Idyll IV, also titled Νομεῖς ('The Herdsmen'), is a
bucolic
A pastoral lifestyle is that of shepherds herding livestock around open areas of land according to seasons and the changing availability of water and pasture. It lends its name to a genre of literature, art, and music (pastorale) that depicts ...
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 ...
.
[Edmonds, ed. 1919, p. 49.] The poem is a conversation between a goatherd named Battus and his fellow goatherd Corydon, who is acting oxherd in place of a certain Aegon who has been persuaded by one Milon son of Lampriadas to go and compete in a
boxing-match at
Olympia
The name Olympia may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Film
* ''Olympia'' (1938 film), by Leni Riefenstahl, documenting the Berlin-hosted Olympic Games
* ''Olympia'' (1998 film), about a Mexican soap opera star who pursues a career as an athlet ...
.
Corydon's temporary rise in rank gives occasion for some friendly banter, varied with bitter references to Milon's having supplanted Battus in the favours of Amaryllis.
Summary
Battus and Corydon, two rustics, meeting in a glade, gossip about their neighbour, Aegon, who has gone to try his fortune at the
Olympic games
The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a var ...
.
[Lang, ed. 1880, p. 19.] After some banter, the talk turns on the death of Amaryllis, and the grief of Battus is disturbed by the roaming of his cattle.
Corydon removes a thorn that has run into his friend's foot, and the conversation comes back to matters of rural scandal.
The poem, like many of the Idylls, contains a song.
The scene is near
Crotona in Southern Italy.
Analysis
The reference to Glaucè of Chios, a contemporary of Theocritus, fixes the imaginary date of the poem.
[Cholmeley, ed. 1919, p. 225.]
See also
*
Corydon (character)
Corydon (Greek Κορύδων ''Korúdōn'', probably related to κόρυδος ''kórudos'' "lark") is a stock name for a shepherd in ancient Greek pastoral poems and fables, such as the one in Idyll 4 of the Syracusan poet Theocritus (c. 300 ...
*
Ζacynthus
*
Eclogue 3
Eclogue 3 (''Ecloga'' III; ''Bucolica'' III) is a pastoral poem by the Latin poet Virgil, one of a collection of ten poems known as the "Eclogues". This eclogue represents the rivalry in song of two herdsmen, Menalcas and Damoetas. After trading i ...
Notes
References
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{{Authority control
Ancient Greek poems
3rd-century BC poems