virgil — Blog — Kell-Read

The very last month of the year was a bit of a weird one for me, and you can tell I needed some comfort reads! I really ended 2021 with a bang, finishing both Vardaesia and the Aeneid, and then reading another eight books and one novella. It helps that the weather was beautiful and I was on holidays for the last week and a half of the month. Also, I always read the Percy Jackson books really quickly because they’re so easy and hard to put down. So, without further ado, here is my final wrap up post for 2021!

I finished off the Medoran Chronicles series by Lynette Noni this month, which was a bitter sweet moment for me. It let this melancholic feeling in my chest, and the book hangover feeling was strong. I can’t say much about Vardaesia or A Very Medoran Kaldoras: Part One without spoiling the entire series but what I can say is that it was a brilliant ending to one of the best Young Adult series I have ever read. It was heartbreaking and uplifting and I felt so many emotions listening to Vardaesia, I was completely encapsulated. A Very Medoran Kaldoras: Part One is a bonus novella that is set a year after the ending of Vardaesia, and it was just this bonus glimpse into the lives of our favourite characters which I absolutely adored. It ended on a cliffhanger by Lynette has since blessed us with a part two, and that is truly a Christmas miracle. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, please read this series!!! Vardaesia ★★★★★ // A Very Medoran Kaldoras: Part One ★★★★☆.

After buddy reading The Aeneid with Lorna over at unexpectedlearningjourney it was really wonderful to finally finish it! Reading it with Lorna was such a great experience, since she really brought her Latin expertise to the buddy read, and went so far as to translate some passages herself. Although I had a couple of issues with my translation, it was really cool to compare translation choices between my edition and Lorna’s, which really highlighted the challenges of translation. It was really enlightening, and of course the epic poem itself was really fascinating. The links to Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey throughout were always interesting to find, and the tale as a founding myth of Rome is such a great insight into the way the Romans viewed themselves and their connection to the Greeks at the beginning of their Empire.

Next up this month was my re-read of the entire Percy Jackson and the Olympians series by Rick Riordan. The Percy Jackson series is a five book middle grade series the focusses on Percy Jackson, the son of the Greek god Poseidon and his other half-blood (also known as demigod) friends. In the first book, Percy is a 12 year old boy who finds out his father is a Greek god, he is introduced to camp half-blood where other kids of greek gods live and learn to fight and harness their powers. This series is very much a coming of age story that ends after Percy has turned 16, and during his often dangerous adventures with his friends, he turns into a courageous hero. This whole series is all about, friendship, loyalty, adventure and courage. Not only is it a heartwarming and epic tale, it also teaches you a lot of Greek mythology. Reading this series is a really wonderful way to become familiar with many of the myths and monsters of greek mythology, but it is also a lot of fun to read if you’re already familiar. The number of myths, creatures and stories from mythology that Rick Riordan has added to this series is mind-blowing and I feel like every time I read this series I notice more.

In preparation for something very fun coming soon with my good friend Erica over at Moaninc, I re-read one of my favourite William Shakespeare plays of all time, A Midsummer Night’s Dream. A Midsummer Night’s Dream was written between 1594-1596 and was first published in 1600. It’s one of Shakespeare’s shorter plays and is classified as a comedy. The play has three distinctive groups of characters in the story with the Athenians, the fairies and the workers. The play is based around the marriage of Theseus the Greek hero to the Amazonian woman Hippolyta, and contains unrequited love, the meddling of fairies and a parody play of Pyramus and Thisbe at the conclusion to the play. It is such an enjoyable play, and definitely one of his easier plays to read and follow. It’s a really great play to begin you Shakespeare journey with, and for those lovers of mythology, Shakespeare drew a lot of inspiration from the writings of Ovid in many of his plays including A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

I continued on my Percy Jackson re-read with The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan, the first book in the Heroes of Olympus spin-off series that has your favourite characters but also introduces a whole heap of new characters too! I remember not enjoying this one quite as much as the the following books in the series because none of my favourite characters were in it (cough Percy and Annabeth cough), but I definitely enjoyed this one a lot more in this re-read. Maybe it’s because I am already familiar with the story, not sure. But the introduction of new characters like Jason, Piper, Leo and Coach Hedge just adds a new dynamic to the series, and the world of Camp Half-Blood. The stakes are higher and the enemy is even more dangerous, with old monsters returning to the living world that have been slumbering for thousands of years. Rick Riordan continues to add many new myths and monsters from Greek mythology into his books, but this time, he starts introducing the Roman names.

