Illa volat, celerique ad terram turbine fertur :
Non secus ac, nervo per nubem impulsa, sagitta,
Armatam sævi Parthus quam felle veneni,
Parthus, sive Cydon, telum immedicabile, torsit,
Stridens, et celeres incognita transilit umbras.
Talis se sata Nocte tulit, terrasque petivit.
Postquam acies videt Iliacas atque agmina Turni,
Alitis in parvæ subitam collecta figuram,
Quæ quondam in bustis, aut culminibus desertis,
Nocte sedens, serum canit importuna per umbras ;
Hanc versa in faciem, Turni se pestis ob ora
Fertque, refertque, sonans; clypeumque everberat alis.
Illi membra novus solvit formidine torpor ;
Arrectæque horrore comæ, et vox faucibus hæsit.
At, procul ut Diræ stridorem agnovit, et alas,
Infelix crines scindit Juturna solutos,
Unguibus ora soror fœdans, et pectora pugnis :
Quid nunc te tua, Turne, potest germana juvare?
Aut quid jam duræ superat mihi? quâ tibi lucem
Arte morer? talin possum me opponere monstro?
Jam jam linquo acies. Ne me terrete timentem,
Obscenæ volucres: alarum verbera nosco,
Letalemque sonum; nec fallunt jussa superba
Magnanimi Jovis. Hæc pro virginitate reponit ?
Quo vitam dedit æternam ? cur mortis ademta est
Conditio? possem tantos finire dolores
Nunc certe, et misero fratri comes ire per umbras.
Immortalis ego? aut quidquam mihi dulce meorum
Te sine, frater, erit? O quæ satis alta dehiscat
Terra mihi, Manesque deam demittat ad imos!
Tantum effata, caput glauco contexit amictu
Multa gemens, et se fluvio, dea, condidit alto.
Æneas instat contra, telumque coruscat
Ingens, arboreum, et sævo sic pectore fatur :
Quæ nunc deinde mora est? aut quid jam, Turne, retractas? Non cursu, sævis certandum est comminus armis.
Verte omnes tete in facies; et contrahe, quidquid
Sive animis, sive arte, vales; opta ardua pennis
Astra sequi, clausumque cavâ te condere terrâ.
Ille, caput quassans: Non me tua fervida terrent
Dicta, ferox; dî me terrent, et Jupiter hostis.
Nec plura effatus, saxum circumspicit ingens,
Saxum antiquum, ingens, campo quod forte jacebat,
Limes agro positus, litem ut discerneret arvis ;
Vix illud lecti bis sex cervice subirent,
Qualia nunc hominum producit corpora tellus ;
Ille, manu raptum trepidâ, torquebat in hostem,
Altior insurgens, et cursu concitus, heros.
Sed neque currentem se nec cognoscit euntem,
Tollentemve manu saxumque immane moventem:
Genua labant, gelidus concrevit frigore sanguis.
Tum lapis ipse viri, vacuum per inane volutus,
Nec spatium evasit totum, neque pertulit ictum.
Ac, velut in somnis, oculos ubi languida pressit
Nocte quies, nequidquam avidos extendere cursus
Velle videmur, et in mediis conatibus ægri
Succidimus; non lingua valet, non corpore notæ
Sufficiunt vires, nec vox aut verba sequuntur :
Sic Turno, quâcumque viam virtute petivit,
Successum dea dira negat. Tum pectore sensus
Vertuntur varii. Rutulos aspectat, et urbem ;
Cunctaturque metu, telumque instare tremiscit:
Nec, quo se eripiat, nec, quâ vi tendat in hostem,
Nec currus usquam videt, aurigamque sororem.
Cunctanti telum Æneas fatale coruscat,
Sortitus fortunam oculis, et corpore toto
Eminus intorquet. Murali concita nunquam
Tormento sic saxa fremunt, nec fulmine tanti
Dissultant crepitus. Volat, atri turbinis instar,
Exitium dirum hasta ferens; orasque recludit
Loricæ, et clypei extremos septemplicis orbis.
Et medium stridens transit femur. Incidit ictus
Ingens ad terram, duplicato poplite, Turnus.
Consurgunt gemitu Rutuli, totusque remugit
Mons circum, et vocem late nemora alta remittunt.
Ille, humilis supplexque, oculos dextramque precantem
Protendens, Equidem merui, nec deprecor, inquit;
Utere sorte tuâ. Miseri te si qua parentis
Tangere cura potest; oro, fuit et tibi talis
Anchises genitor, Dauni miserere senectæ ;
Et me, seu corpus spoliatum lumine mavis,
Redde meis. Vicisti, et victum tendere palmas
Ausonii videre; tua est Lavinia conjux :
Ulterius ne tende odiis. Stetit acer in armis
Æneas, volvens oculos, dextramque repressit :
Et jam, jamque magis, cunctantem flectere sermo
Cœperat, infelix humero cum apparuit alto
Balteus, et notis fulserunt cingula bullis
Pallantis pueri; victum quem vulnere Turnus
Straverat, atque humeris inimicum insigne gerebat.
Ille, oculis postquam sævi monumenta doloris
Exuviasque hausit, furiis accensus, et irâ
Terribilis: Tune hinc, spoliis indute meorum,
Eripiare mihi? Pallas te hoc vulnere, Pallas
Immolat, et pœnam scelerato ex sanguine sumit.
Hoc dicens, ferrum adverso sub pectore condit
Fervidus: ast illi solvuntur frigore membra,
Vitaque cum gemitu fugit indignata sub umbras.
I. THE Poem is called the Eneid from its hero Eneas, whose wars in Italy it commemorates, as well as his final settlement in that country. The closing scenes of the Trojan war, and the wanderings of Æneas before he reached the shores of Italy, are brought in by way of episode.
II. It would have been more in accordance with the rules of Latin formation if the poet had called his production the Eneas, or, as we would say in English, the Enead. Indeed, one ancient manuscript has this very form (Eneas, genit. Enēădos, &c.). Virgil, however, would seem to have preferred for his poem an appellation of Grecian origin (Eneis, Aivnic).
III. In many manuscripts the following lines are prefixed to the Eneid:
Ille ego, qui quondam gracili modulatus arenâ
Carmen, et, egressus silvis, vicina coëgi
Ut quamvis avido parerent arva colono:
Gratum opus agricolis: at nunc horrentia Martis,
They are quite unworthy, however, the pen of Virgil, and would appear to have proceeded from some early grammarian, who wanted taste to perceive that the Arma virumque cano of the Roman poet formed a far more spirited commencement for an epic poem. Virgil here treads in the footsteps of his great master Homer.
1. Arma virumque cano. "I sing of arms and the hero." By arma are here meant the wars that followed the arrival of Æneas in Italy; and by virum, the hero himself. The subject of the entire poem is thus stated in a few words.-Troje qui primus ab oris, &c. "Who, an exile (from his country) by fate, was the first that came from the coasts of Troy to Italy and the Lavinian shores."
Primus venit. Antenor, as we learn from verse 242 of this book, had reached Italy before Eneas, but the latter was the first who had come to the spot where Lavinium was afterwards built, and where the foundations were thus laid of the subsequent greatness of Rome.-2. Laviniaque. Pronounced in scanning as Lavinyaque, four syllables. Consult Metrical Index.
|