Aeneid X.606-718
Turnus gets turned around. The battle continues.
Meanwhile Jupiter, unasked, spoke to Juno:
“O my sister, and at the same time my dearest wife,
as you thought (your judgement is not wrong)
it is Venus who sustains the Trojans’ power,
not their own right hands, so ready for war,
nor their fierce spirits, tolerant of danger.”
Juno spoke submissively to him: “O loveliest of husbands,
why do you trouble me, who am ill and fearful of your
harsh commands? If my love had the power it once had,
that is my right, you, all-powerful, would surely not
deny me this, to withdraw Turnus from the conflict
and save him, unharmed, for his father, Daunus.
Let him die then, let him pay the Trojans in innocent blood.
Yet he derives his name from our line: Pilumnus
was his ancestor four generations back, and often weighted
your threshold with copious gifts from a lavish hand.”
The king of heavenly Olympus briefly replied to her like this:
“If your prayer is for reprieve from imminent death
for your doomed prince, and you understand I so ordain it,
take Turnus away in flight, snatch him from oncoming fate:
there’s room for that much indulgence. But if thought
of any greater favour hides behind your prayers, and you think
this whole war may be deflected or altered, you nurture a vain hope.”
And Juno replied, weeping: “Why should your mind not grant
what your tongue withholds, and life be left to Turnus?
Now, guiltless, a heavy doom awaits him, or I stray empty
of truth. Oh, that I might be mocked by false fears,
and that you, who are able to, might harbour kinder speech!”
When she had spoken these words, she darted down at once
from high heaven through the air, driving a storm before her
and wreathed in cloud, and sought the ranks of Ilium
and the Laurentine camp. Then from the cavernous mist
the goddess decked out a weak and tenuous phantom
in the likeness of Aeneas, with Trojan weapons (a strange
marvel to behold), simulated his shield and the plumes
on his godlike head, gave it insubstantial speech,
gave it sound without mind, and mimicked the way
he walked: like shapes that flit, they say, after death,
or dreams that in sleep deceive the senses.
And the phantom flaunted itself exultantly
in front of the leading ranks, provoking Turnus
with spear casts and exasperating him with words.
Turnus ran at it and hurled a hissing spear
from the distance; it turned its heels in flight.
Then, as Turnus thought that Aeneas had retreated
and conceded, and in his confusion clung to this idle hope
in his mind, he cried: “Where are you off to, Aeneas?
Don’t desert your marriage pact; this hand of mine
will grant you the earth you looked for over the seas.”
He pursued him, calling loudly, brandishing his naked sword,
not seeing that the wind was carrying away his glory.
It chanced that the ship in which King Osinius sailed
from Clusium’s shores was moored to a high stone pier,
with ladders released and gangway ready. The swift phantom
of fleeing Aeneas sank into it to hide, and Turnus followed
no less swiftly, conquering all obstacles and leapt
up the high gangway. He had barely reached the prow
when Saturn’s daughter snapped the cable
and, snatching the ship, swept it over the waters.
Then the vague phantom no longer tried to hide
but, flying into the air, merged with a dark cloud.
Meanwhile Aeneas himself was challenging his missing enemy
to battle and sending many opposing warriors to their deaths,
while the storm carried Turnus over the wide ocean.
Unaware of the truth, and ungrateful for his rescue,
he looked back and raised clasped hands and voice to heaven:
“All-powerful father, did you think me so worthy of punishment,
did you intend me to pay such a price? Where am I being taken?
From whom am I escaping? Why am I fleeing: how will I return?
Will I see the walls and camp of Laurentium again?
What of that company of men that followed me and my standard?
Have I left them all (the shame of it) to a cruel death,
seeing them scattered now, hearing the groans as they fall?
What shall I do? Where is the earth that could gape
wide enough for me? Rather have pity on me, O winds;
drive the ship on the rocks, the reefs (I, Turnus, beg you, freely),
or send it into the vicious quicksands, where no Rutulian,
nor any knowing rumour of my shame, can follow me.”
