Page:The Aeneid of Virgil JOHN CONINGTON 1917 V2.pdf/97

 fortune she presaged as appointed for our line, calling often for Hesperia, often for the land of Italy. But could anyone think that Teucrians would ever reach the Hesperian shore? Could Cassandra's prophesying in those days gain any one's credence? Let us give way to Phœbus, and     5 follow the better course enjoined.' He said, and with one consent we gladly obey. So we quit this settlement as we quitted the last, and leaving a few behind, set sail, and make our hollow barque fly over the vast world of waters.

"Soon as the ships had gained the mid-sea, and land was     10 no more to be seen, sky on every side, on every side ocean, then came a murky storm-cloud and stood over my head, charged with night and winter tempest, and darkness ruffled the billow's crest. At once the winds lay the sea in heaps, and the waters rise mountains high: a scattered      15 fleet, we are tossed upon the vast abyss: clouds enshrouded the day, and dank night robbed us of the sky, while fire flashes momently from the bursting clouds. We are dashed out of our track, and wander blindly over the blind waters. Nay, even Palinurus owns he cannot tell day      20 from night in a heaven like this, or recollect the footpath in the watery wilderness. Three dreary suns, blotted by blinding darkness, we wander on the deep: three nights with never a star. On the fourth day, at last, land was first seen to rise, and mountains with curling smoke      25 wreaths to dawn in distant prospect. Down drop the sails: we rise on our oars: incessantly the crews, straining every nerve, toss the foam and sweep the blue.

"Escaped from the sea, I am first welcomed by the coast of the Strophades—the Strophades are known by the     30 name Greece gave them, islands in the great Ionian, which fell Celæno[o] and the rest of the Harpies have made their home, ever since Phineus'[o] doors were closed against them, and fear drove them from the board which once fed them. A more baleful portent than this—a fiercer plague      35 of heaven's vengeance never crawled out of the Stygian flood. Birds with maiden's faces, a foul discharge, crooked talons, and on their cheeks the pallor of eternal famine.