The Eclogues (also called the
Bucolics) are the first of the three major works of the Latin poet
Virgil.
Imitating the Greek Bucolica ("on care of cattle", so named from the
poetry's rustic subjects) by Theocritus, Virgil created a Roman version partly
by offering a dramatic and mythic interpretation of revolutionary change at Rome
in the turbulent period between roughly 44 and 38 BC. Virgil introduced
political clamor largely absent from Theocritus' poems, called idylls ("little
scenes" or "vignettes"), even though erotic turbulence disturbs the "idyllic"
landscapes of Theocritus.
Virgil's book contains ten pieces, each called not an idyll but an eclogue
("draft" or "selection" or "reckoning"), populated by and large with herdsmen
imagined conversing and making songs in largely rural settings, whether
suffering or embracing revolutionary change or happy or unhappy love. Performed
with great success on the Roman stage, they feature a mix of visionary politics
and eroticism that made Virgil a celebrity, legendary in his own lifetime.
— Excerpted from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
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