The Vergilian Society

Virgil vs.
Cicero, Lucretius, Theocritus, Plato, and Homer: Two Programmatic Plots in the
First Bucolic
Author(s): John B. Van Sickle
Source: Vergilius (1959-), Vol. 46 (2000), pp. 21-58
Published by: The Vergilian Society
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Virgil vs. Cicero, Lucretius, Theocritus, Plato,
and Homer: Two Programmatic Plots in the
First Bucolic
John B. Van Sickle
opinion foundno programto speak of in the firstec-

logue when I began my studies (Van Sickle 1967). The vacuum
left scope for those who claimed that that the entire book's
Scholarly
programcame onlyin eclogue six and was Callimachean(rebuttedby
Van Sickle 1977, 1978, 1995). I was relievedto findthat the book
did open with a powerfulprogram,revisingthe seventh idyll (Van
Sickle 1975). Simichidas' programmatic encounterwithLykidas on a
countryroad became, in Virgil's revision, Tityrus' authorizingen-
counterwith a god at Rome, signallinga new bucolic departure.Yet
two recentstudies go so far as to dismiss the seventh idyll's role,
offeringinstead reductive and contradictoryaccounts of Virgil's
opening program(Hubbard 1998, Cairns 1999). In response, the
present paper seeks to build more scrupulously on scholarly his-
tory,includingearly moderncommentatorswho have largelydisap-
peared fromconversationbutalso a recentadvance (Hunter 1999). I
focus attentionon an array of features,such as elementsof land-
scape, postures, sorts of musical art, and names, that enjoy tradi-
tional and quasi mythic status. I show how Virgil uses these
mythemesto fabricatea new poetic myth,drawingon analogues in
Theocritus,of course,butalso Callimachus,Plato, Homer, Lucretius,
and Cicero. I will also illustratehow Virgil deploys his mythic
themesin two programaticplots: theepic exile of Meliboeus and the
bucolic pilgrimageof Tityrus.
I. MYTHEMES IN THEOCRITUS, PLATO, AND HOMER

Two recentstudies have foundcontrastingprogramsin the firstec-
logue's openinglines:1
1 Cairns(1999)289; Hubbard
(1998)49-50. I am grateful
to bothforsharing
copiesoftheir
workwithme.
46(2000)21-58
Vergilius

22 JohnВ. Van Sickle
Meliboeus:
Tityre,tu patulae recubanssub tegminefagi
siluestremtenuimusammeditarisauena
B. 1.1-2
"Tityrus,while you lie thereat ease under the awning of a

spreadingbeech and practise countrysongs on a lightshep-
herd's pipe" (E. V. Rieu)
Tityre, as a proper name in the vocative case, posits a dramaticen-

counter.The name has seemed a sufficientsign of Theocritus for a
vast preponderanceof readers.To the neo-Latinpoet and professor
Eobanus Hessus, thevocativerecalledthe openingof the firstidyll,2
fromwhich othershave also detectedechoes in Virgil's patterns of
sound:3
'A5u ti то члбирюца ка' á ttítuç,cxíttóàe,Trjva,

á TTOTiTaíç Tiayaïai, ЦЕЛ(а8Етш,á8 'j Se ка' tú
aupíaBEç
Id. 1.1-3
Sweet somehow rustlingmusic, goatherd,that pine tree

makes,the one by the springs,and sweetlyyou, too, pipe
These similaritieslet us inferan initialprogram.They signalnot just

a randomapproachto Theocritus.By matchingthe poem that stood
firstin Theocritus' collections,Virgilsignalsthe startof a new col-
lection;4and this implies an idea of the book as a hallmarkof tradi-
tion.5
2 Hessus(1528);ontheconvention ofnamingin firstlinescf.Clausen(1994)

34.
E.g., Skutsch(1956) 193-201;Pöschl(1964) 10; andnowHubbard (1998)
48.
4
Cf.,e.g.,Clausen(1994)29,n. 1.
Cf.,e.g.,Clausen(1994)xxiv;Farrell (1991) 17: "Vergiluses allusionto
createhisownvisionofthat[literary] to makethepastanew,to call
history,
intobeinga tradition
towhichhewishestobeheir."

Plots in the FirstBucolic
Two Programmatic 23
At the same time, specific departuresimply that Virgil's pro-

grammust also be revisionary,that he approaches traditiononly to
get beyondand outdo.6Signs of changebesiege the mind,each capa-
ble of initiatinga narrative.Theocritus,for example, opens with a
qualityof naturalsound,whichhe identifiesmetaphoricallyas sweet
music and compareswithmusic made by man. This lets us inferthat
he claimed a local naturalnessand sweetness, positioning his art
againstHomer's epics, with theiropeningthemesof wrathand tra-
vail.7 Virgil,then, by contrastemphasizes the drama of encounter
itself.8He shiftsthe vocative to thehead of the verse and makes it a
proper name; and he employs the pronoun,tu, to begina sketch of
the characterthat triggersemphatic contrast. This emphasis on a
dramaof encounterpositions Virgilagainstthe estheticfocus of the
idyll;and such a differencesignalsa literaryrelationship.Intensifica-
tion of drama, sharpeningdisparitybetween two characters,must
implyincreasedtension,if not anxiety,about approachingthe tradi-
tion itselfas representedby Tityrus , the Theocriteansign, even if
'
Tityruspromotionon theeroticscale mightseem to imply progress
in tradition.9To evaluate the implicationswe need to review what
Tityrosmeantin Theocritus.Only then can we properly weigh how
Virgilstagedhis approach to Theocritus,by inventinga clash in his
own mind between the energeticMeliboeus and the sedentary
Tityrus.
Virgil's initialTityreled such Renaissance commentatorsas An-
tonio Mancinelli and Petrus Ramus to the seventh idyll as well as
6 Cf.thewarning thattoo exclusivefocuson similarity"is simplyto close

one's eyesto theironicelementmadepossiblebyallusion":Farrell(1991)
10.
7 For philosophicalandpoetological ramificationsof sweetness,see Hunter
(1999)70-71.
Cf.e.g.Wright (1983) 108:Virgil"has invertedhis Greekmodel...insisting
ontheprimacy ofthehuman singer";"wearetoldat onceoftheTheocritean
modelbutareexpected tonoticeanimportant difference."
9 So Hubbard (1998)49-50,seeinga signofliterary progressionin whathe
callsa "dynamicoferotic yetotherdifferences
succession"; maketheimplied
newstatus seemlesssimply on Tityrus'
improved: ageandreligious obliga-
tions,poorland,as ironizingVirgil'srevisionofthegenre, see Van Sickle
(1978) 119-20;cf.thestudyof contrasts in Theocritus by Segal (1981)
176-209.

the third.Ramus consideredthe seventhmost relevantto Virgil's

contextbecause its Tityroswas a masterof bucolic song.10The song
of Tityrosin idyll 7 also struck Lodovico de la Cerda because it
closed withlanguagesimilarto theopeningof idyll 1i11
tu 5' Ú7TÒSpuaiv rjùttò тте'жш$

á5 ù laEÀiaSóiaevoç
котекекЛюо,0еТеКоцата
Id 7.88-89
...and you underoaks or underfirtreessweetlymakingmusic

would recline,godlikeKomatas
Such strongcross-reference suggeststhatTityrosin the seventhidyll

mustfulfillan importantprogrammatic function,at least forreaders
who expect such markedlinksto signalprograms.12 Theocritusgives
'
Tityros song the motif of "making sweet music," and he makes it the
climaxof an apostrophe that expresses longingfor an ideal poetry
froma mythicpast. The "contraryto factwish that Komatas were
alive to sing" caps, in RichardHunter's words, a poetic "foundation
myth."13Evidentlywe are expectedto relate such mythemesby me-
tonymyto Theocritus' own art.
The programmatic implicationsgrowwhenwe place the mythin
context.14The fullest context is the idyll's narrativeframework,
where Theocritus makes his fictionalemissary Simichidas tell of
journeyingfromthe cityto the harvestfeastthat gives the poem its
name. The narratorreportsmeetingen routethe emblematicgoatherd
Lykidas and how theyexchangedboth songs and banterabout poet-
ics. The motifsofjourneying,theencounter,and themetapoeticban-
10 Ramus
(1572):"nomentamenest sumptum è Theocriti aut
Idylliotertio,
potiussexto: ubi Tityruspro rusticicarminisperitissimo adhibetur."
Mancinelli(1544).
11 La Cerda
(1619).
12 Cf.the
magisterial analysisofTheocritean
cross-reference
by Segal (1981),
themythopoetic
especially ofidylls1 and7, 180-83.
interplay
13 Hunter
(1999)140,175-76.
14 an oftheactualcontext...
"Only awareness allowsthereader to appreciate
the
connectionVirgilis making,"Thomas(1986) 176;cf.thecorrective
to Tho-
masforearlierignoringcontextbyVanSickle(1980)91-95.

Two Programmatic 25
terdefineTheocritus'programagainstboth Hesiod and Homer.15In

a similarvein, apostrophes and challengesto Homer, both explicit
and implicit,bringthenarrativeto itsclose.16
At the heartof this programmatic framework,the apostrophe to
Komatas caps the sketchof a desiredperformanceby Tityros, which
Hunterdescribesas a song narrated"in indirectspeech [that] goes
back to Homer's account of the songs of Demodokos in Odyssey
'
8."17Tityros song,then,would revisetheclimacticmythof the first
'
idyll (.Daphnis strugglewith love) and match it against a myth
formedin the seventhidyll: mythicgoatherdsimprisonedby harsh
mastersbut saved by the Muses' sweet nectar.Togetherthe pairing
of poetic limitationand vindicationrecapitulates complementary
strandsin Theocriteanpoetics. It underlineswhat Charles Segal has
called "the importanceof Idylls 1 and 7 for creatingthe mythical
foundationof his poetics of pastoral."18Hunterwritesthat the goat-
herds' salvation is a "foundation myth for 'aipolic' poetry, as
Daphnis is thefoundingheroof bucolic song."19
'
In keepingwiththe foundationalimportof Tityros song, its cli-
max in the apostropheto Komatas plays a unique part in the idyll's
structure:20"The direct address to Komatas in 83-89," writes
Hunter,"fuses Tityros' song with a personal intrusionby Lykidas
15
Segal (1981) 112, 116-23;Gutzwiller (1991) 160-62;and Hunter(1999)
146-51,161-66;butnotadequately grasped byHubbard (1998)21.
16
Segal(1981)154;Hunter (1999)177-79.
17 Hunter (1999) 173.Hunter thendocuments numerous appropriationsofHo-
mericlanguage in thesongitself.Demodokos' themeswerecontention be-
tweenOdysseus andAchilles , Hephaistos trapping Aphrodite in bed with
Ares, andtheepisodeofthewoodenhorse.The latter makesOdysseus rather
thanAchilles crucialtoGreekvictory atTroy.Itthusis programmatic forthe
Odyssey andupstaging
, revising theIliad.
18 cf.alsohis detailed ofthetwoidylls,180-84.
Segal(1981)20, comparison
19 Hunter (1999) 175-76,adding(p. 178),"Oaks whichgrieved forDaphnis
(74) now offer shadefortheperformance ofpeaceful bucolicsong:thusis
'
Lykidas'ownemotional catharsis
plottedthrough song."YetLykidassong
wouldbe notstrictlv "bucolic"but"aioolic" inHunter's ownterms.
20 Ramus(1572)rightly referred
toTityrosin Id. 1 as "rusticicarminisperitis-
sima." Attention tocontext corrects
thecritics'tendency towriteTityrus off:
e.g.,Cairns(1999)andHubbard's "little
morethana name"(1998)49, as if
naming werenotpartofthegame.

