And the entrails flung to the flood!” Under the waves The Nereids heard him, Phorcus, Panopea The maiden, and Portunus, the big-handed, Boosted him on his way. Swifter than arrow, Swifter than wind, the ship swept into the harbor. The herald’s cry proclaimed Cloanthus victor, When all were summoned, and Anchises’ son Put the green bay leaf on his temples, silver And wine for the ships, a steer for each. The captains Have special prizes; the winner has a mantle, Woven with gold, and a double seam of crimson, With a story in the texture, Ganymede Hunting on Ida, breathless, tossing darts And racing after the deer, and caught and carried In the talons of Jove’s eagle, soaring skyward, While the boy’s old guardians reach their hands up, vainly, And the hounds set up a cry. Mnestheus, second, Has a coat of mail, with triple links of gold, A trophy of Demoleos; Aeneas Had beaten him at Troy, by Simois river, And taken the armor, glory and guard in battle. The servants, Sagaris and Phegeus, hardly Can lift it up, but when Demoleos wore it, He could go, full-speed, after the flying Trojans. The third award is a pair of brazen caldrons, And bowls embossed in silver. They had their prizes And went their way, proud of their wealth, and shining With foreheads garlanded, when with much effort, Scraped off the rock, oars lost, and one bank crippled, Here came Sergestus, butt of jeering laughter, Like a snake with a broken back, which a wagon-wheel Runs over on the road, or a traveller smashes With the weight of a stone, and, crushed, it writhes and struggles, Looping the coils, and half of it is angry With fiery eyes and hissing mouth, and half Keeps dragging back the rest and doubles over On useless muscles, powerless; Sergestus Came home like such a serpent, maimed and broken, But the sail went bravely up as they made the harbor, And Aeneas kept his promise to the captain, Glad for the ship’s return, and the safe sailors. A slave-girl, Pholoe from Crete, accomplished At weaving, was his prize, and her twin children, Boy-infants, at the breast. The boat-race over, Aeneas makes his way To a grassy plain, with wooded hills surrounding The race-course in the valley. All the crowd Come trooping after, group themselves around The central prominence. Rewards and prizes Draw the competitors, travellers and natives, Trojans, Sicilians; in the foremost ranks Are Nisus and Euryalus, the latter Conspicuous in the flower of youth and beauty, Whom Nisus follows with entire devotion: Diores, of the royal house of Priam, Was ready; Salius, an Acarnanian; Patron, Tegean-born; and two Sicilians, Panopes, Helymus, trained to the forests, Companions of Acestes; and many others