Poem by Virgil
Eclogue 3 ("Ecloga" III; "Bucolica" III) is a pastoral poem by the Latin poet Virgil, one of a collection of ten poems known as the "Eclogues". This eclogue represents the rivalry in song of two herdsmen, Menalcas and Damoetas. After trading insults, the two men decide to have a singing competition, for which each offers a prize (Damoetas a female calf and Menalcas a pair of ornamented cups). A neighbour, Palaemon, who comes along by chance, agrees to be the judge. The second half of the poem consists of the contest, in which each of the two competitors in turn sings a couplet and the other caps it with another couplet (each singing 12 couplets in all). In the end Palaemon brings the contest to an end and declares it a draw.
The poem is based mainly on the bucolic Idyll 5 of the 3rd century BC Greek poet Theocritus, but with elements added from Idyll 4 and other Theocritean idylls. Like Theocritus's "Idylls" 4 and 5, and all of Virgil's surviving poetry, Eclogue 3 is composed in dactylic hexameters.
Eclogues 2 and 3 are thought to be the earliest of Virgil's "Eclogues" to be written, and so date to about 42 BC.
Amoebaean song.
Such poetry as verses 60–107 is called amoebaean (or amoebean) () from ('interchange'), and Virgil calls it 'alternate song' ("alterna"). The rule was that the second singer should answer the first in an equal number of verses, on the same or a similar subject, and also if possible show superior force or power of expression. 
The Eclogue is largely copied from the fourth and fifth "Idylls" of Theocritus, but this form of poetry was probably extremely popular in Italy, where improvised rude songs were always a characteristic of village festivities. The Romans were very fond of coarse invective and repartee, and these form the staple of the "Satura" (one of the earliest forms of Latin drama), the Fescennine and Atellane farces, and the Mimes. J. B. Greenough notes, "Though the Amœbæan verse is Greek, and the poem itself copied from Theocritus, yet the alternate abuse is thoroughly Italian."
B. B. Powell writes: "An amoebean contest ... is not a game for amateurs. Moving swiftly, it is merciless to the unclever. According to its rules the leader (Damoetas) needs to dazzle and bewilder his opponent through versatile handling of conventional literary forms and through sudden shifts in subject or theme. The respondent (Menalcas) must match the leader's convention but, in some way, turn its content around."
Summary.
Introduction.
- 1 Menalcas, meeting the herdsman Damoetas, asks him whose flock of sheep he is looking after; on learning that it is Aegon's, Menalcas says he pities Aegon since Damoetas steals the milk which should go to the lambs. Damoetas warns him not to say such things to real men: "We all know who did what to you in the sacred place of the nymphs while the goats were looking the other way!"
- 10 Undeterred, Menalcas accuses Damoetas of trimming Mico's vines badly. Damoetas responds with a reminder of how Menalcas had broken Daphnis's bow and panpipes in a fit of jealousy over a boy. Menalcas replies by saying that he had witnessed Damoetas trying to steal a goat belonging to Damon. Damoetas protests that the goat was rightly his, won in a singing competition; upon which Menalcas pours scorn on Damoetas's ability at singing.
Bargaining over the prizes.
- 28 At this point Damoetas challenges Menalcas to a singing competition, proposing that he will put up a female calf as a prize. Menalcas responds that he dare not offer a calf, since his father and strict stepmother count the herd twice every day, but he has some cups carved by the skilled craftsman Alcimedon, which he claims are much more valuable. Damoetas says he already has two cups carved by Alcimedon, but the calf is more valuable.
- 49 Menalcas is stung by this into accepting the challenge. Seeing a neighbour, Palaemon, approaching, he suggests he should judge the contest. Damoetas agrees. Palaemon, after commenting on the beauty of the time of year, suggests that Damoetas should begin first.
The contest.
The second half of Eclogue 3 is devoted to the contest between Damoetas and Menalcas. The contest has twelve rounds with each contestant speaking two lines in each round.
- 60 In his first couplet Damoetas praises Jupiter, and Menalcas replies by praising Phoebus (Apollo). In the next five exchanges Damoetas sings of his success in love with Galatea; but he also has hopes for Phyllis and Amaryllis. Menalcas in reply sings of his love for a boy, Amyntas, who apparently loves him too. 
- 84 Next both young men mention Virgil's patron Pollio and his love of poetry, one promising him a female calf, the other a bull. Damoetas praises Pollio and Menalcas replies by disparaging two minor poets, Bavius and Maenius. In his next three couplets Damoetas warns the slave boys to beware of dangers such as the snake hiding in the grass and the crumbling river bank; Menalcas replies in a similar way. Damoetas fears his bull is thin because of love, like its owner; Menalcas thinks his lambs have grown thin because of witchcraft.
- 104 Finally, Damoetas sets a riddle, challenging Menalcas to say in which country the extent of the sky is only three ("cubits" or "fathoms"); Menalcas asks him to say where in the world flowers are born inscribed with the names of kings. Prizes are offered for the solution of the riddles: Damoetas proposes that if Menalcas knows the answer he will be Apollo himself; Menalcas proposes in turn that if Damoetas answers correctly he may have Phyllis to himself.
- 108 After this last exchange, Palaemon brings the contest to a close, declaring that it is impossible to judge between them, and that both are worthy of a female calf.
Theocritus and Virgil.
