinere solebat.

she was given to Picus, appointed over all Laurentum,
rare indeed in face, but rarer in the art of singing,
whence she was called Canens: the forests and the rocks to move
and to soothe wild beasts and to make the long rivers linger
with her own voice and to hold back the wandering birds she was wont.

340

quae dum feminea modulatur carmina voce,
exierat tecto Laurentes Picus in agros
indigenas fixurus apros tergumque premebat
acris equi laevaque hastilia bina ferebat
poeniceam fulvo chlamydem contractus ab auro.

while she was modulating songs with a feminine voice,
the Laurentine Picus had gone out from the house into the fields,
about to transfix the native boars, and he was pressing the back
of a keen horse, and in his left he was carrying twin spear-shafts,
gathered into a Phoenician-scarlet cloak fastened with tawny gold.

345

venerat in silvas et filia Solis easdem,
utque novas legeret fecundis collibus herbas,
nomine dicta suo Circaea reliquerat arva.
quae simul ac iuvenem virgultis abdita vidit,
obstipuit: cecidere manu, quas legerat, herbae,

and the daughter of the Sun had come into the same woods,
and so as to gather new herbs on the fecund hills,
she had left behind the Circaean fields, called by her own name.
who, as soon as she saw the youth hidden in the brushwood,
was astounded: from her hand fell the herbs which she had gathered,

350

flammaque per totas visa est errare medullas.
ut primum valido mentem conlegit ab aestu,
quid cuperet, fassura fuit: ne posset adire,
cursus equi fecit circumfususque satelles.
'non' ait 'effugies, vento rapiare licebit,

and a flame seemed to wander through all her marrow.
as soon as she gathered her mind back from the strong heat,
she was about to confess what she desired: but she could not approach,
the horse’s course and the surrounding bodyguard made it so.
‘no,’ she says, ‘you will not escape; you may be snatched by the wind,

355

si modo me novi, si non evanuit omnis
herbarum virtus, nec me mea carmina fallunt.'
dixit et effigiem nullo cum corpore falsi
fingit apri praeterque oculos transcurrere regis
iussit et in densum trabibus nemus ire videri,

‘if only I know myself, if all the potency of herbs has not vanished,
and my songs do not deceive me.’
she said, and she fashions the likeness of a boar, false, with no body,
and ordered it to run past the king’s eyes,
and to seem to go into a grove dense with trunks,

360

plurima qua silva est et equo loca pervia non sunt.
haut mora, continuo praedae petit inscius umbram
Picus equique celer spumantia terga relinquit
spemque sequens vanam silva pedes errat in alta.
concipit illa preces et verba venefica dicit

where the forest is very abundant and the places are not pervious for a horse.
no delay: immediately, unaware, Picus seeks the shadow of the prey
and leaves the foaming back of his swift horse
and, following a vain hope, he wanders on foot in the deep forest.
she conceives prayers and speaks veneficial words

365

ignotosque deos ignoto carmine adorat,
quo solet et niveae vultum confundere Lunae
et patrio capiti bibulas subtexere nubes.
tum quoque cantato densetur carmine caelum
et nebulas exhalat humus, caecisque vagantur

and she adores unknown gods with an unknown chant,
with which she is wont also to confound the visage of snow-white Luna,
and to interweave bibulous clouds beneath her father’s head.
then too, with the incantation chanted, the heaven grows dense,
and the ground exhales mists, and they wander blindly

370

limitibus comites, et abest custodia regis.
nacta locum tempusque 'per o, tua lumina,' dixit
'quae mea ceperunt, perque hanc, pulcherrime, formam,
quae facit, ut supplex tibi sim dea, consule nostris
ignibus et socerum, qui pervidet omnia, Solem

the companions are at the boundaries, and the king’s guard is absent.
having found the place and the time, “by, oh, your lights,” she said,
“which have captured mine, and by this, fairest, beauty,
which makes that I, a goddess, am a suppliant to you, have regard to our
fires, and to a father-in-law, the Sun who sees through all things,

375

accipe nec durus Titanida despice Circen.'
dixerat; ille ferox ipsamque precesque repellit
et 'quaecumque es,' ait 'non sum tuus; altera captum
me tenet et teneat per longum, conprecor, aevum,
nec Venere externa socialia foedera laedam,

receive me, nor, hard one, despise Circe the Titaness.'
She had spoken; he, fierce, repels both herself and her prayers
and says, 'whoever you are, I am not yours; another holds
me captive, and may she hold me, I entreat, through a long age,
nor will I injure the social covenants by an external Venus,

380

dum mihi Ianigenam servabunt fata Canentem.'
saepe retemptatis precibus Titania frustra
'non inpune feres, neque' ait 'reddere Canenti,
laesaque quid faciat, quid amans, quid femina, disces
rebus; at est et amans et laesa et femina Circe!'

so long as the Fates preserve for me Canens, the Janus-born.'
often, with prayers reattempted, the Titaness, in vain
'you will not carry it off unpunished, nor,' she says, 'will you return to Canens,'
'and from the facts you will learn what one wronged, what one in love, what a woman, can do;
but Circe is both in love and wronged and a woman!'

385

tum bis ad occasus, bis se convertit ad ortus,
ter iuvenem baculo tetigit, tria carmina dixit.
ille fugit, sed se solito velocius ipse
currere miratur: pennas in corpore vidit,
seque novam subito Latiis accedere silvis 390
indignatus avem duro fera robora rostro
figit et iratus longis dat vulnera ramis;
purpureum chlamydis pennae traxere colorem;
fibula quod fuerat vestemque momorderat aurum,
pluma fit, et fulvo cervix praecingitur auro,

then twice to the west, twice she turned herself to the east,
three times she touched the youth with her staff, three charms she spoke.
he flees, but he marvels that he himself runs swifter than usual:
he saw feathers on his body, and, indignant, that he is being added as a new bird to the Latian woods suddenly, 390
he fixes the fierce oaks with his hard beak and, angered, gives wounds to the long branches;
the feathers drew the purple color of his cloak;
what had been the clasp and the gold that had bitten the garment
becomes a plume, and the neck is girded with tawny gold,

395

nec quicquam antiquum Pico nisi nomina restat.
'"Interea comites, clamato saepe per agros
nequiquam Pico nullaque in parte reperto,
inveniunt Circen (nam iam tenuaverat auras
passaque erat nebulas ventis ac sole recludi)

nor does anything ancient remain to Picus except the names.
'"Meanwhile his companions, having called often through the fields
in vain for Picus and with him found nowhere,
they find Circe (for already she had attenuated the airs
and had allowed the mists to be recluded by the winds and the sun)

400

criminibusque premunt veris regemque reposcunt
vimque ferunt saevisque parant incessere telis:
illa nocens spargit virus sucosque veneni
et Noctem Noctisque deos Ereboque Chaoque
convocat et longis Hecaten ululatibus orat.

and with true charges they press and demand the king back
and they bring force and prepare to assail with savage weapons:
she, guilty, scatters virus and the juices of venom
and summons Night and the gods of Night and Erebus and Chaos
and with long ululations she prays to Hecate.

