Meta Description: Join Dr. Jeff Winkle and Dr. David Noe in Ad Navseam Episode 110 as they dive into Vergil’s Aeneid Book 9. Discover the tragic night raid of Nisus and Euryalus, the magical transformation of Trojan ships, and resources to master the Latin language.
Introduction: Midnight Oil and Roman Ambition
Welcome back, classical gourmands, to Episode 110 of the Ad Navseam Podcast! Broadcasting directly from the subterranean depths of Vomitorium South—a bunker graciously loaned to the show by Reformation Heritage Books—your hosts, Dr. David Noe and Dr. Jeff Winkle, return to the microphones.
Dave opens the episode by admitting he recently burned the midnight oil on a massive translation project, pushing himself straight to a looming deadline. Jeff shares this busy sentiment, juggling the start of a new academic semester with his children’s endless robotics meetings and basketball games. When Dave asks if Jeff feels ready for the episode, Jeff replies he is “as ready as I’ll ever be,” prompting a pedantic, amusing debate over the oddness of the phrase. Dave provides a neat Latin equivalent for this peak level of readiness: fastigium.
With the banter out of the way, the hosts prepare to dive into Book 9 of Vergil’s Aeneid. Dave notes that the epic contains exactly twelve books, meaning the podcast still has dozens of episodes to go before reaching the finish line. He humorously points out that the later Roman poet Ovid deliberately stretched his famous Metamorphoses to fifteen books simply to one-up Vergil’s literary achievement.
Listener Mail: Firefighters and Prosthetic Shoulders
Before tackling the ancient text, Dave and Jeff open the mailbag to deliver an extensive shout-out to a former student, Kerri Benetter Schwarzwelder.
Kerri writes in to praise the podcast, noting that it feels exactly like auditing a more openly humorous version of Dave’s old Latin classes. She fondly remembers the awkward silences that used to follow Dave’s deadpan jokes, which the podcast now replaces with actual laughter, puns, and unapologetic dad jokes. This observation triggers a debate on the nature of “dad jokes.” Dave argues that modern pop culture unfairly forces the father figure into the archetype of an out-of-touch buffoon—resembling Michael Gross from the sitcom Family Ties—who cannot even operate a socket wrench.
Kerri also shares her impressive background as a firefighter in Loudoun County, Virginia. While attending the fire academy, she designed the class hoodie and included the Latin phrase Nec temere, nec timide (Not rashly, nor with fear). The hosts applaud her fantastic use of the classical languages to add genuine gravitas to her noble profession.
Dave then shares his own recent classroom joke. While teaching the myth of Tantalus—the man who chopped up his son Pelops and fed him to the gods—Dave noted that only the goddess Demeter accidentally took a bite of the boy’s shoulder. The gods subsequently gave Pelops an ivory prosthetic shoulder. Dave joked to his students that Pelops must have faced terrible delays going through TSA and customs with an ivory limb, a quip that elicited chuckles and smiles into notebooks
The Rutulian Siege and Cybele’s Mermaids
The academic focus of Episode 110 centers on the bloody, “Iliadic” half of the epic. Aeneas currently remains far away from his men, visiting King Evander to secure vital military alliances.
The goddess Juno takes immediate advantage of his absence. She dispatches her messenger, Iris (the daughter of Thaumas), down from heaven to urge the native Italian warrior Turnus to attack the vulnerable Trojan camp. Turnus behaves with surprising religious piety—much like Aeneas himself—making all the expected prayers and sacrifices before leading his army to the fort.
However, Aeneas previously ordered his men to stand down and stay inside the walls until he returned. Frustrated by their refusal to fight, Turnus decides to burn the Trojan fleet anchored on the beach, intending to trap the invaders in Italy forever.
Just as the Rutulians approach the ships with blazing torches, Vergil executes a rare narrative maneuver by directly invoking the Muse. He recounts an ancient Roman legend: long ago, the great mother goddess Cybele extracted a promise from Jupiter that fire would never destroy these sacred ships, which the Trojans built using wood from her holy pine forests. As the torches draw near, the ships suddenly rip their cables free, dive beneath the waves like dolphins, and miraculously transform into living mermaids. Dave and Jeff laugh at the wild visuals of this metamorphosis, comparing the bizarre aquatic imagery to the film Waterworld. Turnus, remaining ever the flexible hero, simply spins the event to his advantage, loudly declaring to his men that the gods have successfully stripped the Trojans of their only escape route.
The Doloneia and the Theology of Desire
Night eventually falls, and the confident Rutulians set up camp outside the Trojan walls, drinking heavily and falling into a deep stupor. Inside the fort, two young Trojan warriors, Nisus and Euryalus, hatch a daring plan to sneak through the enemy lines and deliver an urgent message to Aeneas.
