Roman Vergil, thou that singest
Ilion's lofty temples robed in fire,
Ilion falling, Rome arising,
Wars, and filial faith, and Dido's pyre;
Thou that singest wheat and woodland,
Tilth and vineyard, hive and horse and herd;
All the charm of all the Muses
Often flowering in a lonely word;
Poet of the happy Tityrus
Piping underneath his beechen bowers;
Poet of the poet-satyr
Whom the laughing shepherd bound with flowers;
I salute thee, Mantovano,
I that loved thee since my day began,
Wielder of the stateliest measure
Ever molded by the lips of man.
Tennyson, _To Vergil_.
Vergil, as the author of the _Bucolics_ and the _Aeneid_, is already
known to the student. The _Georgics_ were composed after the former and
before the latter, since they were begun in 36 B.C. and finished in 29
B.C. Hesiod's _Works and Days_ supplied a partial model, and the
influence of Lucretius was powerful. The poet shows an intense
enthusiasm for his subject, which Mr. Merivale asserts to be the
Glorification of Labor. The First Book treats of the tillage of the
ground, the Second of the culture of trees and of the vine, the Third of
the care of the animals bred by the farmer, and the Fourth and last of
bee-keeping. Elegant episodes diversify the poem, the longest of which
we extract. The dedication of the _Georgics_ is to Maecenas. Their
extent is about 2200 lines.
For Reference: Conington's _Vergil_, Fifth Edition, revised by
Haverfield, George Bell and Sons, London, 1898, Vol. I, pp. 135-165, and
notes upon _Georgics_, 4. 315-558.
Metre: Dactylic Hexameter, B. 368; A. & G. 615.
_1._ Servius twice tells us (_Eclogues_ 10. 1 and _Georgics_ 4. 1) that
the poet Cornelius Gallus was Vergil's friend, and that the latter half
of the fourth _Georgic_ was originally written in his praise, but that
this was suppressed at the command of Augustus and the tale of Aristaeus
substituted. Gallus, we remember, appears in the sixth and tenth
_Eclogues_. The story of his disgrace by the emperor and his suicide is
a familiar one.
Aristaeus, having lost his bees 'by disease and hunger,' is commanded by
the nymph Cyrene, his mother, to obtain from the sea-god Proteus the
reason for this manifestation of divine displeasure. He learns that it
is because Eurydice, the wife of Orpheus, has perished as a result of
his amorous pursuit; and the story of Orpheus' descent to the lower
world to recover her is narrated to him. Then Cyrene instructs him how
to secure a new swarm. 1. hanc...artem: this method of obtaining new
swarms of bees by slaying cattle and allowing bees to form in their
decaying bodies. 3. Peneia Tempo: Tempe is a beautiful valley in
Thessaly through which the river Peneus flows. 5. extremi: i.e. the
rising river. amnis: the Peneus. 7. gurgitis: flood. 9. Thymbraeus:
Thymbra was a city near Troy where there was a temple of Apollo. 10.
fatis: by the fates, B. 189, 2; A. & G. 375. nostri: objective genitive,
11. caelum sperare: Aristaeus was deified after death. 12. honorem:
honor from the possession of wealth. 14. relinquo: leave with
reluctance, lose. 15. Quin age: _Why not go on?_ in ironical
remonstrance. 17. molire: wield, imperative. 18. taedia: loathing of my
praise, B. 55, 4, c. The plural expresses the aversion on each occasion.
19. thalamo sub: in the deep river's chamber. Sub governs thalamo, but
follows it. Cyrene, as daughter of the river-god Peneus, dwells in
subterranean chambers at the source of that stream. She is at this time
in the thalamo described in 60 ff. Aristaeus enters through the river,
thought of as emerging from the earth a full-grown stream, the waters
arching over his head to admit him. He passes beneath the earth where he
sees groves and lakes, and rivers which are presently to issue as the
various streams of the upper world. 20. Milesia: the wool of Miletus, a
city on the west coast of Asia Minor, was famous. 21. carpebant: were
plucking the fleeces, i.e. spinning. hyali...colore: dyed with the rich,
glass-green color. 22. A similar catalogue of names is in _Iliad_, 18.
