In Greek and Roman mythology, Nisus (Ancient Greek: Νῖσος, romanized: Nîsos) and Euryalus (/jʊəˈraɪ.ələs/; Ancient Greek: Εὐρύαλος, romanized: Eurýalos, lit. 'broad') are a pair of friends serving under Aeneas in the Aeneid, the Augustan epic by Virgil. Their foray among the enemy, narrated in book nine, demonstrates their stealth and prowess as warriors, but ends as a tragedy: the loot Euryalus acquires (a glistening Rutulian helmet) attracts attention, and the two die together. Virgil presents their deaths as a loss of admirable loyalty and valor. They also appear in Book 5, during the funeral games of Anchises, where Virgil takes note of their amor pius, a love that exhibits the pietas that is Aeneas's own distinguishing virtue.[1]
In describing the bonds of devotion between the two men, Virgil draws on conventions of erotic poetry that have suggested a romantic relationship to some, interpreted by scholars in light of the Greek custom of paiderastia,[2] in which their amor pius possibly also expresses sexual love, comparing their ambiguous relationship to that of Achilles and Patroclus.[3]
- ^ James Anderson Winn, The Poetry of War (Cambridge University Press, 2008), p. 162.
- ^ Louis Crompton, Homosexuality and Civilization (Harvard University Press, 2003), pp. 84–86; Winn, The Poetry of War, p. 162.
- ^ Marco Fantuzzi, Achilles in Love: Intertextual Studies (Oxford University Press, 2012), pp. 251–255