Aeneid VI.1-97
Aeneas meets the Sibyl of Cumae and gets his fortune told.
So Aeneas spoke, weeping, gave his fleet full rein, and glided
at last to the shores of Euboean1 Cumae. They turned
their prows to the sea, secured the ships’ anchors
by the grip of their flukes, and the curved boats
lined the beach. The youthful band leapt eagerly
to the Hesperian shore; some sought the means of fire
contained in veins of flint, some raided the woods
the dense coverts of game, pointing out streams they found.
But pious Aeneas sought the summits where Apollo
rules on high, and the vast cavern nearby, the secret place
of the terrifying Sibyl, in whom the Delian prophet
inspires greatness of mind and spirit, and reveals the future.
Soon they entered the grove of Diana and the golden house.
Daedalus, so the story goes, fleeing from Minos’s kingdom,
dared to trust himself to the air on swift wings,
and, gliding on unknown paths to the frozen North,
hovered lightly at last above the Chalcidian2 hill.
First returning to earth here, he dedicated his oar-like wings
to you, Phoebus, and built a gigantic temple.
On the doors the Death of Androgeos3; then the Athenians,
Cecrops’s4 descendants, commanded sadly to pay annual tribute
of seven of their sons: there the urn stands with the lots drawn.
Facing it, rising from the sea, the Cretan land is depicted:
and here the bull’s savage passion, Pasiphae’s5
secret union, and the Minotaur, hybrid offspring,
that mixture of species, proof of unnatural relations:
the artwork here is that palace, and its inextricable maze;
and yet Daedalus himself, pitying the noble princess
Ariadne’s love, unravelled the deceptive tangle of corridors,
guiding Theseus’s blind footsteps with the clue of thread.6
You’d have shared largely in such a work, Icarus7, if grief
had allowed. He’d twice attempted to fashion your fate
in gold, twice your father’s hands fell. Eyes would have read
the whole continuously, if Achetes had not arrived
from his errand with Deiophobe8, Glaucus’s daughter,
the priestess of Phoebus and Diana, who spoke to the leader:
“This moment doesn’t require your sightseeing: it would
be better to sacrifice seven bullocks from a virgin herd,
and as many carefully chosen two-year old sheep.”
Having spoken to Aeneas in this way (without delay they sacrificed
as ordered) the priestess called the Trojans to her high shrine.
The vast flank of the Euboean cliff is pitted with caves,
from which a hundred wide tunnels, a hundred mouths lead,
from which as many voices rush: the Sibyl’s replies.
They had come to the threshold when the virgin cried out:
“It is time to question the Oracle, behold, the god, the god!”
As she so spoke in front of the doors, suddenly neither her face
nor colour were the same, nor did her hair remain bound,
but her chest heaved, her heart swelled with wild frenzy,
she seemed taller and sounded not-human, for now
the power of the god is closer. “Are you slow with your
vows and prayers, Aeneas of Troy, are you slow?”
she cried. “The great lips of the House of Inspiration
will not open without.” And so saying she fell silent.
An icy shudder ran to the Trojans’ very spines,
and their leader poured out heartfelt prayers:
“Phoebus, you who always pitied Troy’s intense suffering,
who guided the hand of Paris and the Dardan arrow
against Achilles’s body, with you as leader I entered
all those seas encircling vast lands, and penetrated
the remote Massylian tribes and the fields edged by Syrtes:
now at last we have the coast of elusive Italy in our grasp.
Troy’s ill fortune only followed us as far as here.
You too with justice can spare the Trojan race, and all you gods
and goddesses to whom the great glory of Ilium and Dardania
was an offence. O most sacred of prophetesses,
you who see the future, (I ask for no lands not owed me
by my destiny) grant that we Trojans may settle Latium
with the exiled gods and storm-tossed powers of Troy.
Then I’ll dedicate a temple of solid marble to Phoebus
and Diana Trivia, and sacred days in Phoebus’s name.
A noble inner shrine waits for you too in our kingdom.
There, gracious one, I will place your oracles and mystic
utterances spoken to my people, and consecrate picked men.
Only do not write your verses on the leaves, lest they fly,
disordered playthings of the rushing winds; chant them
from your own mouth.” He put an end to his mouth’s speaking.
But the wild prophetess raged in her cavern, not yet
submitting to Phoebus, as if she might shake the great god
from her spirit; yet he exhausted her raving mouth
all the more, taming her wild heart, shaping her by constraint.
And now the shrine’s hundred mighty lips have opened
of themselves, and carry the seer’s answer through the air:
“Oh, you who are done with all the perils of the sea
(yet greater await you on land), the Trojans will come
to the realm of Lavinium (put that care from your heart),
but will not enjoy their coming. War, fierce war,
I see, and the Tiber foaming with much blood.
You will not lack a Simois, a Xanthus, a Greek camp;
even now another Achilles is born in Latium,
he too the son of a goddess9; nor will Juno, the Trojans’ bane,
be ever far away, while you, humbled and destitute,
what races and cities of Italy will you not beg in!
Once again a foreign bride is the cause of all
these Trojan ills, once more an alien marriage.10
Do not give way to misfortunes, meet them more bravely,
as your destiny allows. The path of safety will open up
for you from where you least imagine it, a Greek city.”
