MASTER NEGATIVE NO. 92-80536 MICROFILMED 1992 COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES/NEW YORK as part of the "Foundations of Western Civilization Preservation Project" Funded by the NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITIES Reproductions may not be made without permission from Columbia University Library COPYRIGHT STATEMENT The copyright law of the United States ~ Title 17, United States Code ~- concerns the making of pliotocopies or other reproductions of copyrighted matenai... Columbia University Library reserves the right to refuse to accept a copy order if, in its jiuigenient, fulfillment of the order would involve violation of the copyright law. AUTHOR: THEOCRITUS TITLE: IDYLLS OF THEOCRITUS BION. AND MOSCHUS J PLACE: LONDON DA TE : 1888 Master Negative # COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES PRESERVATION DEPARTMENT BIBLIOGRAPHIC MICROFORM TARGET Original Material as Filmed - Existing Bibliographic Record 88T31 JI4 Bucolici Graeci* English- 1888. Theocritus. The idylls of Theocritus, Bion, and Moschus, and The war-songs of Tyrtreus; literally tr. into English prose by ... J. Banks ... With met- rical versions by J.M. cread M.J. a Chapman ..• London, Bell, 1883. xxiv, 343 p. plate. 19 cm. J. Banks afterward changed his name to Davies. "The war-songs of Tyrtaeus. Translated by the Pwev. R. Polwhele" p. 337. D88T31 JI4 Copy in Classics. 1891. Restrictions on Use: TECHNICAL MICROFORM DATA FILM SIZE: c>^ ^^^ TX-. REDUCTION RATIO: //X IMAGE PLACEMENT: lA (OIA^ IB IIB DATE FII.MED: ±zl^i^_ INITIALS lS_Si FILMED B\. 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LIMITWi tlAUkOUii 6JUUi.T AKU CUABINQ CCOJS. 3IY CONTENTS. PREFACE BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE OF THEOCRITUS BION ■ — MOSCHUS — — TYRT^US . TACS vii xviii XX xxi ItigUs of Cfjeocritug. tWTLZ PROSE, VEIISI I. THYRSIS THE SHEPHERD, AND THE GOATHERD 1 205 II. THE SORCERESS ...... 9 209 III. THE GOATHERD, OR AMARYLLIS, OR THE SERE- NADER 18 215 IV. THE herdsmen; OR BATTUS AND CORYDON . 21 217 V. THE WAYFARERS, OR COMPOSERS OF PASTORALS 25 219 VI. THE SINGERS OF PASTORALS .... 34 225 VII. THE THALYSIA 37 226 VIII. THE SINGERS OF PASTORALS ... 45 231 IX. THE PASTOR, OR THE HERDSMEN ... 50 234 X. THE WORKMEN, OR REAPERS ... 53 235 XI. THE CYCLOPS 57 238 XII. AiTES 62 240 XIII. HYLAS 65 241 XIV. THE LOVE OF CYNISCA, OR THYONICHUS . 70 244 XV. THE SYRACUSAN WOMEN ; OR, ADONIAZUS^ . 74 247 XVI. THE graces; OR, HIERO .... 83 253 XVII. THE PRAISE OF PTOLEMY 90 256 XVIII. THE EPITHALAMIUM OF HELEN ... 97 200 ilX. THE STEALER OF HONEY-COMBS . . . 102 202 XX. THE HERDSMAN 103 263 XXI. THE FISHERMEN 106 264 XXII. THE DIOSCURI 110 266 XXIII. THE LOVER ; OR, LOVE-SICK .... 122 273 XXIV. THE LITTLE HERCULES 125 275 XXV. HERCULES THE LION-SLAYER, OR, THE WEALTH OF AUGEAS 132 279 XXVI. THE BACCHANALS 144 287 XXVII. THE FOND DISCOURSE OF DAPHNIS AND THE DAMSEL . 146 288 I I IV CONTENTS. IDYLL XXVIIl. THE DISTAFF X^IX. LOVES XXX. THE DEATH OF ADONIS. A FRAGMENT FROM THE BERENICE . EPIGRAMS . . • . • PROSE. VERSB 150 292 151 293 153 294 155 295 156 ib. 3ttigUs of 33 ion. THE EPITAPH OF ADONIS . . • • • EROS AND THE FOWLER . . • • THE TEACHER TAUGHT THE POWER OF LOVE ..... LIFE TO BE ENJOYED ..... CLEODAMUS AND MYRSON .... ON HYACINTHUS ...... FRIENDSHIP ... ... IX. -XIV. FRAGMENTS XV. THE EPITHALAMIUM OF ACHILLES AND DEIDAMIA XVI. TO THE EVENING STAR ..... XVII. LOVE RESISTLESS ...... I. II. III. IV. V. VI. VII. VIII. Jtiplls of iHoscIjUS. I. LOVE A RUNAWAY II. EUROPA III. THE EPITAPH OF BION, A LOVING HERDSMAN IV. MEGARA, THE WIFE OF HERCULES . • V. THE CHOICE VI. ril. ALPHEUS " LOVB XHEM THAT LOVE YOU '* ▲N EPIGRAM . FRAGMENT THE WAR-«ONGS OF T^ RT^US. 166 301 170 304 171 ib. 172 305 173 ib. 174 306 175 307 ib. ib. 176 ib. 177 308 179 309 ib. 310 180 31C 181 311 188 316 194 319 199 323 i*. ib. 200 ib. ib, 324 201 ib. 325 3a* PEEFACE In the following translation of Theocritus, Bion, and Moschus, the text of Kiessling has been mainly adopted. But where a passage appeared obscure or corrupt, the trans- lator has used his own judgment in deciding between the readings suggested by Heindorf, in 1810, Briggs, in 1821, and Wordsworth, in 1844; and has either recorded in notes, or admitted into the body of the translation, whichever he deemed preferable. He has also had recourse to the Poetge Grogci Minores, of Gaisford ; to " Theocritus Sacram Scrip- turam illustrans," by Chr. Porschberger, Lipsiae, 1744 ; and to the several metrical translations of Theocritus, &c., by Creech, Fawkes, Polwhele, and Chapman, the latter of which is appended to this volume. And he has given, in the form of notes, much information derived from these, and from scattered criticisms in the Classical Museum and elsewhere, including Smith's Dictionaries of Greek and Roman Anti- quities, and Biography. This labour has been undertaken and completed in the hope that it may be useful to those who have not leisure to search for themselves, and yet would fain refresh their memory with the sweet strains of the Doric min- strelsy, as well as to those who require assistance towards mastering these confessedly difficult poets. VI PREFACE. Whatever the labour, the translator is aware that the credit attaching to a prose translation is by no means large. Yet he believes that, properly applied, such a work may be of great advantage : and though a resolute opponent of the in- discriminate use of a *' crib," he is not the less persuaded that there are many hard-working tyros, as well as advanced students, to whom it may be a great boon, and whose progress in classical knowledge it will assist rather than impede. He has taken up the work " con amore ; " inasmuch as the taste for the Bucolic Poets, which he imbibed under one who had a keen appreciation of their beauties, — and who, in his too brief tenure of the head-mastership of one of our principal schools, manifested singular felicity in inspiring his pupils with a zest for their song, — has grown into an ardent desire to do somewhat towards their more extended study. He rejoices to hear that there is hope of a fresh edition of the Greek Bucolic Poets from the University of Cambridge, the promise of which is not likely to be imperfectly fulfilled, considering the hand from which it is to come. Meanwhile, if through this unpretending translation, which, without being servile in its literality, is, the translator hopes, sufficiently close, a score more men within the next two years shall be induced to place Theo- critus on their list for the public examinations at Oxford, he will not regret the labour bestowed upon rendering into bare prose a bard whose lays are so full of poetiy. J. B. Grammar ScJwol of King Edward VI., Ludlow. BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE CP THEOCRITUS. B. c. 284— 280. For the biography of the foremost of Bucolic minstrels, the pastoral poet Theocritus, unfortunately few materials exist. Indeed the little which is known is inferred either from the actual poems of Theocritus himself, or from such as have been published under his name. Of the latter class is the 22nd epigram, from which we gather his parentage and birth-place, and which is generally held to have been the work of Ar- temidorus the grammarian. Evidently written with a view to distinguishing between our poet and his Chian namesake, an orator and sophist, it fixes for his native place Syracuse, and for his parents Praxagoras and Philinna. With this account Suidas substantially agrees, though he adds that some make Theocritus the son of Simichus, or Simichidas, and holds that, being originally a native of Cos, he had become a nietaech or foreign settler at Syracuse. Now if we compare this notion with the Scholia on the 7th Idyll, vs. 21, (where it is suggested by some that the name is an assumed one, derived from (TifjiOQ, flat-nosed,) as well as with the QeoKpirov yivog, it seems that a confusion has arisen with regard to the identity of Theocritus with Simichidas, into whose mouth the 7th Idyll is put. It does not seem to have occurred to those who make Simi- chus the father of the Syracusan poet, that bards are wont to shadow forth their own words, thoughts, and acts, under ficti- tious names and unreal characters, and that Theocritus might really have described what happened to himself in the "Thaly- sia," and yet not have used the name of Simichidas, otherwise than Virgil uses that of Tityrus. — Nor is there any reason to • •• ▼111 BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE suppose that the claime of Cos to the honour of his birth and early training rest on stronger grounds than that he studied under Philetus of Cos, whom he mentions in Idyll vii. 40, whe- ther at Cos itself or in Alexandria is not clear. Of Philetus, and Asclepiades, of whom he speaks as t6v iadXov SaeXt^av Toy U 2aftw, (Idyll vii. 40,) it is known that they were dis- tinguished poets of the Alexandrian school, whom Theocritus professedly admired, and of the former of whom he was pro- bably a pupil. There is internal evidence in the Idylls of the poet, that he resided for some space at Alexandria, and afterwards at Syracuse, whilst the 7th Idyll shows such a knowledge of the localities of Cos, as could hardly, one should think, have been obtained without a personal acquaintance with the island. Here may have arisen his intimacy with Ni- cias of Miletus, the physician to whom he dedicated the 11th and 13th Idylls, and to whose wife, Theugenis, he wrote a pleasing ditty, (28th,) with a silver distaff. But this is mere conjecture, arising probably out of the nearness of Cos to Miletus. To Alexandria Theocritus was no doubt at- tracted by the fame of its library, founded by Ptolemy Soter, and raised to its highest point of eminence by his son Philadelphus, under whose care it became the resort of the most distinguished literati of the day, Zenodotus, Callimachus, Hegesias, Euclid, Aratus. To the last of these, the astro- nomer and poet, who was the author of the Phsenomena, he addressed his 6th Idyll, and his name occurs again in the Idyll following. Association with such a man would not be without its advantages, and we here and there discover traces of his having imbibed from his friend some acquaintance with astronomical matters. But it was probably at Alex- andria, too, that he found access to the pages of the Septua- gint, itself a lasting monument of the Egyptian monarch's zeal in the collection of literary treasures. No one can read the 16th, 18th, 20th, and 23rd Idylls without being struck by the similarity of thought and expression of passages in each, to portions of the Psalms of David, the Book of Job, the Song of Solomon, and the Prophecies of Isaiah. The parallels have been pointed out in the notes to the present translation : but the strengtii of internal evidence to the supposition that Theo- critus availed himself of the access, which he miofht undoubt* OF THEOCRITUS. IZ edly have had, to the Septuagint, receives additional forco Jn the comparison of the whole scene of altercation between Pollux and Amycus with the historical record of the encounter be- tween David and Goliath in the First Book of Samuel. It can hardly be doubted that Theocritus composed the 14th, 15th, and 17th Idylls at Alexandria : he could not have enjoyed even the passing favour and brief notice of Ptolemy Phila- delphus, without becoming interested in the law and records of that strange race, the Jews of many wanderings ; one hun- dred and twenty thousand of whom had been liberated by that '/ monarch from the slavery in which Ptolemy Soter had bound them. Josephus (Antiq. xii. 2) writes at length respecting the interest shown by Ptolemy Philadelphus in obtaining for his vast library an accurate translation of the Books of the Old Testament. We find from him how the monarch strove to purchase the good will of the nation by sending splendid gifts to the God of Israel : how he valued the translators and their translations : and how he conversed with his librarian, Demetrius Phalereus, on the deep meaning and superior wisdom of the Jewish law. And we know enough of the tide of fashion, especially if it is royal taste that lifts the floodgate, which carries onward successful literature of any class, to feel sure that a scholar could hardly have tarried even for a brief space at Alexandria without inspect- ing that volume, which even to heathens was a work of wonder, fostered by reflecting credit upon one of the fore- most of the then rulers of the world. A poet likewise, im- bued, as was Theocritus, with a sense of the charm of natural simplicity, and having withal, as some of his poems show, no mean appreciation of the glorious epic, could never have been content with a transient glance at a collection of such infinite graces, simplicity, grandeur, natural colouring, and noble imagery, as the translation of the Seventy elders, inferior though it be in diction to the original. No ! like others, he dipped often into that well of wisdom, albeit he knew not the spell which renders it sweeter to the taste than all other waters. Hovering around those sacred pages, he caught the scent of flowers of poesy, which he has transferred into his Idylls, and we have the gratification of an involuntary testi- mony from a heathen poet to the charms of composition and material, with which the sacred volume is so richly fraught. b )l BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE Oir taste will be wilfully dull, if it acknowledge not the extreme probability that the Syracusan saw the i^eptuagint, and there need be no stumbling-block in the argument that he no where mentions the Jews. He dived for pearls of poesy, leavinrr unexplored the buried treasures of history and reh- eion ° Without satisfactory data for any certain conclusion, we can at least give the benefit of probabilities in favour of our poet's acquaintance with the Septuagint. From this we pass on to other matter. Theocritus, while at Alexandria, was allowed, we presume, to dedicate his 17th Idyll to Ptolemy Philadelphus ; and we have reason to suppose that the 14th and 15th were com- posed there also. But it is clear that he did not find the monarch and his capital such kindly fosterers of his Muse as he might have expected : for very soon we find him hyranin^ at Syracuse the praises (considerably quahfied by doubts of his open-handedness) of King Hiero Jhe Second. That monarch had ascended the throne B. C. 270 : and the Idyll to which reference has been made, appears to have been written during the 1st Punic War, if we may judge from the allusion which he makes to the failing Carthagi- nians, and Hiero's alliance with their implacable foe. This would fix the date of the Idyll as 263 b. c. ; when a treaty between Hiero and the Romans was concluded. But the rays of courtly favour must have been here also any thing but warm, the atmosphere chilly, when a poet was to be cher- ished, or creative genius to be saved from starvation and blight. Hiero's munificence was bestowed rather on kingdoms and potentates, than on minstrels and their songs. Perhaps Theo- critus discovered at this point the mistake of trusting in princes for the advancement of poetic excellence : at any rate, the greater portion of his Idylls show him to have sought in the calm tranquillity of country life and pastoral scenery, that independent self-reliance, which, after all, is the safest nurse of the lovely rhyme. Though when he rises to