Aeneid X.215-307

Aeneas gets a heads-up and makes a dramatic return.

Now daylight had vanished from the sky, and kindly Phoebe

was treading mid-heaven with her nocturnal team:

Aeneas (since care allowed his limbs no rest) sat there

controlling the helm himself and tending the sails.

And see, in mid-course, a troop of his own friends

appeared: the nymphs, whom gracious Cybele

had commanded to be goddesses of the sea,

to be nymphs, not ships, swam beside him and cut the flood,

as many as the bronze prows that once lay by the shore.

They knew the king from far off and circled him dancing;

and Cymodocea, following, most skillful of them in speech,

caught at the stern with her right hand, lifted her length herself,

and paddled along with her left arm under the silent water.

Then she spoke to the bemused man so: “Are you awake, Aeneas,

child of the gods? Be awake: loose the sheets: make full sail.

We are your fleet, now nymphs of the sea, once pines of Ida

from her sacred peak. Against our will we broke our bonds

when the treacherous Rutulian was pressing us hard

with fire and sword, and we have sought you over the waves.

Cybele, the Mother, refashioned us in this form from pity,

granting that we became goddesses, spending life under the waves.

Now your son Ascanius is penned behind walls and ditches,

among weapons and Latins bristling for a fight.

The Arcadian horse, mixed with brave Etruscans, already hold

the positions commanded, while Turnus’s certain purpose

is to send his central squadrons against them lest they reach the camp.

Up then, in the rising dawn, call your friends with an order

to arm, and take your invincible shield that the lord of fire

gave you himself, that he circled with a golden rim.

If you don’t think my words idle, tomorrow’s light

will gaze on a mighty heap of Rutulian dead.”

She spoke, and, knowing how, with her right hand

thrust the high stern on as she left: it sped through the waves

faster than a javelin or an arrow equalling the wind.

Then the others quickened speed. Amazed, the Trojan son

of Anchises marvelled, yet his spirits lifted at the omen.

Then looking up to the arching heavens, he briefly prayed:

“Kind Cybele, Mother of the gods, to whom Dindymus,

tower-crowned cities, and harnessed lions are dear,

be my leader now in battle, duly further this omen,

and be with your Trojans, goddess, with your favouring step.”

He prayed like this, and meanwhile the wheeling day

rushed in with a flood of light, chasing away the night;

first he ordered his comrades to obey his signals,

prepare their spirits for fighting, and ready themselves for battle.

Now he stood on the high stern, with the Trojans and his fort

in view, and at once lifted high the blazing shield in his left hand.

The Trojans on the walls raised a shout to the sky, new hope

freshened their fury, they hurled their spears, just as Strymonian¹

cranes under dark clouds, flying through the air, give noisy

cries and, fleeing the south wind, trail their clamour.

This seemed strange to the Rutulian king and the Italian

leaders, until, looking behind them, they saw the fleet

turned towards shore and the whole sea alive with ships.

Aeneas’s crest blazed, and a dark flame streamed from the top,

and the shield’s gold boss spouted floods of fire:

just as when comets glow blood-red and ominous in the clear night,²

or when fiery Sirius,³ bringer of drought and plague

to frail mortals, rises and saddens the sky with sinister light.

Still, brave Turnus did not lose hope of seizing the shore first

and driving the approaching enemy away from land.

And he raised his men’s spirits as well, and chided them:

“What you asked for in prayer is here, to break through

with the sword. Mars himself empowers your hands, men!

Now let each remember his wife and home, now recall

the great actions, the glories of our fathers. And let’s

meet them in the waves, while they’re unsure and

their first steps falter as they land. Fortune favours the brave.”

So he spoke, and asked himself whom to lead in attack

and whom he could trust the siege of the walls.

Meanwhile Aeneas landed his allies from the tall ships

using gangways. Many waited for the spent wave to ebb

and trusted themselves to the shallow water; others rowed.

Tarchon, noting a strand where no waves heaved

and no breaking waters roared, but the sea swept in

smoothly with the rising tide, suddenly turned

his prow towards it, exhorting his men:

“Now, O chosen band, bend to your sturdy oars:

lift, drive your boats, split this enemy shore

with your beaks, let the keel itself plough a furrow.

I don’t shrink from wrecking the ship in such a harbour

once I’ve seized the land.” When Tarchon had finished

speaking so, his comrades rose to the oars and drove

their foam-wet ships onto the Latin fields

till the rams gained dry ground and all the hulls

came to rest unharmed. But not yours, Tarchon,

since, striking the shallows, she hung on an uneven ridge

poised for a while, unbalanced, and, tiring the waves,

broke and pitched her crew into the water,

broken oars and floating benches obstructed them

and at the same time the ebbing waves sucked at their feet.

