NPPF: Notes Line 286

[Heikki Raudaskoski]

Well, there is a tomb in Virgil's fifth eclogue, that much
is true, but you cannot find the words "et in Arcadia ego"
anywhere in the poem. The shepherd Mopsus sings to shepherd
Menalcas in #5, lamenting Daphnis's death:
.......................
>From the Gutenberg site [translator not announced):

'Now, O ye shepherds, strew the ground with leaves,
And o'er the fountains draw a shady veil-
So Daphnis to his memory bids be done-
And rear a tomb, and write thereon this verse:
'I, Daphnis in the woods, from hence in fame
Am to the stars exalted, guardian once
Of a fair flock, myself more fair than they.'
ftp://sailor.gutenberg.org/pub/gutenberg/etext95/bucoe10.txt
........................
Originally:

Spargite humum foliis, inducite fontibus umbras,
pastores, mandat fieri sibi talia Daphnis;
et tumulum facite, et tumulo superaddite carmen:
DAPHNIS EGO IN SILVIS HINC VSQUE AD SIDERA NOTVS
FORMONSI PECORIS CVSTOS FORMONSIOR IPSE.
ftp://sailor.gutenberg.org/pub/gutenberg/etext95/bucol10.txt
....................................

The shepherds are requested to "rear a tomb" - they don't
find a tomb in the poem.

It is my impression that the phrase "Et in Arcadia Ego" was
introduced much much later. Anyone?

Well, Death does loom in Virgil's Arcady, after all, but,
unlike in the "Bengt Ekerot / Maria Casarès Film Festival"
(GR 755), is given no lines of Its own.


Heikki

P.S. The topic brings to mind Stoppard's wonderful, thermodynamic
Arcadia. The phrase in question is not left untouched by TS...


On Mon, 13 Oct 2003, Mary Krimmel wrote:

> At 07:39 PM 10/13/03 -0400, Paul Mackin wrote:
> ...
> >In Latin it's Et in Arcadia ego Virgil
> >
> >
> >Also the name of a Poussin painting. (shepherds discovering a tomb)
>
> Can you or anyone tell us the context of Virgil's use of that phrase? Or
> tell us what work it is found in? Was Virgil quoting someone else?
>
> I have understood (from I don't know what sources) that the words are or
> were inscribed on a tombstone and that they are the earliest known written
> Latin; is that correct? The Poussin painting suggests the tombstone, but
> which came first - the fact or generally accepted idea of the tomb, or the
> painting?
>
> Why does there never seem to be any doubt that the "ego" of the phrase is
> Death? Even if there is no doubt that it was carved on a tombstone, that
> seems to me to be no reason to conclude definitely that Death is the speaker.
>
> Also, I have understood (again, no back-up) that Arcady has the reputation
> of being an idyllic Eden-like spot; is that correct? I.e., does it have
> such a reputation? If so, and if Death is the speaker, the phrase makes a
> poignant point. But it looks to me as though it's often interpreted in
> order to suggest the point, without any real justification.
>
> Mary Krimmel
>
>
>