Who kills Turnus? “Pallas” and what Aeneas sees, says and does in Aeneid 12.939–52

• Autores: John Esposito
• Localización: Classical journal, ISSN 0009-8353, Vol. 111, Nº 4, 2016, págs. 463-481
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • In this paper I read the closing scene of the Aeneid through Aeneas' final speech, asking: What does it mean for Aeneas to say "Pallas te hoc vulnere, Pallas/immolat" at Aeneid 12.948-9? Drawing on intertexts from Iliad 22 and 24, I trace a sequence of thoughts suggested by the movement of Aeneas' eyes over Turnus' body. Quasi-cinematic features of 12.939-52 place the visible splendor of Pallas' balteus in tension with its horrifying past. Killing Turnus heals the resulting split between Aeneas' vision and his memory by reinstating the baldric's previous owner, binding Aeneas' and Pallas' lives together inexorably against Turnus' survival.