Virgil’s The Aeneid

Often called “the poem of Europe,” Virgil’s beautifully written Latin epic tells the story of Aeneas, the Trojan prince who fled his fallen home city and struggled through trials of devotion and courage to found a new civilization: Rome. In this course, we’ll focus on what may have made The Aeneid so important a work for so many centuries, and why it may still hold value and relevance for our time.

Any translation may be used but recommended (and to which references will be made in class) is The Aeneid, transl. Robert Fagles, ISBN  978-0143105138; a fine translation by Rolfe Humphries is also available for free download at Gutenberg.com.

George Young has taught Russian literature and general humanities at Grinnell, Dartmouth, University of New England, and, in more recent years, at OLLI and MSC. He and his wife Patricia live and golf in Brunswick.