Aeneid VII.406-510

Allecto stirs Turnus. The first blow of the war is struck against an unlikely victim.

When she saw she had stirred these first frenzies enough,

and had disturbed Latinus’s plans and his whole household,

the grim goddess was carried from there at once, on dark wings,

to the walls of Turnus, the brave Rutulian, the city they say

that Danae, blown there by a violent southerly, built

with her Acrisian colonists. The place was once called Ardea

by our ancestors, and Ardea still remains as a great name,

its good-fortune past. Here, in the dark of night,

Turnus was now in a deep sleep in his high palace.

Allecto changed her fierce appearance and fearful shape,

transformed her looks into those of an old woman,

furrowed her ominous brow with wrinkles, assumed

white hair and sacred ribbon, then twined an olive spray there;

she became Calybe, Juno’s old servant and priestess of her temple,

and offered herself to the young man’s eyes with these words:

“Turnus, will you see all your efforts wasted in vain,

and your sceptre handed over to Trojan settlers?

The king denies you your bride and the dowry looked for

by your race, and a stranger is sought as heir to the throne.

Go then, be despised, offer yourself un-thanked to danger;

go, cut down the Tuscan ranks, protect the Latins with peace!

This that I now say to you, as you lie there in the calm of night,

Saturn’s all-powerful daughter herself ordered me to speak openly.

So rise, and ready your men, gladly, to arm and march

from the gates to the fields, and set fire to the painted ships

anchored in our noble river, and the Trojan leaders with them.

The vast power of the gods demands it. Let King Latinus

himself feel it, unless he agrees to keep his word and give you

your bride, and let him at last experience Turnus armed.”

At this the warrior, mocking the priestess, opened his mouth in turn:

“The news that a fleet has entered Tiber’s waters

has not escaped my notice, as you think:

don’t imagine it’s so great a fear to me.

Nor is Queen Juno unmindful of me.

But you, O mother, old age, conquered by weakness

and devoid of truth, troubles with idle cares, and mocks

a prophetess, amidst the wars of kings, with imaginary terrors.

Your duty’s to guard the gods’ statues and their temples;

men will make war and peace, by whom war’s to be made.”

Allecto blazed with anger at these words.

And, as the young man spoke, a sudden tremor seized his body

and his eyes became fixed; the Fury hissed with so many snakes,

such a form revealed itself; then turning her fiery gaze on him,

she pushed him away as he hesitated, trying to say more,

and raised up a pair of serpents amidst her hair,

and cracked her whip, and added this through rabid lips:

“See me, conquered by weakness, whom old age, devoid of truth,

mocks with imaginary terrors amongst the wars of kings.

Look on this: I am here from the house of the Fatal Sisters,

and I bring war and death in my hand.”

So saying, she flung a burning branch at the youth

and planted the brand, smoking with murky light, in his chest.

An immense terror shattered his sleep, and sweat pouring

from his whole body drenched flesh and bone.

Frantic, he shouted for weapons, looked for weapons by the bedside

and through the palace; desire for the sword raged in him,

and the accursed madness of war, anger above all:

as when burning sticks are heaped with a fierce crackling

under the belly of a raging cauldron, and the depths

dance with the heat, the smoking mixture seethes inside,

the water bubbles high with foam, the liquid can no longer

contain itself, and dark vapour rises into the air.

So, violating the peace, he commanded his young leaders

to march against King Latinus and ordered the troops to be readied,

to defend Italy, to drive the enemy from her borders;

his approach itself would be enough for both Trojans and Latins.

When he gave the word and called the gods to witness his vows,

the Rutuli vied in urging each other to arm.

This man is moved by Turnus’s youth and outstanding nobility

of form, that by his royal line, this one again by his glorious deeds.

While Turnus was rousing the Rutulians with fiery courage,

Allecto hurled herself towards the Trojans on Stygian wings,

spying out, with fresh cunning, the place on the shore

where handsome Iulus was hunting wild beasts on foot with nets.

Hades’s virgin drove his hounds to sudden frenzy,

touching their muzzles with a familiar scent,

so that they eagerly chased down a stag; this was a prime

cause of trouble, rousing the spirits of the countrymen to war.

There was a stag of outstanding beauty, with huge antlers,

that, torn from its mother’s teats, Tyrrhus and his sons had raised,

the father being the man to whom the king’s herds submitted,

and who was trusted with managing his lands far and wide.

Silvia, their sister, training it to her commands with great care,

adorned its antlers, twining them with soft garlands, grooming

the wild creature and bathing it in a clear spring. Tame to the hand

and used to food from the master’s table, it wandered the woods

and returned to the familiar threshold by itself, however late at night.

Now while it strayed far afield, Iulus the huntsman’s

frenzied hounds started it by chance as it moved

downstream, escaping the heat by the grassy banks.

Iulus himself, inflamed also with desire for high

honours, aimed an arrow from his curved bow,

the goddess unfailingly guiding his errant hand,

and the shaft, flying with a loud hiss, pierced flank and belly.

But the wounded creature, fleeing to its familiar home,

dragged itself groaning to its stall and, bleeding, filled

the house with its cries like a person begging for help.

Silvia, the sister, beating her arms with her hands in distress, was

the first to call for help, summoning the tough countrymen.

They arrived quickly (since a savage beast haunted the silent woods)

one with a fire-hardened stake, one with a heavy knotted staff;

anger made a weapon of whatever each man found

as he searched around. Tyrrhus called out his men:

since by chance he was quartering an oak by driving

wedges, he seized his axe, breathing savagely.

