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THEOCRITUS

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Originally appearing in Volume V26, Page 762 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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THEOCRITUS , the creator of See also:

pastoral See also:poetry, flourished in the 3rd See also:century B.C. Little is known of him beyond what can be inferred from his writings. We must, however, handle these with some caution, since some of the poems (" Idylls ") commonly attributed to him have little claim to authenticity. It is clear that at a very See also:early date two collections were made, one of which included a number of doubtful poems and formed a corpus of bucolic poetry, while the other was confined to those See also:works which were considered to be by Theocritus himself. The See also:record of these recensions is preserved by two epigrams, one of which proceeds from See also:Artemidorus, a grammarian, who lived in the See also:time of See also:Sulla and is said to have been the first editor of these poems. He says, " Bucolic See also:muses, once were ye scattered, but now one byre, one See also:herd is yours." The second See also:epigram is See also:anonymous, and runs as follows:—' I he Chian is another. I, Theocritus, who wrote these songs, am of See also:Syracuse, a See also:man of the See also:people, the son of Praxagoras and famed Philina. I never sought after a See also:strange muse." The last See also:line may mean that he wrote nothing but bucolic poems, or that he only wrote in Doric. The statement that he was a Syracusan is confirmed by allusions in the " Idylls " (xi. 7, See also:xxviii. r6–18). The See also:information concerning his parentage bears the See also:stamp of genuineness, and disposes of a See also:rival theory based upon a misinterpretation of Idyll vii.—which made him the son of one Simichus. A larger collection, possibly more extensive than that of Artemidorus, and including poems of doubtful authenticity, was known to Suidas, who says: "Theocritus wrote the so-called bucolic poems in the Dorian See also:dialect.

Some persons also attribute to him the following: Daughters of Proelus, Hopes, See also:

Hymns, Heroines, Dirges, Lyrics, Elegies, Iambics, Epigrams." The first of these may have been known to See also:Virgil, who refers to the Proetides in the Eclogues.' The See also:spurious poem xxi. may have been one of the Hopes (cf. 1. 66, X71-1s riav 67reow), and poem See also:xxvi. may have been one of the Heroines (cf. 1. 36, ijpceivac) : elegiacs are found in viii. 33–6o, and the spurious See also:epitaph on See also:Bion may have been one of the Dirges. The other classes are all represented in the larger collection which has come down to us. The poems which are generally held to be See also:authentic may be classified thus: I. See also:Bucolics and Mimes.—The distinction between these is that the scenes of the former are laid in the See also:country and those of the latter in a See also:town. The most famous of the Bucolics are i., vii., xi. and vi. In i. Thyrsis sings to a goatherd how See also:Daphnis, the mythical herdsman, having defied the See also:power of See also:Aphrodite, See also:dies rather than yield to a See also:passion with which the goddess had inspired him.

In xi. See also:

Polyphemus is depicted as in love with the See also:sea-nymph Galatea and finding solace in See also:song: in vi. he is cured of his passion and naively relates how he repulses the overtures now made to him by Galatea. The See also:monster of the Odyssey has been " written up to date " after the Alexandrian manner and has become a See also:gentle simpleton. Idyll vii., the See also:Harvest Feast (OaXuoca), is the most important of the bucolic poems. The See also:scene is laid in the isle of See also:Cos. The poet speaks in the first See also:person and is styled Simichidas 7 by his See also:friends. Other .poets are introduced under feigned names. Thus See also:ancient critics identified Sicelidas of See also:Samos (1. 40) with See also:Asclepiades the Samian, and Lycidas, " the goatherd of Cydonia," may well be the poet Astacides, whom See also:Callimachus calls "the Cretan, the goatherd." Theocritus speaks of himself as having already gained fame, and says that his See also:lays have been brought by See also:report even unto the See also:throne of See also:Zeus.3 He praises See also:Philetas, the See also:veteran poet of Cos, and criticizes " the fledgelings of the Muse, who cackle against the Chian See also:bard and find their labour lost."' Other persons mentioned are See also:Nicias, a physician of See also:Miletus, whose name occurs in other poems, and See also:Aratus, whom the Scholiast identifies with the author of the Phenomena. The other bucolic poems need not be further discussed. Several of them consist of a singing-match, conducted according to the rules of amoebean poetry, in which the second See also:singer takes the subject chosen by the first and contributes a variation in the same See also:air. It may be noted that the peasants of Theocritus differ greatly in refinement.

