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Notes Display Latin text | translated by Theodore C. Williams Book II Chapter 8: Sinon about the Wooden horse | Next chapter Return to index Previous chapter |
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Pity and pardon to his [Note 1] tears we gave, and spared his life. King Priam bade unbind the fettered hands and loose those heavy chains that pressed him sore; then with benignant mien addressed him thus: Whate'er thy place or name, forget the people thou hast lost, and be henceforth our countryman. But tell me true! What means the monstrous fabric of this horse? Who made it? Why? What offering to Heaven, or engin'ry of conquest may it be? He spake; and in reply, with skilful guile, Greek that he was! the other lifted up his hands, now freed and chainless, to the skies: O ever-burning and inviolate fires, witness my word! O altars and sharp steel, whose curse I fled, O fillets of the gods, which bound a victim's helpless forehead, hear! T is lawful now to break the oath that gave my troth to Greece. To execrate her kings is now my solemn duty. Their whole plot I publish to the world. No fatherland and no allegiance binds me any more. O Troy, whom I have saved, I bid thee keep the pledge of safety by good Priam given, for my true tale shall my rich ransom be. The Greeks' one hope, since first they opened war, was Pallas, grace and power. But from the day when Diomed, bold scorner of the gods, and false Ulysses, author of all guile, rose up and violently bore away Palladium, her holy shrine, hewed down the sentinels of her acropolis, and with polluted, gory hands dared touch the goddess, virgin fillets, white and pure, -- thenceforth, I say, the courage of the Greeks ebbed utterly away; their strength was lost, and favoring Pallas all her grace withdrew. No dubious sign she gave. Scarce had they set her statue in our camp, when glittering flame flashed from the staring eyes; from all its limbs salt sweat ran forth; three times (O wondrous tale!) it gave a sudden skyward leap, and made prodigious trembling of her lance and shield. The prophet Calchas bade us straightway take swift flight across the sea; for Fate had willed the Trojan citadel should never fall by Grecian arm, till once more they obtain new oracles at Argos, and restore that god the round ships hurried o'er the sea. Now in Mycenae, whither they are fled, new help of heaven they find, and forge anew the means of war. Back hither o'er the waves they suddenly will come. So Calchas gave the meaning of the god. Warned thus, they reared in place of Pallas' desecrated shrine yon image of the horse, to expiate the woeful sacrilege.Calchas ordained that they should build a thing of monstrous size of jointed beams, and rear it heavenward, so might it never pass your gates, nor come inside your walls, nor anywise restore unto the Trojans their lost help divine. For had your hands Minerva's gift profaned, a ruin horrible -- O, may the gods bring it on Calchas rather! -- would have come on Priam's throne and all the Phrygian power. But if your hands should lift the holy thing to your own citadel, then Asia's host would hurl aggression upon Pelops' land, and all that curse on our own nation fall. Note 1: his = Sinon Events: The Wooden Horse / The Trojan Horse The theft of the Palladium |
145-194 His lacrimis uitam damus et miserescimus ultro. ipse uiro primus manicas atque arta leuari uincla iubet Priamus dictisque ita fatur amicis: 'quisquis es, amissos hinc iam obliuiscere Graios (noster eris) mihique haec edissere uera roganti: quo molem hanc immanis equi statuere? quis auctor? quidue petunt? quae religio? aut quae machina belli?' dixerat. ille dolis instructus et arte Pelasga sustulit exutas uinclis ad sidera palmas: 'uos, aeterni ignes, et non uiolabile uestrum testor numen,' ait, 'uos arae ensesque nefandi, quos fugi, uittaeque deum, quas hostia gessi: fas mihi Graiorum sacrata resoluere iura, fas odisse uiros atque omnia ferre sub auras, si qua tegunt, teneor patriae nec legibus ullis. tu modo promissis maneas seruataque serues Troia fidem, si uera feram, si magna rependam. omnis spes Danaum et coepti fiducia belli Palladis auxiliis semper stetit. impius ex quo Tydides sed enim scelerumque inuentor Vlixes, fatale adgressi sacrato auellere templo Palladium caesis summae custodibus arcis, corripuere sacram effigiem manibusque cruentis uirgineas ausi diuae contingere uittas, ex illo fluere ac retro sublapsa referri spes Danaum, fractae uires, auersa deae mens. nec dubiis ea signa dedit Tritonia monstris. uix positum castris simulacrum: arsere coruscae luminibus flammae arrectis, salsusque per artus sudor iit, terque ipsa solo (mirabile dictu) emicuit parmamque ferens hastamque trementem. extemplo temptanda fuga canit aequora Calchas, nec posse Argolicis exscindi Pergama telis omina ni repetant Argis numenque reducant quod pelago et curuis secum auexere carinis. et nunc quod patrias uento petiere Mycenas, arma deosque parant comites pelagoque remenso improuisi aderunt; ita digerit omina Calchas. hanc pro Palladio moniti, pro numine laeso effigiem statuere, nefas quae triste piaret. hanc tamen immensam Calchas attollere molem roboribus textis caeloque educere iussit, ne recipi portis aut duci in moenia posset, neu populum antiqua sub religione tueri. nam si uestra manus uiolasset dona Mineruae, tum magnum exitium (quod di prius omen in ipsum conuertant!) Priami imperio Phrygibusque futurum; sin manibus uestris uestram ascendisset in urbem, ultro Asiam magno Pelopea ad moenia bello uenturam, et nostros ea fata manere nepotes.' |