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Initiation and the Role of Aristaeus in Georgics Four

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 July 2014

J. S. Campbell
J. S. Campbell*
Affiliation:
Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge
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Extract

The Aristaeus Epyllion is the finale and the climax of the Georgics. Although a radical departure from the poem's didactic formula, the distinction of a lengthy narrative affords emphasis as well as a certain fitness to the conclusion of a long and complex poem. The task, however, of relating the myth to an interpretation of the poem has taxed the imagination and ingenuity of scholars, undermining the confidence of not a few in the poem's integrity. The object of this paper is to examine Aristaeus' role in the epyllion and to show to what extent it suggests initiation into a mystery religion.

The epyllion is motivated by the beekeeper's loss of his hive; Vergil advises restoration through the bougonia. The epyllion, however, exceeds the needs of an explanation and acquires a meaning and function all its own, displacing the bees at center stage. The ostensible object of the epyllion is to recount the discovery of the bougonia: Arcadii memoranda inventa magistri (G.4.283), But in fact the bougonia plays only a small part in the epyllion, providing at the end, as the means of restoration of Aristaeus' bees, a sacrifice, which indeed proves anticlimactic after the drama of Aristaeus' quest and Orpheus' loss. Moreover, the early revelation of its formula removes any suspense about its details. The bougonia is in fact a structural device that introduces and concludes the myth; it is part of a complex of previously unrelated myths, cleverly manipulated by Vergil to formulate the epyllion.

Type
Research Article
Information
Ramus , Volume 11 , Issue 2 , 1982 , pp. 105 - 115
Copyright
Copyright © Aureal Publications 1982

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References

1. The problem is aggravated by the confused comments of Servius, that the epyllion is all or in part a substitution for a tribute to the disgraced Gallus; see Otis, Brooks, Virgil: A Study in Civilized Poetry (Oxford 1964), 408–13Google Scholar; also Wilkinson, L. P., The Georgics of Virgil: A Critical Study (Cambridge 1969), 325–26Google Scholar.

2. For the history of the bougonia, see Shipley, A. E., ‘The Bugonia Myth,’ JPh 34 (1915), 97–105Google Scholar.

3. D. E. Wormell feels the bees ‘bridge the gap between the agricultural tragedy of book 3 and the human tragedy of book 4’ through ‘a complex of age-old and interlocking beliefs’ about bees, immortality, and human souls: ‘Apibus quanta experientia parcis: Virgil Georgics 4, 1–227,’ Vergiliana, ed. Henry Bardon and Raoul Verdière (Leiden 1971), 429–35. Considering the epyllion an afterthought, Leon Hermann argues unconvincingly that the apotheosis of the bee reflects its role in Caesarian mythology: ‘Le Quatrième livre des Géorgiques et les abeilles d’ Actium,’ REA 33 (1931), 219–24CrossRefGoogle Scholar. For more appropriate, recent responses to Vergil’s description of the bee community see the essays by Kromer, G., Davis, P. J., Connor, P. and Boyle, A. J. in Virgil’s Ascraean Song: Ramus Essays on the Georgics, ed. Boyle, A. J. (Berwick, Victoria 1979), esp. pp. 19Google Scholar, 29f., 41–45, 67.

4. Prior to the Georgics, the extant tradition describes Aristaeus as neither inventor of the bougonia nor victim of Orpheus; see Klingner, Friedrich, Virgil: Bucolica, Georgica, Aeneis (Zurich 1967), 329–33Google Scholar. Eduard Norden argues the improbability of a Hellenistic model for the epyllion in ‘Orpheus und Eurydice,’ Sitz. Berl. Akad. (1934), 626–83Google Scholar; Bowra, C. M. presupposes one in ‘Orpheus and Eurydice,’ CQ 46 (1952), 113–26CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

5. For a discussion of the structure and history of the epyllion, see Marjorie Crump, M.. The Epyllion from Theocritus to Ovid (Oxford 1931Google Scholar) and Alessandro Perutelli, ‘L’episodio di Aristeo nelle Georgiche: struttura e tecnica narrativa,’ MD 4 (1980), 59–76.

6. Otis (n. 1 above), 192.

7. Otis (n. 1 above), 211.

8. Otis (n. 1 above), 193.

9. Otis(n. 1 above), 211.

10. Segal, Charles, ‘Orpheus and the Fourth Georgic,’ AJP 87 (1966), 307–25Google Scholar.

11. Segal (n. 10 above), 311.

12. Segal (n. 10 above), 320.

13. Otis(n. 1 above), 211.

14. Demetrio, FranciscoS. J., Symbols in Comparative Religion and the Georgics (Manila 1968), 87Google Scholar.

15. Scazzoso, Piero, ‘Reflessi misterici nelle Georgiche,’ Paideia 11 (1956), 26Google Scholar.

16. Chomarat, J., ‘L’initiation d’Aristée,’ REL 52 (1974), 185–207Google Scholar.

17. Chomarat (n. 16 above) argues that Orpheus’ failure is a ritual blunder. The cause of Orpheus’ tragedy is most unlikely a violation of ritual propriety, since religious formalism has played little or no apparent role in the Georgics.

18. Demetrio (n. 14 above), 65.

19. Paratore, Ettore, Virgilio (Firenze 1961), 263 ffGoogle Scholar.

20. Kerényi, C., Eleusis (New York 1962), 26–27Google Scholar.

21. Cf. Nilsson, Martin, Geschichte der griechischen Religion (Munich 1950), 89Google Scholar.

22. Tibullus 1.3.23–32; Propertius 2.33.1–20.

23. Cumont, F., Les Religions orientates dans le paganisme romain (Paris 1929) 4th ed., 76–77Google Scholar.

24. Linforth, Ivan M., The Arts of Orpheus (Berkeley 1941), 169 ffGoogle Scholar.

25. Dibelius, Martin, ‘Die Isisweihe bei Apuleius und verwandte Initiations-riten,’ Sitz. Heidelberg. Akad. (1917) 4 Abh., 1–55Google Scholar.

26. The nexus between Egypt and the bougonia is apparently original with Vergil; see Richter, Will, Vergil: Georgica (Munich 1957), 371Google Scholar. The excursus on Egypt may be explained as part of a larger allusion to Gallus, later revised, see Otis (n. 1 above), 412–13.

27. Il. 1.351–6; see Klingner (n. 4 above), 334.

28. Klingner (n. 4 above), 335.

29. Drawing his inspiration from Porphyry’s De Antro Nympharum, Chomarat (n. 16 above), 191, feels the weaving of Vergil’s nymphs symbolizes the preparation of bodies for souls to be born. His observations seem questionable at best; but the allegorizing of Porphyry, despite the separation of time and his neo-platonic inspiration, confirms the tendency of the age and lends credence to the less obvious allegorizing of Vergil.

30. Phaedo, 112A.

31. Chomarat (n. 16 above), 189–90.

32. Klingner (n. 4 above), 339.

33. Klingner (n. 4 above), 337.

34. Chomarat (n. 16 above), 193, observes the analogous relationship of the principal actors in Aeneid 6 and the epyllion. Each of the heroes receives a revelation; each is conducted through a series of rituals and tests by a female guide and is brought to a male oracle, a supernatural figure, who pronounces the revelation. The similarity of plot and character argues a common idea that determines the character of the actors and the pattern of their actions, suggesting a motivating idea, which would seem to be ritual initiation.

35. Cf.Aen. 6.45–51.

36. Boyle (n. 3 above), 68.