Aeneid V.519-603

The games end with an omen and a parade.

Acestes alone remained: the prize was lost:

yet he still shot his arrow high into the air,

showing an older man’s skill, the bow twanging. Then

a sudden wonder appeared before their eyes, destined to be

of great meaning: the time to come unveiled its crucial outcome,

and great seers of the future celebrated it as an omen.

The arrow, flying through the passing clouds, caught fire,

marked out its path with flames, then vanished into thin air,

as shooting stars loosed from heaven often transit

the sky, drawing their tresses after them. Astonished,

the Trinacrians¹ and Trojans stood rooted to the spot,

praying to the gods: nor did their great leader Aeneas

reject the sign, but embracing the joyful Acestes,

loaded him with handsome gifts and spoke as follows:

“Take these, old man, since the high king of Olympus shows

by these omens that he wishes you to take extraordinary honours.

You shall have this gift owned by aged Anchises himself,

a bowl engraved with figures, that Cisseus of Thrace

once long ago gave Anchises my father as a memento

of himself, and as a pledge of his friendship.”

So saying he wreathed his brow with green laurel

and proclaimed Acestes the highest victor among them all.

Nor did good Eurytion begrudge the special prize,

though he alone brought the bird down from the sky.

Next he who cut the cord stepped forward for his reward,

and lastly he whose swift shaft had transfixed the mast.

But before the match is complete Aeneas the leader

calls Epytides to him, companion and guardian

of young Iulus, and speaks into his loyal ear:

“Off! Go! Tell Ascanius, if he has his troop of boys

ready with him, and is prepared for the horse-riding

to show himself with his weapons, and lead them out

in honour of his grandfather.” He himself orders the whole

crowd of people to leave the lengthy circuit, emptying the field.

The boys arrive and glitter together on their bridled horses

under their fathers’ gaze, and the men of Troy

and Sicily murmur in admiration as they go by.

They all have their hair properly circled by a cut garland;

they each carry two cornel-wood spears tipped with steel,

some have shining quivers on their shoulders; a flexible

torque of twisted gold sits high on their chests around the neck.

The troops of horse are three in number, and three leaders

ride ahead; two groups of six boys follow each,

commanded alike and set out in gleaming ranks.

One line of youths is led joyfully by little Priam,

recalling his grandfather’s name, your noble child,

Polites, seed of the Italians: whom a piebald

Thracian horse carries, showing white pasterns

as it steps, and a high white forehead.

Next is Atys, from whom the Latin Atii trace their line,

little Atys, a boy loved by the boy Iulus.

Last, and most handsome of all in appearance,

Iulus himself rides a Sidonian horse that radiant Dido

had given him, as a remembrance of herself

and a token of her love. The rest of the youths

ride the Sicilian horses of old Acestes.

The Trojans greet the shy lads with applause, and delight

in gazing at them, seeing their ancient families in their faces.

When they have ridden happily round the whole assembly

under the eyes of their kin, Epytides with a prolonged cry

gives the agreed signal and cracks his whip.

They gallop apart in two equal detachments, the three

groups parting company and dissolving their columns,

then, recalled, they wheel round and charge with level lances.

Then they perform other figures and counter-figures

in opposing ranks, and weave in circles inside counter-circles,

and perform a simulated battle with weapons;

now their backs are exposed in flight, now they turn

their spears to charge, now ride side by side in peace.

Like the Labyrinth in mountainous Crete², they say,

that contained a path winding between blind walls,

wandering with guile through a thousand turnings,

so that undetected and irretraceable errors

might foil any guidelines that might be followed:

so the Trojan children twine their steps in just such a pattern,

weaving battle and flight in their display, like dolphins

swimming through the ocean streams, cutting the Carpathian³

and Lybian waters and playing among the waves.

Ascanius first revived this kind of riding, and this contest,

when he encircled Alba Longa with walls, and taught the Early

Latins to celebrate it in the way he and the Trojan youth

had done together; the Albans taught their children; mighty Rome

received it from them in turn, and preserved the ancestral rite;

and today the boys are called ‘Troy’ and their procession ‘Trojan’.

So the games are completed celebrating Aeneas’s sacred father.

