Aeneid

The Trojan Odyssey. Interesting for how it has carried down even until today.

I listened to the audiobook read by Simon Callow. He was an excellent narrator. The story itself is a classic, and one that is somewhat familiar to people: the Trojan Horse, the betrayal of Dido, the journey to the Underworld, the voyage to found Rome. It’s part of our Western folklore. Hearing poetry aloud makes a big difference in understanding. The Fagles translation, while somewhat stilted, is understandable when written, but even better aloud. Like Homer, Virgil’s poetry definitely benefits from being read in audiobook form (at least if you have a good narrator).

This is poetry, and is therefore harder for me to read. The introduction is very helpful; if doing it again, I would read the corresponding part prior to each book/chapter. The story is sort of a combination of the Iliad (war) and the Odyssey (travels).

Another classic! Interesting to hear the Trojan side of this and also the slightly different Roman Gods. Aeneas is a great hero and the story suitably epic!

Klassieke vertaling van Anton van Wilderode.Episch-lyrisch hoogtepunt, maar soms zwakke structuur (vooral boek 7 en 8). Inhoudelijk zeer sterk schatplicht aan Homeros (boek 1-6: Odyssea, 7-12: Ilias).Dramatische sterkte is de concentratie op personen en actie. Centrale thema's: trouw, vriendschap, eergevoel. Grote rol van fatum en interventie van de goden (medehoofdrolspelers).Structurele zwakheden:- Dido is ontrouw, Vergilius niet- in boek 10 besluiten de goden neutraal te blijven, maar ze blijven ingrijpen, zonder commentaar van de auteur;Merkwaardige tweedeling: boek 1-6 zachtaardig en gevoelig van inslag, boek 7-12 actie op de voorgrond en eerder wreedaardige inslag.

Boy, I really liked this.

Not sure why, but I just wasn't enjoying listening to this one. Odd for something that's supposed to be read aloud! Maybe the narrator?

Even though "pious" Aeneas isn't as clever or as entertaining as wiley Odysseus, he's still pretty cool.

Though I like The Odyssey and the Iliad better than the Aeneid, I feel that the Aeneid is one of those classics that everyone should read at some point in their life-time. Virgil borrowed so much from these two other classics, for the purpose of glorifying Rome, its history, and Augustus. What I really like about the Aeneid is that it gives you 'the rest of the story.' You find out how the Trojan War ends with the Greeks tricking the Trojans into pulling the Trojan horse into the city. Aeneas, throughout the story is seen as a father figure to his people and a man who cares more for his people than about just the glories of war that you see in the Iliad. We witness a lot of emotional events such as Dido's death. We learn more about the underworld, and the role of the gods who seem to play a smaller role than in the Iliad, but we also witness the strong role of fate in the story. KU professor, Stanley Lombardo's translation is a nice edition to read. It's a little easier to follow than some editions I have read. One aspect of his translation that I really like is that he italicizes the epic similes. This seems to give them a little more separation from the story, but allows you to understand them a little easier.

A classic - it is what it is. I had never studied this in college, so looked forward to reading one of the foundations of classic literature. For a modern reader, it was a slog - especially the battle scenes which listed every person killed, their back story and the gory detail of how they died. I got a little tired of vomiting blood and meddling gods. What I did appreciate was the context of the piece. It's basically a paean to Augusta Caesar by telling the family myth of illustrious and goddess-born ancestors therefore legitimizing Julius Caesar's and Augusta's own deifications. Virgil also manages to highlight a few other powerful men and their roots among the Aeneas' followers. I'm afraid I can't comment on the quality of the translation, but I found it readable.

I read this in Latin and survived the experience only because I was young and stubborn. In truth, the Odyssey is a much better written tale.

A bit of a slog. Much harder to get through than Odyssey, less poignant than Illiad. Still, the section on Dido was moving and the bit in Book 6 (?) about the Queen of the Latins was worth the price of admission.

The Penguin Classics edition provides a 42-page preface, an extensive glossary, and some maps. This material contributed greatly to my immense enjoyment of Dryden's luxurious translation, most in rhymed iambic pentameter couplets, like much of the verse of the eighteenth century.

In my opinion, the greatest of the Classical epics. The Aeneid does not merely praise the glory of Rome and Augustus by exhalting Aeneas; it conveys a melancholy for everything that Aeneas, the Trojans, and even their enemies underwent in order to bring about fate. Rome's enemy Carthage, and even Hannibal who lead the invading army, is here depicted as the eventual avengers of a woman abandoned by her lover not for any fault of her own, but merely because the gods required him to be elsewhere. The Italians are shown as glorious warriors, whose necessary deaths in battle may not be worth it. Finally there is the end, not with the joy of triumph, but with the death moan of the Italian leader. The translation by David West perfectly captures the tone of the original.

