Page:The Aeneid of Virgil JOHN CONINGTON 1917 V2.pdf/269

 the stern, herself lifted breast high above the water, while with her left she paddles in the noiseless wave. Then thus she breaks on his wondering ear: "Wake you, Æneas, seed of the gods? be wakeful still, and let the sail-ropes go. We it is you see, pines of Ida from the sacred                   5 summit, Sea-nymphs now, your sometime fleet. When the false Rutulian was hot at our backs with fire and sword, reluctantly we burst your bonds, and are now in full quest of you over the sea. This new shape the great mother gave us in her pity, and granted us the state of goddesses and             10 lives to lead beneath the water. Meantime young Ascanius is hemmed in by rampart and trench, with serried weapons all around him, and Latians bristling with battle. Already the Arcadian horse mixed with the brave Etruscan has gained the appointed spot: to bar their way with an               15 intervening host and cut them off from the camp is Turnus' fixed intent. Rise, and with the earliest approach of dawn bid your allies be summoned to arms, and take in hand that shield which the Fire-god himself made to be invincible and bordered with a marge of gold. The                 20 morrow's sun, if you will but give credence to my words, shall survey mighty heaps of Rutulian carnage." Her speech was done: and as she parted she gave with her hand an impulse to the lofty stern, well knowing the due measure of force: on it speeds over the wave, fleeter than           25 dart and wind-swift arrow both. The rest in order mend their speed. Wondering he pauses, the great Trojan of Anchises' line, yet cheers his soul with the omen. Then, looking to the vault above, he prays in brief: "Gracious mother of the gods, lady of Ida, whose joy is in Dindymus,           30 and in turreted cities and harnessed lions at thy bridle-rein, be thou now to me the controller of the fight, do thou bring the presage nigh, and walk beside the Phrygians, mighty goddess, with favouring step." Thus much he said: and meanwhile day was returning at speed,              35 with its light grown to full strength, and night had vanished before it.

First he gives orders to his comrades to obey the