quis fuit? est Hector violatus vulnere nullo. Me miserum! quanto cogor meminisse dolore 280 temporis illius, quo Graium murus, Achilles procubuit! nec me lacrimae luctusve timorve tardarunt, quin corpus humo sublime referrem. his humeris, his, inquam, humeris ego corpus Achillis, et simul arma tuli, quae nunc quoque ferre laboro. 285 Sunt mihi, quae valeant in talia pondera, vires, est animus certe vestros sensurus honores. scilicet idcirco pro gnato caerula mater ambitiosa suo fuit, ut caelestia dona, artis opus tantae, rudis et sine pectore miles indueret? neque enim clipei caelamina norit, Oceanum et terras, cumque alto sidera caelo, Pleïadasque, Hyadasque, immunemque aequoris Arcton, diversasque urbes, nitidumque Orionis ensem. postulat ut capiat quae non intellegit arma. 6 Quid quod me, duri fugientem munera belli, arguit incoepto serum accessisse labori, nec se magnanimo maledicere sentit Achilli ? si simulasse vocas crimen, simulavimus ambo; si mora pro culpa est, ego sum maturior illo. me pia detinuit conjunx, pia mater Achillem ; primaque sunt illis data tempora, cetera vobis. haud timeo, si jam nequeo defendere crimen cum tanto commune viro. Deprensus Ulixis ingenio tamen ille, at non Ajacis Ulixes. Neve in me stolidae convicia fundere linguae admiremur eum, vobis quoque digna pudore obicit. An falso Palameden crimine turpe accusasse mihi, vobis damnasse decorum est? sed neque Naupliades facinus defendere tantum tamque patens valuit, nec vos audistis in illo 290 295 300 305 310 crimina vidistis, pretioque objecta patebant. Nec Poeantiaden quod habet Vulcania Lemnos, esse reus merui: factum defendite vestrum; consensistis enim. Nec me suasisse negabo, ut se subtraheret bellique viaeque labori, temptaretque feros requie lenire dolores: paruit, et vivit. Non haec sententia tantum fida, sed et felix; cum sit satis, esse fidelem. 127 315 quem quoniam vates delenda ad Pergama poscunt, 320 sis licet infestus sociis, regique, mihique, Fortis ubi est Ajax? ubi sunt ingentia magni verba viri? cur hic metuis? cur audet Ulixes ire per excubias, et se committere nocti? perque feros enses non tantum moenia Troum, verum etiam summas arces intrare, suaque 325 330 335 340 eripere aede deam, raptamque adferre per hostes? 345 quae nisi fecissem, frustra Telamone creatus Desine Tydiden vultuque et murmure nobis quippe manu fortes, nec sunt mihi marte secundi, 360 tu pugnare potes: pugnandi tempora mecum 365 'At vos, O proceres, vigili date praemia vestro: 370 proque tot annorum cura, quibus anxius egi, hunc titulum meritis pensandum reddite nostris. jam labor in fine est: obstantia fata removi, altaque posse capi faciendo Pergama, cepi. per spes nunc socias, casuraque moenia Troum, 375 perque deos oro, quos hosti nuper ademi, per siquid superest, quod sit sapienter agendum, — si quid adhuc audax, ex praecipitique petendum est, si Trojae fatis aliquid restare putatis, XIII. 398.] Ajax slays himself in Wrath. 129 380 este mei memores! aut si mihi non datis arma, huic date! et ostendit signum fatale Minervae. Mota manus procerum est, et quid facundia posset, re patuit; fortisque viri tulit arma disertus. Hectora qui solus, qui ferrum, ignesque, Jovemque sustinuit totiens, unam non sustinet iram : invictumque virum vincit dolor. Arripit ensem, et' 385 390 'Meus hic certe est. An et hunc sibi poscit Ulixes? hoc' ait utendum est in me mihi; quique cruore saepe Phrygum maduit, domini nunc caede madebit, ne quisquam Ajacem possit superare, nisi Ajax.' dixit, et in pectus tum demum vulnera passum qua patuit ferrum, letalem condidit ensem. nec valuere manus infixum educere telum: expulit ipse cruor; rubefactaque sanguine tellus purpureum viridi genuit de cespite florem, qui prius Oebalio fuerat de vulnere natus. littera communis mediis pueroque viroque inscripta est foliis haec nominis, illa querellae. 395 XX. THE TALE OF GALATEA. [BOOK XIII.-750-897.] [DURING the return of the chiefs from Troy, Hecuba, having plucked out the eyes of Polymestor, king of Thrace, who had murdered her son Polydorus, is changed to a dog (XIII. 399-575).. Aurora, mourning for her son Memnon, slain by Achilles, obtains that his ashes shall become birds, while her tears are changed to dew (576-622). Eneas at Delphi is told by Anius, priest of Apollo, of his daughters' transformation into doves while fleeing from the power of Agamemnon (623–674); and at his departing receives from him a bowl engraved with the self-devotion of Orion's daughters, sacrificed for Thebes, out of whose ashes sprang the youths Corona (675-699). Thence sailing to Crete and Italy, he passes at Actium the stone image of the judge Ambracus, and Dodona where the sons of Molossus took the form of birds (700-718). On the coast of Sicily he nears the rock of the monster Scylla, once the beautiful daughter of Phorcus, who hears from her attendant nymph Galatea (daughter of Nereus and Doris) the following tale (719-749).] Acis, son of Faunus and the nymph Symæthis, the most beau- · tiful youth of Sicily, loved and was loved by Galatea. But the giant Polyphemus had likewise conceived a wild passion for her, which he utters in song (750-869); and seeing them as they are seated together in a wood, he is filled with jealousy, and casts a rock from Ætna upon them, by which Acis is crushed, and his blood, oozing beneath the rock, becomes a river (870-897). [Thereafter, as Scylla paces the shore, she is seen and pursued by Glaucus, who relates to her the story of his own transformation from a mortal to a sea-divinity (898-968). Going then to Circe, a mistress of enchantments, he entreats her to aid his suit of Scylla; but she in jealousy, because she herself loved Glaucus, so enchanted the waters Scylla used to bathe, that she was converted to a foul monster, girt about the loins with wild dogs, and afterwards (lest she might harm Æneas' fleet) to a rock (XIV. 1–74).] A CIS erat Fauno nymphaque Symaethide cretus, magna quidem patrisque sui matrisque voluptas, nostra tamen major, nam me sibi junxerat uni. |