Pretty interesting. Long winded in places, but otherwise enjoyable.

trauma

I love this Latin epic! Perhaps not as popular as The Odyssey or The Iliad, it is every bit as great. Aeneas' adventures are just tremendous as, like Orpheus, he even descends into Hell! Dido is one of the great classical heroines, and the battles & sea journeys are amazing! A tale of the founding of Rome like no other!

I translated most of chapter 4-6 in Latin 300 at the University. I love this book so much. It inspired me to pursue Classics for a time and it continues to shape the way I look at the world.

did not enjoy….homer did it better….

Actually reding Allen Mandelbaum's translation. Big fan so far.

I gave it three stars because the translation was beautiful, as expected, however, because I read this direct after the Iliad, it fell completely flat. The characters are completely flat and boring and their are no surprises anywhere in the epic. It's basically just propaganda for the Romans.

Again, read following the text while listening to audio. Not as taken with the Roman classic as with the Greek Iliad and the Odyssey. Perhaps the audio reader not as engaging as Audra Macdonald and Clare Danes…

Skipped around and translated a bit for Latin.

It's what you can expect of a classic: moving lines, connections to many other classics, etc. This one sat really well with me because of the depth with which Vergil explores Aeneas's story arc as a diasporic survivor who will later beget a race of imperialists. Aeneas + Dido was, predictably, breathtaking and heartrending.

Thanks T!

Didn't finish the entire thing, but had a blast translating most of Book I and II into English for Latin class. Plenty of helpful notes and vocab list in the back as aids.

The wonderful, thought-provoking piece of propaganda rendered in beautiful Latin. I think the earlier books are better (esp. Books 2 & 4) while the rest of them (1, 3, 5) focus too much on wandering around and lack the narrative focus which I like from books 2 and 4. Nonetheless, it’s clear that Virgil chose this alternating structure to give these first few books a sense of restlessness as Aeneas searches for a new home, thus balancing out his Odyssey-like journey with occasional detours wherein characters and plot can be further developed. Because the next six books focus on war, it seems to me like Virgil is juggling the two epic traditions (found in the Iliad and the Odyssey) on a number of levels. That he can do this so well is impressive, but I’m not sure how much I’m enjoying the balancing act.