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International Refugee Law 1st Edition Hélène
Lambert (Editor) Digital Instant Download
Author(s): Hélène Lambert (editor)
ISBN(s): 9780754628132, 0754628132
Edition: 1
File Details: PDF, 32.62 MB
Year: 2010
Language: english
International Refugee Law
 The Library of Essays in International Law
Series Editor: Robert McCorquodale

Titles in the Series:

International Law of Human Rights Sources of International Law

Michael K. Addo Martti Koskenniemi

International Law and Indigenous Peoples International Refugee Law

S. James Anaya Helene Lambert

International Law and Islamic Law Space Law

Mashood A. Baderin Francis Lyall and Paul B. Larsen

The International Criminal Court International Dispute Settlement

Olympia Bekou and Robert Cryer Mary Ellen 0 'Connell

Non-State Actors and International Law International Crimes

Andrea Bianchi Nikos Passas

Democracy and International Law International Environmental Law

Richard Burchill Volumes land n
Paula M. Pevato
Law ofthe Sea
Hugo Caminos State Responsibility in International Law
Rene Provost
The Law of Treaties
Scott Davidson Jurisdiction in International Law
Michael Reisman
International Legal Personality
FleurJohns Title to Territory
Malcolm N. Shaw
International Economic Regulation
Jane Kelsey The Nature of International Law
Gerry Simpson
International Organizations
Jan Klabbers Collective Security Law
Nigel D. White
International Peacekeeping
Boris Kondoch
International Refugee Law

Edited by

Helene Lambert
University 0/ Westminster, UK
First published 2010 by Ashgate Publishing

Published 2016 by Routledge

2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
711 ThirdAvenue, NewYork, NY 10017, USA

Routledge is an imprint ofthe Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

Copyright © He1ene Lambert 2010. For copyright of individual artic1es p1ease refer to the
Acknow1edgements.

All rights reserved. No part ofthis book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any
form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented,
inc1uding photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system,
without permission in writing from the publishers.
Notice:
Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only
for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

Wherever possible, these reprints are made from a copy ofthe original printing, but these can
themselves be of very variable quality. Whilst the publisher has made every effort to ensure the
quality ofthe reprint, some variability may inevitably remain.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

International refugee law. - (The library of essays in
internationallaw)
1. Refugees-Legal status, laws, etc. 2. Human rights.
I. Series 11. Lambert, Helene.
342'.083--dc22

Library ofCongress Control Number: 2009931629

ISBN 9780754628132 (hbk)

Contents

A cknowledgements VII
Series Preface IX
Introduction XI

PART I HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE

3 Hannah Arendt (1999), 'We Refugees', in Mark M. Anderson (ed.), Hitler's

Exiles: personal stories of theflight{rom Nazi Germany to America, NY:
The New Press, pp. 253-62. 3
2 Paul Weis (1966), 'Territorial Asylum' , Indian Journal ofInternational Law, 6,
pp. 173-94. 13
3 Bonaventure Rutinwa (2002), 'The End of Asylum? The Changing Nature of
Refugee Policies in Africa', Refugee Survey Quarterly, 21, pp. 12-41. 35
4 James C. Hathaway (1990), 'A Reconsideration ofthe Underlying Premise of
Refugee Law', Harvard International Law Journal, 31, pp. 129-83. 65
5 Corinne Lewis (2005), 'UNHCR's Contribution to the Development of
International Refugee Law: Its Foundations and Evolution', International Journal
o{Re{ugee Law, 17, pp. 67-90. 121
6 Guy S. Goodwin-Gill (2008), 'The Politics ofRefugee Protection', Re{ugee
Survey Quarterly, 27, pp. 8-23. 145

PART 11 THE 1951 REFUGEE CONVENTION: KEY PROVISIONS AND

IMPLEMENTATION

7 Andrew E. Shacknove (1985), 'Who Is a Refugee?', Ethics, 95, pp. 274-84. 163
8 Walter Kälin (1986), 'Troubled Communication: Cross-Cultural
Misunderstandings in the Asylum-Hearing', International Migration Review, 20,
pp. 230-41. 175
9 Guy S. Goodwin-Gill (1986), 'Non-Refoulement and the New Asylum Seekers',
Virginia Journal o{International Law, 26, pp. 897-918. 187
10 Joan Fitzpatrick (1996), 'Revitalizing the 1951 Refugee Convention', Harvard
Human Rights Journal, 9, pp. 229-53. 209
vi International Refilgee Law

PART III REFUGEE LAW AND ITS RELATIONSHIPWITH INTERNATIONAL

HUMAN RIGHTS LAW, INTERNATIONAL HUMANITARIAN LAW
AND INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL LAW

11 Deborah E. Anker (2002), 'Refugee Law, Gender, and the Human Rights
Paradigm', Harvard Human Rights Journal, 15, pp. 133-54. 237
12 Jane McAdam (2004), 'Seeking Asylum under the Convention on the Rights
of the Child: A Case for Complementary Protection', International Journal o{
Children's Rights, 14, pp. 251-74. 259
13 Stephane Jaquemet (2001), 'The Cross-Fertilization ofInternational Humanitarian
Law and International Refugee Law', International Review 01 the Red Cross, 83,
pp. 651-73. 283

PART IV EU DIMENSION OF REFUGEE LAW

14 Eispeth Guild (2006), 'The Europeanisation ofEurope's Asylum Policy',

International Journal olRelugee Law, 18, pp. 630-5l. 309
15 GeoffGilbert (2004), 'Is Europe Living Up to Its Obligations to Refugees?',
European Journal 01 International Law, 15, pp. 963-87. 331
16 Rosemary Byrne, Gregor NoH and Jens Vedsted-Hansen (2004), 'Understanding
Refugee Law in an Enlarged European Union' , European Journal 01 International
Law,15,pp.355-79. 357
17 HelEme Lambert (2009), 'Transnational Judicial Dialogue, Harmonization and
the Common European Asylum System', International and Comparative Law
Quarterly, 58, pp. 519-43. 383

PART V CHALLENGES AND PERSPECTIVES ON THE FUTURE

18 B.S. Chimni (200 I), 'Reforming the International Refugee Regime: A Dialogic
Model', Journal olRelugee Studies, 14, pp. 151-68. 411
19 Satvinder S. lugs (2004), 'Free Movement and the World Order', International
Journal 01 Relugee Law, 16, pp. 289-335. 429
20 Alice Edwards (2009), 'Human Security and the Rights of Refugees:
Transcending Territorial and Disciplinary Borders', Michigan Journal 01
International Law, 30, pp. 763-807. 477

Name Index 523

Acknowledgements

The editor and publishers wish to thank the following for perrnission to use copyright
material.

Brill for the essay: Jane McAdam (2004), 'Seeking Asylum under the Convention on
the Rights of the Child: A Case for Complementary Protection', International Journal o{
Childrens Rights, 14, pp. 251-74.

Cambridge University Press for the essays: Helene Lambert (2009), 'Transnational Judicial
Dialogue, Harrnonization and the Common European Asylum System', International
and Comparative Law Quarterly, 58, pp. 519--43. Copyright © 2009 British Institute of
International and Comparative Law; Stephane Jaquemet (2001), 'The Cross-Fertilization of
International Humanitarian Law and International Refugee Law', International Review of the
Red Cross, 83, pp. 651-73. Copyright © 200 I International Committee ofthe Red Cross.

Harvard Human Rights Journal for the essays: Joan Fitzpatrick (1996), 'Revitalizing the 1951
Refugee Convention', Harvard Human Rights Journal, 9, pp. 229-53; Deborah E. Anker
(2002), 'Refugee Law, Gender, and the Human Rights Paradigm', Harvard Human Rights
Journal, 15, pp. 133-54.

Harvard Law School of Journals forthe essay: James C. Hathaway (1990), 'A Reconsideration
of the Underlying Premise of Refugee Law', Harvard International Law Journal, 31, pp.
129-83.

Indian Society ofInternational Law for the essay: Paul Weis (1966), 'Territorial Asylum' ,
Indian Journal o{International Law, 6, pp. 173-94.

Michigan Journal of International Law for the essay: Alice Edwards (2009), 'Human Security
and the Rights of Refugees: Transcending Territorial and Disciplinary Borders', Michigan
Journal of International Law, 30, pp. 763-807.

Oxford University Press for the essays: Bonaventure Rutinwa (2002), 'The End of Asylum?
The Changing Nature ofRefugee Policies in Africa' ,Re{ugee Survey Quarterly, 21, pp. 12--41.
Copyright © 2002 Oxford University Press; Corinne Lewis (2005), 'UNHCR's Contribution to
the Development ofInternational Refugee Law: Its Foundations and Evolution', International
Journal o{ Refugee Law, 17, pp. 67-90. Copyright © 2005 Oxford University Press; Guy
S. Goodwin-Gill (2008), 'The Politics of Refugee Protection', Refugee Survey Quarterly,
27, pp. 8-23. Copyright © 2008 Oxford University Press; Elspeth Guild (2006), 'The
Europeanisation of Europe's Asylum Policy', International Journal of Re{ugee Law, 18, pp.
630-5l. Copyright © 2006 Oxford University Press; GeoffGilbert (2004), 'Is Europe Living
Up to Its Obligations to Refugees?', European Journal ofInternational Law, 15, pp. 963-87.
Copyright © 2004 Oxford University Press; Rosemary Byrne, Gregor NoH and Jens Vedsted-
viii International Refilgee Law

Hansen (2004), 'Understanding Refugee Law in an Enlarged European Union', European

Journalof International Law, 15, pp. 355-79. Copyright © 2004 Oxford University Press; 8.S.
Chimni (2001), 'Reforming the International Refugee Regime: A Dialogic Model', Journal
of Refugee Studies, 14, pp. 151-68. Copyright © 2001 Oxford University Press; Satvinder S.
Juss (2004), 'Free Movement and the World Order', International Journal of Refugee Law,
16, pp. 289-335. Copyright © 2004 Oxford University Press.

Wiley-Blackwell for the essay: Walter Kälin (1986), 'Troubled Communication: Cross-
Cultural Misunderstandings in the Asylum-Hearing', International Migration Review, 20, pp.
230--41.

