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Abstract.Most scholarship on Vergil's third Eclogue sees tension between Damoetas and Menalcas. This article argues that they sing with the same voice; instead, tension lies between the herdsmen and Palaemon, whose harmonious relationship with his environment contrasts with their pessimistic attitude. Emblematic of this distinction is that the herdsmen fear the snake lurking in the grass, while Palaemon sees the grass as the perfect place for poetic composition. Different outlooks mirror different approaches to the pastoral genre. This prompts Palaemon to award both singers the vitula, symbol of pastoral's realistic aspect, rather than the cups, which represent the genre's poetic register.
IN VERGIL'S THIRD Eclogue, two well-matched herdsmen meet, trade insults, and agree to a singing contest. At the end of the competition, their judge declares he cannot make a decision: both are worthy of a prize. Palaemon's verdict is a significant pronouncement on the quality of the contest we have just witnessed, and the unexpected ambiguity of his opinion invites contemplation. The difficulty presented by the closing lines of the poem is reflected by the fact that critical interpretations fall along the whole range of possible readings, without a consensus having developed for any one opinion. Some critics see Palaemon's decision as the final step in a harmonious resolution to the bickering that came before-discord has faded away through the creation of pastoral song.1 A stronger reading sees the verdict in a completely opposite way, as an indication that the tension between the herdsmen, Damoetas and Menalcas, is incapable of resolution.2 Admittedly, the question of tension between Damoetas and Menalcas is never decisively answered since the poem ends immediately after Palaemon's decision, leaving our herdsmen no chance to respond. However, given Menalcas' and Damoetas' poor performance after earlier competitions (12-24), the reader suspects that Palaemon's calming effect is, at best, temporary.3
The present paper shares this basic understanding of Eclogue 3-that Palaemon's decision indicates that tensions within the poem are incapable of resolution-but takes a different view as to where those tensions lie and how significant they are. Some scholars attribute a deeper meaning to the competitiveness between Menalcas and Damoetas that lies on the surface of the poem: in this view the two herdsmen are taken as representatives of two different world...