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Notes Display Latin text | translated by Theodore C. Williams Book II Chapter 12: Dream of Aeneas | Next chapter Return to index Previous chapter |
That hour it was when heaven's first gift of sleep on weary hearts of men most sweetly steals. O, then my slumbering senses seemed to see Hector, with woeful face and streaming eyes; I [Note 1] seemed to see him from the chariot trailing, foul with dark dust and gore, his swollen feet pierced with a cruel thong. Ah me! what change from glorious Hector when he homeward bore the spoils of fierce Achilles; or hurled far that shower of torches on the ships of Greece! Unkempt his beard, his tresses thick with blood, and all those wounds in sight which he did take defending Troy. Then, weeping as I spoke, I seemed on that heroes shape to call with mournful utterance: O star of Troy! O surest hope and stay of all her sons! Why tarriest thou so long? What region sends the long-expected Hector home once more? These weary eyes that look on thee have seen hosts of thy kindred die, and fateful change upon thy people and thy city fall. O, say what dire occasion has defiled thy tranquil brows? What mean those bleeding wounds? Silent he stood, nor anywise would stay my vain lament; but groaned, and answered thus: Haste, goddess-born, and out of yonder flames achieve thy flight. Our foes have scaled the wall; exalted Troy is falling. Fatherland and Priam ask no more. If human arm could profit Troy, my own had kept her free. Her Lares and her people to thy hands Troy here commends. Companions let them be of all thy fortunes. Let them share thy quest of that wide realm, which, after wandering far, thou shalt achieve, at last, beyond the sea. He spoke: and from our holy hearth brought forth the solemn fillet, the ancestral shrines, and Vesta's ever-bright, inviolate fire. Note 1: I = Aeneas Event: The fall of Troy |
268-297 Tempus erat quo prima quies mortalibus aegris incipit et dono diuum gratissima serpit. in somnis, ecce, ante oculos maestissimus Hector uisus adesse mihi largosque effundere fletus, raptatus bigis ut quondam, aterque cruento puluere perque pedes traiectus lora tumentis. ei mihi, qualis erat, quantum mutatus ab illo Hectore qui redit exuuias indutus Achilli uel Danaum Phrygios iaculatus puppibus ignis! squalentem barbam et concretos sanguine crinis uulneraque illa gerens, quae circum plurima muros accepit patrios. ultro flens ipse uidebar compellare uirum et maestas expromere uoces: 'o lux Dardaniae, spes o fidissima Teucrum, quae tantae tenuere morae? quibus Hector ab oris exspectate uenis? ut te post multa tuorum funera, post uarios hominumque urbisque labores defessi aspicimus! quae causa indigna serenos foedauit uultus? aut cur haec uulnera cerno?' ille nihil, nec me quaerentem uana moratur, sed grauiter gemitus imo de pectore ducens, 'heu fuge, nate dea, teque his' ait 'eripe flammis. hostis habet muros; ruit alto a culmine Troia. sat patriae Priamoque datum: si Pergama dextra defendi possent, etiam hac defensa fuissent. sacra suosque tibi commendat Troia penatis; hos cape fatorum comites, his moenia quaere magna pererrato statues quae denique ponto.' sic ait et manibus uittas Vestamque potentem aeternumque adytis effert penetralibus ignem. |