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Idyll V, sometimes called Αιπολικόν και Ποιμενικόν ('The Goatherd and the Shepherd'), is a bucolic poem by the 3rd-century BC Greek poet Theocritus.Edmonds, ed. 1919, p. 61. This Idyll begins with a ribald debate between two hirelings, who, at last, compete with each other in a match of pastoral song.Lang, ed. 1880, p. 24. The scene is in Southern Italy.
"''Eclogue 7'', 69–70. Vergil's Victory over Theocritus"
''Rivista di cultura classica e medioevale'', 265–271.
Idyll V, sometimes called Αιπολικόν και Ποιμενικόν ('The Goatherd and the Shepherd'), is a bucolic poem by the 3rd-century BC Greek poet Theocritus.Edmonds, ed. 1919, p. 61. This Idyll begins with a ribald debate between two hirelings, who, at last, compete with each other in a match of pastoral song.Lang, ed. 1880, p. 24. The scene is in Southern Italy.
Summary
The scene of this shepherd-poem is laid in the wooded pastures near the mouth of the riverCrathis Crathis may refer to:
*Crati
The Crati is a river in Calabria, southern Italy. It is the largest river of Calabria and the third largest river of southern Italy after the Volturno and the Sele. In classical antiquity it was known as the Crathis ...
in the district of Sybaris and Thurii in Southern Italy. The foreground is the shore of a lagoon near which stand effigies of the Nymphs who preside over it, and there is close by a rustic statue of Pan of the seaside. The characters are a goatherd named Comatas and a young shepherd named Lacon who are watching their flocks. Having seated themselves some little distance apart, they proceed to converse in no very friendly spirit, and the talk gradually leads to a contest of song with a woodcutter named Morson for the judge and a lamb and a goat for the stakes. The contest is a spirited, not to say a bitter, one, and consists of a series of alternate couplets, the elder man first singing his couplet and the younger than trying to better him at the same theme. After fourteen pairs of couplets, Morson breaks in before Lacon has replied and awards his lamb to Comatas.
Analysis
According toJ. M. Edmonds
John Maxwell Edmonds (21 January 1875 – 18 March 1958) was an English classicist, poet and dramatist and the author of several celebrated martial epitaphs.
Biography
Edmonds was born in Stroud, Gloucestershire on 21 January 1875. His father ...
, "The themes Comatas chooses are various, but the dominant note, as often in Theocritus, is love. In some of the lines there is more meaning than appears on the surface." According to Andrew Lang, "No other idyl of Theocritus is so frankly true to the rough side of rustic manners."
Imitation by Virgil
The poem was imitated by the Latin poet Virgil in bothEclogue 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 ...
and Eclogue 7
Eclogue 7 (''Ecloga'' VII; ''Bucolica'' VII) is a poem by the Latin poet Virgil, one of his book of ten pastoral poems known as the Eclogues. It is an Amoebaean singing, amoebaean poem in which a herdsman Meliboeus recounts a contest between the sh ...
. In Eclogue 3, the contest is preceded by unfriendly banter and consists of 12 rounds in which each contestant sings one couplet, ending in a draw; in Eclogue 7, there are 6 rounds where each contestant sings four lines, ending, as in Idyll 7, with a victory for the goatherd.Paraskeviotis (2014).
References
Sources
Attribution: * *Further reading
* * * * * * Paraskeviotis, G. C. (2014)"''Eclogue 7'', 69–70. Vergil's Victory over Theocritus"
''Rivista di cultura classica e medioevale'', 265–271.
External links
* * * {{Authority control Ancient Greek poems 3rd-century BC poems