e won through thousand toils o'ergreat,
That King Eurystheus laid on him by bitter Juno's fate.
"O thou Unconquered, thou whose hand beat down the cloud-born two,
Pholeus, Hylaeus, twin-wrought things, and Cretan monsters slew:
O thou who slew'st the lion huge 'neath that Nemean steep,
The Stygian mere hath quaked at thee, the ward of Orcus deep
Quaked in his den above his bed of half-gnawed bones and blood.
At nothing fashioned wert thou feared; not when Typhoeus stood
Aloft in arms: nor from thine heart fell any rede away
When round thee headed-manifold the Worm of Lerna lay. 300
O very child of Jupiter, O Heaven's new glory, hail!
Fail not thy feast with friendly foot, nor us, thy lovers, fail!"

With such-like song they sing the praise, and add to all the worth
The cave of Cacus, and the beast that breathed the wildfire forth.
The woods sing with them as they sing; the hills are light with song.

So, all the holy things fulfilled, they wend their ways along
Unto the city: the old king afoot was with them there,
And bade AEneas and his son close to his side to fare,
And as he went made light the way with talk of many a thing.
AEneas wonders, and his eyes go lightly wandering 310
O'er all; but here and there they stay, as, joyful of his ways,
He asks and hears of tokens left by men of earlier days.

Then spake the King Evander, he who built up Rome of old:
"These woods the earth-born Fauns and Nymphs in time agone did hold,
And men from out the tree-trunk born and very heart of oak;
No fashion of the tilth they knew, nor how the bulls to yoke,
Nor how to win them store of wealth, or spare what they had got;
The tree-boughs only cherished them and rugged chase and hot.
Then from Olympus of the heavens first Saturn came adown,
Fleeing the war of Jupiter and kingdom overthrown: 320
He laid in peace the rugged folk amid the mountains steep
Scattered about, and gave them laws, and willed them well to keep
The name of Latium, since he lay safe hidden on that shore.
They call the days the Golden Days that 'neath that king outwore,
Amid such happiness of peace o'er men-folk did he reign.
But worsened time as on it wore, and gathered many a stain;
And then the battle-rage was born, and lust of gain outbroke:
Then came the host