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International Eclogues Study
12 July 2008


History
Beginning on 19 June 2000, sixty people from around the world gathered online to discuss the first five Eclogues for five weeks. The archives of that discussion are stored at Yahoo! Groups.

If you'd like to be notified about our next study (tentatively scheduled for the summer of 2001), simply subscribe to the eclogues group at Yahoo! Groups. If you're not already an Yahoo! Groups member, you'll need to register. Look for the "Click here to register for FREE link" on the right side of the page and click on it. You'll be asked for your email address, your gender, a date of birth, and your zip/postal code. You will also be asked to choose a password. You will NOT be asked for personal information like your name, phone number, or street address, and Yahoo! Groups promises not to give away or sell your information without your consent.

Suggested Readings
If you're looking for a commentary on the Latin text, there are two good ones out there:

Wendell Clausen, ed., Eclogues (Oxford: Clarendon, 1995).
Lots of information, very up-to-date. Especially good on echoes of other poets (Theocritus, Lucretius, Catullus, and Plautus). Disappointing as literary criticism, however. If your bookstore or library doesn't have a copy, you can order it online:
Robert Coleman, ed., Eclogues (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1977).
A few years older than Clausen; not quite so detailed (though still very scholarly). For all of Clausen's erudition, Coleman is the better reader. My advice: use Clausen and Coleman together. If you have to choose, ask yourself which you're more interested: facts (in which case get Clausen) or facts plus some interpretive direction (in which case get Coleman). Again, Coleman's commentary is available in most college libraries. If you'd like to buy a copy and can't get it at your local bookstore, you can always get it from Amazon:
Now available: a list of characters for the sequence of ten poems.

If you don't have a text of the Eclogues you can download one for free from the Eclogues group file section in one of three formats (ASCII text, Microsoft Word, PDF). If you prefer a book to a printout, there are also two or three paperback editions with the Latin text and an English translation on facing pages. If your library doesn't have them (or if you like to mark up the text you're reading), you can buy them online

David Ferry's translation (with Latin on facing pages). Smooth, sometimes sacrifices proper nouns in order to convey their implications. Guy Lee's translation (with Latin on facing pages). This is the revised edition of the Penguin translation.

Please send comments to David Wilson-Okamura at david@virgil.org.