Clavis Libri
Plans Sign in

Aeneid · Book XI

Camilla

Fate and Free WillDutyWar

Chapter summary

At dawn, before burying his own dead, Aeneas fulfills his vow to the gods: he hangs on an oak the arms taken from Mezentius, the Etruscan king he killed in the previous book, and dedicates them to Mars. He tells the chiefs that the great deed is accomplished and that they must prepare to march on the city of King Latinus when the gods give the sign. He orders the dead buried and Pallas's body, killed by Turnus, carried to his father, Evander.

Beside the body, watched over by Acetes, Evander's aged squire, Aeneas looks at the wound and blames himself: fate did not let the young man see his kingdom, and he did not keep the promise he had made to the father, who had warned him of the hardness of the enemies. He sends a thousand men to escort the procession, covers the body with one of the two cloaks that Dido had woven for him, and adds spoils, horses, and prisoners destined for sacrifice. As the procession moves away, he bids farewell to Pallas and says that the same fates of war call them to other tears.

Latin envoys arrive with olive branches asking for a truce to bury the dead. Aeneas grants it, censures the war he did not want, and says that Turnus should face him alone. Drances, Turnus's old enemy, responds with praise and proposes an alliance with King Latinus. They agree on twelve days of peace. At Pallanteum, Evander throws himself over the body of his son: he says the gods did not hear his vows, does not blame the Trojans, and sends word to Aeneas that his hand owes Turnus to the son and to the father.

On the pyres, the Trojans with Tarchon and the Latins honor their dead. At Laurentum, mothers and widows curse the war and the marriage of Turnus to Lavinia, and ask that he and Aeneas decide alone. Then the envoys to Diomedes return: they achieved nothing. Venulus reports that Diomedes refused to fight again, recalled the punishments of the Greeks after Troy, and advised peace with Aeneas. King Latinus says that he should have decided earlier and proposes to cede land by the Tiber or to build ships for the Trojans. Drances adds that he should give his daughter to Aeneas, and challenges Turnus to fight; Turnus answers with anger, reminds the allies who remain, among them the Volscian Camilla, and accepts the duel.

A messenger interrupts the council: the Trojans and Etruscans come down armed across the plain. Turnus mocks the counselors for praising peace while seated, and leaves giving orders, while Latinus blames himself for not having welcomed Aeneas. Amata and the women climb to the temple of Pallas to ask her to break the invader's spear. Turnus arms himself, and Camilla offers to face the Etruscan cavalry alone. He prepares an ambush in the defile through which, the scouts say, Aeneas himself will come, while he sends the light cavalry across the plain.

On Olympus, Diana tells Opis the story of the girl: her father, Metabus, exiled from Priverno, fled with her, tied her to a spear, offered her to Diana, and hurled her over the swollen river; she grew up in the mountains, raised on mare's milk, a huntress and a virgin. Diana knows that Camilla will die and gives Opis an arrow to avenge her.

The cavalry clashes before the walls, and the Latins fall back twice, until the armies mingle. Camilla kills a line of warriors and mocks the hunter Ornytus, who thought he would hunt beasts. Jupiter kindles Tarchon, who reproaches the Etruscans for fleeing from a woman and snatches the Latin Venulus from his horse. Aruns waits for his moment. Camilla pursues the priest Chloreus, gleaming in gold, seeing nothing else, and Aruns wounds her after praying to Apollo, who grants him her death and denies him his return. Camilla hands the command over to Turnus and dies.

Opis strikes Aruns with Diana's arrow and leaves him. The Volscian cavalry flees, the Latins run to the gates, some are killed at the entrance, and the women hurl stakes from the walls. Acca warns Turnus, who leaves the ambush. Aeneas crosses the empty defile, and the two arrive almost together at the walls, but night postpones the encounter.

Analysis

The book shows a war that could have stopped. Aeneas offers peace to the living, Diomedes refuses a new alliance, Latinus proposes land and ships, and Drances proposes the duel, which Turnus accepts in words. But no path closes the matter, because each has a reason of his own, wounded honor, envy, the weakness of a king, and the news of the Trojan advance takes the decision off the table. The war continues more for lack of time than from anyone's will. Evander's demand, which asks for Turnus as a debt, already points toward the outcome of the poem.

Camilla, introduced at the end of Book VII, is the only woman in the poem with an aristeia and divine vengeance, and she dies in this book, where the poem tells of her childhood. The narrator gives two reasons for the pursuit of Chloreus, and the distraction is both shown and judged by the narrator, who calls it a feminine love of prey and spoils: the huntress who lived by the hunt pursues a golden prey, and Aruns waits for that instant. Diana avenges the death in full, while Apollo grants only half of Aruns's prayer, and the contrast between the two divine answers suggests a poem that measures the fulfillment of a given word, like Zeus in the Iliad who grants only part of Achilles's request.

Unlock with a subscription

Subscription

The complete analysis of every book of Aeneid comes with a subscription, along with the explanation of each quote, the quiz, the PDF guide, and the study workbook.

See the plansAlready subscribed? Sign in