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(From Æneid, Book VIII) Translated by C. P. Cranch
FIRST look upon yon craggy pile, on stones | |
| Suspended; scattered far and wide, the rocks | |
| Are strewn; how lonely and deserted stands | |
| That mountain-fortress; with what ruin wild | |
| The cliffs are dragged and toppled from above! | 5 |
| That was the cave hewn in a vast recess | |
| Where dwelt the terrible half-human form | |
| Of Cacus; where no sunbeams found their way; | |
| And ever with fresh slaughter smoked the ground. | |
| On the proud portals fixed hung heads of men, | 10 |
| Pallid and ghastly in their clotted gore. | |
| This monster’s sire was Vulcan; his the flames | |
| And smoke that issued from his mouth. His boast | |
| Was in his mighty bulk. But time at length | |
| Brought aid long wished, and the advent of a god. | 15 |
| Alcides came, the great avenger, proud | |
| From triple Geryon’s slaughter and his spoils, | |
| And hither drove his captured bulls, which filled | |
| The river and the vale. But Cacus, fired | |
| With fury, left untried no stratagem | 20 |
| Or crime; took from their stalls four comely bulls, | |
| And heifers four, of beauty unsurpassed; | |
| And, lest their hoof-prints should betray the theft, | |
| He dragged them backwards, with the tracks reversed, | |
| And hid them in his gloomy cave. No signs | 25 |
| The seeker found to lead him to the place. | |
| Meanwhile, when now Amphitryon’s son prepared | |
| To move his full-fed herd, and to depart, | |
| The cattle, as they left, began to low, | |
| And filled the woods and hills with their complaints. | 30 |
| When, from the cave, one of the cows returned | |
| The sound; and thus, though guarded close, betrayed | |
| The hope of Cacus. | |
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