Lavinia ( ; ) 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.
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.Virgil, Aeneid 7.70–74, trans. Robert Fitzgerald. Turnus, ruler of the Rutuli, was the most likely of the suitors, having the favor of Queen Amata.Virgil, Aeneid 7.75, trans. Robert Fitzgerald. 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.Appian, Kings 1. Livy, Ab Urbe Condita 1.11ff, Dionysius of Halicarnassus Roman Antiquities, 1. 59.1ff
By some accounts, Aeneas and Lavinia had a son, Silvius, a legendary king of Alba Longa.Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Roman Antiquities 1.70, Virgil, Aeneid 6.1024–1027. 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.Livy, Ab Urbe Condita, 1.1.11–1.3.1 ("His son Ascanius was not old enough to assume the government but his throne remained secure throughout his minority. During that interval—such was Lavinia's force of character—though a woman was regent, the Latin State, and the kingdom of his father and grandfather, were preserved unimpaired for her son." Trans. Canon Roberts). In Livy's account, Silvius is the son of Ascanius.Livy, Ab Urbe Condita 1.3.7.
Other accounts make Lavinia the daughter of King Anios from the Greek island of Delos, who gives her in marriage to Aeneas.Noted in Dion. Hal. Ant. Rom. 1.59.3, as well as the Origo Gentis Romanae, 9. 5.
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 136162.
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.
Notes
References Virgil. Aeneid. VII. Livy, Ab urbe condita Book 1.