Caieta, Aeneas’s nurse, you too have granted
eternal fame to our shores in dying;
tributes still protect your grave, and your name
marks your bones in great Hesperia, if that is glory.
Now, as soon as the open sea was calm, having paid
the last rites due to custom and raised a funeral mound,
Aeneas the good left the harbour and sailed on his way.
The breezes blew through the night, and a radiant moon was no
inhibitor to their voyage, the sea gleaming in the tremulous light.
The next shores they touched were Circe’s1 lands,
where that rich daughter of the sun makes the hidden groves
echo with continual chanting, and burns fragrant cedar
for nocturnal light in her proud palace, as she sets
her melodious shuttle running through the fine warp.
From there the angry roar of lions could be heard,
chafing at their ropes and sounding late into the night,
and the rage of bristling wild-boars and caged bears
and the howling shapes of huge wolves,
whom Circe, cruel goddess, had altered from human appearance
to the features and forms of creatures using powerful herbs.
But Neptune filled their sails with following winds, so that
Troy’s virtuous race should not suffer so monstrous a fate
entering the harbour and disembarking on that fatal shore,
and carried them past the boiling shallows, granting them escape.
Now the sea was reddening with the sun’s rays, and saffron Aurora
in her rose-coloured chariot shone from the heights of heaven,
when the winds dropped and every breeze suddenly fell away,
and the oars laboured slowly in the water. At this moment,
gazing from the sea, Aeneas saw a vast forest. Through it
the Tiber’s lovely river, with swirling eddies full of golden sand,
bursts to the ocean. Countless birds, around and above,
that haunt the banks and streams, were delighting
the heavens with their song and flying through the groves.
He ordered his friends to change course and turn their prows
towards land, and joyfully entered the shaded river.
Come now, Erato,2 and I’ll tell of the kings, the times,
the state of ancient Latium, when that foreign
troop first landed on Ausonia’s3 shores, and I’ll recall
the first fighting from its very beginning. You, goddess,
you must prompt your poet. I’ll tell of brutal war,
I’ll tell of battle action and princes driven to death
by their courage, of Trojan armies, and all of Hesperia
forced to take up arms. A greater order of things
is being born, greater is the work that I attempt.
King Latinus, now old in years, ruled fields
and towns in the tranquillity of lasting peace.
We hear he was the child of Faunus4 and the Laurentine5
nymph, Marica. Faunus’s father was Pictus, and he boasts
you, Saturn,6 as his, you the first founder of the line.
By divine decree, Latinus had no male heir, his son
having been snatched from him in the dawn of first youth.
There was only a daughter to keep house in so noble a palace,
now ready for a husband, now old enough to be a bride.
Many sought her hand, from wide Latium and all Ausonia,
Turnus above all, the most handsome, of powerful ancestry,
whom the queen hastened to link to her as her son-in-law
with wonderful affection. But divine omens, with their many
terrors, prevented it. There was a laurel with sacred leaves,
in the high inner court in the middle of the palace,
that had been guarded with reverence for many years.
It was said that Lord Latinus himself had discovered it
when he first built his fortress, and dedicated it to Apollo,
and from it had named the settlers Laurentines.
A dense cloud of bees (marvellous to tell) borne
through the clear air, with a mighty humming,
settled in the very top of the tree, and hung there,
their feet all tangled together, in a sudden swarm.
Immediately the prophet cried: “I see a foreign hero
approaching, and, from a like direction, an army
seeks this same place, to rule from the high citadel.”
Then as he lit the altars with fresh pine torches,
as virgin Lavinia stood there next to her father,
she seemed (horror!) to catch the fire in her long tresses,
and all her finery to burn in crackling flame, her royally
dressed tresses set alight, her crown alight, remarkable
for its jewels; then wreathed in smoke and yellow light,
she seemed to scatter sparks through all the palace.
Truly it was talked of as a shocking and miraculous sight:
for they foretold she would be bright with fame and fortune,
but it signified a great war for her people.7
Then the king, troubled by the wonder, visited the oracle
of Faunus, his far-speaking father, and consulted the groves
below high Albunea, mightiest of forests, that echoed
with the sacred fountain and breathed a deadly vapour from the dark.
The people of Italy and all the Oenotrian lands sought answers
to their doubts from that place; when the priest brought
offerings there and found sleep in the silent night, lying
on spread fleeces of sacrificed sheep, he saw there many ghosts
flitting in marvellous forms, and heard various voices, had speech
with the gods, and talked with Acheron in the depths of Avernus.
And here the king, Latinus, himself seeking an answer,
slaughtered a hundred woolly sheep according to the rite,
and lay there supported by their skins and woolly fleeces:
suddenly a voice emerged from the deep wood:
“O my son, don’t try to ally your daughter in a Latin marriage,
don’t place your faith in the intended wedding;
strangers will come to be your kin, who’ll lift our name
to the stars by their blood, and the children
of whose race shall see all, where the circling sun
views both oceans, turning obediently beneath their feet.”
Latinus failed to keep this reply of his Father’s quiet,
this warning given in the silent night, and already
Rumour flying far and wide had carried it through
the Ausonian cities, when the children of Laomedon
came to moor their ships by the river’s grassy banks.
Tu quoque litoribus nostris, Aeneia nutrix,
aeternam moriens famam, Caieta, dedisti;
et nunc servat honos sedem tuus, ossaque nomen
Hesperia in magna, si qua est ea gloria, signat.
