DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.55699#0311
TERNI.
251
The upper road to the cascade is also eminently beau-
tiful. Having surmounted some slight difficulties in the
passage, the eye is regaled with a prospect of which no
description can convey more than a faint idea. The
loud flowing Nar foaming along through the valley,“ suf-
furea albus aqua,” as described of old—the ruined vil-
lage of Papignia rising in the centre, the city of Terni
and its plain—the Velino bursting from its umbrageous
concealment over the precipice upon the rocks below,
forms a picture which cannot be contemplated without
wonder and admiration.
Addison supposes this to be the spot represented by
Virgil as the gulf into which the fury Alecto is re-
ceived on her passage back to the infernal regions, and
founds his conjecture on the following passage in the
seventh book of the 2Eneid :—
Est locus Italiae in medio sub montibus altis
Nobilis, et fama multis memoratus in oris,
Amsancti valles : densis hunc frondibus atrum
Urget utrimque latus nemoris, medioque fragosus
Dat sonitum saxis et torto vortice torrens:
Hie specus horrendum, et seevi spiracula Ditis
Monstrantur, ruptoque ingens Acheronte vorago
Pestiferas aperit fauces.
In midst of Italy, well known to fame,
There lies a vale, Amsanctus is its name,
Below the lofty mounts: on either side
Thick forests the forbidden entrance hide;
Full in the centre of the sacred wood
An arm ariseth of the Stygian flood;
Which falling from on high, with bellowing sound,
Whirls the black waves and rattling stones around.
Here Pluto pants for breath from out his cell,
And opens wide the grinning jaws of Hell.
251
The upper road to the cascade is also eminently beau-
tiful. Having surmounted some slight difficulties in the
passage, the eye is regaled with a prospect of which no
description can convey more than a faint idea. The
loud flowing Nar foaming along through the valley,“ suf-
furea albus aqua,” as described of old—the ruined vil-
lage of Papignia rising in the centre, the city of Terni
and its plain—the Velino bursting from its umbrageous
concealment over the precipice upon the rocks below,
forms a picture which cannot be contemplated without
wonder and admiration.
Addison supposes this to be the spot represented by
Virgil as the gulf into which the fury Alecto is re-
ceived on her passage back to the infernal regions, and
founds his conjecture on the following passage in the
seventh book of the 2Eneid :—
Est locus Italiae in medio sub montibus altis
Nobilis, et fama multis memoratus in oris,
Amsancti valles : densis hunc frondibus atrum
Urget utrimque latus nemoris, medioque fragosus
Dat sonitum saxis et torto vortice torrens:
Hie specus horrendum, et seevi spiracula Ditis
Monstrantur, ruptoque ingens Acheronte vorago
Pestiferas aperit fauces.
In midst of Italy, well known to fame,
There lies a vale, Amsanctus is its name,
Below the lofty mounts: on either side
Thick forests the forbidden entrance hide;
Full in the centre of the sacred wood
An arm ariseth of the Stygian flood;
Which falling from on high, with bellowing sound,
Whirls the black waves and rattling stones around.
Here Pluto pants for breath from out his cell,
And opens wide the grinning jaws of Hell.