Turnus

Turnus is the king of the Rutulians, the Italian rival of Aeneas in the second half of Virgil's Aeneid. He is the handsomest of the many suitors for Lavinia, and Queen Amata favours him most (Aeneid 7.45-80). Amata traces his descent to Inachus and Acrisius of Mycenae (Aeneid 7.371-372). His father is Daunus, and Juno's own speech gives his mother as the nymph Venilia (Aeneid 12.22; Aeneid 10.62-100). He rules from Ardea, a city Virgil credits to Danae (Aeneid 7.341-474).

Latinus, warned by the oracle of Faunus, welcomes the Trojans and offers Lavinia to Aeneas. Amata pleads for Turnus, reminds her husband of the pledge given to their kinsman, and then flees into the woods with the Latin women (Aeneid 7.359-405). Juno sends the Fury Alecto to finish the work. Alecto first drives Amata mad. She then visits Turnus at Ardea disguised as an old priestess of Juno and tells him to burn the Trojan ships and defend his bride. He mocks her, so she drops the disguise and throws a firebrand into his chest. He wakes shrieking for arms (Aeneid 7.341-474). Alecto also provokes the first bloodshed, when Ascanius wounds a tame stag (Aeneid 7.475-540).

Turnus raises the war and sends the envoy Venulus to Diomedes to ask for help (Aeneid 8.1-17). While Aeneas is away seeking allies, Juno sends Iris to tell Turnus the camp lies open (Aeneid 9.1-24). He tries to burn the Trojan ships. Cybele frees them from their moorings and turns each into a sea nymph, and Turnus tells his men the sign threatens only the Trojans (Aeneid 9.107-158). Later he breaks into the camp and kills many. He escapes only by diving into the Tiber, once Jupiter has ordered Juno to withdraw her help (Aeneid 9.756-818).

His worst act comes in Book 10. He kills the young Pallas, son of the Arcadian king Evander, and strips a belt from the body. Virgil says the day will come when Turnus would pay a great price to have left Pallas unharmed (Aeneid 10.439-509). Jupiter had already said that Turnus is summoned to his doom (Aeneid 10.439-509). Juno then saves him by shaping a phantom of Aeneas from cloud. Turnus chases it onto a ship, and she cuts the cables. He drifts back toward Ardea in shame, and three times Juno stops him from killing himself (Aeneid 10.633-688).

In Book 11 the Latin noble Drances blames Turnus for the war and urges him to face Aeneas alone. Turnus accepts the challenge (Aeneid 11.336-444). The Volscian huntress Camilla then offers to meet the Trojan cavalry alone, and Turnus lays an ambush in the hills. When Acca brings word that Camilla is dead, he abandons it (Aeneid 11.469-531; 11.896-915). In Book 12 he tells Latinus to seal the terms. Latinus and Amata beg him to refuse, and Lavinia blushes at her mother's tears (Aeneid 12.1-80). The two leaders swear a treaty (Aeneid 12.161-215). His sister, the nymph Juturna, breaks it with Juno's leave (Aeneid 12.134-160). When Amata hears a false report of Turnus's death, she hangs herself (Aeneid 12.593-649).

The duel is shaped by divine deals. Turnus's sword shatters against Aeneas's divine armour. Virgil says he had snatched up his charioteer Metiscus's blade in the rush instead of his father's (Aeneid 12.697-790). Jupiter and Juno then settle it. Juno gives up his cause and asks that the Latins keep their name and language, and Jupiter agrees (Aeneid 12.791-842). A Fury sent by Jupiter, in the shape of a night bird, paralyses Turnus and drives Juturna away (Aeneid 12.843-886). Wounded in the thigh, Turnus asks Aeneas to spare him or return his body to his father Daunus, and grants that Lavinia is Aeneas's. Aeneas hesitates. Then he sees Pallas's belt on Turnus's shoulder and drives his sword into his chest in Pallas's name (Aeneid 12.887-952). Venus has helped Aeneas in the last fight by freeing his spear from the tree (Aeneid 12.697-790).

Livy tells the war without a duel or a Fury. Turnus is king of the Rutulians, and Lavinia had been betrothed to him before Aeneas arrived. Furious at seeing a stranger preferred, he declares war on both Latinus and Aeneas (Ab Urbe Condita 1.2.1). The Rutulians lose the first battle, but the victors lose Latinus. Turnus then turns to Mezentius of Caere for help (Ab Urbe Condita 1.2.2-3). Livy says Aeneas dies after a later victory over the Rutulians and Etruscans (Ab Urbe Condita 1.2.5-6).

Ovid compresses the story in Metamorphoses 14. He calls Turnus the young chief of a fierce people who fights on because his bride was promised to him (Metamorphoses 14.445-451). Turnus comes to the Trojan fleet with torches, and Cybele turns the ships into sea nymphs (Metamorphoses 14.527-565). Ovid says the fighting went on after the sign because both sides now wanted only to win, and forgot the dowry, the throne and Lavinia (Metamorphoses 14.566-572). Then Turnus falls, and so does Ardea, which the Trojans burn. From the ashes rises a bird, the heron, whose cry and pallor keep the name of the ruined city (Metamorphoses 14.567-580).

Virgil ends the poem on Turnus's death. Aeneas kills a man who has surrendered and asked for mercy, and Virgil says what tipped him: the sight of Pallas's belt, which Turnus had taken as a trophy (Aeneid 12.887-952). Ardea also appears in Livy as a Rutulian city besieged by Tarquinius Superbus. During that siege the wager among the king's sons over their wives leads to Lucretia (Ab Urbe Condita 1.57).