![Virgil,_Georgics,_Vaticanus_Palatinus_lat](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/92/Virgil%2C_Georgics%2C_Vaticanus_Palatinus_lat._1632.jpg)
The ''Georgics'' ( ; ) is a poem by 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 ...
, likely published in 29 BCE. As the name suggests (from the
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
word , ''geōrgika'', i.e. "agricultural (things)") the subject of the poem is agriculture; but far from being an example of peaceful rural poetry, it is a work characterized by tensions in both theme and purpose.
The ''Georgics'' is considered Virgil's second major work, following his ''
Eclogues
The ''Eclogues'' (; ), also called the ''Bucolics'', is the first of the three major works of the Latin poet Virgil.
Background
Taking as his generic model the Greek bucolic poetry of Theocritus, Virgil created a Roman version partly by offer ...
'' and preceding the ''
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 ...
''. The poem draws on a variety of prior sources and has influenced many later authors from antiquity to the present.
Description and summary
The work consists of 2,188
hexametric
Hexameter is a metrical line of verses consisting of six feet (a "foot" here is the pulse, or major accent, of words in an English line of poetry; in Greek and Latin a "foot" is not an accent, but describes various combinations of syllables). It w ...
verses divided into four books. The yearly timings by the rising and setting of particular stars were valid for the
precession epoch of Virgil's time, and so are not always valid now.
Book One
Virgil begins his
poem
Poetry (derived from the Greek ''poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings in ...
with a summary of the four books, followed by a
prayer
Prayer is an invocation or act that seeks to activate a rapport with an object of worship through deliberate communication. In the narrow sense, the term refers to an act of supplication or intercession directed towards a deity or a deified ...
to various agricultural
deities as well as Augustus himself. It takes as its model the work on farming by
Varro
Marcus Terentius Varro (; 116–27 BC) was a Roman polymath and a prolific author. He is regarded as ancient Rome's greatest scholar, and was described by Petrarch as "the third great light of Rome" (after Vergil and Cicero). He is sometimes calle ...
, but differs from it in important ways. Numerous technical passages fill out the initial half of the first book; of particular interest are lines 160–175, where Virgil describes the
plow. In the succession of ages, whose model is ultimately
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 ...
, the age of
Jupiter
Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest in the Solar System. It is a gas giant with a mass more than two and a half times that of all the other planets in the Solar System combined, but slightly less than one-thousandth t ...
and its relation to the golden age and the current age of man are crafted with deliberate tension. Of chief importance is the contribution of labour to the success or failure of mankind's endeavours, agricultural or otherwise. The book comes to one climax with the description of a great storm in lines 311–350, which brings all of man's efforts to nothing. After detailing various weather-signs, Virgil ends with an enumeration of the portents associated with
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 and civil war; only
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 ...
offers any hope of salvation.
Book Two
Prominent themes of the second book include agriculture as man's struggle against a hostile natural world, often described in violent terms, and the ages of
Saturn and
Jupiter
Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest in the Solar System. It is a gas giant with a mass more than two and a half times that of all the other planets in the Solar System combined, but slightly less than one-thousandth t ...
. Like the first book, it begins with a poem addressing the divinities associated with the matters about to be discussed: viticulture, trees, and the olive. In the next hundred lines, Virgil treats forest and fruit trees. Their propagation and growth are described in detail, with a contrast drawn between methods that are natural and those that require human intervention. Three sections on grafting are of particular interest: presented as marvels of man's alteration of nature, many of the examples Virgil gives are unlikely or impossible. Also included is a catalogue of the world's trees, set forth in rapid succession, and other products of various lands. Perhaps the most famous passage of the poem, the ''Laudes Italiae'' or Praises of Italy, is introduced by way of a comparison with foreign marvels: despite all of those, no land is as praiseworthy as Italy. A point of cultural interest is a reference to
Ascra
Ascra or Askre ( grc, Ἄσκρη, Áskrē) was a town in ancient Boeotia which is best known today as the home of the poet Hesiod.W. Hazlitt (1858) ''The Classical Gazetteer'' (London)p. 54, s.v. Ascra It was located upon Mount Helicon, five miles ...
in line 176, which an ancient reader would have known as the hometown of
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 ...
. Next comes the care of vines, culminating in a vivid scene of their destruction by fire; then advice on when to plant vines, and therein the other famous passage of the second book, the Praises of Spring. These depict the growth and beauty that accompany spring's arrival. The poet then returns to didactic narrative with yet more on vines, emphasizing their fragility and laboriousness. A warning about animal damage provides occasion for an explanation of why goats are sacrificed to Bacchus. The olive tree is then presented in contrast to the vine: it requires little effort on the part of the farmer. The next subject, at last turning away from the vine, is other kinds of trees: those that produce fruit and those that have useful wood. Then Virgil again returns to grapevines, recalling the myth of the battle of the
Lapiths
The Lapiths (; grc, Λαπίθαι) are a group of legendary people in Greek mythology, whose home was in Thessaly, in the valley of the Peneus and on the mountain Pelion.
Mythology
Origin
The Lapiths were an Aeolian tribe who, like the Myr ...
and
Centaurs
A centaur ( ; grc, κένταυρος, kéntauros; ), or occasionally hippocentaur, is a creature from Greek mythology with the upper body of a human and the lower body and legs of a horse.
Centaurs are thought of in many Greek myths as being ...
in a passage known as the Vituperation of Vines. The remainder of the book is devoted to extolling the simple country life over the corruptness of the city.
Book Three
The third book is chiefly and ostensibly concerned with animal
husbandry
Animal husbandry is the branch of agriculture concerned with animals that are raised for meat, fibre, milk, or other products. It includes day-to-day care, selective breeding, and the raising of livestock. Husbandry has a long history, startin ...
