Appetitive: Thoughts on the Audio Aeneid

I have a confession to make: I've never been able to get all the way through the Aeneid-- until a few months ago.

I was assigned the Mandlebaum translation in my first year of undergraduate study. I think I managed to get through Book 6 before my interest entirely ebbed away (and the only part I actually liked was Book 5-- the funeral games). I tried again to get through the whole thing when I read Book 8 in the Latin my third year in college. I managed to get through Books 1 and; 2 (and obviously Book 8 in the Latin), but no further. Then, a few summers ago, I tried to read it again for my own edification with the Fagles translation. Once again, I just failed to get through it. Then, two years ago, when I read Book 2 in the Latin, I tried again with the Fitzgerald translation, but it was a failure.

There's something about the Aeneid that just fundamentally doesn't appeal to me. I'm not sure what it is. I just would rather be doing something-- anything-- else. So, since I have a 30 minute walk each way from my apartment to class every day, I decided to get an audio version so I could feel like I was doing something productive on my walks. It worked. I finished the Aeneid in about a week of walking and house-cleaning (audiobooks have save the state of my apartment).

I recommend this version. It's the Fagles translation, which is colloquial without straying too far from the text. Simon Callow's narration is a little over the top (and his female voices are quite annoying), but it kept me engaged in the story while I was doing other things. I actually noticed some interesting things (how many of Aeneas' actions are motivated by omens, for example).

Once I finished that, I started downloading other audio books of various other classical texts (including Ian McKellen's wonderful reading of Fagles' Odyssey). It makes me feel productive on my walks to and from class. More recently, I've been listening to Paul Cartledge's The Spartans, in order to study for my Greek history survey exam.

Reasoning/Spirited: Greek History Review #4

I am still in the process of writing up the remaining lectures given at the Artists and Actors symposium, but life, it seems, keeps getting in the way. I hope that I shall manage to get Barbara Kowalzig's talk up by the end of tonight. In the intervening period, I have decided to revise my original plan of only rereading the secondary sources from my Greek History syllabus, but also rereading the primary sources assigned to each day. This will make the process take longer, but ultimately I think it will provide a clearer and fuller sense of the kind of information that scholars use to glean their insights and interpret Greek history.

In terms of more general textbook sources, I finished reading Oswyn Murray's Early Greece, and I have recently begun (and am about 100 pages into) Pomeroy et al's Ancient Greece: A Political, Social, and Cultural History. Sadly, this larger and more comprehensive volume lacks the charm and energy of Murray's work, but it still sheds some light on the history providing a more comprehensive background, upon which I can stitch together the secondary and primary sources from my syllabus.

The first sections are on the way to read Greek sources and how to interpret the information. Specifically focusing on the way in which the Greeks interpreted their own past and the Dark Age. So far I've read The Landmark Herodotus (1.56, 2.53) and The Landmark Thucydides (1.1-8, 12) and I am working reading The Odyssey of Homer(Books 1-4) and Oresteia (lines 1-907). and fjls

 

After this, this, there is a lot more Homer to read. I am going to try to read the entirety of the Odyssey, because I have not read the whole thing since 9th grade and I probably need a refresher.

I am also going to try to supplement the history syllabus by increasing my knowledge of Greek art. I'm planning on using The Art and Culture of Early Greece and Archaic and Classical Greek Art, but I would be happy for suggestions if anyone has particular favorites.