The Aeneid

by Virgil

And handsome Virbius also came to war: son of Hippolytus, sent by his mother, 1000 Aricia, he was wearing splendid armor. He had been raised along the marshy shores within Egeria’s grove, where—rich and peaceful— the altar of Diana stands. They tell how when he fell by his stepmother’s guile 1005 and paid a father’s vengeance with his blood, torn into pieces by his panicked horses, Hippolytus had risen toward the stars, called back into the air of upper earth by the Healer’s herbs and by Diana’s love. 1010 Then the all-able Father, in his anger at any mortal’s rising from infernal shadows up to the light of life, cast down the son of Phoebus, Aesculapius, the finder of such medicines, such arts, 1015 into the Stygian waves. But generous Diana hid Hippolytus in secret, then sent him to the nymph Egeria, the grove where all alone, unhonored, he lived out his life among Italian forests 1020 and changed his name to Virbius. For this, no horn-hoofed horse can ever trespass in the sacred grove and temple of Diana; because when they were panicked by sea monsters, they spilled the youth and chariot on the shore. 1025 Nevertheless, along the level fields his son was driving glowing stallions and racing in his chariot to