Aeneid VI.562-678

The Sibyl describes the top ten horrors of Tartarus. Aeneas reaches the Fields of Elysium.

Then the prophetess began to speak as follows: “Famous leader

of the Trojans, it is forbidden for the pure to cross the evil threshold;

but when Hecate appointed me to the wood of Avernus,

she taught me the divine torments and guided me through them all.

Cretan Rhadamanthus¹ rules this harshest of kingdoms,

and hears their guilt, extracts confessions, and punishes

whoever has deferred atonement for their sins too long

till death, delighting in useless concealment in the world above.

Tisiphone the avenger, armed with her whip, leaps on the guilty immediately,

lashes them, and, threatening them with the fierce

snakes in her left hand, calls to her savage troop of sisters.

Then at last the accursed doors open, screeching on jarring hinges.

You comprehend what guardian sits at the door, what shape watches

the threshold? Well, still fiercer is the monstrous Hydra inside,

with her fifty black gaping jaws. There Tartarus itself

falls sheer and stretches down into the darkness

twice as far as we gaze upwards to heavenly Olympus.

Here the Titanic race, the ancient sons of Earth,

hurled down by the lightning-bolt, writhe in the depths.²

And here I saw the two sons of Aloeus, giant forms,

who tried to tear down the heavens with their hands

and topple Jupiter from his high kingdom.³

And I saw Salmoneus⁴ paying a savage penalty

for imitating Jove’s lightning and the Olympian thunder.

Brandishing a torch and drawn by four horses,

he rode in triumph among the Greeks through Elis’s⁵ city,

claiming the gods’ honours as his own, a fool

who mimicked the storm-clouds and the inimitable thunderbolt

with bronze cymbals and the sound of horses’ hoof-beats.

But the all-powerful father hurled his lighting from dense cloud,

not for him fiery torches or pine-branches’ smoky light,

and drove him headlong with the mighty whirlwind.

And Tityus⁶ was to be seen as well, the foster-child

of Earth, our universal mother, whose body stretches

over nine acres, and a great vulture with hooked beak

feeds on his indestructible liver and his entrails ripe

for punishment, lodged deep inside the chest, groping

for his feast, no respite given to the ever-renewing tissue.

Shall I speak of the Lapiths, Ixion, Pirithous⁷,

over whom hangs a dark crag that seems to slip and fall?

High couches for their feast gleam with golden frames,

and a banquet of royal luxury is spread before their eyes;

nearby the eldest Fury, crouching, prevents their fingers touching

the table, rising up and brandishing her torch with a voice of thunder.

Here are those who hated their brothers in life,

or struck a parent, or contrived to defraud a client,

or who crouched alone over the riches they’d made

without setting any aside for their kin (their crowd is largest),

those who were killed for adultery, or pursued civil war,

not fearing to break their pledges to their masters:

shut in they see their punishment. Don’t ask to know

that punishment, or what kind of suffering drowns them.

Some roll huge stones, or hang spread-eagled

on wheel-spokes; wretched Theseus sits still, and will sit

for eternity: Phlegyas⁸, the most unfortunate, warns them all

and bears witness in a loud voice among the shades:

‘Learn justice: be warned, and don’t despise the gods.’

Here’s one who sold his country for gold and set up

a despotic lord; this one made law and remade it for a price;

he entered his daughter’s bed and a forbidden marriage:

all of them dared monstrous sin, and did what they dared.

Not if I had a hundred tongues, a hundred mouths,

a voice of iron, could I tell all the forms of wickedness

or spell out the names of every torment.”

When she had spoken of this, the aged priestess of Apollo said:

“But come now, travel the road and complete the task set for you;

let us hurry, I see the battlements that were forged

in the Cyclopean fires, and the gates in the arch opposite us

where we are told to set down the gifts as ordered.”

She spoke and, keeping step, they hastened along the dark path,

crossing the space between and arriving near the doors.

Aeneas gained the entrance, sprinkled fresh water

over his body, and set up the branch on the threshold before him.

Having at last achieved this, the goddess’s task fulfilled,

they came to the pleasant places, the delightful grassy turf

of the Fortunate Groves and the homes of the blessed.

Here freer air and radiant light clothe the plain,

and these have their own sun, and their own stars.

Some exercise their bodies in a grassy gymnasium,

compete in sports and wrestle on the yellow sand;

others tread out the steps of a dance and sing songs.

