Eclogue 5

Eclogue 5 (Ecloga V; Bucolica V) is a pastoral poem by the Latin poet Virgil, one of his book of ten poems known as the Eclogues. In form, this is an expansion of the first Idyll of Theocritus, which contains a song about the death of the semi-divine herdsman Daphnis.[1] In the first half of Virgil's poem, the goatherd Mopsus sings a song bewailing the death of Daphnis; in the second half, his friend Menalcas sings a song of equal length telling of Daphnis' welcome among the gods, and the rites paid to him as a divinity.[1]

The poem has sometimes been held (though perhaps on too slight grounds) to be allegorical, celebrating the apotheosis of Julius Caesar, which was confirmed by a solemn act passed in BC 42.[1]

Summary
Drypoint print by Samuel Palmer: The Cypress Grove, 1880–3

Two herdsmen, Mopsus and Menalcas, meet and engage in a friendly contest, one singing about the death and the other about the deification of Daphnis.[2] The poem is amoebaean, and the 25 lines (20–44) which compose the song of Mopsus are replied to in 25 lines (56–80) by Menalcas.[2] The parallelism of the two songs is very marked: lines 20–23 are parallel to 56–59, 24–28 to 60–64, 29–35 to 65–71, 36–39 to 72–75, and 40–44 to 76–80.[2]

Analysis
Coin of Octavian, 36 BC: showing an early design of the Temple of Caesar in Rome

Daphnis is the ideal cowherd of pastoral poetry, which he was said to have invented, and his death is sung by Thyrsis in the first Idyll of Theocritus.[2] The deification of Daphnis by Virgil has generally been supposed to describe the deification of Julius Caesar, and to have been written shortly after the order made by the triumvirs in 42 BC for the celebration of his birthday in the month Quinctilis, which was thenceforward called after him Julius.[3]

Menalcas in this poem is thought to represent Virgil, in view of the fact that at the end of the poem he claims to be the author of Eclogues 2 and 3, quoting them by their first lines.

References
  1. Greenough, ed. 1883, p. 13.
  2. Page, ed. 1898, p. 131.
  3. Page, ed. 1898, pp. 131–2.

Sources

Attribution: Public Domain This article incorporates text from these sources, which are in the public domain.

  • Greenough, J. B., ed. (1883). Publi Vergili Maronis: Bucolica. Aeneis. Georgica. The Greater Poems of Virgil. Vol. 1. Boston, MA: Ginn, Heath, & Co. pp. 13–15.
  • Page, T. E., ed. (1898). P. Vergili Maronis: Bucolica et Georgica. Classical Series. London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd. pp. 131–9.

Further reading
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