---
title: "Pharsalia · De Bello Civili"
author: "Lucan"
translator: "Sir Edward Ridley"
languages: [la, en]
shelf: "Classical Latin"
section: 12 of 21
url: https://scriptura.si/works/lucan-pharsalia/12/
cite: "Lucan, tr. Sir Edward Ridley, Pharsalia · De Bello Civili, section 12. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/lucan-pharsalia/12/"
---

# Pharsalia · De Bello Civili

*Lucan, tr. Sir Edward Ridley*

The civil war between Caesar and Pompey as dark epic, written under Nero by a poet he forced to die at twenty-five.

> Latin: ed. Karl Hermann Weise, from the Perseus Digital Library (canonical-latinLit, phi0917.phi001, CC BY-SA 4.0).

> English: Sir Edward Ridley, from the Perseus Digital Library (phi0917.phi001.perseus-eng2). Notes are not included.

> Rows follow the references the two texts share (line numbers), cut where both reach the end of a sentence.

## 12. Book VI · lines 507–830

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/lucan-pharsalia/12/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/lucan-pharsalia/12/#p-N

[¶0] These sinful rites and these her sister's songs
Abhorred Erichtho, fiercest of the race,
Spurned for their piety, and yet viler art
Practised in novel form. To her no home
Beneath a sheltering roof-her direful head
Thus to lay down were crime: deserted tombs
Her dwelling-place, from which, darling of hell,
She dragged the dead. Nor life nor gods forbad
But that she knew the secret homes of Styx
And learned to hear the whispered voice of ghosts
At dread mysterious meetings. Never sun
Shed his pure light upon that haggard cheek
Pale with the pallor of the shades, nor looked
Upon those locks unkempt that crowned her brow.
In starless nights of tempest crept the hag
Out from her tomb to seize the levin bolt;
Treading the harvest with accursed foot
She burned the fruitful growth, and with her breath
Poisoned the air else pure. No prayer she breathed
Nor supplication to the gods, nor knew
The pulse of entrails: logs from flaming pyres
She loves to cast on altars of the gods,
And incense pilfered from the smoking tomb.
The gods at her first utterance grant her prayer
For things unlawful, lest they hear again
Its fearful accents: men whose limbs were quick
With vital power she thrust within the grave
Despite the fates who owed them years to come:
The funeral reversed brought from the tomb
Those who were dead no longer; and the pyre
Yields to her shameless clutch still smoking dust
And bones enkindled, torches which but now
Some grieving father held, and fragments mixed
In sable smoke and ceremental cloths
Singed with the redolent fire that burned the dead.
But those who lie within a stony cell
Untouched by fire, whose dried and mummied frames
No longer know corruption, limb by limb
Venting her rage she tears, the bloodless eyes
Drags from their cavities, and mauls the nail
Upon the withered hand: she gnaws the noose
By which some wretch has died, and from the tree
Drags down a pendent corpse, its members torn
Asunder to the winds: forth from the palms
Wrenches the iron, and from the unbending bond
Hangs by her teeth, and with her hands collects
The slimy gore which drips upon the limbs.
Where lay a corpse upon the naked earth
On ravening birds and beasts of prey the hag
Kept watch, nor marred by knife or hand her spoil,
Till on his victim seized some nightly wolf;
Then dragged the morsel from his thirsty fangs;
Nor fears she murder, if some banquet fell
Need blood fresh issued from the gaping throat,
Or panting entrail. By unnatural means
Wombs yield to her the infant to be placed
On glowing altars: and whene'er she needs
Some fierce undaunted ghost, he fails not her
Who has all deaths in use. Her hand has chased
From smiling cheeks the rosy bloom of life;
And with sinister hand from dying youth
Has shorn the fatal lock: and holding oft
In foul embraces some departed friend
Severed the head, and through the ghastly lips,
Held by her own apart, some impious tale
Dark with mysterious horror hath conveyed
Down to the darkness of the Stygian shades.
When Sextus first, through rumours of the place,
Heard of the hag, what time beneath the earth
Titan was wheeling at full height, and here
Night in mid course, in quest of her he trod
Through desert fields. Meanwhile a faithful band,
His ministers of guilt, mid tombs and vaults
All ruined wandering, beheld the witch
Seated afar upon a lofty crag
Where Haemus reaches out Pharsalian spurs.