There Orpheus too, the long-robed priest of Thrace,

accompanies their voices with the seven-note scale,

playing now with fingers, now with the ivory quill.

Here are Teucer’s ancient people, loveliest of children,

great-hearted heroes born in happier years,

Ilus, Assaracus, and Dardanus founder of Troy.

Aeneas marvels from a distance at their idle chariots

and their weapons: their spears fixed in the ground

and their horses scattered freely browsing over the plain.

The pleasure they took in chariots and armour while alive,

the care in tending shining horses, follows them below the earth.

Look, he sees others on the grass to right and left, feasting

and singing a joyful paean in chorus among the fragrant

groves of laurel, out of which the Eridanus’s broad river

flows through the woodlands to the world above.

Here is the company of those who suffered wounds fighting

for their country, and those who were pure priests, while they lived,

and those who were faithful poets, singers worthy of Apollo,

and those who improved life with discoveries in art or science,

and those who by merit caused others to remember them:

the brows of all these were bound with white headbands.

As they crowded round, the Sibyl addressed them,

Musaeus⁹ above all (since he holds the centre of the vast crowd,

all looking up to him, his tall shoulders towering above):

“Blessed spirits, and you, greatest of poets,

say what region or place contains Anchises. We have

come here, crossing the great rivers of Erebus, for him.”

And the hero replied to her briefly in these words:

“None of us have a fixed abode; we live in the shadowy woods,

and make couches of river-banks, and inhabit fresh-water meadows.

But climb this ridge, if your hearts-wish so inclines,

and I will soon set you on an easy path.”

He spoke and went on before them and showed them

the bright plains below; then they left the mountain heights.

---

tum vates sic orsa loqui: 'dux inclute Teucrum,

nulli fas casto sceleratum insistere limen;

sed me cum lucis Hecate praefecit Avernis,

ipsa deum poenas docuit perque omnia duxit.                565

Cnosius haec Rhadamanthus habet durissima regna

castigatque auditque dolos subigitque fateri

quae quis apud superos furto laetatus inani

distulit in seram commissa piacula mortem.

continuo sontis ultrix accincta flagello               570

Tisiphone quatit insultans, torvosque sinistra

intentans anguis vocat agmina saeva sororum.

tum demum horrisono stridentes cardine sacrae

panduntur portae. cernis custodia qualis

vestibulo sedeat, facies quae limina servet?               575

quinquaginta atris immanis hiatibus Hydra

saevior intus habet sedem. tum Tartarus ipse

bis patet in praeceps tantum tenditque sub umbras

quantus ad aetherium caeli suspectus Olympum.

hic genus antiquum Terrae, Titania pubes,               580

fulmine deiecti fundo volvuntur in imo.

hic et Aloidas geminos immania vidi

corpora, qui manibus magnum rescindere caelum

adgressi superisque Iovem detrudere regnis.

vidi et crudelis dantem Salmonea poenas,               585

dum flammas Iovis et sonitus imitatur Olympi.

quattuor hic invectus equis et lampada quassans

per Graium populos mediaeque per Elidis urbem

ibat ovans, divumque sibi poscebat honorem,

demens, qui nimbos et non imitabile fulmen               590

aere et cornipedum pulsu simularet equorum.

at pater omnipotens densa inter nubila telum

contorsit, non ille faces nec fumea taedis

lumina, praecipitemque immani turbine adegit.

nec non et Tityon, Terrae omniparentis alumnum,               595

cernere erat, per tota novem cui iugera corpus

porrigitur, rostroque immanis vultur obunco

immortale iecur tondens fecundaque poenis

viscera rimaturque epulis habitatque sub alto

pectore, nec fibris requies datur ulla renatis.               600

quid memorem Lapithas, Ixiona Pirithoumque?

quos super atra silex iam iam lapsura cadentique

imminet adsimilis; lucent genialibus altis

aurea fulcra toris, epulaeque ante ora paratae

regifico luxu; Furiarum maxima iuxta               605

accubat et manibus prohibet contingere mensas,

exsurgitque facem attollens atque intonat ore.

