(1-75 done)
Line 1. ARMA
The commentaries of Servius and Donatus inform us that the
Aeneid originally began with these lines:
Ille ego, qui quondam gracili modulatus avena
carmen, et egressus silvis vicina coegi
ut quamvis avido parerent arva colono
gratum opus agricolis, at nunc horrentia Martis
arma virumque cano...
These four lines are absent from early manuscripts, appearing only
in the ninth-century cod. Berensis 172 and afterwards. Because of
the lapse before their first appearance, and because in that case
they are written in a different hand in the margin, their
authenticity is debated. The tone of the lines, so different from
the grander mood created in the traditionally accepted opening,
troubles some readers and fascinates others; the appropriateness of
such self-reference as the introduction of an epic is an issue for
editors and critics.
authenticity:
According to Donatus, the first-century A.D. scholar Nisus
learned that Varius had excised these four lines from Vergil's text.
Servius remarks on the debate over the lines' authenticity, seeming
to confess to perplexity himself. Editors who reject the lines as a
forgery rely mainly on references in Augustan and later writers to
the phrase arma virumque (Propertius 2.34.63; Ovid Tr. 2.533ff.;
Persius 1.96; Martial 8.56.19, 14.185; Seneca Epp. 113.25) The
phrase's popularity would indicate that it was identified with the
poem as a whole and served as an alternative title, as is the case
with most Roman poetry. The lines also strikes some as
grammatically and syntactically un-Vergilian. For a vehement
exposition of the various arguments against the authenticity of the
lines, see R. G. Austin, 'Ille ego qui quondam...,' CQ 62 (1968) 107-
115.
self-reference:
A mirror-image of Austin's argument can be found in N. W.
Dewitt, 'Virgil's Copyright,' CP 16 (1921) 338-344. According to this
view the lines are authentic precisely because of their
appropriateness to this moment in Vergil's career.
The clear references in the disputed four lines to the Eclogues
and Georgics provide an interesting framework from which to
begin reading the epic. Those who deny that the lines are authentic
argue that an epic poet would not begin his work with such a
subjective statement; others consider the possibility that Vergil
here declares himself to be a different kind of epic poet from
Homer. The Alexandrian and Neoteric features of the Aeneid
support this view. Moreover, the Georgics end with a reference to
Vergil's alter ego from the Eclogues, Tityrus, and for Vergil to
begin his monumental work with a similar reference to the path of
his career would fit this enigmatic pattern of self-reference.
Whether or not they are authentic, the presence of these four lines
in the late manuscript recalls the course of Vergil's literary career,
and should heighten readers' awareness of the complex
intertextuality in the Vergilian corpus.
Finally, these lines should be compared to the inscription
Donatus quotes from Vergil's tomb:
Mantua me genuit, Calabri rapuere, tenet nunc
Parthenope; cecini pascua rura duces.
While our knowledge of this couplet does not help us determine
the authenticity of the lines from the Aeneid (and indeed the
authorship of the couplet is debated as well) the similarity
between them is interesting. Both sets of lines describe the
progression of Vergil's career through three genres or at least three
subjects, calling attention to his choices. This suggests that even the
author of an epic cannot efface his identity, especially when he is
known to have composed in other genres.
[link to Vergil's Career Before the Aeneid ]
Line 2. PROFUGUS
The theme of exile figures in Eclogues 1 and 9, the two
poems dealing with Octavian's policy of land expropriation. Jarring
in the tranquil world of pastoral, the theme's presence in the
opening of the Aeneid is more easily explained. The motif of
wandering has precedent in the Odyssey and in the Aeneas myths.
Exile, however, is a more particularized motif and here retains the
disturbing associations it gathers in the Eclogues. Critics who accept
the notion of a prominent authorial persona in this proem may also
read the word profugus as a gesture to Vergil's early work, and a
signal that Vergil is continuing to treat familiar themes.
[Link to Themes in the Eclogues, Georgics, and Aeneid ]
Line 8. MEMORA
Memory and poetry are a particularly important pair of
themes in the Eclogues; this is especially so in the ninth poem,
where herdsmen-poets try to remember their old songs while
under the threat of exile from the country.