405

exsiluere loco (dictu mirabile) silvae,
ingemuitque solum, vincinaque palluit arbor,
sparsaque sanguineis maduerunt pabula guttis,
et lapides visi mugitus edere raucos
et latrare canes et humus serpentibus atris

the woods leapt from their place (marvelous to say),
and the soil groaned, and a neighboring tree grew pale,
and the pastures, sprinkled with sanguine drops, were wet,
and stones seemed to emit hoarse bellowings
and dogs to bark, and the ground swarmed with black serpents

410

squalere et tenues animae volitare silentum:
attonitum monstris vulgus pavet; illa paventis
ora venenata tetigit mirantia virga,
cuius ab attactu variarum monstra ferarum
in iuvenes veniunt: nulli sua mansit imago.

to be squalid and the thin souls of the silent to flit about:
the crowd, thunderstruck at the monsters, quakes; she with her venomous wand
touched the fearful, wondering mouths, by whose touch the monsters
of various wild beasts come into youths: for no one did his own image remain.

415

'"Sparserat occiduus Tartessia litora Phoebus,
et frustra coniunx oculis animoque Canentis
exspectatus erat: famuli populusque per omnes
discurrunt silvas atque obvia lumina portant;
nec satis est nymphae flere et lacerare capillos

'"The occidental Phoebus had sprinkled the Tartessian shores,
and the husband was expected in vain by Canens’s eyes and mind:
the servants and the people run through all the woods and carry lights to meet him;
nor is it enough for the nymph to weep and to lacerate her hair

420

et dare plangorem (facit haec tamen omnia) seque
proripit ac Latios errat vesana per agros.
sex illam noctes, totidem redeuntia solis
lumina viderunt inopem somnique cibique
per iuga, per valles, qua fors ducebat, euntem;

and to give lamentation (she does, however, all these things) and she hurls herself forth and, insane, wanders through the Latin fields.
six nights, and just so many returning lights of the sun,
saw her bereft of sleep and of food,
over ridges, over valleys, wherever Fortune led, going;

425

ultimus adspexit Thybris luctuque viaque
fessam et iam longa ponentem corpora ripa.
illic cum lacrimis ipso modulata dolore
verba sono tenui maerens fundebat, ut olim
carmina iam moriens canit exequialia cycnus;

last the Tiber beheld her, worn by grief and by the way,
and now laying down her limbs on the long bank.
there, with tears, her words modulated to the very pain
she, mourning, was pouring forth in a thin tone, as once
the swan, already dying, sings exequial songs;

430

luctibus extremum tenues liquefacta medullas
tabuit inque leves paulatim evanuit auras,
fama tamen signata loco est, quem rite Canentem
nomine de nymphae veteres dixere Camenae."
'Talia multa mihi longum narrata per annum

by griefs, at the last, her slender marrows liquefied,
she wasted away and little by little evanesced into light breezes;
yet a fame is stamped upon the place, which, duly, the ancients,
the Camenae, named “Canens” from the nymph by name."
'Many such things for me, narrated through a long year

435

visaque sunt. resides et desuetudine tardi
rursus inire fretum, rursus dare vela iubemur,
ancipitesque vias et iter Titania vastum
dixerat et saevi restare pericula ponti:
pertimui, fateor, nactusque hoc litus adhaesi.'

and they were seen. inactive and slow through disuse
we are bidden again to enter the strait, again to give the sails,
and Titania had said that the ways were ambiguous and the journey vast,
and that the perils of the savage sea remained:
I was afraid, I confess, and, having gained this shore, I clung to it.

440

Finierat Macareus, urnaque Aeneia nutrix
condita marmorea tumulo breve carmen habebat
hic : me : caietam : notae : pietatis : alumnus
ereptam : argolico : quo : debuit : igne : cremavit
solvitur herboso religatus ab aggere funis,

Macareus had finished, and the urn of Aeneas’s nurse
laid in a marble tomb, had a brief inscription:
here : me : caieta : the foster-son : of noted : piety
snatched : from Argolic : fire : burned : with the fire : he owed
the rope, tied to the grassy embankment, is loosed,

445

et procul insidias infamataeque relinquunt
tecta deae lucosque petunt, ubi nubilus umbra
in mare cum flava prorumpit Thybris harena;
Faunigenaeque domo potitur nataque Latini,
non sine Marte tamen. bellum cum gente feroci

and far off they leave the snares and the roof of the ill-famed goddess, and they seek the groves, where, clouded with shade, the Tiber bursts into the sea with yellow sand; and he gains possession of the home of the Faun-born and the daughter of Latinus, not without Mars, however. war with a fierce nation

450

suscipitur, pactaque furit pro coniuge Turnus.
concurrit Latio Tyrrhenia tota, diuque
ardua sollicitis victoria quaeritur armis.
auget uterque suas externo robore vires,
et multi Rutulos, multi Troiana tuentur

It is taken up, and Turnus rages for his promised consort.
All Tyrrhenia musters against Latium, and for a long time
arduous victory is sought with anxious arms.
Each augments his forces with external strength,
and many uphold the Rutulians, many the Trojan side.

455

castra, neque Aeneas Euandri ad moenia frustra,
at Venulus frustra profugi Diomedis ad urbem
venerat: ille quidem sub Iapyge maxima Dauno
moenia condiderat dotaliaque arva tenebat;
sed Venulus Turni postquam mandata peregit

the camps, nor had Aeneas to Evander’s walls come in vain,
but Venulus had come in vain to the city of the fugitive Diomedes:
that man indeed under Iapygian Daunus had founded very great walls
and held dotal fields; but after Venulus fulfilled Turnus’s mandates

460

auxiliumque petit, vires Aetolius heros
excusat: nec se aut soceri committere pugnae
velle sui populos, aut quos e gente suorum
armet habere ullos, 'neve haec commenta putetis,
admonitu quamquam luctus renoventur amari,

and seeks aid, the Aetolian hero excuses his forces:
that he neither wishes to commit to battle his father-in-law’s peoples,
nor has he any from the race of his own whom he might arm,
'and do not think these things contrived,
although at the admonition bitter griefs are renewed,

