Virgil and his works. Virgil Bucoliki. Georgics. Aeneid Translations into other languages
Publius Virgil Maron, born in the year 70 BC, in the town of Andes near Mantua, was a good-natured, modest person; for a noble, gentle character, alien to high claims, for education, for poetic talent, Augustus and those close to the emperor showed him honor. He studied first in Cremona and Milan, then diligently studied the Greek language and literature in Naples under the guidance of the teacher and poet Parthenius; In 47, Virgil arrived in Rome and continued to expand his multilateral knowledge. After living there for two years, he returned to his homeland, because poor health did not allow him to devote himself to political activity too heavy for him. Virgil wanted to manage his estate and write poetry. On the advice of Asinius Pollio, who was the ruler of Transpadanian Gaul in 42, Virgil began to write Bukoliki (or Eclogues), in which he imitated Theocritus, sometimes literally translated him and, under idyllic forms and names, depicted the affairs and people of his time, partly the facts of your life. Further, the biography of Virgil acquires a tragic connotation.
The so-called "bust of Virgil"
From this information about the origin of Virgil's eclogues, it is already clear that they could not be similar in language or tone to Theocritus' bucolics. Virgil's Bucolics are not naive images of simple rural life, not scenes from the life of shepherds; they did not at all aim at making readers interested in fidelity to nature; they often serve only as frames in which the poet puts political facts half-hidden in an idyllic shell; he uses the bucolic form to praise and flatter in a delicate way. In a word, Virgil's bucolic poetry is artificial; it serves him as a means of expressing his own feelings and desires. But with all these shortcomings, his idylls are rich in good descriptions, their language is elegant, the verse is smooth and correct, and in those places where the author's heart is vividly touched, there is also warmth of feeling.
In the first eclogue of Bukolik, a shepherd named Melibey leaves his homeland, as he lost his land due to the distribution of it to veterans of the civil war, and his interlocutor the shepherd Titir, under whose mask the poet himself is hiding, retained his estate thanks to the protection of the divine youth. This young man is Augustus, to whom Virgil praises:
“I saw a young man there, to whom, Melibey, annually
For twice six days our altars smoke with smoke.
Here is the answer he gave to me asking - the first:
"Children, graze cows, as before, breed bulls"
("Bucoliki", eclogue I, verses 42-45)
(The texts of Virgil are quoted in the translation by S. V. Shervinsky)
Virgil touches on a hot topic for Rome of this period: he sings of agriculture, praises the work of farmers, which also corresponded to the positive program of the princeps. The mood of the broad masses of Roman farmers was consonant with the motives of the idealization of rural life, and the motives of condemnation of the war, penetrating Virgil's Bucoliki.
Virgil and the Muses
In the glorification of the policy of Octavian Augustus, a certain tendentious orientation of bucolic songs is manifested: in the 1st eclogue the theme of the deification of Augustus sounds, in the 5th eclogue under the mask of Daphnis Julius Caesar is deified, and the 4th eclogue, addressed to the consul Asinius Pollio and associated with the conclusion of the Brundisian peace, predicts the onset of the “golden century”, which should be the result of the peaceful policy of Augustus. The advent of the new age is symbolized by the image of a boy, with the birth and maturity of which peace and abundance will be established on earth:
“Again now, a majestic order is beginning,
Virgo is coming to us again, Saturn's kingdom is coming.
Again a new tribe is sent from high heaven.
Be supportive of the newborn, with whom to replace
A generation of iron, a generation of gold will spread over the earth"
("Bucoliki", eclogue IV, verses 5-9).
The symbolic image of the boy called various interpretations, since the birth of children was expected in the families of both Octavian and Asinius Pollio, who was the addressee of this eclogue "Bucolik". There were rumors among the people about the renewal of the century in connection with the appearance of a savior, and in the Middle Ages the idea arose that Virgil prophesied about the birth of Christ. But it is much more likely that in the one written in the late 40s BC. e. In eclogue IV, the symbolic image of the baby refers to the Brundisian peace, which was concluded between Octavian and Antony through the mediation of the consul Asinius Pollio.
Reflecting Roman reality with its characteristic events, Virgil insistently maintains the genre conventions of bucolic songs. He uses idealized images of shepherds, traditional for this genre, and often places them in a fictional wonderful country ("Arcadia"). The theme of the shepherd in love reappears again and again in the Bucolics (II, VIII, and especially X eclogues). The nature of this theme (with motives of longing for the beloved who left the shepherd) is consonant with the genre of love elegy that was emerging in Rome.
The composition "Bucolik" is also interesting: before and after the central eclogue (which is considered the fifth), the same type of eclogues are grouped symmetrically. Uniformity is manifested in the subject, form (monologues or dialogues), and even in the number of poems. It falls out of this harmonious order of the X eclogue, where Virgil's hero is not a shepherd, but a real person - a contemporary and friend of the poet, the elegiac poet Cornelius Gallus.
Both in content and in tone, four plays similar to Virgil's Bucoliki, which are also attributed to him, but are probably only an imitation of his idylls: The Mosquito (Culex), a small epic poem by Ciris, and two small paintings from the common people's life, very lively and true to reality: Moretum (a rural Roman dish similar to vinaigrette) and Copa (a rural innkeeper).
Virgil - "Georgics"
When, after the battle of Actium, calm times began in Italy, Virgil began to live alternately in Rome, then in Naples, which he liked for its mild climate. In Naples, he wrote, on the advice of the Maecenas, "Georgics" ("Agricultural poems"). The aim of this didactic poem was to revive in the Romans the love of agriculture, which had been degraded by feuds and confiscations of land for distribution to veterans. Virgil urges the Romans to return to this national occupation, arguing that it is the surest way to restore their shaken well-being. The Georgics are divided into four books. The first of them speaks of agriculture, the second of gardening and winemaking, the third of cattle breeding, the fourth of beekeeping. The content of the poem, as we see, is unsuitable for arousing poetic enthusiasm; but still it is a highly artistic work. The good qualities of Virgil's character and the strengths of his talent are brilliantly expressed in her. "Georgics is the most excellent of all works of didactic poetry ancient world says Bernhardi. – Knowledge of the matter, elegant taste, warmth of feeling are harmoniously combined in this poem. By the richness of information, by moral purity, it is the most beautiful monument of truly humane education. With the nobility of feeling, the euphony of the verse, the elegance of the style, it surpasses all other didactic poems of ancient poetry. The Georgics fully expressed Virgil's good nature, his deep respect for the hardworking, morally pure life of a peasant, his own attraction to the calm happiness of this modest life, his close acquaintance with agriculture, his observation. True, the "Georgics" is only a series of paintings, the connection between which is weak; but each of these episodes is in itself a beautiful whole, rich in content, admirably finished.
In "Georgics" topical political motifs are closely intertwined with philosophical thoughts about nature, the theme of Italian patriotism also stands out clearly, rural life is praised with everyday work in the bosom of nature.
Virgil believes that "work conquered everything" ("Georgics", book I. verse 145). Saying that he follows Hesiod (“I now sing an Ascrean song in Roman cities”) (Book II, verse 176), the author of Georgiks goes beyond didactics, creating a philosophical epic about nature. Therefore, Virgil in many ways echoes Lucretius. So, first of all, the place of the poem attracts attention, where there is a direct echo with one of the most important program elements of the ethics of Lucretius: “Happy is the one who was able to know the causes of things and threw all fears and implacable rock, and the noise of greedy Acheront, but even he is blessed with fate who recognizes the rural gods: Pan, the elder Silvanus and the sisters of the nymphs ”(Book II, verses 490-494). From the above words of "Georgic" it is clear that Virgil here also focuses on the idealized happy life of a farmer, who is patronized by the local Italic gods. Considering this well-being equal to the happiness of knowing the nature of the universe, sung by Lucretius, Virgil believes that the life of a rural worker is a happy fate.
