Eclogue 4

The biographical tradition asserts that Virgil began the hexameter Eclogues (or Bucolics) in 42 BC and it is thought that the collection was published around 39–38 BC, although this is controversial.Fowler 1996, p. 1602. The Eclogues (from the Greek word for "selections") are a group of ten poems roughly modeled on the bucolic hexameters ("pastoral poetry") of the Hellenistic poet Theocritus. The fourth of these Eclogues can be dated to around 41 to 40 BC, during a time "when the clouds of civil war seemed to be lifting".{{cite web|author=Williams, Robert Deryck|title=Virgil|url=http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/629832/Virgil/24449/Literary-career#ref388805|publisher=Encyclopædia Britannica|access-date=August 7, 2014}}

The 63-line poem (the shortest of the Eclogues) begins with an address to the Muses. The first few lines have been referred to as the "apology" of the poem; the work, much like Eclogue 6, is not so much concerned with pastoral themes, as it is with cosmological concepts, and lines 1–3 defend this change of pace.Steenkamp 2011, p. 101. In line 4, the speaker refers to the Cumaean Sibyl as the source for his unfolding prophecy concerning the magnus ordo saeclorum, or "great order of the ages". The following lines (ll. 5–10) introduce a cluster of ideas: Hesiod's Ages of Man; the concept of a magnus annus, or the "Great Year" that begins a great "golden" age; the Italian idea of saecula; Plato's idea that there is a periodic rule of Saturn; and finally "eastern messianic" views similar to those found in the Sibylline Oracles, a collection of supposed oracular utterances written in Greek hexameters ascribed to the prophetesses who uttered divine revelations in a frenzied state.Miller 2009, p. 255.{{cite CE1913|wstitle= Sibylline Oracles |volume= 13 |last= Healy |first= Patrick Joseph |short=1}}

{{Quote box|width=325px|bgcolor=#c6dbf7|align=right|quote="Now is come the last age of the Cumaean prophecy:

The great cycle of periods is born anew.

Now returns the Maid, returns the reign of Saturn:

Now from high heaven a new generation comes down.

Yet do thou at that boy's birth,

In whom the iron race shall begin to cease,

And the golden to arise over all the world,

Holy Lucina, be gracious; now thine own Apollo reigns."|source=Eclogue 4 (ll. 4–11), as translated by John William Mackail; in this section the poem makes reference to the Cumaean Sibyl, the birth of a savior child, and the dawning of the Golden Age.Mackail 2003, pp. 275–276.}}

Line 10 concludes with a reference to the god Apollo, a deity who would be elevated to a special place in the Roman pantheon during the rule of Augustus: tuus iam regnat Apollo ("Your Apollo now is ruling"). John Miller cautions, however, that this mention of Apollo—while the god's first "saecular {{sic}} appearance" in Latin literature—should not be read unequivocally as an allusion to Octavian, because {{circa}} 40 BC, both Octavian and Mark Antony were associated with the god, and that the former did not, at the time, enjoy "a monopoly on Apolline symbolism."Miller 2009, pp. 254–255. R. G. M. Nisbet argued that the rule of Apollo (regnat Apollo) mentioned in line 10 should not be seen as contradicting the rule of Saturn (Saturnia regna) mentioned in line 6; they are merely expressing the same general idea using two different cosmological outlooks. The former is adhering to a newer, non-Hesiodic model, whereas the latter is referring to the older, Hesiodic version.Nisbet 1978, p. 62.

