101When he had passed these and left behind the walls of Parthenope on the right, on the left-hand side he enters the tomb of the tuneful son of Aeolus and, a place teeming with marshy waters, the shores of Cumae and the cave of the long-lived Sibyl, and begs that he may go through Avernus to his father's shade. 106But she raised her face, long fixed on the ground, and at last, frenzied as the god entered her, said, 'Great things you ask, man greatest in deeds, whose right hand has been proved through the sword, your devotion through fire. 110Yet put aside fear, Trojan: you will gain what you seek, and with me as guide you will come to know the Elysian homes and the last realm of the world and the dear image of your father.
113To valour no way is impassable!' 113She spoke, and pointed out in the wood of Avernian Juno a bough gleaming with gold, and ordered him to tear it from its trunk. 116Aeneas obeyed and saw the riches of dread Orcus and his ancestors and the aged shade of great-hearted Anchises; 118he learned too the laws of those regions, and what dangers he must face in new wars. 120Then, carrying his weary steps along the upward path, he lightens the toil by talking with his Cumaean guide. 122And while he makes his way along the dreadful road through the dark twilight, he said, 'Whether you are a goddess in person or one most dear to the gods, you will always be as a deity to me, and I shall confess that I owe myself to your gift, you who willed me to enter the places of death, and to escape the places of death that I had seen.
127For these services, when I have come up to the airs above, I will set up a temple to you and grant you the honours of incense.' 129The prophetess looks back at him and, drawing deep sighs, said, 'I am no goddess, nor should you deem a human head worthy of the honour of holy incense; 131and so that you do not err in ignorance, eternal light without end was being offered to me, if my virginity had yielded to Phoebus, who loved me. 134But while he was hoping for this, while he longed to corrupt me beforehand with gifts, he said, "Choose, Cumaean maiden, what you wish: you shall have your wish."
136I, taking up a handful of dust, pointed to the heap and foolishly asked that as many birthdays should fall to me as the dust had grains; 139it slipped my mind to ask that the years too should stay young throughout. 140Yet he was offering me these and eternal youth, if I would submit to love: I scorned the gift of Phoebus and remain unwed; 142but now the happier time of life has turned its back, and sickly old age has come with trembling step, and it must long be endured (for, as you see, I have now lived through seven centuries): it remains for me, to equal the number of the grains of dust, to see three hundred harvests, three hundred vintages.
147The time will come when the length of days will make me small from so great a body, and my limbs, consumed by age, will be reduced to the slightest weight: I shall seem neither to have been loved nor to have pleased a god; 150Phoebus himself perhaps will either not recognise me or will deny that he loved me: so utterly changed shall I be said to be, and, visible to no one, I shall yet be known by my voice; 153my voice the fates will leave me.'