For the best experience on our site, be sure to turn on Javascript in your browser. Parents Home Homeschool College Resources. Study Guide. By Virgil. Previous Next. Book 12 In the city of the Latins, Turnus announces that the time has come for him to fight Aeneas one-on-one. Latinus tries to convince him to give it up — to take some other woman as wife and leave Lavinia to Aeneas.
Turnus refuses. Then Amata pleads with Turnus, telling him that, if she dies, she'd sooner kill herself than have Aeneas as a son-in-law. Lavinia, who has been watching all this, blushes.
Turnus, seeing her, is overcome with love for her. Turnus tells Amata not to jinx him. He says he's got to go fight Aeneas — no ifs, ands, or buts. Then Turnus makes ready his chariot-team and arms himself for battle. At the same time, Aeneas makes himself ready. The next morning, the Italians emerge from their city. Both armies make room on the plain for the coming battle between the two champions. From a nearby height, Juno is watching what's going on.
Standing beside her is Turnus's sister, the nymph Juturna. Juno says, "I helped your brother as long as I could, but fate's against him.
If you want to try to save him, have at it. Either that, or stir up the war again. Aeneas prays, saying that, if Turnus wins, the Trojans will go packing.
If he wins, however, he will not enslave the Italians, but will ask them to join him as equal citizens in a new nation. Latinus agrees to the terms. They sacrifice animals to formalize the deal. But now the Rutulians are getting upset. Now that they see the two champions ready for battle, they can easily tell that their own guy isn't strong enough. Seeing this, Juturna descends among them, taking the shape of the warrior Camers. She tries to stir them up to fight on behalf of Turnus.
Just then, they see an eagle — considered to be the bird of Jupiter — swoop down and seize a swan. Then, a whole bunch of other seabirds attack it in group formation; eventually, the eagle is forced to release the swan and beat a retreat.
Tolumnius, the augur a soothsayer who interpreted the movements of birds , says that this is a sign that they should back up Turnus. Then Tolumnius himself throws his spear at the Trojans. The spear kills one of a group of nine brothers all standing together.
Juno , watching from a nearby mountain, speaks to Turnus's sister Juturna , a nymph of lakes. Juno explains that she's been helping Turnus, and tells Juturna to go try to stop Turnus's fate, because Juno can't bear to watch the fight.
Or, Juno says, Juturna could stir up the war again. Aeneas's friends are much less concerned about him battling Turnus, since fate is on his side. Juno reaches a turning point in her harassment—knowing she's on the losing side, she can't bear to be directly involved. This demonstrates both her pride and her love for Turnus. Latinus , Turnus , and Aeneas enter in separate chariots.
Aeneas prays and asks Juno to be more kind. He says the Trojans will leave peacefully if he falls, but he hopes that instead of enslavement or humiliation of one side, the Trojans and Latins will "undefeated, under equal laws, march together towards an eternal pact of peace. Like Anchises said of the Romans, back in the Underworld in Book 6, Aeneas knows when to fight, but, more rare, he knows when to promote peace.
Most leaders would enslave their defeated enemies, but Aeneas wants to join together as one nation. Related Quotes with Explanations. The Rutulians are nervous to see how uneven the duel will be, with Turnus looking scared and weak compared to Aeneas. Juturna sees her chance, and, disguising herself as the soldier Camers, she tells the Rutulians they should fight or they'll be enslaved.
The other allies on Turnus's side also get riled up, and then Juturna makes a sign—an eagle, the bird of Jove, snatches a swan from the stream, but has to drop the swan when other birds attack it. The Latins, encouraged by the seer Tolumnius, think this means that they, like the smaller birds, can win. Juturna tries both to cheat fate and save Turnus and fake fate with a sign.
The scene again shows that humans interpret signs in the way that fits with their worldview. Virgil here shows us Turnus from the Latin point of view, making it impossible for us to fully cheer for Aeneas without feeling a pang for poor Turnus. The Gods and Divine Intervention. A Latin named Tolumnius throws a spear which kills A Trojan, restarting the war. With his peace efforts destroyed, Latinus runs back to his city.
