Virgilius
The Wonders of Virgil
This story describes wonders built for Rome by Virgil or Virgilius, and how their treatment demonstrates the wisdom or greed of the emperor. In most versions, the description of an initial wonder – a fire that will never go out, unless a particular statue (of Virgil, often) is struck, which of course happens – precedes the main story. The primary marvel is a mirror which always reflects the image of those who would harm Rome, and guided by this, the city flourishes, and the mirror itself is carefully guarded. Eventually, however, an enemy king offers a reward to any who can destroy the mirror. Two men offer to do so, and request several coffers full of gold. They secretly bury the chests of gold in Rome, then report to the emperor that they are professional treasure hunters, and prove their skill by ‘discovering’ the chests they themselves had hidden. They convince him more gold is buried beneath the mirror, and the greedy emperor tells them to dig it up anyway; the mirror is destroyed, and the people of Rome turn on the emperor, and kill him by pouring molten gold into all his orifices.
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Nishimura notes relevant analogues and references: Motifs: TMI D1711.2 Virgil as magician. N543.1 Treasure to be found by hand that hid it. TU5095 Magic statue of Virgil. Analogues: Ser Giovanni Fiorentino, Il Pecorone, 5.1; Gower, Confessio Amantis, 5.3 ‘Virgil’s Mirror’; Yotenki, 28, ‘Omiya no Engi Sho no Koto’; La vie surhumaine de Guésar de Ling, ch. 10. Reference stories, etc.: Kathasaritsagara, Chapter 121, ‘171AAA: The Bold Gambler Ṭhiṇṭakarala’; Villon’s Œvres, ‘Miscellaneous Poems’, 5: ‘Song against the Enemies of France’, “Let the time of the Emperor Octavian come again / In order to melt the treasure and pour it in his body”; Hagen, Gesamtabenteuer, Anhang 2, ‘Der Zauber Virgilius’; Ruiz, The Book of Good Love, 261-268; Vincentius Bellovacensis, Speculum Historiale, 6.61 (p.193); Marvels of Rome (ed. Nichols), 2.4 (in Parthey Edition, §42); Neckam, De Naturis Rerum, 2.174 (p.310); Gesta Romanorum, 186 ‘Die Orakelbilder im Kaiserpalast zu Rom’; Gibbon, The History of the Decline and Fall of Roman Empire, ch. 71, ‘The Ignorance and Barbarism of the Romans’; Golden Legend, 155 ‘The Feasts of the Saints’ (p. 160). Similar stories of magical/fortunetelling artifacts: Jātaka, 186 ‘Dadhivahana-j.'; Nizami, The Tale of Seven Queens, ch. 28; Arabian Nights, Nights 14-15, ‘The Tale of the Third Traveling Priest’ (a knightly figure who destroys people) and Night 357, in ‘The Ebony Horse’ (a brass trumpet signaling the approach of the enemy); Le Roman d’Eneas (in lines 7604-7611, 7673-7681); Gesta Romanorum, 57 ‘Die reddened Bildsäule und der Schmied’ and 107 ‘Die unterirdische Palast des Todes’; Vincentius Bellovacensis, Speculum Historiale, 24. 99 (pp. 997-998); Gervasius, The Emperor’s Leisure, 10, 12, 13, 16 and 26; Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales, ‘The Squire’ (lines 132-136); Ser Giovanni Fiorentino, Il Pecorone, 12.2; Dai To Saiiki-ki [The Great Tang Dynasty of the Western Regions], 12.22.10 (The Legend of the Dragon Drum Pool); Vietnamese Folktales, 5 ‘The Divine Bow’; Konjaku Monogatari-shu, 10.31 ‘Two Countries Challenging Each Other to Battle’. Bibliography: Chauvin VIII 228. Landau 49. Hagen, Bd. III, pp. cxxix-cxlvii. Krappe, 1930, pp. 271-279. |
| Critical Literature |
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| Nishimura (2001), Clouston (1884), Campbell (1907) |
| Virgilius appears in the following versions and secondary versions |
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| Virgilius appears in the following manuscripts |
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