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Gods in the Eclogues and the Arcadian Club

R. W. R.

The Classical Review / Volume 22 / Issue 02 / March 1908, pp 40 - 43 DOI: 10.1017/S0009840X00000913, Published online: 27 October 2009

Link to this article: http://journals.cambridge.org/abstract_S0009840X00000913

How to cite this article: R. W. R. (1908). Gods in the Eclogues and the Arcadian Club. The Classical Review, 22, pp 40-43 doi:10.1017/S0009840X00000913

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Downloaded from http://journals.cambridge.org/CAR, IP address: 130.159.70.209 on 17 Mar 2015 THE CLASSICAL REVIEW looks forward in the prayer, is a survival of arrive at some reasonable conclusion as to this same widely spread religious practice, the time of year of which the poet is think- and not merely a children's game within the ing, and the general character of the festivities house. If that be so, then we need not he indicates. w WARDE FOWLER. suppose that he is looking forward to winter revelry, but rather that he is thinking of some Lincoln College, Oxford. local summer festival, otherwise unknown to us, in which the burning of fires and the building of casae and the revelry usual on I am glad to be allowed an opportunity of all such occasions (cp. ii. 95 foil.) were all thanking Mr. Warde Fowler for his valuable found together. The poem and the rustic' contribution to the interpretation of a Latin lustratio it describes belong, as I hope I classic, whose works in England at least are have shown, to the spring: the omens are undeservedly neglected, and of saying that favourable, the lustratio is successful, and the the explanation of the occasion of Tibullus husbandman may look forward to the time II. i. given in the little book to which he has when the crops are no longer in danger, and referred so kindly had already ceased to when he will be able to take his part in the satisfy me. The objection on the score of general rejoicing with a light heart. This is the lamb raised by Herr K. P. Schulze in his as far as I can venture to go: Italy abounded notice of the Selections in the Wochenschrift in different customs, differing in time and f. klassische Philologie (1904) does not indeed character according to the great diversity seem fatal; but on the whole I think the within her limits, of soil, climate, elevation, festival must have been later than the and race; and we must be satisfied if we can Sementiuae Feriae. J. P. POSTGATK.

GODS IN THE ECLOGUES AND THE ARCADIAN CLUB. IN nearly all the passages in which Virgil apologises for the obscurity of this Phoebus or Apollo occur in the Eclogues, allegory, G. ii. 45, non hie te carmine ficto\ while the words naturally refer to the Atque per ambages et longa exorsa Unebo. Olympian God there seems to be a further Similar advice was afterwards given to and secondary reference to Octavianus, who Caligula when he meditated assuming a is known to have had a weakness for being crown. He fell in with it, and proceeded regarded as Apollo incarnate, and liked all at once to arrogate to himself divine majesty those who looked at him to lower their eyes in aggravated forms (Suet. Cal. 22). as though dazzled by the brightness of the 1. In E. 1.6. Tityrus, who in this Eclogue sun. Virgil, who was at this time engaged represents Virgil, says that a god, to whom in deifying Augustus, seems in the Eclogues he will always do sacrifice with a lamb to have fallen in half playfully with this offering, had given him security against the humour, although later on, in the opening general eviction then proceeding in the passages of the first Georgic, he, with equal district. The god, though not named, is playfulness, professes uncertainty as to the admittedly Octavianus. exact title under which Caesar should be 2. In E. 5. 64. Daphnis, generally under- worshipped. The inconvenience of two stood to be Julius Caesar, is raised to the Apollos is obvious, and the suggestion there stars by Menalcas (here Virgil as in E. 3 and seems to be that he might take on himself 9): a voice from the woodlands proclaims the heavenly counterpart of any office of Daphnis a god, and Menalcas begs him to state in the functions of any deity, but not be kind and propitious, and promises two the title of king—doubtless meant as a altars to Daphnis and. two to Phoebus—that friendly warning. Nee tibi regnandi veniat is, if rightly interpreted, two to Julius and tarn dira cupido. two to Augustus. THE CLASSICAL REVIEW 3. E. 5. 