. It consists of two principal parts, the first half is devoted to the selection of breed stock and the breeding of horses and cattle. It concludes with a description of the furore induced in all animals by sexual desire. The second half of the book is devoted to the care and protection of sheep and goats and their by-products. It concludes with a description of the havoc and devastation caused by a plague in
Noricum
Noricum () is the Latin name for the Celtic kingdom or federation of tribes that included most of modern Austria and part of Slovenia. In the first century AD, it became a province of the Roman Empire. Its borders were the Danube to the north, ...
. Both halves begin with a short prologue called a
proem
__NOTOC__
A preface () or proem () is an introduction to a book or other literary work written by the work's author. An introductory essay written by a different person is a ''foreword'' and precedes an author's preface. The preface often closes ...
. The poems invoke Greek and Italian gods and address such issues as Virgil's intention to honour both Caesar and his patron
Maecenas
Gaius Cilnius Maecenas ( – 8 BC) was a friend and political advisor to Octavian (who later reigned as emperor Augustus). He was also an important patron for the new generation of Augustan poets, including both Horace and Virgil. During the re ...
, as well as his lofty poetic aspirations and the difficulty of the material to follow. Many have observed the parallels between the dramatic endings of each half of this book and the irresistible power of their respective themes of love and death.
Book Four
Book four, a tonal counterpart to book two, is divided approximately in half; the first half (1–280) is didactic and deals with the life and habits of bees, supposedly a model for human society. Bees resemble man in that their labour is devoted to a king and they give their lives for the sake of the community, but they lack the arts and love. In spite of their labour, the bees perish and the entire colony dies. The restoration of the bees is accomplished by
bugonia
In the ancient Mediterranean region, bugonia or bougonia was a ritual based on the belief that bees were spontaneously (equivocally) generated from a cow's carcass, although it is possible that the ritual had more currency as a poetic and learne ...
, spontaneous rebirth from the carcass of an ox. This process is described twice in the second half (281–568) and frames the
Aristaeus
A minor god in Greek mythology, attested mainly by Athenian writers, Aristaeus (; ''Aristaios'' (Aristaîos); lit. “Most Excellent, Most Useful”), was the culture hero credited with the discovery of many useful arts, including bee-keepin ...
epyllion
A sleeping Ariadne's abandonment by Theseus is the topic of an elaborate ecphrasis">Theseus.html" ;"title="Ariadne's abandonment by Theseus">Ariadne's abandonment by Theseus is the topic of an elaborate ecphrasis in Catullus 64, the most famous e ...
beginning at line 315. The tone of the book changes from didactic to epic and elegiac in this epyllion, which contains within it the story of
Orpheus and Eurydice
The ancient legend of Orpheus and Eurydice (, ''Orpheus, Eurydikē'') concerns the fateful love of Orpheus of Thrace for the beautiful Eurydice. Orpheus was the son of Apollo and the muse Calliope. It may be a late addition to the Orpheus myths ...
. Aristaeus, after losing his bees, descends to the home of his mother, the nymph
Cyrene, where he is given instructions on how to restore his colonies. He must capture the seer,
Proteus
In Greek mythology, Proteus (; Ancient Greek: Πρωτεύς, ''Prōteus'') is an early prophetic sea-god or god of rivers and oceanic bodies of water, one of several deities whom Homer calls the "Old Man of the Sea" ''(hálios gérôn)''. ...
, and force him to reveal which divine spirit he angered and how to restore his bee colonies. After binding Proteus (who changes into many forms to no avail), Aristaeus is told by the seer that he angered the nymphs by causing the death of the nymph Eurydice, wife of
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 ...
. Proteus describes the descent of Orpheus into the underworld to retrieve
Eurydice
Eurydice (; Ancient Greek: Εὐρυδίκη 'wide justice') was a character in Greek mythology and the Auloniad wife of Orpheus, who tried to bring her back from the dead with his enchanting music.
Etymology
Several meanings for the name ...
, the backward look that caused her return to
Tartarus
In Greek mythology, Tartarus (; grc, , }) is the deep abyss that is used as a dungeon of torment and suffering for the wicked and as the prison for the Titans. Tartarus is the place where, according to Plato's ''Gorgias'' (), souls are judg ...
, and at last Orpheus' death at the hands of the
Ciconian women. Book four concludes with an eight-line
sphragis or seal in which Virgil contrasts his life of poetry with that of Octavian the general.
Sources
Greek
![Cristoforo_Majorana_-_Leaf_from_Eclogues,_Georgics_and_Aeneid_-_Walters_W40016V_-_Open_Reverse](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/83/Cristoforo_Majorana_-_Leaf_from_Eclogues%2C_Georgics_and_Aeneid_-_Walters_W40016V_-_Open_Reverse.jpg)
Virgil's model for composing a didactic poem in hexameters is the archaic Greek poet
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 ...
, whose poem ''
Works and Days
''Works and Days'' ( grc, Ἔργα καὶ Ἡμέραι, Érga kaì Hēmérai)The ''Works and Days'' is sometimes called by the Latin translation of the title, ''Opera et Dies''. Common abbreviations are ''WD'' and ''Op''. for ''Opera''. is a ...
