Civil War
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Original / primary: Perseus Eng2
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Now that the chiefs with minds intent on fight
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Had drawn their armies near upon the hills
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And all the gods beheld their chosen pair,
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Caesar, the Grecian towns despising, scorned
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To reap the glory of successful war
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Save at his kinsman's cost. In all his prayers
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He seeks that moment, fatal to the world,
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When shall be cast the die, to win or lose,
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And all their fortunes hang upon the throw.
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Thrice he drew out his troops, his eagles thrice,
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Demanding battle; to the ruin of Rome
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Thus prompt as ever: but his kinsman foe,
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Proof against every art, refused to leave
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The rampart of his camp. Then marching swift
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By hidden path between the wooded fields
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He seeks, and hopes to seize, Dyrrhachium's Dyrrhachium (Durazzo) was a Corcyraean colony, but the founder was of Corinth, the metropolis of Corcyra. It stood some sixty miles north of the Ceraunian promotory (Book V., 751). About the year 1100 it was stormed and taken by Robert the Guiscard, after furious battles with the troops ofthe Emperor Alexius. It may be observed that, according to Caesar's account, he succeeded in getting between Pompey and Dyrrhachium, 'De Bello Celtico,' III., 41, 42. fort;
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But Magnus, swifter speeding by the sea,
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First camped on Petra's slopes, a rocky hill
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Thus by the natives named. From thence he keeps
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Watch o'er the fortress of Corinthian birth
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Which by its towers alone without a guard
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Was safe against a siege. No hand of man
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In ancient days built up her lofty wall,
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No hammer rang upon her massive stones:
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Not all the works of war, nor Time himself
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Shall undermine her. Nature's hand has raised
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Her adamantine rocks and hedged her in
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With bulwarks girded by the foamy main:
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And but for one short bridge of narrow earth
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Dyrrhachium were an island. Steep and fierce,
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Dreaded of sailors, are the cliffs that bear
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Her walls; and tempests, howling from the south,
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Toss up the foaming main upon the roofs;
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And homes and temples tremble at the shock.
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Thirsting for battle and with hopes inflamed
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Here Caesar hastes, with distant rampart lines
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Seeking unseen to coop his foe within,
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Though spread in spacious camp upon the hills.
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With eagle eye he measures out the land
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Meet to be compassed, nor content with turf
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Fit for a hasty mound, he bids his troops
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Tear from the quarries many a giant rock:
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And spoils the dwellings of the Greeks, and drags
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Their walls asunder for his own. Thus rose
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A mighty barrier which no ram could burst
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Nor any ponderous machine of war.
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Mountains are cleft, and level through the hills
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The work of Caesar strides : wide yawns the moat,
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Forts show their towers rising on the heights,
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And in vast circle forests are enclosed
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And groves and spacious lands, and beasts of prey,
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As in a line of toils. Pompeius lacked
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Nor field nor forage in th' encircled span
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Nor room to move his camp; nay, rivers rose
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Within, and ran their course and reached the sea;
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And Caesar wearied ere he saw the whole,
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And daylight failed him. Let the ancient tale
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Attribute to the labours of the gods
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The walls of Ilium: let the fragile bricks
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Which compass in great Babylon, amaze
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The fleeting Parthian. Here a larger space
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Than those great cities which Orontes swift
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And Tigris' stream enclose, or that which boasts
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In Eastern climes, the lordly palaces
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Fit for Assyria's kings, is closed by walls
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Amid the haste and tumult of a war
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Forced to completion. Yet this labour huge
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Was spent in vain. So many hands had joined
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Or Sestos with Abydos, or had tamed
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With mighty mole the Hellespontine wave,
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Or Corinth from the realm of Pelops king
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Had rent asunder, or had spared each ship
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Her voyage round the long Malean cape,
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Or had done anything most hard, to mould
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The world's created surface. Here the war
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Was prisoned: blood predestinate to flow
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In all the parts of earth; the host foredoomed
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To fall in Libya or in Thessaly
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Was here: in such small amphitheatre
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The tide of civil passion rose and fell.
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At first Pompeius knew not: so the hind
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Who peaceful tills the mid-Sicilian fields
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Hears not Pelorus C. del Faro, the N.E. point of Sicily. sounding to the storm;
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So billows thunder on Rutupian shores,The shores of Kent.
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Unheard by distant Caledonia's tribes.
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But when he saw the mighty barrier stretch
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O'er hill and valley, and enclose the land,
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He bade his columns leave their rocky hold
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And seize on posts of vantage in the plain;
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Thus forcing Caesar to extend his troops
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On wider lines; and holding for his own
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Such space encompassed as divides from Rome
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Aricia, Aricia was situated on the Via Appia, about sixteen miles from Rome. There was a temple of Diana close to it, among some woods on a small lake. Aricia was Horace's first halting place on his journey to Brundisium sacred to that goddess chaste
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Of old Mycenae; or as Tiber holds
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From Rome's high ramparts to the Tuscan sea,
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Unless he deviate. No trumpet call
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Commands an onset, and the darts that fly
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Fly though forbidden; but the arm that flings
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For proof the lance, at random, here and there
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Deals impious slaughter. Weighty care compelled
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Each leader to withhold his troops from fight;
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For there the weary earth of produce failed
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Pressed by Pompeius' steeds, whose horny hoofs
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Rang in their gallop on the grassy fields
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And killed the succulence. They strengthless lay
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Upon the mown expanse, nor pile of straw,
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Brought from full barns in place of living grass,
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Relieved their craving; shook their panting flanks,
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And as they wheeled Death struck his victim down.
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Then foul contagion filled the murky air
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Whose poisonous weight pressed on them in a cloud
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Pestiferous; as in Nesis' isle An island in the Bay of Puteoli. the breath
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Of Styx rolls upwards from the mist-clad rocks;
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Or that fell vapour which the caves exhale
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From Typhon Typhon, the hundred-headed giant, was buried under Mount Etna. raging in the depths below.
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Then died the soldiers, for the streams they drank
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Held yet more poison than the air: the skin
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Was dark and rigid, and the fiery plague
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Made hard their vitals, and with pitiless tooth
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Gnawed at their wasted features, while their eyes
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Started from out their sockets, and the head
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Drooped from sheer weariness. So the disease
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Grew swifter in its strides till scarce was room,
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'Twixt life and death, for sickness, and the pest
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Slew as it struck its victim, and the dead
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Thrust from the tents (such all their burial) lay
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Blent with the living. Yet their camp was pitched
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Hard by the breezy sea by which might come
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All nations' harvests, and the northern wind
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Not seldom rolled the murky air away.
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Their foe, not vexed with pestilential air
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Nor stagnant waters, ample range enjoyed
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Upon the spacious uplands: yet as though
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In leaguer, famine seized them for its prey.
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Scarce were the crops half grown when Caesar saw
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How prone they seized upon the food of beasts,
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And stripped of leaves the bushes and the groves,
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And dragged from roots unknown the doubtful herb,
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Which might be death: all things they ate that fire
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May soften, or teeth may bite, or arid throat
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May swallow; things that never heretofore
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Were placed on tables-thus the host at large-
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Yet was there plenty with the leaguered foe.
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When Magnus first was pleased to break his bonds,
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No nightly dash he makes, by craft to seize
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His sleeping foe unarmed: his soul had scorned
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Such path obscure to victory. Twas his aim,
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To lay the turrets low; to mark his track,
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By ruin spread afar; and with the sword
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To hew a path between his slaughtered foes.
