wise did not suffer me to be satiated in illustrious Ulysses, speak to me of death; mine eyes with my son, for she first slew I would wish, being on earth, to serve even me myself. But I will tell thee for hire with another man of no estate, something else, and do thou lay it up in who had not much livelihood, rather thy mind; hold thy ship towards thy than rule over all the departed dead. dear paternal land secretly, not openly; But come, tell me an account of my noble since confider ce is no longer to be son ; did he follow to the war so as to placed upon women. But come, tell be a chief or not? and tell me if thou me this and relate it truly; if thou hear hast heard anything of blameless Peleus; ei of my son anywhere yet alive, either whether has he still honour amongst the somewhere in Orchomenus, or in sandy many Myrmidonians? or do they disPylos, or somewhere near Menelaus in honour him in Greece and Phthia, bewide Sparta? for divine Orestes has not cause old age possesses his hands and yet died upon the earth.”

feet ? for I am not assistant to him under Thus he spoke; but I addressed him the heams of the sun, being such a one in answer: “O son of Atreus, why dost as when I slew the best of the people ia thou inquire these things of me? I do wide Troy, fighting for the Grecians. If not know at all whether he is alive or I should come as such a one even for a dead ; and it is wrong to utter vain short time to the house of my father, so words."

I would make my strength and uncor. We twain stood thus mourning, an- querable hands terrible to any who treat swering one another with sad words, him with violence and keep him from shedding the warm tear. And the soul honour." of Achilles, son of Peleus, came on, and Thus he spoke ; but I, answering, of Patroclus, and spotless Antilochus, addressed him : “I have not indeed and Ajax, who was the most excellent as heard anything of blameless Peleus. to his form and person of all the Danaans But I will tell thee the whole truth, as after the blameless son of Peleus. And thou biddest me, about thy dear son the soul of the swift-footed descendant of Neoptolemus ; for I myself led him in Æacus knew me, and, lamenting, ad- an equal hollow ship from Scyros to the dressed me in winged words: “O

Jove. well-greaved Grecians. Ofa truth, when born son of Laertes, much-contriving we were taking counsels concerning the Ulysses, wretched one, why dost thou city Troy, he always spoke first, and did meditate a still greater work in thy not err in his words : and godlike Nestor mind ? how didst thou dare to descend and myself alone contended with him, to Orcus, where dwell the witless dead, But when we were fighting about the the images of deceased mortals ?” city of the Trojans, he never remained in

Thus he spoke ; but I addressed him the number of men, nor in the crowd, in answer: “ Achilles, son of Peleus, by but ran on much before, yielding to 110 far the most excellent of the Grecians, I one in his might ; and many men he came for the advice of Tiresias, if he slew in the terrible contest : but I could could tell me how by any plan I may not tell nor name all, how great a people come to craggy Ithaca. For I have not he slew, defending the Greeks. 'Bui i yet come anywhere near Greece, nor will relate how he slew the hero Eury. have I ever gone on my land anywhere, pylus, son of Telephus, with the bras, but I still have troubles : but there was and many Cetean companions were slain no man before more blessed than thou, around him, on account of gifts to a O Achilles, nor will there be hereafter. woman: him certainly I beheld as the For formerly we Argives honoured thee most beautiful, after' divine Memnon. when alive equally with the gods, and But when we, the chieftains of the now again, when thou art here, thou Grecians, ascended into the horse which hast great power amongst the deceased ; Epeus made, and all things were com. do not therefore when dead be sad, ó mitted to me, both to open the thick Achilles.”

ambush and to shut it, there the other Thus I spoke; but he immediately leaders and nders of the Greeks borh addressed me in answer: “Do not, ó / wiped away their tears, and the likes y

each trembled under them ; but him I There however, although angry, he never saw at all with my eyes, either would have spoken to me, or I to him, turning pale as to his beauteous com- but my mind in my breast wished to plexion, or wiping away the tears from behold the souls of the other dead. his cheeks; but he implored me very There then I beheld Minos, the il. much to go out of the horse ; and lustrious son of Jove, having a golden grasped the hilt of his sword, and his sceptre, giving laws to the dead, sitting brass-heavy spear, and he meditated evil down ; but the others around him, the against the Trojans. But when we had king, pleaded their causes, sitting and sacked the lofty city of Priam, having standing through the wide-gated house his share and excellent reward, he em- of Pluto. larked unhurt on a ship, neither stricken After him I beheld vast Orion, hut. with the sharp brass, nor wounded in ing beasts at the same time, in the fighting hand to hand, as oftentimes hap: meadow of asphodel, which he had him. pens in war; for Mars confusedly raves. self killed in the desert mountains, having

