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Beast and Man in the Third Book of Virgil's Georgics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 January 2009

W. Liebeschuetz
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Extract

When we compare Virgil's Georgics with Varro's textbook of farming, we find that what is cast in the form of a book of instruction in the prose work is transformed into a series of pictures in the Georgics. Virgil is not content with teaching his readers how to farm, he also sets before their eyes a panorama of country life. An example of this procedure is provided by the lines on animal husbandry found in Book iii. Following the framework of Varro, by leaving out certain of Varro's categories, Virgil transforms a schematic textbook arrangement into a life story, and tells this life story with the sympathy of a poet.

Type
Research Article
Information
Greece & Rome , Volume 12 , Issue 1 , April 1965 , pp. 64 - 77
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1965

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References

page 64 note 1 See now Richter, , Vergil; Georgica (München, 1957)Google Scholar; a text and commentary and bibliography. Klingner, F., ‘Über das Lob des Landlebens in Vergils Georgica’, Hermes, Ixvi (1931), 159–89.Google Scholar

page 64 note 2 Varro, Marcus Terentius, De re rusticaGoogle Scholar, ed. W. D. Hooper and H. B. Ash in Loeb Library.

page 64 note 3 Cf. Wilkinson, L. P., ‘The intention of Virgil's Georgics’, Greece & Rome, xix (1950), 18–28Google Scholar; Richter, , op. cit. 270Google Scholar, note on iii. 49 ff.

page 64 note 4 Varro's 9 points: R.R. ii. i, 11–24.Google Scholar

page 64 note 5 Roughly speaking, those that are of interest from the point of view of the practical farmer, but not to the mere observer of animal life—choice of breed, law of purchase, most profitable size of herd.

page 64 note 6 Geor. i. 181–2.Google Scholar

page 64 note 7 Ibid. 186.

page 64 note 8 Ibid. 410 ff.

page 64 note 9 Geor. ii. 209–10.Google Scholar

page 64 note 10 Geor. iv. 511–15.Google Scholar

page 64 note 11 Geor. iii. 138 ff.Google Scholar Mares or cows? Richter, , op. cit. 279Google Scholar, argues that following line 129 (armenta) Virgil is thinking of cows—convincingly, except for lines 141—2, which do not seem an appropriate description of the movement of cows.

page 65 note 1 Geor. iii. 176–9.Google Scholar Cows are not to be milked, so that calves should be able to suck, cf. Jermyn, L. A. S., ‘Virgil's agricultural lore’, Greece & Rome, xviii (1949), 67.Google Scholar

page 65 note 2 Geor. iii. 517 ff.Google Scholar Cf. ibid. ii. 536, but sense of comradeship with oxen is not felt by Virgil alone, cf. Varro, , ii. 5, 4.Google ScholarRichter, op. cit. on iii. 517.Google Scholar The feeling is probably very ancient, cf. Murray, G., The Pise of the Greek Epic (Oxford, 1924), 61 ff.Google Scholar

page 65 note 3 Geor. iii. 60.Google Scholar

page 65 note 4 Ibid. 126 and 175. Varro, ii. 7, I calls stallions admissarii.

page 65 note 5 Geor. iii. 128Google Scholar, instead of vituli or pulli.

page 65 note 6 Ibid. 138, cf. 51.

page 65 note 7 Ibid. 163–5.

page 65 note 8 Ibid. 225 ff.

page 65 note 9 Ibid. iii. 520 ff., perhaps refer to the condition of all the animals suffering as a result of the disease (so T. E. Page, Ed. 331), but Lucr. 2, 361 ff., on which the Virgil passage is based, describes suffering as a result of bereavement.

page 65 note 10 Geor. iii. 51 ff.Google Scholar

page 65 note 11 The very general remarks ibid. 66.

page 65 note 12 Ibid. 179–81.

page 65 note 13 Ibid. iii. 77. Cf. Varro, , op. cit. ii. 7, 6.Google Scholar For this trait in later life, Geor. iii. 102.Google Scholar

page 65 note 14 Geor. iii. 79.Google Scholar

page 66 note 1 Geor. iii. 83–85.Google Scholar

page 66 note 2 Ibid. 182–4. Cf. Varro, , op. cit. ii. 7, 12 (horses), i. 20, 3 (draught cattle).Google Scholar

page 66 note 3 Geor. iii. 185–6.Google Scholar

tum magis atque magis blandis gaudere magistri

laudibus et plausae sonitum cervicis amare.

