[.ca] The Aeneid of Virgil (ISBN 0881030694)

I sing of a good translation:
Roman society was enamoured of Greek culture -- many of the best 'Roman' things were Greek; the major gods were derivative of the Greek pantheon; philosophy, literature, science, political ideals, architecture -- all this was adopted from the Greeks. It makes sense that, at the point of their ascendancy in the world, they would long for an epic history similar to the Homeric legends; the Iliad and the Odyssey, written some 500 years after the actual events they depict, tell of the heroism of the Greeks in their battle against Troy (Ilium). The Aeneid, written by Vergil 700 years after Homer, at the commission of Augustus (himself in the process of consolidating his authority over Rome), turns the heroic victory of the much-admired Greeks on its head by postulating a survivor from Troy, Aeneas, who undergoes as journey akin to the Odyssey, even further afield. Vergil constructs Aeneas, a very minor character in the Iliad, as the princely survivor and pilgrim from Troy, on a journey through the Mediterranean in search of a new home. According to Fitzgerald, who wrote a brief postscript to the poem, Vergil created a Homeric hero set in a Homeric age, purposefully following the Iliad and Odyssey as if they were formula, in the way that many a Hollywood director follows the formulaic pattern of past successful films. Vergil did not create the Trojan legend of Roman origins, but his poem solidified the notion in popular and scholarly sentiment. Vergil sets the seeds for future animosity between Carthage and Rome in the Aeneid, too -- the curse of queen Dido on the descendants of Aeneas of never-ending strife played into then-recent recollections of war in the Roman mind. Books I through VI are much more studied than VII through XII, but the whole of the Aeneid is a spectacular tale. Mandelbaum's translation is poetic and stately, giving grace and life to the epic poem. Sometimes long-form poetry can become overblown in self-indulgence; Mandelbaum's translation avoids this by writing in free verse for the most part. There are no forced rhymes and schemes that detract from the story line. Word choice is contemporary and engaging. Vergil died before he could complete the story. He wished it to be burned; fortunately, Augustus had other ideas. Still, there are incomplete lines and thoughts, and occasional conflicts in the storyline that one assumes might have been worked out in the end, had more editing time been available. Despite these, the Aeneid remains a masterpiece, and Mandelbaum's translation will likely be a companion for students and other readers for a long time to come.

Absolutely the Best:
I have read 4 different translations of the Aeneid. This is the best by far. It is not a literal, line for line translation, which often comes off the wrong way. It is a more free translation, to convey the meaning, not the same structure as the original latin work. Allen Mandelbaum does an amazing job and his writing is very beautiful. Even from the very first page this book jumps out at you. The reason why Virgil wanted this book destroyed after his death was because he felt it was unfinished. But there is very little that should be added. There are a couple of very minor plot holes (such as how did the Trojans built their fortress in Italy so quickly?) that Virgil had not fully polished yet, but who cares? The story is amazing, and unlike the Iliad or the Odyssey, the gods don't interfere in each and every small thing that happens, which was annoying in those books. If you liked the Iliad and Odyssey, you will love the Aeneid. Consider it like a sequel. You find out what happened to certain characters like Andromache, Helenus or Diomedes after the Trojan war. I just can't recommend this book enough, and it's impossible to put its greatness into a few words. Why a movie version has never been made, I will never know, but maybe that's a blessing, because I shudder to think of the damage a Hollywood version would do to the image of the book.

