And I have earned it too—often have I checked the madness,
the mighty raving of sky and sea; nor less on earth 25
(bear witness Xanthus and Simois!) has thy Æneas known
my care. When Achilles was chasing Troy’s gasping
bands, forcing them against their own ramparts, and offering
whole hecatombs to Death, till the choked rivers
groaned again, and Xanthus could not thread his way, 30
or roll himself into the sea—in that day, as Æneas confronted
Peleus’ mighty son with weaker arm and weaker aid
from heaven, I snatched him away in a circling cloud even