The Eclogues

Eclogue 1 is a dialogue between two shepherds in very different circumstances. The first, Meliboeus, is frustrated with his comrade Tityrus. While Tityrus lounges under a beech tree and plays his rustic flute (“school[ing] the woods to sound with [his new girlfriend] Amaryllis’s charms,” Line 5), Meliboeus must leave his farm and drive his goats to the frontier (Lines 1-13). Tityrus responds, claiming that he travelled to the city of Rome in abject poverty due to his spend-happy ex-girlfriend, Galatea. There, a “god” allowed him to keep his home after Tityrus supplicated him. The man commanded Tityrus, “‘Graze your cattle again and put your bulls to stud’” (Line 46).

Meliboeus reflects on how lucky Tityrus is to remain in their lovely bucolic (or rural) homeland while Tityrus himself remains fixated on his gratitude to the “god” (Lines 47-65). Meliboeus and others like him must go to Africa or other faraway places. Meliboeus laments that “a rough soldier” or “some foreigner” will own his land (Lines 73-74); “What misery civil strife / has brought to us Romans! For such as these have we sown this land!” he adds (Lines 74-75). He wonders if he will ever see his homeland again.

The eclogue concludes with Tityrus offering to house Meliboeus for the night where he’ll feed the latter “ripe apples, / soft chestnuts, and a fine supply of pressed cheese” (Lines 83-84).