{"id":53,"date":"2025-05-18T03:32:27","date_gmt":"2025-05-18T07:32:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/mwwhy27-spring2025\/?page_id=53"},"modified":"2025-05-20T10:11:15","modified_gmt":"2025-05-20T14:11:15","slug":"eclogue-8","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/mwwhy27-spring2025\/eclogue-8\/","title":{"rendered":"Eclogue 8"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Summary<\/h2>\n\n\n
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Michael van der Gucht, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

A te principium, tibi desinam, accipe iussis carmina coepta tuis atque hanc sine tempora circum intra uictrices hederam tibi serpere lauros. Vergil Eclogues VIII.11-13<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

“From you is my beginning; For you I will cease. Accept these songs essayed at your order, and grant that, amid the conqueror\u2019s laurels, this ivy may creep about your temples.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mainly based on Theocritus\u2019 Idyll 2, this poem contains an anonymous narrator singing the love songs of two herdsmen, Damon and Alphesiboeus, to an unnamed dedicatee (likely his patron Gaius Asinius Pollio.) Damon\u2019s song is of a young man whose girlfriend, Nysa, is to marry another man, Mopsus. Alphesiboeus\u2019 song, is of a nameless woman who attempts to use a magic spell to attract her beloved Daphnis back home from the city.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Geography<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The Timavo River and the Adriatic Sea<\/h3>\n\n\n
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Ines Zgonc, CC BY 3.0 <https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons\/ Cropped from original
Wistula, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons\/ Cropped from original<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Tu mihi seu magni superas iam saxa Timaui siue oram Illyrici legis aequoris, en erit umquam ille dies mihi cum liceat tua dicere facta? Vergil, Eclogues VIII.6-8<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBut you, whether you are now passing over the rocks of great Timavus or picking your way to the shore of the Illyrian sea \u2013 say, will that day ever be when I may speak of your deeds?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Timavus river is a stream flowing off the Gulf of Trieste. Its water comes from a subterranean flow from the Reka River in Slovenia. The adjective \u201cmagni<\/em>\u201d refers to its reputation rather than its size as it was known locally as the \u201csource and mother of the sea\u201d. The Illyrian Sea, better known as the Adriatic sea, is the northernmost arm of the Mediterranean, separating the Italian Peninsula from the Balkan Peninsula.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The adverb \u201ciam<\/em>\u201d here suggests that the dedicatee would be traveling from the Southern coast of Illyria to the North, heading towards Italy. If the dedicatee is indeed Pollio, it would not be surprising for him to make a journey with this itinerary. <\/p>\n\n\n\n