heroics, as in the encomiums on Ptolemy and Hiero, and in the 22nd, 24th, and 2oth Idylls, he fully sustains his reputation, and no where falls into poverty of language, or mediocrity of conception ; yet it is on the first eleven Idylls, the 14th, 15th, and 21st, that his title to the fame, which has been universally ac- corded to him, is most really and justly based. Bion and OF THEOCRITUS. XI Moschu3 are pretty conceit-weavers : they sometimes delight us with passages unrivalled for warmth of colouring and ten- derness of pathos : — but for simple rural life, accurately and tastefully depicted, for the thorough appreciation of nature, and reliance thereupon for the staple of his song, Theocritus ranks immeasurably above them. He stands alone, with a crowd of imitators at a wide interval of merit. Virgil's Ec- logues have no inherent stamp of reality about them. We lack the shepherd's account of his own life among his sheep. There is more of polish than of nature. We have the cour- tier drawing smooth pictures from fancy ; not the passion- ate lover of the country deriving his materials from the real landscapes on which he is actually looking out. To borrow an apt expression, Virgil's Eclogues are pictures of a polished mind playing at shepherd. And as to our own pastoral writers, Spenser, Pope, Gay, Lyttleton, and Shenstone, none reach to half the heif^ht of Bucolic minstrelsy, to which their great model undeniably attained. Spenser's dialect and metre are unfavourable to his subject ; and he can lay no claim to be a true bard of nature ; while it is matter of fact that beneath his rural images there is an under-current of allusion to matters of religion. Wlio can enjoy with true zest the pastoral, where the shepherd RoflSn symbolizes a bishop of Rochester, and the watch-dog Lowder, one of his chaplains ? (See Shepherd's Calendar, Eel. ix.j And as for Pope, whose pretensions rank next, his pastorals deserve credit only because they were written by a boy of sixteen ; it were an insult to compare them with the mature productions of Theocritus. For smoothness of versification, they have indeed won praise from Macaulay and the Earl of Carlisle; but these two most capable judges assign to them no higher meed. Indeed, had Pope's pastorals alone survived their author, we may well question whether his name would have even been remembered. As for the rest, they claim still less right to tread the same ground, to rank in the same order with Theocritus, in that portion of the temple of fame which good taste will always assign to the Pastoral or Bu- colic poets. Coarse though the Syracusan bard be here and there, he is indeed, as Quinctilian calls him, " admirabilis in suo genere," nor is it any detraction from his well-won laurels that the b 2 Xll BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE same critic goes on to say, " sed musa ilia rustica et pastoralis non forum modo, verum ipsam etiam urbem reformidat." (Inst, Orator, x. 1.) It must be borne in mind, when we stumble on grave objections against the poems of Theocritus, that hia idea of simplicity is not a transcendental, but a natural one. He has no model Arcadia in view : his eye is all the while upon the woods and vales and river pastures of his native Sicily ; taking his shepherds as he found them there, mak- ing them speak what they did speak, not what they ought to have spoken. There are blemishes to his Idylls, which cer- tainly render an expurgated edition of them a desideratum : but these affect more or less all the chief writers of antiquity. The question however which is just now dividing the educa- tional world of France, seems to us to admit of but one solu- tion. What is true of most of the Greek and Latin Classics, is of course true of Theocritus, as one of them. We cannot forego the charms of the whole, because our delicacy is of- fended, our purity shocked, by one or two Idylls, which, while they illustrate the darkest traits in the life of a heathen, only make us the more thankful that Christianity has at least gone far to banish one of the worst forms of human guilt and degradation. But upon the whole, the poems of Theocritus, without aiming at any deep moral lesson, are eminently calcu- lated to nourish in us a growth of that keen taste for rural scenery, which is one of the purest and finest of earthly yearn- ings : whilst in liveliness, variety, and rhythm they certainly surpass anything of their kind, ancient or modern. And this must have arisen from the familiarity in which, we infer, The- ocritus passed his latter years with rural scenes and characters. It is seldom that we have no notice, at any rate no tradition, respecting the death of the poets of the ancient world. Of Hesiod, Simonides, ^schylus, Sophocles, Callimachus, Apol- lonius, Rhodius, (and these are but a few names taken hap-ha- zard,) we find some story at least, vague though it be, of their death or their burial-place. But Theocritus seems to have vanished from before the eyes of men, after he had lamented at Syracuse the small account in which bards of his day were held of tyrants. May he not have ended his days unnoticed in some quiet spot, to rise long after into fame by his depic- tion of it, while his bones lay sepulchred on one of the head- lands which he puts before us so vividly ? Did he not fjJl OF THEOCRITUS. Xiti a«do€p afar from the din of cities, bewept, like his fabled Daphnis, by universal nature ? Ovid, we can hardly doubt, was in his Ibis confusing the poet with his Chian namesake, where he says, Utque Syracosio praestricta fauce poetae Sic animse laqueo sit via clausa tibi. Lib. in Ibim, 554. In a note upon this passage in the Delphin edition, it is ob- served, that the old interpreters understood this to mean that Theocritus was hung by the son of Hiero, king of Sicily, on account of his invectives against him. But this only proves the fear of him, who wrote the epigram before alluded to, as distinguishing the name-sakes of Syracuse and Chios, to have been a well-grounded fear. Ovid, if, by the Syracusan poet, he means Theocritus, seems to have stumbled on the rock of which that epigram might have warned him. The fate of the Chian seems to have been transferred in his mind to the Syracusan, as will be seen by the following extract from Macrobius, Saturnalia, lib. vii. c. 3. * " King Antigonus put to death the Chian Theocritus, al- though he was bound by an oath to spare him, on account of an unfortunate joke of that individual at his expense. For when he was being dragged before Antigonus as if to receive punishment, and his friends were comforting him, and afford- ing hopes *that he would experience the royal clemency, when once he had come before the eyes of the king ; Then,' observed he, * the hope you hold out of safety is a vain one.' For the king had lost one eye. So the ill-timed witticism cost the prisoner his life.'* Now if we thus clear away this very apparent confusion between the two, we have no account of the death of the pastoral poet ; no, nor the vaguest allusion to it. But the works which survive him are evidence that he has not all died : while taste survives, he must hold undisputed supremacy in his own branch of the poetic art. Of the origin and nature of that species of poetry which dates its ascendency from Theocritus, there is little which has not been said again and again. The student who desires to arrive at the results of older lucubrations on this subject, must wade through subtle distinctions and learned disquisitions respecting pastoral and heroic poetiy He will :iy BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE ll find that the birth-place of the former is contended by some to have been Sicily, by others Arcadia. And while one and another ascribe its first authorship to various f>octs of more or less historical periods, some have been fain to date it from the golden age. Now, when we gain experience of the diffi- culties which arise in reconciling so many and diverse state- ments, and find that the more effort we make, the further we drift into a sea of troubles, our natural inclination coincides with some sort of likelihood, which is in favour of that last opinion. The truth may be that some kind of pastoral was the first form of poetry. What more natural, when we reflect that the eldest of the human race reckoned their superiority by their flocks and herds. Men were all shepherds : and so little of shame was there connected with an occupation now so lowly, that no higher or more expressive title for a mighty ruler was sought than that of " shepherd of hig peoples." Of course, under these circumstances, the pastoral was likely to be an early form of poetry, and withal one not likely to be despised. Indeed, among those who practised it at an early date were Moses and Miriam, Deborah and Barak, as well as the sweet Psalmist of Israel. When therefore we discuss the age of its invention, we can but say that it was of every age. The first up-rising of it was, we may conclude, in that primaeval condition of men, when the system of concentration into towns and fenced cities had not yet begun : but when men led a nomad life, and whiled their hours afield by alternate strains, whilst they were pastur- ing their flocks. It was the song of nature, little polished per- haps, but still not without its inspiration, because it flowed directly from the shrines of her, whom he that worships most is ever the truest and most accepted poet. The rustling of the trees, the vocal pine, the murmurings of rivulets, the very notes of birds, were so many of nature's hints to man to create for himself a harmony more excellent in proportion as the gift of speech excels all inarticulate sounds. And when we add to this the influence of a sunny sky, a genial atmosphere, a mind unruffled with the cares and sins which harass and pollute the life of crowded cities, the wonder would be if 8ong had not ari«en ; and that song, in common gratitude, of such a kind as should depict and hold up to imitation the Ufe which was so singularly blessed. Gratitude, too, led OF THEOCRITUS. them no doubt to celebrate the festivals of their gods, the tutelar deities of light and shade, of cattle and of fruits — Apollo, Diana, Pan, and Ceres. Prizes offered for such strains at these holy seasons would kindle a rivalry promotive of advancement, and render easier the steps by which they should pass into an art. This is probably the key to the mythical ascription of pastoral poetry to Apollo Nomius, the herds- man whilome in the halls of Admetus. Diomus, Daplinis, and Stesiehorus, all of them Sicilian, may have been its first promoters upon Dorian soil ; and as Theocritus seems to have been the first who applied a highly cultivated mind to the task of infusing into Amaeboean strains the grace and beauty which he has wrought into his Idylls, his country Sicily stands justly foremost as the birth-place of Bucolic minstrelsy. The Dorian character, too, was apter than that of other races to this kind of poetry : mimetic art had its eminent representative in the Sicilian Sophron : and among them mimetic and comic dia- logue, as well as pastoral, arose in some measure out of the unstudied repartees of the Lydiastae and Bucolistae, or of some such performers. These gave a basis, whereon the more studied Idyll might take its stand, and the great master of whom we are treating, was not slow to apply all his varied know^ledge of nature and of art to this lively form of poetry^ so calculated to keep the interest from flagging, the hearer or reader from becoming wearied. He first moulded these rude strains into grace and beauty. He smoothed the ruggednesses of verse. He inspired the picture with novel life ; and, whilst he preserved the guise of nature throughout, evinced that master power which is most teeming with the perfection of art, when its creations look likest nature. • It remains that we should attempt a classification of the various poems of Theocritus which have come down to us. The arguments to each of these have been prefixed in the body of the translation. Of the thirty Idylls extant, ten are properly Bucolics, the 1st, the 3rd, and all up to the 12th. The 2nd Idyll can scarcely come under this head, though the wider term «i^r/, or eidvWia, pictures, that is, of common every- day life, may embrace that as well as the 14th, 15th, the 21st, and perhaps some others. Some, however, claim the 2nd and 15th for a separate class under the head of mimetic Idylls. The 12th, 18th, 19th, 20th, 23rd, 27th, and 29th, JCTl BIOGRAPUICiL NOTICE are erotic: the 16th and 17th, encomiastic: the 22nd, 24th, 2oth, and 26th, belong to the epic class ; whilst the 28th is epistolary, and the 30th Anacreontic. Of those classed as erotic, the manner and form is various, as the reader will ob- serve. The genuineness of all the Idylls after the 18th has been much questioned : this however is not a matter either likely to repay great research, or calculated to interest the general reader. They are for the most part in hexameter verse : the thirty-two epigrams are some of them elegiac, some epodic. It is difficult to fix upon one beauty beyond another in these matchless pastorals, by singling out which one may send the uninitiated reader with a whetted appetite to the whole volume. A thousand charms of poesy press forward, each claiming foremost commemoration. In the first Idyll we linger long over the sorrows of Daphnis, which Virgil has transfused into his Eclogues, over the immortal lines {66 — 69) which have lost none of their pristine sweetness, when, having passed the ordeal of transplantation, they bloom anew in the Lycidas of Milton, (Lycidas, 1. 