Monday, February 15, 2010

The Aeneid (208-425)

This is a passage from the Aeneid, a story of a trojan son of Venus, escaping from the fallen troy, and continuing to found a city in Italy that would someday become rome. With this passage, There was a trojan prophet who warned the city against letting the horse inside, but then two large snakes came out of the water and ate him and his family.

But look, twin snakes, i shudder even to talk about this, from tenedos, loom
over the calm, deep sea, with huge coils and they stretch side by sidde towards
the shores. Their chests race among the waves and their bloody crests overpower
them. The rest of their body, trailing behind them, skims over the sea, and each
snakes twists its huge body into a coil, they hiss while the salt is spreading.
And now they overwhelm the plowed fields, having suffused their burning eyes,
with blood and fire, they were licking their hissing mouths with flickering
tongues.


In my opinion, this passage is just ridiculous, i have no idea how he thought of it. Vergil's language is excellent, it is really descriptive. It would be crazy if this happened in real life, although some might say that it did happen, just think of how frightening it would be to see two giant snakes coming out of the water to devour you?