Virgilian Cento

Contents

Reading pages: 0.1–1.517 · 1.539–1.664

1. 0.1A dedication presenting the Christianized Virgil to an emperor of the East and his son Arcadius, with a list of the poem's contents.
2. 1.1Proba turns from her earlier poem on civil war to a sacred song, asks God's Spirit for inspiration, renounces pagan poetic sources, and announces that Virgil will be made to sing of Christ.
3. 1.24Proba prays to the Father and the Son, recalls the ancient poets who sang of the origins of the world, and renounces her former poetry of war for a greater theme.
4. 1.50After calling for silence, the poem tells the first works of creation: heaven and earth, the separation of light from darkness, and the setting of sun, moon and stars.
5. 1.74The cycle of seasons is set, then dry land, the creatures of the sea, the plants, and the birds are created.
6. 1.99God creates the land animals, then, wishing for a ruler over creation, forms man from the clay in his own likeness, and finds no fit companion for him.
7. 1.124God makes the woman from the man's rib while he sleeps, joins them in marriage, and gives them paradise as a home without toil or death.
8. 1.148God forbids the fruit of the one tree on pain of death, warning the woman in particular, and the couple enter the delights of paradise.
9. 1.172The serpent, hateful even to its own father, approaches the woman and argues that the prohibition is vain superstition and that she should persuade her husband to break it.
10. 1.195The woman eats the forbidden fruit and gives it to her husband; their eyes are opened, they cover themselves with leaves, and they hide from God.
11. 1.220God comes walking in the garden, rebukes the man, and the man confesses his fault and blames the woman.
12. 1.245God curses the serpent, sentences the man to toil, thorns, disease and death, and condemns the woman as the cause of the evils.
13. 1.270Adam and Eve leave paradise; Eve gives birth; agriculture begins; Cain murders Abel at the altar; and God makes nature harsher.
14. 1.294Mankind sinks through hardship to an iron age of war, greed and bloodshed, until God sends the flood and saves one righteous man to begin a new race.
15. 1.319Proba passes over the Exodus and the rest of Old Testament history and turns to the greater theme foretold by the prophets: the Son's coming down from heaven and his birth from a virgin.
16. 1.346Christ is born, the star appears and the Magi worship him; the king, enraged, orders the slaughter of the infants while the mother keeps her child safe.
17. 1.372The mother hides the child in a manger; when the danger is past the child grows up admired by all, and the prophet John recognizes him at the river and baptizes him.
18. 1.397At the baptism the dove descends and the Father proclaims the Son and commissions him to rule and save the peoples; Proba gives thanks for her own cleansing in baptism.
19. 1.422Proba declares her devotion to Christ; then the serpent confronts him in the wilderness, questions who he is, and tempts him to throw himself from the height of the temple.
20. 1.446Christ rebukes and defeats the serpent; crowds gather to follow him, and on a mountain he begins to teach them.
21. 1.469Christ teaches justice, mercy and faith, warns of the punishments awaiting the greedy and wicked after death, and forbids idol worship.
22. 1.493Christ warns of the coming judgment and the destruction of the world by fire; a rich young man kneels before him and asks what more he must do.
23. 1.517Christ tells the rich young man to despise wealth and give to the poor, and he goes away sad; the disciples put out to sea and a storm rises.
24. 1.539As the disciples despair in the storm, Christ comes to them walking on the water, calms the sea, and brings the boat safely to land.
25. 1.562Christ rides into the city on an ass, drives the money changers out of the temple with a whip, and at evening, at supper with his disciples, gives thanks to the Father.
26. 1.586At the supper Christ gives bread and wine and teaches the sacred rite, foretells his betrayal and his death for many; at dawn the priests and people demand his death, question him, and mock him.
27. 1.613Christ is seized and fastened to a tree; he warns his executioners of judgment, and at his death darkness falls, the earth quakes, the dead come forth and the sun is darkened.
28. 1.638The disciples scatter in grief and Peter laments; on the third day the tomb is broken open and Christ rises and comes, bearing his wounds, to his followers.
29. 1.664The risen Christ comforts his followers, promises peace and resurrection, shows his wounds, and ascends to heaven; Proba ends with a prayer that her husband and descendants keep the faith.