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Minucius'This was Scaeva's name. turret was the chosen spot
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Where groves of trees and thickets gave approach
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Safe, unbetrayed by dust. Up from the fields
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Flashed all at once his eagles into sight
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And all his trumpets blared. But ere the sword
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Could win the battle, on the hostile ranks
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Dread panic fell; prone as in death they lay
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Where else upright they should withstand the foe;
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Nor more availed their valour, and in vain
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The cloud of weapons flew, with none to slay.
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Then blazing torches rolling pitchy flame
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Are hurled, and shaken nod the lofty towers
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And threaten ruin, and the bastions groan
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Struck by the frequent engine, and the troops
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Of Magnus by triumphant eagles led
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Stride o'er the rampart, in their front the world.
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Yet now that passage which not Caesar's self
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Nor thousand valiant squadrons had availed
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To rescue from their grasp, one man in arms
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Steadfast till death refused them; Scaeva named
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This hero soldier: long he served in fight
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Waged 'gainst the savage on the banks of Rhone;
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And now centurion made, through deeds of blood,
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He bore the staffThe vinewood staff was the badge of the centurion's office. before the marshalled line.
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Prone to all wickedness, he little recked
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How valourous deeds in civil war may be
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Greatest of crimes; and when he saw how turned
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His comrades fron the war and sought in flight
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A refuge, ' Whence,' he cried, 'this impious fear
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Unknown to Caesar's armies? Do ye turn
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'Your backs on death, and are ye not ashamed
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Not to be found where slaughtered heroes lie?
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'Is loyalty too weak? Yet love of fight
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'Might bid you stand. We are the chosen few
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'Through whom the foe would break. Unbought by blood
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'This day shall not be theirs. 'Neath Caesar's eye,
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'True, death would be more happy; but this boon
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'Fortune denies: at least my fall shall be
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'Praised by Pompeius. Shatter with your breasts
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' Their weapons; blunt the edges of their swords
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' With throats unyielding. In the distant lines
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' The dust is seen already, and the sound
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' Of tumult and of ruin finds the ear
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Of Caesar: strike; the victory is ours:
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'For he shall come who while his soldiers die
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Shall make the fortress his.' His voice calls forth
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The courage that the trumpets failed to rouse
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When first they rang: his comrades mustering come
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To watch his deeds; and, wondering at the man,
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To test if valour thus by foes oppressed,
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In narrow space, could hope for aught but death.
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But Scaeva standing on the tottering bank
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Heaves from the brimming turret on the foe
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The corpses of the fallen; the ruined mass
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Gives weapons to his hands; with beams and poles
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And ponderous stones, with his own breast he threats
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His enemies; and thrusts with mighty stakes
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The host advancing; when they grasp the wall
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He lops the arm: rocks crush the foeman's skull
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And rive the scalp asunder: fiery bolts
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Dashed at another set his hair aflame,
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Till rolls the greedy blaze about his eyes
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With hideous crackle. As the pile of slain
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Rose to the summit of the wall he sprang,
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Swift as across the nets a hunted pard,
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Above the swords upraised, till in mid throng
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Of foes he stood, hemmed in by densest ranks
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And ramparted by war; in front and rear,
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Where'er he struck, the victor. Now his sword
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Blunted with gore congealed no more could wound,
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But brake the stricken limb; while every hand
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Flung every quivering dart at him alone;
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Nor missed their aim, for rang against his shield
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Dart after dart unerring, and his helm
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In broken fragments pressed upon his brow;
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His vital parts were safeguarded by spears
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That bristled in his body. Fortune saw
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Thus waged a novel combat, for there warred
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Against one man an army. Why with darts,
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Madmen, assail him and with slender shafts,
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'Gainst which his life is proof? Or ponderous stones
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This warrior chief shall overwhelm, or bolts
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Flung by the twisted thongs of mighty slings.
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Let steel-shod ram or catapult remove
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This champion of the gate. No fragile wall
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Stands here for Caesar, blocking with its bulk
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Pompeius' way to freedom. Now he trusts
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His shield no more, lest his sinister hand,
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Idle, give life by shame; and on his breast
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Bearing a forest of spears, though spent with toil
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And worn with onset, falls upon his foe
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And braves alone the wounds of all the war.
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Thus may an elephant in Afric wastes,
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Oppressed by frequent darts, break those that fall
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Rebounding from his horny hide, and shake
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Those that find lodgment, while his life within
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Lies safe, protected, nor does spear avail
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To reach the fount of blood. Unnumbered wounds
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By arrow dealt, or lance, thus fail to slay
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This single warrior. But lo! from far
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A Cretan archer's shaft, more sure of aim
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Than vows could hope for, strikes on Scaeva's brow
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To light within his eye: the hero tugs
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Intrepid, bursts the nerves, and tears the shaft
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Forth with the eyeball, and with dauntless heel
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Treads them to dust. Not otherwise a bear
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Pannonian, fiercer for the wound received,
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Maddened by dart from Libyan thong propelled,
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Turns circling on her wound, and still pursues
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The weapon fleeing as she whirls around.
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Thus, in his rage destroyed, his shapeless face
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Stood foul with crimson flow. The victors' shout
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Glad to the sky arose; no greater joy
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A little blood could give them had they seen
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That Caesar's self was wounded. Down he pressed
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Deep in his soul the anguish, and, with mien
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No longer bent on fight, submissive cried,
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Spare me, ye citizens; remove the war
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Far hence: no weapons now can haste my death;
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Draw from my breast the darts, but add no more.
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Yet raise me up to place me in the camp
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Of Magnus, living: this your gift to him;
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No brave man's death my title to renown,
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But Caesar's flag deserted.' So he spake.
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Unhappy Aulus thought his words were true,
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Nor saw within his hand the ready sword;
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And leaping forth in haste to make his own
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The prisoner and his arms, in middle throat
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Received the lightning blade. By this one death
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Rose Scaeva's valour again; and thus he cried,
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Such be the punishment of all who thought
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Great Scaeva vanquished; if Pompeius seeks
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Peace from this reeking sword, low let him lay
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' At Caesar's feet his standards. Me do ye think
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' Such as yourselves, and slow to meet the fates?
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'Your love for Magnus and the Senate's cause
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'Is less than mine for death.' These were his words;
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And dust in columns proved that Caesar came.
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Thus was Pompeius' glory spared the stain
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Of flight compelled by Scava. He, when ceased
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The battle, fell, no more by rage of fight,
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Or sight of blood out-pouring from his wounds,
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Roused to the combat. Fainting there he lay
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Upon the shoulders of his comrades borne,
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Who him adoring (as though deity
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Dwelt in his bosom) for his matchless deeds,
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Plucked forth the gory shafts and took his arms
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To deck the gods and shield the breast of Mars.
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Thrice happy thou with such a name achieved,
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Had but the fierce Iberian from thy sword,
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Or heavy shielded Teuton, or had fled
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The light Cantabrian: now no spoils of thine
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Shall deck the Thunderer's temple, nor upraise
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The shout of triumph in the ways of Rome.
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For all thy prowess, all thy deeds of pride
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Do but prepare her lord.
