# The Aeneid, Book 6: The Descent: the Sibyl, the Golden Bough, and the Souls to Come

Aeneis · Publius Vergilius Maro · The Wanderings

The Sibyl leads Aeneas into the underworld. He meets Dido, who turns away, and his father, who shows him the Romans to come.

Source: https://1732studios.com/books/aeneid/6. Data: https://1732studios.com/books/aeneid/6.json. Audio: https://audio.1732studios.com/aeneid/<line id>.m4a.

**1** Sic fatur lacrimans, classique immittit habenas,  
So he speaks, weeping, and gives the fleet its head,
> Giving the fleet its head: Habenas immittere is an idiom from driving, 'to let the reins run out', here meaning to give the fleet full sail. Classi is dative, 'to the fleet', and habenas is the direct object, 'the reins'. Book 6 opens with this sentence continuing straight on from the end of Book 5.

**2** et tandem Euboïcis Cumarum adlabitur oris.  
and at last glides in to the Euboean shores of Cumae.

**3** Obvertunt pelago proras; tum dente tenaci  
They turn their prows to the sea; then with its gripping tooth

**4** ancora fundabat naves, et litora curvae  
the anchor was holding the ships fast, and the curved

**5** praetexunt puppes. Iuvenum manus emicat ardens  
sterns fringe the beaches. A band of young men flashes out, burning,

**6** litus in Hesperium; quaerit pars semina flammae  
onto the Hesperian shore; some hunt the seeds of flame

**7** abstrusa in venis silicis, pars densa ferarum  
hidden in the veins of flint, some raid the woods, the thick

**8** tecta rapit silvas, inventaque flumina monstrat.  
coverts of wild beasts, and point out the rivers they have found.

**9** At pius Aeneas arces, quibus altus Apollo  
But dutiful Aeneas makes for the heights over which high Apollo
> Dutiful Aeneas: Pius, 'dutiful', is Vergil's recurring epithet for Aeneas, naming devotion owed to gods, father, and family together. It appears here as he seeks the way to his father in the underworld. Arces, 'the heights', is the object of the sentence he is making for.

**10** praesidet, horrendaeque procul secreta Sibyllae  
presides, and, far off, the retreat of the terrible Sibyl,

**11** antrum immane petit, magnum cui mentem animumque  
her huge cave, into whom the Delian seer breathes a great

**12** Delius inspirat vates, aperitque futura.  
mind and spirit, and lays the future open.

**13** Iam subeunt Triviae lucos atque aurea tecta.  
Now they come up under Trivia's groves and her roofs of gold.

**14** Daedalus, ut fama est, fugiens Minoïa regna,  
Daedalus, as the story goes, fleeing the kingdom of Minos,

**15** praepetibus pennis ausus se credere caelo,  
daring on swift wings to trust himself to the sky,

**16** insuetum per iter gelidas enavit ad Arctos,  
swam out by an unaccustomed road toward the cold Bears,

**17** Chalcidicaque levis tandem super adstitit arce.  
and at last stood light above the Chalcidian height.

**18** Redditus his primum terris, tibi, Phoebe, sacravit  
Given back first to these lands, he made holy to you, Phoebus,

**19** remigium alarum, posuitque immania templa.  
the oarage of his wings, and set up an enormous temple.

**20** In foribus letum Androgeo: tum pendere poenas  
On the doors, the death of Androgeos; then the sons of Cecrops

**21** Cecropidae iussi—miserum!—septena quotannis  
ordered to pay (the pity of it) seven of their children's
> The poet interrupts: Miserum is an accusative of exclamation, a case used alone to express feeling, 'the wretched thing!'. It is not part of the sentence's ordinary grammar, just inserted into it. The narrator breaks into his own description with this one exclaimed word.

**22** corpora natorum; stat ductis sortibus urna.  
bodies every year; the urn stands there, the lots drawn.

**23** Contra elata mari respondet Gnosia tellus:  
Opposite, lifted out of the sea, the land of Cnossos answers:

**24** hic crudelis amor tauri, suppostaque furto  
here the cruel love of the bull, and Pasiphae put under him

**25** Pasiphaë, mixtumque genus prolesque biformis  
by stealth, and the mixed breed, the two-shaped offspring,

**26** Minotaurus inest, Veneris monumenta nefandae;  
the Minotaur, is set there, the record of an unspeakable love;

**27** hic labor ille domus et inextricabilis error;  
here that labor of the house, and the wandering that has no way out;
> Wandering with no way out: Error means 'wandering, a maze of paths', not 'mistake'. Inextricabilis is built from ex, in, and the verb for untangling, and means 'that cannot be worked free of'. Together they name the labyrinth as a wandering path with no way out.

**28** magnum reginae sed enim miseratus amorem  
but Daedalus himself, pitying the great love of the queen,

**29** Daedalus ipse dolos tecti ambagesque resolvit,  
unknotted the tricks and the windings of the building,

**30** caeca regens filo vestigia. Tu quoque magnam  
guiding blind footsteps with a thread. You too would have had a great
> Speaking to Icarus: Tu quoque addresses someone not present, 'you too'. Haberes is an imperfect subjunctive, marking a contrary to fact statement about the past: 'you would have had'. The narrator speaks directly to Icarus about a part of the carving that was never made.

**31** partem opere in tanto, sineret dolor, Icare, haberes.  
part in so great a work, Icarus, if grief allowed.

**32** Bis conatus erat casus effingere in auro;  
Twice he had tried to shape your fall in gold;

**33** bis patriae cecidere manus. Quin protinus omnia  
twice the father's hands fell. They would have gone straight on

**34** perlegerent oculis, ni iam praemissus Achates  
reading it all with their eyes, had not Achates, sent ahead,

**35** adforet, atque una Phoebi Triviaeque sacerdos,  
come up by then, and with him the priestess of Phoebus and Trivia,

**36** Deiphobe Glauci, fatur quae talia regi:  
Deiphobe, daughter of Glaucus, who says this to the king:

**37** “Non hoc ista sibi tempus spectacula poscit;  
“The hour does not ask these sights of you now;

**38** nunc grege de intacto septem mactare iuvencos  
it would be better to slaughter seven bullocks from a herd

**39** praestiterit, totidem lectas de more bidentes.”  
never yoked, and as many ewes, chosen as the rite requires.”

**40** Talibus adfata Aenean (nec sacra morantur  
When she had said such things to Aeneas (nor do the men delay

**41** iussa viri), Teucros vocat alta in templa sacerdos.  
the rites she ordered), the priestess calls the Teucrians into the high temple.

**42** Excisum Euboicae latus ingens rupis in antrum,  
The huge flank of the Euboean cliff is cut out into a cavern,

**43** quo lati ducunt aditus centum, ostia centum;  
to which a hundred wide approaches lead, a hundred mouths;

**44** unde ruunt totidem voces, responsa Sibyllae.  
out of them rush as many voices, the Sibyl's answers.

**45** Ventum erat ad limen, cum virgo. “Poscere fata  
They had reached the threshold, when the maiden: “It is time

**46** tempus” ait; “deus, ecce, deus!” Cui talia fanti  
to ask the fates,” she says; “the god, look, the god!” As she said this
> The god arrives with no verb: Deus is repeated on either side of ecce, 'look, behold'. There is no verb: the sentence is the noun alone, twice. The Sibyl names the god's arrival without a verb to describe what is happening to her.

**47** ante fores subito non voltus, non color unus,  
before the doors, all at once her face was not one face, nor her color one,

**48** non comptae mansere comae; sed pectus anhelum,  
nor did her hair stay dressed; but her breast heaves,

**49** et rabie fera corda tument; maiorque videri,  
and her wild heart swells with frenzy; she is taller to look at,

**50** nec mortale sonans, adflata est numine quando  
and does not sound mortal, since the power of the god breathes

**51** iam propiore dei. “Cessas in vota precesque,  
on her, nearer now. “Do you hang back from your vows and prayers,

**52** Tros” ait “Aenea? Cessas? Neque enim ante dehiscent  
Trojan Aeneas?” she says. “Do you hang back? For not before that

**53** attonitae magna ora domus.” Et talia fata  
will the great mouths of this stunned house gape open.” Having said so

**54** conticuit. Gelidus Teucris per dura cucurrit  
she fell silent. A cold shudder ran through the hard bones

**55** ossa tremor, funditque preces rex pectore ab imo:  
of the Teucrians, and the king pours out prayers from the bottom of his heart:

**56** “Phoebe, graves Troiae semper miserate labores,  
“Phoebus, who have always pitied Troy's heavy labors,

**57** Dardana qui Paridis direxti tela manusque  
you who steered the Dardan spear and the hands of Paris
> A contracted perfect form: Direxti is a syncopated perfect, shortened from direxisti, 'you steered, you guided', with the middle is dropped. It is the same tense and person as direxisti. Vergil uses this contracted spelling often; it is lighter in the line, not a different meaning.

**58** corpus in Aeacidae, magnas obeuntia terras  
into the body of Aeacus' grandson: with you to lead I have entered

**59** tot maria intravi duce te, penitusque repostas  
so many seas that go round great lands, and the far withdrawn

**60** Massylum gentes praetentaque Syrtibus arva,  
nations of the Massyli, and the fields the Syrtes front;

**61** iam tandem Italiae fugientis prendimus oras;  
now at last we lay hold of the shores of a fleeing Italy;

**62** hac Troiana tenus fuerit Fortuna secuta.  
let Troy's fortune have followed us only this far.

**63** Vos quoque Pergameae iam fas est parcere genti,  
You too may rightly spare the race of Pergamum now,

**64** dique deaeque omnes quibus obstitit Ilium et ingens  
all you gods and goddesses whom Ilium offended, and the great

**65** gloria Dardaniae. Tuque, O sanctissima vates,  
glory of Dardania. And you, most holy prophetess,

**66** praescia venturi, da, non indebita posco  
who know beforehand what is coming: grant (I ask no kingdom

**67** regna meis fatis, Latio considere Teucros  
not owed to my fates) that the Teucrians settle in Latium,

**68** errantisque deos agitataque numina Troiae.  
and their wandering gods, and the harried powers of Troy.

**69** Tum Phoebo et Triviae solido de marmore templum  
Then I will set up to Phoebus and to Trivia a temple

**70** instituam, festosque dies de nomine Phoebi.  
of solid marble, and feast days named for Phoebus.

**71** Te quoque magna manent regnis penetralia nostris:  
A great sanctuary waits for you as well in my kingdom:

**72** hic ego namque tuas sortes arcanaque fata,  
for here I will lay up your lots and the secret fates

**73** dicta meae genti, ponam, lectosque sacrabo,  
spoken to my people, and I will consecrate chosen men,

**74** alma, viros. Foliis tantum ne carmina manda,  
kind one, to you. Only do not entrust your songs to leaves,

**75** ne turbata volent rapidis ludibria ventis;  
lest they fly disordered, the playthings of quick winds;

**76** ipsa canas oro.” Finem dedit ore loquendi.  
sing them yourself, I beg.” He made an end of speaking.

**77** At, Phoebi nondum patiens, immanis in antro  
But the prophetess, not yet bearing Phoebus, rages huge

**78** bacchatur vates, magnum si pectore possit  
in the cave, trying whether she can shake the great god

**79** excussisse deum; tanto magis ille fatigat  
out of her breast; so much the more he tires

**80** os rabidum, fera corda domans, fingitque premendo.  
her raving mouth, breaking her wild heart, and shapes her by pressure.

**81** Ostia iamque domus patuere ingentia centum  
And now the hundred huge mouths of the house stood open

**82** sponte sua, vatisque ferunt responsa per auras:  
of their own accord, and carry the seer's answers through the air:

**83** “O tandem magnis pelagi defuncte periclis!  
“O you, done at last with the great dangers of the sea!

**84** Sed terrae graviora manent. In regna Lavini  
But heavier ones wait on land. The sons of Dardanus

**85** Dardanidae venient; mitte hanc de pectore curam;  
will come into the kingdom of Lavinium; put that care out of your breast;

**86** sed non et venisse volent. Bella, horrida bella,  
but they will not want to have come. Wars, terrible wars,

**87** et Thybrim multo spumantem sanguine cerno.  
and the Tiber foaming with a great deal of blood, I see.

**88** Non Simois tibi, nec Xanthus, nec Dorica castra  
You will not go without a Simois, nor a Xanthus, nor a Dorian camp;

**89** defuerint; alius Latio iam partus Achilles,  
another Achilles is already got for Latium,

**90** natus et ipse dea; nec Teucris addita Iuno  
he too born of a goddess; nor will Juno, fastened on the Teucrians,

**91** usquam aberit; cum tu supplex in rebus egenis  
be anywhere absent, while you, a suppliant in your want,

**92** quas gentes Italum aut quas non oraveris urbes!  
what peoples of Italy, what cities will you not have begged!

**93** Causa mali tanti coniunx iterum hospita Teucris  
The cause of so great an evil is once more a foreign wife for the Teucrians,
> A foreign wife, again: Coniunx means 'wife, spouse', and hospita, 'foreign, from elsewhere', modifies it, literally 'a guest woman'. Iterum, 'again', signals that this has already happened once before, with Helen. The oracle names Aeneas' coming war a repeat, using the same words for the wife's origin.

**94** externique iterum thalami.  
once more a marriage from outside.
> An unfinished line: Externi, 'foreign, from outside', and thalami, 'of a marriage', are both genitive, continuing the previous line's thought. Iterum repeats 'again'. Vergil died before finishing the poem, and this line is one of about fifty-eight left incomplete, stopping mid-hexameter.

**95** Tu ne cede malis, sed contra audentior ito,  
Do not you give way to evils, but go on against them the bolder,

**96** qua tua te Fortuna sinet. Via prima salutis,  
as far as your fortune will let you. The first road to safety,

**97** quod minime reris, Graia pandetur ab urbe.”  
(and you would think it least) will open from a Greek city.”

**98** Talibus ex adyto dictis Cumaea Sibylla  
With such words out of her shrine the Cumaean Sibyl

**99** horrendas canit ambages antroque remugit,  
sings her dreadful riddles and bellows back through the cave,
> A word for riddles: Ambages means 'a going around, a circuit of talk', used here for the Sibyl's riddling speech. The same word names the winding passages of the labyrinth a few lines earlier. Canit, 'sings', is its governing verb, and remugit, 'bellows back', describes the cave's echo.

**100** obscuris vera involvens: ea frena furenti  
wrapping true things in the dark: so Apollo shakes the reins

**101** concutit, et stimulos sub pectore vertit Apollo.  
on her raving, and turns the goad under her breast.

**102** Ut primum cessit furor et rabida ora quierunt,  
As soon as the frenzy left her and the raving mouth grew quiet,

**103** incipit Aeneas heros: “Non ulla laborum,  
the hero Aeneas begins: “No shape of hardship,

**104** O virgo, nova mi facies inopinave surgit;  
maiden, rises new to me or unlooked for;

**105** omnia praecepi atque animo mecum ante peregi.  
I have taken it all in beforehand and gone through it in my mind.

