Virgil on the nature of things : the Georgics, Lucretius, and the didactic tradition PDF
Preview Virgil on the nature of things : the Georgics, Lucretius, and the didactic tradition
The Georgics has for more than twenty years been a source of Werce controversyamongscholarsof Latinliterature.Is theworkoptimisticor pessimistic,pro-oranti-Augustan?Shouldwereaditasaeulogyorabitter critiqueofRomeandherimperialambitions?Thisbooksuggeststhatthe ambiguityof thepoemistheproductofacomplexandthorough-going engagementwithearlierwritersin the didactictradition:Hesiod,Aratus and – above all – Lucretius. Drawing on both traditional, philological approaches to allusion, and modern theories of intertextuality, Monica Gale shows how the world-views of the earlier poets are subjected to scrutinyandbroughtintoconXictwitheachother.Detailedconsideration ofverbalparallelsandofLucretianthemes,imageryandstructuralpatterns intheGeorgicsformsthebasisforareadingofVirgil’spoemasanextended meditationontherelationsbetweentheindividualandsociety,thegods andthenaturalenvironment. monica galeisaLecturerinClassicsatTrinityCollege,Dublin.Sheis theauthorofMythandPoetryinLucretius(1994). XXXXXX R VI GIL ON R THE NATU E OF THINGS The Georgics, Lucretiusand the Didactic Tradition Monica R. Gale TrinityCollege,Dublin published by the press syndicate of the university of cambridge ThePittBuilding,TrumpingtonStreet,Cambridge,UnitedKingdom cambridge university press TheEdinburghBuilding,Cambridgecb22ru,UK www.cup.cam.ac.uk 40West20thStreet,NewYork,ny10011–4211,USA www.cup.org 10StamfordRoad,Oakleigh,Melbourne3166,Australia RuizdeAlarco´n13,28014Madrid,Spain ©MonicaR.Gale2000 Thisbookisincopyright.Subjecttostatutoryexception andtotheprovisionsofrelevantcollectivelicensingagreements, noreproductionofanypartmaytakeplacewithout thewrittenpermissionofCambridgeUniversityPress Firstpublished2000 PrintedintheUnitedKingdomattheUniversityPress,Cambridge TypesetinBembo11/13pt[vn] AcataloguerecordofthisbookisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary LibraryofCongressCataloguinginPublicationdata Gale,Monica. Virgilonthenatureofthings:theGeorgics,Lucretius,andthedidactictradition/ MonicaR.Gale. p. cm. Includesbibliographicalreferences(p. )andindex. isbn0521781116(hardback) 1.Virgil.Georgica. 2.Didacticpoetry,Latin–Historyandcriticism. 3.Lucretius Carus,Titus.Dererumnatura. 4.LucretiusCarus,Titus–InXuence. 5.Philosophy,Ancient,inliterature. 6.Virgil–Knowledge–Literature. 7.Rome–Inliterature. 8.Virgil–Philosophy. 9.Intertextuality. 10.Allusion. i.Title PA6804.G4G352000 871'.01–dc21 99-462247 isbn0521781116 formyparents quipotueruntrerumcognoscerecausas Iamwaryofthewordspessimismandoptimism. Anoveldoesnotassertanything;anovel searchesandposesquestions. milan kundera CONTENTS Preface ix Listofabbreviations xiii 1 Introduction:inXuence,allusion,intertextuality 1 2 Beginningsandendings 18 3 Thegods,thefarmerandthenaturalworld 58 4 Virgil’smetamorphoses:mythologicalallusions 113 5 Laborimprobus 143 6 Thewondersofthenaturalworld 196 7 ThecosmicbattleWeld:warfareandmilitaryimagery 232 8 Epilogue:thephilosopherandthefarmer 270 Bibliography 275 Indexofpassagescited 288 Generalindex 314 vii XXXXXX R P EFACE It is now some twenty years since Michael Putnam’s inXuential study, Virgil’sPoemof the Earth, Wrst put forwardthe view that the Georgics is a profoundly gloomy work, a view which has dominated scholarly opin- ion (at least in the English-speaking world) ever since. Putnam himself speaks of the ‘realism, graphic and largely pessimistic’ with which the poet depicts the relationship between human beings and the world around them; the overt, agricultural subject-matter of the poem is, in his view, ‘one grand trope for life itself’. Other critics have focussed their attention on the political stance of the poet, or the position he takes up with respect to the literary debates