465

perpetiar memorare tamen. postquam alta cremata est
Ilios, et Danaas paverunt Pergama flammas,
Naryciusque heros, a virgine virgine rapta,
quam meruit poenam solus, digessit in omnes,
spargimur et ventis inimica per aequora rapti

nevertheless I will endure to recount. After lofty Ilios was burned,
and Pergama fed the Danaan flames,
and the Narycian hero, with a virgin snatched from the Virgin,
the penalty which he alone had merited, distributed among all,
we are scattered and, swept by the winds over inimical waters

470

fulmina, noctem, imbres, iram caelique marisque
perpetimur Danai cumulumque Capherea cladis,
neve morer referens tristes ex ordine casus,
Graecia tum potuit Priamo quoque flenda videri.
me tamen armiferae servatum cura Minervae

thunderbolts, night, rains, the wrath of sky and sea
we Danaans endure, and the Capherean climax of calamity;
and, lest I delay by relating the sad incidents in order,
then Greece could have seemed weep-worthy even to Priam.
me, however, the care of arms-bearing Minerva preserved

475

fluctibus eripuit, patriis sed rursus ab agris
pellor, et antiquo memores de vulnere poenas
exigit alma Venus, tantosque per alta labores
aequora sustinui, tantos terrestribus armis,
ut mihi felices sint illi saepe vocati,

she snatched me from the waves, but again from my ancestral fields
I am driven, and, mindful of the ancient wound, the kindly Venus exacts penalties,
and such great labors over the deep seas I have sustained,
such great by terrestrial arms, that to me those men have often been called happy,

480

quos communis hiems inportunusque Caphereus
mersit aquis, vellemque horum pars una fuissem.
'Ultima iam passi comites belloque fretoque
deficiunt finemque rogant erroris, at Acmon
fervidus ingenio, tum vero et cladibus asper,

whom the common storm and the inopportune Caphereus plunged in the waters, and I would that I had been one part of these.
'Having now suffered the utmost, the comrades, exhausted by both war and the strait, ask an end of the wandering, but Acmon, fervid in temperament, and then indeed harsh with disasters,

485

"quid superest, quod iam patientia vestra recuset
ferre, viri?" dixit "quid habet Cytherea, quod ultra,
velle puta, faciat? nam dum peiora timentur,
est in vota locus: sors autem ubi pessima rerum,
sub pedibus timor est securaque summa malorum.

"what remains, which now your patience refuses
to bear, men?" he said, "what has Cytherea, which beyond,
suppose she wishes, she might do? For while worse things are feared,
there is room for vows: but when the lot is the worst of things,
fear is beneath the feet and the summit of evils is secure.

490

audiat ipsa licet, licet, ut facit, oderit omnes
sub Diomede viros, odium tamen illius omnes
spernimus: haud magno stat magna potentia nobis."
talibus inritans Venerem Pleuronius Acmon
instimulat verbis veteremque resuscitat iram.

"let her herself hear, let her, as she does, hate all the men
under Diomedes; nevertheless we all spurn that odium of hers:
great potency stands us at no great cost."
by such words provoking Venus, the Pleuronian Acmon
stimulates her with words and resuscitates the old anger.

495

dicta placent paucis, numeri maioris amici
Acmona conripimus; cui respondere volenti
vox pariter vocisque via est tenuata, comaeque
in plumas abeunt, plumis nova colla teguntur
pectoraque et tergum, maiores bracchia pennas 500
accipiunt, cubitique leves sinuantur in alas;
magna pedis digitos pars occupat, oraque cornu
indurata rigent finemque in acumine ponunt.
hunc Lycus, hunc Idas et cum Rhexenore Nycteus,
hunc miratur Abas, et dum mirantur, eandem

the words please few; friends of the greater number,
we seize Acmon; as he wishes to respond,
alike his voice and the way of his voice are attenuated, and his hair
goes into plumes; with plumes his new neck is covered,
and his chest and back; his arms receive greater feathers, 500
and his light forearms are curved into wings;
a great part of the foot is occupied by the toes, and his mouth,
hardened with horn, grows rigid and sets its end in a point.
him Lycus marvels at, him Idas, and Nycteus with Rhexenor,
him Abas wonders at, and while they wonder, the same

505

accipiunt faciem, numerusque ex agmine maior
subvolat et remos plausis circumvolat alis:
si volucrum quae sit subitarum forma requiris,
ut non cycnorum, sic albis proxima cygnis.
vix equidem has sedes et Iapygis arida Dauni

they take on a visage, and a number greater from the column flies up and with beaten wings flies around the oars:
if you ask what the form of the sudden birds is,
though not swans, yet in whiteness they are proximate to swans.
scarcely indeed these seats and the arid realm of Iapygian Daunus

510

arva gener teneo minima cum parte meorum.'
Hactenus Oenides, Venulus Calydonia regna
Peucetiosque sinus Messapiaque arva relinquit.
in quibus antra videt, quae, multa nubila silva
et levibus cannis latitantia semicaper Pan

‘as a son-in-law I hold fields with the smallest part of my men.’
Thus far the Oenid; Venulus leaves the Calydonian realms
and the Peucetian bays and the Messapian fields.
in which he sees caves, which, clouded by much forest
and by slender canes, lying hidden, the half-goat Pan

515

nunc tenet, at quodam tenuerunt tempore nymphae.
Apulus has illa pastor regione fugatas
terruit et primo subita formidine movit,
mox, ubi mens rediit et contempsere sequentem,
ad numerum motis pedibus duxere choreas;

now he holds them, but at a certain time the nymphs held them.
An Apulian shepherd frightened these, driven from that region,
and at first stirred them with sudden terror,
soon, when their mind returned and they contemned the pursuer,
to the measure, with feet set in motion, they led dances;

520

inprobat has pastor saltuque imitatus agresti
addidit obscenis convicia rustica dictis,
nec prius os tacuit, quam guttura condidit arbor:
arbor enim est, sucoque licet cognoscere mores.
quippe notam linguae bacis oleaster amaris

the shepherd disapproves of these, and, imitating with a rustic leap,
he added rustic contumely to obscene words,
nor did his mouth fall silent before a tree buried his throat:
for he is a tree, and by its sap one may recognize his morals.
indeed the wild olive bears the mark of his tongue in its bitter berries

525

exhibet: asperitas verborum cessit in illa.
Hinc ubi legati rediere, negata ferentes
arma Aetola sibi, Rutuli sine viribus illis
bella instructa gerunt, multumque ab utraque cruoris
parte datur; fert ecce avidas in pinea Turnus

It displays: the asperity of words has yielded in it.
Hence, when the legates returned, bearing back that Aetolian arms were denied to themselves,
the Rutulians, without those forces, wage the arrayed wars, and much of gore
is given from either side; behold, Turnus bears ravenous firebrands into the pine-wood.

