# The Aeneid, Book 2: The Horse, and the Burning: Aeneas Tells How Troy Fell

Aeneis · Publius Vergilius Maro · The Wanderings

Aeneas tells of the wooden horse, the last night of Troy, the death of Priam, and his flight with his father on his back.

Source: https://1732studios.com/books/aeneid/2. Data: https://1732studios.com/books/aeneid/2.json. Audio: https://audio.1732studios.com/aeneid/<line id>.m4a.

**1** Conticuere omnes, intentique ora tenebant.  
They all fell silent, and held their faces turned to him, intent.

**2** Inde toro pater Aeneas sic orsus ab alto:  
Then father Aeneas began so, from his high couch:

**3** Infandum, regina, iubes renovare dolorem,  
Unspeakable, queen, is the grief you order me to wake again,
> A negated word for speaking: Infandum, 'unspeakable,' is built from fari, 'to speak,' with a negative prefix: something for which there is no permitted word. It describes dolorem, 'grief,' accusative singular, the object Aeneas is ordered to renew. He calls the story impossible to tell in the very sentence that begins telling it.

**4** Troianas ut opes et lamentabile regnum  
how the Danaans tore down the Trojan power and a kingdom

**5** eruerint Danai; quaeque ipse miserrima vidi,  
that must be wept for; and the most piteous things I saw myself,

**6** et quorum pars magna fui. Quis talia fando  
and of which I was a great part. Who, telling such a tale,
> Naming himself part of the ruin: pars magna fui, 'I was a great part,' makes Aeneas not a witness reporting a disaster but a participant in it. fui is first person singular perfect of sum. The relative quorum, 'of which,' ties the claim back to the events he is about to narrate.

**7** Myrmidonum Dolopumve aut duri miles Ulixi  
what Myrmidon, what Dolopian, what soldier of hard Ulysses,
> The Latin name for Odysseus: Ulixi is the genitive of Ulixes, the Latin form of the Greek name Odysseus. durus, 'hard, unfeeling,' is the adjective attached to him here. The poem consistently uses the Latin name rather than the Greek one Homer uses for the same man.

**8** temperet a lacrimis? Et iam nox umida caelo  
could keep back his tears? And already the wet night falls

**9** praecipitat, suadentque cadentia sidera somnos.  
headlong from the sky, and the sinking stars urge sleep.

**10** Sed si tantus amor casus cognoscere nostros  
But if there is such longing in you to learn what befell us,

**11** et breviter Troiae supremum audire laborem,  
and to hear, briefly, Troy's last agony,

**12** quamquam animus meminisse horret, luctuque refugit,  
though my mind shudders to remember, and has flinched away in grief,

**13** incipiam. Fracti bello fatisque repulsi  
I will begin. Broken by war, and driven back by the fates,

**14** ductores Danaum, tot iam labentibus annis,  
the leaders of the Danaans, with so many years now slipping past,

**15** instar montis equum divina Palladis arte  
build a horse the bulk of a mountain, by the divine art of Pallas,

**16** aedificant, sectaque intexunt abiete costas:  
and weave its ribs together out of sawn fir:

**17** votum pro reditu simulant; ea fama vagatur.  
they give it out as an offering for their return; that story goes wandering.

**18** Huc delecta virum sortiti corpora furtim  
Into it they secretly shut chosen bodies of men,

**19** includunt caeco lateri, penitusque cavernas  
picked by lot, in the blind flank, and fill deep inside

**20** ingentis uterumque armato milite complent.  
the vast hollows and the belly with armed soldiery.

**21** Est in conspectu Tenedos, notissima fama  
Tenedos lies in sight, an island most famous in report,

**22** insula, dives opum, Priami dum regna manebant,  
rich in resources while Priam's kingdoms still stood,

**23** nunc tantum sinus et statio male fida carinis:  
now only a bay, an anchorage of poor faith for keels:

**24** huc se provecti deserto in litore condunt.  
here they stand out to sea and hide on the deserted shore.

**25** Nos abiisse rati et vento petiisse Mycenas:  
We thought them gone, making for Mycenae with the wind.

**26** ergo omnis longo solvit se Teucria luctu;  
So all Teucria loosed itself from its long grief;
> The homeland's name, not its army: Teucria names the country, taken from Teucer, Troy's first king, as distinct from Teucri, the fighting men. Vergil has several names for this people and does not use them interchangeably. Here the word names a place capable of relief from grief, not soldiers in the field.

**27** panduntur portae; iuvat ire et Dorica castra  
the gates are flung wide; it is a delight to go and see the Dorian camp,

**28** desertosque videre locos litusque relictum.  
the abandoned ground, the shore they had let go.

**29** Hic Dolopum manus, hic saevus tendebat Achilles;  
Here the Dolopian company, here savage Achilles pitched;

**30** classibus hic locus; hic acie certare solebant.  
here was the place for the fleet; here they used to fight in line.

**31** Pars stupet innuptae donum exitiale Minervae,  
Some stand stunned before unwed Minerva's ruinous gift,

**32** et molem mirantur equi; primusque Thymoetes  
and marvel at the horse's bulk; and Thymoetes first

**33** duci intra muros hortatur et arce locari,  
urges that it be led inside the walls and set in the citadel,

**34** sive dolo, seu iam Troiae sic fata ferebant.  
whether by treachery, or because Troy's fates were carrying it so already.

**35** At Capys, et quorum melior sententia menti,  
But Capys, and those whose minds held the better view,

**36** aut pelago Danaum insidias suspectaque dona  
order the Danaans' ambush and the gift they mistrust

**37** praecipitare iubent, subiectisque urere flammis,  
flung headlong into the sea, or burned with fires set beneath,

**38** aut terebrare cavas uteri et temptare latebras.  
or the hollow hiding-places of the belly bored through and probed.

**39** Scinditur incertum studia in contraria volgus.  
The crowd is split, unsure, into passions that pull two ways.

**40** Primus ibi ante omnis, magna comitante caterva,  
There, first before them all, with a great throng at his heels,

**41** Laocoön ardens summa decurrit ab arce,  
Laocoön comes running down, on fire, from the citadel's height,

**42** et procul: “O miseri, quae tanta insania, cives?  
and from far off: “Poor fools, what madness is on you, citizens?

**43** Creditis avectos hostis? Aut ulla putatis  
Do you believe the enemy have sailed? Or do you think any

**44** dona carere dolis Danaum? Sic notus Ulixes?  
gift of the Danaans free of guile? Is this the Ulysses you know?

**45** aut hoc inclusi ligno occultantur Achivi,  
Either Achaeans are shut in this timber and hidden there,

**46** aut haec in nostros fabricata est machina muros  
or this engine has been built to face our walls,

**47** inspectura domos venturaque desuper urbi,  
to look down into our houses and come at the city from above,

**48** aut aliquis latet error; equo ne credite, Teucri.  
or some trick lies inside it. Do not trust the horse, Teucrians.

**49** Quicquid id est, timeo Danaos et dona ferentis.”  
Whatever it is, I fear the Danaans, even bringing gifts.”

**50** Sic fatus, validis ingentem viribus hastam  
So he spoke, and with all his strength a huge spear

**51** in latus inque feri curvam compagibus alvum  
into the side, into the curved joinery of the brute's belly,

**52** contorsit: stetit illa tremens, uteroque recusso  
he hurled. It stood there shivering, and, the womb once struck,

**53** insonuere cavae gemitumque dedere cavernae.  
the hollow caves rang and gave back a groan.

**54** Et, si fata deum, si mens non laeva fuisset,  
And had the gods' fates, had our own minds, not been crooked,

**55** impulerat ferro Argolicas foedare latebras,  
he would have driven us to foul that Argive lair with iron,
> Indicative used where subjunctive is expected: impulerat, pluperfect indicative, stands where impulisset, pluperfect subjunctive, would be strictly required for an unreal past result: 'he would have driven us.' Latin sometimes keeps the plain indicative in such a clause to make an event feel as though it very nearly happened.

**56** Troiaque, nunc stares, Priamique arx alta, maneres.  
and Troy, you would stand now; you would remain, high citadel of Priam.
> Speaking directly to a city: stares and maneres are second-person singular imperfect subjunctives, addressed directly to Troia, 'Troy,' as though the city could still hear him. Aeneas turns from narrating events to addressing the city itself. He does this more than once across this book.

**57** Ecce, manus iuvenem interea post terga revinctum  
Look, meanwhile a young man, hands bound behind his back,

**58** pastores magno ad regem clamore trahebant  
was being hauled to the king with a great shouting by shepherds,

**59** Dardanidae, qui se ignotum venientibus ultro,  
sons of Dardanus; a stranger, he had put himself in the way

**60** hoc ipsum ut strueret Troiamque aperiret Achivis,  
of the men coming, to contrive this very thing and open Troy to the Achaeans,

**61** obtulerat, fidens animi atque in utrumque paratus,  
of his own will, sure of his nerve, and ready for either end,

**62** seu versare dolos, seu certae occumbere morti.  
to work his deceptions through, or to go down to certain death.

**63** Undique visendi studio Troiana iuventus  
From every side the young men of Troy, in their eagerness to look,

**64** circumfusa ruit, certantque inludere capto.  
come pouring round him, and compete at mocking the prisoner.

**65** Accipe nunc Danaum insidias, et crimine ab uno  
Now hear the treachery of the Danaans, and from one crime

**66** disce omnes.  
learn what they all are.

**67** Namque ut conspectu in medio turbatus, inermis  
For when he halted there, unarmed, shaken, with every eye on him,

**68** constitit atque oculis Phrygia agmina circumspexit:  
and looked round at the Phrygian ranks,

**69** “Heu, quae nunc tellus” inquit “quae me aequora possunt  
“Alas,” he said, “what land now, what waters, can

**70** accipere? Aut quid iam misero mihi denique restat,  
take me in? Or what is left at the end for a wretch like me,

**71** cui neque apud Danaos usquam locus, et super ipsi  
who have no place anywhere among the Danaans, and on top of that

**72** Dardanidae infensi poenas cum sanguine poscunt?”  
the sons of Dardanus, in fury, demand my blood in payment?”

**73** Quo gemitu conversi animi, compressus et omnis  
At that groan our feeling turned, and every violent

**74** impetus. Hortamur fari; quo sanguine cretus,  
impulse was checked. We urge him to speak: from what blood he sprang,

**75** quidve ferat, memoret, quae sit fiducia capto.  
what he brings, let him tell us, what a captive has to hope from.

**76** Ille haec, deposita tandem formidine, fatur:  
He, his terror laid down at last, says this:

**77** “Cuncta equidem tibi, Rex, fuerit quodcumque, fatebor  
“Everything, king, whatever comes of it, I will confess to you,

**78** vera, inquit; neque me Argolica de gente negabo:  
and it will be true, he said; nor will I deny I am of Argive stock:

**79** hoc primum; nec, si miserum Fortuna Sinonem  
that first. And if Fortune has shaped Sinon for misery,

**80** finxit, vanum etiam mendacemque improba finget.  
she will not, for all her spite, shape him false and lying too.

**81** Fando aliquod si forte tuas pervenit ad auris  
If by any chance some word has reached your ears in talk,

**82** Belidae nomen Palamedis et incluta fama  
the name of Palamedes, son of Belus, and the glory

**83** gloria, quem falsa sub proditione Pelasgi  
renowned in report, whom, on a lying charge of treason, the Pelasgians,

**84** insontem infando indicio, quia bella vetabat,  
guiltless as he was, on unspeakable evidence, because he forbade the war,

**85** demisere neci, nunc cassum lumine lugent.  
sent down to death, and mourn now that he is emptied of the light.

**86** Illi me comitem et consanguinitate propinquum  
to him my father, a poor man, sent me here as companion

**87** pauper in arma pater primis huc misit ab annis,  
and near kinsman, to the fighting, from my earliest years,

**88** dum stabat regno incolumis regumque vigebat  
while he stood unshaken in his office and had force

**89** consiliis, et nos aliquod nomenque decusque  
in the councils of kings; and we too carried some name

**90** gessimus. Invidia postquam pellacis Ulixi—  
and honor. After, by the malice of that plausible Ulysses,
> A Greek name bent to Latin: Ulixi is genitive singular, formed on a Latin pattern rather than the Greek Ulixis. Within about fifty lines the same name appears as Ulixes, Ulixi, and Ulixem. Vergil adapts the ending to fit the metre; it is not an inconsistency in the name itself.

**91** haud ignota loquor—superis concessit ab oris,  
(I am telling nothing unknown) he departed the shores above,

**92** adflictus vitam in tenebris luctuque trahebam,  
I dragged my life on, beaten, in darkness and mourning,

**93** et casum insontis mecum indignabar amici.  
and raged to myself at the fall of a friend who had done nothing.

**94** Nec tacui demens, et me, fors si qua tulisset,  
Nor did I keep quiet, in my folly: if any chance ever bore me,

**95** si patrios umquam remeassem victor ad Argos,  
if ever I came back a victor to my fathers' Argos,

**96** promisi ultorem, et verbis odia aspera movi.  
I promised myself his avenger, and my words woke bitter hatred.

**97** Hinc mihi prima mali labes, hinc semper Ulixes  
From that came my first slide toward ruin; from that Ulysses forever

**98** criminibus terrere novis, hinc spargere voces  
frightening me with new charges, from that scattering words
> Infinitives used for the past tense: terrere, spargere, and quaerere are historic infinitives, bare verbal forms standing in for past indicative verbs with no verb governing them: 'Ulysses forever frightening, scattering, hunting.' Latin uses this construction to make a series of actions feel continuous and rapid.

