Idylls

theocritus is such a fun read. love and eros in the open air.

This made sense within the context of my class, but it's nothing something I would have ever picked up of my own accord.

A very useful introduction and notes for someone who knows nothing about this (me). But I can't help but be bored by some bucolic. Zzzzz

I recommend reading each poem twice, one for comprehension, the second to appreciate the imagery it evokes

Come for the famous pastorals, stay for the poem of a girl performing witchcraft to gain back the affections of her lover.

Poetry is really not for me, but I'm glad a sampled Ancient Greek poetry anyway ;) I liked how different themes were touched throughout the 30 'idylls' in this book.

So much gay poetry! Sappho and Theocritus are the ultimate power duo.

Theocritus’ Idylls--summaries of individual poems

1-A goatherd asks Thyrsis to sing him a song; in return, the former promises to give the latter an elaborately decorated drinking vessel (ekphrastically descibed). Thyrsis sings a tearful tale of Daphnis the cowheard’s unrequited “bitter love.” Venus mocks Daphnis; Daphnis tells Venus to take a hike and then drowns, possibly of his own volition.

2-The first “mime.” Simaetha, a city-dwelling spurned-lover-turned-sorceress, tells the story of how she fell in love with Delphis, a gorgeous wrestler who spends most of his time at the gymnasium: how she saw him walking by one day at a parade and nearly fainted with lust; how she ordered her slave-girl, Thestylis, to invite him to her house; made love to him on their first meeting; and was later deserted by him for another woman. Determined to avenge herself on his alleged treachery, she mixes a magic potion that will “draw her lover home to [her]” again.

3-a drunken goatherd serenades his lover from outside her “cave.” He seems to be trying to coax her into forgiving him for some fault he’d previously commited.

4-idle shepherd’s conversation.

5-A goatherd (Comatas) and a shepherd (the younger Lacon) battle it out in a kind of insult match, seeing who can come up with the sharpest insults. They recruit Morson the woodsman as a judge and referee, and after bandying back-and-forth the Ancient-Greek equivalent of increasingly belligerent yo’-mamma jokes, Morson awards Comatas the prize: a fat lamb.

6-Daphnis and Aratus sing contrasting versions of Polyphemus’ love for the nereid Galatea. Daphnis depicts him as a lovelorn moaner; Aratus, as as a mischievous tease.

7-Simichidas meets a celebrated singer, Lycidas, on his way to a festival and invites him to compete with him. They each sing a song, and then Simichidas heads over to the festival.

10-Stricken with unrequited love and unable to focus on his work, Bucaeus can’t stop thinking of the “Beautiful Bombyca.” Milon, the chief shepherd asks Bucaeus to take a break and sing him a song about his love, which Bucaeus then proceeds to do.

11-Here we have another unrequited lover: Polyphemous, who’s extremely distraught about Galatea’s indifference to him. He begs her to join him on land and grieves over the fact that he can’t swim down to her in the sea.

12-A pederastic love song from an older shepherd to a younger one.

13-The story of how Hercules lost his beloved squire.

14-The second mime. Here we have yet another unrequited lover (a major theme, apparently, of the Theocritean Idyll). Aeschinas has recently discovered that his beloved, Cynisca, is seeing another man, Wolf, and he’s pissed. He slaps her at a gathering, after she confesses in front of him. Now he’s trying to get over her but having a very hard time.

15-The third and mime in the collection. Gorgo and Praxinoa meet up and head to the palace for a festival being held in honor of Adonis.

16-An encomium to Hieron II.

17-Encomium to Ptolemy.

18-A model example of the ancient Greek epithalamion; this one’s dedicated to Helen of Sparta on the night of her wedding to Menelaus.

22-The “Dioscuri” relates two stories of the twin brothers, Castor and Polydeuces’, valiant character and legendary strength. In the first song, the poet sings of how Castor defeated a rude giant on a remote island; in the second story, the poet sings of how Polydeuces fended off two men who unlawfully stole the fiancées of two other men.

24-This idyll relates the story of Hercules’ childhood: how he clenched two malevolent god-sent snakes in his fists and grew up to be the strongest man in town. Tiresias offers a prophesy of his future: how he will complete the labours, etc.

26-A wonderful supplement to Euripides’ The Bacchae. This poem relates the murder of Pentheus by the Dionysian revelers; he’s murdered for spying on the rights from a treetop.

29-An old man sings of his love for a young boy, although he’s saddened that the boy is beginning to neglect him.

30-Another pederastic poem... this one more morbid. The boy’s elderly lover counsels him not to grow too arrogant and grieves over the fact that he’s nowhere near as important to his beloved than as his beloved is to him. Another poem about unrequited love.