This passage comes during Aeneas’ recount to Dido of the fall of Troy, it describes a moment after Aeneas has teamed up with several other Trojans including Coroebus, Rhipeus, Epytus, Hyponis and Dymas in a desperate counterattack in order to go out and find death in battle when they come across a Greek patrol led by Androgeos. The Greeks mistake the Trojans for allies and are promptly ambushed and killed. Subsequent to this passage the Trojans don the armour of the Greeks and enjoy a short period of success before disaster overtakes them, their ruse is discovered and most are killed, two by their own side who mistake them for the enemy.
This scene is the totality of Androgeos’ participation within the Aeneid, although he will be mentioned after his death as Coroebus dons his armour, he is introduced and then promptly killed. This brief, violent and unfortunate role emphasises a sense of suddenness and instant reversal. Virgil’s initial description of Androgeos belies the character’s eagerness, apparent in the use of the adverb ultro in 372, which is suggestive of a voluntary action (Austin refers to this as a display of initiative) and to volunteer suggest eagerness. Virgil also uses speech to develop an air of confidence in Androgeos, the use of the present imperative in 373 ‘festinate, viri!’ is indicative of authority and self-assurance. There is also a sense that Androgeos is lacking in caution, developed by the juxtaposition of the participle credens (371) and the adjective inscius (372) His speech is composed of two questions, which seems to be aimed at challenging what he believes to be allies to not skulk away from the main fighting but to go on the attack; there is some irony in the fact that he is actually addressing such provocation to his enemies. The increased use of dactyls and in the metre of the speech portrays a man in a hurry evoking impatience and not a little contempt for those he is addressing. Austin refers to an adversative asyndeton in the use of the word vos, following alii and this comparison between those sacking Troy and those who have only just left the ships serves several purposes. The adversarial nature of the question both further develops Androgeos’ brashness and refers to the events taking place around this particular scene thus incensa and its agreeing noun Pergama (374-5) describes the surrounding chaos of conflict while Androgeos’ presupposing that he is addressing Greeks fresh from the ships suggest that the Greeks are pouring further numbers into the overrun city. The placement of obstipuit at the beginning of line 378 emphasis the ‘blocking idea’ mentioned by Austin, it is similar to obstipus-drawn back and obsto- to stand in the way. The sentence then backs away, as does Androgeos, ending in repressit the perfect active indicative of reprimo-to suppress or force back thus invoking the idea of an instinctive process of backing up only to find retreat impossible. The word order here appears to be mimetic in its structure with words for blocking and suppressing forming the beginning and the end of the line, ‘entrapping’ the description of retreat and looks forward to the surrounding of the Greeks by the Trojans. Virgil then introduces a simile in line 379, this being a feature common in both the Virgilian and Homeric epic style. This simile contained in the middle of this passage acts as a crux for Androgeos’ rapid transformation from confident and assertive victor to terrified and panicked vanquished. The simile likens Androgeos to a man accidentally treading onto a snake and backing away in fear, it does not function so much as a substitute for the narrative rather it acts as an illustration of the events preceding and following it. There is a point of contact with the narrative proper in the words refugit (380) and abibat (382). The step of the man in the simile is described as nitens (380) illustrating the confidence of Androgeos as he walks full tilt into an ambush and the simile is left somewhat hanging as the snake, attolentem (381), reacts with anger and yet does not actually strike. Nonetheless the iras (381) of the snake contains a sense of threat which is passes onto the Trojans as the narrative continues and Androgeos is killed. This incomplete simile (for the man is not struck by the snake and Androgeos is killed by the Trojans) expresses the awful and momentary realisation that must strike Androgeos as he realises his number is up. This is a sudden, fatal error causes by overconfidence, it is in a sense Androgeos’ moment of harmatia in his own brief tragedy. That this piece is being narrated by Aeneas means that this cannot be a genuine description of Androgeos’ perception, that is to say the reader is not being presented with an insight into the mind of Androgeos nonetheless the use of the simile provides a momentary respite from the events of the text in the same manner as a life-flashing-before-ones-eyes scene. The dispatch of the Greek patrol is summary and unopposed, contained in just two lines it quickness suggests this wasn’t a fight but a quick, one sided slaughter, ignaros and formidine(384) are used to describe the Greeks and the notions of uncertainty and panic contribute to the confusion of an ambush. The final line of this passage ‘aspirat primo Fortuna labori’- ‘fortune favours the first labour’ then looks forward to further engagements with the enemy, the primo telling the reader that this is the first clash implying there will be more. There is significance in this passage in that Androgeos fulfils the role of protagonist in his own miniature tragedy and this is a theme continued throughout the Aeneid especially in the last six books as war is enjoined between Trojan and Latin and many young men are cut down. These miniature tragedies focus on the individual cost of conflict, in a sense focusing on the means not the end. The gut wrenching fear felt by Androgeos in his last moments highlights the very human reactions of a character faced with sudden death so that even this most minor of participants of the poem is given is a little life before it is snatched away again.
