Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 February 2009
Like most of the other poems contained in the Appendix Vergiliana, the Copa still arouses controversy with respect to authorship and date. While the tendency of contemporary criticism may fairly be summarized as favourable to acceptance of the tradition which ascribes this poem to Virgil, nevertheless there are not wanting respectable voices to declare the Copa a post-Virgilian imitation of the Eclogues; nor are the pro-Virgilians decided as to the period to which it should rightly be assigned.
page 76 note 1 This list is perhaps not quite exhaustive, but must be nearly so. Of course only Theoc. VII.and XI. are dealt with.
page 77 note 1 This word is additionally interesting, because in Eel. V. 71, ‘Vina nouum fundam calathis Ariusia nectar,’ Virgil translates ‘κυλΙκεσσɩ’ of Theoc. VII. 70 by ‘calathis,’ a very rare use of the word indeed, which Virgil possibly adopts because of the sound-attraction. He could not use ‘calices’ (calicibus) here for metrical of reasons. But Copa 30 could use ‘calathos’—and does not.
page 78 note 1 No source is, of course, given for adjacent and commingled Virgilian lines or phrases, even when derived from Theocritus, which do not resemble Copa. G. IV. 109–111 is omitted.