Verse translation (the Aeneid)

There was an ancient city (Tyrian settlers possessed it), Carthage, facing Italy and the mouth of the Tiber far away, rich in resources and very fierce in war’s activities, which alone Juno is said to have cared for more than all other lands, since she esteemed Samos less. Here was her armour, here was her chariot; even then the goddess both aimed and cherished the aim that this city should be the kingdom of all races, if the Fates allowed it in any way. But in fact, she had heard that offspring was being produced from Trojan blood to overthrow the Tyrian citadels some day; from this a race would come ruling far and wide and arrogant in war to destroy Libya; thus the fates were bringing to pass.

The daughter of Saturn, fearing this, and mindful of the old war, which she had previously waged near Troy on behalf of her beloved Greeks - for even now the causes of her (outbursts of) anger and her savage pains had not yet disappeared from her mind; the judgement of Paris and the insult done to her spurned beauty and the hated race and the honours given to the snatched Ganymede remained buried deep in her mind: fired by these (injustices) as well, she kept the Trojans tossed about over the sea, the remnants left by the Greeks and savage Achilles, far from Latinum, and for many years they wandered driven by the fates around all the seas. It involved such great difficulty to found the Roman race.

Scarcely out of sight of the land of Sicily, (the Trojans) were happily sailing into the high sea and churning up the foam of the salt sea with their bronze (prows) when Juno, retaining the everlasting wound beneath her breast, (said) these (words) within herself: ‘to think that I, defeated, should give up my purpose, and not be able to divert the king of the Trojans from Italy! Of course, I am forbidden by the fates. Was Pallas able to burn up the fleet of the Greeks and drown (the Greeks) themselves in the sea because of one man’s offence and the madness of Ajax, son of Oileus? (She) herself, hurling the swift fire of Jupiter from the clouds both scattered the ships and upturned the seas with the winds, (while) him, as he breathed forth flame from his pierced breast, she snatched up in a whirlwind and impaled on a sharp rock.

But I, who grandly walk as queen of the gods, and both sister and wife of Jupiter, have been waging wars for so many years with one race. And does anyone worship the divine power of Juno any more or in supplication will anyone place an offering upon her altars?’ The goddess, turning over such thoughts with herself in her inflamed heart, came to the land of the clouds, Aeolia, an area teeming with raging south winds. Here, King Aeolus by means of his power confines the struggling winds and sounding storms within a huge cave and curbs them with chains and a prison. They, indignant, roar around the prison bars accompanied by the mighty murmur of the mountain; Aeolus sits in the lofty citadel, holding the sceptre, soothes their feelings and restrains their outbursts of anger.

If he did not do this, they would doubtless carry hurriedly away with them seas, lands and the high heaven and sweep them through the breezes; but the all-powerful father, fearing this, hid them in dark caverns, placed a mass of high mountains on top, and gave them a king that, under a fixed contract, he might know both how to tighten and relax and give the reins when ordered. To him, then, Juno in supplication used these words: ‘Aeolus (for to you the father of the gods and king of men has granted both to calm the waves and raise them with the wind), a race hostile to me sails the Etruscan sea carrying Troy and its defeated household gods to Italy: strike violence into the winds, sink and destroy their ships, or drive them in different directions and scatter the bodies in the ocean.’

‘I have twice seven Nymphs of outstanding body, of whom she is the most beautiful in form. Deiopea, I will join with you in steadfast marriage and consecrate her as your own, so that, in return for such services, she might spend all her years with you and make you a parent with a beautiful offspring.’ In answer to this Aeolus said: ‘O Queen, it is your task to search out what you desire; for me, it is right to carry out your orders. You provide for me this modest kingdom, the sceptre and Jupiter’s favour, you grant me to recline at the banquet of the gods, and make me master of the clouds and storms.

When these things had been said, reversing his spear, he struck the hollow mountain on the side; and the winds, as if they had formed an army column, rush wherever passage had been given and blow through the lands with a whirlwind. They fell upon the sea, and Eurus and Notus together and Africus, abundant with storms, churn up everything from their lowest depths, and roll huge waves towards the coasts. There follows both a shout of men and the hissing of cables; suddenly, the clouds snatch away both sky and daylight from the eyes of the Trojans; black night falls upon the sea; the heavens thundered, the upper air flashes with abundant fires, and everything threatens instant death for the men.

Immediately, Aeneas’ limbs were loosened with an icy terror; he groaned and, stretching out both his palms towards the stars, he repeated such words aloud: ‘O thrice and four times blessed are those to whom it befell to die before the faces of their fathers beneath the lofty walls of Troy! O son of Tydeus, bravest of the race of Greeks! To think that I was not able to fall on the plains of Troy and pour out this life beneath your right hand, where fierce Hector lies beneath the spear of the descendant of Aeacus, where mighty Sarpedon lies, where the Simois, having seized so many shields of heroes, rolls them, helmets and brave bodies beneath its waves.’

While he was shouting such words, a storm, whistling with the north wind, struck the sail full in front, and raised the waves to the stars. The oars were broken, then the prow turned away and offered the side to the waves; a sheer mountain of water followed in a mass. Some hung on top of the wave, for others, a yawning wave revealed the earth among the waves, while the seething sea raged with the sands. The south wind, having snatched three ships hurled them onto hidden rocks (rocks in the middle of the waves which the Italians call the Altars, a huge ridge on top of the sea), three to the east wind pushed from the high seas onto shoals and sandbanks, wretched to behold, dashed them onto the shallows and surrounded them with a mound of sand.

The huge sea, falling from its highest point, struck one ship on the stern, which was carrying the Lycians and faithful Orontes, before the very eyes of Aeneas: the helmsman is shaken off and as he bends forward is rolled headlong, but the ship, a wave whirls round three times on the same spot, driving it around, and a devouring whirlpool swallows it up in the sea. Far apart men become visible swimming in the immense whirlpool, along with the arms of men, planks, and Trojan treasure throughout the waves. Now the storm overcame Ilioneus’ strong ship, now brave Achates’, and both the ship in which Abas was carried and the one in which Aletes, advanced in years; when the joints of the sides had been loosened all the ships take in the hostile water and gape with cracks.