Ambiguity and the Female Warrior: Vergil's Camilla

AMBIGUITY AND THE FEMALE WARRIOR: VERGIL'S CAMILLA

Trudy Harrington Becker,
Classical Studies Program,
Center for Interdisciplinary Studies,
Virginia Tech,
Blacksburg
Virginia 24061-0227,
U.S.A.
e-mail:

In Book 7 of Vergil's Aeneid, the maiden warrior Camilla leads her people to join the forces of Turnus, who prepares for battle against his fated adversary, the Trojan Aeneas. Camilla occupies a place of no little significance in the catalogue of Turnus' allies: she appears last, a position usually reserved in epic for a warrior of great merit and reputation. She is not, however, the traditional epic hero, as her gender sets her apart. Unlike other women in the Aeneid, she rejects the appropriate roles and actions of women, behaves more like a man, and presents to the readers a paradox. Upon first meeting Camilla, the reader is struck by an incongruity: she is both experienced warrior and female. Among mortal female characters in the Aeneid, she stands apart.

Vergil's female warrior, Camilla, is a different sort of character, and purposefully so. I would like to go a step further than noting her ambiguity. What needs more elucidation is the very purpose of her ambiguity, and I would like to propose an answer: that the character of Camilla neatly expresses not just her ambiguity but the ambiguity of the Aeneid as a whole.(1) An analogy might be made between her ambiguity and the overall tone of Vergil's epic; her character mimics and encapsulates its uneasiness. I will look at the many sources of her ambiguity: her placement in Book 7's catalogue, and the disparities and similarities Vergil creates between Camilla and mortal women, Camilla and non-mortal women, and Camilla and male warriors. These numerous instances show that there are many layers to Camilla's ambiguity, her gender, her actions and her role, and reactions to her, and that these result in Camilla as a cumulative force--her character resonates with many Vergilian figures and Vergilian themes of heroism and sacrifice. She is like many characters in the Aeneid, and unlike many; she is troublesome to understand and complex, like the Aeneid itself, and purposefully so.

THE MARGINAL CAMILLA

I like to describe Camilla as marginal, on the fringes of society. Our first meeting with Camilla in Book 7 at the end of the catalogue of Turnus' allies confirms this description. Riding in, leading a host of Volscian soldiers, she is duravirgo (a hard maiden) and proeliapati (inured to battle, 7.806-7). At least in the text she is on the very edge, tagged on, almost appendix-like. Appendix-like, because the credible antagonist to Aeneas, Turnus, appears just before Camilla is introduced; surely he might have come last, rather than some renegade female warrior.

Camilla's placement in the catalogue is the first among many purposefully ambiguous descriptions of Camilla by Vergil. Why last? The answers posed have ranged from the plausible to the unsatisfying. Some have suggested that Camilla is analogous to female warriors in other catalogues and epics, particularly Artemisia in Herodotus' Histories. Camilla also mirrors Penthesilea's placement as last among the scenes described by Vergil as adorning the temple in Carthage in Book 1. Vergil's locating Camilla at the end of the catalogue parallels the placement of aliens and women in other catalogues to suggest inferiority of one group to another, and thus hints at doom to come.(2) Certainly one of the prevailing characteristics of Camilla is the foreshadowing of doom, both hers and the Italians.

Camilla's catalogue appearance is layered with resonances, including similarities to other catalogue-closers, and similarities to other Vergilian figures, which are on the whole disconcerting. I would like to examine only one of these similarities, a relationship drawn out in the catalogue between Turnus and Camilla, which might explain Camilla's placement and its intentional effect. As the closer, Camilla effectively undercuts the grandeur accorded to Turnus; she deprives him of the position of honor. Furthermore, Vergil's ecphrastic description of her explicitly points to the effect the sight of Camilla has on others, attonitisinhiansanimis, (gaping at her, with minds stunned, 7. 814), and thus Vergil privileges her over Turnus, the magnificent Rutulian hero.

