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Rhapsody 20

Literally Translated, with Explanatory Notes, by Theodore Alois Buckley

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Page 5

But him again king Apollo, the son of Jove, addressed:

"But do thou also pray, O hero, to the immortal gods, for they say that thou too art sprung from Venus, the daughter of Jove, but he from an inferior goddess; for the one is from Jove, and the other from the aged sea-god. But direct thy invincible brass right against him, nor let him at all avert thee by haughty words and threats."

Thus saying, he breathed great courage into the shepherd of the people; and he advanced through the front ranks, accoutred in shining brass. Nor did the son of Anchises escape the notice of white-armed Juno, going against the son of Peleus through the ranks of men; but, calling the gods together, she addressed them:

"Consider now, both Neptune and Minerva, in your minds, how these things shall be. This Aeneas, accoutred in shining brass, has advanced against the son of Peleus; and Phoebus Apollo has urged him on. But come, let us, however, turn him back again; or let some one of us stand by Achilles, and give him great strength, nor let him at all be wanting in courage; that he may know that the mightiest of the immortals love him; and that those, on the contrary, are vain, who hitherto avert war and slaughter from the Trojans. But we have all come down from Olympus, about to participate in this battle, lest he should suffer anything among the Trojans to-day; but hereafter he shall suffer those things, as many as Fate at his birth wove in his thread [of destiny],[645] to him, what time his mother brought him forth. But if Achilles shall not learn these things from the voice of a god, he will afterwards be afraid when any god comes against him in battle; for the gods, when made manifest, are terrible to be seen manifestly." [646]

[Footnote 645: See Duport, p. 114. On the web woven by the Fates for man's life, see Virg. Ecl. iv. 46; Catullus, lxiv. 328. But this passage of Homer seems to imply the ancient notion, that the Fates might be delayed, but never set aside. Cf. Nemes. de Nat. Horn. i. 36; Censorin. de die Nat. xiv.; Serv. on Aen. vii. 398.]

[Footnote 646: "Deos manifesto in lumine vidi."—Virg. Aen. iv. 358. On the belief that the sight of a god was attended with danger, cf. Liv. i. xvi. where Proculus beseeches the apparition of Romulus "ut contra intueri fas esset." See intpp. on Exod. xxxiii. 20; Judges xiii. 22.]

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