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Nor on this hand
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Repulsed, Pompeius idly ceased from war,
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Content within his bars; but as the sea
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Tireless, which tempests force upon the crag
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That breaks it, or which gnaws a mountain side
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Some day to fall in ruin on itself;
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He sought the turrets nearest to the main,
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On double onset bent; nor closely kept
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His troops in hand, but on the spacious plain
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Spread forth his camp. They joyful leave the tents
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And wander at their will. Thus Padus flows
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In brimming flood, and foaming at his bounds,
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Making whole districts quake; and should the bank
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Fail 'neath his swollen waters, all his stream
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Breaks forth in swirling eddies over fields
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Not his before; some lands are lost, the rest
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Gain from his bounty.
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Hardly from his tower
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Had Caesar seen the fire or known the fight:
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And coming found the rampart overthrown,
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The dust no longer stirred, the ruins cold
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As from a battle done. The peace that reigned
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There and on Magnus' side, as though men slept,
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Their victory won, aroused his angry soul.
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Quick he prepares, so that he end their joy
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Careless of slaughter or defeat, to rush
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With threatening columns on Torquatus' post.
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But swift as sailor, by his trembling mast
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Warned of Circeian tempest, furls his sails,
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So swift Torquatus saw, and prompt to wage
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The war more closely, he withdrew his men
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Within a narrower wall.
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Now past the trench
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Were Caesar's companies, when from the hills
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Pompeius hurled his host upon their ranks
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Shut in, and hampered. Not so much o'erwhelmed
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As Caesar's soldiers is the hind who dwells
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On Etna's slopes, when blows the southern wind,
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And all the mountain pours its cauldrons forth
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Upon the vale; and huge Enceladus This giant, like Typhon, was buried under Mount Etna.
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Writhing beneath his load spouts o'er the plains
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A blazing torrent. Blinded by the dust,
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Encircled, vanquished, ere the fight, they fled
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In cloud of terror on their rearward foe,
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So rushing on their fates. Thus had the war
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Shed its last drop of blood and peace ensued,
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But Magnus suffered not, and held his troops
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Back from the battle.
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Thou, O Rome, hadst been
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Free, happy, mistress of thy laws and rights
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Were Sulla here. Now shalt thou ever grieve
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That in his crowning crime, to have met in fight
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A pious kinsman, Caesar's vantage lay.
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Oh tragic destiny! Nor Munda's fight
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Hispania had wept, nor Libya mourned
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Encrimsoned Utica, nor Nilus' stream,
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With blood unspeakable polluted, borne
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A nobler corse than her Egyptian kings:
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Nor Juba Juba and Petreius killed each other after the battle of Thapsus, to avoid falling into Caesar's hands. See Book IV., line 5. lain unburied on the sands,
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Nor Scipio with his blood outpoured appeased
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The ghosts of Carthage; this had been thy last
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Disaster, Rome; nor had the blameless life
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Of Cato ended: and Pharsalia's name
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Had so been blotted from the book of fate.
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But Caesar left the region where his arms
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Had found the deities adverse, and marched
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His shattered columns to Thessalian lands.
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Then to Pompeius came (whose mind was bent
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To follow Caesar wheresoe'er he fled)
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His captains, striving to persuade their chief
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To seek Ausonia, his native land,
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Now freed from foes. 'Ne'er will I pass,' he said,
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' My country's limit, nor revisit Rome
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' Like Caesar, at the head of banded hosts.So Cicero: ' Shall I, who have been called saviour of the city and father of my country, bring into it an army of Getae, Armenians, and Colchians?' ('Ep. ad Atticum,' ix., 10.)
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' Hesperia when the war began was mine;
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' Mine, had I chosen in our country's shrines,
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' In midmost forum of her capital,
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' To join the battle. So that banished far
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' Be war from Rome, I'll cross the torrid zone
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' Or those for ever frozen Scythian shores.
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What! shall my victory rob thee of the peace
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I gave thee by my flight? Rather than thou
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Shouldst feel the evils of this impious war,
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'Let Caesar deem thee his.' He turned his course
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Towards the uprising sun, and sought by paths
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Remote, and forests wide, the land by fate
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Foredoomed to see the issue of the war.
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Thessalia on that side where Titan first
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Raises the wintry day, by Ossa's rocks
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Is prisoned in: but in th' advancing year
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When higher in the vault his chariot rides
6.1.tr
'Tis Pelion that meets the morning rays.
6.1.tr
And when beside the Lion's flames he drives
6.1.tr
The middle course, Othrys with woody top
6.1.tr
Screens his chief ardour. On the hither side
6.1.tr
Pindus receives the breezes of the west
6.1.tr
And as the evening falls brings darkness in.
6.1.tr
There too Olympus, at whose foot who dwells
6.1.tr
Nor fears the north nor sees the shining bear.
6.1.tr
Between these mountains hemmed, in ancient time
6.1.tr
The fields were marsh, for Tempe's pass not yet
6.1.tr
Was cleft, to give an exit to the streams
6.1.tr
That filled the plain: but when Alcides' hand
6.1.tr
Smote Ossa from Olympus at a blow,See Book VIII., line 1.
6.1.tr
And Nereus wondered at the sudden flood
6.1.tr
Of waters to the main, then on the shore
6.1.tr
(Would it had slept for ever 'neath the deep)
6.1.tr
Seaborn Achilles' home Pharsalus rose;
6.1.tr
And Phylace Protesilaus, from this place, first landed at Troy. whence sailed that ship of old
6.1.tr
Whose keel first touched upon the beach of Troy;
6.1.tr
And Dorion mournful for the Muses' ire
6.1.tr
On Thamyris Thamyris challenged the Muses to a musical contest, and being vanquished, was by them deprived of sight. vanquished: Trachis; Melibe
6.1.tr
Strong in the shafts The arrows given to Philoctetes by Hercules as a reward for kindling his funeral pyre. of Hercules, the price
6.1.tr
Of that most awful torch; Larissa's hold
6.1.tr
Potent of yore; and Argos,This is the Pelasgic, not the historical, Argos. famous erst,
6.1.tr
O'er which men pass the ploughshare: and the spot
6.1.tr
Fabled as Echionian Thebes,Book I., line 635; Book VII., line 913. Agave was a daughter of Cadmus, and mother of Pentheus, king of the Boeotian Thebes. He was opposed to the mysterious worship of Dionysus, which his mother celebrated, and which he had watched from a tree. She tore him to pieces, being urged into a frenzy and mistaking him for a wild beast. She then retired to another Thebes, in Phthiotis, in triumph, with his head and shoulders. By another legend she did not leave the Boeotian Thebes. (See Grote, vol. i., p. 220. Edit. 1862.) where once
6.1.tr
Agave bore in exile to the pyre
6.1.tr
(Grieving 'twas all she had) the head and neck
6.1.tr
Of Pentheus massacred. The lake set free
6.1.tr
Flowed forth in many rivers: to the west
6.1.tr
AEas,AEas was a river flowing from the boundary of Thessaly through Epirus to the Ionian Sea. The sire of Isis, or Io, was Inachus; but the river of that name is usually placed in the Argive territory. a gentle stream; nor stronger flows
6.1.tr
The sire of Isis ravished from his arms;
6.1.tr
And Achelous, rival for the hand
6.1.tr
Of OEneus' daughter, rolls his earthy flood A river rising in Mount Pindus and flowing into the Ionian Sea nearly opposite to Ithaca. At its mouth the sea has been largely silted up.
6.1.tr
To silt the shore beside the neighbouring isles.
