Aeneid X.719-832
Aeneas and Mezentius clash. Lausus saves his father.
Acron, a Greek, had arrived there from the ancient lands
of Corythus, an exile, his marriage ceremony left incomplete.
When Mezentius saw him in the distance, embroiled
among the ranks, with crimson plumes and in purple robes
given by his promised bride, he rushed eagerly into the thick
of the foe, as a ravenous lion often ranges the high coverts
(since a raging hunger drives it) and exults, with vast gaping jaws,
if it chances to see a fleeing roe-deer or a stag with immature horns,
then clings crouching over the entrails with bristling mane,
its cruel mouth stained hideously with blood.
Wretched Acron fell, striking the dark earth with his heels
in dying, drenching his shattered weapons with blood.
And he did not even deign to kill Orodes as he fled
or inflict a hidden wound with a thrust of his spear;
he ran to meet him on the way and opposed him man to man,
getting the better of him by force of arms, not stealth.
Then setting his foot on the fallen man and straining at his spear,
he called out: “Soldiers, noble Orodes lies here, he was no small part
of this battle.” His comrades shouted, taking up the joyful cry.
Yet Orodes, dying, said: “Whoever you are, winner here,
I’ll not go unavenged, nor will you rejoice for long;
a like fate watches for you: you’ll soon lie in these same fields.”
Mezentius replied, grinning with rage: “Die now.
As for me, the father of gods and king of men will see to that.”
So saying he withdrew his spear from the warrior’s body.
Enduring rest and iron sleep pressed on Orodes’s eyes,
and their light was shrouded in eternal night.
Caedicus killed Alcathous, Sacrator killed Hydapses,
Rapo killed Parthenius and Orses of outstanding strength.
Messapus killed Clonius, and Ericetes, son of Lycaon,
one lying on the ground fallen from his bridle-less horse,
the other still on his feet. Lycian Agis had advanced his feet,
but Valerus overthrew him with no lack of his ancestors’ skill;
Salius killed Thronius, and Nealces, famed for the javelin,
and the deceptive long-distance arrow in turn killed Salius.
Now grievous War dealt grief and death mutually;
they killed alike, and alike they died, winners and losers,
and neither one nor the other knew how to flee.
The gods in Jupiter’s halls pitied the useless anger of them both,
and that such pain existed for mortal beings;
here Venus gazed down, here, opposite, Saturnian Juno.
Pale Tisiphone raged among the warring thousands.
And now Mezentius, shaking his mighty spear,
advanced like a whirlwind over the field. Great as Orion,1
when he strides through Ocean’s deepest chasms forging a way,
his shoulders towering above the waves, or carrying
an ancient manna ash down from the mountain heights,
walking the earth with his head hidden in the clouds,
so Mezentius advanced in his giant’s armour.
Aeneas, opposite, catching sight of him in the far ranks,
prepared to go and meet him. Mezentius stood there unafraid,
waiting for his great-hearted enemy, firm in his great bulk;
and measuring with his eye what distance would suit his spear,
saying: “Now let this right hand that is my god, and the weapon
I level to throw, aid me! I vow that you yourself, Lausus, as token
of my victory over Aeneas, shall be dressed in the spoils stripped
from that robber’s corpse.” He spoke, and threw the hissing spear
from far out. But, flying on, it glanced from the shield
and pierced the handsome Antores, nearby, between flank
and thigh, Antores, friend of Hercules, sent from Argos,
who had joined Evander and settled in an Italian city.
Unhappy man, he fell to a wound meant for another,
and dying, gazing at the sky, remembered sweet Argos.
Then virtuous Aeneas hurled a spear; it passed through
Mezentius’s curved shield of triple-bronze, through linen
and the interwoven layers of three bull’s hides, and lodged
deep in the groin, but failed to drive home with force.
Aeneas, joyful at the sight of the Tuscan blood,
snatched the sword from his side and pressed
his shaken enemy hotly. Lausus, seeing it, groaned heavily
for love of his father, and tears rolled down his cheeks—
and here I’ll not be silent, for my part, about your harsh death
through fate, nor, if future ages place belief in such deeds, your actions,
so glorious, nor you yourself, youth, worthy of remembrance—
his father was retreating, yielding ground, helpless,
hampered, dragging the enemy lance along with his shield.
