<p>My son’s summer reading for AP Latin is to read the Aeneid in translation. My recollection from taking an epic poetry class way back when is that the translation we read (can’t remember who did it) was pretty dull. Scholarly accuracy is not really the issue - he’ll presumably be doing that on his own! I’d just like to find a version that’s as enjoyable to read as possible.</p>
<p>Robert Fitzgerald did a great job with the Iliad and the Odyssey; I presume he also did a great job on the Aeneid. </p>
<p>PS: Get your S to listen to Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas.</p>
<p>I remember liking the Allen Mandelbaum translation. I am not really a fan of Fitzgerald’s translations – too 60s-ish in style, too little character of the original preserved.</p>
<p>More important, however, is that I think there is a Robert Fagles translation coming out this fall. As far as I’m concerned, Fagles’ Homer translations instantly obsoleted both Fitzgerald and Lattimore (the main “other” translation of Homer until a few years ago). I have sat with four Iliads (Fitzgerald, Lattimore, Fagles, and the very literal Loeb prose translation facing the Greek) open at the same time, and I am a die-hard Fagles fan overall. He really did the best job of writing English poetry that preserves the specificity and strangeness of the ancient Greek, while being not much harder to read than Fitzgerald. I haven’t seen his Aeneid, of course, but I plan to.</p>
<p>If Fagles is available, then go with it.
The Aeneid should be easier to translate than Homer, Latin being more straightforward. I remember my Greek class wrestling with how to translate “ne” for half an hour.
Arma virumque cano…</p>
<p>“I remember liking the Allen Mandelbaum translation. I am not really a fan of Fitzgerald’s translations – too 60s-ish in style, too little character of the original preserved.”</p>
<p>I liked the Fitzgerald Odyssey much better than the Lattimore Illiad, but then it WAS the 60s (or nearly so) when I read them. Unfortunately Fagles doesn’t come out till November, might be worth getting then, but he needs something else now. Ideally I’d drag him to the bookstore with me and see if he has an opinion, I’ll see if he’s willing!</p>
<p>" My recollection from taking an epic poetry class way back when is that the translation we read (can’t remember who did it) was pretty dull."</p>
<p>Your recollections are right on target. (LOL!)</p>
<p>I agree with the Fagles
if you want way more information
<a href=“http://www.gpc.edu/~shale/humanities/literature/world_literature/virgil.html[/url]”>http://www.gpc.edu/~shale/humanities/literature/world_literature/virgil.html</a></p>