530

texta faces, ignesque timent, quibus unda pepercit.
iamque picem et ceras alimentaque cetera flammae
Mulciber urebat perque altum ad carbasa malum
ibat, et incurvae fumabant transtra carinae,
cum memor has pinus Idaeo vertice caesas

they fear woven torches, and fires, those whom the wave spared.
and now Mulciber was burning pitch and wax and the other nourishments of flame,
and through the lofty mast it went to the canvases,
and the thwarts of the curved hulls were smoking,
when, mindful, of these pines cut on the Idaean summit

535

sancta deum genetrix tinnitibus aera pulsi
aeris et inflati conplevit murmure buxi
perque leves domitis invecta leonibus auras
'inrita sacrilega iactas incendia dextra,
Turne!' ait. 'eripiam: nec me patiente cremabit

holy mother of the gods filled the airs with the tinnituses of hammered bronze
and with the murmur of inflated boxwood; and, borne through the light breezes
by tamed lions, she said: 'vain fires you hurl with a sacrilegious right hand,
Turnus!' she says. 'I shall snatch them away: nor, I not permitting it, shall it burn.'

540

ignis edax nemorum partes et membra meorum.'
intonuit dicente dea, tonitrumque secuti
cum saliente graves ceciderunt grandine nimbi,
aeraque et tumidum subitis concursibus aequor
Astraei turbant et eunt in proelia fratres.

'a fire ravenous for the groves, parts and members of my own.'
it thundered as the goddess was speaking, and, following the thunder,
heavy clouds fell with leaping hail,
and the airs and the swollen sea with sudden clashes
the brothers of Astraeus disturb, and they go into battle.

545

e quibus alma parens unius viribus usa
stuppea praerupit Phrygiae retinacula classis,
fertque rates pronas medioque sub aequore mergit;
robore mollito lignoque in corpora verso
in capitum faciem puppes mutantur aduncae,

from among whom the kindly mother, using the strength of one,
broke the hempen retaining-ropes of the Phrygian fleet,
and bears the ships headlong and plunges them beneath the mid-sea;
with the oak softened and the wood turned into bodies,
the hooked sterns are changed into the face of heads,

550

in digitos abeunt et crura natantia remi,
quodque prius fuerat, latus est, mediisque carina
subdita navigiis spinae mutatur in usum,
lina comae molles, antemnae bracchia fiunt,
caerulus, ut fuerat, color est; quasque ante timebant,

they pass into fingers, and the oars into legs for swimming,
and what before had been, is now a flank; and the keel,
set beneath the middles of the ships, is changed to the use of a spine;
the lines become soft tresses, the yards become arms,
the cerulean color is as it had been; and those whom previously they feared,

555

illas virgineis exercent lusibus undas
Naides aequoreae durisque in montibus ortae
molle fretum celebrant nec eas sua tangit origo;
non tamen oblitae, quam multa pericula saepe
pertulerint pelago, iactatis saepe carinis

those waves they exercise with virginal games;
sea Naiads, and born in harsh mountains,
they celebrate the gentle strait, nor does their own origin touch them;
not, however, forgetful how many perils they have often
endured on the sea, with the keels often tossed

560

subposuere manus, nisi siqua vehebat Achivos:
cladis adhuc Phrygiae memores odere Pelasgos
Neritiaeque ratis viderunt fragmina laetis
vultibus et laetis videre rigescere puppim
vultibus Alcinoi saxumque increscere ligno.

they lent their hands, unless some vessel was bearing Achaeans:
still mindful of the Phrygian calamity they hated the Pelasgians,
and with glad faces they saw the fragments of the Neritian ship,
and with glad faces they saw the stern of Alcinous grow rigid
and a rock grow into the wood.

565

Spes erat, in nymphas animata classe marinas
posse metu monstri Rutulum desistere bello:
perstat, habetque deos pars utraque, quodque deorum est
instar, habent animos; nec iam dotalia regna,
nec sceptrum soceri, nec te, Lavinia virgo,

There was hope, with the fleet animated into marine nymphs,
that by fear of the monster the Rutulian could desist from war:
he persists, and each side has gods, and—what is the equal of the gods—
they have spirits; nor now the dowry-realms,
nor the scepter of a father-in-law, nor you, maiden Lavinia,

570

sed vicisse petunt deponendique pudore
bella gerunt, tandemque Venus victricia nati
arma videt, Turnusque cadit: cadit Ardea, Turno
sospite dicta potens; quam postquam barbarus ignis
abstulit et tepida latuerunt tecta favilla,

but they seek to have won and wage wars for the laying-down of shame, and at length Venus beholds the victorious arms of her son, and Turnus falls: Ardea falls, called powerful with Turnus safe; which, after a barbarian fire carried it off and the roofs lay hidden in tepid cinders,

575

congerie e media tum primum cognita praepes
subvolat et cineres plausis everberat alis.
et sonus et macies et pallor et omnia, captam
quae deceant urbem, nomen quoque mansit in illa
urbis, et ipsa suis deplangitur Ardea pennis.

from the congeries in the midst then for the first time a known swift-bird
flies up and with clapped wings lashes the ashes.
both the sound and the leanness and the pallor and all things which befit a captured
city—the name too of the city remained in that creature—
and Ardea herself is bewailed by her own Ardea-wings.

580

     Iamque deos omnes ipsamque Aeneia virtus
Iunonem veteres finire coegerat iras,
cum, bene fundatis opibus crescentis Iuli,
tempestivus erat caelo Cythereius heros.
ambieratque Venus superos colloque parentis                585
circumfusa sui 'numquam mihi' dixerat 'ullo
tempore dure pater, nunc sis mitissimus, opto,
Aeneaeque meo, qui te de sanguine nostro
fecit avum, quamvis parvum des, optime, numen,
dummodo des aliquod! satis est inamabile regnum

And now the Aenean valor had compelled all the gods and Juno herself to end their ancient wraths,
when, the resources of growing Iulus being well founded, the Cytherean hero was seasonable for heaven.
And Venus had gone around the gods above and, twined around her parent’s neck, 585
had said: “Never to me at any time, harsh father—now be most mild, I pray—
and to my Aeneas, who has made you a grandsire from our blood,
grant, best one, even a small numen, provided you grant some! The unlovely kingdom is enough.”

590

adspexisse semel, Stygios semel isse per amnes.'
adsensere dei, nec coniunx regia vultus
inmotos tenuit placatoque adnuit ore;
tum pater 'estis' ait 'caelesti munere digni,
quaeque petis pro quoque petis: cape, nata, quod optas!'

to have gazed once, to have gone once through the Stygian rivers.'
the gods assented, nor did the royal consort keep her features unmoved, and she nodded assent with a placated face;
then the Father said, 'you are worthy of a celestial gift,
and both what you ask and for whom you ask: take, daughter, what you desire!'

