The Aeneid

by Virgil

Nisus asked, “Is it gods who make me want this, Or do we make our deadly urges gods?

Nisus asking an age old question.

He spoke, but couldn’t stop the spear that rammed Into Euryalus’ ribs and split his white chest. Dying, he thrashed. His lovely limbs and shoulders Poured streams of blood; his neck sank limply down: So, cut off by a plow, a purple flower 435 Faints away into death; so poppies bend Their weary necks when rain weighs down their heads.

One of Vergil's most famous passages, using a nature simile to describe the death of Euryalus.

He reared up with his sword and thrust it midway Between the young man’s temples, monstrously 750 Splitting his forehead and his beardless cheeks. A crash—the ground was shaken by his huge weight: He crumpled and sprawled dying there, his armor Covered with gory brains, and one precise half Of the head hanging down at either shoulder. 755 The routed Trojans scattered