---

Iamque dies caelo concesserat almaque curru               215

noctivago Phoebe medium pulsabat Olympum:

Aeneas (neque enim membris dat cura quietem)

ipse sedens clavumque regit velisque ministrat.

atque illi medio in spatio chorus, ecce, suarum

occurrit comitum: nymphae, quas alma Cybebe               220

numen habere maris nymphasque e navibus esse

iusserat, innabant pariter fluctusque secabant,

quot prius aeratae steterant ad litora prorae.

agnoscunt longe regem lustrantque choreis;

quarum quae fandi doctissima Cymodocea               225

pone sequens dextra puppim tenet ipsaque dorso

eminet ac laeva tacitis subremigat undis.

tum sic ignarum adloquitur: 'vigilasne, deum gens,

Aenea? vigila et velis immitte rudentis.

nos sumus, Idaeae sacro de vertice pinus,               230

nunc pelagi nymphae, classis tua. perfidus ut nos

praecipitis ferro Rutulus flammaque premebat,

rupimus invitae tua vincula teque per aequor

quaerimus. hanc genetrix faciem miserata refecit

et dedit esse deas aevumque agitare sub undis.               235

at puer Ascanius muro fossisque tenetur

tela inter media atque horrentis Marte Latinos.

iam loca iussa tenent forti permixtus Etrusco

Arcas eques; medias illis opponere turmas,

ne castris iungant, certa est sententia Turno.               240

surge age et Aurora socios veniente vocari

primus in arma iube, et clipeum cape quem dedit ipse

invictum ignipotens atque oras ambiit auro.

crastina lux, mea si non inrita dicta putaris,

ingentis Rutulae spectabit caedis acervos.'               245

dixerat et dextra discedens impulit altam

haud ignara modi puppim: fugit illa per undas

ocior et iaculo et ventos aequante sagitta.

inde aliae celerant cursus. stupet inscius ipse

Tros Anchisiades, animos tamen omine tollit.               250

tum breviter supera aspectans convexa precatur:

'alma parens Idaea deum, cui Dindyma cordi

turrigeraeque urbes biiugique ad frena leones,

tu mihi nunc pugnae princeps, tu rite propinques

augurium Phrygibusque adsis pede, diva, secundo.'               255

tantum effatus, et interea revoluta ruebat

matura iam luce dies noctemque fugarat;

principio sociis edicit signa sequantur

atque animos aptent armis pugnaeque parent se.

Iamque in conspectu Teucros habet et sua castra               260

stans celsa in puppi, clipeum cum deinde sinistra

extulit ardentem. clamorem ad sidera tollunt

Dardanidae e muris, spes addita suscitat iras,

tela manu iaciunt, quales sub nubibus atris

Strymoniae dant signa grues atque aethera tranant               265

cum sonitu, fugiuntque Notos clamore secundo.

at Rutulo regi ducibusque ea mira videri

Ausoniis, donec versas ad litora puppis

respiciunt totumque adlabi classibus aequor.

ardet apex capiti cristisque a vertice flamma               270

funditur et vastos umbo vomit aureus ignis:

non secus ac liquida si quando nocte cometae

sanguinei lugubre rubent, aut Sirius ardor

ille sitim morbosque ferens mortalibus aegris

nascitur et laevo contristat lumine caelum.                275

Haud tamen audaci Turno fiducia cessit

litora praecipere et venientis pellere terra.

[ultro animos tollit dictis atque increpat ultro:]

'quod votis optastis adest, perfringere dextra.

in manibus Mars ipse viris. nunc coniugis esto               280

quisque suae tectique memor, nunc magna referto

facta, patrum laudes. ultro occurramus ad undam

dum trepidi egressisque labant vestigia prima.

audentis Fortuna iuvat.'

haec ait, et secum versat quos ducere contra               285

uel quibus obsessos possit concredere muros.

Interea Aeneas socios de puppibus altis

pontibus exponit. multi servare recursus

languentis pelagi et brevibus se credere saltu,

per remos alii. speculatus litora Tarchon,               290

qua vada non sperat nec fracta remurmurat unda,

sed mare inoffensum crescenti adlabitur aestu,

advertit subito proras sociosque precatur:

'nunc, o lecta manus, validis incumbite remis;

tollite, ferte rates, inimicam findite rostris               295

hanc terram, sulcumque sibi premat ipsa carina.

frangere nec tali puppim statione recuso

arrepta tellure semel.' quae talia postquam

effatus Tarchon, socii consurgere tonsis

spumantisque rates arvis inferre Latinis,               300

donec rostra tenent siccum et sedere carinae

omnes innocuae. sed non puppis tua, Tarchon:

namque inflicta vadis, dorso dum pendet iniquo

anceps sustentata diu fluctusque fatigat,

solvitur atque viros mediis exponit in undis,               305

fragmina remorum quos et fluitantia transtra

impediunt retrahitque pedes simul unda relabens.

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

1. Strymon = a river in Thrace

2. Potentially, though not certainly, a reference to the comet that appeared over Rome after Caesar’s assassination, which many read as a sign of his deification/ascendence.

3. the Dog Star, associated with fever/heat/sickness