(or Lykidas/Theocritus) into that song."21In otherwords, the apos-

trophe is a burst of metapoeticlongingthat mightbe felt to stem
from any of the voices representedor implied. Hunter's insight
wonderfullystimulatesimagination.Yet surelyhe would adjust his
formulato respect the factthatLykidas' song itselfis contained in
the outer narrativeby Simichidas22 Thus any of the narratorsin-
volved here- [Theocritus]Simichidas, Lykidas, or Tityros- might
be imaginedas transported intoan outburstof metapoeticlonging for
Komatas.
Not only do the voices fuse but also each conveys a story of
some vicissitudefollowedby calm in a recliningpose. Tityros' apos-
tropheto Komatas imaginesthe mythicgoatherdimprisonedby a
master,23 but then freedand reclining(kcctekekXigo) under"oaks and
firs,"which, notes Hunter,is "not just a locus amoenus,but an epic
juxtaposition (cf. II. 11.494, 23.328) in keeping with the general
'
style of the song."24In turn,Lykidas song projectedhis own free-
dom,once his loverleft,to lie back and celebrate,recliningby the fire
(ттар TTupiKEKÀiuÉvoç, 7.6625) and listeningto Tityrossing. Finally,
as theframingnarrativeof Simichidasvergesto its close, Theocritus
21 Hunter
(1999)173-74.
22 Howtorelate bucolicpersonae, e.g.,Simichidas, to Theocritus (notto men-
tionMeliboeusmd toVirgil)is a vexedproblem
Tityrus inneedoftheoretical
seeHunter
discipline: (1999)146;Michelazzo (1987)459aandPerkell(1990)
52,seconded byVanSickle(1990)56-57.
23 "The
'objectofdesire'is, ofcourse,alwaysthelover's'master',"notes
Hunter (1999)167,remarking therootanax-(master) thatlinkstheerstwhile
loverofï.vkidasandthecantor ofKnmntnv forthetreesr.fnevtnote
24 Hunter
(1999) 173;Hunter thendocuments numerous appropriations ofHo-
mericlanguage inthesongitself; cf.Segal(1981)204: "Not onlyis there a
Homeric echo{Iliad23.328),butthisis theonlyplacein thebucolicidylls
where theттеОкг)occurs,a treewhichTheocritus remarks foritsheight else-
where(<]цл)'а'ттеОкш,22.40." By contrast themusicians in thefirst idyll
movedtositona benchunder anelmnearoaks:
Seup'OttoTcxv ttteXeov Éa8có|jE0aтаЬте Пр1Г)ттсо
ка' tõv Kpaví5covkcxtevccvtiov,аттЕрó 0gokoç
Tfjvoçó ttoihevikòç
ка' та' 5pÚEç.
Therebeneath theelmletus sitdownjust in front ofPriapusandthe
springs,wherearethebenchthatone,theshepherds', andtheoaks.
Id. 1.21-23
25
Cf.,alsosymposial, ttívco
èv5opikekXii_iévo$,
Archilochus 2 West.

Two Programmatic 27
makes Simichidastell how Lykidas swerved leftwardsand took an-

other way (cxTroKÀívaç éíť àpiaTEpà, 7.130), but how Simichidas
with his companions reached the festival: á8eíaç avoívoio
Xaneuvíaiv èKÀívQnuec;(we reclinedon sweet rush beds along the
ground,7.133: line emphaticforits fourwords and spondaic end-
a
ing).
Theocritusrepresentsas realized in the idyll's framewhat was
only an envisionedideal for the goatherdsin the nested songs. He
bringsrecliningfromthe backgroundof goatherds'foundationalmy-
thology("aipolic") to the foreground, which he has characterizedas
bucolic throughSimichidas and which now crystallizes his new
foundationin bucolic art.26At this climacticmoment,he recasts the
motifof recliningin languagethat makes a powerfulepic juxtaposi-
tion:27"There is an echo of Od. 5.462-63 (Odysseus reaches the
safetyof Phaeacia) ó 5' ek ттотацою XiaaOeiç/ avoívco 0ттекХ(у8л
[havingturnedfromthe river he lay down on rush]." From this
Hunterdraws a programmatic inferenceforthe whole idyll: "Odys-
seus is the epic travelerpar excellenceand the echo positions T.'s
'epic journey' againstHomer."28
The echo thus remarkedcreates what Thomas Hubbard would
call a dynamic of literarysuccession.29It invites us to reflecton
similarityand differencebetween Simichidas and Odysseus and to
savor the paradoxes that tease and quicken the mind:30it confirms
the hintsthroughoutof positioning"against Homer," which tell us
that Theocritusis engagedin makinga variantversion of epic.31 It
was, then, froma whole contextof programmaticpositioningthat
the fused voices of Tityros,Lykidas, Simichidas and Theocritus
26
E.g.,ßouKoXiaa5cb|-iE0a
(7.36),ßouKoAeovTa (7.92):cf.Hunter(1999)5-8.
27 Cf.note24 above.
Ibid.;cf.p. 199,"Simichidas'Odyssey is alsoover."
29 Hubbard
(1998)49-50.
30 Such
reading minglesthe"ironic"andthe"affective" vectorsin allusion,
remarked byFarrell(1991)12-13,cf.note6 above.
31 On the
idyllsas "a transformation
ofepic,a shortened versionofthegrand
form withaccompanying deformationinsubjectmatter (elevationofcommon
charactersanddeflationofheroicones)andin style(theuse of seriouslan-
guagewithcomicorparodie seeGutzwiller
intent)," (1991)10.

projectedthe crucialapostrophe to Komatas, with its echo of Ho-

meric"oaks and firs"and itsmeldingof foundationalmotifsin a plot
of adventureand repose.
The motifof recliningas a markof adventure'send suggestsyet
another literarysuccession for Theocritus. Plato's Phaedrus was
importantforidyllseven and "in the historyof literarypresentation
of landscape," writesHunter,notingthat Theocritus like Plato em-
ploys the "stylised countrysideto illuminateliteraryexperience,"32
also that both poetry and philosophy engagewith the problem of
love's power.33Likewise, ChristopherRowe remarksPlato's use of
stylized ruralmotifsfor his philosophical investigationof love.34
Plato treatswith ironyhis hero's whole erotic-philosophicventure
fromthe ordinaryurbansettingsof dialogueto the stylized country
wheretheexchangewithPhaidros takes place. He imaginesSocrates
arrivingand remarking the conventionalfeaturesof the location. The
artfulprogressconcludes with Socrates assuminga recumbentpos-
ture (KccTaKÀivévTi).Emphasizing its conventionality,Plato makes
him ostentatiouslycall the position a ax гща.35 The word has multi-
ple meaningsthatfitPlato's contextand ours: posture,but also pre-
tense or pose, and also conventionalfigure,as in rhetoricor dance
(cf. LSJ s.v.).
32 Hunter
(1999) 14-17;cf.thethorough-going studyofpastoralanalogyin
Phaedrusby Gutzwiller (1991) 73-79; and"farfrom representing
country
matters, it usescountry
matters to representa newkindofart,"Van Sickle
(1967)493,alsoPutnam (1975)170.
33
Ibid;cf.forirony inregardtoPhaedrus , note44 below.
34 Rowe on "Plato's
(1986)135-41; emulation ofHomer," described"in ago-
nisticterms" by"'Longinus'"(13.4),"whooften Hellenistic
preserved criti-
calthought," seeGutzwiller(1991)155.
KccTaKÀivÉvTi tt]vKEcpaXriv
ттаукаАсо$ ěxeiv("justrightto restone's head
upon,"230c,trans. Rowe)andà<pu<ó|_iEvoçèycbnévnoiБокаЬ кататоЕобса,
où 5' èvÓTToícp avnuaTio'íeiраата àvayvcóoEO0ai, тоО0'êàóhevoçàvayíy-
VCooke ("Nowthatwe'vegothere,I think thatI'm goingto lie downforthe
present, andyouchoosewhatever poseyouthinkeasiestforreading," 23Oe,
trans.Rowe).

Two Programmatic 29
II. TWO MYTHIC PLOTS CROSS: VENTURE AND REPOSE
Virgil,then,had good reason to beginas he did. Adapting moments

thatwere definingforTheocriteanpoetics,he set out to create a new
foundationalmythology.This would authorizehis own new venture
and even promote it over Theocritus. The motifof reclininglinks
Tityrusto the plot of ventureand repose as we have seen it in idyll
7, the Phaedrus, and the Odyssey. Yet Simichidas, Socrates, and
Odysseus each moved througha single plot involving successive
moments:firstthe venture,thenthe repose. Virgilinnovatesby jux-
taposing two plots and makingthemintersectat differentstages of
their development. He imaginesMeliboeus just forced into flight
comingupon Tityrusalready ensconced. The plots thus cross but
also clash, opening questions about their respective futures and
pasts: Meliboeus venturingforth(because of what, with what pros-
pect of futurerepose?) but Tityrusresting(afterwhat adventurethat
securedrepose?). Both plots demandattentionif we hope to grasp
theinnovativepower and rangeof Virgil's program.
The firstclues to Meliboeus' plot come fromhis openingwords.
Althoughthey draw fromTheocritusmotifsthat portrayTityrusas
a figureof bucolic myth,theLatin implies a particularbackgroundin
the speaker. The mythemeof reclining,for example, acquires an
ironictwist. Recubans is a "rather unusual verb," notes Clausen,
"here perhaps with a connotationof luxuriousease"; and he cites
fromCicero's De Oratore an ironicalsnippet, which is even more
pertinentifread in full:36
in hortulisquiescet suis, ubi uult,ubi etiamrecubansmolliter

et delicate nos auocat a rostris,a iudiciis,a curia,fortassesa-
pienter,hac praesertimre publica.
De Orat. 3.63
36 Clausen
(1994)34, also adducingProp.3.3.1 mollirecubansHeliconisin
umbra("lollingin Helicon'ssoftshade");forthe"ideologicalpurpose"
of
theecphrasis,
seePutnam (1975)171.

[Cyrenaicphilosophy] will rest in its littlegardens,where it

wantsto be, wherealso lollingsoftlyand preciously it beck-
ons us away fromtherostra,fromthe courts,fromthe senate
house, perhapssagely,especially in view of the present state
of public affairs.)
To picture Tityrusas "lolling" makes him resemblethe otiose phi-

losopher,37but also impliesin Meliboeus an ambivalencelike that of
Cicero himself In traditionalRoman fashion,it preferspublic in-
volvementto leisureyet betrays awareness of the parlous state of
affairsin the late republic.Such awareness foreshadowsthe history
'
thatwill unfoldin Meliboeus subsequentwords. The contemporary
situationin Rome beginsto loom as an index of literarysuccession
and a factorin programmatic change.
III. MYTHIC SHELTER: SPREADING BEECH

Virgilalso transfersthemotifof the shelteringtree fromKomatas to
Tityrus, again with differencesthat color the profile of Meliboeus.
Patulae suggestsa treeof spreadinghabit,which has precedentsnot
in Theocritus,but in late republicanRome, in Plato, and in Homer. It
occurs in Varro's practical advice for summerpasturage, to drive
flockssub umbríferasrupes et arborespatulas (beneath shade-giving
crags and spreadingtrees: RR 2.2.1 1).38But the spreadingtree also
occurs in the De Oratore, as Fulvio Orsini and Petrus Ramus re-
marked.39Cicero contrivedhis settingin express allusion to the
Phaedrus. He placed the dialogueundera plane tree with spreading
branches (patulis ramis, 1.7.28) and he underlinedthe artificeby
makinghis speakeropine thatPlato's treegrew less fromthe nearby
streamletthan fromthe power of Plato's speech (Platonis oratione
creuisse). "Very spreadingand tall" (Rowe) was how Plato had pic-
turedhis tree;40and the stylized ruralmotifshe arrayedwith it in-
37 Cf.ubiuultandludere theboastofTityrus,B. 1.10.

quae uellem,
Cf.rupesatB. 1.56,76; andforthestructuring roleofrupesin theBucolics
,
VanSickle(1995) 16-17.
39 Ramus
(1572)ad loc. andOrsini(1567)ad loc.; cf.thediscussionbyBerg
(1974) 118-20.
40 те ка' иц;г)Лг)
TTÀâTavoç aÜTTináX'àiaqnXacpriç; (230b).