Those in v. are See also:

low See also:fellows who indulge in coarse abuse. This Idyll and iv. are laid in the neighbourhood of Croton, and we may infer that Theocritus was personally acquainted with Magna Graecia. Suspicion has been See also:cast upon poems viii. and ix. on various grounds. An extreme view holds that in ix. we have two genuine Theocritean fragments, 11. 7–13 and 15-20, describing the joys of summer and See also:winter respectively, which have been provided with a clumsy See also:preface, Il. 1-6, while an early editor of a bucolic collection has appended an See also:epilogue in which he takes leave of the Bucolic Muses. 6 On the other See also:hand, it is clear that both poems were in Virgil's Theocritus, and that they passed the See also:scrutiny of the editor who formed the See also:short collection of Theocritean Bucolics. Proetides implerunt falsis mugitibus agros."—See also:Eel. vi. :3. Two explanations are offered by the Scholiast: either that the poet was " snub-nosed " (ocµos), or that he was the son of Simichus. The second is obviously a See also:mere guess. ra rot, sal Znvos tai Opovov aya7E 46µa, I.

93. It is possible that Zeus refers to See also:

Ptolemy: cf. See also:Horace, Ep. i. 19, 43, Iovis auribus ista Servos, where Iupiter=See also:Augustus. ' Some think that there is an allusion to See also:Apollonius Rhodius. 6 Cf. See also:Hiller. ad loc. The mimes are three in number, viz., ii., xiv., xv. In ii. Simaetha, deserted by Delphis, tells the See also:story of her love to the See also:moon; in xiv. See also:Aeschines narrates his See also:quarrel with his sweetheart, and is advised to go to See also:Egypt and enlist in the See also:army of Ptolemy Philadelphus; in xv. Gorgo and Praxinoe go to the festival of See also:Adonis.

It may be noticed that in the best See also:

MSS. ii. comes immediately before xiv., an arrangement which is obviously right, since it places the three mimes together. The second See also:place in the MSS. is occupied by Idyll vii., the " Harvest Feast. " These three mimes are wonder-fully natural and lifelike. There is nothing in ancient literature so vivid and real as the chatter of Gorgo and Praxinoe, and the votes populi in xv. It will be convenient to add to the Bucolics and Mimes three poems which cannot be brought into any other class, viz.: xii. (See also:Alms), a poem to a beautiful youth; xvi.ii., the See also:marriage-song of See also:Helen ('ErOaMufos) ; and xxvi., the See also:murder of See also:Pentheus (Mimi). The genuineness of the last has been attacked by U. von Wilamowitz-Mollendorff on See also:account of the crudity of the See also:language, which sometimes degenerates into doggerel. It is, however, likely that Theocritus intentionally used realistic language for the See also:sake of dramatic effect, and the MSS. See also:evidence is in favour of the poem. See also:Eustathius quotes from it as the See also:work of Theocritus. II. Epics.—Three of these are Hymns, viz., xvi., xvii. and xxii. In xvi. the poet praises See also:Hiero II. of Syracuse, in xvii.

