THE EVOLUTION OF ALLEGORY IN THE PASTORAL ... - Repositories

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prophesying the birth of Christ.
Also, his portrayal of
the Golden Age was agreeable to church doctrine, since it
concurs with the Christian vision of man in a paradisial
state before Adam's sin and the promise of the same state
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after man's redemption is complete.
Virgil's Golden Age is a Utopian dream described
in terms of a vernal reverie.
He commends to us a world
born again, whose fertile fields produce fruit without
cultivation, whose goats come with full utters to be milked
of their own accord, and whose herds do not fear to graze
among lions.
All menaces of nature, such as the snake and
poison herbs, no longer exist in this wordly paradise.
The
total absence of labor and of the unkind forces of nature
complete the picture of Virgil's pastoral ideal.
In this
age the shepherd can retain his otium without threat from
intervening forces.
Until Virgil explains that their leadership is
necessary in order to eradicate civil strife and maintain
the peace indigenous to pastoral life, placing heroes and
consuls who represent the authority and military power
that Virgil sees as a challenge to the pastoral otium impresses
us as somewhat paradoxical and sycophantic.
By
combining the golden and heroic eras separated in Hesiod
by the periods of bronze and silver, Virgil hopes to rec-
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oncile the pastoral otium and heroic virtus. This
combination represents his most optimistic attempt "to