595

fatus erat: gaudet gratesque agit illa parenti
perque leves auras iunctis invecta columbis
litus adit Laurens, ubi tectus harundine serpit
in freta flumineis vicina Numicius undis.
hunc iubet Aeneae, quaecumque obnoxia morti,

He had spoken: she rejoices and gives thanks to her parent,
and, borne through the light airs by yoked doves,
she approaches the Laurentine shore, where, hidden by reed, there creeps
into the straits, close to its river-waves, the Numicius.
She bids this one, for Aeneas, whatever is liable to death,

600

abluere et tacito deferre sub aequora cursu;
corniger exsequitur Veneris mandata suisque,
quicquid in Aenea fuerat mortale, repurgat
et respersit aquis; pars optima restitit illi.
lustratum genetrix divino corpus odore

to wash away and to carry down beneath the waters with a silent course;
the horned one carries out Venus’s mandates, and with his own,
whatever had been mortal in Aeneas, he purifies
and sprinkled with waters; the best part remained to him.
the mother lustrated the body with divine odor

605

unxit et ambrosia cum dulci nectare mixta
contigit os fecitque deum, quem turba Quirini
nuncupat Indigetem temploque arisque recepit.
Inde sub Ascanii dicione binominis Alba
resque Latina fuit. succedit Silvius illi.

she anointed and with ambrosia mixed with sweet nectar
she touched his face and made him a god, whom the throng of Quirinus
entitles the Indiges and received into temple and altars.
Then under Ascanius’s dominion Alba of the two names
and the Latin commonwealth were. Silvius succeeds him.

610

quo satus antiquo tenuit repetita Latinus
nomina cum sceptro, clarus subit Alba Latinum.
Epytus ex illo est; post hunc Capetusque Capysque,
sed Capys ante fuit; regnum Tiberinus ab illis
cepit et in Tusci demersus fluminis undis

by whom begotten of ancient stock, Latinus held the repeated name along with the scepter,
renowned Alba succeeds Latinus.
Epytus is from him; after him both Capetus and Capys,
but Capys was earlier; Tiberinus took the kingship from them
and, plunged in the waves of the Tuscan river

615

nomina fecit aquae; de quo Remulusque feroxque
Acrota sunt geniti. Remulus maturior annis
fulmineo periit, imitator fulminis, ictu.
fratre suo sceptrum moderatior Acrota forti
tradit Aventino, qui, quo regnarat, eodem

he gave the water its name; from whom Remulus and ferocious
Acrota were begotten. Remulus, more mature in years,
perished by a thunderbolt-stroke, an imitator of the thunderbolt.
Acrota, more moderate than his brother, hands the scepter to brave
Aventinus, who, where he had reigned, in that same place

620

monte iacet positus tribuitque vocabula monti;
iamque Palatinae summam Proca gentis habebat.
Rege sub hoc Pomona fuit, qua nulla Latinas
inter hamadryadas coluit sollertius hortos
nec fuit arborei studiosior altera fetus;

he lies on the mount, having been placed, and he bestowed the appellation upon the mount;
and already Proca held the supremacy of the Palatine clan.
Under this king was Pomona, than whom no one among the Latin hamadryads cultivated gardens more skillfully,
nor was there another more zealous for arboreal fruit;

625

unde tenet nomen: non silvas illa nec amnes,
rus amat et ramos felicia poma ferentes;
nec iaculo gravis est, sed adunca dextera falce,
qua modo luxuriem premit et spatiantia passim
bracchia conpescit, fisso modo cortice virgam

whence she holds her name: not forests nor rivers does she love,
she loves the countryside and branches bearing felicitous pomes;
nor is she heavy with a javelin, but with a hooked sickle in her right hand,
with which now she checks luxuriance and restrains the branches
wandering everywhere, now, with the bark split, a shoot

630

inserit et sucos alieno praestat alumno;
nec sentire sitim patitur bibulaeque recurvas
radicis fibras labentibus inrigat undis.
hic amor, hoc studium, Veneris quoque nulla cupido est;
vim tamen agrestum metuens pomaria claudit

she inserts and supplies juices to a foreign fosterling;
nor does she allow it to feel thirst, and she irrigates the curved
fibers of the bibulous root with gliding waters.
this is her love, this her zeal; there is no desire of Venus either;
nonetheless, fearing the force of the rustics, she closes the orchards

635

intus et accessus prohibet refugitque viriles.
quid non et Satyri, saltatibus apta iuventus,
fecere et pinu praecincti cornua Panes
Silvanusque, suis semper iuvenilior annis,
quique deus fures vel falce vel inguine terret,

indoors too she forbids access and shuns male approaches.
what have not even the Satyrs, a youth apt for dances,
have done, and the horned Pans girded with pine,
and Silvanus, always more youthful than his years,
and the god who frightens thieves either with his sickle or with his groin,

640

ut poterentur ea? sed enim superabat amando
hos quoque Vertumnus neque erat felicior illis.
o quotiens habitu duri messoris aristas
corbe tulit verique fuit messoris imago!
tempora saepe gerens faeno religata recenti

how could they possess her? but indeed Vertumnus surpassed these also in loving, nor was he more fortunate than they.
O how often, in the garb of a hardy reaper, he carried the ears in a basket and was the image of a true reaper!
often bearing his temples bound with fresh hay

645

desectum poterat gramen versasse videri;
saepe manu stimulos rigida portabat, ut illum
iurares fessos modo disiunxisse iuvencos.
falce data frondator erat vitisque putator;
induerat scalas: lecturum poma putares;

he could seem to have turned the cut grass;
often with a rigid hand he carried goads, so that you
would swear he had just disjoined the weary young bulls from the yoke.
with a sickle given, he was a leaf-stripper and a pruner of the vine;
he had taken up ladders: you would think he was going to gather apples;

650

miles erat gladio, piscator harundine sumpta;
denique per multas aditum sibi saepe figuras
repperit, ut caperet spectatae gaudia formae.
ille etiam picta redimitus tempora mitra,
innitens baculo, positis per tempora canis,

he was a soldier with a sword, a fisherman with a reed taken up;
finally, through many figures he often found access for himself,
so that he might seize the joys of the beheld form.
that one too, his temples encircled with a painted mitre,
leaning on a staff, with gray hairs placed about his temples,

655

adsimulavit anum: cultosque intravit in hortos
pomaque mirata est 'tanto' que 'potentior!' inquit
paucaque laudatae dedit oscula, qualia numquam
vera dedisset anus, glaebaque incurva resedit
suspiciens pandos autumni pondere ramos.

he simulated an old woman: and entered the cultivated gardens
and, marveling at the pomes, said ‘so much’ and ‘more potent!’
and gave a few kisses to the praised ones, such as a true old woman would never have given,
and, curved over the glebe, she sat down
looking up at the branches bowed by autumn’s weight.