Two Programmatic
Plots in the FirstBucolic 31
eluded grass, runningwater, breezes, and a shrine.41His selection

reflectedthefashionin such "ideal poetic landscapes" but also their
association withinspirationand propheticvision.42
The motifof the spreadingbrancheshad not recommendeditself
to Theocritus.He variedarborealshelterwithsuch species as poplar
and elm,43which are more loftythan wide, or the mythicoaks and
firsof Komatas (withtheirHomeric resonance).44He also employed
41 Cf.thelike in Lucretius'
arrayofmotifs version ofthefamiliar locus,which
hedesigns as theantithesis ofluxury:
cumtamen interse prostrati ingraminemolli
propteraquaeriuum subramisarboris altae
nonmagnis opibusiucunde corporacurant.
Whenhowever stretched outamong themselves onsoftturf
nexttoa stream ofwater beneath thebranches ofa talltree
withnogreat resources sweetly theyrefreshtheirbodies.
DRN2.29-31(cf.5.1392-94)
Hereramisandaltaetogether suggest Plato'sccnq>iXa<pr)sте ка' ицлг^Лas
opposedtotheemphasis on spreading habitalonein CiceroandVirgil.For
Putnam(1975) 171,Lucretius' ecphrasis"is no literallandscape" but "a
modelofmind, a conscious metamorphosis oftheTheocritean landscape into
a symbolofphilosophical stance."
42 Rowe
(1986) 135-41; cf.note32 above.On thegeographical grounding of
suchmythic topics,seeBuxton (1994)80-113;cf.theirpresence in Callima-
chus,fr.229(Branchos andthefounding ofApollo'stemplein a grovebya
doublespring).
43 úttòtcxvTTTEÀéav theelm, 1.21), ÜTTEp0E...a'íyEipoi
(beneath тттеХеште
(poplarsand elms above,7.135-36, cf. 7.8). Cf. Callimachus,Hymn
6.25-28,KaÀòváXaos...8Év5pEaiv (fairgrovewidespreadwith
cxn<piXaq>Éç
trees,cf.ànq>iÀa(pr)ç,Phaedrus230b) .../ èv ttítuç, èv цЕуаХсаttteXécu
Eaav,èv 5è ка' öxvai,/ èv 5è каХа уХикицаХа...и5сор (in it werepine,
greatelms,andin it pears,andin it fairsweetapples... water),37 rjçbé tis
aïyEipoç,ЦЕуаSÉvSpEov a'iBÉpiKupov(poplar, greattreetouching thesky);
and(Acontius) флуо^ штока0гщеуо$ fittteXécciç(sittingundereither oaks
[butcf.Latinfagus,beech]orelms:Aristaenetus 1.10.57,Pfeiffer
fr.73 п.).
44 Id.
7.88; cf.theidealplaceofKomatas(5.45), toutei SpÚEç(therewere
oaks),as opposedto his opponent's place(5.32),teTS'úttòtcxvkótivovка'
таЛаЕатаита kccSíÇocç (there beneath thewildoliveandthesegrovessitting
down), where bothplacesalsofeature waterandsounds ofcricketsorbeesand
birds,onegrass,theother shade,as ifTheocritus intended mostcloselyto re-
call thePhaedrusin theencounter of two characters mostantithetical to
Plato'sabstractionofloveawayfrom grossphysicality.

thepine variously,not forshade,45but forits sound (1.1), as a sup-

portfora fecklesssinger(3.38), and forits cones (5.49).
Virgil'spatulae thus lacked the authorityof Theocritus,46but it
promptedOrsinito look, not only to Cicero and Moschus, but also
to Homer's TavúcpuÀÀoç ("without-stretching foliage"). Homer used
theadjectiveonlyfourtimesand in two complementarycontexts:of
an olive tree (èXaia) over the harbor's head where Odysseus arrived
in Ithaca {Od. 13.102, 396) and of the olive treethe hero had fash-
ioned into his bed at home (23.190, 195). A lively process of com-
paring ensues, positioningagainst Odysseus both Tityrus' secured
repose withAmaryllisand the Odyssey of Meliboeus still to tell. In
fine, the motif of out-stretchedfoliage by-passes Theocritus for
Cicero, Plato and Homer. It gives Virgil's opening voice a broad
reach- Greek and Latin, culturaland generic.The implied literary
ecosystemcan hardlybe reducedto the merelybucolic precinctof a
manneristdependenton Theocritus.47
Developingthemotifof shade,Virgil assigns Meliboeus a further
literarytrace that opens yet anothermultiplesuccession. Sub teg-
mine recalls and revises Lucretius, Cicero, and the style of older
Latin epic.48Againsttheirpicturesof the widerphysical world,Vir-
gil positions his cover of one tree. Ramus classified tegmen as
synechdocheof theclass forone of its instances,generispro specie,
whereGreeksoftenreferredconcretelyto the shady tree or grove.49
45 Cf. KEÎae5è ттарKEÍvaттощеукз тптш(lay by thatshepherds

bycontrast,
pine),Leonidas86.4 G.-P. (A.PL [A] 230),citedby Gutzwiller (1991) 74;
alsoMyrinus, evSioçoívottóttiç aKiEpàv tcxvttítuveü5ei(wine-drinker
i/ttò
at noon-tide,sleepsundertheshadypine,Gow-PagePhilip2570 = AP
7.103.3).
46 whichin
By metathesis,patulaerecallsttteXécci,whichrecallsттХатауод,
turnrecallstheauthor ofthePhaedrus.
47 WhichwasGutzwiller' s viewofVirgil,faulted
byVanSickle(1999) 16-17.
48 Coleman ad loc. sub caeli, Cicero,Aratea47, in
(1977) compares tegmine
N.D. 2.112,andLucretius 2.663.Clausen(1994) addsvariants atArat.233,
239, 346 andLucretius 1.988,5.1016,noting,too,Arat.114-15,foliorum
arbustaornata,andhe remarks
tegmine... thatLucretius 2.661-63is "remi-
niscentofofthehigharchaic style."
49
E.g. Èvvéheïак1Ерф(in shadygrove,11.11.480);àXaoç úttòaiciEpòv (be-
neathshadygrove, Od. 20.278);úttòcjKiEpfj
kekXiiíévou ттХатауср(reclining
beneath shadyplane,A.P. 103.3);èúgkiov ãXaoç (well-shading grove,Id.

Two Programmatic 33
As a trope of literaryrelationship,tegmenmay thus suggest the

slightnessof bucolic as opposed to more expansivemodes of epic in
Latin,butalso a certainabstractness,if not theoreticaland rhetorical
mannerism,as opposed to more naturalisticpoetics among the
Greeks.
Virgilnextattributesthe cover to a specific tree, which implies
furtherliteraryrevision.Like Theocritus,he avoids Plato's choice,
despite the plane's rich literarybackgroundand development. A
plane tree,along witha springat a sacred site, had figuredas a place
of prophecyin epic: a "handsome plane" over the Achaian altars by
a springat Aulis.50 In this settinga serpent destroyed eightfledg-
lingsand a motherbird,which Kalchas interpretedas the years be-
forethe Achaeans could take Troy. AfterPlato, Philitas,to whom
Theocritus deferredin the seventh idyll,51would locate his own
singingaboutlove undera plane;52Moschus, as Orsini noted, would
make a fishermanenvisionsweet sleep with the echo of streamsun-
der a thick-leavedplane;53and Meleager in an epigramthat played
against the Phaedrus would envision the plane as a refugefrom
love.54
7.8).
50 úttòттХатау(атср ö0evpéevàyXaòvиБсор, II. 2.307.
KaAfj
51 See Hunter
(1999)onId. 3.40-51and7.3-4,10-11,40.
Cf.Hermesianax (Powell7.75-77)onPhilitas:
oïaSa 6èка' tòvàoiSòv,ôv ЕириттиЛои TToXiřjTai
KcõoixóXkeiov aTTiaavùttòttAotóvco
BiTTÍSaцоАтта£оута 0oť)v
Herethestatuerepresents thesubjectofthepoet'swork.Planetreesoccur
sometwelve timesintheepigrams oftheGreekanthology.
53 1.1-2 Gow: úttòттХатауср
Moschus, Apos. аитар ецо'yXuKÙç uttvoç ßa-
0u<púXXcp,/ ка' TrayãçqnXÉoini tòv èyyú0Ev âxov cxkoúeiv (butmayI have
sweetsleepbeneath a deep-leaved planeandloveto hearthenearby echoof
thespring).
54
Meleager13.7-8G.-P.(=AP7.196):осрраcpuycbv tòv "Ерсотаi-iEaEiaßpivov
uTTvov àypEÚaco / èv0á5'úttòаюЕраkekXihévoç ттХатсзуср (So thatfleeing
LoveI mayhuntoutmidday sleepthere stretched
outbeneath a shadyplane
tree):cf.friguscaptabisopacum , B. 1.52.Thesemotifs as wellas theecho-
ingofcicadasledAntonio La Pennatofinda linktoPhaedrus229-30:Maia
6 (1952)93, a suggestion rejectedbyGow-Page ad loc. Theymightbetter
haveremarked theimportance of sightin love forbothPlato,Phaedrus
(250-51),and Meleager, e.g., theMuiscussequence, 99-109 G.-P., espe-
ciallythefollowing: та ка' KcocpoïaiXoXeuvto/ оццата, vai ца то aòv

