VIRGIL: AENEID BOOK XII PDF, EPUB, EBOOK Professor Richard Tarrant | 371 pages | 30 Sep 2012 | CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS | 9780521313636 | English | Cambridge, United Kingdom The Aeneid Book XII Summary and Analysis | GradeSaver Juturna, realizing that there is nothing more that she can do to help her brother, flees into the depths of the river, moaning. Aeneas hurls his spear at the fallen Turnus, and it pierces his thigh. Aeneas approaches Turnus to end his life, but Turnus pleads for mercy, for the sake of his father. Aeneas is moved by Turnus's words and momentarily considers sparing him, but then notices Pallas 's belt slung across Turnus's shoulders, and drives his sword through his opponent's chest. One of the most fascinating and perplexing aspects of Virgil 's epic is its ending: even though our hero Aeneas is victorious, the Aeneid ends on an unquestionably tragic note, devoting its final lines to the sad last moments of Turnus's short life. Virgil could have ended the story with, for example, victory celebrations and the joining together of the Latins and the Trojans, but he chooses to end it in a manner that not only takes readers to the opposite emotional pole from the triumphant, positive beginning, but is consistent with his interest in creating multilayered, painfully human characters. The ending of the epic is tragic in order to convey Turnus's complexity, as well as the complexity of the situation at hand compare the funeral of Hector at the end of the Iliad , after which the second half of Virgil's epic is patterned. Turnus is arguably one of the most inconsistent characters in the Aeneid. He is by turns courageous, antagonistic, sympathetic, impassioned, and pitiful. This very complexity lends him his humanity. Just as Virgil invests Aeneas with flaws in order to enhance the sense that he is not simply an epic hero but a real person, Turnus's capriciousness enables the audience to view him not merely as a villain but as a person whose misdeeds are motivated by internal conflicts and flaws. Indeed, his motivations, while vastly different from those of Aeneas, are in some ways no less pure. Turnus seems to be truly passionate about Lavinia, while Aeneas wishes to marry her simply because it his destiny to do so; Turnus wishes to uphold his sense of honor regardless of the challenges that face him, while Aeneas can, to some degree, rest in the security of knowing he is destined to succeed. In the final episode, Turnus's willingness to fight Aeneas even though he knows that he is fated to lose demonstrates his courage, placing him on a level closer to Aeneas than any other warrior. Yet in the last moments of his life he is reduced to begging on his knees to be spared. Readers cannot help but feel pity for this fallen man, and it is exactly this sentiment that Virgil hopes to elicit. Even though the ending is "happy" in that the protagonist, Aeneas, is victorious, the focus on Turnus's sad end demonstrates that no victory is without its downside. In the closing moments of Homer's Iliad , Achilles demonstrates his compassion by agreeing to return Hector's body to King Priam. At the end of the Aeneid , Aeneas is confronted with a similar decision, but he does not show a comparable level of empathy even though his loss of Pallas might be compared with Achilles' loss of his friend Patroclus. The fact that Virgil's epic ends with Aeneas's sword plunging through Turnus to his death, and with Turnus's embittered shade fleeing to the underworld, might be even more downbeat than the funeral of Hector at the end of Homer's work. By ending the poem in this manner, Virgil underscores the theme of loss as a consequence of following one's destiny. Aeneas's adventures result in the loss of countless lives, but in the end something even more precious is lost, Aeneas's mercy. Throughout the Aeneid , the protagonist has shown himself to be a just, moral, and kind leader, but in the final moments of the epic he is a fighter, slaying a man who lies pleading for his life at his feet. While Aeneas may be a classic hero, modern readers might want their heroes to mix more mercy with their justice. Aeneus is the titular protagonist of the Aeneid , Aeneas is one of the great epic heroes. A fearless warrior and remarkable leader, Aeneas guides his How does Aeneas illustrate the values of Rome and societal expectations for behavior. Virgil quite clearly intended the Aeneid to appeal to the patriotic spirit of the Romans, documenting the origins of the great Roman Empire. Virgil's contemporaries, who relished their belief that they were direct descendants of the mighty The Aeneid