Who He Is
Nisus is a Trojan warrior, a guard at one of the gates of the camp, and the inseparable friend of Euryalus, the youngest and most handsome of the Trojans. He is older and more cautious than his companion, and the idea that leads the two to their deaths is his: to cross the enemy camp at night to bring Aeneas back. He wants the glory of the deed, and wants, even more than that, for Euryalus to live. His role in the poem is to be the protective half of a pair, the love measured by what he is willing to offer in exchange for the other's life.
Trajectory
In Book V, at the games in honor of Anchises, Nisus runs ahead in the foot race, slips on the blood of the sacrificed oxen, and, fallen, rises and places himself in the path of Salius, who trips, so that Euryalus can win. The narrator gives the motive: he has not forgotten Euryalus nor the love he bears him. Salius protests and calls what Nisus did a trick, but the crowd likes the young man, and Aeneas keeps the result and, laughing, gives Nisus a shield when he complains about the prize he lost.
Non tamen Euryali, non ille oblitus amorum; / Nam sese opposuit Salio per lubrica surgens. / Ille autem spissa jacuit revolutus arena. / Emicat Euryalus, et munere victor amici / Prima tenet, but he did not forget Euryalus, did not forget his love; for, rising on the slippery ground, he placed himself in front of Salius. The latter rolled and lay in the thick sand. Euryalus darts off, victor through his friend's favor, and takes first place.
That gesture anticipates Book IX: Nisus sacrifices his own place for his friend's, and the poem already calls this love.
In Book IX, with the camp surrounded by Turnus and Aeneas far away, Nisus sees the Rutulians sleeping off their wine and proposes the raid. He doubts his own impulse, which he cannot tell whether a god or his own desire has put in him, and gives two reasons: everyone wants Aeneas back, and for himself the fame of the deed is enough.
Dine hunc ardorem mentibus addunt, / Euryale? an sua cuique deus fit dira cupido? / Aut pugnam, aut aliquid jamdudum invadere magnum, / Mens agitat mihi, nec placida contenta quiete est. [...] Aenean acciri omnes populusque patresque / Exposcunt, mittique viros qui certa reportent; / Si tibi quae posco promittunt (nam mihi facti / Fama sat est), tumulo videor reperire sub illo / Posse viam ad muros et moenia Pallantea., do the gods put this ardor into our minds, Euryalus, or does each man make his own fierce desire into a god? For a long time my mind has been driven toward battle or some great deed, and it is not content with calm quiet. [...] Everyone demands that Aeneas be summoned, the people and the elders, and that men be sent who will bring back certain news; if they promise you what I ask (for the fame of the deed is enough for me), it seems to me that, by that mound, I can find a way to the walls and the city of Pallas.
Euryalus refuses to stay behind. Nisus gives way, but asks that he survive, for the sake of his mother, who followed him from Troy. The two set out after Ascanius promises gold, arms, and care for Euryalus's mother.
Sed, si quis (quae multa vides discrimine tali), / Si quis in adversum rapiat casusve deusve, / Te superesse velim; tua vita dignior aetas. / Sit qui me raptum pugna, pretiove redemptum, / Mandet humo solita; aut, si qua id fortuna vetabit, / Absenti ferat inferias decoretque sepulcro. / Neu matri miserae tanti sim causa doloris, / Quae te sola, puer, multis e matribus ausa, / Prosequitur, magni nec moenia curat Acestae., but if anyone (and you see how many are in such peril), if chance or a god carries me off to the adverse side, I want you to survive; your life deserves more, for your age. Let someone snatch me from the fight or ransom me for a price, and commit me to the earth as custom demands; or, if fortune prevents that, let someone bring funeral offerings to the absent one and honor him with a tomb. And let me not be the cause of such great grief to your unhappy mother, who alone, of so many mothers, dared to follow you, boy, and cared nothing for the walls of great Acestes.
In the Rutulian camp, Nisus kills the augur Rhamnes and several servants. It is he who notices the slaughter has gone too far and orders a halt, because the light is approaching. Euryalus, however, takes the helmet of Messapus, and its gleam gives them away to the cavalry of Volscens. Nisus, who had already escaped, returns, throws two darts from hiding and, when Volscens raises his sword against Euryalus, steps out of the darkness and cries out that the guilt is his alone, to deflect the blow.
Me, me, adsum qui feci; in me convertite ferrum, / O Rutuli; mea fraus omnis: nihil iste nec ausus, / Nec potuit, coelum hoc et conscia sidera testor; / Tantum infelicem nimium dilexit amicum., me, me, here I am, the one who did it; turn the iron against me, O Rutulians; the whole plot is mine: this one neither dared nor could do it, and I call this sky and the knowing stars to witness; he only loved his unhappy friend too much.
He arrives too late: Euryalus dies. Nisus kills Volscens and falls on his friend's body. The narrator breaks off the scene and promises that no day will remove them from memory while the Roman empire lasts.
Fortunati ambo! si quid mea carmina possunt, / Nulla dies unquam memori vos eximet aevo, / Dum domus Aeneae Capitoli immobile saxum / Accolet, imperiumque pater Romanus habebit., both fortunate! If my verses have any power, no day will ever remove you from the memory of time, for as long as Aeneas's house dwells on the immovable rock of the Capitol, and the Roman father holds the empire.
Themes Embodied
Nisus embodies War, because his mission is one of war and relief, and Duty, because he wants to fulfill what the cause of Aeneas asks. There is also Passion in the broader sense, the impulse the character himself cannot name: the desire for fame and the love for his friend blend in him, and the text leaves both readings standing.
Nisus is the one who tries to curb violence (he orders the slaughter to stop) and the one who protects (he asks that Euryalus live), and yet the mission he invented is what kills the boy. The caution of the elder is not enough against the haste of the younger, and the poem assigns the blame to neither.
Relationships
- Euryalus: the friend and companion, whom Nisus protects and for whom he dies.
- Aeneas: the leader whom the two want to call back and whose reward they never receive.
- Ascanius: the son of Aeneas, who promises them prizes and care for Euryalus's mother.
- Turnus: the Rutulian chief whose sleeping army is the target of the raid.