Gallus in Ecl. 6

The “Gallus” referred to in Eclogue 6 seems to be Gaius Cornelius Gallus. He is politically famous for being the first prefect of the province of Egypt, a position he held in 30 BCE as an equestrian. He is even more famous for supposedly committing suicide soon afterwards, perhaps 27 or 26 BCE. He had apparently taken the glorification of his military victories in Egypt too far for Augustus’ liking. The obliterated inscription of a particular obelisk now set up in front of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome is often cited as evidence for this hypothesis. Our major sources for the life of Gallus come from Suetonius (through his Life of Augustus), Cassius Dio, Ammianus Marcellinus, and Jerome (through his Chronicle).

Gallus’ connection to the literary circle of Rome seems prominent. Of course, Vergil mentions him in Eclogue 6, and he will mention him again in Eclogue 10, perhaps partially out of a sense of gratitude for the mercy shown in not having his family property confiscated—an operation which Gallus may have supervised. Parthenius also dedicates the Erotika Pathemata to Gallus. Gallus’ specific contributions to Latin literature may have been translating Euphorion’s work (transmitted through Parthenius) into Latin and introducing the elegiac trope of the male lover dominated by his mistress. At least, Ovid (in his Tristia) regards him as an important ancestral figure in the line of Latin elegists. Quintilian also notes that Gallus’ poetry was “harder” than Propertius’ and Tibullus’. Inconveniently, we have only fragments of Gallus’ poetry, though just enough to see evidence for Gallus’ influence on Propertius.

(I draw my information from https://www-oxfordreference-com.gate.lib.buffalo.edu/view/10.1093/acref/9780199545568.001.0001/acref-9780199545568-e-1848?rskey=FoAUkQ&result=5 and https://livingpoets.dur.ac.uk/w/Gallus:_A_Guide_to_Selected_Sources)

Silenus

Silenus was a rustic god of winemaking and drunkenness. He is the foster-father of Dionysus. Depicted as a snub-nosed, hairy, old man with the ears and tail of a donkey. I’ve compiled a few sections from various classics encyclopedias which are particularly interesting because of the subject of Eclogue 6 (where Silenus is caught by the shepherds and he sings about various myths).

“Analogous to this contrast [the role of satyrs in public life when people dressed as satyrs at festivals and the role of satyrs in mystery cults] is the ambiguity of the satyrs as grotesque hedonists and yet the immortal companions of a god, cruder than men and yet somehow wiser, combining mischief with wisdom, lewdness with skill in music, animality with divinity. In satyric drama they are the first to sample the creation of culture out of nature in the invention of wine, of the lyre, of the pipe, and so on. Silenus is the educator of Dionysus. King Midas (1) extracted from a silen, whom he had trapped in his garden, the wisdom that for men it is best never to have been born, second best to die as soon as possible (Herodotus 8. 138; Aristotle fr. 44). And Virgil's shepherds extract from Silenus a song of great beauty and wisdom (Eclogues 6). This ambiguity is exploited in Alcibiades' famous comparison of Socrates to the musical satyr Marsyas (Plato Symposium 215).”

From: “satyrs and silens” The Oxford Classical Dictionary (3 rev. ed.) Edited by Simon Hornblower and Antony Spawforth Publisher: Oxford University Press Print Publication Date: 2005 Print ISBN-13: 9780198606413 Published online: 2005 Current Online Version: 2005 eISBN: 9780199567386

“Eclogue 6 remains obscure to us because we know little of its literary background in the Greek and Hellenistic poetic tradition. It opens with Virgil, in the character of Tityrus, about to sing of kings and battles when Apollo tweaks his ear and tells him that sheep should be fat but poems slim. The poem does not have much to do with pastoral and bears little resemblance to Theocritus. It consists of a song sung by Silenus in which he recounts the creation of the world in the style of Lucretius as a prelude to some allusively narrated myths. The narrative is interrupted by a description of Virgil's friend and fellow-poet Gallus accepting his vocation as a poet, in language reminiscent of Callimachus in the Aitia.”