Turnus appears in Book 7's catalogue just prior to Camilla, and like her, an ecphrasis helps to describe him. In Book 7, line 789, Turnus shoulders a levemclipeum, a light shield, emblazoned with the figure of Io done up in gold, and on it too Argus protecting her, and her father Inachus pouring out a stream from an urn caelata (engraved). Yet the words Vergil uses to depict this shield draw attention to its "shield-ness"; it's in gold, and engraved. With this ecphrastic technique Vergil invites the reader to examine the shield, surely a knock-off of Aeneas' shield, in all its splendor. The ecphrasis emphasizes Turnus' trappings, not his skills or abilities.

Ecphrasis can work differently, however.(3) Rather than just leading the viewer to an image, ecphrasis can also suggest an appropriate reaction we might take, by supplying a concurrent reaction in a different viewer, usually the narrator or a participant in the scene. And that is what Vergil does in his description of Camilla at the end of Book 7. Vergil creates here the image of a strong and different kind of woman. Our first glimpse of Camilla is heady and powerful.

Hos super advenitVolsca de gente Camilla 803

agmenagensequitum et florentisaerecatervas

bellatrix, non illacolocalathisveMinervae

femineasadsuetamanus, sedproeliavirgo

durapaticursuquepedumpraevertereventos.

illavelintactaesegetis per summa volares

graminanectenerascursulaesissetaristas,

vel mare per medium fluctususpensatumenti 810

ferretitercelerisnectingeretaeqoreplantas.

illamomnistectisagrisqueeffusaiuventus

turbaquemiraturmatrum et prospectateuntem,

attonitisinhiansanimisutregiusostro

velethonos levis umeros, ut fibula crinem 815

aurointernectat, Lyciamutgeratipsapharetram

etpastoralempraefixacuspidemyrtum.

Besides all these there came from the Volscian nation Camilla

Leading a cavalry army, squadrons petalled with bronze;

A warrior maid, her woman's hands unaccustomed to womanly

Tasks--to the distaff, the basket of wool; a girl, but hardy

To face the horrors of battle and to catch up with the winds.

She could have skimmed along the blades of an unmown corn-crop

Without so much as bruising their tender ears as she ran:

She could have flitted over the waves of a swelling sea

Without so much as wetting the quicksilver soles of her feet.

From field and cottage the young came running, the housewives

gathered

To stare at this Camilla and marvel as she went by,

Gaping, struck with amazement to see how nobly sat

The cloak of royal crimson on her smmoth shoulders--see

The gold clasp in her hair, the Lycian quiver she carried

And the spear-shaft of country myrtle with its warhead.

(C. Day Lewis)

We see Camilla outstripping the winds and floating over the tips of the grain, but more importantly, we see, and are told, how others react to her; mothers and young gape at and marvel at her (812-3). By providing in the text one audience's reaction to Camilla, Vergil encourages a similar one in us. With Turnus, the reader is caught up in the business of examining his golden and engraved shield and its physical aspects. With Camilla, however, Vergil desires that the reader pay attention to her, and directs us to look at her by demonstrating her effect upon others. Vergil supplies this for us: Camilla's onlookers marvel and gape at her, they wonder and are amazed, they recognize her as different.(4)

Camilla's appearance in the catalogue showcases Vergil's use of her intentional ambiguity; through the implicit comparison of her and Turnus, he uses her to question characters and themes. Through his ecphrastic handling of these two Italian heroes, he purposefully creates a comparison between the two in which Camilla appears the winner. In this first meeting with Camilla, Vergil makes her both superior to and similar to Turnus; both are heroic, tragic, and bigger than life, and both are doomed. Camilla is emphasized instead of the expected hero, and the irony foretells misgivings, her doom foreshadows his, and her death will precede his. Vergil predicts that all their heroism and valor will not stand either one of them well, because, in fact, this kind of heroic behavior will not stand anyone well.(5)

