Milanion, Acontius and Gallus: Vergil, Eclogue 10.52-61

Ralph M. Rosen, University of Pennsylvania
Joseph Farrell, University of Pennsylvania

Article comments

Reprinted from Transactions of the American Philological Association, Volume 116, 1986, pages 241-254.
Publisher URL: http://www.jstor.org/journals/03605949.html

Abstract

In the rambling sequence of thoughts in Ecl. 10.31-69 that expresses the state of the lovesick Gallus, Vergil depicts his friend as proposing to abandoning elegy for bucolic poetry, and to take up a pair of activities resumably related to this change. These activities - carving love messages on trees and hunting - are to some extent typical of the unrequited literary, especially pastoral, lover:¹