6.1.tr
Evenus The god of this river fought with Hercules for the hand of Deianira. After Hercules had been married to Deianira, and when they were on a journey, they came to the River Evenus. Here Nessus, a Centaur, acted as ferryman, and Hercules bade him carry Deianira across. In doing so he insulted her, and Hercules shot him with an arrow. purpled by the Centaur's blood
6.1.tr
Wanders through Calydon: in the Malian Gulf
6.1.tr
Thy rapids fall, Spercheius: pure the wave
6.1.tr
With which Amphrysos Admetus was King of Pherae in Thessaly, and sued for Alcestis, the daughter of Pelias, who promised her to him if he should come in a chariot drawn by lions and boars. With the assistance of Apollo, Admetus performed this. Apollo, for the slaughter of the Cyclops, was condemned to serve a mortal, and accordingly he tended the flocks of Admetus for nine years. The River Amphrysos is marked as flowing into the Pagasean Gulf at a short distance below Pherae. irrigates the meads
6.1.tr
Where once Apollo served: Anaurus Anaurus was a small river passing into the Pagasaean Gulf past Iolcos. In this river Jason is said to have lost one of his slippers. flows
6.1.tr
Breathing no vapour forth; no humid air
6.1.tr
Ripples his surface: and whatever stream,
6.1.tr
Nameless itself, to Ocean gives its waves
6.1.tr
Through thee, Peneus:The River Peneus flowed into the sea through the pass of Tempe, cloven by Hercules between Olympus and Ossa (see line 406); and carried with it Asopus, Phoenix, Melas, Enipeus, Apidanus, and Titaresus (or Eurotas).The Styx is generally placed in Arcadia, but Lucan says that Eurotas rises from the Stygian pools, and that, mindful of this mysterious source, he refuses to mingle his streams with that of Peneus, in order that the gods may still fear to break an oath sworn upon his waters. whirled in eddies foams
6.1.tr
Apidanus; Enipeus lingers on
6.1.tr
Swift only when fresh streams his volume swell:
6.1.tr
And thus Asopus takes his ordered course,
6.1.tr
Phoenix and Melas; but Eurotas keeps
6.1.tr
His stream aloof from that with which he flows,
6.1.tr
Peneus, gliding on his top as though
6.1.tr
Upon the channel. Fable says that, sprung
6.1.tr
From darkest pools of Styx, with common floods
6.1.tr
He scorns to mingle, mindful of his source,
6.1.tr
So that the gods above may fear him still.
6.1.tr
Soon as were sped the rivers, Boebian ploughs
6.1.tr
Dark with its riches broke the virgin soil;
6.1.tr
Then came Lelegians to press the share,
6.1.tr
And Dolopes and sons of AEolus
6.1.tr
By whom the glebe was furrowed. Steed-renowned
6.1.tr
Magnetians dwelt there, and the Minyan race
6.1.tr
Who smote the sounding billows with the oar.
6.1.tr
There in the cavern from the pregnant cloud
6.1.tr
Ixion's sons found birth, the Centaur brood
6.1.tr
Half beast, half human: Monychus who broke
6.1.tr
The stubborn rocks of Pholoe, Rhoetus fierce
6.1.tr
Hurling from OEta's top gigantic elms
6.1.tr
Which northern storms could hardly overturn;
6.1.tr
Pholus, Alcides' host: Nessus who bore
6.1.tr
The Queen across Evenus' See on line 429. waves, to feel
6.1.tr
The deadly arrow for his shameful deed;
6.1.tr
And aged Chiron Chiron, the aged Centaur, instructor of Peleus, Achilles, and others. He was killed by one of the poisoned arrows of Hercules, but placed by Zeus among the stars as the Archer, from which position he appears to be aiming at the Scorpion. His constellation appears in winter. who with wintry star
6.1.tr
Against the huger Scorpion draws his bow.
6.1.tr
Here sparkled on the land the warrior seed; The teeth of the dragon slain by Cadmus; though this took place in Boeotia.
6.1.tr
Here leaped the charger from Thessalian rocks Poseidon and Athena disputed as to which of them should name the capital of Attica. The gods gave the reward to that one of them who should produce the thing most useful to man; whereupon Athena produced an olive tree, and Poseidon a horse. Homer also places the scene of this event in Thessaly. (Iliad, xxiii., 247.)
6.1.tr
Struck by the trident of the Ocean King,
6.1.tr
Omen of dreadful war; here first he learned,
6.1.tr
Champing the bit and foaming at the curb,
6.1.tr
Yet to obey his lord. From yonder shore
6.1.tr
The keel of pine first floated,The Argo. Conf. Book III., 225 and bore men
6.1.tr
To dare the perilous chance of seas unknown:
6.1.tr
And here Ionus ruler of the land
6.1.tr
First from the furnace molten masses drew
6.1.tr
Of iron and brass; here first the hammer fell
6.1.tr
To weld them, shapeless; here in glowing stream
6.1.tr
Ran silver forth and gold, soon to receive
6.1.tr
The minting stamp. 'Twas thus that money came
6.1.tr
Whereby men count their riches, cause accursed
6.1.tr
Of warfare. Hence came down that Python huge
6.1.tr
On Cirrha: hence the laurel wreath which crowns
6.1.tr
The Pythian victor: here Aloeus' sons
6.1.tr
Gigantic rose against the gods, what time
6.1.tr
Pelion had almost touched the stars supreme,
6.1.tr
And Ossa's loftier peak amid the sky
6.1.tr
Opposing, barred the constellations' way.
6.1.tr
When in this fated land the chiefs had placed
6.1.tr
Their several camps, foreboding of the end
6.1.tr
Now fast approaching, all men's thoughts were turned
6.1.tr
Upon the final issue of the war.
6.1.tr
And as the end drew near, all coward minds
6.1.tr
Trembling beneath the shadow of the fate
6.1.tr
Now hanging o'er them, deemed disaster near:
6.1.tr
While some took heart; yet doubted what might fall,
6.1.tr
In hope and fear alternate. 'Mid the throng
6.1.tr
Sextus, unworthy son of worthy sire
6.1.tr
Who soon upon the waves that Scylla guards,See Book VII., 1029.
6.1.tr
Sicilian pirate, exile from his home,
6.1.tr
Stained by his deeds of shame the fights he won,
6.1.tr
Could bear delay no more; his feeble soul,
6.1.tr
Sick of uncertain fate, by fear compelled,
6.1.tr
Forecast the future: yet consulted not
6.1.tr
The shrine of Delos nor the Pythian caves;
6.1.tr
Nor was he satisfied to learn the sound
6.1.tr
Of Jove's brass cauldron, 'mid Dodona's oaks,
6.1.tr
By her primaeval fruits the nurse of men:
6.1.tr
Nor sought he sages who by flight of birds,
6.1.tr
Or watching with Assyrian care the stars
6.1.tr
And fires of heaven, or by victims slain,
6.1.tr
May know the fates to come; nor any source
6.1.tr
Lawful though secret. For to him was known
6.1.tr
That which excites the hate of gods above;
6.1.tr
Magicians' lore, the savage creed of Dis
6.1.tr
And all the shades; and sad with gloomy rites
6.1.tr
Mysterious altars. For his frenzied soul
6.1.tr
Heaven knew too little. And the spot itself
6.1.tr
Kindled his madness, for hard by there dwelt
6.1.tr
The brood of Haemon Son of Pelasgus. From him was derived the ancient name of Thessaly, Haemonia. whom no storied witch
6.1.tr
Of fiction e'er transcended; all their art
6.1.tr
In things most strange and most incredible;
6.1.tr
There were Thessalian rocks with deadly herbs
6.1.tr
Thick planted, sensible to magic chants,
6.1.tr
Funereal, secret: and the land was full
6.1.tr
Of violence to the gods: the Queenly guest Medea.