Every effort has been made to trace all the copyright holders, but if any have been inadvertently
overlooked the publishers will be pleased to make the necessary arrangement at the first
opportunity.
Series Preface

Open a newspaper, listen to the radio or watch television any day ofthe week and you will read
or hear of some matter concerning internationallaw. The range of matters include the extent to
which issues oftrade and human rights should be linked, concerns about refugees and labour
conditions, negotiations oftreaties and the settlement of disputes, and decisions by the United
Nations Security Council concerning actions to ensure compliance with international law.
International legal issues have impact on governments, corporations, organisations and people
around the world and the process of globalisation has increased this impact. In the global legal
environment, knowledge of international law is an indispensable tool for all scholars, legal
practitioners, decision-makers and citizens ofthe 21st century.
The Library o{ Essays in International Law is designed to provide the essential elements
for the development of this knowledge. Each volume contains essays of central importance
in the development of international law in a subject area. The proliferation of legal and other
special ist journals, the increase in international materials and the use of the internet has meant
that it is increasingly difficult for legal scholars to have access to all the relevant articles on
international law and many valuable older articles are now unable to be obtained readily.
These problems are addressed by this series, which makes available an extensive range of
materials in a manner that is of immeasurable value for both teaching and research at all
levels.
Each volume is written bya leading authority in the subject area who selects the articles and
provides an informative introduction, which analyses the context ofthe articles and comments
on their significance within the developments in that area. The volumes complement each
other to give a c1ear view of the burgeoning area of internationallaw. It is not an easy task
to select, order and place in context essays from the enormous quantity of academic legal
writing published in journals - in many languages - throughout the world. This task requires
professional scholarly judgment and difficult choices. The editors in this series have done an
excellent job, for which I thank and congratulate them. It has been a pleasure working with
them.

ROBERT McCORQUODALE
General Series Editor
School 0/ Law
Univers ity 0/ N ottingham
Introduction

[n the second edition of his book The Refugee in International Law ([ 996, p. xi), Goodwin-
Gill acknow[edged the 'extraordinary growth in refugee studies, literature and case law'
since the first edition of his book was published in 1983. [ndeed, international refugee law
scholarship already existed at the time ofthe League ofNations but it truly exploded in recent
years helped, no doubt, by the creation of several specialized journals in the field of refugee
law (for example, the International Journal of Refugee Law, the Journal of Refugee Studies,
and the Refugee Survey Quarterly). This volume offers a selection of the most influential
essays on chosen topics in international refugee law from a range of journals. Many more
excellent essays that could not be reproduced in full in this volume due to lack of space, as
weil as books and chapters in books, are discussed in this [ntroduction and included in the
Bibliography.
Central to any study of international refugee law are the key principles and concepts of
refugee protection, namely, asylum, non-refoulement, non-discrimination, family unity,
solutions, and international cooperation (including burden-sharing). Refugee protection also
entails the recognition of broad human rights to refugees. This volume is structured around
five themes. Part [, on historical perspectives, discusses the evolution of the term 'refugee'
and of the institution of asylum. [t also examines the key role of the United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in the development of international refugee law, the
evolution of the international protection regime, and two alternatives to asylum as durable
solutions to refugee flows: regional arrangements and burden-sharing. Part [[ discusses key
provisions ofthe 195 [ Refugee Convention (that is, the refugee definition and the principle of
non-refoulement) and issues of implementation at the domestic level (particularly concerning
credibility assessment). [t also looks at criticism of the Refugee Convention. Part [[[ deals
with complementary protection through human rights instruments and cross-fertilization with
international humanitarian law and international criminal law. Part [V examines re cent EU
developments in the establishment of a common European asylum system based on the full
and inclusive application ofthe Refugee Convention and other human rights law obligations.
[ have chosen the EU as a theme instead of other regional systems because of the predicted
impact that this new European asylum legislation will have on international refugee law and
human rights law. Finally, Part V looks at key challenges and perspectives on the future of
international refugee law.

Historical Perspectives

Refugees 'have existed as long as history' (Feiler, 2001, p. [30). For example, in 1492,
unconverted Jews were expelled from Spain and soon after from Portugal; similar expulsion
carried on during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries (Zolberg, [983, p. 3 [). Equally,
the French Huguenots left en masse during the forty-year war which ended with the Edict of
xii International Refilgee Law

Nantes in 1598. However, the international community only became aware ofits responsibility
to provide protection and find solutions for refugees during the time ofthe League ofNations
and the election of Fridtjof Nansen as the first High Commissioner for Russian refugees in
1921 (Goodwin-GiII, Chapter 6, p. 148). At the time, refugees were defined 'by categories'
(UNHCR, 1992, para. 3), such as Armenian refugees or Turkish refugees. It was only after
World War 11 that the question of international migration (including the stateless and the
refugee) became recognized as one requiring an international solution.
Hannah Arendt, in her essay 'We Refugees' (Chapter I), discusses her experience as a
'refugee' who, in 1941, emigrated to New York. First published in The Menorah journal in
1943, this much-cited essay illustrates a critical juncture in the discourse on 'refugees' and
'ordinary immigrants' and the changing meaning ofthe term 'refugee'. Until World War 11,
the term 'refugee' had been used mostly to describe a person driven to seek asylum because of
some criminal act committed or some radical political opinion held. Thus, Arendt writes: 'In
the first place, we don't like to be called "refugees." We ourselves call each other "newcomers"
or "immigrants" .... Before this war broke out ... We did our best to prove to other people
that we were just ordinary immigrants' (1999, 253). This idea that 'refugees' are not just
'ordinary immigrants' is critical in international refugee law, and is further explored in this
volume by Weis (Chapter 2), Shacknove (Chapter 7), Gilbert (Chapter 15), Juss (Chapter 19)
and Edwards (Chapter 20).
Directly related to the term 'refugee' is the concept of 'asylum' . Asylum is a peaceful and
humanitarian act; it has been defined as 'the protection which aState grants on its territory or
in some other place under the control of certain ofits organs, to a person who comes to seek it'
(Institute of International Law, 1950, p. 15, article I). Asylum is not included in the main text
of the 1951 Refugee Convention I or the 1967 Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees 2 -
though it is mentioned in the Final Act ofthe United Nations Conference of Plenipotentiaries
on the Status ofRefugees and Stateless Persons (wh ich adopted the 1951 Refugee Convention)
as weil as in the Preamble to the 1951 Refugee Convention. 3 Notwithstanding, the UNHCR
has advocated a generous asylum policy within the spirit of the 1948 Universal Declaration
of Human Rights (UDHR) and the 1967 Declaration on Territorial Asylum (UNHCR 1992,
para. 25). Most states parties to the 1951 Refugee Convention have established procedures for
eligibility purposes and grant asylum to persons protected against refoulement.
Traditionally, asylum existed in favour of two groups of individuals: political offenders
and common criminals. But asylum as a matter of international law is relatively new (Krenz,
1966, p. 92). Article 14 ofthe UDHR proclaims:

Everyone has the right to seek and enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution.
This right may not be invoked in the case ofprosecutions genuinely arising from non-political crimes
or from acts contrary to the purposes and principles ofthe Uni ted Nations.

3
UN Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, signed in Geneva on 28 July 1951, 189
UNTS 150.
3 UN Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees, signed in New York on 31 January 1967, 606
UNTS 267.
3 Asylum is also not mentioned in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
 International Refilgee Law xiii

Paul Weis's 1966 essay 'Territorial Asylum' (Chapter 2) takes a historical perspective on
this ancient institution. It traces the roots of asylum in the principles of state sovereignty
and territorial supremacy, and discusses its evolution in the light of the development of
extradition law during the nineteenth century, and the imposition of increased restrictions on
the freedom ofmovement ofpolitical refugees during the twentieth century. Under traditional
international law, asylum has always been a sovereign right of astate. Yet, this essay also
suggests that asylum may be regarded as a right ofthe individual. The latter view has since
been confirmed by Gil-Bazo to the extent that the right to be granted asylum as a subjective
right ofindividuals now exists under EU law (article 18 ofthe Charter ofFundamental Rights
of the European Union), as weil as in regional human rights treaties in America and Africa
(Gil-Bazo, 2008). Furthermore, it has been proposed that the notion of 'responsibility to
protect' should include the responsibility to grant asylum and to open borders to those f1eeing
the most serious international crimes (Barbour and Gorlick, 2008; see also Edwards, Chapter
20). Yet, this is not a view shared by everyone. Thus, Goodwin-Gill and McAdam maintain
that 'the individual still has no right to be granted asylum. The right itself is in the form of a
discretionary power ... a correlative right ofthe individual continues to be resisted' (2007, pp.
414-15). That said, states have certain legal obligations under refugee law, human rights law
and humanitarian law; in particular they have a duty of non-refoulement towards persons in
need ofprotection. Hence, developments in these areas of laws are responsible for the setting
of important boundaries to the discretion of states in granting (or not) asylum (see Part 111
below). An important question remains: does asylum constitute the best durable solution to
refugee f1ows, or should the focus be on root causes, regional solutions and burden-sharing?
The 1951 Refugee Convention does not deal with the causes of refugees' f1ows; in fact it
ignores the state of origin as the source of refugees. Rather, the 1951 Refugee Convention
concentrates on the persecution of individuals, the crossing of an international boundary and
the lack ofprotection in the state of origin. Hence, 'early warning' was created as a process
consisting in a wide range ofactivities spanning from 'data collection and analysis through to
preventive diplomacy' (Gilbert, 1997, p. 209). Other solutions include regional arrangements
and burden-sharing.
Regional solutions to the refugee problem have existed alongside the 1951 Refugee
Convention and 1967 Protocol since the 1969 OAU Convention on the Specific Aspects
of Refugee Problems in Africa was adopted. 4 This has since been followed by the 1984
Cartagena Declaration in Latin America. 5 In addition, the EU recently adopted its own laws
on refugee protection. 6 Bonaventure Rutinwa's essay 'The End of Asylum? The Changing

3 The Organisation of African Unity Convention Governing the Specific Aspects of Refugee
Problems in Africa, adopted on 10 September 1969 in Addis Ababa, 100 I UNTS 45.
35 Cartagena Declaration on Refugees, adopted on 22 November 1984, Annual Report of the lnter-
American Commission on Human Rights, OAS Doc. OEA/Ser.LNIIT.66/doc.lO, rev. 1, at pp. 190-93
(1984-85).
3 Council Directive 2005/85/EC of 1 December 2005 on minimum standards on procedures
in Member States for granting and withdrawing refugee status (Official Journal L 326, 13/J2/2005
pp. 0013-0034); Council Directive 2004/83/EC of 29 April 2004 on minimum standards for the
qualification and status of third-country nationals or stateless persons as refugees or as persons who
otherwise need international protection and the content ofthe protection granted (Offiäal Journal L 304,
30/09/2004 pp. 0012-0023); Council Regulation (EC) No. 343/2003 of 18 February 2003 establishing
xiv International Refilgee Law

