Thus poured she forth full many a doleful word 480

With unavailing tears. But as she ceased,

Out of the city gates appeared the son
Of Priam, Helenus, with princely train.
He welcomed us as kin, and glad at heart
Gave guidance to his house, though oft his words 485
Fell faltering and few, with many a tear.
Soon to a humbler Troy I lift my eyes,
And of a mightier Pergamus discern
The towering semblance; there a scanty stream
Runs on in Xanthus name, and my glad arms 490
The pillars of a Scan gate embrace.
My Teucrian mariners with welcome free
Enjoyed the friendly town; his ample halls
Our royal host threw wide; full wine-cups flowed
Within the palace; golden feast was spread, 495
And many a goblet quaffed. Day followed day,
While favoring breezes beckoned us to sea,
And swelled the waiting canvas as they blew.
Then to the prophet-priest I made this prayer:
Offspring of Troy, interpreter of Heaven! 500
Who knowest Phbus power, and readest well
The tripod, stars, and vocal laurel leaves
To Phbus dear, who knowst of every bird
The ominous swift wing or boding song,
O, speak! For all my course good omens showed, 505
And every god admonished me to sail
In quest of Italys far-distant shores;
But lone Celno, heralding strange woe,
Foretold prodigious horror, vengeance dark,
And vile, unnatural hunger. How elude 510
Such perils? Or by what hard duty done
May such huge host of evils vanquished be?
Then Helenus, with sacrifice of kine
In order due, implored the grace of Heaven,
Unloosed the fillets from his sacred brow, 515
And led me, Phbus, to thy temples door,
Awed by th oer-brooding godhead, whose true priest,
With lips inspired, made this prophetic song:
O goddess-born, indubitably shines
The blessing of great gods upon thy path 520
Across the sea; the heavenly King supreme
Thy destiny ordains; t is he unfolds
The grand vicissitude, which now pursues
A course immutable. I will declare
Of thy large fate a certain bounded part; 525
That fearless thou mayst view the friendly sea,

And in Ausonias haven at the last

Find thee a fixed abode. Than this no more
The Sister Fates to Helenus unveil,
And Juno, Saturns daughter, grants no more. 530
First, that Italia (which nigh at hand
Thou deemst, and wouldst fondly enter in
By yonder neighboring bays) lies distant far
Oer trackless course and long, with interval
Of far-extended lands. Thine oars must ply 535
The waves of Sicily; thy fleet must cleave
The large expanse of that Ausonian brine;
The waters of Avernus thou shalt see,
And that enchanted island where abides
an Circe, ere on tranquil shore 540
Thou mayest plant thy nation. Lo! a sign
I tell thee; hide this wonder in thy heart:
Beside a certain streams sequestered wave,
Thy troubled eyes, in shadowy ilex grove
That fringes on the river, shall descry 545
A milk-white, monstrous sow, with teeming brood
Of thirty young, new littered, white like her,
All clustering at her teats, as prone she lies.
There is thy citys safe, predestined ground,
And there thy labors end. Vex not thy heart 550
About those tables bitten, for kind fate
Thy path will show, and Phbus bless thy prayer.
But from these lands and yon Italian shore,
Where from this sea of ours the tide sweeps in,
Escape and flee, for all its cities hold 555
Pernicious Greeks, thy foes: the Locri there
Have builded walls; the wide Sallentine fields
Are filled with soldiers of Idomeneus;
There Meliban Philoctetes town,
Petilia, towers above its little wall. 560
Yea, even when thy fleet has crossed the main,
And from new altars built along the shore
Thy vows to Heaven are paid, throw oer thy head
A purple mantle, veiling well thy brows,
Lest, while the sacrificial fire ascends 565
In offering to the gods, thine eye behold
Some face of foe, and every omen fail.
Let all thy people keep this custom due,
And thou thyself be faithful; let thy seed
Forever thus th immaculate rite maintain. 570