virgilius.org

Please check back regularly for additional annotated links. Updated May, 2, 2010, in time for the 2010 AP Vergil exam. In the meantime, you may find what you're looking for by visiting these pages:

1. Vergil at the Latin Library: Latin texts of the Aeneid, Eclogues, and Georgics.
2. Vergil at Bibliotheca Augustana: text of the Aeneid with manuscript illustrations.
3. The Vergil Project at the University of Pennsylvania: finally updated, this site offers a wealth of help for those reading and interpreting the Aeneid. In particular, the following resource may help readers of the Latin with their work:
   • Aeneid: Text and Resources: type in the book and line numbers you need, and you may receive both grammatical, vocabulary assistance, and interpretive assistance. It is possible to select the commentary and features desired, including mouseover translation for individual words and display of macrons. Highly recommended.
4. NoDictionaries Aeneid Resources: simply magnificent, this site features numerous works of Latin literature with an onine glossary below each line. By moving the triangle under "Click and drag to adjust vocab" at the right of the screen, users may select the amount of help they wish, from none to maximum. Each word of the text is individually hyperlinked as well. I have directed you to Aeneid 1.1-7, but you may select whatever segments or books you wish. Check out this Latin Literature page for a complete list of available authors, currently thirty-nine.
5. Vergil's Aeneid Metasite: many useful links compiled by Kelli McBride of Seminole State College. You will find annotated versions of most of these links at virgilius.org. No Latin.
6. Cotter Aeneid Metasite: Seton Hall has apparently had the bad sense to dump this small, but useful collection of resources. I have substituted the most recent version (2009) archived at The Wayback Machine. The links at this resource, although relatively few, seem to have been archived along with the main page.
7. The Virgil Home Page: Steer clear of this decade-old metasite of almost all dead links. You can generally reach the few that do work from either virgilius.org or one of the more recent pages hyperlinked from here. Doubtlessly a pioneering page, but no updates since May 12, 1998.
8. Vergil and the Aeneid: Mark Damen's Vergil page for Ancient Literature and Language course at Utah State University may well take pride of place among college Vergil course pages. Just a well-done effort with resources on the gods, the life of Vergil, key terms, and summaries of major episodes.
9. Study Guide: a useful page by W. A. Johnson at Bucknell in Cincinnati with a chart of Greek and Roman gods, book-by-book summaries that include main episodes and lists of new characters introduced in each book.
10. The University of Kentucky's Vergil Page: designed for a class in fall of 1999, this page was last updated in 2004. Some links are dead, but those that remain are valuable. Also to be recommended from this same course is
    • An Outline of the Aeneid: summarizing all twelve books.
11. Virgil Study Guide: a webpage for a World Literature Class at North Virgiinia Community College by Dr. Diane Thompson, this study guide contains a brief intro to Vergil's life, the opening lines of the Aeneid in Latin in English, attractive tables of the gods and main characters in the epic (broken down by ethnic groups), book-by-book summaries, and discussions of key issues: Aeneas's heroism, Dido, negative characteristics in the epic, the role of the gods and fate.
12. FAQs and Basic Facts: a page for Humanities 111 at Reed College containing a few questions about the origin and nature of the Aeneid, a few quotes from scholars, useful links, and a bibliography.  Last update unknown.
13. Aeneid: although dumped by Yahoo! in the Geocities purge, The Wayback Machine has once again saved a useful reference in this privately maintained page with a short background and lists of gods, people, and places.  I have directed you to the Aeneid page, but the pages for Homer seem equally completely preserved and may prove useful for a comparison. Archived version from April 2007.
14. Synopsis of the Aeneid: book-by-book synopsis of the Aeneid with major plot details in an easily readable linear form from Dr. T. E. Goud's myth course at the University of New Brunswick.
15. Virgil's Aeneid: summaries of the standard books (1, 2, 4, 6) for a mythology class maintained by Michael Delahoyde at Washington State University.
16. Another Synopsis of the Aeneid: notes based on materials in the David West translation, so they may disappear at any time, but the value of the notes remains.
17. Another Synopsis of the Aeneid: quick capsule synopsis of the Aeneid followed by book-by-book line groupings of major plot details in brief paragraph format from William Johnson's course at Bucknell University.
