Arma virumque cano, Troiae qui primus ab oris

Italiams fato profugues Laviniaque venit

litora, multum ille et terris iactatus et alto

vi superum, saevae memorem Iunonis ob iram,

multa quoque et bello passus, dum conderet urbem

inferretque deos Latio; (1-6.5)

genus unde Latinum

Albanique patres atque altae moenia Romae.

Musa, mihi causas memora, quo numine laeso

quidve dolens regina deum tot volvere casus

insignem pietate virum, tot adire labores

impulerit. Tantaene animis caelestibus irae? (6.5-11)

Urbs antiqua fuit (Tyrii tenuiere coloni)

Karthago, Italiam contra Tiberinaque longe

ostia, dives opum studiisque asperrima belli,

quam Juno fertur terris magix omnibus unam

posthabita coluisse Samo. hic illuis arma,

hic currus fuit; (12-16.5)

hoc regnum dea gentibus esse,

si qua fata sinant, iam tum tenditque fovetque.

Progeniem sed enin Troiano a sanguine duci

audierat Tyrias olim quae verteret arces;

hinc populum late regem belloque superbum

venturum excidiu Libyae; sic volvere Parcas. (17.5-22)

Id metuens veterisque memor Saturnia belli,

prima quod ad Troiam pro caris gesserat Argis-

necdum etiam causae irarum saevique dolores

exciderant animo; manet alta mente repostum

iudicium Paridis spretaeque iniuria formae

et genus invisum et rapti Ganemedis honores; (24-28)

his accensa super iactatos aequore toto

Troas, reliquias Danaum atque immitis Achilli,

arcebat longe Latio, multosque per annos

errabant acti fatis maria omnis circum.

Tantae molis erat Romanam condere gentem. (29-33)

...Palasne exurere classem

Argifum atque ipsos potuit summergere ponto

unius ob noxam et furias Aeacis Oilei?

Ipsa Iovis rapidum iaculata e nubibus ignem disiecitque rates evertitque aequora ventis, illum expirantem transfixo pectore flammas

turbine corriquit scopuloque infixit acuto; (39.5-45)

ast ego, quae divum incedo regina Jovisque

et soror et coniunx, una cum gente tot annos

bella gero. Et quisquam numem Junonis adorat

praetera aut supplex aris impoent honorem?" (46-49)

Talia flammato secum dea corde volutans

nimborum in patriam, lca feta furentibus Autris,

Aeoliam venit. his vasto rex Aeolus antro

luctantes ventos tempestatesque sonoras

imperio premit ac vinclis et carcere frenat.

Illi indignantes magno cum murmure montis

circum claustra fremunt; (50-56.5)

Pondering such things in her flaming heart, she came to Aeolia, region of the clouds, palced teeming with furious south winds. Here in his vast cave, King Aeolus,

keeps the writhing winds, and the roaring storms,

under control, curbs them with chains and imprisonment.

 They, indignant, with great mountain murmurs roars around the enclosures.

celsa sedet Aeolus arce

sceptra tenens mollitque animos et temperat iras.

ni faciat, maria ac terras caelumque profundum

quippe ferant rapidi secum verrantque per auras; (56.5-59)

sed pater omnipotens speluncis abdidit atris

hoc metuens molemque et montes insuper altos

imposuit, regemque dedit qui foedere certo

et premere et laxas sciret dare iussus habenas.

Ad quem tum Juno supplex his vocibus usa est: (60-64)

"Aeole (namque tibi divum pater atque hominum rex

et mulcere dedit fluctus et tollere vento),

gens inimica mihi Tyrrhenum navigat aequor

Ilium in Italiam portans victosque enates:

incute vim ventis submersasque obrue puppes,

aut age diversos et dissice corpora ponto. (65-70)

Sunt mihi bis septem praestanti corpore Nymphae,

quarum quae forma pulcherrima Deiopea,

conubio iungam stabili propriamque dicabo,

omnes ut tecum meritis pro talibus annos

exigat et pulchra faciat te prole parentem." (71-75)

Aeolus haec contra: "Tuus, O regina, quid optes

explorare labor; mihi iussa capessere fas est.

Tu mihi quodcuque hoc regni, tu sceptra Jovemque

concilias, tu das epulis accumbere divum

nimborumque facis temperestatumque potentem." (76-80)

When he had spoken, he reversed his trident and struck

the hollow mountain on the side: and the winds, just as if having been made in a battle line,

where having been made a doorway, rushed and blew through across the earth in a whirlwind.