Nature of Refugee Policies in Africa' (Chapter 3) iIIustrates the shift in that continent from
asylum/resettlement to containment (see also Aleinikoff, 1992). At the time of its adoption,
the 1969 OAU Convention was a significant advance from the 1951 Refugee Convention
in two respects. First, in addition to incorporating the 1951/1967 refugee definition, it
expanded the definition to include victims of violence and generalized conflicts. 7 Second, it
acknowledged the security implications of refugee f10ws by adopting a more specific focus
on solutions (namely, voluntary repatriation - in contrast to the integration bias of the 1951
Refugee Convention) and by promoting a burden-sharing approach to refugee assistance and
protection (Feiler, 200 I, p. 133). That said, Rutinwa's essay is critical ofthe changes that have
occurred since the mid-1980s, as witnessed in the move from a traditional 'open door' policy
to a disengagement from commitment to asylum (see also Okoth-Obbo, 200 I). He calls for a
focus on the root causes ofrefugee f10ws in Africa, amongst other solutions.
James Hathaway's essay, 'A Reconsideration of the Underlying Premise of Refugee
Law' (Chapter 4), provides a valuable examination of the legislative history of the 1951
Refugee Convention, and of the role of states in the process of refugee determination at the
domestic level (see also Hathaway, 1984). It is critical of current refugee law for failing to
meet the needs of refugees and establishes a selective approach to burden-sharing (see also,
Garvey 1985). Looking back to the 1920s, Hathaway argues in Chapter 4 that the linkage
between refugee law and human rights was selective during the period 1938-50, 'in a way
that reinforced the economic and political hegemony of major Western states' (p. 78). He
suggests instead a 'regional and interest-driven protection in tandem with a general obligation
to share the burden of addressing refugee needs' (p. 70). More specifically, Hathaway calls for
a solution that would accommodate the self-interest of states of potential resettlement, first
refuge and countries of origin. In this and his two subsequent essays (Hathaway, 1991, p. 127,
and Hathaway and Neve, 1997, pp. 198-207; see also Hathaway, 1997), Hathaway outlines a
state-centric approach to refugee law. However, by suggesting a burden-sharing approach to
the duty of refugee protection that is based upon 'a sufficient level of financial and material
assistance' (Chapter 4, p. 118), and later on based on each state's resources and absorptive
capacity, Hathaway's approach was subject to forthright legal and moral criticism for being
overly state-focused (Chimni, 1998; Juss, 1998; Anker et al., 1998).

the criteria and mechanisms for determining the Member State responsible for examining an asyl um
application lodged in one of the Member States by a third-country national (Offiäal Journal L 050.
0610212003 pp. 0001-0010); Council Directive 2003/91EC of 27 January 2003 laying down minimum
standards far the reception of asylum seekers (Official Journal L 031. 0610212003 pp. 0018-0025);
Council Regulation (EC) No. 407/2002 of 28 February 2002 laying down certain rules to implement
Regulation (EC) No. 2725/2000 concerning the establishment of 'Eurodac' far the comparison of
fingerprints for the effective application ofthe Dublin Convention (Official Journal L 062, 0510312002
pp. 0001-0005); and Council Directive 2001/55/EC of 20 July 2001 on minimum standards far giving
temparary protection in the event of a mass influx of displaced persons and on measures promoting
a balance of efforts between Member States in receiving such persons and bearing the consequences
thereof (Offiäal Journal L 212, 0710812001 pp. 0012-0023).
7
Note that a similar expansion of the definition of a refugee occurred in Latin America with the
1984 Cartagena Declaration. In Europe, although the definition of a refugee was not expanded, the scope
of beneficiaries of international protection was: see Part IV.
 International Refilgee Law xv

The 1951 Refugee Convention was drafted at a time when the Cold War began, hence it was
labe lied as the 'child ofthe Cold War' (Bertrand, 1993, p. 498). As its full name indicates - the
Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees - the treaty concerns the definition as to who is a
refugee (article I), and the rights and benefits which persons recognized as refugees are entitled
to, including the guarantee against refoulement (articles 3-34). In its early days, refugee status
was limited to persons who were escaping events that took place before 1951 (essentially in
Europe). A 1967 Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees extended the application ofthe
Refugee Convention to all refugees. To maximize accession, both instruments 'were carefully
framed to define minimum standards, without imposing obligations going beyond those that
States can be reasonably be expected to assume' (UNHCR, 2001, p. 29). The definition of a
refugee in article lA(2) ofthe Refugee Convention is that applied in most states in the world.
There are currently (May 2009) 141 states parties to both the 1951 Refugee Convention and the
1967 Protocol (144 states parties to the Convention alone and 144 states parties to the Protocol
alone). The underlying values of the Refugee Convention are stated by UNHCR as being:
humanitarian, human rights and people oriented, non-political and impartial, international
cooperation, and universal and general in character (UNHCR, 2001, pp. 2-3).
The 1951 Refugee Convention does not deal with issues of procedures (namely, how to
make adecision on eligibility to non-refoulement and/or refugee status) and these were never
directly a matter of internationallaw. Refugees and displaced persons from World War 11 were,
for the most part, already in their new states, and those who were still crossing borders were
generally welcomed by European states if only for propaganda reasons. The implementation
and interpretation of the 1951 Refugee Convention were therefore left, first and foremost,
with the contracting states, helped in their task by the Office ofthe UNHCR.
UNHCR was created as a subsidiary organ of the UN General Assembly in 1950. 8 It is
entrusted with the primary function of ensuring international protection for refugees. This is
explored in two essays in this volume. The first, by Corinne Lewis ('UNHCR's Contribution
to the Development of International Refugee Law', Chapter 5), discusses a key element of
the international protection function of UNHCR, namely, its contribution to the development
of international refugee law, in cooperation with states (article 35, Refugee Convention). In
the absence of an international body competent to monitor states' application of the Refugee
Convention and to interpret its provisions (with the exception of the general function of the
International Courtof Justice), UNHCR necessarilyplays acrucial role in this area. Meanwhile,
scholars have called for the establishment of an international judicial body independent from
states (Fitzpatrick, Chapter 10, p. 223; Chimni, Chapter 18, p. 417; Macmillan and Olsson,
2001; Hathaway, 2002b; Clark, 2004, p. 607; and North and Chia, 2008). However, it is
unlikely that states will agree to transfer their decision-making power to a central agency.
Lewis's examination of the development of international refugee law by UNHCR extends
to treaty law, soft-Iaw and customary international law. She finds that recently international
refugee law has mostly developed through customary international law and soft-Iaw. She
takes the principle of non-refoulement (Goodwin-GiII, Chapter 9) and the norm oftemporary
refuge (Perluss and Fitzpatrick Hartman, 1986, p. 624) as examples.
In contrast to this 'a-political' picture ofthe UNHCR by Lewis, the next essay, by Guy S.
Goodwin-Gill (Chapter 6), focuses on 'The Politics of Refugee Protection'. In so doing, it

8 UNGA Resolution 428 (v) of 14 December 1950 (UN Doc. A/1775 (1950)).
xvi International Refilgee Law

looks back to the 1920s and identifies competing interests - states' v. individuals' interests - in
the international protection regime. This regime indeed provides a good example of where
state compliance with standards of refugee protection may be motivated by self-interest at
certain points in time. That is not to say that other reasons do not also exist. Thus, the norm
of providing refuge for those f1eeing persecution is arguably constitutive of modem liberal
democracy (Gibney, 2004). At the same time, states have a strong interest in regulating
the cross-border f10w of refugees (Hathaway and Harvey, 200 I). Historically, the refugee
protection regime originated in the need to give some stability to post-war and post-colonial
spurts of state building. Cronin argues that:

[The] IPR [international protection regime] for refugees was not created to assist those displaced
from war. Rather states constructed the system to address post-war political developments that were
related to the construction ofnew states and new political orders. (2003, p. 156).

Leaders, nonetheless, shared a common sense of responsibility for the welfare of refugees
(Garvey, 1985). State interest took a new twist during the Cold War, as Western states used
the 1951 Refugee Convention as a political tool to embarrass the Soviet bloc and sweep
up defectors (Loescher, 1986, 1993). Goodwin-GiII's essay is important because it c1early
argues for a prioritization of protection over everything else, in particular solutions and
assistance. In doing so, it refocuses the debate about international protection onto its core
values. Thus, international protection must be humanitarian and nonpolitical in character,
but, more importantIy, it also ought to be about individuals' dignity, worth and rights, in other
words about entitlement to international protection. This issue is considered further by Alice
Edwards within the human security framework (Chapter 20).

The 1951 Refugee Convention: Key Provisions and Implementation

During the drafting ofthe Refugee Convention, more time was spent on article 1 than any other
ofthe 46 articles, mainly due to differences amongst states between a restrictive definition of
refugee (that would be limited to events that took place in Europe before 1951) and a more
general definition that could be applicable to future events. The restrictive view won, and
refugee status was limited to pre-1951 events which occurred in Europe (Goodwin-Gill and
McAdam, 2007, pp. 35-37). The drafters further restricted refugee status to violations of civil
and political rights because these were rights that were beginning to be accepted in 1950. 9
In spite of this, the 1951 Refugee Convention is the first international treaty providing for a
general definition ofrefugees. lO
Article 1A(2) provides that the term 'refugee' shall apply to:

any person who owing to well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion,
nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion, is outside the country of
his nationality and is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself ofthe protection of
that country.

3On the exclusion clause, see Gallagher (2001).

310
Another definition of 'refugee' is contained in the Statute of the Office of the UNHCR (Weis,
1960, pp. 936-38).
 International Refilgee Law xvii

Andrew Shacknove, in a much-cited essay, 'Who Is a Refugee?' (Chapter 7), advocates a

conception of refugeehood (that is, the theoretical basis for the definition) going beyond
the legal definition of a refugee in article lA(2).11 The 1951 Refugee Convention definition
(which is applied in most states) is based on the existence of a bond between the citizen and
the state. In the case ofthe refugee, this bond has been broken, and persecution and alienage
are always the physical manifestations of this broken bond. These manifestations are the
necessary and sufficient conditions for determining refugeehood. The 1969 OAU Convention
is an exception: persecution is not the only criterion for refugeehood because of a different
historical context; external aggression, occupation, foreign domination or events seriously
disturbing public order in either part or the whole ofthe country of origin or nationality, are
also criteria for refugeehood. 12 Yet, Shacknove argues that both persecution and alienage are
sufficient but not necessary criteria for refugeehood because both persecution and alienage
are only the manifestation of a broader phenomenon: the absence of state protection of the
citizen's basic needs (in the case ofpersecution) and the physical access ofthe international
community to the unprotected person (in the case of alienage). In sum, the necessary conditions
for refugeehood, according to Shacknove, are: persons deprived of their basic needs, with
no recourse to horne government, and with access to international assistance (in or out of
the country of origin). Viewed in this way, the concept of a refugee acquires a new ethical
dimension. In fine, this essay introduces a useful way of thinking about 'who is a refugee?'
that would accommodate new categories of people such as internally displaced persons, yet
exclude others (for example, those whose basic rights are protected by the government or who
are not in a position to seek international assistance).
Today, many states accept that decisions on eligibility must respect basic procedural
standards, such as the right to a comprehensive review of asylum decisions (Legomsky, 2000;
Gorlick, 2003). But applicants often have a difficult task to convince decision-makers ofthe
veracity of their stories. Credibility determination (that is, the assessment of oral testimony)
rests at the core ofrefugee protection (NoII, 2005). Yet, international refugee law 'has failed
to develop a body of evidentiary principles that is tailored to the unique dimensions of the
testimony ofthose seeking asylum' (Byrne, 2007, p. 609). The credibility ofan asylum seeker
may be seriously damaged if it transpires that the asylum seeker has lied. Because an asylum
seeker has to show a well-founded fear, asylum procedures (at the early stage offirst instance
decision-making) generally provide a hearing during which the asylum seeker has to narrate

