Prayer to Apollo
ApolloGrant us our own, Lord of Thymbra, grant the tired and worn, and their children, a city behind defensive walls in a tamed land. Safeguard a new Troy, built by those Trojan sons who escaped the Greeks and severe Achilles. Who now must I follow? Where do you urge me to go? Grant, Father, a sign, and flow into our souls.
Aeneas prays at Delos, in the temple of Apollo, asking where to found his city.
The prayer consists almost entirely of questions, three in a row: "Whom do we follow? Where do you bid us go? Where are we to set our home?" The petitioner has given up formulating a request and is asking for directions.
And this is perhaps Virgil's finest passage on how an oracle works. Apollo will answer — "seek out your ancient mother" — but the Trojans will misread it, sail to Crete, and be driven from it by plague. The prayer is heard, the answer given, and it is useless without correct interpretation. The god does not deceive: he says exactly as much as he says.
Fons · Source
AuthorVirgil
WorkAeneid
Section3.85-89
PeriodAugustan
Classificatio · Taxonomy