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Greek Bucolic Poets

j.m. edmonds bion of smyrna moschus theocritus

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Theocritus of the third century BCE, born at Syracuse, travelled widely in the Greek world. Having studied poetry at Cos with poet and critic Philitas, he composed poetry under patronage, chiefly perhaps at Syracuse and Cos; and then went to Alexandria in Egypt, whose King Ptolemy II (died 246 BCE), pupil of Philitas, befriended him. Here (and at Cos?) he spent the rest of his life. Most lovable of Greek versemakers, Theocritus was the founder of bucolic or pastoral poetry. Of his so-called Idylls, 'Little forms' or pieces (not all are genuine), ten are about pastoral life real or idealised; several are small epics (three are hymns); two are beautiful 'occasional' poems (one about a country walk, one to accompany a gift of a distaff for the wife of his friend Nicias); six are love-poems; several are mimes, striking pictures of common life; and three are specially expressive of his own feelings. The 24 'Epigrams' were apparently inscribed on works of art. Moschus of Syracuse, 2nd century BCE, came next. As a grammarian he wrote a (lost) work on Rhodian dialect. Though he was classed as bucolic, his extant poetry (mainly 'Runaway Love' and the story of 'Europa') is not really pastoral, the 'Lament for Bion' not being Moschus's work. 'Megara' may be by Theocritus; but 'The Dead Adonis' is much later. Bion of Phlossa near Smyrna lived in Sicily, probably late 2nd and early 1st century BCE. Most of the extant poems are not really bucolic, but 'Lament for Adonis' is floridly brilliant. The so-called Pattern-Poems, included in the bucolic tradition, are found also in the Greek Anthology .

560 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1,-0300

This edition

Format
560 pages, Hardcover
Published
January 1, 1912 by Harvard University Press
ISBN
9780674990319
ASIN
0674990315
Language
English

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j.m. edmonds

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Rating(4 / 5.0, 11 votes)
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11 reviews All reviews
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Mangageek13
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 16,2025
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The Idylls are nothing but interesting. I set on this book for his influence on Vergil, but it turns out to be a collection of great pieces of work. My favourite is Id. 1, for its ekphrasis, and for its elaborate fictional world.
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AngelAlitta
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 16,2025
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The Lament of Adonis- Bion, Sicily

Quite a lovely elegy.
I cry woe for Adonis and say The beauteous Adonis is dead; and the Loves cry me woe again and say The beauteous Adonis is dead.

Moschus, Sicily: Not sure I care for his work as much as Bion, shame just the one survived.

The Runaway Love - Again Cypris (Aphrodite and Adonis), but pale in comparison to Bion.
Europa - a bit more interesting, engaging and lengthy.
Lament for Bion - in the style of Bion's Lament of Adonis and definitely charming.
You nightingales that complain in the thick leafage, tell to Arethusa’s fountain of Sicily that neatherd Bion is dead, and with him dead is music, and gone with him likewise the Dorian poesy.
A few other fragments are including. Some a bit humorous, short and pithy.

Theocritus, Sicily, Cos, and Alexandria:
Much more a slice of life poet. The Women at the Adonis Festival is humorous and everyday.
SECOND STRANGER
[87] Oh dear, oh dear, ladies! do stop that eternal cooing. (to the bystanders) They’ll weary me to death with their ah-ah-ah-ing.

PRAXINOA
[89] My word! where does that person come from? What business is it of yours if we do coo? Buy your slaves before you order them about, pray. You’re giving your orders to Syracusans. If you must know, we’re Corinthians by extraction, like Bellerophon himself. What we talk’s Peloponnesian. I suppose Dorians may speak Doric, mayn’t they? Persephone! let's have no more masters than the one we’ve got. I shall do just as I like. Pray don’t waste your breath.
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cities516
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 16,2025
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These were Greeks of a later era of antiquity who composed poetry of the pasture and glen. There is only so much a reader can enjoy before the theme runs its course and becomes boring.
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Roninski
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 16,2025
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Well translated & structured. Highly informative articles written in simple language
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YMW18
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 16,2025
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Just about nothing is as charming as Theocritus, but man is this ever a Loeb that could do with an update. In general, it's true that the older Loeb poetry volumes are marred by godawful stylistic tendencies, namely a starch-collared Edwardian boarding school instinct to render everything as though it's by an exceptionally bad imitator of Shakespeare or Spenser. That's never truer than here, at the birth of the pastoral. By all means, grab it if you want the Greek, but do yourself the favor of buying the superb Robert Wells translation from Penguin Classics to read along with it. (I'm sorry, there's nothing to be done for Bion and Moschus.) You'll otherwise be wincing through a translation so horrendously misjudged that it makes Theocritus sound like the worst pastiche-artist in history, a writer of pastoral travesties, rather than the real deal, honeyed sunshine that makes the whole tradition respectable, if mainly at the beginning.
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lesbean4lyfe
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 16,2025
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This book made me want to study Greek. While the often staid, ninety-year-old translations were fairly uninspired, it was a mildly exhaustive collection of poetry not frequently seen outside of Classics departments (Theocritus, maybe more frequently. But Bion and Moschus?), and I enjoyed the inclusion of works not to be found in my other collections, particularly the pattern poems, which is a genre of which I was not aware and now will have to examine further. The inclusion of the original Greek text alongside the English translation will, I do hope, come in handy at some point in my life.
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RandallAss
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 16,2025
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THEOCRITUS of Syracuse - MOSCHUS of Sicily – BION of Smyrna Three bucolic poets
Theocritus gained great fame with his pastoral poems.
He flourished in circa 278 to 270 BC, in the reign of Ptolemy Philadelphus, Egypt, Alexandria and was a contemporary of Aratus, Callimachus, Nicander, and Apollonius of Rhodes.
Theocritus poems are mostly set in the countryside and feature dialogs as well as singing contests between shepherds. These lonely rustics may have used songs as a natural means of communication. It is quite possible that the idea of a singing contest came to him from real shepherds.
Recurrent names : Adonis, Daphnis, Amaryllis, Comatas, Polyphemus, Galatea and Tityrus. In the background, we have Nymphs, Pan, Priapus, Artemis, Appollo of the flocks,
This collection also contains Love songs, Idylls, Fragments, Epigrams, a poem on an event in the Argonautica, a surprising poem on the wedding of Helen to Menelaus, and on Heracles’s killing the great lion and more on Heracles works and adventures, as well as others.
Moschus is also a composer of bucolic verse, Theocritus was first, Moschus second and Bion third.
From Moschus we have here a witty narrative of the girl Europa beeing abducted by Zeus in the shape of a white bull, a poem called Lament for Bion, then Megara, Lament for Adonis and fragments of others as well as pattern poems, where the word are written to form patterns, like an axe, an egg, a pan pipe and altars.
Though the beauty of the poetry gets lost in translation, I enjoy the rich content of Ancient Greek’s philosophy, mythology, and history.
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