So saying he debated this way and that in his mind,
whether he should throw himself on his sword, mad
with such disgrace, and drive the cruel steel through his ribs,
or plunge into the waves and, by swimming, gain
the curving bay and hurl himself again at the Trojan weapons.
Three times he attempted each: three times great Juno
held him back, preventing him from heartfelt pity. He glided on
with the help of wave and tide, cutting the depths,
and was carried to his father Daunus’s ancient city.
But meanwhile fiery Mezentius, warned by Jupiter,
took up the fight and attacked the jubilant Trojans.
The Etruscan ranks closed up and concentrated
all their hatred and showers of missiles on him alone.
He (like a vast cliff that juts out into the vast deep,
confronting the raging winds and exposed to the waves,
suffering the force and threat of sky and sea,
itself left unshaken) felled Hebrus, son of Dolichaon,
to the earth, with him were Latagus and swift Palmus,
but he anticipated Latagus with a huge fragment of rock
from the hillside in his mouth and face, while he hamstrung
Palmus and left him writhing helplessly: he gave Lausus the armour
to protect his shoulders and the plumes to wear on his crest.
He killed Evanthes too, the Phrygian, and Mimas, Paris’s
friend and peer, whom Theano bore to his father Amycus
on the same night Hecuba, Cisseus’s royal daughter, pregnant
with a firebrand, gave birth to Paris; Paris lies in the city
of his fathers, the Laurentine shore holds the unknown Mimas.
And as a boar, that piny Vesulus1 has sheltered
for many years and Laurentine marshes have nourished
with forests of reeds, is driven from the high hills
by snapping hounds, and halts when it reaches the nets,
snorts fiercely, hackles bristling, no one brave enough
to rage at it or approach it, but all attacking it with spears
and shouting from a safe distance: halts, unafraid,
turning in every direction, grinding its jaws,
and shaking the spears from its hide: so none of those
who were rightly angered with Mezentius had the courage
to meet him with naked sword, but provoked him
from afar with their missiles and a mighty clamour.
Iunonem interea compellat Iuppiter ultro:
'o germana mihi atque eadem gratissima coniunx,
ut rebare, Venus (nec te sententia fallit)
Troianas sustentat opes, non vivida bello
dextra viris animusque ferox patiensque pericli.' 610
cui Iuno summissa: 'quid, o pulcherrime coniunx,
sollicitas aegram et tua tristia dicta timentem?
si mihi, quae quondam fuerat quamque esse decebat,
vis in amore foret, non hoc mihi namque negares,
omnipotens, quin et pugnae subducere Turnum 615
et Dauno possem incolumem servare parenti.
nunc pereat Teucrisque pio det sanguine poenas.
ille tamen nostra deducit origine nomen
Pilumnusque illi quartus pater, et tua larga
saepe manu multisque oneravit limina donis.' 620
cui rex aetherii breviter sic fatur Olympi:
'si mora praesentis leti tempusque caduco
oratur iuveni meque hoc ita ponere sentis,
tolle fuga Turnum atque instantibus eripe fatis:
hactenus indulsisse vacat. sin altior istis 625
sub precibus venia ulla latet totumque moveri
mutarive putas bellum, spes pascis inanis.'
et Iuno adlacrimans: 'quid si, quae voce gravaris,
mente dares atque haec Turno rata vita maneret?
nunc manet insontem gravis exitus, aut ego veri 630
vana feror. quod ut o potius formidine falsa
ludar, et in melius tua, qui potes, orsa reflectas!'
Haec ubi dicta dedit, caelo se protinus alto
misit agens hiemem nimbo succincta per auras,
Iliacamque aciem et Laurentia castra petivit. 635
tum dea nube cava tenuem sine viribus umbram
in faciem Aeneae (visu mirabile monstrum)
Dardaniis ornat telis, clipeumque iubasque
divini adsimulat capitis, dat inania verba,
dat sine mente sonum gressusque effingit euntis, 640
morte obita qualis fama est volitare figuras
aut quae sopitos deludunt somnia sensus.
at primas laeta ante acies exsultat imago
inritatque virum telis et voce lacessit.
instat cui Turnus stridentemque eminus hastam 645
conicit; illa dato vertit vestigia tergo.
tum vero Aenean aversum ut cedere Turnus
credidit atque animo spem turbidus hausit inanem:
'quo fugis, Aenea? thalamos ne desere pactos;
hac dabitur dextra tellus quaesita per undas.' 650
talia vociferans sequitur strictumque coruscat
mucronem, nec ferre videt sua gaudia ventos.
