Editing Georgics (section)

==Description and summary==
The work consists of 2,188 [[hexameter|hexametric]] verses divided into four books. The yearly timings by the rising and setting of particular stars were valid for the [[precession of the equinoxes|precession epoch]] of Virgil's time, and so are not always valid now.

===Book One===
[[File:Przygotowanie narzędzi rolniczych.jpg|thumb|upright=1|One of four Polish frieze paintings in the [[Wilanów Palace|King's palace at Wilanów]] illustrating ''Georgics'' Book I, 1683]]
Virgil begins his poem with a dedication to [[Gaius Maecenas|Maecenas]], then a summary of the four books, followed by a prayer to various agricultural deities as well as [[Augustus]] himself. It takes as its model the work on farming by [[Marcus Terentius Varro|Varro]], but differs from it in important ways.<ref>See Varro, ''R.R.'' 1.1.4–6</ref> Numerous technical passages fill out the initial half of the first book; of particular interest are lines 160–175, where Virgil describes the [[plow]].{{why?|date=August 2020}} In the [[Ages of Man|succession of ages]], whose model is ultimately [[Hesiod]], the age of [[Jupiter (mythology)|Jupiter]] and its relation to the [[Golden Age|golden age]] and the current age of man are crafted with deliberate tension.<ref>Compare Hesiod, ''Works and Days'' 1–201, 383–659</ref> Of chief importance is the contribution of labour to the success or failure of mankind's endeavours, agricultural or otherwise. The book comes to one climax with the description of a great storm in lines 311–350, which brings all of man's efforts to nothing. After detailing various weather-signs, Virgil ends with an enumeration of the portents associated with [[Julius Caesar Assassination plot|Caesar's assassination]] and civil war; only [[Augustus|Octavian]] offers any hope of salvation.

===Book Two===
[[File:Virgil_translated_by_Dryden_(1709)-volume_1-sheet_272.png|thumb|''Georgics'' Book II, line 1: "Thus far of tillage, and of heav'nly signs", from ''The Works of Virgil'' translated by [[John Dryden]] (1709)|upright=1]]
Prominent themes of the second book include agriculture as man's struggle against a hostile natural world, often described in violent terms, and the ages of [[Saturn (mythology)|Saturn]] and [[Jupiter (mythology)|Jupiter]]. Like the first book, it begins with a poem addressing the divinities associated with the matters about to be discussed: [[viticulture]], trees, and the olive. In the next hundred lines, Virgil treats forest and fruit trees. Their propagation and growth are described in detail, with a contrast drawn between methods that are natural and those that require human intervention. Three sections on [[grafting]] are of particular interest: presented as marvels of man's alteration of nature. Also included is a catalogue of the world's trees, set forth in rapid succession, and other products of various lands. Perhaps the most famous passage{{to whom?|date=August 2020}} of the poem, the ''Laudes Italiae'', or Praises of Italy, is introduced by way of a comparison with foreign marvels: despite all of those, no land is as praiseworthy as Italy. A point of cultural interest is a reference to [[Ascra]] in line 176, which an ancient reader would have known as the hometown of [[Hesiod]]. Next comes the care of vines, culminating in a vivid scene of their destruction by fire; then advice on when to plant vines, and therein the other famous passage of the second book, the Praises of Spring. These depict the growth and beauty that accompany spring's arrival. The poet then returns to [[Didactic poem|didactic narrative]] with yet more on vines, emphasizing their fragility and laboriousness. A warning about animal damage provides occasion for an explanation of why goats are sacrificed to [[Dionysus|Bacchus]]. The olive tree is then presented in contrast to the vine: it requires little effort on the part of the farmer. The next subject, at last turning away from the vine, is other kinds of trees: those that produce fruit and those that have useful wood. Then Virgil again returns to grapevines, recalling the myth of the battle of the [[Lapiths]] and [[Centaurs]] in a passage known as the Vituperation of Vines. The remainder of the book is devoted to extolling the simple country life over the corruptness of the city.

===Book Three===
The third book is chiefly and ostensibly concerned with animal [[husbandry]]. It consists of two principal parts, the first half is devoted to the selection of breed stock and the breeding of horses and cattle. It concludes with a description of the furore induced in all animals by sexual desire. The second half of the book is devoted to the care and protection of sheep and goats and their by-products. It concludes with a description of the havoc and devastation caused by a plague in [[Noricum]]. Both halves begin with a short prologue called a [[proem]]. The poems invoke Greek and Italian gods and address such issues as Virgil's intention to honour both Caesar and his patron [[Maecenas]], as well as his lofty poetic aspirations and the difficulty of the material to follow. Many{{examples?|date=August 2020}} have observed the parallels between the dramatic endings of each half of this book and the irresistible power of their respective themes of love and death.

===Book Four===
[[File:Virgil,_Georgics,_Vaticanus_Palatinus_lat._1632.jpg|thumb|Fourth book of Virgil's ''Georgics'' in ms. [[Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana]], Vaticanus Palatinus lat. 1632, fol. 51v.|upright=1]]
Book four, a tonal counterpart to book two, is divided approximately in half; the first half (1–280) is didactic and deals with the life and habits of bees, as a model for human society. Bees resemble man in that their labour is devoted to a king and they give their lives for the sake of the community, but they lack the arts and love. In spite of their labour, the bees perish and the entire colony dies. The restoration of the bees is accomplished by [[bugonia]], spontaneous rebirth from the carcass of an ox. This process is described twice in the second half (281–568) and frames the [[Aristaeus]] [[epyllion]] beginning at line 315. The tone of the book changes from didactic to epic and [[elegiac]] in this epyllion, which contains within it the story of [[Orpheus and Eurydice]]. Aristaeus, after losing his bees,  descends to the home of his mother, the nymph [[Cyrene (mythology)|Cyrene]], where he is given instructions on how to restore his colonies. He must capture the seer [[Proteus]] and force him to reveal which divine spirit he angered and how to restore his bee colonies. After binding Proteus (who changes into many forms to no avail), Aristaeus is told by the seer that he angered the nymphs by causing the death of the nymph Eurydice, wife of [[Orpheus]]. Proteus describes the descent of Orpheus into the underworld to retrieve [[Eurydice]], the backward look that caused her return to [[Tartarus]], and at last Orpheus' death at the hands of the [[Ciconian]] women. Book four concludes with an eight-line [[Sphragis (literary device)|sphragis]], or seal, in which Virgil contrasts his life of poetry with that of Octavian the general.