Aeneid 2.559–566

Aen. 2.559At mē tum prīmum saevus circumstetit horror
560Obstipuī;

But then for the first time a savage horror surrounded me. I stood stunned;

Note. Aeneas has just watched Pyrrhus kill Priam at the altar. circumstetit: perfect of circumstō, 'stood around me', i.e. surrounded me. The edition prints no stop before Obstipuī ('I was stunned', perfect of obstipēscō); the two clauses are run together here.

Aen. 2.560subiit cārī genitōris imāgō,
ut rēgem aequaevum crūdēlī volnere vīdī
vītam exhālantem;

the image of my dear father came to my mind, as I saw the king, his equal in age, breathing out his life from a cruel wound;

Note. subiit: perfect of subeō, 'came up into my mind'. ut … vīdī: ut + indicative = 'as, when'. aequaevum: Priam was the same age as Aeneas' father Anchises. volnere: old spelling of vulnere. exhālantem: present participle agreeing with rēgem.

Aen. 2.562subiit dēserta Creüsa,
et dīrepta domus, et parvī cāsus Iūlī.

there came to mind Creusa left behind, my house plundered, and the fate of little Iulus.

Note. Anaphora: subiit is repeated from the previous sentence, and the three subjects come in a rising list: Creüsa, domus, cāsus. Iūlī: genitive of Iūlus, Aeneas' son, also called Ascanius. The diaeresis in Creüsa marks u and s as separate syllables: Cre-ū-sa.

Aen. 2.564Respiciō, et quae sit mē circum cōpia lūstrō.

I look back, and survey what force there is around me.

Note. quae sit … cōpia: indirect question (subjunctive sit) after lūstrō, 'I survey what force there is'. mē circum: the preposition follows its object (anastrophe), common in verse.

Aen. 2.565Dēseruēre omnēs dēfessī, et corpora saltū
ad terram mīsēre aut ignibus aegra dedēre.

All had deserted me, worn out, and had flung their bodies with a leap to the ground or given them, sick at heart, to the fires.

Note. dēseruēre, mīsēre, dedēre: the -ēre ending is the poetic 3rd plural perfect (= dēseruērunt, mīsērunt, dedērunt). ignibus: dative, 'gave them to the fires'. aegra: 'sick', i.e. exhausted and despairing.