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The ''Eclogues'' (; ), also called the ''Bucolics'', is the first of the three major works of the
Latin poet Virgil
Publius Vergilius Maro (; traditional dates 15 October 7021 September 19 BC), usually called Virgil or Vergil ( ) in English, was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He composed three of the most famous poems in Latin literature: th ...
.
Background
Taking as his generic model the Greek
bucolic
A pastoral lifestyle is that of shepherds herding livestock around open areas of land according to seasons and the changing availability of water and pasture. It lends its name to a genre of literature, art, and music ( pastorale) that depic ...
poetry of
Theocritus
Theocritus (; grc-gre, Θεόκριτος, ''Theokritos''; born c. 300 BC, died after 260 BC) was a Greek poet from Sicily and the creator of Ancient Greek pastoral poetry.
Life
Little is known of Theocritus beyond what can be inferred from h ...
, Virgil created a Roman version partly by offering a dramatic and mythic interpretation of revolutionary change at Rome in the turbulent period between roughly 44 and 38 BC. Virgil introduced political clamor largely absent from Theocritus' poems, called
idylls ("little scenes" or "vignettes"), even though erotic turbulence disturbs the "idyllic" landscapes of Theocritus.
Virgil's book contains ten pieces, each called not an idyll but an
eclogue
An eclogue is a poem in a classical style on a pastoral subject. Poems in the genre are sometimes also called bucolics.
Overview
The form of the word ''eclogue'' in contemporary English developed from Middle English , which came from Latin , wh ...
("draft" or "selection" or "reckoning"), populated by and large with herdsmen imagined conversing and performing
amoebaean singing in largely rural settings, whether suffering or embracing revolutionary change or happy or unhappy love. Performed with great success on the Roman stage, they feature a mix of visionary politics and eroticism that made Virgil a celebrity, legendary in his own lifetime.
Structure and organization
Like the rest of Virgil's works, the ''Eclogues'' are composed in
dactylic hexameter
Dactylic hexameter (also known as heroic hexameter and the meter of epic) is a form of meter or rhythmic scheme frequently used in Ancient Greek and Latin poetry. The scheme of the hexameter is usually as follows (writing – for a long syllable ...
.
It is likely that Virgil deliberately designed and arranged his book of Eclogues, in which case it is the first extant collection of Latin poems in the same meter put together by the poet. (Although it is thought that
Catullus
Gaius Valerius Catullus (; 84 - 54 BCE), often referred to simply as Catullus (, ), was a Latin poet of the late Roman Republic who wrote chiefly in the neoteric style of poetry, focusing on personal life rather than classical heroes. His ...
also compiled his book of poetry, it consists of poems written in different meters).
Several scholars have attempted to identify the organizational/architectural principles underpinning the construction of the book. The book is arguably based on an alternation of antiphonal poems (e.g., dialogues) with non-dramatic/narrative poems. Beyond this, there have been many attempts (with little consensus) to identify other organizational principles. Many of these attempts have been catalogued and critiqued by Niall Rudd. Rudd refuted a number of cruder organizational theories, including theories that the ''Eclogues'' are organized
* in chronological order
* by geographic setting, with Italian settings alternating with non-Italian settings
* into two halves, each featuring a movement from lighter, more peaceful poems to heavier, more emphatic and agitated poems
Rudd also identified more-convoluted organizational theories. While considering these more plausible than the above, he concluded that "each system has at least one defect, and none is so superior to the others as to be obviously Virgil's own". Such systems include:
* arrangement based on mutually supporting principles, such as topical and arithmetic correspondences
* arrangement into a series of pairs of poems, bracketing Eclogue 5 with the balancing Eclogue 10 and supported by arithmetical correspondence (i.e., length of poems)
* arrangement into two halves, with corresponding pairs based on length
More recently, Thomas K. Hubbard has noted, "The first half of the book has often been seen as a positive construction of a pastoral vision, whilst the second half dramatizes progressive alienation from that vision, as each poem of the first half is taken up and responded to in reverse order."
