The Vergilian Work of Life
摘要
Vergil frequently equates the work of a living thing with their vitality: plant growth, animal parturition, and human child-rearing are all called labores. This chapter considers how this elision of working and living operates in Vergil’s depiction of his own writerly life in Eclogue and how, in turn, this depiction is received in ancient and early modern Lives of Vergil. Such a study reveals that the tradition of Vergilian Lives deploys a sophisticated conceptualization of Vergilian vitality and the life-sustaining power of the biographer’s labor.