The AeneidA fresh and faithful translation of Vergil’s Aeneid restores the epic’s spare language and fast pace and sheds new light on one of the cornerstone narratives of Western culture. “Vivid and haunting . . . a model of how to render Latin poetry in English.”—Tom Holland, New Statesman For two thousand years, the epic tale of Aeneas’s dramatic flight from Troy, his doomed love affair with Dido, his descent into the underworld, and the bloody story behind the establishment of Rome has electrified audiences around the world. In Vergil’s telling, Aeneas’s heroic journey not only gave Romans and Italians a thrilling origin story, it established many of the fundamental themes of Western life and literature—the role of duty and self-sacrifice, the place of love and passion in human life, the relationship between art and violence, the tension between immigrant and indigenous people, and the way new foundations are so often built upon the wreckage of those who came before. Throughout the course of Western history, the Aeneid has affirmed our best and worst intentions and forced us to confront our deepest contradictions. Shadi Bartsch, Guggenheim Laureate, award-winning translator, and chaired professor at the University of Chicago, confronts the contradictions inherent in the text itself, illuminating the epic’s subversive approach to storytelling. Even as Vergil writes the foundation myth for Rome, he seems to comment on this tendency to mythologize our heroes and societies, and to gesture to the stories that get lost in the mythmaking. Bartsch’s groundbreaking translation, brilliantly maintaining the brisk pace of Vergil’s Latin even as it offers readers a metrical line-by-line translation, provides a literary and historical context to make the Aeneid resonant for a new generation of readers. |
Contents
viii | |
xv | |
Translators Note | xlix |
LANDFALL AT CARTHAGE | 3 |
THE FALL OF TROY | 27 |
MEDITERRANEAN WANDERINGS | 52 |
DIDOS SUICIDE | 74 |
TROJAN GAMES | 96 |
AN EMBASSY TO EVANDER | 175 |
NISUS AND EURYALUS | 197 |
BLOODSHED AND PALLAS DOWN | 222 |
TRUCE AND CONFLICT | 250 |
THE LAST DUEL | 278 |
Notes | 304 |
Bibliography | 325 |
222 | 346 |
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Common terms and phrases
Achilles Aeneas Aeneid ally altar Anchises ancient Apollo armed armor battle blood body Book bring brother called camp chariot coast dark daughter death Dido earth epic eyes face fall fate father fear fields fight fire flames fleet followed force friends gates giant gifts give goddess gods gold Greek ground hands head heart hold hope horses island Italian Italy Juno Jupiter killed king land Latin leave light live looked mother night offered once Pallas queen race rage raised reached river Roman Rome rule Rutulian sacred sail sent shield ships shore side soldiers spear spoke stars storm story strength sword tears tell took town translation Trojan troops Troy turned Turnus Venus Vergil walls waves weapons wife winds wound