book 9 nisus and euryalus

what is the overall plot of book 9?

-aeneas is away and turnus attacks the trojan camp

-nisus and euryalus set out at night to send a message to aeneas, but they are killed

-turnus breaks into the trojan camp but has to leave before he can do too much damage

where is aeneas at the beginning of book 9?

-gone to visit evander and pallas in pallentium to gain allys, pious - trying to aid their chances in war, impious- abandons his troops and leaves them vunerable

-significant as despite being completely absent, he still holds huge command over his troops and the narrative resolves around them loyally serving his command

what does juno tell turnus to do?

"make a surprise attack on their camp and sieze it"

how is turnus' army described marching to the trojan camp?

"rich in its horses, rich in embroidered apparel, rich in gold" -prosperous, pure, sacred

-uses similes of rivers - the ganges, the "nile, when it withdraws away from the plains and settles back at last into its own channel" ->link to cleopatra, suggests turnus is out of place, is destined to lose the war

what does evander's city (pallentium) represent?

-the future of rome - acts as a prototype / precursor

how is turnus' army described from the trojan's perspective?

-using a metaphor of "distant cloud of black dust" - "darkness rising"

-shows contrast, presents turnus' army as dirty, evil, malevolent

-represents their a clouded mindset without the guidance of aeneas

-represents the latin's mindsets which are clouded with furor and bloodlust

-parallels the trojan war, siege from the greeks

how are the trojans presented as pious when faced with the latin's attack?

"though shame and anger urged them to join battle, they nevertheless obeyed orders and closed the gates against the enemy" -remain completely loyal to aeneas, don't submit to their frenzied emotions, strong

how are the trojans presented as impious when faced with the latin's attack?

virgil writes "they were amazed at the faint-heartedness of the trojans. why did they not commit themsekves to a fair fight...THEY WERE MEN... why did they huddle?"

-presents them as cowardly, immasculine, weak and womanly

how is turnus presented as pious?

-he obeys juno's wishes and offers her prayers: "he offered up prayer upon prayer to the gods, and burdened heaven with his vows"

how is turnus described trying to break into the trojan camp?

"like a wolf in the dead of night"

"prowled in a fury"

"blaze with anger"

"burning with fury himself he demanded fire"

"ravening hunger... since blood wet his throat"

what is the significance of turnus' wolf simile?

"like a wolf in the dead of night"

-animalistic imagery which highlights the savagery of war - shows ancient culture of war being necessary for survival, survival of the fittest, instinctual and being a key component of masculinity

-subtly critisises excessive lust for war as inhamane, cruel, and primitive, by appealing to values of roman dignity (gravitas) and pietas which go against furor and bloodlust

-symbol of romulus and remus, the founding of rome -> shows that, as mary beard says "brother killing brother was hard-wired into rome", and that savagery built the foundations for roman culture

what is the juxtaposition between turnus' wolf simile and the trojans?

-"growling at the gaps in the fence, while the lambs keep up their bleating, safe beneath their mothers"

-the trojans are described as more civilised, rational, nurturing people who are innocent victims the the savagery of the latins

-presents aeneas as their mother -effeminate? not very hero like

what happens after turnus tries to burn the trojan ships?

-cybelle prevents it (jupiter's mother), as the trojan ships were a gift from her after the siege of troy, and made from sacred pine and maple trees ontop of the citadel on mount ida

-jupiter said he will help after the boats have served their purpose

-grants a gift never been given before- shows aeneas' importance: "is there any god to whom such a priviledge has been granted? no."

what is the significance of jupiter turning the trojan ships into water nymphs?

-grants a great gesture, no god has ever recieved "such a privilege"

-symbolically represents the end of the trojans' wanderings, solidifies that this is the place they will build their legacy

-shows that the trojans must bear hardships on land and 'stand their ground' in order to be victorious

-underwater metamorphosis proves their status as heroic objects of war, rightful and heroic justice after suffering torment and hardship at sea

how does turnus react after seeing the boats changed for water nymphs?

