Timetas will sing his praises until the day that seals live in meadows, lions in the sea, trees drip honey and the seasons reverse.
[4] Hubbard concludes that "Although intermixed with some Calpurnian references, the primary models for the characters and situation of Nem.1 are clearly Vergilian".
In case Donace thinks that it is shameful that he is a rustic oxherd, he points out that gods such as Apollo, Pan, Fauns and Adonis feed herds of cattle.
[9] Hubbard notes that "the verb invasere (Nem 2.6) often used as a term of military attack, can in this context only denote forcible rape".
[10] However, Keene (writing in the late 19th century) describes Donace as the mistress of Idas and Alcon and as being "of more than doubtful character".
[13] Hubbard notes that, whilst many scholars criticise Nemesianus for his unoriginal overuse of quotations from various literary sources, his use of such sources (in Eclogue II, in particular) is more selective and that this "technique of multiple allusion diminishes Virgil's role from dominant and overpowering father figure to one of a series of models...."[14] Conte considers this poem to be an evident example of Nemesianus' originality of approach: "although the models are present, in the overall structure...or in various episodes or in expressions and nexus that contain exact verbal repetitions...one is bound to be aware of a new sensibility and attitude".
Hubbard concludes that this must mean that "Alcon sings both songs, whilst Idas plays the instrumental accompaniment".
Pan refers to Bacchus' gestation by Jupiter and how, as a baby and child he was cared for by nymphs, fauns, satyrs and, in particular, by Silenus.
Pan's song ends - it is night, so the youths drive their sheep back and attend to milking and cheese-making.
According to Keene "Wernsdorf mentions several extant gems, the carvings of which illustrate the various scenes described in this Eclogue"[22] and Hubbard considers that Nemesianus has enriched this poem with references from contemporary iconography.
After a 13 line narrative introduction, the two characters (Mopsus and Lycidas) take turns in reciting alternating 5 verse stanzas.
Lycidas warns other men who love boys to toughen up and have patience - in the hope that one day a god will grant them success.
Lycidas explains that, even though a witch called Mycale cast spells for him, he still thinks Iollas is beautiful.
Karakasis notes that this poem "can also be integrated into the established pattern of a 'generic interaction' between pastoral and elegy".
[28] Karakasis notes that the locations that Meroe and Iollas shun (such as groves springs and caves) "are strongly associated with the bucolic genre, to the extent of occasionally standing in as its meta-linguistic symbols as well" and that "Meroe's and Iollas' avoidance of all these generic constituents of pastoral may also be read as a certain willingness for transcending 'traditional pastoral' towards other 'generic directions'".
He explains that the "unique polarization of sexual object choice may owe something to the evolution of social attitudes in the second and third centuries A.D."[30] Hubbard notes the absence of a closing narrative, after Mopsus and Lycidas' final song exchange.
He likens this to Virgil's Eclogues II and VIII and notes that "the effect is again one of open-ended doubt and ambiguity".
[31] This lack of closure leads Heyworth to comment that "the pastoral collection is either unfinished or fragmentary".
The stylistic evidence for attributing the last four poems to the later Nemesianus includes: Radke has argued to the contrary: that the Eclogues all were written by the same poet, citing - among other things the lack of scribal errors that might be indicative of two different manuscript traditions.