- Robert Fagles
Robert Fagles (
September 11 ,1933 –March 26 ,2008 ) [Obituary from Princeton University:http://www.princeton.edu/main/news/archive/S20/67/18E36/index.xml?section=topstories] was an Americanprofessor , poet, and academic, best known for his manytranslation s of ancient Greekclassics , especially his acclaimed translations of the epic poems ofHomer . He taught English and comparative literature for many years atPrinceton University .Life
Fagles was born in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania , the son of Charles Fagles, a lawyer, and Vera Voynow Fagles, an architect. He attendedAmherst College , graduating in 1955 with aBachelor of Arts degree. The following year, he received hismaster's degree from Yale University. OnJune 17 ,1956 , he married Lynne Duchovnay, a teacher, and they had two children. In 1959, Fagles received his Ph.D in English from Yale and for the next year taught English there.From 1960 to 1962, Fagles was an English instructor at Princeton University. In 1962 he was promoted to
Assistant Professor , and in 1965 became anAssociate Professor of English and comparative literature. Later that year he became director of the comparative literature program. In 1970, he became a full professor, and from 1975 was the department chair. He retired from teaching as the Arthur W. Marks '19 Professor of Comparative Literaure in 2002, and remained a professor emeritus at Princeton.Between 1961 and 1996, Fagles translated many ancient Greek works. His first translation was of the poetry of
Bacchylides , publishing a complete set in 1961. In the 1970s, Fagles began translating muchGreek drama , beginning withAeschylus 's"The Oresteia ". He went on to publish translations ofSophocles 'sthree Theban plays (1982) and Homer's "Iliad " (1990) and "Odyssey " (1996). In all of the last three,Bernard Knox authored the introduction and notes. Fagles' translations generally emphasize contemporary English phrasing andidiom but are faithful to the originalancient Greek as much as possible.In 1978, Fagles published "I, Vincent: Poems from the Pictures of Van Gogh". He was the co-editor of "Homer: A Collection of Critical Essays" (1962) and "Pope's Iliad and Odyssey" (1967).
Fagles died at his home in Princeton,
New Jersey on March 26, 2008, fromprostate cancer .Awards
Fagles was nominated for the National Book Award in Translation and won the
Harold Morton Landon Translation Award of theAcademy of American Poets in 1991 for his translation of the "Iliad". In 1996, he received anAcademy Award in Literature from theAmerican Academy of Arts and Letters for his translation of the "Odyssey". In 1997 he received thePEN/Ralph Manheim Medal for lifetime achievement in translation. Fagles later undertook a new English translation of the "Aeneid ", which was published in November 2006.In addition to the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Fagles was also a member of the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences and theAmerican Philosophical Society .Translations
*
Bacchylides , "Complete Poems" (1961)
*Aeschylus , "The Oresteia " (1975)
*Sophocles , "The Three Theban Plays " (1982)
*Homer , "The Iliad " (1990)
* Homer, "The Odyssey " (1996)
*Virgil , "The Aeneid " (2006)References
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