The Aeneid
Comes up, not half his galley’s length behind;
Then, on the deck, amidst his mates appear’d,
And thus their drooping courages he cheer’d:
“My friends, and Hector’s followers heretofore,
Exert your vigour; tug the lab’ring oar;
Stretch to your strokes, my still unconquer’d crew,
Whom from the flaming walls of Troy I drew.
In this, our common int’rest, let me find
That strength of hand, that courage of the mind,
As when you stemm’d the strong Malean flood,
And o’er the Syrtes’ broken billows row’d.
I seek not now the foremost palm to gain;
Tho’ yet——But, ah! that haughty wish is vain!
Let those enjoy it whom the gods ordain.
But to be last, the lags of all the race!
Redeem yourselves and me from that disgrace.”
Now, one and all, they tug amain; they row
At the full stretch, and shake the brazen prow.
The sea beneath ’em sinks; their lab’ring sides
Are swell’d, and sweat runs gutt’ring down in tides.
Chance aids their daring with unhop’d success;
Sergesthus, eager with his beak to press
Betwixt the rival galley and the rock,
Shuts up th’ unwieldly Centaur in the lock.
The vessel struck; and, with the dreadful shock,
Her oars she shiver’d, and her head she broke.
The trembling rowers from their banks arise,
And, anxious for themselves, renounce the prize.
With iron poles they heave her off the shores,
And gather from the sea their floating oars.
The crew of Mnestheus, with elated minds,
Urge their success, and call the willing winds;
Then ply their oars, and cut their liquid way
In larger compass on the roomy sea.
As, when the dove her rocky hold forsakes,
Rous’d in a fright, her sounding wings she shakes;
The cavern rings with clatt’ring; out she flies,
And leaves her callow care, and cleaves the skies:
At first she flutters; but at length she springs
To smoother flight, and shoots upon her wings:
So Mnestheus in the Dolphin cuts the sea;
And, flying with a force, that force assists his way.
Sergesthus in the Centaur soon he pass’d,
Wedg’d in the rocky shoals, and sticking fast.
In vain the victor he with cries implores,
And practices to row with shatter’d oars.
Then Mnestheus bears with Gyas, and outflies:
The ship, without a pilot, yields the prize.
Unvanquish’d Scylla now alone remains;
Her he pursues, and all his vigour strains.
Shouts from the fav’ring multitude arise;
Applauding Echo to the shouts replies;
Shouts, wishes, and applause run rattling thro’ the skies.
These clamours with disdain the Scylla heard,
Much grudg’d the praise, but more the robb’d reward:
Resolv’d to hold their own, they mend their pace,
All obstinate to die, or gain the race.
Rais’d with success, the Dolphin swiftly ran;
For they can conquer, who believe they can.
Both urge their oars, and fortune both supplies,
And both perhaps had shar’d an equal prize;
When to the seas Cloanthus holds his hands,
And succour from the wat’ry pow’rs demands:
“Gods of the liquid realms, on which I row!
If, giv’n by you, the laurel bind my brow,
Assist to make me guilty of my vow!
A snow-white bull shall on your shore be slain;
His offer’d entrails cast into the main,
And ruddy wine, from golden goblets thrown,
Your grateful gift and my return shall own.”
The choir of nymphs, and Phorcus, from below,
With virgin Panopea, heard his vow;
And old Portunus, with his breadth of hand,
Push’d on, and sped the galley to the land.
Swift as a shaft, or winged wind, she flies,
And, darting to the port, obtains the prize.
The herald summons all, and then proclaims
Cloanthus conqu’ror of the naval games.
The prince with laurel crowns the victor’s head,
And three fat steers are to his vessel led,
The ship’s reward; with gen’rous wine beside,
And sums of silver, which the crew divide.
The leaders are distinguish’d from the rest;
The victor honour’d with a nobler vest,
Where gold and purple strive in equal rows,
And needlework its happy cost bestows.
There Ganymede is wrought with living art,
Chasing thro’ Ida’s groves the trembling hart:
Breathless he seems, yet eager to pursue;
When from aloft descends, in open view,
The bird of Jove, and, sousing on his prey,
With crooked talons bears the boy away.
In vain, with lifted hands and gazing eyes,
His guards behold him soaring thro’ the skies,
And dogs pursue his flight with imitated cries.
Mnestheus the second victor was declar’d;
And, summon’d there, the second prize he shar’d.
A coat of mail, brave Demoleus bore,
More brave Aeneas from his shoulders tore,
In single combat on the Trojan shore:
This was ordain’d for Mnestheus to possess;
In war for his defence, for ornament in peace.
Rich was the gift, and glorious to behold,
But yet so pond’rous with its plates of gold,
That scarce two servants could the weight sustain;
Yet, loaded thus, Demoleus o’er the plain
Pursued and lightly seiz’d the Trojan train.
The third, succeeding to the last reward,
Two goodly bowls of massy silver shar’d,
With figures prominent, and richly wrought,
And two brass caldrons from Dodona brought.
Thus all, rewarded by the hero’s hands,
Their conqu’ring temples bound with purple bands;
And now Sergesthus, clearing from the rock,
Brought back his galley shatter’d with the shock.
