§9.74atque omnis facibus pubes accingitur atris.
And all the youth are girded with black torches.
They pillaged the hearths; the smoky torch carries a pitchy light, and Vulcan carries the mixed ash to the stars.
§9.77Quis deus, o musae, tam saeva incendia Teucris
What god, O Muses, turned away so savage fires from the Trojans?
§9.78avertit? Tantos ratibus quis depulit ignes?
Who drove away such great fires from the ships?
§9.79Dicite.
Say.
Prisca fides facto, sed fama perennis.
Ancient is the belief in the deed, but the fame is everlasting.
§9.80Tempore quo primum Phrygia formabat in Ida §9.81Aeneas classem et pelagi petere alta parabat, §9.82ipsa deum fertur genetrix Berecyntia magnum §9.83vocibus his adfata Iovem:
Da, nate, petenti, §9.84quod tua cara parens domito te poscit Olympo.
At the time when first on Phrygian Ida Aeneas was building his fleet and preparing to seek the deep of the sea, the Berecyntian mother of the gods herself is said to have addressed great Jupiter with these words: "Grant, son, to her who asks, what your dear mother demands of you, now that Olympus is subdued.
§9.86lucus in arce fuit summa, quo sacra ferebant, §9.87nigranti picea trabibusque obscurus acernis: §9.88has ego Dardanio iuveni, cum classis egeret, §9.89laeta dedi; nunc sollicitam timor anxius angit.
There was a grove on the highest summit, where they used to bring sacred offerings, dark with black pitch-pine and maple trunks: these I, when the fleet was in need, gladly gave to the Dardanian youth; now anxious fear torments my troubled mind.
§9.90Solve metus atque hoc precibus sine posse parentem: §9.91ne cursu quassatae ullo neu turbine venti §9.92vincantur, prosit nostris in montibus ortas. §9.93Filius huic contra, torquet qui sidera mundi: §9.94O genetrix, quo fata vocas, aut quid petis istis?
Dissolve my fears, and let a mother be able to obtain this by her prayers: that they may not be overcome, shattered by any course or by any whirlwind of wind, and let it profit them that they had their origin in our mountains." Her son in reply, who turns the stars of the universe: "O mother, whither do you call the fates, or what do you seek for those ships of yours?
Shall ships made by mortal hand have an immortal right, and shall Aeneas, assured of his path, traverse uncertain dangers?
§9.97Aeneas? Cui tanta deo permissa potestas?
To what god is such great power permitted?
§9.98Immo ubi defunctae finem portusque tenebunt §9.99Ausonios olim, quaecumque evaserit undis §9.100Dardaniumque ducem Laurentia vexerit arva, §9.101mortalem eripiam formam magnique iubebo §9.102aequoris esse deas, qualis Nereia Doto §9.103et Galatea secant spumantem pectore pontum. §9.104Dixerat idque ratum Stygii per flumina fratris, §9.105per pice torrentis atraque voragine ripas §9.106adnuit et totum nutu tremefecit Olympum.
Nay, rather, when they, having finished their service, shall hereafter reach the Ausonian ports, whichever one shall have escaped the waves and carried the Dardanian leader to the Laurentian fields, I will strip away their mortal form and command them to be goddesses of the great sea, such as Nereid Doto and Galatea, who cut the foaming deep with their breasts." He had spoken, and by the rivers of his Stygian brother, by the banks boiling with pitch and black abyss, he nodded, and made all Olympus tremble with his nod.
§9.107Ergo aderat promissa dies et tempora Parcae §9.108debita complerant, cum Turni iniuria Matrem §9.109admonuit ratibus sacris depellere taedas.
Therefore the promised day was present, and the Parcae had fulfilled the owed times, when the outrage of Turnus warned the Mother to drive away the torches from the sacred ships.
§9.110Hic primum nova lux oculis offulsit et ingens §9.111visus ab Aurora caelum transcurrere nimbus §9.112Idaeique chori; tum vox horrenda per auras §9.113excidit et Troum Rutulorumque agmina complet: §9.114Ne trepidate meas, Teucri, defendere navis §9.115neve armate manus: maria ante exurere Turno §9.116quam sacras dabitur pinus.
Here first a new light shone upon their eyes, and a huge cloud was seen to run across the heaven from the East, and the Idaean choruses; then a horrific voice fell through the air and filled the columns of Trojans and Rutulians: "Do not fear, Trojans, to defend my ships, nor arm your hands: it will be granted to Turnus to burn up the seas before these sacred pines.
Vos ite solutae, §9.117ite deae pelagi: genetrix iubet. Et sua quaeque §9.118continuo puppes abrumpunt vincula ripis §9.119delphinumque modo demersis aequora rostris §9.120ima petunt.
Go, untied, go, goddesses of the sea: the mother commands." And each at once breaks its stern-cables from the banks and in the manner of dolphins they seek the deepest waters with submerged prows.
Hinc virgineae (mirabile monstrum) §9.121quot prius aeratae steterant ad litora prorae §9.122reddunt se totidem facies pontoque feruntur.
Hence (a wonderful marvel!) as virgin forms, as many brazen prows as had stood before on the shores, so many show themselves and are carried on the sea.
§9.123Obstipuere animis Rutuli, conterritus ipse §9.124turbatis Messapus equis, cunctatur et amnis §9.125rauca sonans revocatque pedem Tiberinus ab alto.
The Rutulians were amazed in their minds, Messapus himself was terrified, his horses being throw into confusion, and the river Tiberinus hesitates, sounding hoarsely, and recalls his foot from the deep.
§9.126At non audaci Turno fiducia cessit; §9.127ultro animos tollit dictis atque increpat ultro: §9.128Troianos haec monstra petunt, his Iuppiter ipse §9.129auxilium solitum eripuit, non tela neque ignes §9.130exspectans Rutulos.
But confidence did not depart from bold Turnus; of his own accord he raises their spirits with his words and of his own accord rebukes them: "These portents seek the Trojans; from them Jupiter himself has snatched away his usual aid, not waiting for the weapons or fires of the Rutulians.
Ergo maria invia Teucris §9.131nec spes ulla fugae: rerum pars altera adempta est.
Therefore the seas are impassable to the Trojans and there is no hope of flight: the other half of things has been taken away.
But the land is in our hands, so many thousands of Italian nations bear arms.
Nil me fatalia terrent, §9.134siqua Phryges prae se iactant, responsa deorum: §9.135sat fatis Venerique datum, tetigere quod arva §9.136fertilis Ausoniae Troes.
Nothing do those fatal responses of the gods terrify me, if the Phrygians boast any such before themselves: enough has been given to the fates and to Venus, in that the Trojans have touched the fields of fertile Ausonia.
Sunt et mea contra §9.137fata mihi, ferro sceleratam exscindere gentem, §9.138coniuge praerepta: nec solos tangit Atridas §9.139iste dolor solisque licet capere arma Mycenis.
I too have, on the other hand, my own fates, to blot out the wicked race with the sword, my bride being snatched away: nor does that grief touch the sons of Atreus alone, nor is Mycenae alone permitted to take up arms.
§9.140Sed periisse semel satis est: peccare fuisset §9.141ante satis penitus modo non genus omne perosos §9.142femineum.
'But it is enough to have perished once': to have sinned once before should have been thoroughly enough, provided they did not utterly hate the whole female race.
To whom this confidence in the intervening rampart and the obstructions of the ditches, small divides of death, give courage.
At non viderunt moenia Troiae §9.145Neptuni fabricata manu considere in ignis?
But did they not see the walls of Troy, built by the hand of Neptune, sink down into the fire?