There was she proving for her gods and priests
Of magic, words unknown, and framing chants
Of dire and novel purpose: for she feared
Lest Mars should stray into another world,
And spare Thessalian soil the blood ere long
To flow in torrents; and thus she forbade
Philippi's field, polluted with her song,
Thick with her poisonous distilments sown,
To let the war pass by. Such deaths, she hopes,
Soon shall be hers! the blood of all the world
Shed for her use! to her it shall be given
To sever from their trunks the heads of kings,
Plunder the ashes of the noble dead,
Italia's bravest, and in triumph add
The mightiest warriors to her host of shades.
This her sole toil, from Magnus' tombless corse
What she may snatch, on which of Caesar's limbs
Her grasp may fasten.
To whom the coward son
Of Magnus thus: 'Thou greatest ornament
Of Haemon's daughters, in whose power it lies
Or to reveal the fates, or from its course
'To turn the future, be it mine to know
'By thy sure utterance to what final end
'Fortune now guides the issue. Not the least
'Of all the Roman host on yonder plain
Am I, but Magnus' most illustrious son,
Lord of the world or heir to death and doom.
'The unknown affrights me: I can firmly face
The certain terror. Bid my destiny
Yield to thy power the dark and hidden end,
And let me fall foreknowing. From the gods
Extort the truth, or, if thou spare the gods,
Force it from hell itself. Fling back the gates
That bar th' Elysian fields; let Death confess
'Whom from our ranks he seeks. No humble task
I bring, but worthy of Erichtho's skill
Of such a struggle fought for such a prize
To search and tell the issue.'
Then the witch
Pleased that her impious fame was noised abroad
Thus made her answer: 'If some lesser fates
'Thy wish had been to change, against their wish
'It had been easy to compel the gods
'To its accomplishment. My art has power
When of one man the constellations press
The speedy death, to compass a delay;.
And mine it is, though every star decrees
A ripe old age, by mystic herbs to shear
The life midway. But should some purpose set
From the beginning of the universe,
And all the labouring fortunes of mankind,
'Be brought in question, then Thessalian art
'Bows to the power supreme. But if thou be
Content to know the issue pre-ordained,
'Simple the task and plain; for earth and air
And sea and space and Rhodopaean crags
'Shall speak the future. Yet it easiest seems
Where death in these Thessalian fields abounds
'To raise a single corpse. From dead men's lips
Scarce cold, in fuller accents falls the voice;
Not from some mummied frame in accents shrill
Uncertain to the ear.'

> Latin: Hos scelerum ritus, haec dirae carmina gentis
Effera damnarat nimiae pietatis Erichtho,
Inque novos ritus pollutam duxerat artem.
Illi namque nefas urbis submittere tecto
Aut laribus ferale caput: desertaque busta
Incolit, et tumulos expulsis obtinet umbris,
Grata deis erebi. Coetus audire silentum,
Nosse domos Stygias arcanaque Ditis operti,
Non superi, non vita vetat. Tenet ora profanae
Foeda situ macies, coeloque ignota sereno
Terribilis Stygio facies pallore gravatur,
Impexis onerata comis. Si nimbus et atrae
Sidera subducunt nubes, tunc Thessala nudis
Egreditur bustis, nocturnaque fulgura captat.
Semina foecundae segetis calcata perussit,
Et non letiferas spirando perdidit auras.
Nec superos orat, nec cantu supplice numen
Auxiliare vocat, nec fibras illa litantes
Novit: funereas aris imponere flammas
Gaudet, et accenso rapuit quae tura sepulcro.
Omne nefas superi prima iam voce precantis
Concedunt, carmenque timent audire secundum.
Viventes animas, et adhuc sua membra regentes,
Infodit busto: fatis debentibus annos
Mors invita subit: perversa funera pompa
Retulit a tumulis: fugere cadavera letum.
Fumantes iuvenum cineres, ardentiaque ossa
E mediis rapit illa rogis, ipsamque, parentes
Quam tenuere, facem: nigroque volantia fumo
Feralis fragmenta tori, vestesque fluentes
Colligit in cineres et olentes membra favillas.
Ast ubi servantur saxis, quibus intimus humor
Ducitur, et tracta durescunt tabe medullae
Corpora; tunc omnes avide desaevit in artus,
Immersitque manus oculis, gaudetque gelatos
Effodisse orbes, et siccae pallida rodit
Excrementa manus: laqueum nodosque nocentes
Ore suo rupit: pendentia corpora carpsit,
Abrasitque cruces: percussaque viscera nimbis
Vulsit, et incoctas admisso sole medullas.
