Aeneid V.700-815

Holy shit, the ghost of Dad? It's more likely than you think!

But Aeneas, the leader, stunned by the bitter blow,

pondered his great worries, turning them this way

and that in his mind. Should he settle in Sicily’s fields,

forgetting his destiny, or strike out for Italian shores?

Then old Nautes, whom alone Tritonian Pallas had taught

and rendered famous for his great skill—she gave him

answers, telling what the great gods’ anger portended

or what the course of destiny demanded—

began to solace Aeneas with these words:

“Son of the Goddess, let us follow wherever fate ebbs or flows,

whatever comes, every fortune may be conquered by endurance.

You have Trojan Acestes of the line of the gods:

let him share your decisions and be a willing partner,

entrust to him those who remain from the lost ships

and those tired of your great venture and your affairs:

Select also aged men and women exhausted by the sea,

and anyone with you who is frail or afraid of danger,

and let the weary have their city in this land;

and if agreed they will call it by Acestes’s name.”

Then roused by such words from an aged friend,

Aeneas’s heart was truly torn between so many cares.

And now black Night in her chariot, borne upwards,

occupied the heavens: and the likeness of his father Anchises

seemed to glide down from the sky and speak so:

“Son, dearer to me than life, when life remained,

my son, troubled by Troy’s fate, I come here

at Jove’s command, he who drove the fire from the ships

and at last takes pity on you from high heaven.

Follow the handsome advice that old Nautus gives;

take chosen youth, and the bravest hearts, to Italy.

In Latium you must subdue a tough race, harshly trained.

Yet first go to the infernal halls of Dis¹, and in deep

Avernus seek a meeting with me, my son. For impious

Tartarus, with its sad shades, does not hold me,

I live in Elysium and the lovely gatherings of the blessed.

Here the chaste Sibyl will bring you, with much blood of

black sheep. Then you’ll learn all about your race

and the city granted you. Now: farewell. Dew-wet Night

turns mid-course, and cruel Morning, with panting steeds,

breathes on me.” He spoke and fled like smoke into thin air.

“Where are you rushing to?” Aeneas cried, “Where are you

hurrying? Who do you flee? Who bars you from my embrace?”

So saying he revived the embers of the slumbering fires, and

paid reverence, humbly, with sacred grain and a full censer,

to the Trojan Lare and the inner shrine of white-haired Vesta.

Immediately he summoned his companions, Acestes first of all,

and told them of Jove’s command, and his dear father’s counsel,

and the decision he had reached in his mind. There was little delay

in their discussions, and Acestes did not refuse to accept his orders:

they transferred the women to the new city’s roll and settled

there those who wished, spirits with no desire for great glory.

They themselves, thinned in their numbers, but with manhood

fully alive to war, renewed the rowing benches, and replaced

the timbers of the ships burnt by fire, and fitted oars and rigging.

Meanwhile Aeneas marked out the city limits with a plough

and allocated houses; he declared that this was Ilium

and this place Troy. Acestes the Trojan revelled in his kingdom,

appointed a court, and gave out laws to the assembled senate.

Then a shrine of Venus of Idalia was dedicated,

close to the stars, on the tip of Eryx, and they added

a stretch of sacred grove and a priest to Anchises’s tomb.

When all the people had feasted for nine days, and offerings

had been made at the altars, gentle winds calmed the waves

and a strong Southerly called them again to sea.

A great weeping rose along the curving shore;

a day and a night they clung together in delay.

Now the women themselves, to whom the face of the ocean

had once seemed cruel and its name intolerable,

wish to go and suffer all the toils of exile.

Good Aeneas comforts them with kind words

and commends them to his kinsman Acestes with tears.

Then he orders three calves to be sacrificed to Eryx,

a lamb to the Storm-gods, and for the hawsers to be duly freed.

He himself, standing some way off on the prow, his brow

wreathed with leaves of cut olive, holds a cup, throws the entrails

into the salt waves, and pours out the clear wine.

A wind, rising astern, follows their departure: his friends

in rivalry, strike the waves, and sweep the waters.

But meanwhile Venus, tormented by anxiety, speaks

to Neptune and pours out her complaints in this manner:

“O Neptune, Juno’s heavy anger and her implacable

heart force me to descend to every kind of prayer,

she whom no length of time nor any piety can move,

nor does she rest, unwearied by fate or Jove’s commands.

