Eclogues

Virgil

Vergil. The Poems of Vergil. Rhoades, James, translator. London: Oxford University Press, 1921.

  • heard, as Apollo mused upon the lyre,
  • and bade his laurels learn, Silenus sang;
  • till from Olympus, loth at his approach,
  • vesper, advancing, bade the shepherds tell
  • their tale of sheep, and pen them in the fold.
    1. daphnis beneath a rustling ilex-tree
    2. had sat him down; Thyrsis and Corydon
    3. had gathered in the flock, Thyrsis the sheep,
    4. and Corydon the she-goats swollen with milk—
    5. both in the flower of age, Arcadians both,
    6. ready to sing, and in like strain reply.
    7. Hither had strayed, while from the frost I fend
    8. my tender myrtles, the he-goat himself,
    9. lord of the flock; when Daphnis I espy!
    10. Soon as he saw me, “Hither haste,” he cried,
    11. “O Meliboeus! goat and kids are safe;
    12. and, if you have an idle hour to spare,
    13. rest here beneath the shade. Hither the steers
    14. will through the meadows, of their own free will,
    15. untended come to drink. Here Mincius hath