What are the most most standard and reliable translations for these epic poems?
There are many good translations of Homer’s epics. I like Robert Fitzgerald’s, which give some notion of the flavor of the originals. For the Aeneid, L. R. Lind’s translation has the same effect for me. Fagles is also very good on all three. John Ciardi’s translation of the Inferno manages to present the poem in real terza rima, which that of Dorothy Sayers only approximates. As for Gilgamesh, the only version I’ve really used is N. K. Sandars’ translation, which I like a great deal, but I know nothing of the original languages of that epic. (I majored in Latin, took fifteen credits of Greek, and can piece out some Italian.) That brings us to Beowulf, which I’ve read in several translations and in the original. The translation I most liked when I taught it was Burton Raffel’s, with Michael Alexander’s a close second. Both convey the flavor of the Old English poem and give a good idea of the alliterative, four-beat lines. So does Seamus Heaney’s, which received glowing reviews when it a
