Evander Mourns the Death of His Son Pallas

Evander Mourning Over the Body of his Son, Pallas, Aeneid: Book XI,
from Les Oeuvres de Virgile, after Charles-Nicolas Cochin, the younger

This is follow-up is a companion piece to the post published on June 18: "Evander Begs Jupiter for his Son's Safe Return".

In Book XI, lines 148-163, of Vergil's Aeneid, Evander mourns his son Pallas killed in combat:

At non Evandrum potis est vis ulla tenere,
sed venit in medios. Feretro Pallante reposto
procubuit super atque haeret lacrimansque gemensque,    150
et via vix tandem voci laxata dolore est:
"Non haec, o Palla, dederas promissa parenti,
cautius ut saevo velles te credere Marti.
Haud ignarus eram quantum nova gloria in armis
et praedulce decus primo certamine posset.                       155
Primitiae iuvenis miserae bellique propinqui
dura rudimenta, et nulli exaudita deorum
vota precesque meae! Tuque, o sanctissima coniunx,
felix morte tua neque in hunc servata dolorem!
Contra ego vivendo vici mea fata, superstes                      160
restarem ut genitor. Troum socia arma secutum
obruerent Rutuli telis! Animam ipse dedissem
atque haec pompa domum me, non Pallanta, referret!"

And my translation:

Yet no force can hold back Evander,
But he comes into their midst. He threw himself
onto Pallas laid out on a litter, crying and groaning he clings,
and after a hard while he finds a way to utter from grief:
“O Pallas, you had not given these promises to your father,
that you would want to entrust yourself more warily to savage Mars,
I was by certainly not ignorant how much new glory there is in arms
and how much very sweet pride there can be in your first fight.
The wretched firsts of youth and the hard first attempts at war nearby,
no gods heard my vows and my prayers!
And you, O most holy wife, were lucky to die
and to have saved yourself from this grief!
As for me I have overcome my fates by stay alive,
so that I might remain a father surviving my son.
The Rutulians with their weapons should have overwhelming me having followed 
the allied arms of the Trojans. I myself should have given my soul
and this procession should be carrying me home, not Pallas!

Evander Begs Jupiter for his Son's Safe Return

On this Father's Day 2023, a quick look around the internet reveals that the theme of the relationship between fathers and their sons are a ripe topic for exploration in Vergil's Aeneid. As I surveyed the options form this work, one scene stood out as particularly poignant: the passage in Book VIII where Evander bids a sad, foreboding farewell to his son Pallas as he sets out with Aeneas to battle. Evander is too old and infirm to lead and teach his son himself, so he has entrusted this task to the surrogate Aeneas.

In Book VIII, lines 558-584, Evander begs Jupiter for his son's safe return:

tum pater Evandrus dextram complexus euntis
haeret inexpletus lacrimans ac talia fatur:
'o mihi praeteritos referat si Iuppiter annos,                560
qualis eram cum primam aciem Praeneste sub ipsa
stravi scutorumque incendi victor acervos
et regem hac Erulum dextra sub Tartara misi,
nascenti cui tris animas Feronia mater
(horrendum dictu) dederat, terna arma movenda—    565
ter leto sternendus erat; cui tunc tamen omnis
abstulit haec animas dextra et totidem exuit armis:
non ego nunc dulci amplexu divellerer usquam,
nate, tuo, neque finitimo Mezentius umquam
huic capiti insultans tot ferro saeva dedisset               570
funera, tam multis viduasset civibus urbem.
at vos, o superi, et divum tu maxime rector
Iuppiter, Arcadii, quaeso, miserescite regis
et patrias audite preces. si numina vestra
incolumem Pallanta mihi, si fata reservant,                575
si visurus eum vivo et venturus in unum,
vitam oro, patior quemvis durare laborem.
sin aliquem infandum casum, Fortuna, minaris,
nunc, nunc o liceat crudelem abrumpere vitam,
dum curae ambiguae, dum spes incerta futuri,           580
dum te, care puer, mea sola et sera voluptas,
complexu teneo, gravior neu nuntius auris
vulneret.' haec genitor digressu dicta supremo
fundebat; famuli conlapsum in tecta ferebant.

And my translation here:

Then father Evander, having embraced his son, and weeping uncontrollably,
clings to the right hand of the one departing and says such things:
“O, if Jupiter should return to me my past years,
the sort I was when I laid low the front line beneath Praeneste herself
and as victor set fire to the heap of shields
and sent King Erulus beneath Tartarus with this right hand,
to whom at birth his mother Feronia had given three lives
(horrible to say), three arms had to be moved --
three times he had to be laid low by death; then nevertheless
this right hand took away all his lives and stripped just as many arms:
now I should not ever be torn away from from your sweet embrace,
son, and Mezentius, insulting his neighbor’s very existense, would not have given
so many cruel funerals by his sword,
he would not have deprived this city of so many citizens.
But you, gods above, and you especially, Jupiter, the ruler of the gods,
take pity, I beg, on this Arcadian king
and hear this father’s prayers. If your divinities
keep my Pallas safe, if the fates keep him safe,
if I live to see him and to meet him again,
I beg for life, I agree to endure whatever hardship you wish.
But if you, Fortune, threaten some unspeakable disaster,
now, O let it be permitted to destroy this cruel life now,
while cares are uncertain, while hope for the future is unsure,
while I hold you, dear boy, in my embrace, you, my last, lone delight,
and may some too painful message not wound my ears.”
The father poured out these words in his last parting;
and his attendants carried him, having collapsed, home.