Venus speaks

“’Nate, quis indomitas tantus dolor excitat iras?
quid furis? aut quonam nostri tibi cura recessit
non prius aspicies ubi fessum aetate parentem
liqueris Anchisen, superet coniunxne Creusa
Ascaniusque puer? quos omnis undique Graiae
circum errant acies et, ni mea cura resistat,
iam flammae tulerint inimicus et hauserit ensis
non tibi Tyndaridis facies invisa Lacaenae
culpatusve Paris, divum inclementia, divum
has evertit opes sternitque a culmine Troiam.
aspice (namque omnem, quae nunc obducta tuenti
mortalis hebetat visus tibi et umida circum
caligat, nubem eripiam; tu ne qua parentis
iussa time neu praeceptis parere recusa):
hic, ubi disiectas moles avulsaque saxis
saxa vides, mixtoque undantem pulvere fumum,
Neptunus muros magnoque emota tridenti
fundamenta quatit totamque a sedibus urbem
eruit. hic Iuno Scaeas saevissima portas
prima tenet sociumque furens a navibus agmen
ferro accincta vocat.
iam summas arces Tritonia, respice, Pallas
insedit nimbo effulgens et Gorgone saeva.
ipse pater Danais animos virisque secundas
sufficit, ipse deos in Dardana suscitat arma.
eripe, nate, fugam finemque impone labori;
nusquam abero et tutum patrio te limine sistam.’
dixerat et spissis noctis se condidit umbris.
apparent dirae facies inimicaque Troiae
numina magna deum.
Tum vero omne mihi visum considere in ignis
Ilium et ex imo verti Neptunia Troia:
ac veluti summis antiquam in montibus ornum
cum ferro accisam crebrisque bipennibus instant
eruere agricolae certatim, illa usque minatur
et tremefacta comam concusso vertice nutat,
vulneribus donec paulatim evicta supremum
congemuit traxitque iugis avulsa ruinam.
descendo ac ducente deo flammam inter et hostis
expedior: dant tela locum flammaeque recedunt.

“‘Son, what pain is great enough to rouse such uncontrollable anger? Why are you raging, and what has become of your care for me? Will you not first consider where you have left your father, worn with age, and whether Creusa your wife and your boy Iulus are living still, whom all the Greek army are roving around and, if I were not preventing it, the flames would have taken, and whose blood the swords of the enemy would have drunk already? I tell you it is not the hated beauty of Spartan Helen or Paris’s fault that is to blame, it is lack of mercy from the Gods, the Gods, that has toppled this rich city and is razing Troy from the top down. Look – for I will take away all the cloud that now draws over your sight, dulls your human vision and cloaks you in dank darkness – fear nothing, and refuse nothing that your mother tells you to do – look here, where you see mighty works torn apart, stones ripped from stones and billowing smoke mingled with the dust! Neptune is shaking the walls and their stricken foundations with his great trident and has rent the whole city from its seat; here Juno, fiercest of all, leading the onset, holds the Scaean gate, rages, her sword girded on, and calls the Greek army from the ships! Now, look, Tritonian Minerva sits upon the citadel, blazing with cloud and dire with the Gorgon on her aegis! Father Jupiter himself summons the Gods to arms against the Trojans, rouses the spirits of the Greeks and gives them strength to prevail! Fly at once, my son, put an end to your labours. I will always be with you, and bring you safe to your father’s house.’ And she vanished into the dense shadows of the night. There appeared, as enemies of Troy, the dread forms and sacred powers of the Gods; then truly I saw the whole of Troy, built by Neptune himself, overthrown from top to bottom, subsiding in flames. Just as when farmers attack an ancient ash in the mountains with steel to chop it down and beset it closely, raining blows from the axe in turn, it looms above them, its crown nods and its top is stricken until, gradually overcome by its wounds, it gives its last groan and, hewn from the ridge, falls in ruin. I leave the citadel and, a god as my guide, pick my way through fire and foes: arms give place and the flames draw back.”