As I told Dr. Kennedy this morning, I wanted to see Arabic influences in the description of Camilla’s tomb in Eneas. While this may or may not be reaching, the description of the elaborate jewels and materials used to create the tomb, as well as the exotic fabrics adorning Camilla in death seem to have an Arabic flair to them. In fact, they reminded me much of the elaborate descriptions we have already encountered (time and time again) in Arabian Nights, not only in the actual physical detail, but also in the over-the-top rendering of the tomb. This brings to mind a reading from last week– it may have been one of the first chapters of Menocal– that talked of Arab culture as being characterized as over-the-top, the very definition of excess, and recalling Arabian Nights illustrates this concept.
More interesting, to steal from Dr. K, is that this Arabic-influenced scene is how the author/translator chooses to handle Camilla’s death. As Dr. K says, Camilla is a woman warrior. She is powerful, and yet beautiful. For the time, this was impossible to wrap one’s mind around, so the author not only places her in a tomb, distanced by death, but an elaborate, flamboyant structure at that, which is tinged with the exotic, thereby placing Camilla just out of reach. This elaborate description, not only of materials but also the ever-present bow-and-arrow and the destruction of any stairs allowing access to the tomb, sets Camilla apart as a phenomenon more than a person, discouraging any attempt to “understand” the woman warrior by exalting her and doing so through “foreign” practices.