'' shares with the ''Georgics'' the themes of man's relationship to the land and the importance of hard work. The Hellenistic poet
Nicander's lost ''Georgics'' may also be an important influence. Virgil used other Greek writers as models and sources, some for technical information, including the Hellenistic poet
Aratus
Aratus (; grc-gre, Ἄρατος ὁ Σολεύς; c. 315 BC/310 BC240) was a Greek didactic poet. His major extant work is his hexameter poem ''Phenomena'' ( grc-gre, Φαινόμενα, ''Phainómena'', "Appearances"; la, Phaenomena), the ...
for astronomy and meteorology, Nicander for information about snakes, the philosopher
Aristotle
Aristotle (; grc-gre, Ἀριστοτέλης ''Aristotélēs'', ; 384–322 BC) was a Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. Taught by Plato, he was the founder of the Peripatetic school of ph ...
for zoology, and Aristotle's student
Theophrastus
Theophrastus (; grc-gre, Θεόφραστος ; c. 371c. 287 BC), a Greek philosopher and the successor to Aristotle in the Peripatetic school. He was a native of Eresos in Lesbos.Gavin Hardy and Laurence Totelin, ''Ancient Botany'', Routle ...
for botany, and others, such as the Hellenistic poet
Callimachus
Callimachus (; ) was an ancient Greek poet, scholar and librarian who was active in Alexandria during the 3rd century BC. A representative of Ancient Greek literature of the Hellenistic period, he wrote over 800 literary works in a wide varie ...
for poetic and stylistic considerations. The Greek literary tradition from Homer on also serves as an important source for Virgil's use of mythological detail and digression.
Roman
Lucretius
Titus Lucretius Carus ( , ; – ) was a Roman poet and philosopher. His only known work is the philosophical poem ''De rerum natura'', a didactic work about the tenets and philosophy of Epicureanism, and which usually is translated into En ...
' ''
De Rerum Natura'' serves as Virgil's primary Latin model in terms of genre and meter. Many passages from Virgil's poetry are indebted to Lucretius: the plague section of the third book takes as its model the
plague of Athens
The Plague of Athens ( grc, Λοιμὸς τῶν Ἀθηνῶν}, ) was an epidemic that devastated the city-state of Athens in ancient Greece during the second year (430 BC) of the Peloponnesian War when an Athenian victory still seemed within r ...
that closes the ''De Rerum Natura''. Virgil is also indebted to
Ennius
Quintus Ennius (; c. 239 – c. 169 BC) was a writer and poet who lived during the Roman Republic. He is often considered the father of Roman poetry. He was born in the small town of Rudiae, located near modern Lecce, Apulia, (Ancient Calabria ...
, who, along with Lucretius, naturalized hexameter verse in Latin. Virgil often uses language characteristic of Ennius to give his poetry an archaic quality. The intriguing idea has been put forth by one scholar that Virgil also drew on the rustic songs and speech patterns of Italy at certain points in his poem, to give portions of the work a distinct, Italian character. Virgil draws on the
neoteric
The Neoterikoi (Ancient Greek: '; Latin: ', "new poets") or Neoterics were a series of avant-garde Latin poets who wrote in the 1st century BCE. Neoteric poets deliberately turned away from classical Homeric epic poetry. Rather than focusing on the ...
poets at times, and
Catullus' ''
Carmen 64'' very likely had a large impact on the epyllion of Aristaeus that ends the ''Georgics'' 4. Virgil's extensive knowledge and skilful integration of his models is central to the success of different portions of the work and the poem as a whole.
Cultural contexts
Philosophical context
The two predominant philosophical schools in Rome during Virgil's lifetime were
Stoicism and
Epicureanism. Of these two, the Epicurean strain is predominant not only in the ''Georgics'' but also in Virgil's social and intellectual milieu.
Varius Rufus, a close friend of Virgil and the man who published the ''Aeneid'' after Virgil's death, had Epicurean tastes, as did
Horace and his patron Maecenas.
The philosophical text with the greatest influence on the ''Georgics'' as a whole was Lucretius' Epicurean epic ''
De rerum natura''. G. B. Conte notes, citing the programmatic statement "''
Felix, qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas''" in ''Georgics'' 2.490–502, which draws from ''De rerum natura'' 1.78–9, "the basic impulse for the ''Georgics'' came from a dialogue with Lucretius." Likewise, David West remarks in his discussion of the plague in the third book, Virgil is "saturated with the poetry of Lucretius, and its words, phrases, thought and rhythms have merged in his mind, and become transmuted into an original work of poetic art."
Political context
![Servius teaching - Georgiques - BM Dijon Ms493 f56](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f1/Servius_teaching_-_Georgiques_-_BM_Dijon_Ms493_f56.jpg)
Beginning with Caesar's assassination in 44 BCE and ending with Octavian's victory over
Anthony
Anthony or Antony is a masculine given name, derived from the '' Antonii'', a ''gens'' ( Roman family name) to which Mark Antony (''Marcus Antonius'') belonged. According to Plutarch, the Antonii gens were Heracleidae, being descendants of Anton, ...
and
Cleopatra at
Actium
Actium or Aktion ( grc, Ἄκτιον) was a town on a promontory in ancient Acarnania at the entrance of the Ambraciot Gulf, off which Octavian gained his celebrated victory, the Battle of Actium, over Antony and Cleopatra, on September 2, 31 ...
in 31 BCE, Rome had been engaged in a series of almost constant civil wars. After almost 15 years of political and social upheaval, Octavian, the sole surviving member of the
Second Triumvirate, became firmly established as the new leader of the Roman world. Under Octavian, Rome enjoyed a long period of relative peace and prosperity. However, Octavian's victory at Actium also sounded the death knell of the Republic. With Octavian as the sole ruler of the Roman world, the Roman Empire was born.
It was during this period, and against this backdrop of civil war, that Virgil composed the ''Georgics''. While not containing any overtly political passages, politics are not absent from the ''Georgics''. Not only is Octavian addressed in the poem both directly and indirectly, but the poem also contains several passages that include references and images that could be interpreted as political, such as the description of the plague in Book 3 and Virgil's famous description of bee society in Book 4. It is impossible to know whether or not these references and images were intended to be seen as political in nature, but it would not be inconceivable that Virgil was in some way influenced by the years of civil war. Whether they were intentional or not, if we believe Suetonius, these references did not seem to trouble
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 ...
, to whom Virgil is said to have recited the ''Georgics'' in 29 BCE.