[Link to Themes in the Eclogues, Georgics, and Aeneid ]
Line 10. LABORES
Labor is, of course, one of the main themes of the Georgics;
there the poet delivers the strikingly ambivalent aphorism labor
omnia vincit/ improbus (1.145-6). The idea of labor participates in
a scheme of contrast in the Georgics, as it is distinguished from the
otium of the poet in 4.563-6. The Eclogues profess to be a work
about otium, and in the Georgics the poet applies his leisure time to
writing about work; now, in the Aeneid, labor will take on new
meaning when used to describe Aeneas' toils. As in the case of
profugus in line 2 (see note ad loc) the term labor in line 10 can
be better appreciated through consideration of its connotations
elsewhere in Vergil.
ambivalent:
If labor is called 'wicked' in Vergil's previous work, how
does this color the praise of Aeneas' eventual success in the
Aeneid? Following the proem and his description of the opposition
the Trojans faced, Vergil writes tantae molis erat Romanam
condere gentem (33). The reader might detect a hint of
ambivalence about the value of the results; conversely, the line
could be read as the triumphant review of a worthwhile struggle.
The meanings of labor in Vergil could be invoked to support either
interpretation.
[Link to Themes in the Eclogues, Georgics, and Aeneid ]
Line 71. PRAESTANTI
The phrase praestanti corpore appears on four other
occasions in Vergil, always in the same metrical sedes. Cf. Georgics
4.538 and 550, describing bulls for to be chosen for sacrifice by
Aristaeus:
quattuor eximios praestanti corpore tauros
Aeneid 7.785, of Turnus at the end of the catalogue of Italian
heroes:
Ipse inter primos praestanti corpore Turnus
and finally Aeneid 8.207, of the bulls Cacus steals from Hercules:
quattuor a stabulis praestanti corpore tauros
The associations that the phrase acquires in Vergil color the tone
of each passage.
associations:
If the reader is familiar with the Georgics passage, the
epithet has accumulated some significance as a manner in which to
describe rich offerings and sacrificial animals in particular; Juno's
use of it to describe her bribe to Aeolus could borrow some of that
meaning. The imminent death of Turnus at the close of the Aeneid
makes the borrowed epithet appropriate and ominous. The final
occurrence of the phrase reinforces its original associations with
beasts. For the reader who seeks significance in the more subtle
examples of Vergilian intertextuality, such a progression displays
Vergil's skill in evoking meaningful connections.
[Link to Repetition in Vergil]
Line 80. TEMPESTATUMQUE
The phrase tempestatumque potens is used to refer to
Octavian at Georgics 1.27:
...te maximus orbis
auctorem frugum tempestatumque potentem
accipiat...
and to the gods (in Aeneas' words) at Aeneid 3.528:
di maris et terrae tempestatumque potentes
Having first used the epithet to describe Octavian, Vergil applies it
to gods alone in the Aeneid.
[Link to Repetition in Vergil, Vergil and Octavian]
Line 94. TALIA
Aeneas' despair here recalls that of Aristaeus in Georgics
4.317ff. The hero of the Georgics wishes his land to be destroyed
because he could not his hive of bees; his mother gives him
instructions on how to create a new one. Although this episode is
followed by the story of Orpheus and Eurydice, it reinforces the
prevalent theme of death and rebirth and, according to many
critics, gives an optimistic tone to the end of the poem. In this
correspondence, then, might lie the suggestion that Aeneas will be
able to save his people, if at great cost.
[Link to Themes in Vergil's Career]
Line 105. INSEQUITUR
Cf. a similar half-line Georgics 1.105:
quid dicam iacto qui semine comminus arva
insequitur cumulosque ruit male pinguis harenae
The Georgics passage describes a farmer sowing and watering his
fields in hopes of a good crop in spite of poor soil and scorching
heat. The rather violent description of agricultural activity there is
borrowed for the description of the storm in Aeneid 1. The
transferral of an image from one genre to another in Vergil raises
questions about similes and their primary contexts.
transferral:
Homer uses agricultural imagery frequently in descriptions of
battle in the Iliad, and this particular image is used as a simile for
fighting at 21.257-62. Interestingly, Vergil in the Georgics returns
the image to its primary agricultural context, reversing the process
of simile-making, then adopts it in a truly violent context in the
Aeneid. Ward Briggs studies the latter phenomenon in Narrative
and Simile from the Georgics in the Aeneid (Mnemosyne Suppl. 58:
Leiden, 1980).
