Robert Fagles, born in Philadelphia on September 11, 1933 is known to be one of the best translator of Latin and Greek. His two best selling books, Homer and Virgil were used in classrooms’ reading lists. He died on Wednesday at his home in Princeton N.J of prostrate cancer as told by his wife lynne. They had been married for 51 years.
Wow! Fifty one; wonder what will happen in the rest of the years. Robert Fagles and his wife are a classic example of a successful marriage. Though the newspaper says that they have been married for so long, I’m just assuming the marriage was successful or maybe! It really was.
A small autobiography of his life:
Robert Fagles father was a lawyer and his mother an architect but who never becoming a practicing one. When he was 14, his father died and so he was brought up by his mother. He graduated from Lowe Merion, in Ardmore, Pa., where he took German. He became interested in classics until his freshman year at Amherst College. In Amherst College he took pre-med but then later changed his major to English. And that’s where he began his step towards writing classics. He also studied Latin and Greek with his English major. He continued with his English major with Greek and Latin at Yale Graduate School, where he got his Ph.D. in English. Among his famous works were the Aeschylus and Sophocles. Moreover, he is also famous for his versions of “The Iliad, the Odyssey, and the Aeneid.” He taught in Yale for a year and then joined the Princeton faculty as an English teacher (1960). He was a popular teacher, greatly known and respected among the students and staff. He was awarded an honorary doctorate in June 2002.
I remember reading the Iliad and the odyssey. If these great works of literature were not translated by people like Robert Fagles or any other translator, it would be arduous to understand the Greek myths and the lives of the Gods. It’s a pity that we no longer will be able to read works or translations of Robert Fagles.
