Allecto's Trombone: On the Meaning of pastorale signum (Aeneid 7.513)

Abstract

Allecto instigates conflict between Trojans and Italians in four ways at the beginning of the seventh book of the Aeneid: by poisoning Amata (A. 7.341-77), inciting Turnus in a dream (7.406-62), setting Ascanius’ hunting dogs on Silvia’s stag (7.475-504), and finally sounding the battle-cry (7.511-22), before Juno relieves her of her duties (7.540-71). Allecto’s final intervention, the trumpet call, is referred to as a pastorale signum (7.513). This paper argues that this term highlights the dual role of horn music in ancient Italy: as a pastoral signal for use in herding, and as a signal for war. By analyzing the types of brass instruments involved, and evidence from agricultural literature, the paper will show that Allecto’s pastorale signum is an emblem of ambiguity that speaks to larger debates about Aeneas’ role as a “shepherd of the people.” While Parry articulated a popular view that Aeneas’ arrival corrupted a pastoral, idyllic Italian landscape, Moorton revealed numerous indications that the Italian landscape was already prone to war prior to Aeneas’ arrival. Moorton suggests that Allecto’s pastorale signum is an adaptation of normal military terminology that proves that conflict was native to the Italian pastoral landscape. The military role of horn music is inarguable (Ziolkowski), and Vergil first describes Allecto’s choice of instrument as a cornu recuruum (7.513), a metal horn traditionally used in sounding the classicum signum, or attack signal. Yet at the same time, Vergil calls the horn a dira bucina (7.519-20). A bucina was a different, oxhorn-shaped instrument, not used for calls to arms. The name for this horn may have been derived from its original material (oxhorn) or its use in herding cattle; it has an etymological association with herding: bos canere (OLD s.v. bucina). Vergil also hints at this etymological connection in a later reference to horn sounds, when he describes the Etruscan trumpet as bellowing, mugire (8.526), using a verb proper to cattle. The poet therefore gives mixed signals about Allecto’s choice of instrument: she simultaneously utilizes a normal battle horn, and perverts a herdsman’s call.In fact, it is likely that even the pastorale signum also had a meaning in the context of animal husbandry that did not refer to the onset of armed rural strife. Polybius Hist. 12.8 records that the use of a horn in herding was a popular practice in Italy, especially for swine. Columella RR 6.23.2 also describes the practice. Like the shepherd’s signal, Aeneas’s leadership as a “shepherd of the people” (debated by Hornsby, Anderson, and Chew) and the agricultural landscape of his opponents are both coopted by Allecto, with dire results. Finally, the collocation of pastoralis and the verb canere (7.513) evokes the genre of bucolic poetry at the start of battle. Allecto’s final intervention blurs the lines between pastoral and martial landscape, encapsulating the ambiguous status of pre-Roman Italy.