First half 3rd BCE

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...

Not amazing, but worth a read. Some poems were GREAT--others, not so much. Of course, I guess this is to be expected. I've just been reading up on Sappho recently, so it was fun to see all of these allusions pop up.

Pastoral. Celebrates ordinary lives and loves. Gently rebuts the idealization of male rage in heroic epic.

Beautiful poetry however I feel as if some of the beauty has been lost in translation.

This is a collection of ancient Greek pastoral poetry. I enjoyed most of the poems but idyll 11 was my favorite.

I read about Theokritus as one of the earliest examples of pastoral poetry on a plaque in The Met. Since I enjoy such modern lights of the prosaic as Whitman, Collins, and Tolstoy, I was inspired to consciously begin a genre collection.

Theokritos frames his sixteenth idyll explaining that, "The Muses are gods. Being gods, they sing of gods. But we're men. Being men, let's sing of men." I feel this sentiment expresses the down-to-earth quality of all his poetry, which mostly praises such things as cows, fields, young love, and the agrarian life, with a sprinkling of heroic poetry dedicated to figures such as Hercules, Castor, and Polydeukes. Even then, he presents these heroes as accessible, without taking away anything from their excellence. For example, one of my favorite idylls tells the story of infant Hercules strangling serpents sent by a jealous Hera to devour him and his infant brother as they slept in a large shield on the floor of their house. Much more attention is given in the poem to their mother's fussing over them as to young Hercules' miraculous accomplishment.

I really enjoyed this. I could have lived without the encomia dedicated to Ptolemy and the Dioscuri, perhaps, but the early singing contests and the Cyclops’ serenade and the chatty exchange of the women at the festival and the idyll of the sorceress and the last two passionate poems addressed to anonymous young lovers by the poet in old age were beyond wonderful. Especially the delicacy of the details, the scent of rennet, the type of gauzy garments the little distaff makes possible, the names of places and plants particularly. I kind of liked the Idylls better than Virgil’s Eclogues, in fact. I need to go back and compare.

En portion grekisk allmänbildning...

"Sitten Damoitas suuteli Dafnista ja antoi tälle syrinksinsä. Vastalahjaksi hän sai Dafniksen hienon huilun. Niin alkoi Damoitas soittaa huilua ja lehmipaimen Dafnis puhalsi syrinksiin ja hiehot tanssivat nuoressa heinässä. Eivätkä he voittaneet kumpikaan, vaan olivat taidossa tasavertaiset." (Paimenpojat I)

Paimenidylliä, mytologiaa, homoerotiikkaa ja rakkautta ilman vastakaikua.

lempparit:

2. Taiantekijät: Kaupunkimiljööhön sijoitettu miimi, joka kuvaa nuoren naisen (mahd hetairan) yrityksiä voittaa magian voimin takaisin haluamansa miehen kiinnostus.

6. Paimenpojat I: Kahden nuoren paimenpojan vuorolaulu Polyfemos-kykloopista.

10. Elonleikkaajat: Maalaismiljööhön sijoitettu runo elonkorjuusta. Henkilöinä kaksi maamiestä: toinen paimenrunoista tuttu naiivi, rakastunut, vähän sentimentaalinen maalaispoika, toinen arkisessa karuudessaan yksi Theokritoksen realistisimmin luonnehdituista henkilöhahmoista.

13. Hylas: Koskettava kuvaus siitä, miten Herkules menettää Hylaksen, rakastamansa nuoren pojan, jonka lähteen nymfit hukuttavat.

15. Syrakuusattaret: Kaksi syrakuusalaissyntyistä keskiluokkaisrouvaa matkaavat Aleksandrian Adonisjuhlaan.

Elämänmakuisia ja elämän realismeja pakenevia runotekstejä hellenismin ajalta. Moni runo dialogimuotoinen, joukossa muutama pienoiseepos, ylistysruno ja kuvaelma. Hetero- ja homoeroottista runoutta, uneliasta eskapismia, sanavalmiita ihmisiä ja kiusallisia hetkiä. Rosoisempaa ja elämänmakuisempaa kuin Vergiliuksen paimenrunous.

The bucolics are the most characteristic and influential of Theocritus’s 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; Cyclops, a humorous depiction of ugly Polyphemus vainly wooing the sea nymph Galatea; 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 was a Greek poet of the 3rd century BC. From Syracuse in Sicily. He is best known - if you know him at all' as the 'inventor' of bucolic poetry. This collection of 31 short poems demonstrate the themes and style of his work. This edition was translated by Anthony Verity and has an introduction and notes* by Richard Hunter.

As the introduction points out though there is a variation within Theocritus' work. Yes, there is a format that revolve around song competitions - more like rap battles than actually competitions - between herdsman. These can be refreshing rude.

There are also though hymns, mimes, short re-tellings of parts of larger myths - Heracles, and some praise for the powerful. Some of it reads like plays. I wasn't quite sure how much of this material would have been set to music. The introduction implies that by the time Theocritus was writing poetry had moved away from being set to music and more to simply recitations and private reading. Obviously I can't tell you how accurate that is.

There is a lot of humour in some of the poems as well as the depictions of nature and rural life that one would expect from pastoral poetry.

As usual with Ancient Greece though we know less than we would like and the introduction does an excellent job of contextualising what you are reading. The notes are useful too, although a tad repetitive on occasion.

The poetry is interesting to read. I don't think Theocritus will be one of my favourite poets. Although I recommend Idyll 5 - Goatherd and Shepherd - for its comedy as well as poetry. It's how to diss people with poetry. There's even a bit on why the patch of ground I'm standing on is better than the patch of ground you're standing on. It also includes a brief back and forth which includes a joke about penis size.

There are a couple of love poems from older men about younger boys, which is an Ancient Greek thing, but to the modern ear they're a strange read.

There poetry is cut through with the required need to praise ones rulers for patronage, but considering what I'm reading and hearing after the death of Queen Elizabeth II that hasn't gone away. I feel sorry for Simon Armitage who must be beavering away as Poet Laureate for suitable words to mark her passing.

Worth reading for its influence as the source - if not the originator - of bucolic poetry and an influence on Virgil and Milton to name but two.



*A quick personal rant. I hate endnotes with poetry. The distraction of flicking back and forth between them really breaks up the reading experience. I'm prepared to accept that this might just be me.