Aeneas attempts to regain control of the situation, but an arrow hits him. The name of the shooter is unknown, since no one ever wanted to boast of having hit Aeneas.
Seeing this, Turnus regains hope and kills many men. Achates and Ascanius , along with Mnestheus, another Trojan, bring Aeneas back to the camp. Aeneas wants them to cut him open to take out the arrowhead so he can go fight again. Virgil, as the creator of the Aeneid, of course could have made it that the name of the person who shot the arrow that killed Aeneas was known.
But he makes Aeneas seem even greater by imagining how even his enemies would have respected him and wouldn't have found any glory in gloating about causing him injury. War and Peace. Iapyx, a healer and favorite of Apollo , tries to pull out the arrowhead, without success, since Apollo refuses to intervene.
Venus flies to Crete to pick some dittany, a healing herb, and then invisibly mixes it into Iapyx's treatment. The arrow now comes out easily, and Aeneas feels well enough to fight. Iapyx realizes that his human skills couldn't have cured Aeneas—it's a god's work. Apollo doesn't help to cure Aeneas, but Venus does. This highlights the way that the gods play favorites.
Surprisingly, despite Aeneas's status as a great hero and forefather of Augustus, not all the gods rally behind him. Aeneas 's return to the battle demoralizes the Latins and the Trojans kill many enemies. Juturna sees Aeneas stalking Turnus. She pushes Metiscus, Turnus's chariot-driver, out of his seat, taking the reigns and using her nymph-powers to disguise herself as him. She steers the chariot far from Aeneas. Juturna's dedication to her brother makes him a more sympathetic character.
Despite Turnus's anger which might be more Juno's fault than his , he's brave and important to his people. Like when Juno tricked him into getting on a boat, here his sister, attempting to protect him, makes him seem more cowardly.
Messapus, Turnus's ally and a son of Neptune , knocks off Aeneas 's helmet with a spear. Aeneas, frustrated by this and by Turnus's flight, gives up just trying to find Turnus for the duel, and throws himself fully into the battle. He kills so many people so ferociously that Virgil wonders what god can even help him sing about all the slaughter. Virgil wonders if Jove liked seeing all this: "Did it please you so, great Jove, to see the world at war, the peoples clash that would later live in everlasting peace?
The battle is so horrible it defies not only Virgil's powers to describe it, but also the powers of the muses. His ironic question to Jove dramatically details the ruinous pointlessness of this war, and makes a larger point too. How can we continue to believe in gods in the face of such a disaster?
Even piety is thrown into doubt. At the same time, it also highlights the Roman's great ability to create peace, as opposed to war. Venus suggests to Aeneas that he attack Lavinium. Aeneas agrees. What is the name of the great female warrior in the Aeneid?
Who is the father of Aeneas? Who gives Juturna the power to return the sword to turnus? In the name of Pallas, Aeneas drives his sword into Turnus, killing him. Did Aeneas really love Dido? Aeneas's fate was already determined for him before he got to Carthage and fell deeply in love with Dido.
Not only is his fate determined, but Venus interferes with their love. Aeneas does have true feelings for her, but he decides to remain stoic and follow his fate. Why does Aeneas go to the underworld? Like Odysseus, Aeneas has a dead companion to bury, but unlike his predecessor, Aeneas must bury him before proceeding to the Underworld because the death has contaminated Aeneas' fleet totamque incestat funere classem.
Aeneas does not initially know which of his companions has died. How did anchises die? For revealing the name of the child's mother, Anchises was killed or struck blind by lightning. In later legend and in Virgil's Aeneid, he was conveyed out of Troy on the shoulders of his son Aeneas, whose descendants founded Rome, and he died in Sicily. Who did Aeneas marry? Is Aeneas a Trojan?
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