Litura
Vergil · P. Vergilius Maro · Latin text with translation

Aeneid, Liber Secundus

The fall of Troy, told by Aeneas at Dido's banquet: the Wooden Horse, Laocoön, Priam's death, and the flight with Anchises.

804 lines. Every word carries its dictionary form, its parsing and what it is doing in the line, with literal, student and literary translations.

  1. 1Conticuēre omnēs intentīque ōra tenēbant.Everyone fell silent and kept their eyes fixed on him.
  2. 2Inde torō pater Aenēās sīc ōrsus ab altō:Then from his high couch father Aeneas began:
  3. 3Īnfandum, rēgīna, iubēs renovāre dolōrem,Queen, you are asking me to relive a grief too terrible to speak of,
  4. 4Trōiānās ut opēs et lāmentābile rēgnumhow the Greeks destroyed the power of Troy and its kingdom,
  5. 5ēruerint Danaī, quaeque ipse miserrima vīdīso worthy of tears, and the terrible things I saw myself
  6. 6et quōrum pars magna fuī. Quis tālia fandōand played a large part in. Who could tell such a story,
  7. 7Myrmidonum Dolopumve aut dūrī mīles Ulixīeven a Myrmidon, a Dolopian, or a soldier of hard-hearted Ulysses,
  8. 8temperet ā lacrimīs? Et iam nox ūmida caelōand not cry? And now the damp night is falling fast from the sky,
  9. 9praecipitat suādentque cadentia sīdera somnōs.and the setting stars invite us to sleep.
  10. 10Sed sī tantus amor cāsūs cognōscere nostrōsBut if you so long to learn of our misfortunes
  11. 11et breviter Trōiae suprēmum audīre labōrem,and to hear briefly about Troy's final agony,
  12. 12quamquam animus meminisse horret lūctūque refūgit,though my mind shudders to remember it and shrinks back in sorrow,
  13. 13incipiam. Frāctī bellō fātīsque repulsīI will begin. Worn down by war and thwarted by fate,
  14. 14ductōrēs Danaum tot iam lābentibus annīsthe Greek leaders, after so many years had slipped away,
  15. 15īnstar montis equum dīvīnā Palladis artebuild a horse as big as a mountain, with Athena's divine skill,
  16. 16aedificant, sectāque intexunt abiete costās;and line its ribs with planks of fir;
  17. 17vōtum prō reditū simulant; ea fāma vagātur.they claim it is an offering for a safe voyage home; this is the story that goes round.
  18. 18Hūc dēlēcta virum sortītī corpora fūrtimInto it, in secret, they shut picked men chosen by lot,
  19. 19inclūdunt caecō laterī penitusque cavernāshiding them in its dark side, and they fill the huge
  20. 20ingentīs uterumque armātō mīlite complent.hollows of its belly with armed soldiers.

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