Eclogue 1
A dialogue between Tityrus and Meliboeus. In the turmoil of the era Meliboeus has been forced off his land and faces an uncertain future. Tityrus recounts his journey to
Rome
, established_title = Founded
, established_date = 753 BC
, founder = King Romulus (legendary)
, image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg
, map_caption ...
and the "god" he met there who answered his plea and allowed him to remain on his land. He offers to let Meliboeus spend the night with him. A satire of the infamous land-confiscations after the return of
Mark Antony
Marcus Antonius (14 January 1 August 30 BC), commonly known in English as Mark Antony, was a Roman politician and general who played a critical role in the transformation of the Roman Republic from a constitutional republic into the au ...
and Octavian's joint forces from the
Battle of Philippi
The Battle of Philippi was the final battle in the Wars of the Second Triumvirate between the forces of Mark Antony and Octavian (of the Second Triumvirate) and the leaders of Julius Caesar's assassination, Brutus and Cassius in 42 BC, at ...
of 42 BCE, in which
Brutus
Marcus Junius Brutus (; ; 85 BC – 23 October 42 BC), often referred to simply as Brutus, was a Roman politician, orator, and the most famous of the assassins of Julius Caesar. After being adopted by a relative, he used the name Quintus Serv ...
and
Cassius (the orchestrators of
Caesar
Gaius Julius Caesar (; ; 12 July 100 BC – 15 March 44 BC), was a Roman general and statesman. A member of the First Triumvirate, Caesar led the Roman armies in the Gallic Wars before defeating his political rival Pompey in a civil war, an ...
's assassination in 44 BCE) were defeated.
Eclogue 2
A monologue by the shepherd Corydon bemoaning his unrequited love for Alexis in the height of summer.
Eclogue 3
A singing competition between Menalcas and Damoetas. Palaemon is the judge and pronounces the contest a tie.
Eclogue 4
Capping a
sequence
In mathematics, a sequence is an enumerated collection of objects in which repetitions are allowed and order matters. Like a set, it contains members (also called ''elements'', or ''terms''). The number of elements (possibly infinite) is calle ...
or cycle in which Virgil created and augmented a new political mythology,
Eclogue 4
''Eclogue'' 4, also known as the Fourth ''Eclogue'', is the name of a Latin poem by the Roman poet Virgil.
Part of his first major work, the ''Eclogues'', the piece was written around 42 BC, during a time of temporary stability following the Trea ...
reaches out to imagine a golden age ushered in by the birth of a boy heralded as "great increase of Jove" (''magnum Iovis incrementum''), which ties in with divine associations claimed in the propaganda of
Octavian
Caesar Augustus (born Gaius Octavius; 23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14), also known as Octavian, was the first Roman emperor; he reigned from 27 BC until his death in AD 14. He is known for being the founder of the Roman Pr ...
, the ambitious young heir to
Julius Caesar
Gaius Julius Caesar (; ; 12 July 100 BC – 15 March 44 BC), was a Roman general and statesman. A member of the First Triumvirate, Caesar led the Roman armies in the Gallic Wars before defeating his political rival Pompey in a civil war, ...
. The poet makes this notional scion of
Jove
Jupiter ( la, Iūpiter or , from Proto-Italic "day, sky" + "father", thus " sky father" Greek: Δίας or Ζεύς), also known as Jove ( gen. ''Iovis'' ), is the god of the sky and thunder, and king of the gods in ancient Roman religio ...
the occasion to predict his own
metabasis up the scale in
epos
The point of sale (POS) or point of purchase (POP) is the time and place at which a retail transaction is completed. At the point of sale, the merchant calculates the amount owed by the customer, indicates that amount, may prepare an invoice ...
, rising from the humble range of the
bucolic
A pastoral lifestyle is that of shepherds herding livestock around open areas of land according to seasons and the changing availability of water and pasture. It lends its name to a genre of literature, art, and music ( pastorale) that depic ...
to the lofty range of the
heroic, potentially rivaling
Homer
Homer (; grc, Ὅμηρος , ''Hómēros'') (born ) was a Greek poet who is credited as the author of the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Homer is considered one of the ...
