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Notes Display Latin text | translated by Theodore C. Williams Book VI Chapter 23: The Sibyl tells about some criminals | Next chapter Return to index Previous chapter |
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Far, far within the dragon Hydra broods With half a hundred mouths, gaping and black; And Tartarus slopes downward to the dark Twice the whole space that in the realms of light Th' Olympian heaven above our earth aspires. -- Here Earth's first offspring, the Titanic brood, Roll lightning-blasted in the gulf profound; The twin Aloïdae, colossal shades, Came on my view; their hands made stroke at Heaven And strove to thrust Jove from his seat on high. I saw Salmoneus his dread stripes endure, Who dared to counterfeit Olympian thunder And Jove's own fire. In chariot of four steeds, Brandishing torches, he triumphant rode Through throngs of Greeks, o'er Elis' sacred way, Demanding worship as a god. O fool! To mock the storm's inimitable flash -- With crash of hoofs and roll of brazen wheel! But mightiest Jove from rampart of thick cloud Hurled his own shaft, no flickering, mortal flame, And in vast whirl of tempest laid him low. Next unto these, on Tityos I looked, Child of old Earth, whose womb all creatures bears: Stretched o'er nine roods he lies; a vulture huge Tears with hooked beak at his immortal side, Or deep in entrails ever rife with pain Gropes for a feast, making his haunt and home In the great Titan bosom; nor will give To ever new-born flesh surcease of woe. Why name Ixion and Pirithous, The Lapithae, above whose impious brows A crag of flint hangs quaking to its fall, As if just toppling down, while couches proud, Propped upon golden pillars, bid them feast In royal glory: but beside them lies The eldest of the Furies, whose dread hands Thrust from the feast away, and wave aloft A flashing firebrand, with shrieks of woe. Here in a prison-house awaiting doom Are men who hated, long as life endured, Their brothers, or maltreated their gray sires, Or tricked a humble friend; the men who grasped At hoarded riches, with their kith and kin Not sharing ever -- an unnumbered throng; Here slain adulterers be; and men who dared To fight in unjust cause, and break all faith With their own lawful lords. Seek not to know What forms of woe they feel, what fateful shape Of retribution hath o'erwhelmed them there. Some roll huge boulders up; some hang on wheels, Lashed to the whirling spokes; in his sad seat Theseus is sitting, nevermore to rise; Unhappy Phlegyas uplifts his voice In warning through the darkness, calling loud, O, ere too late, learn justice and fear God! Yon traitor sold his country, and for gold Enchained her to a tyrant, trafficking In laws, for bribes enacted or made void; Another did incestuously take His daughter for a wife in lawless bonds. All ventured some unclean, prodigious crime; And what they dared, achieved. I could not tell, Not with a hundred mouths, a hundred tongues, Or iron voice, their divers shapes of sin, Nor call by name the myriad pangs they bear. Events: Aeneas visits the Underworld, Life and death of Salmoneus, Leto and Tityus, The punishment of Ixion, Theseus and Pirithous, Phlegyas sets fire to the temple of Apollo |
576-627 quinquaginta atris immanis hiatibus Hydra saeuior intus habet sedem. tum Tartarus ipse bis patet in praeceps tantum tenditque sub umbras quantus ad aetherium caeli suspectus Olympum. hic genus antiquum Terrae, Titania pubes, fulmine deiecti fundo uoluuntur in imo. hic et Aloidas geminos immania uidi corpora, qui manibus magnum rescindere caelum adgressi superisque Iouem detrudere regnis. uidi et crudelis dantem Salmonea poenas, dum flammas Iouis et sonitus imitatur Olympi. quattuor hic inuectus equis et lampada quassans per Graium populos mediaeque per Elidis urbem ibat ouans, diuumque sibi poscebat honorem, demens, qui nimbos et non imitabile fulmen aere et cornipedum pulsu simularet equorum. at pater omnipotens densa inter nubila telum contorsit, non ille faces nec fumea taedis lumina, praecipitemque immani turbine adegit. nec non et Tityon, Terrae omniparentis alumnum, cernere erat, per tota nouem cui iugera corpus porrigitur, rostroque immanis uultur obunco immortale iecur tondens fecundaque poenis uiscera rimaturque epulis habitatque sub alto pectore, nec fibris requies datur ulla renatis. quid memorem Lapithas, Ixiona Pirithoumque? quos super atra silex iam iam lapsura cadentique imminet adsimilis; lucent genialibus altis aurea fulcra toris, epulaeque ante ora paratae regifico luxu; Furiarum maxima iuxta accubat et manibus prohibet contingere mensas, exsurgitque facem attollens atque intonat ore. hic, quibus inuisi fratres, dum uita manebat, pulsatusue parens et fraus innexa clienti, aut qui diuitiis soli incubuere repertis nec partem posuere suis (quae maxima turba est), quique ob adulterium caesi, quique arma secuti impia nec ueriti dominorum fallere dextras, inclusi poenam exspectant. ne quaere doceri quam poenam, aut quae forma uiros fortunaue mersit. saxum ingens uoluunt alii, radiisque rotarum districti pendent; sedet aeternumque sedebit infelix Theseus, Phlegyasque miserrimus omnis admonet et magna testatur uoce per umbras: "discite iustitiam moniti et non temnere diuos." uendidit hic auro patriam dominumque potentem imposuit; fixit leges pretio atque refixit; hic thalamum inuasit natae uetitosque hymenaeos: ausi omnes immane nefas ausoque potiti. non, mihi si linguae centum sint oraque centum, ferrea uox, omnis scelerum comprendere formas, omnia poenarum percurrere nomina possim.' |