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    The Aeneid
    The Aeneid
    The Aeneid
    Audiobook (abridged)5 hours

    The Aeneid

    Written by Virgil

    Narrated by Paul Scofield, Jill Balcon, Geraldine Fitzgerald and

    3.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    Virgil’s Aeneid, one of the greatest Classical poems, tells the story of Aeneas, son of Priam, after the fall of Troy. His quest is to find the site ‘in the west’ where he will found a new town prophesied to be the seat of a world empire – Rome. This great poem, in a modern translation by Cecil Day Lewis, is superbly read by the great classical actor Paul Scofield, with Jill Balcon.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherNaxos Audiobooks
    Release dateNov 1, 2002
    ISBN9789629546748
    Author

    Virgil

    Virgil (Publius Vergilius Maro) was an ancient Roman poet who wrote during the reign of Augustus, the first Roman emperor. In addition to his epic poem Aeneid, Virgil’s Ecolgues (Bucolics) and Georgics are recognized as major works of Latin literature, and have been studied, adapted, imitated, and copied by later poets and scholars. Virgil’s poetry has also had a lasting influence on Western literature, inspiring countless works including Dante’s Divine Comedy, in which Virgil guides Dante through Hell and Purgatory.

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    Reviews for The Aeneid

    3.5/5

    79 ratings72 reviews

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    • 3/5
      Klassieke vertaling van Anton van Wilderode.Episch-lyrisch hoogtepunt, maar soms zwakke structuur (vooral boek 7 en 8). Inhoudelijk zeer sterk schatplicht aan Homeros (boek 1-6: Odyssea, 7-12: Ilias).Dramatische sterkte is de concentratie op personen en actie. Centrale thema's: trouw, vriendschap, eergevoel. Grote rol van fatum en interventie van de goden (medehoofdrolspelers).Structurele zwakheden:- Dido is ontrouw, Vergilius niet- in boek 10 besluiten de goden neutraal te blijven, maar ze blijven ingrijpen, zonder commentaar van de auteur;Merkwaardige tweedeling: boek 1-6 zachtaardig en gevoelig van inslag, boek 7-12 actie op de voorgrond en eerder wreedaardige inslag.
    • 5/5
      Probably my favourite epic. Aeneas' sense of duty is more resonant with me than Odysseus' trickery.
    • 3/5
      Another classic! Interesting to hear the Trojan side of this and also the slightly different Roman Gods. Aeneas is a great hero and the story suitably epic!
    • 5/5
      This is a classic of course. This translation in particular is quite well done. It has excellent notes and references. I love this work particularly because of the context in which it was written which gives depth to many of the events and/or the way in which they are portrayed.
    • 5/5
      In my opinion, the greatest of the Classical epics. The Aeneid does not merely praise the glory of Rome and Augustus by exhalting Aeneas; it conveys a melancholy for everything that Aeneas, the Trojans, and even their enemies underwent in order to bring about fate. Rome's enemy Carthage, and even Hannibal who lead the invading army, is here depicted as the eventual avengers of a woman abandoned by her lover not for any fault of her own, but merely because the gods required him to be elsewhere. The Italians are shown as glorious warriors, whose necessary deaths in battle may not be worth it. Finally there is the end, not with the joy of triumph, but with the death moan of the Italian leader. The translation by David West perfectly captures the tone of the original.
    • 4/5
      Though I like The Odyssey and the Iliad better than the Aeneid, I feel that the Aeneid is one of those classics that everyone should read at some point in their life-time. Virgil borrowed so much from these two other classics, for the purpose of glorifying Rome, its history, and Augustus. What I really like about the Aeneid is that it gives you 'the rest of the story.' You find out how the Trojan War ends with the Greeks tricking the Trojans into pulling the Trojan horse into the city. Aeneas, throughout the story is seen as a father figure to his people and a man who cares more for his people than about just the glories of war that you see in the Iliad. We witness a lot of emotional events such as Dido's death. We learn more about the underworld, and the role of the gods who seem to play a smaller role than in the Iliad, but we also witness the strong role of fate in the story. KU professor, Stanley Lombardo's translation is a nice edition to read. It's a little easier to follow than some editions I have read. One aspect of his translation that I really like is that he italicizes the epic similes. This seems to give them a little more separation from the story, but allows you to understand them a little easier.
    • 5/5
