The mimes are three in number, viz., ii., 'xiv., xv. In ii. Simae tha, deserted by Delphis, tells the story of her love to the moon; in xiv. Aeschines narrates his quarrel with his sweetheart, and is advised to go to Egypt and enlist in the army of Ptolemy Phila delphus ; in xv. Gorgo and Praxinoe go to the festival of Adonis. It may be noticed that in the best mss. ii. comes immediately before xiv., an arrangement which is obviously right, since it places the three mimes together. The second place in the mss. is occupied by Idyll vii., the "Harvest Feast." These three mimes are wonderfully natural and lifelike. There is nothing in ancient literature so vivid and real as the chatter of Gorgo and Praxinoe, and the voces popuu in xv.
It will be convenient to add to the Bucolics and Mimes three poems which cannot be brought into any other class, viz., xii. ('Atrns), a poem to a beautiful youth; xviii., the marriage-song of Helen ('ER-LectX6.,utos) ; and xxvi., the murder of Pentheus (A.Cjvat). The genuineness of the last has been attacked by U. von Wilamowitz-Mollendorff on account of the crudity of the lan guage, which sometimes degenerates into doggerel. It is, however, likely that Theocritus intentionally used realistic language for the sake of dramatic effect, and the mss. evidence is in favour of the poem. Eustathius quotes from it as the work of Theocritus.
II. Epics.—Three of these are Hymns, viz., xvi., xvii. and xxii. In xvi. the poet praises Hieron II. of Syracuse, in xvii. Ptolemy Philadelphus, and in xxii. the Dioscuri. The other poems are xiii., the story of Hylas and the Nymphs, and xxiv. the youthful Heracles. It cannot be said that Theocritus exhibits signal merit in his Epics. In xiii. he shows some skill in word-painting, in xvi. there is some delicate fancy in the description of his poems as "Graces" (X6.pLres), and a passage at the end, where he foretells the joys of peace after the enemy have been driven out of Sicily, has the true bucolic ring. The most that can be said of xxii. and xxiv. is that they are very dramatic. Otherwise they differ little from work done by other poets, such as Callimachus and Apol lonius Rhodius. The flattery heaped upon Ptolemy is somewhat nauseous. From another point of view, however, these two poems xvi. and xvii. are supremely interesting, since they are the only ones which can be dated. In xvii. Theocritus celebrates the in cestuous marriage of Ptolemy Philadelphus with his sister Arsinoe. This marriage is held to have taken place in 277 B.C., and Arsinoe died in 270. This poem, therefore, together with poem xv.,
which Theocritus wrote to please Queen Arsinoe (Schol.
XaPLM.Levos must fall within this period. The encomium upon Hiero II. would from internal reasons seem prior to that upon Ptolemy, since in it Theocritus is a hungry poet seeking for a patron, while in the other he is well satisfied with the world. Now Hieron first came to the front in 275 B.C. when he was made "General" (o-rparn-yos): Theocritus speaks of his achieve ments as still to come, 1. 73, and the silence of the poet would show that Hieron's marriage to Philistis, his victory over the Mamer times at the Longanus and his election as "King" (a3aacXein), events which are ascribed to 270 B.C., had not yet taken place. If so, xvii. and xv. can only have been written within 275 and 27o.
III. Lyrics.—Two of these are certainly by Theocritus, viz., xxviii. and xxix. The first is a very graceful poem presented to gether with a distaff to Theugenis, wife of Nicias, a doctor of Miletus, on the occasion of a voyage thither undertaken by the poet. The theme of xxix. is similar to that of xii. A very corrupt poem, only found in one very late ms., was discovered by Ziegler in 1864. As the subject and style very closely resemble that of xxix., it is assigned to Theocritus by recent editors.
IV. The Epigrams.—These do not call for detailed notice. They do not possess any special merit, and their authenticity is often doubtful. It remains to notice the poems which are now generally considered to be spurious. They are as follows :— xix. "Love stealing Honey" (Knpwabrrns). The poem is anonymous in the mss. and the conception of Love is not Theo critean.
xx. "Herdsman" (BovicoXicricos), xxi. "Fishermen" (`AXLEZs), xxiii. "Passionate Lover" These three poems are remarkable for the corrupt state of their text, which makes it likely that they have come from the same source and possibly are by the same author. The "Fishermen" has been much ad mired. It is addressed to Diophantus and conveys a moral, that one should work and not dream, illustrated by the story of an old fisherman who dreams that he has caught a fish of gold and narrates his vision to his mate. As Leonidas of Tarentum wrote epigrams on fishermen, and one of them is a dedication of his tackle to Poseidon by Diophantus, the fisher ( Anth. Pal. vi. 4, 7), it is likely that the author of this poem was an imitator of Leon idas. It can hardly be by Leonidas himself, who was a contem porary of Theocritus, as it bears marks of lateness.