READING VIRGIL’S EPIC POEM “THE AENEID”
Translated by C Day Lewis
9.00am to 11.00am Commencing Friday 21 February 2025 – Language Room
The supreme Roman epic and the greatest poem in Latin, the Aeneid has inspired many of the great European poets including Dante and Milton.
The Roman poet Virgil created this poem on a grand scale, fit to stand beside the Greek epics of Homer (the Iliad and the Odyssey) and to embody the glory and aspirations of Rome.
The Trojan hero Prince Aeneas flees the burning city of Troy with his family and many others to seek out a new settlement in Italy where he can establish a future for his people who had, according to legend, originally migrated to Troy from Italy.
He faces many trials on the way, especially his encounter with Queen Dido of Carthage who kills herself when he abandons her. Their tragic love affair is the subject of theatre and opera.
Aeneas’ destiny is to found Rome – he has no choice in the matter. The supreme god Jupiter (known to the Greeks as Zeus) impels him to found a new Troy, but the wrathful goddess Juno (known to the Greeks as Hera) attempts to thwart his progress. She has an inveterate hatred of all Trojans because Prince Paris of Troy, when compelled to state which of three goddesses was the most beautiful, chose the goddess Venus (Aphrodite), who just happened to be the mother of Prince Aeneas. His father, Anchises, was a mortal who was crippled for having sex with the goddess.
While Homer’s Greeks and Trojans were ruthless cut throats who glorified in killing their opposition, Aeneas hates war and is devastated when he has to kill an opponent with whom he sympathises.
Aeneas fled Troy with his father, his wife and his son as well as many other Trojan allies. His wife got lost in the flames of Troy and his father died en route. He is a sympathetic hero, a good man who must do bad things in order to finally establish the foundations of the new Roman empire.
Shakespeare makes several references to the Aeneid in his English History plays.
The poem is intended to be read aloud. It is envisaged that we will each read a page or two at a time.
No knowledge of Latin or of Trojan history is required. Members will need to purchase a copy of the Aeneid, World’s Classics, Oxford University Press. It is essential that we all have access to the same version of the text.
The class Tutor, Kath McKay, studied Latin at school (including the Aeneid) and majored in Latin at ANU.