The God of Arms, who rules the Thracian coast,
That they, or he, these omens would avert,
Release our fears, and better signs impart.
Clear'd, as I thought, and fully fix'd at length
To learn the cause, I tugged with all my strength:
I bent my knees against the ground; once more
The violated
myrtle ran with gore.
Scarce dare I tell the sequel: from the womb
Of wounded earth, and caverns of the tomb,
A groan, as of a troubled ghost, renew'd
My
fright, and then these
dreadful words ensued:
'Why dost thou thus my buried body rend?
O spare the
corpse of thy
unhappy friend!
Spare to
pollute thy pious hands with blood:
The tears
distil not from the wounded wood;
But ev'ry drop this living tree contains
Is
kindred blood, and ran in Trojan veins.
O fly from this unhospitable shore,
Warn'd by my fate; for I am Polydore!
Here loads of lances, in my blood embrued,
Again shoot
upward, by my blood renew'd.'
"My falt'ring tongue and shiv'ring limbs declare
My
horror, and in bristles rose my hair.
When Troy with Grecian arms was closely pent,
Old Priam,
fearful of the war's event,
This
hapless Polydore to Thracia sent:
Loaded with gold, he sent his
darling, far
From noise and
tumults, and
destructive war,
Committed to the
faithless tyrant's care;
Who, when he saw the pow'r of Troy decline,
Forsook the weaker, with the strong to join;
Broke ev'ry bond of nature and of truth,
And murder'd, for his
wealth, the royal youth.
O
sacredhunger of
pernicious gold!
What bands of faith can
impious lucre hold?
Now, when my soul had
shaken off her fears,
I call my father and the Trojan peers;
Relate the prodigies of Heav'n, require
What he commands, and their advice desire.
All vote to leave that execrable shore,
Polluted with the blood of Polydore;
But, ere we sail, his fun'ral rites prepare,
Then, to his ghost, a tomb and altars rear.
In
mournful pomp the matrons walk the round,
With baleful
cypress and blue fillets crown'd,
With eyes
dejected, and with hair unbound.
Then bowls of tepid milk and blood we pour,
And
thriceinvoke the soul of Polydore.
"Now, when the raging storms no longer reign,
But southern gales invite us to the main,
We
launch our vessels, with a prosp'rous wind,
And leave the cities and the shores behind.
"An island in th' Aegaean main appears;
Neptune and wat'ry Doris claim it theirs.
It floated once, till Phoebus fix'd the sides
To rooted earth, and now it braves the tides.
Here, borne by friendly winds, we come ashore,
With needful ease our weary limbs restore,
And the Sun's
temple and his town adore.
"Anius, the
priest and king, with
laurel crown'd,
His hoary locks with
purple fillets bound,
Who saw my sire the Delian shore ascend,
Came forth with eager haste to meet his friend;
Invites him to his palace; and, in sign
Of ancient love, their plighted hands they join.
Then to the
temple of the god I went,
And thus, before the
shrine, my vows present:
'Give, O Thymbraeus, give a resting place
To the sad relics of the Trojan race;
A seat secure, a region of their own,
A
lasting empire, and a happier town.
Where shall we fix? where shall our labors end?
Whom shall we follow, and what fate attend?
Let not my pray'rs a
doubtful answer find;
But in clear auguries unveil thy mind.'
Scarce had I said: he shook the holy ground,
The
laurels, and the lofty hills around;
And from the tripos rush'd a bellowing sound.
Prostrate we fell; confess'd the present god,
Who gave this answer from his dark abode:
'Undaunted youths, go, seek that mother earth
From which your ancestors
derive their birth.
The soil that sent you forth, her ancient race
In her old bosom shall again embrace.
Thro' the wide world th' Aeneian house shall reign,
And children's children shall the crown sustain.'
Thus Phoebus did our future fates disclose:
A
mightytumult, mix'd with joy, arose.
"All are concern'd to know what place the god
Assign'd, and where determin'd our abode.
My father, long revolving in his mind
The race and lineage of the Trojan kind,
Thus answer'd their demands: 'Ye princes, hear
Your
pleasing fortune, and
dispel your fear.
The
fruitful isle of Crete, well known to fame,
Sacred of old to Jove's
imperial name,
In the mid ocean lies, with large command,
And on its plains a hundred cities stand.
Another Ida rises there, and we
From
thencederive our Trojan ancestry.
