Who is Virgil and why is he famous? Virgil Bucoliki. Georgics. Aeneid. Translations into Russian

lat. Publius Vergilius Marō

one of the greatest poets ancient rome; nicknamed "the swan of Mantua"

Virgil

short biography

The most famous ancient Roman poet, the creator of a new epic poem, was born near the city of Mantua on October 15, 70 BC. e. the family has a fairly wealthy landowner, the owner of a well-known workshop in which ceramics were made. According to legend, the mother had a dream foreshadowing the birth of her son, who was destined to become a celebrity. Young Virgil received a good education. His training began with Cremona, the toga of maturity was obtained by him at the age of 16. This ceremony took place in the year when Lucretius died, so many saw in the aspiring poet his literary heir.

After Cremona, Virgil studied in Milan, famous for its talented teachers, and then in Naples and Rome. In the capital, he was a student of Epidius, a famous rhetorician, whose school was considered elite. educational institution, the offspring of the most famous families studied here. Within its walls, Octavian, Caesar's great-nephew, the future ruler of the world, Augustus, who at the age of 14 was already a great pontiff, was educated. Despite the six-year difference in age, Octavian and Virgil met, a friendly relationship began between them, thanks to which the poet got the opportunity to get into high society and enjoy the patronage of Octavian, who sympathized with him, all his life.

Lucretius's poem "On the Nature of Things", published after the death of the author, in 54 BC. e., left a serious imprint on his worldview and strengthened the desire to be a poet. And if at first Virgil thought about advocacy, which made it possible to make a career in the civil service, now he abandoned this idea, especially since his natural data (shyness, stiffness of movements, slow speech) did not contribute to success in jurisprudence.

In 45 BC. e. the poet acquired a small estate near Naples and here, among the picturesque landscapes, until the end of his life he slowly composed his works. On the estate, he was periodically visited by friends, among whom was Horace. In 44 BC. e. the assassination of Caesar marked the beginning of a troubled time of intrigue, coups, civil strife, but it practically did not affect Virgil's biography: against the backdrop of social upheavals, he continued to create, and only a few times he had to break away from work, because. under the threat of confiscation were family lands in Mantua, which were helped to defend by connections with Octavian, who ruled the country.

The events of this time are reflected in the shepherd's idyll - "Bukoliki", which were completed in 37 BC. e. and are considered the first mature work of Virgil, which brought him fame. The next in his work was the poem "Georgics", dedicated to agriculture. In 29 BC. e. the poet began to write his most famous work - "Aeneid", telling about the events Trojan War and won fame as one of the most famous ancient works. To make his work more historically accurate, Virgil moved to Greece for several years. Augustus managed to persuade the poet to return to his homeland, but he never reached Rome, death overtook him in Brundusia in 19 BC. e.

Feeling the approach of death, Virgil requested the destruction of the remaining unfinished creation, motivating the step with its imperfection. However, a number of researchers are of the opinion that the real reason was the poet's realization of the fact that he praised the tyrant all his life, and the epic imprinted his name for centuries. Virgil was a very respected writer during his lifetime, and after his death his name was shrouded in an aura of mystery. In the Middle Ages, there were many legends about him, attributing supernatural, magical abilities to the ancient poet.

Biography from Wikipedia

Publius Virgil Maro(lat. Publius Vergilius Marō), very often just Virgil(October 15, 70 BC, Andes near Mantua - September 21, 19 BC, Brundisius) - one of the poets of Ancient Rome. Nicknamed "Mantuan swan".

Poet of the August century

Virgil is the most famous poet of the Augustan age. Born in 70 BC. e. near Mantua, received his first education in Cremona; at the age of sixteen he received the toga of maturity. This celebration coincided with the year of the death of Lucretius, so that contemporaries looked at the novice poet as a direct successor to the singer De rerum natura. Virgil received further education in Milan, Naples and Rome; there he studied Greek literature and philosophy. Despite his interest in Epicureanism and his deep admiration for Lucretius, Virgil did not join the Epicurean doctrine; he was attracted by Plato and the Stoics.

By this time, his small poems belong, of which the most reliable is Culex(“Mosquito”), recognized as Virgil by Martial, Suetonius and Statius. After the death of Caesar, Virgil returned to Mantua and devoted himself there to the study of Theocritus; but his peace was disturbed by civil wars. During the distribution of land to veterans - supporters of the triumvirs after the battle of Philippi, Virgil was twice in danger of losing his possessions in Mantua; but each time he was saved by the personal intervention of Octavian, to whom the grateful poet soon dedicated two laudatory eclogues (I and IX).

In Rome, where Virgil often came to work on his possessions, he made friends with Maecenas and the poets around him; subsequently he introduced Horace into this circle, and both poets made, together with their patron, the trip they both sang to Brundisium. In 37 BC. e. The Bucolics, the first mature work of Virgil, were completed, and at the request of the Maecenas, he took on the Georgics, completed in Naples in the year 30. In the year 29, after many preliminary works, Virgil began the Aeneid and, after working on it for several years in Italy, went to Greece and Asia to study the theater of action of his poem on the spot and give his work more vital truth. In Athens, he met Augustus, who persuaded him to return to Italy. On the way to Rome, Virgil fell ill and died in Brundisium in 19 BC. e. Before his death, he asked that his unfinished and, in his opinion, imperfect epic be burned. Some scholars (Bartenstein, for example) explain this request as follows: the reign of Augustus convinced Virgil that he had been singing the tyrant all his life, and he felt remorse before his death that his epic would bring him immortality.

Bucoliki

In his first work - “Bucolica” (consisting of 10 eclogues and written in 43-37 years) - Virgil wanted to introduce Greek features into Latin poetry, its simplicity and naturalness, and began by imitating Theocritus. But he completely failed to achieve the goal, despite the direct translation in many places of the Sicilian poet - it is precisely the simplicity and naturalness that are absent in Virgil's Bucolics. While the shepherds of Theocritus really live the unpretentious life of children of nature, whose whole interest is in the prosperity of the flocks and love, the shepherds, the shepherds of Bucolik, are a poetic fiction, an artistic image that covers the Romans' lamentations for adversity. civil wars. In some of them, Virgil represents prominent figures of that era; for example, Caesar is represented in Daphnis.

The most famous and in fact the most interesting in terms of solemnity of mood and subtlety of details is eclogue IV (also called "Pollio", that is, "Pollio", after the Roman consul Gaius Asinius Pollio), in which Virgil predicts the future golden age and the imminent birth of a child that will change the course of life on earth. The poet paints a picture of this future happy life, when all labor will be superfluous and a person will find everything he needs everywhere (omnis fert omnia tellus), and ends with a glorification of the future benefactor of people. Christian writers saw in this eclogue a prophecy of the birth of Christ, and it is based mainly on the belief in Virgil, widespread in the Middle Ages, as a magician. It is possible that Virgil had in mind in this poem the nephew of Augustus, Marcellus, whose early death he later sang in the poetic episode of the VI song of the Aeneid.

In the general character of the X eclogue, her hatred of war and the thirst for a quiet life, Virgil reflected the desire for peace that gripped the entire Roman society. The literary significance of the Bucolic consists mainly in the perfection of the verse, which surpasses everything previously written in republican Rome.

Georgics

The Georgics, Virgil's second four-book poem, was written to instill a love of agriculture in the hearts of land-rewarded veterans. Taking Hesiod as a model, Virgil, however, does not enter, like his Greek model, into all the details of the agricultural business, his goal is to show in poetic images the charms of rural life, not to write rules on how to sow and reap; therefore, the details of agricultural labor occupy him only where they are of poetic interest. From Hesiod, Virgil took only indications of happy and unhappy days and some agricultural practices. The best part of the poem, that is, digressions of a natural-philosophical character, is mostly taken from Lucretius.

