While Book XII of the
Aeneid is of course remarkably similar to the last book of
Homer's
Iliad, I noticed that they seem to have been written in a reverse order.
In The Iliad, Achilles kills Hector and then a sort of treaty is formed between Priam and Achilles for the return of his son's body.
In The Aeneid, the treaty is reached before the battle, which is then waged because the treaty was broken,.
The other thing that interests me isn't an exact parallel with The Iliad but in a way I think it is.
While Hector has his wife, Andromache; Turnus has his sister, Juturnus. Both are dependent upon the respective warriors, but Turnus' sister does not fear for her future, should their land fall to Aeneas. She joins the battle with her brother. In a way it reminds of Tolkien's Return of the King and of Eomer and Eowyn, a brother and sister who fought together in a great battle.
If this indeed is the case, I can only imagine that Virgil is trying to portray the fortitue of the Latin woman in comparison to the Greek woman. Also, if this is the case, it's an interesting look at the changing views of women from Homer's time to Virgil's.
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