Aeneas turns to see his fellow chiefs

Antheus and brave Sergestus

With Cloanthus so strong

Backed by a Trojan throng

So recently among the tempest lost

And widely scattered on another coast

Unseen Aeneas taken with wonder stands

Eager to clasp their hands

.

In doubt he remains

Within the hollow haze [1]

As they related their cruel fate

And the queen’s mercy await

These were the spokesmen

Elected by their countrymen

.

[Ilioneus spoke]

O queen blessed by Heaven

To found a city in this far haven

To rule its native savages

We victims of the waves’ ravages

Tossed from sea to sea

We beg your clemency

We unhappy fugitives seek your grace

Please spare this remnant of a pious race

Our ships our at your mercy

We came seeking no prey

[2]

End 16

 

Notes

-1. This is variously described as an enveloping mist, a hollow cloud, and invokes in this reader’s mind a paranormal vantage employed as literary device, such as the ghost visitations in Dicken’s a Christmas Carol

-2. As bland as this section is in term of narrative, it is the crux of the heroic experience with the Odyssey and the Argonautica reflecting the piratical perspective of the lone warrior bands that the Trojan refugee are so keen to distance themselves from, indicating that the seed stories for this epic were generated by the same displacement of tribal peoples as those tales of adventure noted above and the invasion of Troy that generated this story and the Odyssey.