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AP® Latin passage guide · Vergil, Aeneid 11.532–594
Vergil, Aeneid 11.532–594: Diana's Story of Camilla
What happens
As the battle rages, the goddess Diana speaks to her nymph Opis. Camilla is going to a cruel war, and she is dear to Diana above all others.
Diana tells her story. Camilla's father Metabus, driven from his city of Privernum by hatred of his harsh rule, fled with his baby daughter. Trapped by the flooded river Amasenus, with enemies close behind, he tied the child to his great spear, wrapped in cork bark, prayed to Diana and dedicated her as the goddess's servant, then hurled the spear across the river and swam after it.
He raised Camilla in the wild, feeding her on mares' milk, dressing her in a tiger skin, putting a bow in her tiny hands. Many mothers wanted her as a daughter-in-law, but she was content with Diana alone. Diana wishes she had never been swept into this war, and gives Opis her arrows: whoever wounds Camilla, Trojan or Italian, will pay with his blood. Diana herself will carry her body home for burial.
Grammar to look for
- The pluperfect: tantus sē nūbibus imber rūperat, “so great a storm had burst from the clouds”
- The imperfect and perfect: huic nātam, librō et silvestrī sūbere clausam, implicat, “he binds his daughter to it, wrapped in bark and woodland cork”
- Ablative absolute: magnā propius iam urgente catervā, “with a large band now pressing closer”
- Vocative and prayer forms: Latōnia virgō, “maiden daughter of Latona”
Style
- Prayer: tua prīma per aurās tēla tenēns supplex hostem fugit. Metabus dedicates the child to Diana.
- Pathos: cāra mihi ante aliās. Diana's love for her follower.
Themes to think about
- Camilla's upbringing as half-wild, half-sacred
- Divine love that cannot save
- Fathers, exile and survival
Practise this passage
Camilla is a self-grading escape room built from this passage's own vocabulary, with a grammar lock on the imperfect, perfect and pluperfect. It takes about one lesson.
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More passage guides
- Vergil, Aeneid 1.1–33: The Proem and Juno's Anger
- Vergil, Aeneid 1.88–107 and 496–512: The Storm and Dido
- Vergil, Aeneid 2.40–56 and 201–249: Laocoön and the Wooden Horse
- Vergil, Aeneid 4.74–89 and 165–197: Dido's Love, the Cave and Fama
- Vergil, Aeneid 4.305–361: Dido and Aeneas Quarrel
- Vergil, Aeneid 6.450–476, 788–800 and 847–853: Dido's Shade and Rome's Mission
- Vergil, Aeneid 7.45–58 and 783–817: Latinus, Turnus and Camilla
- Vergil, Aeneid 12.791–828 and 919–952: Juno's Reconciliation and the Death of Turnus
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