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Notes Display Latin text | translated by Theodore C. Williams Book VIII Chapter 7: Aeneas asks for an alliance | Next chapter Return to index Previous chapter |
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Aeneas to Evander speaking fair, these words essayed: O best of Grecian-born! whom Fortune's power now bids me seek and sue, lifting this olive-branch with fillets bound, I have not feared thee, though I know thou art a Greek, and an Arcadian king, allied to the two sons of Atreus. For behold, my conscious worth, great oracles from Heaven, the kinship of our sires, thy own renown spread through the world -- all knit my cause with thine, all make me glad my Fates have so decreed. The sire and builder of the Trojan town was Dardanus; but he, Electra's child, came over sea to Teucria; the sire of fair Electra was great Atlas, he whose shoulder carries the vast orb of heaven. But thy progenitor was Mercury, and him conceiving, Maia, that white maid, on hoar Cyllene's frosty summit bore. But Maia's sire, if aught of truth be told, was Atlas also, Atlas who sustains the weight of starry skies. Thus both our tribes are one divided stem. Secure in this, no envoys have I sent, nor tried thy mind with artful first approaches, but myself, risking my person and my life, have come a suppliant here. For both on me and thee the house of Daunus hurls insulting war. If us they quell, they doubt not to obtain lordship of all Hesperia, and subdue alike the northern and the southern sea. Accept good faith, and give! Behold, our hearts quail not in battle; souls of fire are we, and warriors proved in many an action brave. Event: Aeneas visits Evander |
126-151 Tum regem Aeneas dictis adfatur amicis: 'optime Graiugenum, cui me Fortuna precari et uitta comptos uoluit praetendere ramos, non equidem extimui Danaum quod ductor et Arcas quodque a stirpe fores geminis coniunctus Atridis; sed mea me uirtus et sancta oracula diuum cognatique patres, tua terris didita fama, coniunxere tibi et fatis egere uolentem Dardanus, Iliacae primus pater urbis et auctor, Electra, ut Grai perhibent, Atlantide cretus, aduehitur Teucros; Electram maximus Atlas edidit, aetherios umero qui sustinet orbis. uobis Mercurius pater est, quem candida Maia Cyllenae gelido conceptum uertice fudit; at Maiam, auditis si quicquam credimus, Atlas, idem Atlas generat caeli qui sidera tollit. sic genus amborum scindit se sanguine ab uno. his fretus non legatos neque prima per artem temptamenta tui pepigi; me, me ipse meumque obieci caput et supplex ad limina ueni. gens eadem, quae te, crudeli Daunia bello insequitur; nos si pellant nihil afore credunt quin omnem Hesperiam penitus sua sub iuga mittant, et mare quod supra teneant quodque adluit infra. accipe daque fidem. sunt nobis fortia bello pectora, sunt animi et rebus spectata iuuentus.' |