**99** in volgum ambiguas, et quaerere conscius arma.  
of double sense among the crowd, and hunting, guilty, for arms.

**100** Nec requievit enim, donec, Calchante ministro—  
Nor did he rest, in fact, until, with Calchas for his instrument …

**101** sed quid ego haec autem nequiquam ingrata revolvo?  
but why do I turn these thankless things over, and get nothing by it?

**102** Quidve moror, si omnis uno ordine habetis Achivos,  
Why do I hold you, if you count all Achaeans in one rank,

**103** idque audire sat est? Iamdudum sumite poenas,  
and it is enough to have heard that? Take your payment, long overdue:

**104** hoc Ithacus velit, et magno mercentur Atridae.”  
the man of Ithaca would want it, and the sons of Atreus pay much for it.”

**105** Tum vero ardemus scitari et quaerere causas,  
Then indeed we burn to question him and to look for causes,

**106** ignari scelerum tantorum artisque Pelasgae.  
knowing nothing of crimes so great, or of Pelasgian craft.

**107** Prosequitur pavitans, et ficto pectore fatur:  
He goes on, quaking, and speaks out of a counterfeit heart:
> Shaping applied to feigned grief: ficto, from fingere, 'to shape, mold, invent,' modifies pectore, 'heart,' ablative: 'out of a shaped heart.' The same verb has already described Fortune shaping Sinon earlier in the passage. Here Sinon shapes himself, and the word states that the display is manufactured.

**108** “Saepe fugam Danai Troia cupiere relicta  
“Often the Danaans longed to leave Troy behind and set

**109** moliri, et longo fessi discedere bello;  
their flight in motion, worn out by the long war;

**110** fecissentque utinam! Saepe illos aspera ponti  
and if only they had! Often the sea's rough weather
> A subjunctive wish for the past: utinam with the pluperfect subjunctive fecissent expresses a wish about the past that did not happen: 'and would that they had!' The mood alone carries the regret, with no separate word for 'if only.' -que attaches the clause to what comes before it.

**111** interclusit hiemps, et terruit Auster euntis.  
shut them in, and the South Wind terrified them as they went.

**112** Praecipue, cum iam hic trabibus contextus acernis  
Above all, when this horse already stood here, framed

**113** staret equus, toto sonuerunt aethere nimbi.  
of maple timber, the storm clouds crashed through the whole sky.

**114** Suspensi Eurypylum scitantem oracula Phoebi  
Uncertain, we send Eurypylus to ask what the oracles of Phoebus

**115** mittimus, isque adytis haec tristia dicta reportat:  
say, and he carries these bleak words back from the shrine:

**116** “Sanguine placastis ventos et virgine caesa,  
‘With blood you calmed the winds, and with a girl cut down,

**117** cum primum Iliacas, Danai, venistis ad oras;  
Danaans, when first you came to the shores of Ilium;

**118** sanguine quaerendi reditus, animaque litandum  
with blood your going home must be bought, and the offering made

**119** Argolica.” Volgi quae vox ut venit ad auris,  
of an Argive life.’ When that word reached the ears of the crowd,

**120** obstipuere animi, gelidusque per ima cucurrit  
their spirits stopped, and a cold shudder ran through the deep

**121** ossa tremor, cui fata parent, quem poscat Apollo.  
of the bone: whom were the fates preparing, whom was Apollo asking for?

**122** Hic Ithacus vatem magno Calchanta tumultu  
At this the Ithacan drags Calchas the seer into the middle of us

**123** protrahit in medios; quae sint ea numina divom,  
with a great uproar, and demands of him what these divine

**124** flagitat; et mihi iam multi crudele canebant  
wills mean; and many were already prophesying to me the cruel

**125** artificis scelus, et taciti ventura videbant.  
work of the schemer, and saw in silence what was coming.

**126** Bis quinos silet ille dies, tectusque recusat  
Twice five days he says nothing, and, keeping himself covered,
> Another number given by multiplying: Bis quinos, 'twice five,' gives ten days by multiplication rather than naming the number directly, matching bis septem, 'twice seven,' used of Juno's nymphs in Book 1. Latin verse favors this form over a plain numeral. quinos is a distributive form of quinque, 'five.'

**127** prodere voce sua quemquam aut opponere morti.  
refuses to give up any man by his own voice, or set one before death.

**128** Vix tandem, magnis Ithaci clamoribus actus,  
Scarcely at last, driven by the Ithacan's loud shouting,

**129** composito rumpit vocem, et me destinat arae.  
he breaks into speech (it was arranged) and marks me for the altar.

**130** Adsensere omnes, et, quae sibi quisque timebat,  
Every man agreed, and what each had feared for himself

**131** unius in miseri exitium conversa tulere.  
they bore easily, once it was turned onto the ruin of one wretch.

**132** Iamque dies infanda aderat; mihi sacra parari,  
And now the unspeakable day was here; the rites were being made ready for me,

**133** et salsae fruges, et circum tempora vittae:  
and the salted meal, and the fillets round my temples.

**134** eripui, fateor, leto me, et vincula rupi,  
I tore myself out of death, I admit it, and broke my bonds,

**135** limosoque lacu per noctem obscurus in ulva  
and lay all night in a muddy pool, hidden in the sedge,

**136** delitui, dum vela darent, si forte dedissent.  
until they should put out under sail, if in fact they did.

**137** Nec mihi iam patriam antiquam spes ulla videndi,  
And now I have no hope left of seeing my old country,

**138** nec dulcis natos exoptatumque parentem;  
nor my sweet children, nor the father I have wanted so long;

**139** quos illi fors et poenas ob nostra reposcent  
on whom, it may be, they will lay the penalty for my escape,

**140** effugia, et culpam hanc miserorum morte piabunt.  
and purge this fault of mine by the death of the wretched.

**141** Quod te per superos et conscia numina veri,  
So by the gods above, by the powers that know what is true,
> A formula for swearing an oath: per superos, 'by the gods above,' is the standard Latin oath formula, per with the accusative. Quod at the head of the sentence is a loose connective, roughly 'and so.' The main verb, oro, 'I beg,' does not arrive until the oath has piled up for three lines.

**142** per si qua est quae restet adhuc mortalibus usquam  
by whatever faith is left unstained anywhere at all

**143** intemerata fides, oro, miserere laborum  
among mortals, I beg you: pity such suffering,

**144** tantorum, miserere animi non digna ferentis.”  
pity a spirit carrying what it never earned.”

**145** His lacrimis vitam damus, et miserescimus ultro.  
For these tears we grant him his life, and pity him besides.

**146** Ipse viro primus manicas atque arta levari  
Priam himself is first to order the handcuffs and the tight

**147** vincla iubet Priamus, dictisque ita fatur amicis:  
bonds struck off the man, and speaks to him as a friend:

**148** “Quisquis es, amissos hinc iam obliviscere Graios;  
“Whoever you are, from here on forget the Greeks you have lost;

**149** noster eris, mihique haec edissere vera roganti:  
you will be one of ours. And answer me truly what I ask:

**150** Quo molem hanc immanis equi statuere? Quis auctor?  
to what end did they raise this hulk of a monstrous horse? Who thought of it?

**151** Quidve petunt? Quae religio, aut quae machina belli?”  
What do they want? What worship is it, or what engine of war?”

**152** Dixerat. Ille, dolis instructus et arte Pelasga,  
He had spoken. The man, drilled in deceits and Pelasgian art,

**153** sustulit exutas vinclis ad sidera palmas:  
lifted to the stars his hands, stripped now of their chains:

**154** “Vos, aeterni ignes, et non violabile vestrum  
“You everlasting fires, and your power that must not be broken,

**155** testor numen” ait “vos arae ensesque nefandi,  
I call to witness,” he said; “you altars and unspeakable blades

**156** quos fugi, vittaeque deum, quas hostia gessi:  
I ran from, and you fillets of the gods I wore as a victim:

**157** fas mihi Graiorum sacrata resolvere iura,  
it is right for me to loose the sworn bonds of the Greeks,
> What the gods permit, not law: fas names what is right in the eyes of the gods, distinct from ius, law made by men. Sinon claims fas for his own perjury three times in four lines. He is arguing that heaven itself has released him from his oath.

**158** fas odisse viros, atque omnia ferre sub auras,  
right to hate those men, and to bring everything up into the open

**159** si qua tegunt; teneor patriae nec legibus ullis.  
that they cover; nor am I held by any laws of a country.

**160** Tu modo promissis maneas, servataque serves  
Only stand by your promise; and, once saved, keep faith with me,
> The same root used twice: servata, a passive participle, and serves, an active present subjunctive, share the root servare, 'to save, keep.' Literally: 'Troy, having been saved, may you keep faith.' Latin often pairs a passive and active form of one verb this way.

**161** Troia fidem, si vera feram, si magna rependam.  
Troy, if I bring you truth, if I pay back greatly.

**162** Omnis spes Danaum et coepti fiducia belli  
Every hope of the Danaans, all their trust in the war they began,

**163** Palladis auxiliis semper stetit. Impius ex quo  
stood always on Pallas' help. But from the hour when the godless

**164** Tydides sed enim scelerumque inventor Ulixes,  
son of Tydeus, and Ulysses, who invents crimes,
> A name formed from the father's: Tydides, 'son of Tydeus,' is a patronymic, naming Diomedes by his father in the Homeric manner. Vergil uses the patronymic here rather than the personal name. Aeneas had earlier, in Book 1, named this same man directly as the bravest of the Greeks.

**165** fatale adgressi sacrato avellere templo  
set out to tear the fated Palladium from its hallowed temple,

**166** Palladium, caesis summae custodibus arcis,  
cut down the guards of the high citadel,

**167** corripuere sacram effigiem, manibusque cruentis  
and snatched the sacred figure, and with bloodied hands

**168** virgineas ausi divae contingere vittas;  
dared touch the maiden fillets of the goddess;

**169** ex illo fluere ac retro sublapsa referri  
from then their hope began to ebb and be carried backward,

**170** spes Danaum, fractae vires, aversa deae mens.  
the Danaans' strength broken, the mind of the goddess turned away.

**171** Nec dubiis ea signa dedit Tritonia monstris.  
And the Tritonian gave the signs of it in no uncertain wonders.
> A cult title for one goddess: Tritonia is a cult title of Minerva, drawn from a place called Triton, either a lake in Africa or a stream in Boeotia. Vergil also calls the same goddess Pallas and Minerva elsewhere. All three names refer to one deity.

**172** Vix positum castris simulacrum, arsere coruscae  
Hardly was the image set down in camp when flame flickered

**173** luminibus flammae arrectis, salsusque per artus  
and blazed from its staring eyes, and a salt sweat ran

**174** sudor iit, terque ipsa solo—mirabile dictu—  
over its limbs, and three times of itself (a marvel to say)
> The supine used a second time: dictu is again the rare supine in -u, limiting mirabile, 'astonishing': 'astonishing to tell.' The same fixed phrase appeared earlier at Aeneid 1.439. Sinon inserts it here as a narrator's aside, in the manner of a genuine eyewitness.

**175** emicuit, parmamque ferens hastamque trementem.  
it leapt from the ground, carrying shield and a shaking spear.

**176** Extemplo temptanda fuga canit aequora Calchas,  
At once Calchas prophesies that the sea must be tried in flight,

**177** nec posse Argolicis exscindi Pergama telis,  
and that Pergamum cannot be cut down by Argive weapons

**178** omina ni repetant Argis, numenque reducant,  
unless they fetch the omens again from Argos and bring back the power

**179** quod pelago et curvis secum avexere carinis.  
they carried off with them by sea in their curved keels.

**180** Et nunc, quod patrias vento petiere Mycenas,  
And now, in that they have made for their fathers' Mycenae with the wind,

**181** arma deosque parant comites, pelagoque remenso  
they are getting arms and gods for the voyage, and, the sea remeasured,

**182** improvisi aderunt: ita digerit omina Calchas.  
will be on you unlooked for: so Calchas sorts out the omens.

**183** Hanc pro Palladio moniti, pro numine laeso  
Warned, they set up this figure in place of the Palladium, for the power

**184** effigiem statuere, nefas quae triste piaret.  
they had injured, to atone for a grim sacrilege.

**185** Hanc tamen immensam Calchas attollere molem  
Yet Calchas ordered them to build the mass of it immense,

**186** roboribus textis caeloque educere iussit,  
of oak woven together, and to carry it up to the sky,

**187** ne recipi portis, aut duci in moenia possit,  
so that it could not be taken in at the gates, or led inside the walls,

**188** neu populum antiqua sub religione tueri.  
or guard your people under their old worship.

**189** Nam si vestra manus violasset dona Minervae,  
For if your hand did violence to Minerva's offering,

**190** tum magnum exitium (quod di prius omen in ipsum  
then great destruction (may the gods turn that omen back
> A prayer inserted mid-sentence: convertant is a present subjunctive of wish, 'may they turn': Sinon interrupts his own prophecy to pray the omen falls on the Greeks instead. quod here is a connecting relative, 'and this.' Romans held that a spoken omen could attach itself to the speaker.

**191** convertant!) Priami imperio Phrygibusque futurum;  
on him instead!) was to come on Priam's rule and the Phrygians;

**192** sin manibus vestris vestram ascendisset in urbem,  
but if it went up by your own hands into your own city,

**193** ultro Asiam magno Pelopea ad moenia bello  
Asia would come unasked in a great war to the walls of Pelops,

**194** venturam, et nostros ea fata manere nepotes.”  
and that fate would be waiting for our grandsons.”

**195** Talibus insidiis periurique arte Sinonis  
By such treachery, and by the art of the perjurer Sinon,

**196** credita res, captique dolis lacrimisque coactis,  
the thing was believed, and we were taken with guile and with tears
> Tears described as forced out: coactis, from cogere, 'to compel, to squeeze out,' modifies lacrimis, 'tears,' ablative plural: tears that were forced. The verb is the same one used for pressing milk into curds. Aeneas states plainly that his people were deceived by a performance.

