The Aeneid - Book 12 - Lines 697-952
- Created by: Helen
- Created on: 10-01-13 22:02
Lines 697-703
But Father Aeneas on hearing the name Turnus
ceased to attack both the walls and the citidales
and banished all delays, and interupted all deeds
Jumping for joy he thundered horribly with his weapon:
Just as great as Athos or as great as Erynx or as great as father Appeninus himself
when he roars with holm-oak gleaming and he rejoices in his snowy peaks
lifting himself to the sky
Lines 703-709
Now indeed the Rutullians and the Trojans and all the Latins,
who were holding up the high walls and beating the bottom of the walls with battering rams
put down there weapons from their shoulders and turnes their eyes eagarly.
Latinus himself was amazed by these huge men, born on different sides of the earth,
coming together to decide the issue by sword.
Lines 709-714
And they, after the planes were open with empty surface,
they hurled their spears from a great distance with rapid charge
and attempted war with bronze shields that clash
The whole earth gave a groan; the they doubled blows with frequent blows,
fortune and strength were mixed into one.
Lines 714-722
Just as when two bulls charge brow to brow in hostile battle on great Sila or on top of Taburno,
the heardsmen withdraw fearful, the whole flock stands changed with fear,
the heifers murmur at who will rule the forest and whom the whole heard will follow;
They mix many wounds with one other and implant their horns into each other and bathe their necks and arms with copious blood,
the whole grove echos back with groans:
Lines 722-727
Not otherwise the Trojan Aeneas and the Rutullian hero ran together with sheilds,
a huge crash fills the air.
Juppiter himself holds up the two scales with tongue equal
and places the opposite fates of the two men on them,
(to decide) whom the struggle will doom and whom death will weight.
Lines 727-734
This Turnus thinking himself safe leaps foward,
and raises himself high with his whole body with uplifted sword and strikes;
the Trojans and the excited Latins shouted out and the battle lines of both sides were on tip toes.
But the trecheous sword broke in mid blow and deserted him in his blazing,
had flight not come as a help to him.
He fled more quickly than the east wind when he caught sight of the unknown hilt and his unarmed right hand.
Lines 735-745
The story is that, when he was first mounting his joined horses in battle,
having left his fathers' sword behind,while he was rushing around headlong,
he grabbed the sword of his charioteer Matiscus;
and for a long time when the Trojans were dispersing in flight, that was enough;
after it came upon the armour made by the god Vulcan,
the sword made by man broke into pieces from the blow as if britte ice, it's fragments gleaming in the golden sand.
Therfore Turnus madly sought another part of the pllain in flight, now this way, now that, he entangled uncertain circles:
For on all sides the Trojans shut him in with a dense ring and on one side a vast marsh surrounds him, and on the other, high walls.
Lines 745-751
No less did Aeneas persue, although at times his knees at times made slow by the arrow hindered him and refused their course,
and eagarly he urged on his feet with the panic stricken feet:
It was just as when a hunting dog presses on a stag with his running and barking,
having found it trapped in by a river or shut in by a trap of scarlet feathers.
Lines 751-759
He however terrified by the ambush and the high river banks flees and flees back a thousand ways,
but the Umbrian dog sticks fast to it opening it's mouth.
Now he holds him and now he makes a noise with his jaws as if he has him and he's baffled by an empty bite;
Then indeed a noise arises and the banks and lakes echo around and the sky themselves with all the comosion.
He at the same time as fleeing and as the same time as rebuking all the Rutulians,
calling each man by name he demands the sword that is known to him.
Lines 760-765
Aeneas on the other hand was threatening death and destruction, if anyone came near,
and he terrified the trembling men by threatening to raze the city to the ground, and wounded he pressed on.
He completed five circles in his course and he unwove here and there the same number of times;
for light prizes gained in sport were not sought, but they were competing for the life and blood of Turnus.
Lines 887-893
Aeneas threatens him face to face and brandishes his weapon, huge like a tree, and speaks from his cruel heart in this way:
'What further delay is there now? or why now are you Turnus withdrawing?
Not by running but it must fought hand to hand with weapons.
Turn yourself into all froms, draw together what you can whether in courage or in skill;
choose to aim for the high stars or hide yourself in the hollow ground.'
Lines 894-902
He shaking his head; 'You do not frighten me with your heated words, fierce one; The gods and Juppiter my enemy frighten me.'
Having spoken no more words he cught sight of a huge rock, a huge old rock, which by chance happened to be lying on the plain, placed in the field as a boundary stone to settle a dispute about the land.
Twelve specially selected men could scarcely lift the stone up on their shoulders, men with bodies such as the earth produces now;
That man, hero picked up the stone with his trembling hand and began to hurl it at the enemy and rising up and running quickly.
Lines 902-912
But he isn't aware of hmself running, going, lifting it with his hand or moving the huge rock; his knees give way, his blood chills congealed with cold.
The the stone itself thrown by Turnus rolling through the empty space does not make it across the whole space and carry on it's momentum.
Just as in sleep, when drowsy rest presses on our eyes at night, we seem to want to carry on running eargerly but in the middle of our attempts we collapse weak;
the tongue had no strength, the familiar strength in the body does not suffice and neither voice nor words follow:
Lines 912-918
Thus Turnus, however bravely he sought a way, the dreadful goddess denied him success.
Then the various feelings in his heart turned; he looked at the Rutullians and the city and falters with fear,
he trembles at the death standing over him,
he dosen't see how he might ****** himself away, nor with what force he might stretch against his enemy,
he dosen't see his cariot anywhere or his charioteer sister.
Lines 919-927
As Turnus hesitates Aneas brandashies his fatal weapon, choosing a lucky spot with his eyes, and with his whole body he hurls it from a distance. Rocks hurled from seige engines for battering walls do not roar like this nor do such loud crashes explode when there is lightning.
The spear flyes like a black tornado bringing dreadful destruction and pierces the edge of his brestplate and the outermost ring of his seven layered sheild;
It passes through the middle of his thigh with a hiss. Huge Turnus falls having been struck to the ground with his knee bent double.
Lines 927-935
The Rutulians got up with a groan and the whole surrounding mountain bellow back and the tall groves re-echo the sound all around.
He on the ground a supplicant gazing with his eyes and steching out his pleading right hand and said;
'I indeed have deserved this and make no excuse; Use you luck. If any concern for a sad parent can touch you, I beg pitty the old age of Daunus and give me or my body deprived of light if you prefer, to my family.
Lines 935-944
You have won and the Asonians have seen me stretch out my hand defeated; Lavinia is your wife, do not go on in hatred any further.'
Aeneas stood fierce in his armor turning his eyes and he held back his right hand; and now at every moment as he hesitated the words began to influence him more,
when the ill-fated sword belt high up on his shoulder and the sword belt flashed with familiar studs belonging to the boy Pallus, who Turnus had laid-low when he was defeated by a wound and on his shoulder he was wearing his enemy's embelem.
Lines 945-952
He, after he had drank the memorials of his savage grief with his eyes, enflamed by fury and terrible anger he said:
'Would you be snatched away from me here clad in the spoils of my friend? Pallas sacrifices you with this wound, and Pallas exacts the penalty for your wicked blood.'
Having said these words he plunged his sword directly beneath his heart furiously; but his limbs melt with cold and with a groan life escapes to the underworld complaining.
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