Forlorn she look’d, without an aiding oar,
And, houted by the vulgar, made to shore.
As when a snake, surpris’d upon the road,
Is crush’d athwart her body by the load
Of heavy wheels; or with a mortal wound
Her belly bruis’d, and trodden to the ground:
In vain, with loosen’d curls, she crawls along;
Yet, fierce above, she brandishes her tongue;
Glares with her eyes, and bristles with her scales;
But, groveling in the dust, her parts unsound she trails:
So slowly to the port the Centaur tends,
But, what she wants in oars, with sails amends.
Yet, for his galley sav’d, the grateful prince
Is pleas’d th’ unhappy chief to recompense.
Pholoe, the Cretan slave, rewards his care,
Beauteous herself, with lovely twins as fair.
From thence his way the Trojan hero bent
Into the neighb’ring plain, with mountains pent,
Whose sides were shaded with surrounding wood.
Full in the midst of this fair valley stood
A native theatre, which, rising slow
By just degrees, o’erlook’d the ground below.
High on a sylvan throne the leader sate;
A num’rous train attend in solemn state.
Here those that in the rapid course delight,
Desire of honour and the prize invite.
The rival runners without order stand;
The Trojans mix’d with the Sicilian band.
First Nisus, with Euryalus, appears;
Euryalus a boy of blooming years,
With sprightly grace and equal beauty crown’d;
Nisus, for friendship to the youth renown’d.
Diores next, of Priam’s royal race,
Then Salius joined with Patron, took their place;
But Patron in Arcadia had his birth,
And Salius his from Arcananian earth;
Then two Sicilian youths, the names of these,
Swift Helymus, and lovely Panopes:
Both jolly huntsmen, both in forest bred,
And owning old Acestes for their head;
With sev’ral others of ignobler name,
Whom time has not deliver’d o’er to fame.
To these the hero thus his thoughts explain’d,
In words which gen’ral approbation gain’d:
“One common largess is for all design’d,
The vanquish’d and the victor shall be join’d,
Two darts of polish’d steel and Gnosian wood,
A silver-studded ax alike bestow’d.
The foremost three have olive wreaths decreed:
The first of these obtains a stately steed,
Adorn’d with trappings; and the next in fame,
The quiver of an Amazonian dame,
With feather’d Thracian arrows well supplied:
A golden belt shall gird his manly side,
Which with a sparkling diamond shall be tied.
The third this Grecian helmet shall content.”
He said. To their appointed base they went;
With beating hearts th’ expected sign receive,
And, starting all at once, the barrier leave.
Spread out, as on the winged winds, they flew,
And seiz’d the distant goal with greedy view.
Shot from the crowd, swift Nisus all o’erpass’d;
Nor storms, nor thunder, equal half his haste.
The next, but tho’ the next, yet far disjoin’d,
Came Salius, and Euryalus behind;
Then Helymus, whom young Diores plied,
Step after step, and almost side by side,
His shoulders pressing; and, in longer space,
Had won, or left at least a dubious race.
Now, spent, the goal they almost reach at last,
When eager Nisus, hapless in his haste,
Slipp’d first, and, slipping, fell upon the plain,
Soak’d with the blood of oxen newly slain.
The careless victor had not mark’d his way;
But, treading where the treach’rous puddle lay,
His heels flew up; and on the grassy floor
He fell, besmear’d with filth and holy gore.
Not mindless then, Euryalus, of thee,
Nor of the sacred bonds of amity,
He strove th’ immediate rival’s hope to cross,
And caught the foot of Salius as he rose.
So Salius lay extended on the plain;
Euryalus springs out, the prize to gain,
And leaves the crowd: applauding peals attend
The victor to the goal, who vanquish’d by his friend.
Next Helymus; and then Diores came,
By two misfortunes made the third in fame.
But Salius enters, and, exclaiming loud
For justice, deafens and disturbs the crowd;
Urges his cause may in the court be heard;
And pleads the prize is wrongfully conferr’d.
But favour for Euryalus appears;
His blooming beauty, with his tender tears,
Had brib’d the judges for the promis’d prize.
Besides, Diores fills the court with cries,
Who vainly reaches at the last reward,
If the first palm on Salius be conferr’d.
Then thus the prince: “Let no disputes arise:
Where fortune plac’d it, I award the prize.
But fortune’s errors give me leave to mend,
At least to pity my deserving friend.”
He said, and, from among the spoils, he draws
(Pond’rous with shaggy mane and golden paws)
A lion’s hide: to Salius this he gives.
Nisus with envy sees the gift, and grieves.
“If such rewards to vanquish’d men are due.”
He said, “and falling is to rise by you,
What prize may Nisus from your bounty claim,
Who merited the first rewards and fame?
In falling, both an equal fortune tried;
Would fortune for my fall so well provide!”
With this he pointed to his face, and show’d
His hand and all his habit smear’d with blood.
Th’ indulgent father of the people smil’d,
And caus’d to be produc’d an ample shield,
Of wondrous art, by Didymaon wrought,
Long since from Neptune’s bars in triumph brought.
This giv’n to Nisus, he divides the rest,
And equal justice in his gifts express’d.
The race thus ended, and rewards bestow’d,