: he thus signals his own ambition to make Roman epic that will culminate in the ''Aeneid''. In the surge of ambition, Virgil also projects defeating the legendary poet
Orpheus
Orpheus (; Ancient Greek: Ὀρφεύς, classical pronunciation: ; french: Orphée) is a Thracian bard, legendary musician and prophet in ancient Greek religion. He was also a renowned poet and, according to the legend, travelled with J ...
and his mother, the epic muse
Calliope
In Greek mythology, Calliope ( ; grc, Καλλιόπη, Kalliópē, beautiful-voiced) is the Muse who presides over eloquence and epic poetry; so called from the ecstatic harmony of her voice. Hesiod and Ovid called her the "Chief of all Muse ...
, as well as
Pan, the inventor of the bucolic pipe, even in Pan's homeland of
Arcadia, which Virgil will claim as his own at the climax of his eclogue book in the tenth eclogue. Biographical identification of the fourth eclogue's child has proved elusive; but the figure proved a link between traditional Roman authority and Christianity. The connection is first made in the ''Oration of Constantine'' appended to the Life of Constantine by
Eusebius of Caesarea (a reading to which
Dante
Dante Alighieri (; – 14 September 1321), probably baptized Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri and often referred to as Dante (, ), was an Italian people, Italian Italian poetry, poet, writer and philosopher. His ''Divine Comedy'', origin ...
makes fleeting reference in his ''
Purgatorio
''Purgatorio'' (; Italian for "Purgatory") is the second part of Dante's ''Divine Comedy'', following the '' Inferno'' and preceding the '' Paradiso''. The poem was written in the early 14th century. It is an allegory telling of the climb of D ...
''). Some scholars have also remarked similarities between the eclogue's prophetic themes and the words of
Isaiah
Isaiah ( or ; he, , ''Yəšaʿyāhū'', "God is Salvation"), also known as Isaias, was the 8th-century BC Israelite prophet after whom the Book of Isaiah is named.
Within the text of the Book of Isaiah, Isaiah himself is referred to as "the ...
11:6: "a little child shall lead".
Eclogue 5
Eclogue 5 articulates another significant pastoral theme, the shepherd-poet's concern with achieving worldly fame through poetry. This concern is related to the ''metabasis'' Virgil himself undertakes thematically in Eclogue 4. In Eclogue 5, the shepherds Menalcas and
Mopsus
Mopsus (; Ancient Greek: Μόψος, ''Mopsos'') was the name of one of two famous seers in Greek mythology; his rival being Calchas. A historical or legendary ''Mopsos'' or ''Mukšuš'' may have been the founder of a house in power at widespread ...
mourn their deceased companion
Daphnis
In Greek mythology, Daphnis (; grc, Δάφνις, from , ''daphne'', "Bay Laurel") was a Sicilian shepherd who was said to be the inventor of pastoral poetry.
Family
According to tradition, he was the son of Hermes and a nymph, despite which ...
by promising to "praise ... Daphnis to the stars – / yes, to the stars raise Daphnis". Menalcas and Mopsus praise Daphnis out of compassion but also out of obligation. Daphnis willed that his fellow shepherds memorialize him by making a "mound and add
ngabove the mound a song: / ''Daphnis am I in woodland, known hence far as the stars''". Not only are Daphnis's survivors concerned with solidifying and eternizing his poetic reputation, but the dead shepherd-poet himself is involved in self-promotion from beyond the grave through the aegis of his will. It is an outgrowth of the friendly poetic rivalries that occur between them and of their attempts to best the gods, usually
Pan or
Phoebus
Apollo, grc, Ἀπόλλωνος, Apóllōnos, label=genitive , ; , grc-dor, Ἀπέλλων, Apéllōn, ; grc, Ἀπείλων, Apeílōn, label=Arcadocypriot Greek, ; grc-aeo, Ἄπλουν, Áploun, la, Apollō, la, Apollinis, label= ...
, at their lyric craft. At the end of Eclogue 5, Daphnis is deified in the shepherds' poetic praise: "A god, a god is he, Menalcas!' / ... Here are four altars: / Look, Daphnis, two for you and two high ones for Phoebus." Menalcas apostrophizes Daphnis with a promise: "Always your honor, name and praises will endure." Ensuring poetic fame is a fundamental interest of the shepherds in classical pastoral elegies, including the speaker in
Milton's "
Lycidas
"Lycidas" () is a poem by John Milton, written in 1637 as a pastoral elegy. It first appeared in a 1638 collection of elegies, ''Justa Edouardo King Naufrago'', dedicated to the memory of Edward King, a friend of Milton at Cambridge who dro ...