Ptolemy Philadelphus, and in xxii. the Dioscuri. The other poems are xiii., the story of Hyfas and the See also:

Nymphs, and See also:xxiv. the youthful Heracles. It cannot be said that Theocritus exhibits See also:signal merit in his Epics. In xiii. he shows some skill in word-See also:painting, in xvi. there is some delicate See also:fancy in the description of his poems as " See also:Graces " (Xapsms), and a passage at the end, where he foretells the joys of See also:peace after the enemy have been driven out of See also:Sicily, has the true bucolic See also:ring. The most that can be said of xxii. and xxiv. is that they are very dramatic. Otherwise they differ little from work done by other poets, such as Callimachus and Apollonius Rhodius. The flattery heaped upon Ptolemy is somewhat nauseous. From another point of view, however, these two poems xvi. and xvii. are supremely interesting, since they are the only ones which can be dated. In xvii. Theocritus celebrates the incestuous marriage of Ptolemy Philadelphus with his See also:sister See also:Arsinoe. This marriage is held to have taken place in 277 B.C., and a recently discovered inscription shows that Arsinoe died in 270, in the fifteenth See also:year of her See also:brother's reign. 6 This poem, therefore, together with xv., which Theocritus wrote to please Arsinoe (Schol. xaperoµevos rjr fiaoc;.LSi) must fall within this See also:period.

The encomium upon Hiero II. would from See also:

internal reasons seem See also:prior to that upon Ptolemy, since in it Theocritus is a hungry poet seeking for a See also:patron, while in the other he is well satisfied with the See also:world. Now Hiero first came to the front in 275 B.C. when he was made " See also:General " (urparnyos) : Theocritus speaks of his achievements as still to come, 7 and the silence of the poet would show that Hiero's marriage to Philistis, his victory over the Mamertines at the Longanus and his See also:election as " See also:King " ($aonXdn), events which are ascribed to 270 B.C., had not yet taken place. If so, xvii. and xv. can only have been written within 275 and 270. IV. The Epigrams do not See also:call for detailed See also:notice. They do not possess any See also:special merit, and their authenticity is often doubtful. It remains to notice the poems which are now generally considered to be spurious. They are as follows: xix. " Love stealing See also:Honey " (KnpcosMinns). The poem is anonymous in the MSS. and the conception of Love is not Theocritean. xx. Herdsman " (BousoAIotos), xxi.

" Fishermen " ('AXn&e), See also:

xxiii. " Passionate See also:Lover ' ('Epaor$s). These three poems are remark-able for the corrupt See also:state of their See also:text, which makes it likely that they have come from the same source and possibly are by the same author. The " Fishermen " has been much admired. It is addressed to See also:Diophantus and conveys a moral, that one should work and not See also:dream, illustrated by the story of an old fisherman who dreams that he has caught a See also:fish of See also:gold and narrates his See also:vision to his See also:mate. As See also:Leonidas of See also:Tarentum wrote epigrams on fishermen, and one of them is a See also:dedication of his tackle to See also:Poseidon by Diophantus, the See also:fisher, 8 it is likely that the author of this poem was an imitator of Leonidas. It can hardly be by Leonidas him-self, who was a contemporary of Theocritus, as it bears marks of lateness. See also:xxv. " Heracles the See also:Lion-slayer " (Aeovro¢Svos). This is a See also:long 6 The evidence is contained in a new fragment of the Merdes See also:Stele. Cf. von Prott in Rheinisches Museum (1898), p. 464.

7 & rearm Ouroc ?u'4p 6s &se; KExp7t?Er' poiSo, 1. 73. 8 6 worths Oco4,avros 4;4x-rapt C4saro rtxvar (Anlh. See also:

Pal. vi. 4, 7). 762 poem consisting of two episodes, viz. the interview of Heracles The Scholiast thought that Theocritus showed want of See also:taste in with the See also:bailiff of See also:Augeas and his See also:recital to Phyleus, son of Augeas, of the story of the Nemean lion. The See also:composition is not unworthy of Theocritus. It is, however, anonymous in the MSS. and comes next to another anonymous poem called " See also:Megara, the wife of See also:Hercules." It is probable from some metrical and linguistic peculiarities that xxv. and the " Megara" are both by the same author. See also:xxvii. " The wooing of Daphnis" ('Oapieris) is also anonymous. It contains imitations of Theocritus, but the See also:tone and the language betray a later writer. We have no sure facts as to the See also:life of Theocritus beyond those supplied by Idylls xvi. and xvii.