**197** quos neque Tydides, nec Larisaeus Achilles,  
squeezed out, we whom neither the son of Tydeus, nor Achilles

**198** non anni domuere decem, non mille carinae.  
of Larissa, nor ten years, nor a thousand keels had broken.
> Four negatives building toward one point: non ... non repeats across the sentence, denying first Diomedes and Achilles, then ten years, non anni, and a thousand ships, non mille carinae. domuere is a syncopated perfect, 'they tamed,' from domare. The whole war is listed as a series of failures before the sentence ends.

**199** Hic aliud maius miseris multoque tremendum  
Here another thing, larger and far more to be dreaded,

**200** obicitur magis, atque improvida pectora turbat.  
is thrown at us in our misery, and shakes hearts that never saw it coming.

**201** Laocoön, ductus Neptuno sorte sacerdos,  
Laocoön, drawn by lot as the priest of Neptune,

**202** sollemnis taurum ingentem mactabat ad aras.  
was killing a huge bull at the appointed altars.

**203** Ecce autem gemini a Tenedo tranquilla per alta—  
But look, two snakes from Tenedos, over the still deep,

**204** horresco referens—immensis orbibus angues  
(I shudder telling it) leaning on the sea with enormous
> The narrator interrupting himself: horresco referens, 'I shudder in the telling,' is a first-person clause inserted into the middle of the sentence describing the serpents. referens is a present participle of refero, 'to relate, tell.' It is the only place in the scene where the speaker at the table interrupts the action he is describing.

**205** incumbunt pelago, pariterque ad litora tendunt;  
coils, and heading side by side for the shore;

**206** pectora quorum inter fluctus arrecta iubaeque  
their breasts held high among the swell, and their crests,

**207** sanguineae superant undas; pars cetera pontum  
blood-red, riding above the water; the rest of them skims the sea

**208** pone legit, sinuatque immensa volumine terga.  
behind, and bends its huge back in a rolling curve.

**209** Fit sonitus spumante salo; iamque arva tenebant,  
A noise comes off the foaming brine; and now they had the fields,

**210** ardentisque oculos suffecti sanguine et igni,  
their burning eyes bloodshot and full of fire,

**211** sibila lambebant linguis vibrantibus ora.  
and they licked their hissing mouths with quivering tongues.

**212** Diffugimus visu exsangues: illi agmine certo  
We scatter, white at the sight. They in an unswerving line
> A word for blood drained away: exsangues, 'bloodless,' is formed from ex, 'out of,' and sanguis, 'blood': a face with the blood gone from it. It describes the Trojans watching the serpents, nominative plural. Latin names the physical fact directly rather than using a general word like 'pale.'

**213** Laocoönta petunt; et primum parva duorum  
make for Laocoön; and first each serpent takes the small

**214** corpora natorum serpens amplexus uterque  
bodies of his two sons in its embrace,

**215** implicat, et miseros morsu depascitur artus;  
winds round them, and feeds on their poor limbs with its bite;

**216** post ipsum auxilio subeuntem ac tela ferentem  
then they catch the man himself, coming to help with a weapon,

**217** corripiunt, spirisque ligant ingentibus; et iam  
and bind him in enormous coils; and now,

**218** bis medium amplexi, bis collo squamea circum  
twice round his waist, twice with their scaly backs

**219** terga dati, superant capite et cervicibus altis.  
looped at his throat, they stand over him, head and neck reared high.

**220** Ille simul manibus tendit divellere nodos,  
He strains with both hands at once to tear the knots apart,

**221** perfusus sanie vittas atroque veneno,  
his fillets drenched in gore and black poison,

**222** clamores simul horrendos ad sidera tollit:  
and at once he lifts an appalling shout to the stars:

**223** quales mugitus, fugit cum saucius aram  
the bellowing of a wounded bull that has broken from the altar

**224** taurus, et incertam excussit cervice securim.  
and shaken the badly aimed axe out of its neck.

**225** At gemini lapsu delubra ad summa dracones  
But the twin serpents glide off to the high shrine,

**226** effugiunt saevaeque petunt Tritonidis arcem,  
make for the citadel of the pitiless Tritonian,

**227** sub pedibusque deae clipeique sub orbe teguntur.  
and take cover under the goddess' feet and the round of her shield.

**228** Tum vero tremefacta novus per pectora cunctis  
Then a fear that was new to all of us works its way

**229** insinuat pavor, et scelus expendisse merentem  
into shaking hearts, and they say Laocoön earned it and paid,

**230** Laocoönta ferunt, sacrum qui cuspide robur  
who wounded the holy oak with a spearpoint

**231** laeserit, et tergo sceleratam intorserit hastam.  
and hurled his wicked shaft into its back.

**232** Ducendum ad sedes simulacrum orandaque divae  
The image must be led to her house, they clamor, and the goddess'

**233** numina conclamant.  
power entreated.

**234** Dividimus muros et moenia pandimus urbis.  
We split our own walls and lay the city's defences open.
> First person verbs for their own act: Dividimus and pandimus, 'we split' and 'we open,' are first-person plural, making the Trojans themselves, not the Greeks, the grammatical subject of tearing down the wall. moenia, 'defenses,' takes urbis, 'of the city,' as a genitive.

**235** Accingunt omnes operi, pedibusque rotarum  
Every man girds himself to the work; they set gliding wheels

**236** subiciunt lapsus, et stuppea vincula collo  
under its feet, and stretch ropes of hemp

**237** intendunt: scandit fatalis machina muros,  
at its neck. The engine of our fate climbs the walls,

**238** feta armis. Pueri circum innuptaeque puellae  
big with arms. Around it boys and unwed girls
> Pregnancy applied to a machine: feta, 'pregnant, heavy with young,' agrees with machina, 'engine, contraption,' the word used here for the horse, not with equus itself. It describes the horse as feta armis, 'pregnant with weapons,' armis an ablative of respect. The adjective is feminine because machina, not equus, is the noun it modifies.

**239** sacra canunt, funemque manu contingere gaudent.  
sing the holy songs, and are glad to put a hand to the rope.

**240** Illa subit, mediaeque minans inlabitur urbi.  
On it comes, and slides threatening into the middle of the city.

**241** O patria, O divom domus Ilium, et incluta bello  
O my country, O Ilium, house of gods, and you walls of the sons

**242** moenia Dardanidum, quater ipso in limine portae  
of Dardanus, famous in war, four times at the very sill of the gate

**243** substitit, atque utero sonitum quater arma dedere:  
it stopped, and four times the armor in its belly rang:

**244** instamus tamen inmemores caecique furore,  
still we press on, past remembering, blind with frenzy,

**245** et monstrum infelix sacrata sistimus arce.  
and stand the doomed monster inside the holy citadel.

**246** Tunc etiam fatis aperit Cassandra futuris  
Then too Cassandra opens her mouth on the fates to come,

**247** ora, dei iussu non umquam credita Teucris.  
never believed by Teucrians, because a god ordered it so.

**248** Nos delubra deum miseri, quibus ultimus esset  
We, poor fools, for whom that day was the last one,

**249** ille dies, festa velamus fronde per urbem.  
hang the gods' shrines with festival leaves all through the town.

**250** Vertitur interea caelum et ruit oceano nox,  
Meanwhile the sky wheels round, and night comes up out of the ocean,

**251** involvens umbra magna terramque polumque  
folding in its huge shadow the earth and the sky

**252** Myrmidonumque dolos; fusi per moenia Teucri  
and the Myrmidons' tricks. Through the walls the Teucrians,

**253** conticuere, sopor fessos complectitur artus:  
lying where they fell, went quiet; sleep took their tired limbs.
> The word that opened the book: conticuere, 'they fell silent,' is the same verb, syncopated perfect third plural, that opened Book 2 for Aeneas' listeners. Here it describes the Trojans falling asleep on their last night. The identical form links the banquet hall to the doomed city.

**254** et iam Argiva phalanx instructis navibus ibat  
And already the Argive column was under way, its ships in order,

**255** a Tenedo tacitae per amica silentia lunae  
from Tenedos, through the friendly silences of a still moon,
> A phrase left deliberately ambiguous: tacitae, 'silent, quiet,' modifies lunae, 'of the moon,' but the phrase can mean either a shining moon under a hushed sky, or the technical dark of the moon, when no light falls at all. Ancient readers already disagreed on which Vergil intended.

**256** litora nota petens, flammas cum regia puppis  
making for a coast it knew, when the royal stern

**257** extulerat, fatisque deum defensus iniquis  
had lifted a flame, and Sinon, shielded by the unjust fates

**258** inclusos utero Danaos et pinea furtim  
of the gods, quietly slips the pine bolts and lets loose

**259** laxat claustra Sinon. Illos patefactus ad auras  
the Danaans shut in the belly. The horse, opened, gives them

**260** reddit equus, laetique cavo se robore promunt  
back to the air, and gladly out of the hollow oak come

**261** Thessandrus Sthenelusque duces, et dirus Ulixes,  
Thessandrus and Sthenelus, captains, and dreadful Ulysses,

**262** demissum lapsi per funem, Acamasque, Thoasque,  
sliding down a lowered rope, and Acamas, and Thoas,

**263** Pelidesque Neoptolemus, primusque Machaon,  
and Neoptolemus of Peleus' line, and Machaon at the front,

**264** et Menelaus, et ipse doli fabricator Epeos.  
and Menelaus, and Epeos himself, who made the trick.

**265** Invadunt urbem somno vinoque sepultam;  
They come into a city buried in sleep and in wine.
> Burial applied to a sleeping city: sepultam, from sepelire, 'to bury,' describes urbem, 'the city,' as somno vinoque sepultam, 'buried in sleep and wine.' The verb ordinarily applies to a corpse. The city is called already buried before any Trojan in it has been killed.

**266** caeduntur vigiles, portisque patentibus omnis  
The watch is cut down; at the gates, thrown open, they take in

**267** accipiunt socios atque agmina conscia iungunt.  
all their fellows, and link up the columns that were in on it.

**268** Tempus erat, quo prima quies mortalibus aegris  
It was the hour when the first rest begins for sick mortals

**269** incipit, et dono divom gratissima serpit.  
and steals over them, the sweetest of the gods' gifts.

**270** In somnis, ecce, ante oculos maestissimus Hector  
In my sleep, look, before my eyes Hector seemed to stand,

**271** visus adesse mihi, largosque effundere fletus,  
in the deepest grief, and to pour out floods of weeping,

**272** raptatus bigis, ut quondam, aterque cruento  
hauled behind the chariot as he was that day, and black with the blood

**273** pulvere, perque pedes traiectus lora tumentis.  
and the dust, and the thongs driven through his swollen feet.

**274** Ei mihi, qualis erat, quantum mutatus ab illo  
Ah me, what a state he was in; how changed from that
> A pronoun marking his earlier self: illo, ablative, refers back to the Hector Aeneas once knew, set against the ruined man now in front of him. mutatus, 'changed,' governs the comparison with ab, 'from.' The whole contrast rests on this single pronoun standing for the man Hector used to be.

**275** Hectore, qui redit exuvias indutus Achilli,  
Hector who came back dressed in the spoils of Achilles,

**276** vel Danaum Phrygios iaculatus puppibus ignis,  
or who had thrown Phrygian fire into the Danaan ships,

**277** squalentem barbam et concretos sanguine crinis  
his beard filthy, his hair stiff with clotted blood,

**278** volneraque illa gerens, quae circum plurima muros  
and carrying those many wounds he took there, around

**279** accepit patrios. Ultro flens ipse videbar  
his father's walls. I seemed to be weeping myself, unasked,

**280** Compellare virum et maestas expromere voces:  
and calling out to the man, and finding grieving words:

**281** “O lux Dardaniae, spes O fidissima Teucrum,  
“O light of Dardania, O surest hope of the Teucrians,
> A vocative calling him a light: lux, 'light,' used of a person, is vocative here, addressed to Hector: O lux Dardaniae, 'o light of Dardania.' Latin reserves this address for someone a whole people depends on. Hector's reply tells Aeneas only to leave.

**282** quae tantae tenuere morae? Quibus Hector ab oris  
what has held you back so long? From what shores, Hector,

**283** exspectate venis? Ut te post multa tuorum  
do you come, so long waited for? How worn we are, looking

**284** funera, post varios hominumque urbisque labores  
at you, after so many burials of your own, after every kind

**285** defessi aspicimus! Quae causa indigna serenos  
of trouble for men and for the city! What shameful cause has fouled

**286** foedavit voltus? Aut cur haec volnera cerno?”  
your clear face? Or why is it these wounds that I see?”

**287** Ille nihil, nec me quaerentem vana moratur,  
He answers nothing, and does not stay for my useless asking,

**288** sed graviter gemitus imo de pectore ducens,  
but drawing heavy groans up from the bottom of his chest,

**289** “Heu fuge, nate dea, teque his, ait, eripe flammis.  
“Ah, run, son of the goddess,” he says, “get out of these flames.

**290** Hostis habet muros; ruit alto a culmine Troia.  
The enemy holds the walls; Troy is coming down from her height.

**291** Sat patriae Priamoque datum: si Pergama dextra  
Enough has been given to the country and to Priam. If Pergamum

**292** defendi possent, etiam hac defensa fuissent.  
could be held by any right hand, it would have been held by this one.

**293** Sacra suosque tibi commendat Troia penatis:  
Troy puts into your keeping her holy things and her household gods:

**294** hos cape fatorum comites, his moenia quaere  
take them for companions of your fate; for them look for the walls,

**295** magna, pererrato statues quae denique ponto.”  
the great walls, you will finally set up when you have wandered the whole sea.”