Insertum manibus chalybem, nigramque per artus
Stillantis tabi saniem, virusque coactum
Sustulit, et nervo morsus retinente pependit.
Et quodcumque iacet nuda tellure cadaver,
Ante feras volucresque sedet: nec carpere membra
Vult ferro manibusque suis, morsusque luporum
Exspectat, siccis raptura a faucibus artus.
[Nec cessant a caede manus, si sanguine vivo]
[Est opus, erumpat iugulo qui primus aperto.]
Nec refugit caedes, vivum si sacra cruorem,
Extaque funereae poscunt trepidantia mensae.
Vulnere sic ventris, non, qua natura vocabat,
Extrahitur partus, calidis ponendus in aris.
Et quoties saevis opus est ac fortibus umbris,
Ipsa facit manes: hominum mors omnis in usu est.
Illa genae florem primaevo corpore vulsit,
Illa comam laeva morienti abscidit ephebo.
Saepe etiam caris cognato in funere dira
Thessalis incubuit membris: atque oscula figens,
Truncavitque caput, compressaque dentibus ora
Laxavit: siccoque haerentem gutture linguam
Praemordens, gelidis infudit murmura labris,
Arcanumque nefas Stygias mandavit ad umbras.
Hanc ut fama loci Pompeio prodidit: alta
Nocte poli, Titan medium quo tempore ducit
Sub nostra tellure diem, deserta per arva
Carpit iter. Fidi scelerum suetique ministri,
Effractos circum tumulos ac busta vagati,
Conspexere procul praerupta in caute sedentem,
Qua iuga devexus Pharsalica porrigit Aemus.
Ilia magis magicisque deis incognita verba
Tentabat, carmenque novos fingebat in usus.
Namque, timens, ne Mars alium vagus iret in orbem,
Emathis et tellus tam multa caede careret,
Pollutos cantu dirisque venefica succis
Conspersos vetuit transmittere bella Philippos,
Tot mortes habitura suas, usuraque mundi
Sanguine: caesorum truncare cadavera regum
Sperat, et Hesperiae cineres avertere gentis,
Ossaque nobilium, tantosque adquirere manes.
Hic ardor, solusque labor, quid corpore Magni
Proiecto rapiat, quos Caesaris involet artus.
Quam prior adfatur Pompeii ignava propago:
O decus Haemonidum, populis quae pandere fata,
Quaeque suo ventura potes divertere cursu,
Te precor, ut certum liceat mihi noscere finem,
Quem belli Fortuna paret. Non ultima turbae
Pars ego Romanae: Magni clarissima proles,
Vel dominus rerum, vel tanti funeris heres.
Mens dubiis percussa pavet, rursusque parata est
Certos ferre metus. Hoc casibus eripe iuris,
Ne subiti caecique ruant: vel numina torque,
Vel tu parce deis, et Manibus exprime verum
Elysias resera sedes, ipsamque vocatam,
Quos petat e nobis, Mortem tibi coge fateri.
Non humilis labor est: dignum, quod quaerere cures,
Vel tibi, quo tanti praeponderet alea fati.
Impia vulgatae laetatur nomine famae
Thessalis, et contra: Si fata minora moveres,
Pronum erat, o iuvenis, quos velles, inquit, in actus
Invitos praebere deos. Conceditur arti,
Unam cum radiis presserunt sidera mortem,
Inseruisse moras: et, quamvis fecerit omnis
Stella senem, medios herbis abrumpimus annos.
At simul a prima descendit origine mundi
Caussarum series, atque omnia fata laborant,
Si quidquam mutare velis, unoque sub ictu
Stat genus humanum tunc, Thessala turba fatemur,
Plus fortuna potest. Sed si praenoscere casus
Contentus, facilesque aditus multique patebunt
Ad verum: tellus nobis, aetherque, chaosque,
Aequoraque, et campi, Rhodopaeaque saxa loquentur.
Sed pronum, cum tanta novae sit copia mortis,
Emathiis unum campis adtollere corpus,
Ut modo defuncti tepidique cadaveris ora
Plena voce sonent nec, membris sole perustis,
Auribus incertum feralis strideat umbra.