11 For a full discussion of this legal definition, see Goodwin-Gill and McAdam (2007, pp. 63-
134).
12 1969 Convention on the Specific Aspects of Refugee Problems in Africa - Article 1:
1. Forthe purposes ofthis Convention, the term 'refugee' shall mean every person who, owing
to well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a
particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality and is unable or,
owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself ofthe protection ofthat country, or who, not having a
nationality and being outside the country of his former habitual residence as a result of such events is
unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to return to it.
2. The term 'refugee' shall also apply to every person who, owing to external aggression,
occupation, foreign domination or events seriously disturbing public order in either part or the whole of
his country of origin or nationality, is compelled to leave his place of habitual residence in order to seek
refuge in another place outside his country of origin or nationality.
xviii International Refilgee Law

her story, in other words tell about her fear and escape away from such fear. Hearings are
usually not provided in cases that are found to be manifestly unfounded. Depending on a
number of factors, hearings may play to the advantage or disadvantage ofthe asylum seeker.
Walter Kälin, in a groundbreaking essay 'Troubled Communication' (Chapter 8), identifies
five obstacles leading to misunderstandings in asylum hearings: manner of expression,
interpreter, the cultural relativity of notions and concepts, different perceptions of time, and
the cultural relativity of 'Iie' and 'truth'. The same baITiers were identified in two further
path-breaking empirical studies ofUS and Canadian asylum procedures (respectively, Anker,
1992; Rousseau et al., 2002). These impediments to effective determinations of credibility
are 'unique' to the testimony of asylum seekers and 'they challenge the conventional legal
approaches to assessing credibility in asylum adjudications' which traditionally relies on four
criteria: demeanor, consistency, accuracy and cOIToboration (Byrne, 2007, p. 622). One way,
therefore, of dealing with these criteria may be to look at the evidentiary principles relating
to the testimony of alleged victims of human rights abuses developed by international war
crimes courts (Byrne, 2007).
Another key provision ofthe 1951 Refugee Convention is article 33. Article 33( I) prohibits
non-refoulement, being:

[T]he return of a refugee in any manner whatsoever to the frontiers of territories where his life or
freedom would be threatened on account of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular
social group, or political opinion.

According to article 33(2), this principle may not, however,

be claimed by a refugee whom there are reasonable grounds for regarding as a danger to the security
of the country in which he is, or who, having been convicted by a final judgment of a particularly
serious crime, constitutes a danger to the community ofthat country.

The principle of non-refoulement is enshrined in various other instruments 13 (for example, the
1969 OA U Convention, the American Convention on Human Rights,14 and the UN Convention
Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment).15 Non-
refoulement has been described as 'a cardinal principle of refugee protection' (Lauterpacht,
and Bethlehem, 2003, p. 107). Its nature, scope and relationship with other key concepts, such
as asylum and burden-sharing, have given rise to extensive scholarly debate, some ofwhich is
captured in Goodwin-GiII's essay 'Non-Refoulement and the New Asylum Seekers' (Chapter
9). Many ofthe arguments in this seminal essay have since been confirmed in what is today
the most comprehensive study on non-refoulement, namely Lauterpacht and Bethlehem (2003;
see also Goodwin-Gill and McAdam, 2007, pp. 201-84). Significantly, Goodwin-Gill argues
that non-refoulement has moved beyond the confines of article 1 to encompass also moral
obligations towards 'persons in distress' - that is, persons f1eeing from situations ofviolence,
violations of human rights, war, civil war, famine or drought. In practice, therefore, non-
refoulement has come to apply to a broader category of refugees, such as displaced persons;

13 For a fulllist of all relevant instruments in refugee law, human rights lawf and extradition law,
see Lauterpacht and Bethlehem (2003), at pp. 90-93.
14 OAS Treaty Series No. 36 (1969).
15 465 UNTS 85.
 International Refilgee Law xix

it also applies in situations ofmass influx. Non-refoulement covers state conduct beyond state
territory: for example, rejection at the border, in international and transit zones, extradition,
and so on (Kneebone, 1996; Goodwin-GiII, 2003).
State practice has thus broadened the scope of article 33 and non-refoulement has given
rise to binding obligations under both treaty law and customary international law. However,
its jus cogens nature remains more uncertain (Allain, 2001; Duffy, 2008). The 'safe country'
concept has been presented as 'a new notion of non-refoulement', one that states were forced
to create in order to deal 'with the emergence of the potential refugee or the asylum seeker
and the subsequent burden on asylum administrations' (EI-Enany, 2007, p. 6; see also Byrne
and Shacknove, 1996). Non-refoulement has also evolved in a human rights context into a
fundamental component of the customary international law prohibition of torture or cruel,
inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment (Goodwin-Gill and McAdam, 2007, pp. 345-
54; Lambert, 1999). In sum, states have been able 'to patch together a minimally adequate
regime for the protection of forced migrants' through the recognition of extra-conventional
norms (Fitzpatrick, Chapter 10, p. 211). Goodwin-Gill 's essay thus constitutes an important
contribution to scholarship by firmly grounding the non-refoulement debate onto the risk or
threat to refugees.
Finally, during the 1990s, the 1951 Refugee Convention became the object of strong
criticism for being badly outdated and an arte fact of a past era. In 'Revitalizing the 1951
Refugee Convention' (Chapter 10), Joan Fitzpatrick makes a powerful and convincing
argument against such critique (see also Goodwin-GiII, 2001). She argues that: 'A crisis exists
not because the Convention fails to meet the needs of asylum-seekers, but because it meets
them so weil as to im pose burdens that are no longer politically tolerable to the States parties
involved' (p. 211). She further challenges some of its key weaknesses, namely, the vagueness
ofthe refugee definition, the lack of a uniform framework for refugee processing, and the lack
of explicit provision on crucial substantive issues. Yet, she argues, it may not be timely to
abandon the Refugee Convention foundation until states are prepared to assume new bin ding
legal commitments that would address these issues. Hence, Fitzpatrick recognizes the need to
do more in the area of cooperation between states in light ofrecent focus on 'comprehensive
cooperative relationships among refugee-producing, first asylum and industrialized States'
(p. 233). In summary, the 1951 Refugee Convention was nevermeant to provide answers to all
the pressing and difficult questions posed by contemporary forced migration. By arguing that
the 1951 Refugee Convention is not obsolete and that it continues to guide states' responses to
the refugee problem, this essay continues to represent the common wisdom today.

Refugee Law and its Relationship with International Human Rights Law, International
Humanitarian Law and International Criminal Law

The formal acknowledgement that international refugee law is indeed part of international
human rights law has been traced back to the adoption ofthe Refugee Convention as a treaty
(Goodwin-Gill and McAdam, 2007). Yet, a number offactors (such as the lack ofa subjective
right ofasylum, the inclusion oftraditional concepts ofsovereignty and the Cold War) created
a narrow conception ofrefugee law (Hathaway, Chapter 4), one that became 'segregated from
the development of international human rights law' (Gowlland-Debbas, 1995, p. x). It was
not until the 1990s before any significant references were made to rights in the Conclusions
Other documents randomly have
different content
Judges them once again; a silent jury
Reviews the evidence. And there are others,
Guilty of nothing, but who hated living,
The suicides. How gladly, now, they would suffer
Poverty, hardship, in the world of light!
But this is not permitted; they are bound
Nine times around by the black unlovely river;
Styx holds them fast.

They came to the Fields of Mourning,

So-called, where those whom cruel love had wasted
Hid in secluded pathways, under myrtle,
And even in death were anxious. Procris, Phaedra,
Eriphyle, displaying wounds her son
Had given her, Caeneus, Laodamia,
Caeneus, a young man once, and now again
A young man, after having been a woman.
And here, new come from her own wound, was Dido,
Wandering in the wood. The Trojan hero,
Standing near by, saw her, or thought he saw her,
Dim in the shadows, like the slender crescent
Of moon when cloud drifts over. Weeping, he greets her:—
“Unhappy Dido, so they told me truly
That your own hand had brought you death. Was I—
Alas!—the cause? I swear by all the stars,
By the world above, by everything held sacred
Here under the earth, unwillingly, O queen,
I left your kingdom. But the gods’ commands,
Driving me now through these forsaken places,
This utter night, compelled me on. I could not
Believe my loss would cause so great a sorrow.
Linger a moment, do not leave me; whither,
Whom, are you fleeing? I am permitted only
This last word with you.”

But the queen, unmoving

As flint or marble, turned away, her eyes
Fixed on the ground: the tears were vain, the words,
Meant to be soothing, foolish; she turned away,
His enemy forever, to the shadows
Where Sychaeus, her former husband, took her
With love for love, and sorrow for her sorrow.
And still Aeneas wept for her, being troubled
By the injustice of her doom; his pity
Followed her going.

They went on. They came

To the farthest fields, whose tenants are the warriors,
Illustrious throng. Here Tydeus came to meet him,
Parthenopaeus came, and pale Adrastus,
A fighter’s ghost, and many, many others,
Mourned in the world above, and doomed in battle,
Leaders of Troy, in long array; Aeneas
Sighed as he saw them: Medon; Polyboetes,
The priest of Ceres; Glaucus; and Idaeus
Still keeping arms and chariot; three brothers,
Antenor’s sons; Thersilochus; a host
To right and left of him, and when they see him,
One sight is not enough; they crowd around him,
Linger, and ask the reasons for his coming.
But Agamemnon’s men, the Greek battalions,
Seeing him there, and his arms in shadow gleaming,
Tremble in panic, turn to flee for refuge,
As once they used to, toward their ships, but where
Are the ships now? They try to shout, in terror;
But only a thin and piping treble issues
To mock their mouths, wide-open.

