Aeneid X.1-95
Jupiter holds a godly council. It gets intense.
Meanwhile the palace of all-powerful Olympus
was opened wide, and the father of the gods and king of men
called a council in his starry house, from whose heights
he gazed at every land, at Trojan camp and Latin people.
They took their seats in the hall with doors at east and west,
and he began: “Great sky-dwellers, why have you changed
your decision, competing now with such opposing wills?
I commanded Italy not to make war on the Trojans.
Why this conflict against my orders? What fear
has driven them both to take up arms and incite violence?
The right time for fighting will arrive (don’t bring it on)
when fierce Carthage, piercing the Alps, will launch
great destruction on the Roman strongholds:
then it will be fine to compete in hatred and ravage things.1
Now let it alone, and construct a treaty gladly, as agreed.”
Jupiter’s speech was brief as this; but golden Venus’s reply was not:
“O father, eternal judge of men and things
(for who else is there I can make my appeal to now?),
you see how the Rutulians exult, how Turnus is drawn
by noble horses through the crowd and, fortunate in war,
rushes on proudly. Barred defences no longer protect the Trojans;
rather, they join battle within the gates and on the rampart
walls themselves, and the ditches are filled with blood.
Aeneas is absent, unaware of this. Will you never let the siege
be raised? A second enemy once again menaces and harasses
new-born Troy, and again, from Aetolian2 Arpi, a Diomede rises.
I almost think the wound I had from him still awaits me:3
your child merely delays the thrust of that mortal’s weapon.
If the Trojans sought Italy without your consent and despite
your divine will, let them expiate the sin: don’t grant them help.
But if they’ve followed the oracles of powers above and below,
why should anyone change your orders now and forge new destinies?
Shall I remind you of their fleet, burned on the shores of Eryx?
Or the king of the storms and his furious winds roused
from Aeolia, or Iris sent down from the clouds?
Now Juno even stirs the dead (the only lot still left to use)
and Allecto too, suddenly loosed on the upper world,
runs wild through all the Italian cities.
I no longer care about empire, though that was my hope
while fortune was kind. Let those you wish to win prevail.
Father, if there’s no land your relentless queen will grant the Trojans,
I beg by the smoking ruins of shattered Troy, let me bring
Ascanius untouched from among the weapons: let my grandson live.
Aeneas, yes, may be tossed on unknown seas and go
wherever Fortune grants a road: but let me have the power
to protect the child and remove him from the fatal battle.
Amathus4 is mine, high Paphos and Cythera are mine,
and Idalia’s temple: let him ground his weapons there
and live out inglorious years. Command that Carthage,
with her great power, crush Italy; then there’ll be
no obstacle to the Tyrian cities. What was the use in their escaping
the plague of war, fleeing through the heart of Argive flames,
enduring the dangers at sea and in desolate lands,
as long as the Trojans seek Latium and Troy re-born?
Wouldn’t it have been better to build on those last embers
of their country, on the soil where Troy once stood?
Give Xanthus and Simois back to these unfortunates,
father, I beg you, and let the Trojans re-live the course of Ilium.”
Then royal Juno, goaded to savage frenzy, cried out:
“Why do you make me shatter my profound silence
and utter words of suffering to the world?
Did any god or man force Aeneas to make war
and attack King Latinus as an enemy?
He sought Italy prompted by the Fates (so be it),
impelled by Cassandra’s ravings: was he urged by me
to leave the camp and trust his life to the winds?
To leave the outcome of war and their defences to a child,
to disturb Tuscan good faith and peaceful tribes?
What goddess, what harsh powers of mine drove him
to harm? Where is Juno in this, or Iris sent from the clouds?
If it’s shameful that the Italians surround new-born Troy
with flames and Turnus makes a stand on his native soil,
he whose ancestor is Pilumnus, divine Venilia5 his mother:
what of the Trojans with smoking brands using force against the Latins,
planting their yoke on others’ fields and driving off their plunder?
Deciding whose daughters to marry, and dragging betrothed girls
from their lover’s arms, offering peace with one hand,
but decking their ships with weapons? You can steal
Aeneas away from Greek hands and grant them fog and empty air
instead of a man,6 and turn their fleet of ships into as many nymphs:
is it wrong then for me to have given some help to the Rutulians?
‘Aeneas is absent, unaware of this:’ let him be absent and unaware.
Paphos, Idalium, and high Cythera are yours? Why meddle then
with a city pregnant with wars and fierce hearts?
Is it I who try to uproot Troy’s fragile state from its base?
Is it I? Or he who exposed the wretched Trojans to the Greeks?
What reason was there for Europe and Asia to rise up
in arms and dissolve their alliance through treachery?
Did I lead the Trojan adulterer7 to conquer Sparta?
Did I give him weapons or foment a war because of his lust?8
Then you should have feared for your own: now, too late,
you raise complaints without justice and provoke useless quarrels.”
