How satisfactory is the ending of Aeneid XII?
- Satisfying as meaning with closure, not always happy; desired result for the reader
- Not necessarily how Virgil meant it to be finished
- Characterisation of Aeneas and Turnus, development and portrayal throughout
Key moments:
1. Jupiter weighing scales
- Proves fate is fate no matter what
- Builds tension
- ‘Jupiter himself lifted up a pair of scales with the tongue centred and put the lives of
the two men in them to decide who would be condemned in the ordeal of battle,
and with whose weight death would descend’
- Doesn’t have a result, still ambiguous – tension throughout
2. Juturna’s appearance to Turnus
- Causes him to break treaty
- Otherwise would’ve been single combat
- Would’ve prevented all tension
- ‘She came into the battle lines in the guise of Camers’, ‘Juturna did even more and
showed a sign high in the sky, the most powerful portent that ever confused and
misled men of Italy’
3. Jupiter/Juno scene, her withdrawal
- Theme of delay ends
- Removal of Romanness – fear of overpowering of Carthage, Trojan War element: ‘do
not order the native Latins to change their native name’
- Setting up of the future race which is never actually revealed
- Established in the proem of Aeneid
- Expected of a ktistic poem
- Disappointing for the reader
- No conclusion to anger about Carthage, only Troy: ‘Troy has fallen, allow it to remain
fallen along with its name’
- Divine ending, means the mortal ending is entirely up to them
4. Combat between Turnus and Aeneas
- Clear mismatch in strength despite Turnus’ efforts: ‘Aeneas brandished his deadly
spear at the delaying man’
- Allows Aeneas to win
- Forms the climax to the poem
- Entire second half of the Aeneid has been building up to this point
- People watching/gathering around: ‘The Rutulians rose up together with a groan’
- Killing presented as an act of vengeance
- Relationship between reason and emotion
5. Turnus’ death
- Satisfying as meaning with closure, not always happy; desired result for the reader
- Not necessarily how Virgil meant it to be finished
- Characterisation of Aeneas and Turnus, development and portrayal throughout
Key moments:
1. Jupiter weighing scales
- Proves fate is fate no matter what
- Builds tension
- ‘Jupiter himself lifted up a pair of scales with the tongue centred and put the lives of
the two men in them to decide who would be condemned in the ordeal of battle,
and with whose weight death would descend’
- Doesn’t have a result, still ambiguous – tension throughout
2. Juturna’s appearance to Turnus
- Causes him to break treaty
- Otherwise would’ve been single combat
- Would’ve prevented all tension
- ‘She came into the battle lines in the guise of Camers’, ‘Juturna did even more and
showed a sign high in the sky, the most powerful portent that ever confused and
misled men of Italy’
3. Jupiter/Juno scene, her withdrawal
- Theme of delay ends
- Removal of Romanness – fear of overpowering of Carthage, Trojan War element: ‘do
not order the native Latins to change their native name’
- Setting up of the future race which is never actually revealed
- Established in the proem of Aeneid
- Expected of a ktistic poem
- Disappointing for the reader
- No conclusion to anger about Carthage, only Troy: ‘Troy has fallen, allow it to remain
fallen along with its name’
- Divine ending, means the mortal ending is entirely up to them
4. Combat between Turnus and Aeneas
- Clear mismatch in strength despite Turnus’ efforts: ‘Aeneas brandished his deadly
spear at the delaying man’
- Allows Aeneas to win
- Forms the climax to the poem
- Entire second half of the Aeneid has been building up to this point
- People watching/gathering around: ‘The Rutulians rose up together with a groan’
- Killing presented as an act of vengeance
- Relationship between reason and emotion
5. Turnus’ death