Thus I spoke; but the soul of the an all-brazen club in his hands, for ever swift-footed son of Æacus went away, unbroken. taking mighty steps through the meadow And I beheld Tityus, the son of the of asphodel, in joyfulness, because I had very renowned earth, lying on the said that his son was very illustrious. ground ; and he lay stretched over nine But the other souls of the deceased dead acres ; and two vultures sitting on each stood sorrowing, and each related their side of him were tearing his liver, diving griefs. But the soul of Ajax, son of into the caul : but he did not ward them Telamon, stood asar off, angry on ac. off with his hands ; for he had dragged ount of the victory in which I conquered Latona, the celebrated wife of Jove, as Lim, contending in trial at the ships con- she was going to Pythos, through the cerning the arms of Achilles; for his delightful Panopeus. venerable mother proposed them : but And I beheld Tantalus suffering severe che sons of the Trojans and Pallas griess, standing in a lake; and it apMinerva adjudged them. How I wish proached his chin. But he stood thirst. that I had not conquered in such a con- ing, and he could not get anything to iest ; for the earth contained such a person drink; for as often as the old man on account of them, Ajax, who excelled stooped, desiring to drink, so often the in form and in deeds the other Greeks, water, being sucked up, was lost to him; after the blameless son of Peleus ; him and the black earth appeared around his indeed I addressed with mild words : feet, and the deity dried it up. And "O) Ajax, son of blameless Telamon, lofty trees shed down fruit from the top, irt thou not about, even when dead, to pear-trees, and apples, and pomegranates forget thine anger towards me, on ac producing glorious fruit, and sweet figs, count of the destructive arms? for the and flourishing olives : of which, when gods made them a harı unto the the old man raised himself up to pluck Grecians. For thou, who was such a some with his hands, the wind kept fortress to them, didst perish ; for casting them away to the dark clouds. thee, when dead, we Greeks altogether And I beheld Sisyphus, having violent mourned, equally as for the person of griess, bearing an enormous stone with Achilles, the son of Peleus ; nor was both his hands : he indeed leaning with any one else the cause ; but Jupiter his hands and feet kept thrusting the vehemently hated the army of the stone up to the top: but when it was warrior Greeks; and he laid fate upon about to pass over the summit, then you. But come hither, o king, ihat strong force began to drive it back again, thou mayest hear our word and speech ; then the impudent stone rolled to the and subdue thy strength and haughty plain ; but he, striving, kept thrusting it mind.”

back, and the sweat flowed down from Thus I spoke ; but he answered me his limbs, and a dirt arose from his not at all, but went to Erebus amongst head. the other souls of the deceased dead. After him I perceived the might

Hercules, an image ; for he himself amongst the immortal gods is delighted

VIRGIL'S ANEID. with banquets, and has the fair-legged Hebe, daughter of mighty Jove and Book VI. Davidson's Tr., revised by Buckley golden-sandalled Juno. And around him

Ye gods, to whom the empire there was a clang of the dead, as of of ghosts belongs, and ye silent shades, birds, frighted on all sides; but he, like and Chaos, and Phlegethon, places where unto dark night, having a naked bow, silence reigns around in night! permit and an arrow at the string, looking about me to utter the secrets I have heard ; may terribly, was always like unto one about I by your divine will disclose things to let fly a shaft. And there was a buried in deep earth and darkness. They fearful belt around his breast, the thong moved along amid the gloom under the was golden : on which wondrous forms solitary night through the shade, and were wrought, bears, and wild boars, and through the desolate halls and empty terrible lions, and contests, and battles, realms of Pluto ; such as is a journey in and slaughters, and slayings of men; he woods beneath the unsteady moon, under who devised that thong with his art, a faint, glimmering light, when Jupiter never having wrought such a one before, hath wrapped the heavens in shade, and could not work any other such. But he sable night had stripped objects of immediately knew me, when he saw me colour. with his eyes, and, pitying me, addressed Before the vestibule itself, and in the winged words : "0. Jove-born son of first jaws of hell, Grief and vengeful Laertes, much-contriving Ulysses, ah! Cares have placed their couches, and pale wretched one, thou too art certainly pur. Diseases dwell, and disconsolate Old suing some evil fate, which I also endured Age, and Fear, and the evil counsellor under the beams of the sun. I was in- Famine, and vile, deformed Indigence, deed the son of Jove, the son of Saturn, forms ghastly to the sight! and Death, but I had infinite labour; for I was sub- and Toil; then Sleep, akin to Death, jected to a much inferior man, who en- and criminal Joys of the mind ; and in joined ww. me difficult contests: and the opposite threshold murderous War, once he sum me hither to bring the dog, and the iron bedchambers of the Furies, for he did not think that there was any and frantic Discord, having her viperous contest more difficult than this. I indeed locks bound with bloody fillets. brought it up and led it from Pluto, but In the midst a gloomy elm displays its Mercury and blue-eyed Minerva escorted boughs and aged arms, which seat vain