**296** Sic ait, et manibus vittas Vestamque potentem  
So he speaks, and carries out in his hands the fillets, and Vesta

**297** aeternumque adytis effert penetralibus ignem.  
in her power, and the undying fire, from the innermost shrine.

**298** Diverso interea miscentur moenia luctu,  
Meanwhile the city is thrown into one confusion of scattered grief,

**299** et magis atque magis, quamquam secreta parentis  
and more and more, although my father Anchises' house

**300** Anchisae domus arboribusque obtecta recessit,  
stood well back, private, screened about with trees,

**301** clarescunt sonitus, armorumque ingruit horror.  
the sounds come clear, and the terror of armor closes in.

**302** Excutior somno, et summi fastigia tecti  
I am shaken out of sleep, and climbing I get above

**303** ascensu supero, atque arrectis auribus adsto:  
the topmost ridge of the roof, and stand there with my ears up:

**304** in segetem veluti cum flamma furentibus austris  
as when fire drops into a standing crop with the south winds raging,
> A simile introduced by veluti: veluti, 'just as,' introduces an extended comparison: fire in a standing crop, then a flood off a mountain. The simile ends not on the destruction itself but on a man too far off to know what he is hearing. That man, though the simile does not say so, is Aeneas, who has just climbed to his own roof.

**305** incidit, aut rapidus montano flumine torrens  
or a fast torrent off a mountain river

**306** sternit agros, sternit sata laeta boumque labores,  
levels the fields, levels the glad sown ground and the oxen's labor,

**307** praecipitisque trahit silvas, stupet inscius alto  
and hauls the woods down headlong, a shepherd, high on a rock,

**308** accipiens sonitum saxi de vertice pastor.  
hears the sound and stands there stunned, not knowing what it is.

**309** Tum vero manifesta fides, Danaumque patescunt  
Then the proof was plain indeed, and the Danaans' treachery

**310** insidiae. Iam Deiphobi dedit ampla ruinam  
lay open. Already the wide house of Deiphobus has fallen in,

**311** Volcano superante domus; iam proxumus ardet  
Vulcan on top of it; already, next door, Ucalegon

**312** Ucalegon; Sigea igni freta lata relucent.  
is burning; the broad Sigean water gives the fire back.

**313** Exoritur clamorque virum clangorque tubarum.  
The shouting of men goes up, and the blare of the trumpets.

**314** Arma amens capio; nec sat rationis in armis,  
Out of my senses I take up arms; there is little sense in arms,

**315** sed glomerare manum bello et concurrere in arcem  
but the spirit burns to gather a company for the fight and run

**316** cum sociis ardent animi; furor iraque mentem  
with my friends for the citadel. Rage and anger throw my mind

**317** praecipitant, pulchrumque mori succurrit in armis.  
headlong, and it comes to me that dying in arms is beautiful.

**318** Ecce autem telis Panthus elapsus Achivom,  
But look, Panthus, slipped clear of the Achaeans' weapons,

**319** Panthus Othryades, arcis Phoebique sacerdos,  
Panthus son of Othrys, priest of the citadel and of Phoebus,

**320** sacra manu victosque deos parvumque nepotem  
hauling in his own hands the holy things, the beaten gods,

**321** ipse trahit, cursuque amens ad limina tendit.  
and his little grandson, running half mad for my door.

**322** “Quo res summa, loco, Panthu? Quam prendimus arcem?”  
“Where does the worst of it stand, Panthus? What stronghold are we holding?”

**323** Vix ea fatus eram, gemitu cum talia reddit:  
I had barely said it when with a groan he gives me this:

**324** “Venit summa dies et ineluctabile tempus  
“The last day has come, and the hour there is no getting out of,

**325** Dardaniae: fuimus Troes, fuit Ilium et ingens  
for Dardania. We were Trojans; Ilium was, and gone is the great
> A perfect tense meaning it is over: fuimus and fuit are perfect tense, 'we were' and 'it was,' used here for something completed rather than merely past: 'we have been Trojans and are no longer.' Latin's perfect can carry this finished sense without any extra word.

**326** gloria Teucrorum; ferus omnia Iuppiter Argos  
glory of the Teucrians. Savage Jupiter has carried everything

**327** transtulit; incensa Danai dominantur in urbe.  
over to Argos; the Danaans are masters in a burning city.

**328** Arduus armatos mediis in moenibus adstans  
Standing tall in the middle of the walls, the horse pours

**329** fundit equus, victorque Sinon incendia miscet  
out armed men, and Sinon in his victory mixes the fires,

**330** insultans; portis alii bipatentibus adsunt,  
jeering. Others are at the gates, thrown wide both ways,

**331** milia quot magnis umquam venere Mycenis;  
as many thousands as ever came out of great Mycenae;

**332** obsedere alii telis angusta viarum  
others have stopped the narrows of the streets with weapons,

**333** oppositi; stat ferri acies mucrone corusco  
set against us. A line of iron stands, the point flashing,

**334** stricta, parata neci; vix primi proelia temptant  
drawn, ready for the killing. The gate watch barely tries

**335** portarum vigiles, et caeco Marte resistunt.”  
the fight at all, and holds out in a war it cannot see.”
> Mars standing for the fighting itself: Marte, ablative of Mars, stands for the fighting in general, not the god as a person. caeco, 'blind,' can mean both unseeing and unseen: the watch cannot see who is killing them in the dark. Vergil uses the same adjective elsewhere in this book for judgment, for the horse's flank, and for the night itself.

**336** Talibus Othryadae dictis et numine divom  
By such words of the son of Othrys, and by the will of the gods,

**337** in flammas et in arma feror, quo tristis Erinys,  
I am carried into the flames and into arms, where the grim Fury calls,

**338** quo fremitus vocat et sublatus ad aethera clamor.  
where the roar calls, and the shouting lifted up to the sky.

**339** Addunt se socios Rhipeus et maximus armis  
Rhipeus joins himself to me, and Epytus, greatest under arms,

**340** Epytus oblati per lunam Hypanisque Dymasque,  
we met them by the moon, and Hypanis and Dymas,

**341** et lateri adglomerant nostro, iuvenisque Coroebus,  
and they gather at my flank, and young Coroebus,

**342** Mygdonides: illis ad Troiam forte diebus  
son of Mygdon. In those very days he had happened

**343** venerat, insano Cassandrae incensus amore,  
to come to Troy, alight with a mad love for Cassandra,

**344** et gener auxilium Priamo Phrygibusque ferebat,  
and was bringing a son-in-law's help to Priam and the Phrygians,

**345** infelix, qui non sponsae praecepta furentis  
poor wretch, who to the warnings of his raving bride had

**346** audierit.  
never listened.
> One verb ending a broken line: audierit, 'he had heard' or 'he will have heard,' a perfect subjunctive, is the only word left in this line before the verse breaks off. It is the shortest of the roughly fifty lines Vergil left unfinished. The verb names exactly what Coroebus failed to do.

**347** Quos ubi confertos audere in proelia vidi,  
When I saw them packed close and ready to dare a fight,

**348** incipio super his: “Iuvenes, fortissima frustra  
I begin on top of that: “Young men, hearts brave for nothing,
> An adjective split from its noun: fortissima, 'bravest,' and pectora, 'hearts,' are separated by frustra, 'for nothing, in vain,' which sits between them in the line. Latin word order lets a modifying word interrupt the phrase it cancels. Aeneas calls these men brave in the same sentence that already tells them it will not matter.

**349** pectora, si vobis audentem extrema cupido  
if your longing is settled, to follow a man who dares

**350** certa sequi, quae sit rebus fortuna videtis:  
the last thing of all: you see what fortune our cause has.

**351** excessere omnes, adytis arisque relictis,  
They have all walked out, leaving shrine and altar behind,

**352** di, quibus imperium hoc steterat; succurritis urbi  
the gods this empire stood on. You are coming to the help

**353** incensae; moriamur et in media arma ruamus.  
of a city on fire. Let us die, and go into the middle of the weapons.

**354** Una salus victis, nullam sperare salutem.”  
The one safety of the beaten is to hope for no safety.”
> The same noun in two cases: salus appears twice, once as una salus, nominative, 'the one safety,' and once as salutem, accusative, the object of sperare, 'to hope for.' The line repeats the same word in two different grammatical roles within one sentence. victis, dative plural, names those the safety belongs to: the beaten.

**355** Sic animis iuvenum furor additus: inde, lupi ceu  
So the young men's spirits took the frenzy on. From there, as wolves

**356** raptores atra in nebula, quos improba ventris  
that rob in a black fog, driven out blind by the pitiless

**357** exegit caecos rabies, catulique relicti  
rage of an empty belly, their cubs left behind them

**358** faucibus exspectant siccis, per tela, per hostis  
waiting with dry throats, through the weapons, through the enemy

**359** vadimus haud dubiam in mortem, mediaeque tenemus  
we go into a death nobody doubts, and we hold our road

**360** urbis iter; nox atra cava circumvolat umbra.  
through the middle of the city; black night flies round us in a hollow shadow.

**361** Quis cladem illius noctis, quis funera fando  
Who could unfold in speech the wreck of that night, who the burials,
> A question in the subjunctive mood: explicet, present subjunctive, makes this a rhetorical question about something too large to answer: 'who could unfold it.' quis, 'who,' is the subject. Aeneas used the same figure, calling his story unspeakable, at the very start of his account.

**362** explicet, aut possit lacrimis aequare labores?  
or find tears to come level with the suffering?

**363** Urbs antiqua ruit, multos dominata per annos;  
An old city goes down, that ruled for many years.

**364** plurima perque vias sternuntur inertia passim  
Bodies past moving lie strewn everywhere, all through

**365** corpora, perque domos et religiosa deorum  
the streets, and through the houses, and on the sacred

**366** limina. Nec soli poenas dant sanguine Teucri;  
doorsteps of the gods. Nor do Teucrians alone pay with blood;

**367** quondam etiam victis redit in praecordia virtus  
there are moments when courage comes back into beaten hearts,

**368** victoresque cadunt Danai: crudelis ubique  
and the winning Danaans fall. Everywhere is cruel

**369** luctus, ubique pavor, et plurima mortis imago.  
grief, everywhere terror, and death showing in a hundred shapes.
> A word for likeness or ghost: imago names a likeness, an appearance, or a ghost: the same word used for a portrait or a reflection. plurima, 'very many,' modifies it: death shown in many forms rather than counted. The word recurs later in the book when actual ghosts appear.

**370** Primus se, Danaum magna comitante caterva,  
First, with a great crowd of Danaans at his back,

**371** Androgeos offert nobis, socia agmina credens  
Androgeos comes on us, taking us for a friendly column

**372** inscius, atque ultro verbis compellat amicis:  
in his ignorance, and calls out first, as to comrades:

**373** “Festinate, viri: nam quae tam sera moratur  
“Get on, men. What sluggishness is holding you back

**374** segnities? Alii rapiunt incensa feruntque  
so late? The rest are looting and hauling off a burning

**375** Pergama; vos celsis nunc primum a navibus itis.”  
Pergamum; are you only now coming up from the tall ships?”

**376** Dixit, et extemplo, neque enim responsa dabantur  
He spoke, and straight away, since no answer came back

**377** fida satis, sensit medios delapsus in hostis.  
sound enough, he felt he had slipped into the middle of enemies.

**378** Obstipuit, retroque pedem cum voce repressit:  
He stopped dead, and pulled back his foot and his voice together:

**379** inprovisum aspris veluti qui sentibus anguem  
as a man who has put his weight on a snake he did not see,

**380** pressit humi nitens, trepidusque repente refugit  
underfoot in rough briars, and suddenly starts back in fright

**381** attollentem iras et caerula colla tumentem;  
as it lifts its anger and swells out a blue-green throat;

**382** haud secus Androgeos visu tremefactus abibat.  
no differently, Androgeos was backing off, shaking at the sight.

**383** Inruimus, densis et circumfundimur armis,  
We charge, and pour round them in a thick press of arms,

**384** ignarosque loci passim et formidine captos  
and cut them down everywhere, strangers to the ground and taken

**385** sternimus: adspirat primo fortuna labori.  
by fear. Fortune breathes on our first piece of work.

**386** Atque hic successu exsultans animisque Coroebus,  
And here Coroebus, riding high on the success and on his own nerve,

**387** “O socii, qua prima” inquit “fortuna salutis  
says: “Friends, where fortune first shows us the road

**388** monstrat iter, quoque ostendit se dextra, sequamur  
to safety, and where she shows herself on our side, let us follow.

**389** mutemus clipeos, Danaumque insignia nobis  
Let us change shields, and fit ourselves out with Danaan

**390** aptemus: dolus an virtus, quis in hoste requirat?  
badges. Trickery or courage, who would ask that of an enemy?
> A rhetorical question about an enemy: requirat, present subjunctive, makes this a rhetorical question with no expected answer: 'who would ask that of an enemy.' dolus, 'trickery,' is the same word later used of the wooden horse itself. Coroebus uses the question to justify disguising his men in captured armor.

**391** Arma dabunt ipsi.” Sic fatus, deinde comantem  
They will hand us weapons themselves.” Having said it, he puts on

**392** Androgei galeam clipeique insigne decorum  
the plumed helmet of Androgeos, and the handsome blazon of his shield,

**393** induitur, laterique Argivum accommodat ensem.  
and fits an Argive sword to his side.

**394** Hoc Rhipeus, hoc ipse Dymas omnisque iuventus  
This Rhipeus does, this Dymas himself, and all the young men,

**395** laeta facit; spoliis se quisque recentibus armat.  
gladly; each arms himself out of the spoils still warm.

**396** Vadimus immixti Danais haud numine nostro,  
We go mixed in among Danaans, under no god of ours,
> A phrase denying divine backing: numen, 'a god's nod, assent,' is ablative here with haud, 'not': haud numine nostro, 'with no god of ours behind it.' The phrase states plainly that the Trojans went into this fight without divine sanction. Aeneas says this as narrator, years after the fact.

