G. B. Cobbold's Aeneid Translation

The Book
The Translator
The Translation
An Excerpt, Aeneid IV.693-705.
The Aeneid in English

The Book

Vergil's Aeneid Hero War Humanity, trans. G. B. Cobbold (Wauconda, IL: Bolchazy-Carducci Publisher, Inc., 2005) is, as far as I know, the only published version of Cobbold's translation. In addition to Cobbold's translation, the book includes some notes on the translation, a one-page biography of Vergil, a map, a book-by-book plot outline, a brief list of significant events in Roman history, family trees, discussion questions, and a glossary of main characters. It is in paperback, ISBN: 0865165963. It is readily available at online booksellers, including the Joepye Latin Bookstore (text-only version).

The Translator

G. B. Cobbold is the author of Rome: Empire without End (Wayside, 1995) and Hellas (Wayside, 1999). He holds a BA and MA from Cambridge University and has taught in various secondary schools in the UK and USA. He is currently Assistant Headmaster and Chair of the Classics Department at Tabor Academy in Marion, Massachussetts.[1]

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The Translation

Cobbold's justification in choosing to translate into prose is in the Notes on the Translation:

My hope...is to engage readers immediately with Aeneas' dangers and difficulties, and in his persistent moral dilemma-Do I do what I want or what I ought?-without the risk of their being distanced by any conventions of versification, or by any turn of phrase that might be seen as awkward or old-fashioned.[2]

But this is not to say that he intends a too informal translation, for he goes on to say:

I have tried to use language that is up-to-date without being colloquial, that preserves the dignity and leisured flow traditionally associated with epic, and that at the same time maintains the speed and energy appropiate to a captivating story.[2]

Towards the end of making his narrative livelier and more readable, he omits the names of some of the minor characters, breaks up some of Vergil's longer sentences into two or three English sentences, transposes the order of some lines and sentences, and even adds a few words of explanation in the text rather than including footnotes.

I think Cobbold's translation is an adequate "first Aeneid" - a quick introduction to the plot, characters, and themes of Vergil's masterpiece.

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An Excerpt, Aeneid IV.693-705.

Latin[3]	Cobbold's Translation[4]
Tum Iuno omnipotens, longum miserata dolorem difficilisque obitus, Irim demisit Olympo, quae luctantem animam nexosque resolveret artus. Nam quia nec fato, merita nec morte peribat, sed misera ante diem, subitoque accensa furore, nondum illi flavum Proserpina vertice crinem abstulerat, Stygioque caput damnaverat Orco. Ergo Iris croceis per caelum roscida pennis, mille trahens varios adverso sole colores, devolat, et supra caput adstitit: "Hunc ego Diti sacrum iussa fero, teque isto corpore solvo." Sic ait, et dextra crinem secat: omnis et una dilapsus calor, atque in ventos vita recessit.	It should then have been the duty of Proserpina, the queen of the dead, to take a lock of hair from her head and escort her to the underworld. But she had not yet arrived, because Dido was dying before the time that had been planned for her by fate: her end was undeserved, brought on by unexpect pass- sion. And so Juno took pity on Dido's painful struggle, and from Olympus she sent down Iris to set her spirit free and relax her stiffening limbs. And Iris, leaving behind her a trail of a thousand different colors, the colors of the sun shining through the drops of dew that sparkled on her wings, flew down to stand by Dido's head and cut off a lock of her hair. "It is the gods' command," she whispered. "I make this of- fering to Hades, and release you from your body." At that very moment, a chill slipped through the room: it was Dido's spirit, fluttering off upon a breeze.

Latin[3]

Cobbold's Translation[4]

Tum Iuno omnipotens, longum miserata dolorem
difficilisque obitus, Irim demisit Olympo,
quae luctantem animam nexosque resolveret artus.
Nam quia nec fato, merita nec morte peribat,
sed misera ante diem, subitoque accensa furore,
nondum illi flavum Proserpina vertice crinem
abstulerat, Stygioque caput damnaverat Orco.
Ergo Iris croceis per caelum roscida pennis,
mille trahens varios adverso sole colores,
devolat, et supra caput adstitit: "Hunc ego Diti
sacrum iussa fero, teque isto corpore solvo."
Sic ait, et dextra crinem secat: omnis et una
dilapsus calor, atque in ventos vita recessit.

It should then have been the duty of Proserpina, the queen
of the dead, to take a lock of hair from her head and escort her
to the underworld. But she had not yet arrived, because Dido
was dying before the time that had been planned for her by
fate: her end was undeserved, brought on by unexpect pass-
sion. And so Juno took pity on Dido's painful struggle, and
from Olympus she sent down Iris to set her spirit free and
relax her stiffening limbs. And Iris, leaving behind her a trail
of a thousand different colors, the colors of the sun shining
through the drops of dew that sparkled on her wings, flew
down to stand by Dido's head and cut off a lock of her hair.

"It is the gods' command," she whispered. "I make this of-
fering to Hades, and release you from your body."

At that very moment, a chill slipped through the room: it
was Dido's spirit, fluttering off upon a breeze.

[1] Vergil, Vergil's Aeneid Hero War Humanity, translated by G. B. Cobbold (Wauconda, Illinois: Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers, Inc., 2005), back cover.

[2] Vergil, xii.

[3] P. Vergilius Maro, Aeneid, edited by J. B. Greenough, from The Perseus Digital Library.

[4] Vergil, 111-112.

Created on December 12, 2005. Updated on December 8, 2006. Comments to joepye@pobox.com.