6.1.tr
From Colchis gathered here the fatal roots
6.1.tr
That were not in her store: hence vain to heaven
6.1.tr
Rise impious incantations, all unheard;
6.1.tr
For deaf the ears divine: save for one voice
6.1.tr
Which penetrates the furthest depths of air
6.1.tr
Compelling e'en th' unwilling deities
6.1.tr
To hearken to its accents. Not the care
6.1.tr
Of the revolving sky or starry pole
6.1.tr
Can call them from it ever. Once the sound
6.1.tr
Of those dread tones unspeakable has reached
6.1.tr
The constellations, then nor Babylon
6.1.tr
Nor secret Memphis, though they open wide
6.1.tr
The shrines of ancient magic and entreat
6.1.tr
The gods, could draw them from the fires that smoke
6.1.tr
Upon the altars of far Thessaly.
6.1.tr
To hearts of flint those incantations bring
6.1.tr
Love, strange, unnatural; the old man's breast
6.1.tr
Burns with illicit fire. Nor lies the power
6.1.tr
In harmful cup nor in the juicy pledge
6.1.tr
Of love maternal from the forehead drawn;It was supposed that there was on the forehead of the new-born foal an excrescence, which was bitten off and eaten by the mother. If she did not do this she had no affection for the foal. (Virgil,'AEneid,' iv., 515.)
6.1.tr
Charmed forth by spells alone the mind decays,
6.1.tr
By poisonous drugs unharmed. With woven threads
6.1.tr
Crossed in mysterious fashion do they bind
6.1.tr
Those whom no passion born of beauteous form
6.1.tr
Or loving couch unites. All things on earth
6.1.tr
Change at their bidding; night usurps the day;
6.1.tr
The heavens disobey their wonted laws;
6.1.tr
At that dread hymn the Universe stands still;
6.1.tr
And Jove while urging the revolving wheels
6.1.tr
Wonders they move not. Torrents are outpoured
6.1.tr
Beneath a burning sun; and thunder roars
6.1.tr
Uncaused by Jupiter. From their flowing locks
6.1.tr
Vapours immense shall issue at their call;
6.1.tr
When falls the tempest seas shall rise and foam When the boisterous sea, Without a breath of wind, hath knocked the sky. Ben Jonson's 'Masque of Queens.'
6.1.tr
Moved by their spell; though powerless the breeze
6.1.tr
To raise the billows. Ships against the wind
6.1.tr
With bellying sails move onward. From the rock
6.1.tr
Hangs motionless the torrent: rivers run
6.1.tr
Uphill; the summer heat no longer swells
6.1.tr
Nile in his course; Maeander's stream is straight;
6.1.tr
Slow Rhone is quickened by the rush of Saone;
6.1.tr
Hills dip their heads and topple to the plain;
6.1.tr
Olympus sees his clouds drift overhead;
6.1.tr
And sunless Scythia's sempiternal snows
6.1.tr
Melt in mid-winter; the inflowing tides
6.1.tr
Driven onward by the moon, at that dread chant
6.1.tr
Ebb from their course; earth's axes, else unmoved,
6.1.tr
Have trembled, and the force centripetal
6.1.tr
Has tottered, and the earth's compacted frame
6.1.tr
Struck by their voice has gaped, till through the void
6.1.tr
Men saw the moving sky.The sky was supposed to move round, but to be restrained in its course by the planets. (See Book X., line 238.) All beasts most fierce
6.1.tr
And savage fear them, yet with deadly aid
6.1.tr
Furnish the witches' arts. Tigers athirst
6.1.tr
For blood, and noble lions on them fawn
6.1.tr
With bland caresses: serpents at their word
6.1.tr
Uncoil their circles, and extended glide
6.1.tr
Along the surface of the frosty field;
6.1.tr
The viper's severed body joins anew;
6.1.tr
And dies the snake by human venom slain.
6.1.tr
Whence comes this labour on the gods, compelled
6.1.tr
To hearken to the magic chant and spells,
6.1.tr
Nor daring to despise them? Doth some bond
6.1.tr
Control the deities? Is their pleasure so,
6.1.tr
Or must they listen? and have silent threats
6.1.tr
Prevailed, or piety unseen received
6.1.tr
So great a guerdon? Against all the gods
6.1.tr
Is this their influence, or on one alone
6.1.tr
Who to his will constrains the universe,
6.1.tr
Himself constrained? Stars most in yonder clime
6.1.tr
Shoot headlong from the zenith; and the moon
6.1.tr
Gliding serene upon her nightly course
6.1.tr
Is shorn of lustre by their poisonous chant,
6.1.tr
Dimmed by dark earthly fires, as though our orb
6.1.tr
Shadowed her brother's radiance and barred
6.1.tr
The light bestowed by heaven; nor freshly shines
6.1.tr
Until descending nearer to the earth
6.1.tr
She sheds her baneful drops upon the mead.
6.1.tr
These sinful rites and these her sister's songs
6.1.tr
Abhorred Erichtho, fiercest of the race,
6.1.tr
Spurned for their piety, and yet viler art
6.1.tr
Practised in novel form. To her no home
6.1.tr
Beneath a sheltering roof-her direful head
6.1.tr
Thus to lay down were crime: deserted tombs
6.1.tr
Her dwelling-place, from which, darling of hell,
6.1.tr
She dragged the dead. Nor life nor gods forbad
6.1.tr
But that she knew the secret homes of Styx
6.1.tr
And learned to hear the whispered voice of ghosts
6.1.tr
At dread mysterious meetings. Coetus audire silentum. To be present at the meetings of the dead and hear their voices. So, in the sixth AEneid, the dead Greek warriors in feeble tones endeavour to express their fright at the appearance of the Trojan hero (lines 492, 493). Never sun
6.1.tr
Shed his pure light upon that haggard cheek
6.1.tr
Pale with the pallor of the shades, nor looked
6.1.tr
Upon those locks unkempt that crowned her brow.
6.1.tr
In starless nights of tempest crept the hag
6.1.tr
Out from her tomb to seize the levin bolt;
6.1.tr
Treading the harvest with accursed foot
6.1.tr
She burned the fruitful growth, and with her breath
6.1.tr
Poisoned the air else pure. No prayer she breathed
6.1.tr
Nor supplication to the gods, nor knew
6.1.tr
The pulse of entrails : logs from flaming pyres
6.1.tr
She loves to cast on altars of the gods,
6.1.tr
And incense pilfered from the smoking tomb.
6.1.tr
The gods at her first utterance grant her prayer
6.1.tr
For things unlawful, lest they hear again
6.1.tr
Its fearful accents: men whose limbs were quick
6.1.tr
With vital power she thrust within the grave
6.1.tr
Despite the fates who owed them years to come:
6.1.tr
The funeral reversed brought from the tomb
6.1.tr
Those who were dead no longer; and the pyre
6.1.tr
Yields to her shameless clutch still smoking dust
6.1.tr
And bones enkindled, torches which but now
6.1.tr
Some grieving father held, and fragments mixed
6.1.tr
In sable smoke and ceremental cloths
6.1.tr
Singed with the redolent fire that burned the dead.