660

ulmus erat contra speciosa nitentibus uvis:
quam socia postquam pariter cum vite probavit,
'at si staret' ait 'caelebs sine palmite truncus,
nil praeter frondes, quare peteretur, haberet;
haec quoque, quae iuncta est, vitis requiescit in ulmo:

there was an elm opposite, splendid with shining grapes:
which, as a partner, after she approved together with the vine,
'but if the trunk stood unmarried without a tendril,' she said,
'it would have nothing, besides leaves, for which it might be sought;
this vine too, which is joined, rests upon the elm:'

665

si non nupta foret, terrae acclinata iaceret;
tu tamen exemplo non tangeris arboris huius
concubitusque fugis nec te coniungere curas.
atque utinam velles! Helene non pluribus esset
sollicitata procis nec quae Lapitheia movit

if she were not married, she would lie inclined to the earth;
yet you are not touched by the example of this tree
and you flee intercourse and do not care to join yourself.
and if only you were willing! Helen would not have been solicited by more suitors
nor she who moved the Lapithan

670

proelia nec coniunx nimium tardantis Ulixis.
nunc quoque, cum fugias averserisque petentes,
mille viri cupiunt et semideique deique
et quaecumque tenent Albanos numina montes.
sed tu si sapies, si te bene iungere anumque

battles nor the spouse of too-slow Ulysses.
now too, though you flee and turn away those seeking you,
a thousand men desire you—both demigods and gods,
and whatever divinities hold the Alban mountains.
but you, if you are wise, if you take care to join yourself well and to become an old woman

675

hanc audire voles, quae te plus omnibus illis,
plus, quam credis, amo: vulgares reice taedas
Vertumnumque tori socium tibi selige! pro quo
me quoque pignus habe: neque enim sibi notior ille est,
quam mihi; nec passim toto vagus errat in orbe,

you will want to hear this one, who loves you more than all those,
more than you believe: reject the vulgar torches
and choose Vertumnus as a companion of your bed! for whom
take me also as a pledge: for he is not better known to himself
than to me; nor does he, vagabond, roam at random through the whole orb,

680

haec loca sola colit; nec, uti pars magna procorum,
quam modo vidit, amat: tu primus et ultimus illi
ardor eris, solique suos tibi devovet annos.
adde, quod est iuvenis, quod naturale decoris
munus habet formasque apte fingetur in omnes,

he alone frequents these places; nor, as a great part of the suitors, does he love what he has just seen: you will be his first and his last ardor, and to you alone he devotes his years. add, that he is a youth, that he has the natural gift of decor/beauty, and he will be aptly formed into all forms,

685

et quod erit iussus, iubeas licet omnia, fiet.
quid, quod amatis idem, quod, quae tibi poma coluntur,
primus habet laetaque tenet tua munera dextra!
sed neque iam fetus desiderat arbore demptos
nec, quas hortus alit, cum sucis mitibus herbas

and whatever he shall be ordered—though you bid all things—will be done.
what of this, that you love the same things, that the apples which are cultivated for you
he first has, and joyfully holds your gifts in his right hand!
but now he neither desires the fruits taken from the tree
nor the herbs, which the garden nourishes, with gentle juices

690

nec quicquam nisi te: miserere ardentis et ipsum,
qui petit, ore meo praesentem crede precari.
ultoresque deos et pectora dura perosam
Idalien memoremque time Rhamnusidis iram!
quoque magis timeas, (etenim mihi multa vetustas                695
scire dedit) referam tota notissima Cypro
facta, quibus flecti facile et mitescere possis.
     'Viderat a veteris generosam sanguine Teucri
Iphis Anaxareten, humili de stirpe creatus,
viderat et totis perceperat ossibus aestum

nor anything except you: have pity on the burning one, and believe that he himself,
who seeks, is praying as present with my mouth.
and fear the avenging gods and the Idalian, who loathes hard hearts,
and the mindful wrath of the Rhamnusian Nemesis!
and so that you may fear the more (for indeed antiquity has given me to know many things), 695
I shall recount deeds most well-known through all Cyprus,
by which you can be easily bent and softened.
'Iphis had seen Anaxarete, noble by the blood of old Teucer,
he, born of a humble stock,
he had seen and had taken the heat into all his bones

700

luctatusque diu, postquam ratione furorem
vincere non potuit, supplex ad limina venit
et modo nutrici miserum confessus amorem,
ne sibi dura foret, per spes oravit alumnae,
et modo de multis blanditus cuique ministris

and having wrestled long, after he could not by reason conquer his fury,
he came as a suppliant to the thresholds,
and now to the nurse, having confessed his wretched love,
he begged, by the hopes of her foster-child, that she not be hard to him,
and now he coaxed each of the many ministers.

705

sollicita petiit propensum voce favorem;
saepe ferenda dedit blandis sua verba tabellis,
interdum madidas lacrimarum rore coronas
postibus intendit posuitque in limine duro
molle latus tristisque serae convicia fecit.

anxious she sought with her voice a propitious favor;
often she gave her words to flattering tablets to be borne,
at times garlands wet with the dew of tears
she fastened to the doorposts and placed upon the hard threshold
her soft flank, and made sad railings against the bolt.

710

saevior illa freto surgente cadentibus Haedis,
durior et ferro, quod Noricus excoquit ignis,
et saxo, quod adhuc vivum radice tenetur,
spernit et inridet, factisque inmitibus addit
verba superba ferox et spe quoque fraudat amantem.

She is more savage than the sea swelling with the setting Kids,
harder too than the iron which Noric fire tempers,
and than the rock which is still held living by its root;
she scorns and derides, and to her merciless deeds she adds
ferocious, proud words, and even defrauds the lover of hope.

715

non tulit impatiens longi tormenta doloris
Iphis et ante fores haec verba novissima dixit:
"vincis, Anaxarete, neque erunt tibi taedia tandem
ulla ferenda mei: laetos molire triumphos
et Paeana voca nitidaque incingere lauru!

Iphis, impatient, did not endure the torments of long grief,
and before the doors he spoke these very last words:
"You conquer, Anaxarete, nor will there at last be any weariness
of me for you to bear: set in motion your glad triumphs
and call Paean and gird yourself with shining laurel!"

720

vincis enim, moriorque libens: age, ferrea, gaude!
certe aliquid laudare mei cogeris amoris,
quo tibi sim gratus, meritumque fatebere nostrum.
non tamen ante tui curam excessisse memento
quam vitam geminaque simul mihi luce carendum. 725
nec tibi fama mei ventura est nuntia leti:
ipse ego, ne dubites, adero praesensque videbor,
corpore ut exanimi crudelia lumina pascas.