Despite, or perhapsbecause of, this prominencein tradition,the

plane tree did not commend itself to Virgil. Like Theocritus, he
avoided the commonplace,55only to differfrom Theocritus by
makingone tree a hallmark:thefagus (beech).56As a trope of liter-
arysuccession,thischoice of a signaturetree gives Virgil's project a
detail that is authenticallyItalic yet mightadd to Tityrus' mythic
aura. Beech suggestedthe victuals of an earlierage, so Servius; and
Ramus added that Pliny called beech the sweetest of nuts (N.H.
16.13).57
Moreover,fagus, throughits cognate (prjyós,draws literarydi-
mensionsfromGreek.OrsinicomparedatciEpcxv 5' ùttò cprjyóv("be-
neath shady oak," Id. 12.8). 58 There in a simile Theocritus defined
cpaiSpòv ÈTTiGKÚviov (Andyoureyesbabblingevento theblind,by your

beaming brow:108.3^ G.-P=AP 12.159).Gow and Page call cpai5pòv
èttiokúviov"apparently unique(andverysurprising)," sincethebrowis nor-
mally"knitted in frowning" (LSJ)rather than"beaming." The virtual oxy-
moronfollows themetaphor of"eyesthatwouldsingto eventhedeaf'and
underlines thevisualimpactofthisbrow,"bright, beaming, joyful,"thus
spurring lovethrough sight,as didthe"beaming boy"forwhomPlato'sdia-
loguewasnamed.
Platanusoccursonlytwiceelsewhere in Virgil:et sterilesplatanimalos
gessereualentis (G. 2.70);iamqueministrantemplatanum potantibus umbras
(G. 4.146),whichreflects thetree'straditionotherthanin Theocritus andthe
Bucolics.
56 So
described,e.g.,byHubbard (1998)41-^2, n. 14. ButHubbard contrasts
the"spreading habitofMediterranean beechtrees"withpinesthatare"tall,
narrow, low-branching" as ifunaware of"a familiarobjectin thescenery of
centralandsouthern Italy,"the"parasol pine(Pinuspinea)," whichfamously
spreads a high,attractively branching umbrella:Sargeaunt (1920) 101-2,and
cf.theshadypinesin Myrinus citedin note45 above.Hubbard also seems
unaware thatbeeches whennotsolitary growin densegroves,whereelon-
gatedtrunks stretch uptotall,narrow tops(cf.В. 2.3: densasumbrosa cacu-
minafagos; forthesymbolic function ofbeechin theBucolics , see Van
Sickle(1978)248, s.v. "'beech'...matter ofTityran mode...cf. 'bark';bu-
colic,symbols of;siluaeT
57 Cf.
Sargeaunt (1920)43-45,notto mention thefaggetaatopil monteCi-
minoin upperLatiumorthesinglebeechesandgrovesnearPescasseroli in
theAbruzzi. Putnam (1975)184,n. 5,refers to"thetimehonored association
notedby Serviusofbeechtreesandsoftprimitivism, a quasi-pastoralexis-
tencewherein nature's productiveness fosters
moreleisure thanlaborforman-
kind."
58 restored as Ionic,byeditors sinceHeinsius, etc.Botani-
<jKiEpf)v, Valkenauer,
cally,to be sure,cpriyóç refers to Quercusaegilops(LSJ),whilefagus is
Fagussylvatica , European beech.

Two Programmatic 35
not a locus of song but a traveler'sretreatfromthe scorchingsun.

This would add a furtherpoint of comparison for any "epic jour-
ney" by Virgil's characters,whetherTityrushome safe like Theocri-
tus' traveleror thelack of a haven forMeliboeus.
cpriyósalso suggestedPan , as Coleman remarks.59 Pan was im-
manentin thebackgroundof the firstidyll,so mightwell be wanted
here. Virgilin the course of the book will emphasize the tradition
thatPan inventedthebucolic pipe and he makes a point of assigning
Tityrusa pipe, as we shall see in a moment.60Wrightnotes, too, that
Callimachus imagined Acontius urging his love on cpriyoîç or
TTTeÀÉaiç,61and Virgilis about to play on this literarysuccession.
Finallyfaguslyr'Y°ï suggesteda Homerichorizon to a later Renais-
sance commentator,GermanusValens Guellius.62He thoughtback
to the fightingaroundTroy(II. 5.693), wherea cprjyóçstood near the
Skaian gate.63The lattersuccession will resonate with ever-greater
'
ironyas Virgil's two plots unfold.From withinMeliboeus plot, the
pasturage of Tityrusappears isolated and anomalous, even hy-
peridyllic,against a countrysidebeset by barbaricsoldiery (cf. В.
1.11-12, 70-72). However,fromwithinTityrus' plot, his haven will
appear as part of a landscape secured by mythic power from
Rome;64and thisnew Roman mythwill turnout to have old roots in
Homer and the war at Troy.
IV. MYTHIC MUSIC: PAN'S PIPE

Afterthe mythemesof shelter and posture, Virgil also takes for
Tityrustheprestigeof makingmusic. Here thedistinctiveLatin twist
adds stillsharperirony.For "то ßouKoXiKovcarmen,"as Orsini put
it, Virgil substitutes siluestrem musam. ßouKoXiKovreferredto
Theocritus' preeminenttype of herdsman,which was the роикоЛод
59 Coleman
(1977)71,adducing Philemon(Athenaeus 2.52e),whichis citedas
Nicander, Па vòs ауаХца (oaksdelight
cpriyoi ofPan,fr.69), withProper-
tius,fagusetArcádio pinusarnicadeo(1.18.20),byWright (1983) 109.
60 Cf.note86 below.
61
Wright (1983) 149;forothershadeinCallimachus,seenote43 above.
62
Guellius(1575)ad loc.
63 Cf.IL
6.237,9.354,11.170,21.549.
64 Cf.Traina
(1986)45-53;VanSickle(1984a)132-33.

("cowherd,"Daphnis) withhis surrogateSimichidas.65Siluestrisfits

Virgil's pervasive woodland locus for song, as Ramus remarked.66
Yet theadjectivealso connoteswildness- cf. Orsini's gloss, àypía
цоиаа ("uncultivated,of thefields")67- which strikesa disparaging
note. More ironicalstill,the phrase carriesa referenceto Lucretius
thathas been oftenremarkedand too littleweighedas a trope of lit-
erarysuccession withan ambivalentthrust:68
haec loca caprípedessatyrosnymphasquetenere

finitimifinguntet faunosesse loquuntur
quorumnoctiuagostrepituludoque iocanti
adfirmant uulgo taciturnasilentiarumpi;
chordarumquesonos fieridulcisquequerellas,
tibia quas funditdigitispulsatacanentum;
et genusagricolumlate sentiscere,cum Pan
pinea semifericapitisuelaminaquassans
unco saepe labro calamos percurrit hiantis,
fistulasiluestremne cesset funderemusam.
4.580-89
That these places goat-footedsatyrs and nymphs keep local

folk pretend and imply that fauns there are with whose
night-wandering dinandjestingplay they claim the voiceless
silences are oftensplit;and sounds of stringsoccur and sweet
lamentsthepipe, when struckby fingersof musicians,spills;
and far and wide the farmerfolk begin to hear, when Pan
tossingthepineyveils of his half-wild head with bent lip of-
65 Cf.note39 above.
66 Cf.Ramus
(1572)ad loc.;"Seventimestheideaofwoodsis associated sym-
withbucolicsong"saysWright
bolically (1983)109.
67 Orsini
(1575)ad loc.
68
Cf.,e.g.,Van Sickle(1978)250 s.v. "emulation...
in bucolic...;Virgil'sof
Catullus...,ofHomer...,ofLucretius..., ofTheocritus...;
cf.oppositioin
imitando,urbanitas
"; alsoThomas(1982)148,andonCatullus 64 andprior
epic,"Giangrande's oppositioin imitando,"the opportunity
to overhaul,
partlythrough thatentire
correction, Thomas(1986) 185.
tradition,"

Two Programmatic 37
ten runs along the breathyreeds, lest the Pan-pipe cease to

spill its wildwood muse.
Meritbelongs to Philip Damon forrecognizingthat such a reference

must be fraughtwith programmaticimport.69Damon argued that
whereTheocritusopened the firstidyllwith herdsmenhearkeningto
nature,Virgilevokes the superstitioushill folk of Lucretius. They
impose theirmythologicalconceits on the natural phenomenon of
echo. The irony towards Tityrusfits with the other attitudes as-
signedto Meliboeus and with theirsource in republicanRoman cul-
ture. Tropes multiplyfor literaryrelationship.Against Theocritus,
theLucretiancritiqueof pastoralmythmakes Virgil's project appear
less natural, more self-consciously invented and imposed. But
against Lucretius, Virgilrehabilitatesthe demystifiedmythology,
assigningTityrusthemusic of Pan , the pipe's inventor,and opening
the way to further '
mythologizingin Tityrustie to Rome.
Withthe motifof music-making itself,Virgilfurtherironizes his
literaryrelationships. Three variants occur in his Theocriteanrefer-
ence texts:the music of the pine and the longed-forKomatas (heAi-
og5-, Id. 1.2, 7.89), the anonymousgoatherd'spiping (aupiaS-, 1.3),
and the poetic process of Lykidas, describedironicallyas toilsome
ratherthansweet: èÇeTióvaaa (7.51), 70withitsparallel in nature,the
cicadas' music, exov ttóvov ("they had toil," 7.139). On the latter
Hunter remarks,"The transferenceof this epic phrase to the aes-
theticTTÓvoç- of song (51 n.) is wittilyparadoxical,as cicadas seem
to have been notoriouslylazy."71 True to the emergingprofile of
Meliboeus, Virgilopts for irony and does so in languagethat adds
anotherhintof public lifeat Rome. Meditaris suggestsconcentrated
mental effort,as in planning,intending,thinkingout, or practicing
( OLD s.v. meditor). A programmaticpassage from De Oratore
69 Damon
(1961)285-90.
70 Gow
(1952)2:61. Cf.thefoundation mythofKomatas , Kripia<pEpß0nEvo$
etoç cópiovèÇETTÓvaaaç ("on honeycomb fed,didstendurewithtoil the
springtime oftheyear,"7.85;trans.
Gow).
71 Hunter
(1999)194;forthesymbolic roleofcicadasin poetics,see Phaedrus
259a-d.

shows a normalcontextforthe verb even while suggestinganother

linkbetweenthatdialogueand Virgil's:
Age uero, ne semper forum, subsellia, rostra curiamque

meditere,quid esse potest in otio aut iucundius aut magis
proprium humanitatis,quam sermo facetus ас nulla in re
rudis?
De Orat. 1.32
But come, lest you be always strivingfor the forum,the

bench,theplatformand the senate,what in leisurecan be ei-
thersweeteror more properto humanitythan speech that is
well made and in nothingrough?
Meditaristhus imputes a laborious and urban characterto Tityrus'

craft.72On the other hand, Cicero's picture of leisure resembles
Theocriteansweetness and the portraitthat Virgilwill make Tityrus
draw of himself,in rebuttalto Meliboeus (В . 1.10).73
V. MEAGER STYLE
Ironies proliferatewith tenui, which takes a position against
Theocriteanesthetics.The ambiguoustenorof an instrumentand of
its sound replaces the sweetness prominentnot only in Theocritus
but even in Lucretius' dismissiveversionof pastoral.74Tenuis, like
siluestris, bears contradictory
connotations.It could imply the nega-
tive, "thin" and "poor" (as arguedby CristoforoLandino),75or the
72 Meditarisdrewtheglossexercesfrom La Cerda,likeothersfollowing the

leadofServius, whocitestheGreeksynonym ttóvoçandtheancient belief
thattheLatinderivedfrom theGreekbyexchange ofletters
(3.5.10Th.-H.).
73 Cf.Horace's oftheBucolics:epos...!...molleatquefacetum / Ver-
description
gilio adnuerunt gaudentes rureCamenae(epos...softand well-turned the
Camenaewhodelight incountry grantedVirgil:Serm.1.10.43-45).
74 Cf.
dulcisque querellas(DRN4.584);alsoá5ú ofnatural music(Id. 1.1),and
ofhuman music,Id. 1.2,7; 7.89; уЛикиMoTaaката атоцатодxê vÉKTap
(theMuse pouredsweetnectar on his mouth,7.82), thelatter two ofthe
mythic Komatas:cf.Hunter's remarks on the metapoetic implicationsof
sweetness,note7 above.
75 Sensitiveto a shadingin Virgil'slanguagethatsomelaterreaders rejector