6.1.tr
But those who lie within a stony cell
6.1.tr
Untouched by fire, whose dried and mummied frames
6.1.tr
No longer know corruption, limb by limb
6.1.tr
Venting her rage she tears, the bloodless eyes
6.1.tr
Drags from their cavities, and mauls the nail
6.1.tr
Upon the withered hand: she gnaws the noose
6.1.tr
By which some wretch has died, and from the tree
6.1.tr
Drags down a pendent corpse, its members torn
6.1.tr
Asunder to the winds: forth from the palms
6.1.tr
Wrenches the iron, and from the unbending bond
6.1.tr
Hangs by her teeth, and with her hands collects
6.1.tr
The slimy gore which drips upon the limbs.
6.1.tr
Where lay a corpse upon the naked earth
6.1.tr
On ravening birds and beasts of prey the hag
6.1.tr
Kept watch, nor marred by knife or hand her spoil,
6.1.tr
Till on his victim seized some nightly wolf; 'As if that piece were sweeter which the wolf had bitten.' Note to'The Masque of Queens,' in which the first hag says: I have been all day, looking after A raven feeding on a quarter, And soon as she turned her beak to the south I snatched this morsel out of her mouth.' Ben Jonson. But more probably the meaning is that the wolf's bite gave the flesh magical efficacy.
6.1.tr
Then dragged the morsel from his thirsty fangs;
6.1.tr
Nor fears she murder, if some banquet fell
6.1.tr
Need blood fresh issued from the gaping throat,
6.1.tr
Or panting entrail. By unnatural means
6.1.tr
Wombs yield to her the infant to be placed
6.1.tr
On glowing altars: and whene'er she needs
6.1.tr
Some fierce undaunted ghost, he fails not her
6.1.tr
Who has all deaths in use. Her hand has chased
6.1.tr
From smiling cheeks the rosy bloom of life;
6.1.tr
And with sinister hand from dying youth
6.1.tr
Has shorn the fatal lock: and holding oft
6.1.tr
In foul embraces some departed friend
6.1.tr
Severed the head, and through the ghastly lips,
6.1.tr
Held by her own apart, some impious tale
6.1.tr
Dark with mysterious horror hath conveyed
6.1.tr
Down to the darkness of the Stygian shades.
6.1.tr
When Sextus first, through rumours of the place,
6.1.tr
Heard of the hag, what time beneath the earth
6.1.tr
Titan was wheeling at full height, and here
6.1.tr
Night in mid course, in quest of her he trod
6.1.tr
Through desert fields. Meanwhile a faithful band,
6.1.tr
His ministers of guilt, mid tombs and vaults
6.1.tr
All ruined wandering, beheld the witch
6.1.tr
Seated afar upon a lofty crag
6.1.tr
Where Haemus reaches out Pharsalian spurs.Confusing Pharsalia with Philippi. (See line 685.)
6.1.tr
There was she proving for her gods and priests
6.1.tr
Of magic, words unknown, and framing chants
6.1.tr
Of dire and novel purpose : for she feared
6.1.tr
Lest Mars should stray into another world,
6.1.tr
And spare Thessalian soil the blood ere long
6.1.tr
To flow in torrents; and thus she forbade
6.1.tr
Philippi's field, polluted with her song,
6.1.tr
Thick with her poisonous distilments sown,
6.1.tr
To let the war pass by. Such deaths, she hopes,
6.1.tr
Soon shall be hers! the blood of all the world
6.1.tr
Shed for her use! to her it shall be given
6.1.tr
To sever from their trunks the heads of kings,
6.1.tr
Plunder the ashes of the noble dead,
6.1.tr
Italia's bravest, and in triumph add
6.1.tr
The mightiest warriors to her host of shades.
6.1.tr
This her sole toil, from Magnus' tombless corse
6.1.tr
What she may snatch, on which of Caesar's limbs
6.1.tr
Her grasp may fasten.
6.1.tr
To whom the coward son
6.1.tr
Of Magnus thus: 'Thou greatest ornament
6.1.tr
Of Haemon's daughters, in whose power it lies
6.1.tr
Or to reveal the fates, or from its course
6.1.tr
'To turn the future, be it mine to know
6.1.tr
'By thy sure utterance to what final end
6.1.tr
'Fortune now guides the issue. Not the least
6.1.tr
'Of all the Roman host on yonder plain
6.1.tr
Am I, but Magnus' most illustrious son,
6.1.tr
Lord of the world or heir to death and doom.
6.1.tr
'The unknown affrights me: I can firmly face
6.1.tr
The certain terror. Bid my destiny
6.1.tr
Yield to thy power the dark and hidden end,
6.1.tr
And let me fall foreknowing. From the gods
6.1.tr
Extort the truth, or, if thou spare the gods,
6.1.tr
Force it from hell itself. Fling back the gates
6.1.tr
That bar th' Elysian fields; let Death confess
6.1.tr
'Whom from our ranks he seeks. No humble task
6.1.tr
I bring, but worthy of Erichtho's skill
6.1.tr
Of such a struggle fought for such a prize
6.1.tr
To search and tell the issue.'
6.1.tr
Then the witch
6.1.tr
Pleased that her impious fame was noised abroad
6.1.tr
Thus made her answer : 'If some lesser fates
6.1.tr
'Thy wish had been to change, against their wish
6.1.tr
'It had been easy to compel the gods
6.1.tr
'To its accomplishment. My art has power
6.1.tr
When of one man the constellations press
6.1.tr
The speedy death, to compass a delay;.
6.1.tr
And mine it is, though every star decrees
6.1.tr
A ripe old age, by mystic herbs to shear
6.1.tr
The life midway. But should some purpose set
6.1.tr
From the beginning of the universe,
6.1.tr
And all the labouring fortunes of mankind,
6.1.tr
'Be brought in question, then Thessalian art
6.1.tr
'Bows to the power supreme. But if thou be
6.1.tr
Content to know the issue pre-ordained,
6.1.tr
'Simple the task and plain; for earth and air
6.1.tr
And sea and space and Rhodopaean crags
6.1.tr
'Shall speak the future. Yet it easiest seems
6.1.tr
Where death in these Thessalian fields abounds The poet fills the plain with dead before the battle is fought.
6.1.tr
'To raise a single corpse. From dead men's lips
6.1.tr
Scarce cold, in fuller accents falls the voice;
6.1.tr
Not from some mummied frame in accents shrill
6.1.tr
Uncertain to the ear.'