**397** multaque per caecam congressi proelia noctem  
and joining battle many times through the blind night

**398** conserimus, multos Danaum demittimus Orco.  
we send many of the Danaans down to Orcus.

**399** Diffugiunt alii ad navis, et litora cursu  
Some scatter to the ships and run for a shore

**400** fida petunt: pars ingentem formidine turpi  
they can trust; some in disgraceful terror climb

**401** scandunt rursus equum et nota conduntur in alvo.  
the huge horse again and hide in the belly they know.

**402** Heu nihil invitis fas quemquam fidere divis!  
Ah, no man may trust anything, with the gods unwilling!
> Another ablative absolute construction: invitis divis, 'the gods unwilling,' is an ablative absolute, a noun and participle-like adjective standing apart from the main clause. Latin can compress an entire circumstance into two words this way. The same construction appeared as posthabita Samo in Book 1.

**403** Ecce trahebatur passis Priameïa virgo  
Look, Priam's daughter was being dragged along, her hair loose,

**404** crinibus a templo Cassandra adytisque Minervae,  
Cassandra, out of the temple and the inner shrine of Minerva,

**405** ad caelum tendens ardentia lumina frustra,—  
lifting her burning eyes to heaven for nothing,

**406** lumina, nam teneras arcebant vincula palmas.  
her eyes, for cords held her soft hands back.

**407** Non tulit hanc speciem furiata mente Coroebus,  
Coroebus, his mind gone into fury, could not bear that sight,

**408** et sese medium iniecit periturus in agmen.  
and flung himself into the middle of the column to be killed.

**409** Consequimur cuncti et densis incurrimus armis.  
We all follow, and run in at close quarters.

**410** Hic primum ex alto delubri culmine telis  
Here first, from the high roof of the shrine, we are buried

**411** nostrorum obruimur, oriturque miserrima caedes  
under our own men's weapons, and the most pitiable killing begins,

**412** armorum facie et Graiarum errore iubarum.  
because of the look of our armor and the Greek crests they mistook.
> A word for a mistaken deviation: error, 'a wandering, a going astray,' names the Trojans' fatal mistake in identifying their own men by Greek crests, iubarum. The genitive Graiarum, 'of the Greeks,' specifies what caused it. The same word usually describes a literal path gone wrong, here applied to a mistake in recognition.

**413** Tum Danai gemitu atque ereptae virginis ira  
Then the Danaans, groaning, in rage at the girl taken back,

**414** undique collecti invadunt, acerrimus Aiax,  
gather from every side and come at us, Ajax at his fiercest,

**415** et gemini Atridae, Dolopumque exercitus omnis;  
and the two sons of Atreus, and the whole Dolopian army:

**416** adversi rupto ceu quondam turbine venti  
as when a whirlwind bursts and the opposing winds

**417** confligunt, Zephyrusque Notusque et laetus Eois  
collide, the West and the South, and the East Wind glad

**418** Eurus equis; stridunt silvae, saevitque tridenti  
in his dawn horses; the woods scream, and Nereus rages, foaming,

**419** spumeus atque imo Nereus ciet aequora fundo.  
with his trident, and calls the seas up from their lowest floor.

**420** Illi etiam, si quos obscura nocte per umbram  
Those too, if we had routed any by our trick in the dark

**421** fudimus insidiis totaque agitavimus urbe,  
of the night and driven them through the whole city,

**422** apparent; primi clipeos mentitaque tela  
reappear. They are the first to know our shields and our lying

**423** adgnoscunt, atque ora sono discordia signant.  
weapons, and to mark the sound of our mouths as out of tune.

**424** Ilicet obruimur numero; primusque Coroebus  
In a moment we are buried by numbers. Coroebus first

**425** Penelei dextra divae armipotentis ad aram  
goes down by the hand of Peneleus, at the altar of the goddess

**426** procumbit; cadit et Rhipeus, iustissimus unus  
mighty in arms; and Rhipeus falls, the one most just

**427** qui fuit in Teucris et servantissimus aequi:  
man there was among the Teucrians, and the strictest keeper of the right:

**428** dis aliter visum; pereunt Hypanisque Dymasque  
the gods saw it otherwise. Hypanis and Dymas die,

**429** confixi a sociis; nec te tua plurima, Panthu,  
run through by their own side; nor did all your duty, Panthus,
> Duty named, but no protection: pietas, 'duty' owed to gods, father, and people, is attached here to Panthus, a priest, as tua plurima ... pietas, 'your very great pietas.' The sentence states directly that it did not save him. pietas is the same word used elsewhere as Aeneas' own defining quality.

**430** labentem pietas nec Apollinis infula texit.  
nor Apollo's headband, cover you as you went down.

**431** Iliaci cineres et flamma extrema meorum,  
Ashes of Ilium, and last fire of my own people,
> Calling ashes to witness an oath: testor, 'I call to witness,' takes Iliaci cineres, 'the ashes of Ilium,' as its object, an oath formula addressed to something incapable of answering. Aeneas swears he did not avoid the fighting, though no one has accused him. The oath interrupts the narrative rather than continuing it.

**432** testor, in occasu vestro nec tela nec ullas  
I call you to witness: at your fall I kept clear of no weapon

**433** vitavisse vices Danaum, et, si fata fuissent  
and no turn of the Danaans, and if the fates had run

**434** ut caderem, meruisse manu. Divellimur inde,  
so that I should fall, I earned it with my hand. We are torn from there,

**435** Iphitus et Pelias mecum, quorum Iphitus aevo  
Iphitus and Pelias with me, Iphitus already heavy

**436** iam gravior, Pelias et volnere tardus Ulixi;  
with his years, and Pelias slowed by a wound of Ulysses' giving;

**437** protinus ad sedes Priami clamore vocati.  
called straight on to Priam's house by the shouting.

**438** Hic vero ingentem pugnam, ceu cetera nusquam  
Here indeed was a huge fight, as though there were no other

**439** bella forent, nulli tota morerentur in urbe.  
war anywhere, as though no one were dying in the whole city.

**440** Sic Martem indomitum, Danaosque ad tecta ruentis  
So we see war unmastered, and Danaans rushing the roof,

**441** cernimus, obsessumque acta testudine limen.  
and the doorway besieged under a tortoise of driven shields.

**442** Haerent parietibus scalae, postisque sub ipsos  
Ladders cling to the walls, and right under the doorposts

**443** nituntur gradibus, clipeosque ad tela sinistris  
they strain up the rungs, and hold out shields on their left arms

**444** protecti obiciunt, prensant fastigia dextris.  
against the missiles, covered, while their right hands clutch the gables.

**445** Dardanidae contra turris ac tota domorum  
The sons of Dardanus, against them, are pulling down towers

**446** culmina convellunt; his se, quando ultima cernunt,  
and every roof of the house; with these, since they see the end,

**447** extrema iam in morte parant defendere telis;  
they make ready to defend themselves in their last hour;

**448** auratasque trabes, veterum decora alta parentum,  
and the gilded beams, the high glory of their old forefathers,

**449** devolvunt; alii strictis mucronibus imas  
they roll down. Others with drawn points have blocked

**450** obsedere fores; has servant agmine denso.  
the doors below; they hold them in a packed line.

**451** Instaurati animi, regis succurrere tectis,  
Our spirits came back, to bring help to the king's house,

**452** auxilioque levare viros, vimque addere victis.  
to relieve the men, and put strength back into the beaten.

**453** Limen erat caecaeque fores et pervius usus  
There was a doorway, a blind entrance, a way through

**454** tectorum inter se Priami, postesque relicti  
that joined Priam's buildings to one another, and a back gate

**455** a tergo, infelix qua se, dum regna manebant,  
left behind them, by which, while the kingdom stood, unlucky

**456** saepius Andromache ferre incomitata solebat  
Andromache used often to take herself, with no one attending,

**457** ad soceros, et avo puerum Astyanacta trahebat.  
to her husband's parents, bringing the boy Astyanax to his grandfather.

**458** Evado ad summi fastigia culminis, unde  
I climb out onto the ridge of the highest roof, where

**459** tela manu miseri iactabant inrita Teucri.  
the wretched Teucrians were throwing weapons by hand, to no purpose.

**460** Turrim in praecipiti stantem summisque sub astra  
A tower stood on the sheer edge, run up to the stars

**461** eductam tectis, unde omnis Troia videri  
from the topmost roofs, from which all Troy could be seen,

**462** et Danaum solitae naves et Achaia castra,  
and the Danaans' ships, and the Achaean camp:

**463** adgressi ferro circum, qua summa labantis  
we went at it with iron all round, where the upper floors

**464** iuncturas tabulata dabant, convellimus altis  
gave us joints already loosening, and we wrenched it out of its high

**465** sedibus, impulimusque; ea lapsa repente ruinam  
seat and shoved. It slid, and dragged its own collapse down

**466** cum sonitu trahit et Danaum super agmina late  
with a crash, and came apart wide over the Danaan columns.

**467** incidit: ast alii subeunt, nec saxa, nec ullum  
But others come on, and meanwhile neither the stones nor any

**468** telorum interea cessat genus.  
kind of weapon lets up.

**469** Vestibulum ante ipsum primoque in limine Pyrrhus  
Before the forecourt itself, on the first step, Pyrrhus

**470** exsultat, telis et luce coruscus aëna;  
is exulting, glittering with weapons and with bronze light:

**471** qualis ubi in lucem coluber mala gramina pastus  
as a snake comes into the light, fed on poisonous grass,

**472** frigida sub terra tumidum quem bruma tegebat,  
that the cold winter kept swollen under the earth,

**473** nunc, positis novus exuviis nitidusque iuventa,  
and now, its old skin off, new and shining in its youth,

**474** lubrica convolvit sublato pectore terga  
rolls its slippery back with its breast lifted,

**475** arduus ad solem, et linguis micat ore trisulcis.  
reared toward the sun, and flickers a three-forked tongue in its mouth.

**476** Una ingens Periphas et equorum agitator Achillis,  
With him huge Periphas, and the driver of Achilles' horses,

**477** armiger Automedon, una omnis Scyria pubes  
his squire Automedon, and with them all the young men of Scyros

**478** succedunt tecto, et flammas ad culmina iactant.  
come up to the house, and throw flames at the gables.

**479** Ipse inter primos correpta dura bipenni  
He himself is among the first: he catches up a hard axe,

**480** limina perrumpit, postisque a cardine vellit  
smashes through the doorway, and tears the bronze-plated posts

**481** aeratos; iamque excisa trabe firma cavavit  
off the hinge; and now, a beam cut out, he has hollowed the solid

**482** robora, et ingentem lato dedit ore fenestram.  
oak, and made a huge window with a wide mouth.

**483** Adparet domus intus, et atria longa patescunt;  
The house shows inside, and the long halls lie open;

**484** adparent Priami et veterum penetralia regum,  
the private rooms of Priam and the old kings show;

**485** armatosque vident stantis in limine primo.  
and they see armed men standing on the first step.

**486** At domus interior gemitu miseroque tumultu  
But the inner house is churned with groaning and wretched

**487** miscetur, penitusque cavae plangoribus aedes  
confusion, and deep in it the hollow chambers howl

**488** femineis ululant; ferit aurea sidera clamor.  
with women wailing; the shouting strikes the golden stars.
> Striking, applied to a shout: ferit, 'strikes,' takes sidera, 'the stars,' as its object, with clamor, 'the shouting,' as subject. ferire is the verb for a physical blow, here applied to sound reaching the sky. aurea, 'golden,' describes the stars as unmoved by the noise below.

**489** Tum pavidae tectis matres ingentibus errant;  
Then frightened mothers wander the enormous rooms;

**490** amplexaeque tenent postis atque oscula figunt.  
they hold the doorposts in their arms and press their mouths to them.

**491** Instat vi patria Pyrrhus; nec claustra, neque ipsi  
Pyrrhus drives on with his father's force; neither bars nor the guards

**492** custodes sufferre valent; labat ariete crebro  
themselves can take it. The door caves under the ram

**493** ianua, et emoti procumbunt cardine postes.  
beating and beating, and the posts, shifted off the hinge, fall in.

**494** Fit via vi; rumpunt aditus, primosque trucidant  
Force makes a road. They break in, butcher the first men they meet,
> Three words sharing one sound: Fit via vi, 'a way is made by force,' repeats the same v- and i- sounds across all three words. via is nominative, subject of fit, 'is made'; vi is ablative of means. Latin alliteration this dense is rare even in Vergil.

**495** immissi Danai, et late loca milite complent.  
the Danaans, let loose, and fill the space with soldiery.

**496** Non sic, aggeribus ruptis cum spumeus amnis  
Not so, when a foaming river has burst its banks
> A simile beginning with a denial: Non sic, 'not so,' opens the simile by declaring the comparison insufficient before it is even given. spumeus amnis, 'a foaming river,' bursting its banks, is the image that follows. It is the only simile in the book introduced this way.

