Aeneid V.315-423
Remember, cheating at footraces is always morally correct if you're gay.
When he had finished they took their places and, suddenly,
on hearing the signal, they left the barrier and shot onto the course,
streaming out like a storm cloud, gaze fixed on the goal.
Nisus was off first, and darted away ahead of all the others,
faster than the wind or the winged lightning-bolt;
Salius followed behind him, but a long way behind;
then after a space Euryalus was third; Helymus
pursued Euryalus, and there was Diores speeding near him,
now touching foot to foot, leaning at his shoulder:
if the course had been longer he’d have
slipped past him and left the outcome in doubt.
Now, wearied, almost at the end of the track,
they neared the winning post itself, when the unlucky Nisus
fell in some slippery blood, which when the bullocks were killed
had chanced to drench the ground and the green grass.
Here the youth, already rejoicing at winning, failed to keep
his sliding feet on the ground, but fell flat,
straight in the slimy dirt and sacred blood.
But he didn’t forget Euryalus even then, nor his love:
but, picking himself up out of the wet, obstructed Salius,
who fell head over heels onto the thick sand.
Euryalus sped by and, darting onwards to applause and the shouts
of his supporters, took first place, winning with his friend’s help.
Helymus came in behind him, then Diores, now in third place.
At this Salius filled the whole vast amphitheatre and the faces
of the foremost elders with his loud clamour,
demanding to be given the prize stolen from him by a trick.
His popularity protects Euryalus, and fitting tears,
and ability is more pleasing in a beautiful body.
Diores encourages him, and protests in a loud voice,
having reached the palm, but claiming the last prize in vain
if the highest honour goes to Salius.
Then Aeneas the leader said, “Your prizes are still yours,
lads, and no one is altering the order of attainment:
but allow me to take pity on an unfortunate friend’s fate.”
So saying he gives Salius the huge pelt of a Gaetulian lion,
heavy with shaggy fur, its claws gilded.
At this Nisus comments: “If these are the prizes for losing,
and you pity the fallen, what fitting gift will you grant to Nisus,
who would have earned first place through merit
if ill luck had not dogged me, as it did Salius?”
And with that he shows his face and limbs drenched
with foul mud. The best of leaders smiles at him,
and orders a shield to be brought, the work of Didymaon1,
once unpinned by the Greeks from Neptune’s sacred threshold:
this outstanding prize he gives to the noble youth.
When the races were done and the gifts allotted,
Aeneas cried: “Now, he who has skill and courage in his heart,
let him stand here and raise his arms, his fists bound in hide.”
So saying he set out the double prize for the boxing,
a bullock for the winner, dressed with gold and sacred ribbons,
and a sword and a noble helmet to console the defeated.
Without delay Dares, hugely strong, raised his face
and rose to a great murmur from the crowd,
he who alone used to compete with Paris,
and by that same mound where mighty Hector lies
he struck the victorious Butes, borne of the Bebrycian
race of Amycus2, as he came forward, vast in bulk,
and stretched him dying on the yellow sand.
Such was Dares who lifted his head up for the bout at once,
showed his broad shoulders, stretched his arms out, sparring
to right and left, and threw punches at the air.
A contestant was sought for him, but no one from all that crowd
dared face the man or pull the gloves on his hands.
So, cheerfully thinking they had all conceded the prize, he stands
before Aeneas, and without more delay holds the bullock’s horn
in his left hand and says: “Son of the goddess, if no one dare
commit himself to fight, when will my standing here end?
How long is it right for me to be kept waiting? Order me to lead
your gift away.” All the Trojans together shout their approval,
and demand that what was promised be granted him.
At this Acestes upbraids Entellus3, sitting next to him
on a stretch of green grass, with grave words:
“Entellus, once the bravest of heroes, was it all in vain,
will you let so great a prize be carried off without a struggle,
and so tamely? Where’s our divine master, Eryx, now,
famous to no purpose? Where’s your name throughout Sicily,
and why are those spoils of battle hanging in your house?”
To this Entellus replies: “It’s not that quelled by fear, pride or love
of fame has died: but my chill blood is dull with age’s sluggishness,
and the vigour in my body is lifeless and exhausted.
If I had what I once had, which that boaster enjoys
and relies on, if that youthfulness were mine now,
then I’d certainly have stepped forward, but not seduced
by prizes or handsome bullocks: I don’t care about gifts.”
Having spoken he throws a pair of gloves of immense weight
which fierce Eryx, binding the tough hide onto his hands,
used to fight in, into the middle of the ring. Their minds
are stunned: huge pieces of hide from seven massive oxen
are stiff with the iron and lead sewn into them. Above all
Dares himself is astonished, and declines the bout from a distance,
and Anchises’s noble son turns the huge volume
and weight of the gloves backwards and forwards.
Then the older man4 speaks like this, from his heart:
“What if you’d seen the arms and gloves of Hercules
himself, and the fierce fight on this very shore?
Your brother Eryx once wore these (you see that
they’re still stained with blood and brain matter),
he faced great Hercules in them: I used to fight in them
when more vigorous blood granted me strength,
and envious age had not yet sprinkled my brow with snow.
But if a Trojan, Dares, shrinks from these gloves of ours,
and good Aeneas accepts it, and Acestes my sponsor agrees,
let’s level the odds. I’ll forgo the gloves of Eryx
(banish your fears): you, throw off your Trojan ones.”
So speaking he flings his double-sided cloak from his shoulders,
baring the massive muscles of his limbs, his thighs
with their huge bones, and stands, a giant, in the centre of the arena.
