Declining stars seek Juno in thy prayer,
And vanish all her wrath with suppliant vows.
When conquest crowns thee, then remember me.
I am the Tiber, whose cerulean stream
Heaven favours; I with copious flood divide
These grassy banks, and cleave the fruitful meads;
My mansion this,-and lofty cities crown
My fountain head."-He spoke, and sought the deep,
And plunged his form beneath the closing flood.
Eneas at the morning dawn awoke,
And, rising, with uplifted eye beheld
The orient sun, then dipped his palms, and scooped
The brimming stream, and thus addressed the skies:
"Ye nymphs, Laurentian nymphs, who feed the source
Of many a stream, and thou, with thy best flood,
O Tiber! hear, accept me, and afford,
At length afford, a shelter from my woes.
Where'er in secret cavern under ground
Thy waters sleep, where'er they spring to light,
Since thou hast pity for a wretch like me,
My offerings and my vows shall wait thee still;
Great horned Father of Hesperian floods,
Be gracious now, and ratify thy word!"
He said, and chose two galleys from his fleet,
Fits them with oars, and clothes the crew in arms.
When lo! astonishing and pleasing sight,
The milk-white dam, with her unspotted brood,
Lay stretched upon the bank, beneath the grove.
To thee, the pious Prince, Juno to thee
Devotes them all, all on thine altar bleed.
That livelong night old Tiber smoothed his flood,
And so restrained it that it seemed to stand
Motionless as a pool, or silent lake,
That not a billow might resist their oars.
With cheerful sound of exultation soon
Their voyage they begin; the pitchy keel
Slides through the gentle deep; the quiet stream
Admires the unwonted burthen that it bears,
Well polished arms, and vessels painted gay.
Beneath the shade of various trees, between
The umbrageous branches of the spreading groves,
They cut their liquid way, nor day nor night
They slack their course, unwinding as they go
The long meanders of the peaceful tide.
The glowing sun was in meridian height,
When from afar they saw the humble walls,
And the few scattered cottages, which now
The Roman power has equalled with the clouds;
But such was then Evander's scant domain,
They steer to shore, and hasten to the town.
It chanced, the Arcadian monarch on that day
Before the walls, beneath a shady grove,
Was celebrating high, in solemn feast,
Alcides and his tutelary gods.
Pallas, his son, was there, and there the chief
Of all his youth; with these, a worthy tribe,
His poor but venerable senate, burnt
Sweet incense, and their altars smoked with blood.
Soon as they saw the towering masts approach
Sliding between the trees, while the crew rest
Upon their silent oars, amazed they rose,
Not without fear, and all forsook the feast.
But Pallas undismayed, his javelin seized,
Rushed to the bank, and from the rising ground
Forbade them to disturb the sacred rites,
"Ye stranger youth! what prompts you to explore
This untried way? and whither do ye steer?
Whence, and who are ye? Bring ye peace or war?"
Eneas from his lofty deck holds forth
The peaceful olive branch, and thus replies:
"Trojans and enemies to the Latian state,
Whom they with unprovoked hostilities
Have driven away, thou seest. We seek Evander;
Say this, and say beside, the Trojan chiefs
Are come, and seek his friendship and his aid."
Pallas with wonder heard that awful name,
And "whosoe'er thou art," he cried, 66 come forth;
Bear thine own tidings to my father's ear,
And be a welcome guest beneath our roof."
He said, and pressed the stranger to his breast,
Then led him from the river to the grove,
Where, courteous, thus Æneas greets the king :
"Best of the Grecian race, to whom I bow
(So wills my fortune) suppliant, and stretch forth
In sign of amity this peaceful branch,
I feared thee not, although I knew thee well,
A Grecian leader, born in Arcady,
And kinsman of the Atridæ. Me my virtue,
That means no wrong to thee,―The Oracles,
Our kindred families allied of old,
And thy renown diffused through every land,
Have all conspired to bind in friendship to thee,
And send me not unwilling to thy shores.
Dardanus, author of the Trojan state,
(So say the Greeks,) was fair Electra's son;
Electra boasted Atlas for her sire,
Whose shoulders high sustain the ethereal orbs.
Your sire is Mercury, whom Maia bore,
Sweet Maia, on Cyllene's hoary top.
Her, if we credit aught tradition old,
Atlas of yore, the selfsame Atlas, claimed
His daughter. Thus united close in blood,
Thy race and ours one common sire confess.
With these credentials fraught, I would not send
Ambassadors with artful phrase to sound
And win thee by degrees, but came myself;
Me, therefore, me thou seest; my life the stake:
'Tis I, Æneas, who implore thine aid.
Should Daunia, that now aims the blow at thee,
Prevail to conquer us, nought then, they think,
Will hinder, but Hesperia must be theirs,
All theirs, from the upper to the nether sea.
Take then our friendship and return us thine!
We too have courage, we have noble minds,
And youth well tried and exercised in arms.'
Thus spoke Æneas. He with fixed regard
Surveyed him speaking, features, form and mien.
Then briefly thus,-"Thou noblest of thy name,
How gladly do I take thee to my heart,
How gladly thus confess thee for a friend!
In thee I trace Anchises; his thy speech,
Thy voice, thy countenance. For I well remember
Many a day since, when Priam journeyed forth
To Salamis, to see the land where dwelt
Hesione, his sister, he pushed on
E'en to Arcadia's frozen bounds.