One he knew
Was here, Deiphobus, a son of Priam,
With his whole body mangled, and his features
Cruelly slashed, and both hands cut, and ears
Torn from his temples, and his nostrils slit
By shameful wounds. Aeneas hardly knew him,
Shivering there, and doing his best to hide
His marks of punishment; unhailed, he hailed him:—
“Deiphobus, great warrior, son of Teucer,
Whose cruel punishment was this? Whose license
Abused you so? I heard, it seems, a story
Of that last night, how you had fallen, weary
With killing Greeks at last; I built a tomb,
Although no body lay there, in your honor,
Three times I cried, aloud, over your spirit,
Where now your name and arms keep guard. I could not,
Leaving my country, find my friend, to give him
Proper interment in the earth he came from.”
And Priam’s son replied:—“Nothing, dear comrade,
Was left undone; the dead man’s shade was given
All ceremony due. It was my own fortune
And a Spartan woman’s deadliness that sunk me
Under these evils; she it was who left me
These souvenirs. You know how falsely happy
We were on that last night; I need not tell you.
When that dread horse came leaping over our walls,
Pregnant with soldiery, she led the dancing,
A solemn rite, she called it, with Trojan women
Screaming their bacchanals; she raised the torches
High on the citadel; she called the Greeks.
Then—I was worn with trouble, drugged in slumber,
Resting in our ill-omened bridal chamber,
With sleep as deep and sweet as death upon me—
Then she, that paragon of helpmates, deftly
Moved all the weapons from the house; my sword,
Even, she stole from underneath my pillow,
Opened the door, and called in Menelaus,
Hoping, no doubt, to please her loving husband,
To win forgetfulness of her old sinning.
It is quickly told: they broke into the chamber,
The two of them, and with them, as accomplice,
Ulysses came, the crime-contriving bastard.
O gods, pay back the Greeks; grant the petition
If goodness asks for vengeance! But you, Aeneas,
A living man—what chance has brought you here?
Vagrant of ocean, god-inspired,—which are you?
What chance has worn you down, to come, in sadness,
To these confusing sunless dwelling-places?”

While they were talking, Aurora’s rosy car

Had halfway crossed the heaven; all their time
Might have been spent in converse, but the Sibyl
Hurried them forward:—“Night comes on, Aeneas;
We waste the hours with tears. We are at the cross-road,
Now; here we turn to the right, where the pathway leads
On to Elysium, under Pluto’s ramparts.
Leftward is Tartarus, and retribution,
The terminal of the wicked, and their dungeon.”
Deiphobus left them, saying, “O great priestess,
Do not be angry with me; I am going;
I shall not fail the roll-call of the shadows.
Pride of our race, go on; may better fortune
Attend you!” and, upon the word, he vanished.

As he looked back, Aeneas saw, to his left,

Wide walls beneath a cliff, a triple rampart,
A river running fire, Phlegethon’s torrent,
Rocks roaring in its course, a gate, tremendous,
Pillars of adamant, a tower of iron,
Too strong for men, too strong for even gods
To batter down in warfare, and behind them
A Fury, sentinel in bloody garments,
Always on watch, by day, by night. He heard
Sobbing and groaning there, the crack of the lash,
The clank of iron, the sound of dragging shackles.
The noise was terrible; Aeneas halted,
Asking, “What forms of crime are these, O maiden?
What harrying punishment, what horrible outcry?”
She answered:—“O great leader of the Trojans,
I have never crossed that threshold of the wicked;
No pure soul is permitted entrance thither,
But Hecate, by whose order I was given
Charge of Avernus’ groves, my guide, my teacher,
Told me how gods exact the toll of vengeance.
The monarch here, merciless Rhadamanthus,
Punishes guilt, and hears confession; he forces
Acknowledgment of crime; no man in the world,
No matter how cleverly he hides his evil,
No matter how much he smiles at his own slyness,
Can fend atonement off; the hour of death
Begins his sentence. Tisiphone, the Fury,
Leaps at the guilty with her scourge; her serpents
Are whips of menace as she calls her sisters.
Imagine the gates, on jarring hinge, rasp open,
You would see her in the doorway, a shape, a sentry,
Savage, implacable. Beyond, still fiercer,
The monstrous Hydra dwells; her fifty throats
Are black, and open wide, and Tartarus
Is black, and open wide, and it goes down
To darkness, sheer deep down, and twice the distance
That earth is from Olympus. At the bottom
The Titans crawl, Earth’s oldest breed, hurled under
By thunderbolts; here lie the giant twins,
Aloeus’ sons, who laid their hands on heaven
And tried to pull down Jove; Salmoneus here
Atones for high presumption,—it was he
Who aped Jove’s noise and fire, wheeling his horses
Triumphant through his city in Elis, cheering
And shaking the torch, and claiming divine homage,
The arrogant fool, to think his brass was lightning,
His horny-footed horses beat out thunder!
Jove showed him what real thunder was, what lightning
Spoke from immortal cloud, what whirlwind fury
Came sweeping from the heaven to overtake him.
Here Tityos, Earth’s giant son, lies sprawling
Over nine acres, with a monstrous vulture
Gnawing, with crooked beak, vitals and liver
That grow as they are eaten; eternal anguish,
Eternal feast. Over another hangs
A rock, about to fall; and there are tables
Set for a banquet, gold with royal splendor,
But if a hand goes out to touch the viands,
The Fury drives it back with fire and yelling.
Why name them all, Pirithous, the Lapiths,
Ixion? The roll of crime would take forever.
Whoever, in his lifetime, hated his brother,
Or struck his father down; whoever cheated
A client, or was miserly—how many
Of these there seem to be!—whoever went
To treasonable war, or broke a promise
Made to his lord, whoever perished, slain
Over adultery, all these, walled in,
Wait here their punishment. Seek not to know
Too much about their doom. The stone is rolled,
The wheel keeps turning; Theseus forever
Sits in dejection; Phlegyas, accursed,
Cries through the halls forever: Being warned,
Learn justice; reverence the gods! The man
Who sold his country is here in hell; the man
Who altered laws for money; and a father
Who knew his daughter’s bed. All of them dared,
And more than dared, achieved, unspeakable
Ambitions. If I had a hundred tongues,
A hundred iron throats, I could not tell
The fullness of their crime and punishment.”
And then she added:—“Come: resume the journey,
Fulfill the mission; let us hurry onward.
I see the walls the Cyclops made, the portals
Under the archway, where, the orders tell us,
Our tribute must be set.” They went together
Through the way’s darkness, came to the doors, and halted,
And at the entrance Aeneas, having sprinkled
His body with fresh water, placed the bough
Golden before the threshold. The will of the goddess
Had been performed, the proper task completed.

They came to happy places, the joyful dwelling,

The lovely greenery of the groves of the blessèd.
Here ampler air invests the fields with light,
Rose-colored, with familiar stars and sun.
Some grapple on the grassy wrestling-ground
In exercise and sport, and some are dancing,
And others singing; in his trailing robe
Orpheus strums the lyre; the seven clear notes
Accompany the dance, the song. And heroes
Are there, great-souled, born in the happier years,
Ilus, Assaracus; the city’s founder,
Prince Dardanus. Far off, Aeneas wonders,
Seeing the phantom arms, the chariots,
The spears fixed in the ground, the chargers browsing,
Unharnessed, over the plain. Whatever, living,
The men delighted in, whatever pleasure
Was theirs in horse and chariot, still holds them
Here under the world. To right and left, they banquet
In the green meadows, and a joyful chorus
Rises through groves of laurel, whence the river
Runs to the upper world. The band of heroes
Dwell here, all those whose mortal wounds were suffered
In fighting for the fatherland; and poets,
The good, the pure, the worthy of Apollo;
Those who discovered truth and made life nobler;
Those who served others—all, with snowy fillets
Binding their temples, throng the lovely valley.
And these the Sibyl questioned, most of all
Musaeus, for he towered above the center
Of that great throng:—“O happy souls, O poet,
Where does Anchises dwell? For him we come here.
For him we have traversed Erebus’ great rivers.”
And he replied:—“It is all our home, the shady
Groves, and the streaming meadows, and the softness
Along the river-banks. No fixed abode
Is ours at all; but if it is your pleasure,
Cross over the ridge with me; I will guide you there
By easy going.” And so Musaeus led them
And from the summit showed them fields, all shining,
And they went on over and down.

Deep in a valley of green, father Anchises

Was watching, with deep earnestness, the spirits
Whose destiny was light, and counting them over,
All of his race to come, his dear descendants,
Their fates and fortunes and their works and ways,
And as he saw Aeneas coming toward him
Over the meadow, his hands reached out with yearning,
He was moved to tears, and called:—“At last, my son,—
Have you really come, at last? and the long road nothing
To a son who loves his father? Do I, truly,
See you, and hear your voice? I was thinking so,
I was hoping so, I was counting off the days,
And I was right about it. O my son!
What a long journey, over land and water,
Yours must have been! What buffeting of danger!
I feared, so much, the Libyan realm would hurt you.”
And his son answered:—“It was your spirit, father,
Your sorrowful shade, so often met, that led me
To find these portals. The ships ride safe at anchor,
Safe in the Tuscan sea. Embrace me, father;
Let hand join hand in love; do not forsake me.”
And as he spoke, the tears streamed down. Three times
He reached out toward him, and three times the image
Fled like the breath of the wind or a dream on wings.

He saw, in a far valley, a separate grove

Where the woods stir and rustle, and a river,
The Lethe, gliding past the peaceful places,
And tribes of people thronging, hovering over,
Innumerable as the bees in summer
Working the bright-hued flowers, and the shining
Of the white lilies, murmuring and humming.
Aeneas, filled with wonder, asks the reason
For what he does not know, who are the people
In such a host, and to what river coming?
Anchises answers:—“These are spirits, ready
Once more for life; they drink of Lethe’s water
The soothing potion of forgetfulness.
I have longed, for long, to show them to you, name them,
Our children’s children; Italy discovered,
So much the greater happiness, my son.”
“But, O my father, is it thinkable
That souls would leave this blessedness, be willing
A second time to bear the sluggish body,
Trade Paradise for earth? Alas, poor wretches,
Why such a mad desire for light?” Anchises
Gives detailed answer: “First, my son, a spirit
Sustains all matter, heaven and earth and ocean,
The moon, the stars; mind quickens mass, and moves it.
Hence comes the race of man, of beast, of wingèd
Creatures of air, of the strange shapes which ocean
Bears down below his mottled marble surface.
All these are blessed with energy from heaven;
The seed of life is a spark of fire, but the body
A clod of earth, a clog, a mortal burden.
Hence humans fear, desire, grieve, and are joyful,
And even when life is over, all the evil
Ingrained so long, the adulterated mixture,
The plagues and pestilences of the body
Remain, persist. So there must be a cleansing,
By penalty, by punishment, by fire,
By sweep of wind, by water’s absolution,
Before the guilt is gone. Each of us suffers
His own peculiar ghost. But the day comes
When we are sent through wide Elysium,
The Fields of the Blessed, a few of us, to linger
Until the turn of time, the wheel of ages,
Wears off the taint, and leaves the core of spirit
Pure sense, pure flame. A thousand years pass over
And the god calls the countless host to Lethe
Where memory is annulled, and souls are willing
Once more to enter into mortal bodies.”