50,) " Where were ye, nymphs, when the remorseless deep,** &c.; or yet again in the same Idyll, over that (to the translator's taste at least) most enviable epitaph, (140, 141,) Xf^ ^d^vig f(ia p6ov' tKkvat Siva TOP 'MioffaiQ 0i\ov avSpUy rbv ov tivfitpaiffiv aTTSx^rj, In the second Idyll, we view the fierceness of disappointed love, in the raging passion of Simaetha : in the sixth, a more rustic and clownish, yet not less touching, hopelessness, at- tributed to the Cyclops in the song of Damtetas. Or if pretty picturings of scenery are more the object of our search, what translation can do justice to the 13th Idyll, the Hylas, the charming rural scene in the end of the 7th, or the 25th Idyll from the 34th to the 50th line ? There are passages in the Hylas unsurpassed by any poet of whatever age or clime ; as, for mstance, from the 35th to the 60th line, where the capture of the youth by the enamoured Naiads is depicted. The Gossips of Theocritus are such a life-like picture, so capitally drawn, that it were a work of supererogation to point It out, or to commend it. It is nature itself,''not as it was seen in Sicily, or in Alexandria, but as it ever has been OF THEOCRITUS. XVli throughout the world. The Epithalamium of Helen (18th) and the Infant Hercules (24th) are excellent in their kinds • and the Honey-stealer (19th) won the notice and translating hand of the poet Moore, by its Anacreontic savour. And by no means must any reader pass by the fishermen of the 21st Idyll. Their wattled cabin is an old favourite of every lover of Theocritus : and there is untold humour in Asphahon's dream, and his sage comrade's advice thereupon But It IS invidious to mention these. The beauties uncom- memorated may with ease be proved to eclipse the few which we have instanced. The touch of Theocritus left no subject without some impress of native grace and liveliness. " Kihil quod tetigit, non ornavit." ' Of the Epigrams, the 6th, " on the loss of the kid," the 14th an epitaph on Eurymedon, and the 15th, another on the same' are very beautiful. The Epigram on the Bank qf Caicus, (23rd ) might fitly stand translated over the doors of the safest estab- lishments of a like nature in modern days ; whilst, on the principle of keeping the best till last, we are bound to set before all, as praise the noblest in the aim, the most glorious in the acquisition, the conclusion of the Epigram on the Sici- han Epicharmus (Epigr. xvii.) : iroXXa yap ttot' Tav ^6av toU iraifTiv eWe XP^f^^f^^' MtydXa X"P** avTuj' Full many a rule of life he drew, Still pointing to the fair, the true, The youthful mind : High favour crowns the bard. (Polwhelfi.) BIOGBAPHICAL NOTICE OF BIO N. If materials are scanty for a Life of Theocritus, they are much more so for those of his first imitators, Bion and Moschus. An Elegy of the latter is the only faint glimmer of light, by which we can guess at, we cannot say discern, aught of history of the former. Yet it would interest us if we could know how far Bion professedly reverenced Theocritus, what value he set upon simplicity in Pastorals, whether he aimed at a new school of that branch of the poetic art, and whether he would account as an improvement that over-refined sentiment- ality which robs his Muse of all claim to be a child of nature. But, except the 3rd Idyll of Moschus, no data for his life exist — unless we take upon the authority of Suidas that he was born beside that river, which by tradition is reputed to have reared on its banks the greatest of poets, the immortal Homer, the river Meles, at Phlossa in the neighbourhood of Smyrna. From the Elegy above referred to, we assume that Bion left his native country for Sicily, and spent at least his latter days in cultivating the Bucolic minstrelsy, so thoroughly identified with that pastoral isle. It seems hardly safe how- ever to lay it down, with some, on the faith of the words in Moschus, (Id. iii. 17, &c.,) that Bion visited Thrace and Macedonia ; because the sense of the passage does not neces- sarily imply more than that Strymonian swans and -^agrian nymphs might well mourn and weep afresh, since a Dorian, equal to their native Orpheus, had ceased to breathe forth his lovely lays. One fact, however, stands out distinctly, namely, that the poet came to an untimely death by poison. BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE OF BION. XIZ which was administered to him by more than one individual and that the murderers, whosoever they were, paid the penalty of their crime. The age of Bion can be determined only by the statement of Moschus, (iii. 100— lOo,) that he was one of his disciples, and that Theocritus mourned his loss. Grant • ing this, we must take his date as 280 b. c. As has been before observed in the Life of Theocritus, the poems of Bion which have come down to us are vastly inferior in pastoral beauty, in natural simplicity, and inherent truthful- ness, to the work« of the Syracusan master. But here and there we chance upon a passage of eminent loveliness. Every where the Asiatic softness seems to add luxurious grace to his tuneful songs ; though this is but a poor substitute for the vigorous and healthy freshness of the Father of Pastorals. Bion standing alone would soon fade from our memories. He is fortunate in being preserved with his pupil and elegiast to complete the volume of Greek Pastoral Poets, which is, alas ' our sole legacy in this kind from the Alexandrian school." His versification is very elegant ; his language, Doric, with some few lonicisms and Atticisms. BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE OF MOSCHUS. The poet Moschus seems to have found no kindred spirit to embalm his memory in harmonious numbers: or if he had that fortune, it has not survived the oblivion which so remorselessly overwhelms the rest of his personal history. We reckon him a Syracusan, whose day was about the close of the third century before Christ. And he must have been con- temporaneous with Bion, probably in age somewhat younger. He does not reach the excellence of his friend and teacher, far less that of Theocritus. Indeed there lies over all his pieces a clothing of affectation, and study of ornament, which makes them read as forced and unnatural compositions. Still many passages might be quoted which are highly poetic, none more so perhaps than that exquisite passage in the third Idyll^ (105 — 114,) where, in a lament over the briefness of this mor- tal life, the mighty of the earth are contrasted with the flowers of the field in such an earnest tone of pathos, as shows the enlightened heathen dissatisfied with prevailing religions, whilst it teaches our own higher privileges, to us who have, held out and within our grasp, " the sure and certain hope of the resurrection to eternal life." BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE or TYRLEUS. B. c. 660 ? The elegiac poet, Tyrtnsus, whose remains, in an Engllish garb, close the present volume, follows immediately in his branch of the poetic art, the founder of Greek elegy, Callinus. An elegy, according to the Greek notion, is a poem composed of a combination of hexameters and pentameters. It seems often to have been of the nature of a dirge or lament, and the word 'iXtyoQ has no distinct reference to metrical form, though iXeyda has. Its origin was undoubtedly Asiatic. Crossing the -^gean, it found one of its most eminent cultivators in Tyr- taeus, the poet whom tradition has handed down to us as the Athenian present to their hereditary enemies the Spartans, when they had been directed by the Delphic oracle to seek a leader from Athens for the second Messenian war. The story runs, that Athens, never hearty towards Sparta, save in her hatred, sent her the worst selection that, according to ap- j)earances, could be made, — a lame schoolmaster and composer of verses, who dwelt at Aphidnae, a village of Attica : and that this Ionian inspired the Dorian warriors who adopted him, with such spirit through his fiery strains, that victory crowned their prowess. The second Messenian war is placed by Pausanias between 01. 23, 4 and 28, 1, that is, between B. c. 685 and 668 : but this date is considered by the latest authorities too high, and indeed, as Callinus probably flour- bhed about b. c. 660, and we are led to believe that Tyrtseua xxii BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE was but a few years junior to him, this would seem to be tha more probable date. The main features of the popular tradition, however pleas- ing to our school-day notions of history, must of course be taken only as containing the germ of certain truths, and not as being themselves broad historical truths. Castor and Pol- lux, according to old legends, had been adopted by Aphidnus, the hero from whom Aphidnae was named : and as the Dios- curi were Spartan, the Aphidnaeans may have been moved by some feelings or ties of kindred, and not by the will of Athens, to send Tyrtaeus to the aid of Laconia. This would crush the fable of intentional insult on the part of Athens. And then as to the origin of Tyrtaeus, it cannot be doubted that he was of Ionian stock, (whether a native of Attica, or a settler in it from one of her Asiatic colonies, as Suidas states, it matters not, for the inventions of the colonies would soon find their way to their polished metropolis:) because we know that the branch of poetry in which he excelled was pe- culiarly Ionian ; and not such as can claim any early vigour or native success among the Dorians. Whether he came from Miletus to Aphidnag, or was born at the latter place, we need not inquire ; there is no ground at any rate for the supposi- tion that he was a Lacedasmonian by birth, as Strabo and Athenaeus have stated on the authority of Philochorus and Callisthenes. Surely his elegiac strains disprove this. With regard to his lameness, and his supposed office of village school- master at Aphidnae, the truth to be evolved from these state- ments is probably that he wrote uneven couplets, and, like other early poets, taught the art, of which he was so skilful a master. If he was either by birth or by sojourn an Aphid- naean, there is no wonder in his interest for Sparta, nor, on the other hand, any difficulty in understanding why, coming from Attica, he yet became a favourite with the Lacedaemonians. And, certain it is, that whatever may have been his bodily defects, whatever his inexperience in generalship, his martial strains and wise counsels achieved much, in which a skilful general might have failed without them. As a bard, he was no mean leader of his adopted countrymen : for ages afterwards, their evening meal on their campaigns closed with the recitation of bis spirit-stirring war-songs : and when the foe was vanquish- er TTRTiEUS. ••• xxm cd, and the spoil divided, he it was, who, in that office of sage counsellor, which of old so often went hand in hand with the gift of song, was enabled to smooth those internal differences which arose among the victors, and to dispose the minds of contending brethren to consider the blessing of tranquillity and order. To this end he composed his " Eunomia," an elegy on good government, of which a portion remains to us in the 10th fragment in the present translation. Miiller (Literature of Ancient Greece, p. Ill) has given us a sketch of the man- ner in which Tyrtaeus dealt probably with the subject : discou- raging anarchy ; picturing the charms of good government | upholding law, and warning those whom he addressed that on Spartan courage and Spartan unity would depend the maintenance of their territorial possessions, and the present and future weal of their state. Sparta, says the fragment, is the care of the immortals, Zeus himself having given the country to the Heracleids, and power having been divided most justly, by the advice of the Pytliian god, among the kings, the Geru- sia, and the commons in their popular assembly. But, no doubt, his fame rests on his war-songs, to which Horace has alluded in his Ars Poet. 402, Tyrtceusque mares animos in Martia bella Versibus exacuit. These, whether elegiac, or, as the marching songs were, ana- paestic in measure, brought victory to Sparta, and estimation to himself. These entitle him to rank pre-eminently high among those minstrel spirits, whose best it has been to spur a nation to deeds of valour, and to celebrate its conquests. The edition of Tyrtaeus which has been mainly used for this translation, that of Klotz, Altenb. 1767, 8vo, contains a learned dissertation on the war-songs of various countries, amongst which is included one which deserves to be pointed out, as worthy of comparison with Tyrtaeus, or any other poet of war- like strains. The death-song of the Danish sea-king, Regner Lodbrog, known to us by the prose translation of it in the English version of Mallet's Northern Antiquities, and ren- dered into spirited verse by an anonymous contributor (S. M.) to a vol. of translations of German Ballads, Songs, &c., pub- lished by James Burns, London, some years ago. xxiv BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE OF TYRT.EUS. The edition of Klotz contains some very valuable notes on tlie various fragments, a selection of which has been given in the present volume. The metrical version is that of Pol- whele, as published with his verse translation of Theocritus, Bion, and Moschus. J. B. THEOCRITUS, IDYLL L ARGUMENT. rhe Poet, proposing to celebrate the end of Daphnis, the hero of Sicilian shepherds, finds an opening of his subject in a dialogue be- ween a goatherd and a shepherd named Thyrsis. The latter be-s ^he tormer to sing with the accompaniment of his pipe. This he de- dines, for fear of awakening Pan, and strives to prevail upon Thyrsfs by the offer of a goat and a most highly wrought drinking-cup to sing of the death of Daphnis. Thyrsis accordingly begins by i^f^k! ng the Nymphs: describes the grief of the brute creation at ?he sorrows of Daphnis: the sympathy of Pan and Mercury, as well as the shepherds their worshippers : the bitterness of Daphnis towards Venus, who had caused his sorrows, but is now inclined to rdent The song concludes with the farewell of Daphnis to all the objects o his former joys. After which performance, the goatherd presents Thyrsis with the meed of his song. ^ presents THYRSIS THE SHEPHERD, AND THE GOATHERD. ^ Thyrsis. ^ Of a sweet nature, goatherd, is the murmur- mg of yon pme, which tunefully rustles by the fountains : and sweetly too do you play on the pipe: next to Pan you shall carry off the second prize. If he shall have taken the horned he-goat, you shall receive the she-goat : and if he • Compare Pope, Past. iv. 80, In some still evening when the whispering breeze Pants on the leaves, and dies among the trees And again in the same Pastoral, Thyrsis, the music of that murmuring spring, Ajj , ^8 '^o^^ so mournful as the strains you sin'* Besides these.] For this use of ^tra with a dative, compare Idyll xvii. 84 and xxv. 129. . " The full expression here would be Kara t6 IDYLL II. THE SORCERESS. ARGUMENT. Sim^Etha. a maid of Syracuse, of middle rank, (70-74,) seeing hersel. slighted by Delphis, of whom she is enamoured, becomes suspicious and jealous, and strives to regain his love by charms and philters. At nit^ht, by the light of the moon, she holds a magic rite, to which chosen attendants are admitted. The object of these is, that the per- son on whom the charm is designed to work, may suffer the same as tfie inanimate objects used in the ceremonial. The rite being over, and Thestvlis gone, Simcetha details the rise and progress of her love and her suspicions of the faithlessness of Delphis, addressing herself to the Moon, as presiding over the solemnity. Lastly, she threatens 37 The goatherd wishes Thyrsis, besides other good things, Attic dried figs from the canton {^rjfioQ) ^gilus ; from which the best fruit ot this kind came. Valkenaer and Warton think air AiycXw iax<^da is the same as AiyiXida iaxada. „*„»,♦ 38 This line is a periphrasis for a very beautiful cup. It is a constant usage with Theocritus, Bion, and Moschus, to introduce the Hours adding grace and elegance to every thing which comes beneath th^r influence. Compare Theocr. Idyll, xt. 105, which see, and Mosch. u. 160, cat ol Xtx^i' tvTvvov iapai. 10 THEOCRITUS. 1—14. I li heavy doom to the faithless youth, if he return not to his love for her. This Idyll with others, the 15th and 28th, treat of town, not country life. Virgil, in the 8th Eclogue, has borrowed from it largely. Where, prythee, are my laurels ? Bring them, Thestylis. And where the love-charms ? Crown the pail ^ with choicest purple wool ! that I may ^ overpower hy magw the lover who is cruel to me, for, wretch that he is, ^'tis twelve days since he has ever been to see me : neither knows he whether I am dead or '^ alive, nor has he knocked-furiously at the doors, being untoward: surely Eros has gone off with his fickle heart elsewhere, and Aphrodite. I will go to-morrow to the paljjestra of Timagetus, that I may see him, and reproach him for the way in which he treats me. But now I will compel him to love by magic rites. However, ^O Moon, shine brightly, for to thee will I sing softly, O goddess, and to infernal Hecate, at whom even whelps tremble, as she goeth along the tombs and the dark gore of the corpses. Hail ! 