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INTRODUCTION a Frequent Theme in Greek Literature Was the Mythical

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INTRODUCTION a Frequent Theme in Greek Literature Was the Mythical CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION "Aile Volker, die eine Geschichte haben, haben ein Paradies, einen Stand der Unschuld, ein goldnes Alter .... " F. Schiller, Naive und Sentimentalische Dichtung A frequent theme in Greek literature was the mythical time known as a golden age. Like the Biblical Paradise, it was a time of innocence and simplicity. Mortals enjoyed a leisured existence. A beneficent earth provided all their needs. They knew no toil, no pain, no sorrow. The golden age, however, also bore a sad connotation, for it inevitably belonged to a lost, distant past. Mortals would never again know such a happy time. The first account of the golden age, in Hesiod's Works and Days, bears this negative tone. There Hesiod laments the current, harsh life of the Boeotian farmer, as opposed to the happy existence of the blessed, golden race. His lament echoes through Greek literature, every reference to that happy time stirring sad, even bitter memories of its loss. At Rome, after Antony's victory at Philippi over Brutus and Cassius, the theme of the golden age becomes increasingly popular in Latin literature. At first the sense of loss remains, as in Horace's Sixteenth Epode, where the poet in desperation urges escape with him to the arva beata, a blessed retreat where the privileges of the golden age are reserved for pious men. It is a desperate summons, like that of Tennyson's Ulysses, without any real hope that such a place will ever be found. At about the same time that Horace composes this Epode, Vergil dramatically proclaims in his Fourth Eclogue that a new golden age is about to begin. His optimism is a striking reversal of the melan­ choly gloom which tended until then to accompany references to a golden age. Here Vergil predicts a new golden age which will be similar to the golden age described by Hesiod. This new age, which will begin with the birth of an unnamed child, will be marked by freedom from war. Toil will cease, as will trade, for every land will spontaneously provide all mortal needs. Vergil's conception of such an age is characterized in the Fourth 2 INTRODUCTION Eclogue by qualities which, as in Hesiod's conception, still restrict it to a mythical setting. Yet his optimism suggests he at least wants to believe that such an age may once again occur. The recurrence of such an age is tied to the birth of the child, and the chronological context of the myth is also changed; both these modifications of the traditional myth lend a certain degree of credibility to the claim that the age will recur. Vergil's optimism regarding this theme subsequently influences the perspective of his contemporaries concerning such an age, as will be seen. The theme itself, moreover, becomes the hallmark of the reign of Augustus, and is even reflected on monuments of that period. The golden age of the Fourth Eclogue, however, is much too fanciful to be considered for long a serious possibility. Vergil himself appears to have been keenly aware of the limitations of this theme, based as it is on a total freedom from toil for all mankind. Such an age continued to appeal strongly to him, as his later works reveal. It appears again in the Georgics and in the Aeneid, but, as a close examination will show, Vergil's conception of this age evolves in such a way that the poet is now able to bring this age out of the realm of myth, into the realm of semi-historicity, under the rule of a semi-historical figure. He now proposes that such an age will be based upon an agricultural economy and therefore can happen again in his own time under another ruler. Since the idea of a golden age is traditionally a mythical one, Vergil begins by modifying the mythological details of this theme. Among the more striking details which Vergil modifies are the chronology surrounding the golden age, the characterization of the ruler of the golden age, and the depiction of the golden race itself. Vergil modifies the chronology as early as the Fourth Eclogue, where the traditional linear chronology is replaced by a pattern of periodic renewal. The harsh character of Saturnus, the ruler of the golden age, is softened in the Georgics, and this god is seen farming Roman soil. Saturnus' relationship to agriculture and to the golden age is subsequently confirmed at greater length in the Aeneid. The mythical golden race of the Fourth Eclogue is replaced by the more economically viable farmer in the Georgics and in the Aeneid. The mythical race of the Fourth Eclogue, on the other hand, also flourishes in the Georgics, but in a curiously altered form. This .
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