Can a translation be loose and still be enjoyable, as well as hold all major plot points to the same weight as the original? In the case of the Fagles translation of the Aeneid, the answer is yes! The original includes a host of characters spread out over the twelve books, but the only one who consistently is present over the books is the warrior and Homeric hero Aeneas. Aeneas leads a diaspora of men from the ashes of Troy to what is known as the Hesperian land, a place in Italy near the city of Alba Longa and home of the Latins. The first six books cover the journey of Aeneas, having been swept all across the Mediterranean, from Crete, to Sicily, to Carthage, each encounter more gripping than the next. The most striking was Aeneas's time in Carthage, where Aeneas meets Dido, queen of Carthage, who leads the construction of her city like the queen presiding over a hive (this is how Vergil describes it). However, just as Aeneas and Dido grow close and it seems like Aeneas settle with Dido, he has to go in the name of his piety and duty to the gods. This leads to the most dramatic scene of Dido commiting suicide atop a burning pyre with her sister watching. This is a legendary explanation for the origins of the three Punic Wars between Rome and Carthage. The next half of the epic is focused on Aeneas in Italy where Aeneas is fated to wind up in a war caused by Juno andblamed on him. The battle in itself is gripping with Aeneas fighting the Latin Kingdom's best warrior, Turnus. In the end, Aeneas wins and the story onludes
Fagles's storytelling is very well done, but the translation is loose,. So it is recommended if looking from an English literary standpoint, but for a direct translation, look elsewhere, like the Kline translation, which can be found here.