6 frightful Hecate, and be thou with me to the end, making * aiyri^, the flower, the best of its kind. Cf. Idyll xiii. 27, and con- sult Butmann's Lexilogus on the word. II. xiii. 599. 2 Virg. Eel. viii. 64—66, Effer aquam, et molli cinge hsec altaria -vittd : Verbenasque adole pingues et mascula thura : Conjugis ut magicis sanos avertere sacris Experiar sensus. ^ AiodiKaralog. This form of speech for ^utdexa Tjfxtpai siffi occurs also at vs. 157. Compare Matthia, Gr. Gr. § 446, 8, respecting adjec- tives in aiog chiefly derived from ordinal numerals. * See Matth. Gr. Gr. ^ 436, 4, a. here also on the use of the plur. masc. by a woman speaking of herself. * The Moon and Hecate are special goddesses invoked by witches. So Ben Jonson, (quoted by Chapman,) ♦' Sad shepherd." When our dame Hecat^ Made it her gaing night over the kirk-yard. With all the barking parish-tikes set at her. While I sat whirling of my brazen spindle. See Tibullus, i. 2, 52, Sola tenere malas Medeae dicitur herbas, Sola feros Hecatae perdomuisse canes. "Virg. Eel. viii. 69, Carmina vel coelo possunt deducere Lunam. So our own Shakspeare introduces Hecate in the witch-scone of Macbeth. * Horace, Epod. v. 51, Nojt et Diana quaj silentium re^fis 1.5-^. IDYLL II. 11 these potions nowise inferior either to those of ' Circe, or of Medea, or the yellow-haired Perimede. 8 Wheel, draw thou that man to my house. 9 Meal, look you, is first consumed in the fire: nay; sprinkle it over, Thestylis ; wretched girl, whither hast thou flown in wits ? Is it really so then, that I have become, you loathsome creature, an object of malignant joy even to you? Sprinkle, and say these words withal, I sprinkle the bones of Delphis. Wheel, draw thou that man to my house. ^0 Delphis has grieved me: and I burn the laurel over Delphis: and as it cracks loudly, when it has caught fire, and is suddenly in a blaze, and not even its ashes do we see ; even so may Delphis too waste in flame as to his flesh. Wheel, draw thou that man to my house ! 11 As I melt this wax by the help of the goddess, so may Myndian Delphis be presently wasted by love : and as this brazen wheel is whirled round, so may that man be whirled about by the influence of Aphrodite at my doors. Wheel, draw thou that man to my house ! Now will I sacrifice the bran, and thou, O Artemis, might- Arcana ciim fiunt sacra, Nunc num adeste. 7 Tibull. i. 2, 51, above quoted, and Propertius, ii. 4, 7, Non hie herba valet, non hie nocturna Cytaeis, Non Perimedea gramina cocta manu. The scholiast says Perimed^ is the witch whom Homer calls Agamede. * IvyE first the ' wrv-neck,' so called from its cry. It came to signify the whee'l to which wizards and witches bound this bird, believing that they drew along with it men's souls as by a charm. See Liddell and Scott, Greek Lex. at the word. For the intercalary verse, see Virg. Eel. vm., . ^ , . Ducite ab urbe domum, mea carmina,_ducite Daphmm. • Sparge molam, &c. Virg. Eel. viii. 83. 10 Virg. Eel. viii. 82, 83, Fragiles incende bitumine lauros, Daphnis me malus urit : ego banc in Daphnide laurum. Compare Propert. ii. 28, 35. Lucret. vi. 153. " Virg. Eel. viii. 80, Limus ut hie durescit et hsec ut cera liquescit, Uno eodemque igni, sic nostro Daphnis araore. See Ovid. Met. iii. 487, Sed ut intabescere flavae Igne levi eerie, matutinave pruinse Sole tepente solent, sic attenuatus amor« Liquitur. 12 THEOCRITUS. 34—55. 55—75. IDYLL n. 13 ti est move the Adamantine god in Hades, and even whatever else is stedfast-in-purpose. Thestylis, the bitches are howl- ing for us up and down the city. '^Xhe goddess is in the cross-roads : sound the brass with all speed. Wheel, draw thou that man to my house. 13 Behold, the sea is still, and the breezes are still, yet my grief is not still within my bosom : but I am all on fire for him, who has made wretched me to be base and unmaidenly, instead of a wife. Wheel, draw thou that man to my house. 1^ Thrice I offer a libation, and thrice say I these words, O venerable goddess ! ' Whether woman lies beside him, or even man, may as much of oblivion hold him, as, they say, held Theseus of yore, when in ^-^ Dia he forgot Ariadne of the beauteous locks.' Wheel, draw thou that man to my house. 1^ Hippomanes is a plant among the Arcadians : after it all the colts and fleet mares along the mountains are mad. So may I see Delphis also arrive even at this house, like unto a madman, from out the glowing palasstra. Wheel, draw thou that man to my house. 1'^ Delphis lost this border from his mantle, which I now, tearing in pieces, throw down on the raging fire. Alas, alas, " ava TTToKiv. Virg. ^n. vi., Visaeque canes ululare per urbem Adventaiite De^. Compare Statius Theb. iv. 429. Of Diana Trivia, see Ovid Trist. iv. 4, 73. '^ The poets loved to represent the winds, waves, and all nature calm and placid at the approach of Deity. See Virg. Eel. ix. 57, Et nunc omne tibi stratum silet aequor, et omnes, Aspice, ventosi ceciderunt murmuris aurte. See also the description {Mn. iv. 522, &c.) of Nature hushed in sleep, but Dido still awake through cares. '* Virg. Eel. viii. 73, Terque hocc altaria circum effigiem duco, &c. ** Naxos, where Theseus left Ariadne, was anciently called Dia. See Catull. Nupt. Pelei el Thel. Ixiii. 122. i« Hippomanes.] See Virg. Georg. iii. 280, who disagrees with Theo. 2ritu8 in the nature of this ingredient in charms. Virg., in ^n. iv. 515, calls it '♦ Nascentis equi de fronte revulsus Et matri prsereptus amor." >' Virg. Eel. viii. 91, Has olim exuvias mihi perfidus ille reliquit Pignora cara sui. See also ^n. iv. 495. grievous Eros, why hast thou drunk out all the dark blood from my flesh, clinging like a leech from the marsh ? ^^ Wheel, draw^ thou that man to my house. ^^For thee, Delphis^ having bruised a lizard, to-morrow 1 will bring a baneful potion. But now, Thestylis, take you these drugs and smear them above that man's door-post, to which, ay even now, I am bound in affection, (yet he takes no account of me !) and ^^say as you spit upon it, I smear the bones of Delphis. Wheel, draw thou that man to my house. Now then, being alone, from what source shall I bewail my love ? Whence shall I begin ? Who brought this evil upon me? Anaxo, the daughter of Eubulus, came to me, 2' bearing a basket to the grove of Artemis : and for her in truth then many other wild beasts were going in procession round about, and among them a lioness. 22 Observe my love, whence it arose, O Lady Moon ! And Theucharila, the Thracian nurse of blessed memory, dwelling near my doors, begged and prayed me to go and view the procession, and I, all wretched as I am, followed her, 23 trailing a fair tunic of fine-linen, ^4 and having clad myself in the fine robe-and-train of Clearista. Observe my love, whence it arose, O Lady Moon ! '* Horace, Ars Poetica, 476, Non missura cutem nisi plena cruoris hirudo. '» A favourite ingredient for hell-broths. See Macbeth, act iv. sc. 1, Lizard's leg, and owlet's wing, For a charm of powerful trouble. Like a hell-broth boil and bubble. ** Tibull. Ter cane, ter dictis despue carminibus. L ii. 56. " Kavaroc is another genitive case of the person pledged ^ee Anstoph. Eq. \m, ai:ovh)v Xa^e Sij, kuI o Lovers were wont to guess by the poppy leaf, or anemone. F^cea between forefinger and thumb of the left hand, and then struck by the right, whether their love was reciprocated. 7rori/ia?a/iCvov, in a nuddJe sense ; mordiciis adherens. Wordsworth. The other mode of divination was common in this country in the days of witchcraft. See Ben J on- ion's Alchymiat, ♦' Seeking for things lost through a sieve and shears. c 2 IP 20 THEOCRITLS. 34-^^ account of me. In truth I am keeping >^ for you a white she- goat with two kids, which also the dark-skinned Erithacis, daughter of Mermnon, has been begging of me : and I will give it to her, since you play the coquet with me. ^^^y rio-ht eye throbs ! I wonder whether I shall see her ? I v.'ill sing, having reclined here beside the pine. And haply she may regard me, since she is not made of adamant. ^^ Hippo- raenes, when in truth he was desirous to wed the maiden, took apples in his hands and accomplished the race: and when Atalanta beheld him, how she maddened, how she leapt into the depths of love ! ^* The prophet Melampus too drove tlie herd from Othrys to Pylos : but she, the graceful mother of sensible Alphesibaea, reclined in the arms of Bias. And did not Adonis, tending his sheep on the mountains, drive the lovely Venus to such an excess of phrensy, that not even when he is dead, does she deprive him of her bosom ? Enviable indeed to me is ^^Endymion, who enjoys his change- " Virg. Eel. ii. 40—44, Praeterea duo, nee tut^ mihi valle reperti, Capreoli, sparsis etiam nunc pellibus albo ; Bina die sieeant ovis ubera, quos tibi servo. Jampridem a me illos abducere Thestylis orat Et faeiet : quoniam sordent tibi munera nostra. '^ uWerai, k. t. X. This the Greeks and Ei^yptians deemed a good omen. The goatherd hopes from it that he shall see his love. Casaubon quotes here Plautus, Pseudol. I. i. 105, Ca. At id futurum unde 1 Ps. Unde 1 unde dicani ! Nescio Nisi, quia futurum sit! ita sujercilium salit. '' Hipporaenes, son of Megareus, by aid of the golden apples given to him by Venus, won the race aijainst Atalanta, daughter of Jasus and Clyraene. Yid. Ovid. Met. x. 560—700. And Virg. Eel. vi. 61, Turn canit Hesperidum miratam mala puellam, &c. '* Pero, the mother of Alphesibaea, was so beautiful, that her father Neleus promised her to him alone who should steal the bulls from Iphi- clus. Melampus, to win the bride for his brother Bias, ran the risk, and was captured in the attempt by the herdsmen of Iphielus. He was freed from prison through his art of Divination, and having received the oxen and delivered them to Neleus, he gained Pero in marriage for his brother. Propert. ii. 3, 51, Turpia perpessus vates est vincla Melampus, Cognitus Iphicli surripuisse boves. Quem non lucra, magis Pero formosa coegit, Mox Amithaonia nupta futura domo. Comp. Horn. Odyss. xvi. 226. " Upon Endymion, the k>ver of Luna, Jove sent eternal sleep, because Juno had been smitten with Iots of him. Ad. Rhod. iv. 57. Theocr. Id XX. 37. 49—54. IDYLL in. 21 less sleep: and I count happy, dear maiden, ^^Jasion, who obtained so many favours, as ye, that are uninitiated, shall not hear. My head is in pain. But you do not care. No more do I sing ; but I will fall and lie low, and here the wolves shall eat me : that this may be as sweet honey down your throat. IDYLL IV. THE HERDSMEN ; OR, BATTUS AND CORYDON. ARGUMENT. This Idyll is wholly of a Bucolic and mimic character. Two hireling herdsmen chat together without any fixed subject of conversation. The one, Corydon, is tending the herds of ^gon, who has become a wrestler and gone with Milo to the Olympic games. The other, Bat- tus, is a man of a sarcastic turn, and keeps annoying his fellow with various sharp sayings ; above all, predicting death to the ill-tended herds of ^gon. Corydon, being easy and good-tempered, answers him mildly. While they are chatting, the calves bark the straying olive branches, and Battus, driving them off, is pricked by a ^orn. While Corydon is tending his wound, they spy the old father of ^gon and get into a smart talk about his wanton way of living. This Idyll abounds in pictures of pastoral life and manners. Its scene is laid in the country, at the foot of an olive-clad hill. Virgil imitates it in his third Eclogue, together with the next Idyll. Battus. ^ Tell me, Corydon, whose are these heifers ? Are they the property of Philondas ? Corydon. No ! but of ^gon ! and he gave them to me ♦*> tend. '• Ceres came to Jasion while he slept. She became the mother of Plutc by him. Her mysteries were withheld from the common herd of men. Ovid Amor. III. x. 25, Viderat lasium Cretsea Diva sub Id^L Figentem certa terga ferina manu, Viderat : ut tenerae flamraam rapuere medullae (Hinc pudor, ex alia parte trahebat amor) Victus amore pudor. Virg. Eel. iii. 1, 2, Die mihi, Damaeta, cujum pecus 1 An Melibwi 1 Non, verum iEgonis ; nuper mihi tradidit iEgon. 99 THEOCRITUS. 3— IS. 15—31. IDTLL IV. 23 I I * i. . Batt 2 Do you In ppen any where to milk them all by stealth at even ? Coryd, Nay, the old man puts the calves to their dams to suck, and watches me. Batt. And to what quarter has the cowherd himself dis- appeared ? Coryd. Have you not heard ? Milo has gone off with him to the ^Alpheus. Batt. ^ Why, when has that fellow seen oil with his eyes ? Coryd. They say that in strength and force he vies with Hercules. Batt. And so my mother said that I was better than Pollux. Coryd. ^ And he is gone off with a hoe, and twenty sheep from hence. Batt. ^Milo, methinks, would persuade the wolves too to rave straightway. Coryd. ^But the young heifers here show their loss of him, by lowing. Batt. ^ Ay, wretched are they ! How bad a cowherd they have found I Coryd. 9 Why yes, in very truth they are wretched : and they no longer care to feed. - t^jE here is Doric for (t0€, or fff qu^- zing the Athenians, ob tenuem victum. Battus wishes evil to h s enemies : a lean bull to a poor deme. For the line above, see Virg. Eel. iii. 100, Eheu quam pingui macer est mihi taurus in ervo. ^^ 1^ For KaKoxpacTUiov some read -«7» 'XStry^ani^spo the memory of the past, or singers, the nature °f '"« Xa on At tet Morson adjudges thepr.ze by their very anger and "'"".""'P"- ,f„, .r :, proudly, and promises to tJcomatas ; ^vho, on receiving ''• """g' "^ * ^d il, though not to the °- y rJorSdC, .^elLt fo - .-ePOWe^a- IKS^ ^^i^r- =a fr^'mte Idy.. Iny of the verses. S well as the-plan, of his third Eclogue. COMATAS AND LACON. Comatas. Mr she-goats, shun yon shepherd of 'Sybartas, Lacon: y-terday^e^tole^^^^^^^ ^,^^ ^^ UtfS-? 'do Jou no/spy Comatas, that lately stole .J ^'hL. What sort of pipe, Pr'^y^^V^^tJ:' 'J^ytrZ with C017 J.nJ ^^^ ^^^ . gentleman ! but /■? » ^f^nat skin in the world have I, Lacon, stolen from Tou :lit:^^ ' vith ? Tell me, Comatas : for not -^X:^S^^ -S :;tted one, .hen at last you have stripped me oi it. . We seem obliged, for sense to -lopt Hejn^nn.s ^eaeiu „ U— 31. IDYLL V. 27 Tmc. Nay, in truth, nay, by Pan who frequents the shore, I, Lacon, the son of ^Caloethis, have not robbed you, at any rate of your goat-skin: or else, my man, may I leap down yon rock madly into the Crathis.® Com. No, in truth, no, by these Nymphs of the marsh, my good sir ; and may they be both propitious and benevolent to me ! I, Comatas, did not secretly steal your pipe. Lac. Could I believe you, I would undertake the sorrows of Daphnis. But however, if you choose to stake a kid, ^ (for 'tis nothing wonderful !) why then I will go on contending with you in song, until you shall have cried " enough." Com. ^^ The sow strove a strife with Minerva ! See, there lies the kid : ^ ^ but come, do you match against it the well-fed lamb. Lac. And pray how, thou shameface ; will these terms be fair between us ? Whoever sheared for himself hair instead of wool ? and who, when a goat that has borne her first young is at hand, ^^ prefers to milk a filthy bitch ? Com. Whosoever is confident, as you are, that he shall surpass his neighbour, a buzzing wasp against a cicala. But however the kid is no equal stake to thee : do you contend ; for lo, here is the he-goat. Lac. Be in no hurry : *^for you are not scorched by fire : 1st, to slander ; 2nd, to bewitch, fascinare, in which sense it is used at Theocr. vi. 39, and at St. Paul's Ep. to Galat. iii. 1 ; and, 3rd, to envy. ' 6 KaXai0c^of . This naming of his mother instead of his father, seems to mark the low rank of this slave. * KpaOtv, a river of Magna Graecia, flowing near Sybaris, and having a temple of Pan near its banks, ^schyl. (Pers. 454, Blomf.) shows that Pan was wont to haunt the shores. ^ Est quidem nihil magnum cantu te vincere. A proverb arising, so says the Scholiast, from Hercules's scorn at finding worship paid to Adonis at Dium of Macedonia. ** A cat may look at a king," is some- thing similar. "* A proverb significative of a contest between the wise and foolish. Such comparisons occur at Idyll i. 136 ; v. 136. Virg. Eel. ix. 36, Argutos inter strepere anser olores. Cf. Eel. viii. 55. " tpti^e, the regular Greek word, for staking any prize, which the La- tins call " deponere." See Virg. Eel. iii. 31 ; ix. 62, Hie haedos depone. ' SijXiTai, a Doric form for jSovXtrai. ArjXiffOait OiXfiv, povXicrOai. Hesychius. Two lines above we have adopted Wordsworth's reading, Hj Kiva^OQ (TV — '^ A proverb dissuasive of hurry ; for the next verse, compare Virg Eel. X. 42, 43. 