Complete Works of William Morris, page 667
Then to me at least nought happy would life be unto my heart;
But dying as soon as might be with the dead would I have my part
Then go we, lest they forego us, and across to the mainland fare.”
So spake he weeping, and pity gat hold of the Achaeans there.
But now the godlike minstrel and Medon came thereto,
From the feast-hall of Odysseus, now Sleep had let them go.
And they stood there in the midmost and wonder seized each man,
And Medon learned in wisdom thuswise the word began:
“O men of Ithaca, hearken! for not without the will
Of the Deathless Gods did Odysseus these deeds of his fulfil:
Yea, I myself saw an Immortal of the Gods, who stood.incur
Odysseus, and like unto Mentor in all wise did it appear.
And this Deathless God, one while in front of Odysseus appeared,
And heartened him on; and again the folk of the Wooers he scared,
To flee through the house in terror; and there each upon each did they fall.’
So he spake; and at his speaking the pale fear crept o’er all.
But the old lord Halitherses, and Alastor’s son was he,
Took up the word; and he only things past and to come could see,
Who now of goodwill bespake them, and a word before them laid:
“Hearken now, Ithacan men, to the word that of me shall be said:
O friends, ’tis your dastard doings made these evil matters to be;
For neither to Mentor the folk-herd would ye hearken, nor yet unto me,
When your sons we would be staying of their witless ways of nought;
Who in their baleful folly deeds huge and monstrous wrought,
Eating the wealth and shaming the wife of the noblest of men,
Whereas ye would still be saying, he shall never come back again.
So thuswise be the matter, and the word of my speaking obey,
Nor go ye, lest any meet evil self-made upon the way.”
So he spake; but the more part of them rose up with a mighty cry,
While the others gathered together abode there steadfastly,
For his word they liked in nowise, but Eupeithes did they hear
More gladly: so then straightly they ran to their battle-gear.
T.ut when upon their bodies the gleaming brass they had done,
Then were they gathered flock-meal before the wide-wayed town,
And the host amidst their folly forth did Eupeithes lead,
Tor he thought to avenge the slaying of his son: but never indeed
Should he get him aback; but thereby should hap on his doom and his death.
Now to Zeus the son of Cronos Athene speaketh and saith:
“O father, O son of Cronos, O Highest of all that is high,
Tell me, the asker, what hidden in the deep of thine heart doth lie?
Whether ill war yet thou wilt fashion, and the fearful battle din,
Or wilt make loving-kindness between them, and all they to dwell therein?”
Then Zeus the Cloud-pack’s Herder thus fell to answer and speak:
“O child, why ask ye closely, and an answer thus would seek?
For was not this thy counsel, and thine heart’s devising then,
That thither should come Odysseus, and avenge him on these men?
So do e’en as thou wilt. But I show the meetest end of the strife:
Since the holy Odysseus hath wreaked him on the Wooers of his wife,
Let them strike true oath, and henceforward to the end let him be king:
And the slaying of their children, and their brethren, e’en this thing
Shall we make them forget, and in kindness shall they dwell as heretofore;
And good peace shall be amongst them and of wealth abundant store.”
So he spake, and urged on Athene, who before longed eagerly,
And she went on her ways, down-rushing from Olympus’ peaks on high.
But when of the longing for meat heart-soothing an end those had made,
The toil-stout goodly Odysseus took up the word and said:
“Let some one go forth and espy lest anigh they be drawing, those men.”
So he spake; but a son of Dolius straight did his bidding then,
And went on the threshold and stood there, and saw them all anigh,
And unto Odysseus straightway he let the winged word fly:
“Yea, verily are they at hand; so arm we now in speed.”
So therewith, at the word, they arose, and did on their battle-weed:
And Odysseus and his, they were four; and six Dolius sons there were.
And with them Laertes and Dolius did on the battle-gear,
For all that they were hoary, and warriors pressed by need.
But when they had done on their bodies the gleaming brazen weed,
Then they opened the doors and went forth; and Odysseus led the band.
Then came the Daughter of Zeus, Athene, nigh to hand,
In Mentor’s very likeness of body and of voice,
Whom the toil-stout valiant Odysseus beholding, failed not to rejoice;
And unto Telemachus spake he, and said to his well-loved sun:
“Telemachus, now shalt thou learn it thyself, as thou fallest on,
In the tide when men are battling and the best are chosen of worth,
Not to shame the race of thy fathers; we, who over all the earth
Have excelled all other menfolk in manhood and in might.”
But Telemachus the heedful thus answered him forthright:
“O father beloved, if thou willest, in my heart shalt thou look, and see No shaming of the fathers whereof thou toldest me.”
So he spake, and glad was Laertes, and thus he speaketh now:
“Kind Gods! what day is this day, wherein so glad I grow,
Wherein my son and my son’s son in manly valour vie?”
Then unto him spake Athene, the Grey-eyed, standing a-nigh:
“Arceisius’ son, of my fellows the lievest and most dear,
Unto the Grey-eyed Maiden and Zeus father speed the prayer,
Then swing up thy spear long-shafted, and poise and cast outright.”
