lse bury
me, as well, in the sepulchre.' He gave a signal by lightnings, and by
propitious thunders. I accepted {the omen}, and I said, 'I pray that
these may be happy signs of thy intentions: the omen which thou givest
me, I accept as a pledge.' By chance there was close by, an oak sacred
to Jupiter, of seed from Dodona,[105] but thinly covered with
wide-spreading boughs. Here we beheld some ants, the gatherers of corn,
in a long train, carrying a heavy burden in their little mouths, and
keeping their track in the wrinkled bark. While I was wondering at their
numbers, I said, 'Do thou, most gracious Father, give me citizens as
many in number, and replenish my empty walls.' The lofty oak trembled,
and made a noise in its boughs, moving without a breeze. My limbs
quivered, with trembling fear, and my hair stood on an end; yet I gave
kisses to the earth and to the oak, nor did I confess that I had any
hopes; {and} yet I did hope, and I cherished my own wishes in my mind.
Night came on, and sleep seized my body wearied with anxiety. Before my
eyes the same oak seemed to be present, and to bear as many branches,
and as many animals in its branches, and to be trembling with a similar
motion, and to be scattering the grain-bearing troop on the fields
below. These suddenly grew, and seemed greater and greater, and raised
themselves from the ground, and stood with their bodies upright; and
laid aside their leanness, and the {former} number of their feet, and
their sable hue, and assumed in their limbs the human shape.

"Sleep departs. When {now} awake, I censured the vision, and complained
that there was no help for me from the Gods above. But within my palace
there was a great murmur, and I seemed to be hearing the voices of men,
to which I had now become unaccustomed. While I was supposing that
these, too, were {a part} of my dream, lo! Telamon came in haste, and,
opening the door, said, 'Father, thou wilt see things beyond thy hopes
or expectations. Do come out.' I did go out, and I beheld and recognized
such men, each in his turn, as I had seemed to behold in the vision of
my sleep. They approached, and saluted me as their king. I offered up
vows to Jupiter, and divided the city and the lands void of their former
tillers, among this new-made people, and I called them Myrmidons,[106]
and did not deprive their name {of the marks} of their origin. Thou hast
beheld their persons. Even still do they retain the manners which they