"Georgics" are considered the most perfect work of Virgil for the purity and poetic completeness of the verse. At the same time, they deeply reflected the character of the poet, his outlook on life and religious beliefs; these are poetic studies on the dignity of labor. Agriculture in his eyes is a holy war of people against the earth, and he often compares the details of agricultural life with military life. The "Georgics" also serve as a protest against the atheism that has spread in the republic in recent times; the poet helps Augustus to awaken in the Romans the extinct faith in the gods, and he himself is sincerely imbued with the conviction of the existence of a higher Providence that governs people.

One of the imitators of Virgil is Luigi Alamanni.

Aeneid

The Aeneid is Virgil's unfinished patriotic epic, consisting of 12 books written between 29-19 AD. After the death of Virgil, the Aeneid was published by his friends Varius and Plotius without any changes, but with some cuts.

Virgil took up this plot at the request of Augustus, in order to arouse national pride in the Romans with tales of the great destinies of their ancestors and, on the other hand, to protect the dynastic interests of Augustus, supposedly a descendant of Aeneas through his son Iulus, or Ascanius. Virgil in the Aeneid closely adjoins Homer; in the Iliad, Aeneas is the hero of the future. The poem begins with the last part of Aeneas's wanderings, his stay in Carthage, and then episodically tells the previous events, the destruction of Ilion (II p.), Aeneas's wanderings after that (III p.), Arrival in Carthage (I and IV p.), Journey through Sicily (V p.) to Italy (VI p.), where a new series of adventures of a romantic and militant character begins. The very execution of the plot suffers from a common defect in Virgil's works - the lack of original creativity and strong characters. Especially unfortunate is the hero, “the pious Aeneas” (pius Aeneas), deprived of any initiative, controlled by fate and the decisions of the gods, who patronize him as the founder of a noble family and the executor of the divine mission - transferring Lar to new home. In addition, the Aeneid bears the imprint of artificiality; in contrast to the Homeric epic, which came out of the people, the "Aeneid" was created in the mind of the poet, without connections with folk life and beliefs; Greek elements are confused with Italian ones, mythical tales with history, and the reader constantly feels that the mythical world serves only as a poetic expression of the national idea. On the other hand, Virgil used all the power of his verse to finish off the psychological and purely poetic episodes that constitute the immortal glory of the epic. Virgil is inimitable in the descriptions of gentle shades of feelings. One has only to recall the pathetic, despite its simplicity, description of the friendship of Nis and Euryal, the love and suffering of Dido, the meeting of Aeneas with Dido in hell, in order to forgive the poet for his unsuccessful attempt to exalt the glory of Augustus at the expense of the legends of antiquity. Of the 12 songs of the Aeneid, the sixth, which describes the descent of Aeneas into hell to see his father (Anchises), is considered the most remarkable in terms of philosophical depth and patriotic feeling. In it, the poet expounds the Pythagorean and Platonic doctrine of the "soul of the universe" and recalls all the great people of Rome. The external structure of this song is taken from the eleventh paragraph of the Odyssey. In other songs, borrowings from Homer are also very numerous.

In the construction of the Aeneid, the desire to create a Roman parallel to the poems of Homer is emphasized. Virgil found most of the motives of the Aeneid already in previous processing of the legend about Aeneas, but the choice and arrangement of them belong to Virgil himself and are subject to his poetic task. Not only in the general construction, but also in a whole series of plot details and in stylistic processing (comparisons, metaphors, epithets, etc.), Virgil's desire to "compete" with Homer is revealed.

The more profound differences are revealed. "Epic calm", loving drawing of details are alien to Virgil. The Aeneid presents a chain of narratives full of dramatic movement, strictly concentrated, pathetically tense; the links of this chain are connected by skillful transitions and a common purposefulness that creates the unity of the poem.

Her driving force- the will of fate, which leads Aeneas to the foundation of a new kingdom in the Latin land, and the descendants of Aeneas to power over the world. The Aeneid is full of oracles, prophetic dreams, miracles and signs that guide every action of Aeneas and foreshadow the coming greatness of the Roman people and the exploits of its leaders right up to Augustus himself.

Virgil avoids mass scenes, usually singling out several figures whose emotional experiences create a dramatic movement. Drama is enhanced by stylistic processing: Virgil knows how to skillfully select and arrange words to give the erased formulas of everyday speech more expressiveness and emotional coloring.

In the depiction of gods and heroes, Virgil carefully avoids the crude and comic, which is so often the case with Homer, and strives for "noble" affects. In a clear division of the whole into parts and in the dramatization of parts, Virgil finds the middle path he needs between Homer and the "neotherics" and creates a new technique of epic narration, which for centuries served as a model for subsequent poets.

It is true that Virgil's heroes are autonomous, they live outside the environment and are puppets in the hands of fate, but such was the way of life of the dispersed society of the Hellenistic monarchies and the Roman Empire. Main character Virgil, the "pious" Aeneas, with his peculiar passivity in voluntary submission to fate, embodies the ideal of Stoicism, which has become almost an official ideology; in his wanderings, Aeneas is accompanied by the fearless squire Ahat, whose devotion has become a household word. And the poet himself acts as a preacher of Stoic ideas: the picture of the underworld in the 6th song, with the torment of sinners and the bliss of the righteous, is drawn in accordance with the ideas of the Stoics. The Aeneid was only a rough draft. But even in this "draft" form, the Aeneid is distinguished by the high perfection of verse, deepening the reform begun in the Bucolics.

Other works

From small poems, except for the one named above Culex-a, more are attributed to Virgil Ciris, moretum and sora. Virgil, in his poetry, as well as in his private life, is more a man of feelings than of thought. "Bonus", "optimus", "anima candida" - these are the epithets that constantly accompany his name in Horace, Donatus, and others. In his poetry, Virgil is least of all a philosopher, although he is strongly fascinated by the philosophical problems that occupied republican Rome, and he would like to go in the footsteps of Lucretius. But he feels his impotence and sadly exclaims at Lucretius (Geor. II):

Felix qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas…
Fortunatus et ille deos qui novit agrestis…

Everything concerning the philosophical systems in the "Aeneid" and "Georgics" is directly borrowed from various Greek authors (as, for example, "the doctrine of the afterlife" in paragraph VI, etc.). In politics, Virgil is one of the most sincere supporters of Augustus. Full of enthusiasm for the great past of Rome, he wholeheartedly glorifies the peacemaker in Italy. August for him is a representative of the national idea, and he worships him without any hint of fawning, alien to his pure soul.

Veneration of Virgil after death

The worship with which the name of Virgil was surrounded during his lifetime continued even after the death of the poet; already since the August century, his writings were studied in schools, commented on by scientists and served to predict fate, like the oracles of the Sybils. So called " Sortes Virgilianae” were in great use during the time of Hadrian and Severus. The name of Virgil was surrounded by a mysterious legend, which in the Middle Ages turned into a belief in him as a magician. Numerous legends about his miraculous power were based on some misunderstood passages in his writings, such as eclogues IV and VIII. The story of the afterlife in paragraph VI of the Aeneid, etc. and, in addition, the interpretation of the hidden meaning of his name ( Virga- magic wand) and the name of his mother ( Maia - Maga). Already in Donatus there are allusions to the supernatural significance of Virgil's poetry. Fulgentium (" De Continenta Vergiliana”) gives the Aeneid an allegorical meaning. Then the name of Virgil is found in Spanish, French and German folk books, which date him either to the time of the fabulous king Octavian, or king Servius; Breton legends speak of him as a contemporary of King Arthur and the son of a knight from the Campania in the Forest of Arden. Virgil obeys the elements, he miraculously kindles and extinguishes fire, causes an earthquake and a thunderstorm; Virgil is the patron or genius loci of Naples, which he founded by building it on three eggs (a variant is a castle built on an egg, Castello del'uovo); Virgil punches an underground passage through the mountain (Posilippo). He is an unsurpassed craftsman, crafting miraculous items ( ingeniosissimus rerum artifex), among which is a complex system of signaling and protecting the city with the help of bronze statues Salvatio Romae(option - a system that protects against the eruption of Vesuvius); a bronze fly that drives out flies from Naples and thus protects the city from infection; a wonderful mirror reflecting everything that happens in the world; bocca della verita; an ever-burning lamp; air bridge, etc. The highest manifestation of the significance attributed by the Middle Ages to Virgil is the role of the psychopomp that Dante gives him in “ Divine Comedy”, choosing him as the representative of the deepest human wisdom and making him his guide and guide through the circles of hell. Also in the role of a psychopomp, Virgil is presented in the satirical novel Penguin Island by Anatole France, who was an ardent admirer of the poet. In the novel, Virgil accuses Dante of misinterpreting his words, denies his role in Christianity and proves his adherence to the ancient gods.

