The Eclogues

Eclogue 4, sometimes called the Messianic Eclogue, is the most famous of the collection. This fame can largely be attributed to its later interpretation by 13th and 14th century Christians, who believed the poem prophesied the birth of Jesus Christ. They considered Virgil a “virtuous pagan,” a person predating Christ—with no means of converting to Christianity—who still lived a morally upstanding life. This status helps explain Virgil’s role in later Christian works like Dante’s Inferno, where he plays Dante’s guide on the poet’s journey through Hell.

The identity of Eclogue 4’s child would have been obvious to Virgil’s Roman audience. Two of Rome’s most powerful politicians at the time, Marc Antony and Octavian (later known as Augustus), initially allied against the assassins of their adopted father, Julius Caesar, and crushed conspirators at the Battle of Philippi (42 BCE). As part of their alliance at the subsequent Treaty of Brundisium, Antony agreed to marry Octavian’s sister Octavia. Eclogue 4’s child likely references the couple’s much anticipated son—a dream dashed by the birth of their daughter. Antony left Octavia and began his infamous love affair with Queen Cleopatra of Egypt, giving Octavian ample reason to retaliate. This infighting escalated into another Roman civil war, a conflict that ended with the utter defeat of Antony and Octavian’s ascendance as Rome’s first emperor, Augustus, in 31 BCE.

At the time of Eclogue 4’s composition—it being one of the collection’s first—the future seemed bright. Virgil frames this period with references to ancient beliefs about the nature of history and human progress. The child, the speaker claims, will bring back a “golden race,” replacing the “iron race” of his day (Lines 11-12). Ancient Greek and Roman writers often assumed that people of the distant past were far superior to those of the present, and that the quality of mankind only degrades as time marches on. In Works and Days, the Greek poet Hesiod—one of western literature’s earliest extant authors—described this degradation in terms of precious metals. The first golden race of man was superior to modern humans in every aspect: They were physically and morally stronger, and the gods mingled freely with them. Virgil references this in Line 109 with “Now the Maiden returns;” the goddess Maiden (Virgo) was said to have brought great joy to men in the golden age, but as they debased themselves with war and agricultural pursuits, she steadily withdrew, finally retreating to the heavens. There, she can still be seen as the constellation Virgo, but will soon return to earth at the child’s arrival.

The Greeks and Romans also associated the golden age with the end of physical labor. At the child’s arrival, the earth blooms on its own; as he matures, so do the crops with no human intervention (Lines 26-30). As each place generates exactly what it needs, shepherds and other workers will no longer need to work. This will allow mankind to engage in what the Romans called otium, the rest and relaxation best suited to the creation of art and philosophy. Thus, the peaceful ease of the fictional Arcadia will spread to the real world.