Theocritus
Theocritus was born around 300 BC in Sicily, and he died sometime after 260 BC, leaving behind a body of work that invented an entire genre. Before Theocritus, there was no such thing as pastoral poetry in the ancient Greek tradition. He created it. The questions that linger around his life are as interesting as the poems themselves: Who was this Sicilian who reinvented the Cyclops as a lovesick simpleton? How did a poet from Syracuse end up writing for Egyptian royalty? And why, centuries later, do scholars still argue over which poems he actually wrote?
Theocritus left behind an epigram that reads as something close to a self-introduction. It runs: "The Chian is another man, but I, Theocritus, who wrote these poems, am one of the great populace of Syracuse, the son of Praxagoras and renowned Philinna; and the Muse I have adopted is no alien." That last line has puzzled scholars ever since. It may mean he wrote exclusively in bucolic verse, or simply that he composed only in the Doric dialect, which was native to Syracuse. Allusions in the Idylls at positions 7.7 and 28.16-18 support the claim that Syracuse was his hometown.
His biography beyond those lines is largely inferred rather than stated. He identifies Polyphemus the Cyclops as his "countryman," which anchors him to Sicily. He probably spent time in Alexandria, where he wrote about everyday urban life, including the poem known as Pharmakeutria. It is also believed he lived on the island of Kos and spent time in Egypt during the reign of Ptolemy II. The island of Kos surfaces prominently in Idyll 7, set there and likely written from personal experience.
The names of his parents, Praxagoras and Philinna, were considered authentic by ancient commentators. That detail mattered because an earlier, mistaken reading of Idyll 7 had proposed he was the son of a man named Simichus. The epigram disposes of that rival theory entirely.
Almost from the beginning, readers faced a problem: not everything attributed to Theocritus was actually his. At an early date, two separate collections circulated. One gathered poems whose authorship was uncertain but which formed a coherent body of bucolic verse. The other was a stricter canon, confined to works considered genuinely his.
The scholar who first sorted this out was Artemidorus of Tarsus, a grammarian who lived during the time of Sulla and is credited as the first editor of these poems. He described the achievement in an epigram: "The Muses of country song were once scattered, but now they are all together in one pen, in one flock." A larger, more expansive collection was also known to the author of the Suda, the Byzantine encyclopaedia, which credited Theocritus with works including Daughters of Proetus, Hopes, Hymns, Heroines, Dirges, Lyrics, Elegies, Iambics, and Epigrams.
Some of those extra attributions have traceable connections. The first of the Daughters of Proetus works may have been known to Virgil, who refers to the Proetids in Eclogue 6.48. The spurious poem 21 may have been one of the Hopes. Poem 26 may have belonged among the Heroines. The debate over which poems are genuinely his has continued into the modern period, and several idylls remain contested.
Among the bucolics, four poems stand above the rest: Idylls 1, 6, 7, and 11. Idyll 1 tells the story of Daphnis, the mythical herdsman who defied Aphrodite and paid for it with his life. In the poem, a procession of divine figures arrives to confront him. Priapus asks: "Wretched Daphnis, why pinest thou?" Hermes inquires: "Daphnis, who wastes thee away?" Aphrodite herself appears last, mocking him: "Thou indeed, Daphnis, didst boast that thou wouldst bend Love! Hast not thou, in thine own person, been bent by grievous love?"
Idylls 6 and 11 return to Polyphemus, the Cyclops from Homer's Odyssey. In Idyll 11, he is deep in unrequited love for the sea-nymph Galatea, and song is his only comfort. In Idyll 6, that passion has cooled; he naively tells how Galatea now pursues him while he pushes her away. The source puts it plainly: the monster of the Odyssey has been "written up to date" in the Alexandrian manner and has become a gentle simpleton.
Idyll 7, the Harvest Feast, is the most important bucolic of all, and its setting is Kos. Theocritus writes in the first person, calling himself Simichidas. He drops the names of real contemporaries under thin disguises. Ancient critics identified the character Sicelidas of Samos with the poet Asclepiades, and the character Lycidas with a poet Callimachus called "the Cretan, the goatherd." Theocritus also names Nicias, a physician of Miletus, and Aratus, whom the scholiasts identify with the author of the Phenomena. In this poem he openly claims that his own fame had reached "even unto the throne of Zeus."
The three mimes, Idylls 2, 14, and 15, shift from the countryside to the town. In Idyll 2, Simaetha, abandoned by Delphis, addresses her sorrow to the moon. In Idyll 14, Aeschines argues with his sweetheart and is advised to go to Egypt and join the army of Ptolemy Philadelphus. In Idyll 15, two women named Gorgo and Praxinoe attend the festival of Adonis. One commentator, Chisholm, praised these mimes as "wonderfully natural and lifelike," calling the conversation of Gorgo and Praxinoe the most vivid and real thing in all of ancient literature. Idylls 4 and 5 are set near Croton, suggesting Theocritus knew Magna Graecia firsthand.
Among the dozens of surviving Idylls, only two can be pinned to specific years with confidence. Idyll 17 celebrates Ptolemy Philadelphus and praises the king's incestuous marriage to his sister Arsinoë. Scholars established that this marriage took place in 277 BC. A subsequently discovered inscription confirmed that Arsinoë died in 270 BC, in the fifteenth year of her brother's reign. Idyll 15, which Theocritus wrote to please Arsinoë, must also fall within that same window.
