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
And now what god will tell me all those horrors and
relate for me in verse the several scenes of slaughter, the 30
deaths of the leaders whom Turnus here, the Trojan hero
there, is chasing over the plain? Was it thy will, great
Jove, that nations destined in time to come to everlasting
amity should first clash in such dread turmoil? Æneas
confronted by Rutulian Sucro[o] (that combat first brought 35
the Trojan onset to a stand) after brief delay catches him
on the side and drives his stubborn sword death’s nearest
way through the ribs that fence the bosom. Turnus in
foot-encounter slays Amycus, whose horse had thrown
him, and his brother Diores, striking one with the spear
ere he came up, the other with the swordblade, lops the
heads of both, hangs them from his car, and carries them
dripping with blood. That sends down Talos to death 5
and Tanais and brave Cethegus, those at one onslaught,
and hapless Onytes, of the house of Echion, brought forth
by Peridia: that kills the brethren who came from
Apollo’s land of Lycia, and young Menœtes the Arcadian,
who shrunk from war in vain; he plied his craft and lived 10
in poverty by the fishy waters of Lerna, a stranger to the
halls of the great; and his father tilled land for hire.
Like two fires launched from different quarters on a dry
forest with bushes of crackling bay, or as when two foaming
rivers pouring from lofty heights crash along and run 15
towards the ocean, each ploughing his own wild channel:
with no less fury rush through the fight Æneas and
Turnus both: now, now the wrath is boiling within them:
their unconquered bosoms swell to bursting: they throw
their whole force on the wounds they deal. This with 20
the whirl and the blow of a mighty rock dashes Murranus
headlong from his car to the ground, Murranus who had
ever on his tongue the ancient names of sires and grandsires
and a lineage stretching through the series of Latium’s
kings: the wheels throw forward the fallen man under the 25
reins and yoke, and he is crushed by the quick hoof-beat
of the steeds that mind not their lord. That meets
Hyllus as he rushed on in vehement fury, and hurls a
javelin at his gold-bound brows: the spear pierced the
helmet and stood fixed in the brain. Nor did your 30
prowess, Cretheus, bravest of Greeks, deliver you from
Turnus, nor did the gods Cupencus worshipped shield
him from the onset of Æneas: his bosom met the steel,
and the check of the brazen buckler stood the wretch in
small stead. You, too, great Æolus, the Laurentian 35
plains looked on in death, spreading your frame abroad
over their surface: fallen are you, whom the Argive bands
could never overthrow, nor Achilles the destroyer of
Priam’s realm: here was your fatal goal: a princely
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