Ziolkowski, JanWilson, Philip2026-06-0920262026-06-052026Wilson, Philip. 2026. Apocalypse in Arcadia: Eschatological Elements in Latin Pastoral. Doctoral Dissertation, Harvard University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.32702082https://dash.harvard.edu/handle/1/42740392This dissertation provides new interpretations of Latin pastoral poems written between Vergil’s Eclogues (ca. 38 BCE) and Late Antiquity. This period has been neglected in studies of pastoral. Perceived aesthetic deficiencies, problematic manuscript traditions, and general obscurity have discouraged engagement with these poets, who defined the genre in Latin between Vergil’s engagement with Hellenistic bucolic and the triumph of Christianity with its emphasis on pastoral care. Nonetheless, this dissertation reveals not only those poets’ sensitive interactions with intellectual, intertextual, and cultural contexts, but also their lively responses to real-world strife and turmoil. The poems studied include the Dirae, the Einsiedeln Eclogues, the Eclogues of Nemesianus, and Christian centos, such as the Versus ad gratiam domini, the De verbi incarnatione, and Proba’s Cento Vergilianus, in their reception of Vergil’s Fourth Eclogue. In particular, the dissertation argues that certain details of these texts’ language, events, and imagery invite comparison with apocalyptic and eschatological literature. The three chapters of the dissertation present close readings, each one synthesizing insights from recent research on eschatology and apocalypses by classicists and scholars of religion. The Dirae contains prayers for cataclysmic world destruction. The Einsiedeln Eclogues describes an eschaton, the end of prior ages of calamity, under a divine Caesar. Nemesianus develops a dualistic contrast between the fates of the good, who will inhabit a celestial realm after death, and the wicked, who endure bodily destruction on earth. These investigations reveal that eschatological and apocalyptic motifs are more abundant in Latin pastoral than the few and long-noted parallels among the Messianism of Vergil’s Fourth Eclogue, the eschatology of Isaiah’s prophecies, and the apocalypticism of the Sibylline Oracles. In fact, this dissertation’s conclusion demonstrates that even though late ancient Christian poets sometimes used Latin pastoral to articulate eschatological messages, they rarely referred to the Fourth Eclogue in so doing. The results of this study demonstrate a greater affinity between apocalyptic and pastoral literature than has hitherto been recognized, and lays the groundwork for further investigation of the genres’ shared textual, ideological, and historical features.application/pdfenAncient ReligionApocalypsePastoralMedieval literatureClassical literatureReligionThesis or Dissertation2026-06-090000-0002-2575-9051