Virgil
Publius Vergilius Maro (
October 15,
70 BC –
September 21,
19 BC), later called
Virgilius, and known in
English as
Virgil or
Vergil, was an ancient Roman poet, the author of the
Eclogues, the
Georgics and the
Aeneid, the last being an
epic poem of twelve books that became the
Roman Empire's
national epic.
Virgil was born in the village of Andes, near
Mantua in
Cisalpine Gaul (Gaul south of the
Alps; present-day northern
Italy). Virgil was of non-Roman Italian ancestry, which he alluded to and defended in the
Aeneid when he said that Rome will be of mixed blood.
Early works
Virgil received his earliest education at 5 years old. He later went to
Rome to study
rhetoric,
medicine, and
astronomy, which he soon abandoned for
philosophy. In this period, while Virgil was in the school of
Siro the Epicurean, he began writing poetry. A group of minor poems attributed to the youthful Virgil survive, but are largely considered spurious. One, the
Catalepton, consists of fourteen short poems, some of which may be Virgil's, and another, a short narrative poem titled the
Culex (the
mosquito), was attributed to Virgil as early as the
1st century AD. These dubious poems are sometimes referred to as the
Appendix Vergiliana.
In
42 BC, after the defeat of
Julius Caesar's assassins,
Brutus and
Cassius, the demobilized soldiers of the victors settled on expropriated land and Virgil's estate near
Mantua was confiscated. Virgil explores the various emotions surrounding these appropriations and other aspects of rural life in the
Eclogues, his earliest poetry first published in the mid-30's BC. A number of the eclogues, notably the second, but also the third, the fifth, the seventh and the tenth, touch on the topic of love between males, often of a
pederastic nature. Ancient writers assumed that the character of Corydon in the second eclogue, lover of Alexis, represented Virgil himself, and Alexis represented Alexander, a slave given to Virgil by Pollio. The theme of pederastic love was later also taken up in his epic poem in the story of Nisus and Euryalus. Modern scholars largely reject the effort to seek to identify him with characters in his poetry and thus to garner further biographical details from his own life.
Virgil soon became part of the circle of
Maecenas, Octavian's capable
agent d'affaires who sought to counter sympathy for
Mark Antony among the leading families by rallying Roman literary figures to Octavian's side. He gained many connections with other leading literary figures of the time, including
Horace and
Varius Rufus(who later helped finish the Aeneid), After the
Eclogues were completed, Virgil spent the years
37 BC–
29 BC on the
Georgics ("On Farming"), which was written in honor of Maecenas, and is the source of the expression
tempus fugit ("time flies"). However, Octavian, who had defeated Antony at the
Battle of Actium in
31 BC and upon whom the title "Augustus" had been bestowed four years later by the
Roman Senate, was already pressing Virgil to write an epic to praise his regime.
Composition of the Aeneid and death
Virgil responded with the
Aeneid, which took up his last ten years. The first six books of the epic tell how the
Trojan hero
Aeneas escapes from the sacking of
Troy and makes his way to Italy. On the voyage, a storm drives him to the coast of
Carthage, where the queen,
Dido, welcomes him, and under the influence of the gods falls deeply in love with him.
Jupiter recalls Aeneas to his duty, however, and he slips away from Carthage, leaving Dido to commit
suicide, cursing Aeneas as revenge. On reaching
Cumae, in Italy, Aeneas consults the
Cumaean Sibyl, who conducts him through the
Underworld and reveals his destiny to him. Aeneas is reborn as the creator of Imperial Rome.
The first six books (of "first writing") are modeled on
Homer's
Odyssey, but the last six are the Roman answer to the
Iliad. Aeneas is betrothed to
Lavinia, daughter of King
Latinus, but Lavinia had already been promised to
Turnus, the king of the Rutulians, who is roused to war by the
Fury Allecto. The
Aeneid ends with a single combat between Aeneas and Turnus, whom Aeneas defeats and kills, spurning his plea for mercy.
Virgil travelled with Augustus to
Greece. There, Virgil caught a fever, from which he died in
Brundisium harbor, leaving the
Aeneid unfinished. Augustus ordered Virgil's literary executors,
Lucius Varius Rufus and
Plotius Tucca, to disregard Virgil's own wish that the poem be burned, instead ordering it published with as few editorial changes as possible. As a result, the text of the
Aeneid that exists may contain faults which Virgil was planning to correct before publication. However, the only obvious imperfections are a few lines of verse that are metrically unfinished (i.e., not a complete line of
dactylic hexameter). Other alleged "imperfections" are subject to scholarly debate.
Incomplete or not, the
Aeneid was immediately recognized as a masterpiece. It proclaimed the imperial mission of the
Roman Empire, but at the same time could pity Rome's victims and feel their grief. Dido and Turnus, who are both casualties of Rome's destiny, are more attractive figures than Aeneas, whose single-minded devotion to his goal may seem almost repellent to the modern reader. However, at the time Aeneas was considered to exemplify virtue and
pietas (roughly translated as
piety, though the word is far more complex and has a sense of being duty-bound and respectful of divine will, family and homeland). Nevertheless, Aeneas struggles between doing what he wants to do as a man, and doing what he must as a virtuous hero. In the view of some modern critics, Aeneas' inner turmoil and shortcomings make him a more realistic character than the heroes of
Homeric poetry, such as
Odysseus.