Dreams are commonly said to haunt, and Thus having spoken, he went again under every leaf they dwell. Many monwithin the house of Pluto. But I re. strous savages, moreover, of various mained there firmly, if by chance any forms, stable in the gates, the Centaurs one of the heroes, who perished in former and double-formed Scyllas, and Briareus times, would still come; and I should with his hundred hands, and the enornow still have seen former men, whom I moussnake of Lerma hissing dreadful, and wished, Theseus, and Pirithoüs, glorious Chimæra armed with flames; Gorgons, children of the gods ;. but first myriads Harpies, and the form of Geryon's threeof nations of the dead were assembled bodied ghost. Here Æneas, discon. around me with a fine clamour ; and pale certed with sudden fear, grasps his sword, fear seized me, lest to me illustrious Pro- and presents the naked point to each ap. serpine should send a Gorgon head of a proaching shade : and had not his skilful terrific monster from Orcus. Going then guide put him in mind that they were immediately to my ship, I ordered my airy unbodied phantoms, fluttering about companions to go on board themselves, under an empty form, he had rushed in and to loose the halsers. But they and with his sword struck at the ghosts quickly embarked, and sat down on the in vain. benches. And the wave of the stream Hence is a path which leads to the carried it through the ocean river, first floods of Tartarean Acheron: here a gult the rowing and afterwards a fair wind. turbid and impure boils up with mire

me."

a

and vast whirpools, and disgorges all its There he espies Leucaspis, and Orontes, sand into Cocytus. A grim ferryman the commander of the Lycian fleet, gards these floods and rivers, Charon, mournful, and bereaved of the honours of frightful slovenliness ; on whose of the dead : whom as they sailed from chin a load of gray hair neglected lies; Troy, over the stormy seas, the south his eyes are fame : his vestments hang wind sunk together, whelming both ship from his shoulders by a knot, with filth and crew in the waves. Lo! the pilot overgrown. Himself thrusts on the Palinurus slowly advanced, who lately barge with a pole, and tends the sails, in his Libyan voyage, while he was oband wasts over the bodies in his iron- serving the stars, had fallen from the coloured bat, now in years : but the stern, plunged in the midst of the waves. goud is of fresh and green old age. Hither When with difficulty, by reason of the the whole tribe in swarms come pouring thick shade, Æneas' knew him in this to the banks, matrons and men, the souls mournful mool, he thus first accosts or magnanimous heroes who had gone him: What god, O Palinurus, snatched through life, boys and unmarried maids, you from us, and overwhelmed you ir and young men who had been stretched the middle of the ocean? Come, teli on the funeral pile before the eyes of me. For Apollo, whom I never before their parents ; as numerous as withered found false, in this one response de. leaves fall in the woods with first ceived my mind, declaring that you cold of autumn, or as numerous as birds should be safe on the sea, and arrive at flock to the land from the deep ocean, the Ausonian coasts. Is this the amount when the chilling year drives them beyond of his plighted faith? sea, and sends them to sunny climes. But he answers : Neither the oracle of They stood praying to cross the flood Phoebus beguiled you, prince of the line the first, and were stretching forth their of Anchises, nor a god plunged me in hands with fond desire to gain the farther the sea; for, falling headlong, I drew bank : but the sullen boatman admits along with me the helm, which I sometimes these, sometimes those ; while chanced with great violence to tear others to a great distance removed, he de- away, as I clung to it and steereil our bars from the banks.

course, being appointed pilot. By the Æneas (for he was amazed and moved rough seas I swear that I was not so with the tumult) thus speaks : 0 virgin, seriously apprehensive for myself, as that say, what means that socking to the thy ship, despoiled of her rudder, disriver? what do the ghosts desire ? 01 by possessed of her pilot, might sink while what distinction must these recede from such high billows were rising. The south the banks, those sweep with oars the wind drove me violently on the water livid flood? To him the aged priestess over the spacious sea, three wintiy thus briefly replied : Son of Anchises, 1 nights : on the fourth day I descrieu undoubted offspring of the gods, you see Italy from the high ridge of a wave the deep pools of Cocytus, and the Sty- whereon I was raised aloft.

