AENEIS LIBER VII MPR FMPR Tu quoque litoribus nostris, Aeneia nutrix, adsiduo resonat cantu, tectisque superbis urit odoratam nocturna in lumina cedrum, arguto tenuis percurrens pectine telas. hinc exaudiri gemitus iraeque leonum vincla recusantum et sera sub nocte rudentum, saetigerique sues atque in praesepibus ursi saevire, ac formae magnorum ululare luporum, 6 10 15 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,2 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. 3 quos hominum ex facie dea saeva potentibus herbis induerat Circe in voltus ac terga ferarum. 20 quae ne monstra pii paterentur talia Troes cum venti posuere omnisque repente resedit 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 30 339 35 40 45 37 tempora rerum as punctuated in M and by Servius tempora, rerum Peerlkamp. |