2S THEOCRITUS. 31—46. vou will sing more sweetly, when you have taken your seat here under the wild olive and these groves : there cool water flows down : here springs herbage, and here is a bed ot grass, and the locusts chirp here.^^ Com. Nay, I do not hurry at all ! but I am greatly annoy- ed, since you, whom once, when you were yet a boy, I used to teach, dare now to look me »^ straight in the face. See to what the favour comes ! Rear even wolfs '^ whelps, rear dogs, that they may eat you. Lac. And when do I remember to have learned or even heard from you aught good, O you envious and absolutely disgraceful mannikin ? Com. ^1 ********** ******** Lac. ****** , n • But however come, come hither, and you shall sing pas- torals for the last time ? Com. *^ I will not approach thither ! here are oaks : here is ' galingale :' ^^ here bees buzz sweetly at their hives. Here Hie gelidi fontes, hie mollia prata, Lyeori, Hie nemus. Compare Calpurnius, Eel. i. 8, &e., Hoe potius, frater Corydon, nemus, ista petamus Antra patris Fauni, graciles ubi pinea densat Silva comas. For KoX rdXaea, Wordsworth reads neatly kcltt' dvOta, under the flower- inff shrubs. , »< oKpidtQ, the locusts, whatever they were, are constantly mentioned by Theocritus in terms of praise for their song. " Cf. Herat, i. 3, 18, Qui siccis oculis monstra natantia, &e. »• For a most graphic illustration of this sentiment, compare ^sch Agamemnon, 717—734, Dindorf. Compare too St. Matth. vii. 6, " Neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them un- der their feet, and turn again and rend you." '^ Sensu obscoeno. Com. Quum paedicabam te tuque dolebas— eapelloe autem Istae balabant ; et caper eas terebrabat. Lac. Ne profundius ill^ paedicatione, O gibbose, sepeliaris. '» KVTTtipogy a sweet-smelling marsh plant, probably ' galingal.' Horn, Hymn to Merc. 107. i» Virg. Eclog. vii. 13, Eque sacra resonant examina quercu. Chapman has enriched his notes to his admirable translation with many gems of English poetry ; and in no place more so than on this passage, upon which he quotes Ben Jonson's Faithful Shepherdess j and Shak.. 47—72. IDYLL V. 29 are two fountains of cool water, and the birds on the trees are chirping : and the shade is nowise like that with you : but the pine also showers down cones from above. Lac. 20 In good truth here you shall tread upon lamb-skins and wool, if you shall have come, softer than slumber: where- as the goat-skins that are beside you smell stronger than even you smell : 21 and I will set up a great bowl of white milk in honour of the Nymphs : and I will set also another of sweet oil. Com. But if you shall come, too, here you shall tread soft fern, and flowering 22 penny-royal : and underneath shall be skins of kids, four times as soft as your lambs. And I will set up to Pan eight pails of milk, and eight bowls of honey having full combs. Lac. Contend with me there : and there sing your pastoral. Treading your own ground keep to the oaks. 23 ^^t who, who shall judge us? Would that by hap the herdsman Lycopas would come hither. Com. I want nothing of him. But if you will, we will call in the oak-cutter who is gathering the heather there beside you. And it is Morson. I^ac. Let us shout. Com. Call you him. Lac. Come, friend, come hither and listen a little, for we are contending which is the better pastoral minstrel. But dc not you, good Morson, either decide on me by favour, nor on the other hand, help this man as far as you are concerned. Co?n. Yes, by the Nymphs, dear Morson, neither assign the advantage to Comatas : nor do you for your part favour this man here. This, look you, is the flock of Sybartas of Thu- speare's Midsummer Night's Dream ; and the Merchant of Venice, act v. sc. 1. These will requite a reference. ^ ^' Compare Idyll xv. 125, TropipvpeoidE raTrrjrfg dvcj, fia\aKu>Ttpoi vTn'u). Virg. Eel. vii. 45, Somno mollior herba. Pope, seemindv borrowing from Antipater, has the line, " The sleepy eye that told the melting soul." ,.". <^'o»"I'are Virg. Eel. v. 67, Craterasque duo statuam tibi pinguis " yXdxiov, pulegium, ' penny-royal. ' Polwhele translates it the norned-poppy. ^^ Virg. Eel. iii. 50, Audiat haec tantum vel qui venit, ecce PaijcmoD And ibid. 53, Tantum, vieine Palsemon, Sensibus haec imis, res est non parva, reponas. 30 tiieolkitus. 73—85. 86—109. IDYLL V. 31 rium, and you see, friend, the goats of Eumaras, the Sy- harite. . ,^ i^^ra whether 'tis the flock '""/"'iilv mo,t «ortl.y .ir, I Meed «» deol.ring tbe ,„?:. fa lifi:' *. .he -C.™!.. f...lv.l i. e.e. n.w coming on. • ^ , she-^oats with twins man, do you milk by yourself i ■ •«-; taking their seats at a certain fountain in summer-time at mid-Jay, began to sing as follows. And Daphms struck up first, since he too was first to challenge. n ^ ■t\. Daphms. ^Galatea, O Polyphemus, pelts your flock with apples, calling you the goat -herd i"^t''f hnt^Ift ■r.lav- you do not regard her, wretched, wretched man but s.t play- ing sweetly on your pipe. See again, she is pelting the bitch, « Melanthius, a suitor of Penelope, whose punishment by order of Ulysses is recorded by Homer, Odyss. xsii. 474—477. „,„noet • Aratus. This was the author of the Phsenomena, a friend of our poet and a native of Cilicia. He is the poet whom St. Paul q"° "• ^-^f ^vii. 28, ToD vdp Kai yivoi i^i^iv. He is aga.n mentioned "j" 7"- gs! 102, 122. See Virg. Eel. vii. 2, Compulerantque greges Corydou et Thyrsis in unum. Also Eel. vii. 47. Pope Past. ii. 84, 85, . u * But see the shepherds shun the noon-day heat. The lowing herds to murmuring brooks retreat. » Malo me Galatea petit, lasciva puella. Virg. Eel. m. 64. which follows you as sheep-watch: but it is barking, looking toward the sea ; and the fair waves, as they gently plash, 3 show it running on the shore. Take care, lest it rush ajrainst the lesrs of the damsel, as she comes forth from the brine, and tear her beauteous flesh. Yet she, even on the spur of the moment, coquets, like the dried down from a thistle, when the fine summer parches : and * she flies you, if you love her, and if you love her not, pursues you ; and ^ moves the stone from the line : for surely, Polyphemus, oft- times to love what is not fair, seems fair. And after him Damoetas struck up to sing sweetly. Damc€tas. I saw her, yes, by Pan, when she was pelting my flock, and she escaped not my notice, no, by my one sweet eye, with which I look till the end of my days ; ^ but may the pro- phet, Telemus, declaring hostile things, '^ carry off to his home what is hostile, that he may lay it up for his children. However, I myself too, attempting to vex her, do not regard her in turn ; but say, that some other woman possesses me : and she, when she hears it, is jealous of me, O Psean, and pines iway : ^ and she runs wild, peering forth from the sea towara •* KaxKaa^ovra. Compare Hippol. Eurip. 1210, inpil cKppbv ttoXvv xaxXa^ov. Ka\Xdi^eiv, according to the Scholiast, is the same asi/zo^elj/, to plash against the pebbles of the beach. * Terence has a similar notion of the coquettishness of woman-kind. Eunuch, iv. 7, 43, Nolunt ubi veils : ubi nulls, eupiunt ultro. Compare B. Jonson, " Follow a shadow, it still flies ye," as quoted by Chapman. 5 ypannrj, was a mid-line on a board, like our draught-board, also called i) upd. Hence the proverb rov cltto ypanfifig kivsIv \i9ov, to move one's man from this line, " to try one's last chance." (Liddell and Scott, Lex.) The meaning is, •' She confounds the law of love, that it be reciprocated." 77 yap tpojri. So Horat. Serm. I. iii. 38, Illuc praevertamur, amatorem quod amicae Turpia decipiunt Ccecum vitia, aut etiam ipsa heec Delectant. • Telemus, son of Eurymus, had predicted to Polyphemus, whose character Dama^tas here sustains, that Ulysses would rob him of his single eye. Compare Odyss. ix. 509. Ov. Met. xiii. 772, 773, Telemus Eurymides quem nulla fefellerat ales Terribilem Polyphemon adit : lumenque, quod unum Fronte geris media, rapiet tibi, dixit, Ulysses. ' Similar imprecations occur Hom. Od. ii. 178. Virg. Mn. xi, 399 Capiti cane talia, demens, Dardanio rebusque tuis. Hom. II. L 106 — 108 2 Chron. xviii. 7. ' She runs wild.1 oiarpu. Maddened as by a gad-fiv. Comp, Eur D 2 36 THEOCRITUS. 28- -46. my caves, and toward my flocks. And I bade my dog bark at her : for when I was enamoured of her, it used to whine, keeping its nose to her hips. Now perhaps when she sees me doing this frequently, she will send a messenger. But I shall shut my doors, until she shall have sworn that she will herself strew for rac a beautiful couch ^ on this island. For ^^in truth neither have I so ugly a form as they say / have. For surely but lately I was looking into the sea (and it was a calm) : and beautiful indeed my beard, and beautiful my solitary eyeball, (as it has been determined by my judg- ment,) appeared ; ^* and it reflected a brightness of teeth, whiter than Parian marble. And that I might not be be- witched, ^2 I spat thrice upon my breast : for thus the old woman ^^ Cotyttaris instructed me to do, who of late used to sing to the reapers in the fields of Hippocoon. Having sung thus much, Damaetas kissed Daphnis ; and the latter gave the former a pipe, and he a beautiful flute to the latter. Damaetas was playing the flute, and the herdsman Daphnis the pipes. Forthwith the calves were leaping on soft herbage. However neither one conquered, but they were unsurpassed. Iph. Aul. 77, 'O 5t KaO' *E\Xao' olo-r/o»7o-os. In the next line, for aiya we may adopt with Bricrgs and Wordsworth inra. » This island, i. e. Sicily, »» Virg. Eel. ii. 25, Nee sum adeo informis, nuper me in littore vidi Cum plaeidum ventis staret mare : non ego Daphnim Jiidice te metuam, si nunquam fallit imago. Compare Ov. Met. xiii. 840, Jam, Galatea, veni nee munera despice nostra, Certe ego me novi, liquidceque in imagine vidi — Nuper aquae : placuitque mihi mea forma videnti. " Horat. i. 19, 5, Urit me Glyeerae nitor Splendentis Pario marmore purius. »» I spat thriee.] Compare with this, Idyll ii. 43—62; vii. 127. TibuU. I. ii. 100, Despuit in riiolles et sibi quisque sinus. Add Idyll xx. 12. *3 Some suppose Cotyttaris to be the old woman's name, whilst others refer it to the orgies of the goddess Cotytto, and the witches connected therewith. See Hor. Epod. xvii. 56, Inultus ut tu riseris Cotyttia Yulgata, sacrum liberi cupidinis. " ov d' aWog, here the same with oW trepog. rbv aWov for rbv Irspor, occurs in Idyll xxiv. 61. For a parallel to the verse see Virgil, Eel. iii. 108. Non nostrum est tantas componere lites Et vituta tu dignus, et hie. IDYLL VII. THE THALYSIA. ARGUMENT. I In this Idyll, one Simichidas is represented describing a celebration of the festival in honour of De meter after harvest, in which he himself and some friends had been engaged at the house of Phrasidamus and Antigenes, on the banks of the Hales. The former part of the Idyll is a narration of the journey to the feast ; the latter, a description of the feast itself. On their road, Simichidas and his friends fall in with a goatherd, Lycidas, of great poetic talent, whom they invite to while the length of the way by his song. He accordingly sings his love for the boy Ageanax. After which, Simichidas in turn celebrates the pas- sion of Aratus for the lad Philinus. The songs being ended, Lycidas presents Simichidas with a crook, and turns off on another route. The rest go forward to their proposed destination, where beside the mur- muring fountain, in a most delightful spot, they indulge in wine and good cheer. The scene, according to the Scholiast, is laid in Cos ; though Heinsius maintains that Sicily is represented. Theocritus is known to have stayed some time at Cos to hear Philetas, which makes for the Scholiast's view. It has been supposed that the poet describes himself under the character of Simichidas, and a Cydonian poet of his own day under the name of Lycidas. Virgil has planned his ninth Eclogue somewhat on the model of this Idyll. • It was the time when I and Eucritus were sauntering from the city to the Hales, and with us a third, Amyntas. For to Ceres both Thrasidamus and Antigenes, two sons of Lycopeus, were preparing the Thalysia ; worthy men, if aught is worthy that springs from the good men of old, being descended both from '^ Clytia and Chalcon himself ; ^ he who by his foot raised the fountain Burinna, having planted strongly his knee against • The festival to which our travellers were going, was one to Ceres, or Demeter, held in autumn after harvest, to thank her for her benefits to man. Compare Calliraach. Hymn to Demeter, 20. Horn. II. ix. 529. The scene lies in Cos. Hales was a river of the island ; and the city mentioned, vs. 2, was the chief city of the island, also named Cos. • Clytia and Chalcon. J Clytia was the daughter of Merops, wife of Eurypylus, (who is mentioned by Homer, Iliad ii. 677,) king of Cos, and the mother of Chalcon. Scholiast. For et ri 7r«p haOXbVi see Ovid. Amor. iii. El. xv. Si quid id est, usque a proavis vetus ordinis hceres. ' Genu fortiter in rupem innixus pedis ictu fontem excitavit. Val- kenaer, Ik irodog, ict . pedis, of. Bion. iv, 2, 38 THEOCRITUS. 8—24 the rock : and beside it, ^the poplars and elms were yielding a grove of shade, ^ overhanging, as they waved, with green foliao^e. ^ Nor yet had we finished half our way, nor did the tomb of Brasilas yet come in sight to us, when we fell in with a wayfarer, -^a favourite with the Muses, a man of Cydon, whose name was Lycidas ; he was a goatherd, nor could any one that looked upon him have mistaken him, for he was exceedingly like a goatherd. For on his shoulders he wore a * tawny skin of a shaggy thick-haired goat, smelling of new rennet : an old cloak was fastened by a broad belt about his breast ; whilst in his right hand he held a crooked club of wild-olive : and grinning, he said to me softly with a smiling eye (and laughter played upon his lip) : ^ * Simichidas, where, prythee, art thou dragging thy steps at mid-day? when in sooth even ^^the green lizard sleeps on the fences, and the crested larks roam not abroad ? Art invited and hastening * Horat. i. 21, 5, Vos laetam fluviis, et nemorum com^, &c. * /En. i. 164, Silvis scena coruscis Desuper, horrentique atrum nemus imminet umbrA, Eel. ix. 41, Hie Candida populus antro Imminet, et lent;ie texunt umbracula vitcs. ^ Compare Virg, Eel. ix. 59, Hinc adeo nobis media est via ; namque sepulchrum Ineipit apparere Bianoris. And see Theocr. Idyll i. 125, 126. ' avv ^oiaaiai kaOXbv, Beneficio Musarum bonum. Compare Idyll ii. 28, ffvv daifiovi. A Cydonian. Cydon was a city of Crete, whence Lycidas is supposed to have come. * Virgil in his '* Moretum," vs. 22, has " Cinctus villosse tergore capra;." Ovid. Met. ii. 680, lUud erat tempus, quo te pastorea pellis Texit, onusque fuit dextrae silvestris oliva. ' Simichidas.] A patronymic which seems to have been used without any change for father and son alike. Theocritus is said to have been the son of Simichus or Simichidas, and to have called himself Simichidas patronymically. Amyntas and Amyntichus, in this Idyll, stand for one and the same person, and there is clearly some ground for supposing the patronymic was used by both father and son. But the obscurity may be solved by supposing, as we may safely do, tnat Simichidas is a feigned name, like Virgil's Tityrus. *" aavpoQ. Vid. Idyll ii. 58. Comp. Virg. Eel. ii. 9, Nunc viridea etiam oc."iltaut spineta lacertos. Nemesian. iv. 38, Toto non squamea tractu SignJit humum serpens. 