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Notes Display Latin text | translated by Theodore C. Williams Book XI Chapter 21: Camilla devoted to Diana | Next chapter Return to index Previous chapter |
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Latona's daughter, whose benignant grace protects this grove, behold, her father now gives thee this babe for handmaid! Lo, thy spear her infant fingers hold, as from her foes she flies a suppliant to thee! Receive, O goddess, I implore, what now I cast upon the perilous air. -- He spoke, and hurled with lifted arm the whirling shaft. The waves roared loud, as on the whistling javelin hapless Camilla crossed th' impetuous flood. But Metabus, his foes in hot pursuit, dared plunge him in mid-stream, and, triumphing, soon plucked from grass-grown river-bank the spear, the child upon it, -- now to Trivia vowed, a virgin offering. Him nevermore could cities hold, nor would his wild heart yield its sylvan freedom, but his days were passed with shepherds on the solitary hills. His daughter too in tangled woods he bred: a brood-mare from the milk of her fierce breast suckled the child, and to its tender lips Her udders moved; and when the infant feet their first firm steps had taken, the small palms were armed with a keen javelin; her sire a bow and quiver from her shoulder slung. Instead of golden combs and flowing pall, she wore, from her girl-forehead backward thrown, the whole skin of a tigress; with soft hands she made her plaything of a whirling spear, or, swinging round her head the polished thong of her good sling, she fetched from distant sky Strymonian cranes or swans of spotless wing. From Tuscan towns proud matrons oft in vain sought her in marriage for their sons; but she to Dian only turned her stainless heart, her virgin freedom and her huntress' arms with faithful passion serving. Would that now this love of war had ne'er seduced her mind the Teucrians to provoke! So might she be one of our wood-nymphs still. But haste, I pray, for bitter is her now impending doom. Descend, dear nymph [Note 1], from heaven, and explore the country of the Latins, where the fight with unpropitious omens now begins. These weapons take, and from this quiver draw a vengeful arrow, wherewith he who dares to wound her sacred body, though he be a Trojan or Italian, shall receive bloody and swift reward at my command. Then, in a cloud concealed, I will consign her corpse, ill-fated but inviolate unto the sepulchre, restoring so the virgin to her native land. Thus spake the goddess; but her handmaid, gliding down, took her loud pathway on the moving winds, and mantled in dark storm her shape divine. Note 1: nymph = Opis |
557-596 "alma, tibi hanc, nemorum cultrix, Latonia uirgo, ipse pater famulam uoueo; tua prima per auras tela tenens supplex hostem fugit. accipe, testor, diua tuam, quae nunc dubiis committitur auris." dixit, et adducto contortum hastile lacerto immittit: sonuere undae, rapidum super amnem infelix fugit in iaculo stridente Camilla. at Metabus magna propius iam urgente caterua dat sese fluuio, atque hastam cum uirgine uictor gramineo, donum Triuiae, de caespite uellit. non illum tectis ullae, non moenibus urbes accepere (neque ipse manus feritate dedisset), pastorum et solis exegit montibus aeuum. hic natam in dumis interque horrentia lustra armentalis equae mammis et lacte ferino nutribat teneris immulgens ubera labris. utque pedum primis infans uestigia plantis institerat, iaculo palmas armauit acuto spiculaque ex umero paruae suspendit et arcum. pro crinali auro, pro longae tegmine pallae tigridis exuuiae per dorsum a uertice pendent. tela manu iam tum tenera puerilia torsit et fundam tereti circum caput egit habena Strymoniamque gruem aut album deiecit olorem. multae illam frustra Tyrrhena per oppida matres optauere nurum; sola contenta Diana aeternum telorum et uirginitatis amorem intemerata colit. uellem haud correpta fuisset militia tali conata lacessere Teucros: cara mihi comitumque foret nunc una mearum. uerum age, quandoquidem fatis urgetur acerbis, labere, nympha, polo finisque inuise Latinos, tristis ubi infausto committitur omine pugna. haec cape et ultricem pharetra deprome sagittam: hac, quicumque sacrum uiolarit uulnere corpus, Tros Italusque, mihi pariter det sanguine poenas. post ego nube caua miserandae corpus et arma inspoliata feram tumulo patriaeque reponam.' dixit, at illa leuis caeli delapsa per auras insonuit nigro circumdata turbine corpus. |