Illustration for "Georgics" by Virgil. Artist D. Bisty
In "Georgics" there are many artistic digressions, different in content and artistic design. This is a picture of spring (book I), and the glorification of Italy (book II), and a description of the life of bees (book IV). At the end of the book IV is told in the form of a separate epillium about the shepherd Aristeas, but inside this epillium there is a mythological narrative about Orpheus and Eurydice. Digressions play a certain role in Virgil's Georgics, helping to reveal the ideological essence of the poem: attention is drawn to the passionate praise of Italy, permeated with patriotic pathos (Book II, verses 136-178). In the last lines of this passage, Virgil places an appeal to the homeland:
“Hello, Saturn earth, great mother of crops!
Mother and husbands! For you in matters of art and glory
Ancient I enter, daring to open the holy sources "
(“Georgics”, book II, verses 173–175; translated by S. V. Shervinsky).
In The Georgics, Virgil speaks openly about Octavian, calling him by name (Book I, verses 24-42; Book II, verses 170-172; Book III, verses 16-48; Book IV, verses 559-566 ). From these verses one can trace how the attitude of the poet towards Octavian changes. In the first book, before the final retreat, mournful words about the death of Julius Caesar are heard: “In the hour when Caesar died, the sun also took pity on Rome” (book I, verse 466), and a picture of terrible omens is drawn (and Virgil is a master of creating pathos of horrors! ), who appeared in the year of the death of Julius Caesar (book I, verses 467-497). The role of Octavian is somewhat belittled here, although under the name of a young man he is called to save the ruined fate of the age: “Do not forbid a young man to overcome the misfortunes of the age now” (book 1, verse 560). Such is the attitude of the poet towards Octavian before the battle of Actium (31–32 BC). After Aktion, praise for Octavian sounds more confident. Virgil says that Caesar "is victorious in distant Asia ... turns the Indians away from the Roman strongholds" (Book II, verses 171-173). The poet concludes book IV, and thus the whole poem, thus:
“I sang these verses about caring for the land, for the herds
And trees, while Caesar great war
The far Euphrates also struck among the peoples, according to their good will,
As a winner, the law claimed on the way to Olympus.
Sweet in those days was I - Virgil - we feed
Partenopeia; laboring, prospered and did not pursue glory;
He amused himself with the shepherd's song and, bold in his youth,
Titira sang in the shade of a broad-branched beech"
(“Georgics”, book VI, verses 559–566. Partenopeia - the city of Naples)
Here, in the last verses of the poem, two themes appear: 1) about the victorious successes of Octavian and 2) about Virgil's own poetic activity (it is said about the Bucolics and the Georgics). Octavian is called the winner. The same two themes are presented together in the introduction to book IV of the Georges (verses 8-48). But the sequence of their presentation is different - first they talk about the merits of the poet himself, and then the victories of Octavian are listed with a promise to glorify them in the future. As for the assessment of his own creativity, Virgil says that he must follow the path by which he can break away from the earth and, like a winner, flutter through the lips of people, he promises to be the first to bring the Muses from the Aonian peak to his homeland (to Mantua) and bring Idumean palm trees , erect a marble temple on a green meadow. It should be noted that in this poetic "Monument" Virgil calls himself a conqueror (Book III, verse 9).
Both the Bucolics and the didactic Georgics of Virgil had many imitators; but from their works almost nothing has come down to us, except for the titles. Valgius Rufus wrote a herbal poem dedicated to Augustus; Aemilius Macer (a native of Verona) wrote, after the model of Nicander, poems on the rearing of poultry and on remedies for biting snakes; Gratian Faliscus, a friend of Ovid, wrote a hunting poem (Cynegetica); this work, though corrupted and incomplete, has come down to us.
Virgil - "Aeneid"
Having finished the Georgics, Virgil began to write the epic Aeneid, which he had promised to Octavian, which aroused such high expectations that Propertius said:
"Step back, people and Roman and Greek poets: something greater than the Iliad is being born."
Virgil worked hard to live up to these expectations. He studied Homer, cyclic poets, epic poems of the Alexandrian period, studied Roman epic poets, from Ennius and Nevius to Lucretius, studied Italian archeology from the works of Cato and Varro, ancient history Italian cities. In order to have more leisure to work on his poem, Virgil went to Greece; in Athens, Octavian saw him, returning from the East, and persuaded him to return to Italy. But as soon as Virgil went ashore in Brundisium, he fell ill and died before he had time to finish his poem. It is said that when dying, Virgil wanted to burn her manuscript, that his friends, Tucca and the poet Varius, kept him from doing so with their requests, and that he instructed them to throw out the unfortunate passages from the manuscript, but not to add anything. This explains why many of the verses in the Aeneid are incomplete.
Virgil reads the Aeneid to Augustus and Octavia. Painting by J. J. Taillasson, 1787
Virgil was buried near Naples. They showed his tomb there for a long time.
Aeneas and Dido. Painting by P. N. Guérin, c. 1815
Everything that had decisive power in the course of the development of the Roman state is expressed by Virgil's Aeneid under the form of prophecy or outlined in vague sketches of foreboding. The rule of the Julius family over the Roman Empire is in the Aeneid the result of the will of the gods, who decided that this would bring happiness to Rome. The bloody way in which the Julii achieved dominion over Rome, Virgil covers up with a tempting poetic fiction; the happy present is proclaimed the fulfillment of what was destined by the will of the gods in the sacred long past. All this gave in the opinion of the Romans a high dignity of the content of the Aeneid. The artistic merits of Virgil's poem were also attractive: beautiful language, euphony of verse, excellent descriptions of majestic natural phenomena and powerful outbursts of passions. The catastrophes produced by Juno's wrath increase the fascination of the story, several times, giving a new direction to the course of action; the accuracy with which the localities are described shows the vast learning of the author of the poem.
It is clear that the Aeneid became the pride of imperial Rome, that throughout the Middle Ages people who read Virgil in Latin admired it, that its inspired author became an object of reverent respect, that magical wisdom and power were attributed to him, that his personality was surrounded by a mythical halo that Servius, Donatus, and other commentators wrote explanations for the Aeneid, that entire new poems (centones) were composed from the verses and half-verses of this poem. Even the Church Fathers and Christian writers of the Middle Ages referred to Virgil and cited his prophecies to support their thoughts. But the criticism of our time does not share the former exaggerated admiration for the Aeneid. She does not deny the artistic merits of this poem, does not deny that Virgil had an enormous talent; but he has no poetic inspiration, no faith either in the strength of his own genius, or in the truth of the sacred legends transmitted by him, or rich creative imagination, or the gift of clear and firm features to describe characters.
The fantasy of the Aeneid does not carry over into the heroic world. Virgil does not know how to clearly present the figures of gods and heroes, to depict them plastically with artistic truth. He created only vague images, the gods and heroes of the Aeneid - pale reflections of Virgil's contemporary people. The miracles of myths Virgil remade in a modern prose spirit, he mixed different times, different degrees of culture; there is no life in his figures, no freedom of movement. Aeneas is a passive instrument of fate, he only performs the deeds assigned to him by the destiny given to him by the gods, he has no independence; he is incapable of doing anything of his own accord. Aeneas is greater in words than in deeds. There is only one truly poetic face in the Aeneid - the Amazon Camilla; the description of the heroic death of this warrior girl from the Volscian tribe is the best, most fascinating part of the poem. As Herder puts it, Virgil himself was like a girl in character; his talent was more capable of soft tones, of depicting tender feelings, of depicting female characters, than of telling stories about courageous feelings and exploits. It already has elements of the romantic epic of the Middle Ages.
