Solamenque mali.

Postquam altos tetigit fluctus et ad aequora venit,
Luminis effossi fluidum lavit inde cruorem,
Dentibus infrendens gemitu, graditurque per aequor
Iam medium, necdum fluctus latera ardua tinxit.
Nos procul inde fugam trepidi celerare, recepto
Supplice sic merito, tacitique incidere funem;
Verrimus et proni certantibus aequora remis.
Sensit, et ad sonitum vocis vestigia torsit.
Verum ubi nulla datur dextra adfectare potestas,
Nec potis Ionios fluctus aequare sequendo,
Clamorem immensum tollit, quo pontus et omnes
Contremuere undae, penitusque exterrita tellus.
Italiae, curvisque immugiit Aetna cavernis.
At genus e silvis Cyclopum et montibus altis
Excitum ruit ad portus et litora complent.
Cernimus astantes nequiquam lumine torvo
Aetnaeos fratres, caelo capita alta ferentes,
Concilium horrendum: quales cum vertice celso
Aëriae quercus, aut coniferae cyparissi

665

670

675

680

Ni teneant cursus; certum est dare lintea retro.

Ecce autem Boreas angusta ab sede Pelori
Missus adest. Vivo praetervehor ostia saxo

Pantagiae Megarosque sinus Thapsumque iacentem.
Talia monstrabat relegens errata retrorsus
Litora Achemenides, comes infelicis Ulixi.

690

Sicanio praetenta sinu iacet insula contra
Plemyrium undosum; nomen dixere priores
Ortygiam. Alpheum fama est huc Elidis amnem
Occultas egisse vias subter mare; qui nunc
Ore, Arethusa, tuo Siculis confunditur undis.
Iussi numina magna loci veneramur; et inde
Exsupero praepingue solum stagnantis Helori.
Hinc altas cautes proiectaque saxa Pachyni
Radimus, et fatis numquam concessa moveri
Apparet Camarina procul campique Geloi,
Immanisque Gela fluvii cognomine dicta.
Arduus inde Acragas ostentat maxima longe

Moenia, magnanimûm quondam generator equorum;
Teque datis linquo ventis, palmosa Selinus,

694. Alpheum. Cf. Statius, Thebaid (Pope's Trans.):

Where first Alpheus hides His wandering stream, and through the briny tides

Unmixed to his Sicilian river glides.

696. Arethusa. The legend goes that Alpheus, the river god of Elis, was in love with the nymph Arethusa ; that she, fleeing from him, was changed by Diana into a stream which disappeared in the earth, and emerged, after passing under the Ocean, in Ortygia; and that Alpheus, following her, mingled his waters with hers in the fountain in Ortygia named from the nymph.

For the story of Arethusa, cf. Ovid (Met. V. 577-641). This beautiful romance of mythology has been pleasingly told by Shelley (Arethusa), ending thus:

And now from their fountains
In Enna's mountains,

695

700

705

When they love but live no more. 700. Numquam concessa moveri Camarina was a swamp or marshy lake which bred pestilence to the neighboring inhabitants. When they asked the oracle of Apollo whether they should drain the swamp, the god forbade them to do so, saving, Μὴ κίνει Καμάριναν, ἀκίνητος γὰρ dueivov. They, however, disregarded the oracle, and drained the marsh; but in so

Down one vale where the morning basks, doing, laid open their city to the attacks

Like friends once parted

Grown single-hearted,

of enemies.

705. Palmosa Selinus. This region

Et vada dura lego saxis Lilybeïa caecis.
Hinc Drepani me portus et inlaetabilis ora
Accipit. Hic, pelagi tot tempestatibus actus,
Heu genitorem, omnis curae casusque levamen,
Amitto Anchisen. Hic me, pater optime, fessum
Deseris, heu, tantis nequiquam erepte periclis !
Nec vates Helenus, cum multa horrenda moneret,
Hos mihi praedixit luctus, non dira Celaeno.
Hic labor extremus, longarum haec meta viarum.
Hinc me digressum vestris deus appulit oris.

Sic pater Aeneas intentis omnibus unus
Fata renarrabat divûm, cursusque docebat.
Conticuit tandem, factoque hic fine quievit.

is covered with dwarf palms. Spenser
changes them to almond trees (F. Q. I.
VII. 32):

Like to an almond tree ymounted hye
On top of greene Selinis all alone,
With blossoms brave bedecked daintily.

707. Inlaetabilis. Explained in the next four lines. Drepani. The port of Drepanum, his eleventh landing place.

710

715

715. At this point of the journey the first book (1. 34) begins, and describes the adventures of the Trojans until they reach Carthage in the summer of the seventh year (I. 755), and thus prepares the way for the events that now are to follow in the fourth book.

707. Inlaetabilis, 234.-710. Pater, 238.-712. Moneret, 202, 4).

NEREIDS AND TRITONS.

1

Low lie her towers; sole relics of her sway,
Her desert shores a few sad remnants keep;
Shrines, temples, cities, kingdoms, states decay;
O'er urns and arcs triumphal deserts sweep

Their sands, or lions roar, or ivies creep.

TASSO, Ger. Lib. XV. 20.