Aeneid Book 7

Abstract

Aeneid Book 7 Virgil (bio) Translated by Ian Ganassi (bio) TRANSLATOR’S NOTE: As the first book of the second half of the Aeneid, Book 7 sets the tone and gives the essential underpinnings of the plot for the next six books. This part of the poem concerns Aeneas’s attempt to found his new Troy (Rome) in Latium (Italy), to which the gods have directed him. Books 1–6 refer largely to Homer—they are not an imitation of the Odyssey, but much of Aeneas’s wanderings through the Mediterranean recall that story. The second half is evocative of the Iliad; it concerns war. As in the first half of the poem, Juno sabotages Aeneas’s divine mission to found a new homeland for the Trojans. Juno’s (Greek Hera’s) hatred of the Trojans goes back to the Judgment of Paris, when Aphrodite (Roman Venus) was chosen to receive what would be called the “apple of discord.” The main purpose of Book 7 is to present Juno’s interference, and how it results in war with the native peoples of Italy. One important difference between the halves is their degree of completion. The first six books are relatively “finished.” The next six are more flawed, and thus present difficulties to the translator. Some flaws are obvious ones of consistency: For one, the invocation to the muse is directed to Erato, the muse of lyric poetry, rather than to Calliope, the muse of epic poetry. Another error is the incorrect attribution of the prophecy that the Trojans will “eat their tables.” Flaws in the writing are harder to identify, though there are a number of incomplete lines throughout; had Virgil lived, he would have corrected these. To my mind, other lapses include the hasty treatment of the death of Aeneas’s nurse, Caeieta, and what seems to be an abrupt ending to the book overall. Virgil considered the Aeneid too flawed for publication, and it was his dying wish that the manuscript be destroyed. Fortunately, Augustus countermanded him. One aspect of Virgil’s writing in the Aeneid that challenges the translator, and puzzles many readers, is his use of the present tense in past tense narrative. He often moves back and forth between the two. Some Latinists refer to this use of the present tense as “the historical present.” Its purpose is (apparently) to add liveliness, excitement, “presentness,” to the storytelling. Translators deal with it in different ways. Some ignore it altogether and put the narrative in the past tense, but I feel that this is too easy and that it leaches some of the energy from the text. This odd use of tenses also points obliquely to the roots of epic poetry as part of an oral tradition. I come to this translation not as a classicist or a Latinist but as a poet with great reverence and admiration for Virgil’s poetry (and with six years of Latin), and particularly for the Aeneid. I approached Book 7 as I have approached the first six books (which have appeared in NER). Partly because of its flaws, and partly because of its utilitarian role, I elected to cut some descriptive and discursive passages for the purposes of this translation. My goal is to remain as true as possible (not always perfectly) to the letter, and elegance, of Virgil’s Latin, while simultaneously creating an exciting and absorbing version (a “good read,” as Robert Fitzgerald put it), accessible to a wide range of readers. —IG [End Page 74] for Bob Stein, in memoriam After building the funeral mound for Caeieta, Aeneas’s former nurse, Aeneas and his companions finally make landfall in Italy (Ausonia, Latium), destined to become, in time, the site of Rome. Juno, however, always hostile to Aeneas and his mission, causes the native Latins, along with other native tribes, to band together for war against the Trojans. Book 7 ends with a catalogue of the forces arrayed against Aeneas and his people. Good Aeneas, having performed the rites as custom requires,Piles the funeral mound; the wild seas grow calm,The journey stretches the sails, and he leaves the port behind.Their path brings them close to...