THEOCRITUS

born c. 300 BC, , Syracuse, Sicily died 260 BC Greek poet, the creator of pastoral poetry. His poems were termed eidyllia (idylls), a diminutive of eidos, which may mean little poems. There are no certain facts as to Theocritus' life beyond those supplied by the idylls themselves. Certainly he lived in Sicily and at various times in Cos and Alexandria and perhaps in Rhodes. The surviving poems by Theocritus that are generally held to be authentic comprise bucolics and mimes, the scenes of which are laid in the country, and epics, lyrics, and epigrams, which are set in towns. The bucolics are the most characteristic and influential of Theocritus' works. They introduced the pastoral setting in which shepherds wooed nymphs and shepherdesses and held singing contests with their rivals. They were the sources of Virgil's Eclogues and much of the poetry and drama of the Renaissance and were the ancestors of the famous English pastoral elegies, John Milton's Lycidas, Percy Bysshe Shelley's Adonais, and Matthew Arnold's Thyrsis. Among the best known of his idylls are Thyrsis (Idyll 1), a lament for Daphnis, the original shepherd poet, who died of unrequited love, and Thalysia (Harvest Home, Idyll 7), describing a festival on the island of Cos. In this the poet speaks in the first person and introduces contemporary friends and rivals in the guise of rustics. Theocritus' idylls have none of the artificial prettiness of the pastoral poetry of a later age. They have been criticized as attributing to peasants sentiments and language beyond their capacity. There is something in the criticism, but comparison with modern Greek folk songs, which owe little to literary influences, reveals striking resemblances between them and Theocritus' bucolics, and there can be little doubt that both derive from real life. That life, set in a Mediterranean scenery of flowers, sun, sea, and mountainside and described by a master of style, will never lose its charm. Additional reading A.S.F. Gow (ed. and trans.), Theocritus, 2nd ed., 2 vol. (1952), contains the Greek text and English translation and a commentary. Steven F. Walker, Theocritus (1980), provides a critical introduction.