They settle on the sea, East and West wind,

and the wind from Africa, together, thick with storms,

stir it all from its deepest place, and roll vast waves to shore:

Insequitur clamorque virum stridorque rudentum.
Eripiunt subito nubes caelumque diemque
Teucrorum ex oculis; ponto nox incubat atra.
Intonuere poli, et crebris micat ignibus aether,  
praesentemque viris intentant omnia mortem.

Extemplo Aeneae solvuntur frigore membra: (87-92)

follows both a cry of men and a creaking of cables.

Suddenly clouds take sky and day away

from the Trojan’s eyes: dark night rests on the sea.

It thunders from the pole, and the aether flashes thick fire,

and all things threaten immediate death to men.

Instantly Aeneas groans, his limbs slack with cold:

he groans, stretching his two hands towards the heavens, he says such things with a cry

: ‘Oh, three, four times fortunate,

were those who chanced to die in front of their father’s eyes

under Troy’s high walls! O Diomede, son of Tydeus

bravest of Greeks!

Why could I not have fallen, at your right hand,

in the fields of Ilium, and poured out my spirit,

where fierce Hector lies thanks to the weapon of the son of A, where mighty Sarpedon: where Simois rolls, and sweeps away

so many shields, helmets, brave bodies, of men, in its waves!"

Talia iactanti stridens Aquilone procella
velum adversa ferit, fluctusque ad sidera tollit.
Franguntur remi; tum prora avertit, et undis
dat latus; insequitur cumulo praeruptus aquae mons.               

Hi summo in fluctu pendent; his unda dehiscens
terram inter fluctus aperit; furit aestus harenis. (102-107)

Hurling these words out, a howling blast from the north,

strikes square on the sail, and lifts the seas to stars:

the oars break: then the prow averts and gives its side to the waves: a steep mountain of water follows in a mass.

These men are hanging on the highest wave: to others the waves reveals the sea bottom in the gaping waves: the surge rages with sand.

Tris Notus abreptas in saxa latentia torquet—
saxa vocant Itali mediis quae in fluctibus aras—
dorsum immane mari summo; tris Eurus ab alto              

in brevia et Syrtis urget, miserabile visu,
inliditque vadis atque aggere cingit harenae.
(108-112)

The south wind catches three, and whirls them onto hidden rocks

(rocks the Italians call the Altars, in mid-ocean,

a vast reef on the surface of the sea) three the east wind drives

from the deep, to the shallows and quick-sands (a pitiful sight),

dashes them against the bottom, covers them with a gravel mound.

Unam, quae Lycios fidumque vehebat Oronten,
ipsius ante oculos ingens a vertice pontus
in puppim ferit: excutitur pronusque magister               

volvitur in caput; ast illam ter fluctus ibidem
torquet agens circum, et rapidus vorat aequore vortex.
Adparent rari nantes in gurgite vasto,
arma virum, tabulaeque, et Troia gaza per undas. (113-119)

A huge wave, toppling, strikes one astern, in front of his very eyes,

one carrying faithful Orontes and the Lycians.

The steersman’s thrown out and hurled headlong, face down:

but the sea turns the ship three times, driving her round,

in place, and the swift vortex swallows her in the deep.

Swimmers appear here and there in the vast waste,

men’s weapons, planking, Trojan treasure in the waves.

Iam validam Ilionei navem, iam fortis Achati,             

et qua vectus Abas, et qua grandaevus Aletes,
vicit hiems; laxis laterum compagibus omnes
accipiunt inimicum imbrem, rimisque fatiscunt. (120-123)

Now  Iloneus’s tough ship, now Achates,

now that in which Abas sailed, and old Aletes’s overcomes the storm:

their timbers sprung in their sides, all the ships

let in the hostile tide, and split open at the seams.

Interea magno misceri murmure pontum,
emissamque hiemem sensit Neptunus, et imis               

stagna refusa vadis, graviter commotus; et alto
prospiciens, summa placidum caput extulit unda.
Disiectam Aeneae, toto videt aequore classem,
fluctibus oppressos Troas caelique ruina,
nec latuere doli fratrem Iunonis et irae. (124-130)

Neptune, meanwhile, greatly troubled, saw that the sea

was churned with vast murmur, and the storm was loose

and the still waters welled from their deepest levels:

he raised his calm face from the waves, gazing over the deep.

He sees Aeneas’s fleet scattered all over the ocean,

the Trojans crushed by the breakers, and the plummeting sky.

