Aeneid VIII.1-101
Aeneas talks to a river, encounters a pig, and sets off to find a new ally.
When Turnus raised the war-banner on the Laurentine
citadel and the trumpets blared out their harsh music,
when he roused his fiery horses and clashed his weapons,
hearts were promptly stirred, all Latium together
swore allegiance in restless commotion, and young men
raged wildly. The main leaders, Messapus, Ufens
and Mezentius scorner of gods, gathered their forces
from every side, stripping the broad acres of farmers.
And Venulus1 was sent to great Diomedes’s2 city, Arpi,
to seek help, and explain that the Trojans were planted in Latium,
Aeneas had arrived with his fleet, carrying his vanquished gods
and pronouncing himself a king summoned by destiny,
that many tribes were joining the Trojan hero,
and his name was spreading far and wide in Latium.
What Aeneas was intending given these beginnings,
what outcome he desired from the war if fortune
followed him, might be seen more clearly by Diomedes
himself than by King Turnus or King Latinus.
So it was in Latium. Meanwhile the Trojan hero of Laomedon’s
line, seeing all this, tosses on a vast sea of cares
and swiftly casts his mind this way and that, seizing
on various ideas, turning everything over,
as when tremulous light from the water in a bronze bowl,
thrown back by sunshine or the moon’s radiant image,
flickers far and wide over everything, then angles
upwards and strikes the panelled ceiling overhead.
It was night, and through all the land, deep sleep gripped weary
creatures, bird and beast, when Aeneas the leader lay down
on the river-bank under the cold arch of the heavens, his heart
troubled by war’s sadness, and at last allowed his body to rest.
Old Tiberinus himself, the god of the place, appeared to him,
rising from his lovely stream among the poplar leaves
(fine linen cloaked him in a blue-grey
mantle, and shadowy reeds hid his hair).
Then he spoke, and with his words removed all cares:
“O seed of the race of gods, who bring our Trojan city
back from the enemy and guard the eternal fortress,
long looked-for on Laurentine soil and in Latin fields,
here is your house, and your house’s gods, for sure
(do not desist). Don’t fear the threat of war;
the gods’ swollen anger has died away.
And now, lest you think this sleep’s idle fancy, you’ll find
a huge sow lying on the shore under the oak trees,
that has farrowed a litter of thirty young, a white sow,
lying on the ground, with white piglets round her teats.
That place shall be your city, there’s true rest from your labours.
By this in a space of thirty years Ascanius
will found the city of Alba, bright name.3
I do not prophesy unsurely. Now (attend), in a few words
I’ll explain how you can emerge the victor from what will come.
Arcadians have chosen a site on this coast, a race descended
from Pallas,4 friends of King Evander, who followed
his banner and located their city in the hills,
named, from their ancestor Pallas, Pallantium.
They wage war endlessly with the Latin race; summon them
as allies to your camp and join in league with them.
I’ll guide you myself along the banks by the right channels,
so you can defeat the opposing current with your oars.
Rise now, son of the goddess, and, as the first stars set,
offer the prayers due to Juno, and with humble vows
overcome her anger and her threats. Pay me honour as victor.
I am him whom you see scouring the banks
with my full stream and cutting through rich farmlands,
blue Tiber, the river most dear to heaven. Here is
my noble house, my fount flows through noble cities.”
He spoke: then the river plunged into a deep pool,
seeking its floor; night and sleep left Aeneas.
He rose and, looking towards the heavenly sun’s
eastern light, raised water from the stream
in his cupped hands and poured out this prayer to heaven:
“Nymphs, Laurentine Nymphs, from whom come the tribe
of rivers, and you, O Father Tiber, and your sacred stream,
receive Aeneas and shield him at last from danger.
In whatever fountain the water holds you, pitying our trials,
from whatever soil you flow in your supreme beauty,
you will always be honoured by my tributes, by my gifts,
horned river, ruler of the Hesperian waters.
O, only be with me and prove your will by your presence.”
So he spoke, and chose two galleys from his fleet, manned them
with oarsmen, and also equipped his men with weapons.
But behold a sudden wonder, marvellous to the sight,
gleaming white through the trees, a sow the same colour
as her white litter, seen lying on the green bank; dutiful Aeneas,
carrying the sacred vessel, sets her with her young before the altar
and sacrifices her to you, to you indeed, most powerful Juno.
Tiber calmed his swelling flood all that night long,
and flowing backwards stilled his silent wave, so that
he spread his watery levels as in a gentle pool
or placid swamp, so it would be effortless for the oars.
Therefore they sped on the course begun; with happy
murmurs, the oiled pine slipped through the shallows:
the waves marvelled, the woods marvelled, unused to the far-gleaming
shields of heroes and the painted ships floating in the river.
They wore out a night and a day with their rowing,
navigated long bends, were shaded by many kinds of trees,
and cut through the green woods over the calm levels.
The fiery sun had climbed to the mid-point of the sky’s arc
when they saw walls and a fort in the distance, and the scattered
roofs of houses, which Roman power has now raised heavenwards:
then Evander owned a poor affair. They turned the prows
quickly towards land and approached the town.
