I have finally finished the Aeneid and can confidently say it is the best epic poem I have read. Of course a lot of credit needs to be given to Jasper Griffen, the translator of the Oxford edition that I have. Frankly I would love to have a parallel Latin/English edition because there are some phrases in the translation that seem too “modern” to my ear.

The poem was finished by the Roman poet Publius Virgilius Maro (more commonly known as Virgil) upon the occasion of his death in 19 B.C. (whether he thought it was done or not). Scholars believe that the work was completed and that Virgil was simply involved in a revising process and so what we have is reasonably what we can expect to have had should he have lived longer.

The poem is divided into 12 books and closely parallels the famous Iliad written by Greek poet Homer around 800 years earlier. The Iliad is largely seen as the cornerstone of Greek culture, helping to cement its place in history and lend credence to its place as a world dominating power.

Virgil sought to do the same for Rome. While there was no doubt that Roman culture was surely the most dominant military culture of all time, Greek culture still dominated in terms of art, philosophy and language. Language is key…a truly dominant culture cannot last if its language does not spread. The Iliad established Greek as the lingua franca of the realm for centuries. Later in history Martin Luther’s famous translation of the Bible into common German led to a stregnthened sense of what it meant to be German and to the modern German language just as Wycliffe’s tranlsation of the Bible into English and later King James’ translation formalized that language and ultimately strengthened the culture.

TANGENT: It could be theorized that the Muslim requirement that the Qua ran only be translated in Arabic will establish Arabic and Arab culture in a way that Greek, Roman, German and English had done for those cultures in the past.

At any rate the context of Virgil’s Rome is important to understanding the poem. When Gaius Octavius Thurinus became the first single person to rule over the Roman empire and adopt the somewhat egotistical name Gaius Julius Ceasar Augustus the ancient republic was dead and the new empire was born (sound familiar – see Star Wars).  All of this happened during Virgil’s lifetime and Virgil decided it was the perfect occasion to work to establish Rome and Latin as the dominant culture and language of the world, eclipsing Greek. Like Homer before him Virgil decided to do this by writing an epic about Rome and its Godly roots.

His struggle was that he did not have the benefit that Homer had…the benefit of the distance of time from Achilles and Odysseus which allowed for the mythologizing of the founding of Greece. Virgil wants to do this for Augustus but everyone would be aware of when he was mythologizing (lying) because Augustus feats were the story of current events. To get around this Virgil follows Augustus family claim to the distant Trojans of the era of the Iliad and the historical Trojan figure of Aeneis, the son of Venus (Aphrodite) and essentially creates and Iliad and Odyssey around him and his exploits complete with encounters with Gods, cyclops, harpies, sea monsters and of course the all important epic battles.

For my money the best books are books five, six, eleven and twelve. Book six finds the Aeneis travelling to Hades to solicit advise from his dead father. His journey through the realm very closely mirrors Dante’s journey in his epic poem the Inferno. In fact it is clear that book six of the Aeneid is the model for Hell in Dante’s poem. Dante even has Virgil as his guide through Hell in his poem. It should be noted that since the Inferno has in many ways influenced Christian’s understanding of Hell that the Aeneid then is also a strong influence on our modern understanding of Hell. This is unfortunate. It will take another post dedicated to the similarities between the two poems to do the subject justice.

I think I like book five the best of all the books. In it we find the wandering Trojans resting on the shores of another outcast Trojans new kingdom. To celebrate the respite and re-connection with old brethren a series of games are announced including boat races, archery competition, running, boxing etc. The descriptions of the events are riveting and rival or surpass the best sportscaster’s of the modern era.

In book eleven and twelve we find an epic battle between the native Latins and the Trojans after a treaty is broken. Similar to the battle before Troy a woman is at the centre of things and two warriors fight for her as much as for the honour of their people. On the Trojan front you have Aeneis and for the Latins you have Turnus. Both formidable warriors but Turnus is weighed down by hubris and a fate that is against him.

The events of the Aeneid are designed to show Romans and the world that they are fated to be the greatest race and culture. That all events since its foundation by Aeneis have led to Augustus and therefor all should follow him with complete obedience and devotion.

There are many clever scenes in the Aeneid including the weaving of Augustus himself into the narrative through a clever mechanism. Aeneis at times wonders why he and his people are struggling so much to get to this promised land of Italy. At one point his mother has Vulcan (Hephastus) forge him armour and a great shield upon which is engraved the future history of Rome right up to and including the exploits of his descendant Augustus.

In this Aeneis becomes a Roman version of Abraham, called by the Gods to leave his mother country for a new and better land and establish a people bound to be famous forever. He must act on trust and faith since he will not see this come to completion – but at least he is given a glimpse.

There is much more I could say but frankly you should read the poem. It is fantastic and influence much in modern literature and culture. Let me know if you read it…I want to know what you think.