And Juno’s anger, and her stratagems, do not escape her brother.

Eurum ad se Zephyrumque vocat, dehinc talia fatur:

'Tantane vos generis tenuit fiducia vestri?
Iam caelum terramque meo sine numine, venti,
miscere, et tantas audetis tollere moles?
Quos ego—sed motos praestat componere fluctus.       (131-135)

He calls the East and West winds to him, and then says:

‘Does confidence in your birth fill you so? Winds, do you dare,

without my intent, to mix earth with sky, and cause such trouble,

now? You whom I – ! But it’s better to calm the running waves:

Post mihi non simili poena commissa luetis.
Maturate fugam, regique haec dicite vestro:
non illi imperium pelagi saevumque tridentem,
sed mihi sorte datum. Tenet ille immania saxa,
vestras, Eure, domos; illa se iactet in aula               

Aeolus, et clauso ventorum carcere regnet.' (136-141)

you’ll answer to me later for this misfortune, with a different punishment.

Hurry, fly now, and say this to your king:

control of the ocean, and the fierce trident, were given to me,

by lot, and not to him. He owns the wild rocks, home to you,

and yours, East Wind: let Aeolus officiate in his palace,

and be king in the closed prison of the winds.’

So he speaks, and swifter than his speech, he calms the swollen sea,

scatters the gathered cloud, and brings back the sun.

Cymothoë and Triton, working together, thrust the ships

from the sharp reef: Neptune himself raises them with his trident,

parts the vast quicksand, tempers the flood,

and glides on weightless wheels, over the tops of the waves.

As often, when rebellion breaks out in a great nation,

and the common rabble rage with passion, and soon stones

and fiery torches fly (frenzy supplying weapons),

if they then see a man of great virtue, and weighty service,

they are silent, and stand there listening attentively:

he sways their passions with his words and soothes their hearts:

sic cunctus pelagi cecidit fragor, aequora postquam
prospiciens genitor caeloque invectus aperto               

flectit equos, curruque volans dat lora secundo.

Defessi Aeneadae, quae proxima litora, cursu
contendunt petere, et Libyae vertuntur ad oras.
Est in secessu longo locus:(154-159.5)

so all the uproar of the ocean died, as soon as their father,

gazing over the water, carried through the clear sky, wheeled

his horses, and gave them their head, flying behind in his chariot.

The weary followers of Aeneas made efforts to set a course

for the nearest land, and tacked towards the Libyan coast.

There is a place there in a deep inlet:

an island forms a harbour

with the barrier of its bulk, on which every wave from the deep

breaks, and divides into diminishing ripples.

On this side and that, vast cliffs and twin crags loom in the sky,

under whose summits the whole sea is calm, far and wide:

then, above that, is a scene of glittering woods,

and a dark grove overhangs the water, with leafy shade:

under the headland opposite is a cave, curtained with rock,

inside it, fresh water, and seats of natural stone,

the home of Nymphs. No hawsers moor the weary ships

here, no anchor, with its hooked flukes, fastens them.

Aeneas takes shelter here with seven ships gathered

from the fleet, and the Trojans, with a passion for dry land,

disembarking, take possession of the sands they longed for,

and stretch their brine-caked bodies on the shore.

At once Achates strikes a spark from his flint,

catches the fire in the leaves, places dry fuel round it,

and quickly has flames among the kindling.

Then, wearied by events, they take out wheat, damaged

by the sea, and implements of Ceres, and prepare to parch

the grain over the flames, and grind it on stone.

Aeneas climbs a crag meanwhile, and searches the whole prospect

far and wide over the sea, looking if he can see anything

of Antheus and his storm-tossed Phrygian galleys,

or Capys, or Caicus’s arms blazoned on a high stern.

There’s no ship in sight: he sees three stags wandering

on the shore:

 whole herds of deer follow at their back,

and graze in long lines along the valley.

He halts at this, and grasps in his hand his bow

and swift arrows, shafts that loyal Achates carries,

and first he shoots the leaders themselves, their heads,

with branching antlers, held high, then the mass, with his shafts,

and drives the whole crowd in confusion among the leaves:

The conqueror does not stop until he’s scattered seven huge

carcasses on the ground, equal in number to his ships.

Then he seeks the harbour, and divides them among all his friends.

Next he shares out the wine that the good Acestes had stowed

in jars, on the Trinacrian coast, and that hero had given them

on leaving: and speaking to them, calmed their sad hearts

‘O friends (well, we were not unknown to trouble before)

O you who’ve endured worse, the god will grant an end to this too.