Another feature of this particular repetition, also related to
the issue of genre, is the fact that both occurrences of the phrase
come at line 105 in the first book of each poem. This is the sort of
event that interests scholars concerned with Alexandrian features
of Vergil's epic. The phenomenon can be compared to the
appearance of the word Euphrates in the sixth to the last line of
Callimachus' Hymn to Apollo, Georgics 1 and 4, and Aeneid 8 (See
R. Scodel and R. Thomas, 'Virgil and the Euphrates,' AJP 105
(1984) 339). Alexandrian poets delighted in such subtle games, and
Vergil seems to many critics to have followed their example even
in his epic poem.
Line 127. CAPUT
Cf. a similar image in Tityrus' awed description of Rome at
Eclogues 1.24,
verum haec tantum alias caput extulit urbes
the story of the appearance of the species at Georgics 2.341,
...virumque
terrea progenies duris caput extulit arvis
and the nymph Arethusa's emergence from the sea at Georgics
4.352:
...ante alias Arethusa sorores
prospiciens summa flavum caput extulit unda
where the line differs from the Aeneid line by only one word,
flavum.
As in all cases of repetition, it is worth noting the
associations that the phrase accumulates in its various contexts in
the Vergilian corpus.
associations:
Curiously, in this case the first instance refers to a
metaphorical 'head', while the rest are literal. If the reader retains
the memory of the first, metaphorical usage, perhaps the later
scenes seem more grand.
[Link to Repetition in Vergil]
Line 161. INQUE
Cf. the description of this retreat to Georgics 4.420:
...est specus ingens
exesi latere in montis, quo plurima vento
cogitur inque sinus scindit sese unda reductos
Vergil has borrowed from his own description of Proteus'
cave in the Georgics to paint the landscape that Aeneas and the
Trojans now enter. The next line in the Georgics passage is
deprensis olim statio tutissima nautis,
perhaps hinting at what is to come in Aeneid 1.
borrowed:
In considering Vergil's 're-use' of a landscape developed
earlier, we may wonder whether the poet kept particular images in
his mind to draw on as blueprints for scenes; a comparable
instance is in the descriptions of temples at Georgics 3.13-39 and
Aeneid 1.446-493. Vergil seems to borrow from his own similes,
descriptions of characters, and pieces of narrative; the issue of
imagined landscapes ought to be considered along with these more
common phenomena.
Line 200. SCYLLAEAM
Cf. other appearances of Scylla at Eclogues 6.74, Georgics
1.405.
Line 259. SIDERA
Cf. similar expressions, with the phrase ad sidera in the same
metrical sedes, at Eclogues 5.43, on Daphnis:
Daphnis ego in silvis, hinc usque ad sidera notus
Eclogues 9.29, Menalcas' song to Varus:
Vare, tuum nomen, superet modo Mantua nobis,
Mantua vae miserae nimium vicina Cremonae,
cantantes sublime ferent ad sidera cycni
and Georgics 4.58, on the emergence of a new swarm of bees:
hinc ubi iam emissum caveis ad sidera caeli
nare per aestatem liquidam suspexeris agmen
Three of the four usages, then, describe the fame of men; all
can be seen as alluding to immortality (Vergil calls the bees'
community a genus immortale, Georgics 4.208 because of its
constant regeneration).
immortality:
Since the Daphnis of the Eclogues is commonly associated
with Julius Caesar, the first and last instances of ad sidera provide
a nice frame, drawing a strong connection between Caesar and
Aeneas. The reference to the stars is especially significant, as the
appearance of a comet after Julius Caesar's death in 44 B.C. was
thought to signal his apotheosis. The uses of the phrase in the
Eclogues and Georgics could be seen as Vergil's practice for its
grand and prophetic use in Jove's speech here.