From: “Eclogues” from The Oxford Companion to Classical Literature (3 ed.) Edited by M. C. Howatson Publisher: Oxford University Press Print Publication Date: 2011 Print ISBN-13: 9780199548545 Published online: 2011 Current Online Version: 2011 eISBN: 9780191739422

“Caught by Midas for his wisdom, the silen only reluctantly – probably following the model of Menelaus's questioning of Proteus (Hom. Od. 4,384-570) - speaks: "The best thing for humans is not to be born at all and if born, to die as soon as possible" (Aristot. fr. 65 Gigon = 44 Rose ; Theop. FGrH 115 F 75b; Cic. Tusc. 1,114 f.; Ov. Met. 11,85-145). This story is probably based on a tradition of a wise silen, as is implied in the rebuke of his student Olympus [14].

From: Heinze, Theodor. “Silen(s)”, in: Brill’s New Pauly. Antiquity volumes edited by: Hubert Cancik and , Helmuth Schneider, English Edition by: Christine F. Salazar. Classical Tradition volumes edited by: Manfred Landfester, English Edition by: Francis G. Gentry. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/1574-9347_bnp_e1112800 First published online: 2006. First print edition: 9789004122598, 20110510

“[Midas] legendary king of Phrygia, a comical figure famous in Greek tradition for his interview with Silenus (see ‘Satyrs and Silens’), his golden touch, and his ass's ears (best single source: Ovid, Metamorphoses 11. 90–193). Eager to learn the secret of life, the universe, and everything, he captured the wild nature-spirit Silenus by spiking the pool at which he drank—on the borders of Macedonia, according to Herodotus 8. 138—with wine; the daimon was brought before him bound (a scene attested in Greek art from c.560 BC …) and revealed either (Theopompus, Fragmente der griechischen Historiker 115 F 75, in Aelianus Varia Historia 3. 18) the existence of a world beyond our own divided between the two races of the Blest and the Warriors, or (Aristotle fr. 65 Gigon, in Ps.-Plutarch Consolatio ad Apollonium 27) the melancholy insight, which became proverbial, that the best thing for mankind was never to be born, otherwise to leave this world as soon as possible. Virgil Eclogues 6 is a variant on this theme.

“Dionysus, grateful for Silenus' safe return to the wild, offered to grant the king any wish; Midas asked that everything he touched should turn to gold, but regretted his request when it became apparent that this made it impossible for him to eat or drink. The unwanted gift was washed off into the source of the Lydian river Pactolus, which thereafter carried gold dust down in its streams. A second divine encounter confirmed Midas' lack of judgement: invited to judge a musical contest between Apollo and Pan (or, according to Hyginus (3), Marsyas), he preferred Panegyricus, and was rewarded by the god with the ironical gift of donkey's ears. A turban hid his shame from all except his barber who, unable to contain the secret, told it to a hole in the ground; but reeds grew over the spot, and their wind-blown whispering propagates the unhappy truth for all time: ‘Midas has ass's ears.’”

From: “Midas” in The Oxford Classical Dictionary (3 rev. ed.) Edited by Simon Hornblower and Antony Spawforth. Oxford University Press, Print Publication Date: 2005 Print ISBN-13: 9780198606413. Published online: 2005. Current Online Version: 2005 eISBN: 9780199567386

For anyone interested, I’ve also included a list from Theoi.com of literary sources referring to Silenus below. Theoi also provides a collection of quotations from the sources at the following link: https://www.theoi.com/Georgikos/Seilenos.html )

GREEK

• Pindar, Fragments - Greek Lyric C5th B.C.
• Greek Lyric II Anacreontea, Fragments - Greek Lyric C5th - 4th B.C.
• Aeschylus, Fragments - Greek Tragedy C5th B.C.
• Herodotus, Histories - Greek History C5th B.C.
• Apollodorus, The Library - Greek Mythography C2nd A.D.
• Callimachus, Fragments - Greek Poetry C3rd B.C.
• Diodorus Siculus, The Library of History - Greek History C1st B.C.
• Strabo, Geography - Greek Geography C1st B.C. - C1st A.D.
• Pausanias, Description of Greece - Greek Travelogue C2nd A.D.
• The Orphic Hymns - Greek Hymns C3rd B.C. - C2nd A.D.
• Aelian, Historical Miscellany - Greek Rhetoric C2nd - 3rd A.D.
• Athenaeus, Deipnosophistae - Greek Rhetoric C3rd A.D.
• Philostratus the Elder, Imagines - Greek Rhetoric C3rd A.D.
• Philostratus, Life of Apollonius of Tyana - Greek Biography C2nd A.D.
• Nonnus, Dionysiaca - Greek Epic C5th A.D.

