Trojan Horse"Wars and a man I sing__an exile driven on by Fate, he was the first to flee the coast of Troy, destined to reach Lavinian shores and Italian soil__yet many blows he took on land and sea from the gods above__thanks to cruel Juno's restless rage and many loses he bore in battle too..." so starts Virgil's Aeneid, a cornerstone in the Western literary tradition. Robert Fagles, 2006 translation brings to the English reader an new vibrancy by using the rhythms of the original Latin and combining them with the cadence of modern English. The story is a classic, one that has been read by generations for over 2000 years__ the story of Aeneas's adventurous return voyage from Troy after a 10 year war raged over the most beautiful women in the world, Helen. It's a chronicle of a perilous journey plagued by the wrath of the vengeful god Juno full of nasty twists and turns. A trip that involved an epic affair with Dido the love sick queen of Carthage and then Aeneas's descent into the underworld and finally his founding of the Roman Empire. For those wanting a basis of a classical education, the Aeneid along with Homer's Odyssey and Iliad are the place to start. Fagles translation along with a fine audio rendition by Simon Callow bring this epic to life like never before. This is one of the masterpieces of all literature. Read it.
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