[¶1] Thus spake the hag
And through redoubled night, a squalid veil
Swathing her pallid features, stole among
Unburied carcases. Fast fled the wolves,
The carrion birds with maw unsatisfied
Relaxed their talons, as with creeping step
She sought her prophet. Firm must be the flesh
As yet, though cold in death, and firm the lungs
Untouched by wound. Now in the balance hung
The fates of slain unnumbered; had she striven
Armies to raise and order back to life
Whole ranks of warriors, the laws had failed
Of Erebus; and, summoned up from Styx,
Its ghostly tenants had obeyed her call,
And rising fought once more. At length the witch
Picks out her victim with pierced throat agape
Fit for her purpose. Gripped by pitiless hook
O'er rocks she drags him to the mountain cave
Accursed by her fell rites, that shall restore
The dead man's life. Close to the hidden brink
The land that girds the precipice of hell
Sinks towards the depths: with ever falling leaves
A wood o'ershadows, and a spreading yew
Casts shade impenetrable. Foul decay
Fills all the space, and in the deep recess
Darkness unbroken, save by chanted spells,
Reigns ever. Not where gape the misty jaws
Of caverned Taenarus, the gloomy bound
Of either world, through which the nether kings
Permit the passage of the dead to earth,
So poisonous, mephitic, hangs the air.
Nay, though the witch had power to call the shades
Forth from the depths, 'twas doubtful if the cave
Were not a part of hell. Discordant hues
Flamed on her garb as by a fury worn;
Bare was her visage, and upon her brow
Dread vipers hissed, beneath her streaming locks
In sable coils entwined. But when she saw
The youth's companions trembling, and himself
With eyes cast down, with visage as of death,
Thus spake the witch: ' Forbid your craven souls
'These fears to cherish: soon returning life
'This frame shall quicken, and in tones which reach
Even the timorous ear shall speak the man.
'If I have power the Stygian lakes to show,
The bank that sounds with fire, the fury band,
'And giants fettered, and the hound that shakes
'Bristling with heads of snakes his triple head,
What fear is this that cringes at the sight
Of timid shivering shades? '
Then to her prayer.
First through his gaping bosom blood she pours
Still fervent, washing from his wounds the gore.
Then copious poisons from the moon distils
Mixed with all monstrous things which Nature's pangs
Bring to untimely birth; the froth from dogs
Stricken with madness, foaming at the stream;
A lynx's entrails: and the knot that grows
Upon the fell hyaena; flesh of stags
Fed upon serpents; and the sucking fish
Which holds the vessel back though eastern winds
Make bend the canvas; dragon's eyes; and stones
That sound beneath the brooding eagle's wings.
Nor Araby's viper, nor the ocean snake
Who in the Red Sea waters guards the shell,
Are wanting; nor the slough on Libyan sands
By horned reptile cast; nor ashes fail
Snatched from an altar where the Phoenix died.
And viler poisons many, which herself
Has made, she adds, whereto no name is given:
Pestiferous leaves pregnant with magic chants
And blades of grass which in their primal growth
Her cursed mouth had slimed. Last came her voice
More potent than all herbs to charm the gods
Who rule in Lethe. Dissonant murmurs first
And sounds discordant from the tongues of men
She utters, scarce articulate: the bay
Of wolves, and barking as of dogs, were mixed
With that fell chant; the screech of nightly owl
Raising her hoarse complaint; the howl of beast
And sibilant hiss of snake-all these were there;
And more-the wail of waters on the rock,
The sound of forests and the thunder peal.
Such was her voice; but soon in clearer tones
Reaching to Tartarus, she raised her song:
' Ye awful goddesses, avenging power
' Of Hell upon the damned, and Chaos huge
' Who striv'st to mix innumerable worlds,
' And Pluto, king of earth, whose weary soul
' Grieves at his godhead; Styx; and plains of bliss
' We may not enter: and thou, Proserpine,
' Hating thy mother and the skies above,
' My patron goddess, last and lowest form
' Of Hecate, through whom the shades and I
' Hold silent converse; warder of the gate
' Who castest human offal to the dog:
' Ye sisters who shall spin the threads again;
' And thou, O boatman of the burning wave,
' Now wearied of the shades from hell to me
' Returning, hear me if with voice I cry
' Abhorred, polluted; if the flesh of man
' Hath ne'er been absent from my proffered song,
Flesh washed with brains still quivering; if the child
Whose severed head I placed upon the dish
But for this hand had lived-a listening ear
Lend to my supplication! From the caves
'Hid in the innermost recess of hell
' I claim no soul long banished from the light.