18. Course Notes for the Aeneid: brief background to Vergil's creation of the Aeneid followed by discussion of the epic's mythical, literary, philosophical, and historical contexts prepared by John Porter at the University of Saskatchewan.
19. Roman Culture and the Aeneid: a resource prepared by Michael Webster at Grand Valley State University, these notes provides some background for the epic, explanations of some specialized terminology and discussion questions for books 1-6. Includes nice links with visual representations of key scenes.
20. Study Guide for Vergil's Aeneid: a set of thought questions provided by Robin Mitchell-Boyask at Temple University.
21. Aeneas: the life and times of Aeneas courtesy of Carlos Parada. Although older (1997), the links are all self-contained intertextual references to Parada's substantial resources on Greek mythology. Includes images and a map of Aeneas's journeys. Cave popups!
22. CliffsNotes Aeneid: an online version of the famous series with introduction, synopsis, main characters, map, book-by-book summaries, essays, and study tools.  Available for purchase or download for $9.99. NOTE: The practice quiz at contains a typo: It should read "in medias res."
23. SparkNotes Aeneid: offers context, plot summary, characters, major themes, and book-by-book summaries of approximately one internet page, quotations, and key facts.  Also available for purchase in pdf format for $4.95.
24. Barron's Booknotes for the Aeneid: offers context for the author and the historical context, plot summaries for each book with passages selected for further commentary, practice tests with answer keys, ideas for term papers, a bibliography, and even an unmoderated Aeneid forum that appears dead. Also available for purchase in a variety of downloadable formats for $3.29.
25. AbleMedia's Online Study Guide for the Aeneid: prepared by Roger Dunkle at Brooklyn College as part of a course on the classical origins of Western culture, this award-winning resource contains an extensive overview of the epic, including a discussion of primary and secondary epic, Roman history, Octavian, Homer vs. Vergil, and suggestions for how to read the epic in light of Stoicism and recurring words and imagery.  Hyperlinked terms lead you to an online glossary.  You may also try this page:
    • Aeneid Genre-Literary Epic: AbleMedia makes awards to and hosts cyber resources first developed elsewhere.  The first version of Professor Dunkle's Western culture materials on Vergil are located here.
26. Perseus Latin Aeneid: What page for the Aeneid would be complete without the Perseus Project? This searchable database contains the text of the epic, and every word of the Latin text is hyperlinked to the dictionary databases at Perseus; a pop up window will give you information and further links to follow. Online versions of standard commentaries may also be accessed from this page. Perseus has two searchable English translations available online:
    • Dryden Translation: Type in the book and line numbers you need to read this famous poetic translation online; some of the English text is hyperlinked to further online resources.
    • Williams Translation: Type in the book and line numbers you need to access this slightly more readable translation online; some of the English text is hyperlinked to further online resources.
27. Dryden Translation Plain: if all you want is a quickly readable translation of the Aeneid in English without all the hyperlinks, then the site that spent years at #1 Aeneid in Google for the Aeneid may be for you.  The links are all dead; MIT obviously hasn't touched this page in years.
28. Williams Translation and Latin Original: More people should refer to this site.  It is one of the few using Williams instead of the archaic Dryden.  It also splits the text into manageable chunks and frames them: Williams on the left, the Latin original on the right.  What a great tool for the Latin learner!  The English translation contains numerous hyperlinked references that offer further information about allusions, people (sometimes with images), places, and even occurrences of common words in Latin linked to Perseus.
29. H. R. Fairclough Translation: If you have ever referred to the Loeb Classical Library Vergil, then this translation should sound familiar to you. Theoi.com has made available the 1916 translation, widely regarded as a fairly literal rendering. Students, take note. I have provided a link to the Book 1 page, but all of Books 1-6 of the Aeneid, plus the Eclogues and Georgics, are onsite, too. Books 7-12 seem to be in the works, but are not currently available.
30. A. S. Kline Translation: If you'd prefer a translation made in this millennium (but please recall that the millennium is rather young), this online version may be for you. I have directed you to Kline's "Virgil: The Major Works," so you have to scroll past the Eclogues and Georgics (who wouldn't, to get more quickly to the Aeneid?). From there, you may select the book you wish or download the whole thing. Kline translates poetry because he values poetry, not to make a profit. As long as you keep the uses noncommercial, you may do whatever you wish with the text, so Xerox away, teachers living in fear of U.S. copyright laws!
