Robert Fagles, the Princeton University professor emeritus whose translations of Homer and Virgil became classroom bestsellers, died last Wednesday, March 26, the New York Times reported. He was 74.
Fagles was best known for his translations of The Iliad, The Odyssey and The Aeneid, which appeared in 1990, 1996 and 2006, respectively. All were published by Viking and have sold millions of copies, including audio editions narrated by Derek Jacobi, Ian McKellen and Simon Callow.
"While faithful to the spirit and intent of the original, his translations were remarkable for their narrative energy and verve," the Times wrote. "His Iliad and Odyssey had a Homeric swagger, said the poet Paul Muldoon, a colleague at Princeton, who also compared Mr. Fagles's epic vision to that of film directors like Sergio Leone and Sam Peckinpah."
In interviews, Fagles said that he couldn't decide which of the epics was his favorite. The Times noted, "Some days were Iliadic, he said--you felt you were in a war--and some were more like the Odyssey, when all you wanted to do was go home."
Two years ago he told the Times that the publication of his translation of The Aeneid was unexpectedly timely. "It says that if you depart from the civilized, then you become a murderer. The price of empire is very steep, but Virgil shows how it is to be earned, if it's to be earned at all. The poem can be read as an exhortation for us to behave ourselves, which is a horse of relevance that ought to be ridden."