hands and beating them against the rocks which
formed the sides of their den. Some men whom one of these monsters,
named Polyphemus, had shut up in his cavern, contrived to surprise
their keeper in his sleep, and though they were wholly unable to kill
him on account of his colossal magnitude, they succeeded in putting
out his eye, and AEneas and his companions saw the blinded giant, as
they passed along the coast, wading in the sea, and bathing his wound.
He was guiding his footsteps as he walked, by means of the trunk of a
tall pine which served him for a staff.

At length, however, after the lapse of a long period of time, and
after meeting with a great variety of adventures to which we can not
even here allude, AEneas and his party reached the shores of Italy, at
the point which by divine intimations had been pointed out to them as
the place where they were to land.[D]

[Footnote D: See Map, page 134.]

The story of the life and adventures of AEneas, which we have given in
this and in the preceding chapters, is a faithful summary of the
narrative which the poetic historians of those days recorded. It is,
of course, not to be relied upon as a narrative of facts; but it is
worthy of very special attention by every cultivated mind of the
present day, from the fact, that such is the beauty, the grace, the
melody, the inimitable poetic perfection with which the story is told,
in the language in which the original record stands, that the
narrative has made a more deep, and widespread, and lasting impression
upon the human mind than any other narrative perhaps that ever was
penned.

CHAPTER VI.

THE LANDING IN LATIUM.

B.C. 1197-1190

Description of the country where AEneas landed.--The landing.--Mouth of
the Tiber.--Burning of the ships.--Italy in ancient days.--Sacrifices
offered.--Map of Latium.--Reconnoitring the country.--King Latinus.--An
embassy.--The embassy come to the capital.--The embassadors are
admitted to an audience.--Their address to king Latinus.--Latinus
accedes to AEneas's requests.--Proposal of marriage.--Lavinia and
Turnus.--The anger of Turnus at being set aside.--Lavinium.--Situation
of the Trojan territory.--The story of Sylvia's stag.--Ascanius shoots
the stag.--The resentment of Sylvia's brothers.--Sudden outbreak.--Death
of Almon.--Great excitement.--Preparation for war.--Latinus.--The
Trojans gradually gain ground.--Desire for peace.--Turnus opposes
it.--A proposal for single com