Virgil

“In the whole of European literature there is no poet who can furnish the texts for a more significant variety of discourse than Virgil. [He] symbolizes so much in the history of Europe, and represents such central European values…” –T.S. Eliot

The Aeneid (19 BC) is an epic poem by Roman poet Virgil. Translated by English poet laureate John Dryden in 1697, Virgil’s legendary epic is the story of the hero Aeneas, a castaway from Troy whose adventures across the Mediterranean led him to Italy, where he discovered what would later become the city of Rome. Presented here in faithful translation, though rearranged to accommodate Dryden’s rhyming couplets, The Aeneid is a treasure of classical literature and a story of romance, war, and adventure to rival the best of Homer.

“Arms, and the man I sing, who, forc’d by fate, / And haughty Juno’s unrelenting hate, / Expell’d and exil’d, left the Trojan shore.” Fleeing the destruction of Troy by Greek forces, Aeneas brings his son Ascanius and father Anchises on a voyage across the sea. Landing in Carthage, Aeneas, his family, and his crew are rescued by Dido, Queen of Tyre. There, Aeneas, despite mourning the loss of his beloved wife Creusa, falls in love with Dido, who offers him refuge and her devoted love. Knowing that he is destined to found a city in Italy, however, Aeneas abandons the queen, leading her to commit suicide. Now determined to fulfill his destiny at any cost, Aeneas sails to Sicily, journeys to the underworld, and eventually arrives in the region of Latium, where he is swept up in conflict with Turnus, the Rutulian king. Flawed and feared, Aeneas exemplifies the imperfect hero compelled by fate and the gods, yet ultimately driven through a will to survive and provide for his fledgling people.

This edition of Virgil’s The Aeneid is a classic work of Roman literature reimagined for modern readers.

Since our inception in 2020, Mint Editions has kept sustainability and innovation at the forefront of our mission. Each and every Mint Edition title gets a fresh, professionally typeset manuscript and a dazzling new cover, all while maintaining the integrity of the original book.

With thousands of titles in our collection, we aim to spotlight diverse public domain works to help them find modern audiences. Mint Editions celebrates a breadth of literary works, curated from both canonical and overlooked classics from writers around the globe.

The Aeneid of Virgil (19 BC) is an epic poem by Roman poet Virgil. Virgil’s legendary epic is the story of the hero Aeneas, a castaway from Troy whose adventures across the Mediterranean led him to Italy, where he discovered what would later become the city of Rome. Presented here in an accessible prose translation, The Aeneid of Virgil is a treasure of classical literature and a story of romance, war, and adventure to rival the best of Homer. Fleeing the destruction of Troy by Greek forces, Aeneas brings his son Ascanius and father Anchises on a voyage across the sea. Landing in Carthage, Aeneas, his family, and his crew are rescued by Dido, Queen of Tyre. There, Aeneas, despite mourning the loss of his beloved wife Creusa, falls in love with Dido, who offers him refuge and her devoted love. Knowing that he is destined to found a city in Italy, however, Aeneas abandons the queen, leading her to commit suicide. Now determined to fulfill his destiny at any cost, Aeneas sails to Sicily, journeys to the underworld, and eventually arrives in the region of Latium, where he is swept up in conflict with Turnus, the Rutulian king. Flawed and feared, Aeneas exemplifies the imperfect hero compelled by fate and the gods, yet ultimately driven through a will to survive and provide for his fledgling people. Faithfully but concisely translated into accessible English prose, The Aeneid of Virgil is best read aloud with friends and family, and iconic masterpiece of ancient Rome still relevant for our modern world. This edition of The Aeneid of Virgil is a classic work of Roman literature reimagined for modern readers.

Since our inception in 2020, Mint Editions has kept sustainability and innovation at the forefront of our mission. Each and every Mint Edition title gets a fresh, professionally typeset manuscript and a dazzling new cover, all while maintaining the integrity of the original book.

With thousands of titles in our collection, we aim to spotlight diverse public domain works to help them find modern audiences. Mint Editions celebrates a breadth of literary works, curated from both canonical and overlooked classics from writers around the globe.

