Idyll I, sometimes called Θύρσις ('Thyrsis'), is a bucolic poem by the 3rd-century BC Greek poet
Theocritus
Theocritus (; grc-gre, Θεόκριτος, ''Theokritos''; born c. 300 BC, died after 260 BC) was a Greek poet from Sicily and the creator of Ancient Greek pastoral poetry.
Life
Little is known of Theocritus beyond what can be inferred from hi ...
which takes the form of a dialogue between two rustics in a pastoral setting.
Thyrsis meets a goatherd in a shady place beside a spring, and at his invitation sings the story of Daphnis.
[Lang, ed. 1880, p. 1.] This ideal hero of Greek pastoral song had won for his bride the fairest of the Nymphs.
Confident in the strength of his passion, he boasted that Love could never subdue him to a new affection.
Love avenged himself by making Daphnis desire a strange maiden, but to this temptation he never yielded, and so died a constant lover.
The song tells how the cattle and the wild things of the wood bewailed him, how Hermes and Priapus gave him counsel in vain, and how with his last breath he retorted the taunts of
Aphrodite
Aphrodite ( ; grc-gre, Ἀφροδίτη, Aphrodítē; , , ) is an ancient Greek goddess associated with love, lust, beauty, pleasure, passion, and procreation. She was syncretized with the Roman goddess . Aphrodite's major symbols include ...
.
Summary
A shepherd and a goatherd meet in the pastures one noontide and compliment each other upon their piping.
[Edmonds, ed. 1919, p. 6.] The shepherd, Thyrsis by name, is persuaded by the other—for a cup which he describes but does not at first show—to sing him ''The Affliction of Daphnis'', a ballad which tells how the legendary cowherd, friend not only of Nymph and Muse, but of all the wild creatures, having vowed to his first love that she should be his last, pined and died for the love of another.
The song is divided into three parts marked by changes in the
refrain
A refrain (from Vulgar Latin ''refringere'', "to repeat", and later from Old French ''refraindre'') is the line or lines that are repeated in music or in poetry — the "chorus" of a song. Poetic fixed forms that feature refrains include the vi ...
.
The first part, after a complaint to the Nymphs of their neglect, tells how the herds and the herdsmen gathered about the dying man, and Hermes his father, and
Priapus
In Greek mythology, Priapus (; grc, Πρίαπος, ) is a minor rustic fertility god, protector of livestock, fruit plants, gardens and male genitalia. Priapus is marked by his oversized, permanent erection, which gave rise to the medical term ...
the country-god of fertility whom he had flouted, came and spoke and got no answer.
In the second part, the slighted
Love-Goddess comes, and gently upbraids him, whereat he breaks silence with a threat of vengeance after death.
He then makes a speech, and the speech is continued with a farewell to the wild creatures, and to the wells and rivers of
Syracuse
Syracuse may refer to:
Places Italy
*Syracuse, Sicily, or spelled as ''Siracusa''
*Province of Syracuse
United States
*Syracuse, New York
**East Syracuse, New York
**North Syracuse, New York
*Syracuse, Indiana
* Syracuse, Kansas
*Syracuse, Miss ...
.
[Edmonds, ed. 1919, p. 7.] In the third part he bequeaths his pipe to
Pan, ends his dying speech with an address to all Nature, and is overwhelmed at last in the
river of Death.
Thyrsis comes from
Sicily
(man) it, Siciliana (woman)
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, which is the scene of his song.
Theocritus Cup
The
ecphrasis of the cup inspired drawings by
John Flaxman
John Flaxman (6 July 1755 – 7 December 1826) was a British sculptor and draughtsman, and a leading figure in British and European Neoclassicism. Early in his career, he worked as a modeller for Josiah Wedgwood's pottery. He spent several yea ...
from which four silver-gilt Neoclassical vases were produced. The first was commissioned by
Queen Charlotte as a gift for her son the
Prince Regent
A prince regent or princess regent is a prince or princess who, due to their position in the line of succession, rules a monarchy as regent in the stead of a monarch regnant, e.g., as a result of the sovereign's incapacity (minority or illness ...
in 1812.
[''Royal Collection Trust''.]
Illustrations
File:Theocritus-Syracusanus-et-al-Lodewijk-Caspar-Valckenaer MG 0683.tif, Bucolic scene with two shepherds, illustrating Idyll I (ll. 12–14)
File:The Idyls of Theocritus 3.jpg, link=, alt=, 'Sweet, meseems, is the whispering sound of yonder pine tree, goatherd, that murmureth by the wells of water'
File:Onceaweek 01 008 211 fromtheocritus (cropped).jpg, Engraving of a scene from Idyll I: ''Once a Week'', 24 Feb. 1866
See also
*
Eclogue 5
Eclogue 5 (''Ecloga'' V; ''Bucolica'' V) is a pastoral poem by the Latin poet Virgil, one of his book of ten poems known as the Eclogues. In form, this is an expansion of the Idyll I, first Idyll of Theocritus, which contains a song about the death ...
*
Eclogue 10 Eclogue 10 (Ecloga X; Bucolica X) is a pastoral poem by the Latin poet Virgil, the last of his book of ten poems known as the Eclogues written approximately 42–39 BC. The tenth Eclogue describes how Cornelius Gallus, a Roman officer on active serv ...
Notes
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Ancient Greek poems
3rd-century BC poems