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.
Serious readers have to focus on the great books of their field or related fields. They should try to select the best books as time is limited. Adler recognized that reading well is more about quality than quantity. He argued that reading one great book well is better than reading many great books poorly. Reading a great book well can seriously increase one’s understanding of the human condition, life’s big questions, and the good life.
The Aeneid is one of the great books (or poems). Written during the reign of Caesar Augustus at the beginning of the Roman Empire, it seeks to convey something important. Virgil, the author, extended the Iliad and the Odyssey, the great Greek epic poems, casting Aeneas, a Trojan hero who fights to save his city as the Roman Empire’s father and symbol.
The book begins with heartbreak as Aeneas is forced to flee his burning city, his father on his shoulders. Leading his people and journeying to North Africa, the land of Carthage, he falls in love with a queen, but this ends in tragedy as he’s confronted with his calling to found a new civilization.
Robert Fitzgerald, the translator, provides a really good reading experience. He makes the reader experience Troy’s destruction, Aeneas’ journey, danger, love, regret, sacrifice, an epic battle, and Aeneas’ passion. At the end, he provides a helpful synopsis of Rome’s early history and the themes of the Aeneid.
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: an unforgettable reading experience. The imagery and verse offer the reader a movie-like experience, making him 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 involved, 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.”
If you want a helpful podcast conversation about what is happening in the Aeneid, I recommend First Things episode What Virgil Teaches America.
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