You win indeed, and I die willing: come, iron-hearted, rejoice!
surely you will be forced to praise something of my love,
by which I may be pleasing to you, and you will acknowledge my merit.
yet remember that care of you did not depart
before life and the twin light at once must be lacking to me. 725
nor will rumor be coming to you as the messenger of my death:
I myself, lest you doubt, will be there and will seem present,
so that you may feed your cruel eyes on a lifeless body.

si tamen, o superi, mortalia facta videtis,
este mei memores (nihil ultra lingua precari

if, however, O gods above, you see mortal deeds,
be mindful of me (my tongue can pray for nothing further

730

sustinet) et longo facite ut narremur in aevo,
et, quae dempsistis vitae, date tempora famae!"
dixit, et ad postes ornatos saepe coronis
umentes oculos et pallida bracchia tollens,
cum foribus laquei religaret vincula summis,

endures) and make it so that we be narrated in a long age,
and, the times which you have taken from life, give to fame!"
she said, and to the doorposts often adorned with garlands
lifting her moist eyes and pale arms,
as she was binding the noose’s bonds to the tops of the doors,

735

"haec tibi serta placent, crudelis et inpia!" dixit
inseruitque caput, sed tum quoque versus ad illam,
atque onus infelix elisa fauce pependit.
icta pedum motu trepidantum aperire iubentem
visa dedisse sonum est adapertaque ianua factum

"Do these garlands please you, cruel and impious one!" she said,
and she inserted her head; but then too turned toward her,
and the unlucky burden hung, the throat crushed.
Struck by the motion of trembling feet, it seemed to have given a sound,
as if bidding to open, and the door, opened up, made it happen.

740

prodidit, exclamant famuli frustraque levatum
(nam pater occiderat) referunt ad limina matris;
accipit illa sinu conplexaque frigida nati
membra sui postquam miserorum verba parentum
edidit et matrum miserarum facta peregit,

revealed the deed; the servants cry out, and him, raised in vain
(for his father had slain him) they carry back to his mother’s threshold;
she receives him in her bosom and, having embraced her son’s cold
limbs, after she uttered the words of wretched parents
and fulfilled the deeds of wretched mothers,

745

funera ducebat mediam lacrimosa per urbem
luridaque arsuro portabat membra feretro.
forte viae vicina domus, qua flebilis ibat
pompa, fuit, duraeque sonus plangoris ad aures
venit Anaxaretes, quam iam deus ultor agebat.

she, tearful, was leading the funeral through the middle of the city,
and was carrying the lurid-pale limbs on a bier about to burn.
by chance there was a house near the road, by which the plaintive
procession went, and the sound of lamentation came to the hard ears
of Anaxarete, whom already the avenging god was driving.

750

mota tamen "videamus" ait "miserabile funus"
et patulis iniit tectum sublime fenestris
vixque bene inpositum lecto prospexerat Iphin:
deriguere oculi, calidusque e corpore sanguis
inducto pallore fugit, conataque retro

moved, nevertheless, she said, "let us see the pitiable funeral,"
and she entered the lofty house with wide-open windows,
and scarcely had she well looked upon Iphis, set upon the bier:
her eyes grew rigid, and the warm blood from her body
with a drawn-over pallor fled, and, trying to go back

755

ferre pedes haesit, conata avertere vultus
hoc quoque non potuit, paulatimque occupat artus,
quod fuit in duro iam pridem pectore, saxum.
neve ea ficta putes, dominae sub imagine signum
servat adhuc Salamis, Veneris quoque nomine templum

she tried to carry her feet back; her feet stuck, having tried to turn away her face
this too she could not, and little by little there takes hold of her limbs
that which had long been in her hard breast: stone.
and lest you think these things feigned, beneath the likeness of the mistress a statue
Salamis still preserves, and also a temple in the name of Venus

760

Prospicientis habet.—quorum memor, o mea, lentos
pone, precor, fastus et amanti iungere, nymphe:
sic tibi nec vernum nascentia frigus adurat
poma, nec excutiant rapidi florentia venti!'
Haec ubi nequiquam formae deus aptus anili

It has one of one gazing out.—mindful of which, O my one, set aside, I pray, your lingering haughtiness, and join yourself to your lover, nymph: thus may neither the nascent vernal cold sear your fruits, nor may the rapid winds shake off those in bloom!'
quorum memor, o mea, lentos
pone, precor, fastus et amanti iungere, nymphe:
sic tibi nec vernum nascentia frigus adurat
poma, nec excutiant rapidi florentia venti!'
When, in vain, the god apt to an anile form

765

edidit, in iuvenem rediit et anilia demit
instrumenta sibi talisque apparuit illi,
qualis ubi oppositas nitidissima solis imago
evicit nubes nullaque obstante reluxit,
vimque parat: sed vi non est opus, inque figura

he finished, returned into a youth and removes the old-woman’s
implements from himself, and appeared to her such as,
when the most shining image of the sun has overcome the opposing
clouds and, with nothing standing in the way, has shone forth again,
and he prepares force: but force is not needed, and in the form

770

capta dei nympha est et mutua vulnera sensit.
Proximus Ausonias iniusti miles Amuli
rexit opes, Numitorque senex amissa nepotis
munere regna capit, festisque Palilibus urbis
moenia conduntur; Tatiusque patresque Sabini

The nymph of the god was captured and felt mutual wounds.
Next, the soldier of unjust Amulius ruled Ausonian wealth, and old Numitor takes the kingdoms lost by the gift of his grandson, and on the festal Palilia the city’s walls are founded; and Tatius and the Sabine fathers

775

bella gerunt, arcisque via Tarpeia reclusa
dignam animam poena congestis exuit armis;
inde sati Curibus tacitorum more luporum
ore premunt voces et corpora victa sopore
invadunt portasque petunt, quas obice firmo

they wage wars, and with the way of the Tarpeian citadel opened
she shed a soul worthy of punishment, by the piled-up arms;
then those born at Cures, in the manner of silent wolves,
press their voices with their mouths and assail bodies conquered by sleep
and they attack and seek the gates, which, with a firm barrier

780

clauserat Iliades: unam tamen ipse reclusit
nec strepitum verso Saturnia cardine fecit;
sola Venus portae cecidisse repagula sensit
et clausura fuit, nisi quod rescindere numquam
dis licet acta deum. Iano loca iuncta tenebant

the Ilian maid had closed them; yet he himself reopened one
nor did Saturnia make a sound with the hinge turned;
only Venus sensed that the gate’s crossbars had fallen
and she was about to close them, except that to rescind
the deeds of the gods is never permitted to gods. They were holding the places adjoining Janus

785

naides Ausoniae gelido rorantia fonte:
has rogat auxilium, nec nymphae iusta petentem
sustinuere deam venasque et flumina fontis
elicuere sui; nondum tamen invia Iani
ora patentis erant, neque iter praecluserat unda:

the Ausonian Naiads, dewy from a gelid spring:
she asks these for aid, nor did the nymphs hold back the goddess
seeking what was just, and they elicited the veins and streams
of their own spring; not yet, however, were the mouths of Janus
lying open impassable, nor had the wave precluded the way:

790

lurida subponunt fecundo sulphura fonti
incenduntque cavas fumante bitumine venas.
viribus his aliisque vapor penetravit ad ima
fontis, et Alpino modo quae certare rigori
audebatis aquae, non ceditis ignibus ipsis!

they set lurid sulfur beneath the fecund spring
and ignite the hollow veins with smoking bitumen.
by these forces and others the vapor penetrated to the depths
of the spring, and you waters, who just now dared to contend with Alpine rigor,
do not yield to the fires themselves!