ROMAN

• Hyginus, Fabulae - Latin Mythography C2nd A.D.
• Ovid, Metamorphoses - Latin Epic C1st B.C. - C1st A.D.
• Ovid, Fasti - Latin Poetry C1st B.C. - C1st A.D.
• Propertius, Elegies - Latin Elegy C1st B.C.
• Pliny the Elder, Natural History - Latin Encyclopedia C1st A.D.
• Seneca, Oedipus - Latin Tragedy C1st A.D.

 

All About Pollio

     Gaius Asinius Pollio (76/75 BCE- 4 CE) was a politician, orator, poet, historian etc. etc. As part of the pleb gens Asinia, his (potential) grandfather was once leader of the Italic Marrucini peoples--leading them against Rome in the Social War.  In regards to overall "vibe", according to Catullus, Pollio was "stuffed with charm and wit" (Catullus 12.8-9)... while his brother, Marrucinus Asinius, was out there stealing fancy table napkins.  A poet himself, early in his life he mingled with Catullus and Calvus and would later be friends to both Horace and Virgil. His lost work, a historiography, highlighted by Horace in his Odes (Book 2.1) is thought to cover the period from 60 BCE to the Battle of Phillipi in 42 CE (or to the Battle of Actium in 31 BCE). His Historiae was used by both Plutarch and Appian. Pollio himself was a prominent figure, mentioned by Tacitus and Suetonius, among many others, and a respected (depending on who you're talking to) patron of the arts.
    Pollio entered his political career by supporting Publius Cornelius Lentulus Spinther, a follower of Pompey, and backing the unsuccessful impeachment of Marcus Porcius Cato.  Despite his affliations with Pompey, Pollio pursued his military career under Caesar in Italy, Sicily, Africa and Spain, becoming praetor in 45 BCE and governor of Hispania Citerior in 44.  After Caesar's assassination, he managed to align himself with Antony. This may be due in part to his friendship with Antony as well as his friendship with Cicero.  From 43 to the beginning of his consulship, he was loyal to Antony serving as a delegate in Cisapline Gaul-- where he prevented the confiscation of Virgil's property, which may have tightened their bond.  
    When his consulship began in 40 BCE,  he took part in mediations that led to Treaty of Brundisium. Antony was thus betrothed to Octavian's widowed sister. delaying the imminent civil war.  In 39,  he successfully led a campaign against the Parthini, and for his efforts he received a triumph-- with the spoils, he set up a public library and art gallery in Rome. When tensions between Antony and Octavian ensued, Pollio, refusing to pick a side, stepped down from public life in 38 BCE. Pollio devoted the rest of his life to the arts-- literature, oration, poetry and of course, historiography
    The timeline and happenings from 40-38 BCE vary between scholars.I believe this is one of many reasons why certain dates of Virgil's Eclogues are contested.  As Professor Malamud mentioned, there may have been a canon of Eclogues where Pollio was centerstage, however, after his retreat from public life in 38 and Octavian's victory at Actium in 31, a new canon was produced lessening the prominence of Pollio. 

Honestly, after researching this, it is truly, truly remarkable that Pollio managed to stay alive. Kudos.

Bennett, H. (1930). Vergil and Pollio. The American Journal of Philology, 51(4), 325-342. 

Berkowitz, L. (1972). Pollio and the Date of the Fourth "Eclogue". California Studies in Classical Antiquity, 5, 21-38. 

Cairns, F. (2008). C. Asinius Pollio and the "Eclogues". The Cambridge Classical Journal, 54, 49-79. Retrieved September 22, 2020.

Morgan, L. (2000). The Autopsy of C. Asinius Pollio. The Journal of Roman Studies, 90, 51-69.

Vergil & Raphael: the four sibyls

I was thinking of the wrong church when I brought this up in class. Raphael's fresco showing the four sibyls is inside Santa Maria della Pace in Rome, a beautiful church that also has a famous courtyard designed by Bramante. If you are ever in Rome (again), you need to go see it. 