At pius exsequiis Aeneas rite solutis, 5
aggere composito tumuli, postquam alta quierunt
aequora, tendit iter velis portumque relinquit.
aspirant aurae in noctem nec candida cursus
luna negat, splendet tremulo sub lumine pontus.
proxima Circaeae raduntur litora terrae, 10
dives inaccessos ubi Solis filia lucos
adsiduo resonat cantu, tectisque superbis
urit odoratam nocturna in lumina cedrum
arguto tenuis percurrens pectine telas.
hinc exaudiri gemitus iraeque leonum 15
vincla recusantum et sera sub nocte rudentum,
saetigerique sues atque in praesepibus ursi
saevire ac formae magnorum ululare luporum,
quos hominum ex facie dea saeva potentibus herbis
induerat Circe in vultus ac terga ferarum. 20
quae ne monstra pii paterentur talia Troes
delati in portus neu litora dira subirent,
Neptunus ventis implevit vela secundis,
atque fugam dedit et praeter vada fervida vexit.
Iamque rubescebat radiis mare et aethere ab alto 25
Aurora in roseis fulgebat lutea bigis,
cum venti posuere omnisque repente resedit
flatus, et in lento luctantur marmore tonsae.
atque hic Aeneas ingentem ex aequore lucum
prospicit. hunc inter fluvio Tiberinus amoeno 30
verticibus rapidis et multa flavus harena
in mare prorumpit. variae circumque supraque
adsuetae ripis volucres et fluminis alveo
aethera mulcebant cantu lucoque volabant.
flectere iter sociis terraeque advertere proras 35
imperat et laetus fluvio succedit opaco.
Nunc age, qui reges, Erato, quae tempora, rerum
quis Latio antiquo fuerit status, advena classem
cum primum Ausoniis exercitus appulit oris,
expediam, et primae revocabo exordia pugnae. 40
tu vatem, tu, diva, mone. dicam horrida bella,
dicam acies actosque animis in funera reges,
Tyrrhenamque manum totamque sub arma coactam
Hesperiam. maior rerum mihi nascitur ordo,
maius opus moveo. 45
Rex arva Latinus et urbes
iam senior longa placidas in pace regebat.
hunc Fauno et nympha genitum Laurente Marica
accipimus; Fauno Picus pater, isque parentem
te, Saturne, refert, tu sanguinis ultimus auctor.
filius huic fato divum prolesque virilis 50
nulla fuit, primaque oriens erepta iuventa est.
sola domum et tantas servabat filia sedes
iam matura viro, iam plenis nubilis annis.
multi illam magno e Latio totaque petebant
Ausonia; petit ante alios pulcherrimus omnis 55
Turnus, avis atavisque potens, quem regia coniunx
adiungi generum miro properabat amore;
sed variis portenta deum terroribus obstant.
laurus erat tecti medio in penetralibus altis
sacra comam multosque metu servata per annos, 60
quam pater inventam, primas cum conderet arces,
ipse ferebatur Phoebo sacrasse Latinus,
Laurentisque ab ea nomen posuisse colonis.
huius apes summum densae (mirabile dictu)
stridore ingenti liquidum trans aethera vectae 65
obsedere apicem, et pedibus per mutua nexis
examen subitum ramo frondente pependit.
continuo vates 'externum cernimus' inquit
'adventare virum et partis petere agmen easdem
partibus ex isdem et summa dominarier arce.' 70
praeterea, castis adolet dum altaria taedis,
et iuxta genitorem astat Lavinia virgo,
visa (nefas) longis comprendere crinibus ignem
atque omnem ornatum flamma crepitante cremari,
regalisque accensa comas, accensa coronam 75
insignem gemmis; tum fumida lumine fuluo
involvi ac totis Volcanum spargere tectis.
id vero horrendum ac visu mirabile ferri:
namque fore inlustrem fama fatisque canebant
ipsam, sed populo magnum portendere bellum. 80
At rex sollicitus monstris oracula Fauni,
fatidici genitoris, adit lucosque sub alta
consulit Albunea, nemorum quae maxima sacro
fonte sonat saevamque exhalat opaca mephitim.
hinc Italae gentes omnisque Oenotria tellus 85
in dubiis responsa petunt; huc dona sacerdos
cum tulit et caesarum ovium sub nocte silenti
pellibus incubuit stratis somnosque petivit,
multa modis simulacra videt volitantia miris
et varias audit voces fruiturque deorum 90
conloquio atque imis Acheronta adfatur Avernis.
hic et tum pater ipse petens responsa Latinus
centum lanigeras mactabat rite bidentis,
atque harum effultus tergo stratisque iacebat
velleribus: subita ex alto vox reddita luco est: 95
'ne pete conubiis natam sociare Latinis,
o mea progenies, thalamis neu crede paratis;
externi venient generi, qui sanguine nostrum
nomen in astra ferant, quorumque a stirpe nepotes
omnia sub pedibus, qua sol utrumque recurrens 100
aspicit Oceanum, vertique regique videbunt.'
haec responsa patris Fauni monitusque silenti
nocte datos non ipse suo premit ore Latinus,
sed circum late volitans iam Fama per urbes
Ausonias tulerat, cum Laomedontia pubes 105
gramineo ripae religavit ab aggere classem.
Find the glossary for Aeneid Daily here; subscribe to receive daily posts.
Sorceress daughter of Helios appearing in the Odyssey. Relatedly, Neptune does not help Odysseus escape her.
The Muse of lyric and erotic poetry. Vergil departs from Homeric tradition not only by invoking the muse in the second half of his poem (not the first lines), but also by calling specifically on Erato (potentially because the plot to come hinges on the intersection of madness and desire? Publius, explain).
another name for Italy
an Italian woodland god
Laurentum was a subregion inside the central Italian region of Latium.
the Titan father of Jupiter
cf. the somewhat more optimistic sign when Ascanius’s hair catches fire in Book 2.