The
Georgics, published in 29 BCE, are the second major work by the Latin poet
VirgilPublius Vergilius Maro was a classical Roman poet, best known for three major works—the Eclogues , the Georgics, and the Aeneid—although several minor poems are also attributed to him.The son of a farmer, Virgil came to be...
. Their ostensible subject is rural life and farming. They are generally described as
didactic poetryDidacticism is an artistic philosophy that emphasizes instructional and informative qualities in literature and other types of art. Didactic art intends not primarily to "entertain" or to pursue subjective goals...
. The 17th century poet
John DrydenJohn Dryden was an influential English poet, literary critic, translator, and playwright who dominated the literary life of Restoration England to such a point that the period came to be known in literary circles as the Age of Dryden.-Early life:Dryden was born in the village rectory of Aldwincle...
described
The Georgics as, "The greatest poem by the greatest poet."
The work contains 2,188
hexametricHexameter is a literary and poetic form, a line consisting of six metrical feet, as in the Iliad. It was the standard epic metre in Greek and became standard for Latin too. It was also used in other types of composition -- in Horace's satires, for instance, and Ovid's Metamorphoses...
verses divided into four books. Books One and Two deal with
agricultureAgriculture is the production of food and goods through farming and forestry. Agriculture was the key development that led to the rise of human civilization, with the husbandry of domesticated animals and plants creating food surpluses that enabled the development of more densely populated and...
(field crops, legumes, trees, small woodland creatures, as well as
truffle hogThe truffle hog or truffle pig is a domestic pig used for extraction of truffles from temperate forests in Europe and North America. The pigs have a good sense of smell and a natural affinity for rooting in the earth for food, but are nevertheless trained to hunt truffles by walking on a...
s).
The
Georgics, published in 29 BCE, are the second major work by the Latin poet
VirgilPublius Vergilius Maro was a classical Roman poet, best known for three major works—the Eclogues , the Georgics, and the Aeneid—although several minor poems are also attributed to him.The son of a farmer, Virgil came to be...
. Their ostensible subject is rural life and farming. They are generally described as
didactic poetryDidacticism is an artistic philosophy that emphasizes instructional and informative qualities in literature and other types of art. Didactic art intends not primarily to "entertain" or to pursue subjective goals...
. The 17th century poet
John DrydenJohn Dryden was an influential English poet, literary critic, translator, and playwright who dominated the literary life of Restoration England to such a point that the period came to be known in literary circles as the Age of Dryden.-Early life:Dryden was born in the village rectory of Aldwincle...
described
The Georgics as, "The greatest poem by the greatest poet."
Description
The work contains 2,188
hexametricHexameter is a literary and poetic form, a line consisting of six metrical feet, as in the Iliad. It was the standard epic metre in Greek and became standard for Latin too. It was also used in other types of composition -- in Horace's satires, for instance, and Ovid's Metamorphoses...
verses divided into four books. Books One and Two deal with
agricultureAgriculture is the production of food and goods through farming and forestry. Agriculture was the key development that led to the rise of human civilization, with the husbandry of domesticated animals and plants creating food surpluses that enabled the development of more densely populated and...
(field crops, legumes, trees, small woodland creatures, as well as
truffle hogThe truffle hog or truffle pig is a domestic pig used for extraction of truffles from temperate forests in Europe and North America. The pigs have a good sense of smell and a natural affinity for rooting in the earth for food, but are nevertheless trained to hunt truffles by walking on a...
s). Book Three is concerned with the rearing of cattle and other livestock, which includes rams, boars, and horses, and Book Four largely focuses upon
beekeepingBeekeeping is the maintenance of honey bee colonies, commonly in hives, by humans. A beekeeper keeps bees in order to collect honey and beeswax, to pollinate crops, or to produce bees for sale to other beekeepers. A location where bees are kept is called an apiary.-Origins:There are more than...
, and the lives of bees, wasps and hornets. However, in modern scholarship of the
Georgics, the ostensible subject matter of the poem is not often considered to be its chief focus, not least because of the poem's tendency towards non-agricultural "digression". The debate concerning the "true" subject of the
Georgics is ongoing.
The poem has an explicit political dimension, making several references to
OctavianGaius Julius Caesar Augustus was the first emperor of the Roman Empire, which he ruled alone from 27 BC until his death in AD 14.
[These are the contemporary dates; Augustus lived under two calendars, the Roman Republican until 45 BC, and the Julian after 45 BC...]
, who would become emperor Augustus in 27 BCE. Virgil's patron Maecenas, in whose honor the poem was written, was a confidant and advisor to Octavian.
SuetoniusGaius Suetonius Tranquillus, commonly known as Suetonius , was an equestrian and a historian during the Roman Empire. His most important surviving work is a set of biographies of twelve successive Roman rulers, from Julius Caesar until Domitian, entitled De Vita Caesarum...
reports that Virgil and Maecenas read the
Georgics to Octavian while he was ill in the summer of 29 BCE. There is debate as to whether Virgil's treatment of Octavian in the poem is entirely positive; but if
SuetoniusGaius Suetonius Tranquillus, commonly known as Suetonius , was an equestrian and a historian during the Roman Empire. His most important surviving work is a set of biographies of twelve successive Roman rulers, from Julius Caesar until Domitian, entitled De Vita Caesarum...