The youth ran forward and plunged into the fray
and, just as Aeneas’s right hand lifted to strike a blow,
he snatched at the sword-point and checked him in delay:
his friends followed with great clamour and, with a shower
of spears, forced the enemy to keep his distance till the father
could withdraw, protected by his son’s shield.
Aeneas raged, but kept himself under cover.
As every ploughman and farmer runs from the fields
when storm-clouds pour down streams of hail,
and the passerby shelters in a safe corner, under a river
bank or an arch of high rock, while the rain falls to earth,
so as to pursue the day’s work when the sun returns:
so, overwhelmed by missiles from every side,
Aeneas endured the clouds of war, while they all thundered,
and rebuked Lausus, and threatened Lausus, saying:
“Why are you rushing to death with courage beyond your strength?
Your loyalty’s betraying you to foolishness.” Nevertheless
the youth raged madly, and now fierce anger rose higher
in the Trojan leader’s heart, and the Fates gathered together
the last threads of Lausus’s life. For Aeneas drove his sword
firmly through the youth’s body and buried it to the hilt;
the point passed through his shield, too light for his threats,
and the tunic of soft gold thread his mother had woven,
blood filled its folds; then life left the body and fled,
sorrowing, through the air to the spirits below.
And when Anchises’s son saw the look on his dying face,
that face pale with the wonderment of its ending,
he groaned deeply with pity and stretched out his hand,
as that reflection of his own love for his father touched
his heart. “Unhappy child, what can loyal Aeneas grant
to such a nature, worthy of these glorious deeds of yours?
Keep the weapons you delighted in; and if it is something you are
anxious about, I return you to the shades and ashes of your ancestors.
This too should solace you, unhappy one, for your sad death:
you died at the hands of great Aeneas.” Also he rebuked
Lausus’s comrades and lifted their leader from the earth,
where he was soiling his well-ordered hair with blood.
Venerat antiquis Corythi de finibus Acron, 719
Graius homo, infectos linquens profugus hymenaeos. 720
hunc ubi miscentem longe media agmina vidit,
purpureum pennis et pactae coniugis ostro,
impastus stabula alta leo ceu saepe peragrans
(suadet enim vesana fames), si forte fugacem
conspexit capream aut surgentem in cornua cervum, 725
gaudet hians immane comasque arrexit et haeret
visceribus super incumbens; lavit improba taeter
ora cruor—
sic ruit in densos alacer Mezentius hostis.
sternitur infelix Acron et calcibus atram 730
tundit humum exspirans infractaque tela cruentat.
atque idem fugientem haud est dignatus Oroden
sternere nec iacta caecum dare cuspide vulnus;
obvius adversoque occurrit seque viro vir
contulit, haud furto melior sed fortibus armis. 735
tum super abiectum posito pede nixus et hasta:
'pars belli haud temnenda, viri, iacet altus Orodes.'
conclamant socii laetum paeana secuti;
ille autem exspirans: 'non me, quicumque es, inulto,
victor, nec longum laetabere; te quoque fata 740
prospectant paria atque eadem mox arva tenebis.'
ad quem subridens mixta Mezentius ira:
'nunc morere. ast de me divum pater atque hominum rex
viderit.' hoc dicens eduxit corpore telum.
olli dura quies oculos et ferreus urget 745
somnus, in aeternam clauduntur lumina noctem.
Caedicus Alcathoum obtruncat, Sacrator Hydaspen
partheniumque Rapo et praedurum viribus Orsen,
Messapus Cloniumque Lycaoniumque Erichaeten,
illum infrenis equi lapsu tellure iacentem, 750
hunc peditem. pedes et Lycius processerat Agis,
quem tamen haud expers Valerus virtutis avitae
deicit; at Thronium Salius Saliumque Nealces
insidiis, iaculo et longe fallente sagitta.
