Camilla
The Swift Warrior Maiden
Camilla is a swift and fearless warrior from Virgil’s Aeneid. She fights on the Italian side against the Trojan hero Aeneas and is described as moving so quickly that she could run across a field without bending the corn or skim over the sea without wetting her feet. Camilla is not a securely recorded historical person. She belongs to epic poetry, where a character can be both human and larger than life. She leads soldiers, defeats experienced fighters and becomes one of the poem’s most exciting opponents. I like her because nobody in the battle doubts that she belongs at the front.
Her father, Metabus, was driven from his town while Camilla was still a baby. Fleeing armed enemies, he reached a flooded river and could not cross safely while carrying her. He wrapped the child in bark, tied her to his spear and promised her to Diana, goddess of the hunt, if she survived. Metabus hurled the spear across the river, swam after it and found Camilla unharmed on the opposite bank. He raised her in the wild countryside on mare’s milk and taught her to use a bow, spear and sling.Camilla grew up devoted to Diana and chose the freedom of hunting and warfare instead of marriage. She wore animal skin and could bring down birds or wild creatures with her weapons. When war broke out between Aeneas’s newcomers and the local prince Turnus, Camilla arrived with a band of Volscian riders and foot soldiers. Virgil compares her to the Amazons, the legendary women warriors of Greek myth. King Latinus’s wife, Amata, and other Italian women admired her. Turnus trusted her with a crucial part of the battle while he prepared an ambush elsewhere.
Book 11 of the Aeneid gives Camilla a long battle scene. She kills several Trojan and Etruscan warriors, sometimes with a spear and sometimes with an axe. One opponent chases her because he assumes she will be easy to defeat. Camilla deliberately retreats, circles around and surprises him. The episode makes his pride look foolish. She is not merely included as an unusual sight. Virgil gives her speed, tactics and command. Her companions include other warrior women named Larina, Tulla and Tarpeia.⬅ Back
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