Ovid: METAMORPHOSES

Quaeritur interea qui tantae pondera molis
sustineat tantoque queat succedere regi:
destinat imperio clarum praenuntia veri
fama Numam; non ille satis cognosse Sabinae
gentis habet ritus, animo maiora capaci

Meanwhile it is asked who may sustain the weights of so great a mass
and who may be able to succeed to so great a king:
Fame, the herald of truth, destines Numa, renowned, for the rule
; he does not hold it enough to have learned the rites of the Sabine
nation, with a mind capacious for greater things

concipit et, quae sit rerum natura, requirit.
huius amor curae patria Curibusque relictis
fecit ut Herculei penetraret ad hospitis urbem.
Graia quis Italicis auctor posuisset in oris
moenia, quaerenti sic e senioribus unus

he conceives and inquires what the nature of things is.
the love of this concern, his fatherland and Cures having been left,
brought it about that he penetrated to the city of the Herculean host.
who the Greek founder was who had set walls on the Italian shores,
to him asking, thus one from among the elders

rettulit indigenis, veteris non inscius aevi:
'dives ab Oceano bobus Iove natus Hiberis
litora felici tenuisse Lacinia cursu
fertur, et armento teneras errante per herbas
ipse domum magni nec inhospita tecta Crotonis

he related to the natives, not unknowing of the ancient age:
'the son of Jove, wealthy in Iberian cattle from Ocean,
is said to have held the Lacinian shores with a happy course,
and, his herd wandering through the tender grasses,
he himself reached the home and the not-inhospitable roofs of great Croton

intrasse et requie longum relevasse laborem
atque ita discedens, "aevo" dixisse "nepotum
hic locus urbis erit," promissaque vera fuerunt.
nam fuit Argolico generatus Alemone quidam
Myscelus, illius dis acceptissimus aevi.

he had entered and by rest had relieved his long labor
and so, departing, is said to have said, "in the age of descendants
this place will be of a city," and the promises were true.
for there was a certain Myscelus, begotten from Argolic Alemon,
most acceptable to the gods of that age.

hunc super incumbens pressum gravitate soporis
claviger adloquitur:                                                        22a
"patrias, age, desere sedes;                                              23b
i, pete diversi                                                                  23a
lapidosas Aesaris undas!"                                             22b
et, nisi paruerit, multa ac metuenda minatur;

leaning over him, pressed by the gravity of sleep,
the club-bearer addresses him:                                                        22a
"come now, abandon your ancestral seats;                                              23b
go, seek, in a different direction,                                                                  23a
the stony waves of the Aesar!"                                             22b
and, unless he obeys, he threatens many and to-be-feared things;

post ea discedunt pariter somnusque deusque
surgit Alemonides tacitaque recentia mente
visa refert, pugnatque diu sententia secum:
numen abire iubet, prohibent discedere leges,
poenaque mors posita est patriam mutare volenti.
candidus Oceano nitidum caput abdiderat Sol,

after these things they depart together, both Sleep and the god,
the Alemonid rises, and with a silent and still-fresh mind
he recounts the recent visions, and his resolve fights long with itself:
the numen bids him depart, the laws forbid him to leave,
and death as penalty is set for one willing to change his fatherland.
the bright Sun had hidden his shining head in Ocean,

et caput extulerat densissima sidereum Nox:
visus adesse idem deus est eademque monere
et, nisi paruerit, plura et graviora minari.
pertimuit patriumque simul transferre parabat
in sedes penetrale novas: fit murmur in urbe,

and the most dense Night had lifted her starry head:
the same god seemed to be present and to admonish the same things,
and, unless he obeyed, to threaten more and graver things.
he grew afraid and at once was preparing to transfer the ancestral penetral
into new seats: a murmur arises in the city,

spretarumque agitur legum reus, utque peracta est
causa prior, crimenque patet sine teste probatum,
squalidus ad superos tollens reus ora manusque
"o cui ius caeli bis sex fecere labores,
fer, precor" inquit "opem! nam tu mihi criminis auctor."

and he is prosecuted as a defendant of spurned laws, and when the prior case has been completed,
and the crime stands open, proved without a witness,
the squalid defendant, lifting his face and hands to the gods above,
"O you for whom the twelve labors made a right of heaven,
bring help, I pray," he says, "aid! for you are to me the author of the charge."

mos erat antiquus niveis atrisque lapillis,
his damnare reos, illis absolvere culpa;
tunc quoque sic lata est sententia tristis, et omnis
calculus inmitem demittitur ater in urnam:
quae simul effudit numerandos versa lapillos,

there was an ancient custom with snowy-white and black little stones,
with these to condemn the accused, with those to absolve from blame;
then too in this way the sad sentence was delivered, and every
black pebble is sent down into the merciless urn:
which, once turned, at once poured out the pebbles to be numbered,

omnibus e nigro color est mutatus in album,
candidaque Herculeo sententia numine facta
solvit Alemoniden: grates agit ille parenti
Amphitryoniadae ventisque faventibus aequor
navigat Ionium Sallentinumque Neretum

for all, the color was changed from black to white,
and the white sentence, made by the Herculean numen,
released the Alemonid: he gives thanks to his parent
the Amphitryoniad, and with winds favoring he sails the Ionian
sea and the Sallentine Neretum

praeterit et Sybarin Lacedaemoniumque Tarentum
Sirinosque sinus Crimisenque et Iapygis arva,
vixque pererratis, quae spectant aequora, terris,
invenit Aesarei fatalia fluminis ora
nec procul hinc tumulum, sub quo sacrata Crotonis

he passes also Sybaris and Lacedaemonian Tarentum
and the Sirine bays and Crimisa and the fields of Iapygia,
and scarcely, the lands that look upon the waters having been traversed,
he finds the fated mouths of the Aesarean river,
and not far from here a tomb, beneath which the hallowed bones of Croton

ossa tegebat humus, iussaque ibi moenia terra
condidit et nomen tumulati traxit in urbem.'
talia constabat certa primordia fama
esse loci positaeque Italis in finibus urbis.
Vir fuit hic ortu Samius, sed fugerat una

the soil covered the bones, and there on the commanded ground he founded the walls,
and he drew the name of the buried into the city.'
such, by settled report, were the certain beginnings
of the place and of the city set within Italy’s borders.
There was here a man Samian by origin, but had fled together

et Samon et dominos odioque tyrannidis exul
sponte erat isque licet caeli regione remotos
mente deos adiit et, quae natura negabat
visibus humanis, oculis ea pectoris hausit,
cumque animo et vigili perspexerat omnia cura,

and, by hatred of tyranny, he was a voluntary exile both from Samos and from its masters
and he, although the gods were removed in the region of the sky, approached the gods with his mind
and what nature denied to human sight,
he drank in with the eyes of the breast,
and when he had seen through everything with mind and vigilant care,

in medium discenda dabat coetusque silentum
dictaque mirantum magni primordia mundi
et rerum causas et, quid natura, docebat,
quid deus, unde nives, quae fulminis esset origo,
Iuppiter an venti discussa nube tonarent,

he brought into the open things to be learned, and to gatherings of the silent
and to those marveling at his sayings, the beginnings of the great world
and the causes of things, and what nature is, he was teaching,
what god is, whence snows, what the origin of the thunderbolt was,
whether Jupiter or the winds thundered with the cloud dispersed,

quid quateret terras, qua sidera lege mearent,
et quodcumque latet, primusque animalia mensis
arguit inponi, primus quoque talibus ora
docta quidem solvit, sed non et credita, verbis:
'Parcite, mortales, dapibus temerare nefandis

what was shaking the lands, by what law the stars would go their courses,
and whatever lies hidden; and he was the first to arraign the setting of animals upon tables,
and he too first loosed his lips—learned indeed, yet not believed—with such words:
'Spare, mortals, to profane with unspeakable banquets'

corpora! sunt fruges, sunt deducentia ramos
pondere poma suo tumidaeque in vitibus uvae,
sunt herbae dulces, sunt quae mitescere flamma
mollirique queant; nec vobis lacteus umor
eripitur, nec mella thymi redolentia florem:

bodies! there is grain, there are fruits drawing down the branches
by their own weight, and swollen grapes on the vines,
there are sweet herbs, there are those which can mellow by flame
and be softened; nor is the milky moisture taken from you,
nor the honeys redolent of thyme-blossom:

prodiga divitias alimentaque mitia tellus
suggerit atque epulas sine caede et sanguine praebet.
carne ferae sedant ieiunia, nec tamen omnes:
quippe equus et pecudes armentaque gramine vivunt;
at quibus ingenium est inmansuetumque ferumque,

the prodigal earth supplies riches and gentle aliments
and offers banquets without slaughter and blood.
beasts still their fasts with flesh, yet not all:
for the horse and the flocks and the herds live on grass;
but for those whose disposition is untamed and savage,

Armeniae tigres iracundique leones
cumque lupis ursi, dapibus cum sanguine gaudent.
heu quantum scelus est in viscera viscera condi
ingestoque avidum pinguescere corpore corpus
alteriusque animans animantis vivere leto!

Armenian tigers and irascible lions
and bears together with wolves rejoice in banquets with blood.
alas how great a crime it is for viscera to be packed with viscera,
and for a body, greedy, to grow fat on an ingested body,
and for an animate being to live by the death of another animate being!

scilicet in tantis opibus, quas, optima matrum,
terra parit, nil te nisi tristia mandere saevo
vulnera dente iuvat ritusque referre Cyclopum,
nec, nisi perdideris alium, placare voracis
et male morati poteris ieiunia ventris!

Surely, amid such great opulence which, best of mothers,
the earth bears, nothing delights you except to chew with a savage
tooth grim wounds and to recall the rites of the Cyclopes,
nor, unless you have destroyed another, will you be able to placate the fasts
of the voracious and ill-mannered belly!

'At vetus illa aetas, cui fecimus aurea nomen,
fetibus arboreis et, quas humus educat, herbis
fortunata fuit nec polluit ora cruore.
tunc et aves tutae movere per aera pennas,
et lepus inpavidus mediis erravit in arvis,

'But that old age, to which we have given the name "Golden,"
was fortunate in arboreal fruits and in the herbs which the humus brings forth,
and did not pollute their mouths with gore.
Then too the birds safely moved their pinions through the air,
and the hare, unafraid, wandered in the midst of the fields,

100

nec sua credulitas piscem suspenderat hamo:
cuncta sine insidiis nullamque timentia fraudem
plenaque pacis erant. postquam non utilis auctor
victibus invidit, quisquis fuit ille, leonum
corporeasque dapes avidum demersit in alvum,

nor had its credulity suspended a fish on a hook:
all things were without ambushes and fearing no fraud,
and were full of peace. After a not-useful author
begrudged victuals, whoever he was, he plunged into the greedy belly
the feasts of lions and of flesh,

105

fecit iter sceleri, primoque e caede ferarum
incaluisse potest maculatum sanguine ferrum
(idque satis fuerat) nostrumque petentia letum
corpora missa neci salva pietate fatemur:
sed quam danda neci, tam non epulanda fuerunt.

it made a path for crime, and at first from the slaughter of wild beasts
the iron, maculated with blood, could have grown hot
(and that would have been enough), and those seeking our death
bodies sent to slaughter — with piety kept safe — we confess:
but as much as they were to be given to death, so they were not to be feasted upon.

