Complete Works of Virgil

by Virgil

  A knotty lance of well-boil’d oak he bore;

  The middle part with cork he cover’d o’er:

  He clos’d the child within the hollow space;

  With twigs of bending osier bound the case;

  Then pois’d the spear, heavy with human weight,

  And thus invok’d my favor for the freight:

  ‘Accept, great goddess of the woods,’ he said,

  ‘Sent by her sire, this dedicated maid!

  Thro’ air she flies a suppliant to thy shrine;

  And the first weapons that she knows, are thine.’

  He said; and with full force the spear he threw:

  Above the sounding waves Camilla flew.

  Then, press’d by foes, he stemm’d the stormy tide,

  And gain’d, by stress of arms, the farther side.

  His fasten’d spear he pull’d from out the ground,

  And, victor of his vows, his infant nymph unbound;

  Nor, after that, in towns which walls inclose,

  Would trust his hunted life amidst his foes;

  But, rough, in open air he chose to lie;

  Earth was his couch, his cov’ring was the sky.

  On hills unshorn, or in a desart den,

  He shunn’d the dire society of men.

  A shepherd’s solitary life he led;

  His daughter with the milk of mares he fed.

  The dugs of bears, and ev’ry salvage beast,

  He drew, and thro’ her lips the liquor press’d.

  The little Amazon could scarcely go:

  He loads her with a quiver and a bow;

  And, that she might her stagg’ring steps command,

  He with a slender jav’lin fills her hand.

  Her flowing hair no golden fillet bound;

  Nor swept her trailing robe the dusty ground.

  Instead of these, a tiger’s hide o’erspread

  Her back and shoulders, fasten’d to her head.

  The flying dart she first attempts to fling,

  And round her tender temples toss’d the sling;

  Then, as her strength with years increas’d, began

  To pierce aloft in air the soaring swan,

  And from the clouds to fetch the heron and the crane.

  The Tuscan matrons with each other vied,

  To bless their rival sons with such a bride;

  But she disdains their love, to share with me

  The sylvan shades and vow’d virginity.

  And, O! I wish, contented with my cares

  Of salvage spoils, she had not sought the wars!

  Then had she been of my celestial train,

  And shunn’d the fate that dooms her to be slain.

  But since, opposing Heav’n’s decree, she goes

  To find her death among forbidden foes,

  Haste with these arms, and take thy steepy flight.

  Where, with the gods, averse, the Latins fight.

  This bow to thee, this quiver I bequeath,

  This chosen arrow, to revenge her death:

  By whate’er hand Camilla shall be slain,

  Or of the Trojan or Italian train,

  Let him not pass unpunish’d from the plain.

  Then, in a hollow cloud, myself will aid

  To bear the breathless body of my maid:

  Unspoil’d shall be her arms, and unprofan’d

  Her holy limbs with any human hand,

  And in a marble tomb laid in her native land.”

  She said. The faithful nymph descends from high

  With rapid flight, and cuts the sounding sky:

  Black clouds and stormy winds around her body fly.

  By this, the Trojan and the Tuscan horse,

  Drawn up in squadrons, with united force,

  Approach the walls: the sprightly coursers bound,

  Press forward on their bits, and shift their ground.

  Shields, arms, and spears flash horribly from far;

  And the fields glitter with a waving war.

  Oppos’d to these, come on with furious force

  Messapus, Coras, and the Latian horse;

  These in the body plac’d, on either hand

  Sustain’d and clos’d by fair Camilla’s band.

  Advancing in a line, they couch their spears;

  And less and less the middle space appears.

  Thick smoke obscures the field; and scarce are seen

  The neighing coursers, and the shouting men.

  In distance of their darts they stop their course;

  Then man to man they rush, and horse to horse.

  The face of heav’n their flying jav’lins hide,

  And deaths unseen are dealt on either side.

  Tyrrhenus, and Aconteus, void of fear,

  By mettled coursers borne in full career,

  Meet first oppos’d; and, with a mighty shock,

  Their horses’ heads against each other knock.

  Far from his steed is fierce Aconteus cast,

  As with an engine’s force, or lightning’s blast:

  He rolls along in blood, and breathes his last.

  The Latin squadrons take a sudden fright,

  And sling their shields behind, to save their backs in flight

  Spurring at speed to their own walls they drew;

  Close in the rear the Tuscan troops pursue,

  And urge their flight: Asylas leads the chase;

  Till, seiz’d, with shame, they wheel about and face,

  Receive their foes, and raise a threat’ning cry.

  The Tuscans take their turn to fear and fly.

  So swelling surges, with a thund’ring roar,

  Driv’n on each other’s backs, insult the shore,

  Bound o’er the rocks, incroach upon the land,

  And far upon the beach eject the sand;

  Then backward, with a swing, they take their way,

  Repuls’d from upper ground, and seek their mother sea;

  With equal hurry quit th’ invaded shore,

  And swallow back the sand and stones they spew’d before.

  Twice were the Tuscans masters of the field,

  Twice by the Latins, in their turn, repell’d.

  Asham’d at length, to the third charge they ran;

  Both hosts resolv’d, and mingled man to man.

