The birds are a substitute equal and fair,
For on us you depend and to us you repair
For counsel and aid, when a marriage is made,
A purchase, a bargain, a venture in trade.
Unlucky or lucky, whatever has struck ye,

A race in the street or a slave that you meet,

A name or a word by chance overheard,

If

you deem it an omen, you call it a bird.

And if birds are your omens, it clearly will follow,
That birds are a proper prophetic Apollo.

Then take us as gods, and you will soon find the odds,
We'll serve for all uses of prophets and muses;

We'll give you fine weather; we'll live here together
And keep scornful and proud atop of the cloud
(In Jupiter's way), but attend every day
To prosper and bless all you possess,
And all your affairs for yourself and your heirs,
And as long as you live we gladly shall give
You wealth, and health, and pleasure,
And treasure in ample measure;

In laughter and mirth on the face of the earth,
With portable gold, you shall live to grow old,
And your only distress shall be the excess

Of ease and abundance of happiness.

THE DESTRUCTION OF TROY.

THE

PUBLIUS VIRGILIUS MARO VIRGIL.

HE leaders of the Greeks, worn with war and baffled by fate, built, with the aid of the divine skill of Pallas, a horse as huge as a mountain, and formed the sides of interlacing flanks of fir. In it they secretly enclose the picked warriors they have

In sight lies Tenedos, an island well known to fame, rich and powerful; hither they proceed and conceal themselves on the desolate shore. We supposed they had all gone away; therefore all the land of Troy freed itself from its long sorrow. The gates

were opened. With joy we issue forth and view the Doric camp, and the deserted stations, and the forsaken coast. Some view with amazement the unusual offering to the maiden Minerva, and wonder at the stupendous bulk of the horse. Thymates is the first to urge that it be dragged within the walls and placed in the citadel. But Capys and others, whose minds had wiser sentiments, advise either to throw the thing into the sea, to put fire under it and burn it, or to pierce it and explore the inner recesses of the body.

The fickle multitude is split into opposite factions. Then it is that foremost, before all the rest, followed by a great crowd, Laocoon eagerly runs down from the heights of the citadel, and cries from afar :

"My hapless citizens, how has such wild frenzy seized you? Do you believe that the enemy have sailed away? Or do you think that any Grecian gifts are free from fraud? Is such your knowledge of Ulysses? Either the Achæans are concealed in this frame; or it is an engine wrought against our walls, intended to spy into our houses and come down upon our city from above; or there is some hidden deceit. Trust not the horse, ye Trojans! Whatever it is, I fear the Greeks even when they bring gifts."

Lo, some Dardan shepherds meanwhile came, dragging to the king with loud shouts, a youth whose hands were bound behind his back; who, though they knew him not, had put himself in their way as they approached him, in order to work out his craft, and open Troy to the Greeks, or submit to certain death. At length he made this speech :

"I certainly will declare to you, O King, the whole truth, whatever be the consequence. I will not deny I am by birth a Greek, and if fortune, the wicked goddess, has fashioned Sinon to misery, she shall not fashion him to falsehood and deceit. After the death

in obscurity and sadness, and vowed that if ever I returned a conqueror to Argos, I would be his avenger. From this time began my downfall. The Greeks often wished to leave Troy, but the inclement fury of the sea kept them on land, and the wild winds alarmed them in the act of starting. In our bewilderment, we sent to inquire of the oracle, Phœbus, and this terrible response was brought back: 'By blood, you must seek the power to return, and the sacrifice demands an Argive life.' At last, forced by the loud outcries of Ithacus, he broke silence and doomed me to the altar. The dreadful day had come. I snatched myself from death and broke my bonds, and now I have no hope of seeing again my fatherland, nor the children I love, and the parent I long to see, at whose hands, perhaps, they will even require satisfaction for my escape. Wherefore, by the gods above, pity a soul that suffers what it does not deserve."

"Whoever you

We granted him his life and pitied his tears. are, from this time forward forget the Greeks; you shall be ours. Since this is so, explain to what end have they set up this horse of enormous bulk?"

By means of the deceptions of the perjured Sinon, with one voice, the people cry: "The image must be drawn to its temple and the goddess entreated." And threatening it glides into the heart of the city.

Meanwhile, the sphere of heaven moves round, and night rushes up from the ocean, wrapping in her universal shade both earth and sky, and the craft of the myrmidons. The Trojans are stretched in silent rest throughout the town; sleep clasps their weary limbs. And now, the Argive host was advancing in naval array from Tenedos, making for the well-known shores amid the friendly silence of the moon, when the royal ship suddenly shot forth the signalflame, and Sinon, protected by the partial gloom unbolts the bars of pine, and sets free the Greeks imprisoned in the body of the horse. They assault the city buried in sleep and wine; the guards are slain, and, throwing open the gates, they admit all their comrades.

The town is filled with tumultuous woe; and, although the man

At length in the dreary chaotical closet
Of Erebus old was a certain deposit
By Night, the primeval, in secrecy laid-
A mysterious egg, that in silence and shade,
Was brooded and hatched, till time came about
And Love, the delightful, in glory flew out,
Sparkling and florid, with stars in his forehead,
His forehead and hair, and a flutter and flare,
As he rose in the air triumphantly furnished
To range his dominions on glittering pinions.
He soon in the murky Tartarean recesses,
With a hurricane might, in his fiery caresses,
Impregnated Chaos, and hastily snatched
To being and life, begotten and hatched,
The primitive birds.

But the deities all,

The celestial lights, the terrestrial ball

Were later of birth, with the dwellers on earth.

Our antiquity proved, it remains to be shown

That Love is our author and master alone.

And all, the world over, were friends of the lover.

All lessons of primary daily concern

You have learnt from the birds and continue to learn

From best benefactors and early instructors.

We give you the warning of seasons returning
When the Cranes are arranged and muster afloat;
In the middle air, with a croaking note,
Steering away to the Libyan sands,

Where careful farmers sow their lands.

The shepherd is warned, by the Kite reappearing,
To muster his flocks, and be ready for shearing.
You quit your old cloak at the Swallows' behest,
In assurance of summer and purchase a vest.
For Delphi, for Ammon, Dodona, in fine,

The birds are a substitute equal and fair,
For on us you depend and to us you repair
For counsel and aid, when a marriage is made,
A purchase, a bargain, a venture in trade.
Unlucky or lucky, whatever has struck ye,
A race in the street or a slave that you meet,
A name or a word by chance overheard,

If you deem it an omen, you call it a bird.

And if birds are your omens, it clearly will follow,
That birds are a proper prophetic Apollo.

Then take us as gods, and you will soon find the odds,
We'll serve for all uses of prophets and muses;
We'll give you fine weather; we'll live here together
And keep scornful and proud atop of the cloud

(In Jupiter's way), but attend every day

To

prosper

and bless all you possess,

And all your affairs for yourself and your heirs,
And as long as you live we gladly shall give
You wealth, and health, and pleasure,

And treasure in ample measure;

In laughter and mirth on the face of the earth,
With portable gold, you shall live to grow old,
And your only distress shall be the excess

Of ease and abundance of happiness.

THE DESTRUCTION OF TROY.

THE

PUBLIUS VIRGILIUS MARO VIRGIL.

HE leaders of the Greeks, worn with war and baffled by fate, built, with the aid of the divine skill of Pallas, a horse as huge as a mountain, and formed the sides of interlacing flanks of fir. In it they secretly enclose the picked warriors they have