110

'Longius inde nefas abiit, et prima putatur
hostia sus meruisse mori, quia semina pando
eruerit rostro spemque interceperit anni;
vite caper morsa Bacchi mactandus ad aras
ducitur ultoris: nocuit sua culpa duobus!

'Thence the impiety went farther, and the first victim is thought
to have deserved to die, because a sow with a curved
snout had torn up the seeds and had intercepted the hope of the year;
the goat, the vine of Bacchus having been bitten, is led to the altars
of the avenger to be sacrificed: its own fault harmed two!

115

quid meruistis oves, placidum pecus inque tuendos
natum homines, pleno quae fertis in ubere nectar,
mollia quae nobis vestras velamina lanas
praebetis vitaque magis quam morte iuvatis?
quid meruere boves, animal sine fraude dolisque,

What have you deserved, sheep, a placid flock and born for the safeguarding of men, you who carry nectar in a full udder, you who offer to us your soft coverings—your wools—and help us more by life than by death? What have cattle deserved, a creature without fraud and guile,

120

innocuum, simplex, natum tolerare labores?
inmemor est demum nec frugum munere dignus,
qui potuit curvi dempto modo pondere aratri
ruricolam mactare suum, qui trita labore
illa, quibus totiens durum renovaverat arvum,

innocent, simple, born to endure labors?
He is at last unmindful and not worthy of the gift of fruits,
who could, the weight just now removed from the curved plow,
slaughter his own husbandman of the fields, who, worn by labor,
those things, with which so often he had renewed the stubborn field,

125

quot dederat messes, percussit colla securi.
nec satis est, quod tale nefas committitur: ipsos
inscripsere deos sceleri numenque supernum
caede laboriferi credunt gaudere iuvenci!
victima labe carens et praestantissima forma 130
(nam placuisse nocet) vittis insignis et auro
sistitur ante aras auditque ignara precantem
inponique suae videt inter cornua fronti,
quas coluit, fruges percussaque sanguine cultros
inficit in liquida praevisos forsitan unda.

after how many harvests it had given, he struck its neck with the axe.
nor is it enough that such a nefas is committed: they have inscribed the gods themselves to the crime and believe that the supernal numen rejoices in the slaughter of the toil-bearing steer!
a victim free from stain and of most outstanding form (for to have pleased proves harmful), distinguished with fillets and gold,
is set before the altars and, unknowing, hears the one praying,
and sees that the crops—which he tilled—are placed upon his own brow between his horns, and, once struck, he stains with blood the knives, perhaps previously inspected in the limpid water. 130

135

protinus ereptas viventi pectore fibras
inspiciunt mentesque deum scrutantur in illis;
inde (fames homini vetitorum tanta ciborum)
audetis vesci, genus o mortale! quod, oro,
ne facite, et monitis animos advertite nostris!

straightway the fibres snatched from a living breast
they inspect, and they scrutinize in them the minds of the gods;
thence (so great is man’s hunger for forbidden foods)
you dare to feed, O mortal race! which, I pray,
do not do, and turn your minds to our admonitions!

140

cumque boum dabitis caesorum membra palato,
mandere vos vestros scite et sentite colonos.
'Et quoniam deus ora movet, sequar ora moventem
rite deum Delphosque meos ipsumque recludam
aethera et augustae reserabo oracula mentis:

and when you will give to your palate the limbs of slaughtered oxen,
know well and feel that you are chewing your own cultivators.
'And since a god moves my lips, I shall follow the god moving my lips
duly, and I will unclose my Delphi and the very aether,
and I will unbar the oracles of my august mind:

145

magna nec ingeniis investigata priorum
quaeque diu latuere, canam; iuvat ire per alta
astra, iuvat terris et inerti sede relicta
nube vehi validique umeris insistere Atlantis
palantesque homines passim et rationis egentes

great things, and those not investigated by the talents of the former,
and whatever long lay hidden, I shall sing; it pleases me to go through the high
stars, it pleases, the lands and inert seat left behind, to be carried by a cloud
and to stand upon the shoulders of mighty Atlas, and men wandering everywhere
and destitute of reason

150

despectare procul trepidosque obitumque timentes
sic exhortari seriemque evolvere fati!
'O genus attonitum gelidae formidine mortis,
quid Styga, quid tenebras et nomina vana timetis,
materiem vatum, falsi terricula mundi?

to look down from afar on the panic‑stricken and those fearing death,
thus to exhort them and to unroll the series of Fate!
'O race astonished by the gelid dread of death,
why do you fear the Styx, the tenebrous shadows, and empty names,
the material of vatic poets, the bugbears of a false world?

155

corpora, sive rogus flamma seu tabe vetustas
abstulerit, mala posse pati non ulla putetis!
morte carent animae semperque priore relicta
sede novis domibus vivunt habitantque receptae:
ipse ego (nam memini) Troiani tempore belli

bodies, whether the pyre’s flame or the decay of age has carried them off, do not suppose that they can suffer any evils!
souls are without death and always, the former seat left behind,
live and dwell, received into new homes:
I myself (for I remember) in the time of the Trojan war

160

Panthoides Euphorbus eram, cui pectore quondam
haesit in adverso gravis hasta minoris Atridae;
cognovi clipeum, laevae gestamina nostrae,
nuper Abanteis templo Iunonis in Argis!
omnia mutantur, nihil interit: errat et illinc

I was Euphorbus, Panthoides, in whose breast once
the heavy spear of the younger Atrides stuck, right in front;
I recognized the shield, the gear of my left hand,
recently in Argos, in the Abantean temple of Juno!
all things are changed, nothing perishes: it strays even from there

165

huc venit, hinc illuc, et quoslibet occupat artus
spiritus eque feris humana in corpora transit
inque feras noster, nec tempore deperit ullo,
utque novis facilis signatur cera figuris
nec manet ut fuerat nec formam servat eandem,

it comes here, from here there, and occupies whatever limbs;
and the spirit from the wild beasts passes into human bodies,
and into beasts ours, nor does it perish at any time,
and as pliant wax is marked with new figures
it neither remains as it was nor preserves the same form,

170

sed tamen ipsa eadem est, animam sic semper eandem
esse, sed in varias doceo migrare figuras.
ergo, ne pietas sit victa cupidine ventris,
parcite, vaticinor, cognatas caede nefanda
exturbare animas, nec sanguine sanguis alatur!

but yet itself is the same; thus I teach the soul to be always the same,
but to migrate into various figures.
Therefore, lest piety be conquered by the desire of the belly,
refrain, I prophesy, from driving out kindred souls by nefarious slaughter,
and let blood not be nourished by blood!

175

'Et quoniam magno feror aequore plenaque ventis
vela dedi: nihil est toto, quod perstet, in orbe.
cuncta fluunt, omnisque vagans formatur imago;
ipsa quoque adsiduo labuntur tempora motu,
non secus ac flumen; neque enim consistere flumen

'And since I am borne on the great sea and have set sails filled with winds: there is nothing in the whole orb that persists.
All things flow, and every wandering image is formed;
time itself too glides by with assiduous motion,
no otherwise than a river; for indeed a river cannot stand still

180

nec levis hora potest: sed ut unda inpellitur unda
urgeturque prior veniente urgetque priorem,
tempora sic fugiunt pariter pariterque sequuntur
et nova sunt semper; nam quod fuit ante, relictum est,
fitque, quod haut fuerat, momentaque cuncta novantur.                185
     'Cernis et emensas in lucem tendere noctes,
et iubar hoc nitidum nigrae succedere nocti;
nec color est idem caelo, cum lassa quiete
cuncta iacent media cumque albo Lucifer exit
clarus equo rursusque alius, cum praevia lucis

nor can even a light hour [do so]: but as wave is driven upon wave
and the earlier is pressed by the coming one and in turn presses the one before,
so the times flee equally and equally they follow,
and they are ever new; for what was before has been left behind,
and what had not been becomes, and all the moments are renewed.                185
     'You also see the nights, measured out, stretch toward the light,
and this bright radiance succeed to the black night;
nor is the color the same in the sky, when, with weary repose,
all things lie in the middle and when white Lucifer comes forth,
bright on his steed, and again another, when the forerunner of light—

190

tradendum Phoebo Pallantias inficit orbem.
ipse dei clipeus, terra cum tollitur ima,
mane rubet, terraque rubet cum conditur ima,
candidus in summo est, melior natura quod illic
aetheris est terraeque procul contagia fugit.

Pallantias dyes the orb to be handed over to Phoebus.
the very shield of the god, when it is lifted from the lowest earth,
reddens in the morning, and the earth reddens when it is buried in the lowest;
it is gleaming-white at the summit, because there the nature of aether is better
and it flees far from the contagions of earth.

195

nec par aut eadem nocturnae forma Dianae
esse potest umquam semperque hodierna sequente,
si crescit, minor est, maior, si contrahit orbem.
'Quid? non in species succedere quattuor annum
adspicis, aetatis peragentem imitamina nostrae?

nor can the form of nocturnal Diana be equal or the same ever, and with today always being followed by the next, if she grows, she is smaller; greater, if she contracts her orb.
'What? Do you not see the year pass into four forms, accomplishing the imitations of our age?

200

nam tener et lactens puerique simillimus aevo
vere novo est: tunc herba recens et roboris expers
turget et insolida est et spe delectat agrestes;
omnia tunc florent, florumque coloribus almus
ludit ager, neque adhuc virtus in frondibus ulla est.

for tender and milk-suckling and most like to a boy in age
is the new spring: then the fresh grass, lacking in strength,
swells and is unsolid and with hope delights the rustics;
then all things flower, and with the colors of flowers the fostering
field plays, nor yet is there any vigor in the leaves.

205

transit in aestatem post ver robustior annus
fitque valens iuvenis: neque enim robustior aetas
ulla nec uberior, nec quae magis ardeat, ulla est.
excipit autumnus, posito fervore iuventae
maturus mitisque inter iuvenemque senemque

after spring the year passes into a more robust summer
and becomes a vigorous youth: for no age
is more robust, nor more fruitful, nor any that burns more.
autumn succeeds, the fervor of youth set aside,
mature and mild, between the young man and the old man

210

temperie medius, sparsus quoque tempora canis.
inde senilis hiems tremulo venit horrida passu,
aut spoliata suos, aut, quos habet, alba capillos.
'Nostra quoque ipsorum semper requieque sine ulla
corpora vertuntur, nec quod fuimusve sumusve,

middle in temper, his temples too sprinkled with white hairs.
then senile winter comes, horrid with a tremulous step,
either despoiled of its own, or, those which it has, white hairs.
'Our bodies too—our very selves—are always being changed, and without any respite
are turned; nor are we what we have been or what we are,

215

cras erimus; fuit illa dies, qua semina tantum
spesque hominum primae matris latitavimus alvo:
artifices natura manus admovit et angi
corpora visceribus distentae condita matris
noluit eque domo vacuas emisit in auras.

tomorrow we shall be; that was the day, on which, only seeds and the hope of men, we lay hidden in the womb of the primal mother:
Nature moved her artificer hands and did not wish the bodies, stowed in the viscera of the distended mother, to be constricted, and from the home sent them forth into the empty airs.

