The Eclogues · Chapter
Pastoral VIII: Pharmaceutria explained
This pastoral presents two songs: Damon's lament for his lost love Nisa, who has married his rival Mopsus, and Alphesiboeus's recitation of a woman's magical spells to reclaim her beloved Daphnis.
What happens
This pastoral presents two songs: Damon's lament for his lost love Nisa, who has married his rival Mopsus, and Alphesiboeus's recitation of a woman's magical spells to reclaim her beloved Daphnis. Damon curses his fate and Nisa's betrayal, while the enchantress uses ritual and verse to compel Daphnis's return.
Themes in this chapter
Love and Desire
Both songs explore the extremes of love: Damon's despair at rejection and the enchantress's desperate use of magic to reclaim her beloved.
Transformation and Renewal
Magic and verse are portrayed as forces that can alter nature, break boundaries, and compel change, as seen in the spells and Damon's wish for cosmic disorder.
Art and Poetry
The power of song and incantation is central; the flute's Maenalian strain and the enchantress's verses are depicted as potent forces capable of moving the natural and supernatural worlds.
Characters to notice
- Damon
Sings a despairing song bewailing Nisa's faithlessness and his own unrequited love.
- Nisa
The cruel mistress who has rejected Damon and married Mopsus.
- Mopsus
Damon's rival who triumphs by wedding Nisa.
- Daphnis
The beloved pursued by the enchantress in Alphesiboeus's song.
- Moeris
Old Moeris is mentioned as the source of the poisonous plants used in the magic spells.
- Amaryllis
Addressed by the enchantress to assist in the ritual.
Key passages
“Begin with me, my flute, the sweet Maenalian strain.”
Let my song start with the pastoral melody of Maenalus.
Damon invokes the Maenalian muse to accompany his lament.
“I know thee, Love! in deserts thou wert bred, And at the dugs of savage tigers fed;”
Love was born in the wilderness and nursed by wild tigers.
Damon characterizes love as a savage, untamed force.
“As fire this figure hardens, made of clay, And this of wax with fire consumes away; Such let the soul of cruel Daphnis be— Hard to the rest of women, soft to me.”
May Daphnis's heart be hard toward other women but soft toward me, like the clay and wax figures in the fire.
The enchantress uses sympathetic magic to influence Daphnis's affections.
“No more! my Daphnis comes! no more, my charms! He comes, he runs, he leaps to my desiring arms.”
The spell has worked: Daphnis is rushing back to embrace me.
The enchantress believes her magic has succeeded in bringing Daphnis back.