Virgil's writings have come down to us in a large number of manuscripts, of which the most remarkable are the Medicean, probably written before the fall of the Western Roman Empire (ed. Foggini in Florence in 1741), and the Codex Vaticanus (ed. Bottari, Rome, 1741). .). From edid. prince we note a small folio of 1469 published by Sveinheim and Pannarz, the Aldin edition in Venice of 1501, several editions of the 15th and 16th centuries. with commentary by Servius et al., ed. I. L. de la Cerda, Madrid, 1608-1617, ed. Nick. Gelsius in Amsterdam, 1676, Burkmann in 1746, Wagner in 1830, corrected from manuscripts and provided with comments on the spelling of many of Virgil's words - Schweigger's "Handbuch der classischen Bibliographie" contains a listing of all other editions and an indication of their merits.

The primary sources for information about the life and writings of Virgil are Donatus' Vita Vergilii, some other vitae, which are provided with manuscripts, comments by Servius and a biography of Virgil in the verses of Focius.

Virgil in iconography

As a pagan pre-Christian poet, Virgil was considered the unquestioned authority among ancient authors, and reached the pinnacle of Roman poetry. Direct borrowings, references and Virgilian reminiscences are found in many Christian works. Considering Virgil a harbinger of Christianity, on which was the grace of God, the church honors him among other pre-Christian geniuses and heroes. In confirmation of this, Virgil is quite often depicted in the cycle of murals of the temple, or his images (usually without a halo - a sign of holiness) are part of the iconostases, occupying, of course, subordinate places in the hierarchy of images.

Most famous poet The Augustan century Virgil is considered one of the geniuses of the pre-Christian era. There is little information about his biography: despite the variety of sources, many of them contradict each other. Although the Swan of Mantua (this nickname was given to Virgil by contemporaries) was a pagan poet, quotations and references to his work are often found in Christian books, and images of the poet, albeit without a halo, are included in the iconostasis.

Childhood and youth

The full name of the poet is Publius Virgil Maro. He was born in 70 BC in Northern Italy, in the village of Andes, in the family of a wealthy landowner. The father sent the young man to study in Cremona. After receiving his education, the future literary figure lived in Milan, went to Naples to visit the poet Parthenius and take lessons from him in Greek language and literature, and in 47 he moved to the capital to go into politics.

City life did not please Virgil. With his soul he longed to go home, to his native nature in a remote province, and his health turned out to be too fragile for political activity. The young man returned to his small homeland to lead a quiet, secluded life, run a household and engage in poetry - even then he began to write the famous Bucoliki (Eclogues). Peaceful plans were thwarted by fate in the person of the ruler.

After the Battle of the Philippines, he announced that he would grant land ownership to veterans. To do this, it was necessary to withdraw part of the estates in favor of the state, and Virgil became one of those who were expelled from their native lands. By that time, the poet had already gained fame: three of his works - "Polemon", "Daphnis" and "Alexis" - were favorably appreciated by contemporaries, including local officials.

Virgil's friend Asinius Pollio asked the triumvir to help a young talent who turned out to be homeless. Augustus approved of the poet's work and helped Virgil obtain a house in Rome and a new estate in Campania. In gratitude, he glorified the patron in the next eclogue "Titir".

After the Peruzin war, the story of the confiscation of property repeated itself again. The warriors came to the poet's new estate and took it by force. Virgil was forced to flee, and again it took the intervention of Octavian so that he could return home. The poet dedicated the seventh eclogue to the newborn son of the patron, calling him "a citizen of the golden age."

When calm times reigned in Italy, Virgil set to work in earnest, spending part of the year in Rome, and part in Naples, which he loved for its mild climate. It was there that the famous "Georgics" were written, calling on the Romans to return to agriculture and restore the economy destroyed after the wars.

The poet sought to meet the expectations of fans and patrons and worked hard. He studied ancient poems, the works of Ennius, Nevius and Lucretius, the history of old cities. Later, these works inspired him to create the famous Aeneid.

Death

In 29 BC. e. Virgil decided to visit Greece to rest and work on the Aeneid, but Octavian, who met the poet in Athens, convinced him to return to his homeland as soon as possible. Travel had a bad effect on the health of the poet. As soon as he set foot on his native shore, he fell seriously ill. Soon a severe fever became the cause of death.

The Aeneid was almost ready by that time, but Virgil did not have time to finally put it in order. Before he died, he wanted to burn the manuscript. According to one version, he simply did not want to leave an unfinished work to his descendants, according to another, Octavian Augustus disappointed the poet at the end of his life with his actions as ruler, and he decided that he had been singing the praises of a tyrant all his life.

Friends Varius and Tukka persuaded him to keep the manuscript and promised to put it in order. Virgil ordered not to add anything from himself, but only to cross out the unfortunate passages. This explains the fact that the Aeneid contains many incomplete and fragmentary poems.

Literature and philosophy

Virgil, along with and are among the greatest poets of antiquity. In his youth, the poet bowed before Lucretius and was interested in the teachings of the Epicureans, but did not join him: Virgil's character and inclinations were more in line with stoicism. In his poetry, as in his personal life, he was more a man of feelings than thoughts.

In the first major work of Bucolica, consisting of 10 eclogues, he first tried to imitate Theocritus, because he found the simplicity and naturalness of Greek poetry very attractive. Despite this desire and simple, clean topic the rural life of ancient Rome (from the name of the poem the concept of the bucolic genre was born), the style turned out to be ponderous and solemn.

In the narrative, Virgil weaves enthusiastic praises to his benefactors. Christian writers see in the Bucolics a prophecy of the birth of a savior, but some researchers argue that under the child who will change the world, Virgil meant the nephew of Octavian Augustus.

As for the purity and completeness of the verse, here the Georgics are considered the pinnacle of the poet's work. They also most fully reflected the poet's views on life - in them Virgil condemns atheism, sings the virtues of honest labor and makes lyrical digressions in the spirit of natural philosophy.

In the patriotic epic "Aeneid" he acts as a champion of stoic ideas and a subtle lyricist. The source of inspiration for the poet was the works of Homer. He has no rivals among the poets of that time in terms of describing tender feelings - it was the lyrical episodes that ensured the immortal glory of the poem. From the Aeneid comes catchphrase Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes - "Fear the Danaans who bring gifts."

Memory

Many manuscripts of Virgil have survived to our times, most of which are not in doubt about their authenticity.

In the Middle Ages, Virgil was revered as an ancient philosopher and prophet, and his sayings were quoted in religious works. In the famous "Divine Comedy" he portrayed him as his guide in hell. Many researchers today consider Virgil's work a model for contemporary poets, and the Romance languages retain the syntax and normative style that he used to express himself in his poems.
In honor of the poet, an astronomical object is named - Virgil's furrow on Pluto.

Quotes

Any adversity should be overcome with patience.

There is only one salvation for the vanquished - not to hope for any salvation.

Love conquers everything, and we will submit to its power.

Any land cannot give birth to any plant.

Let our concern be left to our descendants.

Publius Virgil Maro
70 -19 BC

Virgil, Publius Vergilius Maro (Publius Vergilius Maro) (70-19 BC) the greatest poet of ancient Rome, the author of the Aeneid, an epic celebrating the legendary origin of the Roman people.
Life.
Information about Virgil is scarce. Some messages about him were transmitted by his friends in oral and written form. Some of these reports have come down to us in the form of scattered quotations from later Roman authors, as well as in the form of seven short Lives, or rather sketches of a biography. The most complete of these is preserved in the manuscript of Aelius Donatus, but actually goes back to Suetonius. Some of the information we find in other texts is borrowed from this biography; some information, such as that contained in the Life of the Bernese manuscript, was obtained independently, although, probably, all versions had a single source - the notes of Virgil's contemporaries.
As for the names of Virgil, the name Publius is quite common for a Roman, the other two seem to be of Etruscan origin, although the name Virgil was borne by many Latins. The poet's father was probably a Latin, whose family had settled several generations before in northern Italy, then called Cisalpine Gaul. We know almost nothing about his life. It is reported that he was a potter or a messenger, married the daughter of his master, and then hunted by breeding bees and selling timber. Undoubtedly, he had a small estate. Virgil's mother's name was Magic Polla, which also sounds Etruscan. Virgil had at least two brothers, but by the time he came of age his relatives must have died.
Virgil was born on October 15, 70 BC. near Mantua, in the village of the Andes, but it is not known exactly where this village was located. He received a good education, until the age of 15 in Cremona and then in Mediolana (Milan). Around the age of 19, Virgil came to Rome to study rhetoric, in those days an indispensable part of higher education needed for a political career. After staying in Rome for about a year, he settled in Naples, joining the circle of Epicureans founded by Philodemus, which was headed by Siron. In Naples itself or near it, Virgil lived almost his entire life. He only occasionally visited Rome, visited Sicily and Tarentum, once visited Greece. In 19 BC Virgil embarked on a great journey through Greece. Arriving in Athens, Virgil met Augustus here, after which he decided to abandon the trip and return to Italy. When examining Megara, he became seriously ill, the illness worsened on the ship, and shortly after arriving in Brundisium, Virgil died on September 20, 19 BC.
Artworks
Virgil wrote three great works of poetry, all in hexametric (or "heroic") verse, the Bucoliki or Eclogues, 42–39 (or 37) BC; Georgics (about 36–30 BC) and the Aeneid, in 29–19 BC. In antiquity, several other small poems were attributed to Virgil, all or almost all of which date from earlier years than the Eclogues. Usually these poems appear under the collective name Appendix Vergiliana (lat. Virgil appendix). Most of them, including the three longest ones, are obviously not genuine. These are Ciris (The Seagull), a love story ending with the transformation of the characters into birds; Etna, dedicated to the description of the famous volcano, and Mosquito - a story about a shepherd who was bitten by a mosquito in a dream in order to wake him up and save him from a snake; the shepherd, without understanding, kills a friendly insect, which moves to the afterlife. The rest of the poems are much shorter. One, two-line epigram on the robber, is considered the very first fruit of Virgil's work. Another group of poems, written in different sizes, is grouped together under the Greek name Catalepton (which can be roughly rendered as Miniatures). One of these poems, the 10th, an extremely subtle parody of the 4th poem by Catullus, may indeed be Virgil's. Two other poems can also be considered authentic with a high probability. The 5th conveys the feelings of Virgil, who renounces hateful rhetoric and is about to move to Naples to study Epicurean philosophy; at the end of the poem, he also asks the Muses to leave him and return from now on only occasionally and observing prudence. The 8th poem, presumably, conveys the poet's grief at parting with relatives and parting with the estate confiscated by Octavian (later Emperor Augustus) among the lands intended for the settlement of veterans who won the victory at Philippi in 42 BC.
There are good enough grounds for dismissing all the other poems in the Appendix as unauthentic, but the discussion on this point is certainly not yet complete.
Bucoliki.
Bucoliki (Greek Shepherding, i.e. Pastoral Poetry), also called Eclogues (Greek Chosen Ones) are ten short pastorals containing mainly dialogues between imaginary villagers. They are based on the Idylls of Theocritus, also written in Greek pastorals in hexameter. Virgil had already reached maturity when he began this work. He completely mastered the method of widely using literary sources, from which he extracted words, phrases and even consonances, creating new combinations from them, as well as from the allusions arising from them, so that in the end a completely new work, belonging to Virgil himself, appeared. In the early stages of the development of literature, this approach to verbal creativity is found everywhere, but it gained particular popularity in Rome in connection with the active translation and adaptation of Greek authors that took place here. However, Virgil, and this is his greatest originality, developed this method to such an extent that in his hands it turned into a technical innovation. Like many other innovations of Virgil, this method spread in later poetry, in particular it is noticeable in the work of S. Coleridge.
In the Eclogues, Virgil creates unique music of consonances, which is also one of the most important features of his work. Even in this relatively light form, the poet discusses the most important problems of life. Some eclogues contain allusions to the confiscation of the father's estate, and then to its return by Octavian to Virgil - as a sign of respect for his poetic merits and thanks to the intercession of an influential friend. Prominent statesmen and writers such as Alphen Varus, Gaius Asinius Pollio, Varius Rufus, and Gaius Cornelius Gallus are named in the Eclogues. However, for the most part, Virgil prefers to hide the real faces behind collective characters. So, he himself, a young free man, appears here as an elderly slave who has just received his freedom (1st eclogue). And in general, the whole matter of confiscation, in all its undoubted historicity, is not affected in any way in the Eclogues: it is allowed to become here only a source of thoughts and feelings that contribute to the creation of these poems. The landscape in the Eclogues is also collective. It seems to us that we are not far from Naples or Sicily, but some details point to northern Italy. There are many vivid observations, but not a single whole and direct description of the scene.
The 4th eclogue is different from the others. This is a combination of a wedding hymn and an ode to the birth of a child. The infant of whom we are speaking here must again bring with him to earth the Golden Age. As to who this baby is, there are endless disputes. This short, indecipherable, but significant poem was used by Emperor Constantine, who established Christianity in his empire, as evidence that even a pagan Roman predicted the birth of Christ. It was mainly because of this eclogue that Virgil became famous in the Middle Ages as the "Prophet of the Gentiles."
In the 1st eclogue, Virgil praises the benefactor (this is almost certainly Octavian), calling him a god. From the very beginning, the poet believed in Octavian, in his calling to give peace and prosperity to Rome. He soon became a close friend of Octavian, probably even closer than the lyricist Horace. The emperor's generosity eventually enriched Virgil, but the poet managed to maintain personal independence and creative freedom.
Georgics.
Virgil's next poetic work was Georgiki (Greek: Poem about agriculture) in four cantos. The urgent task of the Roman state then became (or was to become in the near future) concern for the encouragement and revival of agriculture in order to restore public morality and well-being, as well as to boost the economy. Virgil enthusiastically supported this policy. In one place of the poem, he even mentioned that he was writing “at the behest” (or at least “on the advice”) of Maecenas, a close friend of Virgil and Horace, a kind of “Minister of the Interior” under Octavian. The praise addressed in this poem to Octavian is conventional. And yet, in writing the poem, Virgil was absolutely sincere. Indeed, it is possible that the official agricultural policy itself was partly prepared and inspired by poetry. Virgil.
The topics covered in the four songs of the poem are field cultivation, horticulture, animal husbandry and beekeeping. However, the presentation of the material varies subtly. From time to time, passages are woven into the poem, which contain a reminder of how necessary the knowledge about agriculture reported here is for a person who is obedient to the will of the gods. The connection of lyrical digressions with the main theme is sometimes very loose, and yet they never fall out of the general presentation, but invariably reinforce a wise and penetrating view of things.
However, the special advice offered in the poem is valuable in itself, they are directly and successfully applied even in modern agriculture. Of course, Virgil had predecessors in literature, including the great Greeks - Hesiod, Theophrastus, Aratus, Nicander, as well as the treatise of the Carthaginian Mago in Latin translation and the works of the Romans, especially Cato the Elder. In addition, Virgil introduces into the poem his own carefully calibrated observations of nature and agriculture.
One of Virgil's main sources was the philosophical poem De rerum natura (On Nature), which belongs to his older contemporary Lucretius, where he acted as a passionate champion of Epicurean materialism. Echoes of this poem are heard in the Eclogues, and in the last two great works of Virgil they are very frequent, sometimes repeating through several lines. In the Georgics, he borrows many of Lucretius's poetic turns, but turns them in such a way that they serve to express views that are opposed to materialism. For Virgil himself advocates a deeply religious view of the world, in which spiritual forces and purposes rule. A person here acquires the highest bliss not through epicurean calm and detachment, but in hard rural work, in moral and physical health, enjoying the beauty of nature, relying on patriotic love for Italy and faith in divine providence.