"the boldness and confidence of turnus never wavered" -shows his flaw of pride and arrogance

-twists fate and reality in his favour, claims that the trojans have lost their only means of escape, that they have "lost one half of the world" and the latins are dominating on land

what does turnus proclaim is his destiny?

"this Phrygian (greek) talk of destiny and the oracles of the gods does not dismay me" - sets himself up as an opposition to fate and the god's will, ironic as it will work against him, foolish and arrogant.. shows bravery but marked by distinct impiety, parallels mezentius

"i too have a destiny- to cut down with this sword this vicious people that have robbed me of my bride" -suffers from hubris, ironic -he is more vicious and he has 'stolen' lavinia from the fate of aeneas

what is the impact of turnus' comparison to greek achilles?

"i do not need the armour vulcan made for achilles" - positions himself as above the greatest warriors, attempt to surpass aeneas' counterpart, undermines greek culture ... "like cowards... we shall not be hiding in the blind belly of a horse" - ciritisizes greek seige of troy as cowardly

-homeric reference, attempt to surpass his heroes, more complicated characters

how is turnus' pride shown through his army's armour?

"with purple crests on their helmets gleaming with gold" -royal imagery and repetition of gold motif - shows artificiality, ciritisizes emperor like-behaviour (augustus), advocates for simpler life

-directly contrasts the armour of achilles and aeneas (hand-crafted, substantial, engraved with meaning and purpose, holds a legacy), emphesises the artificiality of turnus' (extension of augustus?)

what aspects of nisus and euryalus' relationship did romans steal from the greeks?

portrayal of warriors who are lovers

-younger partner = eromenos

-older partner = erastes

how is nisus depicted?

-the older male partner (erastes)

-more experienced in battle

-early 20s

how is euryalus depicted?

-the younger male partner (eromenos)

-beautiful but less experienced in battle

-late teens

what role did nisus and euryalus play in book 5?

-took part in aeneas' funeral games honouring his father anchises - the foot race

-nisus took the lead, but slipped on sacrificial blood, nisus tripped his competition so euryalus could finish first

-aeneas gave all three men prizes

what is the impact of nisus' sacrafice in book 5?

-establishes the sacrafices they are willing to make to help their partner

-shows how sacrafices can lead to greater rewards and the bloodshed sometimes needed

-sacrificial, selfless

-incredibly strong bond

-shows their devotion, elavates them above other trojans, makes them famous and uphold trojan values

what plan do nisus come up with?

-for him to serve as messengers to aeneas and inform him of the siege

-justifies it with his desire for kleos "all i want is credit for the deed", his desire to "rush into battle" and revenge against the rutulians

how is euryalus described?

"no lovelier youth"

"pierced to the heart with a great love for glory" (flaw, frenzy)

how is nisus described?

"formidable warrior"

how does euryalus go against nisus going to aeneas?

-wants to serve nisus "in following to the end the fates of great-hearted aeneas"

-shows pietas, refuses to let him go alone into the dangers, claims that "this is not how i was brought up by my father"

"i have here a heart that despises the light, that would gladly spend life to buy the honour you are striving for"

why is nisus reluctant for euryalus to join him?

-doesn't want him to die, believes if he were to die then a part of him would go on living in euryalus

"i would wish for you to go on living. you are young and your claim on life would be greater than mine"

->euryalus refuses and says "my mind is made up and you have done nothing to change it" - shows unwavering committment

how is ascanius' leadership portrayed in book 9?

-assumes his father's responsibility and speaks on his behalf (predicting what he would do) in a roman-senate-like debate

-promises them high rewards for bringing back his father, not for slaying the enemy - "my whole life hangs on the return of my father"

-promises them "all my fortunes and all my hopes for the future" (distribution of booty, turnus' posessions, "all the land", gold, slaves, dido's mixing bowl(foreshadowing bloodbath)) -> shows generosity and trust, mirrors aeneas' prize-giving in book 5

-refrains from boasting after killing the enemy

ascanius leadership quotes:

"my whole life hangs upon the return of my father"

foresakes glory for the safe return of his father -> "i shall look for no glory that is not shared with you, in war or in peace" -deserts youthful ambition for glory (despite being younger than euryalus

"bearing beyond his years a man's load of cares"

what request does euryalus make when setting out on his mission?

