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A review by slettlune
The Aeneid by Virgil
3.0
Hard to review properly because while I recognize Virgil's talents as a poet, and the political and nationalistic values the Aeneid represent, and how it's a competent attempt at creating a cohesive narrative out of a bunch of myths and folktales... It is extremely derivative of the Iliad and the Odyssey (down to the point where you can tell, "Oh, this character is the ersatz Patroclus, oh now they visit the land of the Cyclops because that's what Odysseus did"...) without the things that I love about those poems. Mostly how relatable and reactive and larger-than-life the characters are (which Aeneas, the pietas posterboy, really isn't)
It's interesting how I've kept running into statements to the effect that "modern readers typically prefer the journey of the first half (the Odyssey parallel) to the war of the second (the Iliad paralell)", but I definitely felt the opposite. Turnus as an antagonist really kept me guessing.
I appreciated Bartsch's translation for its snappy, descriptive language (Latin translations have a tendency to get super wordy). I was a little disappointed at just how many of the translator's notes were just pointing out moments where the poem was self-contradictory or where Aeneas did something morally shady. As a first-time reader (because God knows I can't resist translator notes) it gave me a feeling of the poem being kinda sloppily constructed, which I think isn't fair.
It's interesting how I've kept running into statements to the effect that "modern readers typically prefer the journey of the first half (the Odyssey parallel) to the war of the second (the Iliad paralell)", but I definitely felt the opposite. Turnus as an antagonist really kept me guessing.
I appreciated Bartsch's translation for its snappy, descriptive language (Latin translations have a tendency to get super wordy). I was a little disappointed at just how many of the translator's notes were just pointing out moments where the poem was self-contradictory or where Aeneas did something morally shady. As a first-time reader (because God knows I can't resist translator notes) it gave me a feeling of the poem being kinda sloppily constructed, which I think isn't fair.