Astonished by the great whirlwind of miserable things,

“O Jupiter!” he said, “if you are not spoken about falsely by the remarks that you had gone under the embrace of Aegena, daughter of Asopus, 

nor are you ashamed, great father, to be our parent,

either restore my people to me, or establish me also in the grave!”

he gave a sign by lightning and a second time by thunder.

“I receive, and I pray that those things may be favorable signs of the mind

of yours!” I said, “what you give to me, I take as a pledged omen.”

by chance, there was nearby a very spreading oak with wide branches,

a sacred oak to Jupiter from Dodonaean seed;

here we saw fruit-gatherers in a long line,

ants carrying a great burden in a small mouth,

and keeping their path on wrinkled bark;

while I wonder at the number, “just as many, best father,” I said,

“give to me citizens and fill the empty walls!”

it trembled and, with branches moved without wind, made a sound

the tall oak gave; to me, afraid, my limbs with fear

had bristled and my hair stood; nevertheless, kisses to the earth

and to the oak I gave, nor did I confess myself to hope;

yet I was hoping, and in my mind I was cherishing my wishes.

night comes on, and sleep takes bodies worn by cares;

it seizes them: before my eyes the same oak seemed to be present to me,

and on the branches just as many and as many creatures on the branches

it seemed to carry on its branches and equally to tremble with motion

and to scatter the grain-bearing troop on the fields below;

to grow suddenly and to seem greater and greater, 

and to lift themselves from the ground and to stand with upright trunk,

and their thinness and number of feet and black color

to put aside and to put on human form upon their limbs.

sleep goes away: awake I complain of the loss of my visions

that in the gods there is no help; but in the house a huge

murmur was and I seemed to hear voices of men

already unfamiliar to me; while I suspect these also to be of sleep,

behold Telamon comes quickly and with doors opened

“with hope and trust, father,” he said, “you will see greater things:

go out!” I go out, and such as in the image of sleep

I had seemed to have seen men, in order such

I look upon and recognize: they approach and greet the king.

I pay vows to Jupiter and to the newly-made people the city

I divide and the empty fields to former cultivators;

and I call them Myrmidons and I do not deceive their name from their origin.

their bodies you have seen; their habits which before they bore,

now also they have: it is a sparing race and enduring of labors,

tenacious of what is sought and which keeps what has been sought.

these equal to you in age and spirit will follow you to wars,

as soon as the East Wind which brought you favorably

(for the East Wind had brought you) will have been changed into the South Winds