Hunger for gold

“To what extremes
Will you not drive the hearts of men, accurst
Hunger for gold!”

—Virgil, The Aeneid, between 29 and 19 BCE, translated by Robert Fitzgerald, 1983.

humid Iris

“So humid Iris through bright heaven flew
On saffron-yellow wings, and in her train
A thousand hues shimmered before the sun.”

—Virgil, The Aeneid, between 29 and 19 BCE, translated by Robert Fitzgerald, 1983.

swift goddess

“So Iris glided on the colored rainbow,
Seen by none, swift goddess, on her way.”

—Virgil, The Aeneid, between 29 and 19 BCE, translated by Robert Fitzgerald, 1983.

when Jupiter veils the sky

“Now dim to one another
In desolate night they walked on through the gloom,
Through Dis’s homes all void, and empty realms,
As one goes through a wood by a faint moon’s
Treacherous light, when Jupiter veils the sky
And black night blots the colors of the world.”

—Virgil, The Aeneid, between 29 and 19 BCE, translated by Robert Fitzgerald, 1983.

old age in the gods is green

“A figure of fright, keeper of waters and streams,
Is Charon, foul and terrible, his beard
Grown wild and hoar, his staring eyes all flame,
His sordid cloak hung from a shoulder knot.
Alone he poles his craft and trims the sails
And in his rusty hull ferries the dead,
Old now—but old age in the gods is green.”

—Virgil, The Aeneid, between 29 and 19 BCE, translated by Robert Fitzgerald, 1983.

white ivory agleam

“There are two gates of Sleep, one said to be
Of horn, whereby the true shades pass with ease,
The other all white ivory agleam
Without a flaw, and yet false dreams are sent
Through this one by the ghosts to the upper world.”

—Virgil, The Aeneid, between 29 and 19 BCE, translated by Robert Fitzgerald, 1983.

a flickering light

“This way and that
He let his mind run, passing quickly over
All he might do, as when from basins full
Of unstilled water, struck by a ray of sun
Or the bright disk of the moon, a flickering light
Plays over walls and corners and flies up
To hit the high roofbeams and a coffered ceiling.”

—Virgil, The Aeneid, between 29 and 19 BCE, translated by Robert Fitzgerald, 1983.

yellow and glowing red

“‘You people dress in yellow and glowing red,
You live for sloth, and you go in for dancing,
Sleeves to your tunics, ribbons to your caps,
Phrygian women, in truth not Phrygian men!’”

—Virgil, The Aeneid, between 29 and 19 BCE, translated by Robert Fitzgerald, 1983.

Soft-petaled violet or hyacinth

“Here on his rustic bed they lay the prince,
Most like a flower a girl’s fingers plucked,
Soft-petaled violet or hyacinth
With languid head, as yet no longer discomposed
Or faded, though its mother earth no longer
Nourishes it and makes it stand in bloom.”

—Virgil, The Aeneid, between 29 and 19 BCE, translated by Robert Fitzgerald, 1983.

four and twenty Blue-Beards

“You haven’t seen anything until you’ve refused your friend’s wife a little favor. Because then, you’d be better off with a reputation of four and twenty Blue-Beards. a crook without a car! a defeated field marshal! your feet stink, your fangs, your breath! I’m telling you!“

—Louis-Ferdinand C’line, Fable For Another Time, 1952, translated by Mary Hudson, 2003.