Camilla (daughter of Metabus)

Metabus and Camilla (illustration for De mulieribus claris by Boccaccio , 15th / 16th century)

Camilla kills Aunus (engraving by Wenzel Hollar , 17th century)

Camilla ( Latin "freeborn, honorable virgin", here also "sacrificial priestess") is an Amazon-like warrior of Roman mythology .

myth

Camilla was the daughter of Metabus , king of the Volscians , and Casmilla from the Volscian city ​​of Privernum . When Metabus is driven out because of his irascible character, he and his young daughter Camilla flee from his enemies. At the river Amisenus, which is in high water, he doesn't know how to get to the other bank with his daughter. In his need, he ties the baby to his ash spear and promises Diana that he will dedicate Camilla to her service if she reaches the other bank unharmed. Then he throws the weapon to the other bank and swims across the raging river. Camilla survives safely, is suckled by a mare and grows up to be a defensive huntress.

When Aeneas reached Italy, Camilla fought against him and fell in the battle of the Etruscan Arruns . The murderer of Camilla then met the revenge of the goddess Diana and he falls through the arrow of the grandpa, Camilla's companion.

The myth is only passed down from Virgil . Whether he relied on any role models is controversial. What is striking is the similarity with the myth of the harpalyke and her father.

reception

In the post-antique reception, Camilla becomes the ideal image of a heroic virgin, first with the church father Hieronymus , then with Dante Alighieri and the poets of the Renaissance (e.g. in Giovanni Boccaccio's De claris mulieribus ) and the Baroque. In Pius II's Commentarii , the contemporary figure of Joan of Arc is compared with Camilla. One of the best-known and most successful adaptations of the subject was Giovanni Bononcini's opera Il Trionfo di Camilla, regina de 'Volsci , which premiered on December 27, 1696 at the Teatro San Bartolomeo in Naples, with the famous Vittoria Tarquini in the leading role.

swell

• Virgil Aeneid XI, 532-867

literature

• Giampiera Arrigoni: Camilla. Amazzone e sacerdotessa di Diana. Testi e documenti per lo studio dell'antichità vol. 69. Cisalpino-Goliardica, Milan 1982
• Fulvio Canciani:  Camilla . In: Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae (LIMC). Volume III, Zurich / Munich 1986, p. 178.
• Fritz Graf : Camilla. In: The New Pauly (DNP). Volume 2, Metzler, Stuttgart 1997, ISBN 3-476-01472-X , Sp. 954.
• Otto Rossbach : Camilla 1. In: Paulys Realencyclopädie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume 3.1, Stuttgart 1893ff., Col. 1430 f.
• Georg Wissowa : Camilla . In: Wilhelm Heinrich Roscher (Hrsg.): Detailed lexicon of Greek and Roman mythology . Volume 1,1, Leipzig 1886, Col. 848 f. ( Digitized version ).

Web links

Commons : Camilla (mythology)  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ^ Maurus Servius Honoratius Commentarius in Virgilii Aeneida 11,543
2. ^ Maurus Servius Honoratius Commentarius in Virgilii Aeneida 1,317; Hyginus Mythographus Fabulae 252
3. ↑ Hieronymus, Adversus Iovinianum 41,306 BD
4. ↑ Dante, Divina Comedia Inferno 1.107; 4.124
5. ↑ Luigi Totaro (ed.): Enea Silvio Piccolomini Papa Pio II. I Commentarii. Milan 2004, VI ​​/ 10, p. 1094.
6. ↑ List of stage works by Camilla (daughter of Metabus) based on the MGG in Operone; Vittoria Tarquini dite la Bombace , online at Quell'usignolo (French; accessed October 27, 2019); Il trionfo di Camilla regina de 'Volsci (Giovanni Bononcini) in the Corago information system of the University of Bologna .