-that they look after his mother and "support her in her desolation"

ascanius heroism quote:

"bearing beyond his years a man's load of cares and a man's spirit"

how does ascanius show pietas towards his family?

-in response to euryalus' request to comfort his mother: "this image of his love for his own father touched his own heart" - "your mother will be my mother in everything but the name creusa"

"call back my father... if he is restored there can be no cause for grief"

how is nisus described during his savage massacre of the sleeping rutulians? (simile)

"like a lion driven mad with hunger" - "jaws dripping with blood" at vunerable sheep - bravery? animal savagery ?

-link to odysseus

-wears a "rough hyde stripped from a lion" - wears his brutality

how is nisus' brutality shown?

"makes havoc" - gory and shockingly brutal imagery -"heads were lolling... blood gurgling out of his neck and warming the ground as the black gore soaked through"

"overcome by the wine of bacchus he had drunk"

what is the impact of nisus and euryalus' savage brutality?

-take advantage of unarmed and vunerable enemies- murder wasn't necessary, plagued by their thirst for glory and youthful naivety

-impious and unusual 'heroic' behaviour - animalistic, bordering on furor (turnus link?)

-moment of aristeia

how is euryalus' brutality described?

"blazing frenzy"

"carried away by bloodlust and greed"

"plunged the sword to its hilt in his chest... still vomiting his crimson life's breath"

how are the unsuspecting rutulians described?

"nameless warriors lying unconcious" - impersonal, non-aggrivated, particularly savage and undeserving

what is the downfall of nisus and euryalus?

-their greed, bloodlust and pursuit of glory - influences their savage killing and looting of their enemies' goods -the helmet of messapus betrays them to the enemies

what revealed euryalus to the enemy?

the helmet -"its glittering betrayed him, reflecting the rays of the moon in the dim shadow of the night"

-their ambition for glory and shiny prizes them distracted them from the "dim shadow" of reality and the mission at hand - error of pride which foreshadows turnus in book 10`

"held back by the darkness under the trees and by the weight of his booty" (ambition)

what happened after nisus and euryalus were spotted by the enemy?

-nisus finds his way to latium (future alba) abd unknowingly leaves euryalus behind, sees him being captured and decides to throw his spear into the air in order to cause confusion - instead it brutally kills one of the enemy

what was the effect of nisus throwing his spear into the enemy?

sulmo - "sending a splinter through his diaphram... deep-drawn agonies"

-fuels nisus and causes him to be "emboldened by his success", strikes again - > this enrages Volcens (leader of rutulian cavalrymen) and he sets out to execute euryalus

how does nisus try to prevent the death of euryalus?

-rushes out and annouces himself to the enemy- says "he is innocent... his only offence is to have loved the wrong friend too much"

-honourable, attempt of a rescue gives him more post-humous glory rather than saving himself

-shows unwavering dedication, very happy to sacrifice himself, piety, devotion, bravery - shows depth of bond- "out of his mind with terror and unable to endure his anguish"

-despite euryalus' pride being the cause, nisus does not condemn him for it

how is the death of euryalus described?

using a flower imagery - particularly brutal - shows their beauty and innocence, vunerability, youth, loss of potential growth / beauty / flourishing, cut off before his time

sword "shattering his white breast...blood flowed over his beautiful body"

"like a scarlet flower languishing and dying when its stem has been cut"

how does nisus die?

-in pursuit of volcens, is cut down by the enemies in a bloody battle -dies slaughtering them - emphesises vengence and justice

-his body lands on top of euryalus- united/ together in death, act of piety and dedication, cannot live without each other, heightens sympathy, evokes pathos, heightens our sense of the cruelty of war

-patroclus and achilles link

how does virgil immortalise nisus and euryalus through their death?

addresses nisus and euryalus directly: "if there is any power in my poetry, the day will never come when time will erase you from the memory of man" -Virgil admonishes his readers to remember them both, asserting that his poetry can make men immortal-> trying to surpass homer and prove him to be a better/equal poet

how is turnus' brutality shown through the death of nisus and euryalus?

emphasizes the depravity of Turnus's character- his parading their severed heads, skewered on spears, shatters completely our sense of dignity to which the dead have a right - "impaled on spears and dripping black gore"

The great injustice of Turnus's behaviour is reinforced by Euryalus's mother's heartfelt wailing over the loss of her son - increases the beastliness of the Rutulian's actions.