Both lines 11 and 13–14 mention Gaius Asinius Pollio's leadership, but line 11 refers to his consulship at the time of the poem's writing, whereas lines 13–14 seem to refer to a time when Pollio will "still be alive and prominent in the State when the child is well-grown" and when the Golden Age will have arrived. Lines 15–17 reveal that the child will become divine and eventually rule over the world.Rose 1924, p. 114. Lines 18–45 provide coverage of the boy's growth.Arnold 1994, p. 144. At first, the child, in the cradle, will be allowed to enjoy munuscula, or little gifts. Importantly, the boy will grow skilled in reading, learning of the deeds of both heroes and his father. At this point in his life, the Golden Age will not have arrived in full; there will still be both sailing and walled towns, and thus, still war. Jenny Strauss Clay noted that the poem implies that the whole Heroic Age will have to be replayed; a new band of Argonauts will travel the seas, and a new Trojan War will occur. Given time, the need for sailing will dissipate. Then, the ground will grow more fertile: grapes will grow from brambles, oak trees will produce honey, corn will emerge from the ground by itself, poisonous plants and animals will disappear, and useful animals will be improved.Rose 1924, p. 115. Only when the need for agriculture ends will the Golden Age begin.Clay 2009, p. 13.

Lines 53–57 feature the image of a singing poet, which is reminiscent of how the eclogue began. The poet himself will compete in a rustic environment against Orpheus and Linus, and Pan will be the judge.Ebbeler 2010, pp. 193–194. Virgil's reference to Linus in this section symbolizes "the symbiosis of Hesiodic song culture and erudite, 'bookish' poetics of the so-called Alexandrian poets", resulting in a "uniquely Virgilian pastoral aesthetic."Ebbeler 2010, p. 187. Once the Golden Age will have arrived, the need for arms and soldiers will be obviated, and the competitive drive that—in the past—had fueled war will now fuel "harmless [poetic] competition for rustic prizes."Ebbeler 2010, p. 194. In lines 60–63 Virgil addresses the child directly, urging him to smile at his mother, who has endured a long pregnancy. The final lines have proven throughout the ages to be a "fascinating problem", and there is no clear consensus as to what exactly they mean.Stuart 1921 p. 209. Nisbet claims that the final line ("neither a god is worthy of his table, nor a goddess of his bed") is most likely a reference to a story about Hercules, who dined with Jupiter and took Juventas as his wife, although he noted it could also be a reference to a general Roman nursery saying.Nisbet 1978, pp. 70–71.

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| footer = Some scholars believe that the child prophesied in the poem was the hoped-for offspring of Mark Antony (left) and his wife Octavia the Younger (right).

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Grammarian and ancient Virgilian commentator, Maurus Servius Honoratus was one of the first to publish an interpretation of the poem, arguing that the entire work is a political allegory referring to the rule of the Princeps, although Miller points out that this is unlikely since the poem was written in 40 BC, prior to Octavian becoming Augustus.

For many years, a popular method in interpreting the poem was to see it as a cypher: many scholars attempted to deduce who exactly the child and his parents were.Arnold 1994, pp. 143–145. Some have proposed that the boy was supposed to be one of the sons of Pollio. A politician and patron of Virgil, Pollio was the father of two boys around the time of the Fourth Eclogue. The former died while in infancy, whereas the latter, Gaius Asinius Gallus Saloninus, died under the rule of Tiberius.Carus 1918, p. 6. Other scholars, however, felt that the child was more likely intended to be the male offspring of Mark Antony and Octavia the Younger.Morwood 2008, p. 11. Wendell Clausen, for instance, posited that the word pacatum in line 17 is a reference to Hercules, a deity from whom Mark Antony claimed descent; this word, therefore, was used by Clausen as evidence that the poem was talking about a child of Antonian (and therefore, Herculean) descent.Gransden 1992, p. 200. Interpreting the poem in this manner, however, has largely started to fall out of favor with modern scholars because, according to Bruce Arnold, "such interpretations usually rely either on broad considerations of genre or an analysis of small bits".