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Amissa solus palma superabat Acestes,

qui tamen aerias telum contendit in auras               520

ostentans artemque pater arcumque sonantem.

hic oculis subitum obicitur magnoque futurum

augurio monstrum: docuit post exitus ingens

seraque terrifici cecinerunt omina vates.

namque volans liquidis in nubibus arsit harundo               525

signavitque viam flammis tenuisque recessit

consumpta in ventos, caelo ceu saepe refixa

transcurrunt crinemque volantia sidera ducunt.

attonitis haesere animis superosque precati

Trinacrii Teucrique viri, nec maximus omen               530

abnuit Aeneas, sed laetum amplexus Acesten

muneribus cumulat magnis ac talia fatur:

'sume, pater, nam te voluit rex magnus Olympi

talibus auspiciis exsortem ducere honores.

ipsius Anchisae longaevi hoc munus habebis,               535

cratera impressum signis, quem Thracius olim

Anchisae genitori in magno munere Cisseus

ferre sui dederat monimentum et pignus amoris.'

sic fatus cingit viridanti tempora lauro

et primum ante omnis victorem appellat Acesten.               540

nec bonus Eurytion praelato invidit honori,

quamvis solus auem caelo deiecit ab alto.

proximus ingreditur donis qui vincula rupit,

extremus volucri qui fixit harundine malum.

At pater Aeneas nondum certamine misso               545

custodem ad sese comitemque impubis Iuli

Epytiden vocat, et fidam sic fatur ad aurem:

'vade age et Ascanio, si iam puerile paratum

agmen habet secum cursusque instruxit equorum,

ducat auo turmas et sese ostendat in armis               550

dic' ait. ipse omnem longo decedere circo

infusum populum et campos iubet esse patentis.

incedunt pueri pariterque ante ora parentum

frenatis lucent in equis, quos omnis euntis

Trinacriae mirata fremit Troiaeque iuventus.               555

omnibus in morem tonsa coma pressa corona;

cornea bina ferunt praefixa hastilia ferro,

pars levis umero pharetras; it pectore summo

flexilis obtorti per collum circulus auri.

tres equitum numero turmae ternique vagantur               560

ductores; pueri bis seni quemque secuti

agmine partito fulgent paribusque magistris.

una acies iuvenum, ducit quam parvus ovantem

nomen avi referens Priamus, tua clara, Polite,

progenies, auctura Italos; quem Thracius albis                565

portat equus bicolor maculis, vestigia primi

alba pedis frontemque ostentans arduus albam.

alter Atys, genus unde Atii duxere Latini,

paruus Atys pueroque puer dilectus Iulo.

extremus formaque ante omnis pulcher Iulus               570

Sidonio est invectus equo, quem candida Dido

esse sui dederat monimentum et pignus amoris.

cetera Trinacriis pubes senioris Acestae

fertur equis.

excipiunt plausu pavidos gaudentque tuentes               575

Dardanidae, veterumque agnoscunt ora parentum.

postquam omnem laeti consessum oculosque suorum

lustravere in equis, signum clamore paratis

Epytides longe dedit insonuitque flagello.

olli discurrere pares atque agmina terni               580

diductis solvere choris, rursusque vocati

convertere vias infestaque tela tulere.

inde alios ineunt cursus aliosque recursus

adversi spatiis, alternosque orbibus orbis

impediunt pugnaeque cient simulacra sub armis;               585

et nunc terga fuga nudant, nunc spicula vertunt

infensi, facta pariter nunc pace feruntur.

ut quondam Creta fertur Labyrinthus in alta

parietibus textum caecis iter ancipitemque

mille viis habuisse dolum, qua signa sequendi               590

frangeret indeprensus et inremeabilis error;

haud alio Teucrum nati vestigia cursu

impediunt texuntque fugas et proelia ludo,

delphinum similes qui per maria umida nando

Carpathium Libycumque secant luduntque per undas.               595

hunc morem cursus atque haec certamina primus

Ascanius, Longam muris cum cingeret Albam,

rettulit et priscos docuit celebrare Latinos,

quo puer ipse modo, secum quo Troia pubes;

Albani docuere suos; hinc maxima porro               600

accepit Roma et patrium servavit honorem;

Troiaque nunc pueri, Troianum dicitur agmen.

hac celebrata tenus sancto certamina patri.

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

1. another name for Sicilians

2. Yep, the Minotaur one.

3. Carpathus = an island in the Aegean