Iam gravis aequabat luctus et mutua Mavors 755
funera; caedebant pariter pariterque ruebant
victores victique, neque his fuga nota neque illis.
di Iovis in tectis iram miserantur inanem
amborum et tantos mortalibus esse labores;
hinc Venus, hinc contra spectat Saturnia Iuno. 760
pallida Tisiphone media inter milia saevit.
At vero ingentem quatiens Mezentius hastam
turbidus ingreditur campo. quam magnus Orion,
cum pedes incedit medii per maxima Nerei
stagna viam scindens, umero supereminet undas, 765
aut summis referens annosam montibus ornum
ingrediturque solo et caput inter nubila condit,
talis se vastis infert Mezentius armis.
huic contra Aeneas speculatus in agmine longo
obvius ire parat. manet imperterritus ille 770
hostem magnanimum opperiens, et mole sua stat;
atque oculis spatium emensus quantum satis hastae:
'dextra mihi deus et telum, quod missile libro,
nunc adsint! voveo praedonis corpore raptis
indutum spoliis ipsum te, Lause, tropaeum 775
Aeneae.' dixit, stridentemque eminus hastam
iecit. at illa volans clipeo est excussa proculque
egregium Antoren latus inter et ilia figit,
Herculis Antoren comitem, qui missus ab Argis
haeserat Evandro atque Itala consederat urbe. 780
sternitur infelix alieno vulnere, caelumque
aspicit et dulcis moriens reminiscitur Argos.
tum pius Aeneas hastam iacit; illa per orbem
aere cavum triplici, per linea terga tribusque
transiit intextum tauris opus, imaque sedit 785
inguine, sed viris haud pertulit. ocius ensem
Aeneas viso Tyrrheni sanguine laetus
eripit a femine et trepidanti fervidus instat.
ingemuit cari graviter genitoris amore,
ut vidit, Lausus, lacrimaeque per ora volutae— 790
hic mortis durae casum tuaque optima facta,
si qua fidem tanto est operi latura vetustas,
non equidem nec te, iuvenis memorande, silebo—
ille pedem referens et inutilis inque ligatus
cedebat clipeoque inimicum hastile trahebat. 795
proripuit iuvenis seseque immiscuit armis,
iamque adsurgentis dextra plagamque ferentis
Aeneae subiit mucronem ipsumque morando
sustinuit; socii magno clamore sequuntur,
dum genitor nati parma protectus abiret, 800
telaque coniciunt perturbantque eminus hostem
missilibus. furit Aeneas tectusque tenet se.
ac velut effusa si quando grandine nimbi
praecipitant, omnis campis diffugit arator
omnis et agricola, et tuta latet arce viator 805
aut amnis ripis aut alti fornice saxi,
dum pluit in terris, ut possint sole reducto
exercere diem: sic obrutus undique telis
Aeneas nubem belli, dum detonet omnis,
sustinet et Lausum increpitat Lausoque minatur: 810
'quo moriture ruis maioraque viribus audes?
fallit te incautum pietas tua.' nec minus ille
exsultat demens, saevae iamque altius irae
Dardanio surgunt ductori, extremaque Lauso
Parcae fila legunt. validum namque exigit ensem 815
per medium Aeneas iuvenem totumque recondit;
transiit et parmam mucro, levia arma minacis,
et tunicam molli mater quam neverat auro,
implevitque sinum sanguis; tum vita per auras
concessit maesta ad Manis corpusque reliquit. 820
At vero ut vultum vidit morientis et ora,
ora modis Anchisiades pallentia miris,
ingemuit miserans graviter dextramque tetendit,
et mentem patriae subiit pietatis imago.
'quid tibi nunc, miserande puer, pro laudibus istis, 825
quid pius Aeneas tanta dabit indole dignum?
arma, quibus laetatus, habe tua; teque parentum
manibus et cineri, si qua est ea cura, remitto.
hoc tamen infelix miseram solabere mortem:
Aeneae magni dextra cadis.' increpat ultro 830
cunctantis socios et terra sublevat ipsum
sanguine turpantem comptos de more capillos.
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