Let not my prayers a doubtful answer find,
But in clear auguries unveil thy mind.
Scarce had I faid; he shook the holy ground,
The laurels, and the lofty hills around:
And from the tripos rufh'd a bellowing found.
Proftrate we fell, confefs'd the present god;
Who gave this anfwer from his dark abode :
Undaunted youths, go feek that mother earth.
From which your ancestors derive their birth,
The foil that sent you forth, her ancient race,
In her old bofom, shall again embrace.
Through the wide world th' Æneian house shall reign,
And childrens children fhall the crown fuftain.
Thus Phoebus did our future fates difclofe:
A mighty tumult, mix'd' with joy, arofe.
All are concern'd to know what place the god 135 Affign'd, and where determin'd our abode.. My father, long revolving in his mind
The race and lineage of the Trojan kind,
Thus anfwer'd their demands: Ye princes, hear
Your pleafing fortune; and dispel your fear.
The fruitful ifle of Crete, well known to fame,
Sacred of old to Jove's imperial name,
In the mid ocean lies with large command;
And on its plains a hundred cities ftand.
Another Ida rifes there; and we
From thence derive our Trojan ancestry..
From thence, as 'tis divulg'd by certain fame,
To the Rhatean fhores. old Teucer came:
There fix'd, and there the feat of empire chofe,
Ere Ilium and the Trojan towers arofe.
In humble vales they built their foft abodes:
Till Cybele, the mother of the gods,
With tinkling cymbals, charm'd th' Idean woods.
She fecret rites and ceremonies taught,
And to the yoke the favage lions brought.
Let us the land, which heaven appoints, explore;
Appeafe the winds, and feek the Gnoffian fhore.
If Jove affift the paffage of our fleet,
The third propitious dawn difcovers Crete.
Thus having faid, the facrifices laid
On fmoaking altars, to the gods he paid.
A bull to Neptune, an oblation due,
Another bull to bright Apollo flew :
A milk-white ewe the western winds to please:
And one coal black to calm the stormy feas.
Ere this, a flying rumour had been spread,
That fierce Idomeneus from Crete was fled;
Expell'd and exil'd; that the coast was free
From foreign or domeftic enemy:
We leave the Delian ports, and put to fea.
By Naxos, fam'd for vintage, make our way:
Then green Donyfa pass; and fail in fight
Of Paros ifle, with marble quarries white..
We pass the scatter'd ifles of Cyclades,
That, fcarce diftinguifh'd, feem to ftud the feas. 175 The fhouts of failors double near the fhores;
They ftretch their canvas, and they ply their oars.
All hands aloft, for Crete, for Crete they cry,
And swiftly through the foamy billows fly.
Full on the promis'd land at length we bore,
With joy defcending on the Cretan fhore.
With eager hafte a rifing town I frame,
Which from the Trojan Pergamus I name:
The name itself was grateful; I exhort
To found their houses, and erect a fort.
Our fhips are haul'd upon the yellow ftrand.
The youth begin to till the labour'd land.
And I myself new marriages promote,
Give laws; and dwellings I divide by lot.
When rifing vapours choke the wholefom air,
And blafts of noifom winds corrupt the year:
The trees, devouring caterpillars burn :
Parch'd was the grafs, and blighted was the corn.
Nor fcape the beafts: for Sirius from on high
With peftilential heat infects the sky:
My men, fome fall, the rest in fevers fry.
Again my father bids me feek the shore
Of facred Delos and the god implore:
To learn what end of woes we might expect,
And to what clime our weary courfe direct.
'Twas night, when every creature, void of cares,
The common gift of balmy flumber shares :
The statues of my gods (for such they seem'd),
Those gods whom I from flaming Troy redeem'd,
Before me ftood; majestically bright,
Full in the beams of Phoebe's entering light.
Then thus they fpoke; and eas'd my troubled mind:
What from the Delian god thou go'st to find,
He tells thee here; and fends us to relate:
Those powers are we, companions of thy fate,
Who from the burning town by thee were brought;
Thy fortune follow'd, and thy fafety wrought.
Through feas and lands as we thy steps attend,
So fhall our care thy glorious race befriend.
An ample realm for thee thy fates ordain ;
A town, that o'er the conquer'd world fhall reign.
Thou mighty walls for mighty nations build;
Nor let thy weary mind to labours yield :
But change thy feat; for not the Delian god,
Nor we, have giv'n thee Crete for our abode.
A land there is, Hefperia call'd of old,
The foil is fruitful, and the natives bold.
Th' Oenotrians held it once; by later fame,
Now call'd Italia from the leader's name.
Jafius there, and Dardanus were born:
From thence we came, and thither muft return.
Rife, and thy fire with these glad tidings greet;
Search Italy, for Jove denies thee Crete.
Aftonith'd at their voices, and their fight,
(Nor were they dreams, but vifions of the night; 230 I faw, I knew their faces, and defcry'd
In perfect view their hair with fillets ty'd);
I ftarted from my couch, and clammy fweat
On all my limbs and fhivering body fate.
To heaven I lift my hands with pious haste,
And facred incenfe in the flames I caft.
Thus to the gods their perfect honours done,
More chearful to my good old fire I run,
And tell the pleasing news: in little space
He found his error of the double race.
Not, as before he deem'd, deriv'd from Crete;
No more deluded by the doubtful feat.
Then faid, O fon! turmoil'd in Trojan fate,
Such things as thefe Caffandra did relate;
This day revives within my mind, what she
Foretold of Troy renew'd in Italy,
And Latian lands: but who could then have thought
That Phrygian gods to Latium should be brought?
Or who believ'd what mad Caffandra taught?
Now let us go, where Phoebus leads the way,
He said, and we with glad confent obey:
Forfake the feat; and, leaving few behind,
We spread our fails before the willing wind..
Now from the fight of land our gallies move,
With only feas around, and fkies above.
When o'er our heads defcends a burft of rain,
And night, with fable clouds, involves the main;
The ruffling winds the foamy billows raise;
The fcatter'd fleet is forc'd to feveral ways;
The face of heaven is ravish'd from our eyes,
And, in redoubled peals, the roaring thunder flies.
Caft from our courfe, we wander in the dark;
No ftars to guide, no point of land to mark.
Ev'n Palinurus no diftinction found
Betwixt the night and day, fuchdarknefs reign'd around.
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