Virgil is the Greatest Poet of Antiquity (Not Homer) | Wright & McGill on The Aeneid
Please help us to keep having these conversations by supporting us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/solomonsmith/membership In this conversation, Scott McGill and Susanna Wright join Jack and Milo to discuss their recent translation of Virgil’s *Aeneid*: one of the foundational poems of Roman literature, a work of exile, empire, grief, violence, duty, divine terror, and extraordinary poetic control. The conversation begins with the problem of collaboration: how do two translators produce one poem? McGill and Wright discuss the six-year process of translating the *Aeneid* together, from early divided drafts to an intensely collaborative line-by-line revision, and reflect on what it means to develop a single poetic voice out of two sensibilities. Much of the discussion centres on Virgil’s style: his elevation without bombast, his emotional restraint, his “majesty of sadness,” his difference from Ovid, and the challenge of translating a poem that is at once ancient, literary, musical, political, and deeply humane. We talk about Tennyson, Dryden, Emily Wilson, Homer, Ovid, alliteration, metre, syntax, wordplay, and the question of how far a translator should go in making an ancient poem feel modern. The conversation also explores the *Aeneid*’s relationship to Homer. Is Virgil merely reworking the *Iliad* and the *Odyssey*, or is he creating something radically new out of inherited material? We discuss Roman originality, translation as collaboration with the dead, the poem’s strange “cinematic universe” of myth, and the way Virgil turns Homeric models inside out. In the second half, we turn to the poem’s darkest and most difficult questions: Aeneas and Turnus, the shocking final killing, whether the poem is Augustan propaganda, the human cost of empire, and Virgil’s extraordinary capacity to extend pity even to enemies and monsters. The episode also ranges through Dido, Mezentius, Lausus, the fall of Troy, the shield of Aeneas, the future of Rome, and the burden of history. Expect reflections on: Virgil’s *Aeneid* and why it still matters How two translators collaborate on one poem The difference between Virgil, Homer, and Ovid Emily Wilson, translation, accessibility, and “otherness” The emotional gravity of Virgil’s Latin Dido, Aeneas, Turnus, Mezentius, and Lausus The ending of the *Aeneid* and the killing of Turnus Whether the *Aeneid* is Augustan propaganda Empire, violence, pity, duty, and the costs of history Alliteration, assonance, metre, syntax, and wordplay Roman originality and the creative use of the past The fall of Troy and the terror of the gods If you enjoy long-form conversations on classical literature, translation, poetry, mythology, philosophy, history, and the strange afterlives of ancient texts, subscribe to the channel and leave a comment below. What is your favourite translation of the *Aeneid*? Is Virgil’s ending a failure, a shock, or the whole point of the poem? 00:00:00 The Fall of Troy and the Terror of the Gods 00:01:06 Introduction to Scott McGill, Susanna Wright, and *The Aeneid* 00:08:04 Guests arrive: Rome, Christianity, and imperial continuity 00:11:47 Poetic epigraph 00:13:04 Two translators, one poem 00:18:38 English poetic traditions, Tennyson, and translation taste 00:22:07 The Emily Wilson Revolution 00:27:58 What is Virgil’s Latin like? 00:35:39 Virgil, Homer, and originality from the past 00:45:29 Turnus, Achilles, and the second Trojan War 00:47:53 The shocking ending of *The Aeneid* 00:53:26 Ecumenical pathos: Empathy in Virgil 00:59:35 The *Odyssey* and unending battle 01:06:46 The shadow of heroism 01:10:00 Ancient endings, unfinished poems, and Lucan 01:14:00 Sound, syntax, alliteration, and Virgilian texture 01:23:25 Roman history, prophecy, and the shield of Aeneas 01:29:36 First encounters with *The Aeneid* Ich ruf' zu dir, Herr (BWV 639) performed by Chiara Bertoglio and shortened for the video, under the following license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en
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