6.1.tr
Thus spake the hag
6.1.tr
And through redoubled night, a squalid veil
6.1.tr
Swathing her pallid features, stole among
6.1.tr
Unburied carcases. Fast fled the wolves,
6.1.tr
The carrion birds with maw unsatisfied
6.1.tr
Relaxed their talons, as with creeping step
6.1.tr
She sought her prophet. Firm must be the flesh
6.1.tr
As yet, though cold in death, and firm the lungs
6.1.tr
Untouched by wound. Now in the balance hung
6.1.tr
The fates of slain unnumbered; had she striven
6.1.tr
Armies to raise and order back to life
6.1.tr
Whole ranks of warriors, the laws had failed
6.1.tr
Of Erebus; and, summoned up from Styx,
6.1.tr
Its ghostly tenants had obeyed her call,
6.1.tr
And rising fought once more. At length the witch
6.1.tr
Picks out her victim with pierced throat agape
6.1.tr
Fit for her purpose. Gripped by pitiless hook
6.1.tr
O'er rocks she drags him to the mountain cave
6.1.tr
Accursed by her fell rites, that shall restore
6.1.tr
The dead man's life. Close to the hidden brink
6.1.tr
The land that girds the precipice of hell
6.1.tr
Sinks towards the depths: with ever falling leaves
6.1.tr
A wood o'ershadows, and a spreading yew
6.1.tr
Casts shade impenetrable. Foul decay
6.1.tr
Fills all the space, and in the deep recess
6.1.tr
Darkness unbroken, save by chanted spells,
6.1.tr
Reigns ever. Not where gape the misty jaws
6.1.tr
Of caverned Taenarus, the gloomy bound
6.1.tr
Of either world, through which the nether kings
6.1.tr
Permit the passage of the dead to earth,
6.1.tr
So poisonous, mephitic, hangs the air.
6.1.tr
Nay, though the witch had power to call the shades
6.1.tr
Forth from the depths, 'twas doubtful if the cave
6.1.tr
Were not a part of hell. Discordant hues
6.1.tr
Flamed on her garb as by a fury worn;
6.1.tr
Bare was her visage, and upon her brow
6.1.tr
Dread vipers hissed, beneath her streaming locks
6.1.tr
In sable coils entwined. But when she saw
6.1.tr
The youth's companions trembling, and himself
6.1.tr
With eyes cast down, with visage as of death,
6.1.tr
Thus spake the witch: ' Forbid your craven souls
6.1.tr
'These fears to cherish: soon returning life
6.1.tr
'This frame shall quicken, and in tones which reach
6.1.tr
Even the timorous ear shall speak the man.
6.1.tr
'If I have power the Stygian lakes to show,
6.1.tr
The bank that sounds with fire, the fury band,
6.1.tr
'And giants fettered, and the hound that shakes
6.1.tr
'Bristling with heads of snakes his triple head,
6.1.tr
What fear is this that cringes at the sight
6.1.tr
Of timid shivering shades? '
6.1.tr
Then to her prayer.
6.1.tr
First through his gaping bosom blood she pours
6.1.tr
Still fervent, washing from his wounds the gore.
6.1.tr
Then copious poisons from the moon distils
6.1.tr
Mixed with all monstrous things which Nature's pangs
6.1.tr
Bring to untimely birth; the froth from dogs
6.1.tr
Stricken with madness, foaming at the stream;
6.1.tr
A lynx's entrails: and the knot that grows
6.1.tr
Upon the fell hyaena; flesh of stags
6.1.tr
Fed upon serpents; and the sucking fish
6.1.tr
Which holds the vessel backOne of the miraculous stories to be found in Pliny's 'Natural History.' See Lecky's 'Augustus to Charlemagne,' vol. i., p. 370. though eastern winds
6.1.tr
Make bend the canvas; dragon's eyes; and stones
6.1.tr
That sound beneath the brooding eagle's wings.
6.1.tr
Nor Araby's viper, nor the ocean snake
6.1.tr
Who in the Red Sea waters guards the shell,
6.1.tr
Are wanting; nor the slough on Libyan sands
6.1.tr
By horned reptile cast; nor ashes fail
6.1.tr
Snatched from an altar where the Phoenix died.
6.1.tr
And viler poisons many, which herself
6.1.tr
Has made, she adds, whereto no name is given:
6.1.tr
Pestiferous leaves pregnant with magic chants
6.1.tr
And blades of grass which in their primal growth
6.1.tr
Her cursed mouth had slimed. Last came her voice
6.1.tr
More potent than all herbs to charm the gods
6.1.tr
Who rule in Lethe. Dissonant murmurs first
6.1.tr
And sounds discordant from the tongues of men
6.1.tr
She utters, scarce articulate: the bay
6.1.tr
Of wolves, and barking as of dogs, were mixed
6.1.tr
With that fell chant; the screech of nightly owl
6.1.tr
Raising her hoarse complaint; the howl of beast
6.1.tr
And sibilant hiss of snake-all these were there;
6.1.tr
And more-the wail of waters on the rock,
6.1.tr
The sound of forests and the thunder peal.
6.1.tr
Such was her voice; but soon in clearer tones
6.1.tr
Reaching to Tartarus, she raised her song:
6.1.tr
' Ye awful goddesses, avenging power
6.1.tr
' Of Hell upon the damned, and Chaos huge
6.1.tr
' Who striv'st to mix innumerable worlds,
6.1.tr
' And Pluto, king of earth, whose weary soul
6.1.tr
' Grieves at his godhead; Styx; and plains of bliss
6.1.tr
' We may not enter: and thou, Proserpine,
6.1.tr
' Hating thy mother and the skies above,
6.1.tr
' My patron goddess, last and lowest formThe mysterious goddess Hecate was identified with Luna in heaven, Diana on earth, and Proserpine in the lower regions. The text is doubtful.
6.1.tr
' Of Hecate, through whom the shades and I
6.1.tr
' Hold silent converse; warder of the gate
6.1.tr
' Who castest human offal to the dog:
6.1.tr
' Ye sisters who shall spin the threads again; That is, for the second life of her victim.
6.1.tr
' And thou, O boatman of the burning wave,
6.1.tr
' Now wearied of the shades from hell to me
6.1.tr
' Returning, hear me if with voice I cry
6.1.tr
' Abhorred, polluted; if the flesh of man
6.1.tr
' Hath ne'er been absent from my proffered song,
6.1.tr
Flesh washed with brains still quivering; if the child
6.1.tr
Whose severed head I placed upon the dish
6.1.tr
But for this hand had lived-a listening ear
6.1.tr
Lend to my supplication! From the caves
6.1.tr
'Hid in the innermost recess of hell
6.1.tr
' I claim no soul long banished from the light.
6.1.tr
' For one but now departed, lingering still
6.1.tr
' Upon the brink of Orcus, is my prayer.
6.1.tr
Grant (for ye may) that listening to the spell
6.1.tr
'Once more he seek his dust; and let the shade
6.1.tr
Of this our soldier perished (if the war
6.1.tr
Well at your hands has merited), proclaim
6.1.tr
The destiny of Magnus to his son.'
6.1.tr
Such prayers she uttered; then upraised her head
6.1.tr
And foaming lips, and present saw the ghost.
6.1.tr
Hard by he stood, beside the hated corpse
6.1.tr
His ancient prison, and loathed to enter in.
6.1.tr
There was the yawning chest where fell the blow
6.1.tr
That was his death; and yet the gift supreme
6.1.tr
Of death, his right, (Ah, wretch! ) was reft away.
6.1.tr
Angered at Death the witch, and at the pause
6.1.tr
Conceded by the fates, with living snake
6.1.tr
Scourges the nerveless corse; and on the dead
6.1.tr
She barks through fissures gaping to her song,
6.1.tr
Breaking the silence of their gloomy home:
6.1.tr
' Tisiphone, Megaera, heed ye not?
