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Notes Display Latin text | translated by Theodore C. Williams Book VI Chapter 10: Entering the Underworld | Next chapter Return to index Previous chapter |
After these toils, they hasten to fulfil What else the Sibyl said. Straightway they find A cave profound, of entrance gaping wide, O'erhung with rock, in gloom of sheltering grove, Near the dark waters of a lake, whereby No bird might ever pass with scathless wing, So dire an exhalation is breathed out From that dark deep of death to upper air -- Hence, in the Grecian tongue, Aornos called. Here first four youthful bulls of swarthy hide Were led for sacrifice; on each broad brow The priestess sprinkled wine; 'twixt the two horns Outplucked the lifted hair, and cast it forth Upon the holy flames, beginning so Her offerings; then loudly sued the power of Hecate, a Queen in heaven and hell. Some struck with knives, and caught in shallow bowls The smoking blood. Aeneas' lifted hand Smote with a sword a sable-fleeced ewe To Night, the mother of th' Eumenides, And Earth, [Note 1] , her sister dread; next unto thee, O Proserpine, a curst and barren cow; Then unto Pluto, Stygian king, he built An altar dark, and piled upon the flames The ponderous entrails of the bulls, and poured Free o'er the burning flesh the goodly oil. Then lo! at dawn's dim, earliest beam began Beneath their feet a groaning of the ground The wooded hill-tops shook, and, as it seemed, She-hounds of hell howled viewless through the shade To hail their Queen. Away, O souls profane! Stand far away! the priestess shrieked, nor dare Unto this grove come near! Aeneas, on! Begin thy journey! Draw thy sheathed blade! Now, all thy courage! now, th' unshaken soul! She spoke, and burst into the yawning cave With frenzied step he follows where she leads, And strides with feet unfaltering at her side. Event: Aeneas visits the Underworld Note 1: Earth = Gaea |
236-263 His actis propere exsequitur praecepta Sibyllae. spelunca alta fuit uastoque immanis hiatu, scrupea, tuta lacu nigro nemorumque tenebris, quam super haud ullae poterant impune uolantes tendere iter pennis: talis sese halitus atris faucibus effundens supera ad conuexa ferebat. [unde locum Grai dixerunt nomine Aornum.] quattuor hic primum nigrantis terga iuuencos constituit frontique inuergit uina sacerdos, et summas carpens media inter cornua saetas ignibus imponit sacris, libamina prima, uoce uocans Hecaten caeloque Ereboque potentem. supponunt alii cultros tepidumque cruorem succipiunt pateris. ipse atri uelleris agnam Aeneas matri Eumenidum magnaeque sorori ense ferit, sterilemque tibi, Proserpina, uaccam; tum Stygio regi nocturnas incohat aras et solida imponit taurorum uiscera flammis, pingue super oleum fundens ardentibus extis. ecce autem primi sub limina solis et ortus sub pedibus mugire solum et iuga coepta moueri siluarum, uisaeque canes ululare per umbram aduentante dea. 'procul, o procul este, profani,' conclamat uates, 'totoque absistite luco; tuque inuade uiam uaginaque eripe ferrum: nunc animis opus, Aenea, nunc pectore firmo.' tantum effata furens antro se immisit aperto; ille ducem haud timidis uadentem passibus aequat. |