He refuses, and keeps seated
steadfast
in his
purpose.
purpose.
Virgil - Aeneid
.
'Then indeed I saw all Ilium sinking in flame, and Neptunian Troy
uprooted from her base: even as an ancient ash on the mountain heights,
hacked all about with steel and fast-falling axes, when husbandmen
emulously strain to cut it down: it hangs threateningly, with shaken top
and quivering tresses asway; till gradually, overmastered with
[631-662]wounds, it utters one last groan, and rending itself away,
falls in ruin along the ridge. I descend, and under a god's guidance
clear my way between foe and flame; weapons give ground before me, and
flames retire.
'And now, when I have reached the courts of my ancestral dwelling, our
home of old, my father, whom it was my first desire to carry high into
the hills, and whom first I sought, declines, now Troy is rooted out, to
prolong his life through the pains of exile.
'"Ah, you," he cries, "whose blood is at the prime, whose strength
stands firm in native vigour, do you take your flight. . . . Had the
lords of heaven willed to prolong life for me, they should have
preserved this my home. Enough and more is the one desolation we have
seen, survivors of a captured city. Thus, oh thus salute me and depart,
as a body laid out for burial. Mine own hand shall find me death: the
foe will be merciful and seek my spoils: light is the loss of a tomb.
This long time hated of heaven, I uselessly delay the years, since the
father of gods and king of men blasted me with wind of thunder and
scathe of flame. "
'Thus held he on in utterance, and remained obstinate. We press him,
dissolved in tears, my wife Creusa, Ascanius, all our household, that
our father involve us not all in his ruin, and add his weight to the
sinking scale of doom.
He refuses, and keeps seated steadfast in his
purpose. Again I rush to battle, and choose death in my misery. For what
had counsel or chance yet to give? Thoughtest thou my feet, O father,
could retire and abandon thee? and fell so unnatural words from a
parent's lips? "If heaven wills that naught be left of our mighty city,
if this be thy planted purpose, thy pleasure to cast in thyself and
thine to the doom of Troy; for this death indeed the gate is wide, and
even now Pyrrhus will be here newly bathed in Priam's [663-695]blood,
Pyrrhus who slaughters the son before the father's face, the father upon
his altars. For this was it, bountiful mother, thou dost rescue me amid
fire and sword, to see the foe in my inmost chambers, and Ascanius and
my father, Creusa by their side, hewn down in one another's blood? My
arms, men, bring my arms! the last day calls on the conquered. Return me
to the Greeks; let me revisit and renew the fight. Never to-day shall we
all perish unavenged. "
'Thereat I again gird on my sword, and fitting my left arm into the
clasps of the shield, strode forth of the palace. And lo! my wife clung
round my feet on the threshold, and held little Iulus up to his father's
sight. "If thou goest to die, let us too hurry with thee to the end. But
if thou knowest any hope to place in arms, be this household thy first
defence.
'Then indeed I saw all Ilium sinking in flame, and Neptunian Troy
uprooted from her base: even as an ancient ash on the mountain heights,
hacked all about with steel and fast-falling axes, when husbandmen
emulously strain to cut it down: it hangs threateningly, with shaken top
and quivering tresses asway; till gradually, overmastered with
[631-662]wounds, it utters one last groan, and rending itself away,
falls in ruin along the ridge. I descend, and under a god's guidance
clear my way between foe and flame; weapons give ground before me, and
flames retire.
'And now, when I have reached the courts of my ancestral dwelling, our
home of old, my father, whom it was my first desire to carry high into
the hills, and whom first I sought, declines, now Troy is rooted out, to
prolong his life through the pains of exile.
'"Ah, you," he cries, "whose blood is at the prime, whose strength
stands firm in native vigour, do you take your flight. . . . Had the
lords of heaven willed to prolong life for me, they should have
preserved this my home. Enough and more is the one desolation we have
seen, survivors of a captured city. Thus, oh thus salute me and depart,
as a body laid out for burial. Mine own hand shall find me death: the
foe will be merciful and seek my spoils: light is the loss of a tomb.
This long time hated of heaven, I uselessly delay the years, since the
father of gods and king of men blasted me with wind of thunder and
scathe of flame. "
'Thus held he on in utterance, and remained obstinate. We press him,
dissolved in tears, my wife Creusa, Ascanius, all our household, that
our father involve us not all in his ruin, and add his weight to the
sinking scale of doom.
He refuses, and keeps seated steadfast in his
purpose. Again I rush to battle, and choose death in my misery. For what
had counsel or chance yet to give? Thoughtest thou my feet, O father,
could retire and abandon thee? and fell so unnatural words from a
parent's lips? "If heaven wills that naught be left of our mighty city,
if this be thy planted purpose, thy pleasure to cast in thyself and
thine to the doom of Troy; for this death indeed the gate is wide, and
even now Pyrrhus will be here newly bathed in Priam's [663-695]blood,
Pyrrhus who slaughters the son before the father's face, the father upon
his altars. For this was it, bountiful mother, thou dost rescue me amid
fire and sword, to see the foe in my inmost chambers, and Ascanius and
my father, Creusa by their side, hewn down in one another's blood? My
arms, men, bring my arms! the last day calls on the conquered. Return me
to the Greeks; let me revisit and renew the fight. Never to-day shall we
all perish unavenged. "
'Thereat I again gird on my sword, and fitting my left arm into the
clasps of the shield, strode forth of the palace. And lo! my wife clung
round my feet on the threshold, and held little Iulus up to his father's
sight. "If thou goest to die, let us too hurry with thee to the end. But
if thou knowest any hope to place in arms, be this household thy first
defence.
