Eclogues

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Eclogues

work by Virgil

Also known as: “Bucolics”

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June 25, 2026

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Virgil's Eclogues, also known as Bucolics, are a collection of ten pastoral poems written between 42 and 37 BCE. The word "eclogue" itself comes from the Latin title of these works, meaning "selections".123

These poems traditionally depict idealized rural life, portraying shepherds who sing of their joys and sorrows, free from the complexities of urban environments. While some Eclogues are purely escapist, others touch upon real-world events and allegories, such as the first and ninth poems which lament the displacement of shepherds from their farms. The fourth eclogue is particularly notable for its prophecy of a Golden Age and a child who will bring peace, which was later interpreted as a premonition of Christianity.321

The Eclogues were inspired by the Greek poet Theocritus, who is credited with inventing pastoral poetry. Virgil's work significantly influenced later poets during the Renaissance and beyond, though the form fell out of favor with the Romantic poets who reacted against its perceived artificiality.32

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Corydon
…name appears notably in Virgil’s Eclogues, a collection of 10 unconnected pastoral poems composed between 42 and 37 bce. In the second eclogue, the shepherd Corydon bewails his unrequited love for the boy Alexis. In the seventh, Corydon and Thyrsis, two Arcadian herdsmen, engage in a singing match. The name…
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…name appears notably in Virgil’s Eclogues, a collection of 10 unconnected pastoral poems composed between 42 and 37 bce. In the second eclogue, the shepherd Corydon bewails his unrequited love for the boy Alexis. In the seventh, Corydon and Thyrsis, two Arcadian herdsmen, engage in a singing match. The name…
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Latin literature
Golden Age, 70 bc–ad 18
…self-consciously beautiful cadences of the Eclogues depict shepherds living in a landscape half real, half fantastic; these allusive poems hover between the actual and the artificial. They are shot through with topical allusions, and in the fourth he already appears as a national prophet. Virgil was drawn into the circle…
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…self-consciously beautiful cadences of the Eclogues depict shepherds living in a landscape half real, half fantastic; these allusive poems hover between the actual and the artificial. They are shot through with topical allusions, and in the fourth he already appears as a national prophet. Virgil was drawn into the circle…
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Virgil
Literary career
…earliest certain work is the Eclogues, a collection of 10 pastoral poems composed between 42 and 37 bce. Some of them are escapist, literary excursions to the idyllic pastoral world of Arcadia based on the Greek poet Theocritus (flourished c. 280 bce) but more unreal and stylized. They convey in…
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…earliest certain work is the Eclogues, a collection of 10 pastoral poems composed between 42 and 37 bce. Some of them are escapist, literary excursions to the idyllic pastoral world of Arcadia based on the Greek poet Theocritus (flourished c. 280 bce) but more unreal and stylized. They convey in…
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Calpurnius Siculus
…contemporary politics, as in Virgil’s Eclogues, but also of detailed yet hidden references to actual historical figures. Only an inner circle would have been able to understand all the references, though the propaganda is explicit and unmistakable. The other four poems (eclogues 2, 3, 5, and 6) are closer to…
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…contemporary politics, as in Virgil’s Eclogues, but also of detailed yet hidden references to actual historical figures. Only an inner circle would have been able to understand all the references, though the propaganda is explicit and unmistakable. The other four poems (eclogues 2, 3, 5, and 6) are closer to…
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Theocritus
…were the sources of Virgil’s Eclogues and much of the poetry and drama of the Renaissance and were the ancestors of the famous English pastoral elegies, John Milton’s “Lycidas,” Percy Bysshe Shelley’s “Adonais,” and Matthew Arnold’s “Thyrsis.” Among the best known of his idylls are Thyrsis (Idyll 1), a lament…
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…were the sources of Virgil’s Eclogues and much of the poetry and drama of the Renaissance and were the ancestors of the famous English pastoral elegies, John Milton’s “Lycidas,” Percy Bysshe Shelley’s “Adonais,” and Matthew Arnold’s “Thyrsis.” Among the best known of his idylls are Thyrsis (Idyll 1), a lament…
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fable, parable, and allegory
Blending of rival systems: the Middle Ages
Virgil’s fourth Eclogue, a prophetic vision of the birth of a child who would usher in the “golden age,” was read as a prophecy of the birth of Christ. Seen by many Christian commentators as the ideal allegorist, Virgil himself was hailed as a proto-Christian prophet. The…
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Virgil’s fourth Eclogue, a prophetic vision of the birth of a child who would usher in the “golden age,” was read as a prophecy of the birth of Christ. Seen by many Christian commentators as the ideal allegorist, Virgil himself was hailed as a proto-Christian prophet. The…
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Middle Eastern religion
Literary sources of knowledge of ancient Middle Eastern religion
poet Virgil’s Aeneid and Eclogues reflect Egyptian, Semitic, and Anatolian, as well as Greek, antecedents. The Greek biographer Plutarch’s De Iside et Osiride (“Concerning Isis and Osiris”) is still the best description of the Egyptian myth of Isis and Osiris and of the cult of the dead. The Greek…
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poet Virgil’s Aeneid and Eclogues reflect Egyptian, Semitic, and Anatolian, as well as Greek, antecedents. The Greek biographer Plutarch’s De Iside et Osiride (“Concerning Isis and Osiris”) is still the best description of the Egyptian myth of Isis and Osiris and of the cult of the dead. The Greek…
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