Page:The Aeneid of Virgil JOHN CONINGTON 1917 V2.pdf/190



AND thou, too, in thy death, Caieta,[o] nurse of Æneas, hast left to our coast the heritage of an ever-living fame; still in this later day thy glory hovers over thy resting-place, and a name on Hesperia's mighty seaboard is thy monument, if that be renown. So when good Æneas had paid the last    5 dues and raised a funeral mound, and had waited for the calming of the deep, he spreads sail and leaves the harbour. Nightward the breezes blow, nor does the fair Moon scorn to show the way: her rippling light makes the sea shine again. The next land they skirt is the coast of Circe's     10 realm, where in queenly state the daughter of the Sun thrills her forest fastness with never-ending song, and in her haughty mansion burns fragrant cedar to give light by night, as she draws her shrill comb over the delicate warp. From the shore they heard the growling noise of lions in     15 wrath, disdaining their bonds and roaring in midnight hour, bristly boars and caged bears venting their rage, and shapes of huge wolves fiercely howling: things which Circe, fell goddess, had transformed by her magic drugs from the mien of man to a beast's visage and a beast's hide. 20 So, lest the pious race of Troy should suffer such monstrous change, were they to seek harbour there or approach the perilous shore, Neptune filled their sails with favouring breezes, sped their flight along, and wafted them past the seething waters. 25

The sea was just reddening in the dawn, and Aurora was shining down from heaven's height in saffron robe and rosy car, when all at once the winds were laid, and every breath sank in sudden sleep, and the oars pull slowly against the smooth unmoving wave. In the same moment Æneas,     30 looking out from the sea, beholds a mighty forest. Among