Secondary sourceSpeech1885 (MacKail translation)
The Aeneid, MacKail Prose Translation Audio
Virgil (original); translated by John William MacKail · 1885 (MacKail translation)
A LibriVox audio recording of John William MacKail's English prose translation of Virgil's Aeneid, read by several volunteers. It makes the epic available to listeners who do not read Latin.
Lets students hear Virgil's Aeneid, the epic of Aeneas and the origins of Rome, in MacKail's English prose version.
About this source
What it is
This is a LibriVox audio recording of The Aeneid of Virgil, translated into English prose by J. W. Mackail. The original poem was written by Virgil in the first century BC. The recording was read by several volunteers, not by Virgil, and the opening of the text is the translator's preface and the 1885 MacKail edition. The poem follows the Trojan prince Aeneas, who leaves his ruined city and leads his people to Italy, where he becomes the ancestor of the Romans.
Why it matters
The Aeneid is the most famous Latin epic poem, and it presented a founding story for Rome. Mackail's preface argues that a prose translation can only copy a poem, losing much of its poetical quality. Students can compare the story with the translator's own words about the difficulty of translating poetry into prose.
Look closer
- What does Mackail say a prose translation can and cannot carry from a poem?
- Why might the Aeneid have been used to tell the story of Rome's origins?
- How do several volunteer readers change the way the story sounds to a listener?
This speech is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Virgil on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.
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