Prophetess and co-foundrer of the Roman Empire
Probably a legendary figure but “where there’s smoke, there’s fire” and Lavinia’s symbolic meaningfulness rates her place here. Co-foundress of the Roman Empire, prophetess, daughter of a king, wife of Aeneas, made famous by Virgil, Dante and Ursula Le Guin; Lavinia helped continue the Trojan traditions and ruled “behind the throne” for her too-young-to rule son with Aeneas, Ascanius whose progeny Romulus and Remus established Rome. She represents convergence and appreciating diversity rather than allegiance to narrow sectarianism. The symbol of her hair catching on fire foreshadows both the brilliance and violence of the Roman empire.
“Men call women faithless, changeable, and though they say it in jealousy of their own ever-threatened sexual honor, there is some truth in it... As the moon changes yet is one, so we are virgin, wife, mother, grandmother.”
from Lavinia
Chapters:
25. The Mother of All Things
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“It's not death that allows us to understand one another, but poetry.”
from Lavinia
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“We who are called royal speak for our people to the powers of the earth and sky as those powers transmit through us. We are go-betweens.”
from Lavinia
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“Lavinia: ‘Why must there be war?... The horrible list of carnage they were making ready for… Why? What was it for? For a pet deer? For a girl? What good would that do?’
Turnus: ‘Without war there are no heroes. What harm would that be? Oh Lavinia, what a woman’s question that is.’”
from Lavinia
Chapters:
30. No War
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“I was doomed to sanity… Even a poet cannot get everything right.”
from Lavinia
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“He could not look farther than the moment… He met the event as it came and so events buffeted him and blew him about”
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