Mandelbaum's translation a treasure:
I was never extremely taken with the Aeneid even though I had read it in Latin years ago. I also felt that translations I would sample out of curiosity only reinforced any negative feelings I had - adding the inadequacy of translation to what I felt was a lack in the original. I could admire Vergil's skill in various passages in Latin but to me, as in the tag line of Mark Van Doren that Mandelbaum quotes in his Introduction (and that his translation is a good antidote to), whereas 'Homer is a world; Virgil \oonly - my addition\c a style'. Mandelbaum has helped free me from my prejudice. His translation moves me to go back to the Latin again but also is something I want to have in my library to read because it itself is interesting and helps remind me to open the 'combination lock' of my mind to the wonder of what the Aeneid is, instead of just resenting that it is not Homer. I have been so impressed that I have ordered his translation of the Inferno also. That, I think, is high praise about a translation, that it and the notes help me avoid the kind of biassed mindset, something like a somewhat toxic culture shock, that kept me from really being open to the power of this work. \oIn other words it is not enough just to 'know what the words mean' (dangerous illusion that) but to feel through to the nuance of how the spirit of the language flows through its words - something I certainly did not have for non theological/ philosophical Latin before\c. Allen Mandelbaum, scholar and poet, is someone I acknowledge with awe as a benefactor in giving this translation. For anyone interested in looking at the Latin for this and other classics, I would suggest the website for the amazing Perseus project (the Latin words are hypertext pointers to dictionary entries) at http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cache/perscoll_Greco-Roman.html (as you go down the page this pointer gets you to, you will see all their classical authors listed by name under the heading 'texts' - clicking on the author's name will get you to their work) IN looking for Virgil in their list of Greco-Roman authors it is important to know he is listed by his Latin name, P. Vergilius Maro, but under 'V', just after the Greek historian Thucydides and before Vetruvius Pollio. That would be an interesting supplement to this magnificent translation, for those with enough Latin to try wading a bit in the original.

Mandelbaum's Aeneid translation was an awakening for me:
Decades ago I found the Aeneid in Latin easy to respect but not something I could feel that enthusiastic about whereas Homer (specifically the Illiad) in Greek made me think that that experience would have been worth building an entire education around. I have in the years since then had occasion to think about 'culture shock' and seen first hand some of the misunderstandings that can happen cross culturally even with people who think that they are able to understand the language associated with other cultures, at least on a word by word basis. Just thinking that one 'knows what the words/ symbols mean' in some artificial isolation does not mean that one understands a statement or a text. Yet with Vergil (or Virgil) and especially the Aeneid, I think I was always on the wrong side of a refractive cross cultural distortion, so to speak, like the most culture shock blinded 'but I looked up the words in the dictionary' student one could imagine - despite all the Latin I knew and what had once been a competition winning ability at Latin translation. What has awed me about this brilliant translation by professor and poet Allen Mandelbaum is that it and his notes have helped remedy to some degree my previous lack of appreciation. He has given not only this wonderful English translation but an ability to better find the Latin Vergil - a treasure that despite my background I had not had before. Anyone wishing to try wading in the Aeneid in Latin might be interested in experimenting with the text in the on-line Perseus project's digital library \obased in the classics department at Tufts University but supported by grants from all over\c. The following pointer will get to a hypertext list of various Greek and Roman texts offered online http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cache/perscoll_Greco-Roman.html#text1 - to get to the Aeneid, go down the list which is in alphabtical order to where 'P. Vergilius Maro' occurs right after Thucydides {the sorting being on the 'V' in 'Vergilius'} and select the Latin text (there are hypertext links for each word in the Latin text to dictionary entries for the word and one can also switch to an English translation of the page being looked at whenever one wishes) But I first advise, look at this translation!

Aeneid (Story of Aeneas):
Unlike Homer or many who came before him, Virgil didn't believe in the myths like the ancient Greeks did. So where the "Iliad" was probably based on some real event, the "Aeneid" is completly made up. That dose not mean that it is bad, it isn't. It's like the best parts of "Iliad" and "Odyssey" put into this one poem. Aeneas and a small band of Trojans escape the carnage of Troy and eventually land in what would become Rome. There is adventure, action, drama, and a little romance. It has the makings of a great story, and sometimes it is. Oh, how do you trash a classic? You don't, but still there is too much national pride and propaganda of "future" Roman heros for my taste. Still worth it's reading, if you can get it cheap, or more likely, get it at the library.