The Epiphany of Venus and Anchises' Refusal — Virgil, Aeneid Book 2 (lines 565–647), Latin & English

565

Deseruere¹ omnes defessi, et corpora saltu

All, exhausted, deserted me, and with a leap cast their bodies

ad terram misere aut ignibus aegra dedere.

to the ground or gave them, worn out, to the flames.

cum mihi se, non ante oculis tam clara, videndam²

when my gentle mother, never before so bright to my eyes, offered herself to my sight

590

obtulit et pura per noctem in luce refulsit

and shone through the night in pure light,

alma parens, confessa deam,³ qualisque videri

revealing herself as a goddess, both in such guise and in such stature

caelicolis et quanta solet, dextraque prehensum

as she is wont to appear to the sky-dwellers, and holding me by my right hand

continuit, roseoque haec insuper addidit ore:

she restrained me, and from her rosy lips added these words besides:

Nate, quis indomitas tantus dolor excitat iras?

”My son, what great resentment rouses such untamed rage?

595

Quid furis, aut quonam nostri tibi cura recessit?

Why do you rage, or whither has your care for us departed?

Non prius aspicies, ubi fessum aetate parentem

Will you not first look where you have left your father Anchises,

liqueris Anchisen; superet coniunxne Creüsa,

worn out with age? Does your wife Creusa survive,

Ascaniusque puer? Quos omnes undique Graiae

and the boy Ascanius? Around all of them the Greek forces

circum errant acies, et, ni mea cura resistat,

are wandering on every side, and unless my care resisted them,

600

iam flammae tulerint⁴ inimicus et hauserit ensis.

by now the flames would have carried them off and the enemy’s sword drained their blood.

Non tibi Tyndaridis facies invisa Lacaenae

It is not the hated face of Laconian Helen, nor the blamed

culpatusve Paris: divom inclementia, divom,

Paris: it is the god’s, the gods’ inclemency

has evertit opes sternitque a culmine Troiam.

that overturns these riches and levels Troy from its height.

Aspice—namque omnem, quae nunc obducta tuenti

Look—for I will snatch away all the cloud which, now drawn over you as you look,

605

mortalis hebetat visus tibi et umida circum

dulls your mortal sight and mists you with damp shade;

caligat, nubem eripiam; tu ne qua parentis

do not fear any commands of your parent,

iussa time, neu praeceptis parere recusa:—

nor refuse to obey her precepts:—

hic, ubi disiectas moles avolsaque saxis

here, where you see scattered masses and rocks torn from

saxa vides mixtoque undantem pulvere fumum.

rocks, and smoke billowing mixed with dust,

610

Neptunus muros magnoque emota tridenti

Neptune shakes the walls and the foundations dislodged by his great

fundamenta quatit, totamque a sedibus urbem

trident, and uproots the whole city from its seat;

eruit; hic Iuno Scaeas saevissima portas

here, fiercest Juno is first to hold the Scaean gates,

prima tenet, sociumque furens a navibus agmenferro accincta vocat.

and, raging, girded with iron, calls the allied band from the ships.

615

Iam summas arces Tritonia, respice, Pallas

Look back, already Tritonian Pallas has seated herself on the topmost

insedit, nimbo effulgens et Gorgone saeva.

citadels, gleaming with her cloud and fierce Gorgon.

Ipse pater Danais animos viresque secundas

The Father himself supplies courage and favorable strength to the Greeks,

sufficit, ipse deos in Dardana suscitat arma.

he himself rouses the gods against Dardanian arms.

Eripe, nate, fugam, finemque impone labori.

Snatch your flight, my son, and put an end to your toil.

620

Nusquam abero, et tutum patrio te limine sistam.

I will never be absent, and I will set you safe on your father’s threshold.”

Dixerat, et spissis noctis se condidit umbris.

She had spoken, and hid herself in the thick shadows of the night.

Adparent dirae facies inimicaque Troiae

Dread faces appear, and the great powers of the gods

numina magna deum.

hostile to Troy.

