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Notes Display Latin text | translated by Theodore C. Williams Book VI Chapter 28: On reincarnation | Next chapter Return to index Previous chapter |
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Know first that heaven and earth and ocean's plain, The moon's bright orb, and stars of Titan birth Are nourished by one Life; one primal Mind, Immingled with the vast and general frame, Fills every part and stirs the mighty whole. Thence man and beast, thence creatures of the air, And all the swarming monsters that be found Beneath the level of the marbled sea; A fiery virtue, a celestial power, Their native seeds retain; but bodies vile, With limbs of clay and members born to die, Encumber and o'ercloud; whence also spring Terrors and passions, suffering and joy; For from deep darkness and captivity All gaze but blindly on the radiant world. Nor when to life's last beam they bid farewell May sufferers cease from pain, nor quite be freed From all their fleshly plagues; but by fixed law, The strange, inveterate taint works deeply in. For this, the chastisement of evils past Is suffered here, and full requital paid. Some hang on high, outstretched to viewless winds; For some their sin's contagion must be purged In vast ablution of deep-rolling seas, Or burned away in fire. Each man receives His ghostly portion in the world of dark; But thence to realms Elysian we go free, Where for a few these seats of bliss abide, Till time's long lapse a perfect orb fulfils, And takes all taint away, restoring so The pure, ethereal soul's first virgin fire. At last, when the millennial aeon strikes, God calls them forth to yon Lethaean stream, In numerous host, that thence, oblivious all, They may behold once more the vaulted sky, And willingly to shapes of flesh return. Event: Aeneas visits the Underworld |
724-751 'Principio caelum ac terras camposque liquentis lucentemque globum lunae Titaniaque astra spiritus intus alit, totamque infusa per artus mens agitat molem et magno se corpore miscet. inde hominum pecudumque genus uitaeque uolantum et quae marmoreo fert monstra sub aequore pontus. igneus est ollis uigor et caelestis origo seminibus, quantum non noxia corpora tardant terrenique hebetant artus moribundaque membra. hinc metuunt cupiuntque, dolent gaudentque, neque auras dispiciunt clausae tenebris et carcere caeco. quin et supremo cum lumine uita reliquit, non tamen omne malum miseris nec funditus omnes corporeae excedunt pestes, penitusque necesse est multa diu concreta modis inolescere miris. ergo exercentur poenis ueterumque malorum supplicia expendunt: aliae panduntur inanes suspensae ad uentos, aliis sub gurgite uasto infectum eluitur scelus aut exuritur igni: quisque suos patimur manis. exinde per amplum mittimur Elysium et pauci laeta arua tenemus, donec longa dies perfecto temporis orbe concretam exemit labem, purumque relinquit aetherium sensum atque aurai simplicis ignem. has omnis, ubi mille rotam uoluere per annos, Lethaeum ad fluuium deus euocat agmine magno, scilicet immemores supera ut conuexa reuisant rursus, et incipiant in corpora uelle reuerti.' |