25 — 45. IDYLL VII. 39 to a banquet ? or art for storming the wine-vats of some cit ? since as thou footest it along, every stone rings, as it strikes against ^^thy half-boots.' Then I answered him, * Friend Lycidas, all say you are a piper greatly distinguished both among herdsmen and among reapers : which in truth vastly deliglits my mind ; yet in my fancy, I hope to rival you. Now this is our way to the ^^ Thalysia : for our friends in sooth are making a feast to Demeter of the beautiful robe, offering the first-fruits of their abundance : since for them, in very bounteous measure, the goddess hath piled the threshing-floor ^^ with barley. But come noAv, (for our road is in common, and the day is alike ours,) let us sing pas- torals ; perhaps the one will gratify the other. For I ^* too am a clear voice of the INI uses, and all men call me an ex- cellent minstrel ; but I am one not of easy persuasion. No ! by earth ! for not yet, to my own fancy, do I surpass in singing either the good ^^ Sicelidas from Samos, or Philetas, but strive with them, like a frog among locusts.' So spake I, on purpose : but the goatherd smiling plea- santly, * I give you this ^^ club,' quoth he, ' because you are a scion of Jove, fashioned altogether for sincerity. ^^ For as the architect is odious to me, who attempts to build a house " dppvXiQ, a half-boot used by hunters and rustics, ^schyl. Ag. 944i viral rig apfivXag Avoi. Euripides calls it Mycenaean. »» Compare Horn. II. ix. 529, Kai yap, Toim kukov XP^<^oBpovo^ "Aprf/it? wpcE ■X^coarafiiuri, ot' ol outi t^aXucia yovvco a\to7~;s Olvtv; pt^\ aWoi ot i)toi oaiuvvd' tKaTOfx^a^. '* The construction is d5aty«j;«i/f7rXTjpa)ff£i/dXa)dj/ (axTxe tti/ctt,) tuKptdov, (so that it should be,) full of barley. Cf. Virg. Georg. i. 49, Illius im- mensa? ruperunt horrea messes. In the next line dutg is used for i}^ikpa, as in Bion. vi. 18. J. Wordsworth quotes at this passage the Excursion, Book iii. p. 109, With hearts at ease, and knowledge in our hearts, That all the day and all the grove was ours. " Virg. Eel. ix. 32—36, Et me fecere poetam Pierides : sunt et mihi carmina : me quoque vatem Dicunt pastores, sed ego non credulus illis. Nam neque adhuc Varo videor, nee dicere Cinna Digna, sed argutos inter strepere anser olores. " Sicelidas, or Asclepiades, a poet of Samos. Philetas, an Elegiac poet of Cos, under whom Theocritus studied. His date is about 290 B. C. »« A^irg. Eel. v. 88, At tu sume pedum. Such meeds of song and ex- temporized gifts are common among pastoral poets and their swains. *^ Sec an opposite idea, Idyll xv. 49, i'i dirardg KtKporij^kvoi. dvdpeg. 40 THEOCRITUS. 46—66. 66—86. IDYLL vn. 41 equal to the top of Mount ^^Ororaedon, so are birds of the Muses, as many as, crojying against the Chian minstrel, toil to no purpose. But come, let us commence at once the pastoral strain, Simichidas : as I will — see now, friend, if this ditty, which I erst finished off on the mountain, suits your taste.' * Ageanax shall have a fair voyage to Mitylene, when the south wind chases the moist waves ^'-^ in the season of the Kids at-their-setting, and when ^^ Orion rests his feet on the ocean, if haply he shall have rescued Lycidas scorched by Aphro- dite : for ardent love of him consumes me. And halcyons shall 2^ smooth the waves, and the sea, and the south-west wind, and the south-east, which stirs the remotest seaweeds : hal- cyons, which have been beloved most of birds, whose prey is on the sea, by the green Nereids. May aU things be season- able to Ageanax, seeking a fair wind for Mitylene : and may he reach the harbour after a favourable voyage. ^^ And I, on that day, crowning my head with a chaplet of dill, or of roses, or even of white ^^ violets, will drain from the bowl the ^^Pte- leatic wine, as I recline beside the fire : and one shall roast " Oroniedon, a mountain in Cos. Hermann says a giant. Cf. Propert. iii. 9, 48. The verses (45—48) mean nothing less than "I hate quacks." Theocritus compares vain boasters to architects trying to overtop the mountains, and poets (fioifrav oppixig) labouring to equal Homer, wf in line 45 is "nam." Kai reKrojv — Kai opvcx«C are the same as u)q tsktuiv ovTiog opvixsQ. " The Kids.] The time indicated was probably December. Virg, ^n. ix. G68, Quantus ab occasu veniens pluvialibus hsedis Yerberat imber humum. 2" Orion, a constellation whose setting was attended with violent storms at the end of autumn, the time of the equinoctial gales. Horat. Od, i. 28, 21, Devexi rapidus comes Orionis. Comp. Virg. iEn. i. 535: iii 517 ; iv. 52. d , . 2* Virg. Eel. ix. 57, Et nunc tibi stratum silet aequor. According to the Scholiast, the sea is calm in winter fourteen days : seven before the halcyon produces her eggs, and seven more while she sits on them, float- ing in the nest on the surface of the sea. ^ evrrXoog (Graef. Scha?f. Kiessl.) seems far preferable to cuTrXoov, since the word refers rather to the sailor than to the port to which he sails. ^2 Virg. Eel. ii. 47, Pallentes violas. " Pteleatic wine.] So called from Ptelea, a place in Cos. Virgi* imitates this passage. Eel. v. G9, Et multo imprimis hilarans convivia Baccho Ante focum, si frigus erit, si niessis, in umbr^ Vina novum fundam calathis Ariusia nectar. me a bean in the flame, and the bed of leaves shall be covered- thickly elbow-deep with flea-bane, and asphodel and curling parsley. 25 phen freely will I drink, in memory of Ageanax, pressing my lip to the very cup even to the dregs. 26 ^^d there shall pipe for me two shepherds, one an Acharnian, and one from Lycope : and near them Tityrus shall sing, how once the herdsman Daphnis loved the foreign maid, and how he traversed the mountain, and how the oaks bewailed him which grow beside the banks of the river 27Himeras : when he wasted away, as any snow on lofty llasmus, or Athos, or Rhodope, or remotest Caucasus : he shall sing too how once a wide chest received the goatherd yet living, 2nhrough the baneful vio- lence of his master ; and how the flat-nosed bees coming from the meadows to the sweet cedar, were wont to feed him on soft flowers, because the Muses had poured down his throat pleasant nectar. O fortunate Comatas, thou in sooth hast experienced these delights, and thou hast been enclosed in a chest, and thou, being fed on the combs of bees, '^hast com- pleted the spring of the year. so \yo^^\^ t^^t in my day thou hadst been numbered among the living, since I would ^ fiaXaKoJg, carelessly, easily. Scholiast. * Virg. Eel. v. 72, Cantabunt niihi Damaptas et Lyctius iE^'on Axapvevg. Attic, from the deme so called. AvKioTriTag. ^tolian. Irom a city named Lycope. * •'' "l^^u"^"- C^'^P^''^ ^^}11 ^. 124. Ha?mus, Athos, Rhodope, moun- tains ot Ihrace. Caucasus, the eastern barrier of Asia Minor For the sentiment, see Callimach. H. to Ceres, 92. 'Qg Sk Miuavn y^^^v, &c. And Job xxiv. 19, *' Drought and heat consume the snow waters: so doth the grave those that have sinned." Ovid. Ep. ex Pont. I. i. 67, Nil igitur mirum, si mens mihi tabida facta De nive manantis more litjuescit aqua:". » The Scholiast explains this of a goatherd named Comatas or Men- alcas who, while engaged in tending his master's herds, was wont to sacrihce to the Muses. To try whether they would preserve him. his roaster caused him to be shut up in a chest, which, after some months, he found, upon opening it, full of honey-combs, and his prisoner alive. iTog ioQiov, 'trimestre tempus exegisti.' Steph. Totum annum exegisti. Cnspinus. The Scholiast seems to consider the words to de- ^gnate « the spring." The three montlis of spring in which the flowers, , -l "mentioned just before, would bloom chiefly, iopa signifies specialli pl^r^'T!;' ' Tr ''^^*' commonly uJp;, dapivi). See Lex. Doric. iE. rortJ, at the word ijpiog. »» Comp. Virg. Eel. x. 35, Atque utinam ex vobis unus, vestrique fuissem Aut custos gregis, aut maturae vinitor uv2B, &c. 4*/ THEOCRITUS. 87—107. then have tended for thee thy beautiful she-goats, along the mountains, while listening to thy voice : and thou, divine Comatas, shouldst have reclined under the oaks or under the pines, sweetly singing/ -, i. ^ And Lycidas having sung thus much, made an end : but to him in turn I also spoke as follows : ' Many other good things, friend Lycidas, have the Nymphs taught me too, as I tend my herd along the mountains : things which ^^ haply fame hath carried even to the throne of Jove. But this at any rate is far pre-eminent beyond all, with which I will proceed to favour you. Hearken then, since you are a friend to the Muses.' 32 < On Simichidas indeed the Loves have sneezed : for of a truth the luckless wight is as much in love with Myrto, as the she-goats love spring. But Aratus, who is in the highest degree beloved by that man, cherishes at heart a yearning for* a lad. ^3 Aristis, a worthy man, and highly excellent, (whose singing with the accompanimeiit of the lyre not even Phoebus hfmself beside his tripods would refuse,) knows that by a lad Aratus is consumed to the very bone with love. Him I pray thee, O Pan, who hast obtained for thy portion the lovely surface of 34Homole, mayest thou place unbidden in the dear hands of that man, whether it is in sooth the tender Philinus, or some other. And if indeed thou shouldst do thus, O dear Pan, then may ^^ Arcadian boys in no wise 3» Virg. Eel. iii. 73, Partem aliquam, Tenti, dlToiri referatis ad aures. Eel. V. 73, Hinc usque ad sidera notus. *» One of the various omens which the Greeks drew from themselves was the Trrapubg, or sneezing, referred to here, and Xenoph. Exped. Cyr. iii. 2, 9. Propert. Eleg. ii. 3, 23, Num tibi naseenti primis, mea vita, diebus Aureus argutum sternuit omen araorl CatuU. xlv. 9, Amor sinistram ut ante, Dextram sternuit approbationem. Compare also Idyll xviii. 16. 33 "ApiffTiQ — /ify' dpiffTOQ, a play on words, which cannot be rendered faithfully. Theocritus affects it ; see Idyll xv. 26, irevGrifia Kai ov UfvOfja. Shaksp. Of Hotspur, cold-spur. This is Rome and room enough. Not on thy sole, but on thy soul, harsh Jew, thou makest thy knife keen. For fxtfa used adverbially see Monk, Alcest. 758, Hom. 11. ii. 32. 3^ Homole, a mountain of Thessaly. It is mentioned by Euripides, Here. Fur. 371, ffvyxopToi 0' 'OfioXag tvavXoi. Virg, iEn. vii. 675, Homolen Othrynque nivalem Linquentes rapido cursu. »» ffKiWa.triv, comp. Idyll v. 121. The poet alludes to -s feast of Paa 107—124. IDYLL VII. 43 scourge thee with squills on ribs and shoulders, at such times as scanty feasts are provided : but shouldst thou have decided otherwise, mayest thou be scratched all over thy flesh by the nails, and mayest thou sleep among nettles : and in mid-winter mayest thou be on the ^^ mountains of the Edonians, beside the river Hebrus, facing towards and nigh to the north ; and in summer mayest thou tend herds among the extremest Ethi- opians, ^^ under the rock of the Blemyes, whence the Nile is no longer to be seen. But do ye, having left the sweet water of ^^Hyetis and Byblis, and dwelling in the lofty ^^seat of golden-haired Dione, *^ O Loves like unto ruddy apples, strike, I pray you, with your arrows, the lovely Philinus : strike, for the wretched youth pities not my guest. And yet he is more over-ripe than a pear, and the women say, Alas, alas, Philinus, thy beauty's bloom wastes away. No longer, look you, Aratus, let us keep watch at the vestibules, nor wear out our feet, but let the early cock consign ^^ another, a.«» he crows, in Arcadia, where it was the custom to scourge his image, if the Choragi had offered a mean sacrifice. Scholiast. 3* Edones, a nation of Thrace, llebrus, a river of the same. Tirg. Eel. X. 63, Nee si frigoribus mediis Hebramque bibamus. Some com- mentators have wondered that Theocr. places the Edones and the river Hebrus near each other. But Wordsworth shows that Greek and La- tin poets, (as Lucan, Ovid, Horace,) were ignorant of the geography of Macedon, Thrace, and Northern Greece, which they deemed Barbarian. This passage supports, as Wordsworth shows, Bentley's emendation, " Edonis," for " ex somnis," at Horat. Od. iii. 25, 9, Non secus in jugis, Edonis stupet Evias Hebrum prospiciens, et nive candidam Lustratam Rhodopen. ^ Blemyes, a nation of ^Ethiopia. ** Hyetis and Biblis, mountains and springs of Miletus. See Ov"d. Met. ix. 445—665. '• iloq aiTTv AitovTjg, h. e. Cyprus, the abode of Venus, who often is called by her mother's name, Dione. *« TibuU. III. iv. 34, Candor erat qualem praefert Latonia Luna Et color in niveo corpore purpureus. Ut juveni primum virgo deducta marito ^ Inficitur teneras ore rubente genas ; Ut cum contexunt amaranthis alba puellas Lilia, ut Autumno Candida mala rubent. Comp. Idyll xxvi. 1. ♦• Propert. I. xvi. 23, 24, 44 THEOCRITUS. 124 — 147. to this painful numbness : and let Molon alone, my best of friends, be harassed in this sharp exercise : and to us let both quietness be a care, and an old woman be at hand, who, ^^ by spitting, may keep afar off what is not good.' Thus much I spoke: and he, having smiled sweetly, as before, presented me with his crook to be a friendly gift ^^ arising out of our songs. And he indeed, having turned off to the left, proceeded on his way to Pyxa : but I and Eucritus, having bent our steps to the house of Phrasidamus, with the beautfful '** Amyntichus, reclined there, both on deep low- couches of the sweet mastich-tree, and on fresh-cut vine-twigs, rejoicingly. And, from above, down upon our heads were waving to and fro many poplars and elms ; and the sacred stream hard by kept murmuring, as it flowed down from the cave of the Nymphs. And the fire-coloured cicalas on the shady branches were toiling at chirping ; while, from afar off, in the thick thorn-bushes the thrush was warbling. Tufted larks and ^^ gold-finches were singing ; the turtle-dove was cooing ; ^^ tawny bees were humming round about the foun- tains r all things were breathing-the-incense of very plenteous summer, and breathing-the-incense of fruit-time. '*7 Pears indeed at our feet, and by our sides apples, were rolling for us in abundance ; and the boughs hung-in-profusion, weighed down to the ground, with damsons. ^^ Moreover the pitch of Me medige noctes, me sidera prona jacentem Frigidaque CEoo me videt aura gelu. Horat. Sat. ii. 6, 45, Matutina parum cautos jam frigora cnedunt. *2 im(p9v(J^oiffa, Idyll ii. 62. Tibull. I. ii. 53, Ter cane, ter dictis despue carminibus. *3 tK iioiaav. Compare vii. 102, Ik 7rai7oc, 55, 6^ 'ApodiTag. ** 'A^vvTixog, i. q. 