4.315–332

Aristaeus laments the loss of his bees. 

Vergil calls upon the Muses, so that he can sing about the individual who introduced this practice to the world. He is the shepherd Aristaeus, who left Mt. Tempe after the death of his bees from hunger and disease. Sad, he stood at the source of a river and called to his mother, Cyrene, a nymph of the river. He complains that, although he is both her son and allegedly that of Apollo, he is hated by fate and has clearly lost her love. He has no hope for immortality; in fact, even the mortal honor that comes from being a good farmer and shepherd are lost to him, although a nymph is his mother. Indeed, his life is such a wreck that Cyrene might as well topple his forests, destroy his barns and crops, set fire to his plants, and take an axe to his grapevines. This is how serious the destruction of his bees has been to him. Aristaeus’s complaint to his mother about this “injury” is clearly modelled on Achilles’s complaint to Thetis (Iliad 1.350-425), where he bemoans the lack of respect he has been accorded by Agamemnon. The comparison seems to make light of Aristaeus’s situation, and yet Vergil’s language and tone are serious.

315  Mūsae: an invocation to the Muses, the nine divine daughters of Mnemosyne who inspire art, is typical in epic poetry, but (as with the Iliad, Odyssey and Aeneid) tends to occur at the opening of the poem. At the beginning of the Georgics Vergil invoked agricultural divinities; here he signals a new turn, toward a mythological subject. 

315  nōbīs: dative of advantage (AG 376).

315  extudit: “hammered out,” that is, “invented.” 

315  artem: the “art” of acquiring bees from a dead calf.

316  ingressūs: “its beginnings,” accusative plural masculine. 

316  experientia: “trial” or “experiment,” nominative singular feminine; take the genitive plural hominum with experientia.

317  Pēnēia Tempē: Tempe is a Greek neuter plural (AG 81). Tempe is a valley in Thessaly (in northern Greece), where Aristaeus lived. The Peneus River flows through the valley. 

318  āmissīs…apibus: ablative absolute (AG 420).

318  ut fāma: supply est. 

318  morbōque famēque: ablatives of cause; take closely with āmissīs (AG 404).

319  tristis: modifies Aristaeus, the subject of astitit. 

319  sacrum: the source of a river would be the seat of the river god or nymph, and thus holy. 

319  extrēmī amnis: “of the end of the river,” genitive singular masculine (for the Romans, both the start and the finish of a river are “ends”).

320  multa: adverbial (AG 214d).

320  hac voce: ablative of means (AG 409).

320  adfātus: supply est. 

320  parentem: Aristaeus is about to make a speech to his water nymph mother Cyrene, beginning in line 321.

321  Cȳrēnē: daughter of Hypseus, king of the Lapiths, or of the river Peneus. She and Apollo are the parents of Aristaeus. 

321  quae…tenēs: “you who hold.” 

321  gurgitis huius: partitive genitive with īma (AG 346b). Note that this is a spondaic line, which lends seriousness to the opening of Aristaeus’s lament.

322  quid: “why.” 

322  praeclārā stirpe: ablative of source (AG 403.2a).

323  sī modo: “if indeed.” 

323  quem perhibēs: a relative clause, where the antecedent (Apollo) follows the clause. 

323  Thymbraeus: “of Thymbra.” Apollo had a temple at Thymbra, near Troy. 

324  invīsum fātīs: “hateful to the fates.” invīsum modifies mē in line 322. 

324  aut…amor = aut quō tibi amor nostrī pulsus est? tibi is almost a possessive, nostrī is an objective genitive, “your love for me” (AG 377, 348).

324  aut quō: “or by what,” a contrast with the previous sentence, since either he was born hated by the other gods, or his mother has now turned against him.

325  quid: “why.” 

325  caelum spērāre: “to hope for heaven,” that is, to hope to be deified.

327-328  quem…extuderat = quem sollers custōdia frūgum et pecudum vix extuderat mihi temptantī omnia. honōrem (326) is the antecedent for quem and refers to his success as a farmer and herdsman. 

327  mihi: dative of advantage (AG 376).

328  omnia temptantī: Aristaeus has devoted himself to every aspect of his work, though none of it will earn him public recognition. 

328  tē mātre: ablative absolute, likely concessive, “although you are my mother” (AG 419a).

329-331: The final lines of Aristaeus’s speech are exaggerated and sarcastic.

329  quīn age: “come on, then.” 

329  ipsa: “you yourself,” nominative singular feminine (referring to Cyrene). 

329  manū: ablative of means (AG 409).

329  fēlīcēs: modifies silvās and probably means something like “bountiful,” thus suggesting fruit trees.

330  fer: present singular imperative < ferō, ferre, tulī, lātus (AG 182).

330  stabulīs: dative of indirect object (AG 362).

331  sata: “crops.” 

331  vītēs: “vines,” < vītis, vītis (f). 

331  mōlīre: “set in motion” (OLD molior 5), i.e., “swing,” 2nd person singular present imperative. 

331  bipennem: an axe. Note that in this speech Aristaeus attests to his skill as the ideal farmer of the Georgics, someone who has productive trees and vines, who is a fine shepherd, and who has stored away crops. 

332  tanta…laudis = sī tanta taedia meae laudis cēpērunt tē. Aristaeus may be hoping for praise because of his status as a semi-divine and excellent farmer, as Vergil has mentioned at Georgics 3.288 that strong farmers (fortes coloni) can expect laus.