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Notes Display Latin text | translated by Theodore C. Williams Book II Chapter 20: Pyrrhus | Next chapter Return to index Previous chapter |
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Now at the threshold of the outer court Pyrrhus triumphant stood, with glittering arms and helm of burnished brass. He glittered like some swollen viper, fed on poison-leaves, whom chilling winter shelters underground, till, fresh and strong, he sheds his annual scales and, crawling forth rejuvenate, uncoils his slimy length; his lifted gorge insults the sunbeam with three-forked and quivering tongue. Huge Periphas was there; Automedon, who drove Achilles' steeds, and bore his arms. Then Scyros' island-warriors assault the palaces, and hurl reiterate fire at wall and tower. Pyrrhus led the van; seizing an axe he clove the ponderous doors and rent the hinges from their posts of bronze; he cut the beams, and through the solid mass burrowed his way, till like a window huge the breach yawned wide, and opened to his gaze a vista of long courts and corridors, the hearth and home of many an ancient king, and Priam's own; upon its sacred bourne the sentry, all in arms, kept watch and ward. Confusion, groans, and piteous turmoil were in that dwelling; women shrieked and wailed from many a dark retreat, and their loud cry rang to the golden stars. Through those vast halls the panic-stricken mothers wildly roved, and clung with frantic kisses and embrace unto the columns cold. Fierce as his sire, Pyrrhus moves on; nor bar nor sentinel may stop his way; down tumbles the great door beneath the battering beam, and with it fall hinges and framework violently torn. Force bursts all bars; th' assailing Greeks break in, do butchery, and with men-at-arms possess what place they will. Scarce with an equal rage a foaming river, when its dykes are down, o'erwhelms its mounded shores, and through the plain rolls mountain-high, while from the ravaged farms its fierce flood sweeps along both flock and fold. My own eyes looked on Neoptolemus frenzied with slaughter, and both Atreus' sons upon the threshold frowning; I [Note 1]beheld her hundred daughters with old Hecuba; and Priam, whose own bleeding wounds defiled the altars where himself had blessed the fires; there fifty nuptial beds gave promise proud of princely heirs; but all their brightness now, of broidered cunning and barbaric gold, lay strewn and trampled on. The Danaan foe stood victor, where the raging flame had failed. Note 1: I = Aeneas Event: The fall of Troy |
469-505 Vestibulum ante ipsum primoque in limine Pyrrhus exsultat telis et luce coruscus aena: qualis ubi in lucem coluber mala gramina pastus, frigida sub terra tumidum quem bruma tegebat, nunc, positis nouus exuuiis nitidusque iuuenta, lubrica conuoluit sublato pectore terga arduus ad solem, et linguis micat ore trisulcis. una ingens Periphas et equorum agitator Achillis, armiger Automedon, una omnis Scyria pubes succedunt tecto et flammas ad culmina iactant. ipse inter primos correpta dura bipenni limina perrumpit postisque a cardine uellit aeratos; iamque excisa trabe firma cauauit robora et ingentem lato dedit ore fenestram. apparet domus intus et atria longa patescunt; apparent Priami et ueterum penetralia regum, armatosque uident stantis in limine primo. at domus interior gemitu miseroque tumultu miscetur, penitusque cauae plangoribus aedes femineis ululant; ferit aurea sidera clamor. tum pauidae tectis matres ingentibus errant amplexaeque tenent postis atque oscula figunt. instat ui patria Pyrrhus; nec claustra nec ipsi custodes sufferre ualent; labat ariete crebro ianua, et emoti procumbunt cardine postes. fit uia ui; rumpunt aditus primosque trucidant immissi Danai et late loca milite complent. non sic, aggeribus ruptis cum spumeus amnis exiit oppositasque euicit gurgite moles, fertur in arua furens cumulo camposque per omnis cum stabulis armenta trahit. uidi ipse furentem caede Neoptolemum geminosque in limine Atridas, uidi Hecubam centumque nurus Priamumque per aras sanguine foedantem quos ipse sacrauerat ignis. quinquaginta illi thalami, spes tanta nepotum, barbarico postes auro spoliisque superbi procubuere; tenent Danai qua deficit ignis. |