So spake she, Pallas Athene, and breathed into him great might;
And unto the Daughter of Zeus the mighty made he his prayer,
And aloft he swung thereafter and cast the long-shaft spear,
And therewith smote Eupeithes on the helm of the cheeks of brass;
Which kept not out the spear-head; right through and through did it pass,
And clashing he fell, and above him his war-gear rattled thereon:
And Odysseus set on their forefront along with his glorious son, [play;
And smote with the edge of the sword and the two-tyned spear in the
And there all those had they slaughtered and taken their homefare away,
But if the Daughter of Zeus, the Lord of the Shield of the Goat,
Had withheld not the folk, and refrained them with the mighty voice of her shout:
“O Ithacan men, withhold you at last from the bitter war!
That speedily ye may be parted and shed the blood no more!”
So Athene spake, and upon them therewith fell the pale bleak fear,
And from their hands in their terror down dropped the battle-gear,
And unto the earth down tumbled, as the Goddess cried o’er the strife.
Then unto the town they turned them in longing for dear life.
But the toil-stout goodly Odysseus cried out with a dreadful cry
And swooped on, gathered together as the erne that aloft doth fly;
But even therewith Cronion cast a bolt of flaming fire,
That fell before the Grey-eyed, the Maid of a mighty Sire,
And unto Odysseus the Grey-eyed Athene cried and said:
“Odysseus of many a wile, Laertes’ son, Zeus-bred,
Withhold thee now! with the strife of the balanced battle be done!
Lest Zeus be wroth against thee, the loud-voiced Cronos’ son.”
So Athene spake, and he hearkened, and glad at heart obeyed.
And oath and troth thereafter betwixt the twain she laid,
She, Pallas Athene, the Daughter of the Lord of the Shield of Fear,
In the likeness of Mentor’s body, with a voice like his to hear.
THE END
THE AENEIDS OF VIRGIL DONE INTO ENGLISH
CONTENTS
BOOK I.
BOOK II.
BOOK III.
BOOK IV.
BOOK V.
BOOK VI.
BOOK VII.
BOOK VIII.
BOOK IX.
BOOK X.
BOOK XI.
BOOK XII.
BOOK I.
ARGUMENT.
ÆNEAS AND HIS TROJANS BEING DRIVEN TO LIBYA BY A TEMPEST, HAVE GOOD WELCOME OF DIDO, QUEEN OF CARTHAGE.
Lo I am he who led the song through slender reed to cry,
And then, come forth from out the woods, the fields that are thereby
In woven verse I bade obey the hungry tillers’ need:
Now I, who sang their merry toil, sing Mars and dreadful deed.
I sing of arms, I sing of him, who from the Trojan land
Thrust forth by Fate, to Italy and that Lavinian strand
First came: all tost about was he on earth and on the deep
By heavenly might for Juno’s wrath, that had no mind to sleep:
And plenteous war he underwent ere he his town might frame
And set his Gods in Latian earth, whence is the Latin name,
And father-folk of Alba-town, and walls of mighty Rome.
Say, Muse, what wound of godhead was whereby all this must come,
How grieving, she, the Queen of Gods, a man so pious drave
To win such toil, to welter on through such a troublous wave: 10
— Can anger in immortal minds abide so fierce and fell?
There was a city of old time where Tyrian folk did dwell,
Called Carthage, facing far away the shores of Italy
And Tiber-mouth; fulfilled of wealth and fierce in arms was she,
And men say Juno loved her well o’er every other land,
Yea e’en o’er Samos: there were stored the weapons of her hand,
And there her chariot: even then she cherished the intent
To make her Lady of all Lands, if Fate might so be bent;
Yet had she heard how such a stem from Trojan blood should grow,
As, blooming fair, the Tyrian towers should one day overthrow, 20
That thence a folk, kings far and wide, most noble lords of fight,
Should come for bane of Libyan land: such web the Parcæ dight.
The Seed of Saturn, fearing this, and mindful how she erst
For her beloved Argive walls by Troy the battle nursed —
— Nay neither had the cause of wrath nor all those hurts of old
Failed from her mind: her inmost heart still sorely did enfold
That grief of body set at nought in Paris’ doomful deed,
The hated race, and honour shed on heaven-rapt Ganymede —
So set on fire, that Trojan band o’er all the ocean tossed,
Those gleanings from Achilles’ rage, those few the Greeks had lost, 30
She drave far off the Latin Land: for many a year they stray
Such wise as Fate would drive them on by every watery way.
— Lo, what there was to heave aloft in fashioning of Rome!
Now out of sight of Sicily the Trojans scarce were come
And merry spread their sails abroad and clave the sea with brass,
When Juno’s heart, who nursed the wound that never thence would pass,
Spake out:
“And must I, vanquished, leave the deed I have begun,
Nor save the Italian realm a king who comes of Teucer’s son?
The Fates forbid it me forsooth? And Pallas, might not she
Burn up the Argive fleet and sink the Argives in the sea 40
For Oileus’ only fault and fury that he wrought?