' For one but now departed, lingering still
' Upon the brink of Orcus, is my prayer.
Grant (for ye may) that listening to the spell
'Once more he seek his dust; and let the shade
Of this our soldier perished (if the war
Well at your hands has merited), proclaim
The destiny of Magnus to his son.'
Such prayers she uttered; then upraised her head
And foaming lips, and present saw the ghost.
Hard by he stood, beside the hated corpse
His ancient prison, and loathed to enter in.
There was the yawning chest where fell the blow
That was his death; and yet the gift supreme
Of death, his right, (Ah, wretch! ) was reft away.
Angered at Death the witch, and at the pause
Conceded by the fates, with living snake
Scourges the nerveless corse; and on the dead
She barks through fissures gaping to her song,
Breaking the silence of their gloomy home:
' Tisiphone, Megaera, heed ye not?
Flies not this wretched soul before your whips
' The void of Erebus? By your very names,
' She-dogs of hell, I'll call you to the day,
Not to return; through sepulchres and death
Your gaoler: from funereal urns and tombs
I'll chase you forth. And thou, too, Hecate,
Who to the gods in comely shape and mien,
Not that of Erebus, appear'st, henceforth
Wasted and pallid as thou art in hell
'At my command shalt come. I'll noise abroad
The banquet that beneath the solid earth
Holds thee, thou maid of Enna; by what bond
'Thou lov'st night's King, by what mysterious stain
Infected, so that Ceres fears from hell
'To call her daughter. And for thee, base king,
'Titan shall pierce thy caverns with his rays
And sudden day shall smite thee. Do ye hear?
'Or shall I summon to mine aid that god
'At whose dread name earth trembles; who can look
Unflinching on the Gorgon's head, and drive
'The Furies with his scourge, who holds the depths
' Ye cannot fathom, and above whose haunts
Ye dwell supernal; who by waves of Styx
Forswears himself unpunished? '

> Latin: Dixerat: et noctis geminatis arte tenebris,
Moestum tecta caput squalenti nube, pererrat
Corpora caesorum, tumuli proiecta negatis.
Continuo fugere lupi, fugere revulsis
Unguibus impastae volucres, dum Thessala vatem
Eligit et gelidas leto scrutata medullas
Pulmonis rigidi stantes sine vulnere fibras
Invenit, et vocem defuncto in corpore quaerit.
Fata peremptorum pendent iam multa virorum,
Quem superis revocasse velit. Si tollere totas
Tentasset campis acies, et reddere bello,
Cessissent leges Erebis monstroque potenti
Extrartus Stygio populus pugnasset Averno.
Electum tandem traiecto gutture corpus
Ducit, et inserto laqueis feralibus unco,
Per scopolus miserum trahitur per saxa cadaver
Victurum: montisque cavi, quem tristis Erichtho
Damnarat sacris, alta sub rupe locatur.
Haud procul a Ditis caecis depressa cavernis
In praeceps subsedit humus: quam pallida pronis
Urget silva comis, et nullo vertice coelum
Suspiciens, Phoebo non pervia taxus opacat.
Marcentes intus tenebrae, pallensque sub antris
Longa nocte situs; numquam, nisi carmine factum,
Lumen habet. Non Taenareis sic faucibus aer
Sedit iners, moestum mundi confine latentis,
Ac nostri: quo non metuant emittere manes
Tartarei reges, Nam quamvis Thessala vates
Vim faciat fatis, dubium est, quod traxerit illuc
Adspiciat Stygias, an quod descenderit, umbras.
Discolor et vario furialis cultus amictu
Induitur, vultusque aperitur, crine remoto,
Et coma vipereis substringitur horrida sertis.
Ut pavidos iuvenis comites, ipsumque trememtem
Conspicit, exanimi defixum lumina vultu:
Ponite, ait, trepida conceptos mente timores:
Iam nova, iam vera reddetur vita figura,
Ut quamvis pavidi possint audire loquentem.
Si vero Stygiosque lacus, ripamque sonantem
Ignibus ostendam, si me praesente videri
Eumenides possent, villosaque colla colubris
Cerberus excutiens, et vincti terga Gigantes,
Quis timor, ignavi, metuentes cernere manes?
