Not much warning of which chapter your in, so if this is for school purposes, you may want to get the Robert Fitzgerald translation in the actual book. The Aeneid was written by the Roman poet Virgil, in the age of Augustus, as a founding myth for the emerging Roman empire. It was strictly read for school purposes, though I would listen to it again. Have you listened to any of Christopher Ravenscroft’s other performances before? How does this one compare?ĭid you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry? The best of both books, though not as much of a smash and bang cacaphony like the Iliad, and it has the better storyline of the Odyssey. The first part of this book is adventurous, like the Odyssey, and the second is fighting, like the Iliad. This book is easy to understand, fascinating and helps one better understand Greek myths and Roman mythology. Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why? The audio book version is lovely the narrator did an excellent job! Virgils epic tale tells the story of Aeneas, a Trojan hero, who flees his city after its fall. The Fitzgerald version of this poem reads easily and strives to remain faithful to the Latin version whilst inserting well-chosen words to help the modern reader get the gist of the poem. Certainly, the poem as it stands is missing some final pieces but regardless, it is an absorbing literary adventure filled with mythical and godly characters, as well as humans. Aeneas fulfills his pietas to Rome but to what end for him? The dactylic hexameter falters in several places in the poem which makes me wonder how many drafts of the poem Virgil worked through. nation, and what does self-denial buy? Dido certainly pursued her passion but to no end. EXCERPT: AENEID II, 3-56 TRANSLATED BY ROBERT FITZGERALD -t h e c l a s s i c s p a g e s: v i r g i l s p a g e -Vergils Home Page -Introduction to Virgil, The Aeneid (John D. The main questions that linger for me are what is one's duty to one's family v. I found this poem to be less majestic than Homer's Odyssey and Iliad, but due to the tragic overtones, much more human and thought provoking.
His path is littered with tragedy, both from the choices Aeneas makes to the choices other characters in the poem make, including the gods themselves. The poem traces the path of Aeneas from the Trojan war to his assignment from the gods to found Rome. But in the end, does it matter if it emulated Homer? I posit no. They are all blank-verse and similar in their technique. does it successfully emulate Homer? This is a tricky question, and potentially unanswerable. Three major American translations of the Aeneid have come out over the last fifty years: Alan Mandelbaum’s in 1972, Robert Fitzgerald’s in 1983, and Robert Fagles’s in 2008. As such, this epic poem is the result of a commission by Augustus Caesar to write something rivaling the oral history of Homer. Ly the best epic poet the Romans had to offer. Epic translation of an epic poem = an epic listen!