Pandarus, at his brother's
fall, sees how fortune stands, what hap rules the day; and swinging the
gate round on its hinge with all his force, pushes it to with his broad
shoulders, leaving many of his own people shut outside the walls in the
desperate conflict, but shutting others in with him as they pour back in
retreat.
fall, sees how fortune stands, what hap rules the day; and swinging the
gate round on its hinge with all his force, pushes it to with his broad
shoulders, leaving many of his own people shut outside the walls in the
desperate conflict, but shutting others in with him as they pour back in
retreat.
Virgil - Aeneid
Shields and hollow helmets ring to blows; the
battle swells fierce; heavy as the shower lashes the ground that sets in
when the Kids are rainy in the West; thick as hail pours down from
storm-clouds on the shallows, when the rough lord of the winds congeals
his watery deluge and breaks up the hollow vapours in the sky.
Pandarus and Bitias, sprung of Alcanor of Ida, whom woodland Iaera bore
in the grove of Jupiter, grown now [674-709]tall as their ancestral
pines and hills, fling open the gates barred by their captain's order,
and confident in arms, wilfully invite the enemy within the walls.
Themselves within they stand to right and left in front of the towers,
sheathed in iron, the plumes flickering over their stately heads: even
as high in air around the gliding streams, whether on Padus' banks or by
pleasant Athesis, twin oaks rise lifting their unshorn heads into the
sky with high tops asway. The Rutulians pour in when they see the
entrance open. Straightway Quercens and Aquicolus beautiful in arms, and
desperate Tmarus, and Haemon, seed of Mars, either gave back in rout
with all their columns, or in the very gateway laid down their life.
Then the spirits of the combatants swell in rising wrath, and now the
Trojans gather swarming to the spot, and dare to close hand to hand and
to sally farther out.
News is brought to Turnus the captain, as he rages afar among the routed
foe, that the enemy surges forth into fresh slaughter and flings wide
his gates. He breaks off unfinished, and, fired with immense anger,
rushes towards the haughty brethren at the Dardanian gate. And on
Antiphates first, for first he came, the bastard son of mighty Sarpedon
by a Theban mother, he hurls his javelin and strikes him down; the
Italian cornel flies through the yielding air, and, piercing the gullet,
runs deep into his breast; a frothing tide pours from the dark yawning
wound, and the steel grows warm where it pierces the lung. Then Meropes
and Erymas, then Aphidnus goes down before his hand; then Bitias,
fiery-eyed and exultant, not with a javelin; for not to a javelin had he
given his life; but the loud-whistling pike came hurled with a
thunderbolt's force; neither twofold bull's hide kept it back, nor the
trusty corslet's double scales of gold: his vast limbs sink in a heap;
earth utters a groan, and the great shield clashes [710-745]over him:
even as once and again on the Euboic shore of Baiae falls a mass of
stone, built up of great blocks and so cast into the sea; thus does it
tumble prone, crashes into the shoal water and sinks deep to rest; the
seas are stirred, and the dark sand eddies up; therewith the depth of
Prochyta quivers at the sound, and the couchant rocks of Inarime, piled
above Typhoeus by Jove's commands.
On this Mars armipotent raised the spirit and strength of the Latins,
and goaded their hearts to rage, and sent Flight and dark Fear among the
Teucrians. From all quarters they gather, since battle is freely
offered; and the warrior god inspires. . . .
Pandarus, at his brother's
fall, sees how fortune stands, what hap rules the day; and swinging the
gate round on its hinge with all his force, pushes it to with his broad
shoulders, leaving many of his own people shut outside the walls in the
desperate conflict, but shutting others in with him as they pour back in
retreat. Madman! who saw not the Rutulian prince burst in amid their
columns, and fairly shut him into the town, like a monstrous tiger among
the silly flocks. At once strange light flashed from his eyes, and his
armour rang terribly; the blood-red plumes flicker on his head, and
lightnings shoot sparkling from his shield. In sudden dismay the
Aeneadae know the hated form and giant limbs. Then tall Pandarus leaps
forward, in burning rage at his brother's death: 'This is not the palace
of Amata's dower,' he cries, 'nor does Ardea enclose Turnus in her
native walls. Thou seest a hostile camp; escape hence is hopeless. ' To
him Turnus, smiling and cool: 'Begin with all thy valiance, and close
hand to hand; here too shalt thou tell that a Priam found his Achilles. '
He ended; the other, putting out all his strength, hurls his rough
spear, knotty and unpeeled. The breezes caught it; Juno, daughter of
Saturn, [746-780]made the wound glance off as it came, and the spear
sticks fast in the gate. 'But this weapon that my strong hand whirls,
this thou shalt not escape; for not such is he who sends weapon and
wound. ' So speaks he, and rises high on his uplifted sword; the steel
severs the forehead midway right between the temples, and divides the
beardless cheeks with ghastly wound. He crashes down; earth shakes under
the vast weight; dying limbs and brain-spattered armour tumble in a heap
to the ground, and the head, evenly severed, dangles this way and that
from either shoulder. The Trojans scatter and turn in hasty terror; and
had the conqueror forthwith taken thought to burst the bars and let in
his comrades at the gate, that had been the last day of the war and of
the nation. But rage and mad thirst of slaughter drive him like fire on
the foe. .
battle swells fierce; heavy as the shower lashes the ground that sets in
when the Kids are rainy in the West; thick as hail pours down from
storm-clouds on the shallows, when the rough lord of the winds congeals
his watery deluge and breaks up the hollow vapours in the sky.
