An Ode to Culex: Listening with Mosquitoes, from Virgil to Sápmi

Despite their long-standing infamy in dominant historical and literary accounts, mosquito sounds have at times been portrayed with curiosity or even poetic fascination. This chapter places such depictions in dialogue with Sámi acoustemological knowledge, where the mosquito’s whine carries musical, lyrical, and ecological value. Drawing on fieldwork interviews and Indigenous storytelling, it examines contrasts between human-centric aesthetics and Indigenous listening practices beyond nature-culture divides. From Virgil’s pastoral verses to contemporary orality, these sporadic “odes” suggest that human–mosquito relationships are more fluid than assumed, inviting us to hear their sound as more than mere nuisance—perhaps even as music.