Vergil's Aeneid: Hero War Humanity

385 Pages·2005·5.55 MB·English

by  G. B. Cobbold

Translated by
G. B. Cobbold
Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers, Inc.
Wauconda, Illinois USA
Editor
Laurie Haight Keenan
Contributing Editor
L. Dale Griffi th
Cover Design & Typography
Adam Phillip Velez
Margaret W. Pearce
Cover & Other Illustrations
© Thom Kapheim
All rights reserved
Vergil’s Aeneid
Hero • War • Humanity
Translated by G. B. Cobbold
© 2005 Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers, Inc.
All rights reserved.
Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers, Inc.
1000 Brown Street
Wauconda, IL 60084 USA
www.bolchazy.com
Printed in the United States of America
2006
by United Graphics
ISBN-13: 978-0-86516-596-0
ISBN-10: 0-86516-596-3
————————————————————————————————————
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Virgil.
[Aeneis. English]
Vergil’s Aeneid : hero, war, humanity / G.B. Cobbold, translator.
p. cm.
Summary: “A prose translation of Vergil’s Aeneid with new illustrations and
informational appendices”--Provided by publisher.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-86516-596-3 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Epic poetry, Latin--Translations into English. 2. Aeneas (Legendary character) 3.
Legends--Rome. I. Cobbold, G. B. II. Title.
PA6807.A5C57 2005
873’.01--dc22
2005004513
F D
OR IANA

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C
ONTENTS
Notes on the Translation ix
The Life of Vergil xvii
Map of Aeneas’ Voyage xviii
Book I: A Shipwreck and a Rescue 1
Book II: The Wooden Horse 31
Book III: Monsters, Omens and Signs 59
Book IV: An Impossible Passion 87
Book V: Funeral Games and Burning Ships 113
Book VI: The Golden Bough: Aeneas in the Underworld 143
Book VII: The Gates of War 173
Book VIII: New Allies and New Armor 199
Book IX: Death in the Dark 225
Book X: Fathers and Sons 251
Book XI: The Latins’ Last Stand: A Woman Warrior 281
Book XII: Decision and Revenge 309
Appendix I: Outline of the Plot of the Aeneid 339
Appendix II: Signifi cant Events in Roman History 343
Appendix III: Family Trees 345
Appendix IV: Discussion Questions 349
Appendix V: The Main Characters of the Aeneid 353
V

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A
CKNOWLEDGMENTS
I am extremely grateful to Stephanie Quinn, who, during the
early drafts of this translation, off ered crucial comments and
advice, and to Dale Griffi th, who spotted ambiguities with
an eagle eye for detail and made many rough places smooth.
Adam Velez’ design of the completed work is both ingenious
and elegant, and certainly contributes to the overarching vi-
sion of Lou and Marie Bolchazy, that the ancient classics must
and can be made accessible to a wider world than the schol-
ars’ dusty libraries. But above all I would like to thank Laurie
Haight Keenan, who with inexhaustible patience and good hu-
mor guided the whole work ab ovo usque ad malum.
VII

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N T
OTES ON THE RANSLATION
Everybody takes for granted that, in an ideal world, it would be
preferable to read a work of literature in the original language
rather than in a translation. No translation can imitate the pe-
culiar music of the “out of” language, and so some aesthetic
or emotional eff ect must be lost in any “into” version. The Ae-
neid is, of course, no exception: regardless of their meaning,
the words and phrases of Vergil’s Latin do not sound like Eng-
lish, and Latin sentences are not put together in the same way
as English; they cannot therefore strike the ear or the heart
in exactly the same way. The subtleties of Latin allow eff ects
and emphases unachievable in English; and such devices as
alliteration or assonance or onomatopoeia can at best be only
approximately reproduced. Moreover, the rhythms of the Ae-
neid’s verse are characteristically Latin, even though its meter
is the same dactylic hexameter* that Vergil’s model Homer had
used in Greek. Vergil uses the hexameter (which is unfi tted to
English) both because it comfortably fi ts the natural rhythms
of Latin speech, and because its fl exibility allows him to echo
any variation of pace and mood in the progress of his narra-
tive. And he uses it inimitably: Tennyson said that, as Vergil
wrote it, it was “the stateliest measure ever moulded by the
hand of man.”
* Six metrical feet: each of the fi rst four can be either a spondee
(two long syllables) or a dactyl (one long syllable followed by two
short). The fi fth foot is always a dactyl, the last a spondee.
IX