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
Let there be Latium still: let there be
centuries of Alban kings: let there be a Roman stock,
strong with the strength of Italian manhood: but let
Troy be fallen as she is, name and nation alike.” The 35
Father of men and nature answered with a smile: “Aye,
you are Jove’s own sister, the other branch of Saturn’s
line; such billows of passion surge in your bosom! but
come,—let this ineffectual frenzy give way: I grant your
wish, and submit myself in willing obedience. The
Ausonians shall keep their native tongue, their native
customs: the name shall remain as it is: the Teucrians
shall merge in the nation they join—that and no more: 5
their rites and worship shall be my gift: all shall be Latians
and speak the Latian tongue. The race that shall arise
from this admixture of Ausonian blood shall transcend in
piety earth and heaven itself, nor shall any nation pay
you such honours as they.” Juno nodded assent, and 10
turned her sullenness to pleasure; meanwhile she departs
from the sky, and quits the cloud where she sat.
This done, the sire meditates a further resolve, and
prepares to part Juturna from her brother’s side. There
are two fiends known as the Furies, whom with Tartarean 25
Megæra dismal Night brought forth at one and the same
birth, wreathing them alike with coiling serpents, and
equipping them with wings that fan the air. They are
seen beside Jove’s throne, at the threshold of his angry
sovereignty, goading frail mortality with stings of terror, 20
oft as the monarch of the gods girds himself to send forth
disease and frightful death, or appals guilty towns with
war. One of these Jove sped with haste from heaven’s
summit, and bade her confront Juturna in token of his
will. Forth she flies, borne earthward on the blast of a 25
whirlwind. Swift as the arrow from the string cleaves
the cloud, sent forth by Parthian—Parthian or Cydonian—tipped
with fell poison’s gall, the dealer of a wound
incurable, and skims the flying vapours hurtling and unforeseen,
so went the Daughter of Night and made her 30
way to earth. Soon as she sees the forces of Troy and
the army of Turnus, she huddles herself suddenly into the
shape of a puny bird, which oft on tombstone or lonely
roof sitting by night screams restlessly through the gloom;
in this disguise the fiend again and again flies flapping in 35
Turnus’ face, and beats with her wings on his shield. A
strange chilly terror unknits his frame, his hair stands
shudderingly erect, and his utterance cleaves to his jaws.
But when Juturna knew from far the rustling of those
Fury pinions, she rends, hapless maid, her dishevelled
tresses, marring, in all a sister’s agony, her face with her
nails, her breast with her clenched hands: “What now,
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