220

editus in lucem iacuit sine viribus infans;
mox quadrupes rituque tulit sua membra ferarum,
paulatimque tremens et nondum poplite firmo
constitit adiutis aliquo conamine nervis.
inde valens veloxque fuit spatiumque iuventae

brought forth into the light, the infant lay without strength;
soon, four-footed and in the manner of wild beasts, he bore his own limbs,
and little by little, trembling and with the knee not yet firm,
he stood, his sinews aided by some endeavor.
thence he was valiant and swift, and the span of youth

225

transit et emeritis medii quoque temporis annis
labitur occiduae per iter declive senectae.
subruit haec aevi demoliturque prioris
robora: fletque Milon senior, cum spectat inanes
illos, qui fuerant solidorum mole tororum

he passes on too, with the years of the middle time now served out,
he slips along the sloping path of setting old age.
this undermines and demolishes the strengths of the earlier age:
and old Milo weeps, when he beholds empty
those which had been of the mass of solid muscles

230

Herculeis similes, fluidos pendere lacertos;
flet quoque, ut in speculo rugas adspexit aniles,
Tyndaris et secum, cur sit bis rapta, requirit.
tempus edax rerum, tuque, invidiosa vetustas,
omnia destruitis vitiataque dentibus aevi

like those of Hercules, the slack upper arms hanging;
he weeps also, when he beheld in the mirror the old-womanish wrinkles,
and the Tyndarid asks herself why she has been twice carried off.
Time, devourer of things, and you, invidious old age,
you destroy all things and vitiate them with the teeth of age

235

paulatim lenta consumitis omnia morte!
'Haec quoque non perstant, quae nos elementa vocamus,
quasque vices peragant, animos adhibete: docebo.
quattuor aeternus genitalia corpora mundus
continet; ex illis duo sunt onerosa suoque

little by little you consume all things with slow death!
'These too do not persist, which we call elements,
and what vicissitudes they pass through, apply your minds: I will teach.
the eternal world contains four generative bodies;
it contains them; of these, two are onerous and by their own

240

pondere in inferius, tellus atque unda, feruntur,
et totidem gravitate carent nulloque premente
alta petunt, aer atque aere purior ignis.
quae quamquam spatio distent, tamen omnia fiunt
ex ipsis et in ipsa cadunt: resolutaque tellus

Earth and wave are borne downward by their weight,
and just as many lack gravity, and with nothing pressing
seek the heights, air and fire purer than air.
Which, although they are distant in space, nevertheless all things are made
from them and fall back into them: and the earth, dissolved

245

in liquidas rarescit aquas, tenuatus in auras
aeraque umor abit, dempto quoque pondere rursus
in superos aer tenuissimus emicat ignes;
inde retro redeunt, idemque retexitur ordo.
ignis enim densum spissatus in aera transit,

it rarefies into liquid waters, and, attenuated into breezes,
the moisture departs into the air; and, with the weight removed as well, again
the most tenuous air darts up into the upper fires;
thence they return back, and the same order is re-woven.
for fire, having been thickened, passes into dense air,

250

hic in aquas, tellus glomerata cogitur unda.
'Nec species sua cuique manet, rerumque novatrix
ex aliis alias reparat natura figuras:
nec perit in toto quicquam, mihi credite, mundo,
sed variat faciemque novat, nascique vocatur

here into waters; the earth, massed, is driven together by the wave.
'Nor does its own species remain to each, and Nature, innovatrix of things,
from others restores other figures:
nor does anything perish in the whole world, believe me,
but she varies and renews the face, and to be born is called

255

incipere esse aliud, quam quod fuit ante, morique
desinere illud idem. cum sint huc forsitan illa,
haec translata illuc, summa tamen omnia constant.
'Nil equidem durare diu sub imagine eadem
crediderim: sic ad ferrum venistis ab auro,

to begin to be other than what it was before, and to die
to cease to be that same thing. since perhaps those things are here,
these transferred there, yet in sum all things remain constant.
'Nothing indeed would I believe to endure for long under the same image:
thus you have come to iron from gold,

260

saecula, sic totiens versa est fortuna locorum.
vidi ego, quod fuerat quondam solidissima tellus,
esse fretum, vidi factas ex aequore terras;
et procul a pelago conchae iacuere marinae,
et vetus inventa est in montibus ancora summis;

ages, thus so often has the fortune of places been turned.
I myself have seen what once had been the most solid land
be a strait; I have seen lands made out of the level sea;
and far from the deep, marine shells have lain,
and an ancient anchor has been found on the highest mountains;

265

quodque fuit campus, vallem decursus aquarum
fecit, et eluvie mons est deductus in aequor,
eque paludosa siccis humus aret harenis,
quaeque sitim tulerant, stagnata paludibus ument.
hic fontes natura novos emisit, at illic

and what was a plain, the running-down of waters made a valley,
and by outwashing a mountain has been drawn down into the level,
and out of marshland the ground parches into dry sands,
and those which had borne thirst, made stagnant by marshes, grow moist.
here nature has sent forth new springs, but there

270

clausit, et aut imis commota tremoribus orbis
flumina prosiliunt, aut exsiccata residunt.
sic ubi terreno Lycus est epotus hiatu,
existit procul hinc alioque renascitur ore;
sic modo conbibitur, tecto modo gurgite lapsus

she shut them in, and either, stirred by tremors in the deepest parts of the world,
rivers leap forth, or, dried out, they subside.
thus, when the Lycus has been drunk up by an earthen chasm,
it emerges far from here and is reborn from another mouth;
thus now it is drunk in, now, having slipped with its whirlpool roofed over

275

redditur Argolicis ingens Erasinus in arvis,
et Mysum capitisque sui ripaeque prioris
paenituisse ferunt, alia nunc ire Caicum;
nec non Sicanias volvens Amenanus harenas
nunc fluit, interdum suppressis fontibus aret.

the mighty Erasinus is returned in the Argolic fields,
and they report that the Mysus has repented of its head and its former bank,
and that now the Caicus goes by another way;
nor is it otherwise with the Amenanus, rolling Sicanian sands,
now it flows, sometimes with its springs suppressed it is parched.

280

ante bibebatur, nunc, quas contingere nolis,
fundit Anigrus aquas, postquam, nisi vatibus omnis
eripienda fides, illic lavere bimembres
vulnera, clavigeri quae fecerat Herculis arcus.
quid? non et Scythicis Hypanis de montibus ortus,

formerly it was drunk; now the Anigrus pours waters which you would not wish to touch,
after—unless all trust is to be snatched from the vates—there the two‑formed washed
the wounds which the bow of club‑bearing Hercules had made.
What? Does not even the Hypanis, sprung from Scythian mountains,

285

qui fuerat dulcis, salibus vitiatur amaris?
'Fluctibus ambitae fuerant Antissa Pharosque
et Phoenissa Tyros: quarum nunc insula nulla est.
Leucada continuam veteres habuere coloni:
nunc freta circueunt; Zancle quoque iuncta fuisse

which had been sweet is vitiated by bitter salts?
'Antissa and Pharos and Phoenician Tyre had been encircled by waves:
of which now not one island exists.
Leucada the ancient colonists held as continuous;
now the straits go around it; Zancle too was once joined

290

dicitur Italiae, donec confinia pontus
abstulit et media tellurem reppulit unda;
si quaeras Helicen et Burin, Achaidas urbes,
invenies sub aquis, et adhuc ostendere nautae
inclinata solent cum moenibus oppida mersis.

it is said to have been of Italy, until the sea removed the boundaries and a wave in the midst drove back the land; if you seek Helice and Bura, Achaian cities, you will find them beneath the waters, and even now sailors are accustomed to point out the tilted towns with their walls submerged.

295

est prope Pittheam tumulus Troezena, sine ullis
arduus arboribus, quondam planissima campi
area, nunc tumulus; nam (res horrenda relatu)
vis fera ventorum, caecis inclusa cavernis,
exspirare aliqua cupiens luctataque frustra 300
liberiore frui caelo, cum carcere rima
nulla foret toto nec pervia flatibus esset,
extentam tumefecit humum, ceu spiritus oris
tendere vesicam solet aut derepta bicorni
terga capro; tumor ille loci permansit et alti

there is near Pitthean Troezen a tumulus, steep without any
trees, once a most level area of the plain,
now a tumulus; for (a thing horrible to relate)
the wild force of the winds, shut in blind caverns,
wishing to breathe out somehow and having struggled in vain 300
to enjoy a freer sky, since in the whole prison there was no
crack and it was not passable to blasts,
swelled the stretched-out ground, as the breath of the mouth
is wont to stretch a bladder, or the hides torn from a two-horned
goat; that swelling of the place has persisted and is high

305

collis habet speciem longoque induruit aevo.
'Plurima cum subeant audita et cognita nobis,
pauca super referam. quid?

it has the appearance of a hill and has hardened through long age.
'Although very many things, heard and known by us, come to mind,
I will relate a few besides. What?

non et lympha figuras
datque capitque novas? medio tua, corniger Ammon,
unda die gelida est, ortuque obituque calescit,

does not the water also give and take new forms?
and in the middle of the day, horn-bearing Ammon, your wave is chilly,
and at sunrise and at sunset it grows warm,

310

admotis Athamanas aquis accendere lignum
narratur, minimos cum luna recessit in orbes.
flumen habent Cicones, quod potum saxea reddit
viscera, quod tactis inducit marmora rebus;
Crathis et huic Subaris nostris conterminus oris

it is narrated that the Athamanians, with waters applied, kindle wood,
when the moon has withdrawn into its least orbs.
the Cicones have a river which, when drunk, renders the viscera stony,
which, upon things touched, lays on marble;
Crathis and to this Subaris, contiguous with our shores

315

electro similes faciunt auroque capillos;
quodque magis mirum est, sunt, qui non corpora tantum,
verum animos etiam valeant mutare liquores:
cui non audita est obscenae Salmacis undae
Aethiopesque lacus? quos si quis faucibus hausit,

they make the hair similar to amber and to gold;
and what is more marvelous, there are liquids that are able to change not only bodies,
but even minds as well: who has not heard of the obscene wave of Salmacis
and the lakes of the Ethiopians? which, if anyone has gulped them down with his throat,

320

aut furit aut patitur mirum gravitate soporem;
Clitorio quicumque sitim de fonte levavit,
vina fugit gaudetque meris abstemius undis,
seu vis est in aqua calido contraria vino,
sive, quod indigenae memorant, Amythaone natus,

either he raves or undergoes a wondrous slumber by heaviness;
whoever has lightened thirst from the Clitorian spring,
shuns wines and, abstemious, rejoices in mere waters,
whether the force in the water is contrary to hot wine,
or, as the natives recount, the son of Amythaon,

325

Proetidas attonitas postquam per carmen et herbas
eripuit furiis, purgamina mentis in illas
misit aquas, odiumque meri permansit in undis.
huic fluit effectu dispar Lyncestius amnis,
quem quicumque parum moderato gutture traxit,

After he had snatched the Proetides, thunder-struck, from their frenzies by charm and herbs,
he sent the purgations of the mind into those waters, and the hatred of mere wine remained in the waves.
To this there flows, unlike in effect, the Lyncestian river,
which whoever has drawn it down with a not-so-moderate throat,