795

flammifera gemini fumant aspergine postes,
portaque nequiquam rigidis promissa Sabinis
fonte fuit praestructa novo, dum Martius arma
indueret miles; quae postquam Romulus ultro
obtulit, et strata est tellus Romana Sabinis

the twin doorposts smoke with fire-bearing spray,
and the gate, promised in vain to the rigid Sabines,
was pre-fortified by a new fountain, while the Martial soldier
was putting on arms; which, after Romulus of his own accord
offered, the Roman earth was strewn by the Sabines

800

corporibus strata estque suis, generique cruorem
sanguine cum soceri permiscuit inpius ensis.
pace tamen sisti bellum nec in ultima ferro
decertare placet Tatiumque accedere regno.
Occiderat Tatius, populisque aequata duobus,

and was strewn with their own bodies, and the impious sword mixed the gore of the son-in-law with the blood of the father-in-law.
nevertheless it pleases that the war be halted by peace and not to contend to the last with iron, and that Tatius be admitted to the kingship.
Tatius had fallen, and the rule equalized to the two peoples,

805

Romule, iura dabas: posita cum casside Mavors
talibus adfatur divumque hominumque parentem:
'tempus adest, genitor, quoniam fundamine magno
res Romana valet nec praeside pendet ab uno,
praemia, (sunt promissa mihi dignoque nepoti)

Romulus, you were giving laws: with his helmet set aside, Mavors
addresses with such words the parent of gods and men:
'the time is at hand, father, since on a great foundation
the Roman state is strong and does not depend on a single guardian,
the rewards (they have been promised to me and to your worthy grandson)

810

solvere et ablatum terris inponere caelo.
tu mihi concilio quondam praesente deorum
(nam memoro memorique animo pia verba notavi)
"unus erit, quem tu tolles in caerula caeli"
dixisti: rata sit verborum summa tuorum!'

to release and to set, taken from the earth, upon the sky.
you once, with the council of the gods present,
(for I recall and with a remembering mind I have noted the pious words)
"there will be one whom you will raise into the cerulean of the sky"
you said: let the sum of your words be ratified!

815

adnuit omnipotens et nubibus aera caecis
occuluit tonitruque et fulgure terruit orbem.
quae sibi promissae sensit rata signa rapinae,
innixusque hastae pressos temone cruento
inpavidus conscendit equos Gradivus et ictu

the Omnipotent nodded assent and concealed the air with blind clouds,
and with thunder and lightning terrified the world.
she, who sensed the sure signs of the rape promised to her,
and Gradivus, leaning on his spear, the horses pressed by the bloody pole,
fearless mounted the horses, and with a blow

820

verberis increpuit pronusque per aera lapsus
constitit in summo nemorosi colle Palati
reddentemque suo iam regia iura Quiriti
abstulit Iliaden: corpus mortale per auras
dilapsum tenues, ceu lata plumbea funda

he cracked the lash, and leaning he slipped through the air,
and stood on the summit of the wooded hill of the Palatine,
and the Iliad-born—now rendering regal rights to his own Quirite—
he bore away: his mortal body through the thin airs
slipping away, as a broad leaden sling

825

missa solet medio glans intabescere caelo;
pulchra subit facies et pulvinaribus altis
dignior, est qualis trabeati forma Quirini.
Flebat ut amissum coniunx, cum regia Iuno
Irin ad Hersilien descendere limite curvo

the leaden bullet, when sent, is wont to melt away in mid-sky;
a beautiful visage comes on and more worthy of lofty couches,
such as is the form of Quirinus in the trabea.
His spouse was weeping as for one lost, when royal Juno
bade Iris to descend to Hersilia by a curved path

830

imperat et vacuae sua sic mandata referre:
'o et de Latia, o et de gente Sabina
praecipuum, matrona, decus, dignissima tanti
ante fuisse viri coniunx, nunc esse Quirini,
siste tuos fletus, et, si tibi cura videndi

she commands, and to the bereft woman thus to carry back her mandates:
‘O, both of the Latian, O also of the Sabine people,
preeminent ornament, matron, most worthy to have been
the consort of so great a man, now to be of Quirinus,
stay your tears, and, if for you there is a care of seeing

835

coniugis est, duce me lucum pete, colle Quirini
qui viret et templum Romani regis obumbrat';
paret et in terram pictos delapsa per arcus,
Hersilien iussis conpellat vocibus Iris;
illa verecundo vix tollens lumina vultu

'it is your husband’s; with me as guide, seek the grove, on the hill of Quirinus
which is green and overshadows the temple of the Roman king';
she obeys, and, having glided down through the painted arches to the earth,
Iris addresses Hersilia with the bidden words;
she, scarcely raising her eyes with a modest face

840

'o dea (namque mihi nec, quae sis, dicere promptum est,
et liquet esse deam) duc, o duc' inquit 'et offer
coniugis ora mihi, quae si modo posse videre
fata semel dederint, caelum accepisse fatebor!'
nec mora, Romuleos cum virgine Thaumantea

'o goddess (for to me it is not prompt to say who you are,
and it is clear you are a goddess) lead, O lead,' she says, 'and offer
my husband's face to me, which, if only the fates should have granted
to be able to see once, I will confess I have received heaven!'
no delay, to the Romulean places with the Thaumantian maiden

845

ingreditur colles: ibi sidus ab aethere lapsum
decidit in terras; a cuius lumine flagrans
Hersilie crinis cum sidere cessit in auras:
hanc manibus notis Romanae conditor urbis
excipit et priscum pariter cum corpore nomen

she enters the hills: there a star, slipped from the aether,
falls down to the earth; from whose light blazing
Hersilia’s hair, with the star, withdrew into the airs:
her the founder of the Roman city receives with familiar hands,
and the ancient name together with the body alike.

850

mutat Horamque vocat, quae nunc dea iuncta Quirino est.

he changes it and calls her Hora, who now, a goddess, is joined to Quirinus.