It is quite uncertain whether the bucolic poems were written in the pleasant isle of Cos among a circle of poets and students, or in See also:

Alexandria and meant for dwellers in streets. The usual view is that Theocritus went first from Syracuse to Cos, and then, after suing in vain for the favour of Hiero, took up his See also:residence permanently in Egypt. Some have supposed on very flimsy evidence that he quarrelled with the See also:Egyptian See also:court and retired to Cos, and would assign various poems to the " later-Coan " period.' Wilamowitz-Mollendorff, laying stress on the fact that in the best MS. the poem to Ptolemy (xvii.) comes before that to Hiero (xvi.), very ingeniously puts the Egyptian period first and supposes it to have been of very short duration (i.e. 277 to 275), and then makes the poet, after his unsuccessful See also:appeal to Hiero, retire to Cos for the See also:rest of his life. This view would enable us to see a reference to Ptolemy in vii. 93, and even to the See also:young Apollonius Rhodius in 47–48 of the same poem. The poems of Theocritus were termed Idylls (ei6bXX a) by the grammarians. The word is a diminutive from eiSos, and is supposed to mean " little poems." The use of eiSos in the sense of " poem " is somewhat doubtful, and so some have referred eiSbXXta to eiSos in its usual sense of " See also:form " or " type." Thus eiSos 13OUKoX06Y, i rtx6Y, AvptK6v might be used to classify various kinds of poetry, and these poems might be called el6bXX a, since they include so many types. Language and See also:Metre.—Theocritus wrote in various dialects according to the subject. The Lyrics xxviii., See also:xxix. (and See also:xxx.) are in Aeolic, that being the traditional dialect for such poems. Two poems, xii.

(Aims) and xxii. (to See also:

Castor and See also:Pollux), were written in Ionic, as is stated in titles prefixed to them, though a number of Doric forms have been inserted by the See also:scribes. The epics in general show a mixture of Homeric, Ionic and Doric forms. The Bucolics, Mimes, and the " Marriage-song of Helen" (xviii.) are in Doric, with occasional forms from other dialects. The metre used by Theocritus in the Bucolics and Mimes, as well as in the Epics, is the dactylic See also:hexameter. His treatment of this may be compared both with Homeric usage and that of other Alexandrian poets, e.g. Callimachus. It was the tendency of these writers to use dactyls in preference to spondees with a view to lightness and rapidity. This tendency shows itself most in the third See also:foot, the favourite See also:caesura being the See also:trochaic, i.e. after the second syllable (- v I). On the other hand, the Alexandrians admitted a spondee in the fifth foot, especially when the See also:verse ends with a quadrisyllable. Theocritus in the Epics conforms to the new technique in both these respects: in the Bucolics his practice agrees with that of See also:Homer. The feature in his versification which has attracted most See also:attention is the so-called bucolic caesura.

The See also:

rule is that, if there is a pause at the end of the See also:fourth foot, this foot must be a See also:dactyl. This pause is no new invention, being exceedingly See also:common in Homer. Theocritus uses it so frequently in the Bucolics that it has become a mannerism. In the Epics his practice agrees with that cf Homer. We always think of Theocritus as an See also:original 'poet, and as the " inventor of bucolic poetry " he deserves this reputation. At the same time he had no See also:scruple about borrowing from predecessors or contemporaries; in fact he did so in the most open manner. Thus xxix. begins with a line of See also:Alcaeus,2 and xvii., as the Scholiast points out, with words used by Aratus at the beginning of the Phenomena. The love of the Cyclops for Galatea had been treated by See also:Philoxenus, and fragments quoted from this show that Theocritus copied some of his phrases closely. In the mimes Theocritus appears to have made See also:great use of See also:Sophron. Idyll ii. is modelled upon a See also:mime of this writer which began in a very similar way.3 'The See also:chief See also:argument is that in xii. 5 the poet says 6eeov 7rap8E1, LKh 7rpO4Epsi TpryCIAOLO yuVaiKGS. As Arsinoe had been married three times, it is thought that she might have been offended by this remark.

