Virgil’s Verse and the English Ear: A New Translation of Virgil’s Aeneid VI
Open Access
- Author:
- White, Corey
- Area of Honors:
- Interdisciplinary in Classics and Ancient Mediterranean Studies and History
- Degree:
- Bachelor of Arts
- Document Type:
- Thesis
- Thesis Supervisors:
- Jake Nabel, Thesis Supervisor
Cathleen Denise Cahill, Thesis Honors Advisor
Erin Mc Kenna Hanses, Thesis Honors Advisor - Keywords:
- Aeneid
Translation
Book VI
Classics
Roman Poetry
Virgil
Augustus
Classical and Ancient Mediterranean Studies
History - Abstract:
- Virgil’s Aeneid is arguably the premier work of Latin epic poetry published in the first century BCE under the reign of the first Roman emperor, Augustus. The work thus arrived at a time of intense political change for the Romans. The Aeneid expands upon a legend concerning the founding of Rome, while at the same time promoting the Augustine regime (at least on the surface). Book VI of XII is a departure from Aeneas’ journey to Latium, taking him instead to the underworld, an essential piece of any epic. Here Aeneas meets his deceased father who tells him of his future role as a Roman. Perhaps more propagandistically, Aeneas also encounters Virgil’s contemporaries who are lauded by the narrator as heroes of the Augustine regime. Book VI may be narratively a departure from the action of the main story; however, the intense drama and descriptions of Aeneas’ role as a Roman and his encounters with historical and mythical figures mirrors later old Anglophonic poetry and provided a basis for translation that incorporates Anglophonic storytelling and poetic devices. This translation of Book VI of the Aeneid takes a particular focus on the audial quality of the work, including alliterative word choice, memetic syntax, and rhythmic storytelling, and is appended by a critical introduction to the source text with comments on the method of translation.