Page:The Aeneid of Virgil JOHN CONINGTON 1917 V2.pdf/271

broken billows roar, but ocean without let glides gently
up the shore as the tide advances, suddenly turns his
prows thither, and exhorts his crew: "Now, ye chosen
band, ply your stout oars, lift the vessels and carry them
home: cleave with your beaks this land that hates you; 5
let the keel plough its own furrow. Even from shipwreck
in a roadstead like this I would not shrink, could I once
get hold of the soil." Tarchon having thus said, his crew
rise on their oars and bear down on the Latian plains with
vessels all foam, till the beaks have gained the dry land, 10
and every keel has come scatheless to its rest. Not so
thy ship, Tarchon: for while dashed on a sandbank it
totters on the unequal ridge, poised in suspense awhile,
and buffeting the waves, its sides give way, and its men
are set down in the midst of the water: broken oars and 15
floating benches entangle them, and their feet are carried
back by the ebb of the wave.

No sluggish delay holds Turnus from his work: with
fiery speed he sweeps his whole army against the Teucrians,
and plants them in the foe's face on the shore. The 20
clarions sound: first dashed Æneas on the rustic ranks, a
presage of the fight's fortune, and disarrayed the Latians,
slaying Theron, who in his giant strength is assailing
Æneas: piercing through quilted brass and tunic stiff
with gold the sword devours his unguarded side. Next 25
he strikes Lycus, who was cut from the womb of his
dead mother and consecrated to thee, Apollo, because his
baby life had been suffered to scape the peril of the steel.
Hard by, as iron Cisseus and gigantic Gyas were laying
low his host with their clubs, he casts them down in 30
death: nought availed them; the weapons of Hercules or
strong hands to wield them, or Melampus their sire,
Alicides' constant follower, long as earth found for him
those grievous tasks. See there, as Pharus is hurling
forth words without deeds, he flings at him his javelin 35
and plants it in the bawler's mouth. Thou, too, Cydon,
while following with ill-starred quest the blooming Clytius,
thy latest joy, hadst lain stretched on the ground by the