".
[Lee, Guy, trans. (1984). "Eclogue 5". In Virgil, ''The Eclogues''. New York: Penguin. pp. 29–35.]
Eclogue 6
This eclogue tells the story of how two boys, Chromis and Mnasyllos, and a
Naiad persuaded
Silenus
In Greek mythology, Silenus (; grc, Σειληνός, Seilēnós, ) was a companion and tutor to the wine god Dionysus. He is typically older than the satyrs of the Dionysian retinue ('' thiasos''), and sometimes considerably older, in which ...
to sing to them, and how he sang to them of the world's beginning, the Flood, the Golden Age, Prometheus,
Hylas
In classical mythology, Hylas () was a youth who served as Heracles's (Roman Hercules) companion and servant. His abduction by water nymphs was a theme of ancient art, and has been an enduring subject for Western art in the classical tradition ...
,
Pasiphaë
In ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, Pasiphaë (; grc-gre, Πασιφάη, Pasipháē, lit=wide-shining derived from πάσι (archaic dative plural) "for all" and φάος/φῶς ''phaos/phos'' "light") was a queen of Crete, and wa ...
,
Atalanta
Atalanta (; grc-gre, Ἀταλάντη, Atalantē) meaning "equal in weight", is a heroine in Greek mythology.
There are two versions of the huntress Atalanta: one from Arcadia (region), Arcadia, whose parents were Iasus and Clymene (mythology ...
and
Phaëthon's sisters; after which he described how the
Muses gave
Gallus (a close personal friend of Virgil's)
Hesiod
Hesiod (; grc-gre, Ἡσίοδος ''Hēsíodos'') was an ancient Greek poet generally thought to have been active between 750 and 650 BC, around the same time as Homer. He is generally regarded by western authors as 'the first written poet ...
's reed pipe and commissioned him to write a didactic poem; after which he told of
Scylla (whom Virgil identifies as both the sea monster and the daughter of
Nisos
In Greek mythology, Nisos or Nisus (Ancient Greek: Νῖσος) was a King of Megara.
Family
Nisos was one of the four sons of Pandion II, King of Athens, and Pylia, daughter of King Pylas of Megara. He was the brother of Aegeas, Pallas, ...
who was transmuted into a seabird) and of
Tereus
In Greek mythology, Tereus (; Ancient Greek: Τηρεύς) was a Thracian king,Thucydides: ''History of the Peloponnesian War'' 2:29 the son of Ares and the naiad Bistonis. He was the brother of Dryas. Tereus was the husband of the Athenian p ...
and
Philomela
Philomela () or Philomel (; grc-gre, , ; ) is a minor figure in Greek mythology who is frequently invoked as a direct and figurative symbol in literary and artistic works in the Western canon.
Family
Philomela was the younger of two daugh ...
, and then we learn that he has in fact been singing a song composed by
Apollo
Apollo, grc, Ἀπόλλωνος, Apóllōnos, label=genitive , ; , grc-dor, Ἀπέλλων, Apéllōn, ; grc, Ἀπείλων, Apeílōn, label= Arcadocypriot Greek, ; grc-aeo, Ἄπλουν, Áploun, la, Apollō, la, Apollinis, label ...
on the banks of the
Eurotas
In Greek mythology, Eurotas (; Ancient Greek: Εὐρώτας) was a king of Laconia. Family
Eurotas was the son of King Myles of Laconia and grandson of Lelex, eponymous ancestor of the Leleges. The '' Bibliotheca'' gave a slight variant of th ...
.
Eclogue 7
The goatherd Meliboeus, a recurring character, soliloquizing remembers how he happened to be present at a great singing match between Corydon and Thyrsis. He then quotes from memory their actual songs (six round of matching quatrains) and recalls that
Daphnis
In Greek mythology, Daphnis (; grc, Δάφνις, from , ''daphne'', "Bay Laurel") was a Sicilian shepherd who was said to be the inventor of pastoral poetry.
