On the morrow, when the first dawn of the bright dayspring had put the stars to flight, Æneas calls his comrades to a gathering from all the shore, and standing on a heaped 20 mound bespeaks them thus:—“Mighty sons of Dardanus, race of Heaven’s high parentage, the months are all past and the year has fulfilled its cycle, since we gave to the earth the earthly relics, the ashes of my deified sire, and consecrated the altars of mourning. And now, if I 25 err not, the very day is here—that day which for me shall ever be a day of weeping, ever a day of honour, since you, ye gods, have willed it so. Though this day were to find me among the Gætulian Syrtes a homeless wanderer—were it to surprise me in the Argive main or in the streets 30 of Mycenæ—still would I pay my yearly vows and the pomp of solemn observance, and would pile the altars with their proper gifts. And now, behold, by an unsought chance we are standing—not in truth I deem without the providence, the beckoning hand of Heaven—at the very 35 grave, the buried ashes of my sire, driven as we are into this friendly haven. Come, then, solemnize we all the glad celebration; pray we for winds, and may He be pleased that I should offer these rites yearly in a city of my own building, in a temple dedicated to himself. Two heads of oxen Acestes, like a true son of Troy, gives you for each ship; call to the feasts the gods of the hearth, both those of our fathers and those worshipped by Acestes 5 our host. Furthermore, if the ninth day hence the dawn-goddess restore to mortals the genial light, and make the world visible with sunshine, I will set up, first of all, for all Teucrian comers, a match among our swift fleet; then let him that is light of foot, and him that, glorying in his 10 strength, bears himself more proudly with the dart and the flying arrow, or has confidence to join battle in gauntlets of raw hide, let one and all be here, and look for the prizes that victory earns. Give me your auspicious voices, and bind your brows with green.” 15