Home | Introduction | Persons | Geogr. | Sources | Events | Mijn blog(Nederlands) |
Religion | Subjects | Images | Queries | Links | Contact | Do not fly Iberia |
Notes Do not display Latin text Display Dutch text | Ovid XIV Chapter 9: 445-482 War in Latium: Turnus asks Diomede's help | Next chapter Return to index Previous chapter |
Freeing their cables from the grassy shore, and keeping far away from the treacherous island and the home of the infamous goddess, the Trojans sought the groves where dark-shadowed Tiber, rushes, yellow with sand, to the sea. There, Aeneas won the daughter, Lavinia, and the kingdom of Latinus, son of Faunus, but not without a battle. Turnus fights with fury for his promised bride, and war is waged with a fierce people. All Etruria clashes with Latium, and for a long time, with anxious struggle, hard-fought victory is looked for. Both sides add to their strength with outside aid, and many support the Rutuli, many others the Trojan camp. Aeneas did not seek help from Evander in vain, but Venulus, sent by Turnus, had no profit from the city of exiled Diomede. He had founded a major city, Arpi, in Daunus's kingdom of Iapygia, and held the country given him as a dowry. When Venulus had done as Turnus commanded and asked for help, Diomede, Aetolia's hero, pleaded lack of resources as an excuse: he did not wish to commit himself or his father-in-law's people, nor had he any men of his own race he could arm. 'So that you do not think that these are lies,' he said, 'I will endure the telling of my story patiently, though its mention renews my bitter grief. When high Ilium had been burned, and Pergama had fed the Greek fires, and when the lesser Ajax, hero of Naryx, had brought down, on us all, the virgin goddess Minerva's punishment, that he alone deserved, for the rape of virgin Cassandra, we Greeks were taken, and scattered by storms, over the hostile seas. We suffered lightning, darkness, and storms, the anger of sea and sky, and Cape Caphereus, the culminating disaster. Not to waste time by telling you our sad misfortunes one by one, the Greeks then might even have appeared to warrant Priam's tears. Warrior Minerva's saving care for me, however, rescued me from the waves. But I was driven from my native country again, for gentle Venus, remembering the wound I had once given her, exacted punishment. I suffered such great toils in the deep sea, such conflicts on land, that I often called those happy whom the storm that we shared, and the troubled waters of Caphereus, drowned, and I longed to have been one of them.' |
solvitur herboso religatus ab aggere funis, 445 et procul insidias infamataeque relinquunt tecta deae lucosque petunt, ubi nubilus umbra in mare cum flava prorumpit Thybris harena; Faunigenaeque domo potitur nataque Latini, non sine Marte tamen. bellum cum gente feroci 450 suscipitur, pactaque furit pro coniuge Turnus. concurrit Latio Tyrrhenia tota, diuque ardua sollicitis victoria quaeritur armis. auget uterque suas externo robore vires, et multi Rutulos, multi Troiana tuentur 455 castra, neque Aeneas Euandri ad moenia frustra, at Venulus frustra profugi Diomedis ad urbem venerat: ille quidem sub Iapyge maxima Dauno moenia condiderat dotaliaque arva tenebat; sed Venulus Turni postquam mandata peregit 460 auxiliumque petit, vires Aetolius heros excusat: nec se aut soceri committere pugnae velle sui populos, aut quos e gente suorum armet habere ullos, 'neve haec commenta putetis, admonitu quamquam luctus renoventur amari, 465 perpetiar memorare tamen. postquam alta cremata est Ilios, et Danaas paverunt Pergama flammas, Naryciusque heros, a virgine virgine rapta, quam meruit poenam solus, digessit in omnes, spargimur et ventis inimica per aequora rapti 470 fulmina, noctem, imbres, iram caelique marisque perpetimur Danai cumulumque Capherea cladis, neve morer referens tristes ex ordine casus, Graecia tum potuit Priamo quoque flenda videri. me tamen armiferae servatum cura Minervae 475 fluctibus eripuit, patriis sed rursus ab agris pellor, et antiquo memores de vulnere poenas exigit alma Venus, tantosque per alta labores aequora sustinui, tantos terrestribus armis, ut mihi felices sint illi saepe vocati, 480 quos communis hiems inportunusque Caphereus mersit aquis, vellemque horum pars una fuissem. |