**106** Unum oro: quando hic inferni ianua regis  
One thing I ask: since here, they say, is the doorway of the king

**107** dicitur, et tenebrosa palus Acheronte refuso,  
below, and the shadowed marsh where Acheron floods back,

**108** ire ad conspectum cari genitoris et ora  
let it fall to me to go to the sight and the face

**109** contingat; doceas iter et sacra ostia pandas.  
of my dear father; teach me the road, and open the holy gates.

**110** Illum ego per flammas et mille sequentia tela  
Him I snatched out through the flames and a thousand spears

**111** eripui his umeris, medioque ex hoste recepi;  
behind us, on these shoulders, and got him clear of the enemy's middle;

**112** ille meum comitatus iter, maria omnia mecum  
he kept company with my road, bore with me all the seas

**113** atque omnes pelagique minas caelique ferebat,  
and every threat of the deep and of the sky,

**114** invalidus, vires ultra sortemque senectae.  
sick as he was, beyond the strength and the lot of old age.

**115** Quin, ut te supplex peterem et tua limina adirem,  
More: he was the one who prayed and laid the charge on me

**116** idem orans mandata dabat. Gnatique patrisque,  
to come to you as a suppliant and reach your threshold. Of the son and of the father,

**117** alma, precor, miserere;—potes namque omnia, nec te  
kind one, I beg you, have pity; for you can do all things, and Hecate

**118** nequiquam lucis Hecate praefecit Avernis;—  
did not set you over the groves of Avernus for nothing.

**119** si potuit Manes arcessere coniugis Orpheus,  
If Orpheus could fetch back the Shades of his wife,

**120** Threïcia fretus cithara fidibusque canoris,  
trusting to his Thracian lyre and its singing strings;

**121** si fratrem Pollux alterna morte redemit,  
if Pollux redeemed his brother by dying turn for turn,

**122** itque reditque viam totiens. Quid Thesea, magnum  
and goes and comes back that road so often. Why speak of Theseus,

**123** quid memorem Alciden? Et mi genus ab Iove summo.”  
why of great Hercules? My own line too is from Jove at the top.”
> Adding himself with no verb: Mi is a shortened dative, 'to me', with genus, 'lineage, descent', as the subject of an understood 'is'. Ab Iove summo, 'from Jupiter on high', gives the source, ablative with ab. Aeneas ends his list of divine ancestors by adding his own, with no verb in the sentence.

**124** Talibus orabat dictis, arasque tenebat,  
With such words he was praying, and holding on to the altar,

**125** cum sic orsa loqui vates: “Sate sanguine divom,  
when the prophetess began: “Sown from the blood of the gods,

**126** Tros Anchisiade, facilis descensus Averno;  
Trojan son of Anchises, the going down to Avernus is easy;
> No verb for going down: Descensus, 'the descent', is the subject, and facilis, 'easy', is its predicate, with no verb joining them. Averno can be a dative, 'to Avernus', or an ablative, 'by way of Avernus'; Latin does not choose. The fact is stated as true of the place, not an action anyone takes.

**127** noctes atque dies patet atri ianua Ditis;  
night and day the door of black Dis stands open;

**128** sed revocare gradum superasque evadere ad auras,  
but to call the step back, to get out to the air above,

**129** hoc opus, hic labor est. Pauci, quos aequus amavit  
this is the work, this is the labor. A few, whom fair Jupiter
> This is the work, the labor: Hoc opus and hic labor are two short clauses sharing the single verb est, 'is'. Hoc and hic are demonstrative pronouns, 'this', agreeing with the neuter opus and masculine labor. The clipped, repeated structure slows the line after a line and a half of smooth motion.

**130** Iuppiter, aut ardens evexit ad aethera virtus,  
loved, or whose blazing worth carried them up to the sky,

**131** dis geniti potuere. Tenent media omnia silvae,  
sons of gods, have done it. Woods hold all the middle ground,

**132** Cocytusque sinu labens circumvenit atro.  
and Cocytus slides round and shuts it in with a black fold.

**133** Quod si tantus amor menti, si tanta cupido est,  
But if there is such love in your mind, such longing

**134** bis Stygios innare lacus, bis nigra videre  
to swim the Stygian lakes twice, twice to look on black

**135** Tartara, et insano iuvat indulgere labori,  
Tartarus, and it pleases you to give in to a mad labor,

**136** accipe, quae peragenda prius. Latet arbore opaca  
hear what has to be done first. Hidden in a shaded tree

**137** aureus et foliis et lento vimine ramus,  
is a bough, gold in its leaves and in its pliant stem,

**138** Iunoni infernae dictus sacer; hunc tegit omnis  
called sacred to the Juno below; the whole grove roofs it,
> The Juno below: Iunoni is dative, 'to Juno', the goddess the grove is sacred to, and infernae, 'of the lower world', modifies it. The title names Proserpina by matching her against the upper world's queen, Juno. The same pattern is used elsewhere for Dis, called 'the Stygian Jupiter'.

**139** lucus, et obscuris claudunt convallibus umbrae.  
and shadows shut it in with dark valleys.

**140** Sed non ante datur telluris operta subire,  
But it is not granted to go under the earth's covered places

**141** auricomos quam quis decerpserit arbore fetus.  
until a man has plucked the gold-haired growth from the tree.

**142** Hoc sibi pulchra suum ferri Proserpina munus  
Beautiful Proserpina has laid it down that this be carried

**143** instituit. Primo avulso non deficit alter  
to her as her own due. When the first is torn away, a second
> An ablative absolute: Primo avulso is an ablative absolute, a noun and participle standing free of the main clause: 'the first one having been torn off'. Avulso is the perfect passive participle of avello, 'to tear away'. Latin compresses a whole clause like 'when the first is torn away' into two words.

**144** aureus, et simili frondescit virga metallo.  
gold one is not wanting, and the twig leafs out in the same metal.

**145** Ergo alte vestiga oculis, et rite repertum  
So search high with your eyes, and when you have found it in due form,

**146** carpe manu; namque ipse volens facilisque sequetur,  
take it in your hand; for it will come willing and easy of itself,
> Willing and easy: Volens is a present participle, 'willing', and facilis is an adjective, 'easy', both describing the bough as the subject of sequetur, 'it will follow'. The que links the two words as a pair. The verb is future tense, a promise about how the bough will behave when pulled.

**147** si te fata vocant; aliter non viribus ullis  
if the fates call you; otherwise you will not master it

**148** vincere, nec duro poteris convellere ferro.  
by any strength, nor tear it off with hard iron.

**149** Praeterea iacet exanimum tibi corpus amici—  
Besides, the body of a friend of yours lies dead,

**150** heu nescis—totamque incestat funere classem,  
(you do not know it) and fouls the whole fleet with a funeral,

**151** dum consulta petis nostroque in limine pendes.  
while you look for my counsel and hang about my threshold.

**152** Sedibus hunc refer ante suis et conde sepulchro.  
Carry him back first to a place of his own and lay him in a grave.

**153** Duc nigras pecudes; ea prima piacula sunto:  
Lead up black cattle; let those be the first offerings for cleansing:

**154** sic demum lucos Stygis et regna invia vivis  
so at the end you will look on the groves of Styx and the kingdoms

**155** aspicies.” Dixit, pressoque obmutuit ore.  
closed to the living.” She spoke, and her lips shut and were silent.

**156** Aeneas maesto defixus lumina voltu  
Aeneas, his eyes fixed down in a grieving face,

**157** ingreditur, linquens antrum, caecosque volutat  
walks out, leaving the cave, and turns over with himself

**158** eventus animo secum. Cui fidus Achates  
the blind outcome of it. Faithful Achates goes with him

**159** it comes, et paribus curis vestigia figit.  
as companion, and plants his steps under the same cares.

**160** Multa inter sese vario sermone serebant,  
They wove much back and forth between them in changing talk:

**161** quem socium exanimem vates, quod corpus humandum  
what dead companion, what body to be buried,

**162** diceret. Atque illi Misenum in litore sicco,  
the prophetess had meant. And they, when they came, see Misenus

**163** ut venere, vident indigna morte peremptum,  
on the dry beach, cut off by an unworthy death,

**164** Misenum Aeoliden, quo non praestantior alter  
Misenus, son of Aeolus, than whom no other was better

**165** aere ciere viros, Martemque accendere cantu.  
at stirring men with bronze, at setting war alight with his call.

**166** Hectoris hic magni fuerat comes, Hectora circum  
He had been great Hector's companion; about Hector

**167** et lituo pugnas insignis obibat et hasta:  
he went through the battles, marked out by trumpet and by spear.

**168** postquam illum vita victor spoliavit Achilles,  
After the victor Achilles stripped Hector of his life,

**169** Dardanio Aeneae sese fortissimus heros  
the bravest hero had joined himself as a companion

**170** addiderat socium, non inferiora secutus.  
to Dardanian Aeneas, following no lesser man.

**171** Sed tum, forte cava dum personat aequora concha,  
But then, while by chance he was making the sea ring with a hollow shell,

**172** demens, et cantu vocat in certamina divos,  
out of his senses, and calling the gods to contend with his blowing,

**173** aemulus exceptum Triton, si credere dignum est,  
a jealous Triton had caught him, if the thing deserves belief,
> If the thing deserves belief: Dignum est is impersonal, 'it is worthy, it deserves', with credere, an infinitive, as its subject: 'for it to be believed'. Si introduces the condition, 'if'. The narrator marks the story that follows as uncertain, in the middle of telling it.

**174** inter saxa virum spumosa inmerserat unda.  
and drowned the man among the rocks in the foaming wave.

**175** Ergo omnes magno circum clamore fremebant,  
So they all roared around him with a great outcry,

**176** praecipue pius Aeneas. Tum iussa Sibyllae,  
dutiful Aeneas most of all. Then, weeping, they hurry on

**177** haud mora, festinant flentes, aramque sepulchri  
the Sibyl's orders without delay, and strive to pile

**178** congerere arboribus caeloque educere certant.  
the altar of the tomb with trees and raise it toward the sky.

**179** Itur in antiquam silvam, stabula alta ferarum;  
They go into an ancient wood, the deep stalls of wild beasts;

**180** procumbunt piceae, sonat icta securibus ilex,  
pitch-pines come down, the holm oak rings under the axes,

**181** fraxineaeque trabes cuneis et fissile robur  
beams of ash and the splittable oak are cleft apart

**182** scinditur, advolvunt ingentis montibus ornos.  
with wedges, and they roll huge rowans down from the mountains.

**183** Nec non Aeneas opera inter talia primus  
And Aeneas is first among such work,

**184** hortatur socios, paribusque accingitur armis.  
urging his companions on, and takes up the same tools.

**185** Atque haec ipse suo tristi cum corde volutat,  
And he turns this over in his own sad heart,

**186** aspectans silvam inmensam, et sic voce precatur:  
looking at the measureless wood, and prays aloud:

**187** “Si nunc se nobis ille aureus arbore ramus  
“If only that golden bough would show itself to us

**188** ostendat nemore in tanto, quando omnia vere  
now on its tree in so great a grove, since everything

**189** heu nimium de te vates, Misene, locuta est.”  
the prophetess said of you, Misenus, was true, and too true.”

**190** Vix ea fatus erat, geminae cum forte columbae  
He had scarcely said it when by chance two doves

**191** ipsa sub ora viri caelo venere volantes,  
came flying out of the sky under the man's very face,

**192** et viridi sedere solo. Tum maximus heros  
and settled on the green ground. Then the greatest of heroes

**193** maternas agnoscit aves, laetusque precatur:  
knows his mother's birds, and prays in gladness:

**194** “Este duces, O, si qua via est, cursumque per auras  
“Be my guides, if there is any road at all, and steer your course

**195** dirigite in lucos, ubi pinguem dives opacat  
through the air into the grove, where the rich bough shades

**196** ramus humum. Tuque, O, dubiis ne defice rebus,  
the fat ground. And you, goddess my mother, do not fail me

**197** diva parens.” Sic effatus vestigia pressit,  
in a doubtful thing.” So he spoke, and checked his step,

**198** observans quae signa ferant, quo tendere pergant.  
watching what signs they bring, where they go on to make for.

**199** Pascentes illae tantum prodire volando,  
They, feeding, went forward in flight only so far

**200** quantum acie possent oculi servare sequentum.  
as the eyes of those who followed could keep them in view.

**201** Inde ubi venere ad fauces grave olentis Averni,  
Then, when they had come to the jaws of foul-breathing Avernus,

**202** tollunt se celeres, liquidumque per aëra lapsae  
they lift quickly, and gliding down through the clear air

**203** sedibus optatis geminae super arbore sidunt,  
the pair settle on the place he wanted, high in a tree,

**204** discolor unde auri per ramos aura refulsit.  
from which a gleam of gold, another color, shone through the branches.
> The gleam of another color: Discolor is an adjective, 'of a different color, unlike its surroundings'. Auri is genitive, 'of gold', and aura, normally 'a breath of air', is used here for a shimmer of light. Auri and aura sit side by side in the line, alike in sound though different in sense.

**205** Quale solet silvis brumali frigore viscum  
As in the woods in the cold of midwinter the mistletoe

**206** fronde virere nova, quod non sua seminat arbos,  
is green with new leaf, which its own tree did not sow,

**207** et croceo fetu teretis circumdare truncos,  
and rings the smooth trunks with saffron fruit:

**208** talis erat species auri frondentis opaca  
such was the look of the leafing gold on the shadowed

**209** ilice, sic leni crepitabat brattea vento.  
holm oak, so the foil crackled in the light wind.

**210** Corripit Aeneas extemplo avidusque refringit  
Aeneas snatches at it at once, greedily, and breaks it off
> A bough that hangs back: Cunctantem is a present participle, accusative, 'hesitating, hanging back', agreeing with the bough as the object of refringit. Avidus, 'eager, greedy', describes Aeneas, the subject. Refringit means 'breaks off by force', a stronger verb than the willing, easy following the Sibyl had promised.

**211** cunctantem, et vatis portat sub tecta Sibyllae.  
as it hangs back, and carries it under the Sibyl's roof.

**212** Nec minus interea Misenum in litore Teucri  
Meanwhile the Teucrians were weeping no less for Misenus

**213** flebant, et cineri ingrato suprema ferebant.  
on the shore, and paying last honors to ash that could not thank them.