35. Jpsa Pales agros atque ipse more improbable than that there could be reliquit Apollo may well refer to the absence any secondary reference underlying the word of Octavianus and the interruption of Phoebus, yet Augustus had himself written Caesarian peace and order during the poetry,-probably pastoral, for one, at least,.of troubles consequent on the death of Julius. his compositions was written in hexameters, 4. InE.3.62. Menalcas (here again Virgil and called ' Sicily.' Sicilian Muses, help us as in E. 5 and 9) says that to Phoebus, who now! loves him, he makes appropriate offerings of Where shall we look for the Maronian bay and the sweetly blushing hyacinth—that Arcadia, where for Parnassus and Eurotas, is, to his literary patron Augustus. where for Pan and Silvanus, where for the 5. On E. 4. 10. (Casta, fave, Lucina: sacred choir themselves ? All silently point tuus jam regnat Apollo?) Servius says that to the dwelling of Augustus Apollo, to the some maintain that Octavia, sister of Augus- home of Octavianus, patron of poets and tus, is meant by Lucina, and Augustus inspirer of literature. There let us go. himself by Apollo, inasmuch as he had 9. There are passages in the Eclogues ordered a statue of himself to be made with which imply the presence in Rome of gods the emblems of Apollo. other than Augustus Apollo. 'Nor could 6. E. 4. 49. {Care deum suboles, magnum gods be seen in the flesh or met face to face Jovis incrementutn.) If the child in this so easily anywhere else.' (£. 1. 42.) Eclogue be the .long-expected'never-born son 10- Among the. high privileges of the soon- of Octavianus and Seribonia, as seems cer- to-be-born, yet never-born son of Augustus, tain, this line indicates Jupiter as the grand- was to be that of entering on the life of the sire and Apollo as the sire rather than a long gods and of beholding gods moving in the descent through Aeneas, although it is true society of heroes, and of being beheld by that the Venus legend had already been them, and of ruling the world reduced to adopted by Virgil (Ecce Dionaei processit peace by his father's virtues. What gods on Caesaris astrum). Note: Line 49 cuts out earth does Virgil mean? (£. 4. 15-17.) at a stroke all candidates for the honour of The answer lies beyond the closed doors being the child-herald of the new Golden of a very private dinner party in the residence Age, other than the son of Octavianus him- of Augustus (Suet. Aug. 70), which gave rise self, should he ever be born. No one else to much unfavourable society gossip at the would have the divine descent here indicated. time. It was popularly known as the party 7. E. 6. 3-12. In these lines Virgil of ' twelve gods/ The rumour was that the states that he was going to sing of battles guests took their places in the costume ^for and kings, but Apollo objected and admon- it was -winter) of gods and goddesses, and ished him to confine himself to pastoral that the host himself was arrayed as Apollo. themes; at the same time he says that the Proof of such a banquet was said to be poem is a good one—the one liked best of found not only in now lost letters of Antony, all by Phoebus, that is, Octavianus. At this full of reproach and sarcastic comment on anxious period it is' natural that Octavianus the names of the personators, but also in a should object to Virgil celebrating, the mili- notorious epigram of unknown authorship, tary glory of Varus or any other person than and, lastly, in certain loud expressions of the himself, and should have recommended him people next day—for it happened to be a to commemorate the recent appearance of period of scarcity—and the men in the street Gallus in a pastoral play instead. This is shouted that 'the gods' had eaten all the more likely than that the future author of the bread, and that Caesar was Apollo, but Apollo Aeneid should ever have found any real Torturer (Flayer of Marsyas). The lines run: difficulty in singing of battles and kings. Quum primum istorum condoxit meosa choragum, 8. E. 6. 