Notes on Aeneid 9-12
Book 8 had ended with Aeneas carrying the shield on which were shown "the
fame and fortune of his descendants". The last third of the poem begins,
as did the first, with Juno stirring up opposition to Aeneas' destined
success. These four books contain the brutal fighting and tragic deaths
that were the price of that success. At the end Aeneas is alone, his victories
won and the future (foretold in Jupiter's great prophecy in Book 1, in
the pageant of Roman heroes in Book 6, and in the scenes on the shield)
assured. Turnus in these books, like Dido in the first four books, is the
person through whom Juno attempts to frustrate the destiny of Aeneas, and
like Dido he is destroyed.
As Book 9 opens Aeneas is still away from the Trojan camp, returning from his embassy to Evander. Juno sends Iris to provoke Turnus into attacking the Trojans, and he sets fire to their ships, which miraculously are changed by Cybele (the Asiatic Mother goddess) into sea-nymphs. During the subesequent fighting two Trojan heroes, Nisus and his younger lover, Euryalus, undertake a night expedition to spy out the Rutulian camp and spread destruction. Euryalus puts on the helmet of one of his Rutulian victims and is revealed the enemy by its gleam in the moonlight. He is trapped and killed, and Nisus, who could have escaped, dies trying to help his friend. This is the first of a series of deaths of young warriors -- Nisus and Euryalus, Pallas and Lausus, Camilla, and Turnus -- that are among the most moving scenes in the Aeneid. The next day Turnus is shut inside the Trojan camp, and through furor kills Trojans rather than letting in the Rutulians. After an orgy of killing he is forced to retreat to the Tiber's bank: he leaps in and floats back safely to his own men.
Book 10 opens with a Council of the Gods (Concilium Deorum), in which Jupiter settles the arguments of Venus and Juno by announcing that "Fate will find its way". The Rutulians resume their attack on the Trojan camp, while Aeneas guides his ship back from Pallanteum. The sea-nymphs (formerly Trojan ships) appear to him and encourage him: as he approaches the shore he raises the shield, giving new heart to the laboring Trojans. So Aeneas returns, and the fighting redoubles in intensity. In one of the climactic scenes of the epic Turnus mercilessly kills Pallas, strips his corpse, and puts on his sword-belt. Pallas' death drives Aeneas to acts of extreme fury -- he kills those who ask for mercy and reserves others for future human sacrifice. Juno meanwhile is allowed by Jupiter to save Turnus for a time, and she creates an image of Aeneas which Turnus pursues onto an Etruscan ship, and so he is taken away from the battlefield. Aeneas continues killing on the field: he kills Lausus, the son of Mezentius, and his tears at this killing contrast with the gloating of Turnus over Pallas. Finally Aeneas kills Mezentius himself.
Book 11 opens with the return of the corpse of Pallas to his parents, his funeral and the grief of Evander. Turnus meanwhile spurns the efforts of Drances to bring about peace, and the fighting resumes. The last part of the book is devoted to the deeds and death of Camilla (who had been described at length at the end of the catalogue in Book 7). At the end Aeneas and Turnus are prevented from single combat by the coming of night.
Book 12 opens with the simile of Turnus to a wounded lion (compare Dido and the wounded deer in Book 4). A truce is made, so that the war can be settled by the single combat of Turnus and Aeneas. It is broken by the Rutulians, provoked by the sister of Turnus, the nymph Juturna, and Aeneas is treacherously wounded. So the fighting and killing resume. Aeneas is healed with the help of Venus, and he arms himself for the renewed battle (this is the scene where he speaks his only direct words to his son). After scenes of great violence (for example, Turnus drivingn his chariot with his victims' heads hanging from the sides), the two leaders face off in single combat. Now the gods intervene: Jupiter reminds Juno that she cannot stop the course of fate and she submits, on condition that even though the Trojans be successful, their name must perish. So Jupiter and Juno are reconciled, and a Dira (an ill-omened monster) flusters Turnus and drives Juturna to desert him. So the heroes are truly alone: Aeneas wounds Turnus who begs for a measure of mercy -- if Aeneas will not spare his life, then at least he should return his corpse to his family. As the resolve of Aeneas weakens he sees Pallas' sword-belt, and in a moment of furor he kills Turnus.
Here are some questions to think about: