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? 

On Existential Bees and KR's "Mora"

Patrick Stewart raises major questions about B's, no doubt building on the angst of Monty Python:
Eric the Half a Bee.

Callimachus and a Few Thoughts on Georgics I

Callimachus was a third century author. Originally from Cyrene, he eventually lived in Alexandria as a scholar at the library there. His Aetia is an elegiac poem of four books. Literally, aetia means “causes.” Callimachus’ work focuses on explaining the origins of cities and various customs of interest in the Mediterranean world. He often structures his work so that he asks a question for which he provides an explanation, a pattern similar to the questions Vergil asks in the Georgics.

With the thoughts of Callimachus in mind while translating the selections from the first book of the Georgics, the myths Vergil references and the etiological meanings behind some of them seemed an interesting choice for the opening of the poem, fittingly including beginnings in his beginning.

The end of the book takes a tone similar to the Eclogues, though openly darker. Where the Eclogues hint at the harm war inflicts on the country, the Georgics fully states it. The contrast between the divine country-side at the start of the book and the war-plagued one at the end shows a marked progression through Georgics I.

One specific point of interest for me was lines 126-127. When I thought it was odd to write ne…fas rather than simply using nefas, I noticed that the ne and fas both begin their lines. It shows the same interlinear notion as the acrostic. Although this is not as interesting as the acrostic, it is a another clever arrangement by Vergil.

Our man Vergil seems uncommonly fixated on arboreal reproduction!  Let's be clear about what's going on:

Natural Reproduction
1.  Plants that grow spontaneously. 
V. cites 4 examples.  Two are described as growing in fields.  These are both low-growing, flowering shrubs.
siler  Well, lots of debate about this one!  I'll go with Parker's identification of this as , known in English as staveacre, lice bane, or lousewort. It was said to have been a cure for the very unpleasant disease phthiriasis [φθειρίασις < φθείρ ‘louse’]), a condition in which lice lay their eggs between the eyelashes.  Sulla is said to have suffered from this disease.

Delphinium staphisagria

sparteum iunceum

 genista-- Spanish broom, Sparteum iunceum.







Two are described as living by rivers.  These are both tall trees, familiar to us from the Eclogues:  the poplar (populus) and the willow (salicta).  Whether deliberately or not,  Vergil is telling an untruth here, as these plants come from seeds rather than from spontaneous generation.


2.  Plants that grow from seeds.  Vergil gives two examples here, the chestnut (castanea) and the oak (aesculus), the tree that grows in the groves of Jupiter and that the Greeks believed was oracular (oracle at Dodona).  The nuts of both trees are elements of the Golden Age/ primitive diet.

3. Plants that grow from shoots that grow up from the mother trunk:  V. cites the (sour) cherry (cerasa), the bay laurel (Laurus), and the elm (ulmus). 

Agricultural methods of propagation requiring human labor:
1.  Rooting cuttings from the mother plant-- Vergil's language here is surprisingly violent--
hic plantas tenero abscindens de corpore matrum/ deposuit sulcis, cutting the shoots from the mothers' tender bodies, he placed them in furrows.

2. Tip-layering!
That is what these difficult to understand lines are about:
silvarumque aliae pressos propagine arcus
exspectant et viva sua plantaria terra:











 3.  Grafting-- here is a video about grafting We did not read all of the section on grafting, but note that of the 6 grafts Vergil proposes, 2 are possible (i.e., mightproduce fruit) and 4 are impossible.  For a graft to be successful, the stock and scion must be of the same family.  According to Thomas, even the two that are possible are unlikely; grafts are generally between species of the same genus.

Possible:  apple on pear tree (33)
Impossible:  cornel on plum (34)
Impossible:  walnut on arbutus 69
Impossible: plane and apple (70)
Impossible: pear and elm (71-2)
Possible (perhaps); chestnut and beech (71)
 Thomas notes that Vergil "did realize the impossibility of his choices, for he places such grafts in the area of the marvel (thauma) when in Ecl. 8.53-53, in a series of adynata, he writes: nunc ut ovis ultro fugiat lupus, aurea durae/ mala ferant quercus, narcisso floreat alnus."

Again, Thomas:  "The discussion of impracticable or impossible grafts constitutes the first of a number of deliberate falsehoods in Georgics 2...the ultimate effect of these falsehoods is to pose certain questions about the 'success' which is generally perceived in this book."

Mythological References in Eclogue 10

Arethusa (yay!) (10.1):
Only mentioned here (no other eclogues).  A marked example of unrequited love- an important subject i this poem.
Myth (according to Williams):  the river Alpheus fell in love with her, but she wanted to maintain her chastity for Diana.  He chased her, and Diana changed her into a spring.  Diana opened the earth, and her waters fled to Ortygia (in Sicily), but Alpheus continued to pursue her, and mixed his waters with hers.  
Theocritus (1.117): χαῖρ᾽ ᾿Αρέθοισα,/ καὶ ποταμοί, τοὶ χεῖτε καλὸν κατὰ Θύμβριδος ὕδωρ, "Farewell Arethusa, and you rivers, which pour beautiful water along the Tiber."

Doris (10.5):
Also, only mentioned in this eclogue.  Daughter of Ocean, mother of Arethusa.  Nothing too special to mention here, as she seems to metonymically represent the sea.  I may add more after consulting Clausen, so check back later. 

Naides (10.10); Nymphis (10.55):
Specifically nymphs of the water, and thus applicable for the opening's Arethusa (as Williams mentions), and a particularly Greek choice.  
2 and 6 (Aegle); nymphae in 2, 3, 5 (x3), 6 (x2), 7, and 9.

Lycaei (10.15):
As Williams notes, these are mountains in Arcadia.  Here, Virgil paves the way for subsequent portrayals of an imaginary, idyllic Arcadia.  Pan and Jupiter were apparently worshipped here, and thus is a common epithet of Pan (see below). 

Adonis (10.18):
Beautiful youth that Venus loved, but Mars (or Diana?) out of jealousy, sicked a wild boar on him.  He was torn to shreds, but Venus transformed him into a flower (the anemone or the adonium?).  Here, the narrator encourages Gallus to be content with pastoralism, as Adonis himself was.  
Theocritean parallels: 1.109 and 3.47

Apollo (10.21):
Of course, applicable here as a (if not the) god of poetry and shepherds.  Here, he talks directly to Gallus (an honor in and of itself) and offers council, specifically referencing the fact that Lycoris has left with Antony: a Olympian god, involving himself in a mortal (and contemporary) love-triangle.  
Named in 3, 4 (x2), 5, and 6.
Side note: this is my favorite god (along with Bacchus/Dionysus).    

Silvanus (10.24):
Country god.  As Williams states, largely the Roman equivalent of Pan.  
Only mentioned in this eclogue.  More to add later, I'm sure. 

Pan (10.26):
2 (x3), 4 (x2)
A compliment to the goatherd in Theocritus (1.3): μετὰ Πᾶνα τὸ δεύτερον ἆθλον ἀποισῇ, "after Pan, you will take away the second prize."
Cautious response from the goatherd, who refuses to play during the day out of fear of Pan (1.16): τὸν Πᾶνα δεδοίκαμες.  Seeing Pan, according to Williams, was apparently associated with some sort of danger.   

Amor (10.28-9; 69 (x2):
Love, of course, is all over the eclogues (except 4).  Here, qualified as crudelis, and unsatiated from tears.  In 69, we get the age-old saying omnia vicit Amor- it certainly does seem to have dominated the eclogues, at any rate.  

Martis (10.44):
Interesting before this, and juxtaposition with Amor: We have all these mythological references in the beginning of the poem, then Amor, a gap of these references in the exact middle, and then the start of these references again with Love's exact opposite, War.  
This juxtaposition is further emphasized by the dual role of Martis as potentially dependent on amor AND armis.  
God of war and battle (though more brute strength than tactical warfare like that of Minerva/Athena).  Marked too if Mars was the one to have sicked the boar on Adonis.  

Hamadryades (10.62):
Only mentioned in this eclogue. 
The second specification of nymphs in this poem.  These are specifically wood nymphs, whereas the Naiads are specifically water nymphs.  What is more, these are not just dryads, the nymphs of trees, but hamadryads.  These are more specific types of dryads that apparently were bound to the life of a specific tree, or were even the tree itself.  Whereas dryads seem to have been just protectors or spirits of trees, hamadryads seem to have been the essence of the tree itself.  Once again, the specification is rooted in the Greek language.   
Side note:  I first learned this word when I read the Chronicles of Narnia.  :)  

Cancri (10.68):
During Herakles' twelve labors, apparently Hera sent the crab (καρκίνος/cancer) to aid the hydra.  It was nipping at Herakles' heels, so he squashed it with his foot.  Hera then turned cancer into a constellation.  
Outside of that, I know it's a water sign (which probably has little to do with this situation), and the constellation is "behind" the sun in the summer (hence Cancers are born in July-August).  So here, Gallus is talking about driving Ethiopian sheep in the (Ethiopian?) summer sun.  He's lamenting his condition and realizing that Love will conquer him whether he's shepherding in the wintry north, or in the blistering south.  
Side note:  I have a book, The Only Astrology Book You'll Ever Need, if you ever want to amuse yourself.  

Pierides (10.72):
Greek Muses, either in reference to the spring at Pieris.  Ovid tells a myth of the nine daughters of Pierus being changed into magpies because their father challenged the nine Muses.  
3, 6, 8, and 9.  

Hesperus (10.77):
The evening star.  A fitting reference for the end of the poem and the collection.  I'll look up more on him too. 
Also referenced in 8.  We saw Vesper and Hesperidum...mala in 6.
Compare this last line with 1.74: ite meae, quondam felix pecus, ite capellae AND 7.44: ite domum pasti, si quis pudor, ite iuvenci.  

Perhaps I misremembering, but this poem seems to be especially full of mythological allusions in comparison to the other eclogues- in particular ones that I have not been referenced before.  If so, I would say that this abundance, in addition to tying in previous eclogues, also firmly positions the eclogues in the pastoral/idyllic tradition.  It would also seem to add a level of seriousness/weightiness to the subject matter, as these mythological references also invoke the epic tradition, thus situating the eclogues in the broader corpus of Latin/Greek Literature in general.  

Silenus in Eclogue VI

Silenus is one of the most prominent figures in the band of Bacchus. Often he is considered a silens -- a bipedal half-horse, half human creature which  has been merged with satyrs by classical Greece (Jeanmaire, 1951). Other times, Silenus is fully human in appearance, often riding a donkey.  His human appearance is particularly consistent, as his mere name comes to mean a balding, pug-nosed, pot-bellied, probably drunk old man. Lucian’s Lecture on Dionysus paints this description pointedly.

Silenus is typically known as the tutor of Bacchus. However, in Lucian, as well as in some of the Dionysian myths discussed by Diodorus, Silenus is, in fact, a general of the Dionysian troupe. The role of tutor, while seeming to be the more canonical version of the myth, also relates to the myth which Aristotle (through Plutarch)* tells, the myth of Silenus and Midas. Midas captures Silenus and asks him for some words of wisdom. Here we see further evidence for the wise persona of Silenus, who, though drunk, seems fully capable of teaching the young Bacchus.

This notion of capture and subsequent wisdom is similar to the role of Silenus in Vergil’s Eclogue VI. Vergil describes how the old man is captured in sleep by a group of nymphs, and Silenus returns this act not wit wisdom, but with a song, though an especially enlightened and intellectual song of creation and myth. It is certainly to be seen as a wise song, particularly do to the comparison with the wisdom the captured Silenus offered King Midas.

* Aristotle, Eudemus (354 BCE), surviving fragment quoted in Plutarch, Moralia, Consolatio ad Apollonium, sec. xxvii (1st century CE) – according to Wikipedia’s quotation of the passage. I had trouble finding a better citation for this text at the moment.

Flora in Eclogue 9

Flora in Eclogue 9, as compared to Eclogue 1 and Theocritus Idyll 7

line 9: veteres fagos (iam fracta cacumina)

    These old and broken beech trees reflect the mood of the poem. 

    cf "patulae fagi" in Eclogue 1.1

line 15: cava ilice

    Hollow oak tree

    cf "quercus" (oak tree) in Eclogue 1.17 and "ilice" in Eclogue 1.18 (some versions)

line 19: florentibus herbis

    Flowering herbs (general)

    Does not appear in Eclogue 1

line 30: Cyrneas taxos 

    Corsican honey from these yew trees was notoriously bad

    Does not appear in Eclogue 1

    Compare to Theocritus Idyll 7.80, where the bees make honey from sweet cedar trees and the mood is happy

 

line 31: cytiso

    Clover

    cf "florentum cytisum" in Eclogue 1.78-79

    (also compare parallels in Theocritus Idylls 5.128 and 10.30)

lines 40-41: varios flores

    General flowers

    I don't recognize a specific parallel in Eclogue 1

line 41: candida populus

    (Bright) white poplar

    Does not appear in Eclogue 1

line 42: lentae vites

     Twining grapevines

     cf "vitis" in Eclogue 1.74, which is similar, and "lentus" in Eclogue 1.4 which has a very different sense 

line 42: umbracula

     Shade-bearing trees (near the tomb of Brasilas)

     This word is found only here in the Eclogues

     Compare to Theocritus Idyll 7.7-8, where similar shady branches cover the tomb of Brasilas

     (also compare Idyll 11.19, 42-49, where we see a similar set of imagery)

line 49: uva

    Grape

    Does not appear specifically in Eclogue1

line 50: piros

    Pear

    cf "piros" Eclogue 1.74

    Compare to Theocritus Idyll 7.145 where pears roll abundantly on the ground, rather than being harvested

line 50: poma

    Fruit (of the fleshy kind with a center)

    cf "poma" in Eclogue 1.38 and Eclogue 1.81

   Compare to Theocritus Idyll 7.145 where apples roll abundantly on the ground rather than being harvested

lines 60-61: densas frondas

    Dense leafy branches (general)

    cf. "fronde" in Eclogue 1.81

    Compare to Theocritus Idyll 7.10-11, the scene at the tomb of Brasilas