The Aeneid in Epic Poems Read Along!

Sep 15, 2016 Jon Nakapalau rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: classics, war, poetry

It is hard for me to rate his book because I know so much of it went over my head. One of the hardest books I have ever read...but I can see that Virgil is one of the greatest poets of all time.

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Apr 17, 2021 Alan (The Lone Librarian) Teder rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2021-reading-challenge, translated-by-sarah-ruden, poetry, iliad-sequel, translated-from-latin, 2021-re-reads

Arms and a man I sing
Review of the Yale University Press (YUP) paperback edition (2009*) of the YUP hardcover (2008) translated from the Latin language original Aenēis (19 BCE)

I very much enjoyed the readability and the plain modern day language of Sarah Ruden's recent translation of The Gospels (2021). That was enough for me to want to explore several of her other translation works of which I have now located several via the library. This earlier 2008 Aenied translation has now been supplanted ...more

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Feb 03, 2017 Michael Perkins rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Aeneas (a Trojan warrior depicted in the Iliad), in the aftermath of the Trojan War, is sailing with his fleet from Troy (located in Asia Minor---modern Turkey) to Italy. But they have incurred the wrath of Juno, the wife of Jove. Juno prevails upon the storm god, Aeolia, to unleash great winds and storms on the fleet. Many of the ships are lost at sea, and the remnant is shipwrecked on the North African coast.

Aeneas must display stoicism to keep his men in good spirits. After the shipwreck he ...more

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Mar 25, 2016 William Schram rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: mythology, classics, fantasy, fiction, poetry

I enjoyed the book; I have no qualms with the translation of Robert Fagles, and I suppose the story is interesting enough. I'm no scholar so I have no preconceived notions of how this book should be. Fagles' translation is easy enough to understand, most of the problems occur with the names and places that I am unfamiliar with.

The protagonist goes by the name of Aeneas. As the son of Anchises and Venus, he is the demigod scion of Troy, the last of the line of Dardanus. All Aeneas wants to do is I enjoyed the book; I have no qualms with the translation of Robert Fagles, and I suppose the story is interesting enough. I'm no scholar so I have no preconceived notions of how this book should be. Fagles' translation is easy enough to understand, most of the problems occur with the names and places that I am unfamiliar with.

The protagonist goes by the name of Aeneas. As the son of Anchises and Venus, he is the demigod scion of Troy, the last of the line of Dardanus. All Aeneas wants to do is build a home for his Trojan refugees in Italy, but all the powers of heaven and hell go against him, mostly acting in the form of the Queen of the Gods, Juno. On the other hand, all of the other gods allow him to do stuff with his life, since it is his fate to build another city.

Juno has none of this though and fights it every step of the way. So we get a pretty good grounding in how terrible and frightening a goddess she is, but it is rather ridiculous how stupid she gets at times. It seems so petty. Then again, that is the name of the game with the Roman and Greek Pantheon. I mean, correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't the whole Trojan War over some beauty contest with an apple? And they offered Paris some awesome gifts as bribes, but he chose Venus since she gave him the most beautiful woman in the world?

Like I said, this is a ridiculous reason to commit Genocide on an entire tribe or race of people. I am sure there was a deeper meaning or something, but I haven't really read the Iliad yet. It references some of the events in that case though, the death of Hector, the death of Achilles...

As far as The Aeneid goes though, this book was written back in the day by a man known as Virgil and subsequently became quite popular even though it was unfinished. Virgil was still polishing the work to his dying day. You can tell too, since the book ends pretty abruptly. This particular copy contains; an introduction by some fellow named Bernard Knox, the entire text of The Aeneid, a translator's postscript, and a glossary of terms and pronunciations that doubles as the index. ...more

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