But Lausus, a powerful force in the war, would not allow
his troops to be dismayed by the hero’s great slaughter:
first he killed Abas opposite, a knotty obstacle in the battle.
The youth of Arcadia fell, the Etruscans fell, and you,
O Trojans, men not even destroyed by the Greeks.
The armies met, equal in leadership and strength;
the rear and front closed ranks, and the crush prevented
weapons or hands from moving. Here Pallas pressed and urged,
there Lausus opposed him, not many years between them,
both of outstanding presence, but Fortune had denied them
a return to their country. Yet the king of great Olympus
did not allow them to meet face to face: their fate
was waiting for them soon, at the hand of a greater opponent.
Meanwhile Turnus’s gentle sister Juturna adjured him to help
Lausus, and he parted the ranks between in his swift chariot.
When he saw his comrades he cried: “It’s time to hold back
from the fight; it’s for me alone to attack Pallas, Pallas
is mine alone; I wish his father were here to see it.”
And his comrades drew back from the field as ordered.
When the Rutulians retired, then the youth, amazed at that proud
command, marvelled at Turnus, casting his eyes over
the mighty body, surveying all of him from the distance
with a fierce look, and answered the ruler’s words with these:
“I’ll soon be praised for taking rich spoils, or for a glorious death:
my father is equal to either fate for me. Away with your threats.”
So saying, he marched down the centre of the field:
the blood gathered, chill, in Arcadian hearts.
Turnus leapt from his chariot, preparing to close on foot,
and the sight of the advancing Turnus was no different
than that of a lion, seeing from a high point a bull far off
on the plain, contemplating battle, and rushing down.
But Pallas came forward first, when he thought Turnus might
be within spear-throw, so that chance might help him in venturing
his unequal strength, and so he spoke to the mighty heavens:
“I pray you, Hercules, by my father’s hospitality and the feast
to which you came as a stranger, assist my great enterprise.
Let me strip the blood-drenched armour from his dying limbs,
and let Turnus’s failing sight meet its conqueror.”
Hercules heard the youth, and stifled a heavy sigh
deep in his heart, and wept tears in vain.
Then Jupiter the father spoke to Hercules, his son,
with kindly words: “Every man has his day, the course
of life is brief and cannot be recalled; but virtue’s task
is this, to increase fame by deeds. So many sons of gods
fell beneath the high walls of Troy, yes, and my own son
Sarpedon among them:1 fate calls even for Turnus,
and he too has reached the end of the years granted to him.”
So he spoke, and turned his eyes from the Rutulian fields.
Then Pallas threw his spear with all his might
and snatched his gleaming sword from its hollow sheath.
The shaft flew and struck Turnus where the top of the armour
laps the shoulder and, forcing a way through the rim
of his shield at last, even grazed his mighty frame.
At this, Turnus hurled his oak spear tipped
with sharp steel, long levelled at Pallas, saying:
“See if this weapon of mine isn’t of greater sharpness.”
The spear-head, with a quivering blow, tore through
the centre of his shield, passed through all the layers
of iron, of bronze, all the overlapping bull’s-hide,
piercing the breastplate and the mighty chest.
Vainly he pulled the hot spear from the wound:
blood and life followed, by one and the same path.
He fell in his own blood (his weapons clanged over him)
and he struck the hostile earth in death with gory lips.
Then Turnus, standing over him, cried out:
“Arcadians, take note, and carry these words of mine
to Evander: I return Pallas to him as he deserves.
I freely give whatever honours lie in a tomb, whatever
solace there is in burial. His hospitality to Aeneas
will cost him greatly.” So saying he planted his left foot on the corpse
and tore away the huge weight of Pallas’s belt, engraved
with the Danaids’ crime: that band of young men foully murdered
on the same wedding night, the blood-drenched marriage chambers,2
that Clonus son of Eurytus had richly chased in gold;
now Turnus exulted at the spoil and gloried in winning.
Oh, human mind, ignorant of fate or fortune to come
or of how to keep to the limits, exalted by favourable events!
The time will come for Turnus when he’d prefer to have bought
an untouched Pallas at great price, and will hate those spoils
and the day. So his friends crowded round Pallas with many
groans and tears, and carried him back lying on his shield.
O the great grief and glory in returning to your father:
that day first gave you to warfare, the same day took you from it,
while nevertheless you left behind vast heaps of Rutulian dead!
