oracle of Phoebus, who bids them seek the
ancient mother and the kindred shores. The king attends, and presents
them with gifts when about to depart; a sceptre to Anchises, a scarf and
a quiver to his grandson, {and} a goblet to AEneas, which formerly
Therses, his Ismenian guest, had sent him from the Aonian shores; this
Therses had sent to him, {but} the Mylean Alcon had made it, and had
carved it with this long device:

There was a city, and you might point out {its} seven gates: these were
in place of[61] a name, and showed what {city} it was. Before the city
was a funeral, and tombs, and fires, and funeral piles; and matrons,
with hair dishevelled and naked breasts, expressed their grief; the
Nymphs, too, seem to be weeping, and to mourn their springs dried up.
Without foliage the bared tree runs straight up; the goats are gnawing
the dried stones. Lo! he represents the daughters of Orion in the middle
of Thebes; the one, as presenting her breast, more than woman's, with
her bared throat; the other, thrusting a sword in her valorous wounds,
as dying for her people, and as being borne, with an honoured funeral,
through the city, and as being burnt in a conspicuous part {of it};
{and} then from the virgin embers, lest the race should fail, twin
youths arising, whom Fame calls 'Coronae,'[62] and for their mothers'
ashes leading the {funeral} procession.

Thus far for the figures that shine on the ancient brass; the summit of
the goblet is rough with gilded acanthus. Nor do the Trojans return
gifts of less value than those given; and to the priest they give an
incense-box, to keep the frankincense; they give a bowl, {too}, and a
crown, brilliant with gold and gems. Then recollecting that the
{Trojans}, {as} Teucrians, derived their origin from the blood of
Teucer, they make for Crete, and cannot long endure the air of that
place;[63] and, having left behind the hundred cities, they desire to
reach the Ausonian harbours. A storm rages, and tosses the men to and
fro; and winged Aello frightens them, when received in the unsafe
harbours of the Strophades.[64] And now, borne along, they have passed
the Dulichian harbours, and Ithaca, and Same,[65] and the Neritian
abodes, the kingdom of the deceitful Ulysses; and they behold
Ambracia,[66] contended for in a dispute of the Deities, which now is
renowned for the Actian Apollo,[67] and the stone in the shape of the
transformed judge, and the land of Dodona, vocal with its oak