Lavinia

Content Warning: This section discusses child death and enslavement.

The titular and central character of Le Guin’s Lavinia is based on the character of the same name from the Aeneid, though in the original poem, Lavinia doesn’t speak and plays only a minor role as Aeneas’s future wife. The poet’s literary neglect of her character gives her immortality. In Lavinia, she describes herself as not having “enough life to die” (188). Other characters, including Aeneas, Ascanius, Latinus, and even Amata, are vibrant enough in the Aeneid to die, either in the poem’s narrative or afterward. In contrast, Lavinia merely transforms into an owl at the end of her story and lives on in the woods of Albunea and the words of the poet.

In Lavinia, she’s able to become a fully formed character. She gets to meet the poet and understand her place in the story. She learns from him about some aspects of her fate but forgets certain details when she returns to her everyday life. Reflecting one of the novel’s primary themes, Duty and Piety, Lavinia has high regard for these values, trusting the