Virgil - Aeneid

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Translation, explanatory notes, bibliography, indexed glossary Frederick Ahl 2007

Introduction Elaine Fantham 2007

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Database right Oxford University Press (maker)

First published 2007

First published as an Oxford Worlds Classics paperback 2008

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British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

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Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

Virgil.

[Aeneis. English]

The Aeneid/Virgil; translated with notes by Frederick Ahl; with an introduction
by Elaine Fantham.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Epic poetry, LatinTranslations into English. 2. Aeneas (Legendary character)Poetry.
3. LegendsRomePoetry. I. Ahl, Frederick, 1941II. Title.
PA6807.A5A38 2007 873.01dc22 2007014605

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ISBN 9780-19923195-9

13579 10 8642

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OXFORD WORLDS CLASSICS

VIRGIL

Translated with Notes by

FREDERICK AHL

With an Introduction by

ELAINE FANTHAM

OXFORD WORLDS CLASSICS

AENEID

VIRGIL was born near Mantua in northern Italy in 70 BC and lived through the death-struggles of the Roman Republic and the establishment of Augustus as Emperor. He wrote the Eclogues, a collection of short pastoral poems c.4238 BC and became associated with Maecenas, the millionare aesthete and powerful associate of Augustus, who was a great patron of poets. He composed a substantial poem on country life, the Georgics, from about 37 to 29 BC. The next ten years he spent working on his epic poem, the Aeneid, which dramatizes the story of the founding of Rome. Virgil died at Brindisi in 19 BC on his way home from a trip to Athens, leaving his epic not fully revised. It was immediately recognized as the greatest masterpiece of Roman poetry and of all Roman literature, a position which it has never lost.

FREDERICK AHL teaches Classics and Comparative Literature at Cornell University. He has also taught at College Year in Athens, and has performed in and directed a wide range of plays in Greece and the USA. Among his works are Lucan: An Introduction (1976) Metaformations (1985) and Sophocles Oedipus: Evidence and Self-conviction (1991).

ELAINE FANTHAM taught at Princeton University from 1986 to 2000. Her most recent books include Roman Literary Culture (1996), Ovids Metamorphoses (Oxford Approaches to Literature, 2004), and The Roman World of Ciceros De Oratore (2004). She has introduced and annotated Virgils Georgics for Oxford Worlds Classics.

For Elaine and Nicola

MANY people helped me in many ways to bring this work to completion, but none more than Elaine Fantham and Nicola Minott-Ahl, to whom I dedicate this volume. Dealing with an absent-minded recluse cannot have been easy. Judith Luna really belongs in the dedication too; her wisdom and clear judgement saved me from many errors. Elizabeth Stratford has also helped me catch many slips and infelicities.

I am deeply grateful to John and Marie Corbin of the University of Kent, who so often shared their home with me, and to Martin Winkler of George Mason University, a dear friend over many years, who maintained unflagging support. Thanks also to some other Ahls: Kate, Sid, and Mary, for their tolerance and encouragement. Then there are those who introduced me to Virgils epic: T. A. Williams, Malcolm Wilcock, and J. P. Sullivan; Archie Ammons, who gave me the courage to write poetry; Virgil Espino of the Texas Military Institute, who helped me grasp how much I needed to learn. Many colleagues (some now deceased) at various institutions have, over many years, taken time to discuss and dispute ideas (often hotly) with me: R. D. Armstrong, Rhiannon Ash, R. G. Basto, Martin Bernal, Max Brecher, Jonathan Culler, Michael Davies, Martha Davis, John Fitch, G. Karl Galinsky, John Garthwaite, G. K. Gresseth, Brent Hannah, Robert Helbling, Roald Hoffmann, Gail Holst-Warhaft, Thomas Hubbard, Pat Johnson, Jane Wilson Joyce, Ian Kidd, Douglas Little, Don Maguire, Martha Malamud, Gordon Messing, Katrina Neff, S. Georgia Nugent, Peter Kuniholm, Dolores OHiggins, Kerrill ONeill, Bill Owens, Douglass Parker, Michael Paschalis, Sue Payne, Arthur Pomeroy, Pietro Pucci, Michael Putnam, Andrew Ramage, Nancy Ramage, Jay Reed, Hanna Roisman, Joseph Roisman, Jeffrey Rusten, Janice Siegel, Victoria Surliuga, Christiana Sogno, Michael Stokes, Lynette Thompson, Tobias Torgerson, Giannis Tsiogas, Michael Vickers, Raina Weaver, Winthrop Wetherbee, and Frederick Williams. I am especially grateful to Mike Black of Hobart and William Smith Colleges who made it possible to record excerpts of the translation for the Oxford University Press website. A word of thanks also to my colleagues at College Year in Athens and the Athens Centre, especially Steve Diamant, Rosemary Donnelly, Kimon Giokarinis, John Raisch, Rhea Scourta, and Sally Tong; and to friends now gone: Alan Ansen, Carol Buckley, Dan Booth, Robert Farrell, Lucianne Katzenberger, David Keller, and David Wyatt. Last, but not least, I thank Clayton and Lucia Minott, for whom this translation has a special importance, and Jordan and Olivia Cruger who, I hope, will some day read it.