[Link to Repetition in Vergil]
Lines 286 ff. CAESAR
Although the identity of the Caesar referred to here is
disputed, the passage resembles praises of Octavian in the Georgics.
The Georgics do compliment Octavian on his Eastern conquests
(see 2.171, 4.560, and the proem to Book 3).
conquests:
The picture of Rome's glorious future painted by Jupiter
combines praises of Caesar familiar from the Georgics with
negative images of the violence he subdues. In the earlier poem
Caesar's civilizing virtues are emphasized (1.42, 3.27, 3.47, 4.562)
in contrast to the furor of war. A.J. Boyle considers this contrast
part of Vergil's illustration of Augustan ideology. (The Chaonian
Dove: Studies in the Eclogues, Georgics, and Aeneid of Virgil,
Leiden, 1986: 86-89.)
[Link to Vergil and Octavian]
Line 337. COTURNO
Venus wears hunting boots of the sort referred to in Eclogues
7.32, where Corydon promises a statue to Diana if he should win
the singing contest:
...levi de marmore tota
puniceo stabis suras evincta coturno.
Interestingly, in the Eclogues, Diana's boots will be punicei; the
color of the boots recalls the Punic girls (like the disguised Venus
in the Aeneid) who wear them.
Line 354. PALLIDA
Vergil favors the phrase pallida/ pallentia modis miris in
descriptions of the dead and dying: cf. Georgics 1.477 (on the
spirits that appeared at the time around Julius Caesar's death) and
Aeneid 10.822 (on the dying Pallas).
The expression is borrowed from Lucretius.
Lucretius:
Lucretius gives the phrase pallentia modis moris its
associations with ghosts (De Rerum Natura 1.123); The phrase
modis miris on its own also appears frequently in both Lucretius
and Vergil. Vergil's fondness of the phrase raises questions about
his views on Lucretius' work, as Lucretius' describes mystical
phenomena with skepticism. Has Vergil appropriated this element
of the description to give his own images a mystical quality,
ignoring Lucretius' warnings that such images are not real, or does
Lucretius' use of the phrase influence Vergil's descriptions?
[Link to Repetition in Vergil]
Line 372. REPETENS
Cf the same phrase at Georgics 4.286, introducing the story
of the bougonia (the miraculous rebirth of bees from a dead
bullock):
...altius omnen
expediam prima repetens ab origine famam.
The fact that Vergil puts in Aeneas' mouth the sort of preamble
used by the narrator of the Georgics calls attention to Aeneas' role
here as a sort of bard. This role will be formally given him in Books
2 and 3 as he tells the story of his adventures to Dido's court.
[Link to Repetition in Vergil]
Line 407. CRUDELIS
In portraying Aeneas' frustration that his mother has
concealed her identity from him, Vergil has him utter a phrase
from Eclogues 8.47-50:
saevus Amor docuit natorum sangine matrem
commaculare manus; crudelis tu quoque, mater:
crudelis mater magis, an puer improbus ille?
improbus ille puer; crudelis tu quoque, mater.
mother:
The Aeneid phrase is borrowed from a passage in which the
identity of the mater is not entirely clear; Servius understood the
phrase to refer to Medea, the mother who killed her children, but
commentators since then have been tempted to see it as referring
to Venus, the mother of saevus Amor. Now that Vergil has
borrowed the phrase, does he make clear who its original
addressee was? The ambiguity of the mother's identity in the
Eclogues is lessened, one might conclude, by Aeneas' use of the
phrase to address Venus.
Aeneas does not need the conjunction quoque but includes it
nevertheless, drawing additional attention to the allusion as a real
'quotation.' Interestingly, Aeneas does leaves out the subsequent
word mater, though it would fit in his speech.
[link to Repetition in Vergil]
Lines 430. APES
Cf. Georgics 4.162-9 on the hive of bees:
..aliae spem gentis adultos
educunt fetus; aliae purissima mella
stipant et liquido distendunt nectare cellas.
Sunt, quibus ad portas cecidit custodia sorti
inque vicem speculantur aquas et nubila caeli,
aut onera accipiunt venientum, aut agmine facto
ignavum fucos pecus a praesepibus arcent:
fervit opus redolentque thymo fraglantia mella.