Two Programmatic 39
positive, "refined" (which Iosse Bade affirmedagainst Landino,

glossingitwithdeductum,delicata).76Neutrally,it characterizedthe
fundamentalmatterof theimage in Lucretianphysics.77The negative
seconds the otherdeprecatingtendenciesin Meliboeus. The positive
anticipatesa recurrent estheticideal in the book,78much as siluestris
foreshadowedtherecurrent siluae of place.
tenuialso opens furtherliteraryhorizons. Recent commentators
see a specificlinkto the ideal of slightnessassociated with Callima-
chus;79and beyond his [aouaav ÀE7rraÀÉr)v ("slight muse," fr. 1.24
Pf.) lies an In
epic vignette. the Iliad on Achilles' greatshield,Homer
representedan entertainment forthe vintageby one who sang àett-
таХетп(pcovrj("with delicate voice" [Leaf], II. 18.571). The image is
marginalto theactionon theshield,whichis marginalto theepic as a
whole. Yet the shield's themes also include action like that around
Troy,so thatthe shield is sometimessaid to containthe poem. The
vintagesong thus invites comparisonwith the singingof the Iliad
itself; and its theme of slightnessfits any literaryinitiativethat
drawsenergyfromplayingcentersagainstmargins.80
VI. THE MYTHIC PAN-PIPE: GREEK REED TO LATIN OAT

It is a complex and multivalentcontext,then,that conditionsVirgil's
choice of a motifto cap his initialprogram.81We have inferredpro-
grammatichintsfromthe factthat he evoked the sounds of the first
ignore, Landino(1531)notesthattenuigreatly from

differs subtili
, becauseit
diminishes, as in attenuoandextenuo : "ergolaudatsubtileingenium, tenue
vitupérât."
76 BadiusAscensius (1544);cf.theCallimachean deductum carmen (songdrawn
outfine)ofB. 6.5.
77
E.g., nuncage,quamtenuinaturaconstet imago(notenowin howthina
nature theimageconsists, DRN4.110.
78 Thecommentators tenuiВ. 6.8:cf.deductum
compare , 6.5.
79 and
So, e.g.,Kenney (1983)50, Wright (1983) 109, notClausen(1994)
but
ad loc.;cf.fortheaestheticsofslightness, a convenientreviewin Hopkinson
(1988)7-9,89-91including II. 18.571;alsoPfeiffer
(1965)5.
80 Cf.Gutzwiller in
(1991)9-10,Theocritus making centralwhatwas marginal
Homer;andHubbard (1998)50,Virgilmaking promoting marginal elements
in Theocritus; VanSickle(1999) 14-17,Walcott promoting elements mar-
ginalinVirgil.
81 Ontheimportance ofcontext,seeagainnote14above.

idyll's openingonlyto intensify the dramaand shiftestheticempha-

sis fromsweet to thin.We have seen him transfermotifsof founda-
tion myth fromthe seventh idyll to his new Tityrus.For a final
mytheme,then,he turnsto the firstsubject of Tityros'song, which
was Daphnis; and thistakes him fromthe sounds that open the first
idyllto an enigmaticmotifat its climax.There the pipe figuredas a
significantattribute of thebucolic hero - the sole possession desig-
'
natedby Daphnis foran heir.TheocritusimaginedDaphnis last ges-
turebeforedeath as callingPan to leave Arcadia for Sicily to claim
the pipe (Id. 1.128-29). The account of the instrument is so elabo-
rate(and elusive) as to leave Hunter(for once) at a loss: "no reason
why Daphnis would say such a thingto Pan."82Yet the emphasis on
details of the pipe's construction,even to the middlevoicingof the
verb,фереи,seems calculatedto imply the mythof its inventionby
Pan , which Virgilwould emphasize as the backgroundfor his own
bucolicexercise.83
'
Daphnis call to the Arcadiangod takes the formof an apostro-
phe; and Hunterhas shown us that such apostrophes have founda-
tional implications.He saw a "foundationmyth" for "aipolic" po-
'
etryin Tityros apostrophe to Komatas and an "apparent wish that
'bucolic' had neverbeen invented"in the apostrophe to Pasiphae at
B. 6.45 ;84he also identifiedDaphnis as "the foundinghero of 'bu-
82 Hunter on DaphnisandPan in Theocritus:

(1999) 101-2;cf.three variants
dedicating pipesto him(Theoc.Epigr.2.1-3),warned to fleerapeby him
(Epigr. 3.3),provoking himbypiping(cf.thewarning againstdisturbinghis
noontide rest,Id. 1.15-17,whichis described inthesameterms as Daphnis'
restatEpigr.3.1-2).
Panprimum calamosceraconiungere pluris/ instituit
(В. 2.32-33),primus
calamosnonpassusinertis (В. 8.24).
84 Hunter ofthenestedvoicingin Id. 1 and
(1999) 174-76.Hunter's analysis
how it servedVirgilin B. 6 shouldrefine suggestionsmadeby Thomas
(1999)291-96,where hebacksawayfrom his ownandothers'uncritical in-
sistence onVirgil'sCallimacheanism, claiming todiscoverin В. 6 thefilter-
ingroleofthefictional narrator,Tityrus: butcf.VanSickle(2000)withrefer-
enceto diverspublications, e.g., Van Sickle(1995), correcting Clausen
(1994) Itwouldbe welliffrom Tityrus in B. 6 Thomasmovedto interpret
thestagy returnofMeliboeus in В. 1 as also a metapoeticmotif thatis both
recursive andproactive initsproper context (cf.note14 above),whichis the
developing book.He wouldthenfindVirgilpulling backfrom thepoeticsas-
sociated withTityrus inthefirsthalfbook, making wayfortheframing roleof

Two Programmatic 41
colic song.'"85Thus an apostrophefromDaphnis to Pan to take the

pipe implies a literarysuccession. It makes Daphnis, as the "found-
inghero" of a bucolic mode in Sicily,appearlaterthan (and therefore
secondaryto) the inventorof thebucolic instrument in Arcadia. This
sequence in foundationalmythology becomes available to Virgil
when he confersthe pipe on Tityrus.How he turnsit to furtherad-
vantagewill emergein thecourseof thebook.86
Although the pipe, qua mytheme,consolidates the profile of
Tityrusas a new foundationalfigure,Virgil's Latin again ironizes the
claim. To standforthe pipe by metonymy, he employs auena (oat).
Oats, howeverhad performedno such functionin eitherrurallifeor
literarytradition.In the Latin of Ennius, Cato, and Cicero, auena
was just a weed, and Serviusassociated it with straw,which serves,
at most,to make a squeak.87What allows such an inappropriatema-
terialto standforthemythicpipe is its placementin a contextwhere
the othermotifsare more plausibly, if still ironically,bucolic. To-
getherthey impose the metonymywith "oat" despite its lack of
MeliboeusinB. 7, 8, and10 (cf.note22 above).VirgilopensB. 6 byturn-

ingfrom hisoutline
'
forheroic andhistoricalepic(theideology andpoeticsof
Tityrus andTityrus god:B. 1-5)toward theambition to refoundthebucolic
strainofepiconArcadian ground (making a prequeltoTheocritus:cf.note86
below).
85 Hunter
(1999)176.
86
Virgilseizedtheopportunity to claimnotionalpriority overTheocritus by
gradually linkinghisnewbucolicwithArcadia. Virgil'sDaphnisdeified will
captivate Pan {В. 5.59); his dignified Daphniswillwelcome Arcadians into
an Italicforeground (В. 7); and Gallus, his Romanelegiacreplacement for
Daphnis , willperishinArcadia , butdo so at a notionaltimeimagined as
priorto thenymph Arethusa's flightto Sicily,whereTheocritus' Daphnis
dying bidherfarewell {Id. 1.117):seeVanSickle(1995)130-31.
87
Cf.,e.g., ubi uidetauenamloliumcrescere intertriticum, selegitsecernit
aufert(where heseesoats,darnel growing amidst wheat,heselects,separates,
andremoves: Ennius,Var.31-32 Vahlen);Cato,De Agr.37.5,auenamque
destringas (andstrip oats);Cicero,Fin.5.91; Virgil,B. 5.37, G. 1.154;so,
e.g.,Clausen1994ad loc.: "The wildoat."On auena Serviuscomments:
CULMO,STIPULA,underustici plerumque cantareconsuerunt: alibi stri-
dentimiserum stipuladisperdere carmen.But the passagehe cites {B.
3.25-27)represents notnormal bucolicmusicbutitsopposite,thedestruc-
tionofsong;cf.Smith (1970) 498-502; alsoDamon(1961)289, drawing on
the"detailedargument that'disperderecarmen' at 3.27 meansto 'waste' a
songbysinging inecholesssurroundings" ofDesport (1952)37.

"authority,age, usage, and even reason."88Indeed the problematic

natureof the metonymyadds to the tentativenotes in Virgil's im-
plicitprogram.On the positive side, however,auena and the others
impose Latin alternativesfortraditionalmotifs.As a programmatic
trademark, then,the whole contextcannot signalwhat Cairns infers:
"'Italian Doric' poetry, i.e. Theocriteanbucolic transplantedto It-
aly,"89but ratherbucolic myth Latinized, appropriated yet prob-
lematizedby tracesof thetensionsof contemporary Rome.
The ironiesin this tentativeprogramprompt a retranslation that
seeks to give themat least some of theirdue:
Meliboeus:
Tityre,tu patulae recubanssub tegminefagi
siluestremtenuimusammeditarisauena.
В . 1.1-2
Tityrus,you loll beneatha branchybeech's lid,

tryingfora woodsy muse withjust a squeaky oat.
VII. MELIBOEUS' CAUSE FOR CHANGE

Bucolic poetry seems improbable,even preposterous,froma view-
point that Virgilnow makes explicit. Showing why he represented
his approach to Theocritusthroughemphaticdrama,he bringsthe
plot of Meliboeus to the foreand links it with the crisis of the late
republic:
Nos patriaefineset dulcia linquimusarua,

nos patriamfugimus.
B. 1.3-4
88 Criteriaforweighing articulated
figurative
language byWills(1996)2. Need-
lessto say,onceVirgilusedauenain thisway,otherpoetsfollowed. One
mightalmostlaydowntheprinciple thatin Latinliterature
and its heirs,
everyuseofauenainmetonymy forPan-pipepaysimplicit
homageto Virgil;
butthatis anotherstudy.
89 Cairns
(1998)291-92.He forgetsthatTheocritus
neededno suchtransplant,
Idylls3,4, and5 beingsetinsouthernItaly.