The Significance of Virgil in Roman and World Poetry
In the Middle Ages, Virgil was considered a prophet who predicted the birth of Christ; other prophecies were also sought in the poet's creative heritage. Dante chose Virgil as a guide to the underworld. During the Renaissance and Enlightenment, Virgil enjoyed the fame of a perfect poet. The greatest French philologist of the 16th century. Scaliger ranked Virgil above Homer. Attitudes towards Virgil have changed since the time of romanticism: the poet began to be assessed as the creator of an "artificial epic" that cultivated false pathos. Interest in Virgil began to gain strength again from the end of the 19th century. Virgil is now recognized as one of the greatest poets of Rome, his abstract evaluative comparison with Homer is not approved. It is about eliminating the one-sidedness that was allowed in the past.
Virgil is the largest poet of the Augustan era, his works are full of deep thoughts and significant artistic merit. The work of Virgil undoubtedly influenced the formation of culture and literature of modern times.
Melibey, Tithir
Titir, you, lying in the shade of a broad-branched beech,
You compose a new shepherd's tune on a thin pipe, -
We are leaving our native lands and lovely arable land,
We are running from our homeland, - you are learning the forests, chilling,
5 Name to echo its beauty Amaryllis.
Oh Melibey, God brought us peace -
For he is a god to me, and forever, - his altar is often
The lamb from our sheepfolds will feed the blood.
He allowed my cows to graze, as you see,
10 And I myself can play what I want on a rural reed.
No, I do not envy, rather I am surprised: such
Trouble is everywhere in the fields. So I myself take away in sorrow
My goats are far away, and one is barely wandering already, Titir.
In the hazel grove here she just shed her twins
15 Herds of hope, and - ah! - left on a bare stone.
I remember this trouble - if I were smarter! -
I was foreshadowed more than once by oaks struck by the sky.
Yes, but who is that god, however, Titir, tell me.
Silly, I thought that the city called Rome
20 Similar to ours, Melibey, where - shepherds - we usually
From year to year to sell lambs born we carry.
I knew that puppies looked like dogs, and goats
On mothers, I'm used to the fact that less is similar with more.
But among other cities he so exalted his head,
25 Like cypresses rising above a creeping vine.
Rome, you see what was the reason?
Late, but all the same she drew on my carelessness
A look when the beard fell off whiter when sheared.
All the same, she turned her gaze to me, appeared as soon as
30 Captivated by Amaryllis, I parted from Galatea.
For while, I confess, Galatea was my friend,
There were no hopes for freedom, nor for a share of the income.
Though many calves sent pens to the altars,
Although we reaped juicy cottage cheese for a soulless city,
35 With a full handful of coins, it did not happen to return home.
What, I wondered, you are sad to the gods, Amaryllis,
And for whom do you hang fruit on the trees?
Titir was not here! Thee these pines, O Titir,
The springs themselves called you, these bushes themselves called.
40 What was to be done? There is no other way out of slavery.
I would not have known such benevolent gods anywhere else.
Here is the answer he gave to the one who asked, without hesitation:
45 “Children, graze cows, as before, breed bulls!”
Happiness to you, the land remains behind you in old age -
Yes, and enough of you, even though pastures surround everything
Naked stone and reeds growing on marsh silt.
Unusual feed will not affect heavy queens here,
50 And the neighboring herd will not be able to infect the cattle.
Happiness to you, you will be familiar here on the coasts
Between the sacred streams enjoy the cool shade.
Here, on your border, is a fence, where incessantly,
Flying into the willow blossom, the bees of Ghibla work,
55 Often it will be easy to go to sleep inviting you in a whisper.
The gardener will sing here under a high rock, in the wild.
Loudly - your favorites - doves will coo in the grove,
And tirelessly moan on the neighboring dove elm.
Earlier light-footed deer will graze in the sea,
60 And the exposed fish will be thrown ashore by the surf,
Previously, in wanderings, passing native limits, an exile
And to the Britons themselves, separated from the world of everything.
Will I ever admire my native land again,
My poor hut with its roof covered with turf,
Can I reap a meager harvest from my own field?
70 The field that I have cultivated will be taken over by a godless warrior,
Barbarian - crops. That's how ill-fated fellow citizens
Discord brought them! For whom did we sow the fields!
Pears now, Melibey, graft, plant vines!
Goats go! Forward - once a happy herd!
75 I will not admire now from the cave entwined with leaves,
How do you hang in the distance on a steep thorny,
I will not sing songs, I will not feed you, - without me you
Gorse blossomed to pluck and bitter willow, goats!
All the same, you can rest this night with me
80 Here on the green foliage: I have an abundance of cottage cheese,
There are fruits that are fresh, and there are chestnuts that are ripe.
Already in the distance - look - rural roofs smoked,
And even longer shadows stretch from the mountains.
Passion in Corydon was lit by the beautiful Alexis.
He was fond of the owner - and Corydon was hopelessly on fire.
Every day he went under frequent beeches, into the cool
Their leafy crowns, and their unfinished songs
5 Complaints there turned to forests and mountains, lonely.
"You will not listen to my songs, alas, cruel Alexis!
Do you have any regrets? You will take me to the grave!
Even cattle at this hour under the trees are looking for coolness,
The lizards even covered the green thorny thorn,
10 And Testillida is already for the reapers, tired of the heat,
By mid-afternoon rubs savory and garlic, fragrant herbs.
Echoing me loudly while I watch you diligently
The bush chimes with cicada song under the scorching sun.
Or is it not enough that the wrath of Amaryllis
15 Or did he endure contempt, endure and reproach Menalcus? -
Even though he was black, and you are white-faced, Alexis!
Do not trust too much, beautiful young man, the color:
You never know white flowers, but violets are looking for dark ones.
You despise me; where I am, who - and you won’t ask,
Brief biography of the poet, the main facts of life and work:
PUBLIS VERGILIUS MARON (70-19 BC)
The father of the future poet was a Latin, whose family several generations before settled in northern Italy, then called Cisalpine Gaul. We know almost nothing about his life. It is reported that he was a potter or a messenger, married the daughter of his master, and then hunted by breeding bees and selling timber.
The poet's mother's name was Magic Polla.
Virgil supposedly had two brothers, but they did not live long and had already died by the time the future poet came of age.
Virgil's family owned a small estate, in which the boy's early childhood passed.
Until the age of fifteen, Virgil studied in Cremona, then moved to Mediolan (Milan). When his son was nineteen years old, his father sent him to Rome to study rhetoric. In schools, rhetoric trained mainly lawyers, but such a career was not suitable for Virgil - he did not have oratorical talent. During his studies, the young man only spoke to the judges once, because he spoke slowly and, in his manner of speech, “looked almost like an unlearned one.”
Throughout his life, Virgil was distinguished by extreme shyness. Even as a famous poet, he was terribly embarrassed when his appearance in a public place attracted the attention of a curious crowd. "Tall, swarthy, with a rustic face, of poor health" - this is how the ancient biographer Donat describes Virgil.
