Lentus in Umbra

THE MOST PROMINENT PATTERN Of visual imagery in Vergil's Eclogues is that associated with ideas of shade and repose-umbra and otium. Our memorable first impression is of the musician Tityrus, at ease beneath his shady beech: Tityre, tu patulae recubans sub tegmine fagi. This reclining herdsman, sheltered from the sun's direct rays, has been called by Viktor P6schl the archetypal image of the pastoral (das Urbild des Idylls'), and was fated to become a trite character in the western literary tradition. But as he is portrayed by Vergil, in the first Eclogue and elsewhere in the Bucolics, the shepherd in repose is more than a stock figure in a conventional idyllic landscape: the herdsman himself and the cool shade in which he lies are presented in symbolic fashion, so as to give coherent philosophical and political meaning to the Eclogues. The components in this pattern of imagery are so familiar to readers of Vergilian that they can be summarized very briefly.2 The key word is umbra, for shade is the sine qua non of repose.' If the shade is not made explicit by the use of the word umbra and its derivatives, it may be implied by the mention of an overhanging tree, as in Ecl. 7.1 (Forte sub arguta consederat ilice Daphnis), or by the use of words like tegmen (1.1) and tego (7.46); again, shade can be clearly suggested by reference to the ubiquitous cave or grotto, forest groves, wooded mountains, or overhanging cliffs.4 Another component element is coolness, which of course is the reward of shade.5 Another element is moisture, explicit in the many streams and springs of Vergil's Arcadia, implicit in his frequent mention of river-banks, soft grass, and moss.6 Still another

Art · Literature · Meaning (existential) · Bryophyte Studies and Records · Classical Philosophy and Thought · History · Linguistics and language evolution · Philosophy

• Andrew Marvell

  Open Access•A J N Wilson, Angus Wilson•Critical Quarterly•1969

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• The Shade of Orpheus

  Open Access•Celia Campbell•Dictynna•2019

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• The Magic of Orpheus and the Ambiguities of Language

  Open Access•Charles Segal•Ramus•1978

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• Bellini's Idyllic Endings

  Open Access•Edward Jacobson•Cambridge Opera Journal•2022

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• The Shadow of the Bellum Perusinum in the Ending of Vergil’s Eclogues

  Nicola Piacenza•Classical Philology•2023

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• Recent Work on Vergil

  Alexander G Mckay•The Classical World•1974

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