Pandarus and Bitias, sprung of Alcanor of Ida, whom woodland Iaera bore
in the grove of Jupiter, grown now [674-709]tall as their ancestral
pines and hills, fling open the gates barred by their captain's order,
and confident in arms, wilfully invite the enemy within the walls.
Themselves within they stand to right and left in front of the towers,
sheathed in iron, the plumes flickering over their stately heads: even
as high in air around the gliding streams, whether on Padus' banks or by
pleasant Athesis, twin oaks rise lifting their unshorn heads into the
sky with high tops asway. The Rutulians pour in when they see the
entrance open. Straightway Quercens and Aquicolus beautiful in arms, and
desperate Tmarus, and Haemon, seed of Mars, either gave back in rout
with all their columns, or in the very gateway laid down their life.
Then the spirits of the combatants swell in rising wrath, and now the
Trojans gather swarming to the spot, and dare to close hand to hand and
to sally farther out.
News is brought to Turnus the captain, as he rages afar among the routed
foe, that the enemy surges forth into fresh slaughter and flings wide
his gates. He breaks off unfinished, and, fired with immense anger,
rushes towards the haughty brethren at the Dardanian gate. And on
Antiphates first, for first he came, the bastard son of mighty Sarpedon
by a Theban mother, he hurls his javelin and strikes him down; the
Italian cornel flies through the yielding air, and, piercing the gullet,
runs deep into his breast; a frothing tide pours from the dark yawning
wound, and the steel grows warm where it pierces the lung. Then Meropes
and Erymas, then Aphidnus goes down before his hand; then Bitias,
fiery-eyed and exultant, not with a javelin; for not to a javelin had he
given his life; but the loud-whistling pike came hurled with a
thunderbolt's force; neither twofold bull's hide kept it back, nor the
trusty corslet's double scales of gold: his vast limbs sink in a heap;
earth utters a groan, and the great shield clashes [710-745]over him:
even as once and again on the Euboic shore of Baiae falls a mass of
stone, built up of great blocks and so cast into the sea; thus does it
tumble prone, crashes into the shoal water and sinks deep to rest; the
seas are stirred, and the dark sand eddies up; therewith the depth of
Prochyta quivers at the sound, and the couchant rocks of Inarime, piled
above Typhoeus by Jove's commands.
On this Mars armipotent raised the spirit and strength of the Latins,
and goaded their hearts to rage, and sent Flight and dark Fear among the
Teucrians. From all quarters they gather, since battle is freely
offered; and the warrior god inspires. . . .
Pandarus, at his brother's
fall, sees how fortune stands, what hap rules the day; and swinging the
gate round on its hinge with all his force, pushes it to with his broad
shoulders, leaving many of his own people shut outside the walls in the
desperate conflict, but shutting others in with him as they pour back in
retreat. Madman! who saw not the Rutulian prince burst in amid their
columns, and fairly shut him into the town, like a monstrous tiger among
the silly flocks. At once strange light flashed from his eyes, and his
armour rang terribly; the blood-red plumes flicker on his head, and
lightnings shoot sparkling from his shield. In sudden dismay the
Aeneadae know the hated form and giant limbs. Then tall Pandarus leaps
forward, in burning rage at his brother's death: 'This is not the palace
of Amata's dower,' he cries, 'nor does Ardea enclose Turnus in her
native walls. Thou seest a hostile camp; escape hence is hopeless. ' To
him Turnus, smiling and cool: 'Begin with all thy valiance, and close
hand to hand; here too shalt thou tell that a Priam found his Achilles. '
He ended; the other, putting out all his strength, hurls his rough
spear, knotty and unpeeled. The breezes caught it; Juno, daughter of
Saturn, [746-780]made the wound glance off as it came, and the spear
sticks fast in the gate. 'But this weapon that my strong hand whirls,
this thou shalt not escape; for not such is he who sends weapon and
wound. ' So speaks he, and rises high on his uplifted sword; the steel
severs the forehead midway right between the temples, and divides the
beardless cheeks with ghastly wound. He crashes down; earth shakes under
the vast weight; dying limbs and brain-spattered armour tumble in a heap
to the ground, and the head, evenly severed, dangles this way and that
from either shoulder. The Trojans scatter and turn in hasty terror; and
had the conqueror forthwith taken thought to burst the bars and let in
his comrades at the gate, that had been the last day of the war and of
the nation. But rage and mad thirst of slaughter drive him like fire on
the foe. .