82 and 83. (Omni'a, quae, Phoebo Sexque deos vidit Mallia, sexque deas; quondam meditante beatus Audiit Eurotas, Itnpia dum Phoebi Caesar mendacia ludit, Dum nova divorum coenat adulteria; jmsitque ediscere lauros.) In these concluding Omiria se a terris tune numina declinarunt; lines of the same poem nothing at first seems Fugit et auratos Jupiter ipse thronos. THE CLASSICAL REVIEW Here then are the gods we were looking 2. A musical contest between Pollid and for. They were not the twelve great gods Virgil, of which Pollio's part is naturally enumerated by Ennius, otherwise Pan and missing. Silvanus would not have been among them. The original poem which Pollio is said in The presence of Jupiter would have been the fifth Eclogue to have been engaged in extremely disconcerting and inconvenient for writing on the Golden Age was no doubt, the host Apollo Augustus, whoever might as Mr. J. B. Mayor says, a translation of a have personated the father of gods and men. Greek Sibylline prophecy; itself a translation It may therefore be assumed that in the of Hebrew prophecy by some Alexandrian Olympian formula he was dining and sleeping Jew made to meet the boom in Sibylline with the Ethiopians that night. oracles caused by the burning of the originals Here then are the gods whom the unborn in the Capitol, and such as may have been herald of the Golden Age was to see face to brought to Pollio's attention by his Jewish face freely mingling in the society of heroes. relations, as Mr. Garrod points out. Pollio's But where are the heroes ? poem is lost, and the treatment unrecorded, This fancy-dress dinner party was very but it is certain that it made a great im- private, and all present were bound to pression on Virgil, and he at once prepared secrecy—this alone could account for the an amoeboean answer—his own fourth fact that it was universally known and talked Eclogue, also derived from Sibylline oracle about next day—and we can easily discern and Messianic prophecy, transferred to the from hints given by Virgil and Suetonius the expected son of Octavianus. He calls on general character of the entertainment. The his Sicilian Muses for a higher strain, worthy dinner would be of six courses in accordance of consular woods—no ordinary consular with the customary simplicity of Augustus. rods these, but forests sung of by the consul Between the courses would be interposed of the year, Pollio. Probably Pollio, Presi- amateur theatricals, pastoral scenes rendered dent of the Arcadian Club, first recited his by his own literary friends. The banquet poem, and then in answer Virgil recited the hall would be prepared as Arcadia—Par- fourth Eclogue. The hitherto inexplicable nassus and Maenalus' boldly depicted in abruptness of the fourth line ( Ultima Cumaei foreground or background. Only two or venit jam carminis aetas), introducing the three scenes are clearly indicated by Virgil. Sibylline prophecy, becomes on this supposi- i. The presentation of Hesiod's pipe to tion perfectly natural. It is the answer to Gallus. E. 6. 64. Scene: Room in Caesar's Pollio's Sibylline poem—similarity of subject House. Arcadia with Parnassus in the fore- being one of the rules of amoeboean contest. ground. Gallus, who is never represented as The introductory appeal to the Sicilian Muses a shepherd or true Arcadian, but rather as an corresponds to the ' Haec Damon : vos, quae occasional visitor with pastoral longings, is respondent Alphesiboeus, Dicite, Pierides; introduced by one of the Muses, probably non omnia possumus omnes' of E. 8. 62 and Calliope, as she is named in the next scene. 63. Which of the poets won the contest is The rest of the choir, the other eight, acting left uncertain, but the' lines, ' Pan etiam under the stage directions of the manager— Arcadia mecum si judice certet, Pan etiam the choragus, mentioned in line 1 of the Arcadia dicat se judice victum' (E. 4. 58 and Epigram—rise in a body to do the divine 59), which may have been added afterwards, poet honour. Linus, a beautiful youth, leave the impression that Virgil was van- crowned with flowers and parsley, makes an quished indeed, but hoped to win before the appropriate speech to Gallus, and presents same Arcadian audience another time. That him on behalf of the Parnassians with an Virgil thought well of his own attempt to antique musical instrument, fabled to have transfer Hebrew literature to Latin, and that belonged to Hesiod, and bids him so sing of he may even have won this contest, is im- the grove of Grynia ' that there may be none plied in the line, ' Primus Idumaeas referam tibi, Mantua, palmas' (G. 3. 