CAMILLA AND MORTAL WOMEN

In her role as marginal, Camilla is analogous to no other women, mortal at least, in the Aeneid. Superficially, however, she and the unmarried women of the Aeneid, such as Lavinia, have something in common. Camilla is a virgo, a maiden, and she, like Lavinia, is intemerata, untouched (11.584). But the similarities between her and Lavinia end there. Lavinia, the cause of so much evil (causamalitanti, 11.480), is an entirely passive character; she does not speak at all in the epic, her virginity is only temporary and she awaits the typically feminine role of wife and mother.(6) Camilla is the antithesis of Lavinia. Her virginity is of an entirely different sort. Her committment to a celibate life is the result, and her lifestyle as hunter and devotee of Diana assures that Camilla will never be like the other virgines (maidens).(7)

Vergil's use of the term miratur (is amazed at) in Book 7, line 813 demonstrates too that Camilla is unlike other mortal women. Versions of the word miratur appear commonly in Vergil, some forty-eight times, to indicate something that ought to be marvelled at or held in awe. The word reminds us and is of course related to the phrase mirabiledictu (amazing to say), and mirabilevisu (amazing to see), both of which phrases suggest a sight which can scarcely well be expressed in words.(8)Miratur and its variants imply something out of the ordinary and worthy of attention. That is precisely the case with Camilla. Unlike other mortal women, despite the common denominator of virginity, Camilla is something to wonder at, an item deserving a second look. She is woman as other, as different, and so her onlookers gape at her.(9)

In another way, Vergil points out the discrepancy between Camilla and mortal women, and continues to cast her as ambiguous. He does this by paralleling Camilla to non-mortal women, divine and mythical. Vergil uses language to describe her which is more reminiscent of that used for these women. For instance, Camilla is horrenda (awesome, terrifying, 11.507) like the Sibyl (6.10) and like Juno (7.323). She is also, like Juno, aspera (1.279-Juno, 11.664-Camilla), harsh or fierce. In the Aeneid Vergil uses the word aspera mainly to describe inanimate forces such as nature or war, and some extraordinary characters. Camilla, when described as aspera, finds herself in non-mortal company; among females, only Allecto and Juno are so called. If we consider men who are so described, we can include Turnus and Mezentius in this not particulary savory or lady-like company.(10) Vergil even goes so far as to call Camilla, a mortal woman, dia or godlike(11.657).

In fact, Camilla herself is extraordinary in that she is a creation of Vergil, unknown before him and unattested after.(11) Vergil creates a woman who is unlike other women in the Aeneid, but is rather a compilation of different types of unorthodox women. Camilla is a conflation of the virginal huntress and the warrior princess. In the Aeneid, Vergil draws connections between both of these kinds of mythical women and Camilla; the first of these types is drawn out in the mythical Thracian Harpalyce. Harpalyce, like Camilla, enjoyed a rural upbringing, was motherless, was an outcast of sorts from civilized life due to her father's 'ostracism' by his people, was a venatrix (female hunter), bore virginal arms, and preferred to roam the forests hunting until her death.(12)

The paradigm for the second of these types of unorthodox women, the warrior princess, is Penthesilea, and Vergil overtly creates similarities between Camilla and her in several instances.(13) In Book 1, when Aeneas views the decorated walls of the temple in Carthage, he see on it Penthesilea, bellatrix, audetquevirisconcurrerevirgo (a female warrior, a maiden who dared to join in battle with men, 1.493); she carries weapons, she dresses differently, and fights alongside female troops as Camilla will. Later, in Book 11 both Camilla and her women are explicitly described as Amazon-like: at medias inter caedesexsultat Amazon (in the middle of the slaughter she exulted like an Amazon, 11.648), and pictisbellanturAmazonesarmis (with ornamented weapons they wage war like Amazons, 11.660). Vergil's description of the Volscian followers of Camilla asserts that Camilla's women behave as Hippolyta and Penthesilea do in battle (11.659-663), and Vergil reuses phrases which earlier described Penthesilea in Book 1.(14)