Even as the Roman world collapsed, literate men acknowledged that the Christianized Virgil was a master poet, even when they ceased to read him.
Gregory of Tours read Virgil and some other Latin poets, though he cautions us that "We ought not to relate their lying fables, lest we fall under sentence of eternal death." Surviving medieval collections of manuscripts containing Virgil's works include the
Vergilius Augusteus, the
Vergilius Vaticanus and the
Vergilius Romanus.
Dante made Virgil his guide to
Hell and
Purgatory in
The Divine Comedy. Dante also mentions Virgil in
De vulgari eloquentia, along with
Ovid,
Lucan and
Statius as one of the four
regulati poetae (ii, vi, 7)
Virgil is still considered one of the greatest of the Latin poets, and the
Aeneid is a fixture of most classical studies programs.
Mysticism and hidden meanings
In the
Middle Ages, Virgil was considered a herald of
Christianity for his
Eclogue 4 verses () concerning the birth of a boy, which were re-read as a prophecy of
Jesus' nativity. The poem may actually refer to the pregnancy of Octavian's wife
Scribonia, who in fact gave birth to a girl.
Also during the Middle Ages, as Virgil was developed into a kind of
magus, manuscripts of the
Aeneid were used for
divinatory bibliomancy, the
Sortes Virgilianae, in which a line would be selected at random and interpreted in the context of a current situation (Compare the ancient Chinese
I Ching). The Old Testament was sometimes used for similar arcane purposes. Even in the
Welsh myth of
Taliesin, the goddess
Cerridwen is reading from the "Book of Pheryllt"—that is, Virgil.
Virgil's tomb
The tomb known as "
Virgil's tomb" is found at the entrance of an ancient Roman tunnel (also known as "grotta vecchia") in the Parco di Virgilio in
Piedigrotta, a district two miles from old
Naples, near the
Mergellina harbor, on the road heading north along the coast to
Pozzuoli. The site called Parco Virgiliano is some distance further north along the coast. While Virgil was already the object of literary admiration and veneration before his death, in the following centuries his name became associated with miraculous powers, his tomb the destination of pilgrimages and pagan veneration. The poet himself was said to have created the cave with the fierce power of his intense gaze.
It is said that the Chiesa della Santa Maria di Piedigrotta was erected by Church authorities to neutralize this pagan adoration and "
Christianize" the site. The tomb, however, is a tourist attraction, and still sports a tripod burner originally dedicated to
Apollo, bearing witness to the Pagan beliefs held by Virgil.
In the
Middle Ages "Vergilius" was frequently spelled "Virgilius." There are two explanations commonly given for the alteration in the spelling of Virgil's name. One explanation is based on a false etymology associated with the word
virgo (
maiden in
Latin) due to Virgil's excessively "maiden"-like (
parthenias or παρθηνιας in
Greek) modesty. Alternatively, some argue that "Vergilius" was altered to "Virgilius" by analogy with the Latin
virga (wand) due to the magical or prophetic powers attributed to Virgil in the Middle Ages. In an attempt to reconcile his pagan background with the high regard in which his Medieval scholars held him, it was posited that some of his works metaphorically foretold the coming of
Christ, hence making him a prophet of sorts. This view is defended by some scholars today, namely Richard F. Thomas of Harvard.
In
Norman schools (following the
French practice), the habit was to anglicize Latin names by dropping their Latin endings, hence "Virgil."
In the
19th century, some
German-trained
classicists in the
United States suggested modification to "Vergil," as it is closer to his original name, and is also the traditional German spelling. Modern usage permits both, though the
Oxford Style Manual recommends
Vergilius to avoid confusion with the 8th-century
Irish grammarian
Virgilius Maro Grammaticus.
Some post-
Renaissance writers liked to affect the
sobriquet "The Swan of Mantua."
Dates are approximate.
* (
50 BC)
Appendix Vergiliana* (
37 BC)
Eclogues (or "Bucolics") -- 10 books
* (
29 BC)
Georgics (or "On Farming") -- 4 books
* (
19 BC)
Aeneid -- 12 books
*
Collected Works **
**
Sacred Texts: Classics: The Works of Virgil**
P. Vergilivs Maro at
The Latin Library**
Free ebook of Virgil at
Project Gutenberg*
Biography**
Suetonius: The Life of Virgil, an English translation.
**
Vita Vergiliana, Aelius Donatus'
Life of Virgil in the original Latin.
**
Virgil.org: Aelius Donatus' Life of Virgil translated into English by David Wilson-Okamura** Project Gutenberg edition of
Vergil—A Biography, by Tenney Frank.
*
Commentary**
Virgil in Late Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and the Renaissance: an Online Bibliography**
Virgilmurder (Jean-Yves Maleuvre's website setting forth his theory that Virgil was murdered by Augustus)
**
The Secret History of Virgil, containing a selection on the magical legends and tall tales that circulated about Virgil in the Middle Ages.
*
Quotes**
Virgil Quotes*http://www.mynet.it/mantova/turismo/storiamn/origini/virgilio/virgil-e.htm
*http://www.lateinforum.de/vergil.htm
*http://www.ilsecondorinascimento.it/Pages/TxtNEGR.htm
The article above was originally sourced from
Nupedia and is
open content.