The discourse ended; the father drew his son

And his companion toward the hum, the center
Of the full host; they came to rising ground
Where all the long array was visible,
Anchises watching, noting, every comer.
“Glory to come, my son, illustrious spirits
Of Dardan lineage, Italian offspring,
Heirs of our name, begetters of our future!
These I will name for you and tell our fortunes:
First, leaning on a headless spear, and standing
Nearest the light, that youth, the first to rise
To the world above, is Silvius; his name
Is Alban; in his veins Italian blood
Will run with Trojan; he will be the son
Of your late age; Lavinia will bear him,
A king and sire of kings; from him our race
Will rule in Alba Longa. Near him, Procas,
A glory to the Trojan race; and Capys,
And Numitor, and Silvius Aeneas,
Resembling you in name, in arms, in goodness,
If ever he wins the Alban kingdom over.
What fine young men they are! What strength, what prowess!
The civic oak already shades their foreheads.
These will found cities, Gabii, Fidenae,
Nomentum; they will crown the hills with towers
Above Collatia, Inuus fortress, Bola,
Cora, all names to be, thus far ungiven.

“And there will be a son of Mars; his mother

Is Ilia, and his name is Romulus,
Assaracus’ descendant. On his helmet
See, even now, twin plumes; his father’s honor
Confers distinction on him for the world.
Under his auspices Rome, that glorious city,
Will bound her power by earth, her pride by heaven,
Happy in hero sons, one wall surrounding
Her seven hills, even as Cybele, riding
Through Phrygian cities, wears her crown of towers,
Rejoicing in her offspring, and embracing
A hundred children of the gods, her children,
Celestials, all of them, at home in heaven.
Turn the eyes now this way; behold the Romans,
Your very own. These are Iulus’ children,
The race to come. One promise you have heard
Over and over: here is its fulfillment,
The son of a god, Augustus Caesar, founder
Of a new age of gold, in lands where Saturn
Ruled long ago; he will extend his empire
Beyond the Indies, beyond the normal measure
Of years and constellations, where high Atlas
Turns on his shoulders the star-studded world.
Maeotia and the Caspian seas are trembling
As heaven’s oracles predict his coming,
And all the seven mouths of Nile are troubled.
Not even Hercules, in all his travels,
Covered so much of the world, from Erymanthus
To Lerna; nor did Bacchus, driving his tigers
From Nysa’s summit. How can hesitation
Keep us from deeds to make our prowess greater?
What fear can block us from Ausonian land?

“And who is that one yonder, wearing the olive,

Holding the sacrifice? I recognize him,
That white-haired king of Rome, who comes from Cures,
A poor land, to a mighty empire, giver
Of law to the young town. His name is Numa.
Near him is Tullus; he will rouse to arms
A race grown sluggish, little used to triumph.
Beyond him Ancus, even now too boastful,
Too fond of popular favor. And then the Tarquins,
And the avenger Brutus, proud of spirit,
Restorer of the balance. He shall be
First holder of the consular power; his children
Will stir up wars again, and he, for freedom
And her sweet sake, will call down judgment on them,
Unhappy, however future men may praise him,
In love of country and intense ambition.

“There are the Decii, and there the Drusi,

A little farther off, and stern Torquatus,
The man with the axe, and Camillus, the regainer
Of standards lost. And see those two, resplendent
In equal arms, harmonious friendly spirits
Now, in the shadow of night, but if they ever
Come to the world of light, alas, what warfare,
What battle-lines, what slaughter they will fashion,
Each for the other, one from Alpine ramparts
Descending, and the other ranged against him
With armies from the east, father and son
Through marriage, Pompey and Caesar. O my children,
Cast out the thoughts of war, and do not murder
The flower of our country. O my son,
Whose line descends from heaven, let the sword
Fall from the hand, be leader in forbearing!

“Yonder is one who, victor over Corinth,

Will ride in triumph home, famous for carnage
Inflicted on the Greeks; near him another,
Destroyer of old Argus and Mycenae
Where Agamemnon ruled; he will strike down
A king descended from Achilles; Pydna
Shall be revenge for Pallas’ ruined temple,
For Trojan ancestors. Who would pass over,
Without a word, Cossus, or noble Cato,
The Gracchi, or those thunderbolts of warfare,
The Scipios, Libya’s ruin, or Fabricius
Mighty with little, or Serranus, ploughing
The humble furrow? My tale must hurry on:
I see the Fabii next, and their great Quintus
Who brought us back an empire by delaying.
Others, no doubt, will better mould the bronze
To the semblance of soft breathing, draw, from marble,
The living countenance; and others plead
With greater eloquence, or learn to measure,
Better than we, the pathways of the heaven,
The risings of the stars: remember, Roman,
To rule the people under law, to establish
The way of peace, to battle down the haughty,
To spare the meek. Our fine arts, these, forever.”

Anchises paused a moment, and they marvelled.

And he went on:—“See, how Marcellus triumphs,
Glorious over all, with the great trophies
Won when he slew the captain of the Gauls,
Leader victorious over leading foeman.
When Rome is in great trouble and confusion
He will establish order, Gaul and Carthage
Go down before his sword, and triple trophies
Be given Romulus in dedication.”

There was a young man going with Marcellus,

Brilliant in shining armor, bright in beauty,
But sorrowful, with downcast eyes. Aeneas
Broke in, to ask his father: “Who is this youth
Attendant on the hero? A son of his?
One of his children’s children? How the crowd
Murmurs and hums around him! what distinction,
What presence, in his person! But dark night
Hovers around his head with mournful shadow.
Who is he, father?” And Anchises answered:—
“Great sorrow for our people! O my son,
Ask not to know it. This one fate will only
Show to the world; he will not be permitted
Any long sojourn. Rome would be too mighty,
Too great in the gods’ sight, were this gift hers.
What lamentation will the field of Mars
Raise to the city! Tiber, gliding by
The new-built tomb, the funeral state, bear witness!
No youth from Trojan stock will ever raise
His ancestors so high in hope, no Roman
Be such a cause for pride. Alas for goodness,
Alas for old-time honor, and the arm
Invincible in war! Against him no one,
Whether on foot or foaming horse, would come
In battle and depart unscathed. Poor boy,
If you should break the cruel fates; if only—
You are to be Marcellus. Let me scatter
Lilies, or dark-red flowers, bringing honor
To my descendant’s shade; let the gift be offered,
However vain the tribute.”

So through the whole wide realm they went together,

Anchises and his son; from fields of air
Learning and teaching of the fame and glory,
The wars to come, the toils to face, or flee from,
Latinus’ city and the Latin peoples,
The love of what would be.

There are two portals,

Twin gates of Sleep, one made of horn, where easy
Release is given true shades, the other gleaming
White ivory, whereby the false dreams issue
To the upper air. Aeneas and the Sibyl
Part from Anchises at the second portal.
He goes to the ships, again, rejoins his comrades,
Sails to Caieta’s harbor, and the vessels
Rest on their mooring-lines.
 BOOK VII

ITALY: THE
OUTBREAK OF WAR
 Here on our shores a woman died, Caieta,
Nurse of Aeneas, and her name still guards
Her resting-place with honor, if such glory
Is comforting to dust.

Her funeral mound

Was raised, and solemn rites performed; Aeneas,
When the deep water quieted, set sail.
The wind held fair to the night, and the white moon
Revealed the way over the tremulous water.
They skimmed the shores of Circe’s island; there
The sun’s rich daughter made the secret groves
Ring with continual singing, and the halls
Were bright with cedar burning through the night,
And the strident shuttle ran across the weaving.
Off shore, they heard the angry growl of lions
Trying to shake their shackles off, and roaring
In the late darkness, bristling boars, and bears
Coughing in cages, and the great wolves howling.
All these were men, whom cruel Circe’s magic
Changed into animals. But Neptune kept
The Trojans safely seaward, filled the sails,
Carried them safely past these anxious harbors.

And now the sea is crimson under the dawn,

Aurora glowing in her ruddy car,
And the winds go down, and the air is very still,
The slow oars struggle in the marble sea,
As from the ship Aeneas sees a grove
And through its midst a pleasant river running,
The Tiber, yellow sand and whirling eddy,
Down to the sea. Around, above and over,
Fly the bright-colored birds, the water-haunters,
Charming the air with song. The order given,
The Trojans turn their course to land; they enter
The channel and the shade.
 Help me, Erato,
To tell the story: who were kings in Latium,
What was the state of things, when that strange army
First made for shore? Dear goddess, help the poet!
There is much to tell of, the initial trouble,
The grim development of war, the battles,
The princes in their bravery driven to death,
Etruscan cohorts, all the land in the west
Marshalled in armor. This is a greater mission,
A greater work, that moves me.

King Latinus
Was an old man, long ruler over a country
Blessed with the calm of peace. He was, they tell us,
The son of Faunus; Marica was his mother,
A nymph, Laurentian-born. And Faunus’ father
Was Picus, son of Saturn, the line’s founder.
Latinus had no sons; they had been taken,
By fate, in their young manhood; an only daughter
Survived to keep the house alive, a girl
Ripe for a husband. She had many suitors
From Latium, from Ausonia. Most handsome,
Most blessed in ancestry, was the prince Turnus,
Whom the queen mother favored, but the portents
Of the high gods opposed. There was a laurel
In the palace courtyard, tended through the years
With sacred reverence, which king Latinus,
When first he built the city, had discovered,
And hallowed to Apollo, and the people
Were called Laurentians, from its name. A marvel,
So runs the story, occurred here once, a swarm
Of bees, that came, loud-humming through clear air
To settle in the branches, a dense jumble
All through the leafy boughs. “We see a stranger,”
The prophet cried, “and a strange column coming
On the same course to the same destination,
We see him lord it over the height of the city.”
Another time Lavinia was standing
Beside her father at the altar, bringing
The holy torch to light the fire, when—horror!—
Her hair broke out in flame, sparks leaped and crackled
From diadem and coronal; her progress
Was a shower of fire, as she moved through the palace
Robed with gray smoke and yellow light, a vision
Fearful and wonderful. She would be glorious,
They said, in fame and fortune, but the people
Were doomed, on her account, to war.

Latinus
Was troubled by such prophecies, and turned
To Faunus, his prophetic father, seeking
His oracles for help, in Albunean
Woodland and forest, where the holy fountain
Makes music, breathing vapor from the darkness.
Italian men, Oenotrian tribes, in trouble
Come here for answers; here the priesthood, bringing
The offerings for sacrifice, by night-time
Slumbers on fleece of victims, seeing visions,
Hearing strange voices, meeting gods in converse,
Deep down in Acheron. Hither Latinus
Came, pilgrim and petitioner; the fleeces
Were spread for him, a hundred woolly victims,
And as he lay, half waking and half sleeping,
From the deep grove he heard a voice:—“My son,
Seek not a Latin husband for the princess;
Distrust this bridal; stranger sons are coming
To wed our children, to exalt our title
High as the stars, and from that marriage offspring
Will see, as surely as sun looks down on ocean,
The whole world at their feet.” These answers Faunus
Gave to his son, warnings in night and silence;
Latinus may have said no word, but Rumor
Had spread the news, all up and down the cities
Throughout Ausonia, by the time the Trojans
Tied up their vessels at the grassy landing.

