Page:The Aeneid of Virgil JOHN CONINGTON 1917 V2.pdf/173

 clothes, and clutching with talon fingers the steep mountain-top, and deemed blindly they had found a prize. Now the wave is my home, and the winds keep tossing me on the beach. Oh, by heaven's pleasant sunshine and bright sky; by your father, I adjure you; by the            5 promise growing up with your Iulus, rescue me with that unconquered arm from this cruel fate: be yourself, and either spread earth upon me, for that you can surely do, and put back to Velia's haven; or, if any way there be, any that your goddess mother can reveal—for well I             10 ween it is not without Heaven's leave that you purpose to stem these fearful tides and the reluctant pool of Styx—stretch your hand to your poor friend, and take me with you over the water, that at least I may find in death a place of rest and peace." So had he spoken, when thus         15 the priestess begins: "What demon, Palinurus, has set on you so monstrous a desire? You, unburied, look on the Stygian water, and the dread river of the furies? You set foot on the bank unbidden? Cease to dream that Heaven's destiny can be swayed by prayer. Yet              20 hear and retain a word which may console your hard lot. For know that the dwellers in that fatal border, goaded far and wide through their cities by prodigies from heaven, shall propitiate your dust: they shall erect a tomb, and through that tomb send down your funeral dues, and the          25 spot shall bear forever the name of Palinurus." These words allayed his cares, and banished for a while grief from that sad bosom: his heart leaps to the land that is called by his name.

They accordingly continue their journey, and approach           30 the river. Soon as the boatman saw them, at the moment, from the wave of Styx, moving through the stilly forest, and turning their steps to the bank, he first bespeaks them thus, and assails them unaccosted: "You, whoever you are, that are making for these waters of ours in war-like     35 trim, speak your errand from the spot where you are, and come no nearer. This is the place for the shadows, for Sleep and slumberous Night. The bodies of the living