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In the Aeneid, i.e. "History of Aeneas", the experience already gained is used, here Virgil is given the opportunity to put his worldview to the test in connection with the presentation of dynamic political and military events. The epic narrative in 12 songs describes the capture of Troy by the Greeks, the journey of the Trojan prince Aeneas to Italy, his diplomatic and military enterprises. As a result, Aeneas unites the Trojans and Latins into a single people, who in the future, after the founding of Rome several centuries later, will become Romans.
When working on the last, greatest work, Virgil's general views on the world and his creative method remained the same as before, except for his constant growth. The author's erudition and the research work that he had to do while working on the Aeneid are truly colossal. It must have embraced almost all modern Greek and Roman literature, of which only a small part has come down to us. The Aeneid relies primarily on the works of Homer, Greek tragic poets and representatives of early Roman poetry, the authors of epics and tragedies of Nevius and Ennius. The influence of Lucretius continues to be felt, the influence of more modern Greek "Hellenistic" poetry, as well as the latest Latin poetry of Catullus and other authors, primarily representatives of the neoteric or "modernists", makes itself felt. . Text hidden

There are also traces of Latin comedy, prose and, perhaps, oral tradition. There are suggestions that Virgil used sources outside the Greek and Roman world, from the East.
In the ancient commentary of Servius on Bucoliki, it is reported that Virgil originally conceived a historical poem about the ancient kings of Latium, but then preferred the mythological epic, choosing the widespread legend of Aeneas, who escaped after the capture of Troy and went west. The first half of the poem, describing the wanderings of the Trojans, is based on Homer's Odyssey, the second, describing the battles in Italy, follows the pattern of the Homeric Iliad. Virgil first wrote the Aeneid in prose, dividing it into 12 books. Then he proceeded to gradually transcribe it into verse, and he did this not in succession, but each time referring to the passage that most corresponded to his mood. When Virgil created, the inexhaustible sources of his memory and mind rained down poetic lines, which were then subjected to critical analysis and finishing.
In general, the structure of the Aeneid freely follows the Homeric model, and some of its episodes are interpreted according to Homeric rules. Like Homer, Virgil portrays the gods interfering in people's lives, both of them using comparisons, especially in tense moments. On the other hand, Virgil very rarely reproduces a line or even a poetic turn verbatim, while Homer constantly resorts to epic formulas and repetitions. Virgil never stays long on the same source, sometimes in one line we can find allusions to several texts. Thus, using the Homeric simile for his own purposes, Virgil immediately uses variations of this simile that had already been encountered by previous poets. He combines the structure of Homeric poetry with the compositional laws of smaller works created in Hellenistic Greek and "neotheric" Latin poetry. Although the Aeneid as a whole has an epic structure, its individual songs are likened not only to Greek tragedy as such, but also to quite specific works of Greek tragedians, and sometimes not even one tragedy, but several, is used within the same song.
According to Virgil, after the decisive battle and the death of Troy, Aeneas sails to Italy. Along the way, he finds himself in various parts, in particular in Carthage, where Aeneas and Queen Dido fall in love with each other. However, fate forces Aeneas to continue his journey to Italy, and Dido lays hands on herself in despair. Arriving in Italy, Aeneas visits the Cuma Sibyl, the oracle of Apollo (near Naples) and receives permission to descend underground, into the world of the shadows of the dead. Here, the secrets of the judgment on the dead are revealed to him, awaiting their punishment or bliss and a new bodily incarnation of souls. In particular, Aeneas sees many Romans who have yet to play a role in the history of the city when it is their turn to come into the world. Enriched by this experience, Aeneas enters into an alliance with Latin, the king of Latium, but very soon this world collapses at the will of the gods. A war breaks out, which ends only after Aeneas kills Turn, the brave leader of the enemy forces. Throughout the poem, Aeneas receives divine instructions, and when he manages to understand them, he invariably obeys them and succeeds. Aeneas is patronized by his mother, the goddess of love Venus, he also enjoys the favor of the supreme deity Jupiter, whose will corresponds to the dictates of fate. However, Juno, the powerful wife of Jupiter, opposes Aeneas, helping his enemy Turn. At the end of the poem, Jupiter and Juno conclude a compromise: the Trojans and Latins must unite, later they will be given power over Italy and the whole world.
A similar ending is characteristic of Virgil. Indeed, the principle of reconciliation through compromise pervades both his worldview and poetry. He applies it to small problems as well as to large ones: any four-word phrase can be a compromise between two phrases already used before - one by a Greek, the other by a Latin poet. Even in matters of religion, Virgil has both Greek and Roman religious ideas, with Plato's more spiritual beliefs balancing Homer's humanistic theology. Virgil invariably tries to approach the problem from both sides. Stylistically, Virgil begins with the accessible and clear Latin of the mature Cicero, but at the same time expresses it with a distinct conciseness that already resembles the style of his contemporary, the historian Sallust. Virgil carefully introduces new elements into modern Latin, including, when it suits his tasks, he uses archaisms. The highest skill allowed the poet one a short phrase convey several diverse thoughts at once and thus, skillfully using all the opportunities provided Latin to inform the reader of a skillful system of meanings. The same trend is evident on a larger scale. All points of view must be taken into account, the claims of all parties should be kept in mind. As a result, Aeneas turns out to be a hero completely different from those acting in Homer, his goal is much higher than personal success. Therefore, he is constantly referred to in the poem as pius Aeneus, which does not mean at all the “pious” Aeneas, as they mistranslate, but the “faithful Aeneas”. He must remain faithful to his family and friends, his fellow citizens and his deities - this corresponds to the moral standards on which the greatness of Rome is based.
Aeneas is weak, unreasonable, cruel. Here we are dealing with yet another example of Virgil's approach. It is not enough for him to sing of the legendary past; the historical past and the present must also be present in the poem. In particular, Aeneas (and by no means at his best) may be like Augustus, whom Virgil supported, with reservations and disappointments. There is a widespread belief, and there is nothing improbable in it, that by thus forcing Augustus to look into the mirror, Virgil managed to influence the emperor. Resorting to subtle allusions to the history of the beginnings of Rome, Virgil makes it clear that even in the civil war won by Augustus, the truth was not only on the side of the future emperor.
Fundamental to Virgil is the principle of reconciliation, which springs from deep and unbiased sympathy. Equally important for the poet is sensitivity to the musical sound of words, a passion for creating harmonious consonances. Sound predominates, it is often born first in Virgil, and meaning comes from it. During the life of Virgil, the Latin hexameter had not yet lost its meaning. The poet has made great efforts to reach the pinnacle of perfection in this verse. According to sources, during the morning Virgil managed to write many lines, and during the day he revised them and finished them, leaving by the evening several lines, and sometimes only one. So, when creating Georgics, Virgil wrote only one line a day Text hidden

Publius Virgil Maron, born in the year 70 BC, in the town of Andes near Mantua, was a good-natured, modest person; for a noble, gentle character, alien to high claims, for education, for poetic talent, Augustus and those close to the emperor showed him honor. He studied first in Cremona and Milan, then diligently studied the Greek language and literature in Naples under the guidance of the teacher and poet Parthenius; In 47, Virgil arrived in Rome and continued to expand his multilateral knowledge. After living there for two years, he returned to his homeland, because poor health did not allow him to devote himself to political activities, which were too difficult for him. Virgil wanted to manage his estate and write poetry. On the advice of Asinius Pollio, who was the ruler of Transpadanian Gaul in 42, Virgil began to write Bucoliki (or Eclogues), in which he imitated Theocritus, sometimes literally translated him and, under idyllic forms and names, depicted the affairs and people of his time, partly the facts of your life. Further, the biography of Virgil acquires a tragic connotation.

