First of all, the anthropomorphism of this war-driven horse already indicates a relation to political disturbances. Next, there is also a huge political change occurring during the creation and publication of the Georgics –Battle of Actium and the end of the Roman Republic– and the obvious presence of Octavian throughout the text. Finally, the plague at the end of Book 3 links together the use of anthropomorphism with the political discordance of the period. In Hunter H. Gardner’s journal “Bees, Ants, and The Body Politic: Vergil’s Noric Plague and Ovid’s Origin of the Myrmidons”, he offers his interpretation of the plague as metaphor for civil war. He supports this interpretation with the historical context and its response from the citizens, and the use of a
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Virgil’s use of anthropomorphism aims to subtlety comment on his lifetime’s events while, as I believe, comments on the effects these wars had on the environment as a whole. Additionally, Gardener corroborates this effect on the living beings: “If the original theodicy prompted humankind’s gradual distinction from and dominance over the natural world, the plague has the effect…of erasing the hard won boundaries between human and animal” (12). Another possible relation to the plague with civil wars comes from J. Donald Hughes’s Environmental Problems of the Greeks and Romans, where he comments on the different events and their effects on agricultural life. Some of these events are war and disease, Hughes explains that, “Famine and disease were companions of war among the four horsemen, and not uncommonly the number of death in armies from pestilence was greater than those in battle” (162). Thus, the plague of Book 3 can be either interpreted as war itself or as a collateral consequence of war or both. Whatever it is, their direct relation is
Virgil’s use of anthropomorphism aims to subtlety comment on his lifetime’s events while, as I believe, comments on the effects these wars had on the environment as a whole. Additionally, Gardener corroborates this effect on the living beings: “If the original theodicy prompted humankind’s gradual distinction from and dominance over the natural world, the plague has the effect…of erasing the hard won boundaries between human and animal” (12). Another possible relation to the plague with civil wars comes from J. Donald Hughes’s Environmental Problems of the Greeks and Romans, where he comments on the different events and their effects on agricultural life. Some of these events are war and disease, Hughes explains that, “Famine and disease were companions of war among the four horsemen, and not uncommonly the number of death in armies from pestilence was greater than those in battle” (162). Thus, the plague of Book 3 can be either interpreted as war itself or as a collateral consequence of war or both. Whatever it is, their direct relation is