It’s not enough that in her wicked hatred she’s consumed a city

at the heart of Phrygia, and dragged the survivors of Troy

through extremes of punishment: she pursues the bones and ashes

of the slaughtered. She alone knows the reason for such fury.

You yourself are witness to the trouble she stirred lately

in Libyan waters: she confused the whole sea

with the sky, daring to do this within your realm,

relying vainly on Aeolus’s violent storm-winds.

See how, rousing the Trojan women, in her wickedness,

and disgracefully, she has burnt their fleet, and, with ships lost,

to leave their friends behind on an unknown shore.

I beg you to let the rest sail safely through your seas,

let them reach Laurentine Tiber, if I ask

what is allowed, if the Fates grant them their city.”

Then the son of Saturn, the master of the deep oceans,

said this: “You’ve every right to trust in my realms, Cytherea,

from which you draw your own origin.² Also I’ve earned it:

I’ve often controlled the rage and fury of sea and sky.

Nor has my concern been less for your Aeneas on land

(I call Xanthus and Simois as witnesses). When Achilles

chased the Trojan ranks, in their panic forcing them to the wall,

and sent many thousands to death, and the rivers choked and

groaned, and Xanthus could not find his course

or roll down to the sea, then it was I who caught up Aeneas

in a thick mist as he met that brave son of Peleus,

when neither the gods nor his own strength favoured him,

though I longed to destroy the walls of lying Troy

that my hands had built from the ground up.³

Now also my mind remains the same: dispel your fears.

He will reach the harbours of Avernus safely, as you ask.

There will only be one lost in the waves whom you

will look for: one life that will be given for the many.”

---

At pater Aeneas casu concussus acerbo               700

nunc huc ingentis, nunc illuc pectore curas

mutabat versans, Siculisne resideret arvis

oblitus fatorum, Italasne capesseret oras.

tum senior Nautes, unum Tritonia Pallas

quem docuit multaque insignem reddidit arte—               705

haec responsa dabat, vel quae portenderet ira

magna deum vel quae fatorum posceret ordo;

isque his Aenean solatus vocibus infit:

'nate dea, quo fata trahunt retrahuntque sequamur;

quidquid erit, superanda omnis fortuna ferendo est.               710

est tibi Dardanius divinae stirpis Acestes:

hunc cape consiliis socium et coniunge volentem,

huic trade amissis superant qui navibus et quos

pertaesum magni incepti rerumque tuarum est.

longaevosque senes ac fessas aequore matres               715

et quidquid tecum invalidum metuensque pericli est

delige, et his habeant terris sine moenia fessi;

urbem appellabunt permisso nomine Acestam.'

Talibus incensus dictis senioris amici

tum vero in curas animo diducitur omnis;               720

et Nox atra polum bigis subvecta tenebat.

visa dehinc caelo facies delapsa parentis

Anchisae subito talis effundere voces:

'nate, mihi vita quondam, dum vita manebat,

care magis, nate Iliacis exercite fatis,               725

imperio Iovis huc venio, qui classibus ignem

depulit, et caelo tandem miseratus ab alto est.

consiliis pare quae nunc pulcherrima Nautes

dat senior; lectos iuvenes, fortissima corda,

defer in Italiam. gens dura atque aspera cultu               730

debellanda tibi Latio est. Ditis tamen ante

infernas accede domos et Averna per alta

congressus pete, nate, meos. non me impia namque

Tartara habent, tristes umbrae, sed amoena piorum

concilia Elysiumque colo. huc casta Sibylla               735

nigrarum multo pecudum te sanguine ducet.

tum genus omne tuum et quae dentur moenia disces.

iamque vale; torquet medios Nox umida cursus

et me saevus equis Oriens adflavit anhelis.'

dixerat et tenuis fugit ceu fumus in auras.               740

Aeneas 'quo deinde ruis? quo proripis?' inquit,

'quem fugis? aut quis te nostris complexibus arcet?'

haec memorans cinerem et sopitos suscitat ignis,

Pergameumque Larem et canae penetralia Vestae

farre pio et plena supplex veneratur acerra.               745

Extemplo socios primumque accersit Acesten

et Iovis imperium et cari praecepta parentis

edocet et quae nunc animo sententia constet.