      The Penguin Classics edition provides a 42-page preface, an extensive glossary, and some maps. This material contributed greatly to my immense enjoyment of Dryden's luxurious translation, most in rhymed iambic pentameter couplets, like much of the verse of the eighteenth century.
    • 4/5
      This is poetry, and is therefore harder for me to read. The introduction is very helpful; if doing it again, I would read the corresponding part prior to each book/chapter. The story is sort of a combination of the Iliad (war) and the Odyssey (travels).
    • 3/5
      I listened to the audiobook read by Simon Callow. He was an excellent narrator. The story itself is a classic, and one that is somewhat familiar to people: the Trojan Horse, the betrayal of Dido, the journey to the Underworld, the voyage to found Rome. It’s part of our Western folklore. Hearing poetry aloud makes a big difference in understanding. The Fagles translation, while somewhat stilted, is understandable when written, but even better aloud. Like Homer, Virgil’s poetry definitely benefits from being read in audiobook form (at least if you have a good narrator).
    • 4/5
      This translation of the Aeneid is highly readable and very worthwhile.Virgil is superior to Homer if only due to the fact that he is more contemporary.The story of Aeneas the founder of the Roman race is both mythical and legendary and at once inspiring and breathtaking
    • 5/5
      The Aeneid is an epic poem, detailing Aeneas' journey. The first six books of the Aeneid recount the adventures of Aeneas, the future founder of Rome. The last six books tell of the settlement of the Trojans in Italy and the war with the Italians.After the fall of Troy, a small group of refugees escaped, and Aeneas became their leader. Several prophecies predicted that this group would settle in Italy and become ancestors of the Romans. They suffer many hardships; similar to those suffered by Odysseus (attacks by the Cyclops, Scylla and Charybdis.) After wandering for years, they arrive in Italy, settling in Latium. Before they are accepted, they have to fight a terrible war against the Latins led by Turnus. After Aeneas slays Turnus, he is free to marry Lavinia, the princess of Latium.Virgil begins the poem as Aeneas is sailing on the last leg of his journey, destined to take him to Italy. When tremendous storms batter his ships they take refuge on the nearest land. Aeneas learns that it is here that Queen Dido is constructing Carthage. The Queen falls in love with Aeneas and begs him to tell her the story of the fall of Troy.Aeneas relates the tale at the request of the Queen. After the fall, the band of exiled men sailed to Delos where the oracle of Apollo predicted that they would found a great nation. He details his adventures up to the present time for the Queen. Dido and Aeneas' love is ill-fated. He must follow the destiny the Gods have made for him. When he leaves grief-stricken Dido commits suicide.The ships finally arrive in Italy, near Cumae. Aeneas visits the temple of Apollo to consult a prophetess. She appears to him and tells Aeneas of the war he will fight and of his enemies. He asks to descend into Hades, where he meets his father, Anchises. Anchises shows Aeneas his future heirs and the heroes of Rome. The visit to the underworld in the Aeneid parallels a similar visit made by Ulysses (Odysseus) in Homer's Odyssey. The Trojans continue on and settle in Latium. Aeneas realizes his prophecy has been fulfilled. A war breaks out and Aeneas is given magical armor by the Gods for protection. Turnus, the leader of Latium's defense, attacks the Trojan camp, and many lives are lost. Turnus announces that the husband of Lavinia will be determined by a duel between Aeneas and himself. Aeneas kills Turnus in battle. The prophecies of the gods have been fulfilled.The epic by Virgil has inspired great writers ever since his day. Dante knew the story of Ulysses from Ovid who recounts it in his Metamorphoses (like Dante, Ovid suffered the fate of exile and expulsion from the city he loved and died without returning to it). It is this recounting that inspired the tale narrated by Ulysses in Canto 26 of The Inferno. In the twentieth century Hermann Broch began his novel of Virgil's last days, The Death of Virgil, with a similar motif of the ending of a sea-voyage with Virgil lying on his death bed in the entourage of Augustus. Beside Virgil in a small trunk was the manuscript for the Aeneid. And Primo Levi, in his autobiographical Survival in Auschwitz, recounts how he kept himself sane by attempting to reconstruct Ulysses' great speech in the Comedy from memory. These words provided a touchstone of humanity and civilization even that modern version of Dante's hell.
    • 5/5
      Of the Odyssey, Iliad, and Aeneid, The Aeneid is my favorite. It's amazing the difference that a few centuries can make in terms of character and plot development and literary conventions like, you know, not having the gods spoil the plot right before it happens.

