By the end of this lesson, you will understand the narrative of Book 9, with particular focus on the Nisus and Euryalus episode—one of the Aeneid's most emotionally powerful sequences exploring friendship, heroism, and war's tragic cost.
Book 9: War Without Aeneas
Aeneas is away throughout Book 9, seeking allies with Evander. This allows other characters to take centre stage—particularly the young warriors Nisus and Euryalus, whose doomed night raid becomes the book's emotional heart. Turnus attacks the Trojan camp, and the battle reveals both heroism and tragedy.
Central Theme
Book 9 focuses on youth in war: Nisus and Euryalus (devoted friends), Ascanius (making his first kill), and countless young men dying. The book explores what war costs those who have barely begun to live.
Juno sends Iris to inform Turnus that Aeneas is away—now is the moment to attack. Turnus eagerly advances with his full army against the vulnerable Trojan camp. The absence of their leader creates crisis and tests Trojan discipline.
Trojan Defence
The Trojans, following Aeneas's orders, refuse to meet Turnus in the open field. They remain behind their fortifications, frustrating Turnus who wants decisive battle. This defensive posture saves them but looks cowardly—Numanus will later mock them as "twice-conquered Phrygians."
Turnus's Magnificence
Turnus dominates the battlefield "like Mars himself." Virgil portrays him at his heroic best—brave, powerful, inspiring. This makes his eventual defeat more tragic. Even enemies receive epic dignity when Virgil narrates their glory.
The Ship Transformation
Turnus's Plan
Unable to storm the fortifications, Turnus orders the Trojan fleet burned. This would trap the Trojans in Italy permanently—no ships means no escape, no retreat. Fire spreads toward the vessels.
Divine Miracle
These ships were built from Cybele's sacred pines on Mt Ida. Cybele appeals to Jupiter, who remembers his promise: these ships will not burn. In a miraculous transformation, the ships dive beneath the waves and become sea-nymphs, swimming away freely.
Narrative Function
This miracle preserves divine favour for the Trojans while denying them easy escape—they cannot simply sail away from their destiny. The supernatural intervention also elevates the narrative to cosmic significance: the gods are watching, and fate cannot be thwarted.
Turnus's Reaction
Turnus is briefly unsettled but quickly regains confidence. He interprets the miracle as confirming Trojan doom—the ships fleeing means the Trojans are trapped. His reinterpretation shows both courage and fatal pride.
Nisus and Euryalus: The Night Raid
The Pair
Nisus is older, experienced, devoted. Euryalus is young, beautiful, beloved. Their relationship echoes Achilles and Patroclus—passionate friendship with clear erotic overtones. Nisus loves Euryalus with complete devotion; Euryalus trusts Nisus absolutely.
The Plan
The besieged Trojans need to send word to Aeneas. Nisus proposes a night raid through enemy lines to reach him. Euryalus insists on joining despite the danger. The commanders bless their mission; Ascanius promises rich rewards; they set out into the darkness.
The Slaughter
They find the Rutulian camp asleep, many drunk from celebrating. Nisus and Euryalus move through the darkness killing sleeping men. The violence is described graphically—bodies pierced, blood flowing, men dying in their dreams. The heroism is real but so is the horror.
Fatal Greed
Euryalus lingers to take spoils, including a glittering helmet. This cupido laudis (desire for glory) proves fatal—the helmet's gleam catches moonlight and attracts attention. Enemy cavalry arrives and surrounds them.
Their Deaths
Nisus escapes into the forest but realizes Euryalus is missing. He returns to save his friend, killing two enemies from the shadows. But the Rutulians, enraged, kill Euryalus. Nisus throws himself upon the killers and dies on his beloved's body.
Fortunati ambo! si quid mea carmina possunt, nulla dies umquam memori vos eximet aevo...
Fortunate pair! If my songs have any power, no day shall ever remove you from the memory of time...
— Virgil, Aeneid 9.446-447
The Poet's Voice
Virgil breaks his narrative to address Nisus and Euryalus directly, promising them immortal fame through poetry. This rare authorial intrusion signals the episode's exceptional emotional importance. The young warriors' deaths embody war's destruction of beauty, youth, and love.
Euryalus's Mother's Lament
The Discovery
At dawn, the Rutulians parade the heads of Nisus and Euryalus on spears before the Trojan walls. The gruesome display is meant to demoralize the defenders. Instead, it triggers one of the poem's most powerful expressions of grief.
Mother's Grief
Euryalus's mother, who had accompanied him from Troy, sees her son's head. Her lament is devastating: "Could you leave me, cruel one? Could I not give you a last farewell?" She wishes she had died instead, begs them to kill her, collapses in anguish.
Impact on the Battle
Her grief is so overwhelming that the battle halts—even warriors cannot continue in the face of such maternal suffering. She is carried away, broken. The moment humanizes war's cost: behind every warrior is a mother who loves him.
Literary Technique
The lament follows the heroic deaths immediately, preventing readers from celebrating the warriors' glory without confronting the grief they leave behind. Virgil ensures we see both perspectives: the heroes' courage and their mothers' loss.
Ascanius's First Kill
Numanus's Taunts
Numanus Remulus, Turnus's brother-in-law, mocks the Trojans as effeminate Phrygians who wear purple and love dancing—Eastern luxuries that Romans associated with unmanliness. His contempt represents Italian prejudice against Trojan "foreigners."
Ascanius's Response
Young Ascanius (Iulus), Aeneas's son, proves the Trojans' courage by shooting Numanus through the head. His arrow is true; the mocker falls dead. It is Ascanius's first kill—a boy becoming a warrior.
Apollo's Intervention
Apollo appears, praising Ascanius's shot but commanding him to withdraw from battle: "This is enough, boy. Henceforth refrain from war." Ascanius's future is not combat but founding the Julian line—peace and rule, not warfare.
Turnus Breaches the Wall
After fierce fighting, Turnus breaks through the Trojan fortifications. He rampages inside the camp, killing at will. But in his battle-fury, he forgets to open the gates for his army. He fights alone, eventually forced to escape by diving into the Tiber.
Turnus's Flaw
Turnus's failure to open the gates reveals his fatal limitation: he fights for personal glory, not strategic victory. His furor makes him magnificent but self-defeating. Had he thought collectively rather than individually, the war might have ended differently.