![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Translation – especially of poetry – is notoriously thorny. ![]() That another translation has just been published is a clear sign of its enduring popularity, and it offers a new opportunity for English readers to develop their own interpretations. For example, for some in the medieval period, the poem could be read as a Christian allegory. There are, as Bartsch elaborates in her thoughtful introduction, other readings of the Latin epic. One early commentary written in the 4th or 5th century remarks that Virgil’s aim is to praise Augustus by praising his ancestors: their shared pietas is one element that could lead to such an interpretation. It is easy to why such statements would appeal to the Romans, and centuries later the text still had nationalistic appeal, as reflected by the inclusion of Pater Aeneas (‘Father Aeneas’) in Mussolini’s 1937-1938 exhibition celebrating 2,000 years since the birth of Augustus.Īugustus had a public persona of pietas (‘piety’), and it is this concept that is closely attached to his heroic ancestor Aeneas throughout the poem: Aeneas is often described as pius (translated as ‘pious’), referring to a range of duties and devotion to one’s family, country, and gods. In the first book of the poem, Jupiter says of the Romans, as Shadi Bartsch, Professor of Classics at the University of Chicago, puts it in her new translation, ‘On them I set no boundaries of time or space:/I’ve granted empire without end’. ![]()
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May 2023
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