Georgics 2.458–542: Virgil, Aratus and Empedocles1

Abstract

felix qui potuit rerum cognoscere causasatque metus omnis et inexorabile fatumsubiecit pedibus strepitumque Acherontis avari :fortunatus et ille deos qui novit agrestisPanaque Silvanumque senem Nymphasque sorores. In his discussion of the famous double makarismos of Georgics 2.490-4, Philip Hardie writes: « one wonders whether Virgil is deliberately exploiting an Empedoclean passage ». More recently, again in relation to the closing section of the second book of the Georgics, Alex Hardie has ...