#palinurus

From left to right:

Sergestus, Palinurus, Acmon, Iapyx, Achates and Aeneas

here's what happens to the guy that does it right. here's what happens to the man that reminds aeneas his father needs a funeral, here's what happens to the man that keeps the ship on course. they don't have a navigator after palinurus dies. they sail blind.

Book 5 establishes the themes of sacrifice via Anchises's sacrifice of. well. his life. Virgil also spends the ENTIRE book establishing the camaraderie of the crews, because up to this point aeneas hadnt. been paying much attention to their interpersonal relationships

Palinurus is established over several books as a very serious coxswain who cares deeply for his crew, through similar snippets of personal life virgil gives to other crew members like ilioneus or achaetes

apollo tells aeneas he's going to have to lose someone- "Unum pro multis dabitur caput." (one life that will be given for the many). Aeneas accepted this- despite not knowing who- and had them raise their sails.

then, instead of having a more obvious choice of god like hermes or thanatos (psychopomps), the gods sent somnus to initiate the sacrifice. and it's fucking cruel, he's tempting him with rest-- something the crew hasn't truly gotten in a long time-- then sending him headlong in the ocean, not to die, but to starve and dehydrate and sunburn until he washes up on Avernus.

aeneas, not having seen that exchange but hearing the fall, accuses palinurus (who is currently drunk off the fucking LETHE thanks somnus) of complacency as he drowns. probably out of frustration but come the fuck on aeneas he was the Only man awake

and, a note on palinurus's death at avernus. coxswains were not.. particularly high up the food chain in terms of command structures on a bireme ship? like. yes, they're the commanders of the rowers, and palinurus was pulling double time by also being the navigator, but he would not be the guy carrying much of any treasure, & to float for that long he'd have to take off any armor he was wearing, AND he was given a burial by an unknown person in avernus later (enough time for one to determine, say, palinurus wasn't carrying an infectious disease), so personally, i don't believe they actually killed him "for treasure" as palinurus claims, i think palinurus just said that to make aeneas feel bad<3

palinurus and aeneas's exchange in the underworld is in no way a friendly one.

aeneas asks if apollo lied to him about him reaching avernus alive, and palinurus goes on to illustrate aeneas's own complacency in his crewman's death. palinurus makes it a point to point out the wedge aeneas has driven between himself and his crew- "I worried less for myself than I did for your ship" not for aeneas, for the ship and the other people on it. he points out directly to aeneas's face how much aeneas bends to the gods' will.

it's the shit Achaetes would never say to aeneas, but we can see his and aeneas's relationship deteriorating rapidly because of just how little aeneas thinks of them in specifics or by name as the books go on.

"Give this wretch your hand and take me with you through the waves / that at least I might rest in some quiet place in death" DIRECT fucking parallel to the imagery dido uses of aeneas carrying her ghost. aeneas will never be free of all these spirits.

id also like to point out the choice to have palinurus physically in the acheron rather than at the shore with the other unburied. implies palinurus blocked aeneas's path to chew him out.

all that to say i will never be regular about palinurus ever at all <3

Its nice having an anger translator

explorat ventos atque auribus aera captat;

sidera cuncta notat tacito labentia caelo,

Arcturum pluviasque Hyadas geminosque Triones,

armatumque auro circumspicit Oriona.

postquam cuncta videt caelo constare sereno,

dat clarum e puppi signum; nos castra movemus

temptamusque viam et velorum pandimus alas.

—

When zealous Palinurus rose, his ears

Sifting the air, testing for any wind.

He traced the still sky’s gliding constellations:

Arcturus, the rainy Hyades, the Ox Yoke,

And in the South, Orion with gold armor.

And seeing the right signs in the clear heavens,

He blared a signal from the stern. We broke camp

And spread our wings of sails and ventured out.