Aeneid

Apollo, who, while yet he spoke, put by

his mortal aspect, and before their eyes

melted to viewless air. The Teucrians knew

the vocal god with armament divine

of arrows; for his rattling quiver smote

their senses as he fled. Obedient

to Phoebus' voice they held back from the fray

Iulus' fury, and their eager souls

faced the fresh fight and danger's darkest frown.

From tower to tower along the bastioned wall

their war-cry flew: they bend with busy hand

the cruel bow, or swing the whirling thong

of javelins. The earth on every side

is strewn with spent shafts, the reverberant shield

and hollow helmet ring with blows; the fight

more fiercely swells; not less the bursting storm

from watery Kid-stars in the western sky

lashes the plain, or multitudinous hail

beats upon shallow seas, when angry Jove

flings forth tempestuous and-boundless rain,

and splits the bellied clouds in darkened air.

The brothers Pandarus and Bitias,

of whom Alcanor was the famous sire,

on Ida born, and whom Iaera bred

in sacred wood of Jove, an oread she,

twin warriors, like their native hills and trees

of stature proud, now burst those portals wide

to them in ward consigned, and sword in hand

challenge the foe to enter. Side by side,

steel-clad, their tall heads in bright crested helms,

to left and right, like towers, the champions stand

as when to skyward, by the gliding waves

of gentle Athesis or Padus wide,

a pair of oaks uprise, and lift in air

their shaggy brows and nodding crests sublime.

In burst the Rutules where the onward way

seemed open wide; Quercens no tarrying knows,

nor proud Aquiculus in well-wrought arms;

Tmarus sweeps on impetuous, and the host

of Haemon, child of Mars. Some routed fly;

some lay their lives-down at the gate. Wild rage

o'erflows each martial breast, and gathered fast

the Trojans rally to one point, and dare

close conflict, or long sallies o'er the plain.

To Turnus, who upon a distant field

was storming with huge havoc, came the news

that now his foe, before a gate thrown wide,

was red with slaughter. His own fight he stays,

and speeds him, by enormous rage thrust on,

to those proud brethren at the Dardan wall.

There first Antiphates, who made his war

far in the van (a Theban captive's child

to great Sarpedon out of wedlock born),

he felled to earth with whirling javelin:

th' Italic shaft of cornel lightly flew

along the yielding air, and through his throat

pierced deep into the breast; a gaping wound

gushed blood; the hot shaft to his bosom clung.

Then Erymas and Merops his strong hand

laid low: Aphidnus next, then came the turn

of Bitias, fiery-hearted, furious-eyed:

but not by javelin,—such cannot fall

by flying javelin,—the ponderous beam

of a phalaric spear, with mighty roar,

like thunderbolt upon him fell; such shock

neither the bull's-hides of his double shield

nor twofold corselet's golden scales could stay

but all his towering frame in ruin fell.

Earth groaned, and o'er him rang his ample shield.

so crashes down from Baiae's storied shore

a rock-built mole, whose mighty masonry,

piled up with care, men cast into the sea;

it trails its wreckage far, and fathoms down

lies broken in the shallows, while the waves

whirl every way, and showers of black sand

are scattered on the air: with thunder-sound

steep Prochyta is shaken, and that bed

of cruel stone, Inarime, which lies

heaped o'er Typhoeus by revenge of Jove.

Now to the Latins Mars, the lord of war,

gave might and valor, and to their wild hearts

his spur applied, but on the Teucrians breathed

dark fear and flight. From every quarter came

auxiliar hosts, where'er the conflict called,

and in each bosom pulsed the god of war.

When Pandarus now saw his brother's corse

low Iying, and which way the chance and tide

of battle ran, he violently moved

the swinging hinges of the gate, and strained

with both his shoulders broad. He shut outside

not few of his own people, left exposed

in fiercest fight but others with himself

he barred inside and saved them as they fled;

nor noted, madman, how the Rutule King

had burst in midmost of the line, and now

stood prisoned in their wall, as if he were

some monstrous tiger among helpless kine.

His eyeballs strangely glared; his armor rang

terrific, his tall crest shook o'er his brows

blood-red, and lightnings glittered from his shield