The Aeneid

by Virgil

At once the boats broke off their moorings from the bank and dived down to the depths, plunging in beak-first 120 as dolphins do. Then, a miracle to tell: nymphs in equal numbers rose to ride the waves.*

Jupiter scuttles the Trojan fleet

to extirpate this evil race who stole my wife.

Troy 2.0

They shared one mind, one heart; they rushed to battle side by side. Now they shared watch at the gate. Nisus asked: “Do gods enflame our hearts, Euryalus, or do our fierce desires become our gods?

goated questions

The rest he shut in with him as they bolted through— the fool, who didn’t realize the Rutulian king was in the crowd, and locked him in the city, 730 like a hulking tiger among helpless sheep.

An old Trojan error

The crew spilled out into the sea—hampered by the splintered oars and floating benches and an ebb-tow pulling at their feet.

I've seen editions of the "Iliad" with photographs of D-Day on the cover, but this smaller landing in Italy fits the metaphor better.

Unless I’m wrong, an awful death awaits a blameless man.

Hera getting some ethics

The gods in Jove’s high halls felt pity for this pointless rage, the awful suffering of mortals.

i guess gods can grow

“Right hand,” he said, “you’re my only god.

"Then will I also confess unto thee that thine own right hand can save thee." (Job 40:14)

his son rushed in between them, parrying Aeneas’ sword just as his right hand rose to strike, stopping him and fending off the blow.

Screenplay

My son, I stained your name with my own crimes. Hatred drove me from my father’s throne and rule: it was I who owed atonement to my people’s hate, the guilt was mine. I should have paid by any death at all. I still haven’t left this land, this light. But leave I will.”

when did tyrants develop remorse?

Then he chose captives to be offerings to the dead and bound their arms. They’d splash Pallas’ pyre with blood.*

In this, Aeneas is like Achilles, but it also makes him essentially a barbarian Roman

If you can, clasp hands and make a pact. Don’t let your weapons clash in war.’

Diomedes is FUBAR. Or he's evolved. Everyone seems to have evolved in the last few chapters, even the gods.

I yield her now to the chance winds.’ He drew back and threw the spinning spear. Poor Camilla flew across the roaring river on the hissing shaft.

spear to save

Spears jutted skyward in hands pulled back to throw,

spear to kill

You’re not slack for love’s nocturnal combat,

"Women weaken legs" (Mickey Goldmill, "Rocky")

Aeneas didn’t stoop to killing fugitives, nor those he met on foot nor horsemen holding lances. Through clouds of dust he tracked only one man, his challenge was for one alone: Turnus.

Fugitives = refugees (but these are soldiers retreating on the battlefield) This recalls Aeneas' earlier declaration to the general people that they were not his enemy, only their leader. He goes against that by attacking the undefended city just to draw out one man.

As Murranus bragged of ancestors and ancient 530 names, all his race back to the Latin kings, Aeneas whirled a giant rock and smashed him to the ground, under the yoke and reins.

Another man silenced-and-killed. Sometimes smack talk is not so smart.

Today I’ll storm the town that’s caused the war, Latinus’ capital, and raze its smoking rooftops to the ground,

Carthage's fate

Bring torches, quickly. We’ll reclaim the treaty with our flames.”

aggressive negotiations

Speaking wildly, in despair and set on death, she tore her purple robe and hung a noose around a beam—an ugly end.

Amata's end here in Book 12 recalls Dido, the first queen to take her own life in this story (Book 4). Both queens were pierced by a god's power (Dido twice, in Book 1). Both women have had marriages thwarted by Aeneas: Dido's own union with Aeneas and the expected marriage of Turnus with Amata's daughter, Lavinia. Other women have been possessed by gods or divine rites/power: the Sybil (seer), by Apollo, in Hades (Book 6); the wives in Troy, by Helen (Book 6); the Trojan women induced to set their own ships ablaze (Book 5); the Latin women, by Amata, in the forest (Book 7); the Trojan women induced by Juno and Iris to set their own ships ablaze (Book 5). Turnus, who like Amata was pierced by Allecto, also dies, though not by suicide.

Smile on me, shades of the dead, since the gods are hostile.

I'm starting to like Turnus

stunned to see great men from distant points on earth meet and clash with swords: a contest to end war.

world war vibes again

The heifers wonder who will rule the forest, who will lead the herds; 720 the bulls trade wounds with brutal violence,

too true

Troy perished: let her name perish as well.”

Goat line by Hera/Juno. Jove says the story will finish now, and she slams the book shut forever.

Fierce Aeneas stood there, armed, his eyes roaming restlessly, holding back the death-blow. 940 And now more and more, Turnus’ words began to move him and he hesitated—when

The Golden Bough hesitated too. Aeneas' worthiness is always hanging in the balance.