The Æneids of Virgil, Done into English Verse. Virgil

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       With blood and with a virgin's death did ye the winds appease When first ye came, O Danaan folk, unto the Ilian shore; With blood and with an Argive soul the Gods shall ye adore For your return. 'Now when that word men's ears had gone about Their hearts stood still, and tremors cold took all their bones for doubt What man the Fates had doomed thereto, what man Apollo would.121 Amidst us then the Ithacan drags in with clamour rude Calchas the seer, and wearieth him the Gods' will to declare. Of that craftsmaster's cruel guile had many bade beware In words, and many silently foresaw the coming death. Twice five days Calchas holdeth peace and, hidden, gainsayeth To speak the word that any man to very death should cast, Till hardly, by Ulysses' noise sore driven, at the last He brake out with the speech agreed, and on me laid the doom; All cried assent, and what each man feared on himself might come,130 'Gainst one poor wretch's end of days with ready hands they bear. Now came the evil day; for me the rites do men prepare, The salted cakes, the holy strings to do my brows about. I needs must say I brake my bonds, from Death's house gat me out, And night-long lay amid the sedge by muddy marish side Till they spread sail, if they perchance should win their sailing tide. Nor have I hope to see again my fatherland of old; My longed-for father and sweet sons I never shall behold; On whom the guilt of me who fled mayhappen men will lay, And with their death for my default the hapless ones shall pay.140 But by the might of very God, all sooth that knoweth well, By all the unstained faith that yet mid mortal men doth dwell, If aught be left, I pray you now to pity such distress! Pity a heart by troubles tried beyond its worthiness!'

      His weeping won his life of us, and pity thereunto,

       And Priam was the first who bade his irons to undo,

       And hand-bonds, and in friendly words unto the man he speaks:

      'Whoso thou art, henceforward now forget thy missing Greeks;

       Thou shalt be ours: but learn me now, who fain the sooth would wot,

       Wherefore they built this world of horse, what craftsman him begot,150

       And what to do? What gift for Gods; what gin of war is he?'

      He spake. The other, wise in guile and Greekish treachery,

       Both palms of his from bonds new-freed raised toward the stars above,

       And, 'O eternal fires!' he cried, 'O might that none may move,

       Bear witness now! ye altar-stones, ye wicked swords I fled,

       Ye holy fillets of the Gods bound round my fore-doomed head,

       That I all hallowed Greekish rites may break and do aright,

       That I may hate the men and bring all hidden things to light

       If aught lie hid; nor am I held by laws my country gave!

       But thou, O Troy, abide by troth, and well thy saviour save,160

       If truth I bear thee, if great things for great I pay thee o'er!

      'All hope the Danaans had, all trust for speeding on the war

       On Pallas' aid was ever set: yet came a day no less

       When godless Diomed and he, well-spring of wickedness,

       Ulysses, brake the holy place that they by stealth might gain

       The fate-fulfilled Palladium, when, all the burg-guards slain,

       They caught the holy image up, and durst their bloody hands

       Lay on the awful Goddess there and touch her holy bands:

       The flood-tide of the Danaan hope ebbed from that very day;

       Might failed them, and the Goddess-maid turned all her heart away:170

       Token whereof Tritonia gave by portent none might doubt:

       Scarce was the image set in camp when suddenly flashed out

       Fierce fire from staring eyes of her, and salt sweat oozed and fell

       O'er all her limbs, and she from earth, O wonderful to tell!

       Leapt thrice, still holding in her hand the quivering spear and shield:

       Then Calchas bade us turn to flight across the wavy field,

       Singing how ruin of Pergamos the Argive steel shall lack,

       Till Argos give the signs again, and we the God bring back

       In hollow of the curved keel across the tumbling main.

       And this is why they sought their home, Mycenæ's land, again,180

       And there they dight them arms and God, and presently unwares

       Will be on you across the sea—Calchas such doom declares.

       So warned hereby for Godhead's hurt, in stolen Palladium's stead,

       Atonement for their heavy guilt, this horse they fashionèd.

       But him indeed did Calchas bid to pile so mountain-high

       With such a might of mingled beams, and lead up to the sky,

       Lest it within the gates should come, or mid the walls, and lest

       Beneath their ancient Pallas-faith the people safe should rest.

       For if upon Minerva's gift ye lay a godless hand,

       Then mighty ruin (and would to God before his face might stand190

       That ruin instead) on Priam's might, and Phrygian folk shall fall.

       But if your hands shall lead it up within the city wall,

       Then Asia, free and willing it, to Pelops' house shall come

       With mighty war; and that same fate our sons shall follow home.'

      Caught by such snares and crafty guile of Sinon the forsworn,

       By lies and lies, and tears forced forth there were we overborne;

       We, whom Tydides might not tame, nor Larissæan king

       Achilles; nor the thousand ships, and ten years' wearying.

      But now another, greater hap, a very birth of fear,

       Was thrust before us wretched ones, our sightless hearts to stir.200

       Laocoon, chosen out by lot for mighty Neptune's priest,

       Would sacrifice a mighty bull at altars of the feast;

       When lo, away from Tenedos, o'er quiet of the main

       (I tremble in the tale) we see huge coils of serpents twain

       Breasting the sea, and side by side swift making for the shore;

       Whose fronts amid the flood were strained, and high their crests upbore

       Blood-red above the waves, the rest swept o'er the СКАЧАТЬ