I RUSTICA MUNERA DI CORIDONE (A MARGINE DI VERG., ECL. 2, 45-55)

Abstract

Within the second Eclogue, the rustica munera offered by Corydon to Alexis (vv. 45-55), while obeying a somewhat conventional plot, reveal a complex intertextual stratigraphy. Unexpectedly, δωροφόροι of di vine rank join the shepherd in paying homage to the ephebe, bringing bas kets full of lilies and a garland of flowers and herbs, to which fruits and branches of laurel and myrtle will be added. The tradition of the rubrics of στεφανωτικὰ ἄνθη, testified by Athenaeus in the 15th book of the Deipno sophistae, allows us to test both the rate of conventionality of the entire ecphrasis, and the variations made by Vergil to the lists of flowers and herbs, as well as Greek poetry as well as genre scientific treatises had canonized, beyond a group of theocritean/meleagrean echoes long pointed out by critics.