You’ve faced rabid Scylla, and her deep-sounding cliffs:

and you’ve experienced the Cyclopes’s rocks:

remember your courage and chase away gloomy fears:

perhaps one day you’ll even delight in remembering this.

Through all these misfortunes, these dangerous times,

we head for Latium, where the fates hold peaceful lives

for us: there Troy’s kingdom can rise again. Endure,

and preserve yourselves for happier days.’

So his voice utters, and sick with the weight of care, he pretends

hope, in his look, and stifles the pain deep in his heart.

They make ready the game, and the future feast:

they flay the hides from the ribs and lay the flesh bare:

some cut it in pieces, quivering, and fix it on spits,

others place cauldrons on the beach, and feed them with flames.

Then they revive their strength with food, stretched on the grass,

and fill themselves with rich venison and old wine.

When hunger is quenched by the feast, and the remnants cleared,

deep in conversation, they discuss their missing friends,

and, between hope and fear, question whether they live,

or whether they’ve suffered death and no longer hear their name.

Aeneas, the virtuous, above all mourns the lot of fierce Orontes,

then that of Amycus, together with Lycus’s cruel fate,

and those of brave Gyus, and brave Cloanthus.

Now, all was complete, when Jupiter, from the heights of the air,

looked down on the sea with its flying sails, and the broad lands,

and the coasts, and the people far and wide, and paused,

at the summit of heaven, and fixed his eyes on the Libyan kingdom.

And as he weighed such cares as he had in his heart, Venus spoke

to him, sadder still, her bright eyes brimming with tears:

‘Oh you who rule things human, and divine, with eternal law,

and who terrify them all with your lightning-bolt,

what can my Aeneas have done to you that’s so serious,

what have the Trojans done, who’ve suffered so much destruction,

to whom the whole world’s closed, because of the Italian lands?

Surely you promised that at some point, as the years rolled by,

the Romans would rise from them, leaders would rise,

restored from Teucer’s blood, who would hold power

over the sea, and all the lands. Father, what thought has changed

your mind? It consoled me for the fall of Troy, and its sad ruin,

weighing one destiny, indeed, against opposing destinies:

now the same misfortune follows these men driven on by such

disasters. Great king, what end to their efforts will you give?

Antenor could escape through the thick of the Greek army,

and safely enter the Illyrian gulfs, and deep into the realms

of the Liburnians, and pass the founts of Timavus,

from which the river bursts, with a huge mountainous roar,

through nine mouths, and buries the fields under its noisy flood.

Here, nonetheless, he sited the city of Padua, and homes

for Teucrians, and gave the people a name, and hung up

the arms of Troy: now he’s calmly settled, in tranquil peace.

But we, your race, to whom you permit the heights of heaven,

lose our ships (shameful!), betrayed, because of one person’s anger,

and kept far away from the shores of Italy.

Is this the prize for virtue? Is this how you restore our rule?

The father of men and gods, smiled at her with that look

with which he clears the sky of storms,

kissed his daughter’s lips, and then said this: 

‘Don’t be afraid, Cytherea, your child’s fate remains unaltered:

You’ll see the city of Lavinium, and the walls I promised,

and you’ll raise great-hearted Aeneas high, to the starry sky:

No thought has changed my mind. This son of yours

(since this trouble gnaws at my heart, I’ll speak,

and unroll the secret scroll of destiny)

will wage a mighty war in Italy, destroy proud peoples,

and establish laws, and city walls, for his warriors,

until a third summer sees his reign in Latium, and

three winter camps pass since the Rutulians were beaten.

But the boy Ascanius, surnamed Iulus now (He was Ilus

while the Ilian kingdom was a reality) will imperially

complete thirty great circles of the turning months,

and transfer his throne from its site at Lavinium,

and mighty in power, will build the walls of Alba Longa.

Here kings of Hector’s race will reign now

for three hundred years complete, until a royal priestess,

Ilia, heavy with child, shall bear Mars twins.

Then Romulus will further the race, proud in his nurse

the she-wolf’s tawny pelt, and found the walls of Mars,

and call the people Romans, from his own name.

I’ve fixed no limits or duration to their possessions:

I’ve given them empire without end. Why, harsh Juno

who now torments land, and sea and sky with fear,

will respond to better judgement, and favour the Romans,

masters of the world, and people of the toga, with me.