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Aurora rose,
and left the ocean's rim. The city's gates
pour forth to greet the morn a gallant train
of huntsmen, bearing many a woven snare
and steel-tipped javelin; while to and fro
run the keen-scented dogs and Libyan squires.
The Queen still keeps her chamber; at her doors
the Punic lords await; her palfrey, brave
in gold and purple housing, paws the ground
and fiercely champs the foam-flecked bridle-rein.
At last, with numerous escort, forth she shines:
her Tyrian pall is bordered in bright hues,
her quiver, gold; her tresses are confined
only with gold; her robes of purple rare
meet in a golden clasp. To greet her come
the noble Phrygian guests; among them smiles
the boy Iulus; and in fair array
Aeneas, goodliest of all his train.
In such a guise Apollo (when he leaves
cold Lycian hills and Xanthus' frosty stream
to visit Delos to Latona dear)
ordains the song, while round his altars cry
the choirs of many islands, with the pied,
fantastic Agathyrsi; soon the god
moves o'er the Cynthian steep; his flowing hair
he binds with laurel garland and bright gold;
upon his shining shoulder as he goes
the arrows ring:—not less uplifted mien
aeneas wore; from his illustrious brow
such beauty shone. Soon to the mountains tall
the cavalcade comes nigh, to pathless haunts
of woodland creatures; the wild goats are seen,
from pointed crag descending leap by leap
down the steep ridges; in the vales below
are routed deer, that scour the spreading plain,
and mass their dust-blown squadrons in wild flight,
far from the mountain's bound. Ascanius
flushed with the sport, spurs on a mettled steed
from vale to vale, and many a flying herd
his chase outspeeds; but in his heart he prays
among these tame things suddenly to see
a tusky boar, or, leaping from the hills,
a growling mountain-lion, golden-maned.

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hide References (5 total)
  • Commentary references to this page (1):
    • Walter Leaf, Commentary on the Iliad (1900), 17.52
  • Cross-references to this page (2):
    • A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890), NODUS
    • A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890), PHARETRA
  • Cross-references in general dictionaries to this page (2):
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