Page:The Aeneid of Virgil JOHN CONINGTON 1917 V2.pdf/102

 There, in the midst of the hall, they were pouring libations from cups of wine, their meat served on gold, and goblets in their hands.

"And now suppose a day past, and yet another day: the breeze is inviting the sail, the swelling south inflating     5 the canvas, when I accost the prophet with these words, and put to him the question I tell you:—'True Trojan born, heaven's interpreter, whose senses inform you of the stars, and of the tongue of birds, and of the omens of the flying wing, tell me now—for revelation has spoken      10 in auspicious words of the whole of my voyage, and all the gods have urged me with one voice of power to make for Italy, and explore that hidden clime. One alone, the Harpy Celæno, forebodes a strange portent, too horrible to tell, denouncing fierce vengeance and unnatural hunger.      15 Tell me then, what perils do I shun first, or what must I observe to surmount the tremendous hardships before me?' Then Helenus first implores the favour of Heaven by a solemn sacrifice of bullocks, and unbinds the fillet from his consecrated brow, and with his own hand leads     20 me to thy temple, Phœbus, my mind lifted from its place by the effluence of divine power; which done, that priestly mouth chants these words from its prophetic lips:—

"'Goddess-born—for that presages of mighty blessing are attending you over the deep is clear beyond doubt—such     25 is the casting of the lot of fate by heaven's king as he rolls event after event—such the ordained succession—a few things out of many, to make your voyage through strange waters safer, your settlement in Ausonia's haven more assured. My speech shall unfold to you but a few—for      30 the rest the fatal sisters keep from Helenus' knowledge, and Saturnian Juno seals his lips. First then for Italy, which you think close at hand, ready in your blindness to rush into the harbours that neighbour us, the length of a way where no way is severs you from its length      35]