Eurialo e Niso: fides e perfidia

Abstract

After an hint at the Palladium’s rape by means of Ulysses and Diomedes –an example of Greek unfairness– the author takes into consideration the two episodes of the Aeneid in which Euryalus and Nisus appear: the night expedition across the Rutili’s camp, and the race during the funeral games in memory of Anchises. In the article two opposite features in the two characters are pointed out, loyalty (“fides”) and unfairness or fraud (“perfidia”) in both events. The author therefore thinks that Virgil’s admiration for the two young men is caused not only by their entreprise, but expecially by their even heroic friendship, that leads them to die together, the one for the other.