  Now dying groans are heard; the fields are strow’d

  With falling bodies, and are drunk with blood.

  Arms, horses, men, on heaps together lie:

  Confus’d the fight, and more confus’d the cry.

  Orsilochus, who durst not press too near

  Strong Remulus, at distance drove his spear,

  And stuck the steel beneath his horse’s ear.

  The fiery steed, impatient of the wound,

  Curvets, and, springing upward with a bound,

  His helpless lord cast backward on the ground.

  Catillus pierc’d Iolas first; then drew

  His reeking lance, and at Herminius threw,

  The mighty champion of the Tuscan crew.

  His neck and throat unarm’d, his head was bare,

  But shaded with a length of yellow hair:

  Secure, he fought, expos’d on ev’ry part,

  A spacious mark for swords, and for the flying dart.

  Across the shoulders came the feather’d wound;

  Transfix’d he fell, and doubled to the ground.

  The sands with streaming blood are sanguine dyed,

  And death with honor sought on either side.

  Resistless thro’ the war Camilla rode,

  In danger unappall’d, and pleas’d with blood.

  One side was bare for her exerted breast;

  One shoulder with her painted quiver press’d.

  Now from afar her fatal jav’lins play;

  Now with her ax’s edge she hews her way:

  Diana’s arms upon her shoulder sound;

  And when, too closely press’d, she quits the ground,


  From her bent bow she sends a backward wound.

  Her maids, in martial pomp, on either side,

  Larina, Tulla, fierce Tarpeia, ride:

  Italians all; in peace, their queen’s delight;

  In war, the bold companions of the fight.

  So march’d the Tracian Amazons of old,

  When Thermodon with bloody billows roll’d:

  Such troops as these in shining arms were seen,

  When Theseus met in fight their maiden queen:

  Such to the field Penthisilea led,

  From the fierce virgin when the Grecians fled;

  With such, return’d triumphant from the war,

  Her maids with cries attend the lofty car;

  They clash with manly force their moony shields;

  With female shouts resound the Phrygian fields.

  Who foremost, and who last, heroic maid,

  On the cold earth were by thy courage laid?

  Thy spear, of mountain ash, Eumenius first,

  With fury driv’n, from side to side transpierc’d:

  A purple stream came spouting from the wound;

  Bath’d in his blood he lies, and bites the ground.

  Liris and Pegasus at once she slew:

  The former, as the slacken’d reins he drew

  Of his faint steed; the latter, as he stretch’d

  His arm to prop his friend, the jav’lin reach’d.

  By the same weapon, sent from the same hand,

  Both fall together, and both spurn the sand.

  Amastrus next is added to the slain:

  The rest in rout she follows o’er the plain:

  Tereus, Harpalycus, Demophoon,

  And Chromis, at full speed her fury shun.

  Of all her deadly darts, not one she lost;

  Each was attended with a Trojan ghost.

  Young Ornithus bestrode a hunter steed,

  Swift for the chase, and of Apulian breed.

  Him from afar she spied, in arms unknown:

  O’er his broad back an ox’s hide was thrown;

  His helm a wolf, whose gaping jaws were spread

  A cov’ring for his cheeks, and grinn’d around his head,

  He clench’d within his hand an iron prong,

  And tower’d above the rest, conspicuous in the throng.

  Him soon she singled from the flying train,

  And slew with ease; then thus insults the slain:

  “Vain hunter, didst thou think thro’ woods to chase

  The savage herd, a vile and trembling race?

  Here cease thy vaunts, and own my victory:

  A woman warrior was too strong for thee.

  Yet, if the ghosts demand the conqu’ror’s name,

  Confessing great Camilla, save thy shame.”

  Then Butes and Orsilochus she slew,

  The bulkiest bodies of the Trojan crew;

  But Butes breast to breast: the spear descends

  Above the gorget, where his helmet ends,

  And o’er the shield which his left side defends.

  Orsilochus and she their courses ply:

  He seems to follow, and she seems to fly;

  But in a narrower ring she makes the race;

  And then he flies, and she pursues the chase.

  Gath’ring at length on her deluded foe,

  She swings her ax, and rises to the blow

  Full on the helm behind, with such a sway

  The weapon falls, the riven steel gives way:

  He groans, he roars, he sues in vain for grace;

  Brains, mingled with his blood, besmear his face.

  Astonish’d Aunus just arrives by chance,

  To see his fall; nor farther dares advance;

  But, fixing on the horrid maid his eye,

  He stares, and shakes, and finds it vain to fly;

  Yet, like a true Ligurian, born to cheat,

  (At least while fortune favor’d his deceit,)

  Cries out aloud: “What courage have you shown,

  Who trust your courser’s strength, and not your own?

  Forego the vantage of your horse, alight,

  And then on equal terms begin the fight:

  It shall be seen, weak woman, what you can,

  When, foot to foot, you combat with a man,”

  He said. She glows with anger and disdain,

  Dismounts with speed to dare him on the plain,

  And leaves her horse at large among her train;

  With her drawn sword defies him to the field,

  And, marching, lifts aloft her maiden shield.

