Dia Camilla. Un personaggio virgiliano al di là dei limiti

In the evocative figure of Camilla, the queen of the Volscians who fights alongside Turnus against the Trojans in Aen. 11, Virgil combines different archetypes originally (among others: the Amazon modelled on Penthesilea; the virgin hunter companion of Diana; the invincible hero killed by deception). From the very first lines in which she is introduced—the catalogue of the warriors of Book 7, 803-818—her ethos is characterized in a way that places her outside the traditional female sphere; and, on the other hand, the Kriegertum that equates Camilla to males shows her greatest charm precisely in the contrast with her being a girl, inevitably isolating her from the male world as well. Her fate seems to be determined by the gesture of her father Metabus who, pursued by the enemies, throws his still infant daughter rapidum super amnem in order to save her (Aen. 11, 562): and there, beyond the border marked by the river, in a territory other than her own, Camilla begins her singular existence, growing in a wild environment, isolated from the human group and close to the world of nature, and she becomes a woman according to a totally unique identity, crossing all gender boundaries.