The Aeneid by Virgil (verse translation by Rolfe Humphries)

Last night I finally finished re-reading The Aeneid by Virgil (verse translation by Rolfe Humphries). I purchased my copy back in college to help me translate some passages when I was studying Latin. From the looks of a few notations, I also read books V-VI around ten years ago. About three years ago I read N.T. Wright’s Paul and the Faithfulness of God. In that book Wright notes that the Bible offers a teleological view of history that argues all of history has been building up to the coming of Jesus the Christ. He further states that the only other ancient literary work that advances anything close to such a history is The Aeneid. In this 12-book epic poem in dactylic hexameter, Virgil constructs a narrative which argues that history from the Fall of Troy through the victorious war upon the Latins and beyond culminates in the reign of Augustus Caesar. Indeed, parts of the work is open propaganda giving mythic legitimization to the rule of Julius Caesar and, by extension, to his adopted son Augustus. All well and good. Modern distaste for propaganda should not cause us to shrink back from and appreciate its ancient examples. As my New Testament professor once said, “Is not the New Testament a collection of propaganda pieces promoting God, Jesus, and the Gospel?” So some two years ago I dusted off my personal copy of the book to see how another ancient work works their teleological propaganda.

Here is a good example. In Book VI, Aeneas goes down to the Underworld and hears the following prophecy from his dead father, Anchises:

“Turn your two eyes

 This way and see this people, your own Romans.

 Here is Caesar, and all the line of Iulus,

 All who shall one day pass under the dome

 Of the great sky: this is the man, this one,

 Of whom so often you have heard the promise,

Caesar Augustus son of the deified,

 Who shall bring once again an Age of Gold

 To Latium, to the land where Saturn reigned

 In early times.”

Pretty grand stuff. Interestingly, Aeneas's son, Ascanius (also called Illus from Illium, meaning Troy) has his named changed to Iulus to correspond to the family line of Julius Caesar. Heavy stuff that.

The book as a whole is magnificent on every level. The poetry, the metaphor, the plot, the wide canvas, the characters, the battles scenes, all of it comes together perfectly. After recently reading the somewhat dull epic poem Troilus and Criseyde by Chaucer, the last half of this book was refreshing and vitalic. You quickly understand why Dante held Virgil in such high regard. Oddly enough, one notices that the antagonists in the book (such as Dido, Turnus, and Camilla) are more interesting characters than the protagonists like Aeneas. Very Shakespearean that.