Family
According to tradition, he was the son of Hermes and a nymph, despite which ...
as judge declared Corydon the winner. This eclogue is based on pseudo-Theocritus ''Idyll'' VIII, though there the quatrains are not in hexameters but in elegiac couplets. Scholars argue about why Thyrsis loses. The reader may feel that despite the very close parallelism of his quatrains with Corydon's, they are less musical and sometimes cruder in content.
Eclogue 8
This eclogue is also known as ''Pharmaceutria'' ("Sorceress"). The poet reports the contrasting songs of two shepherds whose music is as powerful as that of Orpheus. Both songs are dramatic (the character in the first being a man and in the second a woman), both have refrain and both, as printed, comprise ten sections of exactly the same length, though the correspondence in the last three sections is staggered. Amaryllis assists Alphesiboeus with a love spell.
Eclogue 9
This poem dramatizes the preliminaries of a friendly singing-match that never takes place. Young Lycidas meets old Moeris on his way to town and learns that Moeris's master, the poet Menalcas, has been evicted from his small farm and nearly killed. They proceed to recall snatches of Menalcas's poetry, two translated from Theocritus and two relating to contemporary events. Lycidas is anxious for a singing-match, while admitting that he is no match for two contemporary Roman poets whom he mentions by name, but Moeris pleads for forgetfulness and loss of voice. They walk on towards the city, postponing the competition until Menalcas arrives.
Eclogue 10
In Eclogue 10, Virgil caps his book by inventing a new myth of poetic authority and origin: he replaces Theocritus'
Sicily
(man) it, Siciliana (woman)
, population_note =
, population_blank1_title =
, population_blank1 =
, demographics_type1 = Ethnicity
, demographics1_footnotes =
, demographi ...
and old bucolic hero, the impassioned oxherd
Daphnis
In Greek mythology, Daphnis (; grc, Δάφνις, from , ''daphne'', "Bay Laurel") was a Sicilian shepherd who was said to be the inventor of pastoral poetry.
Family
According to tradition, he was the son of Hermes and a nymph, despite which ...
, with the impassioned voice of his contemporary Roman friend, the elegiac poet
Gaius Cornelius Gallus
Gaius Cornelius Gallus (c. 70 – 26 BC) was a Roman poet, orator and politician.
Birthplace
The identity of Gallus' purported birthplace, '' Forum Iulii'', is still uncertain, and it is based on the epithet "Foroiuliensis" that Jerome gave to h ...
, imagined dying of love in
Arcadia. Virgil transforms this remote, mountainous, and myth-ridden region of Greece, homeland of Pan, into the original and ideal place of pastoral song, thus founding a richly resonant tradition in western literature and the arts.
This eclogue is the origin of the phrase ''omnia vincit amor'' ("love conquers all").
See also
*''
Aeneid
The ''Aeneid'' ( ; la, Aenē̆is or ) is a Latin epic poem, written by Virgil between 29 and 19 BC, that tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Trojan who fled the fall of Troy and travelled to Italy, where he became the ancestor of th ...
''
*''
Georgics
The ''Georgics'' ( ; ) is a poem by Latin poet Virgil, likely published in 29 BCE. As the name suggests (from the Greek word , ''geōrgika'', i.e. "agricultural (things)") the subject of the poem is agriculture; but far from being an example ...
''
*''
The Golden Bough''
References
Further reading
* Buckham, Philip Wentworth; Spence, Joseph; Holdsworth, Edward; Warburton, William; Jortin, John
''Miscellanea Virgiliana: In Scriptis Maxime Eruditorum Virorum Varie Dispersa, in Unum Fasciculum Collecta'' Cambridge: Printed for W. P. Grant; 1825.
*
*
*
*
*
*,
External links
*
ttp://bcs.fltr.ucl.ac.be/Virg/buc/bucgen.html French translations (Bibliotheca Classica Selecta)br>
Latin texts and German translationsAn appreciation by Samuel Johnson*
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1st-century BC Latin books
Poetry by Virgil
LGBT poetry