' report is accurate, it casts doubt upon the likelihood that the poem would contain any severe criticism of Octavian.
Influences
The
Georgics are influenced by
HesiodHesiod was a Greek oral poet. His date is uncertain but leading scholars , agree that Hesiod lived in the latter half of the eighth century BCE. Since at least Herodotus's time , Hesiod and Homer have generally been considered the earliest Greek poets whose work has survived, and they are often...
, whose
Works and Days was regarded as the first work of didactic poetry, but references to
HellenisticHellenistic civilization represents the zenith of Greek influence in the ancient world from 323 BC to about 146 BC ; note, however that Koine Greek language and Hellenistic philosophy and religion are also indisputably elements of the Roman era till Late Antiquity...
poets
AratusAratus was a Greek didactic poet, known for his technical poetry.- Biography :He was born in Soli in Cilicia and was a contemporary of Callimachus and Theocritus. He is known to have studied with Menecrates in Ephesus and Philitas in Cos...
and
NicanderNicander of Colophon , Greek poet, physician and grammarian, was born at Claros, near Colophon, where his family held the hereditary priesthood of Apollo. He flourished under Attalus III of Pergamum....
are more numerous. Virgil also draws heavily upon
LucretiusTitus Lucretius Carus was a Roman poet and philosopher. His only known work is the epic philosophical poem on Epicureanism De rerum natura, translated into English as On the Nature of Things or "On the Nature of the Universe"....
'
On the Nature of ThingsDe rerum natura is a first century BC epic poem by the Roman poet and philosopher Lucretius with the goal of explaining Epicurean philosophy to a Roman audience. The poem, written in dactylic hexameter, is divided into six books, and concentrates heavily on Epicurean physics...
(
De Rerum Natura).
Related terms
"Georgic" is also used in literary criticism and art history to describe the depiction of a rather more hard-working, and less flirtatious, version of
pastoralPastoral, as an adjective, refers to the lifestyle of shepherds and pastoralists, moving livestock around larger areas of land according to seasons and availability of water and food. "Pastoral" also describes literature, art and music which depicts the life of shepherds, often in a highly...
— the works of the 19th century English artist
Samuel PalmerSamuel Palmer was an English landscape painter, etcher and printmaker. He was also a prolific writer. Palmer was a key figure in English Romanticism and produced visionary pastoral paintings.-Early life:...
, who illustrated the poems, would be a good example.
A "Georgic" is a traditional punishment of
Harrow SchoolHarrow School, commonly known simply as "Harrow", is an independent school for boys situated in the town of Harrow, in north-west London. Harrow has educated boys since 1243 but was officially founded by John Lyon under a Royal Charter of Elizabeth I in 1572....
and
Eton CollegeEton College, often referred to simply as Eton, is a British independent boarding school for boys aged approx. 13 to 19. It was founded in 1440 by King Henry VI as "The King's College of Our Lady of Eton besides Wyndsor"....
where pupils are required to copy hundreds of lines of the text — one book or about 500 lines. In
Frank RichardsCharles Harold St. John Hamilton , was an English writer, specializing in writing long-running series of stories for weekly magazines about recurrent casts of characters, his most frequent and famous genre being boys public school stories...
' (writing as Owen Conquest) 1951 English School Novel
The Rivals of Rookwood SchoolRookwood School is an independent day and boarding school for boys and girls aged from 3 to 16 years, located off the Weyhill Road in Andover, Hampshire, England...
the reader is encouraged to assume that this the appropriate punishment given to any public schoolboy, particularly for a member of the "Classics" alignment as opposed to the "Moderns" — in reference to the school in question being divided into those boys choosing/chosen for Latin/Greek language studies, and those who were studying modern subjects. David Cameron was the recipient of such a punishment after smoking cannabis before his O level exams.
At Harrow, a coloured Georgic is the name given to a Georgic where a four-coloured pen is used, resulting in a multicoloured Georgic, a much more time-consuming and severe punishment. A coloured Georgic was traditional punishment for spitting in the street, for extreme rudeness (such as to a lady) or as extreme punishment at the discretion of a 'beak' (master).
See also
- Bugonia
The word bugonia is Greek in origin, meaning "ox birth". It denotes the mythical practice by which bees are produced from the carcasses of dead oxen- a misunderstanding similar to the notion of 'spontaneous generation'...
- Interview with Virgil scholar Richard Thomas and poet David Ferry, who recently translated Virgil's "Georgics," on Thoughtcast
ThoughtCast is a Podcast and public radio interview program with authors and academics. The interviews are conducted by , a former public radio and TV reporter from Manhattan and elsewhere whose previous work focused on covering the arts and ideas...
In 2003 the German company Icon Genetics encoded the lines from Georgics "Nec vero terrae ferre omnes omnia possunt" (Neither can every soil bear every fruit) into the genome of an Arabidopsis thaliana plant.
Further reading
Online Text