Sic fatur lacrimans, classique immittit habenas
et tandem Euboicis Cumarum adlabitur oris.
obvertunt pelago proras; tum dente tenaci
ancora fundabat navis et litora curvae
praetexunt puppes. iuvenum manus emicat ardens 5
litus in Hesperium; quaerit pars semina flammae
abstrusa in venis silicis, pars densa ferarum
tecta rapit silvas inventaque flumina monstrat.
at pius Aeneas arces quibus altus Apollo
praesidet horrendaeque procul secreta Sibyllae, 10
antrum immane, petit, magnam cui mentem animumque
Delius inspirat vates aperitque futura.
iam subeunt Triviae lucos atque aurea tecta.
Daedalus, ut fama est, fugiens Minoia regna
praepetibus pennis ausus se credere caelo 15
insuetum per iter gelidas enavit ad Arctos,
Chalcidicaque levis tandem super astitit arce.
redditus his primum terris tibi, Phoebe, sacravit
remigium alarum posuitque immania templa.
in foribus letum Androgeo; tum pendere poenas 20
Cecropidae iussi (miserum!) septena quotannis
corpora natorum; stat ductis sortibus urna.
contra elata mari respondet Cnosia tellus:
hic crudelis amor tauri suppostaque furto
Pasiphae mixtumque genus prolesque biformis 25
Minotaurus inest, Veneris monimenta nefandae,
hic labor ille domus et inextricabilis error;
magnum reginae sed enim miseratus amorem
Daedalus ipse dolos tecti ambagesque resolvit,
caeca regens filo vestigia. tu quoque magnam 30
partem opere in tanto, sineret dolor, Icare, haberes.
bis conatus erat casus effingere in auro,
bis patriae cecidere manus. quin protinus omnia
perlegerent oculis, ni iam praemissus Achates
adforet atque una Phoebi Triviaeque sacerdos, 35
Deiphobe Glauci, fatur quae talia regi:
'non hoc ista sibi tempus spectacula poscit;
nunc grege de intacto septem mactare iuvencos
praestiterit, totidem lectas ex more bidentis.'
talibus adfata Aenean (nec sacra morantur 40
iussa viri) Teucros vocat alta in templa sacerdos.
Excisum Euboicae latus ingens rupis in antrum,
quo lati ducunt aditus centum, ostia centum,
unde ruunt totidem voces, responsa Sibyllae.
ventum erat ad limen, cum virgo 'poscere fata 45
tempus' ait; 'deus ecce deus!' cui talia fanti
ante fores subito non vultus, non color unus,
non comptae mansere comae; sed pectus anhelum,
et rabie fera corda tument, maiorque videri
nec mortale sonans, adflata est numine quando 50
iam propiore dei. 'cessas in vota precesque,
Tros' ait 'Aenea? cessas? neque enim ante dehiscent
attonitae magna ora domus.' et talia fata
conticuit. gelidus Teucris per dura cucurrit
ossa tremor, funditque preces rex pectore ab imo: 55
'Phoebe, gravis Troiae semper miserate labores,
Dardana qui Paridis derexti tela manusque
corpus in Aeacidae, magnas obeuntia terras
tot maria intravi duce te penitusque repostas
Massylum gentis praetentaque Syrtibus arva: 60
iam tandem Italiae fugientis prendimus oras.
hac Troiana tenus fuerit fortuna secuta;
vos quoque Pergameae iam fas est parcere genti,
dique deaeque omnes, quibus obstitit Ilium et ingens
gloria Dardaniae. tuque, o sanctissima vates, 65
praescia venturi, da (non indebita posco
regna meis fatis) Latio considere Teucros
errantisque deos agitataque numina Troiae.
tum Phoebo et Triviae solido de marmore templum
instituam festosque dies de nomine Phoebi. 70
te quoque magna manent regnis penetralia nostris:
hic ego namque tuas sortis arcanaque fata
dicta meae genti ponam, lectosque sacrabo,
alma, viros. foliis tantum ne carmina manda,
ne turbata volent rapidis ludibria ventis; 75
ipsa canas oro.' finem dedit ore loquendi.
At Phoebi nondum patiens immanis in antro
bacchatur vates, magnum si pectore possit
excussisse deum; tanto magis ille fatigat
os rabidum, fera corda domans, fingitque premendo. 80
ostia iamque domus patuere ingentia centum
sponte sua vatisque ferunt responsa per auras:
'o tandem magnis pelagi defuncte periclis
(sed terrae graviora manent), in regna Lavini
Dardanidae venient (mitte hanc de pectore curam), 85
sed non et venisse volent. bella, horrida bella,
et Thybrim multo spumantem sanguine cerno.
non Simois tibi nec Xanthus nec Dorica castra
defuerint; alius Latio iam partus Achilles,
natus et ipse dea; nec Teucris addita Iuno 90
usquam aberit, cum tu supplex in rebus egenis
quas gentis Italum aut quas non oraveris urbes!
causa mali tanti coniunx iterum hospita Teucris
externique iterum thalami.
tu ne cede malis, sed contra audentior ito, 95
qua tua te Fortuna sinet. via prima salutis
(quod minime reris) Graia pandetur ab urbe.'
Find the glossary for Aeneid Daily here; subscribe to receive daily posts.
Euboea = an island off the east coast of Greece
Chalcis = the major city of Euboea
Minos of Crete’s murdered son; the short version here is that Androgeos was killed in Athens (the specifics vary), and in retaliation, the Athenians were forced to routinely sacrifice seven young men to the Cretan Minotaur.
first king of Athens
Minos of Crete’s wife; cursed to fall in love with a bull, she mated with it and gave birth to the Minotaur.
Daedalus’s son, with whom he escaped Crete on wax wings; famously, Icarus flew too close to the sun, melting his wings, and fell into the sea, where he drowned.
the Sibyl
Hang onto this.
“Once again” refers to the abduction of Helen as the impetus of the Trojan War.