215And now day had withdrawn from the sky, and kindly Phoebe was striking mid-Olympus with her night-wandering chariot: Aeneas (for care gives his limbs no rest) sits himself and steers the helm and tends the sails. 219And look, in mid-course a chorus of his own companions meets him: the nymphs whom kindly Cybebe had ordered to have power over the sea and to turn from ships to nymphs were swimming side by side and cutting through the waves, as many as the bronze prows that had stood before at the shore. 224They recognise their king from afar and circle him in dances; of these Cymodocea, most skilled in speech, following behind, holds the stern with her right hand, and herself rises above the water to her back, and with her left hand rows beneath the silent waters; then she addresses him, unaware, thus: 'Are you awake, Aeneas, offspring of gods?
229Stay awake, and let out the sheets to the sails. 230We are the pines from the sacred summit of Ida, now nymphs of the sea, your fleet. 231When the treacherous Rutulian was pressing hard on us with sword and flame, headlong we broke your moorings against our will, and now we seek you across the sea. 234The Mother, pitying us, refashioned us in this form, and granted us to be goddesses and pass our life beneath the waves. 236But the boy Ascanius is held within the wall and the ditches, amid the weapons and the Latins bristling with war. 238Already the Arcadian horsemen, mingled with brave Etruscans, hold the appointed places: Turnus' resolve is fixed to set his squadrons between, against them, so that they may not join the camp.
241Up, come, and at the coming of Dawn be the first to order your comrades called to arms, and take the shield, unconquerable, which the Fire-lord himself gave you and ringed its rim with gold. 244Tomorrow's light, if you do not think my words idle, will look on huge heaps of Rutulian slaughter.' 246She had spoken, and as she left she pushed the high stern with her right hand, not ignorant of the way: it flies through the waves swifter than a javelin and an arrow that equals the winds. 249Then the other ships speed their course. 249The Trojan son of Anchises himself is astonished, not understanding; 250yet he lifts his spirits with the omen.
251Then, looking up at the vault above, he prays briefly: 'Kindly Idaean mother of the gods, to whom Dindymus is dear, and towered cities, and lions yoked in pairs to the reins, now be my leader in battle, now duly bring the augury near, and stand by the Phrygians, goddess, with favouring step.' 256So much he spoke. 256And meanwhile the returning day was now growing red with ripened light and had put the night to flight: first he orders his comrades to follow the standards, to make their spirits ready for arms and to prepare themselves for battle.