Aeneid, Book XI (selections)

Book XI of Virgil's Aeneid follows the climax of the war in Latium. It opens with mourning: Aeneas raises a trophy from the armour of the slain Mezentius and sends the body of the young Pallas home to his father Evander, while both sides bury their dead in a brief truce. A Latin embassy fails to win peace, and battle resumes before the walls of Latinus' city.

The selection set for study concentrates on the warrior-maiden Camilla, the Volscian princess who fights for Turnus. The first passage (532-596) is the goddess Diana's speech to her nymph Opis: Diana tells how Camilla's father Metabus, driven from Privernum, saved his infant daughter by tying her to a spear and hurling her across the flooded river Amasenus, dedicating her to Diana. Camilla grew up a virgin huntress, beloved of the goddess, but Diana now foresees her death and orders Opis to avenge her. The second passage (648-698) is Camilla's aristeia: she rages through the battle like an Amazon, killing a string of Trojan and allied warriors. The third passage (768-831) shows her fatal flaw: dazzled by the gold and purple armour of the priest Chloreus, she chases him blindly, greedy for the spoils, and is struck down by the spear of the obscure Arruns, who prays to Apollo and then flees in terror like a wolf. Camilla dies giving her last message to her companion Acca, and her indignant spirit flees to the shades.

The selection is a self-contained tragedy of courage, divine love, and the fatal lure of plunder, written in some of Virgil's most vivid and pathetic verse.