39 ff. Drymoque: que is long according to Greek usage before the double
consonant beginning the next word. 28. auro ff.: arrayed in skins
embroidered with threads of gold. 31 ff. _Odyssey_, 8. 34. mollia pensa:
their soft tasks. See _Lex_. pendo II, pensum, B, 1. 35. impulit: struck
his mother's ears. 39. procul: sc. dixit. frustra: idly, without reason.
42. nomine: ablative of specification. 43. nova: strange. 44. age:
quick. 46. qua ff.: purpose clause, that the youth might enter there.
48. misit: let him pass, lit. sent him. He enters the earth through the
opening by which the Peneus finds exit. 52. sub...terra: so Plato in the
myth of the _Phaedo_ conceives of rivers as penetrating the depths of
the earth. 53 ff. For the rivers named see _Lex_. 57. cornua: accusative
of specification. voltu: dative, B. 49, 2; A. & G. 89. 60. in thalami
pendentia pumice tecta: tecta may be regarded either as participle or
noun. In the former case thalami tecta, 'the covered things of the
chamber,' equals thalamum teclum, 'the covered chamber,' as strata
viarum equals stratae viae; pendentia pumice tecta, roofs or covered
things hanging with pumice (ablative of instrument) equals pendente
pumice tecta, roofs of hanging pumice (ablative of description).
Translate: into the chamber roofed with arching pumice. 61. inanis:
since so easily removed, accusative plural. 63. tonsis...villis: of
shorn nap, smooth and soft. 64. onerant: B. 254, 4, a; A. & G. 317, d.
65. Panchaeis ignibus: incense-burning flames. Panchaea was a fabulous
island, east of Arabia, rich in incense. 66. et mater: sc. dixit.
Maeonii: Lydian. Bacchi: the wine, as Vestam (1. 70) is the fire, the
deities being named for that over which they preside. 69. centum: simply
expressing a large number. 71. subiecta: shooting up. 73 ff. This part
of the story has its original in _Odyssey_ 4. The Carpathian Sea is
between Crete and Rhodes. 74. caeruleus: an epithet applied to Proteus
as a god of the azure sea. 75. The yoked chariot of two-footed steeds
equals the chariot yoked to two-footed steeds. 77. Pallenen: a peninsula
of Emathia, or Macedonia. 79. quae...trahantur: what in the near future
is drawn on in the chain of events. 83. eventusque secundet: and may
make the issue favorable. 94. fulva cervice: ablative of description.
101. ambrosiae: used as an ointment, as _Iliad_, 14. 170, Aeneid,
12.419. 102. perduxit: anointed; _Lex_. perduco, I. C. 1. 105, 106.
quo...reductos: whither many a billow marches before the wind and
divides into files that fall back, cogo and reductos may be used in a
military sense. The wind is the rear-guard of the marching files of
billows formed as the main wave enters an indentation in the shore. As
the wave divides, all the secondary waves pursue the original direction,
but the outer ones are retarded, as compared with the middle ones, and
seem to fall back. Statio, just below, is familiar as a military term.
Or reductos sinus can mean the depths of the bay. 107. deprensis:
weather-bound. 108. vasti...obiice saxi: by the barrier of a vast rock,
i.e. behind a rock. 109. averaum a lumine: in the darkness. 114.
faucibus: i.e. the deep-cut channels. Perhaps the author intends with a
bold personification to speak of the almost dried-up rivers as
dry-throated, siccis faucibus would then be well taken as ablative of
description. 115. antra: plural in view of the many chambers. 117. rorem
amarum: the bitter dew, beautifully used of the salt spray. 121. acuunt:
whet the wolves, i. e. their hunger. 131. Nam quis equals quisnam, Who
pray? Surprise is expressed. 133. neque est: nor is it possible, used
with infinitive in Greek construction, _Lex_. 1 sum, I, B, 5, 6, e. 135.
lassis rebus: shattered fortunes. 137. glauco: azure. 139.
