The Aeneid Virgil (the top 100 crime novels of all time .TXT) đ
- Author: Virgil
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All these within the dungeonâs depth remain,
Despairing pardon, and expecting pain.
Ask not what pains; nor farther seek to know
Their process, or the forms of law below.
Some roll a weighty stone; some, laid along,
And bound with burning wires, on spokes of wheels are hung
Unhappy Theseus, doomâd for ever there,
Is fixâd by fate on his eternal chair;
And wretched Phlegyas warns the world with cries
(Could warning make the world more just or wise):
âLearn righteousness, and dread thâ avenging deities.â
To tyrants others have their country sold,
Imposing foreign lords, for foreign gold;
Some have old laws repealâd, new statutes made,
Not as the people pleasâd, but as they paid;
With incest some their daughtersâ bed profanâd:
All darâd the worst of ills, and, what they darâd, attainâd.
Had I a hundred mouths, a hundred tongues,
And throats of brass, inspirâd with iron lungs,
I could not half those horrid crimes repeat,
Nor half the punishments those crimes have met.
But let us haste our voyage to pursue:
The walls of Plutoâs palace are in view;
The gate, and iron arch above it, stands
On anvils labourâd by the Cyclopsâ hands.
Before our farther way the Fates allow,
Here must we fix on high the golden bough.â
She said, and throâ the gloomy shades they passâd,
And chose the middle path. Arrivâd at last,
The prince with living water sprinkled oâer
His limbs and body; then approachâd the door,
Possessâd the porch, and on the front above
He fixâd the fatal bough requirâd by Plutoâs love.
These holy rites performâd, they took their way
Where long extended plains of pleasure lay:
The verdant fields with those of heavân may vie,
With ether vested, and a purple sky;
The blissful seats of happy souls below.
Stars of their own, and their own suns, they know;
Their airy limbs in sports they exercise,
And on the green contend the wrestlerâs prize.
Some in heroic verse divinely sing;
Others in artful measures led the ring.
The Thracian bard, surrounded by the rest,
There stands conspicuous in his flowing vest;
His flying fingers, and harmonious quill,
Strikes sevân distinguishâd notes, and sevân at once they fill.
Here found they Teucerâs old heroic race,
Born better times and happier years to grace.
Assaracus and Ilus here enjoy
Perpetual fame, with him who founded Troy.
The chief beheld their chariots from afar,
Their shining arms, and coursers trainâd to war:
Their lances fixâd in earth, their steeds around,
Free from their harness, graze the flowâry ground.
The love of horses which they had, alive,
And care of chariots, after death survive.
Some cheerful souls were feasting on the plain;
Some did the song, and some the choir maintain,
Beneath a laurel shade, where mighty Po
Mounts up to woods above, and hides his head below.
Here patriots live, who, for their countryâs good,
In fighting fields, were prodigal of blood:
Priests of unblemishâd lives here make abode,
And poets worthy their inspiring god;
And searching wits, of more mechanic parts,
Who gracâd their age with new-invented arts:
Those who to worth their bounty did extend,
And those who knew that bounty to commend.
The heads of these with holy fillets bound,
And all their temples were with garlands crownâd.
To these the Sibyl thus her speech addressâd,
And first to him surrounded by the rest
(Towâring his height, and ample was his breast):
âSay, happy souls, divine Musaeus, say,
Where lives Anchises, and where lies our way
To find the hero, for whose only sake
We sought the dark abodes, and crossâd the bitter lake?â
To this the sacred poet thus replied:
âIn no fixâd place the happy souls reside.
In groves we live, and lie on mossy beds,
By crystal streams, that murmur throâ the meads:
But pass yon easy hill, and thence descend;
The path conducts you to your journeyâs end.â
This said, he led them up the mountainâs brow,
And shews them all the shining fields below.
They wind the hill, and throâ the blissful meadows go.
But old Anchises, in a flowâry vale,
Reviewâd his musterâd race, and took the tale:
Those happy spirits, which, ordainâd by fate,
For future beings and new bodies waitâ â
With studious thought observâd thâ illustrious throng,
In natureâs order as they passâd along:
Their names, their fates, their conduct, and their care,
In peaceful senates and successful war.
He, when Aeneas on the plain appears,
Meets him with open arms, and falling tears.
âWelcome,â he said, âthe godsâ undoubted race!
O long expected to my dear embrace!
Once more âtis givân me to behold your face!
The love and pious duty which you pay
Have passâd the perils of so hard a way.
âTis true, computing times, I now believâd
The happy day approachâd; nor are my hopes deceivâd.
What length of lands, what oceans have you passâd;
What storms sustainâd, and on what shores been cast?
How have I fearâd your fate! but fearâd it most,
When love assailâd you, on the Libyan coast.â
To this, the filial duty thus replies:
âYour sacred ghost before my sleeping eyes
Appearâd, and often urgâd this painful enterprise.
After long tossing on the Tyrrhene sea,
My navy rides at anchor in the bay.
But reach your hand, O parent shade, nor shun
The dear embraces of your longing son!â
He said; and falling tears his face bedew:
Then thrice around his neck his arms he threw;
And thrice the flitting shadow slippâd away,
Like winds, or empty dreams that fly the day.
Now, in a secret vale, the Trojan sees
A sepârate grove, throâ which a gentle breeze
Plays with a passing breath, and whispers throâ the trees;
And, just before the confines of the wood,
The gliding Lethe leads her silent flood.
About the boughs an airy nation flew,
Thick as the humming bees, that hunt the golden dew;
In summerâs heat on tops of lilies feed,
And creep within their bells, to suck the balmy seed:
The winged army roams the fields around;
The rivers and the rocks remurmur to the sound.
Aeneas wondâring stood, then askâd the cause
Which to the stream the crowding people draws.
Then thus the sire: âThe souls that throng the flood
Are those to whom, by fate, are other bodies owâd:
In Letheâs lake they long oblivion taste,
Of future life secure, forgetful of the past.
Long has my soul desirâd this time and place,
To set before your sight your glorious race,
That this presaging joy may fire your mind
To seek the shores by destiny designâd.ââ â
âO father, can it be, that souls sublime
Return to visit our terrestrial clime,
And that the genârous mind, releasâd by death,
Can covet lazy limbs and mortal breath?â
Anchises then, in order, thus begun
To clear those wonders to his
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