Audience

Having somewhat embarrassed myself last class with an admission of not being thrilled by the content of the Georgics, I've been thinking quite a bit about who read the Georgics and why. I took a second look at Nobility and Rustication, and while we seemed generally frustrated with the author's conclusion, I think one of his secondary points has much to offer. 

Consider, from the conclusion on consoling former city-dwellers, "Of course, it is all a fantasy, a fiction, and perhaps Vergil's reader understood that it was false. Yet a fiction that is repeated often enough begins to acquire a truth of its own, particularly when poetry adds its spell, and belief in the myth brings relief from pain".  I'm not 100% sold on the idea that the "spell" of poetry or the belief in myth would ease a reader's anxiety, but I am interested in the highlighted sense of "fantasy" and "fiction". 

Not only is real country life very much unlike the ideal and pleasant existence often described, but there are also a number of contradictions running throughout the Eclogues and Georgics. Amor (correct me if I am mistaken) is an urban goddess, and a particularly jealous one at that. The integration of love and the worship of country gods, although often paired together, may not actually be fundamentally compatible. For a more concrete example, at different times and at different places, shade is either a favorable circumstance or a harmful one. The excessive praise of both Caesar and the simple country worker also seem to be at odds. 

What I find most interesting, however, is how smoothly Virgil weaves his contradictions together, adapting whatever model suits his present needs. The fantastical marriages of love and country, pleasure and hard living, etc, create a sort of lullaby. With the reader somewhat lulled into this dreamworld, I wonder if Virgil's political agenda may have a greater effect. 

Internal contradictions are characteristic of a number of Latin authors such as Catullus, Tibullus, Seneca, etc, but I find none of their works as seemingly docile and "kosher" as the Georgics. Virgil's poetry is wrapped in traditional form and content, and it does have a sort of soothing flow. Without getting too deep into Inception-esque conspiracies, might we say that Virgil's poetry "loosens" the reader's tight code of rationality, thus creating a more flexible space for his own agenda?