Salvete Summer Reading Group,
First of all, I just wanted to applaud you on your decision to read the Aeneid this summer. Epic choice! Hopefully you have your copy of Fagles translation by now, and if you don't, please try an pick up this specific translation. It comes with a couple of different cover designs, but as long as it says "translated by Robert Fagles" on the cover page, you have the right one. I like this translation the best for the maps and notes in the back, but most of all for the way in which Robert Fagles translates the Latin text. He does a great job keeping things accurate to the way the text reads in Latin, without losing all of the beauty of the poetry. Speaking of which, I wanted to make sure that you are keeping a couple of things in mind as you start reading because I think it will improve your experience:
1) The Aeneid is a poem
I know. Hard to believe when you think about how long it is. You're holding it right now, right? This thing has some weight. This isn't your cute little rhyming selection. This is a twelve book epic poem. You'll notice that it doesn't rhyme, and it actually doesn't have to, because it was written according to a specific rhythm or meter. Every line has a certain pattern of long and short vowel sounds that, when read aloud, give it a kind of drum beat sound. The last five syllables always went dum-diddy-dum-dum. Think of it almost like rap lyrics spoken to a beat. The lyrics don't always have to rhyme in order to fit together from one line to the next, but rather, the flow needs to fit the beat. Meter is the beat. The words are the lyrics. The flow is when the lyrics riff off the beat, riff off the meter. That's good rap and that's good metrical poetry.
2) The Aeneid is a Latin poem
Yup. Fagles translated all twelve books from the original Latin. You won't be reading the Latin, unless you want to (available online for free here), but it's important to keep in mind that what you're reading is a translation of an original text. Translating is a difficult job. What do you keep and what do you change? How much fluency do you loose for the sake of accuracy? How do you account for the sound and style of one language in another language? If you are curious, feel free to flip through another translation to see how Fagles compares to Fitzgerald or Lombardo.
Latin literature is a great tool for interpreting Roman culture. In fact, you're reading ancient Roman culture. Vergil was considered to be something like the poet laureate of Rome. The Aeneid was the national epic, a story about the earliest ancestors of Rome and the blended culture of myth, geography, and heroes that this civilization based it's foundation in. The poem was written in the earliest years of the Roman Empire (great brief summary in the first two pages of the introduction of the text), the dawn of a new era. Rome, at this point, stretched well beyond the city and surrounding countryside of Italy and into central and Western Europe, Northern Africa, and Asia Minor to the East.
3) The Aeneid is an old Latin poem
Like I just mentioned, the poem was written by Vergil in the very beginning of the Roman Empire. This text is over 2,000 years old. Sometimes, I need to stop and think about how old that really is and all of the ways in which the world has changed and developed since the text was written. At the same time, it's something of a comfort to trace the human elements of the interactions between characters and their response to the circumstances that they find themselves in. Sure, the text is 2,000 years old, but think about how much has actually stayed the same. Human response, motivation, virtue is fairly consistent, which never fails to amaze me.
As you read, I'd like you to think about the fact that this is an old Latin poem. Enjoy the text for the beauty of the poetry. Mark one passage that you just really love, for the image it conveys, the symbolism it calls to mind, or even the beauty of the way the language is arranged. As though you were reading an autobiography or a primary source, enjoy the way in which the story can inform us about the culture of Rome and Roman identity at the very time that these concepts were being defined. Reflect on some component of the text that furthered your understanding of this ancient culture. Finally, keep in mind that though this poem is old, I mean, really really old, enjoy the way in which it exposes elements of the human experience that are seemingly universal and transcend time. Pick out one part of the text that felt this way you to you, something that you can relate to in 2014 and be prepared to talk about it when we get back together in September to discuss our summer reading.
Most of all, enjoy reading The Aeneid because it's just a plain old good story and who doesn't like to read something like that?
Best,
Ms. Cook
