Warriors in Love

Abstract This chapter examines two striking aetiological myths that are embedded within the epic catalogues of the Italian Iliad. As Vergil enumerates the mustering Italian forces (A. 7.641–817) and the fleet of Aeneas’ Etruscan allies (A. 10.163–817), he shifts the focus from each spectacle of arma to a tale of metamorphosis: Hippolytus’ resurrection and transformation into Virbius (A. 7.765–77); and the avian transfiguration of Cycnus (A. 10.185–88). By interweaving each mythological tale with amatory and funerary elegiac material, Vergil creates exceptional aesthetic and thematic vignettes that exist in productive tension with the surrounding martial context. The aesthetic fluctuation between epic and elegy articulates the crucial tension between arma, amor, and mors that drives the narrative of the maius opus. Moreover, the intra- and intertextual reveberations of these episodes reveals Vergil’s enduring commitment to Alexandrian aesthetic principals, his intense engagement with the recent innovations of Propertius and Tibullus, and his perpetuation of the poetic legacy of Gallus.