Theocritus

Greek pastoral poet, probably born in Syracuse. He was brought up in Cos, and lived for a time at the court of Ptolemy Philadelphus in Alexandria. About 30 of his poems survive, though the authenticity of some have been disputed. His short poems dealing with pastoral subjects, and representing a single scene, came to be called ‘idylls’ (eidullia). Tennyson was deeply influenced by him, as were the pastoral poets of the Renaissance.

Theocritus (Greek Θεόκριτος), the creator of Ancient Greek bucolic poetry, flourished in the 3rd century BC.

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 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 works which were considered to be by Theocritus himself. It is also speculated that Theocritus was born in Syracuse, lived on the island Kos and lived in Egypt during the time of Ptolemy II.

The record of these recensions is preserved by two epigrams, one of which proceeds from Artemidorus, a grammarian, who lived in the time of Sulla and is said to have been the first editor of these poems. I, Theocritus, who wrote these songs, am of Syracuse, a man of the people, the son of Praxagoras and famed Philina. The last line may mean that he wrote nothing but bucolic poems, or that he only wrote in Doric.

The information concerning his parentage bears the stamp of genuineness, and disposes of a 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 the author of the Suda, who says: "Theocritus wrote the so-called bucolic poems in the Dorian dialect.

The first of these may have been known to Virgil, who refers to the Proeides in the Eclogues. The spurious poem xxi. may have been one of the Hopes, and poem xxvi.

The poems which are generally held to be authentic may be classified thus:

Bucolics and Mimes

The distinction between these is that the scenes of the former are laid in the country and those of the latter in a town.

Idyll vii, the Harvest Feast, a pederastic poem, is the most important of the bucolic poems. Theocritus speaks of himself as having already gained fame, and says that his lays have been brought by report even unto the throne of Zeus. Other persons mentioned are Nicias, a physician of Miletus, whose name occurs in other poems, and Aratus, whom the Scholiast identifies with the author of the Phenomena and who is passionately in love with a boy.

The other bucolic poems need not be further discussed. are laid in the neighbourhood of Croton, and we may infer that Theocritus was personally acquainted with Magna Graecia.

Suspicion has been cast upon poems viii and ix on various grounds. i On the other hand, it is clear that both poems were in Virgil's Theocritus, and that they passed the scrutiny of the editor who formed the short collection of Theocritean Bucolics.

The mimes are three in number: ii, xiv, and xv.

It will be convenient to add to the Bucolics and Mimes three poems which cannot be brought into any other class:

xii, a poem to a beautiful youth, in which the Megarian boy-kissing contest is cited;

The genuineness of the last has been attacked by Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff on account of the crudity of the language, which sometimes degenerates into doggerel. It is, however, likely that Theocritus intentionally used realistic language for the sake of dramatic effect, and the manuscript's evidence is in favour of the poem.

Epics

Three of these are Hymns: xvi, xvii, and xxii. In xvi, the poet praises Hiero II of Syracuse, in xvii Ptolemy Philadelphus, and in xxii the Dioscuri. The other poems are xiii, the story of Hylas and the Nymphs, and xxiv the youthful Heracles. there is some delicate fancy in the description of his poems as Graces, and a passage at the end, where he foretells the joys of peace after the enemy have been driven out of Sicily, has the true bucolic ring.

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. Theocritus celebrates the incestuous marriage of Ptolemy Philadelphus with his sister Arsinoë. This poem, therefore, together with xv, which Theocritus wrote to please Arsinoë must fall within this period. The encomium upon Hiero II would seem prior to that upon Ptolemy, since in it Theocritus is a hungry poet seeking for a patron, while in the other he is well satisfied with the world. Now Hiero first came to the front in 275 BC when he was made General: Theocritus speaks of his achievements as still to come, and the silence of the poet would show that Hiero’s marriage to Phulistis, his victory over the Mamertines at the Longanus and his election as "King", events which are ascribed to 270 BC, had not yet taken place.

Lyrics

Two of these are certainly by Theocritus, xxviii and xxix. The first is a very graceful poem presented together with a distaff to Theugenis, wife of Nicias, a doctor of Miletus, on the occasion of a voyage thither undertaken by the poet. A very corrupt poem, only found in one very late manuscript, was discovered by Ziegler in 1864. As the subject and style very closely resemble that of xxix, it is assigned to Theocritus by recent editors.

The Epigrams

These do not call for detailed notice. It remains to notice the poems which are now generally considered to be spurious. They are as follows:

xix. The poem is anonymous in the manuscripts and the conception of Love is not Theocritean.

xx. These three poems are remarkable for the corrupt state of their text, whiqh makes it likely that they have come from the same source and possibly are by the same author. As Leonidas of Tarentum wrote epigrams on fishermen, and one of them is a dedication of his tackle to Poseidon by Diophantus, the fisher, it is likely that the author of this poem was an imitator of Leonidas. It can hardly be by Leonidas himself, who was a contemporary of Theocritus, as it bears marks of lateness.

xxv.