Forte ratis celsi coniuncta crepidine saxi
expositis stabat scalis et ponte parato,
qua rex Clusinis aduectus Osinius oris. 655
huc sese trepida Aeneae fugientis imago
conicit in latebras, nec Turnus segnior instat
exsuperatque moras et pontis transilit altos.
vix proram attigerat, rumpit Saturnia funem
avulsamque rapit revoluta per aequora navem. 660
tum levis haud ultra latebras iam quaerit imago, 663
sed sublime volans nubi se immiscuit atrae,
illum autem Aeneas absentem in proelia poscit; 661
obvia multa virum demittit corpora morti,
cum Turnum medio interea fert aequore turbo. 665
respicit ignarus rerum ingratusque salutis
et duplicis cum voce manus ad sidera tendit:
'omnipotens genitor, tanton me crimine dignum
duxisti et talis voluisti expendere poenas?
quo feror? unde abii? quae me fuga quemve reducit? 670
Laurentisne iterum muros aut castra videbo?
quid manus illa virum, qui me meaque arma secuti?
quosque (nefas) omnis infanda in morte reliqui
et nunc palantis video, gemitumque cadentum
accipio? quid ago? aut quae iam satis ima dehiscat 675
terra mihi? vos o potius miserescite, venti;
in rupes, in saxa (volens vos Turnus adoro)
ferte ratem saevisque vadis immittite syrtis,
quo nec me Rutuli nec conscia fama sequatur.'
haec memorans animo nunc huc, nunc fluctuat illuc, 680
an sese mucrone ob tantum dedecus amens
induat et crudum per costas exigat ensem,
fluctibus an iaciat mediis et litora nando
curva petat Teucrumque iterum se reddat in arma.
ter conatus utramque viam, ter maxima Iuno 685
continuit iuvenemque animi miserata repressit.
labitur alta secans fluctuque aestuque secundo
et patris antiquam Dauni defertur ad urbem.
At Iovis interea monitis Mezentius ardens
succedit pugnae Teucrosque invadit ovantis. 690
concurrunt Tyrrhenae acies atque omnibus uni,
uni odiisque viro telisque frequentibus instant.
ille (velut rupes vastum quae prodit in aequor,
obvia ventorum furiis expostaque ponto,
vim cunctam atque minas perfert caelique marisque 695
ipsa immota manens) prolem Dolichaonis Hebrum
sternit humi, cum quo Latagum Palmumque fugacem,
sed Latagum saxo atque ingenti fragmine montis
occupat os faciemque adversam, poplite Palmum
succiso volvi segnem sinit, armaque Lauso 700
donat habere umeris et vertice figere cristas.
nec non Euanthen Phrygium Paridisque Mimanta
aequalem comitemque, una quem nocte Theano
in lucem genitore Amyco dedit et face praegnas
Cisseis regina Parim; Paris urbe paterna 705
occubat, ignarum Laurens habet ora Mimanta.
ac velut ille canum morsu de montibus altis
actus aper, multos Vesulus quem pinifer annos
defendit multosque palus Laurentia silva
pascit harundinea, postquam inter retia ventum est, 710
substitit infremuitque ferox et inhorruit armos,
nec cuiquam irasci propiusve accedere virtus,
sed iaculis tutisque procul clamoribus instant;
ille autem impavidus partis cunctatur in omnis 717
dentibus infrendens et tergo decutit hastas: 718
haud aliter, iustae quibus est Mezentius irae, 714
non ulli est animus stricto concurrere ferro, 715
missilibus longe et vasto clamore lacessunt. 716
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a mountain near the Po river