2 oleos, ci (PUs 7rai, XiysTai sat 4XaOEa. Sophron's mime began with 7-el yap d ae¢akros; Theocritus's begins with ij poi See also:

rat Saoai; making Thestylis a persona muta, instead of giving her a See also:share in the See also:dialogue as Sophron had done. The famous poem about Gorgo and Praxinoe at the feast of Adonis was modelled on one by Sophron about See also:women looking on at the Isthmian See also:games ('IeO/.0 ouoat), and fragments quoted from this are closely imitated by Theocritus. It is extremely interesting to find a similar poem in the recently discovered mimes of Herondas, the fourth of which is termed " Women making offerings to See also:Aesculapius" ('AesA7t7rtw avarc6sIuac Kat Ovetiiroveai). The relation of Theocritus to Herondas is a subject of great See also:interest. Herondas must have been a contemporary, as he refers to Ptolemy Philadelphus,4 and was a native of Cos, so that he and Theocritus must have been acquainted. There are some curious See also:parallels in the language and idioms of the two poets, but which of them copied the other it is impossible to determine. See also:Manuscripts.—The See also:oldest authority for any See also:part of Theocritus is a See also:papyrus discovered by B. P. Grenfeli and A. S. See also:Hunt at Oxxrhynchus, written in the 2nd century A.D. and containing xiii.

19–34.5 There are also fragments of another papyrus belonging to the 5th century, which contain some lines of i., v., xiii., xv., xvi. and xxvi.5 These papyri are carelessly written and do not contain any notable variants. The most valuable of the existing MSS. belongs to the Library at See also:

Milan (See also:Ambros. 222). It was written in the 13th century, and contains Idylls i.–xvii., xxix., and the Epigrams. Other See also:good MSS. of the same See also:family contain xviii. also. The other poems come from two See also:sources. One of these is represented by several MSS. and contains xix., xx., xxi., xxii., xxiii., xxv. The other contains xxii. 69–223, xxiv., xxv., xxvi., xxvii., xxviii., xxix. This collection was first published in the Juntine edition (1515) from a codex Patavinus now lost. The only existing MS. of any value in which it is found is in See also:Paris (2726), and was written in the 14th century. These two collections ,are termed 4' and 7 by Hiller and other See also:recent writers.

It will be noticed that xxv. and a portion of xxii. are found both in 4, and 7r. In these poems there are See also:

constant divergences, and 7r appears to give the better recension. There are important Scholia to Theocritus, or rather to that portion of the poems (i.–xvii. and xxix.) which is found in the best MSS. The most valuable of these are those contained by Ambros. 222 (K). They are composite in See also:character. The Argument to xii. is ascribed to Eratosthenes, a contemporary of Justinian, while reference is frequently made to the views of Munatius, who lived in the time of Herodes See also:Atticus, and Amarantus, a contemporary of See also:Galen. Wilamowitz-Mollendorff ascribes the See also:nucleus of these Scholia to See also:Theon, who wrote similar scholia on See also:Lycophron and Apollonius Rhodius, and is stated to have written a commentary on Theocritus? This Theon is stated to have been the son of Artemidorus, the first editor of Theocritus. It is, therefore, suggested that Theon formed the shorter collection of Theocritean poems, furnished them with scholia, and wrote the second epigram quoted at the beginning of this See also:article. The other' poems, which possess no scholia and have come down to us from the other collections, would, according to this ingenious theory, be those which appeared in the larger collection of Artemidorus but were excluded by Theon. (iii.) Subject-See also:matter.

Ph. E. Legrand, Etude sur Theocrite (1898); (iv.) Textual Questions. E. Hiller, Beitrage zur Textgeschichte der Griechischen Bukoliker (1888); U. von Wilamowitz-Mollendorff, See also:

Die Textgeschichte der Griechischen Bukoliker (1906). (v.) Metre. C. Kunst, De Theocriti versu heroico (1887). (vi.) Scholia. Ch. Ziegler, Codicis Ambrosiani 222, Scholia in Theocritum (1867). (A.

C.

End of Article: THEOCRITUS

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