Here the angels are giving instructions to the four sibyls of the ancient world. On the right side of the fresco you see an angel showing the Cumaean sibyl a familiar message. (I think I took these last summer, and I think the fresco has since been restored, though I'm not positive.)

(I don't know how these images will show up. I think you will be able to zoom in.)

The Main Characters of Eclogue 3

The principal characters of Eclogue 3 (Menalcas, Damoetas, and Palaemon) share not only an interesting relationship with each other but also with parallel figures in the Idylls of Theocritus. At least, this seems to be Schultz’s message in her 2003 American Journal of Philology article “Latet Anguis in Herba: A Reading of Vergil’s Third Eclogue”, from which I draw the majority of the following thoughts. Admittedly, my understanding of Eclogue 3 was poor prior to reading Schultz’s article, so it is no surprise that her views would come to dominate my understanding of the poem and the characters within it.

To begin, we can tell that Menalcas and Damoetas are herdsmen keen to compete with each other. The poem begins with an exchange between the two as they try to outdo the other in insult. The competition is formalized as they turn from negotiating the winner’s prize and look to Palaemon as judge. Palaemon chooses Damoetas to start the competition proper, leaving Menalcas with the role of responder. The oneupmanship show continues, as the two sing about their love affairs and the difficulties of pastoral life. After the two leave each other riddles that remain unanswered, Palaemon declares the two worthy of a cow and abruptly ends the poem.

Schultz’s reading is informative. She sees that in spite of the obvious competition between Menalcas and Damoetas, they are actually quite united in their suspicion of the pastoral world. For example, they speak of spoiled vines, broken gifts, untrusting parents, and hidden dangers (including snakes and river banks). In contrast stands Palaemon, who comments only optimistically on the pastoral setting, noting the beauty and the abundance of the landscape.

Schultz also compares these characters to characters in the Idylls of Theocritus. In particular, she sees a correspondence between Menalcas, who initiates the insults, and Battus of Idyll 4, who similarly initiates the insults; with this line of thinking, she sees a connection between Damoetas, who must respond to the insult, and Corydon, the insult responder of Idyll 4. She reads the insults of Idyll 4 to be cheerful bantering but the insults of Eclogue 3 to be malicious spite. Schultz also sees the discussion in Idyll 5 where the speakers accuse each other of stealing and destroying property as related to the discussion of Eclogue 3 where similar accusations are hurled. She once again reads the Theocritan version to be less sinister, since it involves items which herdsmen typically would not have, whereas the property brought up in Eclogue 3 are key to country livelihood.

Schultz has less to say on comparing Palaemon to any particular character in the Idylls, but she finds his rose-colored vision of country life to correspond with the tone of the pastoral genre of poetry. It is therefore fitting that he be the judge in the contest, since he has a sense for the ideal pastoral poem. Perhaps this is why he decides to name both contestants winners of the cow: neither could demonstrate the ideal of pastoral poetry, so both deserve the same refinement-lacking prize. If either could demonstrate any appreciation for pastoral poetry, then the deserved prize would be the allusive and artful cups of Alcimedon.

In response to Schultz’s observations and claims, I can say only that I am no expert in pastoral poetry. While I found some of her points unconvincing, I imagine it was due to my lack of familiarity with the material rather than an oversight on her part. In any case, I find her reading of a competition between the un-ideal view of the pastoral world, as represented by Menalcas and Damoetas, with the ideal view, as championed by Palaemon, a helpful idea in appreciating Vergil’s use of the genre.

Eclogue 4 Notes (mostly on plants)

4.2:  tamarisks.  A shrub: 

4.11.Adeo here means "especially." See  Lewis and Short:   Adeo is placed enclitically after its word, like quidem, certe, and the Gr. γὲ, even, indeed, just, precisely. 1. Most freq. with pronouns, in order to render prominent something before said, or foll., or otherwise known .../Adeo is joined with the pers. pron. when the discourse passes from one person to another, and attention is to be particularly directed to the latter: Juppiter, tuque adeo summe Sol, qui res omnes inspicis, and thou especially, and chiefly thou, Enn. ap. Prob.: “teque adeo decus hoc aevi inibit,”  Verg. E. 4, 11

4.15:  ille deum vitam accipiet:  deum is an alternate/earlier form of the genitive plural deorum

colocasia:  probably elephant ears:
very large tuberous plants--the plant is both decorative and produces edible tubers.

acanthus:  another plant with very large, decorative leaves and tall (3 foot) spiky flowers:

The capitals of Corinthian columns are stylized acanthus plants. Below is one from the Pantheon.