The young man stayed in the capital for a short time and a year later he moved to Naples. Here he entered the circle of Epicureans founded by the Greek philosopher Philodem, which was headed by Siron. For many years Virgil remained an adherent of the teachings of Epicurus.
In Naples or near it, Virgil lived almost his entire life. The poet only occasionally visited Rome, visited Sicily and Tarentum. The assassination of Julius Caesar and the most difficult years of the civil war, Virgil spent on his estate, far from the "storms of the fatherland", immersed in philosophy and poetry with his soul and thoughts.
Note that the political vicissitudes did not pass by the recluse. In the collection Miniatures, the eighth poem tells of Virgil's grief at parting with his father's estate, which was confiscated by order of Octavian (later Emperor Augustus) among the lands intended for the settlement of veterans who won the victory at Philippi in 42 BC. Only the petition of the emperor's favorite Maecenas and other admirers of the poet's work allowed Virgil to return the estate.
In the city that became his hometown, the poet created his immortal works. He wrote three large poems, all in hexametric (or "heroic") verse.
In the period 42-39 BC, at the very height of the civil war and in the initial period of the reign of the second triumvirate, when the political opponents of the triumvirs were killed according to the proscriptions, Virgil created the Bucoliki, or Eclogues.
This work played a huge role in the posthumous fate of Virgil's creations. Theologians claim that in the fourth eclogue the poet predicted the birth of the baby Jesus Christ, who would bring peace to the earth. In this regard, in the Middle Ages, Virgil was declared the first Christian poet, his work was praised and spread throughout the Christian world.
Soon after the publication of "Bukoliki" they began to perform from the stage, and the audience each time accepted them with enthusiasm. From now on, when Virgil appeared in the theater, he was greeted with more enthusiasm than the emperor himself. It can be argued that the poet reached the heights of success during his lifetime.
In 36-30 BC, when Octavian Augustus waged a fierce struggle against the triumvirs and defeated the fleet and army of Antony and Cleopatra, Virgil created the Georgics. This poem consists of four songs - field cultivation, gardening, animal husbandry and beekeeping. It is safe to say that the work corresponded to the urgent policy of the Roman state. Augustus tried to encourage and revive agriculture, which had declined during the years of the civil war, through the revival of which the ruler intended to restore public morality and well-being, as well as to raise the economy of the empire. The poem was written on the advice of Maecenas, the patron of Virgil and Horace, a kind of "Minister of the Interior" under Octavian.
In 29-19 BC. the poet worked on the Aeneid, which remained unfinished. In this epic narrative, consisting of 12 songs, the poet spoke about the capture of Troy by the Greeks, about the journey of the Trojan prince Aeneas to Italy, about the diplomatic and military deeds of the hero.
Initially, the poet wrote the Aeneid in prose, dividing it into 12 books, and then proceeded to transcribe it into verse, and not in order, but referring to the passage that most corresponded to his mood at that time.
Emperor Augustus was personally interested in creating a national epic and unobtrusively followed the work of Virgil, providing the poet with all-round support. This was especially important, since, according to modern experts, Virgil was already seriously ill with tuberculosis during the years of work on the Aeneid.
In antiquity, several other small poems were attributed to Virgil. All or almost all of them date back to earlier years than Bucoliki. Usually these poems are published under the collective title "Virgil Supplement". In fact, most of these works belong to other authors whose names remain unknown.
A group of poems written in different sizes and combined into the collection "Miniatures" has also been preserved. The two-line epigram on the robber in this collection is considered to be the very first work of Virgil.
In 19 B.C. the poet traveled to Greece. He intended to live here for three years and all this time to be engaged in the final revision of the Aeneid. In Athens, Virgil met with Emperor Augustus, after a conversation with whom he decided to interrupt the trip and return home. Some biographers explain the poet's hasty departure as an exacerbation of the disease that occurred after Virgil caught a cold in Megara. On the ship, the disease intensified.
“Even before leaving Italy,” says Suetonius, “Virgil agreed with Varius that if something happened to him, he would burn the Aeneid, but Varius refused. Already near death, Virgil insistently demanded his book chest in order to burn it himself; but when no one brought him a casket, he no longer made any special orders in this regard. The poet only asked friends Varius and Plotius Tukke to publish a poem, deleting everything superfluous from it, but without adding a single line.
Shortly after his arrival in Brundisium, Publius Virgil Maro died. It happened on September 20, 19 BC.
Virgil's poems were first studied in ancient Roman schools in 26 BC. From that time to this day (more than 2030 years) they are mandatory in the programs of the best schools in the civilized world. Temples were erected in Europe in honor of the poet. The Christian church recognized him as a prophet. There is even a legend that the apostle Paul sobbed contritely at the grave of Virgil.
Virgil (70-19 BC)
“Beware of the Danes who bring gifts” - this phrase, which has become winged in all languages of the world, belongs to the great Roman poet Virgil.
It happens that one line or one poem remains from a poet for centuries, but such that make his name immortal, and Virgil left three of his major major works: "Bukoliki", "Georgics", "Aeneid".
In the lyrical Bucolics, Virgil sings of shepherd life and landscapes. "Georgics" - poetic instructions to the farmer. The Aeneid is an epic story about the adventures of the Trojan Aeneas. Virgil seems to follow in the footsteps of the great Greeks. "Bucolics" are based on the idylls of Theocritus, "Georgics" - on Hesiod's poem "Works and Days", and "Aeneid" - on Homer's poems "Iliad" and "Odyssey"
Suetonius described Virgil in this way: “He was tall, of a large build, with a swarthy face, he looked like a peasant… at home."
Virgil lived in the vicinity of Naples, sometimes visited Rome, was known as a widely educated person. The Romans revered him as a great poet, master of the word. The ruler Octavian Augustus considered him the best propagandist of state policy. And Virgil himself understood his work as a public service, he treated it very responsibly, he was a great worker, he did not seek fame, he lived as a recluse. But he was noticed. The philanthropist and Octavian August introduced him to the circle of statesmen, helped to grow the poet's fame.
Virgil did not like traveling - once in his life he went to Greece, but the sea and the heat undermined his health. Virgil was forced to return - he fell ill before reaching home, and died in Calabria. They buried him in Partenopeia.
They say, dying, he left two orders - to burn the Aeneid and to carve an epitaph on his gravestone:
I was born Mantua, taken away by Calabria. I rest
In the Parthenope. He sang pastures, villages, leaders.
And he bequeathed to burn the Aeneid because he did not have time to finish it, he was afraid that an unfinished work could receive a false interpretation.
The fourth eclogue of the Bucoliks has attracted particular attention in all ages. She is considered prophetic. The eclogue mentions a virgin and a newborn from her, which will bring with it a golden age. Christian researchers of Virgil's work saw in this the prophecy of a pagan poet about Christ - he wrote these verses 40 years before the birth of Christ.
By itself, the word "bucoliki" means "shepherd's poems." This is what later in European poetry will be called "pastoral".
Virgil turned to the bucolic genre because it allowed him to speak at once, as if from himself and from a certain shepherd, and thus express his most intimate thoughts. Moreover, love is always at the center of the bucolic world.
Love conquers everything, and we will submit to Love!
Here is a small excerpt from Bukolik:
Little in our garden I saw you for the first time,
With your mother, you went to pick dewy apples, - I
I saw you off, I went to the twelfth year this summer,
And I could reach the brittle branches from the ground.
Just saw - and died! How mad he was!
Now I know what Cupid is. On the rugged cliffs
True Rhodope, il Tmar, or the distant land of the Garamantes
The boy was not produced by our kind and blood.