'AfivvTac, vs. 2 ; comp. not. ad vs. 21. And see Wordsworth at this passage, who quotes Lucret. ii. 132, Prostrati gramine molli Propter aquae rivum sub rarais arboris altae Non magnis opibus jucund^ corpora curant, Prjficipu^ cum terapestas arridet, et anni Tempora conspergunt viridantes floribus herbas. ** AKavOidtQ, the Acalanthis of Virg. Georg. iii. 338, Littoraque Alcyonem resonant, acalanthida dumi. Cf. Song of Solomon ii. 12. ♦• Compare Hippol. Eurip. 76, 77 : &\\' oKripa-rov fiiXiacra Xii/uiwv, -fjpivoif diipx^Tai. For TTipi and d/i0i thus connected, see Hom. II. ii. 305. Odyss. xi. 008 *' Virg. Eel. vii, 54, Strata jaccnt passim sua quaeque sub arbore pom4U ♦» Hor. Od. III. viii. 9, 147—157. IDTLL Vn. 45 four years* date was loosened from the mouth cf the wine jars. Ye Castalian Nymphs, inhabiting the height of Parnassus, I wonder whether *^ at all in the rocky cave of Pholus, aged Chiron set up for Hercules a goblet such as this ! I wonder if haply 'twas nectar like this, which induced that shepherd by the Anapus, the strong Polyphemus, who ^^used to hurl crags on the mountain-ranges, to dance about in the sheep- pens ? Such nectar I mean, as, O Nymphs, ye then broached, beside the altar of Demeter presiding over the threshing-floor : on the heap of which may I again fasten a great winnowing shovel, and may she smile, holding in both hands ^^ wheat sheaves and poppies. IDYLL VIII. THE SINGERS OF PASTORALS. ARGUMENT. In this Idyll two pastors are represented as contending, Daphnis and Menalcas, both skilled in music and in Amaebaean song. A challenge is given, and a prize set up, and a goatherd called in as umpire. They begin the song, so as to answer one another first with four, afterwards with eight verses each. At last the goatherd adjudges the prize to Daphnis — and the poet represents this victory as laying the foundation Hie dies, anno redeunte, festus Corticem adstrictum pice dimovebit, &c. Amphorae — Cf. Hor. Od. I. ix. 6. Terent. Heaut. III. i. 51, Relevi dolia omnia, omnes serias. *• A poetic digression, touching the cave of the centaur Pholus, and Chiron, who was the instructor of Hercules in astronomy and Apollo in music. Cf. Orph. Argonaut. 419. Juvenal, Sat. xii. 44, Urnge cratera capacem Et dignum sitiente Pholo. *" Compare Hom. Odyss. ix. 481. There is no ground for the reading vaag here, with Heinsius and Brunck. *' ApdyfxaTa. Cf. Callimach. Hymn to Delos, 284, and the note of Th. Greev. at the passage. — A sheaf, as much as a gleaner can bind up together is meant. Tibul. I, x. ad fin., At nobis, pax alma, veni spi- camque teneto. Demeter's symbols are spikes of corn and poppies. 4G THEOCRITUS. 1—18. J— 86. IDYLL Vni. 1 >4 \l I of all the future fame of Daphnis, in pastoral poetry. The scene i» laid in Sicily. Virgil has copied this Idyll much in Eclogues m and vii. DAPHNIS. MENALCAS. A GOATHERD. Menalcas, ^ as they say, whilst tending his sheep along the high mountains, fell in with the graceful Daphnis a-driving his herd. 2]Sfow both of them were ^ red-haired, both lads : each skilled in playing on the pipes, each in singing. And first then Menalcas, gazing at Daphnis, addressed him. Menalcas. Daphnis, watcher of the lowing oxen, wilt thou sincr with me ? I maintain that I will beat you at singing, to my heart's content. And him, I ween, Daphnis answered in speech like the following. Daphnis. Shepherd of woolly sheep, piper Menalcas,^ you at all events shall never beat me in singing, no, not it you should die for it. Men. '^Are you desirous then to see into it? Are you desirous to stake a prize ? Daph. I do desire to see into this. I am desirous to stake a prize. . Men. Well what shall we stake, that would be o/^sutfacient value for us . Daph. I will stake a calf : and do you stake on your part 5 a lamb like its mother. Men. ^I will never stake a lamb, for both my father is strict, and my mother, and they count all the sheep at evening. 1 Pierson reads Ai6 Otlov yivoQ, because every river with the Greeks, and every fountain, was a god or goddess. Denique coelesti sumus omnes semine nati. Lucret. " U \pvxag, exanimi mei sententia. Though Graefius understandi ^vxag of the rivers, as gods Gdov ykvovg. 48 THEOCRITUS. 37—51. 53 — 76. IDYLL VIIL 49 II Daph. Ye springs, and herbage, a pleasant growth, if 80 be that Daphnis warbles like the nightingales, fatten ye this herd ! And if Menalcas shall have driven any stock hither, may he, to his satisf\iction, pasture all in plenty. Men, ^2 Every where it is spring, and every where are pas- tures : and every where udders are full of milk, and the young are suckled, where the fair maiden approaches: but if she should depart, both the shepherd is withered there, and the herbage too. Daph. Sheep are there, she-goats with twms are there, bees till their hives there, and the oaks are loftier, wherever the handsome Milo sets foot ; ^^ but should he depart, both he who feeds the heifers, and the heifers themselves, are the more dried wp. , ,. i. Men. O he-goat, husband of the white she-goats I where there is endless depth of foliage, O ye flat-nosed kids, come hither to the water. For in that place is he ! Go, stump-horn, and say to Milo, that ^^ Proteus, even though a god, used to feed sea-calves. •2 Compare Virg. Eel. vii. 59, 60, Phillidis adventu nostra? nemus omne virebit Jupiter et leeto descendet plurimus imbri. Ibid. 55, Omnia nunc rident ; at si formosus Alexis Montibus his abeat, videas et flumina sicca. Pope Past. i. 69, All nature mourns, the skies relent in showers, Hush'd are the birds, and closed the drooping flowers ; If Delia smile, the flowers begin to spring, The skies to brighten, and the birds to sing. »« Virg. Eel. iii. 100, Eheu quam pingui macer est mihi taurus in ervo ! Idem amor exitium pecori, pecorisque magistro. " The common reading here was w (3a6og, O profunditas, which Casaubon, Reiske, Warton, &e. have altered to w, ubi, so that we must supply Stvpo, and refer it, I suppose, to vdojp in the next line. Wems- dorf supposes uJ (^dOog vXag ^vpiov to the " Horrida siccae Silva comse/ of the he-goat, (cf. Juvenal ix. 13,) and perhaps there is some foundation for this conjecture, to which however the simpler mode of translation above stated seems preferable. For the parallel to the former part of the line, see Virg. Eel. vii. 7, Vir gregis ipse caper deeraverat. « Horat. Od. i. 2, 7, Omne cum Proteus pecus egit altos Visere montes. Cf. Virg. Georg. iv. 395. Hom. Odyss. iv. 448. Wordsworth pfo- poses here to read, Kai Xeyc— MiXwv, 'O UpuJTtvg 0a»icac: k. 9. w. eve/ic. Daph. Not mine be it to possess the land of Pelops, nor mine to own golden talents, or to outstrip the winds : but I will sing under this rock, holding thee in my arms, ^^ looking upon my sheep feeding together, and towards the Sicilian se^ Men. To trees indeed winter is a dreadful evil, and to waters drought, and to birds the snare, and to wild beasts nets : but to man the yearning for a tender maiden. O Sire O Jove, not I alone have been in love. '7 xhou too art a lover of women. These strains indeed then the youths sang alternately : and Menalcas thus commenced his concluding sono-. Men. Spare my kids, spare, wolf, my she-go'ats with youno* and do not hurt me, because, small though I am, I tend many '8 dog Lampurus, does so deep a sleep hold you ? You ouo^iit not to sleep soundly while tending sheep with a lad. And %e sheep, neither do you shrink from filling yourselves with'the tender herbage. Ye shall be nowise tired of it, when this spnngs up again. St ! feed on, feed on, and, all of you, fill your udders, that the lambs may have a part, and I may lay up the rest in cheese baskets. Next in turn, Daphnis struck up to sing sweetly. Daph. '^ Me too, a maiden with meeting eye-brows havino- seen yesterday from her cave, as I drove past it my heiferf kept declarmg to be beautiful, beautiful. Nor indeed did I even answer her a rude word, but kept trudging on my way looking downwards. 20 Sweet is the voice of the heifer, sweet >«Grapf reads (rvvvofie MTXov, bp^v rkv St/ceXdv iq li\a. But Kiesslinc thinks, with reason, that a much slighter alteratior. will render the r,ass! age clear viz. rav ^,Ki\av rs aXa. Or we may understand, as Rdske suggests. Ig in the sense of ^p6g or Trapd. - Ap^d Siculum mare.^ Compare the 5Gth Epigram of Callimachus, ed. Ernesti, i 324 ComnYrl'?^ eyebrows were considered a beauty among the anc^^nt. Compare Anacreon xxvii. ad pictorem. Ov. Art. Amat. iii. 201, Arte supercilii confinia nuda replentes. And Juvenal Sat. ii. 93, Ille supercilium madid^ fuligine tactura Obliqua producit acu. J. w. EmSJ'T^'"' v^ ^'^^^^ ""^ ^^^ P^P^* ^° ^^y^^ i^- "^^ 8» and Theocr had TK '^\1"P''^'''V, ^vfvucTi. Warton, says Polwhele, thinks Milton Book iv Q /"" V'T' ''^'^''}^ ^^«te those lines of Paradise Lost, oook IV. Sweet is the breath of morn, her rising sweet With charm of earliest birds, &c. 50 THEOCRITUS. 76—93. 1—18. IDYLL IX. 51 i| the breath of the pipe; and sweetly too the calf lows, and sweeUy also the cow : and sweet is it ^-in summer-time to fe Jfn the open air beside running water - The acorns are an ornament to the oak, apples to the apple-tree, and to the cows the calf, the cows themselves to the herdsman. Tlius sang the youths, but the goatherd addressed them as "" Glliherd. Something sweet is thy mouth, and lovely thy voice, O Daphnis. 'Tis better to hear thee smg than 23to sip honey. Take the pipe, for thou hast won ^ singing And if at all you desire to teach me too to smg, while 1 teed my goats along with you, I will give you, as the price of your teaching, yon hornless she-goat, which always fills the milk- pail above the brim. j i ^ j As then the youth was delighted, and leapt up, and shouted as victorious ; so would a fawn leap upon its dam. And as the other smouldered away, and was cast down m heart by cha-rin, so also would a nymph grieve, 24when betrothed. And from this time, Daphnis became first among shepherds, and while yet in earliest youth, wedded a Naiad nymph. IDYLL IX. THE PASTOR, OR THE HERDSMEN. ARGUMENT. The scene is laid in Sicily. Daphnis and Menalcas are chaRenged by a companion shepherd to contend with one another m singing. They sin- in alternate strains, and each carries off a prize ; Daphnis a crook, « Virg. Eel. V. 46, Quale sopor fessis in gramiiie, &c. « Ibid 32, Vitis ut arboribus decori est, ut vitibus uvae, Ut gregibus tauri, segetes ut pinguibus arvis, Tu decus omne tuis. • • n « Than to sip honey.] Polwhele compares Septuagint Cantic. iv. 11, Knpiovd-KOCTTalovtn X"^n povridu)V fxtpov. and Menalcas a muscle-shell. It seems clear that the whole Idyll is put in the mouth of a shepherd, who narrates the alternate strains of Daphnis and Menalcas, just as Melibaeus (Virg. Eel. vii.) those of Corydon and Thyrsis. Warton observes that Menalcas in his sontr assumes the character of the Cyclops. DAPHNIS. MENALCAS. Sing a pastoral strain, Daphnis, and do you first begin the 8ong; begin i/ou the 'song first, and let Menalcas follow after, when you have put the calves to the heifers, and the bulls to the barren cows. And let them feed together, and stray among the foliage, 2 not at all forsaking the herd : but do you sing me a bucolic strain in the first place ; and in the next in turn let Menalcas answer. ' Daphnis. Sweetly indeed the calf lows, and sweetly too does the heifer ; and sweetly also the pipe sou7ids, and the herdsman, and sweetly I too. And by the cool water-side I have a couch of leaves ; and on it have been strown beautiful skins from white heifers, all of which, to my sorrow, as they nibbled the ^arbute-tree, the south-west wind dashed frorn the mountain peak. And I care as much for the parchin»r summer ^as lovers care to hear the words of a father or mothen Thus sang Daphnis to me. And Menalcas thus. Menalcas. ^tna is my mother, and I inhabit a fair cave in the hollow rocks : and I have in sooth whatever things appear m a dream, ^ many sheep and many goats ; of which the skins » For instances of this figure, called by the Latins *' Iteratio," see Virgil Eel. V. 51. Milton Lycidas, 37, ^ But oh the heavy change now thou art gone, No^ thou art gone, and never must return. Virg. Eel. 111. 58, Incipe Dam»ta ; tu deinde sequere, Menalca. art/iaytXf i;vrf c ; a cognate word, an/^ayeXi;^, " neglecting the herd feeding alone," occurs, Idyll xxv. 132. g^ecnng me neirt, J KOfxapog, the strawberry or arbute tree. Comp. v. 128. A similar boast of indifference occurs, Eel. vii. 51, Hie tantum Boreae curamus frigora, quantum Wr^rAa .^""^ numerum lupus, aut torrentia flumina ripas. -^d rpr/t ." ""''^- '^° ^^^^' ^'P'^^ ^^' '• '■ Quantum amans cr^rat " we have^ foUorH """'"' ""T^' ^"' ^""P'^ conjecture, .'puivr., which we nave lollowed, is generally received. » r » IT^r^^-'"^' ?'^!- "•' ^*''^ ""^^ ^^''"^^^ errant in montibus agn^ Two lines below compare Virg. Eel. vii. 49, Hie focus et taedae pingues, hie plurimus itfnis oemper. ° , E 2 1 ^ 52 THEOCRlTUtf. 9— 3o. iX. 33— X. 2. IDYLL IX. lie at my head, and beside my feet. And on a fire of oak- boughs entrails are boibng, and on the fire are dry beech- fagots when it is winter ; and in truth not even have I a care for winter, as much as a toothless person has for nuts, when ''fine meal is at hand. These indeed I applauded ; and straightway gave as a pre- sent, to Daphnis on one hand a crook, which a field of my father's had raised for me, self sprung, and such as not even perhaps a carpenter would have found fault with ; and to the other 7 a beautiful spiral cockle-shell, the flesh of which I my- self had eaten, after I had ^ lain in wait for it on the Icarian rocks, having divided ^ five shares for five of us ; and he (Men- alcas) blew upon the shell. Pastoral Muses, all hail ! and bring to light the song, which formerly I sang in the presence of those herdsmen. *^ Never raise a pimple upon the tip of your tongue. ' • Cicala is dear to cicala, and ant to ant, and hawks to hawks : but to me the Muse and song : of which, I pray, may all my house be full, • auvXoio, sc. aprov, a cake of not ground, i. e. the finest meal. Aristoph. Pax, 1195. Chapman indicates ** pap," as the fare of this toothless individual. " Lucretius, quoted by Polwhele, Concharumque genus parili ratione videmus Pingere telluris gremium, qua mollibus undis Littoris incurvi bibulam pavit sequor arenam. » Icaria, one of the Sporades, north-east of Myconos, and south-west of Samos, in the iEgean Sea. Now Nicaria. 3 irkvTe Tttfxvjv, for e'iq irkvrt fiBprj Tafiu)V—6 5' lyKavaxv^aro. Cf. Idyll xxii. 75, where Amycus kox^ov iXujv fivKatraTo ko~i\ov. »o The sense is, " It is no untruth, nor need you fear lest pimples should rise on your tongue to convict you of falsehood." This was as common a superstition, as it is now, with the ancients. Pimples on the nose or tongue were supposed to indicate falsehood. Compare Idyll xii. 23, iyai Sb ak tov kuXov alvttov xf/tudsa ptj/os virtpdtv apatf;s oi/K ava<^vYLL X. 55 i| as of old you used to draw it ; nor do you reap in a line with your neighbour, but are left behind, as a sheep, whose foot a thorn has wounded, is left by the flock. A fine sort of reaper you will be, won't you, at evening, and after mid-day, seeing tliat now, when you begin, ^ you do not make a gap in the swathe ? Battus. Milo, you who reap till late at even, fragment of stubborn rock, did it never befall you to long after one of the absent ? 