 24:  fallax herba veneni:  probably aconite, a beautiful but poisonous plant, named by Vergil in G.2.152: nec miseros fallunt aconita legentes. The mystery writer Agatha Christie frequently had her murderers use aconite to poison their victims in her books.   Here it is described by poison.org:
 "Aconitum napellus (A. napellus, also known as monkshood or wolfsbane) is a perennial herb often grown as an ornamental plant due to its attractive blue to dark purple flowers. All parts of the plant, especially the roots, contain toxins. Aconitine is the most dangerous of these toxins. It is most noted as a heart poison but is also a potent nerve poison. Raw aconite plants are very poisonous.They are used as herbs only after processing by boiling or steaming to reduce their toxicity. 

A. napellus has been used since ancient times as a poison used on spears and arrows for hunting and battle. As wolfsbane, it was believed to repel werewolves (and real wolves!). Ancient Romans used it as a method of execution."  

amomum:  a spice plant from India, probably cardamom.

4.40: rastrum:  a hoe or rake.  This word, for some reason, is neuter in the singular and masculine in the plural.

Plants in Eclogues 1 and 2

 In Eclogues 1 and 2, plants are utilized throughout the poem to establish a setting and give the reader a sense of the pastoral atmosphere. Some of these plants also hold more symbolic or intertextual meanings, and of the plants that do, the beech trees and mention of cypress trees in Eclogue 1 are the most significant ones, while the mention of the narcissus flower is the most significant one in Eclogue 2. 

In Eclogue 1, Virgil opens the poem with an idyllic, rural setting, and describes Tityrus as “recubans sub tegmine fagi,” (1.1) which roughly translates into ‘lying under the cover of a (wide spreading) beech tree.” Interestingly enough, fagi in Greek translates to oak tree, rather than beech tree, and further Greek influence is seen in the names of the characters, such as Meliboeus (meaning cattle-minder). In addition to displaying subtle Greek influences, plants in Eclogue 1 also hold symbolic meaning, such as the mention of cypress trees: ‘verum haec tantum alias inter caput extulit urbes/quantum lenta solent inter viburna cupressi’ (1.24-1.25), which roughly translates to, ‘Certainly this city raised her head among other cities, as much as cypresses are accustomed to amongst the pliant, wayfaring trees.’ Cypresses are evergreen trees that are associated with death and rebirth. Some other instances of cypresses being associated with death include Book 6 of Virgil’s Aeneid, where they are used in a funeral procession for Misenus (6.216). However, the usage of cypresses in Eclogue 1 as a simile for Rome could hold a deeper and possibly more political meaning. Virgil could have used a cypress to portray Rome as a city that would permanently stand in time and surpass all other cities, respectively parallel to how a cypress tree is evergreen and also taller (and thus in this simile, greater) that other trees. However, the cypress’ attributes related to death and rebirth could also signal some sort of parallel to the current political climate of Rome. Around the time Virgil started working on the Eclogues, Octavian and Mark Antony were at odds with each other, and this conflict was significant during the transition of Rome from a republic to an empire. Though it is unclear if Virgil was aware of this being significant, it can definitely be assumed that he was, at least, aware of the political turmoil associated with it. 

In Eclogue 2, Virgil introduces the character Corydon, who is obsessed with another character, Alexis, through a monologue. In this monologue, he mentions the narcissus (2.48), a flower that is linked to the character Narcissus in Greek mythology, who is obsessed with his reflection. Though it’s a seemingly insignificant detail, other small details point towards the possibility that Virgil may have intended to parallel the characters of Corydon and Alexis to Echo and Narcissus. Virgil utilizes the verb resonat in the poem (2.13), which can be translated as Echo, and also has Corydon talk about his appearance, which he “nupe me in litore vidi” (2.25), a parallel to Narcissus staring at himself in the water. It is interesting to note that it is said that the earliest written record of Echo and Narcissus is in Ovid’s Metamorphoses, which was released after the Eclogues, and thus, this could point towards the possibility of the myth of Echo and Narcissus being passed down through speech, rather than text.