Alina's review
The Aeneid
by Virgil, Robert Fitzgerald, Michael Oakley
Alina's review
The Aeneid by Virgil, Robert Fitzgerald, Michael Oakley
Alina's review
rating:
“Calliope, I pray, and Muses all,
Inspire me as I sing the bloody work,
And tell what men each fighter sent to Orcus…”
Sometimes I wish the Muses were less generous with their gifts. Virgil succeeds admirably in telling “what men each fighter sent to Orcus”, in what order and how:
“Now Caedicus cut Alcathous down,
Sacrator killed Hydaspes, Rapo killed
Parthenius and Orses, man of brawn;
Messapus finished Clonius and Ericetes,
Lycaon’s son…”
This makes the last hundred pages or so a little tedious, and I cannot deny that I breathed a sigh of relief when the spirit of Turnus finally “fled into the gloom below.” Yet there is beauty and suspense even in these chapters, and they are worth plodding through if only for the sake of the rest of the book.
I leafed through a few translations of the Aeneid before settling on Robert Fitzgerald’s, and I am as certain as one who knows no Latin can be that this is the best translation around. At its worst, ...more
Inspire me as I sing the bloody work,
And tell what men each fighter sent to Orcus…”
Sometimes I wish the Muses were less generous with their gifts. Virgil succeeds admirably in telling “what men each fighter sent to Orcus”, in what order and how:
“Now Caedicus cut Alcathous down,
Sacrator killed Hydaspes, Rapo killed
Parthenius and Orses, man of brawn;
Messapus finished Clonius and Ericetes,
Lycaon’s son…”
This makes the last hundred pages or so a little tedious, and I cannot deny that I breathed a sigh of relief when the spirit of Turnus finally “fled into the gloom below.” Yet there is beauty and suspense even in these chapters, and they are worth plodding through if only for the sake of the rest of the book.
I leafed through a few translations of the Aeneid before settling on Robert Fitzgerald’s, and I am as certain as one who knows no Latin can be that this is the best translation around. At its worst, ...more