330

haut aliter titubat, quam si mera vina bibisset.
est locus Arcadiae, Pheneon dixere priores,
ambiguis suspectus aquis, quas nocte timeto:
nocte nocent potae, sine noxa luce bibuntur;
sic alias aliasque lacus et flumina vires

he totters no otherwise than if he had drunk unmixed wine.
there is a place of Arcadia, which the ancients called Pheneon,
under suspicion for its ambiguous waters—fear them at night:
at night, when drunk, they do harm; in the light they are drunk without harm;
thus different lakes and rivers have different powers

335

concipiunt.++tempusque fuit, quo navit in undis,
nunc sedet Ortygie; timuit concursibus Argo
undarum sparsas Symplegadas elisarum,
quae nunc inmotae perstant ventisque resistunt.
nec quae sulphureis ardet fornacibus Aetne,

they take on.++and there was a time when it navigated on the waves,
now it sits at Ortygia; Argo feared, at the concourses of the waves,
the Symplegades strewn with shattered waters,
which now stand fast unmoved and resist the winds.
nor does Aetna, which burns with sulphurous furnaces,

340

ignea semper erit, neque enim fuit ignea semper.
nam sive est animal tellus et vivit habetque
spiramenta locis flammam exhalantia multis,
spirandi mutare vias, quotiensque movetur,
has finire potest, illas aperire cavernas;

it will always be fiery, for indeed it was not always fiery.
for whether the earth is an animate thing and lives and has
spiraments in many places exhaling flame,
it can change the ways of breathing, and whenever it is moved,
it can close these caverns and open those;

345

sive leves imis venti cohibentur in antris
saxaque cum saxis et habentem semina flammae
materiam iactant, ea concipit ictibus ignem,
antra relinquentur sedatis frigida ventis;
sive bitumineae rapiunt incendia vires,

whether light winds are confined in the deepest caverns,
and they hurl rocks against rocks and the material holding the seeds of flame,
that, by the blows, conceives fire,
the caves will be left cold with the winds calmed;
or the conflagrations seize bituminous forces,

350

luteave exiguis ardescunt sulphura fumis,
nempe, ubi terra cibos alimentaque pinguia flammae
non dabit absumptis per longum viribus aevum,
naturaeque suum nutrimen deerit edaci,
non feret illa famem desertaque deseret ignis.

or luteous sulphurs kindle with scanty fumes,
indeed, where the earth will not give to the flame foods and rich, fat aliments
with its forces consumed through a long age,
and for its edacious nature its own nutriment will be lacking,
it will not endure hunger, and, deserted, the fire will desert.

355

'Esse viros fama est in Hyperborea Pallene,
qui soleant levibus velari corpora plumis,
cum Tritoniacam noviens subiere paludem;
haut equidem credo: sparsae quoque membra venenis
exercere artes Scythides memorantur easdem.

'There is a report that in Hyperborean Pallene there are men,
who are wont to veil their bodies with light feathers,
when they have gone down nine times beneath the Tritonian marsh;
not, indeed, do I believe it: the Scythian women too
are said to exercise the same arts, their limbs besprinkled with venoms.

360

'Siqua fides rebus tamen est addenda probatis,
nonne vides, quaecumque mora fluidove calore
corpora tabuerint, in parva animalia verti?
in scrobe deiecto mactatos obrue tauros
(cognita res usu): de putri viscere passim

'If any faith is nevertheless to be added to things proven,
do you not see that whatever bodies have melted away by delay or by fluid heat
are turned into small animals?
in a dug-out pit bury slaughtered bulls
(a matter known by experience): from the rotten flesh everywhere

365

florilegae nascuntur apes, quae more parentum
rura colunt operique favent in spemque laborant.
pressus humo bellator equus crabronis origo est;
concava litoreo si demas bracchia cancro,
cetera supponas terrae, de parte sepulta

flower-gleaning bees are born, who in the manner of their parents
cultivate the fields and favor the work and labor in hope.
a war-horse pressed with soil is the origin of the hornet;
if you remove the concave arms from a littoral crab,
and put the rest under the earth, from the buried part

370

scorpius exibit caudaque minabitur unca;
quaeque solent canis frondes intexere filis
agrestes tineae (res observata colonis)
ferali mutant cum papilione figuram.
'Semina limus habet virides generantia ranas,

a scorpion will come forth and will menace with its hooked tail;
and those which are wont to weave leaves with hoary threads
the rustic moths (a thing observed by farmers)
change their form into a funereal butterfly.
'The mud has seeds generating green frogs,

375

et generat truncas pedibus, mox apta natando
crura dat, utque eadem sint longis saltibus apta,
posterior partes superat mensura priores.
nec catulus, partu quem reddidit ursa recenti,
sed male viva caro est; lambendo mater in artus

and it generates them truncated of feet; soon it gives legs apt for swimming, and, that these same may be apt for long leaps, the posterior parts surpass the prior in measure.
nor is the whelp, whom the bear brought forth in a recent birth, a cub, but is ill-living flesh; by licking the mother [forms it] into limbs

380

fingit et in formam, quantam capit ipse, reducit.
nonne vides, quos cera tegit sexangula fetus
melliferarum apium sine membris corpora nasci
et serosque pedes serasque adsumere pennas?
Iunonis volucrem, quae cauda sidera portat,

she shapes it and brings it back into a form, as much as it itself can admit.
do you not see that the offspring whom the six-angled wax covers
of the honey-bearing bees are born bodies without limbs
and take on tardy feet and tardy wings?
Juno’s bird, which carries stars upon its tail,

385

armigerumque Iovis Cythereiadasque columbas
et genus omne avium mediis e partibus ovi,
ni sciret fieri, fieri quis posse putaret?
sunt qui, cum clauso putrefacta est spina sepulcro,
mutari credant humanas angue medullas.

and Jove’s armiger and the Cythereian doves
and every genus of birds from the middle parts of the egg,
unless one knew it to happen, who would think it could happen?
there are those who believe that, when a spine has putrefied in a closed sepulcher, human marrows are changed into a snake.

390

'Haec tamen ex aliis generis primordia ducunt,
una est, quae reparet seque ipsa reseminet, ales:
Assyrii phoenica vocant; non fruge neque herbis,
sed turis lacrimis et suco vivit amomi.
haec ubi quinque suae conplevit saecula vitae,

'Yet these derive the first-beginnings of their kind from others;
there is one, a bird, which renews and reseeds itself:
the Assyrians call it the phoenix; not on grain nor on herbs,
but on the tears of frankincense and the juice of amomum it lives.
when this one has completed five ages of its life,

395

ilicet in ramis tremulaeque cacumine palmae
unguibus et puro nidum sibi construit ore,
quo simul ac casias et nardi lenis aristas
quassaque cum fulva substravit cinnama murra,
se super inponit finitque in odoribus aevum.

straightway on the branches and on the crest of the trembling palm
with its claws and pure beak it builds a nest for itself,
in which, as soon as it has strewed cassia and the gentle spikes of nard,
and has underlaid shaken cinnamon together with tawny myrrh,
it sets itself upon it and finishes its age in perfumes.

400

inde ferunt, totidem qui vivere debeat annos,
corpore de patrio parvum phoenica renasci;
cum dedit huic aetas vires, onerique ferendo est,
ponderibus nidi ramos levat arboris altae
fertque pius cunasque suas patriumque sepulcrum

then they report that a small Phoenix—who ought to live just as many years—is reborn from the paternal body;
when time has given this one strength, and he is fit for bearing the burden,
with the weights of the nest he raises the branches of the lofty tree
and, pious, he carries both his own cradle and the paternal sepulcher

405

perque leves auras Hyperionis urbe potitus
ante fores sacras Hyperionis aede reponit.
     'Si tamen est aliquid mirae novitatis in istis,
alternare vices et, quae modo femina tergo
passa marem est, nunc esse marem miremur hyaenam;                410
id quoque, quod ventis animal nutritur et aura,
protinus adsimulat, tetigit quoscumque colores.
victa racemifero lyncas dedit India Baccho:
e quibus, ut memorant, quicquid vesica remisit,
vertitur in lapides et congelat aere tacto.

and, borne through light breezes, having taken possession of Hyperion’s city,
he sets it down before the sacred doors in the temple of Hyperion.
'If, however, there is anything of wondrous novelty in these things,
let us marvel at the hyena alternating its turns, and that she who just now as a female
endured a male on her back is now a male; 410
also, that the animal nourished by the winds and by air,
immediately mimics whatever colors it has touched.
India, conquered, gave lynxes to the grape-cluster-bearing Bacchus:
from which, as they relate, whatever the bladder discharged
is turned into stones and congeals upon contact with the air.'

415

sic et curalium quo primum contigit auras
tempore, durescit: mollis fuit herba sub undis.
'Desinet ante dies et in alto Phoebus anhelos
aequore tinguet equos, quam consequar omnia verbis
in species translata novas: sic tempora verti

so too the coral, which, as soon as it first touched the breezes,
with time, hardens: it was a soft herb beneath the waves.
'Day will cease sooner, and in the deep Phoebus will dip his panting
horses in the sea, than I can follow everything with words
translated into new forms: thus are the times turned

420

cernimus atque illas adsumere robora gentes,
concidere has; sic magna fuit censuque virisque
perque decem potuit tantum dare sanguinis annos,
nunc humilis veteres tantummodo Troia ruinas
et pro divitiis tumulos ostendit avorum.

we discern, too, that some peoples take on strength,
these collapse; thus she was great in census and in men,
and for ten years could give so much of blood,
now humble Troy shows only ancient ruins
and, in place of riches, the tombs of her forefathers.

425

clara fuit Sparte, magnae viguere Mycenae,
nec non et Cecropis, nec non Amphionis arces.
vile solum Sparte est, altae cecidere Mycenae,
Oedipodioniae quid sunt, nisi nomina, Thebae?
quid Pandioniae restant, nisi nomen, Athenae?

Sparta was illustrious, great Mycenae flourished,
and likewise the citadels of Cecrops, likewise those of Amphion.
the soil of Sparta is of little worth, lofty Mycenae have fallen,
what are Oedipodean Thebes, if not names?
what of Pandionian Athens remains, if not the name?

430

nunc quoque Dardaniam fama est consurgere Romam,
Appenninigenae quae proxima Thybridis undis
mole sub ingenti rerum fundamina ponit:
haec igitur formam crescendo mutat et olim
inmensi caput orbis erit! sic dicere vates

Now too it is the report that Dardanian Rome is rising up,
which, nearest to the Apennine-born waves of the Tiber,
beneath a huge mole sets the fundaments of affairs:
therefore this city by growing changes its form, and one day
it will be the head of the immense orb! thus do the vates say

435

faticinasque ferunt sortes, quantumque recordor,
Priamides Helenus flenti dubioque salutis

and they report the fatidical lots, and, as far as I recall,
the Priamid Helenus to one weeping and doubtful of safety

438

dixerat Aeneae, cum res Troiana labaret:

had said to Aeneas, when the Trojan state was tottering:

437

"nate dea, si nota satis praesagia nostrae

"son of the goddess, if the presages of our mind are sufficiently known

439

mentis habes, non tota cadet te sospite Troia!
flamma tibi ferrumque dabunt iter: ibis et una
Pergama rapta feres, donec Troiaeque tibique
externum patria contingat amicius arvum,
urbem et iam cerno Phrygios debere nepotes,
quanta nec est nec erit nec visa prioribus annis.

