The Aenid by Virgil

An excerpt from Book VI

THE VISION OF THE UNDER WORLD

So speaks he weeping, and gives his fleet the rein, and at last glides in to Euboïc
Cumae's coast. They turn the prows seaward; the ships grounded fast on their anchors'
teeth, and the curving ships line the beach. The warrior band leaps forth eagerly on the
Hesperian shore; some seek the seeds of flame hidden in veins of flint, some scour the
woods, the thick coverts of wild beasts, and find and shew the streams. But good Aeneas
seeks the fortress where Apollo sits high enthroned, and the lone mystery of the awful
Sibyl's cavern depth, over whose mind and soul the prophetic Delian breathes high
inspiration and reveals futurity.

Now they draw nigh the groves of Trivia and the roof of gold. Daedalus, as the story
runs, when in flight from Minos' realm he dared to spread his fleet wings to the sky,
glided on his unwonted way towards the icy northern star, and at length lit gently on the
Chalcidian fastness. Here, on the first land he retrod, he dedicated his winged oarage to
thee, O Phoebus, in the vast temple he built. On the doors is Androgeus' death; thereby
the children of Cecrops, bidden, ah me! to pay for yearly ransom seven souls of their
sons; the urn stands there, and the lots are drawn. Right [Pg 120][23-55]opposite the
land of Gnosus rises from the sea; on it is the cruel love of the bull, the disguised stealth
of Pasiphaë, and the mingled breed and double issue of the Minotaur, record of a
shameful passion; on it the famous dwelling's laborious inextricable maze; but Daedalus,
pitying the great love of the princess, himself unlocked the tangled treachery of the
palace, guiding with the clue her lover's blind footsteps. Thou too hadst no slight part in
the work he wrought, O Icarus, did grief allow. Twice had he essayed to portray thy fate
in gold; twice the father's hands dropped down. Nay, their eyes would scan all the story
in order, were not Achates already returned from his errand, and with him the priestess
of Phoebus and Trivia, Deïphobe daughter of Glaucus, who thus accosts the king: 'Other
than this are the sights the time demands: now were it well to sacrifice seven unbroken
bullocks of the herd, as many fitly chosen sheep of two years old.' Thus speaks she to
Aeneas; nor do they delay to do her sacred bidding; and the priestess calls the Teucrians
into the lofty shrine.

A vast cavern is scooped in the side of the Euboïc cliff, whither lead an hundred wide
passages by an hundred gates, whence peal forth as manifold the responses of the Sibyl.
They had reached the threshold, when the maiden cries: It is time to enquire thy fate: the
god, lo! the god! And even as she spoke thus in the gateway, suddenly countenance nor
colour nor ranged tresses stayed the same; her wild heart heaves madly in her panting
bosom; and she expands to sight, and her voice is more than mortal, now the god
breathes on her in nearer deity. 'Lingerest thou to vow and pray,' she cries, 'Aeneas of
Troy? lingerest thou? for not till then will the vast portals of the spellbound house swing
open.' So spoke she, and sank to silence. A cold shiver ran through the Teucrians' iron
frames, and the king pours heart-deep supplication:

[56-89]'Phoebus, who hast ever pitied the sore travail of Troy, who didst guide the
Dardanian shaft from Paris' hand full on the son of Aeacus, in thy leading have I pierced
all these seas that skirt mighty lands, the Massylian nations far withdrawn, and the fields
the Syrtes fringe; thus far let the fortune of Troy follow us. You too may now
unforbidden spare the nation of Pergama, gods and goddesses to whomsoever Ilium and
the great glory of Dardania did wrong. And thou, O prophetess most holy, foreknower of
the future, grant (for no unearned realm does my destiny claim) a resting-place in
Latium to the Teucrians, to their wandering gods and the storm-tossed deities of Troy.
Then will I ordain to Phoebus and Trivia a temple of solid marble, and festal days in
Phoebus' name. Thee likewise a mighty sanctuary awaits in our realm. For here will I
place thine oracles and the secrets of destiny uttered to my people, and consecrate
chosen men, O gracious one. Only commit not thou thy verses to leaves, lest they fly
disordered, the sport of rushing winds; thyself utter them, I beseech thee.' His lips made
an end of utterance.

But the prophetess, not yet tame to Phoebus' hand, rages fiercely in the cavern, so she
may shake the mighty godhead from her breast; so much the more does he tire her
maddened mouth and subdue her wild breast and shape her to his pressure. And now the
hundred mighty portals of the house open of their own accord, and bring through the air
the answer of the soothsayer:
'O past at length with the great perils of the sea! though heavier yet by land await thee,
the Dardanians shall come to the realm of Lavinium; relieve thy heart of this care; but
not so shall they have joy of their coming. Wars, grim wars I discern, and Tiber afoam
with streams of blood. A Simoïs shall not fail thee, a Xanthus, a Dorian camp; another
Achilles is already found for Latium, he too [Pg 122][90-123]goddess-born; nor shall
Juno's presence ever leave the Teucrians; while thou in thy need, to what nations or what
towns of Italy shalt thou not sue! Again is an alien bride the source of all that Teucrian
woe, again a foreign marriage-chamber. . . . Yield not thou to distresses, but all the
bolder go forth to meet them, as thy fortune shall allow thee way. The path of rescue,
little as thou deemest it, shall first open from a Grecian town.'