**214** Principio pinguem taedis et robore secto  
First they built a huge pyre, rich with pine-torch and cut oak,

**215** ingentem struxere pyram, cui frondibus atris  
whose sides they weave about with dark leaves,

**216** intexunt latera, et ferales ante cupressos  
and they set funeral cypresses in front of it,

**217** constituunt, decorantque super fulgentibus armis.  
and dress it above with his shining arms.

**218** Pars calidos latices et aëna undantia flammis  
Some get hot water ready and cauldrons bubbling over the flames,

**219** expediunt, corpusque lavant frigentis et unguunt.  
and wash the cold body and rub it with oil.

**220** Fit gemitus. Tum membra toro defleta reponunt,  
A groan goes up. Then they lay the wept-over limbs on the bier,

**221** purpureasque super vestes, velamina nota,  
and throw the purple cloths above them, the coverings he knew.

**222** coniciunt. Pars ingenti subiere feretro,  
Some shouldered the great litter, a grim

**223** triste ministerium, et subiectam more parentum  
service, and in the manner of their fathers held the torch

**224** aversi tenuere facem. Congesta cremantur  
under it with their faces turned away. Gifts of incense are heaped

**225** turea dona, dapes, fuso crateres olivo.  
and burned, and food, and bowls with the oil poured out.

**226** Postquam conlapsi cineres et flamma quievit  
After the ashes fell in and the flame lay still,

**227** reliquias vino et bibulam lavere favillam,  
they washed the remains and the thirsty embers with wine,

**228** ossaque lecta cado texit Corynaeus aëno.  
and Corynaeus shut the gathered bones in a jar of bronze.

**229** Idem ter socios pura circumtulit unda,  
He too carried clean water three times around the companions,

**230** spargens rore levi et ramo felicis olivae,  
sprinkling a light dew from a branch of fruit-bearing olive,

**231** lustravitque viros, dixitque novissima verba.  
and purified the men, and said the last words.

**232** At pius Aeneas ingenti mole sepulcrum  
But dutiful Aeneas sets over him a tomb of enormous bulk,

**233** imponit, suaque arma viro, remumque tubamque,  
and the man's own arms, his oar and his trumpet with them,

**234** monte sub aërio, qui nunc “Misenus” ab illo  
under a headland high in the air, which now from him

**235** dicitur, aeternumque tenet per saecula nomen.  
is called Misenus, and keeps the name through the ages, for good.

**236** His actis, propere exsequitur praecepta Sibyllae.  
This done, he carries out the Sibyl's instructions in haste.

**237** Spelunca alta fuit vastoque immanis hiatu,  
There was a deep cave, monstrous in the width of its gape,

**238** scrupea, tuta lacu nigro nemorumque tenebris,  
stony, guarded by a black lake and the darkness of woods,

**239** quam super haud ullae poterant impune volantes  
over which no flying thing could hold its way

**240** tendere iter pennis—talis sese halitus atris  
on wings and go unharmed: such a breath poured itself

**241** faucibus effundens supera ad convexa ferebat:  
out of those black jaws and carried up to the vault above.

**242** unde locum Grai dixerunt nomine Aornon.  
From this the Greeks called the place by the name Aornos.
> The name without birds: Aornon is a Latinized Greek word, from a, 'without', and ornis, 'bird': 'birdless'. Romans heard it as Avernus, the name of the lake and the underworld's entrance. Vergil gives the derivation directly: fumes from the crater killed anything flying over it.

**243** quattuor hic primum nigrantis terga iuvencos  
Here first the priestess sets up four bullocks with blackening

**244** constituit, frontique invergit vina sacerdos;  
backs, and tips wine over their foreheads;

**245** et summas carpens media inter cornua saetas  
and plucking the topmost bristles from between the horns

**246** ignibus imponit sacris, libamina prima,  
she lays them on the holy fire, the first offering,

**247** voce vocans Hecaten, Caeloque Ereboque potentem.  
calling aloud on Hecate, powerful in heaven and in Erebus.

**248** Supponunt alii cultros, tepidumque cruorem  
Others set the knives under and catch the warm blood

**249** suscipiunt pateris. Ipse atri velleris agnam  
in bowls. Aeneas himself, taking a lamb of black fleece

**250** Aeneas matri Eumenidum magnaeque sorori  
for the mother of the Eumenides and for her great sister,

**251** ense ferit, sterilemque tibi. Proserpina, vaccam.  
strikes with the sword; and a barren cow for you, Proserpina.

**252** Tum Stygio regi nocturnas inchoat aras,  
Then he begins altars by night for the Stygian king,

**253** et solida imponit taurorum viscera flammis,  
and lays whole carcasses of bulls upon the flames,

**254** pingue superque oleum infundens ardentibus extis.  
pouring rich oil over the burning entrails.

**255** Ecce autem, primi sub lumina solis et ortus,  
But look, just under the first light and rising of the sun,

**256** sub pedibus mugire solum, et iuga coepta moveri  
the ground began to bellow under their feet, and the ridges

**257** silvarum, visaeque canes ululare per umbram,  
of the woods to move, and hounds seemed to howl through the dark

**258** adventante dea. “Procul O procul este, profani,”  
as the goddess came on. “Away, away, you uninitiated,”

**259** conclamat vates, “totoque absistite luco;  
the prophetess cries, “and stand clear of the whole grove;

**260** tuque invade viam, vaginaque eripe ferrum:  
and you, go into the road, and tear the sword from its sheath:

**261** nunc animis opus, Aenea, nunc pectore firmo.”  
now is the need of courage, Aeneas, now of a steady heart.”

**262** Tantum effata, furens antro se immisit aperto;  
Saying only that, she flung herself raving into the open cave;

**263** ille ducem haud timidis vadentem passibus aequat.  
he keeps pace with his guide, striding with steps that do not falter.

**264** Di, quibus imperium est animarum, umbraeque silentes,  
You gods who hold the rule over souls, and you silent shades,
> A second invocation: Di is a vocative, addressing the gods directly. Quibus imperium est animarum is a dative of possession, literally 'to whom there is rule of souls', meaning 'who hold power over souls'. The poet stops the story to pray in his own voice, asking permission to say what follows.

**265** et Chaos, et Phlegethon, loca nocte tacentia late,  
and Chaos, and Phlegethon, places hushed in the night far and wide:

**266** sit mihi fas audita loqui; sit numine vestro  
let it be right for me to tell what I have heard; let it be lawful

**267** pandere res alta terra et caligine mersas!  
by your will to lay open things sunk in deep earth and dark.

**268** Ibant obscuri sola sub nocte per umbram,  
They went dim under the lonely night through the shadow,
> A transferred epithet: Obscuri agrees with the subject of ibant, 'they were going', describing the men as dim or indistinct. Sola agrees instead with nocte, 'the night', calling it lonely. Latin lets an adjective attach to the wrong noun, trusting the reader to sort out which word carries which sense.

**269** perque domos Ditis vacuas et inania regna:  
and through the empty halls of Dis and his kingdoms of nothing:

**270** quale per incertam lunam sub luce maligna  
as a road runs through the woods under a grudging light

**271** est iter in silvis, ubi caelum condidit umbra  
by an uncertain moon, when Jupiter has buried the sky

**272** Iuppiter, et rebus nox abstulit atra colorem.  
in shadow, and black night has taken the color out of things.

**273** Vestibulum ante ipsum, primisque in faucibus Orci  
Before the entrance itself, in the first jaws of Orcus,

**274** Luctus et ultrices posuere cubilia Curae;  
Grief and the avenging Cares have made their beds;

**275** pallentesque habitant Morbi, tristisque Senectus,  
and pale Diseases live there, and sad Old Age,

**276** et Metus, et malesuada Fames, ac turpis Egestas,  
and Fear, and Hunger that counsels badly, and shameful Want,

**277** terribiles visu formae: Letumque, Labosque;  
shapes terrible to look at: and Death, and Toil;

**278** tum consanguineus Leti Sopor, et mala mentis  
then Sleep, own brother to Death, and the mind's evil

**279** Gaudia, mortiferumque adverso in limine Bellum,  
Joys, and War that carries death, on the threshold opposite,

**280** ferreique Eumenidum thalami, et Discordia demens,  
and the iron bedchambers of the Eumenides, and Discord out of her wits,

**281** vipereum crinem vittis innexa cruentis.  
her viper hair bound up with bloody ribbons.

**282** In medio ramos annosaque brachia pandit  
In the middle an elm spreads out its branches and its aged

**283** ulmus opaca, ingens, quam sedem Somnia volgo  
arms, dark and huge, where empty Dreams are commonly

**284** vana tenere ferunt, foliisque sub omnibus haerent.  
said to keep their seat, and cling under every leaf.

**285** Multaque praeterea variarum monstra ferarum:  
And many monsters besides, of many kinds of beast:

**286** Centauri in foribus stabulant, Scyllaeque biformes,  
Centaurs stall in the doorway, and the two-shaped Scyllas,

**287** et centumgeminus Briareus, ac belua Lernae  
and Briareus in his hundredfold, and the beast of Lerna

**288** horrendum stridens, flammisque armata Chimaera,  
hissing horribly, and the Chimaera armed with flames,

**289** Gorgones Harpyiaeque et forma tricorporis umbrae.  
Gorgons and Harpies, and the shape of the shade with three bodies.
> The three bodied shade: Forma is nominative, 'shape, form', with tricorporis umbrae as its genitive, 'of the three bodied shade'. Tricorporis is a compound adjective, tri, 'three', and corpus, 'body'. The shade named this way is Geryon, the giant Hercules killed, identified here only by his shape.

**290** Corripit hic subita trepidus formidine ferrum  
Here Aeneas, shaking with a sudden dread, snatches up his sword

**291** Aeneas, strictamque aciem venientibus offert,  
and holds the drawn blade out to them as they come;

**292** et, ni docta comes tenues sine corpore vitas  
and had his learned companion not warned him that these were

**293** admoneat volitare cava sub imagine formae,  
thin lives without body, flitting in the hollow of a shape,

**294** inruat, et frustra ferro diverberet umbras.  
he would have rushed in and cut at shades with steel for nothing.

**295** Hinc via, Tartarei quae fert Acherontis ad undas.  
From here the road that leads to the waters of Tartarean Acheron.

**296** Turbidus hic caeno vastaque voragine gurges  
Here a flood, thick with mud and a vast swallowing hollow,

**297** aestuat, atque omnem Cocyto eructat harenam.  
boils up, and belches all its sand into Cocytus.

**298** Portitor has horrendus aquas et flumina servat  
A dreadful ferryman guards these waters and these streams,

**299** terribili squalore Charon, cui plurima mento  
Charon, in a filth that frightens: on his chin lies

**300** canities inculta iacet; stant lumina flamma,  
a great white beard, uncombed; his eyes stand still in flame,

**301** sordidus ex umeris nodo dependet amictus.  
and a foul cloak hangs from his shoulders by a knot.

**302** Ipse ratem conto subigit, velisque ministrat,  
He himself poles the raft and manages the sails

**303** et ferruginea subvectat corpora cymba,  
and carries bodies over in his rust-dark boat,

**304** iam senior, sed cruda deo viridisque senectus.  
old now, but a god's old age is raw and green.
> Raw and green: Senectus, 'old age', is the subject, described by two adjectives: cruda, 'raw, unripe', and viridis, 'green', the word for wood that has not dried out. Deo is dative, 'for a god', showing whose old age this is. Both adjectives normally describe things that have not finished ripening or aging.

**305** Huc omnis turba ad ripas effusa ruebat,  
Here the whole crowd was pouring down to the banks and rushing,

**306** matres atque viri, defunctaque corpora vita  
mothers and men, and the bodies of great-hearted heroes

**307** magnanimum heroum, pueri innuptaeque puellae,  
with their life finished, boys and unwedded girls,

**308** impositique rogis iuvenes ante ora parentum:  
and young men laid on the pyre before their fathers' faces:

**309** quam multa in silvis autumni frigore primo  
as many as the leaves that slip and fall in the woods

**310** lapsa cadunt folia, aut ad terram gurgite ab alto  
at the first cold of autumn, or as many as the birds

**311** quam multae glomerantur aves, ubi frigidus annus  
that flock in to land from deep water, when the cold season

**312** trans pontum fugat, et terris immittit apricis.  
drives them across the sea and sends them to sunlit countries.

**313** Stabant orantes primi transmittere cursum,  
They stood praying to be first to make the crossing,

**314** tendebantque manus ripae ulterioris amore.  
and stretched out their hands in longing for the farther bank.
> Longing for the farther bank: Amore is ablative, giving the cause of the gesture, 'out of longing, desire'. Ripae ulterioris is genitive, 'of the farther bank', naming what is wanted. A genitive after amor works like English 'a longing for something', with the thing wanted in that case.

**315** Navita sed tristis nunc hos nunc accipit illos,  
But the sullen boatman lets in now one, now another,

**316** ast alios longe submotos arcet harena.  
while others he keeps far back, pushed off from the sand.

**317** Aeneas, miratus enim motusque tumultu,  
Aeneas, wondering at this and moved by the uproar,

**318** “Dic” ait “O virgo, quid volt concursus ad amnem?  
says: “Tell me, maiden, what does this crowding to the river mean?

**319** Quidve petunt animae, vel quo discrimine ripas  
What do the souls want, or by what rule do these

**320** hae linquunt, illae remis vada livida verrunt?”  
leave the banks, while those sweep the leaden shallows with oars?”

**321** Olli sic breviter fata est longaeva sacerdos:  
To him the aged priestess spoke briefly, so:

**322** “Anchisa generate, deum certissima proles,  
“Born of Anchises, most certain offspring of the gods,

**323** Cocyti stagna alta vides Stygiamque paludem,  
you see the deep pools of Cocytus and the Stygian marsh,

**324** di cuius iurare timent et fallere numen.  
by whose power the gods are afraid to swear and then lie.

**325** Haec omnis, quam cernis, inops inhumataque turba est;  
All this crowd you make out is helpless and unburied;
> Helpless and unburied: Inops means 'without resources, having nothing', and inhumata means 'not buried', from humus, 'earth, ground'. Both are nominative, agreeing with turba, 'the crowd', naming what this crowd of souls lacks. Neither adjective says anything about wrongdoing, only about an unfinished burial.

**326** portitor ille Charon; hi, quos vehit unda, sepulti.  
that ferryman is Charon; the ones the water carries have graves.

**327** Nec ripas datur horrendas et rauca fluenta  
It is not given to carry any over the dreadful banks

**328** transportare prius quam sedibus ossa quierunt.  
and the hoarse current before their bones have rest in a place.

**329** Centum errant annos volitantque haec litora circum;  
They wander a hundred years and flit about these shores;

**330** tum demum admissi stagna exoptata revisunt.”  
only then are they let in, and see again the pools they longed for.”