Pectora tunc primum ferventi sanguine supplet
Vulneribus laxata Iovis: taboque medullas
Abluit: et virus large lunare ministrat,
Huc quidquid fetu genuit natura sinistro
Miscetur. Non spuma canum, quibus unda timori est,
Viscera non lyncis, non dirae nodus hyaenae
Defuit, et cervi pasti serpente medulla:
Non puppim retinens, Euro tendente rudentes,
In mediis echeneis aquis, oculique draconum,
Quaeque sonant feta tepefacta sub alite saxa:
Non Arabum volucer serpens, innataque rubris
Aequoribus custos pretiosae vipera conchae:
Aut viventis adhuc Libyci membrana cerastae,
Aut cinis Eoa positi Phoenicia in ara.
Quo postquam viles, nec habentes nomina pestes
Contulit: infando saturatas carmine frandes,
Et, quibus os dirum nascentibus inspuit, herbas
Addidit, et quidquid mundo dedit ipsa veneni:
Tunc vox, Lethaeos cunctis pollentior herbis
Excantare deos, confudit murmura primum
Dissona, et humanae multum discordia linguae.
Latratus habet illa canum, gemitumque luporum:
Quod trepidus bubo, quod strix nocturna queruntur,
Quod stridunt ululantque ferae, quod sibilat anguis,
Exprimit, et planctus illisae cautibus undae;
Silvarumque sonum, fractaeque tonitrua nubis.
Tot rerum vox una fuit. Mox cetera cantu
Explicat Haemonio, penetratque in Tartara lingua:
Eumenides, Stygiumque nefas, poenaeque nocentum:
Et Chaos innumeros avidum confundere mundos:
Et rector terrae, quem longa in saecula torquet
Mors dilata deum: Styx, et, quos nulla meretur
Thessalis Elysios: coelum matremque perosa
Persephone, nostraeque Hecates pars ultima, per quam
Manibus et mihi sunt tacitae commercia linguae:
Ianitor et sedis laxae, qui viscera saevo
Spargis nostra cani: repetitaque fila sorores
Tracturae: tuque o flagrantis portitor undae,
Iam lassate senex ad me redeuntibus umbris:
Exaudite preces, si vos satis ore nefando
Pollutoque voco, si numquam haec carmina fibris
Humanis ieiuna cano, si pectora plena
Saepe dedi, et lavi calido prosecta cerebro;
Si quis, cum vestris caput extaque lancibus, infans,
Imposui, victurus erat: parete precanti.
Non in Tartareo latitantem poscimus antro,
Adsuetamque dia tenebris, modo luce fugata
Descendentem animam: primo pallentis hiatu
Haeret adhuc Orci. Licet has exaudiat herbas
Ad manes ventura semel. Ducis omina nato
Pompeiana canat nostri modo militis umbra,
Si bene de vobis civilia bella merentur.
Haec ubi fata caput spumantiaque ora levavit,
Adspicit adstantem proiecti corporis umbram,
Exanimes artus invisaque claustra timentem
Carceris antiqui. Pavet ire in pectus apertum
Visceraque, et ruptas letali volnere fibras.
Ah miser, extremum cui mortis munus inique
Eripitur, non posse mori. Miratur Erichtho
Has fatis licuisse moras, irataque morti
Verberat immotum vivo serpente cadaver:
Perque cavas terrae, quas egit carmine, rimas
Manibus illatrat, regnique silentia rupit:
Tisiphone, vocisque meae secura Megaera,
Non agitis saevis Erebi per inane flagellis
Infelicem animam? Iam vos ego nomine vero
Eliciam, Stygiasque canes in luce superna
Destituam: per busta sequar, per funera custos;
Expellam tumulis, abigam vos omnibus urnis.
Teque deis, ad quos alio procedure vultu
Ficta soles, Hecate, pallenti tabida forma
Ostendam, faciemque Erebi mutare vetabo.
Eloquar, immenso terrae sub pondere quae te
Contineant, Ennaea, dapes, qua foedere moestum
Regem noctis ames, quae te contagia passam
Noluerit revocare parens. Tibi, pessime mundi
Arbiter, immittam ruptis Titana cavernis,
Et subito feriere die. Paretis? an ille
Compellandus erit, quo numquam terra vocato
Non concussa tremit, qui Gorgona cernit apertam,
Verberibusque suis trepidam castigat Erinnyn,
Indespecta tenet vobis qui Tartara; cuius
Vos estis, superi; Stygias qui peierat undas?

