Aeneid Book 5, lines 443-484

The boxers

Book five of the Aeneid, which describes memorial games that Aeneas holds for his father Anchises, marks a pause in the main thrust of the narrative and offers some light relief. This extract from the boxing match between Entellus and Dares reminds us of the Romans’ taste for death and bloodshed as a spectacle – this match would have provided a popular number in the arena.

The contestants fight, as would be normal, with the cestus, heavy leather gloves weighted with lead. Dares is a young champion, who has killed a man in the games held for Hector’s funeral. No-one at first comes forward to take him on until Entellus, a famous, but now elderly, fighter is provoked into doing so. He was a pupil of the legendary fighter, Eryx, who was killed in a bout by Hercules, and had something of the divine about him as the son of Venus and a mortal, and so a half-brother to Aeneas. In the first exchanges, Entellus, hampered by age, is less mobile and agile than his younger opponent but holds his own by sheer size, strength and skill.

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Ostendit dextram insurgens Entellus, et alte
extulit: ille ictum venientem a vertice velox
praevidit, celerique elapsus corpore cessit.
Entellus vires in ventum effudit, et ultro
ipse gravis graviterque ad terram pondere vasto
concidit, ut quondam cava concidit aut Erymantho,
aut Ida in magna, radicibus eruta pinus.
consurgunt studiis Teucri et Trinacria pubes;
it clamor caelo, primusque accurrit Acestes,
aequaevumque ab humo miserans attollit amicum.
at non tardatus casu neque territus heros
acrior ad pugnam redit ac vim suscitat ira.
tum pudor incendit vires et conscia virtus,
praecipitemque Daren ardens agit aequore toto,
nunc dextra ingeminans ictus, nunc ille sinistra;
nec mora, nec requies: quam multa grandine nimbi
culminibus crepitant, sic densis ictibus heros
creber utraque manu pulsat versatque Dareta.
tum pater Aeneas procedere longius iras
et saevire animis Entellum haud passus acerbis;
sed finem imposuit pugnae, fessumque Dareta
eripuit mulcens dictis, ac talia fatur:
“Infelix, quae tanta animum dementia cepit?
non vires alias conversaque numina sentis?
cede deo.” Dixitque et proelia voce diremit.
ast illum fidi aequales, genua aegra trahentem,
iactantemque utroque caput, crassumque cruorem
ore eiectantem mixtosque in sanguine dentes,
ducunt ad naves; galeamque ensemque vocati
accipiunt; palmam Entello taurumque relinquunt.
hic victor, superans animis tauroque superbus:
“Nate dea, vosque haec” inquit “cognoscite, Teucri,
et mihi quae fuerint iuvenali in corpore vires,
et qua servetis revocatum a morte Dareta.”
dixit, et adversi contra stetit ora iuvenci,
qui donum adstabat pugnae, durosque reducta
libravit dextra media inter cornua caestus,
arduus, effractoque inlisit in ossa cerebro.
sternitur exanimisque tremens procumbit humi bos.
ille super tales effundit pectore voces:
“Hanc tibi, Eryx, meliorem animam pro morte Daretis
persolvo; hic victor caestus artemque repono.”

Drawing himself up, Entellus shows his right and has raised it high, but Dares has been quick to see the downward blow coming and slips back with a swift movement of his body: Entellus wastes energy in this onset; what’s more, heavy himself, he crashes to the ground with all his vast weight, as a hollow pine, torn from its roots, might fall on Erymanthus or great Ida. The Trojans and young soldiers jump to their feet in concern, a shout goes up, and Acestes is the first to run up in sympathy to lift his friend and contemporary from the ground. But the hero is not slowed down or cowed by his fall – his anger gives him strength, and he returns fiercely to the fight. Embarrassment and self-regard kindle his prowess, and he hotly drives Dares headlong all along the seashore, redoubling punches now with his right, now his left. He does not hesitate or pause: as when the storm-clouds rattle the rooftops with thick hail, so the hero knocks Dares from side to side, raining punches with both hands. Now father Aeneas could hardly bear to let the grudge match go further or Entellus to rage on in his savage anger, and stopped the fight, pulling the exhausted Dares out with soothing words: “Poor man, what folly has possessed you? Don’t you see that the balance of strength and the gods’ favour have changed? Obey their wishes.” And so he settles the bout. As for Dares, his friends and contemporaries lead him to the ships, dragging his wobbly legs, lolling his head from side to side and spitting out clotted blood along with his teeth. They accept the sword and helmet that Aeneas invites them to take, and leave the victor’s palm and the trophy of the bull to Entellus, who, in the highest of spirits and proud of his prize bull, said: “Goddess-born, and you, Trojans, learn from this what bodily strength I had when I was young, and the death you are saving Dares from!” And he set himself face to face with the young bull, which was standing by as the prize for the fight, drew back his right arm, balanced the heavy cestus high above and between the horns, and drove it onto the skull, smashing open the brains. The bull crashes down, and lies, lifeless and twitching, stretched out on the ground. Entellus roars: “Eryx, I offer you this better life in place of Dares’! With this victory I lay down my cestus and my boxing”.

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