Begin a series of Menalian verses, my flute, with me!
The mother taught the ferocious Cupid to her children with their blood
Get your hands dirty! And you are not kinder than Cupid.
Mother, cruel mother, or mother's boy is crueler?
Begin a series of Menalian verses, my flute, with me!
Now let the wolf flee from the sheep, bring gold
Dumpy oak apples and alder blossoms with narcissus!
Let the tamarisk bark exude amber resins,
An owl argues with a swan, and let Titir become Orpheus,
Titir - Orpheus in the forests, among the dolphins - Arion himself!
Begin a series of Menalian verses, my flute, with me!
(Translated by S. Shervinsky)
The word "Georgics" means "agricultural poems." This is a didactic poem, without a plot, from some descriptions and instructions. One of the reasons for writing this poem is political. The question of the development of agriculture in Italy was then the most important state problem. The strength of Octavian's power depended on whether the soldiers weaned from the land - before that there was a civil war - would take root in the new allotments. It was necessary, through the rise of agriculture, to raise the morality that had fallen then and to revive the civic prowess of the ancient plowmen and warriors, who lived by the fruits of their hands. Through this, Octavian solved many state problems. Virgil became a faithful conductor of government ideas. But he would not have been a great poet if only this had been reflected in his work. He decided to compete in the genre of didactic poem with the Greek poet Hesiod. In this poem, he expressed, albeit at length, his passions in philosophy, his ideas about the meaning of life, about happiness.
I must say, what are the harsh tools of the cultivators,
Those without which it is impossible to sow or grow a harvest.
First of all - the coulter of a mighty bent plow,
With the slow wheels of the Eleusinian goddess cart,
And a threshing roller, a drag and a heavy rake;
You can not do without the simple wickerwork of Keley
And wooden sieves, mystical winds of Iacchus, -
Prudently you will make all this long in advance,
If you expect worthy from the fields of divine glory,
For a handle in the forest, after looking at a young elm,
They bend it with all their might, giving it a plow curvature.
At eight from the root of the feet, stretching out a wooden drawbar,
The grips are adjusted, and from the rear - with a fork.
They also felled linden in the forest for a yoke, and lightweight beech
For the handle they take to turn the plow from behind.
The tree above the hearth is subject to the smoke test.
The poem "Aeneid" matured from the myth of Aeneas. The Iliad said that Aeneas, the son of Aphrodite and Anchises, was not destined to fall under Troy, but was destined - both for him and his family - to rule the descendants of the Trojans. With the rise of Rome, this myth took on the appearance that Aeneas, having left Troy, after long wanderings, sailed precisely to the Latins and his descendants founded Rome.
The choice of subject was very good. The son of Aeneas, Ascanius, was identified with Julius, the ancestor of the Julius family: Julius Caesar was proud of his origin, and Augustus depicted Aeneas with Anchises on his shoulders on his coins. Augustus was considered a descendant of the Julii, so the choice of the protagonist of the poem began to be of great national importance.
There are twelve books in the Aeneid. It begins with the seventh year of the wanderings of Aeneas. On the way to Italy, his ship gets into a storm and ends up off the coast of Carthage. Aeneas tells the Carthaginian queen Dido about the fall of Troy. He and Dido fell in love, but fate tells him to keep going. Abandoned Dido, out of grief, kills herself at the stake ...
Almost all episodes of the Aeneid are made according to Homeric models, but much in the context of his poem looks different. Virgil said: “It is easier to steal a club from Hercules than to verse Homer,” thus emphasizing the great originality of the Greek genius.
The Aeneid is a Roman epic. Virgil, in fact, became the Roman Homer. The Roman, reading the Aeneid, felt the living connection of his people with the great Troy, with the ancient Italic tribes. This filled his heart with pride for himself, for his people.
Homer did not tell about the fall of Troy, but Virgil painted a vivid picture of the fall of the city. In his presentation, Troy did not fall in a fair fight, but from the cunning and deceit of the Danaans, if not for this, “Troy would not fall until now and the stronghold of Priam stood.” Cunning and deceit, according to Virgil, came from the insidious Odysseus.
As an artist, Virgil reached unprecedented heights in the Aeneid, creating deeply psychological portraits of the characters.
The poet leads the reader through the fields of fierce battles, where blood is shed, the groans of dying warriors and the cries of the victors are heard.
“After the innocent Priam was exterminated
Genus by the will of the gods, and in the defeated kingdom of Asia
In the dust stretched, smoking, Neptune's proud Troy,
We were encouraged in exile to look for free lands
In the signs of the gods more than once - we began to build ships
Near Antandra, in the forests, at the foot of Phrygian Ida,
They began to gather people, although they did not know where it would take us
Rock and where to settle. Spring has come,
Anchises, my parent, ordered to entrust the sails to fate.
The harbor, and the native shore, and the fields where Troy stood,
I leave in tears and into the open sea, exile,
I'm taking my son and friends, great gods and penates.
There is a land in the distance, where Mavorsa has wide fields
The Thracians are plowed by the people where the merciless Lycurgus reigned.
The penates of the country were friendly to the Trojan penates
Gone when Troy was in bloom. Arriving there by the bay
I laid the walls - though fate was hostile - and gave them
His name, calling Aenead my first city.
(Translated by S. Osherov)
Dante's great book, The Divine Comedy, begins with an enthusiastic praise of Virgil:
While to the valley I overthrew the dark,
A man appeared before me
From a long silence, as if languid,
Seeing him in the middle of that desert:
Be a ghost, be a living person!”
“I was a poet and entrusted with a hymn,
How the son of Anchises sailed into the sunset
From proud Troy, betrayed by burning ... "
“So you, Virgil, you are a bottomless spring.
Where did the songs of the world flow from? —
I replied, bowing my face in embarrassment.
Dante bows his head to Virgil. He asks Virgil to guide him through the dark abysses of Hell. And he asks for this because Virgil was the first in his Aeneid, in the sixth book, to draw Hades. The underworld greatly impressed Virgil's contemporaries. There is the city of Tartarus, from there you can hear the clang of chains and the gnashing of iron. There are criminals, blasphemers, villains. Fury Tizifon in "clothing of blood", "with an evil mockery whips the guilty with a scourge and brings the vile reptiles to her face with her left hand and summons the fierce sisters."
The works of the Roman poet live for centuries. The language in which he wrote is now a dead language, but the translations convey to us living human feelings, about which Virgil wrote so penetratingly.
* * *
You read the biography (facts and years of life) in a biographical article dedicated to the life and work of the great poet.
Thanks for reading. ............................................
Copyright: biographies of the lives of great poets
Virgil Maron Publius (70 BC / 19 BC) - Roman poet. Virgil's poetry collection called "Bucoliki", which means "Shepherd's Songs", the poem "Georgics" ("Poem on Agriculture") became so famous that they were recognized by the world community as the names of the corresponding pure genres of literature. However, the most famous creation of Virgil was the poem "Aeneid", recognized as the pinnacle of classical literary creativity.
Guryeva T.N. New literary dictionary / T.N. Guriev. - Rostov n / a, Phoenix, 2009, p. 47.
