Before he leaves, his father's ghost appears to him, bidding him,
before settling in Latium, descend into Hades by way of Lake Avernus,
and visit him in the Elysian Fields to hear what is to befall his
race.

When Aeneas leaves Drepanum on the next day, his mother pleads so
successfully in his behalf that Neptune promises to exact only one
life as toll.

"One life alone shall glut the wave;
One head shall fall the rest to save."

_Book VI._ Steering to Cumae, where the Sibyl dwells, Aeneas seeks her
cave, whose entrance is barred by bronzen gates, on which is
represented the story of Daedalus,--the first bird man,--who, escaping
from the Labyrinth at Crete, gratefully laid his wings on this altar.
We are further informed that the Sibyl generally wrote her oracles on
separate oak leaves, which were set in due order in her cave, but
which the wind, as soon as the doors opened, scattered or jumbled
together, so that most of her predictions proved unintelligible to
those who visited her shrine. After a solemn invocation, Aeneas
besought her not to baffle him by writing on oak leaves, and was
favored by her apparition and the announcement that, after escaping
sundry perils by land and sea and reddening the Tiber with blood, he
would, thanks to Greek aid, triumph over his foes and settle in Latium
with a new bride. Undaunted by the prospect of these trials, Aeneas
besought the Sibyl to guide him down to Hades, to enable him to visit
his father, a journey she flatly refused to undertake, unless he
procured the golden bough which served as a key to that region, and
unless he showed due respect to the corpse of his friend. Although