The Messianic Eclogue: A Brief Overview And Translation
Foreword
The Messianic Eclogue is one of the most studied works in Vergil’s oeuvre. The fourth in a series of ten total Eclogues (also known as the Bucolics), this poem stands out from its peers in that it ascends from the humble pastoral world which Vergil lays out to a glorious prophecy about the rise of a “golden race”. This is an intentional elevation of the poetry, as the author himself illustrates in lines 1 and 2 (the antithesis of maiora and humiles is particularly vivid). Make no mistake, however, there is still liberal use of Vergil’s classic pastoral imagery, as he grandly assures the reader in line 3 that the forests he sings of will be “forests worthy of a consul”.
Though the piece makes brilliant use of various natural similes and other literary devices I could go on for pages about, the reason for the Fourth Eclogue’s fame realistically boils down to one question: who is the puer of whom Vergil speaks? Scholars have formulated various theories; According to Servius, Asinius Gallus (a son of Pollio, the man to whom the poem is dedicated) claimed that he himself was the boy; other scholars suspect that it could have been the future child of Augustus and Scribonia; others still surmise that the child referred to Mithras, a deity with influence in civilizations ranging from Imperial Rome to pre-Zoroastrian Iran. Yet by far the most prominent theory, and the one which gives the Messianic Eclogue its name, was that the puer was none other than Christ himself.[1]
One of the first people to make the connection was Constantine the Great. In his speech appended to Eusebius’ Life of Constantine, he directly quotes almost the entire poem as part of his remarks about Easter to an “Assembly of Saints”. Yet the 4th Eclogue is not a perfect match for a Messianic prophecy, as is evidenced by the fact that Constantine conveniently omitted lines 3, 11, and 12, which make reference to the consul Pollio, clashing with the idea that the puer represented Christ. Part of line 10 and lines 46 and 47 are also excluded from the speech due to their references to Apollo and the Fates.[2]
Following Constantine, various authors throughout the centuries supported the idea of the Messianic Eclogue such as Lactantius, St. Augustine, and later even Dante. The reception of the poem in literature is the apex of the wider reverence of Vergil observed among Early Christians. In many ways, ideas presented in the Georgics, Eclogues, and Aeneid like labor, fatum, and of course, pietas, epitomize Christian values. [3]
I will leave you, dear reader, with the eloquent analysis of renowned poet T.S. Eliot, who places Vergil’s Aeneas within a Christian context:
“Aeneas’ end is only a new beginning; and the whole point of the pilgrimage is something which will come to pass for future generations. His nearest likeness is Job, but his reward is not what Job’s was, but is only in the accomplishment of his destiny. He suffer for himself, he acts only in obedience. He is, in fact, the prototype of the Christian hero. For he is, humbly, a man with a mission; and the mission is everything.”[4]
English Translation
Sicilian Muses, let us sing a little of greater tales.
The orchards and lowly tamarisks do not delight every man;
If we sing of forests, let the forests be worthy of a consul!
The last age of the song of Cumae now comes;
A great order of the generations is born.
And now the Virgin returns, the Saturnian kingdoms return,
Now a new progeny is sent down from the high heavens!
Only you smile on the birth of the boy,
by whom first the cruel will fall, next a golden race will rise from the whole world,
Pure Lucina; now let your Apollo rule.
And indeed this honor of age, in your consulship, will come upon you,
Pollio, and the great months will begin to proceed;
With you as leader, if any traces of our crime remain,
They will free the lands from useless perpetual fear.
That boy will accept life of the gods, and will see
heroes mingled with gods, and he himself will be seen by them
and he will rule the world, subdued by paternal virtues.
But for you, boy, the earth will pour out its little gifts first,
Wandering ivy with bacchar everywhere,
And colocasia mingled with laughing acanthus.
The she-goats themselves will bear home their breasts swollen with milk,
and not fear the herd of great lions;
the cradles themselves will pour out caressing flowers for you.
And the serpent will perish, and the herb deceitful with venom will perish;
The Assyrian shrub will spring forth everywhere.
But as soon as you can read the praises of heroes and deeds of your father
and already learn what courage is,
the plain will gradually grow yellow with a soft harvest,
and the red-tinged grape will hang will untilled thorns,
and the hard oaks wil perspire with dewy honey-water.
Nevertheless a few old traces of deceit will come up, to order
men to test Thetis with rafts,
to gird their towns with walls,
to cleave furrows upon the earth.
Then there will be another Tiphys
and another Argo which carries chosen heroes;
there will be also other wars,
and a great Achilles will again be sent to Troy
Hence, when strong age has already made you a man,
The traveler himself will cede and the sea-borne pine
will not change its wares; the whole earth will bear everything.
the ground will not allow the rake, the vineyard will not allow the sickle.
