Virgil as Orpheus: A Study of the Georgics by M. Owen Lee (review)

168 LEITERS IN CANADA 1996 expedition determines that Oedipus should suffer exile. It is for this reason (in Drew-Griffith's view) that Apollo sends the plague and helps bring.it about that the whole truth should come out. But the great emphasis on pollution once the tragic recognition is achieved would surely suggest that it is for the horrors of parricide and, particularly, of incest that the plague has settled on Thebes. True, the oracle given to Creon is interpreted by Oedipus as simply a direction to find and banish the regicide, but (as DrewGriffith points out with regard to other oracular revelations), Oedipus has all too frequently mistaken their real significance. In my view all that matters for the I guilt' of Oedipus in the slaying of Laius is, as with the unwitting incest, the literal and terrible fact that he did commit parricide. Chapters 5 and 6 both concern Apollo; chapter 5 directly, in that it deals with the authority (against those who over-argue the case for'coincidence' in the play) of Apollo's oracles; chapter 6 indirectly, in seeking to show Oedipus's responsibility in failing to read Apollo's oracles and other warning signs along the way. Chapter 7, ''The Humiliation of Oedipus,' aiter suggesting that Oedipus's arrogance in regarding himself as divine caused this 'blindness/ turns to the fundamental significance of the anagnorisis , or 'recognition scene,' in which the king discovers at last his all-toomortal identity. (In connection with Oedipus's self-identificationby his feet, Drew-Griffith dwells at some length on the various punning possibilities, in Greek, of the name Oidipous.) With regard to these final points concerning the characterization of Oedipus, I agree, as would most critics, with the author's emphasis, here and elsewhere, on Oedipus's aggressive over-confidence, though I would interpret its dramatic significance rather differently. However, I find little evidence in the play, despite Drew-Griffith's arguments, that Oedipus actually regarded himself as divine. This book provides a clearly expressed and very honest account of the author's view of many of the interpretative issues of Oedipus the King. In this summary, however inadequate, I have attempted to indicate with the same honesty, if not the same clarity, a few points where I differ from that view. To have done otherwise would have been to fail to do justice to the integrity of this very interesting study. (n.J. CONACHER) M. Owen Lee. Virgil as Orpheus: A Study ofthe Georgics State University of New York Press. xiv, 171. U5$14.95 Fifty white beehives, the fine fruit of our winter's labour, stood in prim lines on the level greensward in the valley behind us. We had set them out by chalk line, measuring rod, and spirit leveL Each white hive stood squarely on a black ruvestand , with a dainty alighting board painted either pale blue, grey, green or pink, in front of it. Eachhive was fitted with the required number of frames, and HUMANITIES 169 each frame carried a full sheet ofbeeswax which the bees would draw into their honeycomb and fill with honey - we hoped. - Kenneth McNeill Wells, The Owl Pen (Toronto, 1947 and 1996) Virgil as Orpheus is Father Owen Lee's third book on Virgil, after Fathers and Sons in Virgil's 'Aeneid' (1979) and Death and Rebirth in Virgil's Arcadia (1989), a study of the Eclogues. All are quests after relationships. The path to Virgil's Arcadia led from Union Station, Toronto, through Leacock's Mariposa; the Aeneid was approached via an Italian film, The Bicycle Thief, and Jungian analysis. The Georgics find an intersection here of a curious, mythology with the traditions of didactic poetry: Orpheus becomes both key to the meaning of the poem and symbol for the poet. His voice and lyre charmed beasts and trees. He rescued Eurydice. But to that myth Virgil introduced an ultimate failure: 'every writer before Virgil who refers to Orpheus' descent says or implies that the mythic hero succeeded in resurrecting his wife.' Four introductory chapters, 'Orpheus and Aristaeus,' 'Virgil and Octavian ,' Virgil's Sources,' and 'Virgil's Sotmds,' precede Lee's discussions of the poem's four...