Two Programmatic 43
We are leavingour homeland's borders and sweet plowed

fields.We are fleeingourhomeland.
The plural nos emphasizes contrastwith the singulartu; and against

the narrow securityimplied by lyingbeneath one tree, Virgil sets
vast insecurity.The techniquehas promptedrhetoricalcommentary,
e.g. antapodosis ex effectisMeliboei dissimilibus("contrastive re-
sponse fromtheunlikeeffectsof Meliboeus": Ramus), which recalls
Plato's ambivalence toward certain kinds of dialogue: tò tcòv
ксоцсрБсоуфор-riKÒvттрауца...тго1Еп; ctvTanoSiSóvTec;àÀXrjÀoiç
("the vulgarway we see on thecomic stage,exchanging jibes," Phae-
drus 236c, trans.Rowe). The clash of pronounsitselfintensi-fiesthe
departurefromTheocritus.He did not contrasttwo plots and char-
actersin the compass of one speech. Ensuingthemestake the break
further.To be sure, "spreading beech" was already more than
Theocritean.Virgil,though,goes on to evoke the breakdownof Ro-
man polity and tradition,reachingfor thematicranges foreignto
Theocritus.90And, if the contrastiveformimplies an affinitywith
comedy,thethemessuggestedtragedyto Fulvio Orsini:
TToIavge фсоцеуyaïav ekXeXoittotq
TToXuÊVoOöai,yf' 5è tíç, тгатрад 0' opoç;
Euripides,Aegeus fr.
What sortof land should we say you leftbehindto seek out

frequentrefuge?Whatwas your country?What boundaryof
yourfatherland?
The tragicnote overshadows the opening image of careless music,

with its primaryallusion to Theocritus,and reinforcesthe hints of
broaderliteraryscope.
To this amplifiedrange,the themeof dulcía arua (sweet plow-
lands) adds fondnessforhome as a place of regularwork in one's
own fields(remarkedby Badius). The themealso points beyond Lu-
cretius'critiqueof pastoralmythologyto his praise of the originsof
civilization,The latterbecomes a major text of referenceas Virgil
90 Cf."Meliboeus
wasa ciuis Coleman(1977)72.

amplifieshis new foundationmyth. When Lucretius imaginedthe

his metaphorsdescribedthe gentlingof crops but
riseof agriculture,
metaphoric"driving"or "herding"woods uphill to make room for
farming below:
indealiam atque aliam culturamdulcisagelli91

temptabantfructusqueferosmansuescereterra
cernebantindulgendoblandequecolendo.
inque dies magis in montemsuccederesiluas92
cogebant93infraquelocumconcederecultis
Thence again and again care of the sweet littlefield they at-
temptedand saw earthtame wild fruitswith cosseting and
soothingcare. And daily they drove the woods to proceed
moreuphilland cede the space below to cared-forplots.
DRN 5.1367-71
Sweetness and the diminutiveof fieldimpliedthe agriculturaltradi-

tionalismthatwas basic to Rome's idea of its past. Virgil's "leaving"
marksa breakwiththatculturalidentity.Yet departureas a trope of
literaryrelationshipis ambiguous.It functionslike the trope of liter-
ary demurral{recusado), which actually incorporatesand exempli-
fies the thematicand stylisticmaterialostensibly renounced.Thus
Virgildoes bringagricultural tradition(and itsliteraryscope) into his
programmatic reach.
The motif of "sweet plowlands" sharpens Virgil's departure
fromTheocritusin anotherrespect. "Sweetness," afterall, was the
leadingtheme in Theocritus' vision of art in harmonywith secure
naturalsettings;94and it reappeared in Lucretius' pastoral vignette
(idulcisque querellas, 4.584). Virgilpreferred"thinness" ( В . 1.2),
91
Onlyherein Lucretius,
cf.В. 9.3: onlytherein Virgil,as Clausen(1994)
256,wherethediminutive expresses butColemanadducedVarro,
pathos; RR
3.16,whereonlysmallsizewasexpressed.
92
Woods,thetypicalbucoliclocus,cf.Ramus(note66 above).
93 Cf.
Tityre,cogepecus,B. 3.20,cogiteouis,pueri,3.98; cogeredoneeouis
stabulis6.85.
94 Cf.note7 above.

Two Programmatic 45
with its roots in Callimachus,Homer, and Lucretian physics. Yet

now he bringsback "sweetness,"but doubly transposed. He contin-
ues its association withagriculturalpropertyas in Lucretius' "sweet
littlefield,"butreducesit froma source of traditionalpleasure in na-
ture,art,and workto an indexof nostalgiafortraditionbroken,work
interrupted, and property lost. As a trope of literaryrelationship,
these transfersof "sweetness" position Virgil poignantly against
bothLucretiusand Theocritus.
The motifof losing"fatherland"and "sweet plowlands" opened
further horizonsforOrsini:"notumest Homericumillud in Odyssea,
coç où5èv yXÚKiovř's TraTpíBoç"("that nothingis sweeter than
one's fatherland"[9.34]).95 This was Odysseus introducinghimself
to the Phaeaceans ; but Orsini noted, too, that Cicero applied the
motifto the agonies of the Roman republic,remindingthe Roman
senate of his own exile afterhis return:"quod uertitM. Tullius in
Orat. post redit,in Senat., Qui patriam, qua nihilpotest esse iu-
"
cundius&c. Virgilthuspositionshimselfwithrespect both to con-
temporaryRoman historyand to the same Homeric plot that was
the major referencetextforthe seventhidyll. Only here the link to
'
Odysseus is Meliboeus nostalgiaratherthan the repose of Simichi-
das and Tityrus.
The impact of contemporaryRome becomes still more specific
in thenextline,wherethemotifof exile caps Meliboeus ' self-portrait
and becomes the propellingcause forhis plot. Exile means that you
are forcedout wroteLandino, so fugimus(we are goinginto exile) is
morethanmerelyleaving( linquimus), whichcould be voluntary.The
language struckOrsinias anothertrace of Greek: "cpeiiyEiv тгатр(8а,
pro eo, quod exulare est" ("'flee the fatherland,'for 'go into exile'");
and Guellius saw a tragicjuxtaposition:Aiav 5e XiTTouaai/ xôva
aúyxopTov lupia cpeuyonEv, ("Leaving the godlikeearthnear Syria
we go intoexile," Aeschylus, Supp. 4-5). Exile gives Virgil's project
the weightof tragedyand sufferedhistoryin the system of literary
95 Cf.ттоХХа5'
еитгЛокацои àXòç Èv TTEXayeaai
TToXifjç / ÔEaaánEvoi
уХик-
Epòvvóotov(muchamidstthestretches offair-haired
hoarysea prayingfa-
sweethomecoming, Archilochus
8 West),itself
anepicjuxtaposition,
cf.Od.
1.4-5,ттоХХа
5'о у'èvttÓvtco
ttóQev
ãXyeaôvкатаBujjÓv/àpuÓnevoç теma^tìv
f^v
ка' vóotov
ÉTaípcov.

relationships.It positions Meliboeus with greatergravity against

Theocriteanexits caused by love,96but also against Odysseus, pit-
tingthethemeof revolutionary crisisagainstlegendarybut individual
plight.
VIII. TITYRUS ENHANCED VS.

THE GOATHERD-SINGER DISPOSSESSED
By contrast,now, withthe adventureplot, Virgilreturnsto develop
the mythemesof Tityrus '
posture, place, and, most emphatically,
art:
tu,Tityre,lentusin umbra
formosamresonaredoces Amaryllidasiluas.
B. 1.4-5
you, Tityrus,pliant in shade teach woods to echo "shapely

Amaryllis."
Time and space do not permitus hereto dwell on the recursiveand

incrementaldevelopmentof Tityrus' domain by a dynamic of suc-
cession withinthe text. Recubans gets reinterpreted by lentus, and
tegmen(cover) by the concrete"shadow, shade" {umbra). To the
weightedsyllables of siluestremrespondsformosam, which served
in the languageof husbandryto describeanimalsthat could be seen
to be well-formed,well-made,97 a usage that resonatesin the present
countrysetting. A matter-of-facttone would match well with the
followingresonare (echo), which is "transitivehere for the first
time,"98a usage thatconfersa colloquial tone.99
96
E.g., Daphnis(Id. 1.140),nameless goatherd (Id. 3.53). Cf.note80 above.
Hubbard fallsfarshort
ofseeingthaterotic successionis onlyoneofthedefin-
ingtropesinVirgil'smetapoetics.
97 Mercariuisusmihisum
formosam capram(I supposed I wastrading
a well-
formed she-goat: Plautus,Merc.229), ipseecus,nonformonsus, gradarius,
optimus uector(itselfthehorse,notwell formed, steady,excellent
carrier:
Lucilius476Marx):citedbyMarchetta (1994)91.
98 Clausen
(1994)36.
99 Marchetta
(1994)51-52.

Two Programmatic 47
The verb,then,would make a virtueof echo and thus correctLu-

cretiusfordebunkingbucolic mythologyas echoic fiction.100 "You
teach" {doces, 5) interpretsechoic poetry as a positive force,which
is more than the tentativeexerciseimplied by "you practice,work
up" (meditaris, 2). The idea of teachingwoods also counters Lu-
cretius'accountof culturalorigins,specificallythenotionthatnature
taughtmusic to primitivemen ( DRN 5.1361-62, 1382-83). The pic-
ture of a lover teachingtrees creates,too, a dynamic of succession
withCallimachus.101 He represented Acontinsseated beneathoaks or
elms and saying,"O trees,would that mind,too, mightbe yours, so
that you could say only, 'Cydippe is fair'" (fr. 73 Pf.). Tityrusap-
pears more contentedin love, less hyperbolic,more lentus (sc. laid
back, cf. "at one with nature").102 The differencesimply Virgil's ad-
vantage in the literaryrelationship:his hero satisfiedin love and in
harmonywith the woods that are the basic settingand materialof
bucolic art.103
'
Finally, the name of Tityrus beloved evokes the Theocritean
contexton which Hubbard focused (Id. 3.1-5). Theocritusportrays
theenamoredgoatherdas actinglike a lover in the city, a comast,104
distractedfromnormalbucolic work. Theocritusmakes the goatherd
expostulateoutside the cave of the elusive Amaryllisuntil a twitch
triggersthoughtof singing,whichTheocritusrepresentsin a pastiche
of poetics sharedwiththe firstand seventhidylls: схаейцш ttoti tccv
TTÍTuv cb8' ccTTOKÀiv0EÍç
("here turnedaside I shall sing by the pine,"
Id. 3.38). 105The goatherd'ssong, notes Hunter,"is formallydistin-
100Cf.Damon
(note69 above);Putnam (1975) 163:"frommental pondering to
physicalvoicing."
101Forrelevant seeClausen(1994)65,sм. fagos.
bibliography,
102Clausen1994ad loc.andPutnam
(1975) 164:"verbally reflectinghis bifold
setting."
Cf.notes92 and66 above.
104Cf.Hunter
(1999)107-8.
105Raisethe andproduce
stylistic
register a moreelaborate performance":Hunter
(1999) 121;cf.II. 1.1,óeiSeInId. 1 Tityros wasto singhis songwithfoun-
dationalmyths andepicjuxtapositions (7.72) whileLykidasreclined (7.66);
Lykidas wouldturnaside(7.130)andSimichidas recline(7.133);in idyll1
thepinemademusic(1.2) andthemusicians sat (1.12, 21), cf.éaSóiaevoi,
6.4. Hunter overridesthedistinctions, lumping all togetheras "the sitting

guishedfromwhat has gone beforeboth by its stylisticpretension

(epicisms, Homeric phrases, etc.) and mythologicalsubject mat-
ter."106An echo of the initialambitionmarks the despairingclose:
oůkét' àeí5co ("I'm notgoingto sing any more,"Id. 3.52). 107
In responseto all this, Hubbard fixedtoo simply on the shiftin
eroticstatus. To be sure,Virgildoes promote the hireling(perhaps
about to satisfy sexual desires with goats) to the lot of contented
lover.108 But even moredrasticallyhe also identifiesonly to contrast
the goatherdfigures.Both express closing despair at ever singing
again; and the motifof singingpositions both of them both in and
against Homeric tradition:109 we have just quoted Hunter on the
"epicisms, Homeric phrases, etc. and mythologicalsubject matter"
thatmarkTheocritus'goatherd;and we have seen that not only epic
buttragicand otherliterarytracesmarkMeliboeus, as well as, above
all, the subject matternot of myth but of history.Roman history
ratherthan love provides the dominantcause in Meliboeus' plot,
markinga powerfuldynamicof literarysuccession and démarchein
literaryposition.
All together,thetraitsof Meliboeus representthe culturalmatrix
fromand againstwhich Virgilapproached his poetic career.In Meli-
boeus, we have discoveredhim outlining,and in the process bidding
to outdo, a far-ranging
and complex literaryecosystem.110We have
seen him weave togethertraces fromGreek and Latin, evokingepic,
tragedy,philosophy, rhetoricand poetics, above all the heritageof
postureofthebucolic-erotic poet";thus,too,he failsto differentiate

Tityrus
reclining(recubans,B. 1.2)from singers (3.55,omitting
sitting 5.3,7.1) and
Damonleaningon a staff (incumbens , 8.16). On thelatterhe misrepresents
Clausen,whocallstheposture unusualand compares I think)the
(rightly,
goatherd erect,
leaning, atId. 3.38.
106Hunter
(1999) 122.
107Hunter
(1999)128:"The present tenseindicates,'no moresingingforme',
butasiacodeserves atleasta placeintheapparatus," a suggestionthatwould
havedrawncomfort from carmina nullacanam,thefinaldespairof another
departing goatherd(В. 1.77,a lineleftunremarked bythecommentaries: but
wearegetting aheadofourstory).
108But cf.
quisquísamores/ aut metuet dulcesaut experietur amaros{В.
3.109-10).
109Cf.notes28 and116above.
110Cf.Farrell's"callintobeinga tradition," note5 above.

