The Æneid of Virgil translated into English proseVirgil
General
The Æneid of Virgil translated into English prose
Virgil
Aeneas (Legendary character); Epic poetry, Latin -- Translations into English; Legends -- Rome
So saying and weeping, he gives rope to his fleet, and in
due time is wafted smoothly to Cumæ’s shores of Eubœan
fame. They turn their prows seaward: then the anchor
with griping fang began to moor vessel after vessel, and
crooked keels fringe all the coast. With fiery zeal the 5
crews leap out on the Hesperian shore: some look for the
seed of fire where it lies deep down in the veins of flint:
some strip the woods, the wild beast’s shaggy covert, and
point with joy to the streams they find. But good Æneas
repairs to the heights on which Apollo sits exalted, and 10
the privacy of the dread Sibyl,[203] stretching far away into a
vast cavern—the Sibyl, into whose breast the prophet that
speaks at Delos breathes his own mighty mind and soul,
and opens the future to her eye. And now they are entering
the groves of the Trivian goddess and the golden 15
palace.
Dædalus, so runs the legend, flying from Minos’ sceptre,
dared to trust himself in air on swift wings of his own workmanship,
sailed to the cold north along an unwonted way,
and at last stood buoyant on the top of this Eubœan hill. 20
Grateful to the land that first received him, he dedicated
to thee, Phœbus, his feathery oarage, and raised a mighty
temple. On the doors was seen Androgeos’ death: there
too were the sons of Cecrops,[204] constrained—O cruel woe!
to pay in penalty the yearly tale of seven of their sons’ 25
lives: the urn is standing, and the lots drawn out. On the
other side, breasting the wave, the Gnossian land frowns
responsive. There is Pasiphaë’s tragic passion for the
bull, and the mingled birth, the Minotaur, half man, half
brute, a monument of monstrous love. There is the edifice,[205] 30
that marvel of toiling skill, and its inextricable maze—inextricable,
had not Dædalus in pity for the enthralling
passion of the royal princess, himself unravelled
the craft and mystery of those chambers, guiding the
lover’s dark steps with a clue of thread. You too, poor
Icarus,[206] had borne no mean part in that splendid portraiture, 5
would grief have given art its way. Twice the artist
essayed to represent the tragedy in gold: twice the father’s
hands dropped down palsied. So they would have gone on
scanning all in succession, had not Achates returned from
his errand, and with him the priestess of Phœbus and 10
Diana, Deïphobe, Glaucus’ daughter, who thus bespeaks
the king: “Not this the time for shows like these; your
present work is to sacrifice seven bullocks untouched by the
yoke, seven sheep duly chosen.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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