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.

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