Should be the standard contempory translation
Fitzgerald's metrical poetic translation flows smoothly across the page. His vocabulary is largely contemporary, lucid yet noble, with few archaisms, which is as it should be. Highly recommended as one of the best, if not the best, English translation available.
To those new to Virgil: The epic, written at the time of Augustus Caesar, relates the flight of a band of survivors from the fall of Troy led by prince Aeneas, who eventually establishes a precursor settlement to Rome in Italy. (Aeneas' son Ascanius/Julus is also the mythic progenitor of the Julian tribe, and so of Gaius Julius Caesar.) A basic knowledge of the background myths and legends is of help in fully appreciating the epic, though not essential. (As a knowledge of his extensive fictional background mythology is perhaps not essential to enjoying Tolkien, to posit a contemporary analogy.) Perhaps the first few books of Livy discussing the mythic founding by Romulus would be somewhat of an introduction to the Aeneid, though Virgil's epic forms a "prequel" to that story. Also lost for modern readers will be Virgil's evocation of historically important figures and sites, which for the Roman reader would evoke connotations similar to "Pocohontas" or "Plymouth Rock" for Americans.
Homer v. Virgil: If in Homer Odysseus is the man "of many turns" ["polytropos", which has connotations both of "wily" and "wandering"], Aeneas is the man "in duty bound" [as Fitzgerald aptly translates the Latin "pius"]. Though there is some peril in reading a modern sensibility into this, Odysseus is his own man, rather amoral, who loses all his companions during his voyage, in his personal goal to regain his throne and his wife Penelope. Aeneas is a man driven by the needs of a future imperial destiny, who must forsake one love (Dido of Carthage) to "bring home his gods to Latium." (Compare the blithe mutual termination by Odysseus & Calypso of their several years dalliance with Dido's suicide.) Still, modern readers may find less sympathy with the somewhat plodding Aeneas than with the more vibrant Odysseus. I'm not sure this wasn't intentional on Virgil's part.
For if the Aeneid is on one level a glorification of Roman might, yet Virgil reminds us throughout that "sunt lacrimae rerum et mentem mortalia tangunt" - "Tears there are in human affairs, and such things mortal touch the mind." And why, after Aeneas journeys to the underworld and is shown the yet unborn souls of Rome's future leaders, does he return to the earth through the gate of false dreams...the ivory gate, which would likely remind Roman readers of the ivory curile chair of office on which Roman officials - and Augustus - sat?
An Epic Masterpiece!
I actually translated The Aeneid from Latin to English when I was a junior in high school. However, I realized as I studied it for my Masters Epic/Mythology class, I was definitely not translating for comprehension. I must say that Homer has ruined me and I did not find Virgil's tragic view of life as inspiring... especially if we are to learn about Western civilization from it. If Aeneas went through the "ivory gate" of false dreams... what does that say about our fate as a country? This is a question still being debated about the propaganda this book supposedly represented of Roman history. Ultimately, I feel for Aeneas and his fate. It was his destiny to establish the foundations of Rome, and due to Juno's fury, those who loved him (especially Dido and Lavinia) suffered.
Beautiful translation of a Classic
Fitzgerald's version of the Aeneid is literature in its own right. Readable without being sing-songy, classic without being stilted, this translation kept me hooked on the Aeneas story long after high school Latin class ended at Book 6, and it stirred my imagination to such an extent that I got the impudent idea to emulate him in The Laviniad: An Epic Poem.
And as for the poem itself, this seminal work of Western literature deeply inspired everyone from Augustine to Dante, but unfortunately seems to be passing out of academic consciousness. Vergil's Aeneid is the very pinnacle of Ancient Roman literature, a classic story of piety, duty, and honor as opposed to immediate gratification and selfish interest. It represents the very best ideals that ancient Rome had to offer. Perhaps in this modern age those virtues don't seem relevant--but if so, that's why we need this poem all the more.
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