"O son, that while my life abode more than my life wert worth;
O son, well learned in Ilium's fates, hither my ways I take
By Jove's commands, who even now the fiery bane did slake
Amid thy ships, and now at last in heaven hath pitied thee:
Yield thou to elder Nautes' redes; exceeding good they be:
The very flower of all thy folk, the hearts that hardiest are,
Take thou to Italy; for thee in Latium bideth war730
With hardy folk of nurture rude: but first must thou be gone
To nether dwelling-place of Dis: seek thou to meet me, son,
Across Avernus deep: for me the wicked house of hell
The dusk unhappy holdeth not; in pleasant place I dwell,
Elysium, fellowship of good: there shall the holy Maid,
The Sibyl, bring thee; plenteous blood of black-wooled ewes being paid:
There shalt thou learn of all thy race, and gift of fated walls.
And now farewell: for dewy night from mid way-faring falls,
The panting steeds of cruel dawn are on me with their breath."
He spake, and midst thin air he fled as smoke-wreath vanisheth.740
"Where rushest thou?" Æneas cried: "where hurriest thou again?
Whom fleest thou? who driveth thee from these embraces fain?"
So saying, the flame asleep in ash he busied him to wake,
And worshipped with the censer full and holy-kneaded cake
The sacred Vesta's shrine and God of Pergamean wall.
Then for his fellows doth he send, Acestes first of all,
And teacheth them of Jove's command, and what his sire beloved
Had bidden him, and whitherwise his heart thereto was moved.
No tarrying there was therein, Acestes gainsaid nought;
They write the mothers on the roll; thither a folk is brought,750
Full willing hearts, who nothing crave the great reward of fame:
But they themselves shape thwarts anew; and timbers gnawed by flame
Make new within their ships again, and oars and rudders fit.
A little band it is by tale, but valour lives in it.
Meanwhile Æneas marketh out the city with the plough,
And, portioning the houses out, bids Troy and Ilium grow:
Therewith Acestes, Trojan king, joys in his lordship fair;
Sets forth the court, and giveth laws to fathers gathered there:
Then on the head of Eryx huge a house that neareth heaven
To Venus of Idalia is reared: a priest is given760
And holy grove wide spread around, where old Anchises lay.
Now all the folk for nine days' space have made them holyday
And worshipped God; and quiet winds have lowly laid the main,
And ever gentle Southern breath woos to the deep again:
Then all along the hollow shore ariseth weeping great,
And 'twixt farewells and many a kiss a night and day they wait:
Yea e'en the mothers, yea e'en they to whom so hard and drear
The sea had seemed, a dreadful name they had no heart to bear,
Are fain to go, are fain to take all toil the way may find.
Whom good Æneas solaceth with friendly words and kind,770
As to Acestes' kindred heart weeping he giveth them.
Three calves to Eryx then he bids slay on the ocean's hem;
To wind and weather an ewe lamb; then biddeth cast aloose:
And he himself, begarlanded with olive clippèd close,
Stands, cup in hand, on furthest prow, and casts upon the brine
The inner meat, and poureth forth the flowing of the wine.
They gather way; springs up astern the fair and following breeze;
The fellows strive in smiting brine and sweep the level seas.
But meanwhile Venus, sorely stirred by cares and all unrest,
Hath speech of Neptune, pouring forth complaining from her breast:
"The cruel wrath that Juno bears, and heart insatiate,781
Drive me, O Neptune, prayer-fulfilled upon thy power to wait:
She softeneth not by lapse of days nor piety's increase,
Nor yielding unto Jove and Fate from troubling will she cease.
'Tis not enough to tear away from heart of Phrygian folk
Their city by her cruel hate; nor with all ills to yoke
Troy's remnant; but its ash and bones through death she followeth on.
What! doth her own heart know the deed that all this wrath hath won?
Be thou my witness how of late she stirred up suddenly
Wild tumult of the Libyan sea! all waters with the sky790
She mingled, trusting all in vain to storm of Æolus:
This in thy very realm she dared.
E'en now mad hearts to Trojan wives by wickedness she gave,
And foully burned his ships; and him with crippled ship-host drave
To leave his fellow-folk behind upon an outland shore.
I pray thee let the remnant left sail safe thine ocean o'er,
And let them come where into sea Laurentian Tiber falls,
If right I ask, and unto these Fate giveth fateful walls."
Then Saturn's son, the sea-tamer, gave forth such words as these:
"'Tis utter right, O Cytherean, to trust thee to my seas,800
Whence thou wert born; and I myself deserve no less; e'en I,
Who oft for thee refrain the rage of maddened sea and sky.
Nor less upon the earth my care Æneas did embrace;
Xanthus and Simoïs witness it!—When, following up the chace,
The all-unheartened host of Troy 'gainst Troy Achilles bore,
And many a thousand gave to death; choked did the rivers roar
Nor any way might Xanthus find to roll his flood to sea:
Æneas then in hollow cloud I caught away, when he
Would meet Pelides' might with hands and Gods not strong enow.
Yea, that was when from lowest base I wrought to overthrow810
The walls of that same Troy forsworn my very hands had wrought.
And now cast all thy fear away, my mind hath shifted nought;
Avernus' haven shall he reach, e'en as thou deemest good,
And one alone of all his folk shall seek amidst the flood;
One head shall pay for all the rest."
So when these words had brought to peace the Goddess' joyful heart,
The Father yokes his steeds with gold, and bridles the wild things
With o'erfoamed bit, and loose in hand the rein above them flings,
And light in coal-blue car he flies o'er topmost of the sea:
The waves sink down, the heaped main lays his waters peacefully820
Before the thunder of his wheels; from heaven all cloud-flecks fail.
Lo, diverse bodies of his folk; lo, many a mighty whale;
And Glaucus' ancient fellowship, Palæmon Ino's son,
And Tritons swift, and all the host that Phorcus leadeth on;
Maid Panopea and Melite, Cymodoce the fair,
Nesæa, Spio, and Thalia, with Thetis leftward bear.
Now to Æneas' overstrained heart the kindly joy and soft
Sinks deep: herewith he biddeth men raise all the masts aloft
At swiftest, and along the yards to spread the sails to wind:
So all sheet home together then; then leftward with one mind830
They tack; then tack again to right: the yard-horns up in air
They shift and shift, while kindly winds seaward the ship-host bear.
But first before all other keels did Palinurus lead
The close array, and all were charged to have his course in heed.
And now the midmost place of heaven had dewy night drawn nigh,
And 'neath the oars on benches hard scattered the shipmen lie,
Who all the loosened limbs of them to gentle rest had given;
When lo, the very light-winged Sleep stooped from the stars of heaven,
Thrusting aside the dusky air and cleaving night atwain:
The sackless Palinure he sought with evil dreams and vain.840
So on the high poop sat the God as Phorbas fashionèd,
And as he sat such-like discourse from out his mouth he shed:
"Iasian Palinure, unasked the waves our ship-host bear;
Soft blow the breezes steadily; the hour for rest is here:
Lay down thine head, steal weary eyes from toil a little space,
And I will do thy deeds awhile and hold me in thy place."
But Palinure with scarce-raised eyes e'en such an answer gave:
"To gentle countenance of sea and quiet of the wave
Deem'st thou me dull? would'st have me trow in such a monster's truth?
And shall I mine Æneas trust to lying breeze forsooth,850
I, fool of peaceful heaven and sea so many times of old?"