"But for your son, believe it, O, believe it, / Most dangerously you have with prevail'd, / if not most mortal to him."  (V.iii.187-189).

     It's an interesting paradox that by saving so many, Volumnia, according to Coriolanus, has put her son in mortal danger.  It's also interesting that he somehow knows that by being swayed to make peace, he's destined to die.  What gives him this knowledge?  We've talked in class about the different functions of the parts of Rome.  The job of Coriolanus was to fight and to defend.  Warring is his function; when he no longer functions as he is meant to, he will perish.  I don't really think this is running through Coriolanus's mind when he foreshadows his own death, but it is an interpretation of his end that is worth thinking about.