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Lombardo's translation of Virgil's Aeneid is fabulous. He abridged it,so presumably what was left out is less interesting. What is left is a fast-paced epic that reads like action-and-gore-packed war movie in the final few books. This was a read-aloud drama for a home-schooling history class, and the children (ages 6 to 12) found it absorbing (enough that they put up with all of the names of Trojans, Greeks, Latins, Etruscans, etc. that peppered the tale). After getting bogged down in the much-longer Iliad (my version was also edited by Lombardo), I found it a lot easier to stick with the opening of the Aeneid. Lombardo's language has all the drama and freshness that one would imagine Virgil's original carried to the Romans who read, or more likely listened to, him. Here's the final action of the epic to get a taste: Aeneas stood there, lethal in bronze. His eyes searched the distance, and his hand Paused on the hilt of his sword. Turnus' words Were winning him over, but then his gaze shifted To the fateful baldric on his enemy's shoulder, And the belt glittered with its familiar metalwork— The belt of young Pallas, whom Turnus had killed And whose insignia he now wore as a trophy. Aeneas' eyes drank in this memorial Of his own savage grief, and then, burning With fury and terrible in his wrath, he said: "Do you think you can get away from me While wearing the spoils of one of my men? Pallas Sacrifices you with this stroke—Pallas— And makes you pay with your guilty blood." Saying this, and seething with rage, Aeneas Buried his sword in Turnus' chest. The man's limbs Went limp and cold, and with a moan His soul fled resentfully down to the shades. Good stuff. Hard to believe that Virgil didn't actually believe in the spiritual truth (he knew that he was fabricating this history for Augustus) of his Roman bible.

2022-11-14 16:33