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Notes Display Latin text | translated by Theodore C. Williams Book II Chapter 17: Fight about Cassandra | Next chapter Return to index Previous chapter |
But woe is me [Note 1]! If gods their help withhold, t is impious to be brave. That very hour the fair Cassandra passed us, bound in chains, King Priam's virgin daughter, from the shrine and altars of Minerva; her loose hair had lost its fillet; her impassioned eyes were lifted in vain prayer, -- her eyes alone! For chains of steel her frail, soft hands confined. Coroebus' eyes this horror not endured, and, sorrow-crazed, he plunged him headlong in the midmost fray, self-offered to be slain, while in close mass our troop behind him poured. But, at this point, the overwhelming spears of our own kinsmen rained resistless down from a high temple-tower; and carnage wild ensued, because of the Greek arms we bore and our false crests. The howling Grecian band, crazed by Cassandra's rescue, charged at us from every side; Ajax of savage soul, the sons of Atreus, and that whole wild horde Achilles from Dolopian deserts drew. T was like the bursting storm, when gales contend, west wind and South, and jocund wind of morn upon his orient steeds -- while forests roar, and foam-flecked Nereus with fierce trident stirs the dark deep of the sea. All who did hide in shadows of the night, by our assault surprised, and driven in tumultuous flight, now start to view. Full well they now can see our shields and borrowed arms, and clearly note our speech of alien sound; their multitude o'erwhelms us utterly. Coroebus first at mailed Minerva's altar prostrate lay, pierced by Peneleus, blade; then Rhipeus fell; we deemed him of all Trojans the most just, most scrupulously righteous; but the gods gave judgment otherwise. There Dymas died, and Hypanis, by their compatriots slain; nor thee, O Panthus, in that mortal hour, could thy clean hands or Phoebus' priesthood save. O ashes of my country! funeral pyre of all my kin! bear witness that my breast shrank not from any sword the Grecian drew, and that my deeds the night my country died deserved a warrior's death, had Fate ordained. But soon our ranks were broken; at my side stayed Iphitus and Pelias; one with age was long since wearied, and the other bore the burden of Ulysses' crippling wound. Straightway the roar and tumult summoned us to Priam's palace. Note 1: me = Aeneas Event: The fall of Troy |
402-437 Heu nihil inuitis fas quemquam fidere diuis! ecce trahebatur passis Priameia uirgo crinibus a templo Cassandra adytisque Mineruae ad caelum tendens ardentia lumina frustra, lumina, nam teneras arcebant uincula palmas. non tulit hanc speciem furiata mente Coroebus et sese medium iniecit periturus in agmen; consequimur cuncti et densis incurrimus armis. hic primum ex alto delubri culmine telis nostrorum obruimur oriturque miserrima caedes armorum facie et Graiarum errore iubarum. tum Danai gemitu atque ereptae uirginis ira undique collecti inuadunt, acerrimus Aiax et gemini Atridae Dolopumque exercitus omnis: aduersi rupto ceu quondam turbine uenti confligunt, Zephyrusque Notusque et laetus Eois Eurus equis; stridunt siluae saeuitque tridenti spumeus atque imo Nereus ciet aequora fundo. illi etiam, si quos obscura nocte per umbram fudimus insidiis totaque agitauimus urbe, apparent; primi clipeos mentitaque tela agnoscunt atque ora sono discordia signant. ilicet obruimur numero, primusque Coroebus Penelei dextra diuae armipotentis ad aram procumbit; cadit et Rhipeus, iustissimus unus qui fuit in Teucris et seruantissimus aequi (dis aliter uisum); pereunt Hypanisque Dymasque confixi a sociis; nec te tua plurima, Panthu, labentem pietas nec Apollinis infula texit. Iliaci cineres et flamma extrema meorum, testor, in occasu uestro nec tela nec ullas uitauisse uices, Danaum et, si fata fuissent ut caderem, meruisse manu. diuellimur inde, Iphitus et Pelias mecum (quorum Iphitus aeuo iam grauior, Pelias et uulnere tardus Vlixi), protinus ad sedes Priami clamore uocati. |