Aeneid

"Aeneas exhibits a new kind of tragic heroism: that of the public servant who labors for others selflessly... It is important to grasp the meanings of the Roman word pietas inasmuch as this, the only quality assigned Aeneas in the prologue, furnishes the most common description of him throughout the epic: pius Aeneas. The adjective and noun describe the right relationship that exists between a human being and (1) the gods, (2) his public responsibilities as citizen or political leader, (3) his family, and (4) other human beings. ... The pageant of [Aeneas'] exit from Troy is a masterpiece of Vergilian symbolism. Not content with the simple legend that Aeneas carried his father from the defeated city, Vergil adds to the picture little Ascanius stepping along at Aeneas' side, and in the father's hands he places a small receptacle containing the penates or household gods. Aeneas, in the center of the tableau, fulfills the first three aspects of pietas. Not only is he obeying the gods but he is carrying the religious symbols which will serve as the basis of important rituals in his new land. Not only is he showing family devotion with his filial act toward Anchises his father (as legend prescribed) but he is leading his son by the hand so as to continue the family. ... The total family group centered on Aeneas represents the public mission of the hero, who serves as the necessary link between old Troy (Anchises) and new Troy in Italy (Ascanius). Aeneas' duty, which he selflessly carries out, is to bring the Trojans to Italy and make possible their lasting settlement. This he admirably accomplishes, then dies three years later without having had time to enjoy his achievement."

"The Aeneid, trans. John Dryden (1697)"

""Aeneida" prosa prius oratione formatam digestamque in XII libros particulatim componere instituit, prout liberet quidque, et nihil in ordinem arripiens. Ac ne quid impetum moraretur, quaedam inperfecta transmisit, alia levissimis verbis veluti fulsit, quae per iocum pro tibicinibus interponi aiebat ad sustinendum opus, donec solidae columnae advenirent."

"Virgil's is a poem that at once sustains the discourses of political power and questions them as well."

"The Aeneid, trans. Cecil Day Lewis (Oxford University Press, 1986),"

"The Æneid of Virgil, trans. Christopher Pitt (1740)"

"Ulterius temptare veto."

"Nec tu divinam Aeneida tempta, sed longe sequere et vestigia semper adora."

"My chief objection (I mean that to the character of Aeneas) is, of course, not so much felt in the three first books; but, afterwards, he is always either insipid or odious, sometimes excites interest against him, and never for him."

"The Aeneid enforces the fine paradox that all the wonders of the most powerful institution the world has ever known are not necessarily of greater importance than the emptiness of human suffering."

"Virgil: Aeneid VII–XXI, The Minor Poems, trans. H. R. Fairclough (W. Heinemann, 1918)"

"The Aeneid, trans. Robert Fitzgerald (Random House, 1983),"

"Aeneid, trans. Stanley Lombardo (Hackett Publishing, 2005),"

"The Æneids of Virgil, trans. William Morris (1876)"

"Hunc, oro, sine me furere ante furorem."

"Ni te tantus edit tacitam dolor."

"Stetit acer in armis Aeneas volvens oculos dextramque repressit; Et iam iamque magis cunctantem flectere sermo Coeperat, infelix umero cum apparuit alto Balteus et notis fulserunt cingula bullis Pallantis pueri, victum quem vulnere Turnus Straverat atque umeris inimicum insigne gerebat. Ille, oculis postquam saevi monimenta doloris Exuviasque hausit, furiis accensus et ira Terribilis: 'tune hinc spoliis indute meorum Eripiare mihi? Pallas te hoc vulnere, Pallas Immolat et poenam scelerato ex sanguine sumit.' Hoc dicens ferrum adverso sub pectore condit Fervidus."

"Et profugum Aenean, altae primordia Romae, Quo nullum Latio clarius extat opus."

"De l'Eneïda dico, la qual mamma fummi, e fummi nutrice, poetando: sanz'essa non fermai peso di dramma."

"There are few readers who do not prefer Turnus to Æneas."

"Doubtless it was the "Æneid," his artificial and unfinished epic, that won Virgil the favour of the Middle Ages. To the Middle Ages, which knew not Greek, and knew not Homer, Virgil was the representative of the heroic and eternally interesting past. But to us who know Homer, Virgil's epic is indeed "like moonlight unto sunlight;" is a beautiful empty world, where no real life stirs, a world that shines with a silver lustre not its own, but borrowed from "the sun of Greece.""

"The Aeneid, the supposed panegyric of Augustus and great propaganda-piece of the new regime, has turned into something quite different. The processes of history are presented as inevitable, as indeed they are, but the value of what they achieve is cast into doubt. Virgil continually insists on the public glory of the Roman achievement, the establishment of peace and order and civilization, that dominion without end which Jupiter tells Venus he has given the Romans:But he insists equally on the terrible price one must pay for this glory. More than blood, sweat and tears, something more precious is continually being lost by the necessary process; human freedom, love, personal loyalty, all the qualities which the heroes of Homer represent, are lost in the service of what is grand, monumental and impersonal: the Roman State."

