Lavinia

Lavinia’s best friend is Silvia, the daughter of a cattle herder. Lavinia and Silvia spend time together in the woods and hills. Amata disapproves of the friendship. Silvia is good with animals and has tamed a fox and a young stag. The stag, Cervulus, is particularly precious to Silvia. She decorates his antlers with flowers, and he has a white ribbon around his neck so that hunters and dogs know not to attack him.

When Lavinia is 15, King Turnus visits Latium. Turnus is Amata’s nephew and has recently been crowned king of nearby Rutulia. Vestina, an older enslaved woman, is convinced that Turnus has come to Latium to court Lavinia. Amata seems very fond of Turnus, even harboring romantic feelings for him. Lavinia meets Turnus at a banquet. He’s very handsome and keeps staring at her, which embarrasses her. She isn’t ready for marriage. Turnus asks for Lavinia’s hand, but Latinus says she’s still too young, though they might marry in a few years. Amata is frustrated, as she wants the marriage to take place soon.

The narrative shifts to the future, when Lavinia and her husband, Aeneas, are in Lavinium. Lavinia looks at Aeneas’s shield, which he believes depicts the future. Lavinia can see the future by gazing at the shield and is horrified to see many violent wars. Aeneas says that the shield shows “the realm [their] sons’ sons will inherit” (24). Although Aeneas can’t see it, Lavinia sees Rome at its height in the shield and thus knows that he’ll die after three years of marriage to her.

When Lavinia is 12, she goes with her father to the sacred forest of Albunea for the first time. In Albunea is a sulfur spring where people go to receive omens. Latinus makes a sacrifice, and Lavinia has a prophetic dream. She sees a red river and a great city that she knows is her home. As the dream continues, she’s in the forest of Albunea again, where a woodpecker laughs and touches his feathers to her eyes. In the morning, she tells her father her dream. Latinus agrees to let her return to Albunea.

Lavinia spends much of her childhood roaming the wilderness with her companion, an enslaved Etruscan girl named Maruna. Maruna accompanies her when she visits Albunea, staying in a nearby woodcutter’s house while Lavinia enters the sacred grove alone. Because the kingdom is peaceful, Latinus allows more suitors to seek Lavinia’s hand in marriage; he isn’t worried that the competition could result in war. Men from all over come to seek Lavinia’s hand, but Amata openly favors Turnus. Lavinia doesn’t want to be courted and dislikes that her mother is so open about her lust for Turnus.

When Lavinia is 18, Turnus visits and brings her a monkey. Lavinia hates the monkey, but Amata adores it. To avoid Turnus, Lavinia makes a trip to Albunea. While there, she meets a shadowy figure. She tells him her name and is puzzled when he recognizes it. The man is the shadow of a dying poet currently on a boat from Greece to Italy. His spirit is visiting Lavinia. He tells Lavinia that she’s destined to marry a foreigner. Much of what he says confuses her. He asks her whether the Trojans have come yet, but she doesn’t recognize the word. Lavinia admits that she doesn’t favor any of her suitors. The poet asks whether she would favor a heroic and pious man; Lavinia concedes that she would at least pay attention to him. The poet tells her the story of the Trojan War and the hero Aeneas, who escaped the burning city of Troy with his father, Anchises, and his young son, Ascanius. Aeneas’s wife, Creusa, died during their escape, and Aeneas saw her spirit, which told him to travel west and establish a new home for his people. The poet’s voice fades, and Lavinia awakens.

Lavinia returns to Albunea as soon as Turnus leaves and finds the poet waiting for her. Although dying, he’s enjoying spending time in his own poem, which is unfinished. The poet tells Lavinia more about Aeneas: Aeneas journeyed to the underworld to get divine guidance about his voyage. He didn’t look for Creusa’s spirit because he had to look forward for his people, not back. He and his people sailed to Sicily, where Anchises died, and then arrived in Carthage in northern Africa. Carthage was ruled by Queen Dido, who fell in love with Aeneas. Aeneas loved Dido but knew that he wasn’t fated to be with her. When he left Carthage to continue his journey, Dido, stricken with grief and despair, died by suicide. When Aeneas visited the underworld, he saw Dido, but she refused to speak with him.

Lavinia tells the poet about her own life. The poet already knows about Silvia and her stag, and Lavinia wonders whether he knows everything. He admits that he knows little and says that he’ll order his poem to be burnt. Lavinia doesn’t know what he means but doesn’t like how it sounds. The poet tells Lavinia more about Aeneas’s descent into the underworld: He met Deiphobos, Paris’s brother, who died in the Trojan War. Deiphobos told Aeneas, “Go on, go, my glory. I am gone” (47). The poet, too, will soon be gone. Lavinia doesn’t want him to go.

In the morning, the poet disappears, and Lavinia spends the day by herself until nightfall, when he returns. He wonders how he knows what the underworld is like and vaguely remembers visiting it with a man he met in the woods. The man wasn’t Aeneas. His cruel descriptions of the souls of babies being punished after death angers Lavinia. The poet agrees to remove this passage from his poem if he’s allowed to do so. He’s unhappy with the current ending but doesn’t know what a better ending would be. He regrets not giving Lavinia more of a life in his poem. He tells her that after leaving Carthage, Aeneas returned to Sicily to celebrate his father’s life. The goddess Juno prevented him from leaving, which confuses Lavinia; she knows Juno as a sacred power inherent in women. Eventually, Aeneas and some of his people left Sicily and sailed toward Latium; he’ll arrive soon. The poet urges Lavinia to return to Albunea one more time to visit him before he dies.

Lavinia reflects on her love for Aeneas and for the poet. Had the poet died before becoming great, she and Aeneas and all the other characters would never have existed. Now, she’s a voice in the forest of Albunea; “all [she] can say is: Go, go on” (53).