The poem has also been interpreted in more metaphorical ways.Arnold 1994, pp. 144–145. Some modern scholars believe that the poem celebrates the Treaty of Brundisium, which gave rise to the Second Triumvirate of Octavian, Mark Antony, and Marcus Aemilius Lepidus.Miller 2009, p. 254. Floyd, on the other hand, proposed that the puer mentioned throughout the poem is not an actual child, but rather Virgilian poetry itself. He noted that the word puer is elsewhere used by Virgil in the Eclogues to refer to shepherds, individuals who are closely associated with the art of poetry. Furthermore, he points out that the verb incipere, which is used three times in Eclogue 4, is itself associated with "poetic performances" in other Virgilian poems, like in Eclogue 3.58. Finally, Floyd—who subscribes to the theory that cui non risere parentes is what Virgil wrote—proposed that line 62 refers to a boy whose parents will smile, only "after due consideration", meaning that the child must earn its parents' smiles.Floyd 1997, p. 4.Floyd 1997, pp. 3–4. Floyd goes on to argue that it makes sense for the parents to either be Virgil or the Muses, individuals whose smiles must be earned; the Muses are critical of those whom they inspire, whereas Virgil—as a meticulous artist—was critical of himself.Floyd 1997, p. 3–5.

Image:William Strutt Peace 1896.jpg, as evidenced by line 22.]]

Line 22, which mentions that "the cattle will not fear huge lions", has been compared to both Isaiah 11:6 from the Hebrew Bible, which states that, "The calf and the young lion will grow up together and a little child will lead them", as well as a passage from the Sibylline Oracles 3.791-3, which reads: "The lion, devourer of flesh, will eat husks in the stall like an ox, and tiny children will lead them in chains." Rose proposed that, because Virgil was highly educated and had "a great taste for philosophic and quasi-philosophic studies", it is possible that he combined dozens of mystical and religious ideas in the poem, "joining Sibylline formulae to age-old beliefs about divine kings, taking hints from many doctrines of original sin … with astrological speculations of recent date, and coloring the whole with the theanthropic, or Messianic, expectations."Rose 1924, pp. 113–114. Due to this synthesis of ideas, Rose points out that it is possible that Virgil used the Hebrew Scriptures for part of the poem's inspiration.Rose 1924, p. 113. Cyrus H. Gordon later noted that the Eclogues, along with the Aeneid, "reflect Egyptian, Semitic, and Anatolian, as well as Greek, antecedents".{{cite encyclopedia|last1=Gordon|first1=Cyrus H.|title=Middle Eastern Religion|url=http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/381297/Middle-Eastern-religion#ref559719|encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica|access-date=August 7, 2014}}

Nisbet pointed out that the poem can be analyzed according to two different schools of thought: the "Easterners" (promoted notably by Eduard Norden) argue that the eclogue had to have been influenced by religions of the East, most notably Jewish messianism, whereas the "Westerners" (furthered by the work of Günther Jachmann) argue that the work was influenced largely by concepts familiar to the Greco-Roman West.Nisbet 1978, p. 59. Nisbet outlined reasons why certain sections, most notably the seemingly Isaian section in and around line 22, are best explained through the Easterners' method of interpretation. Other sections, however, such as lines 26–36—which Nisbet argued were written in a style akin to Greco-Roman prophecies (and whose wording suggests "the ideals of Virgil's own society")—should be viewed through the Westerners' lens.Nisbet 1978, pp. 66–67. Ultimately, Nisbet concluded that Virgil was not interested in Jewish eschatology "for its own sake"; however, he probably appropriated elements from Jewish prophecy via Eastern oracles, and adapted them towards Western (which is to say, Roman) modes of thought.Nisbet 1978, p. 71.

Clausen argued that the poem, were one to remove lines 1–3 and 58–9, would read much like an epithalamium, or a poem written specifically for a bride on the way to her marital chamber. However, the addition of the aforementioned lines changes the sense of the poem, making it pastoral. Thus, Clausen claims that Virgil himself added these new lines to tweak the poem and make it suitable for inclusion in the Eclogues.Gransden 1992, p. 200–201.

