Georgics

The Georgics, published in 29 BC, is the second major work by the Latin poet Virgil. Its ostensible subject is rural life and farming and the work is generally categorized as a "didactic poem".

Description

The work contains 2188 hexametric verses divided into four books. Books One and Two deal with agriculture (field crops, legumes, and trees, respectively). Book Three is concerned with the rearing of cattle and other livestock, and Book Four largely focuses upon beekeeping. 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 Octavian, who would become emperor Augustus in 27BC. Virgil's patron Maecenas, in whose honour the poem was written, was a confidant and advisor to Octavian. Suetonius reports that Virgil and Maecenas read the Georgics to Octavian whilst he was ill in the summer of 29BC. There is debate as to whether Virgil's treatment of Octavian in the poem is entirely positive, but if Suetonius' 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 Hesiod, whose Works and Days was regarded as the first work of didactic poetry, but references to Hellenistic poets Aratus and Nicander are more numerous. Virgil also draws heavily upon Lucretius' On the Nature of Things (De Rerum Natura).

Trivia

• A "Georgic" is a traditional punishment of Eton College where pupils are required to copy hundreds of lines of the text. (In Owen Conquest's early C20th English School Novel "The Rivals of Rookwood School" 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 a opposed to the "Moderns" -- in reference to the school in question being divided into those boys choosing/chosen for a Latin/Greek Language Training; and those who were training in Modern (Living European) Languages.)
• The BBC on 11 February 2007 referred to a serialised book Cameron, The Rise of the New Conservative in which it is alleged the Conservative Party Leader David Cameron was given this as a punishment for a cannabis smoking incident whilst at Eton.

BBC NewsStory

See also

• Bugonia
• Interview with Virgil scholar Richard Thomas and poet David Ferry, who recently translated Virgil's "Georgics," on ThoughtCast

Online Text

• The Georgics at MIT
• French translations: Bibliotheca Classica Selecta: Georgiques
• Gutenberg Project: Georgics (English)
• PP G.1.1de:Georgica

es:Geórgicas fr:Les Géorgiques it:Georgiche nl:Georgica pt:Geórgicas sh:Georgike sv:Georgica

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