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THE AENEID

BOOK VII

THOU, too,1 Caieta, nurse of Aeneas, hast by thy death given deathless fame to our shores; and still thine honour guards thy resting-place, and in great Hesperia, if such glory be aught, thy name marks thy dust.

5 But good Aeneas, when the last rites were duly paid and the funeral mound was raised, soon as the high seas were stilled, sails forth on his way and leaves the haven. Breezes blow on into the night, and the Moon, shining bright, forbids not the voyage; the sea glitters beneath her dancing beams. Closely they skirt the shores of Circe's land, where the rich daughter of the Sun thrills her untrodden groves with ceaseless song, and in her stately halls burns fragrant cedar to illuminate the night, as with shrill shuttle she sweeps the fine-spun web. Hence could be heard the angry growls of lions chafing at their bonds and roaring in midnight hours, the raging of bristly boars and encaged bears, and howls from shapes of monstrous wolves; whom with her potent

1 As well as Misenus (vI. 234) and Palinurus (vi. 381). Caieta gave her name to Gaeta and the Gulf of Gaeta.

2 Circeii, a promontory of Latium, but once an island, is identified by Virgil with Homer's island of Aeaea, the home of Circe.

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quos hominum ex facie dea saeva potentibus herbis induerat Circe in voltus ac terga ferarum.

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quae ne monstra pii paterentur talia Troes delati in portus, neu litora dira subirent, Neptunus ventis implevit vela secundis, atque fugam dedit, et praeter vada fervida vexit. Iamque rubescebat radiis mare, et aethere ab alto 25 Aurora in roseis fulgebat lutea bigis:

cum venti posuere omnisque repente resedit
flatus, et in lento luctantur marmore tonsae.
atque hic Aeneas ingentem ex aequore lucum
prospicit. hunc inter fluvio Tiberinus amoeno
verticibus rapidis et multa flavus harena

in mare prorumpit. variae circumque supraque
adsuetae ripis volucres et fluminis alveo
aethera mulcebant cantu, lucoque volabant.
flectere iter sociis terraeque advertere proras
imperat, et laetus fluvio succedit opaco.

Nunc age, qui reges, Erato, quae tempora rerum, quis Latio antiquo fuerit status, advena classem cum primum Ausoniis exercitus appulit oris, expediam, et primae revocabo exordia pugnae. tu vatem, tu, diva, mone. dicam horrida bella, dicam acies actosque animis in funera reges, Tyrrhenamque manum, totamque sub arma coactam Hesperiam. maior rerum mihi nascitur ordo, maius opus moveo.

Rex arva Latinus et urbes

iam senior longa placidas in pace regebat.

hunc Fauno et Nympha genitum Laurente Marica

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37 tempora rerum as punctuated in M and by Servius: tempora, rerum Peerlkamp.

herbs Circe, cruel goddess, had changed from the likeness of men, clothing them in the features and frames of beasts. But lest the good Trojans should suffer such monstrous fate, should enter the haven or draw near the cursed shore, Neptune filled their sails with favouring winds, and gave them escape, and bore them past the seething shallows.

25 And now the sea was reddening with the rays of dawn, and from high heaven saffron-hued Aurora shone in roseate car, when the winds fell, and every breath sank suddenly, and the oar blades strive amid the sluggish calm of waters. Then lo! Aeneas, gazing forth from the flood, sees a mighty forest. Through its midst the Tiber, with pleasant stream, leaps forth to sea in swirling eddies and yellow with plenteous sand. Around and above, birds of varied plumes, that haunt the banks and river-channel, charmed the sky with song, and flitted amid the forest. He bids his comrades change their course and turn their prows to land, and joyfully enters the shady river.

37 Awake now, Erato! Who were the kings, what

was the tide of events, how stood ancient Latium, when first that stranger host beached its barques on Ausonia's shore-this will I unfold; and the prelude of the opening strife will I recall. Thou, goddess, do thou prompt thy bard! I will tell of grim wars, will tell of battle array, and princes in their valour rushing upon death-of Tyrrhenian bands, and all Hesperia mustered in arms. Greater is the story that opens before me; greater is the task I essay.

45 King Latinus, now old, ruled over lands and towns in the calm of a long peace. He, we are told, was sprung of Faunus and the Laurentine nymph,

accipimus: Fauno Picus pater, isque parentem te, Saturne, refert, tu sanguinis ultimus auctor. filius huic fato divum prolesque virilis

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MPR

nulla fuit, primaque oriens erepta iuventa est. sola domum et tantas servabat filia sedes, iam matura viro, iam plenis nubilis annis. multi illam magno e Latio totaque petebant Ausonia. petit ante alios pulcherrimus omnes Turnus, avis atavisque potens, quem regia coniunx adiungi generum miro properabat amore ; sed variis portenta deum terroribus obstant. laurus erat tecti medio in penetralibus altis, sacra comam multosque metu servata per annos, quam pater inventam, primas cum conderet arces, ipse ferebatur Phoebo sacrasse Latinus, Laurentisque ab ea nomen posuisse colonis. huius apes summum densae (mirabile dictu), stridore ingenti liquidum trans aethera vectae, obsedere apicem et pedibus per mutua nexis examen subitum ramo frondente pependit. continuo vates "externum cernimus," inquit, "adventare virum et partis petere agmen easdem partibus ex isdem et summa dominarier arce." praeterea, castis adolet dum altaria taedis

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et iuxta genitorem adstat Lavinia virgo,

visa, nefas, longis comprendere crinibus ignem,

atque omnem ornatum flamma crepitante cremari,

regalisque accensa comas, accensa coronam

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insignem gemmis; tum fumida lumine fulvo
involvi ac totis Volcanum spargere tectis.
id vero horrendum ac visu mirabile ferri :
namque fore inlustrem fama fatisque canebant
ipsam, sed populo magnum portendere bellum.

53 in plenis P.
71 dum] cum Nonius.

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Marica. Faunus' sire was Picus, and he boasts thee, O Saturn, as his father; thou art first founder of the line. To him by Heaven's decree was no son or male descent, cut off, as it was, in the spring of early youth. Alone, to preserve the house and noble home, was a daughter, now ripe for a husband, now of full age to be a bride. Many wooed her from wide Latium and all Ausonia, yet goodliest above all other wooers was Turnus, of long and lofty ancestry, whom the queen-mother yearned with wondrous passion to unite to her as son. But divine portents, with manifold alarms, bar the way. In the midst of the palace, in the high inner courts, stood a laurel of sacred leafage, preserved in awe through many years, which lord Latinus himself, 'twas said, found and dedicated to Phoebus, when he built his first towers; and from it he gave his settlers their name Laurentes. Atop of this tree, wondrous to tell, settled a dense swarm of bees, borne with loud humming across the liquid air, and with feet intertwined hung in sudden swarm from the leafy bough. Forthwith the prophet cries: "I see a stranger draw near; from the self-same quarter a troop seeks the same quarter, and reigns in the topmost citadel!" Moreover, while with hallowed torch he kindles the altars, and at her father's side stands the maiden Lavinia, she was seen (O horror!) to catch fire in her long tresses, and burn with crackling flame in all her headgear, her queenly hair ablaze, ablaze her jewelled coronal; then wreathed in smoke and yellow glare, she scattered fire throughout the palace. That indeed was noised abroad as an awful and wondrous vision; for she, they foretold, would herself be glorious in fame and fortune, yet to her people she boded a mighty war.

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