**497** exiit, oppositasque evicit gurgite moles,  
and gone out, and beaten down with its flood the barriers set against it,

**498** fertur in arva furens cumulo, camposque per omnis  
and is carried raging in a mass onto the ploughland, and over every field

**499** cum stabulis armenta trahit. Vidi ipse furentem  
drags the herds and their stalls together. I saw myself Neoptolemus

**500** caede Neoptolemum geminosque in limine Atridas;  
raving with slaughter, and the two sons of Atreus in the doorway;

**501** vidi Hecubam centumque nurus, Priamumque per aras  
I saw Hecuba and her hundred sons' wives, and Priam at the altars

**502** sanguine foedantem, quos ipse sacraverat, ignis.  
fouling with his blood the fires he had consecrated himself.

**503** Quinquaginta illi thalami, spes tanta nepotum,  
Those fifty bedchambers, so large a hope of grandsons,

**504** barbarico postes auro spoliisque superbi,  
the doorposts proud with barbarian gold and with spoils,

**505** procubuere; tenent Danai, qua deficit ignis.  
have come down. Where the fire falls short, the Danaans hold.

**506** Forsitan et Priami fuerint quae fata requiras.  
Perhaps you will ask what Priam's fate was too.
> An indirect question about fate: requiras, present subjunctive, introduces an indirect question, quae fata, 'what fate,' governed by it. Forsitan, 'perhaps,' hedges the whole sentence, answering a question Dido has not actually asked aloud. It is the one place in the book where Aeneas addresses his listener directly inside the narrative.

**507** Urbis uti captae casum convolsaque vidit  
When he saw the fall of the taken city, and the doorways

**508** limina tectorum et medium in penetralibus hostem,  
of his house torn out, and the enemy in among his private rooms,

**509** arma diu senior desueta trementibus aevo  
the old man puts armor long unused round shoulders

**510** circumdat nequiquam umeris, et inutile ferrum  
shaking with age, for nothing, and buckles on a sword

**511** cingitur, ac densos fertur moriturus in hostis.  
that will do no work, and is carried into the thick of them to die.

**512** Aedibus in mediis nudoque sub aetheris axe  
In the middle of the house, under the bare axle of the sky,

**513** ingens ara fuit iuxtaque veterrima laurus,  
there was a great altar, and beside it an aged laurel

**514** incumbens arae atque umbra complexa Penatis.  
leaning over the altar and holding the household gods in its shade.

**515** Hic Hecuba et natae nequiquam altaria circum,  
Here Hecuba and her daughters, for nothing, around the altars,

**516** praecipites atra ceu tempestate columbae,  
like doves driven headlong before a black storm,

**517** condensae et divom amplexae simulacra sedebant.  
sat huddled together, holding the images of the gods.

**518** Ipsum autem sumptis Priamum iuvenalibus armis  
But when she saw Priam himself with a young man's armor on,

**519** ut vidit, “Quae mens tam dira, miserrime coniunx,  
“What appalling thought, my poor husband,” she said,

**520** impulit his cingi telis? Aut quo ruis?” inquit;  
“has driven you to strap these weapons on? Or where are you running?

**521** “Non tali auxilio nec defensoribus istis  
The hour has no need of such help, nor of defenders

**522** tempus eget, non, si ipse meus nunc adforet Hector.  
like these, not if my own Hector were standing here now.

**523** Huc tandem concede; haec ara tuebitur omnis,  
Come over here at last: this altar will keep us all,

**524** aut moriere simul.” Sic ore effata recepit  
or you will die with us.” Having spoken so, she took him

**525** ad sese et sacra longaevum in sede locavit.  
to herself and set the old man in the holy place.

**526** Ecce autem elapsus Pyrrhi de caede Polites,  
But look, Polites, slipped clear of Pyrrhus and the killing,

**527** unus natorum Priami, per tela, per hostis  
one of Priam's sons, through the weapons, through the enemy,

**528** porticibus longis fugit, et vacua atria lustrat  
runs down the long colonnades and crosses the empty halls,

**529** saucius: illum ardens infesto volnere Pyrrhus  
wounded. Pyrrhus, alight, is after him with a stroke meant to kill,

**530** insequitur, iam iamque manu tenet et premit hasta.  
and now, now has a hand on him and is pressing with the spear.

**531** Ut tandem ante oculos evasit et ora parentum,  
When at last he got out in front of his parents' eyes and faces,

**532** concidit, ac multo vitam cum sanguine fudit.  
he went down, and poured his life out with a great deal of blood.

**533** Hic Priamus, quamquam in media iam morte tenetur,  
Then Priam, though he is already held in the middle of death,

**534** non tamen abstinuit, nec voci iraeque pepercit:  
did not hold back for that, nor spare his voice and his anger:

**535** “At tibi pro scelere”, exclamat, “pro talibus ausis,  
“For this crime,” he cries, “for daring a thing like that,

**536** di, si qua est caelo pietas, quae talia curet,  
may the gods, if there is any goodness in heaven that minds such things,
> A conditional asking if duty exists: si qua est, 'if there is any,' makes pietas, 'duty, goodness,' a real question rather than a rhetorical flourish. caelo, 'in heaven,' is ablative of place. Priam applies the poem's key word for Aeneas' virtue to the gods themselves, asking whether they possess any.

**537** persolvant grates dignas et praemia reddant  
pay you the thanks you have earned, and give back the reward

**538** debita, qui nati coram me cernere letum  
that is owed you, who made me watch my own son die

**539** fecisti et patrios foedasti funere voltus.  
in front of me, and fouled a father's face with a funeral.

**540** At non ille, satum quo te mentiris, Achilles  
But Achilles, whose son you lie that you are,

**541** talis in hoste fuit Priamo; sed iura fidemque  
was not like that to Priam, his enemy: he had shame

**542** supplicis erubuit, corpusque exsangue sepulchro  
before a suppliant's rights and a suppliant's claim, gave back

**543** reddidit Hectoreum, meque in mea regna remisit.”  
the bloodless body of Hector for burial, and sent me home to my kingdom.”

**544** Sic fatus senior, telumque imbelle sine ictu  
So the old man spoke, and threw a weapon with no war in it

**545** coniecit, rauco quod protinus aere repulsum  
and no force, which the harsh bronze at once turned back,

**546** e summo clipei nequiquam umbone pependit.  
and it hung, useless, from the top of the shield's boss.

**547** Cui Pyrrhus: “Referes ergo haec et nuntius ibis  
Pyrrhus to him: “Then you will carry the report, and go as messenger

**548** Pelidae genitori; illi mea tristia facta  
to my father, the son of Peleus. Remember to tell him

**549** degeneremque Neoptolemum narrare memento.  
of my grim doings, and of a Neoptolemus who fell short of him.
> Falling short of one's stock: degener describes offspring, whether of an animal or a plant, that does not breed true to its parent. Pyrrhus is called degenerem, accusative, 'fallen short,' while being named Neoptolemus, the name that identifies him by his father, Achilles. The two words sit side by side in the same phrase.

**550** Nunc morere.” Hoc dicens altaria ad ipsa trementem  
Now die.” Saying this he dragged the old man, shaking,

**551** traxit et in multo lapsantem sanguine nati,  
to the altar itself, slipping in the pooled blood of his son,

**552** implicuitque comam laeva, dextraque coruscum  
and wound the hair in his left hand, and with his right lifted

**553** extulit, ac lateri capulo tenus abdidit ensem.  
the flashing sword and buried it in his side to the hilt.

**554** Haec finis Priami fatorum; hic exitus illum  
This was the end of Priam's fates; this was the exit that carried
> A word for one's allotted fate: fatorum, genitive plural of fatum, names not simply death but the whole span that had been allotted to a man: what has been spoken over him. finis, 'end, close,' governs it. Vergil writes the sentence in the shape of an epitaph before the next line undercuts it.

**555** sorte tulit, Troiam incensam et prolapsa videntem  
him off by lot, with Troy burning and Pergamum fallen

**556** Pergama, tot quondam populis terrisque superbum  
before his eyes, a man who had once ruled Asia in pride

**557** regnatorem Asiae. Iacet ingens litore truncus,  
over so many peoples and lands. A huge trunk lies on the shore,

**558** avolsumque umeris caput, et sine nomine corpus.  
the head torn from the shoulders, and a body with no name.
> A body left without identity: sine nomine, 'without a name,' modifies corpus, 'body,' because the head, which carried the identification, is gone. The greatest king in Asia is described in the plainest possible terms, with no adjective attached to him at all. corpus here is closer to 'trunk' than 'person.'

**559** At me tum primum saevus circumstetit horror  
But then for the first time a savage horror closed round me.

**560** Obstipui; subiit cari genitoris imago,  
I stood stunned. The picture of my own dear father rose in me,
> A verb for a thought surfacing: subiit, from subire, 'to come up from beneath,' describes imago, 'the image, picture,' of Anchises rising unbidden in Aeneas' mind. The verb is used elsewhere for something rising from underneath, here applied to memory. The sight of Priam dying brings his own father to mind first.

**561** ut regem aequaevum crudeli volnere vidi  
as I looked at the king, a man of his years, breathing his life out

**562** vitam exhalantem; subiit deserta Creüsa,  
through a cruel wound; Creusa rose in me, abandoned,

**563** et direpta domus, et parvi casus Iuli.  
and the house ransacked, and what might have happened to little Iulus.

**564** Respicio, et quae sit me circum copia lustro.  
I look back, and take stock of what force is left around me.

**565** Deseruere omnes defessi, et corpora saltu  
Every one of them had gone, worn out; they had dropped their bodies

**566** ad terram misere aut ignibus aegra dedere.  
to the ground with a jump, or given them, sick, to the flames.

**567** Iamque adeo super unus eram, cum limina Vestae  
And by now I was the only one left, when I catch sight

**568** servantem et tacitam secreta in sede latentem  
of the daughter of Tyndareus, keeping to Vesta's doorway,

**569** Tyndarida aspicio: dant clara incendia lucem  
silent, hiding in a place apart. The bright fires give me light

**570** erranti passimque oculos per cuncta ferenti.  
as I wander and carry my eyes over everything.

**571** Illa sibi infestos eversa ob Pergama Teucros  
She, in dread already of Teucrians set against her for Pergamum

**572** et poenas Danaum et deserti coniugis iras  
overturned, and of Danaan punishment, and of the anger

**573** praemetuens, Troiae et patriae communis Erinys,  
of the husband she left, a Fury shared by Troy and her own country,
> A Fury shared by two sides: Erinys, a Greek loanword for a Fury, is modified by communis, 'shared, common': a Fury belonging to both Troy and Greece equally. Helen is described as having ruined the country she left as much as the one she went to. The same word named the spirit that drove Aeneas into the street earlier in the book.

**574** abdiderat sese atque aris invisa sedebat.  
had hidden herself, and was sitting at the altars, hated.

**575** Exarsere ignes animo; subit ira cadentem  
Fires blazed up in my mind: an anger comes to avenge

**576** ulcisci patriam et sceleratas sumere poenas.  
my country as it falls, and to exact the payment of her crime.

**577** “Scilicet haec Spartam incolumis patriasque Mycenas  
“So she will see Sparta whole, and her fathers' Mycenae,

**578** aspiciet, partoque ibit regina triumpho,  
and go home a queen in a triumph she has earned,

**579** coniugiumque, domumque, patres, natosque videbit,  
and see her marriage, her house, her parents, her children,

**580** Iliadum turba et Phrygiis comitata ministris?  
with a crowd of Trojan women and Phrygian servants at her heel?

**581** Occiderit ferro Priamus, Troia arserit igni?  
Shall Priam have fallen by the sword, Troy burned with fire?

**582** Dardanium totiens sudarit sanguine litus?  
Shall the Dardanian beach have sweated blood so many times?

**583** Non ita: namque etsi nullum memorabile nomen  
Not so. For though there is no name worth remembering
> A concession he then overrides: memorabile, 'worth remembering, notable,' negated by nullum, concedes that there is no glory feminea in poena, 'in punishing a woman.' etsi, 'although,' introduces the concession before Aeneas talks himself past it. The sentence records him admitting the shameful part of the act before he commits it.

**584** feminea in poena est, nec habet victoria laudem,  
in punishing a woman, and no praise to be had from that victory,

**585** extinxisse nefas tamen et sumpsisse merentis  
still I shall be praised for putting out an abomination and taking

**586** laudabor poenas, animumque explesse iuvabit  
the payment she has earned, and it will be good to have filled my heart

**587** ultricis flammae, et cineres satiasse meorum.”  
with avenging flame, and satisfied the ashes of my own people.”

**588** Talia iactabam, et furiata mente ferebar:  
Such things I was throwing out, carried along on a mind gone mad,

**589** cum mihi se, non ante oculis tam clara, videndam  
when my mother showed herself to me, to be seen as she had never

**590** obtulit et pura per noctem in luce refulsit  
been seen before, and shone through the night in a clear light,

**591** alma parens, confessa deam, qualisque videri  
owning the goddess, such and so tall as the sky-dwellers

**592** caelicolis et quanta solet, dextraque prehensum  
are used to seeing her; and taking my right hand she held

**593** continuit, roseoque haec insuper addidit ore:  
me back, and added this besides from her rose-colored mouth:

**594** “Nate, quis indomitas tantus dolor excitat iras?  
“Son, what is this grief that wakes such ungovernable anger?

**595** Quid furis, aut quonam nostri tibi cura recessit?  
Why are you raving? Where has your care for us got to?

**596** Non prius aspicies, ubi fessum aetate parentem  
Will you not look first where you have left your father,

**597** liqueris Anchisen; superet coniunxne Creüsa,  
Anchises, worn out with his years; whether your wife Creusa

**598** Ascaniusque puer? Quos omnes undique Graiae  
is still alive, and the boy Ascanius? Greek lines are wandering

**599** circum errant acies, et, ni mea cura resistat,  
all round them on every side, and if my care were not in the way,

**600** iam flammae tulerint inimicus et hauserit ensis.  
the flames would have them by now, and the enemy sword drunk them up.

**601** Non tibi Tyndaridis facies invisa Lacaenae  
It is not the hated beauty of the Spartan, Tyndareus' daughter,

**602** culpatusve Paris: divom inclementia, divom,  
nor Paris, who is blamed. It is the gods' mercilessness, the gods',
> A genitive repeated for emphasis: divom, an archaic genitive plural of divi, 'gods,' is said twice, the second time standing alone at the end of the line with nothing following it. inclementia, 'harshness, mercilessness,' governs both instances. Venus answers here, by repetition rather than argument, the same question about wrath in heavenly hearts asked at Aeneid 1.11.

