In Virgil’s fifth Eclogue, two shepherds – Menalcas and Mopsus – meet each other beneath the hazel and elm trees. The meeting appears to be one of contentment and harmony, with Menalcas (the elder of the two shepherds) suggesting they ‘sit together here, where hazels mix with elms’(2). We also learn from Menalcas’ opening lines that both shepherds are proficient in the arts of pastoral song and music, for he asserts that they are both good - Mopsus ‘at blowing on the slender reeds, I at singing verses’ (1-2).
Mopsus, though the younger of the two, appears a little outspoken when he defies Menalcas’ invitation to sit beneath the hazel trees in favour of resting in the cave nearby. We see how Menalcas - perhaps more wisened in the art of compromise – agrees, for at line 19 we learn that they ‘have passed into the cave’.
The main body of this eclogue seems to centre around pastoral song. Menalcas bids Mopsus to sing and offers him a choice of three different themes, all of which reside within the range of a traditionally pastoral Theocritean singer:
Begin first, Mopsus, if you have any love songs for Phyllis, or aught in praise of Alcon, or any gibes at Codrus. Begin. (10-11)
Mopsus, however, asserts that he will:
try these verses, which the other day I carved on the green beech-bark and set to music, marking words and tune in turn. (13-14)
Menalcas seems extremely pleased with the song of the Death of Daphnis that Mopsus has just sung, and comments that ‘not with the pipe alone, but in voice do you match your master’. From here, Menalcas responds with his own version of song, also celebrating the death and deification of Daphnis.
This choice of subject matter - choosing the more ambitious story of the death of Daphnis rather than one of typical pastoral themes - is unusual and adventurous. It has been suggested by some critics that such a choice represents that Menalcas as a figure of the pastoral poet himself, is moving on from the themes of the first half of the eclogues to something a little different.
There is also the suggestion that eclogue 5 is concerned with the making of poetry in the real, modern day world, for Mopsus comments that he has ‘carved on the green beech-bark’ (13) his latest poetical creation. Traditionally pastoral poets are oral poets, and their competitions are grounded in oral improvisation. This is seen in Theocritus 5th Idyll, in which Comatas and Lacon engage in a battle of wits through improvised oral song. Thus, by hinting that Mopsus has engraved his song on a tree bark, Virgil is perhaps aiming to combine both the Golden Age of pastoral with the history of his time.
Some critics have also suggested that the figure of Daphnis is an allegorical one for that of Ceasar, since after his assassination in 44BC it was decreed that divine honours should be paid to him as if he were a God.
Menalcas and Mopsus are in great praise of each other at the conclusion of the eclogue. Mopsus begins by saying, ‘What gifts can I give in return for a song such as yours?’ (81), before going on to elaborately describe the pleasure of Menalcas’ song. But here Menalcas interrupts, insiting that first he give Mopsus the ‘delicate reed’ on which he has sung various pastoral celebratory songs. This suggests that Mopsus has matured into a shepherd who is capable of carrying on the Virgilian pastoral tradition.
[Emma]
Hi Emma: some interesting points here (and kudos for being the first person to post on the course blog!) If I had a criticism, it would be that this is a little flatly descriptive of the eclogue, and doesn't atempt to analyse it in much detail -- although you gesture towards some promising avenues of analysis in your last few paragraphs: the metatextual element, or idea that the poem is about poetry as much as about nature and a pastoral life; or the historicising reading,contextualising it in terms of contemporary Roman history. When you say '...it has been suggested by some critics' and 'Some critics have also suggested...' I'd prefer you to be precise: which critics, exactly, are you talking about? It would be interesting to see more discussion of Daphnis too, as an figure important to pastoral literature more generally (see this, for instance)
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