You have your wits; with you safe, Troy will not fall in its entirety!
Flame and iron will give you a way: you will go, and together
you will carry off Pergama, snatched away, until both for Troy and for you
there shall befall a foreign field more friendly than the fatherland,
and I already discern that a city is owed to the Phrygian descendants,
such as neither is nor will be nor has been seen in earlier years.

445

hanc alii proceres per saecula longa potentem,
sed dominam rerum de sanguine natus Iuli
efficiet, quo cum tellus erit usa, fruentur
aetheriae sedes, caelumque erit exitus illi."
haec Helenum cecinisse penatigero Aeneae

this one other nobles will make powerful through long ages,
but one born from the blood of Iulus will make her the mistress of affairs;
when the earth shall have enjoyed him, the ethereal seats will enjoy him,
and heaven will be his exit."
that Helenus had sung these things to Penate-bearing Aeneas

450

mente memor refero cognataque moenia laetor
crescere et utiliter Phrygibus vicisse Pelasgos.
'Ne tamen oblitis ad metam tendere longe
exspatiemur equis, caelum et quodcumque sub illo est,
inmutat formas, tellusque et quicquid in illa est.

mindful, I relate, and I rejoice that the kindred walls
grow, and that, to the advantage of the Phrygians, the Pelasgians have been conquered.
'Yet lest, with the horses forgotten, we wander far while aiming toward the goal,
the sky and whatever is under it changes forms, and the earth and whatever is in it.

455

nos quoque, pars mundi, quoniam non corpora solum,
verum etiam volucres animae sumus, inque ferinas
possumus ire domos pecudumque in pectora condi,
corpora, quae possint animas habuisse parentum
aut fratrum aut aliquo iunctorum foedere nobis

we too, a part of the world, since we are not bodies only,
but also winged souls, and we can go into wild creatures’ homes
and be enclosed in the breasts of herd-animals, bodies that could have held
the souls of parents or of brothers or of those joined to us by some bond

460

aut hominum certe, tuta esse et honesta sinamus
neve Thyesteis cumulemus viscera mensis!
quam male consuescit, quem se parat ille cruori
inpius humano, vituli qui guttura ferro
rumpit et inmotas praebet mugitibus aures,

or at least, those of men, let us allow to be safe and honorable
and let us not heap up viscera upon Thyestean tables!
how ill he grows accustomed, that impious man who prepares himself for human gore,
who with iron ruptures the throat of a calf
and offers unmoved ears to its lowings,

465

aut qui vagitus similes puerilibus haedum
edentem iugulare potest aut alite vesci,
cui dedit ipse cibos! quantum est, quod desit in istis
ad plenum facinus? quo transitus inde paratur?
bos aret aut mortem senioribus inputet annis,

or he who can jugulate a kid uttering cries like those of children,
as it eats, or feed on a bird to which he himself gave food!
how little is there that is lacking in these to a full crime?
to what passage beyond is the crossing from there being prepared?
let the ox plow, or let him impute its death to more senior years,

470

horriferum contra borean ovis arma ministret,
ubera dent saturae manibus pressanda capellae!
retia cum pedicis laqueosque artesque dolosas
tollite! nec volucrem viscata fallite virga
nec formidatis cervos includite pinnis

let the sheep furnish arms against the horror-bearing Boreas,
let the well-fed she-goats give udders to be pressed by hands!
take away the nets with fetters, the nooses, and the wily arts,
nor deceive the bird with a bird-limed rod,
nor enclose the stags with dreaded pennons

475

nec celate cibis uncos fallacibus hamos;
perdite siqua nocent, verum haec quoque perdite tantum:
ora cruore vacent alimentaque mitia carpant!'
Talibus atque aliis instructo pectore dictis
in patriam remeasse ferunt ultroque petitum

nor conceal with deceptive foods the barbed hooks;
destroy whatever is noxious, yet these too destroy only so far:
let mouths be free from gore and let them pluck gentle aliments!'
With his breast instructed by such and other sayings
they report that he returned to his fatherland and that he was sought out unbidden

480

accepisse Numam populi Latialis habenas.
coniuge qui felix nympha ducibusque Camenis
sacrificos docuit ritus gentemque feroci
adsuetam bello pacis traduxit ad artes.
qui postquam senior regnumque aevumque peregit,

that Numa received the reins of the Latin people.
who, happy with a nymph as spouse and with the Camenae as guides,
taught sacrificial rites and led the fierce nation
accustomed to war over to the arts of peace.
who, after, as an elder, he completed both his reign and his lifetime,

485

exstinctum Latiaeque nurus populusque patresque
deflevere Numam; nam coniunx urbe relicta
vallis Aricinae densis latet abdita silvis
sacraque Oresteae gemitu questuque Dianae
inpedit. a! quotiens nymphae nemorisque lacusque,

the Latin brides and the people and the fathers bewailed Numa, extinct;
for his spouse, with the city left behind,
lies hidden, concealed in the valley of Aricia’s dense woods,
and with groan and lament she hinders the sacred rites of Orestian Diana.
ah! how often the nymphs and the lakes of the grove,

490

ne faceret, monuere et consolantia verba
dixerunt! quotiens flenti Theseius heros
'siste modum,' dixit 'neque enim fortuna querenda
sola tua est; similes aliorum respice casus:
mitius ista feres, utinamque exempla dolentem

not to do it, they warned, and consolatory words
they said! How often to the weeping one the Theseian hero
“set a limit,” he said, “for your fortune is not the only one
to be lamented; look upon the like cases of others:
you will bear these things more mildly, and would that examples might soothe the grieving one

495

non mea te possent relevare! sed et mea possunt.
'Fando aliquem Hippolytum vestras si contigit aures
credulitate patris, sceleratae fraude novercae
occubuisse neci, mirabere, vixque probabo,
sed tamen ille ego sum. me Pasiphaeia quondam

would that examples might relieve you in your grief—if only not my own! yet even my own can.
'If by report it has touched your ears that a certain Hippolytus, through a father’s credulity, through the wicked fraud of a stepmother, has fallen to death, you will marvel, and I will scarcely prove it, yet I am that man. Me the Pasiphaean once

500

temptatum frustra patrium temerare cubile,
quod voluit, finxit voluisse et, crimine verso
(indiciine metu magis offensane repulsae?)
damnavit, meritumque nihil pater eicit urbe
hostilique caput prece detestatur euntis.

having attempted in vain to defile the paternal bed,
what she wished, she feigned that he had wished; and, the charge reversed
(whether more from fear of detection, or offended by rejection?)
she condemned him, and his father, though he had merited nothing, casts him out of the city
and with a hostile prayer curses the head of the one departing.

505

Pittheam profugo curru Troezena petebam
iamque Corinthiaci carpebam litora ponti,
cum mare surrexit, cumulusque inmanis aquarum
in montis speciem curvari et crescere visus
et dare mugitus summoque cacumine findi;

I, a refugee, was making for Pitthean Troezen by chariot,
and already I was traversing the shores of the Corinthian sea,
when the sea rose, and an immense heap of waters
seemed to curve into the likeness of a mountain and to grow,
and to give bellowings and to split at its topmost summit;

510

corniger hinc taurus ruptis expellitur undis
pectoribusque tenus molles erectus in auras
naribus et patulo partem maris evomit ore.
corda pavent comitum, mihi mens interrita mansit
exiliis contenta suis, cum colla feroces

from here a horn-bearing bull is expelled from the rent waves
and, raised into the soft airs up to his chest,
from his nostrils and gaping mouth he vomits forth a portion of the sea.
the hearts of my companions quake; my mind remained un-terrified,
content with its own exiles, when the fierce their necks

515

ad freta convertunt adrectisque auribus horrent
quadrupedes monstrique metu turbantur et altis
praecipitant currum scopulis; ego ducere vana
frena manu spumis albentibus oblita luctor
et retro lentas tendo resupinus habenas.

they turn toward the straits, and with ears erect they bristle;
the quadrupeds, by dread of the monster, are perturbed, and from high
crags they precipitate the chariot; i strive to guide the futile
reins with my hand, smeared with whitening spume, i struggle,
and, thrown back, i stretch the pliant reins backward.

520

nec tamen has vires rabies superasset equorum,
ni rota, perpetuum qua circumvertitur axem,
stipitis occursu fracta ac disiecta fuisset.
excutior curru, lorisque tenentibus artus
viscera viva trahi, nervos in stipe teneri, 525
membra rapi partim partimque reprensa relinqui,
ossa gravem dare fracta sonum fessamque videres
exhalari animam nullasque in corpore partes,
noscere quas posses: unumque erat omnia vulnus.
num potes aut audes cladi conponere nostrae,

nor yet would the frenzy of the horses have overpowered these powers,
if the wheel, by which it is turned around the perpetual axis,
had not been broken and scattered by the encounter with a stake.
I am thrown from the chariot, and with the reins holding my limbs
the living viscera are dragged, the nerves are held on the stake, 525
the members snatched in part and in part, being checked, left behind,
the broken bones give a grave sound, and you might see the weary breath
exhaled, and no parts in the body which you could recognize:
and all was one wound. Can you, or do you dare, to compare to our disaster,

530

nympha, tuam? vidi quoque luce carentia regna
et lacerum fovi Phlegethontide corpus in unda,
nec nisi Apollineae valido medicamine prolis
reddita vita foret; quam postquam fortibus herbis
atque ope Paeonia Dite indignante recepi,

nymph, your own? I also saw the realms lacking light,
and I warmed my torn body in the Phlegethontic wave,
nor would life have been restored except by the strong medicine of Apollo’s offspring;
which, after I recovered by strong herbs
and by Paeonian aid, with Dis indignant,

535

tum mihi, ne praesens augerem muneris huius
invidiam, densas obiecit Cynthia nubes,
utque forem tutus possemque inpune videri,
addidit aetatem nec cognoscenda reliquit
ora mihi Cretenque diu dubitavit habendam

then, lest by being present I augment the envy of this favor,
Cynthia cast dense clouds before me,
and, that I might be safe and could be seen with impunity,
she added age and left my features not to be recognized,
and long she hesitated over Crete to be had.