**331** Constitit Anchisa satus et vestigia pressit,  
The son of Anchises stopped and held his step,

**332** multa putans, sortemque animo miseratus iniquam.  
thinking much, and pitying in his heart their unfair lot.

**333** Cernit ibi maestos et mortis honore carentes  
There he makes out, grieving and without the honor of death,

**334** Leucaspim et Lyciae ductorem classis Oronten,  
Leucaspis and Orontes, captain of the Lycian ships,

**335** quos, simul ab Troia ventosa per aequora vectos,  
whom, as they sailed together from Troy over windy water,

**336** obruit Auster, aqua involvens navemque virosque.  
the South Wind swamped, rolling ship and men under.

**337** Ecce gubernator sese Palinurus agebat,  
And look, the helmsman Palinurus was making his way there,

**338** qui Libyco nuper cursu, dum sidera servat,  
who lately on the Libyan run, while he watched the stars,

**339** exciderat puppi mediis effusus in undis.  
had dropped from the stern and spilled out into mid-water.

**340** Hunc ubi vix multa maestum cognovit in umbra,  
When he had barely made him out, grieving, in the thick dark,

**341** sic prior adloquitur: “Quis te, Palinure, deorum  
he speaks first, so: “Which of the gods, Palinurus,

**342** eripuit nobis, medioque sub aequore mersit?  
tore you from us and sank you under the open sea?

**343** Dic age. Namque mihi, fallax haud ante repertus,  
Come, tell me. For Apollo, never found false until now,

**344** hoc uno responso animum delusit Apollo,  
cheated my mind with this one answer of his,

**345** qui fore te ponto incolumem, finesque canebat  
when he sang that you would come through the water unhurt

**346** venturum Ausonios. En haec promissa fides est?”  
and reach the Ausonian borders. Is this the promise he kept?”

**347** Ille autem: “Neque te Phoebi cortina fefellit,  
But he: “The cauldron of Phoebus did not deceive you,
> The cauldron of Phoebus: Cortina is 'a cauldron, a bowl', specifically the bowl set on the tripod at Delphi where the priestess sat. Phoebi is genitive, 'of Phoebus', naming Apollo. Used here for the oracle itself, the phrase names the god's prophecy by the object it was given from.

**348** dux Anchisiade, nec me deus aequore mersit.  
leader, son of Anchises, and no god sank me in the sea.

**349** Namque gubernaclum multa vi forte revolsum,  
For the tiller, torn off by chance with great violence,

**350** cui datus haerebam custos cursusque regebam,  
and I clinging to it, set as its keeper, steering the course,

**351** praecipitans traxi mecum. Maria aspera iuro  
I dragged down with me as I fell. By the rough seas I swear

**352** non ullum pro me tantum cepisse timorem,  
that I felt no such fear on my own account

**353** quam tua ne, spoliata armis, excussa magistro,  
as that your ship, stripped of its gear, its master shaken off,

**354** deficeret tantis navis surgentibus undis.  
might founder with such waves rising against it.

**355** Tris Notus hibernas immensa per aequora noctes  
Three winter nights the South Wind carried me on the water,

**356** vexit me violentus aqua; vix lumine quarto  
violent, over measureless seas; at the fourth daylight, barely,

**357** prospexi Italiam summa sublimis ab unda.  
lifted high on a wave-top, I caught sight of Italy ahead.

**358** Paulatim adnabam terrae; iam tuta tenebam,  
Little by little I was swimming toward land; I had hold of safety,

**359** ni gens crudelis madida cum veste gravatum  
had not a cruel people come at me with iron while I was weighed

**360** prensantemque uncis manibus capita aspera montis  
down by my soaked clothes and gripping the rough heads

**361** ferro invasisset, praedamque ignara putasset.  
of the cliff with hooked hands, and taken me, not knowing, for plunder.

**362** Nunc me fluctus habet, versantque in litore venti.  
Now the surf has me, and the winds roll me on the shore.

**363** Quod te per caeli iucundum lumen et auras,  
So by the sweet light of heaven and by its air,

**364** per genitorem oro, per spes surgentis Iuli,  
by your father I beg you, by your hopes of Iulus growing up,

**365** eripe me his, invicte, malis: aut tu mihi terram  
snatch me out of these evils, unbeaten one: either throw earth

**366** inice, namque potes, portusque require Velinos;  
over me, you can, and make for the harbor at Velia;

**367** aut tu, si qua via est, si quam tibi diva creatrix  
or, if there is some way, if the goddess who bore you shows you

**368** ostendit—neque enim, credo, sine numine divom  
one (for I do not think you are making ready to swim

**369** flumina tanta paras Stygiamque innare paludem—  
such rivers and the Stygian marsh without the will of the gods)

**370** da dextram misero, et tecum me tolle per undas,  
give a wretch your right hand, and take me with you over the water,

**371** sedibus ut saltem placidis in morte quiescam.”  
so that at least I may rest quiet in death in a settled place.”

**372** Talia fatus erat, coepit cum talia vates:  
He had spoken so, when the prophetess began, so:

**373** “Unde haec, o Palinure, tibi tam dira cupido?  
“Where does so dreadful a longing come to you from, Palinurus?
> So dreadful a longing: Dira means 'dreadful', specifically in the religious sense of an ill omen, not just frightening. Cupido, 'desire, longing', is the noun it modifies, with tam, 'so', intensifying it. The same phrase, tam dira cupido, is used again later in this book of souls wanting to be born.

**374** Tu Stygias inhumatus aquas amnemque severum  
Are you, unburied, to look on the Stygian waters and the stern river

**375** Eumenidum aspicies, ripamve iniussus adibis?  
of the Eumenides, or come to the bank unbidden?

**376** Desine fata deum flecti sperare precando.  
Stop hoping that the decrees of the gods can be bent by praying.
> An infinitive inside a hope: Desine is an imperative, 'stop', governing sperare, an infinitive, 'to hope'. Flecti is a passive infinitive, 'to be bent', with fata deum, 'the decrees of the gods', as its subject. Precando is a gerund in the ablative, 'by praying', naming the means that will not work.

**377** Sed cape dicta memor, duri solatia casus.  
But take my words and keep them, comfort for a hard case.

**378** Nam tua finitimi, longe lateque per urbes  
For the peoples round about, driven far and wide through their cities

**379** prodigiis acti caelestibus, ossa piabunt,  
by portents out of heaven, will make atonement to your bones,

**380** et statuent tumulum, et tumulo sollemnia mittent,  
and will raise a mound, and send the mound its yearly rites,

**381** aeternumque locus Palinuri nomen habebit.”  
and the place will hold the name of Palinurus for ever.”

**382** His dictis curae emotae, pulsusque parumper  
At these words his cares were shifted, and grief driven for a little

**383** corde dolor tristi: gaudet cognomine terrae.  
out of his sad heart: he is glad of a land called after him.

**384** Ergo iter inceptum peragunt fluvioque propinquant.  
So they finish the road they began and come near the river.

**385** Navita quos iam inde ut Stygia prospexit ab unda  
When the boatman caught sight of them from the Stygian water,

**386** per tacitum nemus ire pedemque advertere ripae,  
going through the silent wood and turning their feet toward the bank,

**387** sic prior adgreditur dictis, atque increpat ultro:  
he goes at them first with words, and scolds them unasked:

**388** “Quisquis es, armatus qui nostra ad flumina tendis,  
“Whoever you are who make for our rivers under arms,

**389** fare age, quid venias, iam istinc, et comprime gressum.  
speak up from there and say why you come, and hold your step.

**390** Umbrarum hic locus est, somni noctisque soporae;  
This is a place of shades, of sleep, of drowsing night;

**391** corpora viva nefas Stygia vectare carina.  
it is forbidden to carry living bodies in the Stygian hull.

**392** Nec vero Alciden me sum laetatus euntem  
And I got no joy of taking Hercules aboard on the lake

**393** accepisse lacu, nec Thesea Pirithoumque,  
when he came, nor Theseus and Pirithous,

**394** dis quamquam geniti atque invicti viribus essent.  
sons of gods though they were, and unbeaten in their strength.

**395** Tartareum ille manu custodem in vincla petivit,  
The one laid hands on the watchdog of Tartarus to chain him,

**396** ipsius a solio regis, traxitque trementem;  
from the throne of the king himself, and dragged him away shaking;

**397** hi dominam Ditis thalamo deducere adorti.”  
these two set about leading the mistress of Dis out of her chamber.”

**398** Quae contra breviter fata est Amphrysia vates:  
Against this the prophetess of Amphrysus said briefly:
> The Amphrysian prophetess: Vates means 'prophetess, seer', here the Sibyl. Amphrysia is an adjective, 'belonging to the Amphrysus', a river in Thessaly where Apollo once worked as a herdsman. The epithet names her by that river instead of by the god's own name.

**399** “Nullae hic insidiae tales; absiste moveri;  
“There is no such plot here; leave off being troubled;

**400** nec vim tela ferunt; licet ingens ianitor antro  
the weapons bring no violence; the huge doorkeeper may go on

**401** aeternum latrans exsanguis terreat umbras,  
barking for ever in his cave and scaring the bloodless shades,

**402** casta licet patrui servet Proserpina limen.  
and chaste Proserpina go on keeping her uncle's threshold.

**403** Troius Aeneas, pietate insignis et armis,  
Trojan Aeneas, marked out by duty and by arms,

**404** ad genitorem imas Erebi descendit ad umbras.  
goes down to his father, to the lowest shades of Erebus.

**405** Si te nulla movet tantae pietatis imago,  
If no picture of duty as great as that moves you,

**406** at ramum hunc” (aperit ramum, qui veste latebat)  
still this bough” (she uncovers the bough, hidden in her robe)

**407** “adgnoscas.” Tumida ex ira tum corda residunt.  
“you must know.” Then the heart swollen with anger settles.

**408** Nec plura his. Ille admirans venerabile donum  
Nothing more than this. He, marvelling at the awesome gift

**409** fatalis virgae, longo post tempore visum,  
of the fated branch, seen again after long time,

**410** caeruleam advertit puppim, ripaeque propinquat.  
swings the dark-blue stern about and comes in to the bank.

**411** Inde alias animas, quae per iuga longa sedebant,  
Then he drives off the other souls that were seated along the benches,

**412** deturbat, laxatque foros; simul accipit alveo  
and clears the gangways; and at once takes into the hull

**413** ingentem Aenean. Gemuit sub pondere cymba  
the huge Aeneas. The stitched boat groaned under the weight
> The boat groaned: Gemuit is perfect of gemo, 'groaned'. Cymba, 'the small boat, the skiff', is its subject, and sub pondere, 'under the weight', gives the cause. The boat's reaction to Aeneas' living weight is reported as a physical sound rather than described directly.

**414** sutilis, et multam accepit rimosa paludem.  
and, gaping at the seams, let in a great deal of the marsh.

**415** Tandem trans fluvium incolumis vatemque virumque  
At last it sets prophetess and man down unhurt beyond the river

**416** informi limo glaucaque exponit in ulva.  
on formless mud and gray-green sedge.

**417** Cerberus haec ingens latratu regna trifauci  
Huge Cerberus makes these kingdoms ring with the barking

**418** personat, adverso recubans immanis in antro.  
of three throats, sprawled monstrous in the cave that faces them.

**419** Cui vates, horrere videns iam colla colubris,  
Seeing the snakes on his necks already bristling, the prophetess

**420** melle soporatam et medicatis frugibus offam  
throws him a sop drugged with honey and doctored meal.
> A sop for Cerberus: Offam is the direct object, 'a lump of dough, a morsel'. Soporatam is a participle agreeing with it, 'drugged, made to bring sleep', from sopor, 'deep sleep'. Melle is ablative, 'with honey', naming what the drug is mixed into.

**421** obicit. Ille fame rabida tria guttura pandens  
He, opening three gullets in his rabid hunger,

**422** corripit obiectam, atque immania terga resolvit  
snatches what is thrown, and lets his monstrous back go slack,

**423** fusus humi, totoque ingens extenditur antro.  
spread on the ground, and stretches huge across the whole cave.

**424** Occupat Aeneas aditum custode sepulto,  
Aeneas takes the entrance while the guard lies buried in sleep,

**425** evaditque celer ripam inremeabilis undae.  
and gets clear, fast, of the bank of a water no one recrosses.
> The water none recross: Inremeabilis is built from in, 'not', re, 'back', and meare, 'to go, to travel': 'not able to be traveled back over'. Undae is genitive, 'of the water', the river this describes. Latin compresses the whole idea, 'a water no one recrosses', into one adjective.

**426** Continuo auditae voces, vagitus et ingens,  
At once voices were heard, and a great wailing,

**427** infantumque animae flentes in limine primo,  
the souls of infants crying on the very first threshold,

**428** quos dulcis vitae exsortes et ab ubere raptos  
whom, with no share of sweet life, torn from the breast,

**429** abstulit atra dies et funere mersit acerbo;  
a black day carried off and drowned in a bitter burial;

**430** hos iuxta falso damnati crimine mortis.  
next to them, the ones condemned to death on a false charge.

**431** Nec vero hae sine sorte datae, sine iudice, sedes:  
Nor are these seats assigned without a lot and without a judge:

**432** quaesitor Minos urnam movet; ille silentum  
Minos the examiner shakes the urn; he calls the council

**433** conciliumque vocat vitasque et crimina discit.  
of the silent, and learns their lives and what they were charged with.

**434** Proxuma deinde tenent maesti loca, qui sibi letum  
The next places after them the sad ones hold, who without guilt

**435** insontes peperere manu, lucemque perosi  
got death for themselves by their own hand, and, sick of the daylight,

**436** proiecere animas. Quam vellent aethere in alto  
threw their lives away. How they would want now, in the high air,

**437** nunc et pauperiem et duros perferre labores!  
to endure poverty and hard labor to the end!

**438** Fas obstat, tristisque palus inamabilis undae  
Divine law stands in the way, and the sad marsh of unlovely water

**439** alligat, et noviens Styx interfusa coërcet.  
binds them, and Styx, poured nine times between, pens them in.

**440** Nec procul hinc partem fusi monstrantur in omnem  
Not far from here are shown, spread out in every direction,

**441** lugentes campi: sic illos nomine dicunt.  
the fields of mourning: that is the name they give them.
> The fields of mourning: Lugentes is a present participle of lugeo, the formal verb for mourning, used of wearing black and keeping funeral rites, and it agrees with campi, 'the fields'. Together they mean 'the mourning fields'. The place is named for what its inhabitants are doing, not for how they are punished.

**442** Hic, quos durus amor crudeli tabe peredit,  
Here those whom hard love ate through with its cruel wasting

**443** secreti celant calles et myrtea circum  
are hidden by paths kept secret, and a myrtle wood

**444** silva tegit; curae non ipsa in morte relinquunt.  
covers them round; their cares do not let go even in death.

**445** His Phaedram Procrimque locis, maestamque Eriphylen  
In these places he makes out Phaedra and Procris, and sad Eriphyle

**446** crudelis nati monstrantem volnera, cernit,  
showing the wounds her cruel son gave her,

**447** Evadnenque et Pasiphaën; his Laodamia  
and Evadne and Pasiphae; Laodamia goes with them

**448** it comes, et iuvenis quondam, nunc femina, Caeneus,  
as companion, and Caeneus, once a young man, now a woman,

**449** rursus et in veterem fato revoluta figuram.  
turned back again by fate into the old shape.

**450** Inter quas Phoenissa recens a volnere Dido  
Among them the Phoenician Dido, her wound still fresh,
> Her wound still fresh: Recens, 'fresh, recent', modifies Dido, and a volnere is 'from the wound', an ablative with the preposition a giving the cause. The wound is described as fresh even though her death happened earlier in the story. The Latin says nothing about how much time has passed.

