35 pages • 1 hour read
VirgilThe Eclogues
Fiction | Novel | AdultA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Eclogue 5Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Eclogue 5 Summary
Eclogue 5 is another dialogue between two shepherds. Virgil first introduced the elder, Menalcas, in Eclogue 3; Mopsus is his junior. Menalcas suggests that they make music together in the lovely natural setting “since both of [them] are skilled / [Mopsus] at playing slender reeds, [Menalcas] at verse” (Lines 1-2). Perhaps feeling cowed by Menalcas’s seniority, Mopsus agrees (Lines 4-7). Menalcas compliments Mopsus to lighten the mood, but the latter does not take it well (“Upon our hills Amyntas alone contends with you” / “What if he strives to surpass Phoebus himself [that is, Apollo, god of music and art] in song?”, Lines 8-9). Menalcas ignores Mopsus’s self-deprecation and asks him to begin his song.
Mopsus’s topic of choice is the death of Daphnis, a mythological Greek shepherd who was credited with inventing pastoral poetry. In his song (Lines 20-44), Mopsus describes how all the animals and woods mourned Daphnis’s death. Daphnis was associated with the gods of wilderness—the wine god Bacchus and the Eastern mother goddess Cybele (Lines 25-30). Prickly plants sprung up in place of flowers at his demise. Mopsus encourages his listeners to commemorate Daphnis with a grave mound and appropriate honors (Lines 40-44).
Menalcas loves Mopsus’s rendition. Mopsus alludes to it being inspired by one of Menalcas’s own (inspired by a third source, Stimichon), which the latter accepts gracefully (Lines 45-55).
Menalcas begins his own song about Daphnis (Lines 56-84). He describes Daphnis looking down from the heavens on Mount Olympus to the forests he loved in life (Lines 56-60). Out of respect for Daphnis’s love of repose, the animals stop attacking each other and the rocks themselves sing of Daphnis’s apotheosis, or ascension to godhood. Menalcas asks the divine Daphnis to be generous to his fellow shepherds. He dedicates two altars to Daphnis and Phoebus Apollo (god of song), promising milk, olive oil, and wine.
The men finish their recital with a gift exchange: Menalcas gives Mopsus a pipe on which he learned some of his favorite songs while Mopsus gives Menalcas a lovely shepherd’s crook (Lines 84-94).
Eclogue 5 Analysis
Eclogue 5 shifts the collection from singing contests to elegy, the genre which mourns the dead. But Menalcas and Mopsus’s songs still retain recognizable pastoral elements such as the beauty of nature. Many of the great mythological poets were connected to the woods—Daphnis and Orpheus, the latter who could sway nature itself with his song, being two of them. Upon Daphnis’s death, nature inverts: Thorns spring up instead of barley (Lines 34-37). Song was associated with nature in the ancient world, which helps support one of the primary dichotomies in the Eclogues: artistic nature versus stressful urban life.
Eclogue 5 is especially notable for its metaliterary references. In writing his Eclogues, Virgil looked to the pastoral poets of the past—most of all, the Greek poet Theocritus. This relationship between earlier generations of creators and the new is reflected in the friendship between Menalcas and Mopsus. Menalcas is, at this point, established enough for others to know his songs. In Lines 53-55, Mopsus admits that his own art was inspired by Menalcas. Menalcas, in turn, is a doting and supportive mentor to Mopsus, encouraging him to sing first (Lines 10-12) and praising his song (Lines 45-49). In the end, Menalcas gifts Mopsus his pipe, a symbol of the older generation passing on the torch.
