I f the picture of such piety in no wise moves you, yet know this bough” – and she shows the bough, hidden in her robe. At this his swelling breast subsides from its anger. No more is said; but he, marveling at the dread gift, the fateful wand so long unseen, turns his blue barge and nears the shore. Then other souls that sat on the long thwarts he routs out, and clears the gangways; at once he takes aboard giant Aeneas. The seamy craft groaned under the weight, and through its chinks took in marshy flood. At last, across the water, he lands seer and soldier unharmed on the ugly mire and grey sedge.
These realms huge Cerberus makes ring with his triple-throated baying, his monstrous bulk crouching in a cavern opposite.
To him, seeing the snakes now bristling on his necks, the