Lavinia ( lə-VIN-ee-ə; Latin: [ɫaːˈu̯iːnia]) is the last wife of Aeneas in Roman mythology. In the standard version of the story, she is the daughter of King Latinus and Amata. Aeneas names the Latin town of Lavinium after her.
Contents
Story
In Virgil's account, Lavinia, the only child of the king and "ripe for marriage", had been courted by many men who hoped to become the king of Latium. Turnus, ruler of the Rutuli, was the most likely of the suitors, having the favor of Queen Amata. King Latinus is warned by his father Faunus in a dream oracle that his daughter is not to marry a Latin:
Lavinia has what is perhaps her most, or only, memorable moment of the Aeneid in Book 7, lines 94–104: during a sacrifice at the altars of the gods, her hair catches fire, an omen promising glorious days to come for Lavinia and war for all Latins:
Not long after the dream oracle and the prophetic moment, Aeneas sends emissaries bearing several gifts for King Latinus. King Latinus recognizes Aeneas as the destined one:
Aeneas is said to have named the ancient city of Lavinium for her.
By some accounts, Aeneas and Lavinia had a son, Silvius, a legendary king of Alba Longa. According to Livy, Ascanius was the son of Aeneas and Lavinia; she led the Latins as a power behind the throne since Ascanius was too young to rule. In Livy's account, Silvius is the son of Ascanius.
Other accounts make Lavinia the daughter of King Anios from the Greek island of Delos, who gives her in marriage to Aeneas.
It has been proposed that the character was in part intended to represent Servilia Isaurica, Emperor Augustus's first fiancée.
Reception
Lavinia appears with her father, King Latinus, in Dante's Divine Comedy, Inferno, Canto IV, lines 125–126. She is documented in De Mulieribus Claris, a collection of biographies of historical and mythological women by the Florentine author Giovanni Boccaccio, composed in 1361–62.
In Ursula K. Le Guin's 2008 novel Lavinia, Lavinia's character and her relationship with Aeneas is expanded, giving insight into the life of a king's daughter in ancient Italy. Le Guin employs a self-conscious narrative device in having Lavinia as the first-person narrator knowing that she would not have a life without Virgil, who, being the writer of the Aeneid several centuries after her time, is thus her creator.