Non...nullius: double negative for greater emphasis. It is in very truth
the wrath of a god that pursues thee. irae: B. 55,4, c; A. & G. 100, c.
141. haud quaquam ob meritum poenas: penalties by no means on account of
thy guilt, i.e. less than thy guilt. 147-149. Rhodope and Pangaeus are
mountains, the Getae a tribe, Hebrus a river,--all in Thrace. Athenian
Orithyia, daughter of Erechtheus, king of Athens, was carried by Boreas
to Thrace, where she bore Calais and Zetes. As a nymph of the country
she is interested in the fate of the Thracian Orpheus and Eurydice. 153.
Taenarias: a cavern on the promontory of Taenarus in Laconia was fabled
to be the entrance of the infernal regions. 157. Erebi: Greek [Greek:
Erebos], a place of darkness, i.e. the lower world. 159 ff. Cf. _Aeneid_
6. 309-312. 161 ff. Cf. _Aeneid_ 6. 306-308. 165 ff. Cf. _Aeneid_ 6.
438-439. 167, 168. intima Leti Tartara: the inmost prison cells of
death. crinibus: dative. anguis: accusative of specification. 169.
Eumenides: the Furies, deities who punish crime; even they are moved by
Orpheus' song. Cerberus: the three-headed dog at the entrance of Hades
who kept the spirits from escaping. 171. Ixion, for an attempt upon the
chastity of Juno, was bound to an ever-revolving wheel. vento: ablative
of cause. The logic is loose; because of the wind's stopping. 173. pone:
adverb. Cf. _Aeneid_, 2. 208. 177. animi: locative genitive, B. 232, 3;
A. & G. 358. 179. stagnis: ablative of source. 182. natantia: swimming.
188. praeterea vidit: saw him more, praeterea here equalling postea.
192. nabat: was sailing. 194. Strymonis: a river on the borders of
Thrace. 196. agentem: that trees followed the music of Orpheus became
one of the commonplaces of poetry. 197-201. Notice the sweetness of
sound due to the alliteration, especially of the liquids. 202. hymenaei:
nuptials. 203. Hyperboreas: Hyperborean, i.e. northern, lit. beyond the
north wind. Tanaim: now the Don, a river named here, as are the Rhipaei
monies of the following line, because belonging to the cold, distant,
desolate North. 204. numquam viduata: never bereaved, with a thought of
the bereaved Orpheus. The setting corresponds to the situation. The grim
landscape is forever wedded to its desolation as Orpheus to his
bereavement. 206. Ciconum: a Thracian people. munere: tribute to the
dead. The word is used technically of funeral honors. 206-213. Cf.
_Lycidas_, 61-63:
By the rout that made the hideous roar
His gory visage down the stream was sent,
Down the swift Hebrus to the Lesbian shore.
210. Oeagrius: Oeagrius was a king of Thrace and father of Orpheus. 213.
referebant: echoed with. Cf. Pope, _Ode on St. Cecilia's Day_, 113-116:
Yet ev'n in death Eurydice he sung,
Eurydice still trembled on his tongue,
Eurydice the woods, Eurydice the floods,
Eurydice the rocks, and hollow mountains rung.
214. iactudedit: i.e. iecit. 219. choros...agitabat: used to dance.
Agito means to occupy oneself with, as Plautus, Asinaria, 5. 1. 7. 221.
Napaeas: Dell-nymphs, Greek [Greek: napaiai], belonging to a wooded
vale. 225. Lycaei: a mountain of Arcadia. 234. facessit: he despatches.
235-239. The repetitions from 224-232 are in the Homeric manner. 241 ff.
The bees are thought to form within the bodies and to force their way
through the yielding sides. 244. uvam demittere: to let fall a cluster.
The cluster formed by the bees when they alight in swarming resembles a
bunch of grapes.