12), where there in which Apollo may take more delight'— i that is, Augustus Apollo. is the same limitation, modo vita supersit' THE CLASSICAL REVIEW 43 (G. 3. 10). That he admired but thought that he was extremely abstemious and often less well of Pollio's poem than of his own took nothing at all at dinner, and was in- appears from E. 8. 9 and 10, ' When will the tensely bored by more than three courses, time come when I may be allowed to log roll though on state occasions he endured six. your poems, alone worthy of Sophocles ?' It was his ordinary habit to interpose which implies that they needed the assistance between the courses music, or recitations, or of a friendly appreciator—and even in spite acting, or even variety entertainments from of that assistance, the first half of the fourth the circus, or more usually competitions Eclogue composed by Pollio has perished between professional conversationalists (et with the rest of his works. aut acroamata et histriones, aut etiam triviales 3. The love-stricken Gallus. ex Circo ludios interponebat, ac frequentius Scene as before—the dining-room of aretalogos). What more natural than that Augustus prepared as Arcadia. A rock of on the great occasion when he was personat- Maenalus with a few sheep in the fore- ing Apollo, and in the absence of Jupiter ground. Gallus as a soldier on leave, yet in (who was presumably dining out with the uniform, or possibly attired in the full Ethiopians) was himself playing the part of panoply of Mars, dying, as in his own elegies, host to other Latin Olympians, he should of love for Lycoris, but nearer his end than have wished to justify his divinity by pre- usual because she has suddenly vanished. siding over Arcadians, Parnassians and Enter the literary shepherds and Arcadian Muses, his own familiar company and literary herdsmen, all dripping from the winter acorn surroundings, and to relieve the tedium of gathering, and Virgil himself in the character the banquet by introducing his amateur of Menalcas, as in E. 3. 5 and 9. All friends instead of professional artists ? It was enquire of Gallus concerning his mad love. winter time ('hiberna de glande'—'Perque Up came Augustus Apollo, and with his nives alium'), and perhaps this was the new superior War Office knowledge of the move- imperial mode of celebrating the Saturnalia ment of troops, or like Eelios, who sees and from which our own Christmas pantomimes hears all things, tells Gallus that his lady- may be descended. love has gone off with a soldier through the It may be objected that the explanation snow. Up came Silvanus, the most pictur- here offered of some of the most beautiful esque figure of all, with forest crown and passages in the Eclogues tends to detract brandishing flowery fennel and tall lilies in from the poetical merits of Virgil. No ex- his hand. Up too came Pan, god of Arcadia planation could do that. Art is only con- (Pollio?), whom Virgil with his own eyes, cerned with results, and is sternly indifferent and all that company saw, blushing with to the antecedents of inspiration. Nor does scarlet elder-berries and vermilion red, and the glory of the nimbus with which Virgil has tried to console the hopeless lover. Whereon gratefully surrounded the heads of each of Gallus makes answer that he would have his early friends and benefactors become less been delighted to have joined the Arcadian radiant because it is also a glowing memorial Society had it not been for his military of the Olympian disguises under which they engagements. It is quite possible that had once in very deed masqueraded. the words and language of Gallus may have been taken from his own Elegiacs and PS.—If it be asked why every effort should put into hexameters by Virgil; a treatment have been made to keep the meetings of the of his poems which Gallus is here represented Arcadians secret at the time, the answer must as meditating himself (E. 10. 50). be that acting and all to do with acting was It might seem to some unlikely that for Roman citizens disreputable and illegal: Augustus would allow his imperial dinner to and it is tempting to refer to the parallel be interrupted by amateur theatrical per- reticence long observed in this country formances of his literary friends posing in concerning the contributions of Bacon to pastoral scenes or plays, but the truth is Shakespeare on somewhat similar grounds. R. W. R.