Idyll 16 praises Hiero II of Syracuse, and it appears to be the earlier of the two. In it, Theocritus presents himself as a hungry poet in search of a patron. Hiero first came to prominence in 275 BC when he was appointed General. Theocritus speaks of Hiero's achievements as things still ahead of him, and says nothing of Hiero's marriage to Phulistis, his victory over the Mamertines at the Longanus, or his election as king. Those events are all dated to 270 BC, meaning Idyll 16 was almost certainly written before that year. Taken together, this pins Idylls 15, 16, and 17 to a period between 275 and 270 BC.
Three of the longer poems are hymns. Idyll 16 praises Hiero II, Idyll 17 celebrates Ptolemy Philadelphus, and Idyll 22 honors the Dioscuri. Two others, Idyll 13 on the story of Hylas and the Nymphs and Idyll 24 on the young Heracles, round out the epics. Of these, Idyll 13 was noted for its use of word-painting. Idylls 22 and 24 were described as dramatic, though not markedly different from the work of contemporaries like Callimachus and Apollonius Rhodius.
Two lyrics, Idylls 28 and 29, are considered genuinely his. Both are written in Aeolic verse in the Aeolic dialect, a different register from his bucolic work. Idyll 28 is a graceful poem accompanying a distaff given to Theugenis, wife of Nicias the doctor of Miletus, on the occasion of a voyage. A third Aeolic poem, found in only one very late manuscript, was discovered by Ziegler in 1864; its resemblance in subject and style to Idyll 29 has led recent editors to assign it to Theocritus.
Among the poems now considered spurious, the Fishermen, poem 21, drew particular admiration despite its doubtful authorship. It tells of an old fisherman who dreams he has caught a fish of gold and wakes to tell his companion about it, with the moral that one should work rather than dream. Because the poet Leonidas of Tarentum wrote epigrams about fishermen, and one of them names Diophantus as a fisherman dedicating his tackle to Poseidon, scholars believe the author of poem 21 was an imitator of Leonidas. The manuscript tradition surrounding poems 20, 21, and 23 also shares textual corruption suggesting a common, non-Theocritean source.
Poem 26, the murder of Pentheus, sparked a notable scholarly dispute. Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff attacked its genuineness on the grounds that the language was sometimes crude to the point of doggerel. Chisholm defended it, arguing that Theocritus had deliberately chosen realistic language for dramatic effect and that the manuscript evidence supported his authorship. Eustathius, the Byzantine scholar, quoted it as the work of Theocritus without reservation.
The creation of pastoral poetry as a genre was Theocritus's central contribution to literature. He placed shepherds, goatherds, and country festivals at the center of serious verse, a choice that later poets built on. His rustic characters were not a single type: those in Idyll 5 are rough figures given to coarse insults, while others in the bucolic poems are more refined. The genre also made room for singing-matches conducted under the rules of amoebaean poetry, where the second singer picks up the subject chosen by the first and offers a variation on the same theme.
Virgil knew his work closely. The Daughters of Proetus, mentioned in the Suda, may have been familiar to Virgil, who references the Proetids in Eclogue 6.48. The contested idylls 8 and 9 were also in Virgil's copy of Theocritus, which means they survived his editorial scrutiny. Idyll 16 contains a passage, at its close, where Theocritus imagines peace coming to Sicily after enemies have been driven out. That passage carries what the source calls "the true bucolic ring" even within a poem otherwise classed as an epic.
The first collected edition was prepared by Artemidorus of Tarsus in the era of Sulla, and the tradition of translating and editing Theocritus has continued steadily. Andrew Lang produced an English prose version in 1880. A. S. F. Gow's Greek text with translation and commentary appeared in a second edition in 1952 from Cambridge. Richard Hunter, whose commentary on a selection appeared in 1999, also contributed an introduction to Anthony Verity's translation published by Oxford University Press in 2003.
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Common questions
Who was Theocritus and what did he create?
Theocritus was a Greek poet from Sicily, born around 300 BC and died after 260 BC, who created ancient Greek pastoral poetry. He invented the bucolic genre, placing shepherds and country life at the center of serious verse.
Where was Theocritus from?
Theocritus was from Syracuse in Sicily. He also spent time on the island of Kos and in Alexandria in Egypt, probably during the reign of Ptolemy II. His parents were named Praxagoras and Philinna.
What are the most important poems by Theocritus?
The most celebrated bucolic poems are Idylls 1, 6, 7, and 11. Idyll 7, the Harvest Feast, is considered the most important. Among the mimes, Idyll 15, featuring Gorgo and Praxinoe at the festival of Adonis, was praised as the most vivid and lifelike writing in all of ancient literature.
Which poems of Theocritus can be dated to specific years?
Idylls 15, 16, and 17 can be dated with confidence to the period between 275 and 270 BC. Idyll 17 celebrates the marriage of Ptolemy Philadelphus to his sister Arsinoë, which took place in 277 BC, while an inscription confirmed Arsinoë died in 270 BC. Idyll 16, praising Hiero II, was written before Hiero's election as king, which occurred in 270 BC.
Who first edited the collected poems of Theocritus?
Artemidorus of Tarsus, a grammarian who lived during the time of Sulla, is credited as the first editor of the poems. He gathered the scattered bucolic works into a single collection, describing the achievement in an epigram.
Are all the poems attributed to Theocritus considered genuine?
No. Several poems, including Idylls 19, 20, 21, 23, and 25, are now generally considered spurious. From an early date, two collections existed: one a strict canon of genuine works and another a broader gathering of poems of doubtful authorship. The authenticity of Idyll 26 was specifically contested by the scholar Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff.
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