CERVINE STORIES: COLONIZATION AND THE CONTESTED WILD FROM VERGIL’S LATIUM TO THE NEW WORLD

This article focuses on Aeneid 7.475−510, in which the killing of a tame deer sets off the war between the newly-arrived Trojans and the native Latins. It situates the story within Vergil’s larger narrative of colonization and reads it in conjunction with other trials and conflicts over the killing of deer in colonial America. Deer occupy a liminal space between wilderness and domestication, and stories about deer from colonial contexts share similarities that raise questions about the colonial experience and highlight the complexity of encounters between colonizing forces, local inhabitants, and the natural environment.