At non caede viri tanta perterrita Lausus,
pars ingens belli, sinit agmina: primus Abantem
oppositum interimit, pugnae nodumque moramque.
sternitur Arcadiae proles, sternuntur Etrusci
et vos, o Grais imperdita corpora, Teucri. 430
agmina concurrunt ducibusque et viribus aequis;
extremi addensent acies nec turba moveri
tela manusque sinit. hinc Pallas instat et urget,
hinc contra Lausus, nec multum discrepat aetas,
egregii forma, sed quis Fortuna negarat 435
in patriam reditus. ipsos concurrere passus
haud tamen inter se magni regnator Olympi;
mox illos sua fata manent maiore sub hoste.
Interea soror alma monet succedere Lauso
Turnum, qui volucri curru medium secat agmen. 440
ut vidit socios: 'tempus desistere pugnae;
solus ego in Pallanta feror, soli mihi Pallas
debetur; cuperem ipse parens spectator adesset.'
haec ait, et socii cesserunt aequore iusso.
at Rutulum abscessu iuvenis tum iussa superba 445
miratus stupet in Turno corpusque per ingens
lumina voluit obitque truci procul omnia visu,
talibus et dictis it contra dicta tyranni:
'aut spoliis ego iam raptis laudabor opimis
aut leto insigni: sorti pater aequus utrique est. 450
tolle minas.' fatus medium procedit in aequor;
frigidus Arcadibus coit in praecordia sanguis.
desiluit Turnus biiugis, pedes apparat ire
comminus; utque leo, specula cum vidit ab alta
stare procul campis meditantem in proelia taurum, 455
advolat, haud alia est Turni venientis imago.
hunc ubi contiguum missae fore credidit hastae,
ire prior Pallas, si qua fors adiuvet ausum
viribus imparibus, magnumque ita ad aethera fatur:
'per patris hospitium et mensas, quas advena adisti, 460
te precor, Alcide, coeptis ingentibus adsis.
cernat semineci sibi me rapere arma cruenta
victoremque ferant morientia lumina Turni.'
audiit Alcides iuvenem magnumque sub imo
corde premit gemitum lacrimasque effundit inanis. 465
tum genitor natum dictis adfatur amicis:
'stat sua cuique dies, breve et inreparabile tempus
omnibus est vitae; sed famam extendere factis,
hoc virtutis opus. Troiae sub moenibus altis
tot gnati cecidere deum, quin occidit una 470
Sarpedon, mea progenies; etiam sua Turnum
fata vocant metasque dati pervenit ad aevi.'
sic ait, atque oculos Rutulorum reicit arvis.
At Pallas magnis emittit viribus hastam
vaginaque cava fulgentem deripit ensem. 475
illa volans umeri surgunt qua tegmina summa
incidit, atque viam clipei molita per oras
tandem etiam magno strinxit de corpore Turni.
hic Turnus ferro praefixum robur acuto
in Pallanta diu librans iacit atque ita fatur: 480
'aspice num mage sit nostrum penetrabile telum.'
dixerat; at clipeum, tot ferri terga, tot aeris,
quem pellis totiens obeat circumdata tauri,
vibranti cuspis medium transverberat ictu
loricaeque moras et pectus perforat ingens. 485
ille rapit calidum frustra de vulnere telum:
una eademque via sanguis animusque sequuntur.
corruit in vulnus (sonitum super arma dedere)
et terram hostilem moriens petit ore cruento.
quem Turnus super adsistens: 490
'Arcades, haec' inquit 'memores mea dicta referte
Evandro: qualem meruit, Pallanta remitto.
quisquis honos tumuli, quidquid solamen humandi est,
largior. haud illi stabunt Aeneia parvo
hospitia.' et laevo pressit pede talia fatus 495
exanimem rapiens immania pondera baltei
impressumque nefas: una sub nocte iugali
caesa manus iuvenum foede thalamique cruenti,
quae Clonus Eurytides multo caelaverat auro;
quo nunc Turnus ovat spolio gaudetque potitus. 500
nescia mens hominum fati sortisque futurae
et servare modum rebus sublata secundis!
Turno tempus erit magno cum optaverit emptum
intactum Pallanta, et cum spolia ista diemque
oderit. at socii multo gemitu lacrimisque 505
impositum scuto referunt Pallanta frequentes.
o dolor atque decus magnum rediture parenti,
haec te prima dies bello dedit, haec eadem aufert,
cum tamen ingentis Rutulorum linquis acervos!
Find the glossary for Aeneid Daily here; subscribe to receive daily posts.
Sarpedon narrowly escaped death a few times in the Trojan war before his eventual death in Iliad 16, at Patroclus’s hands.
The fifty daughters of Danaus were meant to marry the fifty sons of their uncle Aegyptus; all but one murdered their husbands on their wedding night.