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page 66 note 4 Geor. iii. 206.Google ScholarVarro, , op. cit. ii. 7, 13.Google Scholar

page 66 note 5 Geor. iii. 194 ff.Google Scholar See below, p. 68, n. i.

page 66 note 6 Ibid. 244; 250–4; 266–8.

page 66 note 7 Cf. Varro, , op. cit. ii. 7, 15.Google Scholar

page 66 note 8 Geor. iii. 83–85Google Scholar, ibid. 250.

page 67 note 1 Ibid. iii. 245–68.

page 67 note 2 Ibid. 219–41 expanding Aristotle, Historia Animalium, vi. 21, 3 (575a).Google Scholar

page 67 note 3 Historia Animalium, vi. 18Google Scholar, especially 571b and 572b.

page 67 note 4 Geor. iii. 244–5Google Scholar (lioness); ibid. 268 (horses of Glaucus); ibid. 271–89 (wind impregnation and magic drug).

page 67 note 5 Ibid. 209–18. Richter, op. cit. 287Google Scholar is right to consider this a linking passage, but that it is more is shown by its length. It describes the human regulation which is necessary if natural passion is to be used creatively. The passage is quite parallel to the lines on the limitation of feeding of horses until they have been broken in.

page 67 note 6 Geor. iii. 258–63.Google Scholar

page 67 note 7 Ibid. 205–8.

page 68 note 1 Ibid. 196–201. Cf. Aen. xii. 365Google Scholar, with verbal reminders of the Georgics passage. There are further storm images in the preceding description of Turnus charging into battle in a chariot, 328, volitans; 333–4Google Scholar, ‘illi aequore aperto ante Notum Zephyrumque volant’. Cf. also Aen. xii. 450 ff.Google Scholar, storm cloud simile, describing advance of Aeneas.

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Nam penitus veniens, Aegypti finibus ortus, aëra permensus multum camposque natantis, incubuit tandem populo Pandionis omni…

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page 68 note 2 e.g. Haarhoff, T. J., Virgil the Universal (Oxford, 1949), 88Google Scholar; Fowler, Warde, Religious experience of the Roman People (London, 1911), 406Google Scholar; Richter, , op. cit. 5–6Google Scholar; Geikie, A., Love of Nature among the Romans (1912), 214Google Scholar, quoted by Haarhoff: he makes us feel how keenly he realises that each living creature is a sentient being with habits and instincts worthy of our attention and subject to sufferings that appeal to compassion.

page 68 note 3 Geor. iv. 67–90.Google Scholar ‘Der Bienenstaat in Vergil's Georgica’, Hellfried Dahlman, Verlag der Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Literatur in Mainz, , Abhandlungen der Geistes- und Sozialwissenschaftlichen Klasse (1954)Google Scholar, no. 10, cf. Williams, R. D., Classical Review, Ixx (1956), 170–1.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

page 68 note 4 For bibliography on accuracy of Virgil's agricultural information see Richter, , op. cit. 6Google Scholar, note 22, and 418. See also Jermyn, L. A. S. on ‘Weather signs in Virgil’, Greece & Rome xx (1951), 26–37CrossRefGoogle Scholar, ibid. 49–59.

page 69 note 1 Geor. iii. 103–12.Google Scholar Cf. Iliad xxiii. 362 ff.Google Scholar and 600 ff. Richter, 276–7.Google Scholar

page 69 note 2 Translation: Lewis, C. Day, iii. 100–2Google Scholar: ergo animos aevumque notabis / praecipue; hinc alias artes prolemque parentum / et quis cuique dolor victo, quae gloria palmae.

page 69 note 3 Cf. use of nonne vides in Geor. i. 56Google Scholar, and Geor. iii. 250.Google Scholar

page 69 note 4 Cf. 112, ‘tantus amor laudum, tantae est victoria curae’, with 102, ‘et quis cuique dolor victo, quae gloria palmae’.

