Bank Square Books presents an author talk and signing with Susannah Wright and Scott McGill, for their translation work on The Aeneid. Susannah and Scott will be in conversation with Rand Richards Cooper.

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About the Book

Rome’s epic origin story, brilliantly rendered in a vivid, rhythmic idiom.

Crafted during the reign of Augustus Caesar at the outset of the Roman Empire, Virgil’s Aeneid is a tale of thrilling adventure, extreme adversity, doomed romance, fateful battles, and profound loss. Through its stirring account of human struggle, meddling gods, and conflicting destinies, the poem brings to life the triumphs and trials that led to one of the most powerful societies the world has ever known. Unlike its Homeric predecessors, which arose from a long oral tradition, the Aeneid was composed by a singular poetic genius, and it has ever since been celebrated as one of the greatest literary achievements of antiquity.

This exciting new edition of the Aeneid, the first collaborative translation of the poem in English, is rendered in unrhymed iambic pentameter, the English meter that corresponds best, in its history and cultural standing, to Virgil’s dactylic hexameter. Scott McGill and Susannah Wright achieve an ideal middle ground between readability and elevation, engaging modern readers with fresh, contemporary language in a heart-pounding, propulsive rhythm, while also preserving the epic dignity of the original. The result is a brisk, eminently approachable translation that captures Virgil’s sensitive balance between celebrating the Roman Empire and dramatizing its human costs, for victors and vanquished alike. This Aeneid is a poem in English every bit as complex, inviting, and affecting as the Latin original.

With a rich and informative introduction from Emily Wilson, maps drawn especially for this volume, a pronunciation glossary, genealogies, extensive notes, and helpful summaries of each book, this gorgeous edition of Rome’s founding poem will capture the imaginations and stir the souls of a new generation of readers.

About the Authors

Susannah Wright is an assistant professor of classical studies and Roman history at Rice University. She lives in Houston, Texas.

Scott McGill is a Deedee McMurtry Professor in Humanities at Rice University. He lives in Houston, Texas.

About Rand Richards Cooper

Rand Richards Cooper is the author of two works of fiction. His writing has appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, and many other magazines, and he’s a longtime book reviewer for the New York Times.

Crafted during the reign of Augustus Caesar at the outset of the Roman Empire, Virgil's Aeneid is a tale of thrilling adventure, extreme adversity, doomed romance, fateful battles, and profound loss. Through its stirring account of human struggle, meddling gods, and conflicting destinies, the poem brings to life the triumphs and trials that led to one of the most powerful societies the world has ever known. Unlike its Homeric predecessors, which arose from a long oral tradition, the Aeneid was composed by a singular poetic genius, and it has ever since been celebrated as one of the greatest literary achievements of antiquity. 

This exciting new edition of the Aeneid, the first collaborative translation of the poem in English, is rendered in unrhymed iambic pentameter, the English meter that corresponds best, in its history and cultural standing, to Virgil's dactylic hexameter. Scott McGill and Susannah Wright achieve an ideal middle ground between readability and elevation, engaging modern readers with fresh, contemporary language in a heart-pounding, propulsive rhythm, while also preserving the epic dignity of the original. The result is a brisk, eminently approachable translation that captures Virgil's sensitive balance between celebrating the Roman Empire and dramatizing its human costs, for victors and vanquished alike. This Aeneid is a poem in English every bit as complex, inviting, and affecting as the Latin original. 

With a rich and informative introduction from Emily Wilson, maps drawn especially for this volume, a pronunciation glossary, genealogies, extensive notes, and helpful summaries of each book, this gorgeous edition of Rome's founding poem will capture the imaginations and stir the souls of a new generation of readers.

Scott McGill is Deedee McMurtry Professor in Humanities at Rice University. He lives in Houston, Texas.

Susannah Wright is an assistant professor of classical studies and Roman history at Rice University. She lives in Houston, Texas.

McGill and Wright will be in conversation with Nandini Pandey, an associate professor of classics at Johns Hopkins University. She lives in Baltimore, Maryland.

This event is free with first come, first serve seating.

To request accommodations for this event or to inquire about accessibility please email events@politics-prose.com ideally one week in advance of the event date. We will make an effort to accommodate all requests up until the time of the event.

