Virgil, Aeneid 6.124–141, read in Latin by Wendell Clausen

Citation:

1997. “Virgil, Aeneid 6.124–141, read in Latin by Wendell Clausen.” Cambridge, MA: Department of the Classics, Harvard University.

Full Text

Talibus orabat dictis, arasque tenebat,

cum sic orsa loqui vates: "Sate sanguine divom,          125

Tros Anchisiade, facilis descensus Averno;

noctes atque dies patet atri ianua Ditis;

sed revocare gradum superasque evadere ad auras,

hoc opus, hic labor est. Pauci, quos aequus amavit

Iuppiter, aut ardens evexit ad aethera virtus,                 130

dis geniti potuere. Tenent media omnia silvae,

Cocytusque sinu labens circumvenit atro.

Quod si tantus amor menti, si tanta cupido est,

bis Stygios innare lacus, bis nigra videre

Tartara, et insano iuvat indulgere labori,                         135

accipe, quae peragenda prius. Latet arbore opaca

aureus et foliis et lento vimine ramus,

Iunoni infernae dictus sacer; hunc tegit omnis

lucus, et obscuris claudunt convallibus umbrae.

Sed non ante datur telluris operta subire,                      140

auricomos quam quis decerpserit arbore fetus.

Summary by Thomas Jenkins

As part of his travails to land in Italy, Aeneas must enter the underworld, a task undertaken by only a few heroes in mythology [including Odysseus, Heracles, and Orpheus, though the last fails to recover the object of his quest, his beloved Eurydice]. But Aeneas is not allowed to enter the underworld without the fabled "golden bough," and only men specially sanctioned by the gods may fetch it at all. Again, we see trappings of a divine machinery underneath the human drama of the Aeneid; mortal and immortal spheres constantly mingle and morph—particularly in Book VI, which quite literally spans the distance between life and death.
The passage includes one of Virgil's most famous short passages: "Easy is the descent to Avernus, for the door to the underworld lies open both day and night. But to retrace your steps and return to the breezes above—that's the task, that's the toil."

[Perhaps this is an allusion to Virgil's own tale of Orpheus and Eurydice. The musician Orpheus, having lost his girlfriend Eurydice, descends to the underworld to retrieve her; the one stipulation for her return is that, on the ascent back to the breezes above, Orpheus is not allowed to glance at Eurydice. Unhappily, he does, and loses her forever … The gorgeous telling of this tale can be found at the end of Virgil's Georgics, Book IV. ]

Related content

Virgil, Aeneid 6.124–141 (Dryden's translation), read by Kathleen M. Coleman

See also: Latin poetry
Last updated on 09/09/2015