Quotes from The Eclogues
14 notable lines from Virgil · c. 37 BCE
Love conquers all; let us, too, yield to Love!
Quotations follow the Guy Lee translation (Penguin Classics, 1984) — our recommended edition.
Now the last age by Cumae's Sibyl sung Has come and gone, and the majestic roll Of circling centuries begins anew: Justice returns, returns old Saturn's reign, With a new breed of men sent down from heaven.
Opening of Eclogue IV, the 'Messianic' eclogue · trans. Greenough There's a cold adder lurking in the grass.
Damoetas, Eclogue III (latet anguis in herba) · trans. Greenough You, Tityrus, 'neath a broad beech-canopy Reclining, on the slender oat rehearse Your silvan ditties.
Opening of Eclogue I (Tityre, tu patulae recubans sub tegmine fagi) · trans. Greenough Now the last age of the Cumaean prophecy begins; the great order of the ages is born anew.
Eclogue 4 God delights in an odd number.
Eclogue VIII (Numero deus impare gaudet) · trans. Fairclough Each is led by his liking.
Corydon, Eclogue II (Trahit sua quemque voluptas) · trans. Fairclough We cannot all do everything.
Eclogue VIII (Non omnia possumus omnes) · trans. Fairclough Songs can even draw the moon down from heaven.
Eclogue VIII (Carmina vel caelo possunt deducere lunam) · trans. Fairclough Time bears away all things, even the mind.
Moeris, Eclogue IX (Omnia fert aetas, animum quoque) · trans. Fairclough A god has given us this peace.
Eclogue 1 Now I know what Love is.
The shepherd's lament, Eclogue VIII (Nunc scio quid sit Amor) · trans. Trevelyan The gods too have dwelt in the woods.
Corydon, Eclogue II (habitarunt di quoque silvas) · trans. Fairclough Begin, baby boy, to know thy mother with a smile.
Eclogue IV (Incipe, parve puer, risu cognoscere matrem) · trans. Fairclough