Harvard Book Store welcomes Scott McGill—Deedee McMurtry Professor in Humanities at Rice University—and Susannah Wright—assistant professor of classical studies and Roman history at Rice University—for a discussion of their new translation of The Aeneid by Virgil. They will be joined in conversation by Stephen Scully—Chair of the Department of Classical Studies at Boston University, who has translated Plato's Phaedrus, and Euripides' Suppliant Women.

About The Aeneid

Rome’s epic origin story, brilliantly rendered in a vivid, rhythmic idiom.

Crafted during the reign of Augustus Caesar at the outset of the Roman Empire, Virgil’s Aeneid is a tale of thrilling adventure, extreme adversity, doomed romance, fateful battles, and profound loss. Through its stirring account of human struggle, meddling gods, and conflicting destinies, the poem brings to life the triumphs and trials that led to one of the most powerful societies the world has ever known. Unlike its Homeric predecessors, which arose from a long oral tradition, the Aeneid was composed by a singular poetic genius, and it has ever since been celebrated as one of the greatest literary achievements of antiquity.

This exciting new edition of the Aeneid, the first collaborative translation of the poem in English, is rendered in unrhymed iambic pentameter, the English meter that corresponds best, in its history and cultural standing, to Virgil’s dactylic hexameter. Scott McGill and Susannah Wright achieve an ideal middle ground between readability and elevation, engaging modern readers with fresh, contemporary language in a heart-pounding, propulsive rhythm, while also preserving the epic dignity of the original. The result is a brisk, eminently approachable translation that captures Virgil’s sensitive balance between celebrating the Roman Empire and dramatizing its human costs, for victors and vanquished alike. This Aeneid is a poem in English every bit as complex, inviting, and affecting as the Latin original.

With a rich and informative introduction from Emily Wilson, maps drawn especially for this volume, a pronunciation glossary, genealogies, extensive notes, and helpful summaries of each book, this gorgeous edition of Rome’s founding poem will capture the imaginations and stir the souls of a new generation of readers.

Praise for The Aeneid

"A phenomenal achievement! Scott McGill and Susannah Wright offer an innovative and propulsive ‘foot-for-foot’ blank verse translation that brilliantly reproduces Virgil’s poetic effects and preserves the famed complexities of this monumental epic and the characters that inhabit it. Wilson’s engaging introduction places the Aeneid in its historical and literary contexts while poignantly articulating the enduring questions it still compels us to ponder." —Stephanie McCarter, University of the South, translator of Ovid’s Metamorphoses

"McGill and Wright have risen impressively to the challenge of marrying fidelity to Virgil’s Latin with a stylish English, offering the modern reader a middle path between accessibility and elevation. Their blank verse succeeds in cleverly conveying much of the imagery and sound effects of Virgil’s hexameters. A translation that will delight the poetry lover and student alike." —Philip Hardie, University of Cambridge, author of The Last Trojan Hero: A Cultural History of Virgil’s “Aeneid”

"This translation will be replacing my previous preferred version of the Aeneid. Susannah Wright and Scott McGill don’t just capture the words of the original poetry but its rhetorical structures and even, in places, its sounds. It’s particularly impressive that they manage to get so much over into English while sustaining a clarity and straightforwardness unparalleled among the recent renditions." —Aaron Poochigian, poet, classicist, and translator

Bios

Scott McGill is Deedee McMurtry Professor in Humanities at Rice University. He lives in Houston, Texas.

Susannah Wright is an assistant professor of classical studies and Roman history at Rice University. She lives in Houston, Texas.

Stephen Scully is Professor and Chair, Department of Classical Studies, Boston University. He has translated Plato's Phaedrus and (with Rosanna Warren), Euripides' Suppliant Women.

Masking Policy 

Masks are encouraged but not required for this event. 

Rome's epic origin story, brilliantly rendered in a vivid, rhythmic idiom.

Crafted during the reign of Augustus Caesar at the outset of the Roman Empire, Virgil's Aeneid is a tale of thrilling adventure, extreme adversity, doomed romance, fateful battles, and profound loss. Through its stirring account of human struggle, meddling gods, and conflicting destinies, the poem brings to life the triumphs and trials that led to one of the most powerful societies the world has ever known. Unlike its Homeric predecessors, which arose from a long oral tradition, the Aeneid was composed by a singular poetic genius, and it has ever since been celebrated as one of the greatest literary achievements of antiquity.