The so-called "bust of Virgil"

From this information about the origin of Virgil's eclogues, it is already clear that they could not be similar in language or tone to Theocritus' bucolics. Virgil's Bucolics are not naive images of simple rural life, not scenes from the life of shepherds; they did not at all aim at making readers interested in fidelity to nature; they often serve only as frames in which the poet puts political facts half-hidden in an idyllic shell; he uses the bucolic form to praise and flatter in a delicate way. In a word, Virgil's bucolic poetry is artificial; it serves him as a means of expressing his own feelings and desires. But with all these shortcomings, his idylls are rich in good descriptions, their language is elegant, the verse is smooth and correct, and in those places where the author's heart is vividly touched, there is also warmth of feeling.

In the first eclogue “Bukolik”, a shepherd named Melibey leaves his homeland, as he lost his land due to the distribution of it to veterans of the civil war, and his interlocutor the shepherd Titir, under whose mask the poet himself is hiding, retained his estate thanks to the protection of the divine youth. This young man is Augustus, to whom Virgil praises:

“I saw a young man there, to whom, Melibey, annually
For twice six days our altars smoke with smoke.
Here is the answer he gave to me asking - the first:
"Children, graze cows, as before, breed bulls"
("Bucoliki", eclogue I, verses 42-45)
(The texts of Virgil are quoted in the translation by S. V. Shervinsky)

Virgil touches on a hot topic for Rome of this period: he sings of agriculture, praises the work of farmers, which also corresponded to the positive program of the princeps. The mood of the broad masses of Roman farmers was consonant with the motives of the idealization of rural life, and the motives of condemnation of the war, penetrating Virgil's Bucoliki.

Virgil and the Muses

In the glorification of the policy of Octavian Augustus, a certain tendentious orientation of bucolic songs is manifested: in the 1st eclogue the theme of the deification of Augustus sounds, in the 5th eclogue under the mask of Daphnis Julius Caesar is deified, and the 4th eclogue, addressed to the consul Asinius Pollio and associated with the conclusion of the Brundisian peace, predicts the onset of the “golden century”, which should be the result of the peaceful policy of Augustus. The advent of the new age is symbolized by the image of a boy, with the birth and maturity of which peace and abundance will be established on earth:

“Again now, a majestic order is beginning,
Virgo is coming to us again, Saturn's kingdom is coming.
Again a new tribe is sent from high heaven.
Be supportive of the newborn, with whom to replace
A generation of iron, a generation of gold will spread over the earth"
("Bucoliki", eclogue IV, verses 5-9).

The symbolic image of the boy evoked various interpretations, since the birth of children was expected in the families of both Octavian and Asinius Pollio, who was the addressee of this Bucolik eclogue. There were rumors among the people about the renewal of the century in connection with the appearance of a savior, and in the Middle Ages the idea arose that Virgil prophesied about the birth of Christ. But it is much more likely that in the one written in the late 40s BC. e. In eclogue IV, the symbolic image of the baby refers to the Brundisian peace, which was concluded between Octavian and Antony through the mediation of the consul Asinius Pollio.

Reflecting Roman reality with its characteristic events, Virgil insistently maintains the genre conventions of bucolic songs. He uses idealized images of shepherds, traditional for this genre, and often places them in a fictional wonderful country ("Arcadia"). The theme of the shepherd in love reappears again and again in the Bucolics (II, VIII, and especially X eclogues). The nature of this theme (with motives of longing for the beloved who left the shepherd) is consonant with the genre of love elegy that was emerging in Rome.

The composition "Bucolik" is also interesting: before and after the central eclogue (which is considered the fifth), the same type of eclogues are grouped symmetrically. Uniformity is manifested in the subject, form (monologues or dialogues), and even in the number of poems. It falls out of this harmonious order of the X eclogue, where Virgil's hero is not a shepherd, but a real person - a contemporary and friend of the poet, the elegiac poet Cornelius Gallus.

Both in content and in tone, four plays similar to Virgil's Bucoliki, which are also attributed to him, but are probably only an imitation of his idylls: The Mosquito (Culex), a small epic poem by Ciris, and two small paintings from the common people's life, very lively and true to reality: Moretum (a rural Roman dish similar to vinaigrette) and Copa (a rural innkeeper).

Virgil - "Georgics"

When, after the battle of Actium, calm times began in Italy, Virgil began to live alternately in Rome, then in Naples, which he liked for its mild climate. In Naples, he wrote, on the advice of the Maecenas, "Georgics" ("Agricultural poems"). The aim of this didactic poem was to revive in the Romans the love of agriculture, which had been degraded by feuds and confiscations of land for distribution to veterans. Virgil urges the Romans to return to this national occupation, arguing that it is the surest way to restore their shaken well-being. The Georgics are divided into four books. The first of them speaks of agriculture, the second of gardening and winemaking, the third of cattle breeding, the fourth of beekeeping. The content of the poem, as we see, is unsuitable for arousing poetic inspiration; but still it is a highly artistic work. The good qualities of Virgil's character and the strengths of his talent are brilliantly expressed in her. “Georgics is the most excellent of all the didactic poetry of the ancient world,” says Bernhardi. – Knowledge of the matter, elegant taste, warmth of feeling are harmoniously combined in this poem. By the richness of information, by moral purity, it is the most beautiful monument of truly humane education. With the nobility of feeling, the euphony of the verse, the elegance of the style, it surpasses all other didactic poems of ancient poetry. The Georgics fully expressed Virgil's good nature, his deep respect for the hardworking, morally pure life of a peasant, his own attraction to the calm happiness of this modest life, his close acquaintance with agriculture, his observation. True, the "Georgics" is only a series of paintings, the connection between which is weak; but each of these episodes is in itself a beautiful whole, rich in content, admirably finished.

In "Georgics" topical political motifs are closely intertwined with philosophical thoughts about nature, the theme of Italian patriotism also stands out clearly, rural life is praised with everyday work in the bosom of nature.

Virgil believes that "work conquered everything" ("Georgics", book I. verse 145). Saying that he follows Hesiod (“I now sing an Ascreian song in Roman cities”) (Book II, verse 176), the author of Georgiks goes beyond didactics, creating a philosophical epic about nature. Therefore, Virgil in many ways echoes Lucretius. So, first of all, attention is drawn to the place of the poem, where there is a direct echo with one of the most important program elements of the ethics of Lucretius: “Happy is the one who was able to know the causes of things and threw down all fears and implacable rock, and the noise of greedy Acheront, but even he is blessed with fate who recognizes the rural gods: Pan, the elder Silvanus and the sisters of the nymphs ”(Book II, verses 490-494). From the above words of "Georgic" it is clear that Virgil here also focuses on the idealized happy life of a farmer who is patronized by local Italic gods. Considering this well-being equal to the happiness of knowing the nature of the universe, sung by Lucretius, Virgil believes that the life of a rural worker is a happy fate.

