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Notes Display Latin text | translated by Theodore C. Williams Book I Chapter 20: Aeneas meets Venus | Next chapter Return to index Previous chapter |
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But good Aeneas, pondering all night long his many cares, when first the cheerful dawn upon him broke, resolved to take survey of this strange country whither wind and wave had driven him, -- for desert land it seemed, -- to learn what tribes of man or beast possess a place so wild, and careful tidings bring back to his friends. His fleet of ships the while, where dense, dark groves o'er-arch a hollowed crag, he left encircled in far-branching shade. Then with no followers save his trusty friend Achates, he went forth upon his way, two broad-tipped javelins poising in his hand. Deep to the midmost wood he went, and there his Mother [Note 1] in his path uprose; she seemed in garb and countenance a maid, and bore, like Spartan maids, a weapon; in such guise Harpalyce the Thracian urges on her panting coursers and in wild career outstrips impetuous Hebrus as it flows. Over her lovely shoulders was a bow, slender and light, as fits a huntress fair; her golden tresses without wimple moved in every wind, and girded in a knot her undulant vesture bared her marble knees. She hailed them thus: Ho, sirs, I pray you tell if haply ye have noted, as ye came, one of my sisters in this wood astray? She bore a quiver, and a lynx's hide her spotted mantle was; perchance she roused some foaming boar, and chased with loud halloo. Note 1: Mother = Venus Events: The wanderings of Aeneas, The Gods interfere in the Aeneid |
305-324 At pius Aeneas, per noctem plurima volvens, ut primum lux alma data est, exire locosque explorare novos, quas vento accesserit oras, qui teneant, nam inculta videt, hominesne feraene, quaerere constituit, sociisque exacta referre Classem in convexo nemorum sub rupe cavata arboribus clausam circum atque horrentibus umbris occulit; ipse uno graditur comitatus Achate, bina manu lato crispans hastilia ferro. Cui mater media sese tulit obvia silva, virginis os habitumque gerens, et virginis arma Spartanae, vel qualis equos Threissa fatigat Harpalyce, volucremque fuga praevertitur Hebrum. Namque umeris de more habilem suspenderat arcum venatrix, dederatque comam diffundere ventis, nuda genu, nodoque sinus collecta fluentis. Ac prior, 'Heus' inquit 'iuvenes, monstrate mearum vidistis si quam hic errantem forte sororum, succinctam pharetra et maculosae tegmine lyncis, aut spumantis apri cursum clamore prementem.' |