The Eclogues · Chapter
Pastoral VI: Silenus explained
Two young shepherds, Chromis and Mnasylus, capture the sleeping Silenus and demand the song he had promised them.
What happens
Two young shepherds, Chromis and Mnasylus, capture the sleeping Silenus and demand the song he had promised them. Silenus, after being bound and playfully adorned by the nymph Aegle, agrees and delivers a grand cosmological and mythological song covering the formation of the universe, the Golden Age, Prometheus, the Argonauts, Pasiphaë, the transformation of the Heliades, the story of Gallus, Scylla, Philomela, and other myths. The song continues until nightfall, enchanting all who listen.
Themes in this chapter
Transformation and Renewal
Silenus's song recounts numerous mythological transformations, including the Heliades into alders, Scylla's metamorphosis, and Philomela's change into a nightingale.
Divinity and Fate
The capture of a sleeping god, the invocation of Phoebus and Apollo, and the cosmic creation narrative emphasize divine power and fate.
Art and Poetry
The entire pastoral is a celebration of poetic song, with Silenus as a divine singer and the pipe of the Ascraean shepherd passed to Gallus.
Nature and the Pastoral Ideal
The setting is a sylvan grove, and the song describes the formation of earth, seas, forests, and the golden age of Saturn.
Characters to notice
- Silenus
Captured while asleep by Chromis and Mnasylus; sings a grand cosmological and mythological song.
- Aegle
The fairest Naiad of the neighboring flood; joins the shepherds and dyes Silenus's brows with berries.
- Gallus
Mentioned in Silenus's song as being welcomed to the sacred strand and given the pipe of the Ascraean shepherd.
- Phoebus
Invoked as the god of verse; Silenus sings of his ancient oracles and the Parian marble fane.
- Orpheus
Referenced as the Thracian bard whose singing was heard with deep silence on Haemonian hills.
- Apollo
Mentioned as checking the poet's pride and bidding him feed his flocks; also as the Delphian god who taught songs.
Key passages
“He sung the secret seeds of nature’s frame; How seas, and earth, and air, and active flame, Fell through the mighty void, and, in their fall, Were blindly gathered in this goodly ball.”
He sang about the primal atoms of the universe—how water, earth, air, and fire fell through the vast emptiness and randomly coalesced to form the beautiful sphere of the world.
This passage reflects the Epicurean atomic theory of creation.
“The reign of Saturn, and the golden age; Prometheus’ theft, and Jove’s avenging rage: The cries of Argonauts for Hylas drowned, With whose repeated name the shores resound;”
He sang of Saturn's rule and the golden age, Prometheus stealing fire and Jupiter's wrath, and the Argonauts calling out for the drowned Hylas, their cries echoing along the shore.
Silenus's song moves through a series of mythological episodes from the Golden Age to the Argonautic myth.
“Then ravished Philomel the song exprest; The crime revealed; the sisters’ cruel feast; And how in fields the lapwing Tereus reigns, The warbling nightingale in woods complains; While Procne makes on chimney-tops her moan; And hovers o’er the palace once her own.”
Then the song told of Philomela's rape, the revelation of the crime, and the sisters' gruesome feast; how Tereus became a lapwing in the fields, Philomela a nightingale lamenting in the woods, and Procne a swallow mourning on rooftops above her former home.
This summarizes the tragic transformation myth of Philomela, Procne, and Tereus.