**603** has evertit opes sternitque a culmine Troiam.  
that overturns this wealth and lays Troy flat from her height.

**604** Aspice—namque omnem, quae nunc obducta tuenti  
Look, for I will tear away the whole cloud that now, drawn

**605** mortalis hebetat visus tibi et umida circum  
across you as you look, blunts your mortal sight and hangs

**606** caligat, nubem eripiam; tu ne qua parentis  
wet and dark about you. Do not be afraid of any order

**607** iussa time, neu praeceptis parere recusa:—  
of your mother's, nor refuse to do as she instructs you.

**608** hic, ubi disiectas moles avolsaque saxis  
Here, where you see masses of stone thrown apart, and rock

**609** saxa vides mixtoque undantem pulvere fumum.  
torn out of rock, and smoke rolling up mixed with dust,

**610** Neptunus muros magnoque emota tridenti  
Neptune is shaking the walls, and the foundations moved

**611** fundamenta quatit, totamque a sedibus urbem  
by his great trident, and tearing the whole city up

**612** eruit; hic Iuno Scaeas saevissima portas  
out of its seat. Here Juno, at her cruelest, holds the Scaean

**613** prima tenet, sociumque furens a navibus agmen  
gates first, and calls the allied column up from the ships in fury,

**614** ferro accincta vocat.  
with iron buckled on her.

**615** Iam summas arces Tritonia, respice, Pallas  
Now, look back, Tritonian Pallas has taken the high citadel,

**616** insedit, nimbo effulgens et Gorgone saeva.  
blazing out of a storm cloud, with the savage Gorgon on her.

**617** Ipse pater Danais animos viresque secundas  
The Father himself supplies the Danaans with courage and with strength

**618** sufficit, ipse deos in Dardana suscitat arma.  
that answers; he himself rouses the gods against Dardanian arms.

**619** Eripe, nate, fugam, finemque impone labori.  
Snatch your escape, son, and put an end to the labor.
> Snatching applied to escape: eripe, imperative of eripere, 'to tear away, snatch,' takes fugam, 'flight, escape,' as its object, the same verb used elsewhere of a person pulled bodily from fire. Venus does not simply tell Aeneas to flee; she tells him to seize an escape. nate, 'son,' is vocative.

**620** Nusquam abero, et tutum patrio te limine sistam.”  
I shall be nowhere absent, and will set you safe at your father's door.”

**621** Dixerat, et spissis noctis se condidit umbris.  
She had spoken, and hid herself in the thick shadows of the night.

**622** Adparent dirae facies inimicaque Troiae  
Terrible faces appear, and, hostile to Troy,

**623** numina magna deum.  
the great powers of the gods.
> A broken line after three words: The verse ends after numina magna deum, 'the great powers of the gods,' one of roughly fifty lines Vergil left unfinished. deum is an archaic genitive plural of di, 'gods.' The line breaks off as Aeneas is shown the gods themselves at work on the city.

**624** Tum vero omne mihi visum considere in ignis  
Then indeed all Ilium seemed to me to be settling into the fires,

**625** Ilium et ex imo verti Neptunia Troia;  
and Neptune's Troy overturned from the bottom up;

**626** ac veluti summis antiquam in montibus ornum  
and as when farmers on the high mountains press hard
> A simile of a falling tree: veluti, 'just as,' introduces the book's last extended simile, comparing the city's fall to an old ash tree cut down on a mountainside. antiquam, 'ancient, old,' modifies ornum, 'ash tree,' both accusative. The simile describes the tree resisting before it falls: it is shaken, nods, and groans.

**627** cum ferro accisam crebrisque bipennibus instant  
to uproot an old ash, hacked at with iron and with axe

**628** eruere agricolae certatim,—illa usque minatur  
after axe, outdoing one another, the tree keeps threatening,

**629** et tremefacta comam concusso vertice nutat,  
and its leaves shudder and its shaken crown nods,

**630** volneribus donec paulatim evicta, supremum  
until, worn down little by little by the wounds, it gives

**631** congemuit, traxitque iugis avolsa ruinam.  
one last groan, and, torn from the ridge, drags down its own ruin.

**632** Descendo, ac ducente deo flammam inter et hostis  
I go down, and with a god leading I am worked clear between flame
> An ablative absolute with no name: ducente deo, 'with a god leading,' is an ablative absolute, deo ablative singular of deus, 'god.' The identity of this god is never given, though commentators often take it to mean Venus. It is the first moment in the book where something else guides Aeneas rather than Aeneas choosing his path.

**633** expedior; dant tela locum, flammaeque recedunt.  
and enemy: the weapons give me room, the fires draw back.

**634** Atque ubi iam patriae perventum ad limina sedis  
And when I had come at last to the door of my father's house,

**635** antiquasque domos, genitor, quem tollere in altos  
the old home, my father, the man I most wanted to carry up

**636** optabam primum montis primumque petebam,  
into the high mountains, and looked for first of all,

**637** abnegat excisa vitam producere Troia  
refuses to draw his life out with Troy cut down,

**638** exsiliumque pati. “Vos O, quibus integer aevi  
and to bear exile. “You, whose blood is whole with youth,”
> A word for youth meaning intact: integer, 'whole, undamaged,' modifies sanguis, 'blood,' with aevi, 'of youth, of life,' a genitive of respect: blood whole with respect to youth. The vocabulary describes a young person the way one would describe sound timber. Anchises applies the opposite condition to himself when he refuses to be carried.

**639** sanguis,” ait “solidaeque suo stant robore vires,  
he says, “and whose strength stands solid on its own force,

**640** vos agitate fugam:  
you set the flight going:

**641** me si caelicolae voluissent ducere vitam,  
if the sky-dwellers had wanted me to go on living,

**642** has mihi servassent sedes. Satis una superque  
they would have kept this house for me. Once, and more than enough,

**643** vidimus exscidia et captae superavimus urbi.  
we have watched a sack, and outlived a city taken.

**644** Sic O, sic positum adfati discedite corpus.  
So, so, speak to this body laid out for burial, and go.
> A phrase for a readied corpse: positum corpus is the standard phrase for a body arranged for burial rites; here Anchises applies it to himself while still alive and speaking. adfati, a deponent participle, 'having spoken to,' governs corpus as its object. He asks his family to perform this last address to him directly, in the third person.

**645** Ipse manu mortem inveniam; miserebitur hostis  
I shall find death with my own hand. The enemy will pity me,

**646** exuviasque petet; facilis iactura sepulcri.  
and want the spoils. The loss of a grave is a small thing.

**647** Iam pridem invisus divis et inutilis annos  
For a long time now I have been hated by the gods and useless,

**648** demoror, ex quo me divom pater atque hominum rex  
dragging the years out, since the father of gods and king of men

**649** fulminis adflavit ventis et contigit igni.”  
breathed on me with the winds of his bolt and touched me with fire.”

**650** Talia perstabat memorans, fixusque manebat.  
He kept on saying such things, and stayed where he was, fixed.

**651** Nos contra effusi lacrimis, coniunxque Creüsa  
We were against it, spilled out in tears, my wife Creusa,

**652** Ascaniusque omnisque domus, ne vertere secum  
and Ascanius, and the whole house, that our father should not want

**653** cuncta pater fatoque urguenti incumbere vellet.  
to overturn everything with him, and lean on the fate already pressing.

**654** Abnegat, inceptoque et sedibus haeret in isdem.  
He refuses, and holds to his purpose and to the same room.

**655** Rursus in arma feror, mortemque miserrimus opto:  
Again I am carried toward arms, and in my misery I choose death:

**656** nam quod consilium aut quae iam fortuna dabatur?  
for what plan, what fortune, was being offered me now?

**657** “Mene efferre pedem, genitor, te posse relicto  
“Did you hope, father, that I could set a foot out of here

**658** sperasti, tantumque nefas patrio excidit ore?  
with you left behind? Did so great a wrong fall from a father's mouth?

**659** Si nihil ex tanta Superis placet urbe relinqui,  
If it is the gods' pleasure that nothing be left of a city this great,

**660** et sedet hoc animo, perituraeque addere Troiae  
and this is fixed in your mind, and it suits you to add yourself

**661** teque tuosque iuvat, patet isti ianua leto,  
and yours to a Troy about to die, the door stands open to that death,

**662** iamque aderit multo Priami de sanguine Pyrrhus,  
and Pyrrhus will be here at once out of the deep blood of Priam,

**663** natum ante ora patris, patrem qui obtruncat ad aras.  
who butchers the son before the father's face, the father at the altar.

**664** Hoc erat, alma parens, quod me per tela, per ignis  
Was this it, kind mother, why you pull me clear through weapons,

**665** eripis, ut mediis hostem in penetralibus, utque  
through fires, so that I should see the enemy in my own inner rooms,

**666** Ascanium patremque meum iuxtaque Creüsam  
and see Ascanius, and my father, and Creusa next to him,

**667** alterum in alterius mactatos sanguine cernam?  
slaughtered each one in the blood of the other?

**668** Arma, viri, ferte arma; vocat lux ultima victos.  
Arms, men, bring arms; the last light is calling the beaten.

**669** Reddite me Danais; sinite instaurata revisam  
Give me back to the Danaans; let me go and look again

**670** proelia: Numquam omnes hodie moriemur inulti.”  
at fighting begun over. We shall never all die unavenged today.”

**671** Hinc ferro accingor rursus clipeoque sinistram  
Now I buckle the sword on again, and was fitting my left arm

**672** insertabam aptans, meque extra tecta ferebam.  
into the shield, and carrying myself out of the house,

**673** Ecce autem complexa pedes in limine coniunx  
when, look, my wife clung round my feet on the doorstep,

**674** haerebat, parvumque patri tendebat Iulum:  
held on, and held little Iulus out to his father:

**675** “Si periturus abis, et nos rape in omnia tecum;  
“If you are going out to die, take us with you into all of it;

**676** sin aliquam expertus sumptis spem ponis in armis,  
but if, having tried it, you put any hope in the arms you have taken up,

**677** hanc primum tutare domum. Cui parvus Iulus,  
guard this house first. To whom is little Iulus left,

**678** cui pater et coniunx quondam tua dicta relinquor?”  
to whom your father, and I, who was once called your wife?”

**679** Talia vociferans gemitu tectum omne replebat,  
Crying such things she was filling the whole house with her grief,

**680** cum subitum dictuque oritur mirabile monstrum.  
when a sudden portent rises up, a marvel to speak of.

**681** Namque manus inter maestorumque ora parentum  
For between the hands and the faces of his grieving parents,

**682** ecce levis summo de vertice visus Iuli  
look, from the very crown of Iulus' head a light point seemed

**683** fundere lumen apex, tactuque innoxia mollis  
to pour out brightness, and a flame, harmless at the touch,

**684** lambere flamma comas et circum tempora pasci.  
licked at his soft hair and grazed about his temples.

**685** Nos pavidi trepidare metu, crinemque flagrantem  
We in our fright were shaking with fear, beating the burning

**686** excutere et sanctos restinguere fontibus ignis.  
hair out and putting the holy fires down with water.

**687** At pater Anchises oculos ad sidera laetus  
But father Anchises lifted his eyes to the stars, glad,

**688** extulit, et caelo palmas cum voce tetendit:  
and stretched his hands to heaven, and his voice with them:

**689** “Iuppiter omnipotens, precibus si flecteris ullis,  
“Jupiter all-powerful, if any prayer bends you,

**690** aspice nos; hoc tantum, et, si pietate meremur,  
look at us; only that, and if we earn it by our duty,

**691** da deinde auxilium, pater, atque haec omina firma.”  
then give help, father, and make these omens firm.”

**692** Vix ea fatus erat senior, subitoque fragore  
The old man had barely spoken when with a sudden crack

**693** intonuit laevum, et de caelo lapsa per umbras  
it thundered on the left, and a star slid down from the sky

**694** stella facem ducens multa cum luce cucurrit.  
through the dark, trailing a torch, and ran on with a great light.

**695** Illam, summa super labentem culmina tecti,  
We watch it glide over the topmost roofs of the house

**696** cernimus Idaea claram se condere silva  
and bury itself, bright, in the woods of Ida,

**697** signantemque vias; tum longo limite sulcus  
marking out the road; then the furrow it left gives light

**698** dat lucem, et late circum loca sulphure fumant.  
in a long line, and the ground smokes with sulphur all around.

**699** Hic vero victus genitor se tollit ad auras,  
At this my father is beaten, and lifts himself up into the air,

**700** adfaturque deos et sanctum sidus adorat.  
speaks to the gods, and worships the holy star.

**701** “Iam iam nulla mora est; sequor et qua ducitis adsum.  
“Now, now there is no holding back. I follow, and where you lead I am there.

**702** Di patrii, servate domum, servate nepotem.  
Gods of my fathers, save the house, save my grandson.

**703** Vestrum hoc augurium, vestroque in numine Troia est.  
This sign is yours, and Troy is in your keeping.

**704** Cedo equidem, nec, nate, tibi comes ire recuso.”  
I give way, and I do not refuse to go with you, son.”

**705** Dixerat ille; et iam per moenia clarior ignis  
He had spoken; and already the fire is heard more clearly

**706** auditur, propiusque aestus incendia volvunt.  
through the walls, and the burning rolls its heat nearer.

**707** “Ergo age, care pater, cervici imponere nostrae;  
“Come then, dear father, be lifted onto my neck.

**708** ipse subibo umeris, nec me labor iste gravabit:  
I will go under with my shoulders; that labor will not weigh on me.