**451** errabat silva in magna; quam Troius heros  
was wandering in the great wood; and when the Trojan hero

**452** ut primum iuxta stetit adgnovitque per umbras  
first stood close and knew her, dim through the shadows,

**453** obscuram, qualem primo qui surgere mense  
as a man sees the moon rise at the month's beginning

**454** aut videt, aut vidisse putat per nubila lunam,  
through cloud, or thinks he has seen it,

**455** demisit lacrimas, dulcique adfatus amore est:  
he let his tears fall, and spoke to her in the old sweetness of love:

**456** “Infelix Dido, verus mihi nuntius ergo  
“Unhappy Dido, so the word that reached me was true,

**457** venerat exstinctam, ferroque extrema secutam?  
that you were gone, that you had followed the end with a sword?

**458** Funeris heu tibi causa fui? Per sidera iuro,  
Was I, then, the cause of your death? By the stars I swear,

**459** per superos, et si qua fides tellure sub ima est,  
by the gods above, and by whatever faith there is under the deep earth,

**460** invitus, regina, tuo de litore cessi.  
it was against my will, queen, that I went from your shore.

**461** Sed me iussa deum, quae nunc has ire per umbras,  
But the gods' orders, which now compel me to go through these shades,

**462** per loca senta situ cogunt noctemque profundam,  
through places rough with neglect and through bottomless night,

**463** imperiis egere suis; nec credere quivi  
drove me by their own authority; and I could not believe

**464** hunc tantum tibi me discessu ferre dolorem.  
I was bringing you a grief so great by leaving.

**465** Siste gradum, teque aspectu ne subtrahe nostro.  
Stop where you are, and do not take yourself out of my sight.

**466** Quem fugis? Extremum fato, quod te adloquor, hoc est.”  
Whom do you flee? By fate this is the last word I shall say to you.”
> The last word, delayed: Hoc est, 'this is', frames the sentence, with extremum, 'the last thing', as its predicate. Quod te adloquor is a relative clause, 'which I say to you', inserted between them. The normal word order is broken up, delaying the main verb est to the very end.

**467** Talibus Aeneas ardentem et torva tuentem  
With such words Aeneas was trying to soften a soul on fire

**468** lenibat dictis animum, lacrimasque ciebat.  
and glaring at him, and was calling up his own tears.

**469** Illa solo fixos oculos aversa tenebat,  
She, turned away, kept her eyes fixed on the ground,

**470** nec magis incepto voltum sermone movetur,  
and her face is no more moved by the speech he had begun

**471** quam si dura silex aut stet Marpesia cautes.  
than if hard flint stood there, or a crag of Marpessan marble.
> Stone from Marpessus: Cautes means 'a crag, a jagged rock', and Marpesia, 'of Marpessus', modifies it. Mount Marpessus, on the island of Paros, was the source of some of the whitest marble in the ancient world. The comparison names flint and this marble as things that do not move.

**472** tandem corripuit sese, atque inimica refugit  
At last she snatched herself away, and fled, an enemy,

**473** in nemus umbriferum, coniunx ubi pristinus illi  
into the shadow-bearing wood, where the husband she had before,

**474** respondet curis aequatque Sychaeus amorem.  
Sychaeus, answers her cares and matches her love.
> He matches her love: Aequat, from aequo, 'to make equal, to match', has Sychaeus as its subject and amorem, 'her love', as its object. The connective que links this clause to the one before it. The verb states that his response equals her feeling exactly, rather than merely returning it.

**475** Nec minus Aeneas, casu concussus iniquo,  
And Aeneas, no less shaken by the unfairness of it,

**476** prosequitur lacrimis longe, et miseratur euntem.  
follows her far off with tears, and pities her as she goes.

**477** Inde datum molitur iter. Iamque arva tenebant  
From there he labors at the road given him. And now they were holding

**478** ultima, quae bello clari secreta frequentant.  
the last fields, which those famous in war keep to, apart.

**479** Hic illi occurrit Tydeus, hic inclutus armis  
Here Tydeus meets him, here Parthenopaeus, renowned in arms,

**480** Parthenopaeus et Adrasti pallentis imago;  
and the ghost of pale Adrastus;

**481** hic multum fleti ad superos belloque caduci  
here the sons of Dardanus, much wept for in the world above

**482** Dardanidae, quos ille omnes longo ordine cernens  
and fallen in the war, seeing them all in their long line

**483** ingemuit, Glaucumque Medontaque Thersilochumque,  
he groaned: Glaucus, Medon, Thersilochus,

**484** tris Antenoridas, Cererique sacrum Polyphoeten,  
the three sons of Antenor, and Polyphoetes, holy to Ceres,

**485** Idaeumque, etiam currus, etiam arma tenentem.  
and Idaeus, still holding his chariot, still holding his arms.

**486** circumstant animae dextra laevaque frequentes;  
The souls stand thick about him on the right and on the left;

**487** nec vidisse semel satis est; iuvat usque morari,  
and it is not enough to have seen him once: they like to keep him,

**488** et conferre gradum, et veniendi discere causas.  
to walk beside him, to learn what has brought him.

**489** At Danaum proceres Agamemnoniaeque phalanges  
But the chiefs of the Danaans and Agamemnon's battalions,

**490** ut videre virum fulgentiaque arma per umbras,  
when they saw the man and his flashing arms through the shadows,

**491** ingenti trepidare metu; pars vertere terga,  
shook with enormous fear; some turned their backs,

**492** ceu quondam petiere rates; pars tollere vocem  
as they once made for the ships; some lifted a voice,

**493** exiguam, inceptus clamor frustratur hiantes.  
a thin one, the shout they began cheats them with their mouths open.

**494** Atque hic Priamiden laniatum corpore toto  
And here he sees the son of Priam, mangled over his whole body,

**495** Deiphobum videt et lacerum crudeliter ora,  
Deiphobus, his face cruelly torn,

**496** ora manusque ambas, populataque tempora raptis  
his face and both his hands, his temples laid waste, the ears

**497** auribus, et truncas inhonesto volnere nares.  
torn away, and the nostrils cut back by a shameful wound.

**498** Vix adeo adgnovit pavitantem et dira tegentem  
He barely knew him, shrinking as he was and trying to hide

**499** supplicia, et notis compellat vocibus ultro:  
that frightful punishment, and unasked he speaks in the voice they had:

**500** “Deiphobe armipotens, genus alto a sanguine Teucri  
“Deiphobus, strong in arms, of the high blood of Teucer,

**501** quis tam crudeles optavit sumere poenas?  
who chose to take a payment as cruel as this?

**502** Cui tantum de te licuit? Mihi fama suprema  
Who was allowed so much of you? Report came to me on that last

**503** nocte tulit fessum vasta te caede Pelasgum  
night that you, spent with the vast slaughter of Pelasgians,

**504** procubuisse super confusae stragis acervum.  
had fallen down on a heap of tangled dead.

**505** Tunc egomet tumulum Rhoeteo litore inanem  
Then I myself set an empty mound on the Rhoetean shore

**506** constitui, et magna Manes ter voce vocavi.  
and called on the Shades three times with a great voice.

**507** Nomen et arma locum servant; te, amice, nequivi  
Your name and your arms keep the place; you, my friend, I could not

**508** conspicere, et patria decedens ponere terra.”  
find, or lay in the ground of home as I went from it.”

**509** Ad quae Priamides: “Nihil O tibi amice relictum;  
To which the son of Priam: “Nothing was left undone by you, friend;

**510** omnia Deiphobo solvisti et funeris umbris.  
you paid it all to Deiphobus and to the shade of a dead man.

**511** Sed me fata mea et scelus exitiale Lacaenae  
But my own fates and the deadly crime of the Spartan woman
> The Spartan woman: Scelus, 'crime', is modified by exitiale, 'deadly, destructive'. Lacaenae is genitive, 'of the Spartan woman', naming Helen without using her name. Deiphobus refers to his own former wife this way throughout his speech.

**512** his mersere malis; illa haec monumenta reliquit.  
sank me in these evils; these are the memorials she left me.

**513** Namque ut supremam falsa inter gaudia noctem  
For how we spent that last night among false rejoicings

**514** egerimus, nosti; et nimium meminisse necesse est.  
you know; and we must remember it too well.

**515** Cum fatalis equus saltu super ardua venit  
When the fated horse came at a leap over the steep of

**516** Pergama, et armatum peditem gravis attulit alvo,  
Pergamum, and brought armed foot-soldiers heavy in its belly,

**517** illa, chorum simulans, evantes orgia circum  
she, faking a dance, was leading the women of Phrygia

**518** ducebat Phrygias; flammam media ipsa tenebat  
around, howling over the rites; in the middle she held herself

**519** ingentem, et summa Danaos ex arce vocabat.  
a huge torch, and was calling the Danaans from the top of the citadel.

**520** Tum me, confectum curis somnoque gravatum,  
Then the ill-starred bridal chamber held me, worn out with cares

**521** infelix habuit thalamus, pressitque iacentem  
and heavy with sleep, and a rest pressed me down as I lay,

**522** dulcis et alta quies placidaeque simillima morti.  
sweet and deep, and closest of all things to a quiet death.

**523** Egregia interea coniunx arma omnia tectis  
Meanwhile my excellent wife moves every weapon out of the house
> My excellent wife: Egregia means 'outstanding, distinguished', a word normally used for a person of high merit or rank. Coniunx, 'wife', is what it modifies here, naming Helen. Deiphobus applies a word of high praise to the wife who let the Greeks into his house.

**524** amovet, et fidum capiti subduxerat ensem;  
and had drawn away the trusty sword from under my head;

**525** intra tecta vocat Menelaum, et limina pandit,  
she calls Menelaus into the building and throws the doors wide,

**526** scilicet id magnum sperans fore munus amanti,  
hoping, of course, that it would be a great gift for her lover

**527** et famam exstingui veterum sic posse malorum.  
and that the story of her old wrongs could be put out so.

**528** Quid moror? Inrumpunt thalamo; comes additur una  
Why do I linger? They burst into the room; with them, added

**529** hortator scelerum Aeolides. Di, talia Grais  
as companion, the son of Aeolus, who urges on crimes. Gods, deal
> The son of Aeolus: Hortator, 'one who urges on, an instigator', takes scelerum, 'of crimes', as its genitive object. Aeolides is a patronymic, 'son of Aeolus', naming Ulysses by a story that made him Sisyphus' son rather than Laertes'. Vergil's Trojans use this name instead of Ulysses' own.

**530** instaurate, pio si poenas ore reposco!  
the Greeks the like, if it is with clean lips that I ask it!

**531** Sed te qui vivum casus, age, fare vicissim,  
But come, tell me in your turn what chances have brought you

**532** attulerint. Pelagine venis erroribus actus,  
here alive. Do you come driven by wanderings on the sea,

**533** an monitu divom? An quae te Fortuna fatigat,  
or by the gods' warning? Or what fortune wears you down,

**534** ut tristes sine sole domos, loca turbida, adires?”  
that you should come to sad sunless houses, to places of unrest?”

**535** Hac vice sermonum roseïs Aurora quadrigis  
In this exchange of talk Dawn on her rose-colored team
> Dawn marks the hour: Aurora, 'Dawn', is personified as the subject. Quadrigis is ablative, 'with a four horse chariot', with roseis, 'rosy', describing it. Vergil marks the passage of time on the surface while the conversation happens entirely underground.

**536** iam medium aetherio cursu traiecerat axem;  
had already crossed the mid point of her course through the sky;

**537** et fors omne datum traherent per talia tempus;  
and they might well have drawn out all their allowance of time so,

**538** sed comes admonuit, breviterque adfata Sibylla est:  
but his companion warned him, and the Sibyl said briefly:

**539** “Nox ruit, Aenea; nos flendo ducimus horas.  
“Night comes on, Aeneas; we spend the hours in weeping.

**540** Hic locus est, partes ubi se via findit in ambas:  
This is the place where the road divides in two:

**541** dextera quae Ditis magni sub moenia tendit,  
the right, which runs on under the walls of great Dis,

**542** hac iter Elysium nobis; at laeva malorum  
by that way we go to Elysium; but the left works out

**543** exercet poenas, et ad impia Tartara mittit.”  
the punishment of the wicked and sends them to unholy Tartarus.”

**544** Deiphobus contra: “Ne saevi, magna sacerdos;  
Deiphobus in answer: “Do not be angry, great priestess;

**545** discedam, explebo numerum, reddarque tenebris.  
I will go, I will fill out the number, and be given back to the dark.
> I will fill the count: Explebo is future of expleo, 'to fill up, to complete', 'I will fill'. Numerum, 'the number, the count', is its object. The idiom is used of a muster, completing a required total, here applied to Deiphobus rejoining the mass of the dead.

**546** I decus, i, nostrum; melioribus utere fatis!”  
Go, our glory, go; use better fates than mine!”

**547** Tantum effatus, et in verbo vestigia torsit.  
That much he said, and on the word turned his steps away.

**548** Respicit Aeneas subito, et sub rupe sinistra  
Aeneas looks back all at once, and under a cliff on the left

**549** moenia lata videt, triplici circumdata muro,  
sees wide battlements, ringed about with a triple wall,

**550** quae rapidus flammis ambit torrentibus amnis,  
which a fast river of tearing flames runs round,

**551** Tartareus Phlegethon, torquetque sonantia saxa.  
Tartarean Phlegethon, and rolls sounding rocks along.

**552** Porta adversa ingens, solidoque adamante columnae,  
A huge gate faces them, with columns of solid adamant,

**553** vis ut nulla virum, non ipsi exscindere bello  
such that no force of men, not the sky-dwellers themselves,

**554** caelicolae valeant; stat ferrea turris ad auras,  
could cut it out in war; an iron tower stands up into the air,

**555** Tisiphoneque sedens, palla succincta cruenta,  
and Tisiphone sits with her bloodied robe hitched up

**556** vestibulum exsomnis servat noctesque diesque.  
and keeps the entrance, without sleep, by night and by day.

**557** Hinc exaudiri gemitus, et saeva sonare  
From inside, groans can be heard, and the sound of savage

**558** verbera; tum stridor ferri, tractaeque catenae.  
lashes; then the screech of iron, and chains being dragged.

**559** Constitit Aeneas, strepitumque exterritus hausit.  
Aeneas halted, and drank in the noise, terrified.

**560** “Quae scelerum facies, O virgo, effare; quibusve  
“What shapes of crime are these, maiden? Say; with what

**561** urguentur poenis? Quis tantus plangor ad auras?”  
punishments are they driven? What is this great outcry going up?”