Aeneas and the captains and Iulus

Sprawled in the shade; a feast was spread; they placed
The wheels of hardtack on the ground, and on them
Morsels of food, and sliced or quartered apples,
And after these were eaten, hunger drove them
To break the disks beneath with teeth and fingers.
“Ho!” cries Iulus, “We are eating our tables!”
A boy’s joke, nothing more. But the spoken word
Meant something more, and deeper, to Aeneas,
An end of hardship. He caught up the saying,
Felt the god’s presence. “Hail!” he cried, remembering,
“Hail, O my destined land! All hail, ye faithful
Gods of our homeland! Here our country lies.
Now I remember what Anchises told me:
My son, when hunger overtakes you, driven
To unknown shores, and the food seems so little
You find it best to gnaw the tables also,
There hope for home, there build, however weary,
The city walls, the moat, the ditch, the rampart.
This must have been that hunger, and the ending
Of our misfortunes. Come then, let us gladly
Explore what lands these are, what people hold them.
Now pour your cups to Jove, in the light of morning,
Pray to Anchises; let the wine again
Go round in happiness.” He wreathed his temples
With forest greenery, and made his prayers,
To the genius of the place, to the nymphs, to Earth,
Oldest of goddesses, to the unknown rivers,
To Night, and all her rising stars, to Jove,
To Cybele, to his parents, in heaven or Hades.
And the almighty father thrice made thunder
From the clear sky, and a bright cloud blazed above them
With rays of burning light, and a sudden rumor
Runs through the Trojan ranks that the day has come
To build the city due them. Cheered by the omen,
They hurry on the feast, set out the wine-bowls,
Crown them with garlands.

And on the next bright morning

As light streamed over the earth, they took the bearings
For city and land and coast-line; here they found
Numicius’ fountain, here the river Tiber,
Here the brave Latins dwell. A hundred envoys,
Picked men of every station, Aeneas orders
To go to King Latinus’ noble city:
They must bear gifts, be crowned with leaves of olive,
Appeal for peace. They hurry at his bidding.
Aeneas himself marks where the walls shall rise,
With a shallow trench, studies the site, and circles
The settlement, like a camp, with moat and rampart.
And his ambassadors had made their journey;
They were seeing, now, the Latin towers and roof-tops,
And, on suburban plains, young men in training,
Breaking their steeds to saddle or car, or drawing
The bow, or hurling darts, daring each other
To fights and races. A courier, at the gallop,
Brought the king word that foreigners were coming,
Big men, in strange attire. He bade them welcome,
And took his place, high on the throne, before them.

That was a mighty palace, rising high

Over the city, with a hundred columns;
Picus had ruled from there, and the place was holy
With sacred forest and revered tradition.
Here kings received the sceptre, here uplifted
The bundled rods of power; here was their senate,
Their banquet-hall, their temple; here the elders
Made sacrifice, faced the long line of tables.
And here were statues of the ancient fathers,
Carved out of cedar, Italus, Sabinus,
The planter of the vine, whose image guarded
The curving sickle, and Saturn, and two-faced Janus,
All standing in the hallways; and other kings
From the very first beginning; and warriors wounded
Fighting for homeland. On the door were hanging
The consecrated arms; and there were chariots,
Trophies of battle, curving axes, helmets
And helmet-plumes, bars wrenched from gates, and javelins,
And shields, and beaks of captured ships. Quirinus,
The god (on earth the hero, Romulus),
Was seated, holding the sacred staff of office,
Wearing the augur’s robe; and near him Picus,
Tamer of horses, whom that lovesick woman,
Circe, his wife, had struck with her golden wand,
And changed by magic spells into a bird
Whose wings were of many colors.

In this temple,
Latinus, from his father’s throne, gave summons,
And the Trojans entered, and he made them greeting
In courteous oration: “Tell me, Trojans—
We know, you see, your city and race, your voyage
Across the oceans—tell me your petition.
What cause, what need, has brought you here? You have come
Over the blue-green waters to Ausonia.
Were you off your course, or driven by storm? Mischances
On the high seas are not unknown to sailors.
No matter: you have entered peaceful rivers,
You rest in a good harbor. We bid you welcome.
Do not avoid our friendship. We must tell you
We Latins come from Saturn; we are people
Whose sense of justice comes from our own nature
And the custom of our god. No law, no bondage,
Compels our decency. And I remember,
Though it was long ago, some story told us
By older men; it seems that Dardanus,
An ancestor of yours, was born here, left here
For towns in Phrygian Ida, and Thracian Samos,
Or Samothrace, they call it now. He left here,
When he departed, from his Tuscan dwelling
Called Corythus, and now the golden palace
Of starry sky receives him, throned in heaven,
A god, who multiplies their count of altars.”

Ilioneus answered:—“Son of Faunus,

Great king, no tempest and no blackness drove us
Over the waves to shelter here; no star,
No shore, has fooled us in our voyage.
We came on purpose, and with willing hearts,
To this your city, exiled from a kingdom,
The greatest, once, that ever the sun looked down on.
We come from Jove; in Jove as ancestor
The sons of Troy rejoice; our king, Aeneas,
Himself is sprung from Jove; it is he who sent us
To seek your threshold. No one in all the world,
Whether he lives on the farthest edge of ocean,
Whether he lives in the deepest heart of the tropics,
No one, I think, but knows how fierce a storm-cloud
Broke from Mycenae over the plains of Ida,
And how two worlds, Europe and Asia, battled
Driven by fate to war. We have been driven
By that great tidal wave across vast oceans,
And now we ask a little home, a harbor—
We will do no damage—for our country’s gods,
We ask for nothing more than all should have,
For air and water. You need not be sorry,
We shall do nothing shameful in your kingdom,
Your fame, your kindness, as we tell the story,
Will grow in greatness. Ausonia, I promise,
Will not regret receiving Troy. I swear it
On our captain’s fate and honor, proven often
In loyalty, in war. There are many nations,
Nations and people both, who have often sought us,
Wanted us for their allies—do not scorn us
For coming as petitioners, with garlands,
With suppliant words—it was the will of heaven
That drove us to your shores. Dardanus came
From here, and over and over again Apollo guides us
To Tiber and Numicia’s sacred fountain.
Our king is sending presents, little tokens
Of former fortune, relics and remainders
Rescued from Troy on fire. This gold Anchises
Used when he poured libations at the altar,
This sceptre and this diadem were Priam’s,
Who wore these robes, the work of Trojan women,
When he gave laws to the assembled people.”

Latinus, at his words, was grave; he held

His gaze downcast, but his anxious eyes kept turning.
It was not the crimson color, nor Priam’s sceptre,
That moved him so; he was thinking of his daughter,
Her marriage, and the oracle of Faunus.
This one might be the man, this stranger, coming
From a far-off land, might be his son, a ruler
Called, by the fates, to share his power, to father
Illustrious children, masters of the world.
He spoke, in gladness:—“Bless, O gods, our project
And your own augury! It will be given,
O Trojan, as you ask. I do not scorn
The gifts you bring. Never, while I am ruling,
Shall you be lacking fruitful land in plenty,
And Troy’s abundance shall be yours forever.
And as for king Aeneas, if you bring us
True tidings of his longing for our friendship,
Our hospitality, and our alliance,
Let him appear in person, let him never
Shrink from our friendly gaze. To King Latinus
It will be pact and covenant to meet him,
To take him by the hand. Give him my answer:
I have a daughter; prodigies from heaven
Innumerable, and my father’s warnings,
Delivered through his oracle, forbid me
To give my daughter to a native husband.
They tell me that my son-to-be is coming
From foreign shores, to raise our name to heaven.
Such is the prophecy they make for Latium.
Your king, I think, must be the man they promise,
If I have any sense of divination.
He is the one I choose.”

And he brought horses,

The pick of his stables, out of all his hundreds,
Assigned them to the Trojans in due order,
Swift runners they were, caparisoned with crimson,
With saddle-cloths of gold, and golden halters
Swung at their shoulders, and the bits were golden.
He chose a chariot for Aeneas; with it
Two stallions breathing fire, immortal horses
Sprung from the stock which Circe, in her cunning,
Had stolen from the sun, her father, and bred them
To her own mares. The Trojans rode back happy
With gifts and peace and welcome from Latinus.

And here was Juno coming back from Argos,

Riding the air, and fierce as ever, seeing,
As far away as Sicily and Pachynus,
Aeneas and the Trojan fleet rejoicing.
She saw them building homes, she saw them trusting
The friendly land, she saw their ships forsaken.
She stopped, she tossed her head, in hurt and hatred,
Speaking, with none to listen:—“There they are,
The race I hate, the fates that fight my own.
They could not die on Sigean fields; they could not
Be captured, and stay captured. Troy went down,
It seems, in fire, and they rose from the ashes.
Armies and flame were nothing; they found the way.
Whereas my power, no doubt, lies weak and weary,
I have hated them enough, I am tired of hating,
I have earned my rest. Or have I? I dared to follow
Those exiles over the water with deadly hatred,
Used up all threats of sea and sky against them,
And what good did it do? Scylla, Charybdis,
The Syrtes, all availed me nothing. Tiber
Shelters them in his channel now, in safety.
What do they care for me, or the threats of ocean?
Mars could destroy the giant race of Lapiths,
Jupiter put a curse on Calydon
To soothe Diana’s anger; what had either,
Calydon or the Lapiths, done to merit
The vengeance of the gods? But I, great queen
Of heaven, wife of Jove, I keep enduring,
Dare everything, turn everywhere, for nothing—
I am beaten by Aeneas! So, if my power
Falls short of greatness, I must try another’s,
Seek aid where I can find it. If I cannot
Bend Heaven, I can raise Hell. It will not be given,—
I know, I know—to keep him from his kingdom,
To keep him from his bride: Lavinia, Latium,
Will come to him in time. It is permitted
To keep that time far off. It is permitted
To strike their people down. It will cost them something,
Their precious father and son. As for the bride,
Bloodshed will be her dowry, and Bellona
Matron of honor. Hecuba bore one firebrand,
And Venus’ issue shall be such another,
A funeral torch for Troy re-born.”

She came
Earthward, with that, and summoned, in her anger,
One of the evil goddesses, Allecto,
Dweller in Hell’s dark shadows, sorrow-bringer,
Lover of gloom and war and plot and hatred.
Even her father hates her, even her sisters,
She takes so many forms, such savage guises,
Her hair a black and tangled nest of serpents.
And Juno whets the knife-edge of her passion:—
“Daughter of Night, grant me a boon, a service,
To keep my pride and honor undefeated.
Stop it, this Trojan swindle of Latinus
With marriages, this ravage of his kingdom!
You have the power: when brothers love each other
You know the way to arm them, set them fighting,
You can turn houses upside down with malice,
Bring under one roof the lash, the funeral torches,
You have a thousand names of evil-doing,
A thousand ways and means. Invent, imagine,
Contrive—break up the peace, sow seeds of warfare,
Let arms be what they want; in the same moment
Let arms be what they seize.”

