Virgil's metamorphoses: myth and allusion in theGeorgics

Abstract

felix qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas 490atque metus omnis et inexorabile fatumsubiecit pedibus strepitumque Acherontis auari.fortunatus et ille deos qui nouit agrestisPanaque Siluanumque senem Nymphasque sorores. (Geo. 2.490–4)[Happy is he who has been able to learn the causes of things, andhas trampled underfoot every fear, and unyielding Fate, and the dinof greedy Acheron. Fortunate, too, is he who knows the rustic gods,Pan and old Silvanus and the sister Nymphs.]In these famous words, Virgil expresses his ambivalent relationship with his great didactic model, Lucretius. The double makarismos suggests a declaration of allegiance to two incompatible views of the world: the rationalist philosophy of Epicurus and a nostalgic longing for the simple rustic piety which the Romans of the late Republic and early Empire were so fond of attributing to the farmer and the countryman.