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Notes Display Latin text | translated by Theodore C. Williams Book III Chapter 16: Prophecy of Helenus (cont.) | Next chapter Return to index Previous chapter |
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"O goddess-born [Note 1], indubitably shines the blessing of great gods upon thy path across the sea; the heavenly King [Note 2] supreme thy destiny ordains; t is he unfolds the grand vicissitude, which now pursues a course immutable. I will declare of thy large fate a certain bounded part; that fearless thou may'st view the friendly sea, and in Ausonia's haven at the last find thee a fixed abode. Than this no more the Sister Fates to Helenus unveil, and Juno, Saturn's daughter, grants no more. First, that ( Italia (which nigh at hand thou deemest, and wouldst fondly enter in by yonder neighboring bays) lies distant far o'er trackless course and long, with interval of far-extended lands. Thine oars must ply the waves of Sicily; thy fleet must cleave the large expanse of that Ausonian brine; the waters of Avernus thou shalt see, and that enchanted island where abides Aeaean Circe, ere on tranquil shore thou mayest plant thy nation. Lo! a sign I tell thee; hide this wonder in thy heart: Beside a certain stream's sequestered wave, thy troubled eyes, in shadowy flex grove that fringes on the river, shall descry a milk-white, monstrous sow, with teeming brood of thirty young, new littered, white like her, all clustering at her teats, as prone she lies. There is thy city's safe, predestined ground, and there thy labors' end. Vex not thy heart about those ‘tables bitten’, for kind fate thy path will show, and Phoebus bless thy prayer. But from these lands and yon Italian shore, where from this sea of ours the tide sweeps in, escape and flee, for all its cities hold pernicious Greeks, thy foes: the Locri there have builded walls; the wide Sallentine fields are filled with soldiers of Idomeneus; there Meliboean Philoctetes' town, Petilia, towers above its little wall. Yea, even when thy fleet has crossed the main, and from new altars built along the shore thy vows to Heaven are paid, throw o'er thy head a purple mantle, veiling well thy brows, lest, while the sacrificial fire ascends in offering to the gods, thine eye behold some face of foe, and every omen fail. Let all thy people keep this custom due, and thou thyself be faithful; let thy seed forever thus th' immaculate rite maintain. After departing hence, thou shalt be blown toward Sicily, and strait Pelorus' bounds will open wide. Then take the leftward way: those leftward waters in long circuit sweep, far from that billowy coast, the opposing side. These regions, so they tell, in ages gone by huge and violent convulsion riven (Such mutability is wrought by time), sprang wide asunder; where the doubled strand sole and continuous lay, the sea's vast power burst in between, and bade its waves divide Hesperia's bosom from fair Sicily, while with a straitened firth it interflowed their fields and cities sundered shore from shore. The right side Scylla keeps; the left is given to pitiless Charybdis, who draws down to the wild whirling of her steep abyss the monster waves, and ever and anon flings them at heaven, to lash the tranquil stars. But Scylla, prisoned in her eyeless cave, thrusts forth her face, and pulls upon the rocks ship after ship; the parts that first be seen are human; a fair-breasted virgin she, down to the womb; but all that lurks below is a huge-membered fish, where strangely join the flukes of dolphins and the paunch of wolves. Better by far to round the distant goal |
374-440 'Nate dea (nam te maioribus ire per altum auspiciis manifesta fides; sic fata deum rex sortitur uoluitque uices, is uertitur ordo), pauca tibi e multis, quo tutior hospita lustres aequora et Ausonio possis considere portu, expediam dictis; prohibent nam cetera Parcae scire Helenum farique uetat Saturnia Iuno. principio Italiam, quam tu iam rere propinquam uicinosque, ignare, paras inuadere portus, longa procul longis uia diuidit inuia terris. ante et Trinacria lentandus remus in unda et salis Ausonii lustrandum nauibus aequor infernique lacus Aeaeaeque insula Circae, quam tuta possis urbem componere terra. signa tibi dicam, tu condita mente teneto: cum tibi sollicito secreti ad fluminis undam litoreis ingens inuenta sub ilicibus sus triginta capitum fetus enixa iacebit, alba solo recubans, albi circum ubera nati, is locus urbis erit, requies ea certa laborum. nec tu mensarum morsus horresce futuros: fata uiam inuenient aderitque uocatus Apollo. has autem terras Italique hanc litoris oram, proxima quae nostri perfunditur aequoris aestu, effuge; cuncta malis habitantur moenia Grais. hic et Narycii posuerunt moenia Locri, et Sallentinos obsedit milite campos Lyctius Idomeneus; hic illa ducis Meliboei parua Philoctetae subnixa Petelia muro. quin ubi transmissae steterint trans aequora classes et positis aris iam uota in litore solues, purpureo uelare comas adopertus amictu, ne qua inter sanctos ignis in honore deorum hostilis facies occurrat et omina turbet. hunc socii morem sacrorum, hunc ipse teneto; hac casti maneant in religione nepotes ast ubi digressum Siculae te admouerit orae uentus, et angusti rarescent claustra Pelori, laeua tibi tellus et longo laeua petantur aequora circuitu; dextrum fuge litus et undas. haec loca ui quondam et uasta conuulsa ruina (tantum aeui longinqua ualet mutare uetustas) dissiluisse ferunt, cum protinus utraque tellus una foret: uenit medio ui pontus et undis Hesperium Siculo latus abscidit, aruaque et urbes litore diductas angusto interluit aestu. dextrum Scylla latus, laeuum implacata Charybdis obsidet, atque imo barathri ter gurgite uastos sorbet in abruptum fluctus rursusque sub auras erigit alternos, et sidera uerberat unda. at Scyllam caecis cohibet spelunca latebris ora exsertantem et nauis in saxa trahentem. prima hominis facies et pulchro pectore uirgo pube tenus, postrema immani corpore pistrix delphinum caudas utero commissa luporum. praestat Trinacrii metas lustrare Pachyni cessantem, longos et circumflectere cursus, quam semel informem uasto uidisse sub antro Scyllam et caeruleis canibus resonantia saxa. praeterea, si qua est Heleno prudentia uati, si qua fides, animum si ueris implet Apollo, unum illud tibi, nate dea, proque omnibus unum praedicam et repetens iterumque iterumque monebo, Iunonis magnae primum prece numen adora, Iunoni cane uota libens dominamque potentem supplicibus supera donis: sic denique uictor Trinacria finis Italos mittere relicta. |