A major textual problem is in line 62, where all the manuscripts read {{lang|la|cui non risere parentes}} ({{gloss|for whom the parents have not smiled}}).For a full discussion of the problem see Scafoglio (2013). Most editors, however, have changed the text to {{lang|la|qui non risere parentes}} ({{gloss|those who have not smiled at their parents}}) or {{lang|la|qui non risere parenti}} ({{gloss|those who have not smiled for their parent}}).The reason for making the further change to {{lang|la|parenti}} is that {{lang|la|ridere}} with the accusative usually means 'to laugh at' or 'deride' rather than 'smile at'. Scafoglio (2013), pp. 80–81, however, defends {{lang|la|parentes}}. One strong argument for making this change is that Virgil here seems to be imitating Catullus 61.219, where a baby is encouraged to smile sweetly at its father ({{lang|la|dulce rideat ad patrem}}).Scafoglio (2013), p. 76. Another argument is that where Quintilian 9.3.8 quotes the line, even though the manuscripts there also have {{lang|la|cui}}, it seems certain from the point he is making about singular pronouns referring to plural antecedents that his text actually had {{lang|la|qui}}.

Some commentators, such as Floyd (1997), have defended the manuscript reading. However, most scholars disagree with Floyd. Nisbet, for instance, writes, "It is clear from the structure and sense of the passage that the baby is doing the laughing and not the parents (that is to say, the {{lang|la|cui}} of Virgil's manuscripts is impossible against the {{lang|la|qui}} implied by Quintilian 9.3.8)."Nisbet 1978, p. 70. He instead contends that the baby not laughing at his parents is a hint to the reader that "the infant is out of the ordinary."

A related question is whether line 60 ({{lang|la|incipe, parve puer, risu cognoscere matrem}}) means 'begin, little boy, to recognise your mother by her smile' or 'begin, little boy, to recognise your mother by your smile'. It is generally argued that the latter makes much better sense, not only from the context, but especially in view of the Catullus verse noted above.Scafoglio (2013), p. 76.

According to Cicero, Sibylline oracles were traditionally accompanied by an acrostic, generally the so called "gamma acrostic" where the same word or phrase can be read across and down.Cicero, {{lang|la|de Divinatione}} 2.112. See: Hejduk, J. D. (2018). [https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2307/26542626 "Was Vergil reading the Bible? Original sin and an astonishing acrostic in the Orpheus and Eurydice"]. Vergilius (1959-), 64, 71–102, p. 75. Scholars looking for acrostics in Eclogue 4 have found two, or possibly three, acrostics.The pseudo-Sibylline prophecy in poem 5 of Tibullus book 2 has also been found to contain an acrostic: {{lang|la|AVDI ME}} 'hear me!' contained in the initial letters of the first six pentameter lines. See Kronenberg, L. (2018). [https://www.jstor.org/stable/26572934 "Tibullus the Elegiac Vates: Acrostics in Tibullus 2.5"]. Mnemosyne, 71(3), 508–514. In 2017 Leah Kronenberg found a double-letter acrostic in the syllables DE CA TE which begin lines 9, 10, and 11, forming the Greek word {{lang|grc|δεκάτη}} ({{grc-transl|δεκάτη}}) {{gloss|tenth}}. The same word can be read horizontally both backwards and forwards in line 11 ({{lang|la|TEque Adeo DECus hoc Aevi TE consule inibit}} 'this glory of the age will enter with you (Pollio) as consul').Kronenberg (2017). It is thought that {{lang|grc|δεκάτη}} here is short for {{lang|grc|δεκάτη γενεά}} ({{grc-transl|δεκάτη γενεά}}) {{gloss|the tenth age or generation}}, a phrase which is in fact used in connection with the Sibylline prophecies by Phlegon of Tralles.Kronenberg (2017), p. 339.

The number ten was associated with the Sibyl. There were said to be ten sibyls, and, before Sulla changed it to 15, the college of priests who guarded the Sibylline Books was originally ten in number. The number ten occurs again in this eclogue in the "ten months" of the mother's gestation (line 61) and it is implied in the beginning of the prophecy in the words "the last (i.e. tenth) age of Cumaean song has come" (line 4)."The Sibylline books ... seem to have copied an Etruscan theory of a succession of ten {{lang|la|saecula}}, or periods of 110 years, the tenth of which was under the rule of Apollo (line 10 {{lang|la|tuus iam regnat Apollo}}) and eminently happy." Page (1898), p. 123. The names of Lucina (goddess of childbirth) and Apollo (god of prophecy) are both placed in the 10th line of the poem.

