Aeneid III.209-294

I (Harpy) receive: your food. You receive: ominous prophecies.

Free of the waves I’m welcomed first by the shores

of the Strophades, the Clashing Islands. The Strophades

are fixed now in the great Ionian Sea, but are called

by the Greek name. There dread Celaeno¹ and the rest

of the Harpies live, since Phineus’s house was denied them²,

and they left his tables where they fed, in fear.

No worse monsters than these, no crueller plague,

ever rose from the waters of Styx at the gods’ anger.

These birds have the faces of virgin girls,

foulest excrement flowing from their bellies,

clawed hands, and faces always thin with hunger.

Now when, arriving here, we enter port,

we see fat herds of cattle scattered over the plains

and flocks of goats, unguarded, in the meadows.

We rush at them with our swords, calling on Jove himself

and the gods to join us in our plunder: then we build

seats on the curving beach and feast on the rich meats.

But suddenly the Harpies arrive in a fearsome swoop

from the hills, flapping their wings with a huge noise,

snatching at the food, and fouling everything with their

filthy touch; then there’s a deadly shriek amongst the foul stench.

We set out the tables again, and relight the altar fires

in a deep recess under an overhanging rock,

closed off by trees and trembling shadows;

again from another part of the sky, some hidden lair,

the noisy crowd hovers with taloned feet around their prey,

polluting the food with their mouths. Then I order my friends

to take up their weapons and make war on that dreadful race.

They do exactly that, obeying orders, placing hidden swords

in the grass and burying their shields out of sight.

Then when the birds swoop, screaming, along the curved beach,

Misenus, from his high lookout, gives the signal on hollow bronze.

My friends charge, and, in a new kind of battle, attempt

to wound these foul ocean birds with their swords.

But they don’t register the blows to their plumage or the wounds

to their backs, they flee quickly, soaring beneath the heavens,

leaving behind half-eaten food and the traces of their filth.

Only Celaeno, ominous prophetess, settles on a high cliff,

and bursts out with this sound from her breast:

“Are you ready to bring war to us, sons of Laomedon, is it war,

for the cows you killed, the bullocks you slaughtered,

driving the innocent Harpies from their father’s country?

Take these words of mine to your hearts, then, and set them there.

I, the eldest of the Furies, reveal to you what the all-powerful

Father prophesied to Apollo, and Phoebus Apollo to me.

Italy is the path you take, and, invoking the winds,

you shall go to Italy, and enter her harbours freely:

but you will not surround the city granted you with walls

until dire hunger and the sin of striking at us force you

to consume your very tables with devouring jaws.”

She spoke, and fled back to the forest borne by her wings.

But my companions’ chill blood froze with sudden fear:

their courage dropped, and they told me to beg for peace,

with vows and prayers, forgoing weapons,

no matter if these were goddesses or fatal, vile birds.

And my father Anchises, with outstretched hands on the shore,

called to the great gods and declared the due sacrifice:

“Gods, avert these threats, gods, prevent these acts,

and, in peace, protect the virtuous!” Then he ordered us

to haul in the cables from the shore, unfurl and spread the sails.

South winds stretched the canvas: we coursed over foaming seas,

wherever the winds and the helmsman dictated our course.

Now wooded Zacynthus appeared amongst the waves,

Dulichium, Same and Neritos’s steep cliffs.

We ran past Laertes’s³ kingdom, Ithacas’s reefs,

and cursed the land that reared cruel Ulysses.

Soon the cloudy heights of Mount Leucata were revealed,

as well, and Apollo’s headland, feared by sailors.

We headed wearily for it and approached the little town:

the anchor was thrown from the prow, the stern rested on the beach.

So, beyond hope, achieving land at last, we purify

ourselves for Jove and light offerings on the altars,

and celebrate Trojan games on the shore of Actium⁴.

My naked companions, slippery with oil,

indulge in the wrestling-bouts of their homeland:

it’s good to have slipped past so many Greek cities

and held our course in flight through the midst of the enemy.

Meanwhile the sun rolls through the long year

and icy winter stirs the waves with northerly gales.

I fix a shield of hollow bronze, once carried by mighty Abas,

on the entrance pillars, and mark the event with a verse:

AENEAS OFFERS THIS ARMOUR FROM CONQUERING GREEKS

then I order them to man the benches and leave harbour.

In rivalry, my friends strike the sea and sweep the waves.

We soon leave behind the windblown heights of Phaeacia⁵,

pass the shores of Epirus, enter Chaonia’s harbour

and approach the lofty city of Buthrotum⁶.

