Below
is a list of landscape features in Eclogue IV. On the whole, there are notably
a lot of words which describe landscapes, as in boundaries or expanses or
simply the land itself, rather than landscape features. These terms are perhaps
more the language of epic than that of pastoral poetry.
arbusta (2), orchards
silvas (3), woods
silvae (3), woods
caelo alto (7), high/lofty
heavens
toto mundo (9), the whole
world
terras (14), lands
pacatum orbem (17), peaceful
world
tellus (19), the land
domum (21), home
campus (28), field
muris (32), walls
oppida (33), towns
telluri (33), the land
sulcos (33), furrows
mari (38), the sea
omnis… tellus (39), the whole
earth
humus (40), ground
pratis (43), meadows
convexo nutantem pondere mundum (50), the world
swaying with arched/convex weight
terras (46), lands
tractus maris (46), tracts of
sea
caelum profundum (46), depth of
the heavens
I find this a very interesting result, and one I have not noted in the commentaries. The only really pastoral features are those in the first three lines, which commentators take to have been tacked on later, and most of the rest of the terms seem right out of the Augustan vision of Roman pacification of the globe. It will be interesting to see if any of the other eclogues displays the same type of language.
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