Page:The Aeneid of Virgil JOHN CONINGTON 1917 V2.pdf/158

 of all, shows to them the command of Jove, and his loved father's precept, and what is now the settled judgment of his mind. Brief is the parley, nor does Acestes gainsay his bidding. They remove the matrons to the new city's roll, and disembark a willing crew of hearts that need not     5 the stir of great renown. For themselves they repair the benches and restore the vessels' half-burnt timber, shape the oars and fit the ropes, a little band, but a living well-spring of martial worth. Æneas, meanwhile, is marking out the city with the plough, and assigning the dwellings     10 by lot, creating an Ilium here, and there a Troy. Acestes, true Trojan, wields with joy his new sceptre, and proclaims a court, and gives laws to his assembled senate.

And now the whole nation had enjoyed a nine days' banquet, and the altars had received due observance;     15 the sleeping winds have lulled the waves, and the repeated whispers of the south invite to the deep once more. Uprises along the winding shore a mighty sound of weeping; prolonged embraces make day and night move slow. Even the matrons, even the weaklings, who so lately     20 shuddered at the look of the sea, and could not bear its name, would now fain go and endure all the weariness of the journey. Them the good Æneas cheers with words of kindness, and tearfully commends them to Acestes, his kinsman and theirs. Then he bids slay three calves to     25 Eryx, and a ewe-lamb to the weather gods, and in due course has the cable cut, while he, his head wreathed with stript olive leaves, stands aloft in the prow with a charger in hand, and far into the briny waves flings the entrails, and pours the sparkling wine. A wind gets up from the     30 stern, and escorts them on their way. Each vying with each, the crews strike the water, and sweep the marble surface.

Meanwhile Venus, harassed with care, bespeaks Nep-*]