Bar [22-58]and bulwark no longer shelter the Trojans; nay,
within the gates and even on the mounded walls they clash in battle and
make the trenches swim with blood.
within the gates and even on the mounded walls they clash in battle and
make the trenches swim with blood.
Virgil - Aeneid
Therefore
neither with shield nor hand can he keep his ground, so overpoweringly
from all sides comes upon him the storm of weapons. About the hollows of
his temples the helmet rings with incessant clash, and the solid brass
is riven beneath the stones; the horsehair crest is rent away; the
shield-boss avails not under the blows; Mnestheus thunders on with his
Trojans, and pours in a storm of spears. All over him the sweat trickles
and pours in swart stream, and no breathing space is given; sick gasps
shake [815-818]his exhausted limbs. Then at last, with a headlong
bound, he leapt fully armed into the river; the river's yellow eddies
opened for him as he came, and the buoyant water brought him up, and,
washing away the slaughter, returned him triumphant to his comrades.
BOOK TENTH
THE BATTLE ON THE BEACH
Meanwhile the heavenly house omnipotent unfolds her doors, and the
father of gods and king of men calls a council in the starry dwelling;
whence he looks sheer down on the whole earth, the Dardanian camp, and
the peoples of Latium. They sit down within from doorway to doorway:
their lord begins:
'Lords of heaven, wherefore is your decree turned back, and your minds
thus jealously at strife? I forbade Italy to join battle with the
Teucrians; why this quarrel in face of my injunction? What terror hath
bidden one or another run after arms and tempt the sword? The due time
of battle will arrive, call it not forth, when furious Carthage shall
one day sunder the Alps to hurl ruin full on the towers of Rome. Then
hatred may grapple with hatred, then hostilities be opened; now let them
be, and cheerfully join in the treaty we ordain. '
Thus Jupiter in brief; but not briefly golden Venus returns in
answer: . . .
'O Lord, O everlasting Governor of men and things--for what else may we
yet supplicate? --beholdest thou how the Rutulians brave it, and Turnus,
borne charioted through the ranks, proudly sweeps down the tide of
battle?
Bar [22-58]and bulwark no longer shelter the Trojans; nay,
within the gates and even on the mounded walls they clash in battle and
make the trenches swim with blood. Aeneas is away and ignorant. Wilt
thou never then let our leaguer be raised? Again a foe overhangs the
walls of infant Troy; and another army, and a second son of Tydeus rises
from Aetolian Arpi against the Trojans. Truly I think my wounds are yet
to come, and I thy child am keeping some mortal weapons idle. If the
Trojans steered for Italy without thy leave and defiant of thy deity,
let them expiate their sin; aid not such with thy succour. But if so
many oracles guided them, given by god and ghost, why may aught now
reverse thine ordinance or write destiny anew? Why should I recall the
fleets burned on the coast of Eryx? why the king of storms, and the
raging winds roused from Aeolia, or Iris driven down the clouds? Now
hell too is stirred (this share of the world was yet untried) and
Allecto suddenly let loose above to riot through the Italian towns. In
no wise am I moved for empire; that was our hope while Fortune stood;
let those conquer whom thou wilt. If thy cruel wife leave no region free
to Teucrians, by the smoking ruins of desolated Troy, O father, I
beseech thee, grant Ascanius unhurt retreat from arms, grant me my
child's life. Aeneas may well be tossed over unknown seas and follow
what path soever fortune open to him; him let me avail to shelter and
withdraw from the turmoil of battle. Amathus is mine, high Paphos and
Cythera, and my house of Idalia; here, far from arms, let him spend an
inglorious life. Bid Carthage in high lordship rule Ausonia; there will
be nothing there to check the Tyrian cities. What help was it for the
Trojans to escape war's doom and thread their flight through Argive
fires, to have exhausted all those perils of sea and desolate lands,
while they seek Latium and the towers of a Troy rebuilt?
neither with shield nor hand can he keep his ground, so overpoweringly
from all sides comes upon him the storm of weapons. About the hollows of
his temples the helmet rings with incessant clash, and the solid brass
is riven beneath the stones; the horsehair crest is rent away; the
shield-boss avails not under the blows; Mnestheus thunders on with his
Trojans, and pours in a storm of spears. All over him the sweat trickles
and pours in swart stream, and no breathing space is given; sick gasps
shake [815-818]his exhausted limbs. Then at last, with a headlong
bound, he leapt fully armed into the river; the river's yellow eddies
opened for him as he came, and the buoyant water brought him up, and,
washing away the slaughter, returned him triumphant to his comrades.
BOOK TENTH
THE BATTLE ON THE BEACH
Meanwhile the heavenly house omnipotent unfolds her doors, and the
father of gods and king of men calls a council in the starry dwelling;
whence he looks sheer down on the whole earth, the Dardanian camp, and
the peoples of Latium. They sit down within from doorway to doorway:
their lord begins:
'Lords of heaven, wherefore is your decree turned back, and your minds
thus jealously at strife? I forbade Italy to join battle with the
Teucrians; why this quarrel in face of my injunction? What terror hath
bidden one or another run after arms and tempt the sword? The due time
of battle will arrive, call it not forth, when furious Carthage shall
one day sunder the Alps to hurl ruin full on the towers of Rome. Then
hatred may grapple with hatred, then hostilities be opened; now let them
be, and cheerfully join in the treaty we ordain. '
Thus Jupiter in brief; but not briefly golden Venus returns in
answer: . . .
'O Lord, O everlasting Governor of men and things--for what else may we
yet supplicate? --beholdest thou how the Rutulians brave it, and Turnus,
borne charioted through the ranks, proudly sweeps down the tide of
battle?
Bar [22-58]and bulwark no longer shelter the Trojans; nay,
within the gates and even on the mounded walls they clash in battle and
make the trenches swim with blood. Aeneas is away and ignorant. Wilt
thou never then let our leaguer be raised? Again a foe overhangs the
walls of infant Troy; and another army, and a second son of Tydeus rises
from Aetolian Arpi against the Trojans. Truly I think my wounds are yet
to come, and I thy child am keeping some mortal weapons idle. If the
Trojans steered for Italy without thy leave and defiant of thy deity,
let them expiate their sin; aid not such with thy succour. But if so
many oracles guided them, given by god and ghost, why may aught now
reverse thine ordinance or write destiny anew? Why should I recall the
fleets burned on the coast of Eryx? why the king of storms, and the
raging winds roused from Aeolia, or Iris driven down the clouds? Now
hell too is stirred (this share of the world was yet untried) and
Allecto suddenly let loose above to riot through the Italian towns. In
no wise am I moved for empire; that was our hope while Fortune stood;
let those conquer whom thou wilt. If thy cruel wife leave no region free
to Teucrians, by the smoking ruins of desolated Troy, O father, I
beseech thee, grant Ascanius unhurt retreat from arms, grant me my
child's life. Aeneas may well be tossed over unknown seas and follow
what path soever fortune open to him; him let me avail to shelter and
withdraw from the turmoil of battle. Amathus is mine, high Paphos and
Cythera, and my house of Idalia; here, far from arms, let him spend an
inglorious life. Bid Carthage in high lordship rule Ausonia; there will
be nothing there to check the Tyrian cities. What help was it for the
Trojans to escape war's doom and thread their flight through Argive
fires, to have exhausted all those perils of sea and desolate lands,
while they seek Latium and the towers of a Troy rebuilt?
