Book 12 Summary Flashcards
What challenge does Turnus issue regarding the fate of the kingdom and Lavinia’s hand?
- Turnus decides to fight Aeneas in single combat, despite King Latinus’s
- and Queen Amata’s pleas for him to surrender and preserve his life, choosing honor over safety
What arrangement is made before the duel begins?
- King Latinus, with Aeneas’s consent, draws up a treaty, and the following day the opposing armies gather as spectators on a field before the city
How does divine intervention begin to affect the duel?
- Juno, worried that Aeneas outmatches Turnus, sends Turnus’s sister Juturna
- —disguised as a noble officer named Camers—
- to protect her brother by goading the Latin army to break the treaty and attack.
What event ignites the full-scale battle?
- After Juturna’s incitement, one of Turnus’s troops hurls a spear at the Trojan ranks, killing a young soldier and sparking an all-out melee
How is Aeneas injured during the chaos of battle?
- As he calls for a halt to the fighting, a stray arrow wounds Aeneas in the leg, forcing him to retreat to his camp
How is Aeneas aided after his injury?
With his physician unable to remove the arrow, Venus sends down a healing balm that dislodges the arrow and closes the wound, allowing Aeneas to return to battle
What tactical move does Aeneas execute after rejoining the fight?
- Aeneas re-enters the battle with renewed vigor,
- scattering the Latin troops before noticing that Latinus’s city has been left unguarded;
- he then attacks the city, inciting further panic
What drastic act does Queen Amata commit?
- Overwhelmed by despair at the sight of Trojans in the city, Queen Amata loses all hope and hangs herself
How does the battle’s momentum shift following the attack on the city?
- Hearing cries of suffering, Turnus rushes back,
- calls for the siege to end,
- and challenges Aeneas to meet him in single combat in the city’s main courtyard
How does the duel between Aeneas and Turnus begin?
- They start by tossing spears and then exchange fierce sword blows;
- however, during Turnus’s first strike his sword breaks off because he had grabbed a weaker substitute
What assistance does Turnus receive after his sword breaks?
- Turnus flees briefly to retrieve his proper weapon,
- with his sister Juturna providing him with his real sword
What intervention do the gods make during the duel?
- Juno watches from above as Jupiter questions her interference. Juno finally agrees to set aside her grudge—on the condition that the victorious Trojans adopt the Latin name and language—and Jupiter consents
- Additionally, Jupiter sends down a Fury in the form of a bird to terrify and weaken Turnus
What critical moment turns the tide of the duel?
- Aeneas, seizing the moment, casts his spear to strike Turnus’s leg
- Although Turnus pleads for mercy on account of his father, Aeneas’s resolve hardens when he sees the belt of Pallas tied around Turnus’s shoulder—a trophy from Pallas’s death.
How does Aeneas ultimately respond to Turnus’s plea for mercy?
- Overwhelmed by grief and vengeance for Pallas, Aeneas drives his sword into Turnus, killing him and fulfilling his vow to avenge the fallen youth
describe some of the differences between aeneas and turnis
Turnus is a Homeric hero, possessing the outlook and character of Achilles.
He is impetuous, ructhless and violent, he represents personal prowess, irresponsible individuality in contrast with the public because he has to, in the bitter fulfilment of duty.
whats turnus’ take on single combat
Turnus initally welcomes the opportunity to fight for his honour in single combat, and seizes the chance of this heroic gesture
whats aeneas’ take on single combat
- When they meet to discuss arrangements, Aeneas promises that if he loses he will withdraw; if he wins he will not subjugate the Italians and he seeks no empires himself.
- Even when the Rutulians break the truce, Aeneas rushes unarmed onto the battlefield to restrain his men.
whats significant about turnus’ finak moments at the hands of aeneas
Aeneas has failed to show the control and clemency we expected of him, yet Virgil has deliberately set this dilemma - he could have had Turnus mortally wounded in the combat itself for example.
Essentially it is for the reader to decide whether Aeneas has acted rightly or not.
describe how complex aenes
- Thus the character of Virgil’s hero is complex.
- Most of the time we admire him, but under the pressure of his own human nature he sometimes alienates our sympathy, such as leaving Dido or killing Turnus.
- He has a relationship with the gods but remains human.
- He has faults as well as strengths. In his journey through life he is sorely tested and sometimes fails, yet he keeps going
