mes it might degenerate to this.Indeed his task almost forced him to take another, more favorable view of it; for if the Augustan Romans sought to be compared with heroes; the heroic ideal must have some dignity and appeal. Vergilius’ more friendly feelings about it may be seen in his characterization of Turnus. The Rutulian prince who defends Latium against Aeneas and his Trojans is one of Vergilius’ most convincing creations. He has the vitality and nobility of a Homeric hero, and we are forced to admire him and even to sympathize with him. Vergilius delineates him with care and love, and in him, much more than in the degenerate Neoptolemus, we learn the poet’s feelings about a hero, Turnus is a second Achilles, as the Cumaean Sibyl tells Aeneas: “A new Achilles, again a goddess’s son, already breathes in Latium” (VI, 89-90). Turnus’ actions prove him to be like Achilles, for he lives for honor and for renown, especially in war. When he hears that the stranger has landed in Latium and is destined to take his affianced bride from him, his immediate impulse is to fight for his rights and his honor. Feeling that his pride has been insulted, he turns furiously to his weapons. Vergilius’ smiles show the strength and energy of Turnus. When he attacks the Trojan camp, he is like “a hungry wolf circling round a sheepfold;” when he is driven slowly and reluctantly from the battlefield; he is like “a lion that refuses to turn and fly;” he falls on Pallas as “a lion falls on a bull;” he is again like “a wounded lion” when he sees the failing spirit of his companions and reuses to admit defeat. These comparisons are based on the Iliad, and show Turnus in his heroic magnificence as a peer of Achilles and Ajax. Vergilius takes pains to make Turnus live up to the old heroic standards and shows how in the best traditions of his type he rallies h...