540

traderet an Delon: Delo Creteque relictis
hic posuit nomenque simul, quod possit equorum
admonuisse, iubet deponere "qui" que "fuisti
Hippolytus," dixit "nunc idem Virbius esto!"
hoc nemus inde colo de disque minoribus unus

or to hand over Delos: with Delos and Crete left behind,
here he placed me, and at the same time the name which could have reminded of horses,
he bids to lay aside; "you who were
Hippolytus," he said, "now be the same, Virbius!"
from then I inhabit this grove and am one of the lesser gods

545

numine sub dominae lateo atque accenseor illi.'
Non tamen Egeriae luctus aliena levare
damna valent; montisque iacens radicibus imis
liquitur in lacrimas, donec pietate dolentis
mota soror Phoebi gelidum de corpore fontem

I lie hidden beneath my mistress’s numen and am enrolled to her.'
Yet the losses of others do not avail to lighten Egeria’s mourning;
lying at the mountain’s deepest roots she melts into tears,
until, moved by the piety of the mourner,
Phoebus’ sister, moved, made an icy-cold spring from her body

550

fecit et aeternas artus tenuavit in undas.
Et nymphas tetigit nova res, et Amazone natus
haut aliter stupuit, quam cum Tyrrhenus arator
fatalem glaebam mediis adspexit in arvis
sponte sua primum nulloque agitante moveri,

she made and attenuated her limbs into eternal waters.
And the new thing touched the nymphs, and the son of the Amazon
was no otherwise stupefied, than when the Tyrrhenian plowman
beheld the fateful clod in the midst of the fields
move of its own accord for the first time, with no one urging it,

555

sumere mox hominis terraeque amittere formam
oraque venturis aperire recentia fatis:
indigenae dixere Tagen, qui primus Etruscam
edocuit gentem casus aperire futuros;
utve Palatinis haerentem collibus olim

to take soon a man’s form and to lose the form of earth,
and to open his fresh lips to the fates that are to come:
the natives called him Tages, who first instructed the Etruscan
nation to lay open the future events;
and as once, clinging to the Palatine hills

560

cum subito vidit frondescere Romulus hastam,
quae radice nova, non ferro stabat adacto
et iam non telum, sed lenti viminis arbor
non exspectatas dabat admirantibus umbras;
aut sua fluminea cum vidit Cipus in unda

when suddenly Romulus saw his spear grow leafy,
which stood by a new root, not by iron driven in,
and now not a weapon, but a tree of pliant osier
was giving unexpected shades to the admiring;
or when Cipus saw his own self in the riverine wave

565

cornua (vidit enim) falsamque in imagine credens
esse fidem, digitis ad frontem saepe relatis,
quae vidit, tetigit, nec iam sua lumina damnans
restitit, ut victor domito remeabat ab hoste,
ad caelumque oculos et eodem bracchia tollens

the horns (for he did see them), and, believing the truth in the image to be false,
with his fingers often brought back to his forehead,
what he saw, he touched, and no longer condemning his own eyes,
he halted; and, as a victor was returning from a subdued foe,
and lifting his eyes to heaven and his arms to the same place,

570

'quicquid,' ait 'superi, monstro portenditur isto,
seu laetum est, patriae laetum populoque Quirini,
sive minax, mihi sit.' viridique e caespite factas
placat odoratis herbosas ignibus aras
vinaque dat pateris mactatarumque bidentum,

'Whatever,' he said, 'O gods above, is portended by this prodigy,
whether it is joyful, let it be joyful for the fatherland and the people of Quirinus,
or if menacing, let it be upon me.' And from green turf
he appeases the grassy altars, made of sod, with fragrant fires,
and gives wines in paterae and the offerings of sacrificed two-year-old sheep,

575

quid sibi significent, trepidantia consulit exta;
quae simul adspexit Tyrrhenae gentis haruspex,
magna quidem rerum molimina vidit in illis,
non manifesta tamen; cum vero sustulit acre
a pecudis fibris ad Cipi cornua lumen,

he consults the trembling entrails as to what they signify for him;
which as soon as the haruspex of the Tyrrhenian nation beheld,
he saw indeed great enterprises of affairs in them,
yet not manifest; but when truly he lifted his keen
gaze from the beast’s fibers to the horns of Cippus,

580

'rex,' ait 'o! salve! tibi enim, tibi, Cipe, tuisque
hic locus et Latiae parebunt cornibus arces.
tu modo rumpe moras portasque intrare patentes
adpropera!

'king,' he says 'O! hail! for to you, to you, Cippus, and to your
horns this place and the Latin citadels will obey.
you only break off delays and hasten to enter the gates standing open
make haste!

sic fata iubent; namque urbe receptus
rex eris et sceptro tutus potiere perenni.'

thus the fates command; for, once received into the city,
you will be king, and, secure, you will possess the perennial scepter.'

585

rettulit ille pedem torvamque a moenibus urbis
avertens faciem 'procul, a! procul omnia' dixit
'talia di pellant! multoque ego iustius aevum
exul agam, quam me videant Capitolia regem.'
dixit et extemplo populumque gravemque senatum

he drew back his foot and, turning his grim face away from the walls of the city,
said, 'Far, ah! far be all such things! May the gods drive such things away! and far more justly will I pass my lifetime as an exile
than that the Capitolia should see me as king.'
he spoke and straightway both the people and the weighty senate

590

convocat, ante tamen pacali cornua lauro
velat et aggeribus factis a milite forti
insistit priscosque deos e more precatus
'est' ait 'hic unus, quem vos nisi pellitis urbe,
rex erit: is qui sit, signo, non nomine dicam:

he convokes; yet before, he veils the horns with peaceful laurel,
and, ramparts having been made by the brave soldiery,
he takes his stand, and, having prayed to the ancient gods in accordance with custom,
'there is,' he says, 'this one man, whom, unless you drive from the city,
he will be king: who he is, I shall tell by a sign, not by name:'

595

cornua fronte gerit! quem vobis indicat augur,
si Romam intrarit, famularia iura daturum.
ille quidem potuit portas inrumpere apertas,
sed nos obstitimus, quamvis coniunctior illo
nemo mihi est: vos urbe virum prohibete, Quirites,

he bears horns on his forehead! whom the augur points out to you,
if he shall have entered Rome, he will give servile laws.
he indeed could have burst through the open gates,
but we stood in the way, although no one is more conjoined to me than he:
you, keep the man from the city, Quirites,

600

vel, si dignus erit, gravibus vincite catenis
aut finite metum fatalis morte tyranni!'
qualia succinctis, ubi trux insibilat eurus,
murmura pinetis fiunt, aut qualia fluctus
aequorei faciunt, siquis procul audiat illos,

or, if he shall be worthy, bind him with heavy chains
or finish the fear by the fated death of the tyrant!'
such murmurs arise in the pine-woods, when the grim East-wind hisses,
or such as the sea-waves make, if anyone from afar should hear them,

605

tale sonat populus; sed per confusa frementis
verba tamen vulgi vox eminet una 'quis ille est?'
et spectant frontes praedictaque cornua quaerunt.
rursus ad hos Cipus 'quem poscitis,' inquit 'habetis'
et dempta capiti populo prohibente corona

so sounds the populace; but through the confused words of the roaring vulgus, one voice nonetheless stands out: 'who is he?'; and they look at the brows and seek the foretold horns. again to these Cipus says, 'whom you demand, you have'; and, the crown removed from his head, the people forbidding it

610

exhibuit gemino praesignia tempora cornu.
demisere oculos omnes gemitumque dedere
atque illud meritis clarum (quis credere possit?)
inviti videre caput: nec honore carere
ulterius passi festam inposuere coronam;

he exhibited on his temples the portents, a twin horn.
all lowered their eyes and gave a groan,
and that, renowned for its merits (who could believe it?)
unwilling they looked upon the head: nor did they allow it to be without honor
any further; they set upon it a festal crown.

615

at proceres, quoniam muros intrare vetaris,
ruris honorati tantum tibi, Cipe, dedere,
quantum depresso subiectis bobus aratro
conplecti posses ad finem lucis ab ortu.
cornuaque aeratis miram referentia formam

but the nobles, since you are forbidden to enter the walls,
gave to you, Cipus, only so much honored countryside,
as much as you could encompass with the plow pressed down
with oxen set beneath, to the end of light from the rising.
and horns reproducing in bronze the wondrous form

620

postibus insculpunt, longum mansura per aevum.
Pandite nunc, Musae, praesentia numina vatum,
(scitis enim, nec vos fallit spatiosa vetustas,)
unde Coroniden circumflua Thybridis alti
insula Romuleae sacris adiecerit urbis.

they engrave on the doorposts, destined to endure for a long age.
Lay open now, Muses, the present divinities of the bards,
(for you know, nor does far‑spreading antiquity deceive you,)
whence the island, the waters of lofty Tiber flowing around it,
has added the son of Coronis to the sacred rites of the Romulean city.

625

Dira lues quondam Latias vitiaverat auras,
pallidaque exsangui squalebant corpora morbo.
funeribus fessi postquam mortalia cernunt
temptamenta nihil, nihil artes posse medentum,
auxilium caeleste petunt mediamque tenentes

A dire pestilence once had tainted the Latian airs,
and pallid bodies were squalid with a bloodless disease.
weary with funerals, after they perceive that mortal attempts
are nothing, that the arts of the medics can do nothing,
they seek celestial aid and, holding the middle

630

orbis humum Delphos adeunt, oracula Phoebi,
utque salutifera miseris succurrere rebus
sorte velit tantaeque urbis mala finiat, orant:
et locus et laurus et, quas habet ipse, pharetrae
intremuere simul, cortinaque reddidit imo

and holding the middle ground of the world, they go to Delphi, the oracles of Phoebus,
and they pray that by lot he may wish to bring salutary succor to their wretched affairs and end the evils of so great a city:
and both the place and the laurel and the quivers which he himself possesses shuddered at once, and the cauldron gave back from its depth

635

hanc adyto vocem pavefactaque pectora movit
'quod petis hinc, propiore loco, Romane, petisses,
et pete nunc propiore loco: nec Apolline vobis,
qui minuat luctus, opus est, sed Apolline nato.
ite bonis avibus prolemque accersite nostram.'

this voice from the adyton stirred their terror-struck hearts:
'what you seek, Roman, you should have sought from here, from a nearer place,
and seek it now from a nearer place: nor do you need Apollo
to lessen your griefs, but Apollo’s son.
go with good auspices and summon our progeny.'

640

iussa dei prudens postquam accepere senatus,
quam colat, explorant, iuvenis Phoebeius urbem,
quique petant ventis Epidauria litora, mittunt;
quae simul incurva missi tetigere carina,
concilium Graiosque patres adiere, darentque,

after the prudent senate had received the god’s commands,
they explore which city the Phoebeian youth should inhabit the city,
and they dispatch those who would make for the Epidaurian shores by the winds;
who, once dispatched, as soon as they touched with the curved keel,
they approached the council and the Graian fathers, and asked that they grant,

645

oravere, deum, qui praesens funera gentis
finiat Ausoniae: certas ita dicere sortes.
dissidet et variat sententia, parsque negandum
non putat auxilium, multi retinere suamque
non emittere opem nec numina tradere suadent:

they prayed the god, that, being present, he might end the funerals of the Ausonian nation:
thus to pronounce sure oracles.
Opinion dissents and varies, and a part does not think aid
should be denied; many advise to retain their own and
not to send forth their help nor to hand over their divinities:

650

dum dubitant, seram pepulere crepuscula lucem;
umbraque telluris tenebras induxerat orbi,
cum deus in somnis opifer consistere visus
ante tuum, Romane, torum, sed qualis in aede
esse solet, baculumque tenens agreste sinistra

while they hesitate, the twilight drove away the late light;
and the earth’s shadow had brought darkness upon the world,
when a help-bringing god seemed in dreams to take his stand
before your couch, Roman, but such as he is wont to be in the temple,
and holding a rustic staff in his left hand

655

caesariem longae dextra deducere barbae
et placido tales emittere pectore voces:
'pone metus! veniam simulacraque nostra relinquam.
hunc modo serpentem, baculum qui nexibus ambit,
perspice et usque nota visu, ut cognoscere possis!

to draw down with his right hand the locks of his long beard
and to emit such voices from a placid breast:
'put aside fear! i will come and i will leave behind our simulacra.
only inspect this serpent, which with coils encircles the staff; look at it and mark it continually by sight, so that you may be able to recognize it!'