My final read for 2021 was The Son of Neptune by Rick Riordan, the second book in the Heroes of Olympus series, and as you can tell from the title, there’s something a bit different about this book. Neptune is the Roman name for the god Poseidon, which right from the beginning suggests something different is going on. In this book, we get introduced to a new camp for half-bloods, Camp Jupiter, but these demigods are children of the Roman form of the gods which were similar but different. I absolutely LOVE the incorporation of a Roman camp and the Roman versions of the gods. It adds a whole other layer to the series, and the fact that Percy remembers Annabeth the entire time makes my heart all happy. More new additions to the story with Frank and Hazel with their cute friendship with Percy once again just adds more depth to this story. Every new character is so unique, and adds something new and specific to the story, if anyone is tossing up whether they are going to read this series after finishing Percy Jackson, you definitely should! It only gets better and better! I’m keeping these reviews short and sweet, because I don’t want to ruin anything for the earlier books. If you ever want a spoiler review of any of these books just let me know on my instagram or in the comments! As always, you can find me on Instagram @kell_read where I post lots of pics, videos and reviews ✨

★★★★☆ - my main issue with this was definitely some of the choices made by the translator, not the tale itself. I buddy read this with my lovely friend Lorna over at Unexpectedlearningjourney which was such a wonderful experience, especially since she brought her Latin expertise to the table and did some amazing translations throughout our read along - some of which I will be including in this review! You should also check out her article on Moaninc all about learning Latin!

What is the Aeneid?

Before we get into my thoughts, lets introduce the text, it’s historical context and purpose in the ancient world. The Aeneid was written by the Roman poet Virgil who lived in the Early Roman Empire between 70-19BCE. As a sponsor of the first emperor of the Roman Empire, Augustus, The Aeneid tells the founding story of Rome with the Trojan hero Aeneas travelling through the Mediterranean to finally establish the lineage of Romulus and Remus and the Roman Empire. Aeneas, a Trojan and son of the goddess Venus, escaped from the sack of Troy and was told his destiny was to found a grand city in Italy. After some time on the sea, not unlike Odysseus on his long journey home after the Trojan War, Aeneas finds himself in Carthage and falls in love with the Queen, Dido. After spending six years on Carthage, Mercury reminds Aeneas of his purpose and departs Carthage, leaving a grief-stricken Dido who ends up throwing herself on a burning pyre.

Her phantom sifting through my fingers, light as wind, quick as a dream in flight. (102)

Once again reminiscent of Odysseus, Aeneas takes a journey to the underworld where he sees the shade of Dido, many a deceased Trojan and his father. Aeneas eventually makes it to Latium where war ensues led by Aeneas on the Trojan side and Turnus of the Rutuli - especially since the hand in marriage of the Princess Lavinia is at stake as well. In the final lines of the poem, Turnus is killed and Aeneas’ descendants Romulus and Remus would eventually establish the city of Rome. Virgil died without finishing the tale and asked his friend Lucius Varius Rufus to destroy it - and thankfully for us he didn’t! Although Virgil wasn’t too happy with the work before his death, Augustus was pleased and despite Virgil’s desire to have it destroyed, the emperor had it published instead. Why did Virgil compose the poem? The main reasons were to honour Augustus and praise him by highlighting his ancestors, and to show parallels between the protagonist, Aeneas and Augustus. At the time it was written, Rome was in a bit of political instability with the ending of the Roman Republic after the assassination of Julius Caesar and the dawn of the Roman Empire, and so the Aeneid was something of a parallel between the events that Aeneas lived through and the unsteady beginnings of Rome, and the instability the early Roman Empire was facing at the time.

