The Aeneid is Virgil's Latin epic poem about Aeneas, a Trojan hero who flees the fall of Troy and journeys toward Italy. It blends myth, travel, war and duty as he follows his fate. It is worth listening to for its vivid storytelling and its lasting influence on Western literature.
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Text source: gutenberg.org · The work is in the public domain.
Opening of the book
Transcriber's Note:
Numbers in the left margin refer to line numbers in Virgil's
Aeneid. These numbers appeared at the top of each page of text and have been retained for reference.
Obvious typographical errors have been corrected. A complete list follows the text.
THE
AENEID OF VIRGIL
TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH
BY
J. W. MACKAIL, M.A.
FELLOW OF BALLIOL COLLEGE, OXFORD
London
MACMILLAN AND CO.
1885
Printed by R. & R. Clark, Edinburgh.
PREFACE
There is something grotesque in the idea of a prose translation of a poet, though the practice is become so common that it has ceased to provoke a smile or demand an apology. The language of poetry is language in fusion; that of prose is language fixed and crystallised; and an attempt to copy the one material in the other must always count on failure to convey what is, after all, one of the most essential things in poetry,—its poetical quality. And this is so with Virgil more, perhaps, than with any other poet; for more, perhaps, than any other poet Virgil depends on his poetical quality from first to last. Such a translation can only have the value of a copy of some great painting executed in mosaic, if indeed a copy in Berlin wool is not a closer analogy; and even at the best all it can have to say for itself will be in
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