Aeneid,

by Virgil & Robert Translator Fagles

Aeneid, 8th (eighth) Edition

Genres: Classics, Fiction

Paperback

Reviews

[Aaron Crofut · Rating 5 out of 5]

A match for Homer, to say the least. A classic. I ended up rereading this based on a review of an entirely different work which basically said the Aeneid speaks more to the Christian mentality than the Odyssey. Odysseus desires to return to Ithaca; Aeneas, tossed about the seas like his Ithacan counterpart, cannot return to Troy, but has to seek a home he has never seen. Not a perfect encapsulation of the Christian notion of pilgrimage, obviously, but close enough that I can see why monks took to the time and cost to handwrite this story over centuries.

I made an attempt to read it in Latin, but my state of life isn't conducive to that right now. What I did read in the original (Book I, selections from Book II) was incredible. Maybe the day will come when I can quietly sit down with it, Latin dictionary close by to look up a host of nautical terms, and just devour this book.

[Billy · Rating 4 out of 5]

So this is how the mighty Roman Republic/Empire got its start? Through an avoidable war fanned by the frivolity of the gods? "Did it please you so, great Jove, to see the world at war, the peoples clash that would later live in everlasting peace." And finally, "now I yield, Juno yields, and I leave this war I loathe. But this—and there is no law of Fate to stop it now—this I beg for Latium, for the glory of your people. When, soon, they join in their happy wedding bonds—and wedded let them be—in pacts of peace at last, never command the Latins, here on native soil, to exchange their age-old name, to become Trojans, called the kin of Teucer, alter their language, change their style of dress. Let Latium endure. Let Alban kings hold sway for all time. Let Roman stock grow strong with Italian strength. Troy has fallen—and fallen let her stay—with the very name of Troy."

But such horrific violence to get to this point! As Jupiter replies, "It started all for nothing... Latium's sons will retain their fathers' words and ways. Their name till now is the name that shall endure. Mingling in stock alone, the Trojans will subside. And I will.. make them Latins all, who speak the Latin tongue." Down the road becoming the mighty Roman Empire.

It's hard for me to evaluate Fagles' translation, having read no other.

[Bruce · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of masculine energy- the glory won in battle, nearly all male characters . There are a couple exceptions where women are leaders. Not bad for an epic poem written during the Empire of Rome. as an animal lover, there was way too much slaughtering for ritual as well as food.

The story itself is memorable. The telling of the fall of Troy (different from the story in the Iliad, which I’ve not read.) and the gift of the Trojan Horse is interesting. Aeneas’ trip to visit his father in the land of the dead is fascinating. The gods are a meddlesome bunch. I’d recommend this translation, which has helpful introduction and postscript, along with charts and a glossary of the many Roman names.

[Jonathan Finley · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this read. After reading Homer, Virgil reads like an equal from the Roman perspective. I think to really appreciate all the references, you need a little historical background in early Roman history.

[Christian · Rating 5 out of 5]

It’s everything I enjoy about reading antiquity.

[Allan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some of the innumerable observations made about Virgil's magnum opus can be useful to the reader who hasn't yet been introduced to Aeneid. For example, it's Homer in reverse, which is to say that in Aeneid, a period of wandering and seeking forms the first part of the story, a la Odyssey. The second part then deals at length with an epic battle as does Iliad. Also of note is Aeneas' overall character. While he is, as the title suggests, the central focus of Virgil's narrative, he is not at all of the same nature as Homeric figures like Achilles or Ulysses, so don't expect him to become like that. Aeneid has been translated by a legion of writers over the centuries, including John Dryden, Seamus Heaney and generations of schoolboys in earlier times. This version by Robert Fagles, though, is really all anyone needs. Everything is there, so that the incidents and episodes which so many retellings have made famous over time come to life in the mind of the reader. Harrowing, heartbreaking, breathtaking and bloody, Fagles renders them vivid and indelible in the imagination.
(And he's also translated Homer.) The Iliad / The Odyssey