The last fight of Aeneas and Turnus by Wenceslas Hollar (Plate 332) 1607-1677
"I have told of Pales, I will now tell of the festival of the Vinalia; but there is one day interposed between the two. Ye common wenches, celebrate the divinity of Venus: Venus favours the earnings of ladies of a liberal profession. Offer incense and pray for beauty and popular favour; pray to be charming and witty; give to the Queen her own myrtle and the mint she loves, and bands or rushes hid in clustered roses. Now is the time to throng her temple next the Colline gate; the temple takes its name from the Sicilian hill. When Claudius carried Arethusian Syracuse by force of arms, and captured thee, too, Eryx, in war, Venus was transferred to Rome in obedience to an oracle of the long-lived Sibyl, and chose to be worshipped in the city of her offspring. You ask, Why then do they call the Vinalia a festival of Venus? And why does that day belong to Jupiter? There was war to decide whether Turnus or Aeneas should be the husband of Latin Amata’s daughter: Turnus sued the help of the Etruscans"
-Ovid, Fasti Book 4, April 23rd
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| The last fight of Aeneas and Turnus by Wenceslas Hollar 1607-1677. |
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