Virgil (Publius Virgil Maron, 70-19 BC)
The Roman poet, born in the vicinity of Mantua, was educated in Cremona and Milan, and then came to Rome, where he joined the circle of Maecenas and became a close friend. Horace. In addition to the early works of the dubious authenticity, his first work is considered to be "Eclogues" or "Bucolics", ten pastoral poems modeled after Theocrites, but giving some personal information; we know from them that his modest family estate was confiscated in 42 under lands for civil war veterans, but later returned, perhaps as a result of the intervention of the future emperor Augustus. Then the "Georgics" appeared, glorifying the peaceful labor of the Italian peasants. He spent the last ten years of his life in his rural home near Naples, working on the Aeneid. He was going to revise it and then take up philosophy, but at 19 he made a trip to Greece, fell ill and died in Brundisium. His body was brought to Naples and buried outside the city limits with an epitaph, according to legend, written by Virgil himself:
"Mantova gave me life, Calabria -
Death and now I'm lying
In Naples, the poet of the herds
And farms, and heroes.
In the same century, his grave was already revered as a shrine, and his works became textbooks in Roman schools.
In the Middle Ages, he was hailed in two guises: as a preacher of Christianity in the "Messianic eclogues" and as a miraculous magician. Gower, for example, writes of Virgil's mirror, which was believed to show an approaching enemy thirty miles away. And the prediction of fate by opening at random the volume of Virgil as an alternative to the Bible was common to all of Europe. Rabelais forces his Panurge to resort to this method. Tradition holds that the poet's tomb is located in a Roman columbarium above the old grotto of Posilippo, which is actually the remains of a Roman tunnel through the rock; there, according to legend, Virgil practiced magic. This place was visited by Petrarch, he saw the epitaph, but found the tomb already destroyed. Today, Virgil is immortalized in a green oasis in Naples, Virgil Park. For Dante, Virgil was "the greatest poet" and became a guide to "Hell". Since the Renaissance, Virgil has had the greatest influence on all those who worked in the epic genre of literature. He has always been regarded as one of the greatest poets in the world, and Poussin rightly portrayed him crowned by Apollo on the title page of Virgil Royale (1641).
Virgil was known for his penchant for melancholy, which was analyzed in Palinur's study, and the poet's unwillingness to publish the Aeneid in its unedited form prompted the creation of the wonderful poetic novel The Death of Virgil, written in 1945 by the Austrian Hermann Broch. He refers to the poet's decision at death's door to destroy the manuscript due to the realization that the truth and beauty of language cannot cope with human suffering and the approach of barbarism, or, in fact, with reality itself. Crossing the brink of death, he experiences what is "incomprehensible and inexpressible for him - the world on the other side of speech."
Who is who in the ancient world. Directory. Ancient Greek and Roman Classics. Mythology. Story. Art. Politics. Philosophy. Compiled by Betty Radish. Translation from English by Mikhail Umnov. M., 1993, pp. 49-51.
Virgil Publius Maro (15. X. 70 - 21. IX. 19 BC) - Roman poet. Born near Mantua in a poor family. During proscriptions for 43 years, he lost his land, but then received new possessions from august and Maecenas, to whose circle he belonged. Virgil's Bucolics or Eclogues are heavily influenced by Theocritus' shepherd idylls, but they also contain hints of modernity - complaints about land confiscations, hopes for peace and the beneficent role of Octavian. Numerous comments were caused by the IV eclogue, which predicted the birth of the "divine baby" and the onset of a new golden age: starting from Lactantius, they saw in it a prophecy about the birth of Jesus Christ. After Bucolik, Virgil worked on a poem about agriculture- "Georgics". Virgil was most famous for his epic poem "Aeneid", which tells about the flight from Troy, wanderings, arrival in Italy and the victory over the Latins of the legendary ancestor of the kings of Alba Longa and the Roman family of Julius, the son of Venus and Anchises, Aeneas. The poem gives a description of ancient rituals and beliefs, glorifies Roman customs and virtues. Virgil's poetic talent, his versatile education, deep love for Roman antiquity, faith in the greatness of Rome and the restoration mission of Augustus made the Aeneid one of the most popular works of the imperial period. Virgil, not having time to finish the poem, bequeathed to burn it; however, Augustus, seeing in it a vivid embodiment of an ideology close to his supporters, ordered the publication of the "Aeneid" after the death of the poet in the form in which Virgil left it, therefore in the "Aeneid" in places there were unfinished hexameters, some discrepancies in content. Virgil's writings have been preserved in a large number of manuscripts, of which the oldest (no later than the 4th century) - "Codex Augusteus" (Codicis Vergiliani qui Augustus appellantur reliquiae..., Bibliotece Vaticana contulit...) - consists of 8 volumes, 7 of which are divided between the Vatican and Berlin libraries (Vat. lat. 3256, Berol. Lat. 2A416), the 8th volume is lost. First edition of Virgil - in Paris, 1470.
E. M. Shtaerman. Moscow.
Soviet historical encyclopedia. In 16 volumes. - M.: Soviet Encyclopedia. 1973-1982. Volume 3. WASHINGTON - VYACHKO. 1963.
Publius Myron Virgil (70-19 BC), the creator of major epic (sublime, majestic) poems, was born in Northern Italy. His father, the owner of a small estate, tried to give him a good education. Virgil first studied in Milan, then in Rome, where he entered the circle of young poets; wrote epigrams, small poems (epilli). At the age of 25, he almost lost his family estate, confiscated in favor of the veterans of the troops of the commander, the future emperor Augustus Octavian. Virgil turned for help to a familiar statesman and poet, Pollio, who helped him get his estate back. Memories of his childhood, the history of the lost and found estate, the delights of rural life were sung by Virgil in the poem "Bukoliki" (praising at the same time both the wisdom and goodwill of Octavian). She brought fame to the poet. The Maecenas began to patronize him. Even greater success fell to the share of another poem by Virgil - "Georgics", glorifying the work of the farmer and shepherd, the simple joys of village life, the beauty and grandeur of nature. The essay turned out to be timely: the civil war had just ended, the country was moving to a peaceful life. Octavian August strengthened the empire. Virgil followed in the footsteps of Homer: having conceived a historical-heroic poem, reflecting the strength of the spirit of the Romans and the power of the Roman state. The heroic era in the life of the country and heroic personalities (Pompeii, Caesar, Antony, Octavian) inspired great creations. One of them was the Aeneid. She sang of the emperor and the great empire, but also - fidelity to duty, courage, friendship, heroism. “Fate helps the brave,” he wrote. The Aeneid was the pinnacle of Virgil's work. No wonder Dante made him his guide in the Divine Comedy in the realm of the dead.
Balandin R.K. One Hundred Great Geniuses / R.K. Balandin. - M.: Veche, 2012.
The policy of Augustus met with sympathy in wide circles of Italian proprietors, to whom the remarkable poets of that time belonged. The praise of Roman antiquity and Augustus pervaded the work of the great poets - Virgil, Horace, Tibullus, Proportion, Ovid, who were members of literary circles under the auspices of Augustus's closest friend after Agrippa - Maecenas and the former "republican" Valery Messala. All these poets were natives of Italian cities, some of them came from equestrian families. Only Horace was the son of a freedman. Many of them lost their lands during civil wars. During the second triumvirate, an unknown poet wrote poems that have come down to us, full of passionate hatred for the veterans who seized his land; he conjures it so that it will not bear fruit to illegal "wicked" owners. At the same time, Virgil, in one of his eclogues, complains about new aliens - soldiers who have seized his estate; with the end of the civil wars, the poet took the side of the new regime. Although he was already famous in the 1930s, his work truly flourished with the advent of peace. He admired the idyllic-simple rural life and Roman antiquity, which he constantly and deeply studied, and believed that Augustus brought peace to people and restored or will restore the ancient simplicity of morals.