The bloom of youth was glowing on my cheek;
Much I admired the Trojan chiefs, and much
Their king, the son of great Laomedon,
But most Anchises, towering o'er them all.
A youthful longing seized me to accost
The hero and embrace him; I drew near,
And gladly led him to the walls of Pheneus.
Departing, he distinguished me with gifts,
A costly quiver stored with Lycian darts,
A robe inwove with gold, with gold embossed
Two bridles, those which Pallas uses now.
The friendly league thou hast solicited
I give thee therefore, and to-morrow all
My chosen youth shall wait on your return.
Meanwhile, since thus in friendship ye are come,
Rejoice with us and join to celebrate
These annual rites, which may not be delayed,
And be at once familiar at our board."
He said, and bade replace the feast removed;
Himself upon a grassy bank disposed
The crew but for Æneas ordered forth
A couch spread with a lion's tawny shag,
And bade him share the honours of his throne.
The appointed youth with glad alacrity
Assist the labouring priest to load the board
With roasted entrails of the slaughtered beeves,
Well-kneaded bread and mantling bowls. Well pleased,
Æneas and the Trojan youth regale
On the huge length of a well-pastured chine.
Hunger appeased, and tables all dispatched,
Thus spake Evander: "Superstition here,
In this old solemn feasting, has no part.
No, Trojan friend, from utmost danger saved,
In gratitude this worship we renew.
Behold that rock which nods above the vale,
Those bulks of broken stone dispersed around;
How desolate the shattered cave appears,
And what a ruin spreads the encumbered plain.
Within this pile, but far within, was once
The den of Cacus; dire his hateful form
That shunned the day, half monster and half man.
Blood newly shed streamed ever on the ground
Smoking, and many a visage pale and wan
Nailed at his gate, hung hideous to the sight.
Vulcan begot the brute: vast was his size,
And from his throat he belched his father's fires.
But the day came that brought us what we wished,
The assistance and the presence of a God.
Flushed with his victory and the spoils he won
From triple-formed Geryon lately slain,
The great avenger, Hercules, appeared.
Hither he drove his stately bulls, and poured
His herds along the vale. But the sly thief
Cacus, that nothing might escape his hand
Of villany or fraud, drove from the stalls
Four of the lordliest of his brutes, and four,
The fairest of his heifers; by the tail
He dragged them to his den, that, there concealed,
No footsteps might betray the dark abode.
And now his herd with provender sufficed,
Alcides would be gone: they as they went
Still bellowing loud, made the deep echoing woods
And distant hills resound: when hark! one ox,
Imprisoned close within the vast recess,
Lows in return, and frustrates all his hope.
Then fury seized Alcides, and his breast
With indignation heaved: grasping his club
Of knotted oak, swift to the mountain top
He ran, he flew. Then first was Cacus seen
To tremble, and his eyes bespoke his fears.
Swift as an eastern blast he sought his den,
And dread, increasing, winged him as he went.
Drawn up in iron slings above the gate,
A rock was hung enormous. Such his haste,
He burst the chains, and dropped it at the door,
Then grappled it with iron work within
Of bolts and bars by Vulcan's art contrived.
Scarce was he fast, when panting for revenge
Came Hercules; he gnashed his teeth with rage,
And quick as lightning glanced his eyes around
In quest of entrance. Fiery red and stung
With indignation, thrice he wheeled his course
About the mountain, thrice, but thrice in vain,
He strove to force the quarry at the gate,
And thrice sat down o'erwearied in the vale.
There stood a pointed rock, abrupt and rude,
That high o'erlooked the rest, close at the back
Of the fell monster's den, where birds obscene
Of ominous note resorted, choughs and daws.
This, as it leaned obliquely to the left,
Threatening the stream below, he from the right
Pushed with his utmost strength, and to and fro
He shook the mass, loosening its lowest base,
Then shoved it from its seat; down fell the pile;
Sky thundered at the fali; the banks give way,
The affrighted stream flows upward to his source.
Behold the kennel of the brute exposed,
The gloomy vault laid open. So, if chance
Earth yawning to the centre should disclose
The mansions, the pale mansions of the dead,
Loathed by the gods, such would the gulf appear,
And the ghosts tremble at the sight of day.
The monster braying with unusual din
Within his hollow lair, and sore amazed
To see such sudden inroads of the light,
Alcides pressed him close with what at hand
Lay readiest, stumps of trees, and fragments huge
Of millstone size. He, (for escape was none,)
Wondrous to tell! forth from his gorge discharged
A smoky cloud that darkened all the den;
Wreath after wreath he vomited amain,
The smothering vapour mixed with fiery sparks;
No sight could penetrate the veil obscure.
The hero, more provoked, endured not this,
But with a headlong leap he rushed to where
The thickest cloud enveloped his abode;
There grasped he Cacus, spite of all his fires,
Till crushed within his arms, the monster shows
His bloodless throat, now dry with panting hard,
And his pressed eyeballs start. Soon he tears down
The barricade of rock, the dark abyss
Lies open; and the imprisoned bulls, the theft
He had with oaths denied, are brought to light;
By the heels the miscreant carcase is dragged forth,
His face, his eyes, all terrible, his breast
Beset with bristles, and his sooty jaws
Are viewed with wonder never to be cloyed.
Hence the celebrity thou seest, and hence
This festal day. Potitius first enjoined
Posterity these solemn rites, he first
With those who bear the great Pinarian name
To Hercules devoted, in the grove
This altar built, deemed sacred in the highest
By us, and sacred ever to be deemed.
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