Lines 1-80

I sing of wars and a man, who first came from the shores of Troy,

exiled by fate, to Italy and the shores of Lavinium

he, tossed much about on both the lands and sea

by the might of the gods above, because of the unforgetting wrath of cruel Juno,

and enduring also many things in war, until he might found the city

and bring the gods into Latium – whence the Latin race

and the Alban ancestors and the walls of lofty Rome.

Muse, recount for me the reasons, with what divine power offended

or vexed at what did the queen of the gods force the man distinguished in devotion

to undergo so many misfortunes, to encounter so many hardships.

Are there so many angers for heavenly minds?

There was an ancient city (Tyrian settlers held it),

Carthage, facing at a distance Italy and the mouth of the Tiber,

rich in resources and fiercest in their desires for war;

which alone Juno is said to have honored more than other lands

with Samos esteemed less: Here her weapons,

here was her chariot; the goddess then both strove and cherished

that this be the seat of power for nations, if in any way the fates might allow it.

But indeed she had heard that a race was being derived from Trojan blood

which at some time would overturn Tyrian citadels;

from this a people ruling far and wide and proud in war

would come for the destruction of Libya; thus the fates spun.

Juno, fearing that and mindful of the ancient war,

which as a leader she had waged at Troy on behalf of her beloved Greece

(also, not yet had the reasons for her anger and her fierce passions

fallen from her mind; the judgement of Paris remained, stored up deep in her mind,

and the insult to her rejected beauty

and the hateful race and the rewards of Ganymedes after he had been snatched up)

– enraged also by these things, kept staving off the Trojans far from Latium,

tossed about in the whole sea, the leavings of the Greeks and of fierce Achilles,

and they [the Trojans] were wandering for many years,

driven by the fates around all the seas.

Of such great difficulty was it to found the Roman nation.

Scarcely out of sight of Sicilian land, the happy men

gave forth their sails into the deep and rushed the sea’s spray with bronze,

when Juno, preserving an everlasting wound deep in her heart,

said these things with herself: “Am I, beaten, to cease from my undertaking

and to not be able to turn back the king of the Teucrians from Italy?

Truly I am forbidden by the fates. Wasn’t Minerva able to burn the fleet

of the Argives and the masters themselves, to drown it in the sea

because of the crime and rages of one Ajax, son of Oileus?

She herself, having hurled the consuming lightning of Jupiter from the clouds,

both scattered the ships and turned the sea with winds,

snatched him, breathing fire from a pierced chest,

and impaled him on a sharp rock;

but I, who walk as the queen of the gods and both sister and wife of Jupiter,

wage wars for so many years with one people.

And does anyone worship the divine power of Juno hereafter,

or as a suppliant place an offering on my altars?”

The goddess, pondering such things with herself in her inflamed heart,

comes to Aeolia, country of the clouds, a region teeming with frantic winds.

Here in an enormous cave King Aeolus controls with his power

the struggling winds and howling storms

and restrains them with chains and a prison.

They, chafing, with a great rumble roar

around the barriers of the mountain; Aeolus sits on a high hill,

holding his scepter, both soothes the spirits and calms the angers [of the winds.]

Unless he does this, the consuming [winds] would indeed bear the seas

and the earth and the vast sky with themselves and sweep them through the breezes.

But the all-powerful father, fearing this, hid them in gloomy caves

and placed upon them a mass and tall mountains,

and gave them a king who would know both to control them

with a firm pact and to give loose reins when ordered.

To him then Juno, suppliant, used these words.

“Aeolus, for the father of the gods and king of people

has granted you to calm and to lift the waves with wind,

a people hostile to me sail the Tyrrhenian sea

carrying Ilium and vanquished gods into Italy:

strike force into the winds and overwhelm the sunken ships,

or drive the scattered men and disperse their bodies in the sea.

I have twice seven nymphs of excellent form,

of whom Deiopia, who is the most beautiful in form,

I will dedicate to you, joined as your own in lasting marriage,

that for such merits she may pass all years with you

and make you a parent with handsome offspring.”

Aeolus in reply said these things: O queen, it is your work

to search out what you wish; my duty is to perform your orders.”

You give to me whatever this is of a kingdom, you win over

my scepter and Jupiter and you grant me to recline at the feasts of the gods

and you make me powerful over the clouds and storms.”

​

Lines 81-179

When these things were said, he struck against the side the empty mountain

with a turned-around spear: and the winds, as after a battle line had been drawn up

where an opening was given, rushed and blew over the lands in a storm.

They lay upon the sea and together from their deepest homes

both the east wind and south wind and southwest wind crowded with gusts

overturned the whole sea and rolled enormous waves to the shores:

both the shouting of the men and the creaking of the cables followed.

Suddenly clouds tore away both the sky and the day

from the Trojan’s eyes; night brooded over the black sea.

The heavens thundered and the sky flashed with frequent lightning

and everything threatened instant death for the men.

Immediately Aeneas’ limbs were loosened with chill:

he groaned and, extending both his palms to the stars,

said such things with his voice: “o blessed both three and four times,

those whom it befell to meet death before their fathers’ faces

under the high walls of Troy. O Diomedes, bravest of the race of Greeks!

Could I not have fallen on Trojan fields and

poured out this soul by your right hand,

where fierce Hector lies outspread by Achilles’ weapon,

where huge Sarpedon, where the Simois rolls so many men’s shields

and helmets and valiant bodies, snatched under the waves!”

For him throwing out such things the howling gust of the north wind

struck the sail head on, and lifted the waves to the stars.

