Lines 467-503 Flashcards
Taenarias etiam fauces, alta ostia Ditis,
et caligantem nigra formidine lucum
ingressus manesque adiit regemque tremendum
nesciaque humanis precibus mansuescere corda.
He even entered the jaws of Taenarus, the high gates of Dis,
and the grove dim with dark fear,
and came to the spirits, and their dread king,
and hearts that do not know how to soften at human prayer.
At cantu commotae Erebi de sedibus imis
umbrae ibant tenues simulacraque luce carentum,
But startled by his song, the meagre shadows came from the lowest depths of Erebus,
and the phantoms of those without light,
quam multa in foliis avium se milia condunt
vesper ubi aut hibernus agit de montibus imber,
matres atque viri defunctaque corpora vita
magnanimum heroum, pueri innuptaeque puellae,
impositique rogis iuvenes ante ora parentum,
as many as the thousand birds that hide among the leaves,
when Vesper, or wintry rain, drives them from the hills,
mothers and husbands, and the bodies of noble heroes
bereft of life, boys and unmarried girls, and young men
placed on the pyre before their father’s eyes,
quos circum limus niger et deformis harundo
Cocyti tardaque palus inamabilis unda
alligat et noviens Styx interfusa coercet.
round them are the black mud and foul reeds
of Cocytus, and the vile marsh, holding them with its sluggish waters,
the Styx, confining them in its nine-fold ditches.
Quin ipsae stupuere domus atque intima Leti
tartara caeruleosque implexae crinibus angues
Eumenides, tenuitque inhians tria Cerberus ora
atque Ixionii vento rota constitit orbis.
In fact the dwellings of the dead themselves were stupefied, and innermost
Tartarus, and the Furies, with dark snakes entwined in their hair,
and Cerberus held his three mouths gaping wide,
and the circle of Ixion’s wheel stopped in the wind.
Iamque pedem referens casus evaserat omnes;
redditaque Eurydice superas veniebat ad auras,
pone sequens, namque hanc dederat Proserpina legem,
cum subita incautum dementia cepit amantem,
ignoscenda quidem, scirent si ignoscere manes.
And now, retracing his steps, he evaded all mischance,
and Eurydice, regained, approached the upper air,
she following behind, since Proserpine had ordained this law,
when a sudden madness seized the incautious lover,
one to be forgiven, if the spirits knew how to forgive.
Restitit Eurydicenque suam iam luce sub ipsa
immemor heu! victusque animi respexit. Ibi omnis
effusus labor atque immitis rupta tyranni
foedera, terque fragor stagnis auditus Avernis.
he stopped, and forgetful of his Eurydice, alas, now on the edge of light,
with his will conquered, he looked back.
In that instant, all his effort was wasted, and his pact with the cruel tyrant was broken,
and three times a crash was heard by the waters of Avernus.
Illa, Quis et me, inquit, miseram et te perdidit, Orpheu,
quis tantus furor? En iterum crudelia retro
Fata vocant, conditque natantia lumina somnus.
‘Orpheus,’ she cried, ‘what has destroyed both my wretched self, and you?
Why so much rage? See, the cruel Fates recall me again,
and sleep hides my swimming eyes,
Iamque vale: feror ingenti circumdata nocte
invalidasque tibi tendens, heu non tua, palmas!
And now farewell: I am taken, wrapped round by vast night,
and stretching out to you, feeble hands, alas, no longer yours!’
dixit et ex oculis subito, ceu fumus in auras
commixtus tenues, fugit diversa, neque illum,
prensantem nequiquam umbras et multa volentem
dicere, praeterea vidit, nec portitor Orci
amplius obiectam passus transire paludem.
She spoke, and suddenly fled, far from his eyes,
like smoke vanishing in thin air, and never saw him thereafter,
(though) grasping in vain at shadows, and longing
to speak further: nor did the ferryman of Orcus,
let him cross the barrier of that marsh again.