Laudes Galli
A comment by the Virgilian commentator
Servius, that the middle to the end of the fourth book contained a large series of praises for
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 ...
(''laudes Galli'' means "praises of Gallus" in Latin), has spurred much scholarly debate. Servius tells us that after Gallus had fallen out of favour, Virgil replaced the praises of Gallus with the Orpheus episode. Those supporting Servius see the Orpheus episode as an unpolished, weak episode, and point out that it is unlike anything else in the ''Georgics'' in that it radically departs from the ''didactic'' mode that we see throughout, rendering it an illogical, awkward insertion. Indeed, the features of the episode are unique; it is an epyllion that engages mythological material. The episode does not further the narrative and has no immediately apparent relevance to Virgil's topic. The difficult, open-ended conclusion seems to confirm this interpretation.
In a highly influential article
Anderson
Anderson or Andersson may refer to:
Companies
* Anderson (Carriage), a company that manufactured automobiles from 1907 to 1910
* Anderson Electric, an early 20th-century electric car
* Anderson Greenwood, an industrial manufacturer
* Anderson ...
debunked this view, and it is now generally believed that there were not Laudes Galli and that the Orpheus episode is original. Generally, arguments against the view above question Servius' reliability, citing the possibility that he confused the end of the ''Georgics'' with the end of the Eclogues, which does make mention of Gallus. Further, they question its validity based on chronological evidence: the ''Georgics'' would have been finished a number of years before the disgrace and suicide of Gallus, and so one would expect more evidence of an alternative version of the end of the poem—or at least more sources mentioning it. Instead, the Orpheus episode is here understood as an integral part of the poem that articulates or encapsulates its ethos by reinforcing many ideas or reintroducing and problematizing tensions voiced throughout the text. The range of scholarship and interpretations offered is vast, and the arguments range from optimistic or pessimistic readings of the poem to notions of labour,
Epicureanism, and the relationship between man and nature.
Repetitions in the ''Aeneid''
Within Virgil's later epic work the ''Aeneid'', there are some 51 lines that are recycled, either whole or in part, from the ''Georgics''. There is some debate whether these repetitions are (1) intrusions within the text of later scribes and editors, (2) indications pointing toward the level of incompleteness of the ''Aeneid'', or (3) deliberate repetitions made by the poet, pointing toward meaningful areas of contact between the two poems. As a careful study by
Ward Briggs goes a long way to show, the repetition of lines in the ''Georgics'' and the ''Aeneid'' is probably an intentional move made by Virgil, a poet given to a highly allusive style, not, evidently, to the exclusion of his own previous writings. Indeed, Virgil incorporates full lines in the ''Georgics'' of his earliest work, the ''Eclogues'', although the number of repetitions is much smaller (only eight) and it does not appear that any one line was reduplicated in all three of his works.
The repetitions of material from the ''Georgics'' in the ''Aeneid'' vary in their length and degree of alteration. Some of the less exact, single-line reduplications may very well show a nodding Virgil or scribal interpolation. The extended repetitions, however, show some interesting patterns. In about half the cases, technical, agrarian descriptions are adapted into epic similes. This is fitting, as the stuff of many epic similes is rooted in the natural and domestic worlds from which epic heroes are cut off. Virgil shows his technical expertise by re-contextualising identical lines to produce meanings that are different, or inverted from their initial meaning in the ''Georgics''. Additionally, some of these reproduced lines are themselves adapted from works by Virgil's earlier literary models, including Homer's ''Iliad'' and ''Odyssey'',
Apollonius of Rhodes' ''
Argonautica
The ''Argonautica'' ( el, Ἀργοναυτικά , translit=Argonautika) is a Greek epic poem written by Apollonius Rhodius in the 3rd century BC. The only surviving Hellenistic epic, the ''Argonautica'' tells the myth of the voyage of Jason ...
'', Ennius' ''Annals'', and Lucretius' ''
On the Nature of Things
''De rerum natura'' (; ''On the Nature of Things'') is a first-century BC didactic poem by the Roman poet and philosopher Lucretius ( – c. 55 BC) with the goal of explaining Epicurean philosophy to a Roman audience. The poem, written in some 7 ...
''. With a single line or two, Virgil links (or distances), expands (or collapses) themes of various texts treating various subjects to create an Aeneid that is a richly intertextual.
Reception and influence
Reception in antiquity
The work on ''Georgics'' was launched when agriculture had become a science and
Varro
Marcus Terentius Varro (; 116–27 BC) was a Roman polymath and a prolific author. He is regarded as ancient Rome's greatest scholar, and was described by Petrarch as "the third great light of Rome" (after Vergil and Cicero). He is sometimes calle ...
had already published his ''Res rusticae'', on which Virgil relied as a source—a fact already recognized by the commentator Servius. Virgil's scholarship on his predecessors produced an extensive literary reaction by the following generations of authors.
Seneca's account that "Virgil ... aimed, not to teach the farmer, but to please the reader," underlines that Virgil's poetic and philosophic themes were abounding in his hexameters (Sen., ''Moral Letter'' 86.15).
Reception in the 18th century
John Dryden
''
John Dryden (; – ) was an English poet, literary critic, translator, and playwright who in 1668 was appointed England's first Poet Laureate.
He is seen as dominating the literary life of Restoration England to such a point that the per ...