---

servatum ex undis Strophadum me litora primum

excipiunt. Strophades Graio stant nomine dictae               210

insulae Ionio in magno, quas dira Celaeno

Harpyiaeque colunt aliae, Phineia postquam

clausa domus mensasque metu liquere priores.

tristius haud illis monstrum, nec saevior ulla

pestis et ira deum Stygiis sese extulit undis.               215

virginei volucrum vultus, foedissima ventris

proluvies uncaeque manus et pallida semper

ora fame.

huc ubi delati portus intravimus, ecce

laeta boum passim campis armenta videmus               220

caprigenumque pecus nullo custode per herbas.

inruimus ferro et divos ipsumque vocamus

in partem praedamque Iovem; tum litore curvo

exstruimusque toros dapibusque epulamur opimis.

at subitae horrifico lapsu de montibus adsunt               225

Harpyiae et magnis quatiunt clangoribus alas,

diripiuntque dapes contactuque omnia foedant

immundo; tum vox taetrum dira inter odorem.

rursum in secessu longo sub rupe cavata

arboribus clausam circum atque horrentibus umbris               230

instruimus mensas arisque reponimus ignem;

rursum ex diverso caeli caecisque latebris

turba sonans praedam pedibus circumvolat uncis,

polluit ore dapes. sociis tunc arma capessant

edico, et dira bellum cum gente gerendum.               235

haud secus ac iussi faciunt tectosque per herbam

disponunt ensis et scuta latentia condunt.

ergo ubi delapsae sonitum per curva dedere

litora, dat signum specula Misenus ab alta

aere cavo. invadunt socii et nova proelia temptant,               240

obscenas pelagi ferro foedare volucris.

sed neque vim plumis ullam nec vulnera tergo

accipiunt, celerique fuga sub sidera lapsae

semesam praedam et vestigia foeda relinquunt.

una in praecelsa consedit rupe Celaeno,               245

infelix vates, rumpitque hanc pectore vocem;

'bellum etiam pro caede boum stratisque iuvencis,

Laomedontiadae, bellumne inferre paratis

et patrio Harpyias insontis pellere regno?

accipite ergo animis atque haec mea figite dicta,               250

quae Phoebo pater omnipotens, mihi Phoebus Apollo

praedixit, vobis Furiarum ego maxima pando.

Italiam cursu petitis ventisque vocatis:

ibitis Italiam portusque intrare licebit.

sed non ante datam cingetis moenibus urbem               255

quam vos dira fames nostraeque iniuria caedis

ambesas subigat malis absumere mensas.'

dixit, et in silvam pennis ablata refugit.

at sociis subita gelidus formidine sanguis

deriguit: cecidere animi, nec iam amplius armis,               260

sed votis precibusque iubent exposcere pacem,

sive deae seu sint dirae obscenaeque volucres.

et pater Anchises passis de litore palmis

numina magna vocat meritosque indicit honores:

'di, prohibete minas; di, talem avertite casum               265

et placidi servate pios.' tum litore funem

deripere excussosque iubet laxare rudentis.

tendunt vela Noti: fugimus spumantibus undis

qua cursum ventusque gubernatorque vocabat.

iam medio apparet fluctu nemorosa Zacynthos               270

Dulichiumque Sameque et Neritos ardua saxis.

effugimus scopulos Ithacae, Laertia regna,

et terram altricem saevi exsecramur Ulixi.

mox et Leucatae nimbosa cacumina montis

et formidatus nautis aperitur Apollo.               275

hunc petimus fessi et parvae succedimus urbi;

ancora de prora iacitur, stant litore puppes.

Ergo insperata tandem tellure potiti

lustramurque Iovi votisque incendimus aras,

Actiaque Iliacis celebramus litora ludis.               280

exercent patrias oleo labente palaestras

nudati socii: iuvat evasisse tot urbes

Argolicas mediosque fugam tenuisse per hostis.

interea magnum sol circumvolvitur annum

et glacialis hiems Aquilonibus asperat undas.               285

aere cavo clipeum, magni gestamen Abantis,

postibus adversis figo et rem carmine signo:

Aeneas haec de Danais victoribus arma;

linquere tum portus iubeo et considere transtris.

certatim socii feriunt mare et aequora verrunt:               290

protinus aerias Phaeacum abscondimus arces

litoraque Epiri legimus portuque subimus

Chaonio et celsam Buthroti accedimus urbem.

---

Find the glossary for Aeneid Daily here; subscribe to receive daily posts.

1. leader of the Harpies

2. Phineus was a seer cursed with blinding and Harpy torment, for mythological reasons that vary in the telling.

3. Father of Odysseus, and maybe stand-in king of Ithaca?

4. Actium, of course, is significant as the place where Augustus finally defeated Antony and Cleopatra; Vergil’s choice to set the Trojan games here is a preemptive association of Trojan culture with Roman victory. I assume. To be quite frank, I desperately want to ask him what he meant by this.

5. An Odyssey reference! The Phaecians, ruled by King Alcinous, are the people who finally sail Odysseus home after hosting him as a guest (see books 5-13).

6. Just like in e-pistulae!