Page:The Aeneid of Virgil JOHN CONINGTON 1917 V2.pdf/138

 pleased that I should offer these rites yearly in a city of my own building, in a temple dedicated to himself. Two heads of oxen Acestes, like a true son of Troy, gives you for each ship; call to the feasts the gods of the hearth, both those of our fathers and those worshipped by Acestes     5 our host. Furthermore, if the ninth day hence the dawn-goddess restore to mortals the genial light, and make the world visible with sunshine, I will set up, first of all, for all Teucrian comers, a match among our swift fleet; then let him that is light of foot, and him that, glorying in his     10 strength, bears himself more proudly with the dart and the flying arrow, or has confidence to join battle in gauntlets of raw hide, let one and all be here, and look for the prizes that victory earns. Give me your auspicious voices, and bind your brows with green."     15

This spoken, he shrouds his own brows with his mother's myrtle. So does Helymus, so does veteran Acestes, so young Ascanius—so the whole multitude of warriors. He was already on his way from the council to the tomb with many thousands round him, the centre of a great     20 company. Here in due libation he pours on the ground two bowls of the wine-god's pure juice, two of new milk, two of sacrificial blood; he flings bright flowers, and makes this utterance:—"Hail to thee, blessed sire, once more! hail to you, ashes of one rescued in vain, spirit and shade     25 of my father! It was not in Fate that thou shouldst journey with me to the Italian frontier and the fields of Destiny, or see the Ausonian Tiber, whatever that name may import." He had said this, when from the depth of the grave a smooth shining serpent trailed along seven     30 spires, seven volumes of giant length, coiling peacefully round the tomb and gliding between the altars: dark green flecks were on its back; its scales were all ablaze with spots of golden lustre, even as the bow in the clouds showers a thousand various colours in the face of the sun. 35 Æneas stood wonder-struck: the creature, winding its long column among the dishes and the polished goblets, tasted of the viands, and then, innocent of harm, reëntered