In Virgil

Virgil

Publius Vergilius Maro, usually called Virgil or Vergil in English , was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He is known for three major works of Latin literature, the Eclogues , the Georgics, and the epic Aeneid...

's Aeneid

Aeneid

The Aeneid is a Latin epic poem, written by Virgil between 29 and 19 BC, that tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Trojan who travelled to Italy, where he became the ancestor of the Romans. It is composed of roughly 10,000 lines in dactylic hexameter...

, Turnus was the King of the Rutuli

Rutuli

The Rutuli or Rutulians were members of a legendary Italic tribe...

, and the chief antagonist of the hero Aeneas

Aeneas

Aeneas , in Greco-Roman mythology, was a Trojan hero, the son of the prince Anchises and the goddess Aphrodite. His father was the second cousin of King Priam of Troy, making Aeneas Priam's second cousin, once removed. The journey of Aeneas from Troy , which led to the founding a hamlet south of...

.

Biography

Prior to Aeneas' arrival in Italy, Turnus was the primary potential suitor of Lavinia

Lavinia

In Roman mythology, Lavinia is the daughter of Latinus and Amata and the last wife of Aeneas.Lavinia, the only child of the king and "ripe for marriage", had been courted by many men in Ausonia who hoped to become the king of Latium. Turnus, ruler of the Rutuli, was the most likely of the suitors,...

, daughter of Latinus

Latinus

Latinus was a figure in both Greek and Roman mythology.-Greek mythology:In Hesiod's Theogony, Latinus was the son of Odysseus and Circe who ruled the Tyrsenoi, presumably the Etruscans, with his brothers Ardeas and Telegonus...

, King of the Latin people. Upon Aeneas' arrival, however, Lavinia is promised to the Trojan prince. Juno

Juno (mythology)

Juno is an ancient Roman goddess, the protector and special counselor of the state. She is a daughter of Saturn and sister of the chief god Jupiter and the mother of Mars and Vulcan. Juno also looked after the women of Rome. Her Greek equivalent is Hera...

, determined to prolong the suffering of the Trojans, prompts Turnus to demand a war with the new arrivals. King Latinus is greatly displeased with Turnus, but steps down and allows the war to commence.

During the War between the Latins and the Trojans (along with several other Trojan allies, including King Evander

Evander

In Roman mythology, Evander , also spelled Euander, was a deific culture hero from Arcadia, Greece, who brought the Greek pantheon, laws and alphabet to Italy, where he founded the city of Pallantium on the future site of Rome, sixty years...

's Arcadians

Arcadians

Arcadians can refer to:* Residents of Arcadia, Greece* The Arcadians , a choir in Oxford, England* The Arcadians , a 1909 long-running musical theatre comedy...

), Turnus proves himself to be hot-headed but brave. In Book IX, he nearly takes the entire fortress of the Trojans after defeating many opponents, but is saved from death by Juno.

In Book X, Turnus slays the son of Evander, the young prince Pallas

Pallas (son of Evander)

In Roman mythology, Pallas was the son of King Evander. In Virgil's Aeneid, Evander allows Pallas to fight against the Rutuli with Aeneas, who takes him and treats him like his own son Ascanius. In battle, Pallas proves he is a warrior, killing many Rutulians, and compared to the Rutulian Lausus,...

. As he gloats over the killing, he takes as the spoil of war Pallas' sword belt and puts it on. Enraged, Aeneas seeks out the Rutulian King with full intent of killing him. Virgil marks the death of Pallas by mentioning the inevitable downfall of Turnus. To prevent his death at the hands of Aeneas, Juno conjures a ghost apparition of Aeneas, luring Turnus onto a ship and to his safety. Turnus takes great offense at this action, questioning his worth and even contemplating suicide.

In Book XII, Aeneas and Turnus duel to the death; Aeneas gains the upper hand amidst a noticeably Iliad

Iliad

The Iliad is an epic poem in dactylic hexameters, traditionally attributed to Homer. Set during the Trojan War, the ten-year siege of the city of Troy by a coalition of Greek states, it tells of the battles and events during the weeks of a quarrel between King Agamemnon and the warrior Achilles...

-esque chase sequence (Turnus and Aeneas run around the lines of men several times, similar to the duel of Achilles and Hector). Turnus begs Aeneas either to spare him or give his body back to his people. Aeneas considers but upon seeing the belt of Pallas on Turnus, he is consumed by rage and finishes him off. The last line of the poem describes Turnus' unhappy passage into the Underworld.

Turnus' supporters included Latinus's wife, Amata

Amata

Amata , in Roman mythology, was the wife of King Latinus of the Latins. She and Latinus had a daughter, Lavinia, and no sons. When the hero Aeneas sued for Lavinia's hand in marriage, Amata opposed him because she had already promised Lavinia to Aeneas' nemesis Turnus. At the same time she was...

