In front is the gate, huge and pillared with solid adamant, that no
warring force of men nor the very habitants of heaven may avail to
overthrow; it stands up a tower of iron, and Tisiphone sitting girt in
bloodstained pall keeps sleepless watch at the entry by night and day.
warring force of men nor the very habitants of heaven may avail to
overthrow; it stands up a tower of iron, and Tisiphone sitting girt in
bloodstained pall keeps sleepless watch at the entry by night and day.
Virgil - Aeneid
When the fated horse leapt down on the steep towers
of Troy, bearing armed infantry for the burden of its womb, she, in
feigned procession, led round our Phrygian women with Bacchic cries;
herself she upreared a mighty flame amid them, and called the Grecians
out of the fortress height. Then was I fast in mine ill-fated bridal
chamber, deep asleep and outworn with my charge, and lay overwhelmed in
slumber sweet and profound and most like to easeful death. Meanwhile
that crown of wives removes all the arms from my dwelling, and slips out
the faithful sword from beneath my head: she calls Menelaus into the
house and flings wide the gateway: be sure she hoped her lover would
magnify the gift, and so she might quench the fame of her ill deeds of
old. Why do I linger? They burst into the chamber, they and the Aeolid,
counsellor of crime, in their company. Gods, recompense the Greeks even
thus, if with righteous lips I call for vengeance! But come, tell in
turn what hap hath brought thee hither yet alive. Comest thou driven on
ocean wanderings, or by promptings from heaven? or what fortune keeps
thee from rest, that thou shouldst draw nigh these sad sunless
dwellings, this disordered land? '
In this change of talk Dawn had already crossed heaven's mid axle on her
rose-charioted way; and haply had they thus drawn out all the allotted
time; but the Sibyl made brief warning speech to her companion: 'Night
falls, Aeneas; we waste the hours in weeping. Here is the place where
the road disparts; by this that runs to the right [542-574]under great
Dis' city is our path to Elysium; but the leftward wreaks vengeance on
the wicked and sends them to unrelenting hell. ' But Deiphobus: 'Be not
angered, mighty priestess; I will depart, I will refill my place and
return into darkness. Go, glory of our people, go, enjoy a fairer fate
than mine. ' Thus much he spoke, and on the word turned away his
footsteps.
Aeneas looks swiftly back, and sees beneath the cliff on the left hand a
wide city, girt with a triple wall and encircled by a racing river of
boiling flame, Tartarean Phlegethon, that echoes over its rolling rocks.
In front is the gate, huge and pillared with solid adamant, that no
warring force of men nor the very habitants of heaven may avail to
overthrow; it stands up a tower of iron, and Tisiphone sitting girt in
bloodstained pall keeps sleepless watch at the entry by night and day.
Hence moans are heard and fierce lashes resound, with the clank of iron
and dragging chains. Aeneas stopped and hung dismayed at the tumult.
'What shapes of crime are here? declare, O maiden; or what the
punishment that pursues them, and all this upsurging wail? ' Then the
soothsayer thus began to speak: 'Illustrious chief of Troy, no pure foot
may tread these guilty courts; but to me Hecate herself, when she gave
me rule over the groves of Avernus, taught how the gods punish, and
guided me through all her realm. Gnosian Rhadamanthus here holds
unrelaxing sway, chastises secret crime revealed, and exacts confession,
wheresoever in the upper world one vainly exultant in stolen guilt hath
till the dusk of death kept clear from the evil he wrought. Straightway
avenging Tisiphone, girt with her scourge, tramples down the shivering
sinners, menaces them with the grim snakes in her left hand, and summons
forth her sisters in merciless train. Then at last the sacred gates are
flung open and grate on the jarring hinge. Markest thou what sentry is
seated in [575-609]the doorway? what shape guards the threshold? More
grim within sits the monstrous Hydra with her fifty black yawning
throats: and Tartarus' self gapes sheer and strikes into the gloom
through twice the space that one looks upward to Olympus and the skyey
heaven. Here Earth's ancient children, the Titans' brood, hurled down by
the thunderbolt, lie wallowing in the abyss. Here likewise I saw the
twin Aloids, enormous of frame, who essayed with violent hands to pluck
down high heaven and thrust Jove from his upper realm. Likewise I saw
Salmoneus in the cruel payment he gives for mocking Jove's flame and
Olympus' thunders. Borne by four horses and brandishing a torch, he rode
in triumph midway through the populous city of Grecian Elis, and claimed
for himself the worship of deity; madman!