Illustration for "Georgics" by Virgil. Artist D. Bisty

In "Georgics" there are many artistic digressions, different in content and artistic design. This is a picture of spring (book I), and the glorification of Italy (book II), and a description of the life of bees (book IV). At the end of the book IV is told in the form of a separate epillium about the shepherd Aristeas, but inside this epillium there is a mythological narrative about Orpheus and Eurydice. Digressions play a certain role in Virgil's Georgics, helping to reveal the ideological essence of the poem: attention is drawn to the passionate praise of Italy, permeated with patriotic pathos (Book II, verses 136-178). In the last lines of this passage, Virgil places an appeal to the homeland:

“Hello, Saturn earth, great mother of crops!
Mother and husbands! For you in matters of art and glory
Ancient I enter, daring to open the holy sources "
(“Georgics”, book II, verses 173–175; translated by S. V. Shervinsky).

In The Georgics, Virgil speaks openly about Octavian, calling him by name (Book I, verses 24-42; Book II, verses 170-172; Book III, verses 16-48; Book IV, verses 559-566 ). From these verses one can trace how the attitude of the poet towards Octavian changes. In the first book, before the final digression, mournful words about the death of Julius Caesar are heard: “In the hour when Caesar died, the sun also took pity on Rome” (book I, verse 466), and a picture of terrible omens is drawn (and Virgil is a master of creating pathos of horrors! ), who appeared in the year of the death of Julius Caesar (book I, verses 467-497). The role of Octavian is somewhat belittled here, although under the name of a young man he is called to save the ruined fate of the age: “Do not forbid a young man to overcome the misfortunes of the age” (book 1, verse 560). Such is the attitude of the poet towards Octavian before the battle of Actium (31–32 BC). After Aktion, praise for Octavian sounds more confident. Virgil says that Caesar "is victorious in distant Asia ... turns the Indians away from the Roman strongholds" (Book II, verses 171-173). The poet concludes book IV, and thus the whole poem, thus:

“I sang these verses about caring for the land, for the herds
And trees, while the great Caesar at war
The far Euphrates also struck among the peoples, according to their good will,
As a winner, the law claimed on the way to Olympus.
Sweet in those days was I - Virgil - we feed
Partenopeia; laboring, prospered and did not pursue glory;
He amused himself with the shepherd's song and, bold in his youth,
Titira sang in the shade of a broad-branched beech"
(“Georgics”, book VI, verses 559–566. Partenopeia - the city of Naples)

Here, in the last verses of the poem, two themes appear: 1) about the victorious successes of Octavian and 2) about his own poetic activity Virgil (speaking of the "Bucolics" and "Georgics"). Octavian is called the winner. The same two themes are presented together in the introduction to book IV of the Georges (verses 8-48). But the sequence of their presentation is different - first they talk about the merits of the poet himself, and then the victories of Octavian are listed with a promise to glorify them in the future. As for the evaluation of his own creativity, Virgil says that he must follow the path by which he can break away from the earth and, like a winner, flutter through the lips of people, he promises to be the first to bring the Muses from the Aonian peak to his homeland (to Mantua) and bring Idumean palm trees , erect a marble temple on a green meadow. It should be noted that in this poetic "Monument" Virgil calls himself a conqueror (Book III, verse 9).

Both the Bucolics and the didactic Georgics of Virgil had many imitators; but from their works almost nothing has come down to us, except for the titles. Valgius Rufus wrote a herbal poem dedicated to Augustus; Aemilius Macer (a native of Verona) wrote, after the model of Nicander, poems on the rearing of poultry and on remedies for biting snakes; Gratian Faliscus, a friend of Ovid, wrote a hunting poem (Cynegetica); this work, though corrupted and incomplete, has come down to us.

Virgil - "Aeneid"

Having finished the Georgics, Virgil began to write the epic Aeneid, which he had promised to Octavian, which aroused such high expectations that Propertius said:

"Step back, people and Roman and Greek poets: something greater than the Iliad is being born."

Virgil worked hard to live up to these expectations. He studied Homer, cyclic poets, epic poems of the Alexandrian period, studied Roman epic poets, from Ennius and Nevius to Lucretius, studied Italian archeology, the ancient history of Italian cities, based on the works of Cato and Varro. In order to have more leisure to work on his poem, Virgil went to Greece; in Athens, Octavian saw him, returning from the East, and persuaded him to return to Italy. But as soon as Virgil went ashore in Brundisium, he fell ill and died before he had time to finish his poem. It is said that when dying, Virgil wanted to burn her manuscript, that his friends, Tukka and the poet Varius, kept him from doing so with their requests, and that he instructed them to throw out the unfortunate passages from the manuscript, but not to add anything. This explains why many of the verses in the Aeneid are incomplete.

Virgil reads the Aeneid to Augustus and Octavia. Painting by J. J. Taillasson, 1787

Virgil was buried near Naples. They showed his tomb there for a long time.

Aeneas and Dido. Painting by P. N. Guérin, c. 1815

Everything that had decisive power in the course of the development of the Roman state is expressed by Virgil's Aeneid under the form of prophecy or outlined in vague sketches of foreboding. The rule of the Julius family over the Roman Empire is in the Aeneid the result of the will of the gods, who decided that this would bring happiness to Rome. The bloody way in which the Julii achieved dominion over Rome, Virgil covers up with a tempting poetic fiction; the happy present is proclaimed the fulfillment of what was destined by the will of the gods in the sacred long past. All this gave in the opinion of the Romans a high dignity of the content of the Aeneid. The artistic merits of Virgil's poem were also attractive: beautiful language, euphony of verse, excellent descriptions of majestic natural phenomena and powerful outbursts of passions. The catastrophes produced by Juno's wrath increase the fascination of the story, several times, giving a new direction to the course of action; the accuracy with which the localities are described shows the vast learning of the author of the poem.

It is clear that the Aeneid became the pride of imperial Rome, that throughout the Middle Ages people who read Virgil in Latin admired it, that its inspired author became an object of reverent respect, that magical wisdom and power were attributed to him, that his personality was surrounded by a mythical halo that Servius, Donatus, and other commentators wrote explanations for the Aeneid, that entire new poems (centones) were composed from the verses and half-verses of this poem. Even the Church Fathers and Christian writers of the Middle Ages referred to Virgil and cited his prophecies to support their thoughts. But the criticism of our time does not share the former exaggerated admiration for the Aeneid. She does not deny the artistic merits of this poem, does not deny that Virgil had an enormous talent; but he has no poetic inspiration, no faith either in the strength of his own genius, or in the truth of the sacred legends transmitted by him, or rich creative imagination, or the gift of clear and firm features to describe characters.

The fantasy of the Aeneid does not carry over into the heroic world. Virgil does not know how to clearly present the figures of gods and heroes, to depict them plastically with artistic truth. He created only vague images, the gods and heroes of the Aeneid - pale reflections of Virgil's contemporary people. The miracles of myths Virgil remade in a modern prose spirit, he mixed different times, different degrees of culture; there is no life in his figures, no freedom of movement. Aeneas is a passive instrument of fate, he only performs the deeds assigned to him by the destiny given to him by the gods, he has no independence; he is incapable of doing anything of his own accord. Aeneas is greater in words than in deeds. There is only one truly poetic face in the Aeneid - the Amazon Camilla; the description of the heroic death of this warrior girl from the Volscian tribe is the best, most fascinating part of the poem. As Herder puts it, Virgil himself was like a girl in character; his talent was more capable of soft tones, of depicting tender feelings, of depicting female characters, than of telling stories about courageous feelings and exploits. It already has elements of the romantic epic of the Middle Ages.

The Significance of Virgil in Roman and World Poetry

In the Middle Ages, Virgil was considered a prophet who predicted the birth of Christ, in creative heritage other prophecies were also looking for the poet. Dante chose Virgil as a guide to the underworld. During the Renaissance and Enlightenment, Virgil enjoyed the fame of a perfect poet. The greatest French philologist of the 16th century. Scaliger ranked Virgil above Homer. Attitudes towards Virgil have changed since the time of romanticism: the poet began to be assessed as the creator of an "artificial epic" that cultivated false pathos. Interest in Virgil began to gain strength again with late XIX in. Virgil is now recognized as one of the greatest poets of Rome, his abstract evaluative comparison with Homer is not approved. It is about eliminating the one-sidedness that was allowed in the past.

