Robert Fagles' Aeneid Translation

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

The Book

The Aeneid, trans. Robert Fagles, (New York, NY: Viking Penguin, Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 2006) is the version I have. There is also a paperback version. It includes an introduction by Bernard Knox, a Translator's Postscript, a genealogical table of the Greek and Trojan royal houses, Suggestions for Further Readings, Notes on the Translation, and a Pronouncing Glossary. The book is readily available in libraries and bookstores, including the Joepye Latin Bookstore (text-only version).

An unabridged audio version by Penguin Audio on compact disk, read by the British actor Simon Callow, has been released nearly simultaneously with the print version.

The Translator

Robert Fagles is the Arthur W. Marks '19 Professor of Comparative Literature, Emeritus, at Princeton University. He has translated many ancient Greek works into English, most famously Homer's Illiad and Odyssey.

Return to the Top

The Translation

Fagles, in his Translator's Postscript, goes about the "risky business" of stating exactly what he has tried to do with this translation. In short,

...I have tried to find a middle ground...between the features of an ancient author and the expectations of a contemporary reader. Not a line-by-line translation, my version...is, I hope, neither so literal in rendering Virgil's language as to cramp...my own...nor so "literary,"...as to brake his forward motion once too often. [1].

Each reader will have to judge for himself whether Fagles acheived his goal. I did not find it to be significantly better than some of the older translations. In a few instances, I found his choice of words to be off the mark, as when he translates raptos in Book I, line 378, as "seized," compared to Fitzgerald's "saved" and Mandelbaum's "rescued." But I found that I enjoyed the work more and more as I read further. Perhaps it was just a matter of becoming acclimated to Fagles' style.

The 13 pages of Notes on the Translation are interesting and helpful, although they would be more helpful if there were some indication in the text which lines had notes. I made more use of the Pronouncing Glossary, a list of the people and places of the Aeneid, with a short description and a pronunciation guide.

One thing that has to be said for this translation - it certainly put the Aeneid back in the news. There are many reviews and stories about Fagles and his translation on the web, including Fagles' Wikipedia entry. Here are a couple of newspaper articles. A Google search on "Fagles Aeneid" will give you many more.

Return to the Top

An Excerpt, Aeneid IV.693-705.

Latin [2]	Fagles' Translation [3]
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.	Then Juno in all her power, filled with pity for Dido's agonizing death, her labor long and hard, sped Iris down from Olympus to release her spirit wrestling now in a deathlock with her limbs. Since she was dying a death not fated or deserved, no, tormented, before her day, in a blaze of passion-- Prosperina had yet to pluck a golden lock from her head and commit her life to the Styx and the dark world below. So Iris, glistening dew, comes skimming down from the sky on gilded wings, trailing showers of iridescence shimmering into the sun, and hovering over Dido's head, declares: "So commanded, I take this lock as a sacred gift to the God of Death, and I release you from your body." With that, she cut the lock with her hand and all at once the warmth slipped away, the life dissolved in the winds

Latin [2]

Fagles' Translation [3]

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.

Then Juno in all her power, filled with pity
for Dido's agonizing death, her labor long and hard,
sped Iris down from Olympus to release her spirit
wrestling now in a deathlock with her limbs.
Since she was dying a death not fated or deserved,
no, tormented, before her day, in a blaze of passion--
Prosperina had yet to pluck a golden lock from her head
and commit her life to the Styx and the dark world below.
So Iris, glistening dew, comes skimming down from the sky
on gilded wings, trailing showers of iridescence shimmering
into the sun, and hovering over Dido's head, declares:
"So commanded, I take this lock as a sacred gift
to the God of Death, and I release you from your body."

With that, she cut the lock with her hand and all at once
the warmth slipped away, the life dissolved in the winds

[1] Virgil, The Aeneid, trans. Robert Fagles, (New York, NY: Viking Penguin, Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 2006), 390.

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

[3] Virgil, 151-2.

Created on November 27, 2006. Updated on February 11, 2008. Comments to joepye@pobox.com.