Swarming of bees by Wenceslaus Hollar (Plate 301 - Scenes from Virgil) 1607-1677

"Deep in the palace, of long growth, there stood
A laurel’s trunk, a venerable wood;
Where rites divine were paid; whose holy hair
Was kept and cut with superstitious care.
This plant Latinus, when his town he wall’d,
Then found, and from the tree Laurentum call’d;
And last, in honour of his new abode,
He vow’d the laurel to the laurel’s God.
It happen’d once (a boding prodigy!)
A swarm of bees, that cut the liquid sky,
Unknown from whence they took their airy flight,
Upon the topmost branch in clouds alight;
There with their clasping feet together clung,
And a long cluster from the laurel hung.
An ancient augur prophesied from hence:
“Behold on Latian shores a foreign prince!
From the same parts of heav’n his navy stands,
To the same parts on earth; his army lands;
The town he conquers, and the tow’r commands.”

-Virgil, The Aeneid, Book 7

Swarming of bees by Wenceslaus Hollar (Plate 301) 1607-1677.

Source:

https://hollar.library.utoronto.ca/islandora/object/hollar%3AHollar_k_0305

 

Quote:

https://www.gutenberg.org/files/228/228-h/228-h.htm