’s 1697 poetic translation of Virgil's ''Georgics'' sparked a renewed interest in agricultural poetry and country life amongst the more educated classes during the 18th century. In the same year, the young
Joseph Addison
Joseph Addison (1 May 1672 – 17 June 1719) was an English essayist, poet, playwright and politician. He was the eldest son of The Reverend Lancelot Addison. His name is usually remembered alongside that of his long-standing friend Richar ...
published his “Essay on Virgil’s Georgics”. In his eyes Virgil's poem seemed the principal model for this genre, which he defined as “some part of the science of husbandry, put into a pleasing dress and set off with all the beauties and embellishments of poetry”. In the context of the 18th century, however, interest in the georgic, or the choice of it as a model for independent works, was “profoundly political”, recognising an affinity with Virgil's treatment of rural subjects after the social and political disruptions through which he had lived. The tone of Virgil's work represented a longing for the “creation of order out of disorder” to which the
Roman Augustan age succeeded, much as the British
Augustan Age emerged from the social ferment and civil strife of the 17th century. The cultured of a later age were quick to see the parallel, but there was also an altered emphasis. Whereas for Virgil there was an antithesis between town life and country simplicity, in the view of the gentry of the 18th century, city and country were interdependent. Those who created specialised georgics of their own considered the commodities about which they wrote as items of trade that contributed to both local and national prosperity. For Roman citizens, farming was carried out in the service of the capital; for Britons the empire was consolidated as the result of mercantile enterprise and such commodities contributed to the general benefit.
A critic has pointed out that "the British Library holds no fewer than twenty translations of the Georgics from
he 18th centuryperiod; of these, eight are separately published translations of the Georgics alone. Several of these translations, such as Dryden's, were reprinted regularly throughout the century. Also noteworthy is the fact that the brisk rate of new translations continued into the early decades of the nineteenth century, with 1808 as a kind of ''
annus mirabilis
''Annus mirabilis'' (pl. ''anni mirabiles'') is a Latin phrase that means "marvelous year", "wonderful year", "miraculous year", or "amazing year". This term has been used to refer to several years during which events of major importance are re ...
'', when three new versions appeared." Some among these, like Dryden's and the
Earl of Lauderdale
Earl of Lauderdale is a title in the Peerage of Scotland. The current holder of the title is Ian Maitland, 18th Earl of Lauderdale.
The title was created in 1624 for John Maitland, 2nd Lord Maitland of Thirlestane, Berwickshire.
The second Ea ...
's (1709), had primarily poetic aims. Other translators were clergymen amateurs (Thomas Nevile, Cambridge 1767) or, translating into prose, had school use in mind (Joseph Davidson, London 1743).
William Sotheby went on to place his acclaimed literary version of 1800 in the context of others across Europe when he reissued it in the sumptuous folio edition ''Georgica Publii Virgilii Maronis Hexaglotta'' (London, 1827). There it was accompanied by versions in Italian by Gian-Francesco Soave (1765), in Spanish by Juan de Guzmán (1768), in French by
Jacques Delille (1769), and in German by
Johann Heinrich Voss
Johann Heinrich Voss (german: Johann Heinrich Voß, ; 20 February 1751 – 29 March 1826) was a German classicist and poet, known mostly for his translation of Homer's ''Odyssey'' (1781) and ''Iliad'' (1793) into German.
Life
Voss was born at S ...
(1789).
Dutch influence on English farming also paved a way for the poem's rebirth, since Roman farming practices still prevailed in the Netherlands and were sustained there by
Joost van den Vondel
Joost van den Vondel (; 17 November 1587 – 5 February 1679) was a Dutch poet, writer and playwright. He is considered the most prominent Dutch poet and playwright of the 17th century. His plays are the ones from that period that are still mos ...
’s prose translation of the Georgics into Dutch (1646). English farmers too attempted to imitate what they thought were genuine Virgilian agricultural techniques. In 1724 the poet William Benson wrote, "There is more of Virgil’s husbandry in England at this instant than in Italy itself." Among those translators who aimed to establish Virgil's up-to-date farming credentials was James Hamilton, whose prose translation of Virgil's work was “published with such notes and reflexions as make him appear to have wrote like an excellent Farmer” (Edinburgh, 1742). This aspiration was supported by the assertion that, to make a proper translation, agricultural experience was a prerequisite—and for the lack of which, in the view of William Benson, Dryden's version was disqualified. That
Robert Hoblyn had practical experience as a farmer was a qualification he considered the guarantee of his 1825 blank verse translation of the first book of the Georgics; and even in modern times it was made a commendation of Peter Fallon's 2004 version that he is “both a poet and a farmer, uniquely suited to translating this poem”. However, Hoblyn could only support his stance at this date by interpolation and special pleading. Throughout Europe, Virgilian-style farming manuals were giving way to the agricultural revolution and their use was supplanted by scientific data, technical graphs and statistics.
Contemporary readings
The overtly political element in Virgil's poem attracted some translators, who applied it to their own local circumstances. The translation of the Georgics into
Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic p ...
by
Eugenios Voulgaris was published from St Petersburg in 1786 and had as one aim the support of Russia’s assimilation of the
newly annexed Crimea
Crimea, crh, Къырым, Qırım, grc, Κιμμερία / Ταυρική, translit=Kimmería / Taurikḗ ( ) is a peninsula in Ukraine, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, that has been occupied by Russia since 2014. It has a pop ...
by encouraging Greek settlement there. Virgil’s theme of taming the wilderness was further underlined in an introductory poem praising
Grigory Potemkin
Prince Grigory Aleksandrovich Potemkin-Tauricheski (, also , ;, rus, Князь Григо́рий Алекса́ндрович Потёмкин-Таври́ческий, Knjaz' Grigórij Aleksándrovich Potjómkin-Tavrícheskij, ɡrʲɪˈɡ ...
as a
philhellene
Philhellenism ("the love of Greek culture") was an intellectual movement prominent mostly at the turn of the 19th century. It contributed to the sentiments that led Europeans such as Lord Byron and Charles Nicolas Fabvier to advocate for Greek i ...
