Eclogues

Virgil

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

  • what gifts, to him by Philomel were given;
  • how swift she sought the desert, with what wings
  • hovered in anguish o'er her ancient home?
  • All that, of old, Eurotas, happy stream,
  • 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;