**562** Tum vates sic orsa loqui: “Dux inclute Teucrum,  
Then the prophetess began: “Renowned leader of the Teucrians,

**563** nulli fas casto sceleratum insistere limen;  
no clean person is permitted to set foot on the guilty threshold;

**564** sed me cum lucis Hecate praefecit Avernis,  
but when Hecate set me over the groves of Avernus,

**565** ipsa deum poenas docuit, perque omnia duxit.  
she taught me the gods' punishments herself and led me through it all.

**566** Gnosius haec Rhadamanthus habet, durissima regna,  
Cnossian Rhadamanthus holds this, a kingdom of the hardest rule,

**567** castigatque auditque dolos, subigitque fateri,  
and chastises and hears out the tricks, and forces a man to own

**568** quae quis apud superos, furto laetatus inani,  
whatever he put off atoning for up in the world above,

**569** distulit in seram commissa piacula mortem.  
glad of an empty concealment, and left to a late death.

**570** Continuo sontes ultrix accincta flagello  
At once the avenger Tisiphone, belted with her whip,

**571** Tisiphone quatit insultans, torvosque sinistra  
leaps on the guilty and flogs them, and holding out grim snakes

**572** intentans angues vocat agmina saeva sororum.  
in her left hand calls up the savage ranks of her sisters.

**573** Tum demum horrisono stridentes cardine sacrae  
Then at last the accursed doors swing wide, screaming

**574** panduntur portae. Cernis custodia qualis  
on a hinge of horrible sound. Do you see what sort of guard

**575** vestibulo sedeat, facies quae limina servet?  
sits in the entrance, what face keeps the threshold?

**576** Quinquaginta atris immanis hiatibus Hydra  
A Hydra fiercer still, monstrous with fifty black gapes,

**577** saevior intus habet sedem. Tum Tartarus ipse  
has its seat within. Then Tartarus itself

**578** bis patet in praeceps tantum tenditque sub umbras,  
drops open sheer and reaches down under the shades twice as far
> Twice as far down: Patet, 'lies open, extends', has bis and tantum together meaning 'twice as much'. In praeceps means 'headlong, straight down'. Homer's Iliad gives a similar measurement for Tartarus below Hades; Vergil doubles the figure here.

**579** quantus ad aetherium caeli suspectus Olympum.  
as the look up from here to heavenly Olympus.

**580** Hic genus antiquum Terrae, Titania pubes,  
Here the ancient stock of Earth, the young of the Titans,

**581** fulmine deiecti fundo volvuntur in imo.  
thrown down by the thunderbolt, roll in the lowest bottom.

**582** Hic et Aloidas geminos immania vidi  
Here too I saw the twin sons of Aloeus, enormous

**583** corpora, qui manibus magnum rescindere caelum  
bodies, who tried with their hands to tear the great sky open

**584** adgressi, superisque Iovem detrudere regnis.  
and to push Jove out of the kingdoms above.

**585** Vidi et crudeles dantem Salmonea poenas,  
I saw Salmoneus too paying a cruel penalty,

**586** dum flammas Iovis et sonitus imitatur Olympi.  
for copying the flames of Jove and the noise of Olympus.

**587** Quattuor hic invectus equis et lampada quassans  
Drawn by four horses and shaking a torch, he went

**588** per Graium populos mediaeque per Elidis urbem  
through the peoples of the Greeks and through the town at the heart of Elis

**589** ibat ovans, divomque sibi poscebat honorem,—  
in triumph, and demanded for himself the honor of gods,

**590** demens, qui nimbos et non imitabile fulmen  
out of his senses, to imitate the storm clouds and the lightning

**591** aere et cornipedum pulsu simularet equorum.  
that cannot be imitated, with bronze and the beat of horn-footed horses.

**592** At pater omnipotens densa inter nubila telum  
But the all-powerful father flung his weapon through the packed

**593** contorsit, non ille faces nec fumea taedis  
clouds, no torches for him, no smoky light of pine,

**594** lumina, praecipitemque immani turbine adegit.  
and drove him headlong in a monstrous spinning fall.

**595** Nec non et Tityon, Terrae omniparentis alumnum,  
Tityos too, the nursling of Earth who bears all things,

**596** cernere erat, per tota novem cui iugera corpus  
was there to be seen: his body is stretched over nine whole acres,

**597** porrigitur, rostroque immanis voltur obunco  
and a monstrous vulture with a hooked beak

**598** immortale iecur tondens fecundaque poenis  
crops the liver that will not die and the vitals fruitful

**599** viscera, rimaturque epulis, habitatque sub alto  
for punishment, and digs for its meal, and lives under

**600** pectore, nec fibris requies datur ulla renatis.  
the deep chest, and no rest is given to the flesh as it grows back.

**601** Quid memorem Lapithas, Ixiona Pirithoumque?  
Why speak of the Lapiths, of Ixion and Pirithous?

**602** quos super atra silex iam iam lapsura cadentique  
Over them a black rock hangs, at every instant about to slip,

**603** imminet adsimilis; lucent genialibus altis  
and looks like a thing already falling; high festal couches

**604** aurea fulcra toris, epulaeque ante ora paratae  
shine with golden frames, and a feast is laid before their faces

**605** regifico luxu; Furiarum maxima iuxta  
in the luxury of kings; the greatest of the Furies lies beside them

**606** accubat, et manibus prohibet contingere mensas,  
and keeps their hands from touching the tables,

**607** exsurgitque facem attollens, atque intonat ore.  
and rises up with her torch lifted, and thunders at them.

**608** Hic, quibus invisi fratres, dum vita manebat,  
Here are those to whom brothers were hateful while life lasted,

**609** pulsatusve parens, et fraus innexa clienti,  
or who struck a parent, or wove a fraud around a dependant,

**610** aut qui divitiis soli incubuere repertis,  
or who brooded alone over riches they had come upon

**611** nec partem posuere suis (quae maxima turba est),  
and set aside no share for their own (and this is the largest crowd),

**612** quique ob adulterium caesi, quique arma secuti  
and those cut down for adultery, and those who followed arms

**613** impia nec veriti dominorum fallere dextras,  
against duty and did not shrink from betraying a master's hand:

**614** inclusi poenam exspectant. Ne quaere doceri  
shut in, they wait their punishment. Do not ask to be told

**615** quam poenam, aut quae forma viros fortunave mersit.  
what punishment, or what shape or lot has sunk these men.

**616** Saxum ingens volvunt alii, radiisque rotarum  
Some roll a huge stone; some hang stretched apart on the spokes

**617** districti pendent; sedet, aeternumque sedebit,  
of wheels; unlucky Theseus sits, and will go on sitting

**618** infelix Theseus; Phlegyasque miserrimus omnis  
for ever; and Phlegyas, the most wretched of all, warns them all

**619** admonet, et magna testatur voce per umbras:  
and calls them to witness with a great voice through the shadows:

**620** Discite iustitiam moniti, et non temnere divos.  
Learn justice from this warning, and not to hold the gods cheap.
> A warning to learn justice: Discite is a plural imperative, 'learn'. Moniti is a perfect participle, 'having been warned', agreeing with the people addressed. Temnere, 'to scorn, to hold cheap', governs divos, 'the gods', as its object, paired with iustitiam as the second thing to learn.

**621** Vendidit hic auro patriam, dominumque potentem  
This man sold his country for gold, and set a strong master

**622** imposuit; fixit leges pretio atque refixit;  
over it; he put up laws for a price and took them down again;

**623** hic thalamum invasit natae vetitosque hymenaeos;  
this one forced his daughter's bed and a marriage forbidden him;

**624** ausi omnes immane nefas, ausoque potiti.  
all of them dared a monstrous wrong, and got the thing they dared.

**625** Non, mihi si linguae centum sint oraque centum,  
Not if I had a hundred tongues and a hundred mouths

**626** ferrea vox, omnis scelerum comprendere formas,  
and a voice of iron could I take in all the forms of their crimes

**627** omnia poenarum percurrere nomina possim.”  
or run through all the names of their punishments.”

**628** Haec ubi dicta dedit Phoebi longaeva sacerdos:  
When Phoebus' aged priestess had given this speech, she says:

**629** “Sed iam age, carpe viam et susceptum perfice munus;  
“But come now, take the road and finish the task you took up;

**630** adceleremus” ait; “Cyclopum educta caminis  
let us go faster. I make out the walls drawn up in the forges

**631** moenia conspicio atque adverso fornice portas,  
of the Cyclopes, and the gates under the arch that faces us,

**632** haec ubi nos praecepta iubent deponere dona.”  
where the instructions tell us to lay down our gift.”

**633** Dixerat, et pariter, gressi per opaca viarum,  
She had spoken, and stepping side by side through the dark of the way,

**634** corripiunt spatium medium, foribusque propinquant.  
they take the space between at a run and come near the doors.

**635** Occupat Aeneas aditum, corpusque recenti  
Aeneas seizes the entrance, sprinkles his body with fresh

**636** spargit aqua, ramumque adverso in limine figit.  
water, and fixes the bough on the threshold in front of him.

**637** His demum exactis, perfecto munere divae,  
When this at last was got through, the goddess's due discharged,

**638** devenere locos laetos et amoena virecta  
they came down to glad places and the pleasant green

**639** fortunatorum nemorum sedesque beatas.  
of fortunate groves, and the dwellings of the blessed.

**640** Largior hic campos aether et lumine vestit  
Here a fuller air clothes the fields in a glowing

**641** purpureo, solemque suum, sua sidera norunt.  
light; and they know a sun of their own, stars of their own.
> Their own sun: Norunt is a perfect form of nosco used with present meaning, 'they know'. Solem and sidera are its two objects, 'a sun' and 'stars', each paired with a form of suus, 'their own'. Elysium has its own sun and stars, distinct from the ones above.

**642** Pars in gramineis exercent membra palaestris,  
Some exercise their limbs on grassy wrestling-grounds,

**643** contendunt ludo et fulva luctantur harena;  
contend in sport and grapple on the yellow sand;

**644** pars pedibus plaudunt choreas et carmina dicunt.  
some beat out dances with their feet and speak songs.

**645** Nec non Threïcius longa cum veste sacerdos  
The Thracian priest too, in his long robe,

**646** obloquitur numeris septem discrimina vocum,  
sounds against their measures the seven distinct notes,
> Seven distinct notes: Discrimina means 'divisions, distinct points', from discerno, 'to separate'. Vocum is genitive plural, 'of sounds, of notes'. Septem discrimina vocum, 'seven distinct notes', is a technical name for the intervals of a seven stringed lyre.

**647** iamque eadem digitis, iam pectine pulsat eburno.  
striking them now with his fingers, now with an ivory quill.

**648** Hic genus antiquum Teucri, pulcherrima proles,  
Here is Teucer's ancient line, that most beautiful stock,

**649** magnanimi heroes, nati melioribus annis,  
heroes of great heart, born in better years:

**650** Ilusque Assaracusque et Troiae Dardanus auctor.  
Ilus and Assaracus, and Dardanus, who founded Troy.

**651** Arma procul currusque virum miratur inanes.  
He marvels at the arms far off, and the men's chariots standing empty.

**652** Stant terra defixae hastae, passimque soluti  
Spears stand planted in the ground, and here and there over the plain

**653** per campum pascuntur equi. Quae gratia currum  
the horses graze unhitched. The pleasure they took in a chariot

**654** armorumque fuit vivis, quae cura nitentis  
and in arms while they lived, the care they had for keeping

**655** pascere equos, eadem sequitur tellure repostos.  
sleek horses fed, follows them, laid away in the earth.
> What follows them below: Sequitur, 'follows', has an understood subject continuing from the line before it. Repostos is a syncopated form of repositos, 'stored away, laid to rest', describing the men. Eadem tellure, 'in the same earth', is ablative, naming where they are laid.

**656** Conspicit, ecce, alios dextra laevaque per herbam  
Look, he catches sight of others, right and left across the grass,

**657** vescentis, laetumque choro paeana canentis  
feasting, and singing a glad paean together

**658** inter odoratum lauri nemus, unde superne  
in a scented laurel wood, out of which the great river

**659** plurimus Eridani per silvam volvitur amnis.  
of Eridanus rolls up through the trees to the world above.

**660** Hic manus ob patriam pugnando volnera passi,  
Here is the company who took wounds fighting for their country,

**661** quique sacerdotes casti, dum vita manebat,  
and those who were priests, and kept clean while life lasted,

**662** quique pii vates et Phoebo digna locuti,  
and poets who did their duty and spoke worthy of Phoebus,

**663** inventas aut qui vitam excoluere per artes,  
or those who made life finer by the arts they found out,

**664** quique sui memores alios fecere merendo,  
and those who by deserving it made others remember them:

**665** omnibus his nivea cinguntur tempora vitta.  
the brows of all of them are bound with a snow-white band.

**666** Quos circumfusos sic est adfata Sybilla,  
To these, as they crowded round, the Sibyl spoke so,

**667** Musaeum ante omnes, medium nam plurima turba  
and to Musaeus before them all, for the great crowd

**668** hunc habet, atque umeris exstantem suspicit altis:  
holds him at its center and looks up at his high shoulders:

**669** “Dicite, felices animae, tuque, optime vates,  
“Tell us, happy souls, and you, best of poets,

**670** quae regio Anchisen, quis habet locus? Illius ergo  
what country keeps Anchises, what place? It is for his sake

**671** venimus, et magnos Erebi transnavimus amnes.”  
we have come, and swum across the great rivers of Erebus.”

**672** Atque huic responsum paucis ita reddidit heros:  
And the hero gave her his answer in a few words, so:

**673** “Nulli certa domus; lucis habitamus opacis,  
“No one has a house of his own; we live in shaded groves
> Nobody has a house: Nulli is a dative of possession, 'to no one', with domus, 'a house', and the adjective certa, 'fixed, definite'. Together they mean 'no one has a fixed home'. Musaeus answers a question about a dwelling by denying that anyone here has one.

**674** riparumque toros et prata recentia rivis  
and keep to couches of riverbank, and meadows kept fresh

**675** incolimus. Sed vos, si fert ita corde voluntas,  
by running water. But you, if the wish in your heart carries you so,

**676** hoc superate iugum; et facili iam tramite sistam.”  
get over this ridge; and I will set you on an easy path from here.”

**677** Dixit, et ante tulit gressum, camposque nitentis  
He spoke, and walked out in front, and shows them the shining

**678** desuper ostentat; dehinc summa cacumina linquunt.  
fields from above; then they leave the high tops behind.

**679** At pater Anchises penitus convalle virenti  
But father Anchises, deep down in a green valley,
> Anchises reviews the ranks: Lustrabat is imperfect of lustro, the verb for a general reviewing troops or a censor going through a roll of citizens. Recolens, a participle, means 'going over again, examining closely'. Studio is ablative, 'with eagerness', describing how Anchises does this counting.