Eclogue 3 is to a large extent modelled on Idyll 5 of the 3rd century BC Greek poet Theocritus. Theocritus's idyll, set in a rural location near Thurii and Sybaris in southern Italy, has a very similar structure to Eclogue 3: a goatherd Comatas and a young shepherd Lacon first exchange insults, then agree to have a singing contest, one wagering a goat and the other a lamb. They ask a woodcutter, Morson, to adjudicate. Comatas begins by invoking the Muses, and Lacon responds by invoking Apollo. Each contestant sings two verses in each round, as in the eclogue. After Comatas has sung his fifteenth sally, but before Lacon has had time to reply, Morson brings the contest to a close, awarding the prize to Comatas. Among other points of similarity with Virgil's eclogue, Comatas evidently has a sexual preference for girls, while Lacon prefers boys. Comatas also claims to have sodomised Lacon in the past (lines 41–42; 116–117; cf. Eclogue 3.7–9). Another similarity is their dispute over the prizes: when Comatas suggests that Lacon should wager a lamb, Lacon protests that it would be unfair, since a lamb is worth more than a kid.
Virgil's eclogue imitates rather than translates this Idyll 5. He also weaves into it reminiscences of other idylls; for example, the opening of Eclogue 3 translates the opening of Idyll 4, which begins "Tell me, Corydon, whose cattle are these? Are they Philondas's?" – "No, but Aegon's: he gave them to me to pasture." In Eclogue 3 one of the suggested prizes is a pair of wooden cups, which is described in detail; this recalls Idyll 1, in which a shepherd Thyrsis is offered a beautiful cup if he consents to recite his latest poem to an unnamed goatherd.
Eclogue 3 also has elements taken from the pseudo-Theocritan Idyll 8, such as the name Menalcas of one of the participants, and his reluctance to wager an animal because his parents count the herd every evening. Damoetas's words at the beginning of the contest () not only imitate the opening of Aratus's "Phaenomena" but also the opening of Theocritus's Idyll 17 (a hymn to the King of Egypt Ptolemy II).
Hatzikosta (2001) shows how both Virgil and Theocritus subverted the conventions of bucolic poetry by putting sophisticated words into the mouths of uncouth herdsmen.
Analysis.
Badinage.
The initial exchange of insults between the two herdsmen is often seen as "unfriendly" or hostile. But Dance (2014) argues that the nymphs' laughter (line 9 and implied in line 10) sets a tone of playful badinage. Jenny Strauss Clay points out that the contest is not completely independent of the earlier parts of the eclogue, but that all the points of dispute in the first half of the eclogue are resolved one by one in the second half, until at last harmony is reached between the two singers.
The cups.
Virgil departs from Theocritus's Idyll 5 in the prizes offered, since in Idyll 5 the two participants eventually agree on a goat and a lamb as wagers. In Eclogue 3, Menalcas offers some beech-wood cups, which is a motif taken from Idyll 1, where a beautiful cup and its decoration is described at length. He declares that they were carved by the craftsman Alcimedon (who is otherwise unknown) and that they have pictures of the astronomer Conon and "who was that other, who described the whole world for the nations with his rod and what times the harvester and the bent ploughman should keep?" Vine and ivy surround the pictures. Damoetas's two cups, however, are decorated with a picture of the mythical singer Orpheus and the woods which followed him. The pictures are surrounded (as was the cup in Idyll 1) by a decoration of acanthus. Segal writes: "This scene ... presents in small that fusion of the real and the mythical which is characteristic of the Eclogues and lies at the heart of their suggestive power."
The identity of the second astronomer on Menalcas's cup has remained uncertain. Ancient commentators suggested Aratus, Ptolemy, Eudoxus, Archimedes, and Hesiod. Those who like Wormell (1960) propose that the second riddle refers to Archimedes' famous orrery (see below) naturally see Archimedes as the answer here too; and the fact that Archimedes was a friend of Conon makes him a natural pair. Springer (1984), however, argues for Aratus, whose poem "Phaenomena" put into verse a work of the same name by Eudoxus. A strong argument for Aratus, according to Springer, is the possible pun Virgil makes on the word 'ploughman' in line 42. This ties in with the clear quotation from Aratus at the beginning of the contest (line 60) and possibly, if J. S. Campbell is correct, to the first of the two riddles in line 105.
The contest.
"Ab Iove principium Musae".
The words with which Damoetas opens the contest ( 'from Jupiter is the beginning, Muses; all things are full of Jupiter') recall both the opening lines of Aratus's "Phaenomena" ('from Zeus let us begin ... all lands are full of Zeus') as well as the opening of Theocritus's "Idyll" 17 ('from Zeus let us begin; cease also with Zeus, Muses'). There is some doubt about whether the word is singular or plural. Some take it as plural, as it is, unambiguously, in Theocritus; others take it as genitive singular ('from Jupiter is my Muse's beginning' or 'let my song begin from Jupiter'), comparing Cicero's translation of Aratus, which begins 'from Jupiter (are) the beginnings of the Muses'.
First riddle.
A pair of riddles end the contest, which appear to be Virgil's innovation, since there is no parallel to them in Theocritus. These riddles have been much discussed by scholars, who have proposed various solutions.
The first riddle is more difficult and there is no general agreement. One solution proposed by ancient commentators and attributed to Virgil himself by Asconius Pedianus is that since can mean not only 'the extent of the sky' but also 'the extent of Caelius', said to be a wealthy man from Virgil's home town of Mantua, who spent so much money that when he died he had only a piece of land big enough to be buried in. However, few modern commentators take this solution seriously; most assume that if Virgil did say it he was only joking. Another ancient theory was that it referred to a well in Syene (Aswan) in Egypt which was used by Eratosthenes to measure the size of the earth.
J. J. H. Savage (1954) proposed a different explanation. He suggested that just as