**709** quo res cumque cadent, unum et commune periclum,  
However things fall, there will be one danger held in common,

**710** una salus ambobus erit. Mihi parvus Iulus  
one safety for us both. Let little Iulus come
> One safety, meaning something new: una salus, 'one safety,' repeats the exact phrase Aeneas used three hundred lines earlier when he told his men their only safety was to expect none. ambobus, 'to both,' dative, now names Aeneas and Anchises sharing one danger and one rescue together.

**711** sit comes, et longe servet vestigia coniunx:  
beside me, and let my wife follow our footsteps at a distance.

**712** vos, famuli, quae dicam, animis advertite vestris.  
You, servants, turn your minds to what I am going to say.

**713** Est urbe egressis tumulus templumque vetustum  
As you leave the city there is a mound, and an old temple

**714** desertae Cereris, iuxtaque antiqua cupressus  
of Ceres, abandoned, and an ancient cypress next to it

**715** religione patrum multos servata per annos.  
that our fathers' reverence has kept for many years.

**716** Hanc ex diverso sedem veniemus in unam.  
We shall come to that one place from different directions.

**717** Tu, genitor, cape sacra manu patriosque Penatis;  
You, father, take the holy things in your hands, and our fathers' gods;

**718** me, bello e tanto digressum et caede recenti,  
for me, coming away from so great a war and a killing still fresh,

**719** attrectare nefas, donec me flumine vivo  
it is forbidden to touch them, until I have washed myself

**720** abluero.”  
in running water.”
> A single future perfect verb: abluero, future perfect, 'I will have washed,' is the last word before the verse breaks off, another of Vergil's unfinished lines. The washing it names does not happen until later in the poem's next book. The whole preceding speech rests on this one verb.

**721** Haec fatus, latos umeros subiectaque colla  
Having said this, over my broad shoulders and bent neck

**722** veste super fulvique insternor pelle leonis,  
I spread a cloak and the hide of a tawny lion,

**723** succedoque oneri; dextrae se parvus Iulus  
and go under the load. Little Iulus twined himself

**724** implicuit sequiturque patrem non passibus aequis;  
into my right hand, and follows his father with steps that do not match;
> A phrase measuring a child's stride: aequis, 'equal, matching,' negated by non, describes passibus, 'steps, strides,' ablative of manner: with steps that do not match his father's. It describes Iulus struggling to keep pace while Aeneas carries Anchises. The phrase adds no further comment beyond the difference in stride length itself.

**725** pone subit coniunx: ferimur per opaca locorum;  
my wife comes on behind. We are carried through the shadowed ground;

**726** et me, quem dudum non ulla iniecta movebant  
and I, whom lately no weapon thrown at me could move,

**727** tela neque adverso glomerati ex agmine Grai,  
nor Greeks massed against me out of an opposing line,

**728** nunc omnes terrent aurae, sonus excitat omnis  
am now frightened by every breath of air, startled by every

**729** suspensum et pariter comitique onerique timentem.  
sound, strung tight, afraid alike for the one I lead and the one I carry.
> Two datives balanced against each other: comiti, 'to the companion,' and oneri, 'to the burden,' are both datives governed by timentem, 'fearing': afraid for the one and for the other. comes names the son walking beside him, onus the father he is carrying. The two datives divide Aeneas' fear evenly between them.

**730** Iamque propinquabam portis, omnemque videbar  
And now I was getting near the gates, and thought I had come

**731** evasisse viam, subito cum creber ad auris  
clear of the whole road, when suddenly a crowding sound

**732** visus adesse pedum sonitus, genitorque per umbram  
of feet seemed to be at my ears, and my father, peering out

**733** prospiciens; “Nate” exclamat, “fuge nate, propinquant.”  
through the dark, cries: “Son, run, son, they are close.

**734** “Ardentis clipeos atque aera micantia cerno!”—  
I can see burning shields and the flash of bronze!”

**735** Hic mihi nescio quod trepido male numen amicum  
Here some power, no friend of mine while I panicked,

**736** confusam eripuit mentem. Namque avia cursu  
took my scattered wits away. For while I follow trackless

**737** dum sequor, et nota excedo regione viarum,  
ground at a run and go out of the quarter of streets I know,

**738** heu, misero coniunx fatone erepta Creüsa  
alas, my wife Creusa, torn from me in my wretchedness by fate,
> A suffix marking an open question: -ne attached to fato makes the ablative into a question: was she snatched away by fate, or did something else happen? erepta, 'torn away,' agrees with Creusa. Aeneas admits here that he does not know what became of his wife, offering guesses rather than an answer.

**739** substitit, erravitne via, seu lassa resedit,  
stopped, or lost the road, or sat down worn out,

**740** incertum; nec post oculis est reddita nostris.  
there is no knowing; and she was never given back to my eyes.

**741** Nec prius amissam respexi animumque reflexi,  
Nor did I look back for her, lost, or turn my mind to her,
> One verb, two senses at once: respexi, perfect of respicere, means both 'I looked back' and 'I had regard for.' amissam, 'lost,' agrees with an understood eam, referring to Creusa. Aeneas uses the verb against himself: he did not turn around, and it did not occur to him to think of her.

**742** quam tumulum antiquae Cereris sedemque sacratam  
until we came to the mound of ancient Ceres and the consecrated

**743** venimus; hic demum collectis omnibus una  
place. Here at last, everyone gathered, she alone

**744** defuit, et comites natumque virumque fefellit.  
was not there, and had failed her companions, her son and her husband.
> An active verb with a strange subject: fefellit, 'she failed, she deceived,' is active, with Creusa as its grammatical subject even though she is the one who was lost, not the one at fault. It governs comites, natum, and virum, 'her companions, son, and husband,' as its objects.

**745** Quem non incusavi amens hominumque deorumque,  
What man or god did I not accuse, out of my mind,

**746** aut quid in eversa vidi crudelius urbe?  
or what did I see crueler in the whole overturned city?

**747** Ascanium Anchisenque patrem Teucrosque Penatis  
Ascanius, and my father Anchises, and the Teucrian household gods

**748** commendo sociis et curva valle recondo;  
I put in my friends' keeping, and hide in a bend of the valley;

**749** ipse urbem repeto et cingor fulgentibus armis.  
I myself make back for the city, and buckle on shining arms.

**750** Stat casus renovare omnis, omnemque reverti  
It is settled: to take every risk again, to go back

**751** per Troiam, et rursus caput obiectare periclis.  
through the whole of Troy, and hold my head out to danger once more.

**752** Principio muros obscuraque limina portae,  
First I go back to the walls and the dark opening of the gate

**753** qua gressum extuleram, repeto, et vestigia retro  
where I had carried my step out, and I follow my own

**754** observata sequor per noctem et lumine lustro.  
tracks back through the night, noting them, searching with my eyes.

**755** Horror ubique animo, simul ipsa silentia terrent.  
Everywhere the mind is in horror; the silence itself frightens.

**756** Inde domum, si forte pedem, si forte tulisset,  
Then home, on the chance, the chance, that she had gone there,

**757** me refero: inruerant Danai, et tectum omne tenebant.  
I take myself. The Danaans had broken in and held the whole house.

**758** Ilicet ignis edax summa ad fastigia vento  
At once the eating fire rolls up on the wind to the highest

**759** volvitur; exsuperant flammae, furit aestus ad auras.  
gables; the flames go over the top, the heat rages into the air.

**760** Procedo et Priami sedes arcemque reviso.  
I go on, and see Priam's house and the citadel again.

**761** Et iam porticibus vacuis Iunonis asylo  
And already in the empty colonnades, in Juno's sanctuary,

**762** custodes lecti Phoenix et dirus Ulixes  
Phoenix and dreadful Ulysses, chosen as guards,

**763** praedam adservabant. Huc undique Troia gaza  
were watching over the plunder. Here from every side Trojan treasure,

**764** incensis erepta adytis, mensaeque deorum,  
torn out of burning shrines, and the tables of the gods,

**765** crateresque auro solidi, captivaque vestis  
and mixing bowls of solid gold, and captured clothing

**766** congeritur; pueri et pavidae longo ordine matres  
is heaped up. Boys and terrified mothers in a long line

**767** stant circum.  
stand around it.
> Two words ending an unfinished line: stant circum, 'they stand around,' is the last phrase before the verse breaks off, one of Vergil's roughly fifty unfinished lines. Its subject is the captive boys and mothers gathered by the heaped treasure. The sentence, like the line, is never completed.

**768** Ausus quin etiam voces iactare per umbram  
I even dared to throw my voice out through the dark,

**769** implevi clamore vias, maestusque Creüsam  
and filled the streets with shouting, and in my grief called

**770** nequiquam ingeminans iterumque iterumque vocavi.  
Creusa, doubling it, over and over, and got nothing by it.

**771** Quaerenti et tectis urbis sine fine furenti  
As I searched and raged on and on through the buildings of the city,

**772** infelix simulacrum atque ipsius umbra Creüsae  
the unhappy phantom, the very shade of Creusa herself,

**773** visa mihi ante oculos et nota maior imago.  
appeared before my eyes, a shape larger than the one I knew.

**774** Obstipui, steteruntque comae et vox faucibus haesit.  
I froze; my hair stood up, and my voice stuck in my throat.
> A fixed formula describing fear: steterunt, 'stood up,' and haesit, 'stuck,' describe comae, 'hair,' and vox, 'voice,' the physical effects of fear rather than naming the emotion itself. faucibus, 'in the throat,' is ablative of place. The same line, nearly unchanged, recurs in Book 3 as Vergil's fixed formula for meeting the dead.

**775** Tum sic adfari et curas his demere dictis:  
Then she spoke, and took my cares away with these words:

**776** “Quid tantum insano iuvat indulgere dolori,  
“What use is there in giving way so far to a mad grief,

**777** O dulcis coniunx? Non haec sine numine divom  
my sweet husband? These things do not happen without the will

**778** eveniunt; nec te hinc comitem asportare Creüsam  
of the gods. It is not permitted that you carry Creusa away

**779** fas, aut ille sinit superi regnator Olympi.  
from here as your companion, nor does the ruler of high Olympus allow it.

**780** Longa tibi exsilia, et vastum maris aequor arandum,  
Long exiles are yours, and a waste of sea to be ploughed,

**781** et terram Hesperiam venies, ubi Lydius arva  
and you will come to the Hesperian land, where the Lydian Tiber

**782** inter opima virum leni fluit agmine Thybris:  
runs in a gentle stream between the rich fields of men.

**783** illic res laetae regnumque et regia coniunx  
There good fortune, and a kingdom, and a royal wife

**784** parta tibi. Lacrimas dilectae pelle Creüsae.  
are won for you. Put away tears for the Creusa you loved.

**785** Non ego Myrmidonum sedes Dolopumve superbas  
I shall not look on the proud houses of the Myrmidons

**786** aspiciam, aut Graiis servitum matribus ibo,  
or the Dolopians, nor go to serve as a slave to Greek women,

**787** Dardanis, et divae Veneris nurus.  
I, a Dardanian, and daughter-in-law of the goddess Venus.
> An unfinished line naming herself twice: Dardanis, 'a woman of Dardanus' line,' and nurus, 'daughter-in-law,' with divae Veneris, 'of the goddess Venus,' are two ways Creusa names her own standing, in apposition to herself. The line breaks off before the sentence can finish.

**788** Sed me magna deum genetrix his detinet oris:  
But the great mother of the gods keeps me on these shores.

**789** iamque vale, et nati serva communis amorem.”  
And now goodbye, and keep your love for the son we share.”

**790** Haec ubi dicta dedit, lacrimantem et multa volentem  
When she had given me these words, she left me weeping

**791** dicere deseruit, tenuisque recessit in auras.  
and wanting to say much, and withdrew into thin air.

**792** Ter conatus ibi collo dare bracchia circum:  
Three times I tried to put my arms around her neck there;

**793** ter frustra comprensa manus effugit imago,  
three times the ghost, caught in vain, fled out of my hands,

**794** par levibus ventis volucrique simillima somno.  
like light winds, and most of all like a winged dream.

**795** Sic demum socios consumpta nocte reviso.  
So at last, the night used up, I go back to my companions.

**796** Atque hic ingentem comitum adfluxisse novorum  
And here I find, and wonder at it, that an enormous number

**797** invenio admirans numerum, matresque virosque,  
of new companions had flowed in, mothers and men,

**798** collectam exsilio pubem, miserabile volgus.  
young people gathered for exile, a crowd to be pitied.

**799** Undique convenere, animis opibusque parati,  
They had come together from every side, ready in heart and in means,

**800** in quascumque velim pelago deducere terras.  
for whatever lands I might want to take them to over the sea.

**801** Iamque iugis summae surgebat Lucifer Idae  
And now the Morning Star was rising over the ridges of high Ida

**802** ducebatque diem, Danaique obsessa tenebant  
and bringing the day on, and the Danaans held the blockaded

**803** limina portarum, nec spes opis ulla dabatur;  
gateways, and no hope of help was being given.

**804** cessi, et sublato montes genitore petivi.  
I gave way, and, my father lifted, I made for the mountains.
> The verb that closes the book: cessi, 'I gave way, I yielded,' first person perfect of cedere, opens the final sentence of the book. sublato genitore is an ablative absolute, 'his father having been lifted up.' The verb chosen for this founding departure ordinarily names retreat or defeat.

---

Source text: public domain (Vergil, Aeneid, ed. J. B. Greenough, Boston: Ginn and Company, 1900), as encoded in the Perseus Digital Library canonical-latinLit TEI, CC BY-SA 4.0. English translation and notes: © 2026 1732 Studios, LLC, line for line. Narration: read by Malone (LibriVox, 2012), public domain.