When first the Covid plague had laid me low,
Methought I'd been in Tartarus below;
My teeth did chatter, naught could warm me there;
I gasp'd, I choked, I fought in vain for air.
The quicksilver stood calm, and said, "Not ill."
My legs did fail… and O, that bitter chill…
Aeneid Book 6: The Descent into the Underworld
by Virgil
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch
The Sibyl began to speak to Aeneas:
“God-blooded Trojan, son of Anchises,
descending into the Underworld’s easy
since Death’s dark door stands eternally unbarred.
But to retrace one’s steps and return to the surface:
that’s the conundrum, that’s the catch!
Godsons have done it, the chosen few
whom welcoming Jupiter favored
and whose virtue merited heaven.
However, even the Blessed find headway’s hard:
immense woods barricade boggy bottomland
where the Cocytus glides with its dark coils.
But if you insist on ferrying the Styx twice
and twice traversing Tartarus,
if Love demands you indulge in such madness,
listen closely to how you must proceed...”
Keywords/Tags: Virgil, Aeneid, descent, underworld, Aeneas, death, door, Jupiter, heaven, woods, Cocytus, River Styx, Stygian, Hades, Tartarus, voyage, journey, love, madness, god, gods
Harpies shrieked and lost souls wailed
The cold wind stung as embers sailed
A fetid stench, eyes red with dust
When I looked through to Tartarus.
Black column’s rose in demon form
terror enthralling those forlorn
Compelled I shuddered as I must
When I looked through to Tartarus.
Ten-fold my dread, to see your face
Among the shades in this cursed place
I cried your name, you didn’t hear
Glass-eyed and stricken with despair
Bleak bedlam dweller all hope hushed
When I looked through to Tartarus
As I wept, nigh tolled a bell
The Angel Keeper Uriel
Bellowed low “it must be thus”
When I looked through to Tartarus.
Unto Acheron, great river of woe,
the buried to the entrance gate are led,
in the underworld to Charon below
to ferry across the souls of the dead.
Upon your lips, your eyes, a coin receive,
a fare lest you be trapped between two worlds -
allowed to enter but never to leave
where the waters of oblivion purls.
Where Furies dwell and Hellhounds guards the gate
and souls are judged in Hades’s deathless reign -
to wander the Styx and Lethe in wait
till rulers of gods and men part us twain.
The Pit of Tartarus where the soul yields
or sweet blissful isles of Elysian Fields.
Written: May 2012
I googled "Hell Is Where You" and got
Hell is where you are.
Hell is where you watch me burn.
Hell is where you find it.
Hell is where you make it.
Hell is where you want to be.
Hell is where you keep my heart.
Hell is where you're headed.
Hell is where you go when you die.
Hell is where you're supposed to be.
Hell is where you belong.
Hell is where you wind up.
Hell is where you don't want to be.
Hell is where you'd rather go anyway.
Hell is where you're sent for eating clams.
Hell is where you came from.
Hell is where you meet the person you could've been.
Hell is where you set celery on fire and shove it up your ass.
Hell is where you begin.
The stupidest one:
Hell is where you go to unite self-assertion and self-deception with its original source
My favorite:
Hell is where you hang your hat.
I stand in the swamp by the riverbank
clutching a coin I have stolen
as my heart still beats within my breast
It is only my spirit
that has slipped away
to await the ferryman of Acheron
Charon who
skillfully pilots his skiff
from there to where it flows
into Styx
He arrives and I pay the price
He places the coin in his pocket
and grabs hold of the pole
pushing away from the shore
as I lay indolent with lament
in the bottom of the boat
the icy chill of the water
seeping through the wood
Shivering I stare at the stars
silently weeping
remembering the many wishes
I made on them that went unrealized
unheard
for the Gods must have
found me unworthy
Cerberus will step aside to admit me
heads snarling
as the snakes on his back writhe
Hades will welcome me
Or he may hand me over
to be judged by Aeacus
and plunged into the pit of Tartarus
for my many sins
to be tortured for eternity
starved and beaten
my liver eaten by birds
May he have mercy on me
this sorrowful lost soul
for all I ever wanted
was to dance
carefree and content
to the music of miracles
in the golden flower filled
Elysian Fields forever
with you
Ferry me across the river Styx
Into the realm of the dead
Charon won’t you take my danake?
Ferry me across the river Styx
Were the Judges await
To seal my faith
In Tartarus I do belong
For all I did was always wrong
In Hades eyes I stood out strong
My debt is paid now I move along
In hate and respite I lived my fears
Never loved through all my years
I was used and scared till I got old
Heroes are not always bold
Vengeance is mine
Justice divine
Pay for your crime
Now is your time!
Tempted by Medusa’s gaze
A shadow overwieghs my soul
Too much darkness drove my craze
As I console in death’s embrace.
