xxv. "Heracles the Lion-slayer" (AeoproOvos). This is a long poem consisting of two episodes, viz., the interview of Heracles with the bailiff of Augeas and his recital to Phyleus, son of Augeas, of the story of the Nemean lion. The composition is not un worthy of Theocritus. It is, however, anonymous in the mss. and comes next to another anonymous poem called "Megara, the wife of Hercules." It is probable from some metrical and linguistic peculiarities that xxv. and the "Megara" are by the same author.
xxvii. "The wooing of Daphnis" ('Oapco-rin) is also anony mous. It contains imitations of Theocritus, but the tone and the language betray a later writer.
We have no sure facts as to the life of Theocritus beyond those supplied by Idylls xvi. and xvii. It is quite uncertain whether the bucolic poems were written in the pleasant isle of Cos among a circle of poets and students, or in Alexandria and meant for dwellers in streets. The usual view is that Theocritus went first from Syracuse to Cos, and then, after suing in vein for the favour of Hiero, took up his residence permanently in Egypt. Some have supposed on very flimsy evidence that he quarrelled with the Egyptian court and retired to Cos, and would assign various poems to the "later-Coan" period. Wilamowitz-Mollendorff, lay ing stress on the fact that in the best ms. the poem to Ptolemy (xvii.) comes before that to Hieron (xvi.), puts the Egyptian period first and supposes it to have been of very short duration (i.e., 277 to 275), and then makes the poet, after his unsuccess ful appeal to Hieron, retire to Cos for the rest of his life. This view would enable us to see a reference to Ptolemy in vii. 93, and even to Apollonius Rhodius in 47-48 of the same poem.
The poems of Theocritus were termed Idylls (EIA56XXca), by the grammarians. The word is a diminutive from ethos, and is supposed to mean "little poems." The use of Ethos in the sense of "poem" is somewhat doubtful, and so some have referred €lb(XXta to Etbos in its usual sense of "form" or "type." Thus EIbos 13ovwXuK6P, Xvpudo might be used to classify various kinds of poetry, and these poems might be called eloaXta, since they include so many types.
The metre used by Theocritus in the Bucolics and Mimes, as well as in the Epics, is the dactylic hexameter. A feature in his
versification which has attracted much attention is the so-called bucolic caesura. The rule is that, if there is a pause at the end of the fourth foot, this foot must be a dactyl. This pause is no new invention, being exceedingly common in Homer. Theocritus uses it so frequently in the Bucolics that it has become a manner ism. In the Epics his practice agrees with that of Homer.
We always think of Theocritus as an original poet, and as the "inventor of bucolic poetry" he deserves this reputation. At the same time he had no scruple about borrowing from predecessors or contemporaries; in fact he did so in the most open manner. Thus xxix. begins with a line of Alcaeus, and xvii., as the Scho liast points out, with words used by Aratus at the beginning of the Phenomena. The love of the Cyclops for Galatea had been treated by Philoxenus, and fragments quoted from this show that Theocritus copied some of his phrases closely. In the mimes Theocritus appears to have made great use of Sophron. Idyll ii. is modelled upon a mime of this writer which began in a very similar way. The Scholiast thought that Theocritus showed want of taste in making Thestylis a persona meta, instead of giving her a share in the dialogue as Sophron had done. The famous poem about Gorgo and Praxinoe at the feast of Adonis was modelled on one by Sophron about women looking on at the Isthmian games and fragments quoted from this are closely imitated by Theocritus. It is extremely interesting to find a similar poem in the recently discovered mimes of Herondas, the fourth of which is termed "Women making offerings to Aescula pius" ('licarpricp avart0Ei.o-ac Kai The relation of Theocritus to Herondas is a subject of great interest. Heron das must have been a contemporary, as he refers to Ptolemy Philadelphus (1. 3o) and was a native of Cos, so that he and Theocritus must have been acquainted. There are some curious parallels in the language and idioms of the two poets, but which of them copied the other it is impossible to determine.
(iii.) Subject-matter: Ph. E. Legrand, Etude sur Theocrite (1898) ; (iv.) Textual Questions: E. Hiller, Beitriige sur Textgeschichte der Griechischen Bukoliker (1888) ; U. von Wilamowitz-Mollendorff, Die Textgeschichte der Griechischen Bukoliker (1906). (v.) Metre: C. Kunst, De Theocriti versu heroico (1887). (vi.) Scholia: C. Wendel (1914)•