-his ghastly behavior is in marked contrast to the noble character of Aeneas, whose stature gains even in his absence.

how is euryalus' mother's speech particularly moving and emotional?

-shows the tragic aftermath - conflict between won honor for their bravery and piety and the human tragedy that underlies it (her son's life would have been better than his fame in death.)

-"how could you leave me alone, so cruelly... your body is food for the dogs and the birds of latium!" -(foreign land, dishonourable death, unable to reach afterlife, unburied on foreign sand)

-"what piece of earth holds your mutilated body and dismembered limbs?"

"let me be the first to die ... blast my detested body into tartarus" - prefference to die rather than living in grief - foreshadows amata's suicide and mirrors dido.

influences the trojans to lose their "appetite for battle"

how is turnus described after n+e's death? (simile)

compared to "like the eagle , the armour-bearer of jupiter, seizing in its hooked talons a hare or the white body of a swan"

-represents military success, power and identity

how does virgil use the sheep simile to increase pathos?

comparing turnus "like the wolf of mars tearing a lamb out of the sheep pen, and long and loud will be the bleating of the mother, as she looks for it"

-connects to turnus putting e+n's heads on sticks - torments his mother, berefts her of her son's dignity in death, his body is torn from her, won't enter afterlife

-virgil may be saying that the real tragedy of war is within the morning families whom the dead leave behind

-exposes turnus' savagery

why and who does ascanius make his first kill?

remulus (turnus' brother)

-he was shouting insults at ascanius and emmascullating him as an error of pride- impious man, justice

"swaggering" "you are phygrian women. not phygrian men!" "leave weapons to the men"

how does ascanius kill remulus?

- with his bow, first prays to jupiter and offers him numerous sacrafices

-by killing Silvia's pet stag in Book 7, started the war with a bow and arrow. His first kill reflects that, and aligns him with Camilla, the great archer of Book 11

who was butes?

appollo in disguise ( was once the armour bearer of ascaninus)

what is the significance of appollo (butes) speech to ascanius?

proclaims fate to ascanius and praises his kill

"you are born of the gods and will live to be the father of the gods)

-addresses him as iulus after virgil has been calling him ascanius -> AUGUSTIAN PROPAGANDA- augustus will be the "father of the gods"

"justice demands that all the wars that fate will bring cime to end UNDER THE OFFSPRING OF ASSARACUS" (anscestor of aeneass)

how does appollo "butes" discourage ascanius from bloodlust?

"you must ask for no more, my boy, in this war"

-shows importance of restraint, contrasts turnus, shows ascanius to be hugely pious like his father

how does virgil describe the incessancy of war?

"like a great shower from the west drumming on the earth"

"like hailstones"

how is turnus described breaking into the trojan camp?

-impetuous and rash, driven only by bloodlust: "instantly abandoned the work he had in hand"

"like a great tiger among helpless cattle"

what does turnus say as he kills pandarus?

"you will soon be able to tell priam that here too you have found an Achilles!"

-shows error in pride, arrogant, compares himself to the greatest greek warrior

what is the significance of virgil pointing out that turnus could have won the war if it wasn't for his pride and bloodlust?

-highlights turnus' flaws in pride and arrogance

-heightens the dramatic import of the battle and establishes the Latins as worthy enemies.

-flirts with the idea of fate, what could have been, makes the trojans' victories seem well fought and an act of true victory- not passive to fate

how does juno intervene in book 9?

she lends turnus "strength and spirit"

-jupiter sends down iris on juno's behalf commanding him to withdraw from the battle

how is turnus described fleeing from the trojans?

metaphor - "a savage lion.; the lion is afraid... but he is still dangerous"

-his pride is wounded

how does turnus escape the battle?

-jumps into the river tiber

-only when his "lungs were heaving" and "he was shaking and sick with weariness"