The first of Virgil's major works (it was written in 42-39) was "Bucoliki" - a collection of ten so-called eclogues, written in part in imitation of Theocritus's idylls. This collection also includes the eclogues mentioned above. The rest of the eclogues depict how shepherds in the bosom of nature competed in singing love songs, glorified rural silence and peace. Another work of Virgil, “Georgics”, written two or three years after Bukolik, is also devoted to rural life and agriculture. Both works, which fully corresponded to the prevailing moods, created great popularity for the author. But the surviving glory of the greatest Roman poet brought him the epic poem "Aeneid" on which he worked for ten years until his death in 19 BC. e. Augustus himself was keenly interested in his work and listened to certain parts of the poem.
The poem tells about the wanderings, adventures and battles of the Trojan hero Aeneas, the son of Venus, who was destined by the gods to found a new city in Italy and become the ancestor of the kings of Alba Longa, Romulus and the Julius family. The 12 books of the Aeneid tell how Aeneas fled with his retinue from burning Troy, carrying his old father Anchises and native penates on his shoulders, and next to him was his son Ascanius, later named Yul. After long wanderings and failures, Aeneas ends up in Carthage, where Queen Dido rules. After listening to the story of Aeneas about his exploits and wanderings, she fell in love with him, but Jupiter terminated their union, reminding Aeneas that a great future awaits him in Italy. The abandoned queen commits suicide. Arriving in Sicily and burying Anchises here, Aeneas, with the help of the Sibyl, descends into the underworld, where his dead father shows him the future great men of Rome and the greatest of them, the direct descendant of Aeneas - Augustus, who will return the "golden age" to the earth, stop wars and strife and expand the power of Rome to India and the Caspian Sea. In Italy, after a long war with the Latins and Etruscans, Aeneas marries Lavinia, the daughter of King Latinus, and lays the foundation for a new kingdom of the Latins and Trojans.
The whole poem is imbued with the ideas and moods then dominant among the ruling class of Italy. The future greatness of Rome and Augustus is proclaimed by both Anchises and Jupiter himself, who determines the mission of the Romans on earth: let other peoples be stronger in the sciences and arts; the appointment of the Romans is to be the rulers of the world, to spare the vanquished and conquer the arrogant. famous figures, who created the greatness of Rome, according to Virgil, were strong in courage, severe simplicity and piety (pietas). Aeneas himself is a model of piety, which ensures his victory. He sees the pious when he descends into the realm of the dead, in the land of the blessed; but the wicked endure terrible torments there. With love, Virgil describes the ancient customs and rites of the Roman religion, simple rural life. The Aeneid embodied the ideology of the ruling strata of Rome and Italy so vividly that for many centuries it remained the favorite work of the Romans. It was commented on as early as the 5th century. n. e., it was quoted by poets, historians and authors of epitaphs carved on tombstones in Italy and the provinces, they studied the past of Rome, they guessed from it.
Quoted from ed.: The World History. Volume II. M., 1956, p. 613-615.
Read further:
All Romans (biographical index in alphabetical order)
Roman emperors (biographical index in chronological order)
Compositions:
rural poems. Bucoliki. Georgiki, trans., entry. Art. and comment. S. Shervinsky, M.-L., 1933; Aeneid, trans. V. Bryusov and S. Solovyov, ed., entry. Art. N. P. Deratani, M.-L., 1933.
Literature:
Pokrovsky M. M., History of Roman literature, M.-L., 1942; History of Roman Literature, vol. 1, ed. S. I. Sobolevsky, M. E. Grabar-Passek, F. A. Petrovsky. Moscow, 1959; Perret J., Virgile, l "homme et l" oeuvre, P., 1952; Peeters P., A bibliography of Vergil, N. Y., 1933; Gli studi virgiliani nel secolo XX. Contributo ad una bibliografia generale. A cura di G. Mambelli, v. 1-2, Firenze, 1940.
- 15.X.70 BC e. (Andes near Mantua) - 21.IX.19 BC. e. (Brindisi)
One of the most famous and significant ancient Roman poets; creator of a new type of epic poem.
Virgil received his first education in Cremona; At the age of sixteen he received the toga of maturity. This celebration coincided with the year of the death of Lucretius, so that contemporaries looked at the novice poet as a direct successor to the singer De Natura Rerum. Virgil received further education in Milan, Naples and Rome; there he studied Greek literature and philosophy. Despite his interest in Epicureanism and his deep admiration for Lucretius, Virgil did not join the Epicurean doctrine; he was attracted by Plato and the Stoics. By this time, his small poems belong, of which the most reliable is Culet, recognized as Virgil's by Martial, Suetonius and Statius. After the death of Caesar, Virgil returned to Mantua and devoted himself there to the study of Theocritus; but his peace was disturbed by civil wars. During the distribution of land to veterans - supporters of the triumvirs after the battle of Philippi, Virgil was twice in danger of losing his possessions in Mantua; but each time he was saved by the personal intervention of Octavian, to whom the grateful poet soon dedicated two laudatory eclogues (I and IX). In Rome, where Virgil often came to take care of his possessions, he made friends with Maecenas and the poets around him; afterwards he introduced Horace into this circle, and both poets made, together with their patron, the trip they both sang to Brundusium. In 37, Bucolica, the first mature work of Virgil, was completed, and at the request of Maecenas he took up Georgica, written in Naples in 30. In 29, after many preliminary works, Virgil proceeded to the Aeneid and, having worked on it for several years in Italy , went to Greece and Asia to study the theater of action of his poem on the spot and give his work more vital truth. In Athens, he met Augustus, who persuaded him to return to Italy. On the way to Rome, Virgil fell ill and died in Brundusia in 19 BC. Before his death, he asked that his unfinished and, in his opinion, imperfect epic be burned. Some scholars (Bartenstein, for example) explain this request as follows: the reign of Augustus convinced Virgil that he had been singing the tyrant all his life, and he felt remorse before his death that his epic would bring him immortality.
In his first work - "Bucolica" (consisting of 10 eclogues and written in 43-37 years) - Virgil wanted to introduce Greek features into Latin poetry, its simplicity and naturalness, and began by imitating Theocritus. But he completely failed to achieve the goal, despite the direct translation in many places of the Sicilian poet - it is precisely the simplicity and naturalness that are absent in Virgil's Bucolics. While the shepherds of Theocritus really live the unpretentious life of children of nature, whose whole interest is in the prosperity of the flocks and the love of the shepherdess, the shepherds of Virgil are a poetic fiction, an artistic image that covers the complaints of the Romans about the hardships of civil wars. In some of them, Virgil represents prominent figures of that era; for example, Caesar is represented in Daphnis. The most famous and in fact the most interesting in terms of solemnity of mood and subtlety of details is eclogue IV (Pallio), in which Virgil predicts a future golden age and the imminent birth of a child who will change the course of life on earth. The poet paints a picture of this future happy life, when any labor will be superfluous and a person will find everything he needs everywhere (omnis fert omnia tellus), and ends with a glorification of the future benefactor of people. Christian writers saw in this eclogue a prophecy of the birth of Christ, and it is based mainly on the belief in Virgil, widespread in the Middle Ages, as a magician. Most likely, Virgil had in mind in this poem the son of Augustus, Marcellus, whose early death he later sang in the poetic episode of the VI song of the Aeneid. In the general character of the 10th eclogue, its hatred of war and thirst for a quiet life, Virgil reflected the desire for peace that had engulfed the entire Roman society. The literary significance of the Bucolic consists mainly in the perfection of the verse, which surpasses everything previously written in republican Rome.