660

vertar in hunc: sed maior ero tantusque videbor,
in quantum verti caelestia corpora debent.'
extemplo cum voce deus, cum voce deoque
somnus abit, somnique fugam lux alma secuta est.
postera sidereos aurora fugaverat ignes: 665
incerti, quid agant, proceres ad templa petiti
conveniunt operosa dei, quaque ipse morari
sede velit, signis caelestibus indicet, orant.
vix bene desierant, cum cristis aureus altis
in serpente deus praenuntia sibila misit

I shall turn into this one; but I shall be greater and shall seem so great, in proportion as celestial bodies ought to be transformed.'
at once, with the voice, the god, and with the voice—and the god—sleep departs, and kindly light followed the flight of sleep.
the next dawn had routed the starry fires: 665
uncertain what to do, the nobles resort to the temples and gather at the elaborate shrine of the god, and they pray that by celestial signs he indicate in what seat he himself wishes to tarry.
they had hardly well ceased, when the god, golden with lofty crests, in the serpent sent forth presaging hisses

670

adventuque suo signumque arasque foresque
marmoreumque solum fastigiaque aurea movit
pectoribusque tenus media sublimis in aede
constitit atque oculos circumtulit igne micantes:
territa turba pavet, cognovit numina castos

and by his advent he moved the statue and the altars and the doors
and the marble floor and the golden pediments;
and, up to the breast, lofty in the middle of the temple,
he stood and cast his eyes, flashing with fire, around:
the terrified crowd quakes; the chaste recognized the numen

675

evinctus vitta crines albente sacerdos
et 'deus en, deus est! animis linguisque favete,
quisquis ades!' dixit 'sis, o pulcherrime, visus
utiliter populosque iuves tua sacra colentes!'
quisquis adest, iussum veneratur numen, et omnes

a priest, his hair bound with a white fillet,
and 'Lo, a god, it is a god! Favor with your minds and tongues,
whoever is present!' he said, 'may you, O most beautiful one, be seen
to good effect, and aid the peoples who cultivate your sacred rites!'
whoever is present reveres the numen, as bidden, and all

680

verba sacerdotis referunt geminata piumque
Aeneadae praestant et mente et voce favorem.
adnuit his motisque deus rata pignora cristis
ter repetita dedit vibrata sibila lingua;
tum gradibus nitidis delabitur oraque retro

they repeat the priest’s words redoubled, and the pious
Aeneadae bestow favor both in mind and in voice.
to these the god nodded, and with his crests moved he gave sure tokens,
thrice-repeated hisses with his vibrating tongue;
then he glides down the shining steps and his jaws drawn back

685

flectit et antiquas abiturus respicit aras
adsuetasque domos habitataque templa salutat.
inde per iniectis adopertam floribus ingens
serpit humum flectitque sinus mediamque per urbem
tendit ad incurvo munitos aggere portus.

He bends and, about to depart, looks back at the ancient altars
and he salutes the accustomed homes and the inhabited temples.
Then, huge, he crawls along the ground covered over with flowers cast upon it
and bends his coils and through the middle of the city
he makes for the harbors fortified by a curving rampart.

690

restitit hic agmenque suum turbaeque sequentis
officium placido visus dimittere vultu
corpus in Ausonia posuit rate: numinis illa
sensit onus, pressa estque dei gravitate carina;
Aeneadae gaudent caesoque in litore tauro

here he halted, and seemed with a placid countenance to dismiss his column and the service of the following crowd;
he set his body on an Ausonian raft: that vessel felt the burden of the numen, and the keel was pressed by the god’s gravity;
the Aeneadae rejoice, and on the shore, with a bull slain

695

torta coronatae solvunt retinacula navis.
inpulerat levis aura ratem: deus eminet alte
inpositaque premens puppim cervice recurvam
caeruleas despectat aquas modicisque per aequor
Ionium zephyris sextae Pallantidos ortu

they loosen the twisted retaining-ropes of the garland-crowned ship.
a light breeze had driven the craft: the god towers aloft
and, pressing the recurved stern with his laid-on neck,
he looks down upon the cerulean waters, and with moderate Zephyrs across the Ionian level
at the rising of the sixth Pallantid the ship makes way.

700

Italiam tenuit praeterque Lacinia templo
nobilitate deae Scylaceaque litora fertur;
linquit Iapygiam laevisque Amphrisia remis
saxa fugit, dextra praerupta Cocinthia parte,
Romethiumque legit Caulonaque Naryciamque

He held to Italy, and is borne past the Lacinian temple,
renowned for the goddess, and the Scylacian shores;
he leaves Iapygia, and, sleek, with Amphrysian oars he flees
the rocks, the Cocinthian side precipitous on the right,
and he skirts Romethium and Caulon and Narycia

705

evincitque fretum Siculique angusta Pelori
Hippotadaeque domos regis Temesesque metalla
Leucosiamque petit tepidique rosaria Paesti.
inde legit Capreas promunturiumque Minervae
et Surrentino generosos palmite colles

and he overcomes the strait and the narrows of Sicilian Pelorus
and the dwellings of the king Hippotades and the mines of Temese,
and he makes for Leucosia and the rose-gardens of tepid Paestum.
thence he skirts Capreae and the Promontory of Minerva
and the Surrentine hills noble with vine-shoot

710

Herculeamque urbem Stabiasque et in otia natam
Parthenopen et ab hac Cumaeae templa Sibyllae.
hinc calidi fontes lentisciferumque tenetur
Liternum multamque trahens sub gurgite harenam
Volturnus niveisque frequens Sinuessa columbis

and the Herculean city and Stabiae, and Parthenope born for leisure,
and from this, the temples of the Cumaean Sibyl.
From here lie hot springs, and mastic-bearing Liternum,
and the Volturnus, dragging much sand beneath its surge,
and Sinuessa abounding with snow-white doves.

715

Minturnaeque graves et quam tumulavit alumnus
Antiphataeque domus Trachasque obsessa palude
et tellus Circaea et spissi litoris Antium.
huc ubi veliferam nautae advertere carinam,
(asper enim iam pontus erat), deus explicat orbes

and grave Minturnae, and her whom the foster-son interred,
and the house of Antiphates, and Trachas beleaguered by a marsh,
and the Circaean land, and Antium of the dense littoral.
hither, when the sailors turned the sail-bearing keel,
(for the sea was now rough), the god unfurls the orbs

720

perque sinus crebros et magna volumina labens
templa parentis init flavum tangentia litus.
aequore placato patrias Epidaurius aras
linquit et hospitio iuncti sibi numinis usus
litoream tractu squamae crepitantis harenam

and, gliding with great coils through frequent bays,
he enters the temples of his parent that touch the blond shore.
with the sea placated, the Epidaurian leaves his native altars
and the benefits of a divinity joined to him by hospitality,
and the littoral sand by the drag of his rustling scale.

725

sulcat et innixus moderamine navis in alta
puppe caput posuit, donec Castrumque sacrasque
Lavini sedes Tiberinaque ad ostia venit.
huc omnis populi passim matrumque patrumque
obvia turba ruit, quaeque ignes, Troica, servant,

sulcates, and leaning upon the helm of the ship, on the high
stern he placed his head, until he came to Castrum and the sacred
seats of Lavinium and to the Tiberine mouths.
hither the whole people everywhere, and the crowd of mothers and fathers
coming to meet, rushes, and those who preserve the Trojan fires,

730

Vesta, tuos, laetoque deum clamore salutant.
quaque per adversas navis cita ducitur undas,
tura super ripas aris ex ordine factis
parte ab utraque sonant et odorant aera fumis,
ictaque coniectos incalfacit hostia cultros.

Vesta, they salute what is yours, and with the joyful clamor of the gods they hail.
and wherever the swift ship is led through adverse waves,
incense above the banks, on altars made in a row,
from either side resound and make the air fragrant with fumes,
and the stricken victim warms the knives that have been cast in.

735

iamque caput rerum, Romanam intraverat urbem:
erigitur serpens summoque acclinia malo
colla movet sedesque sibi circumspicit aptas.
scinditur in geminas partes circumfluus amnis
(Insula nomen habet) laterumque a parte duorum

and now, the head of affairs, the Roman city, he had entered:
the serpent is raised, and, leaning to the topmost mast,
he moves his necks and looks around for seats fitting to himself.
the river that flows around is split into twin parts
(it has the name Island), and, on the side of the two banks

740

porrigit aequales media tellure lacertos:
huc se de Latia pinu Phoebeius anguis
contulit et finem specie caeleste resumpta
luctibus inposuit venitque salutifer urbi.
Hic tamen accessit delubris advena nostris:

it stretches out equal arms with land in the middle:
hither the Phoebeian serpent betook himself from the Latin pine,
and, his celestial appearance resumed, he imposed an end on the griefs
and came salutary to the city.
Here, however, as a newcomer he approached our shrines:

745

Caesar in urbe sua deus est; quem Marte togaque
praecipuum non bella magis finita triumphis
resque domi gestae properataque gloria rerum
in sidus vertere novum stellamque comantem,
quam sua progenies; neque enim de Caesaris actis 750
ullum maius opus, quam quod pater exstitit huius:
scilicet aequoreos plus est domuisse Britannos
perque papyriferi septemflua flumina Nili
victrices egisse rates Numidasque rebelles
Cinyphiumque Iubam Mithridateisque tumentem

Caesar in his own city is a god; whom, preeminent in Mars and in the toga,
not so much the wars ended with triumphs
and the affairs done at home and the hastened glory of deeds
turned into a new constellation and a comet-star,
as his own progeny; for indeed from Caesar’s acts 750
there is no greater work than that he stood forth as the father of this man:
surely it is more to have subdued the oceanic Britons
and to have driven victorious vessels through the papyrus-bearing, seven-flowing rivers of the Nile,
and the rebellious Numidians,
and Cinyphian Juba and one swelling with Mithridatic triumphs

755

nominibus Pontum populo adiecisse Quirini
et multos meruisse, aliquos egisse triumphos,
quam tantum genuisse virum, quo praeside rerum
humano generi, superi, favistis abunde!
ne foret hic igitur mortali semine cretus,

to the names of the people of Quirinus, to have added Pontus,
and to have merited many triumphs, to have celebrated some,
than to have begotten so great a man, under whose presidency of affairs
for the human race, O gods above, you have favored abundantly!
therefore, lest this man be begotten from mortal seed,

760

ille deus faciendus erat; quod ut aurea vidit
Aeneae genetrix, vidit quoque triste parari
pontifici letum et coniurata arma moveri,
palluit et cunctis, ut cuique erat obvia, divis
'adspice,' dicebat 'quanta mihi mole parentur

that one had to be made a god; when the golden mother of Aeneas saw this,
she also saw a grim death being prepared for the pontiff and conspired arms being moved;
she grew pale and, to all the gods, as each she encountered,
“look,” she kept saying, “with what a massive burden things are being prepared against me”

765

insidiae, quantaque caput cum fraude petatur,
quod de Dardanio solum mihi restat Iulo.
solane semper ero iustis exercita curis,
quam modo Tydidae Calydonia vulneret hasta,
nunc male defensae confundant moenia Troiae,

the plots, and how greatly the head is sought with fraud—the only thing that remains to me from Dardanian Iulus. Am I alone always to be exercised with just cares, I whom just now the Calydonian spear of the Tydides would wound, now the walls of ill-defended Troy confound,