The second acrostic, found in 2019, is also a double-letter one using a transliterated Greek word: AS TER AS (lines 50–52), forming the Greek word {{lang|grc|ἀστέρας}} {{gloss|stars}}; the acrostic is confirmed by a horizontal AS TRA (i.e. {{lang|grc|ἄστρα}}, also meaning 'stars', hidden in line 51, as well as the word {{lang|la|caelum}} {{gloss|sky}} in the same line.{{lang|grc|ἄστρον}} (neuter) and {{lang|grc|ἀστήρ}} (masculine) both mean 'star' in Greek. Aratus uses both words ({{lang|grc|ἄστρα}} and {{lang|grc|ἀστέρας}}) in his Phaenomena, at the beginning of lines 11–12, just as Virgil does here. The acrostic begins and ends with the word {{lang|la|aspice}} {{gloss|behold!}} in lines 50 and 52; thus is can be read as 'behold the stars'.Words such as {{lang|la|aspice}} or {{lang|la|ecce}} (Ec. 9.47) often signal the presence of an acrostic: Danielewicz (2019), p. 362, note 5. The discoverer of this acrostic, Jerzy Danielewicz, points out that it is also possible to read the word AS TER ({{lang|grc|ἀστήρ}} {{gloss|star}}) three times in the acrostic, downwards, upwards, and right to left.Danielewicz (2019).

Another apparent acrostic, the Latin word {{lang|la|CACATA}}, has long been observed in lines 47–52, but it is disputed by scholars whether it is intentional or an "embarrassing accident".Kronenberg (2017), p. 337.The word means "defiled with excrement", and is famously used by Catullus 31.6 and 20. See Grishin, A. A. (2009), Acrostics in Virgil’s Poetry: The Problem of Authentication, MA thesis, Cambridge, MA, pp. 25–26.

{{main|Christian interpretations of Virgil's Fourth Eclogue}}

By the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries AD, Virgil had gained a reputation as a virtuous pagan, a term referring to pagans who were never evangelized and consequently during their lifetime had no opportunity to recognize Christ, but nevertheless led virtuous lives, so that it seemed objectionable to consider them damned.Vitto 1989, pp. 36–49. Eventually, some Christians sought to reconcile Virgil's works, especially the Eclogues, with the supposed Christianity present in them. For instance, during the Late Antiquity and beyond, many assumed that the puer referenced in the Fourth Eclogue was actually Jesus Christ.Conte 1999, p. 267. Many noted individuals, such as Constantine the Great, St. Augustine, Dante Alighieri and Alexander Pope believed in this interpretation of the eclogue.Bourne 1916, pp. 390–400.

{{reflist|20em}}

{{Refbegin|30em}}

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• {{cite journal|author=Scafoglio, Giampiero|date=2013|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5184/classicalj.109.1.0073|title=Since the Child Smiles: A Note on Virg. Ecl. 4.62–3|journal=The Classical Journal|volume=109|number=1|pages=73–87|access-date=November 6, 2023|doi=10.5184/classicalj.109.1.0073|jstor=10.5184/classicalj.109.1.0073 }}
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{{Refend}}

• {{Wikisourcelang-inline|en|Eclogues of Virgil (1908)/Eclogue 4|English translation of Eclogue 4}}
• {{Wikisourcelang-inline|la|Eclogae vel bucolica/Ecloga IV|Full Latin text of Eclogue 4}}
• [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:abo:phi,0690,001:4 Full Latin text of Eclogue 4], courtesy of the Perseus Project.

{{Virgil}}

Category:1st-century BC literature

Category:Poetry by Virgil

Category:Mark Antony

Category:Octavia the Younger