Aeneid 4.173-197 Translation

Extemplo Libyae magnas it Fama per urbes,

Immediately Rumour goes through the great cities of Libya,

Fama, malum qua non aliud velocius ullum:

Rumour, than whom not any other evil is more agile:

mobilitate viget virisque adquirit eundo,

she thrives on movement and acquires strength by going,

parva metu primo, mox sese attollit in auras

small at first in fear, soon she raises herself into the air

ingrediturque solo et caput inter nubila condit.

and steps upon the ground and buries her head among the clouds.

illam Terra parens ira inritata deorum extremam,

Her parent Earth provoked by her anger against the gods birthed her last,

ut perhibent, Coeo Enceladoque sororem progenuit pedibus celerem et pernicibus alis,

as they say, sister to Coeus and Enceladus quick on her feet and with nimble wings

monstrum horrendum, ingens, cui quot sunt corpore plumae, tot vigiles oculi subter (mirabile dictu),

an awesome monster, huge, who has on her body as many unsleeping eyes underneath as she has feathers

astonishing to tell—so many tongues, as many sounding mouths, so many ears she pricks.

tot linguae, totidem ora sonant, tot subrigit auris.

nocte volat caeli medio terraeque per umbram stridens, nec dulci declinat lumina somno;

At night she flies in between sky and earth hissing through the shadow, nor does she close her eyes in sweet sleep;

luce sedet custos aut summi culmine tecti turribus aut altis,

in the light she sits guard either on the gable at the top of a roof or on high towers,

et magnas territat urbes, tam ficti pravique tenax quam nuntia veri.

and she continually-frightens great cities, so clutching at the false and the crooked as much as telling the truth.

haec tum multiplici populos sermone replebat gaudens

She then began to fill peoples with multiple conversations, enjoying [doing so],

et pariter facta atque infecta canebat:

and began to recite things done and not done:

venisse Aenean Troiano sanguine cretum, cui se pulchra viro dignetur iungere Dido;

that Aeneas sprung from Trojan blood had come, to whom as her husband beautiful Dido thought fit to join herself;

nunc hiemem inter se luxu, quam longa,

hat now they were enjoying themselves, during such a long winter,

fovere regnorum immemores turpique cupidine captos.

warm in opulence, forgetful of their kingdoms and captive to disgraceful desire.

haec passim dea foeda virum diffundit in ora.

These words the foul goddess poured variously into men’s mouths.

protinus ad regem cursus detorquet Iarban

Straightaway she swerves her course to king Iarbas

incenditque animum dictis atque aggerat iras.

and sets his mind alight with her words and plies up his anger.