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STRUCTURE
ported by the logos and indwelling spirit of the whole cosmos' (213). Otis well observes
that the Orpheus section contrasts •with the rest in that Virgil deals 'empathetically'
with him, objectively with Aristaeus. C. Segal (1966), starting from this contrast,
carried the symbolical interpretation to more complex depths. The Aristaeus episode
is necessary to complete the Georgics because
it ties together. . .the delicate and complicated relations between human activism
and nature's resistance or acquiescence, between human destructiveness and nature's
creativeness (or the reverse), between man's power over nature and nature's power
over man. Human life, framed between the two figures (Aristaeus and Orpheus) is
essentially tragic. And here emerges the significance of the first half of the Book,
the bees: instead of collectivity selflessly devoted to the genus immortah we have in
the second part individuals engaged in the personal emotions almost to the
exclusion of anything else.
Explanation on these lines was persuasively reformulated by J. Griffin (1979). The
bees' totalitarian kingdom, so admirable in its way, involves nevertheless tragic conflict
in terms of human individuality, represented by juxtaposition in the story of
Orpheus. This conflict was to permeate Virgil's treatment of the story of Rome and
Aeneas.
Such interpretations are hard to summarize, let alone summarize fairly. Their
diversity suggests that others will be produced. For a short summary of views on
the Aristaeus epyllion down to 1969 see Wilkinson, 111—20 and Appendix IV of
that publication.
5. OTHER POETIC FEATURES
A synopsis such as that given in the previous section may convey what the poem
is about, but it can only begin to convey why it is good. Its merits are as multifarious
as its subject matter. As to verse, the individual hexameter is that of the
Eclogues, but much less often self-contained. Although, after the preliminary
invocations (two headlong Lucretian periods of nineteen lines each), the sentences
are rarely long, they have acquired impetus because the breaks within the
line occur at such a variety of positions. The balanced 'Golden Line', overworked
by Catullus, is reserved almost exclusively for rounding off a sentence,
sometimes to great effect, as in
impiaque aeternam timuerunt saecula noctem. (1.468)
and an impious age feared that eternal night had come.
The rhetorical figures too are effectively but not obtrusively employed. Virgil's
ear is faultless. In general he keeps his sound harmonious, with assonance and
alliteration used discreetly; but he is still more distinguished for the expressiveness
of sound and rhythm accommodated to sense, as can be observed particularly
in the storm and the weather-signs in Book i. 1 This greatly enhances the pictorial
1 For expressiveness in Georgics 1.43—293 see Wilkinson (1963) 74—83.
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