Panditur interea domus omnipotentis Olympi
conciliumque vocat divum pater atque hominum rex
sideream in sedem, terras unde arduus omnis
castraque Dardanidum aspectat populosque Latinos.
considunt tectis bipatentibus, incipit ipse: 5
'caelicolae magni, quianam sententia vobis
versa retro tantumque animis certatis iniquis?
abnueram bello Italiam concurrere Teucris.
quae contra vetitum discordia? quis metus aut hos
aut hos arma sequi ferrumque lacessere suasit? 10
adveniet iustum pugnae (ne arcessite) tempus,
cum fera Karthago Romanis arcibus olim
exitium magnum atque Alpis immittet apertas:
tum certare odiis, tum res rapuisse licebit.
nunc sinite et placitum laeti componite foedus.' 15
Iuppiter haec paucis; at non Venus aurea contra
pauca refert:
'o pater, o hominum rerumque aeterna potestas
(namque aliud quid sit quod iam implorare queamus?),
cernis ut insultent Rutuli, Turnusque feratur 20
per medios insignis equis tumidusque secundo
Marte ruat? non clausa tegunt iam moenia Teucros;
quin intra portas atque ipsis proelia miscent
aggeribus murorum et inundant sanguine fossae.
Aeneas ignarus abest. numquamne levari 25
obsidione sines? muris iterum imminet hostis
nascentis Troiae nec non exercitus alter,
atque iterum in Teucros Aetolis surgit ab Arpis
Tydides. equidem credo, mea vulnera restant
et tua progenies mortalia demoror arma. 30
si sine pace tua atque invito numine Troes
Italiam petiere, luant peccata neque illos
iuveris auxilio; sin tot responsa secuti
quae superi manesque dabant, cur nunc tua quisquam
vertere iussa potest aut cur nova condere fata? 35
quid repetam exustas Erycino in litore classis,
quid tempestatum regem ventosque furentis
Aeolia excitos aut actam nubibus Irim?
nunc etiam manis (haec intemptata manebat
sors rerum) movet et superis immissa repente 40
Allecto medias Italum bacchata per urbes.
nil super imperio moveor. speravimus ista,
dum fortuna fuit. vincant, quos vincere mavis.
si nulla est regio Teucris quam det tua coniunx
dura, per eversae, genitor, fumantia Troiae 45
excidia obtestor: liceat dimittere ab armis
incolumem Ascanium, liceat superesse nepotem.
Aeneas sane ignotis iactetur in undis
et quacumque viam dederit Fortuna sequatur:
hunc tegere et dirae valeam subducere pugnae. 50
est Amathus, est celsa mihi Paphus atque Cythera
Idaliaeque domus: positis inglorius armis
exigat hic aevum. magna dicione iubeto
Karthago premat Ausoniam; nihil urbibus inde
obstabit Tyriis. quid pestem evadere belli 55
iuvit et Argolicos medium fugisse per ignis
totque maris vastaeque exhausta pericula terrae,
dum Latium Teucri recidiuaque Pergama quaerunt?
non satius cineres patriae insedisse supremos
atque solum quo Troia fuit? Xanthum et Simoenta 60
redde, oro, miseris iterumque revolvere casus
da, pater, Iliacos Teucris.' tum regia Iuno
acta furore gravi: 'quid me alta silentia cogis
rumpere et obductum verbis vulgare dolorem?
Aenean hominum quisquam divumque subegit 65
bella sequi aut hostem regi se inferre Latino?
Italiam petiit fatis auctoribus (esto)
Cassandrae impulsus furiis: num linquere castra
hortati sumus aut vitam committere ventis?
num puero summam belli, num credere muros, 70
Tyrrhenamque fidem aut gentis agitare quietas?
quis deus in fraudem, quae dura potentia nostra
egit? ubi hic Iuno demissave nubibus Iris?
indignum est Italos Troiam circumdare flammis
nascentem et patria Turnum consistere terra, 75
cui Pilumnus avus, cui diva Venilia mater:
quid face Troianos atra vim ferre Latinis,
arva aliena iugo premere atque avertere praedas?
quid soceros legere et gremiis abducere pactas,
pacem orare manu, praefigere puppibus arma? 80
tu potes Aenean manibus subducere Graium
proque viro nebulam et ventos obtendere inanis,
et potes in totidem classem convertere nymphas:
nos aliquid Rutulos contra iuvisse nefandum est?
"Aeneas ignarus abest": ignarus et absit. 85
est Paphus Idaliumque tibi, sunt alta Cythera:
quid gravidam bellis urbem et corda aspera temptas?
nosne tibi fluxas Phrygiae res vertere fundo
conamur? nos? an miseros qui Troas Achivis
obiecit? quae causa fuit consurgere in arma 90
Europamque Asiamque et foedera solvere furto?
me duce Dardanius Spartam expugnavit adulter,
aut ego tela dedi fovive Cupidine bella?
tum decuit metuisse tuis: nunc sera querelis
haud iustis adsurgis et inrita iurgia iactas.' 95
Find the glossary for Aeneid Daily here; subscribe to receive daily posts.
A reference to Iliad 5, in which Diomedes, given the power to see through godly glamour by Athena, gets a little frenzied attacking gods.
a city in Cyprus, home to a temple of Venus
a nymph
Paris; “Sparta” here may refer specifically to Helen.
An especially pointed comment because—well, guess who did.