This exciting new edition of the Aeneid, the first collaborative translation of the poem in English, is rendered in unrhymed iambic pentameter, the English meter that corresponds best, in its history and cultural standing, to Virgil's dactylic hexameter. Scott McGill and Susannah Wright achieve an ideal middle ground between readability and elevation, engaging modern readers with fresh, contemporary language in a heart-pounding, propulsive rhythm, while also preserving the epic dignity of the original. The result is a brisk, eminently approachable translation that captures Virgil's sensitive balance between celebrating the Roman Empire and dramatizing its human costs, for victors and vanquished alike. This Aeneid is a poem in English every bit as complex, inviting, and affecting as the Latin original.

With a rich and informative introduction from Emily Wilson, maps drawn especially for this volume, a pronunciation glossary, genealogies, extensive notes, and helpful summaries of each book, this gorgeous edition of Rome's founding poem will capture the imaginations and stir the souls of a new generation of readers.

Review Quotes:
McGill and Wright have risen impressively to the challenge of marrying fidelity to Virgil's Latin with a stylish English, offering the modern reader a middle path between accessibility and elevation. Their blank verse succeeds in cleverly conveying much of the imagery and sound effects of Virgil's hexameters. A translation that will delight the poetry lover and student alike.--Philip Hardie, University of Cambridge, author of The Last Trojan Hero: A Cultural History of Virgil's "Aeneid"

Review Quotes:
A phenomenal achievement! Scott McGill and Susannah Wright offer an innovative and propulsive 'foot-for-foot' blank verse translation that brilliantly reproduces Virgil's poetic effects and preserves the famed complexities of this monumental epic and the characters that inhabit it. Wilson's engaging introduction places the Aeneid in its historical and literary contexts while poignantly articulating the enduring questions it still compels us to ponder.--Stephanie McCarter, University of the South, translator of Ovid's Metamorphoses

Review Quotes:
This translation will be replacing my previous preferred version of the Aeneid. Susannah Wright and Scott McGill don't just capture the words of the original poetry but its rhetorical structures and even, in places, its sounds. It's particularly impressive that they manage to get so much over into English while sustaining a clarity and straightforwardness unparalleled among the recent renditions.--Aaron Poochigian, poet, classicist, and translator

Review Quotes:
This specific translation of Virgil's classic epic poem (initially published in 19 BCE) breathes remarkable new life into a cornerstone of classical literature . . . striking a careful balance between fidelity to the original and accessibility for modern readers . . . Many lines retain the original cadence while sounding fresh and immediate. Emily Wilson's introduction is a standout feature. . . This edition is an excellent choice for first-time readers and those returning with fresh eyes. It's a compelling and thoughtful rendering of a timeless epic.--Library Journal, starred review

Review Quotes:
Scott McGill and Susannah Wright have reinvigorated Virgil's Aeneid for today's readers. The translation is fluent and easy to read, dignified and powerful in its simplicity. Its rhythm and cadences carry the reader through the varying moods of Virgil's story. There are many intelligent interpretative choices. The surface ripples with what Virgil has left unsaid.--Fiachra Mac Góráin, University College London

Review Quotes:
McGill and Wright have fashioned an Aeneid that speaks to contemporary readers, while remaining faithful to Virgil's methods, sensitivities and striking ambiguities. With its engaging and comprehensive introduction by Emily Wilson and thoughtful excursus on the translation process, this edition promises and delivers the story of Rome's hard-won foundation both in the context of ancient epic poesis and as a timelessly wrought tale of the horrors of war and the burdens of responsibility. We have here an Aeneid that carefully discloses the Augustan ideals pulsing through its verse (here rendered in pentameters alternatingly somber and vibrant), but one that simultaneously offers poignant lessons on conquest and sacrifice for the modern era. Eminently readable--no small achievement for a famously dense, allusive, and politically imbricated poem--this new translation by McGill and Wright will find a warm reception among students of antiquity at all levels, both within and beyond academia.--Hunter H. Gardner, University of South Carolina

Susannah Wright is an assistant professor of classical studies and Roman history at Rice University. A native San Antonian, she traces her lifelong love of ancient literature back to her years as a student at St. Luke’s Episcopal School and TMI Episcopal. She lives in Houston, Texas.

Scott McGill is Deedee McMurtry Professor in Humanities at Rice University. He lives in Houston, Texas.