The Aeneid not only alludes to The Iliad and The Odyssey by Homer, many facets of the tale is reminiscent of it. Plus, The Aeneid is actually where we get the tale of the Trojan horse which wasn’t mentioned in the Iliad and only referred to in the Odyssey, since much of the Epic Cycle now only survives to us in fragments. Sections such as the death of Pallas is reminiscent of the death of Patroclus, and the funeral games for Anchises is comparable to the funeral games of Patroclus. Of course there is also divine intervention with the gods and goddesses influencing the mortals like game pieces, although not to the same extent as in Homers tales. The epic poem covers themes of renewal and conflict, and unlike the Iliad and the Odyssey, it references and alludes to the historical past of Rome like the Punic Wars which can be summed up as Rome vs. Carthage and the destruction of Carthage.

Thoughts and Opinions

Overall, I really enjoyed reading this poem. Some books were slower than others, but some were so gripping that I didn't want to put the book down. Throughout the book I really enjoyed finding snippets that felt Homeric, especially the use of Homeric simile which occurred all throughout the story. I think that made it feel more cohesive, as if it wasn’t written down 800 years after Homer’s tales.

Most of my thoughts about this book will be focussed on translation and word choice - mainly because I truly think it let the story down. Buddy reading with Lorna who was reading a different translation (prose E.V. Riu) really illuminated some questionable choices in my edition, and therefore translations as a whole. It is such a personal thing, translation, and having learnt some Ancient Greek basics and talking to Lorna about the Latin throughout reading this book, the choices made by translators can really alter a passage, it’s the meaning and emphasis. There were little things like the choice of ‘heaven’ and ‘hell’ rather than ‘Olympus’ and ‘Hades’ or ‘Tartarus,’ they were definitely questionable choices, especially when looking back at the Latin and seeing the use of Tartarus in the original which happened a couple of times, for example:

“…crying out to Hecate, mighty Queen of Heaven and Hell.” (Fagles 6.183)
“…Hecate, mighty in the sky and mighty in Erebus.” (E.V.Riu)
“Hecaten caeloque Ereboque potentem” - Lorna’s literal translation “... Hecate, powerful in the sky and powerful in Erebus.”

There was the use of Persephone instead of Proserpina which was interesting, and the most frustrating thing was the consistent use of the word ‘awesome.’ Here’s an example-

“… the goddess in all her glory, just as the gods behold her build, her awesome beauty.” (Fagles 2.732-733).
“She revealed herself as a goddess as the gods in heaven see her, in all her majesty of form and stature.” (E.V.Riu pg. 42)
“... deam qualisque videri caelicolis et quanta solet'.” - Lorna’s translation “I beheld the goddess, just as the gods are accustomed to her, in her quantity of form and stature.”

Why you’d choose to use the word awesome is beyond me, and it happens all throughout the book. Of course sometimes it works, but other times, I felt like there were more appropriate words to use (like above). But in saying that, there were other lines that were so beautiful, some that were incredibly sad and some that were super gory. Overall it’s an interesting tale that documents the early ideology of the Roman Empire, and although I probably didn’t get as much out of it in terms of historical importance (I’m more of an Ancient Greek history gal), I still truly enjoyed delving into this. I loved that we got some strong female figures like Dido and Camilla, even though they both literally ended up dying which was disappointing. You can really understand the way women were seen from the Roman male’s perspective, with Dido committing suicide after Aeneas left her, Camilla the incredible warrior woman on par with the Amazons being killed after only 400 lines in the poem because she saw a shiny gold brooch and had to go for the plunder, and even Lavinia who was completely without agency throughout the tale and was simply a pawn used to incite war. It’s truly fascinating, especially with the continued theme from Homer’s poems of the gods using humans as their pawns to get their way - and one really interesting comparison was that of Aeneas, Lavinia and Turnus in the final few books to Paris, Helen and Menelaus. As if their battle over Lavinia’s hand in marriage was to the same degree as the Trojan War. It was so interesting having the figures in this story compare themselves to the Trojan war, and the way in which Aeneas was the link between Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome. There are truly so many things I could comment on but it’s just impossible, so I should probably end my meaningless rambles here. HAH!

I’d love to learn more about this epic poem, to hear about your thoughts about The Aeneid and the things I brought up in this review! Make sure to comment below or find me over on Instagram. I am planning on re-reading this again at some point (as with The Iliad and The Odyssey), and I would love suggestions for different translations. Now that I’ve read the Fagles edition of this, I am not really interested in picking up The Iliad or The Odyssey in his translation because of the issues I had with The Aeneid, so any suggestions for any translations of any of these texts would be most welcome!✨