      Ruden's introduction provides the basic info about how and why Vergil shaped the Aeneid to sort out the founding myths of Rome, praise its (relatively) new Emperor Augustus, and tout the benefits of an empire after the fall of the Roman Republic. In an explanation that gave me flashbacks to my first-semester class on the New Testament, way back in 2008, she explained that Vergil, like many ancient poets, found legitimacy by calling back to respected older works--in this case, the first part of the Aeneid reflects the beats and themes of the Odyssey, while the second part reflects the Iliad. Ruden also prepared me for the incredibly abrupt ending by explaining that Vergil died before he had a chance to finish the Aeneid, and that Augustus saved the unfinished work from the fate requested by the author: burning.

      Ruden's translation also has some key elements that I would have sorely liked to see in Wilson's Odyssey and Alexander's Iliad: footnotes! They provided mythological and, sometimes, historical context (I would have liked more of the latter) to some of the many name-dropped families and mythological figures that would have been otherwise just been, well, ancient Greek or Latin to me. I'm a huge fan of footnotes. Gimme gimmie.

      Finally, the language. Alexander's Iliad felt very functional, Wilson's Odyssey flowed with the beat of iambic pentameter, but Ruden's Aeneid, to me, seemed to find the best balance between clarity and poetry.

      Alas, to my shame I was epic poetry-d out and took a pretty long break in the middle. That loss of momentum has kind of fizzled my enthusiasm for writing a long review. On top of that, I've discovered that some of my past reviews on Goodreads have disappeared. I can't be sure since I didn't receive any warnings or notice from Goodreads, but I suspect that my Quote Roundups--despite my efforts to only quote portions insignificant in comparison to the books as a whole--may have had something to do with it. So I did keep notes, and I'll include them, but again, not feeling particularly inspired to do anything long and involved.

      Quote/Thought Round-up

      2:310) So apparently Paris died after the Iliad. Why the heck didn't the Trojans just give Helen up and call it a day after that?

      2:402) "No one should trust the gods against their will."
      No kidding, considering what they get up to.

      In general, I find it amusing that Paris got so much flak for being the pretty son of Aphrodite/Venus when Aeneas never gets teased about it.

      Chapter 4
      Dang, Dido. Dang, Venus.

      5:333) Nice to know austere ancient Greeks and Romans liked slapstick and scatalogical humor. Aiyah...

      Chapter 6
      Aeneas's journey to the underworld was awesome.

      7:340-542) "Allecto, steeped in Gorgon poisons, rushed / and lurked there, at the threshold of Amata [Latinus's queen] / ... Dark snakes made up the Fury's hair: she tossed one / to glide - maddening, hellish - through the dress / into the heart, and rattled all the house. / Beneath her clothes it coiled, around her smooth breasts. / She couldn't feel it as it breathed its poison - / her frenzy.
      The language of the fury Allecto's spreading poison of hate and war is so well done, not just here but as it spreads to first to other Latins and then to the Trojans. Props to Vergil and to Ruden.