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Postquam visa satis primos acuisse furores

consiliumque omnemque domum vertisse Latini,

protinus hinc fuscis tristis dea tollitur alis

audacis Rutuli ad muros, quam dicitur urbem

Acrisioneis Danae fundasse colonis                410

praecipiti delata Noto. locus Ardea quondam

dictus avis, et nunc magnum manet Ardea nomen,

sed fortuna fuit. tectis hic Turnus in altis

iam mediam nigra carpebat nocte quietem.

Allecto toruam faciem et furialia membra               415

exuit, in vultus sese transformat anilis

et frontem obscenam rugis arat, induit albos

cum vitta crinis, tum ramum innectit olivae;

fit Calybe Iunonis anus templique sacerdos,

et iuveni ante oculos his se cum vocibus offert:               420

'Turne, tot incassum fusos patiere labores,

et tua Dardaniis transcribi sceptra colonis?

rex tibi coniugium et quaesitas sanguine dotes

abnegat, externusque in regnum quaeritur heres.

i nunc, ingratis offer te, inrise, periclis;               425

Tyrrhenas, i, sterne acies, tege pace Latinos.

haec adeo tibi me, placida cum nocte iaceres,

ipsa palam fari omnipotens Saturnia iussit.

quare age et armari pubem portisque moveri

laetus in arva para, et Phrygios qui flumine pulchro               430

consedere duces pictasque exure carinas.

caelestum vis magna iubet. rex ipse Latinus,

ni dare coniugium et dicto parere fatetur,

sentiat et tandem Turnum experiatur in armis.'

Hic iuvenis vatem inridens sic orsa vicissim               435

ore refert: 'classis invectas Thybridis undam

non, ut rere, meas effugit nuntius auris;

ne tantos mihi finge metus. nec regia Iuno

immemor est nostri.

sed te victa situ verique effeta senectus,               440

o mater, curis nequiquam exercet, et arma

regum inter falsa vatem formidine ludit.

cura tibi divum effigies et templa tueri;

bella viri pacemque gerent quis bella gerenda.'

Talibus Allecto dictis exarsit in iras.               445

at iuveni oranti subitus tremor occupat artus,

deriguere oculi: tot Erinys sibilat hydris

tantaque se facies aperit; tum flammea torquens

lumina cunctantem et quaerentem dicere plura

reppulit, et geminos erexit crinibus anguis,               450

verberaque insonuit rabidoque haec addidit ore:

'en ego victa situ, quam veri effeta senectus

arma inter regum falsa formidine ludit.

respice ad haec: adsum dirarum ab sede sororum,

bella manu letumque gero.'               455

sic effata facem iuveni coniecit et atro

lumine fumantis fixit sub pectore taedas.

olli somnum ingens rumpit pavor, ossaque et artus

perfundit toto proruptus corpore sudor.

arma amens fremit, arma toro tectisque requirit;               460

saevit amor ferri et scelerata insania belli,

ira super: magno veluti cum flamma sonore

virgea suggeritur costis undantis aeni

exsultantque aestu latices, furit intus aquai

fumidus atque alte spumis exuberat amnis,               465

nec iam se capit unda, volat vapor ater ad auras.

ergo iter ad regem polluta pace Latinum

indicit primis iuvenum et iubet arma parari,

tutari Italiam, detrudere finibus hostem;

se satis ambobus Teucrisque venire Latinisque.               470

haec ubi dicta dedit divosque in vota vocavit,

certatim sese Rutuli exhortantur in arma.

hunc decus egregium formae movet atque iuventae,

hunc atavi reges, hunc claris dextera factis.

Dum Turnus Rutulos animis audacibus implet,               475

Allecto in Teucros Stygiis se concitat alis,

arte nova, speculata locum, quo litore pulcher

insidiis cursuque feras agitabat Iulus.

hic subitam canibus rabiem Cocytia virgo

obicit et noto naris contingit odore,               480

ut cervum ardentes agerent; quae prima laborum

causa fuit belloque animos accendit agrestis.

cervus erat forma praestanti et cornibus ingens,

Tyrrhidae pueri quem matris ab ubere raptum

nutribant Tyrrhusque pater, cui regia parent               485

armenta et late custodia credita campi.

adsuetum imperiis soror omni Silvia cura

mollibus intexens ornabat cornua sertis,

pectebatque ferum puroque in fonte lauabat.

ille manum patiens mensaeque adsuetus erili               490

errabat silvis rursusque ad limina nota

ipse domum sera quamvis se nocte ferebat.

hunc procul errantem rabidae venantis Iuli

commovere canes, fluvio cum forte secundo

deflueret ripaque aestus viridante levaret.               495

ipse etiam eximiae laudis succensus amore

Ascanius curvo derexit spicula cornu;

nec dextrae erranti deus afuit, actaque multo

perque uterum sonitu perque ilia venit harundo.

saucius at quadripes nota intra tecta refugit               500

successitque gemens stabulis, questuque cruentus

atque imploranti similis tectum omne replebat.

Silvia prima soror palmis percussa lacertos

auxilium vocat et duros conclamat agrestis.

olli (pestis enim tacitis latet aspera silvis)               505

improvisi adsunt, hic torre armatus obusto,

stipitis hic gravidi nodis; quod cuique repertum

rimanti telum ira facit. vocat agmina Tyrrhus,

quadrifidam quercum cuneis ut forte coactis

scindebat rapta spirans immane securi.               510

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