"Now," said the Sibyl, "summon up your courage, for you
will need it." She descended into the cave, and Aeneas followed.
Before the threshold of hell they passed through a group of beings
who are enumerated as Griefs and avenging Cares, pale Diseases and
melancholy Age, Fear and Hunger that tempt to crime, Toil,
Poverty, and Death,--forms horrible to view. The Furies spread
their couches there, and Discord, whose hair was of vipers tied up
with a bloody fillet. Here also were the monsters, Briareus, with
his hundred arms, Hydras hissing, and Chimaeras breathing fire.
Aeneas shuddered at the sight, drew his sword and would have
struck, but the Sibyl restrained him. They then came to the black
river Cocytus, where they found the ferryman, Charon, old and
squalid, but strong and vigorous, who was receiving passengers of
all kinds into his boat, magnanimous heroes, boys and unmarried
girls, as numerous as the leaves that fall at autumn, or the
flocks that fly southward at the approach of winter. They stood
pressing for a passage and longing to touch the opposite shore.
But the stern ferryman took in only such as he chose, driving the
rest back. Aeneas, wondering at the sight, asked the Sibyl, "Why
this discrimination?" She answered, "Those who are taken on board
the bark are the souls of those who have received due burial
rites; the host of others who have remained unburied are not
permitted to pass the flood, but wander a hundred years, and flit
to and fro about the shore, till at last they are taken over.
Pages:
383
384
385
386
387
388
389
390
391
392
393
394
395
396
397
398
399
400
401
402
403
404
405
406
407