      8:314) "The native fauns and nymphs once shared this forest / with many a tribe born out of flinty oak trunks."
      Kind of odd to read a once-upon-a-time line in a narrative that still includes nymphs and gods as key characters who interact with mortals.

      9:178) Nisus and Euryalus--oh la la.

      10:650) "You sailed here seeking land: I'll lay you on it."
      The Romans have some killer lines. I mean, they tend to die after saying them, no matter how awesome they supposedly were up to that point in their lives, but still...epic last words even if they'd be better off in the mouths of the person who lives.

      11:498-830) They may not have the best, most contemporary feminist storylines, but dang Dido and Camilla are awesome. Camilla's here, riding into war for the Latins. Too bad she was yet another woman warrior virgin sworn to Diana or Turnus might have been happier with her than with Lavinia.

      11:891-895) "The very mothers on the walls, who'd witnessed / Camilla's love of country, tried to match her. / In their alarm, they hurled down posts of oak wood / and stakes singed hard in place of iron weapons. / They longed to die first in the town's defense."
      I would, too, considering all they said they'd do to conquered cities, both in Latium and in Troy.
    • 4/5
      The selling point of this translation by Shadi Bartsch is its fidelity to the Latin, so I can't fault it too much for its awkward line-breaks and tendency to stiltedness. Bartsch's halting iambs come alive in lines like "while Turnus dealt relentless death across the plain", but this kind of fluency is never sustained for long. Having said that, it's nice to read a translation where you feel like you know where you are. "Planted" in the text, as Bartsch might say!As for the poem, this read confirmed me in my Greek vs. Roman affinities. Virgil tries on the epic mantle of the Odyssey (first six books) and Iliad (second six). But he wears it awkwardly due to his desire to write a national epic and the resultant unyielding Romanness. Homer on the other hand is elemental, enjoyably alien. Here, the constant wild animal similes and X-killed-Y-and-was-then-killed-by-Z verses somehow grate in a way they don't in the Iliad. The contradictions between divine intervention and predestination are annoying here, acceptable in the Odyssey.A matter of taste. But there's no denying that Aeneas is a total dick and impossible to root for. He completely botches the Dido situation resulting in Carthage opposing Rome for all eternity. He's not a complex character, just a blowhard and bully with a taste for human sacrifice, and his bloodthirsty dispatch of Turnus ends the story on an especially distasteful note. It doesn't help that his English epithet "pious" produces a jaunty rhyme that grows ridiculous with repetition.
    • 3/5
      This one, I found, only okay. I came into it hoping to get a bit more depth on the end of the Trojan War, having finished both The Iliad and The Odyssey.

      But this just seemed to meander. Lots of fighting, lots of blood and entrails and brain matter. Lots of somewhat hysterical women and angry men. But it felt, at times very much a retread of Homer's Odyssey.

      And Aeneas? I'm sorry, but dude's just a bitch. He lost two fights during the Trojan War, and both times, gods saved his ass by whisking him away. Here, he gets new armour and weapons from the gods, and once again, the gods interfere to make him the big prophesied hero he supposedly was destined to be.

      In the meantime, he also has a big romantic love affair with Dido, but leaves her, and she basically goes bunny-boiler and piles up his stuff, sets it on fire, then throws herself on top and kills herself.

      ...okay, maybe he was better off to leave her, on second thought.

      And the end just seemed to drag on and on and on, to the point where I literally pulled out my phone to check and see how much time was left on the audio book.