Not only is Camilla unlike mortal women in the Aeneid, she also eschews proper roles for mortal women: wife and mother. Limited by her celibacy, she will not bear nor raise children, nor will she take a husband. Such devotion to a life of celibacy prompts foreboding comparisons to at least two other figures: Hippolytus (of Euripides) and Penthesilea. Hippolytus was the doomed and angry son of Theseus whose insistence on chastity spelled his death at the hands of Aphrodite. Camilla lacks the anger and hostility of Hippolytus, regarding her chastity, yet a lingering hint of doom still prevails, particularly since Hippolytus' son (in an engineered coincidence) directly precedes Turnus in the catalogue of allies in book 7 (line 761). There the story of Hippolytus and Phaedra is only cursorily mentioned in little more than two lines (7.765-6), yet these lines emphasize the horrible punishment and death of Hippolytus.(15) Camilla's chosen chastity and its resonance with both Hippolytus and the maiden Penthesilea foreshadows her death. Penthesilea's death at the hands of Achilles, who falls in love with her at the inopportune moment of her dying, was not portrayed by Vergil, yet the scene was a popular and common one, and the story well known. Unlike her counterpart, however, Camilla's death will display no elegance, only tragic pathos.

Camilla's rejection of appropriate roles of wife and mother marks her most clearly as different; not only does she choose chastity, but she chooses the chastity of a venatrix devoted to Diana. By forsaking typical feminine duties, she becomes non illacolocalathisveMinervae/femineasadsuetamanus (her womanly hands not accustomed to the distaff and wool-basket of Minerva, 7.805-7). By this crucial measure alone, she is outside the boundaries of society.(16) Her dissimilarities with other mortal women, and her untraditional role are all facets which contribute to Camilla's ambiguity, and create an unsettling character.

CAMILLA AND MALE WARRRIORS

If Camilla's actions and her role are ambiguous, or at least not typically feminine, perhaps they are more like those of the male warriors of this story. Camilla is a woman of action-- she runs, she fights, she leads and commands, she devises strategy and she conquers. These are all commendable attributes of a man, even a hero perhaps. She is interrita(11.711), unafraid and frightening, she is a bellatrix (7.805), a warrior who is female.(17) Only one other female in the Aeneid is so called, and that is Penthesilea (1.493). Among other individuals in the Aeneid who receive the apellationbellator are Mars and Turnus, thus casting Camilla securely in the role of fighter.

When we meet Camilla in Book 11, she dares (in line 502), to propose to Turnus a strategy in which she and her followers would play the prominent role, an offensive and daring tactical manouever which would in turn leave Turnus guarding the walls, a less than noble undertaking for him. Turnus in gratitude accepts her help, and a version of this offer, calling her decusItaliaevirgo, virgin maiden and glory of Italy, a suitable pairing for Camilla who embodies both female virginity and the more masculine desire for glory. Moreover, Turnus agrees that she should mecum partirelaborem (share the work with me [Turnus], 11.510), as kind of a co-commander, at least for this phase of the battle. Ducis, "you lead", he says, and lead too the forces he offers to supplement hers. What's striking are the reactions to her plan: first Turnus' ready agreement, indicating a high level of trust and confidence in her, and secondly, silence on the part of those whom Camilla would lead in the place of Turnus. Nowhere does Vergil imply that Camilla as leader is unwelcome or unfit. Vergil does not depict Camilla as a dux femina, a term used by some Roman authors to indicate the female ruler, a barbarian institution which signified a society gone awry. Other Roman authors considered a female ruler and female general, dux femina, to be un-Roman, and expressly to be avoided. The female general served as an indicator of female usurpation of male power, and thus a sign of a serious malady in society. Vergil instead reserves that term for Aeneas' doomed lover and queen of Carthage, Dido (1.364). Camilla is to be admired for her martial prowess rather than feared as an example of a woman out of control.(18)

When Vergil asks at line 664, Book 11: quemteloprimum, quempostremum, asperavirgo/deicis (whom first and whom last, harsh maiden, did you hurl down with your spear), the reader recognizes that Camilla is qualified, prepared for battle, and successful as well. This resonant line elicits many thoughts. First, Vergil connects Camilla's actions in battle with Turnus' similar actions: Vergil begins to recount each catalogue of victims in a similar fashion.(19) Also, line 664 is reminiscent of Homer's Iliad (Bk 16. 92-93), when Homer asks for assistance from the Muses to elaborate on the conquests of Patroclus in battle. The implication is that Camilla is as good a warrior as these best heroes of epic.