This is a classic of course. This translation in particular is quite well done. It has excellent notes and references. I love this work particularly because of the context in which it was written which gives depth to many of the events and/or the way in which they are portrayed.

I found this easier to get through than [book: The Iliad], I think because at least for the first half there was stuff going on besides warfare. But I think I'm kind of epiced out after those two and [book: Paradise Lost] all this semester.

The fact that this is unfinished makes me want to gnaw on my own liver - because it ends right when things start (finally) getting interesting. Still an interesting read, however, if only to get glimpses into the way the ancient Greeks thought.

A bit slow, but it certainly follows the whole "odyssey" thing.

Sometimes you just enjoy the book.

Virgil deals with war and peace, love and hate, gods and men, historic fact and pure fancy. Aeneis escapes from fallen Troy and founds Rome.

Interesting, humorous, informative and rather pleasant for the most part. To be honest with you, the parts I remember best are some of the races and the campfire stories and antics of some of the soldiers.I bogged down in some of the battles and other long descriptive parts, enjoyed the stories of people. The gods and goddesses were quite annoying, and if that isn't a good description of demons, I don't know what is. Petty, self-serving, envious and interfering to their own ends. Prayers and supplications made no difference, they were answered only as it suited the immortals ends, and their ends were always wrapped up in malice. As opposed to God, "For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope." Jeremiah 29:11

The epic poem of Aeneas who escaped from Troy, wandered the Mediterranean for years and eventually triggered the founding of Rome. Virgil presents a vivid tale, filled with heroic adventures largely for the purpose of giving Romans a legitimate claim to an ancient heritage that could rival the Greeks, to whom they felt culturally envious.

I really enjoy Fitzgerald's translation... I think he hit a home run on this one, although I'm not as hot on his Homeric translations. The Everyman's Library edition is quite an attractive one as well. As for the Aeneid, it's a fine tale of love and war, an interesting bit of propaganda, and some nice poetry. Those interested in Vergil as alchemist, rather than as author, should check out Avram Davidson's novels (particularly The Phoenix and the Mirror).

This is a verse translation of Virgil's epic poem "The Aeneid", which tells how the Trojans who were forced from their homeland following their defeat by the Greeks in the Trojan war, led by the hero Aeneas, travel in quest of a new homeland, and ultimately land in Italy, where after a series of battles and other machinations, conquer the Latians who live there, merge the two peoples, and become the foundation of the Roman state. Written at a time when the Roman Republic is being replaced by the Roman Empire, it is often regarded as a political epic meant to instill pride in an uneasy populace.

This is a new edition of the very old John Dryden translation of the original Latin, circa 1697. It is cleanly done, with some handsome illustrations. There is nothing in the way of scholarly additions to the text, simply the poem itself. Dryden chose to capture the spirit of the epic, rather than make a literal translation, and use a rhyming scheme.

The language is quite old-fashioned, and the story itself is quite epic, with 12 books within the poem, and filled with fickle and treacherous gods, doomed loves and copious battles and bloodshed. Readers don't see this scale of stories in modern day, with the exception elaborate epics from fantasy authors, e.g. Game of Thrones.

If you have an appreciation for classical themes, laced with battles and treachery, and have an affinity for stately language rarely heard today, this is a worthy volume.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. The opinions expressed are strictly my own.

John Dryden’s translation of The Aeneid is a masterful rendering that blends the grandeur of Virgil’s Latin epic with the elegance of 17th-century English verse. Employing heroic couplets, Dryden infuses the text with a rhythmic vitality and rhetorical flourish that reflect both the nobility of Aeneas’s journey and the translator’s own poetic sensibilities. While not a literal translation, Dryden’s version captures the spirit and drama of the original, making it accessible and compelling for readers who appreciate a more classical, stylized English. His interpretation emphasizes the moral and political themes of duty, destiny, and empire, aligning well with the Augustan ideals of his own time.

A readable and beautiful poetic rendition of Virgil's epic masterpiece. A translation as interpretation that loses none of its meaning. One of my favorites and a book to be read and reread.

Of the Odyssey, Iliad, and Aeneid, The Aeneid is my favorite. It's amazing the difference that a few centuries can make in terms of character and plot development and literary conventions like, you know, not having the gods spoil the plot right before it happens.

Ruden's introduction provides the basic info about how and why Vergil shaped the Aeneid to sort out the founding myths of Rome, praise its (relatively) new Emperor Augustus, and tout the benefits of an empire after the fall of the Roman Republic. In an explanation that gave me flashbacks to my first-semester class on the New Testament, way back in 2008, she explained that Vergil, like many ancient poets, found legitimacy by calling back to respected older works--in this case, the first part of the Aeneid reflects the beats and themes of the Odyssey, while the second part reflects the Iliad. Ruden also prepared me for the incredibly abrupt ending by explaining that Vergil died before he had a chance to finish the Aeneid, and that Augustus saved the unfinished work from the fate requested by the author: burning.

