circa 740 BCE
I know it is a dream but it doesn’t help
every night I relive it
the old woman rushes in with her torch
river-wept in dream-shock
shouting my terrors
dear sister you are father-favoured
but he forsakes me in these hours
I tell you
life and energy abscond
abandon my whole body
the man who takes me
it is Mars
he is handsome and I am swept away
to an enchanted willow grove
embraced by the river
I am lost in that strange locale
my very self displaced
I am ravaged
and he laughs
sister afterwards I ache
I do not know up from down
earth sways at my every step
a disembodied voice sounds
our father Aeneas
you must bear these troubles alone
he does not comfort me
only the old woman with her trembling limbs
he does not come to me nor defend me
he kowtows to the one who calls himself god
as if this excuses rape
I reach my hands skyward
but all the words I hear are smooth-tongued
blandishments
I am heart-sick
and insomnia stalks my sleep
Notes
I wrote a book of poems while I had a Literature Residency in Rome in 2013-2014. I threw myself into the founding stories of Rome and discovered some interesting back stories that are usually not reported. It comes from my long reading of myths and unpacking from a feminist perspective.
This poem is translated from the Latin poem by Ennius written in 150 BCE.
Ilia/Rhea Silvia is the daughter of Aeneas (responsible for founding the city of Roma after the Cumaean Sibyl’s prophecy) and Eurydice; she is the full sister of the unnamed woman whom she addresses in this poem. Ilia is the mother of Romulus and Remus, the children born as a result of the rape by the god of war, Mars.
Ilia’s second name is Rhea Silvia. Rhea suggests the Greek word rheo ‘flow’, therefore associated with the river, the spirit of the Tiber. It is possible there is a connection to res and regnum, hence to the ruling family. Silvia is the Latin word for ‘forest’ or ‘woods’, suggesting a goddess of the forests, perhaps Diana.
This story has so many convolutions because Ilia aka Rhea Silvia is also a vestal virgin. The vestal virgins were selected at a very young age (six to ten years) and expected to remain virgins until the age of thirty-five. In a society where a virgin is an independent woman with sacred power, the important thing is that she not be at the beck and call of a husband. By being selected, this daughter of royalty is prevented from having heirs. Her father Numitor had a nasty younger brother, Amulius, who had already killed Numitor’s son and wanted to see an end to his line. In the poem Ilia is referred to as a daughter of Aeneas (eleven generations back) a shorthand term representing the lineage of Aeneas.
When Rhea Silvia aka Ilia gave birth to twins the punishment was jail (weighed down with chains, according to Livy) and her children thrown in the river.
The poem is from my book Lupa and Lamb (2014)