In that deep, all-embracing realm of death,

And thou whose mother sought thee (but in vain)

Through all the world: your powers I supplicate

That I may speak with boldness of the things660

Concealed and buried in the hold of earth.

The Spartan land lifts high a famous cliff

Where Taenarus juts out upon the sea,

Dense wooded. Here the realm of hated Dis

Opes wide its mouth; the high cliff spreads apart,665

And in a mighty cavern yawns a pit