I kept getting caught up in the rhymes, and wondering ten minutes later what had just happened. However, it was very hard for me to listen to the reading and focus on the story. Virgil wrote the poem in rhyming couplets, which Dryden's translation mirrors. This was probably a mistake, and I probably would have been better off with a prose translation. Virgil, however, seems much more focused on showing that Aeneas is awesome (which, given that the poem was produced for Augustus Caesar, who claimed decent from Aeneas, makes sense), and instead it just falls flat.ДЄs mentioned, I listened to John Dryden's 1697 translation. In The Odyssey, Homer manages to make you care about Odysseus, Telemachus, Penelope, and others. None of the characters are anyone I can really care about. It should be a good story, but it just doesn't click with me. The basic plot is that Trojan hero Aeneas sails the Mediterranean, stops off in Carthage where he hooks up with Queen Dido, then he dumps her, sails to Italy, kills a bunch of people, and becomes founder of Rome. Part of it was the book itself, and part of it was likely the translation I listened to, John Dryden's 1697 verse translation.

While The Odyssey is a huge favorite of mine, I just couldn't get into The Aeneid. Alas, Virgil's 19 BC epic poem just doesn't work for me as well. His works include The Heroic Temper: Studies in Sophoclean Tragedy, Oedipus at Thebes: SophoclesВ’ Tragic Hero and His TimeВ and Essays Ancient and ModernВ (awarded the 1989 PEN/Spielvogel-Diamonstein Award).The Aeneid is a classic of Western literature, so after re-reading The Odyssey again a few months ago, I decided to tackle The Aeneid, which I had read in college and had thought was okay at the time, again. Among his numerous honors are awards from the National Institute of Arts and Letters and the National Endowment for the Humanities. He taught at Yale University for many years. His translations include SophoclesВ’s Three Theban Plays, AeschylusВ’s OresteiaВ (nominated for a National Book Award), HomerВ’s IliadВ (winner of the 1991 Harold Morton Landon Translation Award by The Academy of American Poets), HomerВ’s Odyssey, and Virgil's Aeneid.Д«ernard KnoxВ (1914-2010) was Director Emeritus of HarvardВ’s Center for Hellenic Studies in Washington, D.C. He was the recipient of the 1997 PEN/Ralph Manheim Medal for Translation and a 1996 Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Marks в€Ў9 Professor of Comparative Literature, Emeritus, at Princeton University. Virgil is also credited with authoring two other major works of Latin literature, the EcloguesВ and the Georgics. In his comparatively short life he became the supreme poet of his age, whose AeneidВ gave the Romans a great national epic equal to the GreeksВ’, celebrating their cityВ’s origins and the creation of their empire. Publius Vergilius Maro (70-19 B.C.), known as Virgil, was born near Mantua in the last days of the Roman Republic. Readers trust theВ series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-dateВ translations by award-winning translators.

With more than 1,700В titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Featuring an illuminating introduction to VirgilВ’s world by esteemed scholar Bernard Knox, this volume lends a vibrant new voice to one of the seminal literary achievements of the ancient world.ДЇor more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. Robert Fagles, whose acclaimed translations of HomerВ’s IliadВ and OdysseyВ were welcomed as major publishing events, brings the AeneidВ to a new generation of readers, retaining all of the gravitas and humanity of the original Latin as well as its powerful blend of poetry and myth. An unsparing portrait of a man caught between love, duty, and fate, the AeneidВ redefines passion, nobility, and courage for our times. Ultimately, he reaches the promised land of Italy where, after bloody battles and with high hopes, he founds what will become the Roman empire. His voyage will take him through stormy seas, entangle him in a tragic love affair, and lure him into the world of the dead itself-all the way tormented by the vengeful Juno, Queen of the Gods. From the award-winning translator of The IliadВ and The OdysseyВ comes a brilliant new translation of Virgil's great epicДЇleeing the ashes of Troy, Aeneas, AchillesВ’ mighty foe in the Iliad, begins an incredible journey to fulfill his destiny as the founder of Rome.

The aeneid fitzgerald pdf