I was gian lake, by whose divinity the gods swimming gradually toward land, and dreal to swear and violate their oath. should have been out of danger, had not All that crowd which you see consists of the cruel people fallen upon me with the naked and unburied persons : that ferry. sword (encumbered with my wet gar. man is Charon: these, whom the stream ment, and grasping with crooked hands carries, are interred; for it is not per the rugged tops of a mountain), and mitted to transport them over the horrid ignorantly taking me for a rich prey. banks, and hoarse waves, before their Now the waves possess me, and the hones are quietly lodged in a final abode. winds toss me about the shore. But by They wander a hundred years, and flut- the pleasant light of heaven, and by the er about these shores: then, at length vital air, by him who gave thee birth, admitted, they visit the wished-for lakes. by the hope of rising lülus, I thee ime

The offspring of Anchises paused and plore, invincible one, release me from repressed his steps, deeply musing, and these woes : either throw ox me some pitying from his soul their unkind lot. I earth (for thou canst do so), and seek

:

a

:

rises

nurus.

out the Veline port; or, if there be any In answer to which the Amphrysian means, if thy goddess mother point out prophetess spoke: No such plots are any, (for thou dost not, I presume, with here, be not disturbed : nor do these out the will of the gods, attempt to cross weapons bring violence: the huge porter such mighty rivers and the Stygian lake,) may bay in his den for ever, terrifying lend your hand to an unhappy wretch, the incorporeal shades : chaste Proserand bear me with you over the waves, pine may remain in her uncle's palace. that in death at least I may rest in Trojan Æneas, illustrious for piety and peaceful seats.

arms, descends to the deep shades Thus he spoke, when thus the pro- of Erebus to his sire. If the image phetess began : Whence, O Palinurus, of such piety makes no impression on

n thee this so impious desire? you, own a regard at least to this branch Shall you unburied behold the Stygian (she shows the branch that was confloods, and the grim river of the Furies, cealed under her robe). Then his heart or reach the bank against the command from swelling rage is stilled: nor passed of heaven? Cease to hope that the more words than these. He, with decrees of the gods are to be altered by wonder gazing on the hallowed present prayers ; but mindful take these predic. of the fatal branch, beheld after a long tions as the solace of your hard fate. season, turns towards them his leadFor the neighbouring people, compelled coloured barge, and approaches the by portentous plagues from heaven, bank. Thence he dislodges the other shall through their several cities far and souls that sat on the long benches, and wide offer atonement to thy ashes, erect clears the hatches ; at the same time a tomb, and stated anniversary offerings receives into the hold the mighty Eneas. on that tomb present; and the place The boat of sewn hide groaned under shall for ever retain the name of Pali- the weight, and, being leaky, took in

By these words his cares were much water from the lake. At length removed, and grief was for a time he lands the hero and the prophetess safe banished from his disconsolate heart : on the other side of the river, on the he rejoices in the land that is to bear his foul, slimy strand and sea-green weed. name,

Iluge Cerberus makes these realms to They therefore accomplish their jour- resound with barking from his triple ney begun, and approach the river : jaws, stretched at his enormous length whom when the boatman soon from in a den that fronts the gate. To whom the Stygian wave beheld advancing the prophetess, seeing his neck now through the silent grove, and stepping bristle with horrid snakes, flings a sopoforward to the bank, thus he first accosts rific cake of honey and medicated grain. them in words, and chides them un. He, in the mad rage of hunger, opening provoked : Whoever thou mayest be, his three mouths, snatches the offered who art now advancing armed to our morsel, and, spread on the ground, te. rivers, say quick for what end thou | laxes his monstrous limbs, and is extended comest; and from that very spot repress at vast length over all the cave. Æneas, thy step. This is the region of Ghosts, now that the keeper of hell is buried in of Sleep, and drowsy Night : to wast sleep, seizes the passage, and swift over. over the bodies of the living in my passes the bank of that flood whence Stygian boat is not permitted. Nor there is no return. indeed was it joy to me that I received Forthwith are heard voices, loud Alcides on the lake when he came, or wailings, and weeping ghosts of infants

, Theseus and Pirithous, though they in the first opening of the gate : whom, were the offspring of the gods, and in- bereaved of sweet life out of the course vincible in might. One with his hand of nature, and snatched from the breast, put the keeper of Tartarus in chains, a black day cut off, and buried in an and dragged him trembling from the untimely grave. throne of our king himself; the others Next to those are such as had been attempted to carry off our queen from condemned to death by false accusations Pluto's borichamber.

Nor yet were those seats assigned them