of Troy, bearing armed infantry for the burden of its womb, she, in
feigned procession, led round our Phrygian women with Bacchic cries;
herself she upreared a mighty flame amid them, and called the Grecians
out of the fortress height. Then was I fast in mine ill-fated bridal
chamber, deep asleep and outworn with my charge, and lay overwhelmed in
slumber sweet and profound and most like to easeful death. Meanwhile
that crown of wives removes all the arms from my dwelling, and slips out
the faithful sword from beneath my head: she calls Menelaus into the
house and flings wide the gateway: be sure she hoped her lover would
magnify the gift, and so she might quench the fame of her ill deeds of
old. Why do I linger? They burst into the chamber, they and the Aeolid,
counsellor of crime, in their company. Gods, recompense the Greeks even
thus, if with righteous lips I call for vengeance! But come, tell in
turn what hap hath brought thee hither yet alive. Comest thou driven on
ocean wanderings, or by promptings from heaven? or what fortune keeps
thee from rest, that thou shouldst draw nigh these sad sunless
dwellings, this disordered land? '
In this change of talk Dawn had already crossed heaven's mid axle on her
rose-charioted way; and haply had they thus drawn out all the allotted
time; but the Sibyl made brief warning speech to her companion: 'Night
falls, Aeneas; we waste the hours in weeping. Here is the place where
the road disparts; by this that runs to the right [542-574]under great
Dis' city is our path to Elysium; but the leftward wreaks vengeance on
the wicked and sends them to unrelenting hell. ' But Deiphobus: 'Be not
angered, mighty priestess; I will depart, I will refill my place and
return into darkness. Go, glory of our people, go, enjoy a fairer fate
than mine. ' Thus much he spoke, and on the word turned away his
footsteps.
Aeneas looks swiftly back, and sees beneath the cliff on the left hand a
wide city, girt with a triple wall and encircled by a racing river of
boiling flame, Tartarean Phlegethon, that echoes over its rolling rocks.
In front is the gate, huge and pillared with solid adamant, that no
warring force of men nor the very habitants of heaven may avail to
overthrow; it stands up a tower of iron, and Tisiphone sitting girt in
bloodstained pall keeps sleepless watch at the entry by night and day.
Hence moans are heard and fierce lashes resound, with the clank of iron
and dragging chains. Aeneas stopped and hung dismayed at the tumult.
'What shapes of crime are here? declare, O maiden; or what the
punishment that pursues them, and all this upsurging wail? ' Then the
soothsayer thus began to speak: 'Illustrious chief of Troy, no pure foot
may tread these guilty courts; but to me Hecate herself, when she gave
me rule over the groves of Avernus, taught how the gods punish, and
guided me through all her realm. Gnosian Rhadamanthus here holds
unrelaxing sway, chastises secret crime revealed, and exacts confession,
wheresoever in the upper world one vainly exultant in stolen guilt hath
till the dusk of death kept clear from the evil he wrought. Straightway
avenging Tisiphone, girt with her scourge, tramples down the shivering
sinners, menaces them with the grim snakes in her left hand, and summons
forth her sisters in merciless train. Then at last the sacred gates are
flung open and grate on the jarring hinge. Markest thou what sentry is
seated in [575-609]the doorway? what shape guards the threshold? More
grim within sits the monstrous Hydra with her fifty black yawning
throats: and Tartarus' self gapes sheer and strikes into the gloom
through twice the space that one looks upward to Olympus and the skyey
heaven. Here Earth's ancient children, the Titans' brood, hurled down by
the thunderbolt, lie wallowing in the abyss. Here likewise I saw the
twin Aloids, enormous of frame, who essayed with violent hands to pluck
down high heaven and thrust Jove from his upper realm. Likewise I saw
Salmoneus in the cruel payment he gives for mocking Jove's flame and
Olympus' thunders. Borne by four horses and brandishing a torch, he rode
in triumph midway through the populous city of Grecian Elis, and claimed
for himself the worship of deity; madman!