  The youth, who thought his cunning did succeed,

  Reins round his horse, and urges all his speed;

  Adds the remembrance of the spur, and hides

  The goring rowels in his bleeding sides.

  “Vain fool, and coward!” cries the lofty maid,

  “Caught in the train which thou thyself hast laid!

  On others practice thy Ligurian arts;

  Thin stratagems and tricks of little hearts

  Are lost on me: nor shalt thou safe retire,

  With vaunting lies, to thy fallacious sire.”

  At this, so fast her flying feet she sped,

  That soon she strain’d beyond his horse’s head:

  Then turning short, at once she seiz’d the rein,

  And laid the boaster grov’ling on the plain.

  Not with more ease the falcon, from above,

  Trusses in middle air the trembling dove,

  Then plumes the prey, in her strong pounces bound:

  The feathers, foul with blood, come tumbling to the ground.

  Now mighty Jove, from his superior height,

  With his broad eye surveys th’ unequal fight.

  He fires the breast of Tarchon with disdain,

  And sends him to redeem th’ abandon’d plain.

  Betwixt the broken ranks the Tuscan rides,

  And these encourages, and those he chides;

  Recalls each leader, by his name, from flight;

  Renews their ardor, and restores the fight.

  “What panic fear has seiz’d your souls? O shame,

  O brand perpetual of th’ Etrurian name!

  Cowards incurable, a woman’s hand

  Drives, breaks, and scatters your ignoble band!

  Now cast away the sword, and quit the shield!

  What use of weapons which you dare not wield?

  Not thus you fly your female foes by night,

  Nor shun the feast, when the full bowls invite;

  When to fat off’rings the glad augur calls,

  And the shrill hornpipe sounds to bacchanals.

  These are your studied cares, your lewd delight:

  Swift to debauch, but slow to manly fight.”

  Thus having said, he spurs amid the foes,

  Not managing the life he meant to lose.

  The first he found he seiz’d with headlong haste,

  In his strong gripe, and clasp’d around the waist;

  ‘T was Venulus, whom from his horse he tore,

  And, laid athwart his own, in triumph bore.

  Loud shouts ensue; the Latins turn their eyes,

  And view th’ unusual sight with vast surprise.

  The fiery Tarchon, flying o’er the plains,

  Press’d in his arms the pond’rous prey sustains;

  Then, with his shorten’d spear, explores around

  His jointed arms, to fix a deadly wound.

  Nor less the captive struggles for his life:

  He writhes his body to prolong the strife,

  And, fencing for his naked throat, exerts

  His utmost vigor, and the point averts.

  So stoops the yellow eagle from on high,

  And bears a speckled serpent thro’ the sky,

  Fast’ning his crooked talons on the prey:

  The pris’ner hisses thro’ the liquid way;

  Resists the royal hawk; and,
tho’ oppress’d,

  She fights in volumes, and erects her crest:

  Turn’d to her foe, she stiffens ev’ry scale,

  And shoots her forky tongue, and whisks her threat’ning tail.

  Against the victor, all defense is weak:

  Th’ imperial bird still plies her with his beak;

  He tears her bowels, and her breast he gores;

  Then claps his pinions, and securely soars.

  Thus, thro’ the midst of circling enemies,

  Strong Tarchon snatch’d and bore away his prize.

  The Tyrrhene troops, that shrunk before, now press

  The Latins, and presume the like success.

  Then Aruns, doom’d to death, his arts assay’d,

  To murther, unespied, the Volscian maid:

  This way and that his winding course he bends,

  And, whereso’er she turns, her steps attends.

  When she retires victorious from the chase,

  He wheels about with care, and shifts his place;

  When, rushing on, she seeks her foes flight,

  He keeps aloof, but keeps her still in sight:

  He threats, and trembles, trying ev’ry way,

  Unseen to kill, and safely to betray.

  Chloreus, the priest of Cybele, from far,

  Glitt’ring in Phrygian arms amidst the war,

  Was by the virgin view’d. The steed he press’d

  Was proud with trappings, and his brawny chest

  With scales of gilded brass was cover’d o’er;

  A robe of Tyrian dye the rider wore.

  With deadly wounds he gall’d the distant foe;

  Gnossian his shafts, and Lycian was his bow:

  A golden helm his front and head surrounds

  A gilded quiver from his shoulder sounds.

  Gold, weav’d with linen, on his thighs he wore,

  With flowers of needlework distinguish’d o’er,

  With golden buckles bound, and gather’d up before.

  Him the fierce maid beheld with ardent eyes,

  Fond and ambitious of so rich a prize,

  Or that the temple might his trophies hold,

  Or else to shine herself in Trojan gold.

  Blind in her haste, she chases him alone.

  And seeks his life, regardless of her own.

  This lucky moment the sly traitor chose:

  Then, starting from his ambush, up he rose,

  And threw, but first to Heav’n address’d his vows:

  “O patron of Socrates’ high abodes,

  Phoebus, the ruling pow’r among the gods,

  Whom first we serve, whole woods of unctuous pine

  Are fell’d for thee, and to thy glory shine;

  By thee protected with our naked soles,