Parthenope, The Interplay of Ideas in Vergilian Bucolic

This study of the Eclogues focuses on Vergil’s exploration of issues relating to the subject of human happiness (eudaimonia)–ideas that were the subject of robust debate in contemporary philosophical schools, including the community of émigré Epicurean teachers and their Roman pupils located in the vicinity of Naples (“Parthenope”). The latent “interplay of ideas” implicit in the songs of the various poet-herdsmen centers on differing attitudes to acute misfortune and loss, particularly in ...