Thereon Alecto, steeped at heart with Gorgon venoming.
Sought Latium first and high-built house of that Laurentian king,
And by the silent threshold stood whereby Amata lay,
In whose hot heart a woman's woe and woman's wrath did play,
About those Teucrian new-comers and Turnus' bridal bed:
On her she cast an adder blue, a tress from off her head,
And sent it to her breast to creep her very heart-strings through,
That she, bewildered by the bane, may all the house undo.
So he betwixt her bosom smooth and dainty raiment slid,
And crawled as if he touched her not, and maddened her yet hid,350
And breathed the adder's soul in her: the dreadful wormy thing
Seemed the wrought gold about her neck, or the long silken string
That knit her hair, and slippery soft it glided o'er her limbs.
And now while first the plague begins, and soft the venom swims,
Touching her sense, and round her bones the fiery web is pressed,
Nor yet her soul had caught the flame through all her poisoned breast,
Still soft, and e'en as mothers will, she spake the word and said
Her woes about her daughter's case, and Phrygian bridal bed.
"To Teucrian outcasts shall our maid, Lavinia, wedded be?
O Father, hast thou nought of ruth of her, forsooth, and thee?360
Nor of the mother, whom that man forsworn shall leave behind,
Bearing the maiden o'er the sea with the first northern wind?
Nay, not e'en so the Phrygian herd pierced Lacedæmon's fold,
And bore Ledæan Helen off unto the Trojan hold.
Nay, where is gone thine hallowed faith, thy kinsomeness of yore?
Thine hand that oft to Turnus' hand, thy kinsman, promise bore?
Lo, if we needs must seek a son strange to the Latin folk,
And Father Faunus' words on thee are e'en so strait a yoke,
I deem, indeed, that every land free from our kingdom's sway
Is stranger land, and even so I deem the Gods would say:370
And Turnus comes, if we shall seek beginning of his race.
From Inachus, Acrisius old, and mid Mycenæ's place."
But when she thus had said in vain, and saw Latinus still
Withstand her: when all inwardly the maddening serpent's ill
Hath smitten through her heart of hearts and passed through all her frame,
Then verily the hapless one, with dreadful things aflame,
Raves through the city's length and breadth in God-wrought agonies:
As 'neath the stroke of twisted lash at whiles the whip-top flies,
Which lads all eager for the game drive, ever circling wide
Round some void hall; it, goaded on beneath the strip of hide,380
From circle unto circle goes; the silly childish throng
Still hanging o'er, and wondering how the box-tree spins along,
The while their lashes make it live: no quieter she ran
Through the mid city, borne amid fierce hearts of many a man.
Then in the wilderness she feigns the heart that Bacchus fills,
And stirs a greater madness up, beginning greater ills,
And mid the leafy mountain-side her daughter hides away,
To snatch her from the Teucrian bed, the bridal torch to stay;
Foaming: "Hail, Bacchus! thou alone art worthy lord to wed
This virgin thing: for thee she takes the spear's soft-fruited head,390
For thee she twinkleth dancing feet, and feeds her holy hair."
The rumour flies, and one same rage all mother-folk doth bear,
Heart-kindled by the Fury's ill, to roofs of all unrest:
They flee the house and let the wind play free o'er hair and breast:
While others fill the very heavens with shrilly quivering wail,
And skin-clad toss about the spear the wreathing vine-leaves veil:
But she ablaze amidst of them upholds the fir-lit flame,
And sings her daughter's bridal song, and sings of Turnus' name,
Rolling her blood-shot eyes about; then eager suddenly
She shouts: "Ho, mothers! Latin wives, wherever ye may be,400
Hearken! if in your righteous souls abideth any love
Of lorn Amata; if your souls a mother's right may move,
Cast off the fillets from your locks, with me the madness bear."