Ut belli signum Laurenti Turnus ab arce
extulit et rauco strepuerunt cornua cantu,
utque acris concussit equos utque impulit arma,
extemplo turbati animi, simul omne tumultu
coniurat trepido Latium saevitque iuventus 5
effera. ductores primi Messapus et Ufens
contemptorque deum Mezentius undique cogunt
auxilia et latos vastant cultoribus agros.
mittitur et magni Venulus Diomedis ad urbem
qui petat auxilium, et Latio consistere Teucros, 10
advectum Aenean classi victosque penatis
inferre et fatis regem se dicere posci
edoceat, multasque viro se adiungere gentis
Dardanio et late Latio increbrescere nomen:
quid struat his coeptis, quem, si fortuna sequatur, 15
eventum pugnae cupiat, manifestius ipsi
quam Turno regi aut regi apparere Latino.
Talia per Latium. quae Laomedontius heros
cuncta videns magno curarum fluctuat aestu,
atque animum nunc huc celerem nunc dividit illuc 20
in partisque rapit varias perque omnia versat,
sicut aquae tremulum labris ubi lumen aenis
sole repercussum aut radiantis imagine lunae
omnia pervolitat late loca, iamque sub auras
erigitur summique ferit laquearia tecti. 25
nox erat et terras animalia fessa per omnis
alituum pecudumque genus sopor altus habebat,
cum pater in ripa gelidique sub aetheris axe
Aeneas, tristi turbatus pectora bello,
procubuit seramque dedit per membra quietem. 30
huic deus ipse loci fluvio Tiberinus amoeno
populeas inter senior se attollere frondes
visus (eum tenuis glauco velabat amictu
carbasus, et crinis umbrosa tegebat harundo),
tum sic adfari et curas his demere dictis: 35
'O sate gente deum, Troianam ex hostibus urbem
qui revehis nobis aeternaque Pergama servas,
exspectate solo Laurenti arvisque Latinis,
hic tibi certa domus, certi (ne absiste) penates.
neu belli terrere minis; tumor omnis et irae 40
concessere deum.
iamque tibi, ne vana putes haec fingere somnum,
litoreis ingens inventa sub ilicibus sus
triginta capitum fetus enixa iacebit,
alba solo recubans, albi circum ubera nati. 45
[hic locus urbis erit, requies ea certa laborum,]
ex quo ter denis urbem redeuntibus annis
Ascanius clari condet cognominis Albam.
haud incerta cano. nunc qua ratione quod instat
expedias victor, paucis (adverte) docebo. 50
Arcades his oris, genus a Pallante profectum,
qui regem Evandrum comites, qui signa secuti,
delegere locum et posuere in montibus urbem
Pallantis proavi de nomine Pallanteum.
hi bellum adsidue ducunt cum gente Latina; 55
hos castris adhibe socios et foedera iunge.
ipse ego te ripis et recto flumine ducam,
adversum remis superes subvectus ut amnem.
surge age, nate dea, primisque cadentibus astris
Iunoni fer rite preces, iramque minasque 60
supplicibus supera votis. mihi victor honorem
persolves. ego sum pleno quem flumine cernis
stringentem ripas et pinguia culta secantem,
caeruleus Thybris, caelo gratissimus amnis.
hic mihi magna domus, celsis caput urbibus exit.' 65
Dixit, deinde lacu fluvius se condidit alto
ima petens; nox Aenean somnusque reliquit.
surgit et aetherii spectans orientia solis
lumina rite cavis undam de flumine palmis
sustinet ac talis effundit ad aethera voces: 70
'Nymphae, Laurentes Nymphae, genus amnibus unde est,
tuque, o Thybri tuo genitor cum flumine sancto,
accipite Aenean et tandem arcete periclis.
quo te cumque lacus miserantem incommoda nostra
fonte tenent, quocumque solo pulcherrimus exis, 75
semper honore meo, semper celebrabere donis
corniger Hesperidum fluvius regnator aquarum.
adsis o tantum et propius tua numina firmes.'
sic memorat, geminasque legit de classe biremis
remigioque aptat, socios simul instruit armis. 80
Ecce autem subitum atque oculis mirabile monstrum,
candida per silvam cum fetu concolor albo
procubuit viridique in litore conspicitur sus;
quam pius Aeneas tibi enim, tibi, maxima Iuno,
mactat sacra ferens et cum grege sistit ad aram. 85
Thybris ea fluvium, quam longa est, nocte tumentem
leniit, et tacita refluens ita substitit unda,
mitis ut in morem stagni placidaeque paludis
sterneret aequor aquis, remo ut luctamen abesset.
ergo iter inceptum celerant rumore secundo: 90
labitur uncta vadis abies; mirantur et undae,
miratur nemus insuetum fulgentia longe
scuta virum fluvio pictasque innare carinas.
olli remigio noctemque diemque fatigant
et longos superant flexus, variisque teguntur 95
arboribus, viridisque secant placido aequore silvas.
sol medium caeli conscenderat igneus orbem
cum muros arcemque procul ac rara domorum
tecta vident, quae nunc Romana potentia caelo
aequavit, tum res inopes Evandrus habebat. 100
ocius advertunt proras urbique propinquant.
Find the glossary for Aeneid Daily here; subscribe to receive daily posts.
a Latin leader
famous Greek warrior involved in the Trojan war, as seen in the Iliad; now settled in Arpi in southern Italy
Alba was the Latin word for white, hence brightness.
not Minerva, but an ancient king