Maecenas
Gaius Cilnius Maecenas ( – 8 BC) was a friend and political advisor to Octavian (who later reigned as emperor Augustus). He was also an important patron for the new generation of Augustan poets, including both Horace and Virgil. During the re ...
and the Empress
Catherine the Great as the wise ruler directing the new territory's welfare. The inference is also there that Voulgaris himself (now archbishop of Novorossiya and Azov) has become thus the imperial Virgil.
In Britain there was a tendency to grant Virgil honorary citizenship. In the introduction to his turn of the century translation for the
Everyman edition, T. F. Royds argued that "just as the Latin poet had his pedigree, Virgil is here an adopted English poet, and his many translators have made for him an English pedigree too". So too, living in Devon as
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
progressed,
C. Day Lewis saw his own translation as making a patriotic statement. As he commented later: "More and more I was buoyed up by a feeling that England was speaking to me through Virgil, and that the Virgil of the Georgics was speaking to me through the English farmers and labourers with whom I consorted." Among a multiplicity of earlier translations, his new version would be justified by avoiding "that peculiar kind of Latin-derived pidgin-English which infects the style of so many classical scholars" and making its appeal instead through an approachable, down-to-earth idiom.
In the 21st century,
Frédéric Boyer Frédéric Boyer (born 2 March 1961, Cannes) is a French author of novels, poems, essays, and translations.
Biography
A former student of the École normale supérieure de Fontenay Saint-Cloud, he coordinated the ''Bible Nouvelle Traduction'' (Ba ...
's French version of the Georgics is retitled ''Le Souci de la terre'' (Care for the earth) and makes its appeal to current ecological concerns. "For me as a translator", he explains in his preface, "I find today’s tragic paradigm in relation to the earth being addressed to the future through the ancient work. In other words, the past is entering into dialogue with the future right now." And in part, as in Virgil's time, this ecological crisis has come as a result of a loss of focus, preoccupation in the past with foreign wars and civil conflict.
Selected translations in English
*
John Ogilby (1649), first complete Virgil in English includin
a translation of the ''Georgicks'' in couplets
*
John Dryden
''
John Dryden (; – ) was an English poet, literary critic, translator, and playwright who in 1668 was appointed England's first Poet Laureate.
He is seen as dominating the literary life of Restoration England to such a point that the per ...
(London, 1697
in heroic couplets
*
William Sotheby, (London, 1800
in heroic couplets*
R.D. Blackmore (London, 1871
in heroic couplets*Musgrave Wilkins (London, 1873
“a literal translation” in prose*
James Rhoades (London 1881)
blank verse*
Arthur Way (London, 1912
quantitative verse couplets*
J. W. Mackail
John William Mackail (26 August 1859 – 13 December 1945) was a Scottish academic of Oxford University and reformer of the British education system.
He is most often remembered as a scholar of Virgil and as the official biographer of the so ...
(New York, 1934
prose*
C. Day-Lewis (London, 1940
quantitative verse*Peter Fallon (Oxford World Classics, 2006
quantitative verse
*
Kimberly Johnson (Penguin Classics, 2009
irregular verse
European georgics
Gardening guides
Virgil’s work addressed itself to far more than simple farming and later poems of a didactic tendency often dealt with, and elaborated on, individual subjects mentioned in the course of the Georgics. What has been described as "the earliest English georgic on any subject" limited itself to practical advice on gardening. Attributed to an unidentified Master John, "The Feate of Gardeninge" dates from the first half of the 15th century and provides instructions for sowing, planting and growing fruits, herbs and flowers through the course of the year. The poem’s 98 couplets are of irregular line-length and are occasionally imperfectly rhymed; the work was never printed, although annotated manuscript copies give evidence of its being studied and put to use.
Master John's poem heads the line of later gardening manuals in verse over the centuries. Included among them were poems in Latin like Giuseppe Milio's ''De Hortorum Cura'' (Brescia 1574) and
René Rapin
René Rapin (1621–1687) was a French Jesuit and writer.
He was born at Tours and entered the Society of Jesus in 1639. He taught rhetoric, and wrote extensively both in verse and prose.
Works
His first production, ''Eclogæ Sacræ'' (Paris ...
's popular ''Hortorum Libri IV'' (Of Gdns, 1665). The latter was a four-canto work in Latin hexameters, dealing respectively with flowers, disposition of trees, water and orchards, and was followed by two English versions shortly afterwards, translated by
John Evelyn the Younger in 1673 and James Gardiner in 1706. Where those versions were written in rhyming couplets, however,
William Mason later chose Miltonic blank verse for his ''The English Garden: A Poem in Four Books'' (1772–81), an original work that took the Georgics as its model. His French contemporary
Jacques Delille, having already translated the Latin Georgics, now published his own four-canto poem on the subject of ''Les Jardins, ou l'Art d’embellir les paysages'' (Gardens, or the art of beautifying landscape, 1782). Like Mason, he gave his preference for landscaped over formal garden design and his work was several times translated into English verse over the following two decades.
Rural pursuits
In the case of many of these didactic manuals, the approach of the Georgics served as a model but the information in them is updated or supplements Virgil’s account. Thus
Giovanni di Bernardo Rucellai
Giovanni di Bernardo Rucellai (20 October 1475 – 3 April 1525) was an Italian humanist, poet, dramatist and man of letters in Renaissance Florence, in Tuscany, Italy. A member of a wealthy family of wool merchants and one of the richest men in ...
's ''Le Api'' (Bees, 1542) restricts itself to the subject of the fourth book of the Georgics and is an early example of Italian blank verse. A Latin treatment of the subject figured as the fourteenth book of the original Paris edition of
:fr:Jacques Vanière's ''Praedium Rusticum'' (The Rural Estate) in 1696, but was to have a separate English existence in a verse translation by
Arthur Murphy published from London in 1799, and later reprinted in the United States in 1808. But an earlier partial adaptation,
Joshua Dinsdale's ''The Modern Art of Breeding Bees'', had already appeared in London in 1740, prefaced with an apology to Virgil for trespassing on his ancient territory while bringing "some new Discov'ries to impart".
