VIRGIL 19 



labour. Myself awhile will discharge your duty. 

 To whom Palinurus, with difficulty lifting up his 

 eyes, answers : Do you then bid me be a stranger 

 to the aspect of the calm sea and its quiet waves ? 

 Shall I confide in this extraordinary apparition? 

 Why should I trust ^neas to the mercy of the 

 fallacious winds, after having been so often de- 

 ceived by the treacherous aspect of a serene sky ? 

 These words he uttered, while, fixed and clinging, 

 he did not part with the rudder, and held his eyes 

 directed to the stars ; when, lo ! the god shakes 

 over both his temples a branch drenched in the 

 dew of Lethe, and impregnated with soporofic 

 Stygian influence ; and, while he is struggling 

 against sleep, dissolves his swimming eyes. 

 Scarcely had unexpected slumber begun to relax 

 his limbs, when the god, leaning on him with part 

 of the stern broke off, plunged him headlong into 

 the limpid waves, often calling on his friends in 

 vain : taking flight, raised himself on his wings 

 aloft into the air. Meanwhile, the fleet runs its 

 watery course on the plain with ecjual security, 

 and, fearless, is conducted by father Neptune's 

 promises. And now, wafted forward, it was even 

 coming up to the rocks of the Sirens, once difficult 

 of access, and white with the bones of many (at 

 that time the hoarse rocks resounded far with the 

 continual buffeting of the briny waves) ; when 

 father /Eneas perceived the fluctuating galley to 



