AENEID
stricturae Chalybum et fornacibus ignis anhelat, Volcani domus et Volcania nomine tellus. huc tunc ignipotens caelo descendit ab alto. Ferrum exercebant vasto Cyclopes in antro, 425Brontesque Steropesque et nudus membra Pyracmon. his informatum manibus iam parte polita fulmen erat, toto genitor quae plurima caelo deicit in terras, pars imperfecta manebat. tris imbris torti radios, tris nubis aquosae 430addiderant, rutili tris ignis et alitis Austri. fulgores nunc terrificos sonitumque metumque miscebant operi flammisque sequacibus iras. parte alia Marti currumque rotasque volucris instabant, quibus ille viros, quibus excitat urbes; 435aegidaque horriferam, turbatae Palladis arma, certatim squamis serpentum auroque polibant conexosque anguis ipsamque in pectore divae Gorgona desecto vertentem lumina collo. “tollite cuncta” inquit “coeptosque auferte labores, 440Aetnaei Cyclopes, et huc advertite mentem: arma acri facienda viro. nunc viribus usus, nunc manibus rapidis, omni nunc arte magistra. praecipitate moras.” nec plura effatus, at illi ocius incubuere omnes pariterque laborem 445sortiti. fluit aes rivis aurique metallum vulnificusque chalybs vasta fornace liquescit. ingentem clipeum informant, unum omnia contra tela Latinorum, septenosque orbibus orbis impediunt. alii ventosis follibus auras 450accipiunt redduntque, alii stridentia tingunt
- 423huc P: hoc MR (archaic form of huc, say Servius, Priscian)
BOOK VIII
fire pants in the furnace—it is the home of Vulcan and the land called Vulcania. To it the Lord of Fire then came down from high heaven.
In the vast cave the Cyclopes were forging iron—Brontes and Steropes and bare-limbed Pyracmon. They had a thunderbolt, which their hands had shaped, like the many that the Father hurls down from all over heaven upon earth, in part already polished, while part remained unfinished. Three shafts of twisted hail they had added to it, three of watery cloud, three of ruddy flame and the winged South Wind; now they were blending into the work terrifying flashes, noise, and fear, and wrath with pursuing flames. Elsewhere they were hurrying on for Mars a chariot and flying wheels, with which he stirs upmen and cities; and eagerly with golden scales of serpents were burnishing the awful aegis, armour of wrathful Pallas, the interwoven snakes, and on the breast of the goddess the Gorgon herself, with neck severed and eyes revolving. “Away with all!” he cries. “Remove the tasks you have begun, Cyclopes of Aetna, and turn your thoughts to this! Arms for a brave warrior you must make. Now you have need of strength, now of swift hands, now of all your masterful skill. Throw off delay!” No more he said; but they with speed all bent to the toil, allotting the labour equally. Bronze and golden ore flow in streams, and wounding steel is molten in the vast furnace. A giant shield they shape, to confront alone all the weapons of the Latins, and weld it sevenfold, circle on circle. Some with panting bellows make the blasts come and go, others dipthe hissing bronze in the lake, while the