The strong plowman will also free the yokes from the bulls;
and the wool will not learn to feign various colors,
but the ram himself will change his his pelts in the fields,
now a sweetly blushing purple, now a saffron yellow,
by its own will a vermilion will dress the grazing lambs.
“Blessed ages, press on!” said to their spindles
the harmonious Parcae with a stable divine power of the fates.
O assume your high honors - the time will come soon -
dear offspring of the gods, great progeny of Jove
Behold the world wavering under the arched weight,
both the lands and the extent of the sea and the boundless skies;
Behold, how all things rejoice in the age about to come!
O that then the last part of long life would remain to me,
and soul be so much as enough to sing your deeds:
that neither Thracian Orpheus conquer me with songs
nor Linus, although his mother and his father may be present,
Calliope of Orpheus, Apollo formed like Linus
Even Pan, if he should struggle with me with Arcadia as juror,
Even Pan would say that he was conquered with Arcadia as juror.
Begin, little boy, to recognize your mother with a smile;
Ten months have brought your mother long struggle.
Begin, little boy. He who has not laughed with his parent,
No god has ever honored him with a table, a goddess with her bed.
Original Latin
Sicelides Musae, paulo maiora canamus.
non omnis arbusta iuvant humilesque myricae;
si canimus silvas, silvae sint consule dignae.
Ultima Cumaei venit iam carminis aetas;
magnus ab integro saeclorum nascitur ordo.
iam redit et Virgo, redeunt Saturnia regna,
iam nova progenies caelo demittitur alto.
tu modo nascenti puero, quo ferrea primum
desinet ac toto surget gens aurea mundo,
casta fave Lucina; tuus iam regnat Apollo.
Teque adeo decus hoc aevi, te consule, inibit,
Pollio, et incipient magni procedere menses;
te duce, si qua manent sceleris vestigia nostri,
inrita perpetua solvent formidine terras.
ille deum vitam accipiet divisque videbit
permixtos heroas et ipse videbitur illis
pacatumque reget patriis virtutibus orbem.
At tibi prima, puer, nullo munuscula cultu
errantis hederas passim cum baccare tellus
mixtaque ridenti colocasia fundet acantho.
ipsae lacte domum referent distenta capellae
ubera nec magnos metuent armenta leones;
ipsa tibi blandos fundent cunabula flores.
occidet et serpens et fallax herba veneni
occidet; Assyrium vulgo nascetur amomum.
At simul heroum laudes et facta parentis
iam legere et quae sit poteris cognoscere virtus,
molli paulatim flavescet campus arista
incultisque rubens pendebit sentibus uva
et durae quercus sudabunt roscida mella.
Pauca tamen suberunt priscae vestigia fraudis,
quae temptare Thetin ratibus, quae cingere muris
oppida, quae iubeant telluri infindere sulcos.
alter erit tum Tiphys et altera quae vehat Argo
delectos heroas; erunt etiam altera bella
atque iterum ad Troiam magnus mittetur Achilles.
Hinc, ubi iam firmata virum te fecerit aetas,
cedet et ipse mari vector nec nautica pinus
mutabit merces; omnis feret omnia tellus.
non rastros patietur humus, non vinea falcem,
robustus quoque iam tauris iuga solvet arator;
nec varios discet mentiri lana colores,
ipse sed in pratis aries iam suave rubenti
murice, iam croceo mutabit vellera luto,
sponte sua sandyx pascentis vestiet agnos.
'Talia saecla' suis dixerunt 'currite' fusis
concordes stabili fatorum numine Parcae.
Adgredere o magnos—aderit iam tempus—honores,
cara deum suboles, magnum Iovis incrementum.
aspice convexo nutantem pondere mundum,
terrasque tractusque maris caelumque profundum;
aspice, venturo laetantur ut omnia saeclo.
O mihi tum longae maneat pars ultima vitae,
spiritus et quantum sat erit tua dicere facta:
non me carminibus vincat nec Thracius Orpheus
nec Linus, huic mater quamvis atque huic pater adsit,
Orphei Calliopea, Lino formosus Apollo.
Pan etiam, Arcadia mecum si iudice certet,
Pan etiam Arcadia dicat se iudice victum.
Incipe, parve puer, risu cognoscere matrem;
matri longa decem tulerunt fastidia menses.
incipe, parve puer. qui non risere parenti,
nec deus hunc mensa dea nec dignata cubili est.
Notes
[1] Ella Bourne, “The Messianic Prophecy in Vergil’s Fourth Eclogue”, The Classical Journal 11, no. 7 (1916): 390. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3287925.
[2] Ibid, 390-391.
[3] T.S. Eliot, “Vergil and the Christian World”, The Sewanee Review 61, no. 1 (1953): 6. http://www.jstor.org/stable/27538181.
[4] Ibid, 10.