Tum vero omne mihi visum considere⁵ in ignis

Then indeed all Ilium seemed to me to settle into the flames,

625

Ilium et ex imo verti Neptunia Troia;

and Neptunian Troy to be overturned from its base;

ac veluti summis antiquam in montibus ornum

and just as when on the mountain tops an ancient ash tree,

cum ferro accisam crebrisque bipennibus instant

hacked with iron and frequent axes, foresters press on

eruere agricolae certatim,—illa usque minatur

to uproot in rivalry,—it constantly threatens to fall

et tremefacta comam concusso vertice nutat,

and, its foliage trembling, nods with shaken top,

630

volneribus donec paulatim evicta, supremum

until, gradually overcome by wounds, it groans

congemuit, traxitque iugis avolsa ruinam.

its last sigh, and torn from the ridges drags ruin after it.

Descendo, ac ducente deo flammam inter et hostis

I descend, and led by a divinity I am extricated between flame and enemy;

expedior; dant tela locum, flammaeque recedunt.

the weapons give way, and the flames recede.

Atque ubi iam patriae perventum⁶ ad limina sedis

And when now I had come to the threshold of my father’s house

635

antiquasque domos, genitor, quem tollere in altos

and the ancient home, my father, whom I wished first to carry into the high

optabam primum montis primumque petebam,

mountains and whom I first was seeking,

abnegat excisa vitam producere Troia

refuses to prolong his life, with Troy destroyed,

exsiliumque pati. Vos O, quibus integer aevi⁷

and to endure exile.

sanguis, ait solidaeque suo stant robore vires,

”O you,” he says, “whose blood is unimpaired by age,

640

vos agitate fugam:

and whose strength stands firm in its own vigor, do you take to flight.

me si caelicolae voluissent ducere vitam,

If the sky-dwellers had wished me to prolong my life,

has mihi servassent sedes. Satis una superque

they would have preserved these dwellings for me. It is enough and more

vidimus exscidia et captae superavimus urbi.

that we have seen one destruction and have survived the captured city.

Sic O, sic positum⁸ adfati discedite corpus.

Thus, oh thus addressed, depart from my body laid out.

645

Ipse manu mortem inveniam; miserebitur hostis

I myself shall find death by my own hand; the enemy will pity me

exuviasque petet; facilis iactura sepulcri.

and seek spoils; easy is the loss of a tomb.

Iam pridem invisus divis et inutilis annos

Already for a long time hated by the gods and useless, I have been dragging out my years...”

Syntax notes8 items

2.565Deseruere
Poetic syncopated form of the third-person plural perfect active indicative (instead of the standard -erunt).
2.589videndam
A gerundive agreeing with the direct object se (Venus), functioning as a predicate to express purpose or passive necessity ("offered herself to be seen/to my sight").
2.591confessa deam
The perfect participle of the deponent verb confiteor, used with active meaning, taking the accusative deam as its direct object ("having revealed herself as a goddess").
2.599ni mea cura resistat, iam flammae tulerint
A mixed conditional sentence. The protasis uses the present subjunctive resistat to represent a continuing general condition ("unless my care were resisting"), while the apodosis uses the perfect subjunctives tulerint and hauserit to vividly express a past contrary-to-fact result ("the flames would have already swept them away").
2.624visum considere
Accusative with infinitive construction dependent on the impersonal visum [esse] ("it seemed [to me]"), where omne Ilium is the subject accusative and considere is the infinitive.
2.634perventum
An impersonal passive construction (elliptical for perventum est from the intransitive pervenio), meaning literally "when it was arrived," contextually translated as "when I had arrived."
2.638integer aevi
The adjective integer takes a genitive of respect/specification (aevi), meaning literally "unimpaired in respect of age," thus referring to those who are youthful and vigorous.
2.644positum
An adjectival usage referring to a body laid out for burial or stretched out in death. Anchises compares his living self to a corpse already laid out, bidding his family to say the last farewell.

Translated by Gemini 3.5 Flash (published 2026-05-22)urn:cts:latinLit:phi0690.phi003.humanitext-lat2:2.565-2.647