Two Programmatic 49
republican Rome, of Cicero, Lucretius, older Latin epic, and

Varro.111We have noted,too, the paradox that Virgilrepresentsthe
move fromthis legacy towards a new literarydomain not as chosen
butcompelled.He imaginesMeliboeus, likeAeneas, as forcedto flee
the old. By coloringchangewith the pain of exile caused by revolu-
tion at Rome, with all the attendantimmediacyand gravity,Virgil
gives his project the literaryadvantage of historicaldisadvantage
over againstthetraditionsfromwhichhe comes. Exile and revolution
providea mastertrope fora literarymove involvingmore than sim-
ply bucolic aims. The themesof nostalgiaforpropertyexpropriated
and of exile overshadow Theocritus' musical enclaves and erotic
death even as they eclipse the philosophical order of Lucretius.
Forced exile fromthe homelandin an historiccrisis outweighsthe
stagy withdrawalsfromthe city of a Socrates or a Simichidas, or
even the tragictones of Daphnis. Meliboeus' exile may fall shortof
Cicero's finalflight,yet foreshadownarrativeto outmatchthe toils
and turningsof Odysseus}n
The evolutionof Amaryllis , too, yields signs of literarysucces-
sion. Twice Theocritusmade her the object of an apostrophe: со
Xapíeaď 'AnapuÀÀí ("o charmingAmaryllis Both situations,
however, belied the etymologicalforceof the phrase, "to sparkle
with visible charm," since Theocritus imaginesher secluded in a
grotto(Id. 3.6-7) or dead 4.38-40).
Virgilreconcilesetymologyand character.He not only makes
Amaryllisavailable to Tityrusbut her attributeformosam empha-
111Onthemerit ofcastingwiderwebsinpursuit ofVirgilian see Me-

intertexts,
ban(2000)5.
112On the of Meliboeusas also signalling
importance Virgil'sdesigns,see
Michelazzo (1987)459a,withpartial also Perkell(1990)
priorbibliography;
52,seconded byVanSickle(1990)56-57;cf.thetreatment ofmultipletropes
ofsuccession, involvingboththeagingof Tityrus andthedisplacement of
Meliboeus, by Van Sickle(1978) 119-23; also the independently formed
opinionofChristopher M. Kuipers,
BMCR(00.10.01)5: "Vergil,then,in-
habits
thevoicesofbothTityrus andMeliboeus - just as anyauthor must
inhabitall ofhis or hercharacters.
Ifanything, Meliboeuscomesout the
"winner" in thereader'ssympathies,andthisname,in appropriately revi-
sionaryfashion,is notfound,
as Tityrusis,intheTheocriteancanonofshep-
herdnames.ThuswhenVergilclosestheGeorgics byrepeating Eclogue1.1
withthechange"I sangyou,Tityrus," thisseemsbestreadnotas "I sangas
you,Tityrus" but"I sangofyou(as Meliboeus)."

sizes visible beautyand thusrestoresthe forceof Theocritus' Greek.

By thus reunitingetymologyand situation,indeed emphasizingthe
visual, Virgilpositionshimselfnotonlyvis-à-visTheocritusbut also
withrespectto otherhorizons. The linkbetween love and sightwill
recur in the Bucolics}u It had also informedMeleager,114other
Theocriteancontexts,115 and, above all, the Phaedrus. The ideas im-
plicit formosam Amaryllida- "full of form" and "sparkling,
in
strikingtheeye" - recall Plato's views of love and cognition.Indeed
thename ФаТБрод("bright,beaming") overlaps the semanticfieldof
Amaryllis.In the resultingdynamicsof literarysuccession, Theocri-
tus occupies an intermediateposition. The Amaryllisof the third
idyll never responds to the epical-comical remonstrancesof the
goatherd,imaginedas bringingan urbaneroticgenreto a ruralsetting.
She remainsinvisible,elusive,unresponsive,and unperceivedin her
cave,116unlike the two beamingobjects of love, Plato's Phaidros
(bringingcity discourseto be correctedin the country) and Virgil's
available Amaryllisencodingby metathesisin Latin the names of the
cityand of love.117
IX. MELIBOEUS' NAME VS. TITYRUS' MYTHIC CAUSE

By now we have a contextagainstwhichto measuretheresponse:
:
Tityrus
O Meliboee, deus nobis haec otia fecit,

namque eritille mihisemperdeus, illiusaram
saepe tenernostrisab ouilibus imbuetagnus.
Ille meas errareboues, ut cernis,et ipsum,
luderequae uellemcalamo permisitagresti.
113B. 8.37-41.
114Cf.note54 above.
115Id.
11.25-27,2.82, 3.41-42,traced
also byHunter (1999)42, to theIliad
14.293-94(Hera'sseductionofZeus).
116For
avxpovcf.Id. 7.149, 11.44;Epigr.3.5 (Daphnis'shelter), 5.5. In Id.
8.72 a maidendoes look out from hercaveand call the herder "lovely,
lovely";LSJcallávTpova poeticword,Homer, "onlyin Od., as 9.216,al."
andtheyalsociteHesiod,Th.483,Pindar, P. 1.17,etc.
117InB. 2 theerotic andetymologicalelaborationwillmakeCory-
permutation
donfailtoswayformosum... Alexin.

Two Programmatic 51
B. 1.6-10
О Meliboeus, a god createdthis repose forus, forhe will al-

ways be a god to me, his altar oftentenderlamb fromour
sheep pens will stain.He let my cattleroam,as you observe,
and me myselfwhateverI wantedplay withcountryreed.
The interjectionand vocative serve to heightenthe drama and give

theprotagonista name. The remainderbeginsto address the implicit
questionposed by Meliboeus: since his plot rules out the possibility
of repose, what explainsthe position occupied by Tityrus.In pro-
grammaticterms,what etiology,what force,enables bucolic poetry
in Rome at such a time?
The interjectionworks in retrospect,amplifyingthe dramatic
forcethat markeddeparturefromTheocritus. The vocative assigns
the initial voice a name that pointedly is not Theocritean.118In
keepingwith the portraitof Meliboeus as a singerno longerable to
sing,119the name recalls with irony neXißoas ("sweet singer").120
Also, in keepingwith the epic and tragicechoes just noted in Meli-
boeus' language,traces of both genresmarkthe name. Accordingto
Politian,the shepherdthat found and nurturedOedipus was called
Meliboeus.121Also, Meliboea was the home in Thessaly of Philoc-
118The choice differentiation

fromTheocritus,writes
signals innovation,
Michelazzo (1987)460a,comparing Moem(В. 9), as also notin Theocritus
butlikeMeliboeus amongthemostsignificant ofVirgil'shu-
expressions
manity. Both,ofcourse, arevoicesofprotest crisiswithim-
at revolutionary
plicitcriticismoftheCaesarian faction.Bothareportrayed as goatherdsand
seers(В. 1.16-17,9.12-16,33-34,uatem'andcf.8.95-99).Eachalso serves
as a vehicleforappropriationandrevision oftheseventh idyll,first
to define
butthendefinitively dismantletheItalo-Roman moment inbucolictradition.
Cf.note116above.
10 G.
Costa,"Virgilioe Melibeo,"Atenee Roma9 (1906) 243-52,citedby
Michelazzo (1987)460b-c;also VanSickle(1978) 119, citingEuripides fr.
773.34(LSJ).Servius, undeterredbythefactthatVirgilassignsMeliboeus
goats(В. 1.12,74, 77; cf.7.7, 9), reportstheetymology as "caringforcat-
tle."To thisConington preferredanassociation withméài(honey):JohnCon-
ington andHenry Nettleship,TheWorks of Virgilwitha Commentary , Vol.
1 revisedbyF. Haverfield (18985)ad loc. BothnéXiandu¿Xeioccurin the
goatherd'sclosinglament {Id.3.52,54).
121Cf.Michelazzo
(1987)459b.

tetes.Legend had him fortifyor found a city in Italy that Virgil

would cite as a potentialthreatto Aeneas the precursorof Rome.122
At issue are alternativeways of transferring heroictraditionto Italy,
by claiming either Greek or Trojan roots. There was local identifica-
tion with Greek heroes like Philoctetesor with Trojans likeAntenor
Aeneas. Thus a trace of Greek myth,as opposed to Trojan, at-
taches to Meliboeus. The Trojan alternative,of course, includes the
mythiclinkagebetweenAeneas, Romulus, Rome, and the Julianline.
That mythologywould help position the Aeneid againstGreek epic;
and it entersVirgil's servicealreadyherein thefigureof Tityrus '
god,
whichis generallytakento representtheyoung Caesar (Octavian) of
theJulianline.
In Virgil'spoetic equation,the god serves to secure a new liter-
'
ary domain against the heritagerepresentedby Meliboeus flight.
The phrase haec otia ("this repose") describes the new domain in
language drawn fromthe domain lost. Otia dia ("bright repose,"
DRN 5.1387) had summedup Lucretius' picture of the firstrural
culture,123whichhas been featuring amongVirgil'sreferencetexts for
the portraitof Tityrus.But Lucretiusarguedthat naturehad created
the originalruralidyll.Now Virgilcreditsthe idyll of Tityrusto his
new,Juliangod.
What is more, Virgilpresents the god in termsthat recall Lu-
cretius'praise of Epicurus,deus, illefuitdeus ("a god, he was a god,"
5.8), thuscreatingyetanotherdynamicof succession. Lucretiusdei-
fiedthe philosopherwho gaineda vision of nature's laws througha
heroicjourney,returnedto share the insight,and counseled retreat
fromactive life. Virgil's god is an active public figuredignifiedby
mythiclinks to Roman and epic tradition.For Virgil,the contrast
and programmaticadvantageare palpable.124The new god enables
the literaryendeavorthat seemed impossible fromMeliboeus' re-
publicanRoman point of view. The new figureof protectingpower
122Aen.
3.401-2,ducisMeliboei...Philoctetae'
Michelazzo
(1987)460d.
123
Cf.,e.g., Putnam(1975) 172; Tusculanirequiem
atqueotium,Cicero,De
Orat.1.224;quae noslibridocentinumbraatqueotio,Balb. 15.
124Cf.
Benjamin "VergilandLucretius,"
Farrington, ActaClassica1 (1958)45;
citedas imitation,
withoutunderliningprogrammaticdifference,
by Wright
(1983)120.