[¶2] Then the blood
Grew warm and liquid, and with softening touch
Cherished the stiffened wounds and filled the veins,
Till throbbed once more the slow returning pulse
And every fibre trembled, as with death
Life was commingled. Then, not limb by limb,
With toil and strain, but rising at a bound
Leaped from the earth erect the living man.
Fierce glared his eyes uncovered, and the life
Was dim, and still upon his face remained
The pallid hues of hardly parted death.
Amazement seized upon him, to the earth
Brought back again: but from his lips tight drawn
No murmur issued; he had power alone
When questioned to reply. 'Speak,' quoth the hag,
As I shall bid thee; great shall be thy gain
If true thine answers, freed for evermore
From all Haemonian art. Such burial place
Shall now be thine, and on thy funeral pyre
Such fatal woods shall burn, such chant shall sound,
'That to thy ghost no more or magic song
Or spell shall reach, and thy Lethaean sleep
Shall never more be broken in a death
' From me received anew: for such reward
' Think not this second life enforced in vain.
' Obscure may be the answers of the gods
' By priestess spoken at the holy shrine;
' But whoso braves the oracles of death
' In search of truth, should gain a sure response.
' Then speak, I pray thee. Let the hidden fates
' Tell through thy voice the mysteries to come.'
Thus spake she, and her words by mystic force
Gave him his answer; but with gloomy mien,
And tears swift flowing, thus he made reply:
'Called from the margin of the silent stream
I saw no fateful sisters spin the threads.
'Yet know I this, that 'mid the Roman shades
'Reigns fiercest discord; and this impious war
'Destroys the peace that ruled the fields of death.
'Elysian meads and deeps of Tartarus
'In paths diverse the Roman chieftains leave
'And thus disclose the fates. The blissful ghosts
Bear visages of sorrow. Sire and son
'The Decii, who gave themselves to death
'In expiation of their country's doom,
'And great Camillus, wept; and Sulla's shade
'Complained of fortune. Scipio bewailed
'The scion of his race about to fall
' In sands of Libya: Cato, greatest foe
' To Carthage, grieves for that indignant soul
' Which shall disdain to serve. Brutus alone
' In all the happy ranks I smiling saw,
' First consul when the kings were thrust from Rome.
' The chains were fallen from boastful Catiline.
' Him too I saw rejoicing, and the pair
' Of Marii, and Cethegus' naked arm.
' The Drusi, heroes of the people, joyed,
' In laws immoderate; and the famous pair
' Of greatly daring brothers: guilty bands
' By bars eternal shut within the doors
' That close the prison of hell, applaud the fates,
'Claiming the plains Elysian: and the King
' Throws wide his pallid halls, makes hard the points
' Of craggy rocks, and forges iron chains,
' The victor's punishment. But take with thee
'This comfort, youth, that there a calm abode,
' And peaceful, waits thy father and his house.
' Nor let the glory of a little span
' Disturb thy boding heart: the hour shall come
' When all the chiefs shall meet. Shrink not from death,
' But glorying in the greatness of your souls,
' E'en from your humble sepulchres descend,
' And tread beneath your feet, in pride of place,
' The wandering phantoms of the gods of Rome.
' Which chieftain's tomb by Tiber shall be laved,
' And which by Nile; their fate, and theirs alone,
' This battle shall decide. Nor seek to know
' From me thy fortunes: for the fates in time
' Shall give thee all thy due; and thy great sire,
' A surer prophet, in Sicilian fields
'Shall speak thy future-doubting even he
' What regions of the world thou shouldst avoid
' And what shouldst seek. O miserable race!
' Europe and Asia and Libya's plains,
' Which saw your conquests, now shall hold alike
' Your burial-place-nor has the earth for you
' A happier land than this.'
His task performed,
He stands in mournful guise, with silent look
Asking for death again; yet could not die
Till mystic herb and magic chant prevailed.
For nature's law, once used, had power no more
To slay the corpse and set the spirit free.
With plenteous wood she builds the funeral pyre
To which the dead man comes: then as the flames
Seized on his form outstretched, the youth and witch
Together sought the camp; and as the dawn
Now streaked the heavens, by the hag's command
The day was stayed till Sextus reached his tent,
And mist and darkness veiled his safe return.

