Aeneid Book 2, lines 286-313

Hector visits Aeneas in a dream

by Virgil

Sinon, a Greek agent who has infiltrated the Trojans, has released the warriors hidden in the wooden horse. The sack of Troy is starting, and what an electrifying piece of writing it will be. But Virgil has a problem to solve. Epic heroes stand and fight: how can Aeneas flee without forfeiting his honour and mystique? Here, the dead Hector, Troy’s supreme fighting hero, begins the groundwork. He comes to Aeneas in a dream and tells him that the city must fall. Aeneas’s duty is not to die vainly, but to take responsibility for Troy’s sacred relics and bring them safely to a new home. Aeneas wakes and finds himself confronted by a terrible reality.

See the illustrated blog post here.

To follow the story of Aeneas in sequence, use this link to the full Pantheon Poets selection of extracts from the Aeneid. See the next episode here.

To listen, press play:

To scroll the original and English translation of the poem at the same time - tap inside one box to select it and then scroll.

ille nihil, nec me quaerentem vana moratur,
sed graviter gemitus imo de pectore ducens,
“heu fuge, nate dea, teque his”, ait, “eripe flammis.
hostis habet muros; ruit alto a culmine Troia.
sat patriae Priamoque datum: si Pergama dextra
defendi possent, etiam hac defensa fuissent.
sacra suosque tibi commendat Troia penates:
hos cape fatorum comites, his moenia quaere
magna, pererrato statues quae denique ponto.”
sic ait et manibus vittas Vestamque potentem
aeternumque adytis effert penetralibus ignem.
diverso interea miscentur moenia luctu,
et magis atque magis, quamquam secreta parentis
Anchisae domus arboribusque obtecta recessit,
clarescunt sonitus armorumque ingruit horror.
excutior somno et summi fastigia tecti
ascensu supero atque arrectis auribus asto:
in segetem veluti cum flamma furentibus Austris
incidit, aut rapidus montano flumine torrens
sternit agros, sternit sata laeta boumque labores,
praecipitesque trahit silvas: stupet inscius alto
accipiens sonitum saxi de vertice pastor.
Tum vero manifesta fides, Danaumque patescunt
insidiae. iam Deiphobi dedit ampla ruinam,
Vulcano superante domus; iam proximus ardet
Ucalegon; Sigea igni freta lata relucent:
exoritur clamorque virum clangorque tubarum.

He says nothing and ignores my empty questions,
but drawing deep and heavy groans, says “Ah, flee,
Goddess-born, snatch yourself from these flames.
the enemy has the walls; Troy crashes from its zenith.
Enough has been given for Troy and Priam: if the citadel
were defensible by deeds, mine would have defended it.
Her sacred relics and her Gods, Troy entrusts to you:
take them to share your fate, seek them a stronghold, one
you will found when long journeys on the sea are done.”
Next, in his hands he brings great Vesta, her priests’
bands and the eternal flame from the holy of holies.
Meanwhile, in the city cries of grief and confusion reign,
and more and more, though my Father Anchises’ house
is secluded and screened by trees, the noise grows
louder, and the grim sound of battle intensifies.
Torn from sleep, I climb to the very top of the roof
and stand listening intently: it is as though flame
were tearing into cornfields as south winds rage, swift
torrents from a mountain river laying flat the fields,
the thriving crops and the fruits of the oxen’s labour,
smashing the woodlands down: confused and dumbstruck,
the shepherd faces the din from the top of his rock.
Now the Greeks’ honour is clear, their betrayals laid
bare. Deiphobus’ mansion, Vulcan’s fire towering above,
has fallen in ruin: by it burns the house of Ucalegon;
the broad Sigean strait blazes with reflected light:
up go the shouts of men and the blare of trumpets.

`

More Poems by Virgil

  1. Aeneas saves his son and father, but at a cost
  2. Rumour
  3. Dido’s release
  4. Love is the same for all
  5. Vulcan’s forge
  6. Venus speaks
  7. Fire strikes Aeneas’s fleet
  8. Aeneas sees Marcellus, Augustus’s tragic heir
  9. Aeneas arrives in Italy
  10. Aeneas joins the fray
  11. Laocoon warns against the Trojan horse
  12. The Trojans prepare to set sail from Carthage
  13. Aeneas prepares to tell Dido his story
  14. The farmer’s happy lot
  15. The Trojan Horse enters the city
  16. Aeneas’s ships are transformed
  17. Charon, the ferryman
  18. Mercury’s journey to Carthage
  19. Dido’s story
  20. Aeneas finds Dido among the shades
  21. Sea-nymphs
  22. What is this wooden horse?
  23. Aeneas is wounded
  24. Dido and Aeneas: Hell hath no fury …
  25. Turnus the wolf
  26. Laocoon and the snakes
  27. Turnus at bay
  28. Aeneas reaches the Elysian Fields
  29. Juno throws open the gates of war
  30. The Aeneid begins
  31. A Fury rouses Turnus to war
  32. Helen in the darkness
  33. In King Latinus’s hall
  34. The Syrian hostess
  35. Aeneas’s oath
  36. Juno’s anger
  37. Mourning for Pallas
  38. Aeneas tours the site of Rome
  39. The Trojans reach Carthage
  40. The farmer’s starry calendar
  41. Virgil’s poetic temple to Caesar
  42. More from Virgil’s farming Utopia
  43. Aristaeus’s bees
  44. Into battle
  45. Souls awaiting punishment in Tartarus, and the crimes that brought them there.
  46. Palinurus the helmsman is lost
  47. Rites for the allies’ dead
  48. Aeneas comes to the Hell of Tartarus
  49. Dido falls in love
  50. Storm at sea!
  51. Aeneas prepares for a hopeless fight
  52. The infant Camilla
  53. Turnus is lured away from battle
  54. The battle for Priam’s palace
  55. The portals of sleep
  56. Jupiter’s prophecy
  57. The death of Priam
  58. How Aeneas will know the site of his city
  59. Aeneas rescues his Father Anchises
  60. Catastrophe for Rome?
  61. The natural history of bees
  62. Help for Father Aeneas from Father Tiber
  63. Aeneas learns the way to the underworld
  64. Anchises’s ghost invites Aeneas to visit the underworld
  65. The death of Dido
  66. Aeneas and Dido meet
  67. The death of Pallas
  68. Virgil’s perils on the sea
  69. The death of Priam
  70. Signs of bad weather
  71. The death of Euryalus and Nisus
  72. Virgil predicts a forthcoming birth and a new golden age
  73. Virgil begins the Georgics
  74. King Latinus grants the Trojans’ request
  75. New allies for Aeneas
  76. Cassandra is taken
  77. The journey to Hades begins
  78. The Trojan horse opens
  79. King Mezentius meets his match
  80. Omens for Princess Lavinia
  81. Juno is reconciled
  82. Aeneas’s vision of Augustus
  83. The Harpy’s prophecy
  84. Dido and Aeneas: royal hunt and royal affair
  85. The boxers
  86. The Fury Allecto blows the alarm
Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.