770

quae videam natum longis erroribus actum
iactarique freto sedesque intrare silentum
bellaque cum Turno gerere, aut, si vera fatemur,
cum Iunone magis? quid nunc antiqua recordor
damna mei generis? timor hic meminisse priorum

Am I to see my son driven by long wanderings,
and to be tossed on the strait, and to enter the seats of the silent,
and to wage wars with Turnus, or, if we confess the truth,
rather with Juno? Why now do I recall the ancient losses
of my race? This fear is to remember former things

775

non sinit; en acui sceleratos cernitis enses.
quos prohibete, precor, facinusque repellite neve
caede sacerdotis flammas exstinguite Vestae!'
Talia nequiquam toto Venus anxia caelo
verba iacit superosque movet, qui rumpere quamquam

does not allow; lo, you perceive I have sharpened criminal swords.
these forbid, I pray, and repel the crime, and do not
extinguish the flames of Vesta with the slaughter of a priest!'
Such words in vain through the whole heaven anxious Venus casts,
and moves the gods above, who, although to break

780

ferrea non possunt veterum decreta sororum,
signa tamen luctus dant haut incerta futuri;
arma ferunt inter nigras crepitantia nubes
terribilesque tubas auditaque cornua caelo
praemonuisse nefas; solis quoque tristis imago

the iron decrees of the ancient sisters cannot be broken,
yet they give signs of grief to come, by no means uncertain;
weapons clattering are borne among black clouds,
and terrible trumpets and horns heard in the sky
have forewarned the unspeakable crime; the sad image of the sun as well

785

lurida sollicitis praebebat lumina terris;
saepe faces visae mediis ardere sub astris,
saepe inter nimbos guttae cecidere cruentae;
caerulus et vultum ferrugine Lucifer atra
sparsus erat, sparsi lunares sanguine currus;

was offering lurid lights to the anxious lands;
often torches were seen to burn beneath the midmost stars,
often amid the clouds bloody drops fell;
and cerulean Lucifer had his face sprinkled with black ferruginous stain,
the lunar chariots, too, were spattered with blood;

790

tristia mille locis Stygius dedit omina bubo,
mille locis lacrimavit ebur, cantusque feruntur
auditi sanctis et verba minantia lucis.
victima nulla litat, magnosque instare tumultus
fibra monet, caesumque caput reperitur in extis,

in a thousand places the Stygian owl gave gloomy omens,
in a thousand places the ivory wept, and songs are reported
to have been heard in sacred groves and menacing words.
no victim secures propitiation, and the fiber warns that great tumults
are at hand, and a severed head is found in the entrails,

795

inque foro circumque domos et templa deorum
nocturnos ululasse canes umbrasque silentum
erravisse ferunt motamque tremoribus urbem.
non tamen insidias venturaque vincere fata
praemonitus potuere deum, strictique feruntur

and in the forum and around the homes and the temples of the gods
they say that dogs howled by night, and that the shades of the silent
wandered, and that the city was moved with tremors.
Yet not even the warnings of the gods could overcome the ambush and the coming fates,
and drawn swords are reported

800

in templum gladii: neque enim locus ullus in urbe
ad facinus diramque placet nisi curia caedem.
tum vero Cytherea manu percussit utraque
pectus et Aeneaden molitur condere nube,
qua prius infesto Paris est ereptus Atridae,

into the temple the swords are borne: for indeed no place at all in the city
appeals for a crime and dire slaughter, save the Curia for a killing.
Then indeed Cytherea struck her breast with both hands
and labors to hide the Aenead in a cloud,
by which previously Paris was snatched from the hostile Atrides,

805

et Diomedeos Aeneas fugerat enses.
talibus hanc genitor: 'sola insuperabile fatum,
nata, movere paras? intres licet ipsa sororum
tecta trium: cernes illic molimine vasto
ex aere et solido rerum tabularia ferro,

and Aeneas had fled the Diomedean swords.
with such words the father to her: “do you, daughter, prepare to move fate, which alone is insuperable?
though you yourself should enter the dwellings of the three sisters,
you will behold there, in a massive structure,
archives of things, from bronze and solid iron,

810

quae neque concursum caeli neque fulminis iram
nec metuunt ullas tuta atque aeterna ruinas;
invenies illic incisa adamante perenni
fata tui generis: legi ipse animoque notavi
et referam, ne sis etiamnum ignara futuri.

which, safe and eternal, neither dread the concourse of heaven nor the wrath of the thunderbolt,
nor any ruins; you will find there the fates of your race incised on everlasting adamant;
I myself have read and noted them in mind
and I will recount them, that you may not even now be ignorant of the future.

815

hic sua conplevit, pro quo, Cytherea, laboras,
tempora, perfectis, quos terrae debuit, annis.
ut deus accedat caelo templisque colatur,
tu facies natusque suus, qui nominis heres
inpositum feret unus onus caesique parentis

here he has fulfilled, on whose behalf, Cytherea, you labor,
his allotted times, with the years completed which he owed to the earth.
that as a god he may approach heaven and be worshiped in temples,
you will bring it to pass, and his own son, who, heir of the name,
will bear alone the imposed burden of his slain parent.

820

nos in bella suos fortissimus ultor habebit.
illius auspiciis obsessae moenia pacem
victa petent Mutinae, Pharsalia sentiet illum,
Emathiique iterum madefient caede Philippi,
et magnum Siculis nomen superabitur undis,

the bravest avenger will have us as his own for wars.
under his auspices the besieged walls of Mutina, conquered, will seek peace,
Pharsalia will feel him,
and Emathian Philippi will again be made wet with slaughter,
and the great name will be overcome on the Sicilian waves,

825

Romanique ducis coniunx Aegyptia taedae
non bene fisa cadet, frustraque erit illa minata,
servitura suo Capitolia nostra Canopo.
quid tibi barbariam gentesque ab utroque iacentes
oceano numerem? quodcunque habitabile tellus

And the Egyptian consort of the Roman leader, not well relying on the wedding-torch, will fall,
and she will have threatened in vain
that our Capitoline would serve her own Canopus.
Why should I number for you Barbaria and the peoples lying by either Ocean,
whatever the earth makes habitable

830

sustinet, huius erit: pontus quoque serviet illi!
'Pace data terris animum ad civilia vertet
iura suum legesque feret iustissimus auctor
exemploque suo mores reget inque futuri
temporis aetatem venturorumque nepotum

whatever the earth sustains as habitable, this will be his: the sea too will serve him!
'With peace given to the lands he will turn his mind to civil laws
and, a most just author, he will enact laws,
and by his own example he will govern morals, and into the future
time’s age and of descendants yet to come

835

prospiciens prolem sancta de coniuge natam
ferre simul nomenque suum curasque iubebit,
nec nisi cum senior meritis aequaverit annos,
aetherias sedes cognataque sidera tanget.
hanc animam interea caeso de corpore raptam

looking ahead to the progeny born from his sacred spouse
he will bid him to bear at once both his name and his cares,
and not until, when as a senior, he shall have matched his years to his merits,
will he touch the ethereal seats and the cognate stars.
meanwhile this spirit, snatched from the hewn body

840

fac iubar, ut semper Capitolia nostra forumque
divus ab excelsa prospectet Iulius aede!'
Vix ea fatus erat, medi cum sede senatus
constitit alma Venus nulli cernenda suique
Caesaris eripuit membris nec in aera solvi

make him a radiance, so that always our Capitolia and forum
the deified Julius may look out upon from his exalted temple!'
Hardly had he spoken these things, when, in the middle seat of the Senate,
gracious Venus stood, to be discerned by no one, and from the limbs of her own
Caesar she snatched the spirit, nor [allowed it] to be dissolved into the air

845

passa recentem animam caelestibus intulit astris
dumque tulit, lumen capere atque ignescere sensit
emisitque sinu: luna volat altius illa
flammiferumque trahens spatioso limite crinem
stella micat natique videns bene facta fatetur

she carried the fresh soul into the celestial stars,
and while she bore it, she felt it take light and ignite,
and she sent it forth from her bosom: it flies higher than the moon,
and, trailing its flame-bearing hair along a spacious path,
the star sparkles, and, seeing her son’s good deeds, she acknowledges them.

850

esse suis maiora et vinci gaudet ab illo.
hic sua praeferri quamquam vetat acta paternis,
libera fama tamen nullisque obnoxia iussis
invitum praefert unaque in parte repugnat:
sic magnus cedit titulis Agamemnonis Atreus,

she rejoices that they are greater than her own and to be vanquished by him.
this man, although he forbids that his deeds be preferred to his father's,
free Fame, however, and beholden to no commands,
prefers them against his will and in one part alone resists:
thus great Atreus yields to the titles of Agamemnon,

855

Aegea sic Theseus, sic Pelea vicit Achilles;
denique, ut exemplis ipsos aequantibus utar,
sic et Saturnus minor est Iove: Iuppiter arces
temperat aetherias et mundi regna triformis,
terra sub Augusto est; pater est et rector uterque.

Thus did Theseus surpass Aegeus, thus Achilles Peleus;
finally, so that I may use examples matching them,
so too Saturn is lesser than Jove: Jupiter governs
the aetherial citadels and the realms of the three-formed world,
the earth is under Augustus; each is father and ruler.

860

di, precor, Aeneae comites, quibus ensis et ignis
cesserunt, dique Indigetes genitorque Quirine
urbis et invicti genitor Gradive Quirini
Vestaque Caesareos inter sacrata penates,
et cum Caesarea tu, Phoebe domestice, Vesta,

gods, I pray, companions of Aeneas, to whom sword and fire yielded,
and you Indigetes gods and father Quirinus of the city,
and you, Gradivus, begetter of unconquered Quirinus,
and Vesta, sacred among the Caesarean Penates,
and you, Domestic Phoebus, together with Caesarean Vesta,

865

quique tenes altus Tarpeias Iuppiter arces,
quosque alios vati fas appellare piumque est:
tarda sit illa dies et nostro serior aevo,
qua caput Augustum, quem temperat, orbe relicto
accedat caelo faveatque precantibus absens!

and you, Jupiter, who hold on high the Tarpeian citadels,
and whatever other gods it is lawful and pious for the poet to call upon:
let that day be slow and later than our age,
on which chief Augustus, the orb he governs left behind,
may accede to heaven and, though absent, favor those praying!

870

Iamque opus exegi, quod nec Iovis ira nec ignis
nec poterit ferrum nec edax abolere vetustas.
cum volet, illa dies, quae nil nisi corporis huius
ius habet, incerti spatium mihi finiat aevi:
parte tamen meliore mei super alta perennis

And now I have completed a work which neither Jove’s wrath nor fire
nor iron nor devouring age will be able to abolish.
When it will, that day, which has right over nothing except this body,
shall finish for me the span of an uncertain lifetime:
yet with the better part of me I shall endure perennial above the heights

875

astra ferar, nomenque erit indelebile nostrum,
quaque patet domitis Romana potentia terris,
ore legar populi, perque omnia saecula fama,
siquid habent veri vatum praesagia, vivam.

I shall be borne to the stars, and our name will be indelible,
wherever Roman power extends over tamed lands,
on the lips of the people I shall be read, and by fame through all the ages,
if the prophecies of the bards have anything of truth, I shall live.