The oars are smashed, then the prow turns back and gives

its side to the waves, a steep mountain of water follows in a heap.

These men hang in the top of the wave, to them the splitting wave

opens the earth between the waves; the tide rages with the sands.

Notus whirls three ships, after he snatched them away, into lurking rocks

(the Italians call the rocks which are in the middle of the waves the Altars,

a tremendous reef at the surface) Eurus drove three ships

from the deep into the shallows and a sandbar, wretched to behold,

and it dashes them into the shallows and surrounds them with a wall of sand.

The huge sea beats one (ship), which carries the Lycians and faithful Orentes,

upon the stern from above before the eyes of the master himself:

and the helmsman is thrown out headlong

and is rolled onto his head, but three times the wave whirls that ship in the same place,

driving it around and a whirling whirlpool swallows it up in the sea.

The scattered men appear floating in the vast whirlpool,

and the weapons of the men and the planks and the wealth of Troy (float) through the waves.

Now the storm conquers the mighty ship of the Trojan leader, now of brave Achates,

and that by which Abas was carried, and that by which old Aletes was carried;

now they all accept hostile flood because of the loose fastenings

of the sides and they gape with fissures.

Meanwhile Neptune sensed that the sea is stirred with a great rumble

and that a storm had been sent and that still waters

had been poured back from the deepest depths, and he, seriously disturbed,

looking out from the deep, raises his peaceful head from the top of the wave.

He sees the fleet of Aeneas scattered on the whole sea,

the Trojans overwhelmed by the waves and by the downfall of the sky.

And the deceits and angers of Juno did not escape the notice of her brother.

He calls Eurus and Zephyr to himself, then he says such things:

“Does such a great trust of your kind hold you?

Now do you, winds, dare to stir up the sky and earth

without my will and to lift such great burdens?

I… you – but to calm the moved waves is better.

Afterward you will atone to me for your crimes by no similar punishment.

Hasten your flight and say these things to your king:

not to him were the command of the sea and the fierce trident given,

but to me by lot. He holds enormous rocks,

Eurus, your homes; let Aeolus vaunt himself in that court

and rule in the enclosed prison of the winds.”

Thus he speaks and calms the swollen sea more quickly than a word

and puts to flight the gathered clouds and brings back the sun.

Cymothoe and Triton, striving, together dislodge the ships

with a sharp rock; the master himself lifts with his trident

and opens the vast sandbars and calms the sea

and glides over the highest waves with light wheels.

And just as often (happens) when strife arises in a great people

and a common throng rages in their minds; 

and now the torches and stones fly, fury supplies the weapons;

then, if they by chance caught sight of some man venerable in devotion

and merits, they are silent and stand by with ears pricked up;

he rules their minds with his words and calms their chests:

thus the whole uproar of the sea subsided, afterward, the sire

looking out on the sea and having been conveyed in the open sky

turned his horses and flying he gave the reins to an obedient chariot.

The tired followers of Aeneas strive with haste to seek the shores

which are nearest, and they are turned to the shores of Libya.

There is a place in a long inlet: the island forms a port

with a barrier of sides, by which every wave from the deep

is broken and splits itself into brought-back bays.

From here and here enormous crags and twin cliffs

tower into the sky, under the peaks of which

safe seas are silent far and wide; then from above a stage with waving trees,

and a gloomy grove threatens with a trembling shadow;

under an opposite face a cave with hanging rocks,

within there are sweet waters and benches in natural stone,

the home of the nymphs. Here do no cables hold tired ships,

an anchor does not hold to them with a curved bite.

Thence Aeneas enters with seven ships collected

from the whole number; and having disembarked with a great love of land

the Trojans gain beach, which they had desired,

and they place their limbs dripping with salt on the sand.

And first Achates struck out a spark from flint

and received fire from leaves and placed dry fuel

around it and snatched flame in the tinder.

Then they, weary of their misfortunes, prepare grain

ruined by the waves and the tools of Ceres and salvaged grain

and they prepare to roast it with flames and crush it with a rock.

​

Lines 180-209

Meanwhile Aeneas clims a rock, and he widely seeks

every view in the sea, if can see anything of Antheus,

who was buffeted by the wind, and Trojan galleys

or Capys or the weapons of Caicus in the lofty ships.

He sees no ship in his view, but three deer wandering on the shore;

all the herds follow these from the back

and the long line grazes through the valleys.

Here he stops and snatches his bow and swift arrows with his hand,

which weapons faithful Achates used to carry,

and he lays low first the leaders themselves,

carrying their heads high with branching horns,

then the crowd and he confuses the whole mob,

driving them with weapons between the leafy groves,

and he does not stop before he as victor pours seven huge bodies

on the ground and makes the number equal with the ships.

From here he seeks a harbor and divides them among all his comrades.

Then he distributes the wine which good Acestes had loaded in urns

on the Sicilian shore and the hero had given to the departers,

and he soothes their mourning chests with his words:

“O comrades (and indeed we are not ignorant of evils before),

o you having endured more serious things,

a god gives an end to these also. You approached the madness of Scylla

and deeply the roaring rocks, you experienced the Cyclopian rocks:

restore your spirits and dismiss your wretched fear;

perhaps it will please us at some point to remember even these things.

We strive through varied misfortunes,

through so many crises of affairs into Latium,

where the fates show peaceful home;

there it is the divine will for the kingdoms of Troy to rise again.

Endure, and save yourselves for favorable things.”

He speaks such things with his voice and sick with huge cares

he pretends hope in his countenance, he presses pain deep in his heart.