Editing Georgics (section)

===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.