Aeneid 1 (The Focus Vergil Aeneid Commentaries)

by Virgil

This book is part of a series of individual volumes covering Books 1-6 of Vergil's Aeneid. Each book includes an introduction, notes, bibliography, commentary and glossary, and is edited by an Vergil scholar. This is Book One in the series.

Genres: Poetry, Classics, Mythology, Textbooks

176 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 20

About the author

born 15 October 70 BC
died 21 September 19 BC

Roman poet Virgil, also Vergil, originally Publius Vergilius Maro, composed the Aeneid , an epic telling after the sack of Troy of the wanderings of Aeneas.

Work of Virgil greatly influenced on western literature; in most notably Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri.

Reviews

[Benjamin Phillips · Rating 5 out of 5]

The switch from English to Latin is like the switch from being in a submarine to scuba diving.

Austin’s commentary is quite helpful.

[Emma Ann]

Read for comps. (Not this particular edition, but it’s what I can find on here.)

[Anne]

Dammit, I'm including this, and nobody can stop me. I've spent subway rides chipping away at Book I over the past few months, mostly so that I could justify reading Books II and IV next. Not my first Aeneid rodeo, and definitely not the best book of the Aeneid, but there are still some lines that take your breath away. Love the edition for its very clear and extensive notes and handy glossary.

[max]

Incredibly useful both for teachers and students of Vergil. I obtained an original hardbound copy in some used book store ages ago (pre-internet era) and freaked the moment I saw it. What could be more useful than a book that parses every single word of Aeneid Book 1? All sorts of curiosities, delicious little tidbits of philological learning, are sprinkled liberally throughout.

Vergil is notorious for his ambiguity; sometimes, for example, it is nearly impossible to pin down the nature of a particular ablative usage. Means? Manner? Cause? Separation? Place where? Comparison? Price? Often all can be ruled out except two, then it's a coin toss. This book helps to tackle that sort of problem and in some cases offers a detailed explanation of different possible ways of translation of the same construction.

The book contains the complete verses of Aeneid 1 with literal interlinear translation, a prose translation, and then the full breakdown of every detail of every word on the bottom 2/3 of each page. A sine qua non.

[Daniel C · Rating 4 out of 5]

After teaching the Aeneid for 4 years I decided to read the whole thing through this summer. I’m using this commentary during the day and on my kindle scribe at night a commentary from 1896 by Edward Searing that is free on google books. I would say that I find the commentary in the Focus edition very useful since Searing assumes knowledge of the background events to the Trojan war such as the bad blood between Palamedes and Odysseus and its connection to Sinon's lies. The only criticism i have is the the format. I think one of the key elements for student editions today is having vocabulary help on the same page as the text. Certainly it is easier for a student when they don't have to flip to the back of the book, but it is also easier for a teacher to photocopy a selection for use in class.

[Stephanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This shit hit different after your kitchen burns up

[Patrick · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don’t like this commentary tbh. Not keen on the details and glosses over many important passages that require explanations for a student. :(

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fantastic read. Beautifully vivid metaphors and masterfully captured emotions.

[max]

Vergil is the supreme author in Latin. To read him requires a serious commitment and a lot of determination, but the effort is well worth it. His poetry is sensuously beautiful; every page is filled with vivid, richly figurative language and strikingly poetic expressions that are unrivaled in their originality and power. He is an author of immeasurable sophistication; his narrative genius is immediately apparent even to the most immature reader (like me when I first encountered him in college).

Vergil took to an entirely new level the Latin language and all of the poetic and rhetorical resources that were available to him. He is a kind of encyclopedia of many authors who preceded him, plundering their work and refashioning it for his own ends. Both Greek epic and tragedy, as well as Ennius, Lucretius, and Catullus all reappear now and then in fascinating ways.

It is all here: politics, religion, history, mythology, philosophy, a tragic romance (Dido), brilliant portraits of natural scenery (e.g. in the similes) and more. Vergil is in many ways the standard against which all poets must be measured -- no matter who they are, where they live, or in what period they write. After Homer, he is the single greatest classical author and only students who are willing to learn the essentials of Latin grammar will be able to appreciate his linguistic magic.

This book is a good place to start with Vergil. It contains text, notes, and vocabulary. I have occasionally lent it to students who are beginning to read him for the first time, and they have all reported to me their happiness with the book. It is a superb introductory text for first time readers of the Aeneid. The notes are extremely helpful in unwinding complex sentences and especially in filling out elliptical expressions. Vergil is very fond of dropping "est" and "sunt" from perfect passive indicative forms; likewise, he often leaves out "esse" from the same infinitive form in indirect statement. Little things like this frequently drive new readers crazy, and the authors of this book are sensitive to the problem readers face and quick to offer help.

Perhaps best of all, it provides a fair amount of translation aid without actually doing most of the translation for you.

Labor omnia vincit.

[Sam · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Aeneid is a Latin epic poem. It tells the story of Aeneas, a Trojan who travelled to Italy after the Trojan War, where he founded Rome and became the ancestor of the Romans. Book I, specifically, introduces Aeneas and his nemesis, the goddess, Juno. Virgil explains why Juno is angry at Aeneas and wants to kill him along his journey. The book ends with Aeneas's arrival to Carthage, unknowing of the divine beings influencing his journey and the people around him.

I personally enjoyed this book because I enjoy reading stories about adventures like Aeneas's. The story is long and imaginative, and allows me to really well picture what is happening throughout the story. There are twelve books in the Aeneid, and just this first one is lengthy and fascinating to the new reader, and will definitely spark interest enough to read the next one(s). For those reading this book without knowledge of the Latin language, an English translation will be required, as it is written in Latin.

[Shaela · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not being a fan of long narrative poetry, it took me two years to read this book, but I'm glad I plodded through. The epic tale was worth it.

Set after the fall of Troy (and probably best read after The Iliad and The Odyssey), The Aeneid follows the legendary journey of a band of surviving Trojans led by their heroic king, Aeneas, to find and settle in Italy a kingdom that is foretold to one day be the great city of Rome.

There is plenty of drama: tragic love, murder, intrigue, visits to the creepy underworld, and grand battle scenes, all intertwined with the soap opera that was Greco-Roman mythology. Everything that occurs is ordained by Fate and often manipulated one way or another by the constantly bickering gods and goddesses, with their grudges and weird love affairs.

A great story, and beautifully composed, but Virgil could have been less long-winded in parts.

[Sarah Yasin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Finally! An edition I can sink my pen into.