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Quote of the day: Urgulania's influence, however, was so f
Notes
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The Aeneid by Virgil
translated by Theodore C. Williams
Book V Chapter 28: Advise of the ghost of Anchises
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Much moved Aeneas was by this wise word
of his gray friend, though still his anxious soul
was vexed by doubt and care. But when dark Night
had brought her chariot to the middle sky,
the sacred shade of Sire Anchises seemed,
from heaven descending, thus to speak aloud:
My son, than life more dear, when life was mine!
O son, upon whose heart the Trojan doom
has weighed so long! Beside thy couch I stand,
at pleasure of great Jove, whose hand dispelled
the mad fire from thy ships; and now he looks
from heaven with pitying brow. I bid thee heed
the noble counsels aged Nautes gave.
Only with warriors of dauntless breast
to Italy repair; of hardy breed,
of wild, rough life, thy Latin foes will be.
But first the shores of Pluto and the Shades
thy feet must tread, and through the deep abyss
of dark Avernus come to me, thy sire:
for I inhabit not the guilty gloom
of Tartarus, but bright Elysian day,
where all the just their sweet assemblies hold.
Hither the virgin Sibyl, if thou give
full offerings of the blood of sable kine,
shall lead thee down; and visions I will show
of cities proud and nations sprung from thee.
Farewell, for dewy Night has wheeled her way
far past her middle course; the panting steeds
of orient Morn breathe pitiless upon me.
He spoke, and passed, like fleeting clouds of smoke,
to empty air. O, whither haste away?
Aeneas cried. Whom dost thou fly? What god
from my fond yearning and embrace removes?
Then on the altar of the gods of Troy
he woke the smouldering embers, at the shrine
of venerable Vesta, worshipping
with hallowed bread and incense burning free.

Event: Aeneas on Sicily

719-745
Talibus incensus dictis senioris amici
tum uero in curas animo diducitur omnis;
et Nox atra polum bigis subuecta tenebat.
uisa dehinc caelo facies delapsa parentis
Anchisae subito talis effundere uoces:
'nate, mihi uita quondam, dum uita manebat,
care magis, nate Iliacis exercite fatis,
imperio Iouis huc uenio, qui classibus ignem
depulit, et caelo tandem miseratus ab alto est.
consiliis pare quae nunc pulcherrima Nautes
dat senior; lectos iuuenes, fortissima corda,
defer in Italiam. gens dura atque aspera cultu
debellanda tibi Latio est. Ditis tamen ante
infernas accede domos et Auerna per alta
congressus pete, nate, meos. non me impia namque
Tartara habent, tristes umbrae, sed amoena piorum
concilia Elysiumque colo. huc casta Sibylla
nigrarum multo pecudum te sanguine ducet.
tum genus omne tuum et quae dentur moenia disces.
iamque uale; torquet medios Nox umida cursus
et me saeuus equis Oriens adflauit anhelis.'
dixerat et tenuis fugit ceu fumus in auras.
Aeneas 'quo deinde ruis? quo proripis?' inquit,
'quem fugis? aut quis te nostris complexibus arcet?'
haec memorans cinerem et sopitos suscitat ignis,
Pergameumque Larem et canae penetralia Vestae
farre pio et plena supplex ueneratur acerra.