The Aeneid passage is the lengthiest repetition in the
Vergilian corpus. Critics recognize that the ideal community of the
bees described in the Georgics is now realized in human society at
Carthage.
bees:
In his book Narrative and Simile From the Georgics in the
Aeneid (Mnemosyne Suppl. 58: Leiden, 1980), Ward Briggs
evaluates the significance of passages from the Georgics that
appear as similes in the Aeneid. On the bee-simile Briggs writes 'As
significant as what [Vergil] repeats is what he does not repeat' (73).
He notes that while in Georgics 4 the bees' method of child-rearing,
their repulsion of outsiders, and their eschewing of venus are all
elements of their ideal society, these aspects of the bee-community
are not brought into the comparison with the Carthaginians. Briggs
concludes that the differences between the bee-community and the
Carthaginians foreshadows Dido's doom; her acceptance of the
Trojans and her affair with Aeneas lead to a lapse in construction
of the city and, of course, the extinction of her line with her death.
[Link to Repetition in Vergil]
Line 439. MIRABILE
The expression mirabile dictu is used parenthetically by
Vergil on a number of occasions, referring usually to supernatural
events but also to natural phenomena. Cf. Georgics 2.30, 3.275,
Aeneid 2.174, 4.182, 7.64, 8.252.
[Link to Repetition in Vergil]
Line 455. OPERUMQUE
Cf. the same line ending at Georgics 2.155, on the wonders of
Italy:
adde tot egregias urbes operumque laborem
and also later in Aeneid 1 on Dido's administration of Carthage,
507:
iura dabat legesque viris, operumque laborem
partibus aequabat iustis aut sorte trahebat
It is interesting that Vergil transfers the language from his
praises of Italy's civilization onto the passage describing the city
that became Rome's enemy. Many more specifically Roman
elements can be found in the physical description of Carthage.
civilization:
A. J. Boyle adds the language and tone of the description of
Carthage to his catalogue of pessimistic elements in Vergil; in his
view the works and art of empire are shown to be produced at too
great a cost (The Chaonian Dove: Studies in the Eclogues, Georgics,
and Aeneid of Virgil; Leiden, 1986: 111-113).
[Link to Repetition in Vergil]
Line 609. SEMPER
Cf. Eclogues 5.78, where Menalcas sings the same line to
proclaim the immortality of Daphnis.
[Link to note on ad sidera, 259, and Repetition in Vergil]
Lines 701-6. TONSISQUE
Cf. Georgics 4.376-8, on the preparation of a banquet for
Aristaeus:
... manibus liquidos dant ordine fontis
germanae, tonsisque ferunt mantelia villis
pars epulis onerant mensas et plena reponunt
pocula, Pancheis adolescunt ignibus arae.
In both scenes a banquet is prepared for a visitor as a prelude to a
speech or song. In the Georgics passage, Cyrene delivers to her son
the instructions on how to create a new hive of bees, while in the
Aeneid , Iopas and then Aeneas entertain the banqueters in a more
formal way.
[Link to Repetition in Vergil]
Lines 742-6. CANIT
Cf. Georgics 2.475-82:
Me vero primum dulces ante omnia Musae,
quarum sacra fero ingenti percussus amore,
accipiunt caelique vias et sidera monstrent,
defectus solis varios lunaeque labores;
unde tremor terris, qua vi maria alta tumescant
obicibus ruptis rursusque in se ipsa residant,
quid tantum Oceano properent se tingere soles
hiberni, vel quae tardis mora noctibus obstet.
Iopas in the Aeneid is the didactic poet whom Vergil imagines in
the Georgics, both passages display a brief juxtaposition of genres.
genres:
In the Georgics passage, Vergil expresses a wish to
understand and sing of natural philosophy and cosmology, and in
Aeneid 1 he seems to create a character who fulfills that wish to
some extent. The performance of Iopas, however, may represent
once again the acknowledgment by Vergil that he himself cannot
perform in that genre. Is Vergil's relegation of Iopas' song into a
brief summary in indirect discourse a discreet form of recusatio?
After the song of Iopas is heard, characters and readers focus their
attention on Aeneas' story, which occupies the next two books.
