The Aeneid

According to Mortimer Adler, a great American educator, the Iliad, Odyssey, Aeneid, the Divine Comedy, Paradise Lost (the epics), and the Bible constitute the most serious reading program. Great thinkers and writers read them carefully and repeatedly.

Most of us only have time to read a small fraction of the great books. Even so, Adler recognized that reading well is more about quality than quantity. This means reading one great book well can seriously increase one’s understanding of the human condition, what ought to be desired, and happiness.

The Aeneid extends the stories of the Iliad and the Odyssey. Aeneas is a Trojan hero who fights to save his city and flees when all is lost, carrying his father on his shoulders. He leads his people across the sea to North Africa, where he is welcomed by a queen who falls in love with him, but has a tragic end. He is called to found a kingdom in Italy that would one day become Rome.

Virgil, the poet and author, lived during the reign of Octavian (Caesar Augustus) and likely had him in mind in his description of Aeneas’ personality and leadership.

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Robert Fitzgerald, the translator, provides a really good reading experience. His work is concise and forces one to feel the destruction, journey, danger, love, regret, sacrifice, battles, and hope. At the end, Fitzgerald provides a helpful synopsis of Rome’s early history and the themes of the Aeneid, like mercy and revenge.

During my teenage years, I was assigned chapters 1, 2, 4, 5, and 12 for a classics camp. Those chapters should not be skipped. The most memorable is chapter two, which is about Troy’s fall; it is an unforgettable reading experience. The reader is made to feel like he is there, seeing the walls fall and the city burn.

The description of hell and judgment in Chapter 6 is terrifying. Chapter 9 is the story of a secret military mission. Knowing the danger, one young man asks:

“This urge to action, do the gods instill it,

Or is each man’s desire a god to him,

Euryalus? For all these hours I’ve longed

To engage in battle, or to try some great

Adventure.”