      Anyway. That Virgil...he's no Homer, let me tell you.
    • 2/5
      If you like excruciatingly detailed descriptions of glorious battles and sports, if you'd like to Make Rome Great Again, this is the book for you. Me, not so much.
    • 3/5
      I had high hopes for the Aeneid since it is the connecting thread between Homer and Dante, both of whose epics I love. This new translation succeeds in being accessible, and parts of the first half shine, but the back half is a litany of name-dropping nested in a boring war description.
    • 5/5
      In a reversal of the Iliad and Odyssey, the Trojan hero Aeneas revisits many of Odysseus’s adventures when he flees the sack of Troy, and fights a bloody battle to a foothold in Italy where is he destined to found the race of the Romans. Unlike Homer’s work which it draws upon the poem’s final form in 19 BC bears none of the traces of Homer’s use of stock phrases common to oral literature, Virgil’s work uses more literary style, imagery and scene setting. It also contains the story of the Trojan Horse, an extended visit to the underworld and the hero’s romance with Dido, Queen of Carthage, and its tragic consequence.
    • 3/5
      I haven't read an epic poem since college. I forgot how bloody they can be. I read Aeneid to get the back story for my next opera, Les Troyens by Hector Berlioz.
    • 4/5
      Love this translation, especially the beginning.
    • 3/5
      The Trojan Odyssey. Interesting for how it has carried down even until today.
    • 5/5
      Last year I managed to do cover-to-cover readings of Homer's Iliad and The Odyssey, but it has taken me some time to get around to Virgil's "sequel", The Aeneid. In The Iliad, Aeneas is whisked away from the battle at Troy (to heal) and effectively disappears from the story. Virgil, in his epic poem written during 30-19 BCE, picks up Aeneas' story (much like Homer does with Odysseus in The Odyssey) and puts him on a quest to become the founder of Rome. (This occurred before the time of Romulus and Remus. Virgil had to reconcile the myth of the wolf-suckled brothers with the earlier Greek myth.) This translation puts the epic poem into prose. It is nothing short of gripping. I enjoyed Virgil's Georgics and Eclogues, but this work was brilliant. I can see how Virgil has adapted much of Homer's approach to story-telling, but with several differences. Homer brings in the scenery, such as sunsets reflecting on battlefield bronze, as well as stories about who killed whom. Virgil does similar, but without so much of the scenery. Of course, this is a translation from the hexameter form, and was originally written in Latin rather than Greek, so how this translation compares with the original, I am at a loss. What we do know is that Virgil was honouring Augustus Caesar with this tale, and tracing Augustus back to Aeneas. (I recall a family history on the UK's Who do you think you are? where one person's lineage was traced right back to Jesus, so such myths for the aristocracy have been common for centuries.) Rather than recount the story, and what I find most fascinating, is the story of the Trojan Horse. Homer barely mentions it, and Virgil fills in some of the gaps. But the larger story that has been passed down doesn't really come from Homer or Virgil. This is not new, but I was expecting that the three books together would give a more complete story of the legend that we have come to know. As for the "quasi-plagiarism" of Homer, I tend to agree with La Trobe University's Chris Mackie that:In this sense the criticism of Virgil of plagiarising Homer, or quasi-plagiarism, seems rather unreasonable.I am surprised to learn that the poem was never completely finished, and that Virgil wrote at the same speed I write up my research. For the record, that is "about three lines a day".
    • 4/5
      While I loved all the supplementary information, Fagles translation wasn't as good as I had hoped based upon my experience with his Odyssey. My old paperback edition, translated by Allan Mandelbaum, was better but my friend's copy of Fitzgerald's was best of all.
    • 3/5
      Borders edition to the Iliad and the Odyssey's counter, the Aeneid. Tehe Trojans wonder looking for a home after Troy's defeat moving on until they reach Italy. And battle after battle leads to a final victory with heroes and gods in tow. This was definitely a bathroom read, one page at a time. So 2500 years ago the hero was the center of attention. You can see how this story line is still wih us today. Glad I took the tike to read it.
    • 3/5