Didactic scientific poetry serves as the prelude to martial epic.
Perhaps there is a play between genres, even a reference to the
Georgics and the Aeneid themselves, in this passage. The reader
could entertain at least these two possibilities: Iopas' song should
be seen as a necessary starting point for Aeneas, or as insignificant
in comparison to the narrative of Books 2 and 3.
Vergil's Career Before the Aeneid
According to ancient biographies, Vergil composed a number
of short poems in his youth, whose remaining texts are found today
in the Appendix Vergiliana. Although the biographers ascribe
these works to Vergil, the aesthetic judgments of later critics have
thrown their authenticity into doubt. The poems' style, judged
inferior to that of Vergil's major works, and the frivolity of some of
their themes, convince some scholars that Vergil is not their
author; others are comfortable with them as representative of the
youthful Vergil's art. Among these works are the Dirae, Culex,
Catalepton, and Ciris; in all, about a dozen poems fill the Appendix
Vergiliana.
Upon the completion of his formal education, Vergil
composed the Bucolica, a book of ten hexameter poems also known
as the Eclogues ('excerpts'). The original order of the poems is
disputed; they have been dated by internal evidence to the years
42-38 B.C., the theorized chronological order conflicting with the
order in the manuscripts. The Eclogues were written in imitation of
Theocritus, the Sicilian writer of short pastoral poetry whose work
is dated to the first part of the second century B.C. Most of the
Eclogues have direct models in Theocritus' Idylls, although many
elements set them apart from the work of Vergil's predecessor.
One striking element in the book is the reference to land
expropriation for veterans, the fictional background to Eclogues 1
and 9, and in reality a part of Octavian's policy after the battle of
Philippi. A number of other features - some relating to
contemporary issues and figures, others to tone and emotional
mood - greatly distinguish the Eclogues from the Idylls. Some of
these features are ambiguity about the poems' geographical
settings, direct references or allusions to contemporary Romans,
and the melancholy that readers sense in many of the poems.
Finally, Vergil seems in the fourth Eclogue to wish to push the
limits of the pastoral genre. He announces his enigmatic poem
about the beginning of a golden age with the lines:
Sicelides Musae, paulo maiora canamus.
non omnis arbusta iuvant humilesque myricae:
si canimus silvas, silvae sint consule dignae. (1-3)
The gesture to the new consul Pollio, and the acknowledgement
that the scope and tone of pastoral is limited, seem to us in
retrospect to foreshadow the grander works to come. Similarly, the
close of the tenth Eclogue begins surgamus (75), literally describing
Vergil rising from the shade, but suggesting that he will proceed to
a grander genre.
Vergil's next work was more ambitious in scope, an
agricultural treatise in four books. The Georgics are modeled on the
archaic Works and Days of the Boeotian poet Hesiod, and to an
extent on Varro's prose work De Re Rustica (c. 37 B.C.). Like the
Eclogues, the Georgics present themselves as an alternative to
grand epic poetry, and because they are modeled on Hesiod, are
the sort of work that the Hellenistic poets would have admired. At
times, however, the Georgics depart from the subject of farming to
deal with Roman history and the career of Octavian.
Some distinctive features of the Georgics that have occupied
Vergilian scholars are the obvious impracticality of many of
Vergil's instructions, digressions about Caesar and the history of
Rome, the narration in Book 4 of the story of Orpheus and Eurydice,
and allusion to Vergil's own past and future literary achievements.
The last lines of Georgics 4 recall the Eclogues, the work that the
poet 'played at' in his youth, prompting the reader to consider the
two poems together. The proem of Georgics 3 promises a great
work in honor of Caesar and Rome's conquests, in the form of an
elaborate marble temple that is assumed by Vergilian scholars to
refer to the Aeneid.
Renaissance critics of Vergil considered the path of his career
to be ideal, as he progressed from delicate to grand verse, from
short poems to a long one, and hinted at points that time and
experience would bring about the ability and desire to write epic.
