The Chaonian Dove: Studies in the Eclogues Georgics and Aeneid of Virgil 9004076727, 9789004076723

Table of contents :
THE CHAONIAN DOVE: Studies in the Eclogues, Georgics, and Aeneid of Virgil
CONTENTS
Preface
Abbreviations
I. Introduction: The Failed Text
II. Pastoral Meditation: The Eclogues
III. Didactic Paradox: The Georgics
IV. Epic Vision: The Aeneid (1)
V. Epic Vision: The Aeneid (2)
Appendix: The Historical Background
List of Modern Works Cited
General Index
Index Locorum

Citation preview

THE CHAONIAN DOVE

MNEMOSYNE BIBLIOTHECA CLASS ICA BA TA VA COLLEGERUNT A. D. LEEMAN · H. W. PLEKET · C. J. RUIJGH BIBLIOTHECAE FASCICULOS EDENDOS CURAVIT C.J. RUIJGH. KLASSIEK SEMINARIUM. OUDE TURFMARKT 129. AMSTERDAM

SUPPLEMENTUM NONAGESIMUM QUARTUM A.J. BOYLE

THE CHAONIAN DOVE

LUGDUNI BATAVORUM

E.J. BRILL

MCMLXXXVI

THE CHAONIAN DOVE Studies in the Eclogues, Georgics, and Aeneid of Virgil

BY

A.J. BOYLE

LEIDEN

E.J. BRILL

1986

ISBN

90 04 07672 7

Copyright 1986 by E. J. Brill, Leiden, The Netherlands All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or translated in any form, by print, photoprint, microfilm, microfiche or any other means without written permission from the publisher.

FOR KATHY, JAMES AND JUDY

sed carmina tantum nostra ualent, Lycida, tela inter Martia quantum Chaonias dicunt aquila ueniente columbas. But our songs Have as much strength, Lycidas, among the spears of Mars As, they say, have Chaonian doves when the eagle comes. Virgil, Eclogue 9

CONTENTS Preface . . . Abbreviations

IX XI

I. Introduction : The Failed Text II. Pastoral Meditation: The Eclogues .

15

III. Didactic Paradox: The Georgics

36

IV. Epic Vision: The Aeneid (I) .

85

V. Epic Vision: The Aeneid (2) .

133

Appendix : The Historical Background

177

List of Modern Works Cited

180

General Index .

185

Index Locorum

192

PREFACE This is the first book-length critical study of the three Virgilian works to be published in English since Brooks Otis' celebrated inquiry, Virgil: A Study in Civilized Poetry (Oxford 1964). It examines separately and in detail the thematic design and intent of the Eclogues, the Georgics and the Aeneid, and documents the development of their political, moral and poetic pessimism. The book is in three main parts-'Pastoral Meditation', 'Didactic Paradox', 'Epic Vision'----corresponding to the three Virgilian texts. A brief introductory chapter is concerned with questions of method and the problem of Virgil misread. The book is a development of earlier essays published by me in Ramus l ( 1972), 4 ( 1975) and 8 ( 1979), and offers a substantial reassessment of Virgil's poetic