Aeneid, Book 7
Vergil, Aeneid VII
The Trojans reach Latium; King Latinus offers peace and his daughter, but Juno and the Fury Allecto stir up war. The catalogue of Italian forces. 38 sections, 276 sentences, each with an English translation.
Read it with every word glossed and parsed, and keep your place.
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Book 7 opens the second half of the Aeneid, which Vergil calls his 'greater work': after six books of wandering, the Trojans reach Latium and the war for Italy begins. Written in the 20s BC and left unrevised at the poet's death in 19 BC, this half of the poem has the Iliad as its model, as the first half had the Odyssey.
Aeneas buries his nurse Caieta, sails past Circe's island and enters the mouth of the Tiber. King Latinus has been warned by omens and by the oracle of his father Faunus that his daughter Lavinia must marry a foreigner, and when the Trojans eat the flat loaves they use as tables, fulfilling a prophecy, they know they have arrived. Ilioneus brings their request to the palace of Picus, and Latinus offers alliance and marriage. Juno, enraged, summons the Fury Allecto from the underworld. Allecto maddens Queen Amata, who flees to the woods in Bacchic frenzy, and then Turnus, Lavinia's suitor. Ascanius, hunting, wounds a tame stag belonging to Silvia, and the first blood is shed. Latinus withdraws, and Juno herself throws open the Gates of War. The book ends with a catalogue of the Italian leaders, from the godless Mezentius and his son Lausus to Turnus and the warrior Camilla.
Allecto's scenes are among the most powerful in the poem, and the catalogue is a rich survey of early Italy and its peoples. The Latin is demanding in places, especially in the catalogue's names and places.
Contents
- Aen. 7.1–4The burial of CaietaYou too, nurse of Aeneas, gave by your death undying fame to our shores, Caieta;
- Aen. 7.5–24Sailing past Circe's islandBut dutiful Aeneas, the funeral rites duly paid and the mound of the tomb heaped up, once the deep seas had…
- Aen. 7.25–36The Trojans enter the TiberAnd now the sea was reddening with rays, and from the high heaven saffron Dawn was shining in her rosy…
- Aen. 7.37–80King Latinus and the omensNow come, Erato: who were the kings, what was the state of affairs, what the condition of ancient Latium when…
- Aen. 7.81–106The oracle of FaunusBut the king, troubled by the portents, goes to the oracle of Faunus, his prophetic father, and consults the…
- Aen. 7.107–134The prophecy of the tables fulfilledAeneas and his chief captains and handsome Iulus lay down their bodies beneath the branches of a tall tree,…
- Aen. 7.135–147Aeneas prays; Jupiter thundersHaving spoken so, he then wreathes his temples with a leafy branch and prays to the spirit of the place, and…
- Aen. 7.148–169Envoys sent to LatinusWhen the next day, rising, was lighting the earth with its first torch, they go off in different directions…
- Aen. 7.170–191The palace of PicusThe building was majestic and vast.
- Aen. 7.192–211Latinus welcomes the TrojansIn such a temple of the gods, seated on his ancestral throne, Latinus called the Teucrians to him into the…
- Aen. 7.212–248Ilioneus pleads the Trojan causeHe had spoken, and Ilioneus followed his words thus: 'King, noble son of Faunus, no black storm has forced…
- Aen. 7.249–285Latinus offers alliance and marriageAt these words of Ilioneus Latinus keeps his face fixed in a steady gaze, and stays motionless where he sits,…
- Aen. 7.286–322Juno vows to delay fateBut look, the cruel wife of Jupiter was returning from Inachian Argos and, riding through the air, was…
- Aen. 7.323–340Juno rouses AllectoWhen she had said this, the dreadful goddess made for the earth: from the home of the dread goddesses and the…
- Aen. 7.341–372Allecto poisons Queen AmataThen Allecto, steeped in Gorgon poisons, first makes for Latium and the lofty palace of the Laurentine ruler,…
- Aen. 7.373–405Amata's Bacchic frenzyWhen, having tried in vain with these words, she sees Latinus standing firm against her, and the maddening…
- Aen. 7.406–434Allecto visits Turnus in disguiseWhen she seemed to have sharpened the first frenzy enough and to have overturned the plans and all the house…
- Aen. 7.435–444Turnus scorns the old priestessAt this the young man, mocking the seer, answers her in turn thus: 'The news that a fleet has sailed into the…
- Aen. 7.445–474The Fury sets Turnus ablazeAt such words Allecto blazed into rage, and as the young man spoke a sudden trembling seizes his limbs, his…
- Aen. 7.475–510Ascanius wounds Silvia's stagWhile Turnus fills the Rutulians with bold spirit, Allecto speeds on Stygian wings against the Teucrians,…
- Aen. 7.511–539The first bloodshed of the warBut the cruel goddess, having seized from her watch-tower the moment to do harm, makes for the steep roof of…
- Aen. 7.540–571Juno dismisses AllectoAnd while these things are fought out over the plains with equal fortune, the goddess, having made good her…
- Aen. 7.572–600Latinus gives up the reinsNonetheless, meanwhile, the royal daughter of Saturn puts the final touch to the war.
- Aen. 7.601–640Juno opens the Gates of WarThere was a custom in Hesperian Latium, which the Alban cities kept as sacred from then on, and which now…
- Aen. 7.641–646Invocation before the catalogueOpen Helicon now, goddesses, and stir up your song: what kings were roused to war, what battle lines followed…
- Aen. 7.647–654Mezentius and LaususFirst to enter the war, fierce from the Tyrrhenian shores, is Mezentius, scorner of the gods, and he arms his…
- Aen. 7.655–669Aventinus, son of HerculesAfter them handsome Aventinus, son of handsome Hercules, displays over the grass his chariot decorated with…
- Aen. 7.670–677Catillus and Coras from TiburThen twin brothers leave the walls of Tibur, a people named after their brother Tiburtus, Catillus and fierce…
- Aen. 7.678–690Caeculus of PraenesteNor was the founder of the city of Praeneste absent, the king whom every age has believed was born to Vulcan…
- Aen. 7.691–704Messapus and his columnsBut Messapus, tamer of horses, offspring of Neptune, whom no one may lay low with fire or steel, suddenly…
- Aen. 7.705–722Clausus and the Sabinescloud of hoarse birds was being driven to the shores.
- Aen. 7.723–732Halaesus and the Campanian peoplesNext, Agamemnon's man Halaesus, enemy of the Trojan name, yokes his horses to his chariot and sweeps along a…
- Aen. 7.733–743Oebalus of CapreaeNor shall you go away unsung in our verses, Oebalus, whom Telon is said to have fathered by the nymph…
- Aen. 7.744–749Ufens and the AequiAnd you too mountainous Nersae sent to battle, Ufens, outstanding in fame and fortunate in arms;
- Aen. 7.750–760Umbro, the Marsian priestMoreover, from the Marruvian people came a priest, his helmet adorned with foliage and fruitful olive.
- Aen. 7.761–782Virbius, son of HippolytusThere went too the son of Hippolytus, most handsome, to the war, Virbius, whom his mother Aricia sent out, a…
- Aen. 7.783–802Turnus and his hostTurnus himself, outstanding in body, moves among the foremost holding his arms, and stands a whole head above…
- Aen. 7.803–817Camilla, the warrior maidenBesides these came Camilla, of the Volscian people, leading a column of horsemen and troops flowering with…