To rip the Greek lair open with iron spears and Surely Laocoön would have driven us on, now, If Fate and our own wits had not gone against us, Quivering, there it stuck, and the stricken wombĬame booming back from its depths with echoing groans. The mortised timberwork of its swollen belly.
“In that spirit, with all his might he hurledĪ huge spear straight into the monster’s flanks, I fear the Greeks, especially bearing gifts.’
Or some other deception’s lurking deep inside it. Spy on our homes, come down on our city, overwhelm us. Or the horse is a battle-engine geared to breach our walls, Trust me, either the Greeks are hiding, shut inside those beams,
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Or any gift of the Greeks is free of guile? You really believe the enemy’s sailed away?
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“But now, out in the lead with a troop of comrades,ĭown Laocoön runs from the heights in full fury,Ĭalling out from a distance: ‘Poor doomed fools, Then had our lances pierc’d the treach’rous wood,Īnd Ilian tow’rs and Priam’s empire stood.” The sides, transpierc’d, return a rattling sound,Īnd groans of Greeks inclos’d come issuing thro’ the woundĪnd, had not Heav’n the fall of Troy design’d,Įnough was said and done t’inspire a better mind. Pierc’d thro’ the yielding planks of jointed wood, His forceful spear, which, hissing as it flew, Thus having said, against the steed he threw Trust not their presents, nor admit the horse.’ Somewhat is sure design’d, by fraud or force: T’ o’erlook the walls, and then to batter down. Within its blind recess, our secret foes Think you the Grecians from your coasts are gone? What more than madness has possess’d your brains? ‘O wretched countrymen! what fury reigns? Ran from the fort, and cried, from far, aloud: Troiaque nunc staret, Priamique arx alta maneres. Impulerat ferro Argolicas foedare latebras, Insonuere cavae gemitumque dedere cavernae.Įt, si fata deum, si mens non laeva fuisset,
In latus inque feri curvam compagibus alvumĬontorsit. Sic fatus ualidis ingentem viribus hastam Quidquid id est, timeo Danaos et dona ferentis.' Inspectura domos venturaque desuper urbi,Īut aliquis latet error equo ne credite, Teucri. Primus ibi ante omnis magna comitante catervaĮt procul 'o miseri, quae tanta insania, cives?Ĭreditis avectos hostis? aut ulla putatisĭona carere dolis Danaum? sic notus Ulixes?Īut hoc inclusi ligno occultantur Achivi,Īut haec in nostros fabricata est machina muros, In classical times poems were meant to be listened to and rather excitingly the British actor, Simon Callow, has narrated an audiobook of the Aeneid, based on Robert Fagles’s translation.NwhyteRather than the second paragraph of Book III, I’m taking the second paragraph of Book II as my sample text, because it includes the single best known quotation from the poem: If you want to read the Latin alongside the English, you can turn to the Loeb Classical Library, though it inconveniently stretches over two books and the English is a little dated. Author Selina O’Grady, author of And Man Created God, specified the translation by the American poet and translator Robert Fitzgerald (1983), though in this New York Times review, you can see the arguments for also reading the translation by Robert Fagles (2006), the late American academic and poet. See below why experts picked it as an important book on a variety of subjects. The Aeneid was written by the Roman poet Virgil, in the age of Augustus, as a founding myth for the emerging Roman empire. Aeneid, opening lines (Robert Fitzgerald translation) The Aeneid (Robert Fitzgerald translation) by VirgilĮxpelled and exiled, left the Trojan shore”