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The Eclogues
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Eclogue 8Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Eclogue 8 Summary
The speaker opens the poem with a brief introduction (Lines 1-13). He dedicates his work to an unknown addressee, wondering if he’ll ever be able to appropriately praise his deeds (Lines 6-13). This eclogue covers another singing exchange, one between two sad lovers, Damon and Alphesiboeus.
At daybreak, when “Night’s chill had scarcely left the sky, when dew / on delicate grass most pleases the flock” (Lines 14-15), the lovelorn shepherd Damon begins his song. His betrothed, Nysa, left him for his rival Mopsus. Occasionally returning to his refrain of “Begin with me, my flute, the verses of Maenalus,” Damon describes how Nysa will take up traditional Roman marriage ceremonies with Mopsus (Lines 30-31). Damon first saw Nysa as a child in a local orchard and was instantly smitten; he says he saw her and “died, and a wicked madness swept me away” (Lines 38-42). Damon blames the god Love (often depicted in the form of Cupid) and expounds on his cruelty (Lines 43-51). Nature takes a turn at Nysa’s betrayal: “Now let the wolf flee the sheep [...] Sturdy oaks / bear apples of gold” (Lines 53-54). Damon invites the ocean to cover all the woodlands and offers his imminent death as a last gift to Nysa (Lines 59-62).
Damon’s female counterpart, Alphesiboeus, also sings of a questionable fiancée. She decides to use witchcraft to sway the wayward Daphnis.
Alphesiboeus references a famous witch from mythology, Circe, who ensnared Odysseus, the hero of the Odyssey (Lines 71-72). Performing a binding ritual (Lines 74-79) and scattering barley and bay leaves in a fire (Lines 81-83), she sings songs to make Daphnis feel like an amorous heifer lost in the woods, desperate to return to her (Lines 86-90). She also uses powerful magical herbs from Pontus, the shore of the Black Sea, which the sorcerer Moeris used to turn himself into a wolf (Lines 96-100).
Alphesiboeus notices the ashes catch fire and interprets this as a sign that her spells are working. She stops singing, confident Daphnis is now retuning from the city (Line 110).
Eclogue 8 Analysis
Virgil likely dedicates Eclogue 8 to one of his early patrons, Pollio, in the opening lines (Lines 6-13). The poem focuses on the many sufferings caused by love and two distinct approaches to dealing with heartbreak. The first singer, Damon, loses himself in despair. He dwells on the past, visiting a memory of his first meeting Nysa in an orchard with her mother (Lines 37-42). The cruelty of the god Love (a theme already explored in Eclogue 7) caused nature to reverse. Predators run from their prey; oak trees, which usually do not bear fruit, are laden with golden apples (Lines 53-54). In the end, Damon hopes the ocean swallows the forest whole—and him with it. Unable to leave the past behind, he can see no future without Nysa.
Alphesiboeus is Damon’s opposite in many ways. She’s fixated not on the past, but the future. She doesn’t accept the betrayal of her ex-boyfriend Daphnis—and through sheer force of will and the power of her magic, forces him to return to her. While Damon’s refrain feels like an obsessive retreading of events or intrusive thoughts (“Begin with me, my flute, the verses of Maenalus”), Alphesiboeus’s becomes a spell-like mantra (“Bring from the city, my magic songs, bring Daphnis home”). She uses many mainstays of ancient household magic to achieve her goal; the ritual could be read as humorous with her being a young girl playing at witch. Unlike Damon’s song, Alphesiboeus’s ends with optimism rather than suicidal despair: She’s certain a sign in the fire means Daphnis is already returning to her from the city. Still, she (and the poet) lay a foundation of doubt for the reader with a memorable rhetorical question: Is Alphesiboeus perceiving reality, or “Do lovers create their own dreams?” (Line 109).
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