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).