Aeneid Book 2, Lines 679 - 710

Aeneas rescues his Father Anchises

by Virgil

Aeneas is still telling Queen Dido of the fall of Troy. After the death of King Priam, Aeneas’s night again swings wildly. Desperate bloodshed alternates with supernatural and human encouragement to escape, preserve the gods and heritage of Troy and lay the basis for Rome and its imperial family. His mother, Venus, has just told him that it is really the Gods, who cannot be resisted, who are destroying the city, and not the Greeks. Aeneas has tried but failed to persuade his father Anchises to join him in escape. (Anchises has an unusual disability: Jupiter once scorched him with his thunderbolt for boasting about his affair with Venus.) In this extract, signs from Jupiter himself persuade Anchises to relent and allow Aeneas to carry him to safety. As well as being the grandson of Jupiter, the little boy, Iulus, is the ancestor of Julius Caesar and the Emperor Augustus.

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.

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Talia vociferans gemitu tectum omne replebat,
cum subitum dictuque oritur mirabile monstrum.
namque manus inter maestorumque ora parentum
ecce levis summo de vertice visus Iuli
fundere lumen apex, tactuque innoxia mollis
lambere flamma comas et circum tempora pasci.
nos pavidi trepidare metu crinemque flagrantem
excutere et sanctos restinguere fontibus ignis.
at pater Anchises oculos ad sidera laetus
et caelo palmas cum voce tetendit:
“Iuppiter omnipotens, precibus si flecteris ullis,
aspice nos, hoc tantum, et si pietate meremur,
da deinde augurium, pater, atque haec omina firma.”
vix ea fatus erat senior, subitoque fragore
intonuit laevum, et de caelo lapsa per umbras
stella facem ducens multa cum luce cucurrit.
illam summa super labentem culmina tecti
cernimus Idaea claram se condere silva
signantemque vias; tum longo limite sulcus
dat lucem et late circum loca sulpure fumant.
hic vero victus genitor se tollit ad auras
adfaturque deos et sanctum sidus adorat.
“iam iam nulla mora est; sequor et qua ducitis adsum
di patrii; servate domum, servate nepotem.
vestrum hoc augurium, vestroque in numine Troia est.
cedo equidem, nec, nate, tibi comes ire recuso.”
dixerat ille, et iam per moenia clarior ignis
auditur, propiusque aestus incendia volvunt.
“ergo age, care pater, cervici imponere nostrae;
ipse subibo umeris nec me labor iste gravabit;
quo res cumque cadent, unum et commune periclum,
una salus ambobus erit.”

So saying, Creusa filled the whole house with her groans,
when suddenly there came an amazing portent.
Before his sad parents’ very eyes, and between
their hands, a soft glow was seen to pour
down light from the top of Iulus’s head and a flame,
harmless to the touch, to graze on his hair and temples.
Alarmed, we shook with fear, snuffed out his
burning hair and quenched the holy fire with water.
Joyfully, Father Anchises raised his eyes, hands
and voice to the stars and the heavens:
“Almighty Jupiter, if you are moved by any prayers,
look on us and, if by our faith we are worthy,
grant us the boon of confirming this omen!”
No sooner had he spoken, than with a sudden crash
There was thunder from the left, and from the sky
a star shot blazing through the dark with a great light.
We saw it streak over the rooftop and bury
its brightness in the woods of Mount Ida,
to show us the way; far and wide, its track shines
and the land all around smokes with sulphur.
Now convinced indeed, my Father stretches up,
addresses the Gods and worships the holy star.
“Not a moment’s delay; Gods of my Fathers, I follow
Where you lead; save my house, save my grandson!
This sign is yours, and Troy is under your protection.
I yield, my son, and do not refuse to be your comrade.”
As he ceased, at once the roar of fires is heard louder
Through the city, and the blaze rolls its storm closer.
“Come, dear Father, climb onto my back;
I will bear you on my shoulders and the task will be light;
come what may, for us there will be one shared
danger, and one safety for us both.”

`

More Poems by Virgil

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