Tim O’Sullivan is a Professor of Classical Studies at Trinity University. He lives in San Antonio, Texas.

This event is free to attend. Pre-orders are encouraged.

Description

Rome’s epic origin story, brilliantly rendered in a vivid, rhythmic idiom.

Crafted during the reign of Augustus Caesar at the outset of the Roman Empire, Virgil’s Aeneid is a tale of thrilling adventure, extreme adversity, doomed romance, fateful battles, and profound loss. Through its stirring account of human struggle, meddling gods, and conflicting destinies, the poem brings to life the triumphs and trials that led to one of the most powerful societies the world has ever known. Unlike its Homeric predecessors, which arose from a long oral tradition, the Aeneid was composed by a singular poetic genius, and it has ever since been celebrated as one of the greatest literary achievements of antiquity.

This exciting new edition of the Aeneid, the first collaborative translation of the poem in English, is rendered in unrhymed iambic pentameter, the English meter that corresponds best, in its history and cultural standing, to Virgil’s dactylic hexameter. Scott McGill and Susannah Wright achieve an ideal middle ground between readability and elevation, engaging modern readers with fresh, contemporary language in a heart-pounding, propulsive rhythm, while also preserving the epic dignity of the original. The result is a brisk, eminently approachable translation that captures Virgil’s sensitive balance between celebrating the Roman Empire and dramatizing its human costs, for victors and vanquished alike. This Aeneid is a poem in English every bit as complex, inviting, and affecting as the Latin original.

With a rich and informative introduction from Emily Wilson, maps drawn especially for this volume, a pronunciation glossary, genealogies, extensive notes, and helpful summaries of each book, this gorgeous edition of Rome’s founding poem will capture the imaginations and stir the souls of a new generation of readers.

About the Author

Scott McGill is Deedee McMurtry Professor in Humanities at Rice University. He lives in Houston, Texas.

Susannah Wright is an assistant professor of classical studies and Roman history at Rice University. She lives in Houston, Texas.

Brazos is proud to welcome Scott McGill and Susannah Wright for the Houston launch of their new translation of Virgil’s Aeneid on Tuesday, August 12 at 6:30 p.m. Scott and Susannah will be in conversation with Casey Dué. 

Rome’s epic origin story, brilliantly rendered in a vivid, rhythmic idiom.

Crafted during the reign of Augustus Caesar at the outset of the Roman Empire, Virgil’s Aeneid is a tale of thrilling adventure, extreme adversity, doomed romance, fateful battles, and profound loss. Through its stirring account of human struggle, meddling gods, and conflicting destinies, the poem brings to life the triumphs and trials that led to one of the most powerful societies the world has ever known. Unlike its Homeric predecessors, which arose from a long oral tradition, the Aeneid was composed by a singular poetic genius, and it has ever since been celebrated as one of the greatest literary achievements of antiquity.

This exciting new edition of the Aeneid, the first collaborative translation of the poem in English, is rendered in unrhymed iambic pentameter, the English meter that corresponds best, in its history and cultural standing, to Virgil’s dactylic hexameter. Scott McGill and Susannah Wright achieve an ideal middle ground between readability and elevation, engaging modern readers with fresh, contemporary language in a heart-pounding, propulsive rhythm, while also preserving the epic dignity of the original. The result is a brisk, eminently approachable translation that captures Virgil’s sensitive balance between celebrating the Roman Empire and dramatizing its human costs, for victors and vanquished alike. This Aeneid is a poem in English every bit as complex, inviting, and affecting as the Latin original.

With a rich and informative introduction from Emily Wilson, maps drawn especially for this volume, a pronunciation glossary, genealogies, extensive notes, and helpful summaries of each book, this gorgeous edition of Rome’s founding poem will capture the imaginations and stir the souls of a new generation of readers.

Scott McGill is Deedee McMurtry Professor in Humanities at Rice University. He lives in Houston, Texas.

Susannah Wright is an assistant professor of classical studies and Roman history at Rice University. She lives in Houston, Texas.

Casey Dué is professor of Classical Studies at the University of Houston. Publications include: Iliad 10 and the Poetics of Ambush (with Mary Ebbott, 2010), and Achilles Unbound: Multiformity and Tradition in the Homeric Epics (2019). She is also associate editor of The Cambridge Guide to Homer (2020).