of his era; but the majority have followed Putnam in treating the didactic surface of the poem as a kind of fac¸ade, behind which the poet’s true concerns lie concealed. There has been a prevailing tendency, too, to privilege certain sections of the text over others, in the attemptto construct a univocal ‘message’ from the shifting balance between the elements of light and darkness, panegyric and vituperation, comedy and tragedy, which make up the Georgicsasawhole. It is my contention that attempts to explain away the poem’s ambi- guitiesin thisway are misconceived.Whilethework admitsof eitheran optimisticorapessimisticreading,itdoesnotenforceeither.Itseemstome thatwhatMilanKunderasaysofthenovelinmyepigraphcanequallybe applied to the Georgics: Virgil ‘does not assert anything’, rather he ‘searches and poses questions’. In what follows, I attempt to show how the poem engages dynamically with the entire didactic tradition. Virgil subjectsthediverseworld-viewsofhispredecessors(particularlyHesiod, Aratus and Lucretius) to a searching scrutiny, without attempting to resolvetheirdiVerencesoreventofavourparticularaspectsofonesystem or another.Lucretius’ De Rerum Natura is more frequently evoked, and informs the themes and structure of Virgil’s poem more fully, than any ix x preface other work in the tradition; but that is not to say that the poem is consistentlyeitherpro-oranti-Epicureaninitsoutlook. It is also misleading, I think, to describe Virgil’s agricultural subject- matter as a metaphor or trope. Clearly, it makes no sense to treat the poemasapracticalhandbook;yetthepoetseemstometobenoless(and no more) serious about his theme than Hesiod or Lucretius. Just as Hesiod’s agricultural precepts are thoroughly intermeshed with his ex- hortations to work and piety, and just as Lucretius’ account of the physicalworldissimultaneouslyarejectionofsuperstitionandirrational- ity, so Virgil’s picture of the Italian farmer and his world naturally broadens out into wider reXexions on philosophical, theological and political themes. For the Roman reader, the farmer embodied a very particularsetofideals:honestandunstintingtoil,old-fashionedpiety,the toughnessand naturaljusticewhich made Romegreat. Naturally,then, thesethemestooarecentraltoVirgil’spoem. Thesimplepietytraditionallyassociatedwithrurallifealsoconstitutes an obvious and immediate point of contact – and conXict – with Luc- retius.TheDRNhastwoexplicitaims:tofreethereaderfromthefearof death, and to combat superstition and irrationality. For Lucretius, both traditional Roman religion and the more sophisticated philosophical theologiesoftheStoicsandothersfallsquarelyunderthelatterheading. Hence,thenatureofthegodsandtheirrelationshipwithhumanbeings and the world as a whole are central both to Virgil’s poem and to my readingofit(chapters3and4). My Wrst two chapters set out the groundwork for this interpretation, looking Wrst at some questions of theory and critical practice, and then examiningtheframeworkofproemsandWnaleswhich–Isuggest–invite thereadertoviewthepoemasawholeasaresponsetotheDRN.Chapters 5,6and7considerfurtherareasofengagementbetweenthetwopoems andtheirdidacticpredecessors.Lucretiuspromisestofreehisreaderfrom toil(labor)andanxiety,Wrmlyrejectstheideathatanyphenomenoncanbe attributedtosupernaturalcauses,andportraysserenityandfreedomfrom conXictasthe ultimategoals of human life.In responseto each of these propositions,VirgilpointstotensionsinLucretius’useofimageryandhis rhetorical strategies, and (so to speak) stages a series of confrontations between Hesiodic, Aratean, Lucretian and traditional Roman ideals. Chapter5 looks at the theme of labor, which is common to Hesiod and Lucretius, though handled very diVerently by each; chapter 6 considers Virgil’s treatment of the marvellous and supernatural; and chapter 7
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