      I finally finished!I read the first half with a coursera course and really enjoyed it--the lectures really gave me a background into who the characters are, and how those chapters worked with The Iliad/Odyssey and Italian history/myth.And then the course reading ended, and I have spent months reading the second half. The course helped me understand the story itself, but I would love to know who the important characters are in the second half, and how they relate to history, myth, the Trojan War, etc.
    • 5/5
      Delightful translation; goes well with Fagles previous translation of Homer's 'Odyssey' and 'The Iliad.' The introduction by Bernard Knox gives a nice historical context to the material as well.
    • 3/5
      I listened to the audiobook read by Simon Callow. He was an excellent narrator. The story itself is a classic, and one that is somewhat familiar to people: the Trojan Horse, the betrayal of Dido, the journey to the Underworld, the voyage to found Rome. It’s part of our Western folklore. Hearing poetry aloud makes a big difference in understanding. The Fagles translation, while somewhat stilted, is understandable when written, but even better aloud. Like Homer, Virgil’s poetry definitely benefits from being read in audiobook form (at least if you have a good narrator).
    • 4/5
      The Aeneid is a true adventure - a look towards the future and the promises made. History in the making for the Roman Empire. There are twelve books in the epic, much-loved poem. In a nutshell, the first six cover Aeneas and his wanderings after surviving the Trojan war. The second half of the poem are the details of the Trojan War. Much like how Gregory Maguire chose to tell the story of the wicked witch of the west, Virgil tells the other side of the Trojan War story. Instead of following Odysseus, we focus on Aeneas, the defeated Trojan.On a personal level, an observation: Aeneas reminded me of Dorothy Dunnett's character, Francis, from the Lymond series. He is that deeply flawed hero that everyone roots for.
    • 4/5
      While I've read both the Iliad and the Odyssey several times each, I've never gotten around to the Aeneid by Virgil, until now. The Aeneid is a sequel to the Iliad from a Trojan's point of view, specifically, Aeneus' wanderings after escaping the sacking of Troy. He is promised, by the gods, that he will found a new Troy in Latium (the future Rome), thus this epic, written during the time of Augustus Caesar, is a foundation story for the Roman Empire. It copies the structure and devices of its predecessors with the gods constantly interfering with Aeneas' mission because of their own petty quarrels, as well as wanderings from place to place, tragic loves, bloody battles between heroic men and even a trip to the underworld. In this book you'll find the description of Troy's destruction, the details about the Greek's devious ruse with the Wooden Horse, as well as the story of Dido the queen of Carthage who falls, to her own demise, in love with Aeneas. If the Aeneid is inferior to both the Iliad and the Odyssey, it is, nevertheless, enjoyable reading. I especially liked the depiction of Camilla, a female warrior that would give the Amazons a run for their money.
    • 4/5
      He got there in the end, did Aeneas. Battered in Troy, he overcame all that was before him on the way to Rome. Dido turned out to be very aggrieved. The last six books overdid the blood and gore. Poor Turnus was slain. The word emulously recurred and the earth groaned and moaned a lot. Super journey, however; we all make these journeys but with less excitement and spillage of limbs and blood. Not sure what Virgil would have thought of just a 4 star rating.
    • 2/5
      Read in college in the late 60s. Much prefer the Mandlebaum translation. The Day-Lewis translation too often goes in for phrasing that was probably in vogue with the English public schools of the 20's: Lachrymae rerum (I, 445-475) awkwardly translated as "Tears in the nature of things." From Book 1, 340-341: ""a long and labyrinthine tale of wrong is hers, *but I will touch upon its salient points in order."" Book 2:: Pyrrhus is "crazed with blood-lust" and Anchisis "flatly refused to prolong his life." "Ye gods prevent these threats! Ye gods avert this calamity." Stale phrases from Book 4: "his trusty wand," ""Got wind of what was going to happen." "It has come to this!" "I must have been mad!" "Jump to it, men!." "they cut and ran for it." The Aeneid is a great epic poem; other translations do justice to it; the Day Lewis translation does not.