haud mora consiliis, nec iussa recusat Acestes:

transcribunt urbi matres populumque volentem               750

deponunt, animos nil magnae laudis egentis.

ipsi transtra novant flammisque ambesa reponunt

robora navigiis, aptant remosque rudentisque,

exigui numero, sed bello vivida virtus.

interea Aeneas urbem designat aratro               755

sortiturque domos; hoc Ilium et haec loca Troiam

esse iubet. gaudet regno Troianus Acestes

indicitque forum et patribus dat iura vocatis.

tum vicina astris Erycino in vertice sedes

fundatur Veneri Idaliae, tumuloque sacerdos               760

ac lucus late sacer additus Anchiseo.

Iamque dies epulata novem gens omnis, et aris

factus honos: placidi straverunt aequora venti

creber et aspirans rursus vocat Auster in altum.

exoritur procurva ingens per litora fletus;               765

complexi inter se noctemque diemque morantur.

ipsae iam matres, ipsi, quibus aspera quondam

visa maris facies et non tolerabile numen,

ire volunt omnemque fugae perferre laborem.

quos bonus Aeneas dictis solatur amicis               770

et consanguineo lacrimans commendat Acestae.

tris Eryci vitulos et Tempestatibus agnam

caedere deinde iubet solvique ex ordine funem.

ipse caput tonsae foliis evinctus olivae

stans procul in prora pateram tenet, extaque salsos               775

proicit in fluctus ac vina liquentia fundit.

certatim socii feriunt mare et aequora verrunt;               778

prosequitur surgens a puppi ventus euntis.               777

At Venus interea Neptunum exercita curis               779

adloquitur talisque effundit pectore questus:

'Iunonis gravis ira neque exsaturabile pectus

cogunt me, Neptune, preces descendere in omnis;

quam nec longa dies pietas nec mitigat ulla,

nec Iovis imperio fatisque infracta quiescit.

non media de gente Phrygum exedisse nefandis               785

urbem odiis satis est nec poenam traxe per omnem

reliquias Troiae: cineres atque ossa peremptae

insequitur. causas tanti sciat illa furoris.

ipse mihi nuper Libycis tu testis in undis

quam molem subito excierit: maria omnia caelo               790

miscuit Aeoliis nequiquam freta procellis,

in regnis hoc ausa tuis.

per scelus ecce etiam Troianis matribus actis

exussit foede puppis et classe subegit

amissa socios ignotae linquere terrae.               795

quod superest, oro, liceat dare tuta per undas

vela tibi, liceat Laurentem attingere Thybrim,

si concessa peto, si dant ea moenia Parcae.'

tum Saturnius haec domitor maris edidit alti:

'fas omne est, Cytherea, meis te fidere regnis,               800

unde genus ducis. merui quoque; saepe furores

compressi et rabiem tantam caelique marisque.

nec minor in terris, Xanthum Simoentaque testor,

Aeneae mihi cura tui. cum Troia Achilles

exanimata sequens impingeret agmina muris,               805

milia multa daret leto, gemerentque repleti

amnes nec reperire viam atque euolvere posset

in mare se Xanthus, Pelidae tunc ego forti

congressum Aenean nec dis nec viribus aequis

nube cava rapui, cuperem cum vertere ab imo               810

structa meis manibus periurae moenia Troiae.

nunc quoque mens eadem perstat mihi; pelle timores.

tutus, quos optas, portus accedet Averni.

unus erit tantum amissum quem gurgite quaeres;

unum pro multis dabitur caput.'               815

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

1. Either Pluto or metonymy for the underworld.

2. The most common story for Venus’s origin is that Jupiter, after castrating his father (the Titan Saturn), threw the pieces onto the sea, where Venus arose fully-formed from the foam.

3. Aeneas’s fight with Achilles occurs in Iliad 20, where Aeneas, incited by Apollo, attacks Achilles during his rage. This is, as Neptune points out, ill-advised. Neptune’s comments on the wall of Troy refer to the story of Laomedon, past king of Troy. Jupiter, angered by Neptune and Apollo conspiring against him, sent the two gods to work for Laomedon; when he refused to pay them for constructing the walls of Troy, they retaliated with various divine punishments.