Aenead

• From here is the route which leads to the waves of the infernal

  Acheron. Here, a whirlpool, thick with mud and with an enormous chasm, boils up and spews forth all the sand into the Cocytus.
•  The dreaded ferryman, Charon, (a creature) of dreadful filth, guards these waters and rivers, on whose chin very many grey hairs lie unkempt, his eyes stare with fire and a dirty cloak hangs in a knot from his shoulders.
•  (Charon) himself drives the boat with a pole, attends to the sails and carries the bodies in his dusky boat; (he is) now rather old, but the god's age is fresh and vigorous.
• The whole crowd spread far and wide was rushing hither to the banks, mothers and husbands, bodies of high-souled heroes who have completed their lifespan, boys and unmarried girls and men in their prime placed on funeral pyres before the faces of their parents:
•  as many as the leaves in the woods which, slipping down, fall in the first frost of autumn, or as many as the birds which gather together from the deep sea to the land, when the cold season makes them flee across the sea and sends (them) to sunny lands.
• They stood (there), begging to be the first to go across on the passage and stretched out their hands in their desire for the further shore.
•  But the gloomy sailor takes on board now these, now those, but others, driven away, he keeps far from the sand.
• Therefore, they completed the journey which they had begun and approached the river. 
• When the sailor, right from where he was, from the Stygian water, caught sight of them going through the silent grove and turning their feet towards the bank, he accosted them first with his words and thus rebuked them as well: 
• 'Whoever you are, who, armed, make your way to our rivers, come, say this instant, from there, why you are coming, and check your steps.
• This is the region of the shades, of sleep and drowsy night; it is a sin to carry live bodies in the Stygian boat.
•  Indeed, I was not happy that I accepted either Hercules going on the lake, or Theseus and Pirithous, although they were descended from gods and unconquered in strength.
•  The former sought forcibly (to put) the guard of the Underworld in chains and dragged him quivering from the throne of the king himself; the latter attempted to take away the wife of Pluto from her bedchamber.
•  In reply to these words, the Amphrysian prophetess spoke briefly:
• "(There is) no such treachery here (stop being alarmed), nor do the weapons bring violence. 
• The huge doorkeeper barking eternally in the cave is allowed to terrify the bloodless shades, (and) Proserpina may keep safe the threshold of her uncle undefiled.
•  The Trojan Aeneas, outstanding for his devotion to duty and feats of arms, is coming down to the lowest shades of Erebus to (see) his father.
•  If no thought of such great devotion moves you, well, you should recognise this bough' (she reveals the bough which lay hidden in her garment).
•  Then his swelling heart settled down after his anger; no more (words) were said than these. Charon, wondering at the venerable gift of the fateful branch, seen after a long time, turned his dark blue boat and approached the bank.
•  Then he drove out the other spirits, which were sitting throughout the long benches, and opened the gangways; at the same time, he took huge Aeneas in the small boat.
•  The boat, sewn together, groaned under the weight and, full of cracks, took in a lot of marshy water. Finally across the river, Charon landed both the priestess and the hero unharmed in the shapeless slime and the grey sludge.
• But father Anchises, deep within a green valley, surveying them zealously, was reviewing the souls who were confined there and about to go to the light of the world above, and by chance was counting the whole number of his (family), his beloved descendants, the destinies and fortunes of the men, their customs and works.
• When he saw Aeneas opposite him making his way through the grass, he eagerly stretched out both palms, tears poured forth from his eyelids and a cry slipped out from his mouth:
•  'Have you come at last, and has your devotion, awaited by your parent, overcome the hard journey? Is it allowed to behold your face, son, and to hear and answer your well-known tones ?'
• Thus I for my part kept reckoning in my mind and kept thinking it would be, counting the seasons, nor did my anxiety fail me. I welcome you; over what lands and what great seas vou have travelled!
•  By what great dangers you have been tossed about, son! How I feared lest the kingdoms of Libya would harm you in some way. 
• But Aeneas (replied): 'It was your image, your sad image, father, so often springing to my mind, which drove me to make my way to these thresholds; my ships ride at anchor on the Tyrrhenian sea.
•  Grant, father, grant (me) to join our right hands, and do not withdraw from my embrace.' As he spoke thus, he moistened his face at the same time with copious weeping.
•  Three times he tried there to put his arms around (Anchises') neck; three times the image grasped in vain escaped his hands, like light winds and most similar to winged sleep.
• And now, in a remote valley, Aeneas sees a secluded grove and swishing thickets of a wood, and the Lethean river which glides past peaceful dwellings.
•  Around this, countless races and peoples flitted: and just as when in meadows bees in the bright summertime settle upon different flowers and swarm around white lilies, the whole plain buzzes with the humming. 
• Aeneas bristles (with joy) at the sudden sight and not knowing asks the reasons, what those rivers are in the distance, or what men have filled the banks with such a great band.
• Anchises finished speaking and led his son and the Sibyl along with him into the middle of the gathering and the noisy crowd, and selected a mound from which he could survey everyone face to face in a long row and become acquainted with the features of those who came.
•  (He said:) 'Come, now, the glory which is to attend the Trojan offspring in the future, the grandchildren from the Italian race who are waiting, the famous souls and those going to come into our name, I will set forth in words and teach you your fates.'
• 'Now turn your two eyes hither, look at this race and your Romans. Here (is) Caesar and the whole race of lulus which is destined to come beneath the mighty axis of the sky. 
• This man, this is the one, whom you hear so often promised to you, Augustus Caesar, offspring of a god, who will found the golden centuries again in Latium throughout the fields once ruled by Saturn, and will extend his supreme power beyond the Garamantes and Indians;
•  the land lies beyond the constellations, beyond the paths of the year and the sun, where heaven-bearing Atlas turns on his shoulder the axis fitted with burning stars.
•  In anticipation of this man's arrival, already now both the Caspian kingdoms and the Maeotian land shudder because of the oracles of the gods, and the mouths of the sevenfold Nile are in fearful confusion.'