page 70 note 1 Cf. Aen. xi. 300–467.Google Scholar

page 70 note 2 Ibid. 486–91.

page 70 note 3 Ibid. 491–7. Cf. Iliad, vi. 506 ff.

page 70 note 4 On Turnus as the embodiment of the greatness and limitations of the heroic ideal, see Bowra, C. M., From Virgil to Milton (London, 1957), 44 ff.Google Scholar See also Pöschl, V., Die Dichtkunst Virgils (Wien, 1950), 153 ff.Google Scholar

page 70 note 5 Aen. xii. 1–46.Google Scholar

page 70 note 6 Ibid. 49, ‘letumque sinas pro laude pacisci’.

page 70 note 7 Ibid. 43–44; 54–63.

page 71 note 1 Ibid. 64–70.

page 71 note 2 Ibid. 82, ‘gaudetque tuens ante ora frementis’.

page 71 note 3 Cf. the stallion simile, p. 70, n. 3, and the warlike horse of Geor. iii. 85Google Scholar, ‘collectumque fremens volvit sub naribus ignem’. Also Aen. iii. 539–40Google Scholar; i. 444 and on it Kraggerud, E., ‘Vergil über die Gründung Karthagos’, Symbolae Osloenses, xxxviii (1963), 32–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

page 71 note 4 Aen. xii. 103–6.Google Scholar Cf. Geor. iii. 232–4.Google Scholar

page 71 note 5 Cf. in a section of Aristotle's Historia Animalium, which Virgil certainly knew (p. 67, n. 3, above), 588a, the generalization beginning: ἔνεστι γὰρ ἐν τοῑς пλείστοις καὶ τῶν ἄλλων ῴ ων ἴχνη τῶν пερὶ τὴν ψυχὴν τρόпων ἃпερ ἐпὶ τῶν ἀνθρᾏώпων ἒχει φανερωτέρας τὰς διαφοράς. Cf. also H.A. 9, 608a; also thetheory of the hierarchy of living things, e.g. Varro in St. Augustine, Civ. Dei, 7, 23, 21 ff.Google Scholar; Cicero, . Tusc. i. 56Google Scholar; Fin. v. 13–14Google Scholar (38–40); N.D. ii. 12–13Google Scholar (33–35). The four book divisions of the Georgics surely show the influence of this theory. Might Virgil not have known a version of this theory which emphasized the nonrational faculties of the human mind and their equivalents in die animal world?

page 72 note 1 Cf. P.-W. viii a, col. 1046–50Google Scholar; certainly farmers lost land all round him, cf. Ecl. iGoogle Scholar; Ecl. ixGoogle Scholar; Geor. i. 507.Google Scholar

page 72 note 2 e.g. Aen. i. 192–6Google Scholar; ibid. vi. 832–5.

page 72 note 3 Geor. i. 489–514.Google Scholar

page 72 note 4 Geor. i. 21–42 and 500–4Google Scholar; ibid. iii. 10–48; ibid. iv. 560–2; Richter, , op. cit. 11 ff., 107 ff.Google Scholar in favour of a publication date after 26 B.c.

page 72 note 5 Geor. ii. 459; 474; 496; 510–12; 539–40Google Scholar; brief hints at the horrors of civil strife interrupt the description of the blessings of country life.

page 72 note 6 I am thinking not only of passages like the civil war in the beehive, Geor. iv. 67–90Google Scholar, but of passages suggesting, quite generally, how easily order is replaced by chaos, e.g. Geor. ii. 275–87Google Scholar interrupted by 282–3; or the description of the fire, ibid. 303–14, which logically follows from the advice of 302 but is also a warning of general import against the destruction that follows if rules are not observed, just as the oak simile 290–7 illustrates the security to be achieved by observing them. Also, the heightened description of the chaos produced by the sting fly, Geor. iii. 146–57Google Scholar, following the restful description of the grazing of pregnant cows.

