All, exhausted, deserted me, and with a leap cast their bodies to the ground or gave them, worn out, to the flames.
§2.589cum mihi se, non ante oculis tam clara, videndam §2.590obtulit et pura per noctem in luce refulsit §2.591alma parens, confessa deam, qualisque videri §2.592caelicolis et quanta solet, dextraque prehensum §2.593continuit, roseoque haec insuper addidit ore: §2.594Nate, quis indomitas tantus dolor excitat iras?
when my gentle mother, never before so bright to my eyes, offered herself to my sight and shone through the night in pure light, revealing herself as a goddess, both in such guise and in such stature as she is wont to appear to the sky-dwellers, and holding me by my right hand she restrained me, and from her rosy lips added these words besides: "My son, what great resentment rouses such untamed rage?
§2.595Quid furis, aut quonam nostri tibi cura recessit?
Why do you rage, or whither has your care for us departed?
Will you not first look where you have left your father Anchises, worn out with age?
superet coniunxne Creüsa, §2.598Ascaniusque puer? Quos omnes undique Graiae §2.599circum errant acies, et, ni mea cura resistat, §2.600iam flammae tulerint inimicus et hauserit ensis.
Does your wife Creusa survive, and the boy Ascanius? Around all of them the Greek forces are wandering on every side, and unless my care resisted them, by now the flames would have carried them off and the enemy's sword drained their blood.
§2.601Non tibi Tyndaridis facies invisa Lacaenae §2.602culpatusve Paris: divom inclementia, divom, §2.603has evertit opes sternitque a culmine Troiam.
It is not the hated face of Laconian Helen, nor the blamed Paris: it is the god's, the gods' inclemency that overturns these riches and levels Troy from its height.
§2.604Aspice—namque omnem, quae nunc obducta tuenti §2.605mortalis hebetat visus tibi et umida circum §2.606caligat, nubem eripiam; tu ne qua parentis §2.607iussa time, neu praeceptis parere recusa:— §2.608hic, ubi disiectas moles avolsaque saxis §2.609saxa vides mixtoque undantem pulvere fumum. §2.610Neptunus muros magnoque emota tridenti §2.611fundamenta quatit, totamque a sedibus urbem §2.612eruit; hic Iuno Scaeas saevissima portas §2.613prima tenet, sociumque furens a navibus agmen §2.614ferro accincta vocat.
Look—for I will snatch away all the cloud which, now drawn over you as you look, dulls your mortal sight and mists you with damp shade; do not fear any commands of your parent, nor refuse to obey her precepts:— here, where you see scattered masses and rocks torn from rocks, and smoke billowing mixed with dust, Neptune shakes the walls and the foundations dislodged by his great trident, and uproots the whole city from its seat; here, fiercest Juno is first to hold the Scaean gates, and, raging, girded with iron, calls the allied band from the ships.
Look back, already Tritonian Pallas has seated herself on the topmost citadels, gleaming with her cloud and fierce Gorgon.
§2.617Ipse pater Danais animos viresque secundas §2.618sufficit, ipse deos in Dardana suscitat arma.
The Father himself supplies courage and favorable strength to the Greeks, he himself rouses the gods against Dardanian arms.
§2.619Eripe, nate, fugam, finemque impone labori.
Snatch your flight, my son, and put an end to your toil.
§2.620Nusquam abero, et tutum patrio te limine sistam. §2.621Dixerat, et spissis noctis se condidit umbris.
I will never be absent, and I will set you safe on your father's threshold." She had spoken, and hid herself in the thick shadows of the night.
Dread faces appear, and the great powers of the gods hostile to Troy.
§2.624Tum vero omne mihi visum considere in ignis §2.625Ilium et ex imo verti Neptunia Troia; §2.626ac veluti summis antiquam in montibus ornum §2.627cum ferro accisam crebrisque bipennibus instant §2.628eruere agricolae certatim,—illa usque minatur §2.629et tremefacta comam concusso vertice nutat, §2.630volneribus donec paulatim evicta, supremum §2.631congemuit, traxitque iugis avolsa ruinam.
Then indeed all Ilium seemed to me to settle into the flames, and Neptunian Troy to be overturned from its base; and just as when on the mountain tops an ancient ash tree, hacked with iron and frequent axes, foresters press on to uproot in rivalry,—it constantly threatens to fall and, its foliage trembling, nods with shaken top, until, gradually overcome by wounds, it groans its last sigh, and torn from the ridges drags ruin after it.
§2.632Descendo, ac ducente deo flammam inter et hostis §2.633expedior; dant tela locum, flammaeque recedunt.
I descend, and led by a divinity I am extricated between flame and enemy; the weapons give way, and the flames recede.
§2.634Atque ubi iam patriae perventum ad limina sedis §2.635antiquasque domos, genitor, quem tollere in altos §2.636optabam primum montis primumque petebam, §2.637abnegat excisa vitam producere Troia §2.638exsiliumque pati.
And when now I had come to the threshold of my father's house and the ancient home, my father, whom I wished first to carry into the high mountains and whom I first was seeking, refuses to prolong his life, with Troy destroyed, and to endure exile.
Vos O, quibus integer aevi §2.639sanguis,
ait
solidaeque suo stant robore vires, §2.640vos agitate fugam:
"O you," he says, "whose blood is unimpaired by age, and whose strength stands firm in its own vigor, do you take to flight.
If the sky-dwellers had wished me to prolong my life, they would have preserved these dwellings for me.
Satis una superque §2.643vidimus exscidia et captae superavimus urbi.
It is enough and more that we have seen one destruction and have survived the captured city.
§2.644Sic O, sic positum adfati discedite corpus.
Thus, oh thus addressed, depart from my body laid out.
§2.645Ipse manu mortem inveniam; miserebitur hostis §2.646exuviasque petet; facilis iactura sepulcri.
I myself shall find death by my own hand; the enemy will pity me and seek spoils; easy is the loss of a tomb.
§2.647Iam pridem invisus divis et inutilis annos
Already for a long time hated by the gods and useless, I have been dragging out my years..."