The Georgics, Virgil's second poem, was written to arouse the love of agriculture in the souls of veterans who had been rewarded with lands. Taking Hesiod as a model, Virgil, however, does not, like his Greek model, enter into all the details of the agricultural business - his goal is to show in poetic images the charms of rural life, and not to write rules on how to sow and reap; therefore, the details of agricultural labor occupy him only where they are of poetic interest. From Hesiod, Virgil took only indications of happy and unhappy days and some agricultural practices. The best part of the poem, that is, digressions of a natural-philosophical character, is mostly taken from Lucretius.
"Georgics" are considered the most perfect work of Virgil for the purity and poetic completeness of the verse. At the same time, they deeply reflected the character of the poet, his outlook on life and religious beliefs; these are poetic studies on the dignity of labor. Agriculture in his eyes is a holy war of people against the earth, and he often compares the details of agricultural life with military life. "Georgics" also serve as a protest against the spread in recent times republics of atheism; the poet helps Augustus to awaken in the Romans the extinct faith in the gods, and he himself is sincerely imbued with the conviction of the existence of a higher Providence that governs people. The Aeneid is Virgil's unfinished patriotic epic, consisting of 12 books written between 29-19 AD. After the death of Virgil, the Aeneid was published by his friends Varius and Plotius without any changes, but with some cuts. In all likelihood, the Aeneid was calculated, like the Iliad, for 24 songs; The 12th ends only with a victory over Turn, while the poet wanted to tell the very settlement of the hero in Latium and his death. The plot of the epic is Aeneas, who founds a new Ilion in Rome and becomes the ancestor of gens Julia, from which Augustus originated. Virgil took up this plot at the request of Augustus in order to arouse national pride in the Romans with tales of the great destinies of their ancestors and, on the other hand, to protect the dynastic interests of Augustus, supposedly a descendant of Aeneas through his son Julius or Ascanius. Virgil in the Aeneid closely adjoins Homer; in the Iliad, Aeneas is the hero of the future. The poem begins with the last part of Aeneas's wanderings, his stay in Carthage, and then episodically tells the previous events, the destruction of Ilion (II p.), Aeneas's wanderings after that (III p.), Arrival in Carthage (I and IV p.), Journey through Sicily (V p.) to Italy (VI p.), where a new series of adventures of a romantic and militant character begins. The very execution of the plot suffers from a common defect in Virgil's works - the lack of original creativity and strong characters. Especially unfortunate is the hero, “pious Aeneas” (pius Aeneas), devoid of any initiative, controlled by fate and the decisions of the gods, who patronize him as the founder of a noble family and the executor of the divine mission - transferring Lar to a new homeland. In addition, the Aeneid bears the imprint of artificiality; in contrast to the Homeric epic, which came out of the people, the Aeneid was created in the mind of the poet, without connections with folk life and beliefs; Greek elements are confused with Italian ones, mythical tales with history, and the reader constantly feels that the mythical world serves only as a poetic expression of the national idea. On the other hand, Virgil used all the power of his verse to finish off the psychological and purely poetic episodes that constitute the immortal glory of the epic. Virgil is inimitable in the descriptions of gentle shades of feelings. One has only to recall the pathetic, despite its simplicity, description of the friendship of Nizus and Erial, the love and suffering of Dido, the meeting of Aeneas with Dido in hell, in order to forgive the poet for his unsuccessful attempt to exalt the glory of Augustus at the expense of the legends of antiquity. Of the 12 songs of the Aeneid, the sixth, which describes the descent of Aeneas into hell to see his father (Anchises), is considered the most remarkable in terms of philosophical depth and patriotic feeling. In it, the poet expounds the Pythagorean and Platonic doctrine of the "soul of the universe" and recalls all the great people of Rome. The external structure of this song is taken from the eleventh paragraph of the Odyssey. In other songs, borrowings from Homer are also very numerous.
Of the minor poems, in addition to the above-mentioned Culet, Ciris, Moretum and Sora are also attributed to Virgil. Virgil, in his poetry, as well as in his private life, is more a man of feelings than of thought. "Bonus", "optimus", "anima candida" - these are the epithets that constantly accompany his name in Horace, Donatus, and others. following Lucretius. But he feels his impotence and sadly exclaims at Lucretius (Geor. II):
Felix qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas… Fortunatus et ille deos qui novit agrestos…
Everything concerning the philosophical systems in the Aeneid and the Georgics is directly borrowed from various Greek authors. In politics, Virgil is one of the most sincere supporters of Augustus. Full of enthusiasm for the great past of Rome, he wholeheartedly glorifies the peacemaker in Italy. August for him is a representative of the national idea, and he worships him without any hint of fawning, alien to his pure soul.
The worship with which the name of Virgil was surrounded during his lifetime continued even after the death of the poet; already since the August century, his writings were studied in schools, commented on by scientists and served to predict fate, like the oracles of the Sybils. The so-called "Sortes Virgilianae" were in great use in the time of Hadrian and Severus. The name of Virgil was surrounded by a mysterious legend, which in the Middle Ages turned into a belief in him as a magician. Numerous legends about his miraculous power were based on some misunderstood passages in his writings, such as eclogues IV and VIII. The story of the afterlife in paragraph VI of the Aeneid, etc. and, in addition, the interpretation of the hidden meaning of his name (Virga - a magic wand) and the name of his mother (Maia - Maga). Already in Donatus there are allusions to the supernatural significance of Virgil's poetry. Fulgentius ("Virg. Continentiae") gives the Aeneid an allegorical meaning. Virgil's name then occurs in Spanish, French, and German vernacular books (see Simrock, "Eine sch öne Hi storie von dem Zauberer Virgilius"), which date him either to the time of the fabulous King Octavian or King Servius; Brittany legends speak of him as a contemporary of King Arthur and the son of a knight from the Campagna in the Forest of Arden. The theater of his exploits is always Rome and Naples. The highest manifestation of the importance attributed by the Middle Ages to Virgil is the role that Dante gives him in the Divina Comedia, choosing him as the representative of the deepest human wisdom and making him his leader through the circles of hell.
V.'s writings have come down to us in a large number of manuscripts, of which the most remarkable are: Medicean, probably written before the fall of the Western Roman Empire (ed. Foggini in Florence in 1741), and Codex Vaticanus (ed. Bottari, Rome, 1741 G.). From edid. prince we note a small folio of 1469 published by Sveingheim and Panartz, the Aldin edition in Venice of 1501, several editions of the 15th and 16th centuries. with commentary by Servius et al., ed. I. L. de la Cerda, Madrid, 1608-1617, ed. Nick. Gelsius in Amsterdam, 1676, Burkmann in 1746, Wagner in 1830, corrected from manuscripts and provided with remarks on the spelling of many words of Virgil - Schweigger's "Handbuch der classischen Bibliographie" contains a listing of all other editions and an indication of their merits.
The primary sources for information about the life and writings of Virgil are Donat's Vita Vergilii, some other vitae, which are provided with manuscripts, comments by Servius and Virgil's biography in the verses of Focius. Of the critical and historical books about Virgil, the following are remarkable: a study of Virgil in Paolli's Real Encyclop é die; Sainte Boeuve, "Virgile"; separate articles by G. Boissier in "Religion des Romains", "Promenades arch éologiqu es etc.", introductions to German. published Wagner, Vorbiger, and others. On Virgil in the Middle Ages: Comparetti, "Virgil im Mittelaller" (translated from Italian, 1875).