6.1.tr
Flies not this wretched soul before your whips
6.1.tr
' The void of Erebus? By your very names,
6.1.tr
' She-dogs of hell, I'll call you to the day,
6.1.tr
Not to return; through sepulchres and death
6.1.tr
Your gaoler: from funereal urns and tombs
6.1.tr
I'll chase you forth. And thou, too, Hecate,
6.1.tr
Who to the gods in comely shape and mien,
6.1.tr
Not that of Erebus, appear'st, henceforth
6.1.tr
Wasted and pallid as thou art in hell
6.1.tr
'At my command shalt come. I'll noise abroad
6.1.tr
The banquet that beneath the solid earth
6.1.tr
Holds thee, thou maid of Enna; by what bond
6.1.tr
'Thou lov'st night's King, by what mysterious stain
6.1.tr
Infected, so that Ceres fears from hell
6.1.tr
'To call her daughter. And for thee, base king,
6.1.tr
'Titan shall pierce thy caverns with his rays
6.1.tr
And sudden day shall smite thee. Do ye hear?
6.1.tr
'Or shall I summon to mine aid that god
6.1.tr
'At whose dread name earth trembles; who can look
6.1.tr
Unflinching on the Gorgon's head, and drive
6.1.tr
'The Furies with his scourge, who holds the depths
6.1.tr
' Ye cannot fathom, and above whose haunts
6.1.tr
Ye dwell supernal; who by waves of Styx
6.1.tr
Forswears himself unpunished? '
6.1.tr
Then the blood
6.1.tr
Grew warm and liquid, and with softening touch
6.1.tr
Cherished the stiffened wounds and filled the veins,
6.1.tr
Till throbbed once more the slow returning pulse
6.1.tr
And every fibre trembled, as with death
6.1.tr
Life was commingled. Then, not limb by limb,
6.1.tr
With toil and strain, but rising at a bound
6.1.tr
Leaped from the earth erect the living man.
6.1.tr
Fierce glared his eyes uncovered, and the life
6.1.tr
Was dim, and still upon his face remained
6.1.tr
The pallid hues of hardly parted death.
6.1.tr
Amazement seized upon him, to the earth
6.1.tr
Brought back again: but from his lips tight drawn
6.1.tr
No murmur issued; he had power alone
6.1.tr
When questioned to reply. 'Speak,' quoth the hag,
6.1.tr
As I shall bid thee; great shall be thy gain
6.1.tr
If true thine answers, freed for evermore
6.1.tr
From all Haemonian art. Such burial place
6.1.tr
Shall now be thine, and on thy funeral pyre
6.1.tr
Such fatal woods shall burn, such chant shall sound,
6.1.tr
'That to thy ghost no more or magic song
6.1.tr
Or spell shall reach, and thy Lethaean sleep
6.1.tr
Shall never more be broken in a death
6.1.tr
' From me received anew: for such reward
6.1.tr
' Think not this second life enforced in vain.
6.1.tr
' Obscure may be the answers of the gods
6.1.tr
' By priestess spoken at the holy shrine;
6.1.tr
' But whoso braves the oracles of death
6.1.tr
' In search of truth, should gain a sure response.
6.1.tr
' Then speak, I pray thee. Let the hidden fates
6.1.tr
' Tell through thy voice the mysteries to come.'
6.1.tr
Thus spake she, and her words by mystic force
6.1.tr
Gave him his answer; but with gloomy mien,
6.1.tr
And tears swift flowing, thus he made reply:
6.1.tr
'Called from the margin of the silent stream
6.1.tr
I saw no fateful sisters spin the threads.
6.1.tr
'Yet know I this, that 'mid the Roman shades
6.1.tr
'Reigns fiercest discord; and this impious war
6.1.tr
'Destroys the peace that ruled the fields of death.
6.1.tr
'Elysian meads and deeps of Tartarus
6.1.tr
'In paths diverse the Roman chieftains leave
6.1.tr
'And thus disclose the fates. The blissful ghosts
6.1.tr
Bear visages of sorrow. Sire and son
6.1.tr
'The Decii, who gave themselves to death
6.1.tr
'In expiation of their country's doom,
6.1.tr
'And great Camillus, wept; and Sulla's shade
6.1.tr
'Complained of fortune. Scipio bewailed
6.1.tr
'The scion of his race about to fall
6.1.tr
' In sands of Libya: Cato, greatest foe
6.1.tr
' To Carthage, grieves for that indignant soul
6.1.tr
' Which shall disdain to serve. Brutus alone
6.1.tr
' In all the happy ranks I smiling saw,
6.1.tr
' First consul when the kings were thrust from Rome.
6.1.tr
' The chains were fallen from boastful Catiline.
6.1.tr
' Him too I saw rejoicing, and the pair
6.1.tr
' Of Marii, and Cethegus' naked arm.See Book II., 611.
6.1.tr
' The Drusi, heroes of the people, joyed,
6.1.tr
' In laws immoderate; and the famous pair The Gracchi, the younger of whom aimed at being a perpetual tribune, and was in some sort a forerunner of the Emperors.
6.1.tr
' Of greatly daring brothers: guilty bands
6.1.tr
' By bars eternal shut within the doors
6.1.tr
' That close the prison of hell, applaud the fates,
6.1.tr
'Claiming the plains Elysian: and the King
6.1.tr
' Throws wide his pallid halls, makes hard the points
6.1.tr
' Of craggy rocks, and forges iron chains,
6.1.tr
' The victor's punishment. But take with thee
6.1.tr
'This comfort, youth, that there a calm abode,
6.1.tr
' And peaceful, waits thy father and his house.
6.1.tr
' Nor let the glory of a little span
6.1.tr
' Disturb thy boding heart: the hour shall come
6.1.tr
' When all the chiefs shall meet. Shrink not from death,
6.1.tr
' But glorying in the greatness of your souls,
6.1.tr
' E'en from your humble sepulchres descend,
6.1.tr
' And tread beneath your feet, in pride of place,
6.1.tr
' The wandering phantoms of the gods of Rome.That is, the Caesars, who will be in Tartarus.
6.1.tr
' Which chieftain's tomb by Tiber shall be laved,
6.1.tr
' And which by Nile; their fate, and theirs alone,
6.1.tr
' This battle shall decide. Nor seek to know
6.1.tr
' From me thy fortunes: for the fates in time
6.1.tr
' Shall give thee all thy due; and thy great sire,Referring probably to an episode intended to be introduced in a later book, in which the shade of Pompeius was to foretell his fate to Sextus.
6.1.tr
' A surer prophet, in Sicilian fields
6.1.tr
'Shall speak thy future-doubting even he
6.1.tr
' What regions of the world thou shouldst avoid
6.1.tr
' And what shouldst seek. O miserable race!
6.1.tr
' Europe and Asia and Libya's plains,Cnaeus was killed in Spain after the battle of Munda; Sextus at Miletus; Pompeius himself, of course, in Egypt.
6.1.tr
' Which saw your conquests, now shall hold alike
6.1.tr
' Your burial-place-nor has the earth for you
6.1.tr
' A happier land than this.'
6.1.tr
His task performed,
6.1.tr
He stands in mournful guise, with silent look
6.1.tr
Asking for death again; yet could not die
6.1.tr
Till mystic herb and magic chant prevailed.
6.1.tr
For nature's law, once used, had power no more
6.1.tr
To slay the corpse and set the spirit free.
6.1.tr
With plenteous wood she builds the funeral pyre
6.1.tr
To which the dead man comes: then as the flames
6.1.tr
Seized on his form outstretched, the youth and witch
6.1.tr
Together sought the camp; and as the dawn
6.1.tr
Now streaked the heavens, by the hag's command
6.1.tr
The day was stayed till Sextus reached his tent,
6.1.tr
And mist and darkness veiled his safe return.