Haec ubi dicta, locum capiunt signoque repente 315
corripiunt spatia audito limenque relinquunt,
effusi nimbo similes. simul ultima signant,
primus abit longeque ante omnia corpora Nisus
emicat et ventis et fulminis ocior alis;
proximus huic, longo sed proximus intervallo, 320
insequitur Salius; spatio post deinde relicto
tertius Euryalus;
Euryalumque Helymus sequitur; quo deinde sub ipso
ecce volat calcemque terit iam calce Diores
incumbens umero, spatia et si plura supersint 325
transeat elapsus prior ambiguumque relinquat.
iamque fere spatio extremo fessique sub ipsam
finem adventabant, levi cum sanguine Nisus
labitur infelix, caesis ut forte iuvencis
fusus humum viridisque super madefecerat herbas. 330
hic iuvenis iam victor ovans vestigia presso
haud tenuit titubata solo, sed pronus in ipso
concidit immundoque fimo sacroque cruore.
non tamen Euryali, non ille oblitus amorum:
nam sese opposuit Salio per lubrica surgens; 335
ille autem spissa iacuit revolutus harena,
emicat Euryalus et munere victor amici
prima tenet, plausuque volat fremituque secundo.
post Helymus subit et nunc tertia palma Diores.
hic totum caveae consessum ingentis et ora 340
prima patrum magnis Salius clamoribus implet,
ereptumque dolo reddi sibi poscit honorem.
tutatur favor Euryalum lacrimaeque decorae,
gratior et pulchro veniens in corpore virtus.
adiuvat et magna proclamat voce Diores, 345
qui subiit palmae frustraque ad praemia venit
ultima, si primi Salio reddentur honores.
tum pater Aeneas 'vestra' inquit 'munera vobis
certa manent, pueri et palmam movet ordine nemo;
me liceat casus miserari insontis amici.' 350
sic fatus tergum Gaetuli immane leonis
dat Salio villis onerosum atque unguibus aureis.
hic Nisus 'si tanta' inquit 'sunt praemia victis,
et te lapsorum miseret, quae munera Niso
digna dabis, primam merui qui laude coronam 355
ni me, quae Salium, fortuna inimica tulisset?'
et simul his dictis faciem ostentabat et udo
turpia membra fimo. risit pater optimus olli
et clipeum efferri iussit, Didymaonis artes,
Neptuni sacro Danais de poste refixum. 360
hoc iuvenem egregium praestanti munere donat.
Post, ubi confecti cursus et dona peregit,
'nunc, si cui virtus animusque in pectore praesens,
adsit et evinctis attollat bracchia palmis:’
sic ait, et geminum pugnae proponit honorem, 365
victori velatum auro vittisque iuvencum,
ensem atque insignem galeam solacia victo.
nec mora; continuo vastis cum viribus effert
ora Dares magnoque virum se murmure tollit,
solus qui Paridem solitus contendere contra, 370
idemque ad tumulum quo maximus occubat Hector
victorem Buten immani corpore, qui se
Bebrycia veniens Amyci de gente ferebat,
perculit et fulva moribundum extendit harena.
talis prima Dares caput altum in proelia tollit, 375
ostenditque umeros latos alternaque iactat
bracchia protendens et verberat ictibus auras.
quaeritur huic alius; nec quisquam ex agmine tanto
audet adire virum manibusque inducere caestus.
ergo alacris cunctosque putans excedere palma 380
Aeneae stetit ante pedes, nec plura moratus
tum laeva taurum cornu tenet atque ita fatur:
'nate dea, si nemo audet se credere pugnae,
quae finis standi? quo me decet usque teneri?
ducere dona iube.' cuncti simul ore fremebant 385
Dardanidae reddique viro promissa iubebant.
Hic gravis Entellum dictis castigat Acestes,
proximus ut viridante toro consederat herbae:
'Entelle, heroum quondam fortissime frustra,
tantane tam patiens nullo certamine tolli 390
dona sines? ubi nunc nobis deus ille, magister
nequiquam memoratus, Eryx? ubi fama per omnem
Trinacriam et spolia illa tuis pendentia tectis?'
ille sub haec: 'non laudis amor nec gloria cessit
pulsa metu; sed enim gelidus tardante senecta 395
sanguis hebet, frigentque effetae in corpore vires.
si mihi quae quondam fuerat quaque improbus iste
exsultat fidens, si nunc foret illa iuventas,
haud equidem pretio inductus pulchroque iuvenco
venissem, nec dona moror.' sic deinde locutus 400
in medium geminos immani pondere caestus
proiecit, quibus acer Eryx in proelia suetus
ferre manum duroque intendere bracchia tergo.
obstipuere animi: tantorum ingentia septem
terga boum plumbo insuto ferroque rigebant. 405
ante omnis stupet ipse Dares longeque recusat,
magnanimusque Anchisiades et pondus et ipsa
huc illuc vinclorum immensa volumina versat.
tum senior talis referebat pectore voces:
'quid, si quis caestus ipsius et Herculis arma 410
vidisset tristemque hoc ipso in litore pugnam?
haec germanus Eryx quondam tuus arma gerebat
(sanguine cernis adhuc sparsoque infecta cerebro),
his magnum Alciden contra stetit, his ego suetus,
dum melior viris sanguis dabat, aemula necdum 415
temporibus geminis canebat sparsa senectus.
sed si nostra Dares haec Troius arma recusat
idque pio sedet Aeneae, probat auctor Acestes,
aequemus pugnas. Erycis tibi terga remitto
(solve metus), et tu Troianos exue caestus.' 420
haec fatus duplicem ex umeris reiecit amictum
et magnos membrorum artus, magna ossa lacertosque
exuit atque ingens media consistit harena.
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a skilled metalworker
The Bebrycii were a people from Asia Minor; the reason for Dares’ fight with Butes is unclear, maybe Trojan-war-related?
Another Sicilian.
Entellus