“In the whole of European literature there is no poet who can furnish the texts for a more significant variety of discourse than Virgil. [He] symbolizes so much in the history of Europe, and represents such central European values…” –T.S. Eliot

The Eclogues (38 BC), also known as the Bucolics, is a work by Roman poet Virgil. Although less prominent than The Aeneid, Virgil’s legendary epic of the Trojan hero Aeneas and his discovery of what would later become the city of Rome, The Eclogues have endured as a landmark in the history of pastoral poetry. The Eclogues were inspired by the bucolic idylls of Hellenistic poet Theocritus, poems set in the rural region of Arcadia in Ancient Greece. In contrast to Theocritus, whose poems idealized agricultural life for a cosmopolitan audience based in Alexandria, Virgil’s work is grounded in the complex sociopolitical realities of its day, a time of civil war following the assassination of Julius Caesar.

“Some brutal soldier will possess these fields / An alien master. Ah! To what a pass / Has civil discord brought our hapless folk!” Displaced from his land, Meliboeus laments his fate to the farmer Tityrus, who has been fortunate enough to retain his ancestral home. Set amidst civil war, poverty, and cultural upheaval, the Eclogues vary in tone and scope from the tragic dialogue just described to a lonely shepherd crying for lost love and a singing competition held between two gifted men. In emphasizing the connection between poetry, singing, and labor, Virgil recalls the roots of written language in an older, oral tradition, restoring what has been lost—peace, land, possessions, love—in what can never be taken away. “Love conquers all things; yield we too to love!” In a time of widespread uncertainty, Virgil found solace in surrendering to the unknown while remaining certain of one eternal truth: as long as love survives, there will be songs.

This edition of Virgil’s The Eclogues is a classic work of Roman literature reimagined for modern readers.

Since our inception in 2020, Mint Editions has kept sustainability and innovation at the forefront of our mission. Each and every Mint Edition title gets a fresh, professionally typeset manuscript and a dazzling new cover, all while maintaining the integrity of the original book.

With thousands of titles in our collection, we aim to spotlight diverse public domain works to help them find modern audiences. Mint Editions celebrates a breadth of literary works, curated from both canonical and overlooked classics from writers around the globe.

“In the whole of European literature there is no poet who can furnish the texts for a more significant variety of discourse than Virgil. [He] symbolizes so much in the history of Europe, and represents such central European values…” –T.S. Eliot

The Georgics (29 BC) is a poem by Roman poet Virgil. Although less prominent than The Aeneid, Virgil’s legendary epic of the Trojan hero Aeneas and his discovery of what would later become the city of Rome, The Georgics have endured as a landmark in the history of poetry. The Georgics were inspired by Lucretius’s De Rerum Natura and Hesiod’s Works and Days, an Ancient Greek poem describing the creation of the cosmos, the history of Earth, and the role of agriculture in human life. The Georgics is considered Virgil’s second major work of three and has inspired generations of poets and scholars interested in the ability of literature to bridge the artificial gap between humanity and the natural world.

“What makes the cornfield smile […] What pains for cattle-keeping, or what proof / Of patient trial serves for thrifty bees; / Such are my themes.” Beginning with these lines, Virgil’s Georgics is a poem about the life of the world and the need for order to ensure humanity’s survival. Surveying such diverse topics as the creation of the universe, the cycles of human history, and the technical processes applied to soil and animals to produce food and sustain life itself, this poem attempts to rekindle in its reader a sense of unity with the world. Written in a time of immense political upheaval following the death of Julius Caesar and the rise of Emperor Augustus, The Georgics is as much a poem of survival as of faith, a falling back on the old ways that sustain and nurture life, a way of preserving a volatile present for a future forever in the making.

This edition of Virgil’s The Georgics is a classic work of Roman literature reimagined for modern readers.

Since our inception in 2020, Mint Editions has kept sustainability and innovation at the forefront of our mission. Each and every Mint Edition title gets a fresh, professionally typeset manuscript and a dazzling new cover, all while maintaining the integrity of the original book.

With thousands of titles in our collection, we aim to spotlight diverse public domain works to help them find modern audiences. Mint Editions celebrates a breadth of literary works, curated from both canonical and overlooked classics from writers around the globe.