Ad Navseam Episode 21: Cowboy Up, Verg! Eclogue One and the Origins of Augustan Literature

This week Dave and Jeff gambol off near sylvan fields to tackle the earliest example of Vergil’s poetry, the Eclogues. In Eclogue 1 we meet the shepherd Meliboeus lamenting to his friend Tityrus: "How'd I get evicted?" Meanwhile, Tityrus plays his oaten pipes and suggests Rome is over-rusticating. You’ll hear the amoeboean bees a-buzzing and the cattle a-lowing (with a digression on Psalm 23) as we investigate the deeper meanings of bucolic imagery, Greek precedents, and pressed cheeses. Look! Octavian Augustus, smack dab in the center of Vergil’s poetic programme. Speaking of programs, you’ll need one to tell your willows from your chestnuts from your tamarisks from your cypresses from your low-lying myrtles.