Virgil's Aeneid, inspired by Homer and inspiration for Dante and Milton, is an immortal poem at the heart of Western life and culture. Virgil took as his hero Aeneas, legendary survivor of the fall of Troy and father of the Roman race, and in telling a story of dispossession and defeat, love and war, he portrayed human life in all its nobility and suffering.

2006-07-30 Complex, ambivalent and very Roman

Vergil's epic used to be read as the traditional moral propaganda that justified the Roman empire and Augustus' rule, but it's a far more complex and problematic poem than that. Yes, as a previous reviewer, has stated, he takes Homer as his starting point, but Vergil's intention is not to 'top' Homer but to question and reflect on Rome's self-identity and the values that Roman culture has been built upon.

It is possible to read this is a simple, rousing epic of war and the heroic ethos, but the other 'voices' question the very values that the poem purports to support. Ultimately this is a poem of profound grief and loss and mourning for the past and for the price that has been paid in order to move forward into the future, and in this sense, it is a comment on the fall of the Republic and the emergence of the Principate under Augustus.

Having said that, it's also a good story, picking up from the end of the Iliad and telling the fall of Troy, Aeneas' escape with a group of Trojans and his search for Italy where he will found the city that will become Rome. The most famous incident is the tragic story of Dido (Book 4) which even in Vergil's own day was regarded as the best bit of the whole poem.

Together with the Iliad and the Odyssey, this is one of the foundation stones of European literature, and the Penguin translation is clear, easy and fluent. For a more poetic and rhythmic translation I would recommend the Allen Mandelbaum version which tends to be the one used by academics. Enjoy.