hic, quibus invisi fratres, dum vita manebat,

pulsatusve parens et fraus innexa clienti,

aut qui divitiis soli incubuere repertis               610

nec partem posuere suis (quae maxima turba est),

quique ob adulterium caesi, quique arma secuti

impia nec veriti dominorum fallere dextras,

inclusi poenam exspectant. ne quaere doceri

quam poenam, aut quae forma viros fortunave mersit.               615

saxum ingens volvunt alii, radiisque rotarum

districti pendent; sedet aeternumque sedebit

infelix Theseus, Phlegyasque miserrimus omnis

admonet et magna testatur voce per umbras:

"discite iustitiam moniti et non temnere divos."               620

vendidit hic auro patriam dominumque potentem

imposuit; fixit leges pretio atque refixit;

hic thalamum invasit natae vetitosque hymenaeos:

ausi omnes immane nefas ausoque potiti.

non, mihi si linguae centum sint oraque centum,               625

ferrea vox, omnis scelerum comprendere formas,

omnia poenarum percurrere nomina possim.'

Haec ubi dicta dedit Phoebi longaeva sacerdos,

'sed iam age, carpe viam et susceptum perfice munus;

acceleremus' ait; 'Cyclopum educta caminis               630

moenia conspicio atque adverso fornice portas,

haec ubi nos praecepta iubent deponere dona.'

dixerat et pariter gressi per opaca viarum

corripiunt spatium medium foribusque propinquant.

occupat Aeneas aditum corpusque recenti               635

spargit aqua ramumque adverso in limine figit.

His demum exactis, perfecto munere divae,

devenere locos laetos et amoena virecta

fortunatorum nemorum sedesque beatas.

largior hic campos aether et lumine vestit               640

purpureo, solemque suum, sua sidera norunt.

pars in gramineis exercent membra palaestris,

contendunt ludo et fulva luctantur harena;

pars pedibus plaudunt choreas et carmina dicunt.

nec non Threicius longa cum veste sacerdos               645

obloquitur numeris septem discrimina vocum,

iamque eadem digitis, iam pectine pulsat eburno.

hic genus antiquum Teucri, pulcherrima proles,

magnanimi heroes nati melioribus annis,

Ilusque Assaracusque et Troiae Dardanus auctor.               650

arma procul currusque virum miratur inanis;

stant terra defixae hastae passimque soluti

per campum pascuntur equi. quae gratia currum

armorumque fuit vivis, quae cura nitentis

pascere equos, eadem sequitur tellure repostos.               655

conspicit, ecce, alios dextra laevaque per herbam

vescentis laetumque choro paeana canentis

inter odoratum lauris nemus, unde superne

plurimus Eridani per silvam voluitur amnis.

hic manus ob patriam pugnando vulnera passi,               660

quique sacerdotes casti, dum vita manebat,

quique pii vates et Phoebo digna locuti,

inventas aut qui vitam excoluere per artis

quique sui memores aliquos fecere merendo:

omnibus his nivea cinguntur tempora vitta.               665

quos circumfusos sic est adfata Sibylla,

Musaeum ante omnis (medium nam plurima turba

hunc habet atque umeris exstantem suspicit altis):

'dicite, felices animae tuque optime vates,

quae regio Anchisen, quis habet locus? illius ergo               670

venimus et magnos Erebi tranavimus amnis.'

atque huic responsum paucis ita reddidit heros:

'nulli certa domus; lucis habitamus opacis,

riparumque toros et prata recentia rivis

incolimus. sed vos, si fert ita corde voluntas,               675

hoc superate iugum, et facili iam tramite sistam.'

dixit, et ante tulit gressum camposque nitentis

desuper ostentat; dehinc summa cacumina linquunt.

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

1. brother of Minos and one of the Underworld judges

2. The Titans were the race of gods that came before the Olympian gods; Jupiter (god of lightning) and the other Olympians defeated them and took over the cosmos.

3. The Titan Aloeus was the father of Titans Otus and Ephialtes, who attempted to storm Mount Olympus by piling other mountains atop one another.

4. Brother of Sisyphus and son of Aeolus (not the winds one); tried to imitate Jupiter and demanded the same worship.

5. a region in western Greece

6. Titan who tried to rape Leto and was in turn slain by her children, Apollo and Diana

7. Ixion was king of the Lapiths; he attempted to rape Juno and was punished by Jupiter. Pirithous (yes, Theseus’s buddy) was his son; a great battle between Lapiths and Centaurs ensued at his wedding.

8. father of Ixion and former king of the Lapiths; punished for setting fire to a temple of Apollo, who slept with his daughter

9. mythical singer/poet