Robert Fagles

Scholar Robert Fagles has died. He's best known for his translations of The Iliad, The Odyssey and The Aeneid. His versions, in fact, have pretty much become the modern standard in English.

When I was in college, we read Richmond Lattimore's tranlsations of Homer, and I still return to them now and then. But every generation should have its own translation. I'd especially recommend Fagles Aeneid, since while anyone can make the first half interesting, if you've got a bad translation, the second half can be a real slog.