Story of Aeneas | Page 9

which they decked with cypress wreaths, the
emblem of mourning, and offering sacrifices to the gods.
Soon afterwards, the winds being favorable, they set sail, and in a few
days reached De'los, one of the isles of Greece, where there was a
famous temple of Apollo. A'ni-us, the king of the island, and a priest of
Apollo, gave them a hospitable reception. In the great temple they
made suitable offerings, and AEneas prayed to the god to tell them in
what country they might find a resting place and a home. Scarcely had
the prayer been finished when the temple and the earth itself seemed to
quake, whereupon the Trojans prostrated themselves in lowly reverence
upon the ground, and presently they heard a voice saying: "Brave sons
of Dar'da-nus, the land which gave birth to your ancestors shall again
receive your race in its fertile bosom. Seek out your ancient mother.
There the house of AEneas shall rule over every coast, and his
children's children and their descendants."
The answers or oracles of the gods were often given in mysterious
words, as in the present case. AEneas and his companions did not know
what land was meant by the "ancient mother," but Anchises, "revolving
in his mind the legends of the men of old," remembered having heard

that one of his ancestors, Teu'cer, (the father-in-law of Dardanus), had
come from the island of Crete. Believing, therefore, that that was the
land referred to in the words of the oracle, they set sail, having first
sacrificed to Apollo, to Neptune, god of the ocean, and to the god of
storms, that their voyage might be favorable.
A bull to Neptune, an oblation due, Another bull to bright Apollo slew;
A milk-white ewe, the western winds to please And one coal-black, to
calm the stormy seas. DRYDEN, AEneid, BOOK III.
They arrived safely at Crete (now known as Can'di-a) where they
remained a considerable time and built a city which AEneas called
Per'ga-mus, the name of the famous citadel or fort of Troy. But here a
new misfortune came upon the exiles in the shape of a plague, which
threatened destruction to man and beast and the fruits of the field.
Sudden on man's feeble frame From tainted skies a sickness came, On
trees and crops a poisonous breath, A year of pestilence and death.
CONINGTON, AEneid, BOOK III.
Anchises now proposed that they should return to Delos, and again
seek the counsel and aid of Apollo, but that night AEneas had a dream
in which the household gods whose images he had carried with him
from Troy, appeared to him, and told him that Crete was not the land
destined by the gods for him and his people. They also told him where
that Hesperia was, of which he had heard from the shade of Creusa.
"A land there is, Hesperia called of old, (The soil is fruitful, and the
natives bold-- The OE-no'tri-ans held it once,) by later fame Now
called I-ta'li-a, from the leader's name. I-a'si-us there, and Dardanus,
were born: From thence we came, and thither must return. Rise, and thy
sire with these glad tidings greet: Search Italy: for Jove denies thee
Crete." DRYDEN, AEneid, BOOK III.
AEneas made haste to tell this dream to his father, whereupon the old
man advised that they should at once depart. So they quickly got their
ships in order and set sail for Hesperia--the Land of the West. But
scarcely had they lost sight of the shore when a terrible storm arose
which drove them out of their course, and for three days and nights the
light of heaven was shut from their view. Even the great Pal-i-nu'rus,
the pilot of the ship of AEneas, "could not distinguish night from day,
or remember his true course in the midst of the wave."
On the fourth day, however, the storm ceased and soon the Trojans

sighted land in the distance. It was one of the islands of the Ionian sea,
called the Stroph'a-des. Here dwelt the Har'pies, monsters having faces
like women, and bodies, wings, and claws like vultures. When the
Trojans landed they saw herds of oxen and flocks of goats grazing in
the fields. They killed some of them and prepared a feast upon the
shore, and having first, in accordance with their invariable custom,
made offerings to the gods, they proceeded "to banquet on the rich
viands." But they had hardly begun their meal when the Harpies, with
noisy flapping of wings and fearful cries, swooped down upon them,
snatched off a great portion of the meat, and so spoiled the rest with
their unclean touch that it was unfit to eat.
From the mountain-tops with hideous cry, And clattering wings, the
hungry Harpies fly: And snatch the meat, defiling