So through the woodland wilderness and deserts of the deer
Alecto drave the Queen around, with Bacchus' stings beset
But when she deemed enough was wrought that rage of hers to whet,
And that Latinus' rede and house was utterly undone,
Forthwith away on dusky wings is borne that evil one
Unto the bold Rutulian's wall: a city, saith the tale,
Raised up by Danaë for her Acrisian folks' avail410
When on the hurrying South she fled: Ardea in days of yore
Our fathers called it; nor as yet is name thereof passed o'er,
Though wealth be gone: there Turnus lay within his house on high,
And midmost sleep of dusky night was winning peacefully.
When there Alecto cruel face and hellish body shed,
And to an ancient woman's like her shape she fashionèd,
Wrinkling her forehead villanous; and hoary coifèd hair
She donned, and round about it twined the olive-garland fair,
And seemed the ancient Calybé of Juno's holy place;
And so with such a word she thrust before the hero's face:420
"Turnus, and wilt thou bear it now, such labour spent in vain,
And give thy folk to Dardan men, the outcasts of the main?
The King gainsays thy wedding couch, and dowry justly bought
By very blood, and for his throne an outland heir is sought.
Go, thou bemocked, and thrust thyself mid perils none shall thank;
For cloaking of the Latin peace o'erthrow the Tuscan rank!
The mighty Saturn's Seed herself hath bid me openly
To bear thee this, while thou in peace of middle night shouldst lie.
So up! be merry! arm the lads! bid wend from out the gate.
Up, up, and arm! The Phrygian folk who in the fair stream wait,
Burn thou their dukes of men with fire! burn every painted keel!
'Tis heavenly might that biddeth this. Let King Latinus feel
Thy strength, and learn to know at last what meaneth Turnus' sword,
Unless he grant the wedding yet, and hold his plighted word."
But therewithal the young man spake, and answered her in scorn:
"Thou errest: tidings of all this failed nowise to be borne
Unto mine ears, how stranger ships the Tiber-flood beset.
Nay, make me not so sore afeared,—belike she minds me yet,
Juno, the Queen of Heaven aloft.
Nay, mother, Eld the mouldy-dull, the empty of all sooth,440
Tormenteth thee with cares in vain, and mid the arms of kings
Bemocks the seer with idle shows of many fearful things.
Nay, 'tis for thee to watch God's house, and ward the images,
And let men deal with peace and war; for they were born for these."
But at such word Alecto's wrath in utter fire outbrake;
A tremor ran throughout his limbs e'en as the word he spake;
Fixed stared his eyes, the Fury hissed with Serpent-world so dread,
And such a mighty body woke: then rolling in her head
Her eyes of flame, she thrust him back, stammering and seeking speech,
As on her head she reared aloft two adders each by each,450
And sounded all her fearful whip, and cried from raving mouth:
"Lo, I am she, the mouldy-dull, whom Eld, the void of sooth,
Bemocks amid the arms of kings with empty lies of fear!
Look, look! for from the Sisters' House, the Dread Ones, come I here;
And war and death I have in hand."
She spake, and on the youth she cast her torch and set its blaze,
A mirky gleam of smoke-wreathed flame, amidmost of his heart:
And mighty dread his slumber brake, and forth from every part,
From bones and body, burst the sweat, and o'er his limbs 'gan fall;
And wild he cries for arms, and seeks for arms from bed and wall:460
The sword-lust rageth in his soul, and wicked thirst of war.
So was it as at whiles it is, when with a mighty roar
The twiggen flame goes up about the hollow side of brass;
The water leapeth up therewith, within comes rage to pass,
The while the cloudy foaming flood spouts up a bubbling stir,
Until the sea refrains no more; the black cloud flies in air.
So to the dukes of men he shows how peace hath evil end,
And on Latinus biddeth them in weed of war to wend;
That they may save their Italy, and thrust the foemen forth.
And he will fare unto the field more than the twain of worth,470
Teucrians and Latins: so he saith, and calls the Gods to aid.
Then eagerly Rutulian men to war and battle bade:
For some his glorious beauty stirred, and some his youth drave on,
And some his sires; and some were moved by deeds his hand had done.