This view is problematized by the idea that ancient writers of
'slender' and subjective poetry claimed to be producing a
sophisticated antidote to epic. Martial epic is the genre that those
writers (most notably the Hellenistic poet Callimachus and the
Augustan love elegists) claim to have rejected early in their
careers. Of course, the appearance of non-Theocritean elements in
the Eclogues, and in turn of Hellenistic elements in the Aeneid,
suggest that these generic categories are not so inherently simple,
and that Vergil was able to challenge generic conventions even as
he ostensibly worked within established genres. It is useful in
studying his poetry - and even the works considered quintessential
examples of certain poetic genres - to recognize gestures to generic
conventions, while entertaining the notion that the poet
manipulates convention as much as he adheres to it.
A brief overview and discussion of Vergil's career, touching
of some of the above issues, can be found in Steele Commager's
introduction to Virgil: A Collection of Critical Essays (Englewood
Cliffs, NJ, 1966). Brooks Otis includes a chapter on the Hellenistic
background to Vergil in Virgil: A Study in Civilized Poetry (Oxford,
1964) entitled 'From Homer to Virgil: The Obsolescence of Epic' (Ch.
2, 5-40).
Vergil's Career and Octavian
The poets who wrote during the early principate expressed a
concern for Augustus' requests for poetry and their own abilities to
deliver it. The love elegists, Horace, and Vergil all employ the
literary device called recusatio, whereby the poet declines to write
panegyric epic because, ostensibly, he lacks the necessary skill. The
Eclogues and Georgics contain their own versions of the recusatio,
including expressions of distaste for hackneyed epic (Eclogues 6.1-
8; Georgics 3.2-9). In the proem of Georgics 3, however, Vergil
appears to promise a future work in praise of Octavian and Rome,
as he describes an elaborate marble temple that he will build and
adorn. The Georgics were published after Octavian returned from
the battle of Actium, ready to assume the title Augustus and enjoy
the benefits of peace.
Information on the relationship between Vergil and Octavian
comes mainly from literary sources. Horace (Sat. 1.6.54-5) claims
that he first met Maecenas, the great literary patron and friend of
the emperor, through Vergil. Eclogues 1, where the land
expropriations for Octavian's veterans form the fictional
background, refers to a iuvenis at Rome who graciously let Tityrus
keep his own land, and many readers believe that Octavian is the
youth being thanked. As the Georgics are dedicated to Maecenas, it
is understood that by the time of that book's publication, Vergil
enjoyed the friendship of Maecenas and Octavian himself. Donatus'
life of Vergil (ch. 31) relates that upon beginning the Aeneid,
Vergil was assailed by 'pleas and threats' from Augustus, who
wanted to read whatever portion Vergil had completed. We know
from the same source (ch. 35) that Vergil died while traveling with
Augustus from Greece to Rome.
A significant feature of the portrayal of Octavian in the
Georgics is the comparison between his deeds and the poet's own
accomplishment (4.559-66). Vergil sets up a contrast between the
leisure that allows him to write carefully and Caesar's active life. In
addition, throughout the corpus the prevalent theme of death and
rebirth is read as optimistic celebration of Octavian's
administration. The theme is introduced in the Eclogues with the
apotheosis of Daphnis, developed in the Georgics through the
instructions on farming and animal breeding, and treated more
explicitly in Aeneas' visit to the underworld in Aeneid 6.
Repetition in Vergil
The Vergilian corpus shows frequent repetition, both of
phrases and of complete lines. Repetition of a phrase or line, when
noted by the reader or commentator, evokes the other context or
contexts of the repeated words, and can affect the interpretation of
all the relevant passages. Repetition that involves substitution of
certain elements, because it reproduces rhythm while altering
content, usually suggests connections much more subtly. Both types
of repetition have elicited a variety of responses from critics who
take different approaches to the issue of authorial intention.
The past century has seen the production of a number of
studies on Vergilian repetition, among them Half-lines and
Repetitions in Virgil by John Sparrow (Oxford, 1931). Sparrow
attempts to identify examples of repetition that reflect the
Aeneid's unfinished state at the time of Vergil's death. While some
lines in the poem are simply incomplete, others seem to Sparrow to
be filled by borrowed tibicines or 'props', a device that Servius
claims Vergil used for lines that he had intended to revise. Sparrow
distinguishes these lines from those containing what he sees as
artistically effective repetition, both conscious and unconscious.