study guide contains a biography of Virgil, literature essays, a complete e-text, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis. The Aeneid literature essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of The Aeneid. Remember me. Forgot your password? Buy Study Guide. Angered, the Rutulians are ready to break the truce. At this moment, a pack of waterfowl dive and threaten an eagle that has seized a swan; when the eagle releases the swan, the Rutulians take this act as a portent signifying that they, too, will be victorious if they resist Aeneas. They are encouraged by an augur, a priest adept at reading bird omens, who hurls his spear at the Trojans and thus initiates a resumption of hostilities. Aeneas, who vainly attempts to restore the broken peace, is wounded by an arrow and forced to leave the field. His withdrawal raises Turnus's fighting spirit to the point that Turnus goes mad with bloodlust and kills as many opponents as he can reach. Meanwhile, Venus heals Aeneas with a magic herb: The enemy arrow drops from his wound, and his strength is miraculously restored. Returning to the field, Aeneas rallies his forces and goes in pursuit of Turnus. Juturna, meanwhile, who has cleverly taken control of her brother's chariot by disguising herself as its driver, drives Turnus all over the field, keeping him safe from an attack by Aeneas, who goes wild with frustration and, like Turnus, kills without stint. Venus now directs her son's attention to the fact that Laurentum's citadel has been left undefended by the Latins, whereupon Aeneas commands his men to attack it immediately, to the horror of the citadel's Latin inhabitants. Fearing that all is lost and that Turnus is dead, Amata hangs herself in despair. On the battlefield, Turnus hears cries coming from the besieged citadel and tells Juturna that he has finally seen through her disguise as his charioteer. At this point, a warrior coming in haste from Laurentum informs Turnus about what has been happening in the city and announces the queen's death. He mockingly points out that Turnus, the famous warrior, has been driving over an empty meadow — a fact to which Turnus now fully awakens, filled with remorse. Turnus tells Juturna that now he will fight Aeneas alone, as he promised earlier. Turnus and Aeneas meet outside Laurentum, and the long-awaited battle takes place. Full of confidence, the Rutulian strikes the Trojan with his sword, which is not his own powerful weapon but one belonging to his original chariot driver, taken by mistake. The sword shatters immediately upon contact with Aeneas's armor. Calling on his men to bring him his proper sword, Turnus withdraws as Aeneas pursues him. The Trojan prince hurls his spear at the Rutulian prince, but the spear gets immovably lodged in the trunk of a sacred olive tree in answer to Turnus's prayer to the god Faunus. Juturna brings her brother his true sword, but Venus intervenes and enables Aeneas to extricate his spear. The duel continues, watched by Jupiter and Juno from a golden cloud. Jupiter tells Juno that Aeneas is about to win and that she can do nothing more to hinder him. Juno promises to cease her opposition to the Trojans, but she asks her husband to permit the Latins to retain both their language and their name. Jupiter grants these requests and tells Juno that out of this alliance of Latins and Trojans will come an indomitable race — the epic's final prophecy, which matches the one Jupiter made to Venus in Book I. Jupiter now sends a fury to earth disguised as an owl, which darts at Turnus and fills him with terror. Juturna withdraws in discouragement, realizing her helplessness in the face of such an omen. Aeneas advances at Turnus with his spear as the Rutulian, making a last, desperate effort, heaves an enormous rock at Aeneas. The rock falls short, and Turnus, paralyzed by fear, is knocked down by Aeneas's spear, which strikes him in the thigh. Helpless, Turnus says he is resigned to dying, but he begs Aeneas to see that his body is returned to his father. Moved by this plea, Aeneas considers sparing Turnus's life, but then he sees that the dying warrior is wearing Pallas's swordbelt as a trophy. This reminder that Turnus killed Aeneas's dear friend arouses the Trojan hero's anger, and he remorselessly thrusts his sword into Turnus's chest, killing him. The tragic, somber, final line of the Aeneid and the epic poem's ringing, declamatory opening line signify the two emotional poles of the epic. Their positioning has a symbolic as well as a narrative importance, for between the moods to which they give voice, the poem constantly moves back and forth as it unfolds.