#446 - Translating The Aeneid: A Dialogue with Scott McGill & Susannah Wright

Converging Dialogues

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Scott McGill and Susannah Wright about their new English translation of The Aeneid. They discuss past English translations of The Aeneid, plot of The Aeneid, and comparisons with Homer’s epics. They discuss authorship of Virgil, The Aeneid as Roman propaganda, translating from Latin into English and the oral vs. written tradition. They also talked about the Iambic vs. Dactylic meter, relationship between humans and gods, why The Aeneid is still relevant for the 21st century, and many more topics.

Scott McGill is Deedee McMurtry Professor in Humanities at Rice University. work focuses on Latin poetry, Roman history and culture, and on the reception of classical antiquity. He is an expert on Virgil and the Latin poetry of late antiquity

Susannah Wright is an assistant professor of classical studies and Roman history at Rice University. Her research centers on Greco-Roman literature, history, and culture and its medieval and modern receptions, as well as Latin and Greek epic texts of all periods, women and gender in antiquity, politics and literature in late republican and imperial Rome, and ancient and medieval histories of the Trojan War. They are the co-translators of the new English translation of The Aeneid.

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