These categories linger in the study of literary allusion (or
'intertextuality', the modern term that has its own shades of
meaning). Examples of lengthy repetition (between half a line and
several lines) suggest connections between different contexts in
Vergil's poetry, lending additional meaning to the relevant
passages.
More recently, Walter Moskalew published an extensive
study of Vergilian repetition (Formular Language and Poetic Design
in the Aeneid: Leiden, 1982) The appendix of his book lists every
instance throughout the Aeneid of repetition from all three of
Vergil's major works; Moskalew also includes repetition with
substitution in this list. His study deals with intertextuality within
the Aeneid more than that within the entire Vergilian corpus, but
his discussions of generic formulae, style, and thematic association
can be applied to all types of repetition.
No critic has needed to justify Vergil's imitation of other
writers, as the ancients seem to have valued clever and subtle
imitation even more than they did purely original work. The
phenomenon of repetition within the corpus of a single author
shares some features with literary allusion in general. Phrases or
lines can accumulate different shades of meaning as they are used
repeatedly, even if the reader is not progressing through the
Vergilian corpus without a pause or in chronological order. As
examples of repetition come up in the text of the Aeneid, it is
worth the reader's effort to consider the contexts of each
appearance and recognize how they passages relate to one other.
When such effort is required, it may seem that Vergil could not
have expected his audience to recognize such subtle allusions, but
the results of scholarly interpretation are rich enough to challenge
that notion.
Since the path of Vergil's career allowed him to work within
several established genres, the study of repetition within his entire
corpus involves consideration of generic boundaries as well as of
narrative contexts. Also relevant to the issue of intertextuality is
the extent to which Vergil constructs an authorial persona: forced
at times, undetectable elsewhere. Constructing an authorial
identity, whether it seems artificial (e.g. Vergil as Tityrus in the
Eclogues) or rooted in reality (preparing to praise Caesar in
Georgics 3), draws attention to intertextuality and complicates its
interpretation.
Themes from the Eclogues, Georgics, and Aeneid
Although Vergil wrote his three major works in different
established genres, common motifs permeate the corpus. The
continuity of themes in the works of Vergil has appealed to
scholars. Brooks Otis, in Virgil: A Study in Civilized Poetry (Oxford,
1964), attempts to highlight this continuity and describe the
structure of each work based on the ordering of themes and
emotional mood. The idea of a thematically unified corpus provides
explanations for some difficult portions and problematizes others;
interplay between three different genres and subjects forces us to
re-evaluate the individual works.
The appearance in the earlier works of certain prominent
themes from the Aeneid seems at times to draw those works out
of the realms of their respective genres. The Eclogues, although
written in overt imitation of the Hellenistic poet Theocritus,
introduce contemporary issues and characters, gesture to the city
of Rome (an intrusion that is, theoretically, odd in pastoral poetry),
and at points seem saturated with images of sacrifice, loss, and
exile. Similarly, the Georgics, in spite of the agricultural subject
advertised in their title, devote much space to the praise of Caesar
and of Roman virtues, and end in the epyllion of Aristaeus,
Orpheus, and Eurydice. Although it is problematic for the critic to
rely completely on conceptions of generic 'norms' and 'deviation',
poets certainly seem to articulate such conceptions, thereby
inviting questions where they seem to 'deviate'. For this reason, the
melancholy of some of the Eclogues and the ambivalence about
labor in the Georgics are striking features.
The emotional peaks and nadirs of Vergil's early works have
fueled continual scholarly debate over so-called 'optimistic' and
'pessimistic' elements in the entire Vergilian corpus. Scholars have
attempted to track the development of Vergil's attitudes
throughout his works, finding either disapproval of Roman rule or
celebration of Rome and her new leader. The optimistic and
pessimistic schools of Vergilian criticism, at odds since the first
New Critical readings of the Aeneid appeared in the 1950s and
'60s, have been most active in their work on the Aeneid and that
text's judgments on imperium. Although new approaches to
reading both elements have been offered and the debate is not as
rigidly polarized as it once was, certain studies representative of
the opposed schools will continue to be consulted.