Tennyson, To Vergil.
Vergil, as the author of the Bucolics and the Aeneid, is already known to the student. The Georgics were composed after the former and before the latter, since they were begun in 36 B.C. and finished in 29 B.C. Hesiod's Works and Days supplied a partial model, and the influence of Lucretius was powerful. The poet shows an intense enthusiasm for his subject, which Mr. Merivale asserts to be the Glorification of Labor. The First Book treats of the tillage of the ground, the Second of the culture of trees and of the vine, the Third of the care of the animals bred by the farmer, and the Fourth and last of bee-keeping. Elegant episodes diversify the poem, the longest of which we extract. The dedication of the Georgics is to Maecenas. Their extent is about 2200 lines.
For Reference: Conington's Vergil, Fifth Edition, revised by Haverfield, George Bell and Sons, London, 1898, Vol. I, pp. 135-165, and notes upon Georgics, 4. 315-558.
Metre: Dactylic Hexameter, B. 368; A. & G. 615.
1. Servius twice tells us (Eclogues 10. 1 and Georgics 4. 1) that the poet Cornelius Gallus was Vergil's friend, and that the latter half of the fourth Georgic was originally written in his praise, but that this was suppressed at the command of Augustus and the tale of Aristaeus substituted. Gallus, we remember, appears in the sixth and tenth Eclogues. The story of his disgrace by the emperor and his suicide is a familiar one.
Aristaeus, having lost his bees 'by disease and hunger,' is commanded by the nymph Cyrene, his mother, to obtain from the sea-god Proteus the reason for this manifestation of divine displeasure. He learns that it is because Eurydice, the wife of Orpheus, has perished as a result of his amorous pursuit; and the story of Orpheus' descent to the lower world to recover her is narrated to him. Then Cyrene instructs him how to secure a new swarm. 1. hanc…artem: this method of obtaining new swarms of bees by slaying cattle and allowing bees to form in their decaying bodies. 3. Peneia Tempo: Tempe is a beautiful valley in Thessaly through which the river Peneus flows. 5. extremi: i.e. the rising river. amnis: the Peneus. 7. gurgitis: flood. 9. Thymbraeus: Thymbra was a city near Troy where there was a temple of Apollo. 10. fatis: by the fates, B. 189, 2; A. & G. 375. nostri: objective genitive, 11. caelum sperare: Aristaeus was deified after death. 12. honorem: honor from the possession of wealth. 14. relinquo: leave with reluctance, lose. 15. Quin age: Why not go on? in ironical remonstrance. 17. molire: wield, imperative. 18. taedia: loathing of my praise, B. 55, 4, c. The plural expresses the aversion on each occasion. 19. thalamo sub: in the deep river's chamber. Sub governs thalamo, but follows it. Cyrene, as daughter of the river-god Peneus, dwells in subterranean chambers at the source of that stream. She is at this time in the thalamo described in 60 ff. Aristaeus enters through the river, thought of as emerging from the earth a full-grown stream, the waters arching over his head to admit him. He passes beneath the earth where he sees groves and lakes, and rivers which are presently to issue as the various streams of the upper world. 20. Milesia: the wool of Miletus, a city on the west coast of Asia Minor, was famous. 21. carpebant: were plucking the fleeces, i.e. spinning. hyali…colore: dyed with the rich, glass-green color. 22. A similar catalogue of names is in Iliad, 18. 39 ff. Drymoque: que is long according to Greek usage before the double consonant beginning the next word. 28. auro ff.: arrayed in skins embroidered with threads of gold. 31 ff. Odyssey, 8. 34. mollia pensa: their soft tasks. See Lex. pendo II, pensum, B, 1. 35. impulit: struck his mother's ears. 39. procul: sc. dixit. frustra: idly, without reason. 42. nomine: ablative of specification. 43. nova: strange. 44. age: quick. 46. qua ff.: purpose clause, that the youth might enter there. 48. misit: let him pass, lit. sent him. He enters the earth through the opening by which the Peneus finds exit. 52. sub…terra: so Plato in the myth of the Phaedo conceives of rivers as penetrating the depths of the earth. 53 ff. For the rivers named see Lex. 57. cornua: accusative of specification. voltu: dative, B. 49, 2; A. & G. 89. 60. in thalami pendentia pumice tecta: tecta may be regarded either as participle or noun. In the former case thalami tecta, 'the covered things of the chamber,' equals thalamum teclum, 'the covered chamber,' as strata viarum equals stratae viae; pendentia pumice tecta, roofs or covered things hanging with pumice (ablative of instrument) equals pendente pumice tecta, roofs of hanging pumice (ablative of description). Translate: into the chamber roofed with arching pumice. 61. inanis: since so easily removed, accusative plural. 63. tonsis…villis: of shorn nap, smooth and soft. 64. onerant: B. 254, 4, a; A. & G. 317, d. 65. Panchaeis ignibus: incense-burning flames. Panchaea was a fabulous island, east of Arabia, rich in incense. 66. et mater: sc. dixit. Maeonii: Lydian. Bacchi: the wine, as Vestam (1. 70) is the fire, the deities being named for that over which they preside. 69. centum: simply expressing a large number. 71. subiecta: shooting up. 73 ff. This part of the story has its original in Odyssey 4. The Carpathian Sea is between Crete and Rhodes. 