Aeneas (Legendary character) -- Poetry; Epic poetry, Latin -- Translations into English; Legends -- Rome -- Poetry
First and last,
Camilla struck men down: who knows how many
She brought to earth in death? Clytius’ son,
Euneus, faced her first, and her long spear
Pierced his unguarded breast. Rivers of blood
Poured from his mouth; he chewed red dust, and dying
Writhed on his wound. She stabbed the horse of Liris,
And the rider fell, and reached for the reins: Pagasus
Stretched out a hand to help him, to break his fall,
And Camilla slew the pair of them together:
Amastrus next, Hippotas’ son: far off,
Her spear caught up with four, Tereus, Chromis,
Harpalycus, Demophoön. For each dart
Sent flying from her hand, a Trojan fell.
Far off she saw the huntsman Ornytus,
Riding a native pony, in strange armor.
He wore a steer’s hide over his wide shoulders,
A wolf’s head for a helmet, with the jaws,
Wide-open, grinning above his head; he carried
A rustic kind of pike, and he was taller,
By a full head, than all the others, easy
Target for any dart. She cried above him:--
“What did you think, O Tuscan?--You were chasing
Beasts in the woods? The day has come when boasting
Like yours is answered by a woman’s weapons,
But after all, you take to the shades of your fathers
No little cause for pride--Camilla killed you!”
And then she slew Orsilochus and Butes,
Two of the mightiest Trojans, stabbing Butes
With spear-point in the back, between the helmet
And breastplate, where the flesh shone white, and shield
Hung down from the left arm. Orsilochus
She fled from first, and, driven in a circle,
Became, in turn, pursuer; and, rising higher,
Brought down the battle-axe, again, again,
Through armor and through bone: his pleas for mercy
Availed him nothing; the wound he suffered spattered
His face with his warm brains. Next in her way
And stunned to halt by abject terror came
A son of Aunus, an expert at lying
Like all Ligurians. He could not escape her,
And knew he could not, but he might outwit her,
Or so he hoped. “What’s so courageous, woman
Always on horseback? Forget the hope of fleeing,
Dismount; meet me on equal terms; try fighting
On foot for once. You will learn, I tell you, something,
The disillusion of that windy glory.”
She took the challenge, burned with angry temper,
Turned her horse over to another, savage
In equal arms, confronting him undaunted,
With naked sword. He leaped into the saddle,
Much pleased with his sly stratagem, drove the rowels
Deep in the flanks, took off. “O vain Ligurian,
Swollen with pride of heart, that slippery cunning
Will never get you home to father Aunus!”
So cried Camilla, and flashed like fire across
The horse’s path, grabbed at the bridle, hauled him
To earth and shed his blood. A hawk in heaven
Is not more quick to seize a dove when, driving
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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