, Juturna

Juturna

In the myth and religion of ancient Rome, Juturna was a goddess of fountains, wells and springs. She was a sister of Turnus and supported him against Aeneas by giving him his sword after he dropped it in battle, as well as taking him away from the battle when it seemed he would get killed...

, his sister and minor river/ fountain deity, Mezentius

Mezentius

In Roman mythology, Mezentius was an Etruscan king, and father of Lausus. Sent into exile because of his cruelty, he moved to Latium. He reveled in bloodshed and was overwhelmingly savage on the battlefield, but more significantly to a Roman audience he was a contemptor divum, a "despiser of the...

, the deposed king of the Etruscans, and Queen Camilla

Camilla (mythology)

In Roman mythology, Camilla of the Volsci was the daughter of King Metabus and Casmilla. Driven from his throne, Metabus was chased into the wilderness by armed Volsci, his infant daughter in his hands. The river Amasenus blocked his path, and, fearing for the child's welfare, Metabus bound her to...

 of the Volsci

Volsci

The Volsci were an ancient Italic people, well known in the history of the first century of the Roman Republic. They then inhabited the partly hilly, partly marshy district of the south of Latium, bounded by the Aurunci and Samnites on the south, the Hernici on the east, and stretching roughly from...

, who helped him fight Aeneas.

In later literature

In the Middle English

Middle English

Middle English is the stage in the history of the English language during the High and Late Middle Ages, or roughly during the four centuries between the late 11th and the late 15th century....

 poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a late 14th-century Middle English alliterative romance outlining an adventure of Sir Gawain, a knight of King Arthur's Round Table. In the poem, Sir Gawain accepts a challenge from a mysterious warrior who is completely green, from his clothes and hair to his...

, the unknown poet

Pearl Poet

The "Pearl Poet", or the "Gawain Poet", is the name given to the author of Pearl, an alliterative poem written in 14th-century Middle English. Its author appears also to have written the poems Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Patience, and Cleanness; some scholars suggest the author may also have...

 cites as a parallel to Brutus

Brutus

Brutus is the cognomen of the Roman gens Junia, a prominent family of the Roman Republic. The plural of Brutus is Bruti, and the vocative form is Brute, as immortalized in the quotation "Et tu, Brute?", from Shakespeare's play, Julius Caesar....

' foundation of Britain, that of an unidentified "Ticius" to Tuscany

Tuscany

Tuscany is a region in Italy. It has an area of about 23,000 square kilometres and a population of about 3.75 million inhabitants. The regional capital is Florence ....

. Although some scholars have tried to argue that "Titius" is derived from Titus Tatius

Titus Tatius

The traditions of ancient Rome held that Titus Tatius was the Sabine king of Cures, who, after the rape of the Sabine women, attacked Rome and captured the Capitol with the treachery of Tarpeia. The Sabine women, however, convinced Tatius and the Roman king, Romulus, to reconcile and subsequently...

, Otis Chapman has proposed that "Ticius" is a scribal error for what the poet intended to read as Turnus. On top of manuscript stylometric evidence, Chapman notes that in a passage in Ranulf Higdon

Ranulf Higdon

Ranulf Higden was an English chronicler and a Benedictine monk of the monastery of St. Werburgh in Chester....

's Polychronicon, Turnus is also named as King of Tuscany. This suggests that legends in the age after Virgil came to identify Turnus "as a legendary figure like Aeneas, Romulus

Romulus

- People:* Romulus and Remus, the mythical founders of Rome* Romulus Augustulus, the last Western Roman Emperor* Valerius Romulus , deified son of the Roman emperor Maxentius* Romulus , son of the Western Roman emperor Anthemius...

, "Langeberde", and Brutus".

Interpretation

Turnus can be seen as a "new Achilles

Achilles

In Greek mythology, Achilles was a Greek hero of the Trojan War, the central character and the greatest warrior of Homer's Iliad.Plato named Achilles the handsomest of the heroes assembled against Troy....

," due to his Greek ancestry and his fierceness. According to Professor Powell, he may also represent Mark Antony

Mark Antony

Marcus Antonius , known in English as Mark Antony, was a Roman politician and general. As a military commander and administrator, he was an important supporter and loyal friend of his mother's cousin Julius Caesar...

 or local peoples who must submit to Rome's empire. Powell adds that in the dispute between Turnus and Aeneas, Turnus may have the moral upper hand, having been set to marry Lavinia first. However, Turnus must be stopped since he is running counter to the force of destiny

Destiny

Destiny or fate refers to a predetermined course of events. It may be conceived as a predetermined future, whether in general or of an individual...

.