> Latin: Protinus adstrictus caluit cruor, atraque fovit
Vulnera, et in venas extremaque membra cucurrit.
Percussae gelido trepidant sub pectore fibrae:
Et nova desuetis subrepens vita medullis
Miscetur morti. Tunc omnis palpitat artus:
Tenduntur nervi: nec se tellure cadaver
Paulatim per membra levat, terraque repulsum est,
Erectumque simul. Distento lumina rictu
Nudantur. Nondum facies viventis in illo,
Iam morientis erat. Remanent pallorque rigorque;
Et stupet illatus mundo. Sed murmure nullo
Ora adstricta sonant. Vox illi linguaque tantum
Responsura datur. Dic, inquit Thessala, magna,
Quod iubeo, mercede mihi: nam vera locutum
Immunem toto mundi praestabimus aevo
Artibus Haemoniis: tali tua membra sepulcro,
Talibus exuram Stygio cum carmine silvis,
Ut nullos cantata magos exaudiat umbra.
Sit tanti, vixisse iterum: nec verba, nec herbae
Audebunt longae somnum tibi solvere Lethes,
A me morte data. Tripodas vatesque deorum
Sors obscura decet; certus discedat, ab umbris
Quisquis vera petit duraeque oracula mortis
Fortis adit. Ne parce, precor. Da nomina rebus,
Da loca, da vocem, qua mecum fata loquantur.
Addidit et carmen, quo, quidquid consulit, umbram
Scire dedit. Moestum, fletu manante, cadaver,
Tristia non equidem Parcarum stamina, dixit,
Respexi, tacitae revocatus ab aggere ripae:
Quod tamen e cunctis mihi noscere contigit umbris,
Effera Romanos agitat discordia manes,
Impiaque infernam ruperunt arma quietem.
Elysias alii sedes, ac Tartara moesta
Diversi liquere duces: quid fata pararent,
Hi fecere palam. Tristis felicibus umbris
Vultus erat. Vidi Decios, natumque patremque,
Lustrales bellis animas, flentemque Camillum,
Et Curios; Sullam de te, Fortuna, querentem.
Deplorat Libycis perituram Scipio terris
Infaustam sobolem. Maior, Carthaginis hostis,
Non servituri moeret Cato fata nepotis.
Solum te Consul depulsis prime tyrannis
Brute pias inter gaudentem vidimus umbras.
Abruptis Catilina minax fractisque catenis
Exsulat, Mariique truces, nudique Cethegi.
Vidi ego laetantes, popularia nomina, Drusos;
Legibus immodicos, ausosque ingentia Gracchos.
Aeternis chalybum nodis, et carcere Ditis
Constrictae plausere manus, camposque piorum
Poscit turba nocens. Regni possessor inertia
Pallentes aperit sedes, abruptaque saxa
Asperat, et durum vinclis adamanta, paratque
Poenam victori. Refer haec solatia tecum,
O iuvenis, placido Manes patremque domumque
Exspectare sinu, regnique in parte serena
Pompeio servare locum. Nec gloria parvae
Sollicitet vitae: veniet, quae misceat omnes
Hora duces. Properate mori, magnoque superbi
Quamvis e parvis animo descendite bustis,
Et Romanorum manes calcate deorum.
Quem tumulum Nili, quem Tybridis adluat unda,
Quaeritur, et ducibus tantum de funere pugna est.
Tu fatur ne quaere tuum cognoscere: Parcae,
Me reticente, dabunt: tibi certior omnia vates
Ipse canet Siculis genitor Pompeius in arvis:
Ille quoque incertus, quo te vocet, unde repellat,
Quas iubeat vitare plagas, quae sidera mundi.
Europam miseri, Libyamque Asiamque timete:
Distribuit tumulos vestris Fortuna triumphis.
O miseranda domus, toto nihil orbe videbis
Tutius Emathia. Sic postquam fata peregit,
Stat vultu moestus tacito, mortemque reposcit.
Carminibus magicis opus est, herbisque, cadaver
Ut cadat, et nequeunt animam sibi reddere fata,
Consumto iam iure semel. Tum robore multo
Exstruit illa rogum: venit defunctus ad ignes;
Accensa iuvenem positum strue liquit Erichtho,
Tandem passa mori: Sextoque ad castra parentis
It comes: et coelo lucis ducente colorem,
Dum ferrent tutos intra tentoria gressus,
Iussa tenere diem densas nox praestitit umbras.