74. caeruleus: an epithet applied to Proteus as a god of the azure sea. 75. The yoked chariot of two-footed steeds equals the chariot yoked to two-footed steeds. 77. Pallenen: a peninsula of Emathia, or Macedonia. 79. quae…trahantur: what in the near future is drawn on in the chain of events. 83. eventusque secundet: and may make the issue favorable. 94. fulva cervice: ablative of description. 101. ambrosiae: used as an ointment, as Iliad, 14. 170, Aeneid, 12.419. 102. perduxit: anointed; Lex. perduco, I. C. 1. 105, 106. quo…reductos: whither many a billow marches before the wind and divides into files that fall back, cogo and reductos may be used in a military sense. The wind is the rear-guard of the marching files of billows formed as the main wave enters an indentation in the shore. As the wave divides, all the secondary waves pursue the original direction, but the outer ones are retarded, as compared with the middle ones, and seem to fall back. Statio, just below, is familiar as a military term. Or reductos sinus can mean the depths of the bay. 107. deprensis: weather-bound. 108. vasti…obiice saxi: by the barrier of a vast rock, i.e. behind a rock. 109. averaum a lumine: in the darkness. 114. faucibus: i.e. the deep-cut channels. Perhaps the author intends with a bold personification to speak of the almost dried-up rivers as dry-throated, siccis faucibus would then be well taken as ablative of description. 115. antra: plural in view of the many chambers. 117. rorem amarum: the bitter dew, beautifully used of the salt spray. 121. acuunt: whet the wolves, i. e. their hunger. 131. Nam quis equals quisnam, Who pray? Surprise is expressed. 133. neque est: nor is it possible, used with infinitive in Greek construction, Lex. 1 sum, I, B, 5, 6, e. 135. lassis rebus: shattered fortunes. 137. glauco: azure. 139. Non…nullius: double negative for greater emphasis. It is in very truth the wrath of a god that pursues thee. irae: B. 55,4, c; A. & G. 100, c. 141. haud quaquam ob meritum poenas: penalties by no means on account of thy guilt, i.e. less than thy guilt. 147-149. Rhodope and Pangaeus are mountains, the Getae a tribe, Hebrus a river,—all in Thrace. Athenian Orithyia, daughter of Erechtheus, king of Athens, was carried by Boreas to Thrace, where she bore Calais and Zetes. As a nymph of the country she is interested in the fate of the Thracian Orpheus and Eurydice. 153. Taenarias: a cavern on the promontory of Taenarus in Laconia was fabled to be the entrance of the infernal regions. 157. Erebi: Greek [Greek: Erebos], a place of darkness, i.e. the lower world. 159 ff. Cf. Aeneid 6. 309-312. 161 ff. Cf. Aeneid 6. 306-308. 165 ff. Cf. Aeneid 6. 438-439. 167, 168. intima Leti Tartara: the inmost prison cells of death. crinibus: dative. anguis: accusative of specification. 169. Eumenides: the Furies, deities who punish crime; even they are moved by Orpheus' song. Cerberus: the three-headed dog at the entrance of Hades who kept the spirits from escaping. 171. Ixion, for an attempt upon the chastity of Juno, was bound to an ever-revolving wheel. vento: ablative of cause. The logic is loose; because of the wind's stopping. 173. pone: adverb. Cf. Aeneid, 2. 208. 177. animi: locative genitive, B. 232, 3; A. & G. 358. 179. stagnis: ablative of source. 182. natantia: swimming. 188. praeterea vidit: saw him more, praeterea here equalling postea. 192. nabat: was sailing. 194. Strymonis: a river on the borders of Thrace. 196. agentem: that trees followed the music of Orpheus became one of the commonplaces of poetry. 197-201. Notice the sweetness of sound due to the alliteration, especially of the liquids. 202. hymenaei: nuptials. 203. Hyperboreas: Hyperborean, i.e. northern, lit. beyond the north wind. Tanaim: now the Don, a river named here, as are the Rhipaei monies of the following line, because belonging to the cold, distant, desolate North. 204. numquam viduata: never bereaved, with a thought of the bereaved Orpheus. The setting corresponds to the situation. The grim landscape is forever wedded to its desolation as Orpheus to his bereavement. 206. Ciconum: a Thracian people. munere: tribute to the dead. The word is used technically of funeral honors. 206-213. Cf. Lycidas, 61-63:
By the rout that made the hideous roar
His gory visage down the stream was sent,
Down the swift Hebrus to the Lesbian shore.
210. Oeagrius: Oeagrius was a king of Thrace and father of Orpheus. 213. referebant: echoed with. Cf. Pope, Ode on St. Cecilia's Day, 113-116:
Yet ev'n in death Eurydice he sung,
Eurydice still trembled on his tongue,
Eurydice the woods, Eurydice the floods,
Eurydice the rocks, and hollow mountains rung.
214. iactudedit: i.e. iecit. 219. choros…agitabat: used to dance. Agito means to occupy oneself with, as Plautus, Asinaria, 5. 1. 7. 221. Napaeas: Dell-nymphs, Greek [Greek: napaiai], belonging to a wooded vale. 225. Lycaei: a mountain of Arcadia. 234. facessit: he despatches. 235-239. The repetitions from 224-232 are in the Homeric manner. 241 ff. The bees are thought to form within the bodies and to force their way through the yielding sides. 244. uvam demittere: to let fall a cluster. The cluster formed by the bees when they alight in swarming resembles a bunch of grapes.