Now the Furies I shall serve
Punish souls, crimes to avenge
Inflicting pain, famine, disease
Bringing criminals to their knees
Vengeance is mine
Justice divine
Pay for your crime
Now is your time!
With Nyx by my side
Hecate as my guide
With Thanatos I ride
You’ve got nowhere to hide
A methylated river flows
Through the verdant hills
It suffocates the pastures
It maculates the mills
Its waters burn and blister
They torturously bend
To Tartarus below
They slavishly descend
I only hear the torrent
On certain times of year
When days are counted fewest
And Death is reckoned near
I've sailed across the ocean
Seen Carthya march to war
I've battled against Kronos
Heard Oliver ask for more
I was Receiver of Memory
The Speaker for the Dead
I've been Ender's Shadow
Heard the Whisperer in my head
I've found a world inside a wardrobe
Borne the Burden all alone
I've fallen into Tartarus
Been orphaned without a home
You may call them fantasy
A fable, myth, or tale
And though it ends eventually
For a little time it's real
As Hollywood
Casts its rectangular light,
A lighthouse without rotation
That warns no-one
As our ships are bashed
Against the rocks,
Sharp, jagged rocks
Of protruding buttresses
And ledges
In our fall down the shaft
To the center of the earth
To Tartarus
We silently applaud
As we enjoy,
As we are moved,
As the swell of the surf
Under our wooden ship
Washes us
With deep and deathly undercurrents
To ultimate doom
Against the rocks,
The jagged rocks,
Of this world.
REQUIEM FOR LOVE
Let the flood of my tears drown this day
And soar my spirit to the base of tartarus…!
O Cupid…come Pothos and Himeros
Where are thy powers to hold still?
Are thou wearied by human caprices,
Of whose hands fate lies then?
Elusive Aphrodite, of all thy allures
Thou perish in fantasies of beauty.
O fair rose, my heart is pierced,
Beneath thy bed is frame of thorns.
Gather ye four winds in monotonous drone
And let thee pines chime a dirge
O love...love…love…my love…my joy…
Has now lain a wreath upon my heart!
Years of love intrigues, of dreams, sacrifice,
Pain, trust, consolation and determination…
Is sold out a day to another who knows not,
For a piece of coin and a parcel of fancy.
Lento… lento the knell for a broken heart…
Love is clothed a shadow, beauty a mask!
Cry… for what is broken so shall remain
Never to be wiped, never to be patched!
With my Angels exorcised-
I Exercise my Devils
Daren't you guess what this implies?
In Evil doth I revel!
Shout and swear; curse and cuss
In the Bowels of Tartarus!
Sweet Lucifer! I do concur-
Heaven- it's just not for us!
You were not celestial Cupid, and because they
Are wounded; you were most than those earthly ghosts
Brought down hearts by becoming Tartarus’ mastery;
That was purified by sufferings and misfortunes;
Some striking with long orgasms or others become honorary beasts.
I was Cupid before you when my home was a bursting wing;
O born in chains, and tolling in mental torment,
And for the first time, the pallid soul of dead love returned, and showed
Such bloody law of loving by me;
O enlightened me with bitten breasts,
The realm of luminous form that in dark it flowing,
Evermore than a designed nightmare
And let me feeling the mystic time.
Across you, o Psyche, crazy spirits dancing naked,
A smelled shadow that I would have most
Liked to spare the burden of old age,
Has nothing to give; only the glory a Moon-priestesses.
And all with hostility toward me and glowing
Was Cupid the fair ending of a love?
Through which I grew most liked a ghost
And speaking with her my last musical invoice
Hoping to have a decent response against what I became
Without you.
That Blessed Day
When the shuddering echo,
Of battle-cries vanish forever,
Under the victorious cheers
Of universal brotherhood,
When the cold murderous cannons,
Will be silenced by love,
And in their barrels singing birds
Build their nests,
When the cruel wounds,
Mercilessly inflicted by barbaric wars,
Be healed once and for all
By human compassion,
When the medals of honor,
Of today’s heroes,
Monuments of shame in the eyes,
Of the world appear,
When hatred and its siblings,
Are expelled from our kind hearts,
Thrown thus into the Tartarus
Of human condemnation,
When racial discriminations,
That divided us are obliterated,
By the sublime understanding,
Of our enlightened minds,
When upon the ravaged face
Of our long-suffered planet,
A place is found for each one of us
To live happily free,
That blessed day
Will be the first,
Among the endless number of days,
OF PEACE ON EARTH!
© Demetrios Trifiatis
27 February 1984
Expelled of Tartarus an angel rose
She from darkened shadows
Of chaos in a cyclone came
Above hell’s fire escaping flame
To reach to skies there overcast
And find a place there at last
Beyond the clouds of dark chagrin
An Eden’s place and smile again
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