Jeff highlights that Vergil models this night raid directly on Book 10 of Homer’s Iliad, famously known as the Doloneia. In the Homeric version, the goddess Athena actively pushes Diomedes and Odysseus to slaughter a hapless Trojan named Dolon. However, Vergil alters the theological motivation entirely. Aeneas muses aloud, asking his friend whether the gods put this burning ambition in their minds, or if a person’s own “dangerous desire” (dira cupido) simply becomes a god to them.
Unlike Homer’s heroes, Nisus and Euryalus receive no divine assistance. Their own unbridled ambition drives them forward, marking a fascinating shift in how Vergil handles human agency and moral responsibility.
Hubris, Nemesis, and the Glint of Bronze
Nisus and Euryalus receive tearful blessings from the Trojan council and set out into the dark. They enter the Rutulian camp and find their enemies passed out among wine jars. Rather than quietly sneaking past, Nisus declares he will make a “road of blood,” and the two friends begin a brutal, unnecessary slaughter of the sleeping men.
Jeff points out that to an ancient Greek audience, this horrific lack of moderation represents textbook hubris (an arrogant overstepping of bounds), which inherently invites nemesis (divine retribution). Dave agrees, noting that modern readers must not simply write off the violence as “just the way the ancient world was”. Vergil clearly possesses a highly developed conscience and deliberately portrays this massacre as a sickening moral failure.
The young men eventually succumb to greed. They strip prizes from the dead bodies, and Euryalus foolishly places a heavy, polished bronze captain’s helmet on his own head before sprinting for the woods. The sun rises, and the dawn light glints off the stolen helmet, instantly giving away their position to a passing cavalry troop.
The enemy captures Euryalus. Nisus escapes but turns back to save his friend, hurling spears from the shadows. Vergil uses the vivid figure of speech known as prolepsis (anticipation) to describe one spear that “warmed itself deep in his cloven brain,” anticipating the physical destruction of the skull before the weapon actually strikes.
Enraged, the Rutulian leader Volcens executes Euryalus. Vergil memorializes the boy’s tragic death with a stunning epic simile, comparing Euryalus’s drooping head to a purple flower severed by a plow or a poppy bowed down by heavy spring rain. Nisus makes a final, desperate charge, killing Volcens but suffering a mortal wound in the process, dying directly on top of his friend’s body. Vergil “completes” the Homeric model by ensuring these characters pay the ultimate price for their violent excess.
Sponsors: Fueling the Classical Renaissance
Before concluding the episode, Dave and Jeff thank the sponsors who make the podcast a reality.
- Ratio Coffee: For a flawless morning ritual, discard cheap machines and invest in a beautiful coffee maker. Mark Hellweg engineered the Ratio 8 and Ratio 6 machines to execute a perfect automated pour-over. The machine manages the crucial bloom stage, off-gassing the trapped carbon dioxide to perfectly eliminate the dreaded brackish tang. Visit ratiocoffee.com and enter the promo code ANCOK5 for 15% off the entire order.
- Hackett Publishing: Celebrating over 51 years of publishing, Hackett provides erudite, accessible, and highly affordable translations. Students tired of exorbitant textbook prices should pivot to the humanities and pick up Stanley Lombardo’s translations of the Aeneid or Ovid’s Metamorphoses. Build a personal library at hackettpublishing.com and use the code AN2023 to receive 20% off plus free shipping.
- MossMethod & LatinPerDiem: To dive deeper into the original texts, expertly guided language courses await. The Moss Method takes students from neophyte to erudite in ancient Greek with concise video lessons. For those wanting to master the Latin language entirely from the ground up, check out latinperdiem.com/llpsi to learn via Hans Ørberg’s Lingua Latina Per Se Illustrata curriculum.
The Gustatory Parting Shot
To officially close out Episode 110, Dave delivers a Gustatory Parting Shot courtesy of the famous author E.B. White (writer of Charlotte’s Web and Stuart Little).
The quote describes a truly horrifying culinary experience:
“It was a delicious meal. Skim milk, wheat middlings, leftover pancakes, half a donut, the rind of a summer squash, two pieces of stale toast, a third of a ginger snap, a fish tail, one orange peel, several noodles from a noodle soup, the scum off a cup of cocoa, an ancient jelly roll, a strip of paper from the lining of the garbage pail, and a spoonful of raspberry jello.”
A special thanks goes out to Mishka the sound engineer, and to Scott Van Zen and Ken Tamplin for the blistering guitar riffs and intro music. Keep your ivory shoulders in checked luggage, avoid stealing shiny helmets, and keep taking in the classics. Valete!
