f Neritos; and with pleasure did they see
the ship of Alcinoues[46] become hard upon the breakers, and stone
growing over the wood.

There is a hope that, the fleet having received life in the form of sea
Nymphs, the Rutulian may desist from the war through fear, on account of
this prodigy. He persists, {however}, and each side has {its own}
Deities;[47] and they have courage, equal to the Gods. And now they do
not seek kingdoms as a dower, nor the sceptre of a father-in-law, nor
thee, virgin Lavinia, but {only} to conquer; and they wage the war
through shame at desisting. At length, Venus sees the arms of her son
victorious, and Turnus falls; Ardea falls, which, while Turnus lived,
was called 'the mighty.' After ruthless flames consumed it, and its
houses sank down amid the heated embers, a bird, then known for the
first time, flew aloft from the midst of the heap, and beat the ashes
with the flapping of its wings. The voice, the leanness, the paleness,
and every thing that befits a captured city, and the very name of the
city, remain in that {bird}; and Ardea itself is bewailed by {the
beating of} its wings.

And now the merit of AEneas had obliged all the Deities, and Juno
herself, to put an end to their former resentment; when, the power of
the rising Iuelus being now well established, the hero, the son of
Cytherea, was ripe for heaven, Venus, too, had solicited the Gods above;
and hanging round the neck of her parent had said: "My father, {who
hast} never {proved} unkind to me at any time, I beseech thee now to be
most indulgent {to me}; and to grant, dearest {father}, to my AEneas,
who, {born} of my blood, has made thee a grandsire, a godhead, {even}
though of the lowest class; so that thou only grant him one. It is
enough to have once beheld the unsightly realms, {enough} to have once
passed over the Stygian streams." The Gods assented; nor did his royal
wife keep her countenance unmoved; {but}, with pleased countenance, she
nodded assent. Then her father said; "You are worthy of the gift of
heaven; both thou who askest, and he, for whom thou askest: receive, my
daughter, what thou dost desire." {Thus} he decrees. She rejoices, and
gives thanks to her parent; and, borne by her harnessed doves through
the light air, she arrives at the Laurentine shores; where Numicius,[48]
covered with reeds, winds to the neighbouring sea with the waters of his
stream. Him she bids to wash off from AEneas whatever is subject to