Book 3 — BOOK III
John Conington translation
The time covers about six years. It begins with events immediately following the fall of Troy, June, B.C. 1184.
“Under Mount Etna he lies, It is slumber, it is not death; For he struggles at times to arise, And above him the lurid skies Are hot with his fiery breath.”
All this region, as has been newly shown by the late terrible earthquake, is peculiarly subject to seismic disturbances.
“And now from their fountains In Enna’s mountains, Down one vale where the morning basks, Like friends once parted Grown single-hearted, They ply their watery tasks. At sunrise they leap From their cradles steep In the cave of the shelving hill; At noontide they flow Through the woods below And the meadows of asphodel; And at night they sleep In the rocking deep Beneath the Ortygian shore:— Like spirits that lie In the azure sky Where they love but live no more.”