**680** inclusas animas superumque ad lumen ituras  
was going over the souls shut in there and due to go up

**681** lustrabat studio recolens, omnemque suorum  
to the light above, studying them closely; and by chance

**682** forte recensebat numerum carosque nepotes,  
he was counting the whole number of his own, his dear descendants,

**683** fataque fortunasque virum moresque manusque.  
and the men's fates and fortunes, their characters and their doings.

**684** Isque ubi tendentem adversum per gramina videt  
And when he sees Aeneas coming toward him over the grass,

**685** Aenean, alacris palmas utrasque tetendit,  
he stretched out both palms, quick with eagerness,

**686** effusaeque genis lacrimae, et vox excidit ore:  
and the tears poured over his cheeks, and the voice fell out of his mouth:

**687** “Venisti tandem, tuaque exspectata parenti  
“You have come at last, and the duty your father counted on
> Duty wins the hard road: Vicit is perfect of vinco, 'won, overcame', with pietas, 'duty', as its subject. Iter durum, 'the hard road', is its object. The sentence asks whether Aeneas' duty proved stronger than the difficulty of the journey to reach his father.

**688** vicit iter durum pietas? Datur ora tueri,  
has beaten the hard road? Am I allowed to look on your face,

**689** nate, tua, et notas audire et reddere voces?  
my son, and to hear the voices we knew, and answer them?

**690** Sic equidem ducebam animo rebarque futurum,  
So I did reckon in my own mind, and thought it would come,

**691** tempora dinumerans, nec me mea cura fefellit.  
counting off the days; and the care I took has not cheated me.

**692** Quas ego te terras et quanta per aequora vectum  
Over what lands, over how much sea you have been carried,

**693** accipio! quantis iactatum, nate, periclis!  
and I take you in! Tossed by such dangers, my son!

**694** Quam metui, ne quid Libyae tibi regna nocerent!”  
How I feared the kingdom of Libya might do you some harm!”

**695** Ille autem: “Tua me, genitor, tua tristis imago,  
But he: “Your ghost, father, your sad ghost, meeting me

**696** saepius occurrens, haec limina tendere adegit:  
over and over, drove me to make for this threshold:

**697** stant sale Tyrrheno classes. Da iungere dextram,  
the ships lie in the Tyrrhenian salt. Let me join my right hand

**698** da, genitor, teque amplexu ne subtrahe nostro.”  
to yours, father, and do not take yourself out of my arms.”

**699** Sic memorans, largo fletu simul ora rigabat.  
Speaking so, he was wetting his face with a broad weeping.

**700** Ter conatus ibi collo dare brachia circum,  
Three times he tried there to put his arms about his neck;

**701** ter frustra comprensa manus effugit imago,  
three times the ghost, caught in vain, fled from his hands,

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

**703** Interea videt Aeneas in valle reducta  
Meanwhile Aeneas sees, in a valley drawn back,

**704** seclusum nemus et virgulta sonantia silvis,  
a grove standing apart, and thickets rustling in the wood,

**705** Lethaeumque, domos placidas qui praenatat, amnem.  
and the river of Lethe, which flows past those quiet homes.

**706** Hunc circum innumerae gentes populique volabant;  
Around it countless nations and peoples were flying;

**707** ac—velut in pratis ubi apes aestate serena  
and as bees in the meadows on a clear summer day

**708** floribus insidunt variis, et candida circum  
settle on flowers of every color and pour themselves round

**709** lilia funduntur—strepit omnis murmure campus.  
the white lilies; so the whole plain hums with the noise.

**710** Horrescit visu subito, causasque requirit  
He shudders at the sudden sight, and asks the reasons,

**711** inscius Aeneas, quae sint ea flumina porro,  
not knowing: what those waters are, away off there,

**712** quive viri tanto complerint agmine ripas.  
and what men have filled the banks in so great a column.

**713** Tum pater Anchises: “Animae, quibus altera fato  
Then father Anchises: “The souls to whom second bodies

**714** corpora debentur, Lethaei ad fluminis undam  
are owed by fate drink at the water of the river of Lethe

**715** securos latices et longa oblivia potant.  
a draught that lets go of care, and long forgetting.

**716** Has equidem memorare tibi atque ostendere coram,  
These I have been wanting, and for a long time now, to speak of

**717** iampridem hanc prolem cupio enumerare meorum,  
to you and show you face to face, to count out this line of mine,

**718** quo magis Italia mecum laetere reperta.”  
so that you may be the gladder with me at Italy found.”

**719** “O pater, anne aliquas ad caelum hinc ire putandum est  
“Father, is one to believe that any souls go up from here,

**720** sublimis animas, iterumque ad tarda reverti  
high into the sky, and come back a second time

**721** corpora? Quae lucis miseris tam dira cupido?”  
to slow bodies? What is this terrible longing for the light in the wretched?”
> A longing for the light: Cupido, 'longing, desire', is the subject, with lucis, 'for the light', as its genitive object, and miseris, 'to the wretched ones', a dative. Dira, 'dreadful', modifies cupido, the same adjective used earlier in this book of Palinurus wanting to cross the river. Aeneas asks why anyone would want this.

**722** “Dicam equidem, nec te suspensum, nate, tenebo”  
“I will tell you, and not keep you hanging, my son,”

**723** suscipit Anchises, atque ordine singula pandit.  
Anchises takes it up, and lays each thing open in order.

**724** “Principio caelum ac terras camposque liquentis  
“In the beginning a breath within feeds the sky and the lands

**725** lucentemque globum Lunae Titaniaque astra  
and the flowing plains, the shining globe of the Moon

**726** spiritus intus alit, totamque infusa per artus  
and the Titanian stars; and a mind, poured through the limbs,

**727** mens agitat molem et magno se corpore miscet.  
drives the whole mass and mixes with the great body.

**728** Inde hominum pecudumque genus, vitaeque volantum,  
From that come the race of men and of cattle, the lives of flying things,

**729** et quae marmoreo fert monstra sub aequore pontus.  
and the monsters the sea carries under its marble floor.

**730** Igneus est ollis vigor et caelestis origo  
Those seeds have a fiery strength in them and a heavenly

**731** seminibus, quantum non noxia corpora tardant,  
source, so far as harmful bodies do not slow them,

**732** terrenique hebetant artus moribundaque membra.  
and earthy limbs and dying flesh do not blunt them.

**733** Hinc metuunt cupiuntque, dolent gaudentque, neque auras  
Hence they fear and want, grieve and rejoice, and shut in

**734** dispiciunt clausae tenebris et carcere caeco.  
the dark and a blind prison they do not see out to the air.

**735** Quin et supremo cum lumine vita reliquit,  
And even when life has gone at the last light,

**736** non tamen omne malum miseris nec funditus omnes  
still not every evil, nor all the plagues that belong to the body,

**737** corporeae excedunt pestes, penitusque necesse est  
leave the poor souls altogether: many things long hardened

**738** multa diu concreta modis inolescere miris.  
into them must have grown there in ways past belief.

**739** Ergo exercentur poenis, veterumque malorum  
So they are put through punishments, and pay out the price

**740** supplicia expendunt: aliae panduntur inanes  
of their old wrongs: some are stretched empty and hung up

**741** suspensae ad ventos; aliis sub gurgite vasto  
to the winds; from others the guilt soaked into them is washed

**742** infectum eluitur scelus, aut exuritur igni;  
away under a vast flood, or burned out with fire.

**743** quisque suos patimur Manes; exinde per amplum  
Each of us suffers his own Shade. Then we are sent
> Each suffers a private fate: Patimur is 'we suffer, we undergo', with Manes, accusative plural, as its object and suos, 'his own', agreeing with it. Quisque, 'each one', shows the object varies for every person named. Manes can mean the avenging spirits set over a person, the punishment each earns, or the ghost each becomes.

**744** mittimur Elysium, et pauci laeta arva tenemus;  
through wide Elysium, and a few of us hold the glad fields,

**745** donec longa dies, perfecto temporis orbe,  
until the length of days, when time's circle is finished,

**746** concretam exemit labem, purumque relinquit  
has taken out the hardened stain and leaves the sense

**747** aetherium sensum atque auraï simplicis ignem.  
of heaven clean, and the fire of unmixed air.
> An old fashioned genitive ending: Auraï is an archaic genitive singular, an older form of aurae, 'of a breeze, of air'. Simplicis, 'simple, unmixed', modifies it, and ignem, 'fire', is the noun both depend on. The old ending in ai was already antique in Vergil's time, adding an extra syllable to the line.

**748** Has omnes, ubi mille rotam volvere per annos,  
All these, when they have turned the wheel through a thousand years,

**749** Lethaeum ad fluvium deus evocat agmine magno,  
a god calls to the river of Lethe in a great column,

**750** scilicet immemores supera ut convexa revisant,  
so that they may see the vault above again, remembering nothing,
> Forgetting, of course: Scilicet is an adverb, 'clearly, naturally, one need hardly say', marking what follows as obvious. Immemores, 'forgetful, without memory', is nominative plural, describing the souls. The two words together present the souls' loss of memory as a plain, unremarkable fact.

**751** rursus et incipiant in corpora velle reverti.”  
and begin once more to want to go back into bodies.”

**752** Dixerat Anchises, natumque unaque Sibyllam  
Anchises had spoken, and he draws his son, and the Sibyl with him,

**753** conventus trahit in medios turbamque sonantem,  
into the middle of the gathering and the sounding crowd,

**754** et tumulum capit, unde omnes longo ordine possit  
and takes a rise of ground from which he could read them all
> Anchises reads the column: Capit, 'takes', governs tumulum, 'a mound, a rise of ground', as its object. Legere means 'to pick out, to gather, to read', used here of scanning a line of people. Anchises takes the high ground so that he can pick out each soul in the long column approaching.

**755** adversos legere, et venientum discere vultus.  
facing him in their long line, and learn the faces as they came.

**756** “Nunc age, Dardaniam prolem quae deinde sequatur  
“Come now: what glory follows hereafter on the Dardan stock,

**757** gloria, qui maneant Itala de gente nepotes,  
what descendants wait for you out of the Italian people,

**758** inlustris animas nostrumque in nomen ituras,  
shining souls that will pass into our name,

**759** expediam dictis, et te tua fata docebo.  
I will set it out in words, and teach you your own fates.

**760** Ille, vides, pura iuvenis qui nititur hasta,  
That young man, you see, leaning on a headless spear,

**761** proxuma sorte tenet lucis loca, primus ad auras  
holds by lot the place nearest the light; he will be the first

**762** aetherias Italo commixtus sanguine surget,  
to rise into the upper air with Italian blood mixed in him,

**763** silvius, Albanum nomen, tua postuma proles,  
Silvius, an Alban name, your last-born child,

**764** quem tibi longaevo serum Lavinia coniunx  
whom Lavinia your wife will raise for you in the woods,

**765** educet silvis regem regumque parentem,  
late, in your old age, a king and the father of kings,

**766** unde genus Longa nostrum dominabitur Alba.  
from whom our line will be masters at Alba Longa.

**767** Proxumus ille Procas, Troianae gloria gentis,  
Next to him is Procas, glory of the Trojan people,

**768** et Capys, et Numitor, et qui te nomine reddet  
and Capys, and Numitor, and the one who will give your name back,

**769** Silvius Aeneas, pariter pietate vel armis  
Silvius Aeneas, outstanding alike in duty and in arms,

**770** egregius, si umquam regnandam acceperit Albam.  
if he ever gets Alba to rule.

**771** Qui iuvenes! Quantas ostentant, aspice, vires,  
What young men! Look at the strength they make a show of,

**772** atque umbrata gerunt civili tempora quercu!  
and at the brows shaded with the citizen's oak!

**773** Hi tibi Nomentum et Gabios urbemque Fidenam,  
These will set Nomentum for you, and Gabii, and Fidenae the town,

**774** hi Collatinas imponent montibus arces,  
these will put the citadels of Collatia on their hills,

**775** Pometios Castrumque Inui Bolamque Coramque.  
Pometii, and the Fort of Inuus, and Bola, and Cora.

**776** Haec tum nomina erunt, nunc sunt sine nomine terrae.  
Those will be names then; now they are land with no name.
> Names later, land now: Erunt, 'will be', and sunt, 'are', are the same verb in two tenses, future and present, balanced on either side of the line. Nomina, 'names', and sine nomine terrae, 'lands without a name', are the predicates. The same places are named in one clause and unnamed in the other.

**777** Quin et avo comitem sese Mavortius addet  
And Romulus, son of Mars, will join his grandfather as companion,

**778** Romulus, Assaraci quem sanguinis Ilia mater  
whom his mother Ilia will raise, from the blood of Assaracus.

**779** educet. Viden, ut geminae stant vertice cristae,  
Do you see how the twin crests stand on his head,

**780** et pater ipse suo superum iam signat honore?  
and how the father of the gods already marks him with an honor of his own?

**781** En, huius, nate, auspiciis illa incluta Roma  
Look, my son: under his auspices that renowned Rome

**782** imperium terris, animos aequabit Olympo,  
will make her rule equal to the earth, her spirit equal to Olympus,

**783** septemque una sibi muro circumdabit arces,  
and, one city, will throw a wall about seven citadels,

**784** felix prole virum: qualis Berecyntia mater  
blessed in the men she bears: as the Berecyntian mother

**785** invehitur curru Phrygias turrita per urbes,  
rides in her chariot, turret-crowned, through the towns of Phrygia,

**786** laeta deum partu, centum complexa nepotes,  
glad in the gods she bore, holding a hundred descendants in her arms,

**787** omnes caelicolas, omnes supera alta tenentes.  
all of them dwellers in heaven, all keeping the heights above.

**788** Huc geminas nunc flecte acies, hanc aspice gentem  
Now bend both eyes this way; look at this people,

**789** Romanosque tuos. Hic Caesar et omnis Iuli  
your own Romans. Here is Caesar, and all the offspring

**790** progenies magnum caeli ventura sub axem.  
of Iulus, that will come out under the great vault of the sky.

**791** Hic vir, hic est, tibi quem promitti saepius audis,  
This is the man, this is he, promised to you, as you hear over and over,
> This is the man: Hic is repeated twice, first with vir, 'man', then alone with est, 'is'. Both are short, complete clauses: 'this is the man, this is he'. The repetition and the short clauses break from the longer relative clauses used elsewhere in this catalogue.