For his part,
Marco Girolamo Vida
Marco Girolamo Vida or Marcus Hieronymus Vida (1485? – September 27, 1566) was an Italian humanist, bishop and poet.
Life
Marco was born at Cremona, the son of the consular (patrician) Guglielmo Vida, and Leona Oscasale. He had two brother ...
struck out in a new
entomological
Entomology () is the scientific study of insects, a branch of zoology. In the past the term "insect" was less specific, and historically the definition of entomology would also include the study of animals in other arthropod groups, such as arach ...
direction with his poem on the breeding and care of the
silkworm, the two-canto ''De Bombycum cura ac usu'' (1527) written in Latin hexameters, which had been preceded by two poems in Italian on the same subject. Vida's work was followed in England by
Thomas Muffet
Thomas Muffet (also Moufet, Mouffet, or Moffet) (1553 – 5 June 1604) was an English naturalist and physician. He is best known his study of insects and arthropods in regard to medicine (particularly spiders), his support of the Paracelsian sy ...
's ''The Silkwormes and their Flies'' (1599), a subject that he had studied in Italy. The poem was written in
Ottava rima
Ottava rima is a rhyming stanza form of Italian origin. Originally used for long poems on heroic themes, it later came to be popular in the writing of mock-heroic works. Its earliest known use is in the writings of Giovanni Boccaccio.
The ott ...
, contained a wealth of Classical stories and has been mentioned as "one of the earliest of English georgic poems".
Vida's poem was just one among several contemporary Latin works on exotic subjects that have been defined by Yasmin Haskell as 'recreational georgics', a group which "usually comprises one or two short books, treats self-consciously small-scale subjects, is informed by an almost pastoral mood" and deals with products for the aristocratic luxury market. Others included
Giovanni Pontano
Giovanni Pontano (1426–1503), later known as Giovanni Gioviano ( la, Ioannes Iovianus Pontanus), was a humanist and poet from Cerreto di Spoleto, in central Italy. He was the leading figure of the Accademia Pontaniana after the death of Antonio ...
's ''De Hortis Hesdperidum sive de cultu citriorum'' on the cultivation of citrus fruits (Venice 1505) and Pier Franceso Giustolo's ''De Croci Cultu Cultu'' on the cultivation of saffron (Rome 1510). There were also works on hunting like
Natale Conti's ''De venatione'' (1551) and the ''Cynegeticon'' (Hunting with dogs) of Pietro degli Angeli (1517–96) which were the ultimate Italian ancestors of
William Somervile
William Somervile or Somerville (2 September 167517 July 1742) was an English poet who wrote in many genres and is especially remembered for "The Chace", in which he pioneered an early English georgic.
Life
Somervile, the eldest son of a long e ...
's ''The Chace'' (London, 1735). The preface to the last of these notes with disapproval that one "might indeed have expected to have seen it treated more at large by Virgil in his third Georgick, since it is expressly Part of his Subject. But he has favoured us only with ten Verses."
The most encyclopaedic of the authors on country subjects was Jacques Vanière whose ''Praedium Rusticum'' reached its completest version in 1730. Integrated into its sixteen sections were several once issued as separate works. They included ''Stagna'' (Fishing, 1683), ultimately section 15, in which the author informs the reader (in the words of his English translator):
::Of fish I sing, and to the rural cares
::Now add the labours of my younger years…
::Now more improved since first they gave me fame;
::From hence to tend the doves and vine I taught,
::And whate’er else my riper years have wrought. That was followed by ''Columbae'' (Doves, 1684), mentioned in the lines above and ultimately section 13; by ''Vites'' (Vines, 1689), section 10; and by ''Olus'' (Vegetables, 1698), section 9. Two English clergymen poets later wrote poems more or less reliant on one or other of these sections. Joshua Dinsdale's ''The Dove Cote, or the art of breeding pigeons'' appeared in 1740; and John Duncombe’s ''Fishing'' (quoted above), which was an adaptation written in the 1750s but unpublished until 1809.
English Georgics
![DYER(1757) The Fleece](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/86/DYER%281757%29_The_Fleece.jpg)
Besides the 18th century examples already mentioned, English poets wrote other Virgilian styled georgics and country themed pieces manifesting an appreciation of the rustic arts and the happiness of life on the country estate. Among them were poems directed to such specialised subjects as
John Philips
John Philips (30 December 1676 – 15 February 1709) was an 18th-century English poet.
Early life and education
Philips was born at Bampton, Oxfordshire, the son of Rev. Stephen Philips, later archdeacon of Salop, and his wife Mary Wood. ...
's ''Cyder'' (1708) and
John Gay's ''Rural Sports: A Georgic'' (1713). Gay then went on to compose in ''
Trivia, or the art of walking the streets of London'' (1716) "a full-scale mock Georgic". The poem is dependent on the method and episodes in Virgil's poem and may be compared with the contemporary renewal of classical genres in the mock epic and the introduction of urban themes into the
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 ...
by other Augustan poets at that period. Later examples of didactic georgics include
Christopher Smart's ''
The Hop-Garden'' (1752),
Robert Dodsley
Robert Dodsley (13 February 1703 – 23 September 1764) was an English bookseller, publisher, poet, playwright, and miscellaneous writer.
Life
Dodsley was born near Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, where his father was master of the free school.
H ...
