Vergil Georgics - Week 5

[ChiaraPalladino]

From @carolineorr7's report:

This week, I am working through as usual, with only little confusion. For certain sentences that describe the landscape, particularly with flowery language, is it reasonable to mark them as positive? For example- a sentence that discusses the array of flowers and trees by which a stream runs. Also, on JSTOR I have found two articles that may be relevant to my research, especially when understanding Vergil's intention when writing the Georgics, particularly book 4. They are linked below.

The Intention of Virgil's Georgics, L.P. Wilkinson The Fourth Georgic, Virgil, and Rome

[ChiaraPalladino]

I have opened an issue because this is clearly a question/problem.

I am assuming we are talking about the long description of ll. 30-60...

Actually there are different things going on there.

• One of them is the hope that menaces will be kept away, which is a prayer of the kind I have been discussing with @bailsy6 in another issue. Something to talk about tomorrow.
• Some descriptions underlie a sentiment. For example, lines 67-70 seem pretty negative to me.
• Many of these descriptions seem pretty neutral, if taken at face value. In fact, they could be considered allegorical, but we try to annotate these things at the surface level, because allegory is very subject to interpretation (wayyy more than jokes and allusions). That's a can of worms we don't want to open for now.

[ChiaraPalladino]

We discussed the problem in the previous project meeting. Current approach detailed here: https://github.com/ChiaraPalladino/furesearch/tree/main/sentiment-analysis#particulars-prayers-and-supplications