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Notes Display Latin text | translated by Theodore C. Williams Book VI Chapter 14: Charon | Next chapter Return to index Previous chapter |
Hence the way leads to that Tartarean stream Of Acheron, whose torrent fierce and foul Disgorges in Cocytus all its sands. A ferryman of gruesome guise keeps ward Upon these waters, -- Charon, foully garbed, With unkempt, thick gray beard upon his chin, And staring eyes of flame; a mantle coarse, All stained and knotted, from his shoulder falls, As with a pole he guides his craft, tends sail, And in the black boat ferries o'er his dead; -- Old, but a god's old age looks fresh and strong. To those dim shores the multitude streams on -- husbands and wives, and pale, unbreathing forms Of high-souled heroes, boys and virgins fair, And strong youth at whose graves fond parents mourned. As numberless the throng as leaves that fall When autumn's early frost is on the grove; Or like vast flocks of birds by winter's chill Sent flying o'er wide seas to lands of flowers. All stood beseeching to begin their voyage Across that river, and reached out pale hands, In passionate yearning for its distant shore. But the grim boatman takes now these, now those, Or thrusts unpitying from the stream away. Aeneas, moved to wonder and deep awe, Beheld the tumult; Virgin seer! he cried, Why move the thronging ghosts toward yonder stream? What seek they there? Or what election holds That these unwilling linger, while their peers Sweep forward yonder o'er the leaden waves? To him, in few, the aged Sibyl spoke : Son of Anchises, offspring of the gods, Yon are Cocytus and the Stygian stream, By whose dread power the gods themselves do fear To take an oath in vain. Here far and wide Thou seest the hapless throng that hath no grave. That boatman Charon bears across the deep Such as be sepulchred with holy care. But over that loud flood and dreadful shore No trav'ler may be borne, until in peace His gathered ashes rest. A hundred years Round this dark borderland some haunt and roam, Then win late passage o'er the longed-for wave. Aeneas lingered for a little space, Revolving in his soul with pitying prayer Fate's partial way. But presently he sees Leucaspis and the Lycian navy's lord, Orontes; both of melancholy brow, Both hapless and unhonored after death, Whom, while from Troy they crossed the wind-swept seas, A whirling tempest wrecked with ship and crew. Event: Aeneas visits the Underworld |
295-336 Hinc uia Tartarei quae fert Acherontis ad undas. turbidus hic caeno uastaque uoragine gurges aestuat atque omnem Cocyto eructat harenam. portitor has horrendus aquas et flumina seruat terribili squalore Charon, cui plurima mento canities inculta iacet, stant lumina flamma, sordidus ex umeris nodo dependet amictus. ipse ratem conto subigit uelisque ministrat et ferruginea subuectat corpora cumba, iam senior, sed cruda deo uiridisque senectus. huc omnis turba ad ripas effusa ruebat, matres atque uiri defunctaque corpora uita magnanimum heroum, pueri innuptaeque puellae, impositique rogis iuuenes ante ora parentum: quam multa in siluis autumni frigore primo lapsa cadunt folia, aut ad terram gurgite ab alto quam multae glomerantur aues, ubi frigidus annus trans pontum fugat et terris immittit apricis. stabant orantes primi transmittere cursum tendebantque manus ripae ulterioris amore. nauita sed tristis nunc hos nunc accipit illos, ast alios longe summotos arcet harena. Aeneas miratus enim motusque tumultu 'dic,' ait, 'o uirgo, quid uult concursus ad amnem? quidue petunt animae? uel quo discrimine ripas hae linquunt, illae remis uada liuida uerrunt?' olli sic breuiter fata est longaeua sacerdos: 'Anchisa generate, deum certissima proles, Cocyti stagna alta uides Stygiamque paludem, di cuius iurare timent et fallere numen. haec omnis, quam cernis, inops inhumataque turba est; portitor ille Charon; hi, quos uehit unda, sepulti. nec ripas datur horrendas et rauca fluenta transportare prius quam sedibus ossa quierunt. centum errant annos uolitantque haec litora circum; tum demum admissi stagna exoptata reuisunt.' constitit Anchisa satus et uestigia pressit multa putans sortemque animo miseratus iniquam. cernit ibi maestos et mortis honore carentis Leucaspim et Lyciae ductorem classis Oronten, quos simul a Troia uentosa per aequora uectos obruit Auster, aqua inuoluens nauemque uirosque. |