The Aeneid Virgil (the top 100 crime novels of all time .TXT) đ
- Author: Virgil
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Amidst the meaner foil of sable jet.
Nor Ismarus was wanting to the war,
Directing pointed arrows from afar,
And death with poison armâdâ âin Lydia born,
Where plenteous harvests the fat fields adorn;
Where proud Pactolus floats the fruitful lands,
And leaves a rich manure of golden sands.
There Capys, author of the Capuan name,
And there was Mnestheus too, increasâd in fame,
Since Turnus from the camp he cast with shame.
Thus mortal war was wagâd on either side.
Meantime the hero cuts the nightly tide:
For, anxious, from Evander when he went,
He sought the Tyrrhene camp, and Tarchonâs tent;
Exposâd the cause of coming to the chief;
His name and country told, and askâd relief;
Proposâd the terms; his own small strength declarâd;
What vengeance proud Mezentius had preparâd:
What Turnus, bold and violent, designâd;
Then shewâd the slippâry state of humankind,
And fickle fortune; warnâd him to beware,
And to his wholesome counsel added prayâr.
Tarchon, without delay, the treaty signs,
And to the Trojan troops the Tuscan joins.
They soon set sail; nor now the fates withstand;
Their forces trusted with a foreign hand.
Aeneas leads; upon his stern appear
Two lions carvâd, which rising Ida bearâ â
Ida, to wandâring Trojans ever dear.
Under their grateful shade Aeneas sate,
Revolving warâs events, and various fate.
His left young Pallas kept, fixâd to his side,
And oft of winds enquirâd, and of the tide;
Oft of the stars, and of their watâry way;
And what he sufferâd both by land and sea.
Now, sacred sisters, open all your spring!
The Tuscan leaders, and their army sing,
Which followâd great Aeneas to the war:
Their arms, their numbers, and their names declare.
A thousand youths brave Massicus obey,
Borne in the Tiger throâ the foaming sea;
From Asium brought, and Cosa, by his care:
For arms, light quivers, bows and shafts, they bear.
Fierce Abas next: his men bright armour wore;
His stern Apolloâs golden statue bore.
Six hundred Populonia sent along,
All skillâd in martial exercise, and strong.
Three hundred more for battle Ilva joins,
An isle renownâd for steel, and unexhausted mines.
Asylas on his prow the third appears,
Who heavân interprets, and the wandâring stars;
From offerâd entrails prodigies expounds,
And peals of thunder, with presaging sounds.
A thousand spears in warlike order stand,
Sent by the Pisans under his command.
Fair Astur follows in the watâry field,
Proud of his managâd horse and painted shield.
Gravisca, noisome from the neighbâring fen,
And his own Caere, sent three hundred men;
With those which Minioâs fields and Pyrgi gave,
All bred in arms, unanimous, and brave.
Thou, Muse, the name of Cinyras renew,
And brave Cupavo followâd but by few;
Whose helm confessâd the lineage of the man,
And bore, with wings displayâd, a silver swan.
Love was the fault of his famâd ancestry,
Whose forms and fortunes in his ensigns fly.
For Cycnus lovâd unhappy Phaeton,
And sung his loss in poplar groves, alone,
Beneath the sister shades, to soothe his grief.
Heavân heard his song, and hastenâd his relief,
And changâd to snowy plumes his hoary hair,
And wingâd his flight, to chant aloft in air.
His son Cupavo brushâd the briny flood:
Upon his stern a brawny Centaur stood,
Who heavâd a rock, and, threatâning still to throw,
With lifted hands alarmâd the seas below:
They seemâd to fear the formidable sight,
And rollâd their billows on, to speed his flight.
Ocnus was next, who led his native train
Of hardy warriors throâ the watâry plain:
The son of Manto by the Tuscan stream,
From whence the Mantuan town derives the nameâ â
An ancient city, but of mixâd descent:
Three sevâral tribes compose the government;
Four towns are under each; but all obey
The Mantuan laws, and own the Tuscan sway.
Hate to Mezentius armâd five hundred more,
Whom Mincius from his sire Benacus bore:
Mincius, with wreaths of reeds his forehead coverâd oâer.
These grave Auletes leads: a hundred sweep
With stretching oars at once the glassy deep.
Him and his martial train the Triton bears;
High on his poop the sea-green god appears:
Frowning he seems his crooked shell to sound,
And at the blast the billows dance around.
A hairy man above the waist he shows;
A porpoise tail beneath his belly grows;
And ends a fish: his breast the waves divides,
And froth and foam augment the murmâring tides.
Full thirty ships transport the chosen train
For Troyâs relief, and scour the briny main.
Now was the world forsaken by the sun,
And Phoebe half her nightly race had run.
The careful chief, who never closâd his eyes,
Himself the rudder holds, the sails supplies.
A choir of Nereids meet him on the flood,
Once his own galleys, hewn from Idaâs wood;
But now, as many nymphs, the sea they sweep,
As rode, before, tall vessels on the deep.
They know him from afar; and in a ring
Enclose the ship that bore the Trojan king.
Cymodoce, whose voice excellâd the rest,
Above the waves advancâd her snowy breast;
Her right hand stops the stern; her left divides
The curling ocean, and corrects the tides.
She spoke for all the choir, and thus began
With pleasing words to warn thâ unknowing man:
âSleeps our lovâd lord? O goddess-born, awake!
Spread evâry sail, pursue your watâry track,
And haste your course. Your navy once were we,
From Idaâs height descending to the sea;
Till Turnus, as at anchor fixâd we stood,
Presumâd to violate our holy wood.
Then, loosâd from shore, we fled his fires profane
(Unwillingly we broke our masterâs chain),
And since have sought you throâ the Tuscan main.
The mighty Mother changâd our forms to these,
And gave us life immortal in the seas.
But young Ascanius, in his camp distressâd,
By your insulting foes is hardly pressâd.
Thâ Arcadian horsemen, and Etrurian host,
Advance in order on the Latian coast:
To cut their way the Daunian chief designs,
Before their troops can reach the Trojan lines.
Thou, when the rosy morn restores the light,
First arm thy soldiers for thâ ensuing fight:
Thyself the fated sword of Vulcan wield,
And bear aloft thâ impenetrable shield.
Tomorrowâs sun, unless my skill be vain,
Shall see huge heaps of foes in battle slain.â
Parting, she spoke; and with immortal force
Pushâd on the vessel in her watâry course;
For well she knew the way. Impellâd behind,
The ship flew forward, and outstrippâd the wind.
The rest make up. Unknowing of the cause,
The chief admires their speed, and happy omens draws.
Then thus he prayâd, and fixâd on heavân his eyes:
âHear thou, great Mother of the deities.
With turrets crownâd! (on Idaâs holy hill
Fierce tigers, reinâd and curbâd, obey thy will.)
Firm thy own omens; lead us on to fight;
And let thy
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