Therewith Allecto,
Infected with her Gorgon poison, travelled
To Latium and the palace, where the queen,
Amata, brooded, womanly resentment
Burning within her heart, for Turnus’ marriage,
And, fuel on fire, the coming of the Trojans.
From her own dark hair, Allecto pulled one serpent
Meant for the queen, her intimate heart, her bosom,
Corruption, evil, frenzy, for the household.
Between the robe and the smooth breasts the serpent
Went gliding deep, unseen, unfelt; the woman
Received the viperous menace. The snake grew larger,
Became a collar of gold, became a ribbon
Wound through the hair, entwining, sliding smoothly
Over the limbs, mercurial poison, working
With slow infection, no great passionate fury,
So that the queen, at first, spoke low and softly,
As mothers do, protesting to Latinus
And weeping for her daughter’s Trojan marriage:—
“Must she be given, my lord, to Trojan exiles?
Have you no pity for her, for yourself,
No pity for a mother? He will desert us,
This faithless pirate, with our child as booty,
At the first turn of the wind. That was the way—
Remember?—the Phrygian shepherd came to Sparta
And went away with Leda’s daughter, Helen.
A solemn pledge—does that amount to nothing?
You loved your people once; you were bound to Turnus.
Our son must be a stranger; Faunus says so.
If Faunus speaks, so be it. I remind you
All lands, not ours, are foreign; and prince Turnus,
By the letter of the oracle, an alien.
Trace back his ancestry—Acrisius’ daughter
Founded his line, and what could be more foreign
Than the heart of Greece, Mycenae?”

But she found

Her words were vain: Latinus had decided,
She saw she could not move him. And the poison
By now had taken hold, a wild excitement
Coursing the veins; her bones were turned to water;
Poor queen, there was no limit to her raging,
Streeling, one end of the city to another.
You know how schoolboys, when a top is spinning,
Snap at it with a whiplash, in a circle
Around an empty court, and keep it going,
Wondering at the way it keeps on whirling,
Driven by blows in this or that direction,
So, through the midst of cities and proud people,
Amata drives, is driven. Madness and guilt upon her,
She flies to the mountains, tries to hide her daughter
Deep in the woods, acts like a drunken woman,
Cries, over and over, “This girl is meant for Bacchus,
And not for any Trojans, only Bacchus
Is worthy of her; she honors him in dancing,
Carries his wand, and keeps for him the sacred
Lock of her hair!” And Rumor, flying over,
Excites the other wives to leave their houses.
They come with maddened hearts, with their hair flying,
Their necks bare to the winds; they shriek to the skies,
Brandish the vine-bound spears, are dressed as tigers,
Circle and wheel around their queen, whose frenzy
Tosses the burning pine-brand high, in gesture
To suit the marriage-hymn: “O Latin mothers,
Listen, wherever you are: if any care
For poor Amata moves you, or any sense
Of any mother’s rights, come join the revels,
Loosen the hair, exult!” Allecto drives her
To the dens of the beasts; her eyes are stained and bloodshot,
Rolled upward to the white.

So, thought Allecto,

That should suffice: the palace of Latinus,
And all the king intended, in confusion.
She flew on dusky wings, a gloomy goddess,
To the bold Rutulian’s walls, that city, founded,
Men say, by Danaë and Acrisian settlers,
A place once called Ardea, and it keeps
Its ancient name; its glory has departed.
And here, in his high palace, Turnus slumbered.
In the dead of night, Allecto changed her features,
Her limbs, transformed her glowering, her grimness,
To an old woman’s wrinkles, bound a ribbon
Around gray hair, worked in a wreath of olive,
And she was Calybe then, an aged priestess
Of Juno’s temple, and so she came to Turnus:—
“Turnus! Can this be borne, so many labors
Wasted, the kingdom given to the Trojans?
The king denies you all, the bride, the dowry
Bought with your blood; his heir must be a stranger.
They mock you; never mind. Go forth, protect them,
Save them from dangers, see what thanks they give you,
Lay low the Tuscan ranks, hold over the Latins
The shield of peace. I tell you, Juno told me,
And you so calmly slumbering all through it,
Rise up, be doing something, and be happy
To see the young men armed, and get them going
Out of the gates! There are ships to burn, and captains
To set on fire: the mighty gods command it.
Let King Latinus know it, let him reckon
With Turnus in arms, unless he keeps his promise.”
But Turnus, smiling at her, answered:—“Mother,
You tell me nothing new; I know a fleet
Has come to Tiber’s waters; do not scare me
With fears imagined; Juno, I am certain,
Has not forgotten me. Your age, old woman,
Worn-down, truth-weary, harries you with worries,
Makes you ridiculous, a busybody,
Nervous for nothing in the wars of kings.
Back to the temple, mind your proper business,
Leave war and peace where they belong, with warriors.”
Allecto blazed with anger: Turnus, speaking,
Was suddenly afraid, so wild her features,
So fierce her flaming eyes, the snakes of the Fury
Hissing disaster. She shoves him back; he falters,
Tries to say more; she plies her whip, she doubles
The rising serpents, and her wild mouth cries,
“See me for what I am, worn down, truth-weary,
Nervous for nothing in the wars of kings!
See what I am, see where I come from, bringing
War, war and death, from the Grim Sisters’ home.”
She flung the firebrand at him, torch and terror
Smoking with lurid light. The body, sweating,
Is torn from sleep; he cries for arms, he seeks
Arms at his bedside, through the hallways, lusting
For sword and steel, war’s wicked frenzy mounting
To rampant rage. Even so a cauldron bubbles
When fire burns hot beneath, and water seethes,
Stirs, shifts, breaks out in boiling, and the cloud
Of steam goes toward the sky. The peace is broken.
The call to arms is given; let the captains
March on Latinus, drive the foe from Latium,
Protect the fatherland. Turnus is coming;
No matter who they are, Trojans or Latins,
Turnus will take them on. And his example,
His frenzied prayer, shook his Rutulian comrades,
All eagerness for war. They all admired him,
For handsome bearing, youth, or deeds of courage,
Or kingly birth: boldness engenders boldness.

Allecto, meanwhile, took a new direction,

To the Trojans now; she had found a place for mischief
Along the shore, she had seen Iulus hunting;
His hounds were driven to madness; the scent was rank,
Hot in their nostrils; away they went, the pack
In full cry after the deer, and that pursuit
Was the first cause of trouble; that first kindled
The countryside to violence. That deer,
A handsome animal, with mighty antlers,
Belonged, a pet, to Tyrrhus and his children,
Who had raised him from a fawn. Tyrrhus, the father,
Was keeper of the royal herds, and Silvia,
The daughter, used to comb the beast, and wash him,
Twine garlands in his horns, caress and love him,
And he, grown used to her, would wander freely
Over the woods and meadows, and come home
At nightfall to the friendly door and stable.
This was the deer Iulus’ hounds had started
Floating downstream, reclining by the river
For coolness’ sake, where young Ascanius, burning
For a huntsman’s praise, saw him, and loosed the arrow
That pierced the belly and side, so the poor creature
Came wounded to the house he knew, and moaning
Crept into his stall, bleeding, and like a person
Asking for help, filled all the house with sorrow.
First Silvia came, beating her arms, and others,
Summoned for help, equipped themselves for vengeance,
With Allecto lurking in the silent forest.
A knotted club, a sharpened stake, a firebrand,
Whatever comes to hand will serve, when anger
Is looking for a weapon. Tyrrhus calls them,
They are warriors now, not farmers; they leave the logging,
The quartered oak, the wedges; in breathless anger
Tyrrhus grabs up the axe. A perfect moment
For the goddess on her watch-tower!—she comes flying
To the stable roof; she sounds the shepherds’ call,
Straining her hellish voice on the curved horn
Till grove and woodland echo. Diana’s lake
Hears, and Velinus’ fountain, and white Nar,
The spring of sulphur; and mothers, in their panic,
Hold their young children close. But swift to the sound,
The dire alarum, came the farmers, running;
They call no man their master; they snatch up weapons.
And on the other side the youth of the Trojans
Pour through the open gates to help Iulus.
They are drawn up now; no more a rustic quarrel
With stakes and clubs, the double-bladed steel
Decides the issue, swords are drawn, the harvest
Is black and spiky; bronze defies the sunlight,
Tossing its luster cloudward. As waves at sea
At first are little whitecaps under the wind,
And slowly turn to billows, and then great combers,
So rose the swell of war. Young Almo fell,
Eldest of Tyrrhus’ sons; a whirring arrow,
Piercing the throat, choked him in his own blood.
And many around him fell, among them one,
A good old man, Galaesus, who had come forward
To plead for peace, and died; he was most just
Of all Ausonia’s men, and wealthy, counting
Five flocks of sheep and cattle; a hundred ploughs
Furrowed his acres.

So they fought together,

And neither won,—Allecto had kept her promise:
She had soaked the war in blood, she had made beginning
Of death in battle. She left the western land,
She soared to Juno in heaven, proud of her triumph:—
“There it is for you, perfect, war created
From disagreement! Tell them to join in friendship,
Let them make treaties, now my hand has spattered
The Trojans with Ausonian blood! And still
I can do more, if you desire it: cities
Near-by, I can plague to war with rumors, burn them
With wild desire for battle, bring in allies
From everywhere; I will sow the land with armies.”
But Juno answered:—“That is plenty, thank you;
They can not stop it now; man battles man;
Fresh blood is on the arms that chance first gave.
Now let them stage that bridal feast, that wedding,
Venus’ distinguished son, and king Latinus!
Olympus’ ruler would be most unwilling
To let you roam thus freely in the heavens;
Be gone from here; whatever more is needed,
I will attend to.” So spoke Saturn’s daughter,
And the serpents hissed as the Fury raised her wings,
Flew up, swooped down, to Hell. Under high hills
In Italy’s heart, there lies a vale, Ampsanctus,
Well known in many lands. Dark forests hide it
On every side, and in its very centre
A roaring torrent over the rocks goes brawling,
And there is a cavern here, a breathing hole
For terrible Dis, and a gorge, where Acheron river
Opens the deadly jaws; and here Allecto
Sank out of sight, relieving earth and heaven.

And Juno gave the war the final touches.

The shepherds came to the city from the battle,
Bearing young Almo, slain, and old Galaesus,
His peaceful face defiled; they cry to the gods,
They call on King Latinus. Turnus is there,
As they cry murder, fuel to their fire,
Making their terror double: the kingdom falls
To the men of Troy, he shouts; our blood is tainted;
I am degraded here! And the Latin mothers,
Trooping the pathless woods in Bacchic orgies,
Amata’s cause being their cause, assemble
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