Geomythology and the Death of King Priam in The Aeneid,Book 2

This article examines an anomaly in Virgil’s Aeneid, book 2, and offers a possible solution based on the method known as geomythology. In this section of the poem, the narrator depicts the fatal stabbing of King Priam in front of his own altar, within the citadel of Troy, as the city is being burned by the Greeks. Immediately following this passage is a curious ‘epitaph’ for Priam, which notes that his body is huge, decapitated, and lying on a beach. Scholars have provided various explanations for this apparent discrepancy, with varying degrees of success. This article explores how a geomythological approach, focusing on the misidentification of the remains of a woolly mammoth, may resolve the issue.