**792** Augustus Caesar, Divi genus, aurea condet  
Augustus Caesar, of a god's line, who will found the golden

**793** saecula qui rursus Latio regnata per arva  
ages again in Latium, over fields where Saturn once

**794** Saturno quondam, super et Garamantas et Indos  
was king, and will carry the rule past the Garamantes

**795** proferet imperium: iacet extra sidera tellus,  
and the Indians: a land lies out beyond the stars,

**796** extra anni solisque vias, ubi caelifer Atlas  
beyond the paths of the year and the sun, where Atlas the sky-bearer

**797** axem umero torquet stellis ardentibus aptum.  
turns on his shoulder the vault fitted with burning stars.

**798** Huius in adventum iam nunc et Caspia regna  
Against his coming even now the Caspian kingdoms

**799** responsis horrent divom et Maeotia tellus,  
shudder at the gods' answers, and the land about Maeotis,

**800** et septemgemini turbant trepida ostia Nili.  
and the sevenfold mouths of the Nile are in a frightened churning.

**801** Nec vero Alcides tantum telluris obivit,  
Hercules did not travel over so much of the earth,

**802** fixerit aeripedem cervam licet, aut Erymanthi  
though he shot the bronze-footed doe, or quieted the woods

**803** pacarit nemora, et Lernam tremefecerit arcu;  
of Erymanthus, and made Lerna shake at his bow;

**804** nec, qui pampineis victor iuga flectit habenis,  
nor he who steers his team in triumph with reins of vine leaf,

**805** Liber, agens celso Nysae de vertice tigres.  
Bacchus, driving tigers down from the high top of Nysa.

**806** Et dubitamus adhuc virtute extendere vires,  
And do we still hang back from spreading our strength by worth,
> A question about the present: Dubitamus is present tense, 'we hesitate, we are uncertain', not future or past. Adhuc means 'still, up to now'. For this one line the prophecy shifts from describing what will happen to asking a question in the present tense.

**807** aut metus Ausonia prohibet consistere terra?  
or does fear keep us from settling on Ausonian ground?

**808** Quis procul ille autem ramis insignis olivae  
But who is that far off, marked out by boughs of olive,

**809** sacra ferens? Nosco crines incanaque menta  
carrying holy things? I know the hair and the whitening chin

**810** regis Romani, primus qui legibus urbem  
of a king of Rome, who will be first to set the city

**811** fundabit, Curibus parvis et paupere terra  
on laws, sent out from little Cures and a poor country

**812** missus in imperium magnum. Cui deinde subibit,  
into a great command. After him will come the man

**813** otia qui rumpet patriae residesque movebit  
who will break his country's ease and rouse men who have sat

**814** Tullus in arma viros et iam desueta triumphis  
still, Tullus, into arms, and battle lines already

**815** agmina. Quem iuxta sequitur iactantior Ancus,  
out of the habit of triumphs. Next to him follows Ancus, more of a boaster,

**816** nunc quoque iam nimium gaudens popularibus auris.  
even now enjoying the people's breath too much.

**817** Vis et Tarquinios reges, animamque superbam  
Will you see the Tarquin kings as well, and the proud soul

**818** ultoris Bruti, fascesque videre receptos?  
of Brutus the avenger, and the rods of office taken back?

**819** Consulis imperium hic primus saevasque secures  
He will be the first to take a consul's power and the cruel axes,

**820** accipiet, natosque pater nova bella moventes  
and, a father, will summon his own sons to punishment

**821** ad poenam pulchra pro libertate vocabit.  
for stirring up new war, for the sake of liberty and its beauty.

**822** Infelix, utcumque ferent ea facta minores,  
Unhappy man, however later ages take that deed,
> However later ages judge it: Infelix, 'unhappy', is applied to the man just named. Utcumque introduces an open condition, 'however, in whatever way'. Ferent is future of fero, 'will carry, will judge', with minores, 'those born after, later generations', as its subject: the verdict is left to people not yet born.

**823** vincet amor patriae laudumque immensa cupido.  
love of country will win, and a measureless hunger for praise.

**824** Quin Decios Drusosque procul saevumque securi  
See the Decii and the Drusi far off, and Torquatus

**825** aspice Torquatum et referentem signa Camillum.  
savage with the axe, and Camillus bringing the standards home.

**826** Illae autem, paribus quas fulgere cernis in armis,  
But those two, whom you see shining in matched armor,

**827** concordes animae nunc et dum nocte premuntur,  
souls at one now, and while they are held down in night,

**828** heu quantum inter se bellum, si lumina vitae  
how great a war between them, if once they reach the light

**829** attigerint, quantas acies stragemque ciebunt!  
of life, what battle lines, what slaughter they will raise!

**830** Aggeribus socer Alpinis atque arce Monoeci  
The father-in-law coming down from the Alpine ramparts and the fort

**831** descendens, gener adversis instructus Eois.  
of Monoecus; the son-in-law drawn up against him with the East.

**832** Ne, pueri, ne tanta animis adsuescite bella,  
Do not, my boys, do not get your hearts used to wars like these,
> A repeated prohibition: Ne is repeated before the imperative adsuescite, 'become accustomed', a common way to make a prohibition more urgent. Pueri is a vocative, 'boys', addressing the two souls directly. Animis is dative, 'in your hearts', and bella, 'wars', is the object they are told not to grow used to.

**833** neu patriae validas in viscera vertite vires;  
and do not turn your country's strong force against her own body;

**834** tuque prior, tu parce, genus qui ducis Olympo,  
and you first, you spare it, who draw your line from Olympus,

**835** proice tela manu, sanguis meus!—  
throw the weapons from your hand, blood of mine!
> An unfinished line: Proice is an imperative, 'throw down', with tela, 'weapons', as its object and manu, 'from your hand', ablative. Sanguis meus, 'my own blood', is a form of address, calling the person addressed a relative. The line stops here, one of the poem's unfinished half-lines.

**836** Ille triumphata Capitolia ad alta Corintho  
That man, with Corinth triumphed over, will drive his chariot

**837** victor aget currum, caesis insignis Achivis.  
as victor to the high Capitol, marked out by the Achaeans he killed.

**838** Eruet ille Argos Agamemnoniasque Mycenas,  
That one will tear down Argos and Agamemnon's Mycenae,

**839** ipsumque Aeaciden, genus armipotentis Achilli,  
and the descendant of Aeacus himself, of the line of Achilles strong in arms,

**840** ultus avos Troiae, templa et temerata Minervae.  
avenging his forefathers of Troy and Minerva's outraged shrine.

**841** Quis te, magne Cato, tacitum, aut te, Cosse, relinquat?  
Who would leave you unmentioned, great Cato, or you, Cossus?

**842** Quis Gracchi genus, aut geminos, duo fulmina belli,  
Who the family of the Gracchi, or the twin Scipios, the two

**843** Scipiadas, cladem Libyae, parvoque potentem  
thunderbolts of war, Libya's ruin, and Fabricius, powerful

**844** Fabricium vel te sulco Serrane, serentem?  
on little, or you, Serranus, sowing in your furrow?

**845** quo fessum rapitis, Fabii? Tu Maxumus ille es,  
Where do you sweep me, tired as I am, you Fabii? You are that Maximus,

**846** unus qui nobis cunctando restituis rem.  
the one man who by holding back gives us the state again.

**847** Excudent alii spirantia mollius aera,  
Others will hammer out bronze that breathes more softly,

**848** credo equidem, vivos ducent de marmore voltus,  
I grant it, and lead living faces out of marble,

**849** orabunt causas melius, caelique meatus  
they will plead cases better, and mark out with the rod

**850** describent radio, et surgentia sidera dicent:  
the movements of the sky, and name the stars as they rise:

**851** tu regere imperio populos, Romane, memento;  
you, Roman, remember to govern the peoples with your rule;
> An infinitive after memento: Memento is a future imperative, 'be mindful, remember', governing the infinitive regere, 'to rule'. Tu is an emphatic subject pronoun, and Romane is a vocative, addressing a single Roman, not a group. The command is built the way a rule carved on a monument would be phrased.

**852** hae tibi erunt artes; pacisque imponere morem,  
these will be your arts; and to lay down the practice of peace,

**853** parcere subiectis, et debellare superbos.”  
to spare those brought low and to fight the proud down.”
> Spare the conquered: Parcere, 'to spare', takes a dative object, subiectis, 'those already subdued'. Debellare, 'to fight out to the end, to conquer completely', takes an accusative object instead, superbos, 'the proud'. The two infinitives, both continuing memento from two lines earlier, use different cases for their objects.

**854** Sic pater Anchises, atque haec mirantibus addit:  
So father Anchises; and he adds this while they wonder at it:

**855** “Aspice, ut insignis spoliis Marcellus opimis  
“Look how Marcellus walks, marked out by the spoils of honor,

**856** ingreditur, victorque viros supereminet omnes!  
and stands, in his victory, taller than all the men!

**857** Hic rem Romanam, magno turbante tumultu,  
He will hold the Roman state upright when a great uprising

**858** sistet, eques sternet Poenos Gallumque rebellem,  
shakes it, will ride down Carthaginians and the Gaul in revolt,

**859** tertiaque arma patri suspendet capta Quirino.”  
and hang up captured arms, a third time, for father Quirinus.”

**860** Atque hic Aeneas; una namque ire videbat  
And here Aeneas; for he saw going along with him

**861** egregium forma iuvenem et fulgentibus armis,  
a young man of outstanding beauty, in flashing armor,

**862** sed frons laeta parum, et deiecto lumina voltu:  
but with too little gladness in his brow, his eyes in a lowered face:

**863** “Quis, pater, ille, virum qui sic comitatur euntem?  
“Who is that, father, who goes at his side as he walks?

**864** Filius, anne aliquis magna de stirpe nepotum?  
A son, or one out of the great line of his descendants?

**865** Quis strepitus circa comitum! Quantum instar in ipso!  
What a noise of companions about him! What presence in the man!

**866** Sed nox atra caput tristi circumvolat umbra.”  
But black night flies around his head with a sad shadow.”
> Night around his head: Circumvolat, 'flies around', has nox atra, 'black night', as its subject and caput, 'his head', as its object. Tristi umbra is ablative, 'with a sad shadow', describing how the night surrounds him. Aeneas sees this darkness on the boy before he is told who he is or how he died.

**867** Tum pater Anchises, lacrimis ingressus obortis:  
Then father Anchises, beginning with the tears risen in him:

**868** “O gnate, ingentem luctum ne quaere tuorum;  
“My son, do not ask after the huge grief of your people;

**869** ostendent terris hunc tantum fata, neque ultra  
the fates will show him to the earth and no more than show him,

**870** esse sinent. Nimium vobis Romana propago  
and not let him stay. The Roman stock would have looked

**871** visa potens, Superi, propria haec si dona fuissent.  
too strong to you, gods above, if these gifts had been its own to keep.
> A condition contrary to fact: Visa is from videor, 'to seem', with potens, 'powerful', its complement: 'seemed too powerful'. Propago, 'offspring, the line of descendants', is the subject, and vobis, 'to you', is dative, naming the gods addressed. Fuissent, a pluperfect subjunctive, marks the condition as contrary to fact.

**872** Quantos ille virum magnam Mavortis ad urbem  
What groaning of men that field will carry to the great city

**873** campus aget gemitus, vel quae, Tiberine, videbis  
of Mars, or what a funeral, Tiber, you will see

**874** funera, cum tumulum praeterlabere recentem!  
as you slide past the mound still new-made!

**875** Nec puer Iliaca quisquam de gente Latinos  
No boy of the line of Ilium will lift his Latin

**876** in tantum spe tollet avos, nec Romula quondam  
forefathers so high with hope, nor will the land of Romulus

**877** ullo se tantum tellus iactabit alumno.  
ever again make so much of any child of hers.

**878** Heu pietas, heu prisca fides, invictaque bello  
Ah, his duty, ah, his old faith, and his right hand
> Old fashioned duty and faith: Heu is an interjection of grief, 'alas', repeated before each noun. Pietas, 'duty', and fides, 'good faith, keeping one's word', are both nominative, named without a verb, as the things being lamented. Prisca, 'ancient, of the old style', modifies fides, marking it as belonging to an earlier time.

**879** dextera! Non illi se quisquam impune tulisset  
unbeaten in war! No one would have taken himself against him

**880** obvius armato, seu cum pedes iret in hostem,  
armed and gone unpunished, whether he went at the enemy on foot

**881** seu spumantis equi foderet calcaribus armos.  
or drove his spurs into the shoulders of a foaming horse.

**882** Heu, miserande puer, si qua fata aspera rumpas,  
Ah, boy to be pitied, if in any way you break the hard fates,

**883** tu Marcellus eris. Manibus date lilia plenis,  
you will be Marcellus. Give lilies with full hands;
> A pun on Manes: Manibus is ablative plural of manus, 'hand': 'with full hands'. Date is a plural imperative, 'give', with lilia, 'lilies', as its object. Manibus looks and sounds close to Manibus from Manes, 'the Shades', a word this book uses often, though here the case comes from manus, not Manes.

**884** purpureos spargam flores, animamque nepotis  
let me scatter bright flowers, and pile up my descendant's

**885** his saltem adcumulem donis, et fungar inani  
soul with these gifts at least, and go through the motions

**886** munere”—Sic tota passim regione vagantur  
of an empty service.” So they wander everywhere over the whole
> A hollow duty: Fungar is a future deponent verb, 'I shall perform, I shall carry out', taking an ablative object, munere, 'a duty, a service'. Inani, 'empty, hollow', modifies munere. The sentence is cut off in the middle of the line, its object left unnamed further.

**887** aëris in campis latis, atque omnia lustrant.  
country, in the wide fields of air, and look at it all.

**888** Quae postquam Anchises natum per singula duxit,  
And after Anchises had led his son through each thing,

**889** incenditque animum famae venientis amore,  
and set his heart alight with love of the fame that was coming,

**890** exin bella viro memorat quae deinde gerenda,  
he tells the man next of the wars that must be fought after this,

**891** Laurentisque docet populos urbemque Latini,  
and teaches him the Laurentine peoples and the city of Latinus,

**892** et quo quemque modo fugiatque feratque laborem.  
and in what way he is to run from each labor and to bear it.

**893** Sunt geminae Somni portae, quarum altera fertur  
There are two gates of Sleep, of which one is said to be

**894** cornea, qua veris facilis datur exitus umbris;  
of horn, and by it an easy way out is given to true shades;

**895** altera candenti perfecta nitens elephanto,  
the other is finished bright with gleaming ivory,

**896** sed falsa ad caelum mittunt insomnia Manes.  
but through it the Shades send false dreams up to the sky.

**897** His ubi tum natum Anchises unaque Sibyllam  
When Anchises had gone this far in words with his son

**898** prosequitur dictis, portaque emittit eburna,  
and with the Sibyl, he sends them out by the ivory gate,

**899** ille viam secat ad naves sociosque revisit:  
and the man cuts his road to the ships and finds his companions again;

**900** tum se ad Caietae recto fert litore portum.  
then he takes himself straight along the coast to Caieta's harbor.

**901** Ancora de prora iacitur, stant litore puppes.  
The anchor is thrown from the prow; the sterns stand along the shore.
> The book ends at anchor: Iacitur is present passive, 'is thrown', with ancora, 'the anchor', as its subject and de prora, 'from the prow', naming where. Stant, 'stand', has puppes, 'the sterns', as its subject, and litore is ablative, 'on the shore'. Both verbs are plain present tense, describing an ordinary landing.

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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.