page 72 note 7 Cf. the study of the various emotions that made war inevitable in Aen. vii. 341–623Google Scholar and brought about the breaking of the truce: ibid. xii. 216–87. The power of the undisciplined passions is of course brought out in the contrast between Turnus and Aeneas. On the former cf. p. 70, note 4. Julius Caesar had recently demonstrated the destructive potentialities of an undoubtedly very great man; cf. Cicero, 2 Phil. 45Google Scholar or, seen across an interval of nearly a hundred years, Lucan, Pharsalia, 143 ff.Google Scholar

page 73 note 1 Geor. iii. 284.Google Scholar Cf. Richter, , op. cit. 96.Google Scholar

page 73 note 2 Varro, , op. cit. ii. 5, 2Google Scholar; Geor. iii. 280–94.Google Scholar

page 73 note 3 There is very little of Varro, , ii. 2, 12–20Google Scholar (on sheep) or ii. 3, 1–5 (on goats) in Virgil.

page 73 note 4 Sheep in winter, Geor. iii. 295 ff.Google Scholar; goats in winter, ibid. 300–4 and 318–21.

page 73 note 5 Ibid. 322–38 based on Varro, , ii. 2, 10–11.Google Scholar

page 73 note 6 Ibid. 339–48 and 349–82; on their sources and place in the poem as a whole see Richter, , op. cit. 98 and 302–6.Google Scholar

page 74 note 1 Cf. Geor. ii. 115–76.Google ScholarVarro, , i. 2, 3 ff.Google ScholarSeneca, , De Ira, 2, 15, 5.Google Scholar Vitruvius, vi. 10.

page 74 note 2 Cf. Hesiod, , Works 504 ff.Google Scholar winter; 582 ff. summer. Influence of climate philosophically treated in Vitruvius, vi. 3 ff. which Reinhardt, K., Poseidomus (München, 1921), 83Google Scholar, derives from Poseidonius.

page 74 note 3 Geor. iii. 414–39Google Scholar (snakes); ibid. 441–69 (disease of sheep).

page 74 note 4 The plague: ibid. 474 ad fin. Mans helplessness: ibid. 509–14; 548 ff.

page 74 note 5 Lucretius, vi. 1139ad fin.Google Scholar

page 74 note 6 Translation of Geor. iii. 525–8Google Scholar by C. Day Lewis. The lines remind one of moralizing praises of the simple natural life such as Geor. ii. 460–72.Google Scholar Cf. Richter on Geor. iii. 527 ff. and ii. 460.Google Scholar

page 75 note 1 Cf. Seneca, , De Ira, 2, 15, i.Google Scholar

page 75 note 2 Virgil's interest in philosophy: Ecl. vi. 31 ff.Google Scholar, Geor. ii. 475 ff.Google Scholar; Suetonius, , Vita, 35.Google Scholar

page 76 note 1 Geor. iii. 65–68.Google Scholar The point is repeated and elaborated in the section on horse-breeding; ibid. 74–94 splendour of youth; 95–100 uselessness of old age; 100–2 the moral: youth of first importance to breeder; 103–12 splendour of youth shown by simile; 113–19 moral for breeder; 120–2, uselessness of old age out weighs birth and past achievements.

page 76 note 2 See p. 73, n. i and Aen. x. 467.Google Scholar

page 76 note 3 Geor. iii. 368–70Google Scholar: animals perish in snow; ibid. 414–39: snakes. Cf. Aen. ii. 471–5Google Scholar; ibid. v. 80–93.

page 76 note 4 Cf. p. 72, n. 6, also Geor. i. 313–34Google Scholar (storm), followed by advice on how such a catastrophe can be avoided.

page 77 note 1 For undeserved death see p. 74, n. 6. Victim dies at altar, Geor. iii. 486–93.Google Scholar

page 77 note 2 Ibid. 531–3. Cf. Richter's note.

page 77 note 3 Cf. also ibid. 455–6. Richter refers to Sallust, , Cat. 52, 29.Google Scholar The line by itself is not a criticism of prayer, as such, but only of prayer as a substitute for work, but in the context it strengthens the impression that man is on his own.

page 77 note 4 N.D. iii, c. 26ad fin.Google Scholar

page 77 note 5 Bailey, C., Religion in Virgil (Oxford, 1935)Google Scholar; but note ibid. 103, the remark that allusions to Greek legend and mythology are proportionally far more frequent in Eclogues and Georgics than in the Aeneid.