's ''Agriculture'' (1753) and
John Dyer's ''The Fleece'' (1757). Shortly afterwards,
James Grainger
James Grainger (c. 1721–1766) was a Scottish doctor, poet and translator. He settled on St. Kitts from 1759 until his death of a fever on 16 December 1766. As a writer, he is best known for his poem ''The Sugar Cane'', which is now valued as an ...
went on to create in his ''
The Sugar Cane ''The Sugar Cane'' was a pioneering georgic poem adapted to a West Indian theme, first published in 1764. With renewed interest in Caribbean literature, and especially after a new edition was published in 2000, it has attracted critical attention, e ...
'' (1764) a "West-India georgic", spreading the scope of this form into the Caribbean with the British colonial enterprise. Unlike most contemporary translations of Virgil, many of these practical manuals preferred Miltonic blank verse and the later examples stretched to four cantos, as in the Virgilian model.
Later still there were poems with a broader scope, such as
James Grahame
Rev James Grahame (22 April 1765 – 14 September 1811) was a Scottish poet. His best-known poem, ''The Sabbath'', combines devotional feeling with vivid description of Scottish scenery.
Early life
He was born at Whitehill House in Glasgow, t ...
's ''The British Georgics'' (Edinburgh, 1809). His work was on a different plan, however, proceeding month by month through the agricultural year and concentrating on conditions in Scotland, considering that "the British Isles differ in so many respects from the countries to which Virgil's Georgics alluded". Jacques Delille had already preceded him in France with a similar work, ''L'Homme des champs, ou les Géorgiques françaises'' (Strasbourg, 1800), a translation of which by John Maunde had been published in London the following year as ''The Rural Philosopher: or French Georgics, a didactic poem'', and in the USA in 1804. Both works, however, though they bear the name of georgics, have more of a celebratory than a didactic function. They are a different sort of work that, while paying homage and alluding to Virgil's poem, have another end in view.
This descriptive genre of writing had an equally Renaissance pedigree in
Politian's poem ''Rusticus'' (1483), which he composed to be recited as an introduction to his lectures on the didactic poems of Hesiod and the ''Georgica''. Its intention was to praise country living in the course of describing its seasonal occupations. A similar approach to the beauties of the countryside in all weathers was taken by
James Thomson in the four sections of his ''
The Seasons'' (1730). The poem has been described as "the supreme British achievement in the georgic genre, even though it has little to do with agriculture per se," and is more descriptive than didactic. Nevertheless, the Classical inspiration behind the work was so obvious that Thompson was pictured as writing it with "the page of Vergil literally open before him".
Other works in this vein moved further from the Virgilian didactic mode. William Cowper’s discursive and subjective ''
The Task'' (1785) has sometimes been included, as has
Robert Bloomfield’s ''The Farmer’s Boy'' (1800). The latter proceeds through the farming year season by season and a partial translation into Latin was described by
William Clubbe
William Clubbe (or Clubb) (1745–1814) was an English clergyman and poetical writer.
Life
He was seventh son of John Clubbe, rector of Whatfield in Suffolk, baptised at Whatfield on 16 April 1745. He was educated at Newcome's School and Caius ...
as being rendered 'in the manner of the Georgics' (''in morem Latini Georgice redditum''). It was followed in the 20th century by
Vita Sackville-West
Victoria Mary, Lady Nicolson, CH (née Sackville-West; 9 March 1892 – 2 June 1962), usually known as Vita Sackville-West, was an English author and garden designer.
Sackville-West was a successful novelist, poet and journalist, as wel ...
's ''The Land'' (1926),
Gutenberg
/ref> which also pursued the course of the seasons through its four books and balanced rural know-how with celebratory description in the mode of Georgian Poetry
Georgian Poetry refers to a series of anthologies showcasing the work of a school of English poetry that established itself during the early years of the reign of King George V of the United Kingdom.
The Georgian poets were, by the strictest d ...
.
See also
*Bugonia
In the ancient Mediterranean region, bugonia or bougonia was a ritual based on the belief that bees were spontaneously (equivocally) generated from a cow's carcass, although it is possible that the ritual had more currency as a poetic and learne ...
*Prosody (Latin)
Latin prosody (from Middle French ''prosodie'', from Latin ''prosōdia'', from Ancient Greek προσῳδία ''prosōidía'', "song sung to music, pronunciation of syllable") is the study of Latin poetry and its laws of meter. The following artic ...
References
Further reading
* Bibliography
''Vergil, Georgica: Eine Bibliographie''
* 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.
*De Bruyn, Frans, “Eighteenth-Century Editions of Virgil's Georgics: From Classical Poem to Agricultural Treatise”, Lumen XXIV 2005
pp.149-63
* Yasmin Haskell
Loyola's Bees: Ideology and Industry in Jesuit Latin Didactic Poetry
OUP/British Academy, 2003
* Lembke, Janet (2006) ''Virgil’s Georgics''. Yale University Press.
* Parker, Holt
'' "Virgil's Garden" or the "Hortus Vergilianus" ''
at the University of Cincinnati. An interactive text of the poem with plant names linked to their translations into English, German, French, and Italian, modern Latin scientific names, and pictures.
* Thibodeau, Philip. 2011. ''Playing the Farmer. Representations of Rural Life in Vergil's Georgics''. Berkeley: University of California Press
Interview
with Virgil scholar Richard Thomas and poet David Ferry, who recently translated Virgil's ''Georgics'', on Thoughtcast
* L. P. Wilkinson
The Georgics of Virgil: A Critical Survey
CUP 1969
External links
;Online text
* The original Latin text a
Wikisource
and Tufts University
Tufts University is a private research university on the border of Medford and Somerville, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1852 as Tufts College by Christian universalists who sought to provide a nonsectarian institution of higher learning. ...
'
Perseus Digital Library
''Georgica''
translated by Henry Rushton Fairclough in 1916 for the Loeb Classical Library
;Other sources
at the Wilanów Palace Museum
* (in English and Latin)
{{Authority control
Poetry by Virgil
Geoponici
1st-century BC Latin books
Works based on classical mythology