For Lavinia-and me as a reader-I just saw violence and senseless death. I can easily imagine ancient Greek and Roman men listening, nodding their heads and admiring at the acts of heroism. Virgil recounts who will kill who and how in a litany that strongly reminded of passages from the Iliad. More than once, she’s told that these are women’s questions. There are a couple of points in Lavinia, when Lavinia asks a man why they’re fighting over such small things or why being a soldier is so glorious. Lavinia, from De mulieribus claris de Boccace c. That said, she’s not thrilled when she finds out that her marriage to Aeneas will also launch a devastating war. The words of the poet, who told her that she would marry a powerful man from the defeated Troy, comes as a relief to Lavinia. She knew that she would be married to another high-ranking man…and she is not thrilled with the choices. (I loved the comment by the poet about being in a dark, dark wood.) All Lavinia knows is what’s expected of her as the daughter of the king of Latium. Near the beginning of Lavinia, the woman herself begins to hear the voice of a dying poet who tells Lavinia what’s going to happen to her in the coming months and years. Then, she added a layer of Le Guin master story-telling. Le Guin discusses in her notes at the end of the book that, even with all the research she did, she still had to exercise her imagination to fill in the gaps. Lavinia is a historical figure, but between Virgil and Roman founding myths, we don’t know much about it.

So when I heard that Ursula Le Guin gave voice to a woman who wasn’t given dialogue in The Aenied in Lavinia, I jumped to read it, to see what she would say for herself.

What I remember is a lot of stabbing, gods ex machina–ing, and women being treated like pawns. When I was an undergraduate, I took a classical literature class in which I read the Iliad, the Odyssey, and the Aenied(at least, enough of the content to get the gist of things, otherwise I would have gone blind).

Lavinia ursula le guin review