31. The Aeneid at the "Classics Pages": a translation of the old standbys 1, 2, 4, and 6 by Andrew Wilson, the translator of Harry Potter into Ancient Greek.
32. The Aeneid in English: Are you or your students trying to decide upon a translation of the Aeneid to use?  Joe Riegsecker, a self-taught and others-teaching Latinist, has come up with a great tool.  This page discusses the earliest English translations of the epic, then proceeds to compare Dido's death scene (4.693-705) in eight different translations, all quite recent (1983-2006).  He offers excerpts and analyses and indicates which versions include footnotes.  While his comment on Robert Fitzgerald's "faithfulness to the original Latin" may leave one in Aeneas's default state ("obstipuit" 1.513), I can't think of a better way to introduce the concept of translation, poetic license, prose versus poetry.  Highly recommended.
33. "The Pleasures of the Aeneid": an appreciation of the epic, placing it above Homer (!), by Pejman Yousefzadeh, which relies on and quotes from the Stanley Lombardo translation.
34. Find information on the new Fagles translation of the Aeneid from various newspapers and journals.
    • "Out of Epic Wars, Another Epic Is Born, the One Called Civilization": Edward Rothstein's introduction to the Fagles translation at the New York Times.
    • "Wars and a Man": Brad Leithauser's review of the Fagles translation of the Aeneid at the New York Times.
    • "Beloved Greek Translator Tries Latin Epic": Hillel Italie's interview with Fagles at USA Today.
    • "The Emperor's New Poem": David Barber's review of Fagles at the Boston Globe.
    • A New Aeneid for the 21st Century":Richard Jenkyns reviews the Fagles translation in the London Times. Informative in its discussions of Greek versus Latin hexameters and its comparison of Fagles's work to Dryden's.
    • "Loss upon Loss": Anthony Esolen's positive review of the Fagles translation and less positive reaction to Virgil's Gaze: Nation and Poetry in the Aeneid by J. D. Reed.
35. Find information on the even newer Ahl translation of the Aeneid from two online reviews.
    • "The Music of Fatality": Eric Ormsby's review of Frederick Ahl's translation in the New York Sun.
    • "The Hoofbeat of Horses": Sean O'Brien's review of the Ahl translation in the Guardian Unlimited.
36. "Measuring the Aeneid on a Human Scale": a commentary/review by Jennifer Howard of the even newer still translation of the Aeneid by Sarah Ruden.  In addition to discussing the motivation of Ruden, the first woman to publish a translation of the epic (at least, in English), the article comments on the reasons for the recent spate of translations and ends with a comparison of 2.723b-29 ("dextrae . . . timentem") in the versions of Lombardo, Fagles, Ahl, and Ruden.
37. The Baldwin Project's Reissue of Alfred J. Church's Aeneid for Boys and Girls: an adaptation of the 1908 book, available for purchase at the site, reading online, or free download and use in the classroom.
38. "In Our Time": A forty-five minute discussion of the Aeneid from BBC available for download. Host Melvyn Bragg moderates a wide-ranging conversation with Edith Hall, Philip Hardie, and Catharine Briggs that ends just before it can address the pessimistic reading of the "Harvard school."
39. Bibliographic Guide to Vergil's Aeneid: a detailed, but dated resource at VRoma by Shirley Werner.
40. "Ambiguity and the Female Warrior: Vergil's Camilla": a study of Camilla by Trudy Harrington Becker hosted at Diotima from 1997.
41. "Battlestar Galactica Revealed as the New Virgil's Aeneid": more convincing than you might think and a great way to connect an epic of the past to something today's students may already know.
42. AP Vergil's Aeneid Resources Page: hosted at this site and also accessible via the Site Navigation to your left.  Of these resources, I am arrogant enough to recommend
    • My AP Vergil's Aeneid Page: "A resource intended firstly, but not exclusively, for students and teachers preparing for the AP Vergil's Aeneid Exam."  Ranked in Google as high as #4 overall for the Aeneid, this page also has materials beyond the confines of just the AP Vergil syllabus, such as materials for Book 5.

Every day of the month there is a different artistic representation of some person or event connected to the Aeneid.  Move the cursor over the image for more information.

(Thanks to copyright holders Kathleen Cohen, Allan Kohl, and Tim Abney for some images used.)