About the Author

Publius Vergilius Maro (70-19 B.C.), known asVirgil, was born near Mantua in the last days of the Roman Republic. In his comparatively short life he became the supreme poet of his age, whoseAeneidgave the Romans a great national epic equal to the Greeks', celebrating their city's origins and the creation of their empire. Virgil is also credited with authoring two other major works of Latin literature, theEcloguesand theGeorgics.

Robert Fagles(1933-2008) was Arthur W. Marks '19 Professor of Comparative Literature, Emeritus, at Princeton University. He was the recipient of the 1997 PEN/Ralph Manheim Medal for Translation and a 1996 Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. His translations include Sophocles'sThree Theban Plays, Aeschylus'sOresteia(nominated for a National Book Award), Homer'sIliad(winner of the 1991 Harold Morton Landon Translation Award by The Academy of American Poets), Homer'sOdyssey, and Virgil'sAeneid.

Bernard Knox(1914-2010) was Director Emeritus of Harvard's Center for Hellenic Studies in Washington, D.C. He taught at Yale University for many years. Among his numerous honors are awards from the National Institute of Arts and Letters and the National Endowment for the Humanities. His works includeThe Heroic Temper- Studies in Sophoclean Tragedy, Oedipus at Thebes- Sophocles' Tragic Hero and His TimeandEssays Ancient and Modern(awarded the 1989 PEN/Spielvogel-Diamonstein Award).

Reviews

"A new and noble standard bearer . . . There's a capriciousness to Fagles's line well suited to this vast story's ebb and flow."
-The New York Times Book Review (front page review)

"Fagles's new version of Virgil's epic delicately melds the stately rhythms of the original to a contemporary cadence. . . . He illuminates the poem's Homeric echoes while remaining faithful to Virgil's distinctive voice."
-The New Yorker

"Robert Fagles gives the full range of Virgil's drama, grandeur, and pathos in vigorous, supple modern English. It is fitting that one of the great translators of The Iliad and The Odyssey in our times should also emerge as a surpassing translator of The Aeneid."
-J. M. Coetzee

"A new and noble standard bearer . . . There's a capriciousness to Fagles's line well suited to this vast story's ebb and flow."
-The New York Times Book Review (front page review)

"Fagles's new version of Virgil's epic delicately melds the stately rhythms of the original to a contemporary cadence. . . . He illuminates the poem's Homeric echoes while remaining faithful to Virgil's distinctive voice."
-The New Yorker

"Robert Fagles gives the full range of Virgil's drama, grandeur, and pathos in vigorous, supple modern English. It is fitting that one of the great translators of The Iliad and The Odyssey in our times should also emerge as a surpassing translator of The Aeneid."
-J. M. Coetzee

The legendary translator of the Iliad and the Odyssey, Robert Fagles now delivers another classic. Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.