Vergil’s Eclogue 9: Idyll 7 and Eclogue 1 in Reverse

Abstract

Eclogue 9 has long been considered by William Berg a reversed Thalysia (i.e. Idyll 7). The following article intends to move Berg’s view one step further suggesting that Eclogue 9 is not only Idyll 7 in reverse but also Eclogue 1 in reverse, given that it combines both reversed Theocritean and Vergilian elements by using the oppositio in imitando technique.