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Notes Display Latin text | translated by Theodore C. Williams Book VI Chapter 22: The realm of criminals | Next chapter Return to index Previous chapter |
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Aeneas straightway by the leftward cliff Beheld a spreading rampart, high begirt With triple wall, and circling round it ran A raging river of swift floods of flame, Infernal Phlegethon, which whirls along Loud-thundering rocks. A mighty gate is there Columned in adamant; no human power, Nor even the gods, against this gate prevail. Tall tower of steel it has; and seated there Tisiphone, in blood-flecked pall arrayed, Sleepless forever, guards the entering way. Hence groans are heard, fierce cracks of lash and scourge, Loud-clanking iron links and trailing chains. Aeneas motionless with horror stood o'erwhelmed at such uproar. O virgin, say What shapes of guilt are these? What penal woe Harries them thus? What wailing smites the air? To whom the Sibyl, Far-famed prince of Troy, The feet of innocence may never pass Into this house of sin. But Hecate, When o'er th' Avernian groves she gave me power, Taught me what penalties the gods decree, And showed me all. There Cretan Rhadamanth His kingdom keeps, and from unpitying throne Chastises and lays bare the secret sins Of mortals who, exulting in vain guile, Elude till death, their expiation due. There, armed forever with her vengeful scourge, Tisiphone, with menace and affront, The guilty swarm pursues; in her left hand She lifts her angered serpents, while she calls A troop of sister-furies fierce as she. Then, grating loud on hinge of sickening sound, Hell's portals open wide. O, dost thou see What sentinel upon that threshold sits, What shapes of fear keep guard upon that gloom? Event: Aeneas visits the Underworld |
548-575 Respicit Aeneas subito et sub rupe sinistra moenia lata uidet triplici circumdata muro, quae rapidus flammis ambit torrentibus amnis, Tartareus Phlegethon, torquetque sonantia saxa. porta aduersa ingens solidoque adamante columnae, uis ut nulla uirum, non ipsi exscindere bello caelicolae ualeant; stat ferrea turris ad auras, Tisiphoneque sedens palla succincta cruenta uestibulum exsomnis seruat noctesque diesque. hinc exaudiri gemitus et saeua sonare uerbera, tum stridor ferri tractaeque catenae. constitit Aeneas strepitumque exterritus hausit. 'quae scelerum facies? o uirgo, effare; quibusue urgentur poenis? quis tantus plangor ad auras?' tum uates sic orsa loqui: 'dux inclute Teucrum, nulli fas casto sceleratum insistere limen; sed me cum lucis Hecate praefecit Auernis, ipsa deum poenas docuit perque omnia duxit. Cnosius haec Rhadamanthus habet durissima regna castigatque auditque dolos subigitque fateri quae quis apud superos furto laetatus inani distulit in seram commissa piacula mortem. continuo sontis ultrix accincta flagello Tisiphone quatit insultans, toruosque sinistra intentans anguis uocat agmina saeua sororum. tum demum horrisono stridentes cardine sacrae panduntur portae. cernis custodia qualis uestibulo sedeat, facies quae limina seruet? |