Virgil is the most major poet Augustan era, his works are full of deep thoughts and significant artistic merit. The work of Virgil undoubtedly influenced the formation of culture and literature of modern times.

Publius Virgil Maron (lat. Publius Vergilius Maro). Born October 15, 70 B.C. e., Andes near Mantua - died September 21, 19 BC. e., Brundisius. One of the greatest poets of ancient Rome. Nicknamed "Mantuan swan".

His small poems date back to this time, of which the most reliable is Culex (“Mosquito”), recognized as Virgil's by Martial, Suetonius and Statius. After the death of Caesar, Virgil returned to Mantua and devoted himself there to the study of Theocritus; but his peace was disturbed by civil wars. During the distribution of land to veterans - supporters of the triumvirs after the battle of Philippi, Virgil was twice in danger of losing his possessions in Mantua; but each time he was saved by the personal intervention of Octavian, to whom the grateful poet soon dedicated two laudatory eclogues (I and IX).

In Rome, where Virgil often came to work on his possessions, he made friends with Maecenas and the poets around him; subsequently he introduced Horace into this circle, and both poets made, together with their patron, the trip they both sang to Brundisium. In 37, Bucolica, the first mature work of Virgil, was completed, and at the request of Maecenas he took up Georgica, written in Naples in 30. In 29, after many preliminary works, Virgil proceeded to the Aeneid and, having worked on it for several years in Italy , went to Greece and Asia to study the theater of action of his poem on the spot and give his work more vital truth. In Athens, he met Augustus, who persuaded him to return to Italy. On the way to Rome, Virgil fell ill and died in Brundisium in 19 BC. e. Before his death, he asked that his unfinished and, in his opinion, imperfect epic be burned. Some scholars (Bartenstein, for example) explain this request as follows: the reign of Augustus convinced Virgil that he had been singing the tyrant all his life, and he felt remorse before his death that his epic would bring him immortality.

In his first work - Bucolica(consisting of 10 eclogues and written in 43-37) - Virgil wanted to introduce Greek features into Latin poetry, its simplicity and naturalness, and began by imitating Theocritus. But he completely failed to achieve the goal, despite the direct translation in many places of the Sicilian poet - it is precisely the simplicity and naturalness that are absent in Virgil's Bucolics. While the shepherds of Theocritus really live the unpretentious life of children of nature, whose whole interest is in the prosperity of the herds and love, the shepherds, the shepherds of Bucolik, are a poetic fiction, an artistic image that covers the Romans' complaints about the hardships of civil wars. In some of them, Virgil represents prominent figures of that era; for example, Caesar is represented in Daphnis.

"Georgics", the second poem of Virgil, consisting of four books, was written to arouse a love of agriculture in the soul of veterans awarded lands. Taking Hesiod as a model, Virgil, however, does not enter, like his Greek model, into all the details of the agricultural business, his goal is to show in poetic images the delights of rural life, and not write rules on how to sow and reap; therefore, the details of agricultural labor occupy him only where they are of poetic interest. From Hesiod, Virgil took only indications of happy and unhappy days and some agricultural practices. The best part of the poem, that is, digressions of a natural-philosophical character, is mostly taken from Lucretius.

One of the imitators of Virgil is Luigi Alamanni.

"Aeneid"- unfinished patriotic epic of Virgil, consists of 12 books, written between 29-19 years. After the death of Virgil, the Aeneid was published by his friends Varius and Plotius without any changes, but with some cuts.

Virgil took up this plot at the request of Augustus, in order to arouse national pride in the Romans with tales of the great destinies of their ancestors and, on the other hand, to protect the dynastic interests of Augustus, supposedly a descendant of Aeneas through his son Iulus, or Ascanius. Virgil in the Aeneid closely adjoins Homer; in the Iliad, Aeneas is the hero of the future. The poem begins with the last part of Aeneas's wanderings, his stay in Carthage, and then episodically tells the previous events, the destruction of Ilion (II p.), Aeneas's wanderings after that (III p.), Arrival in Carthage (I and IV p.), Journey through Sicily (V p.) to Italy (VI p.), where a new series of adventures of a romantic and militant character begins. The very execution of the plot suffers from a common defect in Virgil's works - the lack of original creativity and strong characters. Especially unfortunate is the hero, “pious Aeneas” (pius Aeneas), deprived of any initiative, controlled by fate and the decisions of the gods, who patronize him as the founder of a noble family and the executor of the divine mission - transferring Lar to a new homeland. In addition, the Aeneid bears the imprint of artificiality; in contrast to the Homeric epic, which came out of the people, the Aeneid was created in the mind of the poet, without connections with folk life and beliefs; Greek elements are confused with Italian ones, mythical tales with history, and the reader constantly feels that the mythical world serves only as a poetic expression of the national idea. On the other hand, Virgil used all the power of his verse to finish off the psychological and purely poetic episodes that constitute the immortal glory of the epic. Virgil is inimitable in the descriptions of gentle shades of feelings. One has only to recall the pathetic, despite its simplicity, description of the friendship of Nis and Euryal, the love and suffering of Dido, the meeting of Aeneas with Dido in hell, in order to forgive the poet for his unsuccessful attempt to exalt the glory of Augustus at the expense of the legends of antiquity. Of the 12 songs of the Aeneid, the sixth, which describes the descent of Aeneas into hell to see his father (Anchises), is considered the most remarkable in terms of philosophical depth and patriotic feeling. In it, the poet expounds the Pythagorean and Platonic doctrine of the "soul of the universe" and recalls all the great people of Rome. The external structure of this song is taken from the eleventh paragraph of the Odyssey. In other songs, borrowings from Homer are also very numerous.

Its driving force is the will of fate, which leads Aeneas to the foundation of a new kingdom in the Latin land, and the descendants of Aeneas to power over the world. The Aeneid is full of oracles, prophetic dreams, miracles and signs that guide every action of Aeneas and foreshadow the coming greatness of the Roman people and the exploits of its leaders right up to Augustus himself.

It is true that Virgil's heroes are autonomous, they live outside the environment and are puppets in the hands of fate, but such was the way of life of the dispersed society of the Hellenistic monarchies and the Roman Empire. Virgil's protagonist, the "pious" Aeneas, with his peculiar passivity in voluntary submission to fate, embodies the ideal of Stoicism, which has become almost an official ideology; in his wanderings, Aeneas is accompanied by the fearless squire Ahat, whose devotion has become a household word. And the poet himself acts as a preacher of Stoic ideas: the picture of the underworld in the 6th song, with the torment of sinners and the bliss of the righteous, is drawn in accordance with the ideas of the Stoics. The Aeneid was only a rough draft. But even in this "draft" form, the Aeneid is distinguished by the high perfection of verse, deepening the reform begun in the Bucolics.

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Virgil's writings have come down to us in a large number of manuscripts, of which the most remarkable are the Medicean, written probably before the fall of the Western Roman Empire (ed. Foggini in Florence in 1741), and the Codex Vaticanus (ed. Bottari, Rome, 1741). .). From edid. prince we note a small folio of 1469 published by Sveinheim and Pannarz, the Aldin edition in Venice of 1501, several editions of the 15th and 16th centuries. with commentary by Servius et al., ed. I. L. de la Cerda, Madrid, 1608-1617, ed. Nick. Gelsius in Amsterdam, 1676, Burkmann in 1746, Wagner in 1830, corrected from manuscripts and provided with comments on the spelling of many of Virgil's words - Schweigger's "Handbuch der classischen Bibliographie" contains a listing of all other editions and an indication of their merits.