Eclogues

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The Eclogues is one of three major works by the Latin poet Virgil.

Written in around 37 BC, it consists of ten poems with a rural setting. (For this reason, they are sometimes known as "The Bucolics".) Most of the individual poems are in the form of conversations between characters with names such as "Tityrus" (supposedly representing Virgil himself), "Meliboeus", "Menalcas" and "Mopsus". The most famous of them is Eclogue 4, which appears to contain a Messianic prophecy, and was seized on by early Christians as such - one reason why Dante later chose Virgil as his guide through the underworld. Eclogue 10 is in praise of Virgil's near-contemporary, the poet Gallus. They are based in large part on the Idylls of Theocritus in terms of style and content, but there are political undercurrents in Virgil not present in Theocritus, who maintains his rustic theme throughout.