Two Programmatic 53
opens a contrast,too, with the seventhidyll,where a harsh master

imprisonedKomatas, thatotherfoil and source forthe mythictraits
of Tityrus.
Virgilframeshis accountof the god in languagethat suggeststhe
formsof ritualand prayer: ille..Mlius..Alle ("he... his... he"). 125The
stylewell suitsthe ritualpatternsassigned to Tityrus , as we shall see
in a moment.By supplying Tityruswith sheep and pens, Virgilcre-
ates a figurebetterendowed with bucolic possessions than either
TheocriteanTityrosand in thisway, too, emblematicof literarypro-
gression.
In theclimacticthirdmemberof the tricolon,Virgilgives Tityrus
still greatermythic aura. More than sheep, cattle were the most
prestigiousbucolic property,which indeed gave the genreits name,
as we notedabove in remarking the links betweenthe foundinghero,
the cowherdDaphnis, and the emblematicSimichidas.126Thus "my
cattle" relates Tityrusto Daphnis and Simichidas, confirmingthe
otherhintsthatVirgilintendedto createa new foundationalfigure.127
Virgilalso augmentsthe space allottedTityrusto more than the ini-
tial single beech. "Roaming" {errare) bringsout what was already
implicitin siluas : "not dense woods but partly open hillside with
grazingamongthetrees."128
Finally,as the crowningelement,Virgilreturnsto music and the
pipe. They featuredalready,as we saw, amongthe mythictraitsas-
signed to Tityrus : the pipe evokingTheocritus' foundinghero and
behind him its inventor,Pan}29 Yet Virgilnow reinterpretsthese
'
mythemesin termsthat contrastwith Meliboeus language.Against
meditaris ("toil") he sets ludere quae uellem ("play what I
125Theso-calleder-Stil inthiscontext
, signalled byFedeli(1972)276-77,also
comparing Catullus51.1-2, ille...ille,following
EduardNorden, Agnostos
Theos(Berlin1913)163-66.
126Cf. notes65 and 39
above.Simichidas claimedpoeticinstructionby the
nymphs onanearlierforay from thecity:Id. 7.91-92,scrutinized
byHunter
(1999) 178-79.
127Yet is onlya "shepherd"
Tityrus forWright (1983) 110.
128Clausen
(1994)38. Makinga weakcaesura, errarerecallsyetclaimsmore
actualpresence thanresonare.
129Cf.notes85 and86 above.

wish");130and againstthe anomalous "squeaky oat" he sets the nor-

mal metonymyforan instrument, "rustic reed,"which pursues Vir-
gil's dialogue withthereferencetextof Lucretiuson culturalorigin:
et zephyri,caua per calamorum.sibila primům

agrestisdocuerecauas inflarecicutas.. .
tumioca, tumsermo,tumdulces esse cachinni
consuerant;agrestisenimtummusa uigebat.. . .
et superacalamos unco percurrere labro.131
(and the breezes,through the hollows of reeds,firsttaught
countryfolkto blow throughhollow hemlockstalks.. .
thenjests, thentalk,thensweet laughterwere wont
to happen; forrusticmusic thenwas going strong.. . .
and runwithcurvinglip along above thereeds.
DRN 5. 1382-83, 1407
For Lucretius, the "breezes" blowing on "reeds" were "first" to

teach "rustics" music, and "rusticmusic" then flourishedin a sym-
posial setting.132Since "first"and "taught"are characteristicmotifs
in storiesof poetic and culturalorigin,133
Lucretiusin effectsupplied
a storyof naturalisticoriginforpastoralmusic. He thusoccupied the
space leftvacant by his own earliercritiqueof pastoral mythology
as an echoic fiction,where he dismissedPan's music and, by impli-
cation, the god's traditionalrole as inventorof the pipe. In Lu-
cretius' new etiology,the "breezes" supplant Pan as the inventive
source and rusticsimitatenatureto make the firstpipes.
Virgilhas alreadybegunto counterLucretiusby revivingpastoral
mythologyand makingecho a positive force.Now he presses his
correctivefurtherby reclaimingcrucial elements from Lucretius'
naturalism,both "rustic" and "reed," which he uses to supplant his
own "squeaky oat" and thus solidifyhis appropriationof the pipe
130Cf.ubiuultnote36 above.
,
131Cf.Lucretius4.588 ofPan piping:there dissolvedthemyth,but
Lucretius
herehereabsorbsitselements
inhisnaturalistic
account
oforigins.
132Cf.note41 above.
133Cf.note83
above,andprimus attheetiological
center
ofB. 1.44.

Two Programmatic 55
of Daphnis and Pan. AssigningTityrusa "rusticreed" as opposed to

a "squeaky oat," Virgilreinforcesthesignsof originativeand founda-
tional authorityascribed to his new bucolic domain. In the drama,
'
therefore, Tityrustermsof artcontradictand correctMeliboeus, as if
to retort,"What squeaky oat? This is a bona fide reed pipe of the
sortthatPan firstmade."134
Since calamus accords with one of the ancient etymologiesof
Tityrus Virgilmay also be correctingthe associa-
, as Orsininoted,135
tionof Tityruswithgoat thatseemed implicitin thethirdidyll. If so,
the etymologicalcorrectivewould parallelthe treatmentof Amaryl-
the etymologyof her name. Grasp of
lis, restoredto behaviorfitting
the true forceof names would be a furthersign of propheticpower
reachingbeyondTheocritus.
X. IN FINE
In our empiricalstudy of the opening couplets, we find that Virgil
appropriatesand refashionsthe mythsof poetic foundationfromthe
firstand seventhidylls. ThroughMeliboeus he proceeds beyond the
'
foundationalmotifs of Komatas and Tityros song to assign to
'
Tityrus also motifs from Simichidas final repose. Virgilcasts this
crowningappropriationin the formof an apostrophe, recallingthe
apostrophe to Komatas, which,as we saw, was crucial to Theocri-
tus' foundationalpoetics: со цакарюте Коцата (7.83), fortunate
senex...fortunatesenex (1.46, 51).
'
We note, too, that Simichidas journey and definingencounter,
which positioned Theocritusin and against epic tradition,serve a
similarfunctionin Virgil,who recasts themas a foundationalmyth
(etiology) forhis new literarydomain. We see that the new myth
, positions Virgilagainstcrucialencountersin the literaryecosystem
with their links to Apollo (even to his laurel which the Muses
grantedHesiod on Helicon and which Branchos planted in the
earth).136
134Forthe ofPanforVirgil,
importance seenote83 above.
135Cf.Cairns
(1999)290-91,butalready Wright(1983) 108.
136Planted = TTiíÇas
cf.iraÇaim,
Id. 7.156,whichHunter (1999) 199relates
to
theendofOdysseus' whenhe plantstheoar;cf.therelationship
travels, of
laurelstoApolloinB. 6.83.

56 JohnB. Van Sickle
As a finalinvitationto furtherstudy,we remark,too, that both

Meliboeus and Tityrushave associations with prophecy.137This
'
joins the othermotifsthatfashionTityrus repose as a new mythof
poetic foundationand culturalorigin.In particular,the comparison
of Branchos and Apollo with Tityrusand his god at Rome positions
Virgilto establish identityas a Roman poetic founderagainst the
Greek,puttingintopracticethe idea recentlyretrievedby Varrothat
the old Latin word forpoet was uates (seer, prophet,bard). Already
here,in his firstexperimentwith the vatic role, Virgilgives voice to
the sufferedcontradictionsof passage fromthe republic to a new
versionof Rome's originalmonarchicstate.As uates he outlinesnew
mythicfoundationsin both politics and poetics: his oracle given
"first"and promisingbuocolic work "as before,yet more,"138will
prove prophetic,its programquintessential^ Augustan.
BrooklynCollege and The Graduate School,

CityUniversityof New York
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Virgil vs.

This content downloaded from 147.26.11.80 on Tue, 17 Sep 2013 20:44:30 PM

John B. Van Sickle

opinion foundno programto speak of in the firstec-

I. MYTHEMES IN THEOCRITUS, PLATO, AND HOMER

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"Tityrus,while you lie thereat ease under the awning of a

Tityre, as a proper name in the vocative case, posits a dramaticen-

'A5u ti то члбирюца ка' á ttítuç,cxíttóàe,Trjva,

Sweet somehow rustlingmusic, goatherd,that pine tree

These similaritieslet us inferan initialprogram.They signalnot just

2 Hessus(1528);ontheconvention ofnamingin firstlinescf.Clausen(1994)

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At the same time, specific departuresimply that Virgil's pro-

6 Cf.thewarning thattoo exclusivefocuson similarity"is simplyto close

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the third.Ramus consideredthe seventhmost relevantto Virgil's

tu 5' Ú7TÒSpuaiv rjùttò тте'жш$

...and you underoaks or underfirtreessweetlymakingmusic

Such strongcross-reference suggeststhatTityrosin the seventhidyll

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terdefineTheocritus'programagainstboth Hesiod and Homer.15In

This content downloaded from 147.26.11.80 on Tue, 17 Sep 2013 20:44:30 PM

(or Lykidas/Theocritus) into that song."21In otherwords, the apos-

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makes Simichidastell how Lykidas swerved leftwardsand took an-

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projectedthe crucialapostrophe to Komatas, with its echo of Ho-

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II. TWO MYTHIC PLOTS CROSS: VENTURE AND REPOSE

Virgil,then,had good reason to beginas he did. Adapting moments

in hortulisquiescet suis, ubi uult,ubi etiamrecubansmolliter

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[Cyrenaicphilosophy] will rest in its littlegardens,where it

To picture Tityrusas "lolling" makes him resemblethe otiose phi-

III. MYTHIC SHELTER: SPREADING BEECH

37 Cf.ubiuultandludere theboastofTityrus,B. 1.10.

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eluded grass, runningwater, breezes, and a shrine.41His selection

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thepine variously,not forshade,45but forits sound (1.1), as a sup-

45 Cf. KEÎae5è ттарKEÍvaттощеукз тптш(lay by thatshepherds

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As a trope of literaryrelationship,tegmenmay thus suggest the

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Despite, or perhapsbecause of, this prominencein tradition,the

cpaiSpòv ÈTTiGKÚviov (Andyoureyesbabblingevento theblind,by your

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not a locus of song but a traveler'sretreatfromthe scorchingsun.

IV. MYTHIC MUSIC: PAN'S PIPE

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("cowherd,"Daphnis) withhis surrogateSimichidas.65Siluestrisfits

haec loca caprípedessatyrosnymphasquetenere

That these places goat-footedsatyrs and nymphs keep local

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ten runs along the breathyreeds, lest the Pan-pipe cease to

Meritbelongs to Philip Damon forrecognizingthat such a reference

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shows a normalcontextforthe verb even while suggestinganother

Age uero, ne semper forum, subsellia, rostra curiamque

But come, lest you be always strivingfor the forum,the

Meditaristhus imputes a laborious and urban characterto Tityrus'

72 Meditarisdrewtheglossexercesfrom La Cerda,likeothersfollowing the