By the end of this lesson, you will be able to identify and analyse key literary techniques in Books 9 & 10, including epic similes, speeches, apostrophe, and narrative structure.
Techniques in Battle Narrative
Books 9-10 are dominated by battle narrativeāthe Iliadic mode at full intensity. Virgil deploys the full range of epic techniques: extended similes, speeches in battle, catalogues of victims, divine intervention, and authorial comment. Understanding these techniques is essential for literary analysis.
The epic simile (or Homeric simile) is an extended comparison, often beginning "as when..." and developing a scene from nature or everyday life that illuminates the action. These similes expand narrative pace, add emotional colour, and reveal character.
Animal Similes
Warriors are compared to predators: Turnus as a "lion among herds" (9.339-41); Aeneas as a wolf outside a sheepfold (9.59-64). These similes emphasise ferocity, power, the reduction of combat to primal violence. The victim's perspective is often includedāthe terrified cattle.
Nature Similes
Aeneas's rampage is compared to a river in flood (10.603-4) and a storm destroying trees (10.356-61). These similes suggest elemental force beyond human controlāthe hero becomes a natural disaster. The metaphor cuts both ways: magnificent but destructive.
Domestic Similes
Turnus inside the Trojan camp is compared to an animal trapped in a sheepfold (9.551-55)āmagnificent but doomed. Euryalus's death is like a flower cut by a plough (9.435-37)ābeautiful, innocent, destroyed by violent force. These similes import pathos from peaceful contexts.
Analytical Approach
When analysing similes, consider: What is compared to what? What aspects are highlighted? What is the emotional effect? Does the simile complicate simple judgment (e.g., making a killer seem both magnificent and brutal)? Similes are never merely decorativeāthey do interpretive work.
Speeches in Battle
Pre-Battle Speeches
Warriors speak before fighting: Nisus persuading Euryalus to stay behind (he fails); Pallas praying to Hercules before facing Turnus. These speeches reveal character, create suspense, and heighten pathos when the speaker dies.
Taunts and Boasts
Victors taunt fallen enemies: Turnus mocking Pallas ("Take this message to Evander..."), Numanus mocking Trojans as effeminate Phrygians. These speeches characterise the speakerāTurnus's arrogance, Numanus's contemptāand often invite retribution.
Death Speeches
The dying speak: Lausus's silent reproach to Aeneas; Mezentius's request for burial with his son. These speeches humanise the fallen, create sympathy, and complicate judgment of the killer. Even enemies deserve final words.
Divine Speeches
Gods debate mortals' fates: Jupiter's neutrality decree; Juno's arguments for Turnus; Venus's for Aeneas. These speeches reveal cosmic perspective while showing divine limitationāeven gods cannot simply have their way.
Rhetoric and Character
Speeches reveal character through style: Turnus is arrogant, eloquent; Pallas is brave, brief; Aeneas varies from pious to furious. Analyse how speakers use rhetoricātheir word choices, their appeals, their silences.
Other Techniques
Apostrophe
Apostrophe is direct address to someone/something absent. Virgil addresses Nisus and Euryalus directly (9.446-49), promising them immortal fame. This rare authorial intrusion signals exceptional emotional investment. The poet breaks his narrative frame to speak as poet.
Foreshadowing
Virgil comments on Turnus taking Pallas's belt: "The mind of men, ignorant of fate and future fortune!" (10.501-2). This proleptic comment ensures readers know the belt will matterāit creates suspense and irony as we watch Turnus unaware of his doom.
Dramatic Irony
Readers know what characters don't: Pallas's doom as he faces Turnus; Turnus's doom as he takes the belt; Evander's grief waiting to happen. This irony creates pathosāwe watch the fated approach their fates.
Structural Balance
Book 9 (Turnus's aristeia, Trojan defence, Aeneas absent) balances Book 10 (Aeneas's return, his aristeia, Turnus removed). The paired books create chiastic structure: Turnus dominates 9, Aeneas dominates 10.
Catalogue of Deaths
Lists of victimsāsometimes just names, sometimes with brief historiesāecho Homeric practice. These catalogues individualise the dead (they had names, families) while suggesting war's scale. The technique balances mass and individual.
Integration
Techniques work together: similes colour action with emotional resonance; speeches reveal character and create sympathy; apostrophe marks exceptional moments; foreshadowing creates irony. Always show how techniques combine and how they serve the poem's larger purposesāboth celebrating and questioning heroic warfare.