From
thence, as 't is divulg'd by certain fame,
To the Rhoetean shores old Teucrus came;
There fix'd, and there the seat of empire chose,
Ere Ilium and the Trojan tow'rs arose.
In
humble vales they built their soft abodes,
Till Cybele, the mother of the gods,
With tinkling cymbals charm'd th' Idaean woods,
She secret rites and ceremonies taught,
And to the yoke the
savage lions brought.
Let us the land which Heav'n appoints, explore;
Appease the winds, and seek the Gnossian shore.
If Jove assists the passage of our fleet,
The third propitious dawn discovers Crete.'
Thus having said, the sacrifices, laid
On smoking altars, to the gods he paid:
A bull, to Neptune an oblation due,
Another bull to bright Apollo slew;
A milk-white ewe, the
western winds to please,
And one coal-black, to calm the stormy seas.
Ere this, a flying rumor had been spread
That
fierce Idomeneus from Crete was fled,
Expell'd and exil'd; that the coast was free
From foreign or
domestic enemy.
"We leave the Delian ports, and put to sea;
By Naxos, fam'd for vintage, make our way;
Then green Donysa pass; and sail in sight
Of Paros' isle, with
marble quarries white.
We pass the scatter'd isles of Cyclades,
That,
scarce distinguish'd, seem to stud the seas.
The shouts of sailors double near the shores;
They stretch their
canvas, and they ply their oars.
'All hands aloft! for Crete! for Crete!' they cry,
And
swiftly thro' the foamy billows fly.
Full on the promis'd land at length we bore,
With joy descending on the Cretan shore.
With eager haste a rising town I frame,
Which from the Trojan Pergamus I name:
The name itself was
grateful; I exhort
To found their houses, and erect a fort.
Our ships are haul'd upon the yellow strand;
The youth begin to till the labor'd land;
And I myself new marriages promote,
Give laws, and dwellings I divide by lot;
When rising vapors choke the
wholesome air,
And blasts of noisome winds
corrupt the year;
The trees devouring caterpillars burn;
Parch'd was the grass, and blighted was the corn:
Nor 'scape the beasts; for Sirius, from on high,
With pestilential heat infects the sky:
My men- some fall, the rest in fevers fry.
Again my father bids me seek the shore
Of
sacred Delos, and the god implore,
To learn what end of woes we might expect,
And to what clime our weary course direct.
"'T was night, when ev'ry creature, void of cares,
The common gift of balmy
slumber shares:
The statues of my gods (for such they seem'd),
Those gods whom I from
flaming Troy redeem'd,
Before me stood, majestically bright,
Full in the beams of Phoebe's ent'ring light.
Then thus they spoke, and eas'd my troubled mind:
'What from the Delian god thou go'st to find,
He tells thee here, and sends us to relate.
Those pow'rs are we, companions of thy fate,
Who from the burning town by thee were brought,
Thy fortune follow'd, and thy safety wrought.
Thro' seas and lands as we thy steps attend,
So shall our care thy
glorious race befriend.
An ample realm for thee thy fates ordain,
A town that o'er the conquer'd world shall reign.
Thou,
mighty walls for
mighty nations build;
Nor let thy weary mind to labors yield:
But change thy seat; for not the Delian god,
Nor we, have giv'n thee Crete for our abode.
A land there is, Hesperia call'd of old,
(The soil is
fruitful, and the natives bold-
Th' Oenotrians held it once,) by later fame
Now call'd Italia, from the leader's name.
lasius there and Dardanus were born;
From
thence we came, and
thither must return.
Rise, and thy sire with these glad
tidings greet.
Search Italy; for Jove denies thee Crete.'
"Astonish'd at their voices and their sight,
(Nor were they dreams, but visions of the night;
I saw, I knew their faces, and descried,
In perfect view, their hair with fillets tied;)
I started from my couch; a clammy sweat
On all my limbs and shiv'ring body sate.
To heav'n I lift my hands with pious haste,
And
sacredincense in the flames I cast.
Thus to the gods their perfect honors done,
More
cheerful, to my good old sire I run,
And tell the
pleasing news. In little space
He found his error of the double race;
Not, as before he deem'd, deriv'd from Crete;
No more deluded by the
doubtful seat:
Then said: 'O son, turmoil'd in Trojan fate!
Such things as these Cassandra did relate.
This day revives within my mind what she
Foretold of Troy renew'd in Italy,
And Latian lands; but who could then have thought