Portitor has horrendus aquas et flumina servat
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terribili squalore Charon, cui plurima mento
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canities inculta jacet, stant lumina flamma,
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sordidus ex umeris nodo dependet amictus
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Ibant obscuri sola sub nocte per umbram
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perque domos Ditis vacuas et inania regna
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quale per incertam lunam sub luce maligna
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est eiter in silvis, ubi caelum condidit umbra
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Juppiter, et rebus nox abstulit atra colorem
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"Sic demum lucos Stygis et regna invia vivis aspicies..."
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"Anchisa generate deum certissimia proles,
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Cocyti stagna alta vides Stygiamque paludem.
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di cujus jurare timent et fallere numen."
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Nec plura his. Ille admirans venerabile donum
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fatalis virgae longo post tempore visum
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caeruleam advertit puppim ripaeque propinquat.
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Watching over these waves and streams of filth is the
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horrible ferryman Charon, on whose chin countless unkept
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grey hairs lie outspread; his eyes endure in flame, and
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a squalid cloak hangs knotted from his shoulders.
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Beneath lonely darkness the gloomy travellers go through shadow
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and through the deserted abodes and ghostly kingdom of Dis:
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through uncertain moonlight under rays of a spiteful sort the way
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lies in the woods, where Jupiter hides the sky in shadow and
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night steals colour from the black heavens.
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"In this manner you will at last behold the sacred grove of Styx
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and the kingdom pathless to the living..."
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"Child of Anchises, most certain prodigy of a god, you will see
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the deep mere of the mournful river of Hades and the swamp of
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Styx, whose divine power the gods fear to swear by and prove false."
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Nothing more was said. Wondering at the venerable offering of the
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fated branch, seen after a distant time, he turned the vessel to
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the darkness and the shores approached.
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-----------------
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The Ferryman
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| Maudlin Of The Well |
