Aeneid Book 6, lines 236 - 268

The journey to Hades begins

by Virgil

With extensive blood sacrifice and dark ritual, the door to the underworld is opened and Aeneas and the Sibyl plunge in.

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His actis propere exsequitur praecepta Sibyllae.
spelunca alta fuit vastoque immanis hiatu,
scrupea, tuta lacu nigro nemorumque tenebris,
quam super haud ullae poterant impune volantes
tendere iter pennis: talis sese halitus atris
faucibus effundens supera ad convexa ferebat.
quattuor hic primum nigrantis terga iuvencos
constituit frontique invergit vina sacerdos,
et summas carpens media inter cornua saetas
ignibus imponit sacris, libamina prima,
voce vocans Hecaten caeloque Ereboque potentem.
supponunt alii cultros tepidumque cruorem
succipiunt pateris. ipse atri velleris agnam
Aeneas matri Eumenidum magnaeque sorori
ense ferit, sterilemque tibi, Proserpina, vaccam;
tum Stygio regi nocturnas incohat aras
et solida imponit taurorum viscera flammis,
pingue super oleum fundens ardentibus extis.
ecce autem primi sub limina solis et ortus
sub pedibus mugire solum et iuga coepta moveri
silvarum, visaeque canes ululare per umbram
adventante dea. ‘procul, o procul este, profani,’
conclamat vates, ‘totoque absistite luco;
tuque invade viam vaginaque eripe ferrum:
nunc animis opus, Aenea, nunc pectore firmo.’
tantum effata furens antro se immisit aperto;
ille ducem haud timidis vadentem passibus aequat.
Di, quibus imperium est animarum, umbraeque silentes
et Chaos et Phlegethon, loca nocte tacentia late,
sit mihi fas audita loqui, sit numine vestro
pandere res alta terra et caligine mersas.

This done, he promptly carries out the Sybil’s instructions.
There was a cave, deep and grim with its huge gulf
and rough, protected by the black lake and its shadows,
over which no bird could safely wing its way:
such was the breath that, pouring from its jaws,
raised itself to the dome of the heavens.
First, the priestess stood here four black-backed
bullocks, poured wine on their brows, and cutting
the topmost bristles between the horns, put them
on the holy fire as first offerings, calling aloud
on Hecate, potent both in heaven and in Erebus.
others use the knives and catch the hot blood
in dishes. Aeneas himself kills with his sword
a black-fleeced lamb for the mother of the Furies and
her great sister, and a barren cow for you, Proserpina;
next he makes a night altar to the King of the Styx
and places the complete entrails of the bulls on the
flames, pouring rich oil on the burning innards.
Look! Just as the first sun was on the point of rising,
The ground underfoot began to roar and the wooded
ridges to move, and dogs were seen howling through
the gloom at the Goddess’s arrival. “Stand away,
away, profane ones!” shouts the seer, “Leave the grove
entirely! You, Aeneas, take the path, draw your sword
from its sheath! Time for spirit and a stout heart!”
With that she plunged in fury into the open cavern;
Stepping boldly, he keeps pace with his guide. Gods
whose sway is over spirits, silent shadows, and Chaos
and Phlegethon, places hidden in the breadth of night,
may I be allowed to tell what I heard, under your auspices
to broach things buried deep in earth and darkness.

`

More Poems by Virgil

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