She hurled the eager fire of Jove from cloudy dwelling caught,
And rent the ships and with the wind the heaped-up waters drew,
And him a-dying, and all his breast by wildfire smitten through,
The whirl of waters swept away on spiky crag to bide.
While I, who go forth Queen of Gods, the very Highest’s bride
And sister, must I wage a war for all these many years
With one lone race? What! is there left a soul that Juno fears
Henceforth? or will one suppliant hand gifts on mine altar lay?”
So brooding in her fiery heart the Goddess went her way 50
Unto the fatherland of storm, full fruitful of the gale,
Æolia hight, where Æolus is king of all avail,
And far adown a cavern vast the bickering of the winds
And roaring tempests of the world with bolt and fetter binds:
They set the mountains murmuring much, a-growling angrily
About their bars, while Æolus sits in his burg on high,
And, sceptre-holding, softeneth them, and strait their wrath doth keep:
Yea but for that the earth and sea, and vault of heaven the deep,
They eager-swift would roll away and sweep adown of space:
For fear whereof the Father high in dark and hollow place 60
Hath hidden them, and high above a world of mountains thrown
And given them therewithal a king, who, taught by law well known,
Now draweth, and now casteth loose the reins that hold them in:
To whom did suppliant Juno now in e’en such words begin:
“The Father of the Gods and men hath given thee might enow,
O Æolus, to smooth the sea, and make the storm-wind blow.
Hearken! a folk, my very foes, saileth the Tyrrhene main
Bearing their Troy to Italy, and Gods that were but vain:
Set on thy winds, and overwhelm their sunken ships at sea,
Or prithee scattered cast them forth, things drowned diversedly. 70
Twice seven nymphs are in my house of body passing fair:
Of whom indeed Deïopea is fairest fashioned there.
I give her thee in wedlock sure, and call her all thine own
To wear away the years with thee, for thy deserving shown
To me this day; of offspring fair she too shall make thee sire.”
To whom spake Æolus: “O Queen, to search out thy desire
Is all thou needest toil herein; from me the deed should wend.
Thou mak’st my realm; the sway of all, and Jove thou mak’st my friend,
Thou givest me to lie with Gods when heavenly feast is dight,
And o’er the tempest and the cloud thou makest me of might.” 80
Therewith against the hollow hill he turned him spear in hand
And hurled it on the flank thereof, and as an ordered band
By whatso door the winds rush out o’er earth in whirling blast,
And driving down upon the sea its lowest deeps upcast.
The East, the West together there, the Afric, that doth hold
A heart fulfilled of stormy rain, huge billows shoreward rolled.
Therewith came clamour of the men and whistling through the shrouds
And heaven and day all suddenly were swallowed by the clouds
Away from eyes of Teucrian men; night on the ocean lies,
Pole thunders unto pole, and still with wildfire glare the skies, 90
And all things hold the face of death before the seamen’s eyes.
Now therewithal Æneas’ limbs grew weak with chilly dread,
He groaned, and lifting both his palms aloft to heaven, he said:
“O thrice and four times happy ye, that had the fate to fall
Before your fathers’ faces there by Troy’s beloved wall!
Tydides, thou of Danaan folk the mightiest under shield,
Why might I never lay me down upon the Ilian field,
Why was my soul forbid release at thy most mighty hand,
Where eager Hector stooped and lay before Achilles’ wand,
Where huge Sarpedon fell asleep, where Simoïs rolls along 100
The shields of men, and helms of men, and bodies of the strong?”
Thus as he cried the whistling North fell on with sudden gale
And drave the seas up toward the stars, and smote aback the sail;
Then break the oars, the bows fall off, and beam on in the trough
She lieth, and the sea comes on a mountain huge and rough.
These hang upon the topmost wave, and those may well discern
The sea’s ground mid the gaping whirl: with sand the surges churn.
Three keels the South wind cast away on hidden reefs that lie
Midmost the sea, the Altars called by men of Italy,
A huge back thrusting through the tide: three others from the deep 110
The East toward straits, and swallowing sands did miserably sweep,
And dashed them on the shoals, and heaped the sand around in ring:
And one, a keel the Lycians manned, with him, the trusty King
Orontes, in Æneas’ sight a toppling wave o’erhung,
And smote the poop, and headlong rolled, adown the helmsman flung;
Then thrice about the driving flood hath hurled her as she lay,
The hurrying eddy swept above and swallowed her from day:
And lo! things swimming here and there, scant in the unmeasured seas,
The arms of men, and painted boards, and Trojan treasuries.
And now Ilioneus’ stout ship, her that Achates leal 120
And Abas ferried o’er the main, and old Aletes’ keel
The storm hath overcome; and all must drink the baneful stream
Through opening leaky sides of them that gape at every seam.
But meanwhile Neptune, sorely moved, hath felt the storm let go,
And all the turmoil of the main with murmur great enow;
The deep upheaved from all abodes the lowest that there be:
So forth he put his placid face o’er topmost of the sea,
And there he saw Æneas’ ships o’er all the main besprent,
