I've found this series to offer solid translations with outstanding notes. If you choose to read the Iliad and the Odyssey, you might also wish to seek out those titles in the Oxford World's Classics series, if for nothing else for their introductions and notes. You might also want to read Euripides' Medea in connection with Book 4 of the Aeneid. I haven't seen this moderately-priced translation in the Oxford World's Classics series, but it looks promising, with introduction and notes by Elaine Fantham:Ī very brief notice, not a full-blown review:Ī laudatory review under the JSTOR paywall: I'm not familiar with translations, but I would recommend getting an English translation with copious notes that illuminate Vergil's complex allusions and other aspects of his art, even if you choose a different translation to read. Reading the Iliad and the Odyssey first will enrich your experience of the Aeneid. This transformation of Homer (and other ancient literature) is a major aspect of Vergil's art, and one of the factors that make the Aeneid a profound masterpiece, and not just a bald narrative of Aeneas' adventures. Featuring an illuminating introduction to Virgil's world by. Vergil expects his readers to be familiar with the Iliad and the Odyssey, and to be able to appreciate how he reshapes and transforms the Homeric poems in fashioning his epic of Roman origins. Robert Fagles, whose acclaimed translations of Homer's Iliad and Odyssey were welcomed as major publishing events, brings the Aeneid 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.
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