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Virgil: The Georgics, Vol. II, Book III-IV (Cambridge Greek and Latin Classics) (Latin Edition)
by Virgil (Editor: Richard F. Thomas)
Product Group: Book
Publisher: Cambridge University Press (1988-08-26)
ISBN: 0521346789
EAN: 9780521346788
Dewy Decimal #: 808
Paperback: 264 pages
SKU: N2287
Condition: Very Good
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Editorial Reviews
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Product Description
These two volumes provide a commentary, with text, on Virgil's Georgics, a poem in four books probably written between 35 and 29 BC. The introduction, in Volume 1, treats the poem's historical background and its relationship to the early years of Augustan Rome, Virgil's use of prior literary material, his stylistic and metrical expertise, and questions of poetic structure. There is also a section interpreting the poem in light of recent scholarship, which seeks to consider the poem as part of the broad unity of Virgil's career, rather than from a narrow didactic approach. A new Latin text of the poem is followed by extensive line-by-line commentary, explaining difficult passages, interpreting poetic intent, and tracing the influence of Virgil's Greek and Roman antecedents. A subject index and indexes of important Greek and Latin words conclude each volume.
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Customer Reviews
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Georgics is a book to savor
Rating  (5)
Date: 2007-03-23
5 out of 5 customers found this reveiw helpful
Virgil, a Roman poet who lived over 2000 years ago, writes with the same passion and vigor as Shakespeare. However, Virgil's language is Latin and his subject is country life. Peter Fallon presents this new translation of Virgil's Georgics. He calls the work, "a hymn to peace and people."
The Georgics contains four small books. This entire edition - complete with introduction, translator's notes and line notes to help modern readers through the many references to Greek and Roman mythology - runs a mere hundred pages. Book I covers farming topics that range from crop rotation and when to fallow fields, to seed saving and developing a weather eye. Virgil suggests that "if the goddess of the dawn rises wanly from her consort's saffron couch, beware ..." This ancient advice sounds similar to weather guidance I learned as a teen on the New England Coast. "Red sun at dawning, sailors take warning." Book I ends with an eternal description of war and its effects on agriculture "For right and wrong are mixed up here, there's so much warring everywhere, evil has so many faces, and there is no regard for the labors of the plough....scythes and sickles have been hammered into weapons of war."
Virgil devotes Book II to the cultivation of grapes and olives while Book III discusses the breeding and care of domesticated animals. Virgil devotes Book IV to the keeping of bees. He encourages his reader to consider bees "a small society comprising systems worthy of our high esteem." He then describes the perfect site for a hive. It must be protected from winds, close to a tree-lined stream that provides shade and water. Near the hive "let all around be gay with ... spreads of fragrant thyme and masses of aromatic savory. Let there be gardens to amuse them with the scent of brightly colored flowers." Closely observing the habits of the hive, the author states that bees "mindful that winter follows ... set to work in summer and store what they acquire for the common good. Come night, the youngsters haul themselves back home, exhausted, leg-baskets loaded down with thyme."
Some would say that Virgil's verses, dense with out-of-date politics and mythology, is irrelevant to our modern lives. But I take a gardener's point of view here. In the garden, the presence of weeds does not mean the absence of flowers.
Georgics is a book to savor after a hard day's work in garden or field. When the air becomes still and the hammock beckons, open to find how your life matches that of an ancient peer. And heed his sage advice. "The farmer's chores come round in seasons and cycles, as the earth each year retraces its own tracks.... So cast no hungry eye on a big estate if you're inclined, but tend a small one."
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"Not Virgil's Best"
Rating  (3)
Date: 2002-09-05
11 out of 26 customers found this reveiw helpful
The warm and friendly poet from Mantua, Publius Virgilius Maro, in his didactic poem entitled the "Georgics," covers topics relating to farming: in book one he deals with crops, in book two trees and shrubs, in book three livestock, and in book four bees. While several scholars have regarded this work as one of the best Latin poems ever, it must be taken into account that it is, nevertheless, far less entertaining than his famous "Aenied," and much more difficult to read. At times, in the "Georgics," Virgil echoes with that same brilliance many people have come to love in the "Aenied." But for the most part, this poem may be rigorous for anyone not serious about Roman poetry, so it is not recommended for everyone. In context of Virgil's time, this poem easily gets five stars, but the many archaisms found in it tend to alienate modern readers, and so, with much hesitation, the poem receives only three.
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cool
Rating  (4)
Date: 1998-02-12
4 out of 48 customers found this reveiw helpful
this book was really informative
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