Juturna, Book XII - Warren Griffin

Aeneas & Turnus ( Book XII)

Juturna

• Turnus' sister
• native Italian goddess of springs
• name was given to a spring in the Forum, the lacus Iuturnae, during the second century B.C.E.--well before Vergil's time
• Juno's pawn in instigating the battle between the Latins and the Trojans 
• raped by Jupiter and promised immortality as recompense for the rape

12.138-57 (p.301-2)

•  Juturna is introduced by Vergil
•  Juno to Juturna
• "Turnus' sister, whose personal realm is the lakes and the babbling streams. It's a sacred distinction the king of the bright skies, exalted Jupiter, gave her to recompense rape and virginity ravished."
• "'Nymph, you're the glory of waters and joy supreme to my own soul, You, as you know, I've preferred to all women of Latium who've ever climbed into great-souled Jupiter's joyless bed. Of them only You would I gladly place somewhere up in the regions of heaven.'"
• "'...I granted your city and Turnus my total protection. Now I observe the youth off to encounter a fate he's no match for.'"
• "'You, if you're daring enough to bring critical help to your brother, go on. You should.'"
• "'Hurry, and now, if you can, carry off your brother from death's grip--or start war on your own. Let the pact they've conceived be aborted!'"

12.222-47 (p.304-5)

• to boost morale, Juturna takes the form of Camers and mixes in with the Latins
• a renown warrior
• born of old family blood
• disguised as Camers, Juturna harangues the Rutulian forces--provoking their desire for battle and the pursuit of kleos
• all of the Latin warriors are roused for battle 
• Juturna then stages an omen from Jupiter
  • "No omen has ever been more effective in baffling and cheating the minds of Italians."
  • "[Jupiter's tawny bird flies through the sky and disrupts a formation of shorebirds...the bird then swoops straight down to the water and snatches a gorgeous swan in the grip of his talons...then all the shorebirds mass together and chase the assailant until he releases the swan and retreats into the fog bank]"
  • the Rutulians are convinced of the omen

•  Tolumnius (Rutulian) launches a javelin at the Trojans, killing a soldier...full-scale war ensues

12.448-12.676 (p.311-9)

• After Aeneas is restored to health through Venus, he marches back to the battle to find Turnus
• The first to observe Aeneas approach, Juturna retreats
• "Juturna was first to detect and to recognize this sound, well before all other Latins. It frightened her. So she retreated."
• Then, recognizing that Aeneas is not concerned with fighting anyone but Turnus and is pursuing only him, Juturna ejects Turnus' charioteer, assumes his appearance, and drives for Turnus--removing her brother from Aeneas
• Aeneas proceeds to stomp Turnus' army
• Turnus reveals to Juturna that he knows that she's disguised as his charioteer and tells her he's not running any longer and that he will return to the battle
• "'Fate has now taken decisive command, sister. Stop your delaying. Where god, where cruel Fortune is calling us, there let us follow. I fight Aeneas! It's settled. It's settled: I suffer whatever anguish accompanies death! You will never again see me, sister, so disgraced. Let me rage out my rage while there's still time, I beg you.'"    

12.783 (p.322-3)

•  Juturna resumes the disguise of Turnus' charioteer to bring him his sword that he'd left behind
• enraged that Turnus receives divine help, Venus releases Aeneas' spear from the tree
• Zeus observes this and confronts Juno, knowing that she's assisted Turnus through Juturna
• Juno concedes and reaches an agreement with Zeus over the outcome of the conflict  

12.844-86 (p.324-5)

•  Zeus has to detach Juturna from her role as her brother's protector
• he sends an omen to Juturna, one of the "pestilent powers called the Dirae"
• born from Night 
• they are "...the fears [Jupiter] inspires among humans, sickly and death-doomed, each time the king of the gods masses hideous death and diseases overt heir heads, or brings terrors of war upon cities that earn them."
• the Dirae drops to earth, assumes the form of a smallish bird ("...such as settles at night on a funeral site..."), and crashes into Turnus' shield
• Turnus is horrified; Juturna instantly recognizes the birds true form and immediately loses hope, and laments:

 "'Oh, what help can your sister be now to you, Turnus?

Tough as I am, what more can I do? Have I skills to stop daylight dead in its rush from your eyes? Can I fight against that kind of monster?

Carrion birds, I'm already leaving the battle! I'm frightened, don't terrorize me! I know that there's death in the sound of your wing beats!

Great-hearted Jupiter sends his proud orders: that doesn't escape me.

This is his compensation to me for virginity ravished!

What did he grant me eternal life for, stripping me of life's basic terms, that we die, and of power to end, as I certainly would now, all my pain, and to walk at my poor brother's side through the shadows?

I cannot die! What joy will I have in anything round me, brother, without you? Has earth no abyss deep enough to devour, de-deify me, dispatch me to death's abysmal remoteness?'

Such were her words. Then, shrouding her head with the grey of her mantle, groaning profoundly, the goddess entombs herself deep in her waters." (12.873-886)

Bibliography

Perkell, Christine. "The Lament of Juturna: Pathos and Interpretation in the Aeneid." Transactions of the American Philological Association (1974-) 127 (1997): 257-86. JSTOR. Web. 2 Dec. 2012. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/284394>.

Virgil. Aeneid. Trans. Frederick Ahl. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2007. Print.