"The Æneid of Virgil, trans. John Conington (1870)"

"Virgil: Eclogues, Georgics, Aeneid I–VI, trans. H. R. Fairclough (W. Heinemann, 1918)"

"The Aeneid of Virgil, trans. John William Mackail (Macmillan, 1920)"

"Vergil's Aeneid, trans. Levi Robert Lind (Indiana University Press, 1963),"

"The Aeneid of Virgil, trans. Allen Mandelbaum (Random House, 2003),"

"The Aeneid, trans. David West (Penguin Classics, 1995),"

"The Aeneid, trans. Robert Fagles (Penguin, 2006),"

"Aeneid, trans. Frederick Ahl (Oxford World's Classics, 2008),"

"Magnorum haud unquam indignus avorum."

"Aestuat ingens Imo in corde pudor mixtoque insania luctu Et furiis agitatus amor et conscia virtus."

"Fors et virtus miscentur in unum."

"Iuppiter ipse duas aequato examine lances Sustinet et fata imponit diversa duorum, quem damnet labor et quo vergat pondere letum."

"Sit Romana potens Itala virtute propago."

"Ulterius ne tende odiis."

"Vitaque cum gemitu fugit indignata sub umbras."

"Cedite Romani scriptores, cedite Graii: Nescioquid maius nascitur Iliade."

"Talem enim monstrare Aenean debuit, ut dignus Caesari, in cuius honorem haec scribebantur, parens et auctor generis praeberetur."

"Nam utique meliores, quia certiores, erant primae illae litterae quibus fiebat in me et factum est et habeo illud ut et legam, si quid scriptum invenio, et scribam ipse, si quid volo, quam illae quibus tenere cogebar Aeneae nescio cuius errores, oblitus errorum meorum, et plorare Didonem mortuam, quia se occidit ab amore, cum interea me ipsum in his a te morientem, deus, vita mea, siccis oculis ferrem miserrimus.'Quid enim miserius misero non miserante se ipsum et flente Didonis mortem, quae fiebat amando Aenean, non flente autem mortem suam, quae fiebat non amando te, deus, lumen cordis mei et panis oris intus animae meae et virtus maritans mentem meam et sinum cogitationis meae? non te amabam, et fornicabar abs te, et fornicanti sonabat undique: 'euge! euge!' amicitia enim mundi huius fornicatio est abs te et 'euge! euge!' dicitur ut pudeat, si non ita homo sit. et haec non flebam, et flebam Didonem extinctam ferroque extrema secutam, sequens ipse extrema condita tua relicto te et terra iens in terram. et si prohiberer ea legere, dolerem, quia non legerem quod dolerem. tali dementia honestiores et uberiores litterae putantur quam illae quibus legere et scribere didici."

"Virgil falls infinitely short of Homer in the characters of his poem, both as to their variety and novelty. Æneas is indeed a perfect character, but as for Achates, though he's styled the hero's friend, he does nothing in the whole poem which may deserve that title. [...] I do not see any thing new or particular in Turnus. [...] In short, there is neither that variety nor novelty in the persons of the Æneid, which we meet with in those of the Iliad."

"Nor is it sufficient for an epic poem to be filled with such thoughts as are natural, unless it abound also with such as are sublime. Virgil in this particular falls short of Homer. He has not indeed so many thoughts that are low and vulgar; but at the same time has not so many thoughts that are sublime and noble. The truth of it is, Virgil seldom rises into very astonishing sentiments, when he is not fired by the Iliad. He everywhere charms and pleases us by the force of his own genius; but seldom elevates and transports us where he does not fetch his hints from Homer."

"It was surely no affectation in Virgil when he desired to have the Aeneid burnt; he had made that poem the task of his life, and in his last moments he had the feeling that he had failed in it."

"The Roman epic abounds in moral and poetical defects; nevertheless it remains the most complete picture of the national mind at its highest elevation, the most precious document of national history, if the history of an age is revealed in its ideas, no less than in its events and incidents."

"Virgil is unhappy in his hero. Compared with Achilles his Aeneas is but the shadow of a man."

"A man, an adult, is precisely what [Aeneas] is: Achilles had been little more than a passionate boy. ... With Virgil European poetry grows up."

"Quod genus hoc hominum? Quaeve hunc tam barbara morem Permittit patria?"

"Illa pharetram fert umero, Gradiensque deas supereminet omnes."

"Talia voce refert, curisque ingentibus aeger Spem vultu simulat, premit altum corde dolorem."

"Impar congressus Achilli."