Ruden's translation also has some key elements that I would have sorely liked to see in Wilson's Odyssey and Alexander's Iliad: footnotes! They provided mythological and, sometimes, historical context (I would have liked more of the latter) to some of the many name-dropped families and mythological figures that would have been otherwise just been, well, ancient Greek or Latin to me. I'm a huge fan of footnotes. Gimme gimmie.

Finally, the language. Alexander's Iliad felt very functional, Wilson's Odyssey flowed with the beat of iambic pentameter, but Ruden's Aeneid, to me, seemed to find the best balance between clarity and poetry.

Alas, to my shame I was epic poetry-d out and took a pretty long break in the middle. That loss of momentum has kind of fizzled my enthusiasm for writing a long review. On top of that, I've discovered that some of my past reviews on Goodreads have disappeared. I can't be sure since I didn't receive any warnings or notice from Goodreads, but I suspect that my Quote Roundups--despite my efforts to only quote portions insignificant in comparison to the books as a whole--may have had something to do with it. So I did keep notes, and I'll include them, but again, not feeling particularly inspired to do anything long and involved.

Quote/Thought Round-up

2:310) So apparently Paris died after the Iliad. Why the heck didn't the Trojans just give Helen up and call it a day after that?

2:402) "No one should trust the gods against their will."
No kidding, considering what they get up to.

In general, I find it amusing that Paris got so much flak for being the pretty son of Aphrodite/Venus when Aeneas never gets teased about it.

Chapter 4
Dang, Dido. Dang, Venus.

5:333) Nice to know austere ancient Greeks and Romans liked slapstick and scatalogical humor. Aiyah...

Chapter 6
Aeneas's journey to the underworld was awesome.

7:340-542) "Allecto, steeped in Gorgon poisons, rushed / and lurked there, at the threshold of Amata [Latinus's queen] / ... Dark snakes made up the Fury's hair: she tossed one / to glide - maddening, hellish - through the dress / into the heart, and rattled all the house. / Beneath her clothes it coiled, around her smooth breasts. / She couldn't feel it as it breathed its poison - / her frenzy.
The language of the fury Allecto's spreading poison of hate and war is so well done, not just here but as it spreads to first to other Latins and then to the Trojans. Props to Vergil and to Ruden.

8:314) "The native fauns and nymphs once shared this forest / with many a tribe born out of flinty oak trunks."
Kind of odd to read a once-upon-a-time line in a narrative that still includes nymphs and gods as key characters who interact with mortals.

9:178) Nisus and Euryalus--oh la la.

10:650) "You sailed here seeking land: I'll lay you on it."
The Romans have some killer lines. I mean, they tend to die after saying them, no matter how awesome they supposedly were up to that point in their lives, but still...epic last words even if they'd be better off in the mouths of the person who lives.

11:498-830) They may not have the best, most contemporary feminist storylines, but dang Dido and Camilla are awesome. Camilla's here, riding into war for the Latins. Too bad she was yet another woman warrior virgin sworn to Diana or Turnus might have been happier with her than with Lavinia.

11:891-895) "The very mothers on the walls, who'd witnessed / Camilla's love of country, tried to match her. / In their alarm, they hurled down posts of oak wood / and stakes singed hard in place of iron weapons. / They longed to die first in the town's defense."
I would, too, considering all they said they'd do to conquered cities, both in Latium and in Troy.

I’ve never been a fan of epic poetry (besides The Divine Comedy), but coming from an insomniac, I found this one the perfect bedtime companion.

This one, I found, only okay. I came into it hoping to get a bit more depth on the end of the Trojan War, having finished both The Iliad and The Odyssey.

But this just seemed to meander. Lots of fighting, lots of blood and entrails and brain matter. Lots of somewhat hysterical women and angry men. But it felt, at times very much a retread of Homer's Odyssey.

And Aeneas? I'm sorry, but dude's just a bitch. He lost two fights during the Trojan War, and both times, gods saved his ass by whisking him away. Here, he gets new armour and weapons from the gods, and once again, the gods interfere to make him the big prophesied hero he supposedly was destined to be.

In the meantime, he also has a big romantic love affair with Dido, but leaves her, and she basically goes bunny-boiler and piles up his stuff, sets it on fire, then throws herself on top and kills herself.

...okay, maybe he was better off to leave her, on second thought.

And the end just seemed to drag on and on and on, to the point where I literally pulled out my phone to check and see how much time was left on the audio book.

Anyway. That Virgil...he's no Homer, let me tell you.

If you like excruciatingly detailed descriptions of glorious battles and sports, if you'd like to Make Rome Great Again, this is the book for you. Me, not so much.