31ilo. Never ! And what business has a labouring man with longing after those that are without ? Batt. Did it never then chance to you to lie awake through love ? Mil. No, and I trust it never may. ^ It's bad to give a dog a taste of guts. Batt. Well, but I, Milo, have been in love hard upon eleven days. Mil. You evidently draw from the cask ! '^ but I have not vinegar enough. Batt. ^Therefore all before my doors is unweeded since sowing time. Mil. And which of the damsels is ruining you ? Batt. The maiden of Polybotas, ^ who lately used to play to the reapers in the fields of Hippocoon. Videris, aut summas carpentem mollius herbas Extremamque sequi, aut medio procumbere campo Pascentem. ' apxo/xcvoc {tov ipyov, sc.) rag av\. diroTpioyeiv. So CatuU. xxxiii. 7, Quare, si sapiet, viam vorabit. ' XaXerrbv, &c. One of the proverbs you would expect in a reaping field. Horat. Serm. II. \i. 81, ♦♦ Ut canis, a corio nunquam absterrebitur uncto." One of our vulgar expressions to the same point is, " Don't let the eat to the cream." * liXiQoKoQ. Some would read o^ovQ,h\it Reiske shows from ApoHon. Rhod. ii. 424, Callim. H. in Jovem, 84, that uXig was used with a norn- inative or accusative as well as a genitive. The point of the passage is that Milo, who is heart-whole, comically congratulates Battus on his Having his fill of love, and deplores his own loveless state, ironically of course. Battus stands by, a very skeleton from sleepless nights and wasting love. He has drawn from a cask with a vengeance. * Virg. Eel. ii. 70, Semiputala tibi frondo8t\ vitis in ulmo est. Battus answers, that he is so much occupied with love, that he does not even remove the sweepings from the yard of his house. « This verse occurs before. Idyll vi. 41. TroXvjSwra, genitivus Doricnii filia Polybotae. Cf. ii. 66, a tCj' v/Soi^Xoto. J. W. Mil. ^ The god has found out the sinner ! you have what you have been long wanting. ® The long-legged grasshopper will lie with you all night. Batt. You are beginning to jeer at me. But not ^only Plutus is blind, but also the reckless Love. Do not say any thing boastful. Mil. I do not boast at all. *^ Only do you lay low the crop ; and strike up some loving ditty on the maiden ; so will you work more pleai^antly ; and in fact in former times you used to be musical. Batt. Pierian Muses, sing with me of the slim damsel : for, O goddesses, ye make all things beautiful, whichsoever ye shall have touched. ^* Graceful Bombyce, all call thee Syrian, and shrivelled, and sun-burnt ; but I alone call you ^^ honey-complexioned. The violet too is dark, ^^and the inscribed hyacinth ; yet still they are gathered the first in garlands. The she-goat follows ^ A proverb directed against those wlio boast, and then fall into the dangers which they have been rejoicing to have escaped. ' fjLcivTtg — KaXafxaiut a kind of locust or grasshopper with long thin fore-feet, which are in constant motion. Perhaps, mantis religiosa, or mantis oratoria, Linn., also KaXafiaia and KaXafiiTig. "If you marry," says Milo, " this old and loquacious damsel, you will have a cicada or locust to disturb you all night." Chapman translates fidvrigf a ♦♦ tree- frog." * avTog, i. q. fiovog or iciq,. Cf. Matt. Gr. Gr. § 468, 5. *" Soph, Ajax, 384, fXTfHv fiky' t'nrtjg. " Jlvpav. Syrian — on account of her dark complexion. " Gipsy," perhaps. •' ftcXi'xXoipov, olive, as we call it, " a brunette." On this difference between the world's notion and the lover's, see Lucret. lib. iv. 1153. Horat. Serm. I. iii. 38, Illuc prajvertamur, amatorem quod amicae Turpia decipiunt caecum vitia, aut etiam ipsa haec Delectant. For a parallel to the next line, see Virg. Eel. x. 38, Quid turn si fuse us Amyntas Sunt nigrae violae, sunt et vaccinia nigra. And Theocr. Id. xxiii. 29. " Cf. Mosch. Idyll iii. 6. The legend ran that Hyacinthus was acci- dentally slain by Apollo's disc, and that his blood produced a flower, on whose leaves the initial letter of his name was inscribed. Ovid. Met. x. 162. Virg. Eel. iii. 106. Georg. iv. 186. Vid. Eel. ii. 18, Alba ligu»- tra cadunt : vaccinia nigra leguntur. 56 THEOCRITUS. 30—43 44 — 58. IDYLL X. 57 ''^the cytisus, the wolf the she-goat, rtwc^the ^' crane the plough : but I am maddened after you. ^^ I would I had as much as they say Croesus of yore possessed ; then both of us wrought in gold should be dedicated to Aphrodite ; you holding the flute indeed, and either a rose, yes, or an apple ; and I wear- ing ^^ a new dress, and new Amyclaean shoes on both feet. O graceful Bombyce, '®thy feet indeed are well turned, and thy voice is soft. Thy manners however I am not able to express. 3Iil. Surely the ploughman has escaped my notice while making beautiful songs ; how well has he measured the form of his harmony! *^Alas me! for the beard which I have nursed in vain. Consider now also the strains of the divine Lytierses. 20 O fruitful Demeter, rich in ears of corn, may this field be well tilled, and fruitful in the highest degree. »♦ Cf. Idyll V. 128. Yirg. Eel. ii. 63, Torva leaena lupum sequitur, lupus ipse capellam, Florentem cytisum sequitur lasciva capella Te, Corydon, o Alexi : trahit sua quemque voluptas. Compare Georg. ii. 431, Tondentur cytisi. '5 Cf. Georg. i. 120, StrymoniaGque grues. Hesiod. O. et D. 448. •« Cf. Virg. Eel. vii. 31, 32, Si proprium hoc fuerit, IsBvi de marmore tota Puniceo stabis suras evincta cothurno. And Ibid. 36, Nunc te marmoreum pro tempore feeimus ; at tu Si faetura gregem suppleverit, aureus esto. " ffxrjf^ci. I^r- Wordsworth proposes to read XHIMA, h. e. Kai tlfia, for (Tx»li^a, unnecessarily, for oxn^^^ "^^y mean a dress as well as tlfia. Aristoph. Acharn. 64, ujK^drava tov (JXVf^^T^Q- Besides Kal can hardly precede 5f where ^iv goes before. See a writer in the Classical Mu- seum, vol. ii. 294. But why should we not adopt Graefius's explanation of this somewhat difficult passage, and suppose Kaivbq to be used doubly with reference to (Tx»)jwa and dfxvKXag. dfivKXai were costly shoes used in Laconia, and so called from Amyclae, the town where their inventor lived 1 " Horat. Od. II. iv. 21, Brachia et vultum, teretesque suras Integer laudo. Solomon's Song vii. 1, How beautiful are thy feet with shoes ! Some think that Bombyces* feet are called aoTpayaXoi in point of white- ness. Dice were called darpdyaXci. If this were adopted as the true meaning, we have a parallel in Solomon's Song v. 15, His legs are as pillars of marble, set upon sockets of fine gold. '^ Compare Idyll xiv. 28, elg dv^pa yivtioiv. Hor. ii. Sat. iii. 35, Sapientem pascere barbam. Lytierses was a son of Midas, king ol Fhrygia. ** Here we have certain invocations of Ceres and reapers* saws strung Bind up, reapers, the sheaves, lest haply a passer-by should say, ^^ good-for-nothing fellows, this hire too is thrown away. Let the swathe of your mown-grass look to the north or west : thus the ear fills out. ^^ Threshers of corn should avoid sleeping at mid-day : then, most of all, chaff comes from the stalk. Reapers ought to begin at the rising of the crested lark, and to cease when it goes to rest : but to keep holiday during the heat. The life of the frog is to be prayed for, my boys. He does not care for one to pour out liquor ; for it is at hand for him in abundance. It is better, miserly bailiff, to cook the lentil. ^^ Don't cut your hand in splitting the cummin. These couplets it behoves men labouring in the sun to sing : and 'tis meet that you should tell, O rustic, your starved love to your mother lying awake in bed in the morning. IDYLL XL CYCLOPS. ARGUMENT. This Idyll commences with a preface to Nicias, a physician of Miletus, (to whom Theocritus inscribes the 13th Idyll, and of whom he makes together. Compare Virg. Geor. i. 347, Et Cererem clamore vocent in tecta, &c. Cf. Callim. H. in Cer. ii. 127. H. in Dian. 130. -' (TUKivoi, good for nothing — Men of fig-wood (not worth a fig?) Aristoph. Acharn. 108, speaks of Trg'ivivoi yepovreg, from Trplvog, " hearts of oak." ^^ Understand fisfivaffo or opa in such cases. Matt. Gr. Gr. § 546. Compare at this place Milton's L'Allegro, To hear the lark begin his flight And startle, singing, the dull night, From his watch-tower in the skies, Till the dappled dawn doth rise. ^ Misers were called bean-splitters. The cummin seed was too small for even them to split. Our Lord uses the word in rebuking the minute exactness of the Pharisees n matters indifferent, St. Matt, xxiii. 23. 58 THEOCRITITS 1—16. 16—34. IDYLL XI. 59 I favourable mention in Idyll xxviii, 6, and Epi^. Tii. 3,) respecting the power of song in relieving the pains of disappointed love. The Cyclops is represented as using this solace for his hopeless passion for Galatea. Polyphemus, sitting on a rock overhanging the sea, beguiles his hours with song. He accuses the fair one of pride, and scorn for hig deep devotion to her ; and boasts of the gifts of fortune, which he can show, in lieu of gifts of beauty and personal grace. At last he seems to recover from his infatuation, perceiving the vanity of his hopes. Virgil has had this Idyll in his eye, while writing Eclogues ii. and ix. : and Bion perhaps gathered from it some ideas for the first part of his 15th Idyll, Compare Ovid Met. xiii. 755, &c., and Callimach. Epigr. xlix. p. 316 (Ernesti). 'There is no other remedy for love, O Nicias, either'^ in the way of salve, as it seems to me, or of plaster, except the Muses : but this is a light and sweet thing amongst men, yet *tis not easy to find. But methinks you know it well, as being a physician, and in truth a man especially beloved by the nine Muses. Thus, for instance, th^ famous Cyclops our countryman, the ancient Polyphemus, used most easily to pass his time, when he was enamoured of Galatea, just as he was now getting a beard about his mouth and temples. And he was wont to love, not at all with roses, or apples, or locks of hair, but with un- done fury : and he held all things secondary to his fury. ^ Oft- times his sheep went back by themselves to the fold from the green herbage ; whilst he, singing his Galatea, pined away there, on the sea-weedy shore, from break of day, having beneath his breast a most hateful wound inflicted by mighty * Horat. Od. IV. ii. 35, Minuentur atrae carmine curae. 2 ovT tyxpicrrov. Compare iEsch. Prom. V. 488, (and Pearson on the Creed, Art. ii. p. 89,) ovk riv a\'i^i)}i ovSev, ovSe (Spuxrifiov ou XpiffTov, ovSi TTiaTov. The Greeks had divers remedies and medicines. Xptffra, unguents, Traffrd or TrXaard, plasters, Tnard or iroTifia, liquids, ^pbiffifxa, esculents, and iirt^^ai, incantations, charms, &c. Pope, Past, ii., calls " Love the sole disease thou canst not cure." ' avraiy sua sponte. Virg. Eel. vii. 11, Hue ipsi potum venient per prata juvenci. iv. 21, Ipsae lacte domum referent distenta capellae, Ubera. Pope Past. iii. 78, The shepherds cry, Thy flocks are left a prey ! — Ah, what avails it me the flocks to keep, Who lost my heart, while I preserved my sheep t UTid. Met. xiii. 62, Quid sit amor sentit, nostrique eupidine captus Uiitur, oblitus pecorum, antrorumque suorum. Venus, ^ since she had fastened an arrow in his heart. ^ But he found his remedy, and sitting upon a high rock, looking to- wards the sea, he was wont to sing such strains as this. *0 fair Galatea, why dost thou spurn thy lover? ^More white than cream-cheese to look upon, more tender than a lamb, more frisky tlian a calf, more sleek than an unripe grape? And you come hither just so, when sweet sleep pos- sesses me, but you are straightway gone, when sweet sleep leaves me ; ' and you fly me, like a sheep when it has spied a gray wolf. ^ I for my part became enamoured of you, damsel, when first you came with my mother, desiring to cull from the mountain hyacinthine flowers ; and I was acting as your guide. But to stop, when once I had beheld you, and after- wards, and even at present, from that time I am unable. Yet you do not care, no, by Jove, not a whit. I know, graceful maiden, on account of what you avoid me, ^because a shaggy eyebrow stretches all over my forehead, from one ear to another, as one great one ; and one eye is upon my brow, and a broad nostril over the lip. Yet this same I, being such as you see, ^^feed a thousand « KuTTpj^og Ik fisydXac. Idyll ii. 30, tK Aippo^irac, and vii. .55, to oi i'lTrari : Here we must either, as Jacobs thinks, retain to, supposing it to mean " quoniam," or read to. o'l, i. q. a ol, according to the oldest form of the article, toq, tcl, tov. Matt. Gr. Gr. § 65, 3. See Wordsw. at xiv. 56, • Cf. Callimach. Epig. xlix., and Ovid. Met. xiii. 778, Prominet in pontum cuneatus acumine longo, Collis : utrumque latus circumfluit aequoris unda. Hue ferus ascendit Cyclops, mediusque resedit. • Cf. Ov. Met. xiii. 789—804, where Galatea is called splendidior ▼itro, tenero lascivior haedo, &c., and Virg. Eel. vii. .37, Nerine Galatea, thymo niihi dulcior Hyblae Candidior cycnis, hedera formosior alba. Ovid imitates this and the next line in the verses beginning, Mollior etcycni plumis, et lacte coacto. ' Hor. Od. i. 15, 29, Quem tu, cervus uti vallis in altera Visum parte lupum graminis immemor Sublimi feries mollis anhelitu. • Virg. Eel. viii. 37, Sepibus in nostris parvam te roscida mala, Dux ego vester eram, vidi cum matre legentem. • Hirsutumque supercilium, promissaque barba. Virg. Eel. viii. 33. »o Virg. Eel. ii. 21, Mille meae Siculis errant in montibus agnae Lac mihi non aestate novum, non frigore defit. Compare Ov. Met. xiii. 821—830. Hom. Odyss. ix. 219, &c. 60 THEOCRITUS 35—54. sheep, and from these, milking them, I drink the best milk. And cheese fails me not, either in summer, or in autumn, or in the depth of winter ; but the baskets are always o\ erbur- dened. I am skilled too in playing on the pipes, as no one of the Cyclops here; singing thee, ^^my dear sweet-apple, and myself at the same time, '"^oftentimes early in the nigiit. And I am rearing for you eleven fawns, all of them ^^ wearing collars, and four cubs of a bear. Nay, then, come you to me, and you shall have nothing worse ; and suffer the pale-green sea to roll up to the beach : '''^you will pass the night with me in my cave more sweetly. ^^ There are laurels and tapering cypresses, there is black ivy, and the vine with its sweet fruit ; there is cool water, which wooded iEtna sends forth for me, a divine drink, out of white snow : (who would prefer to these delights to dwell in sea or waves ?) But if in truth I seem to you to be rather shajirG^v, I have oak-branches near, and unrestin" fire under the embers. And I could endure to be scorched by you even to my very soul, ^^and that single eye, than which nothing is more dear to me. '^Woe is me, that my mother " yXvKv^iaXov, cf. Callim. 11, in Cerer. 29, a term of endearment. '"■^ vvKTOQ dwpi, Idyll xxiv, 38, Aristoph. Ecclesiaz. 741 : see Pierson on Moeris, p. 32, who quotes three passages from the Orators, and two from elsewhere, and states that he has met but one example of aiopi not followed by vvktoq or i'vktuiu. toi tv^eica vtfipi'og. Cf. Virg. Eel. ii. 40, Prajterea duo, nee tuta mihi valle reperti, Capreoli, sparsis etiam nunc pellibus albo. '^ fiavvo(l)6p(t)g, bearing collars, th. /udvi'og, a necklace. Propert. IV. viii. 24, Armillati coUa Molossa canes. Others read fxavo(p6piog, i. e. fiTivo8 enjoy. 54—75. IDYLL XL 61 did not bring me forth having gills, in which case I sliould have come down to you, and have kissed your hand, if you would not your lips, and I should be ^"^ bringing you either white lilies, or the soft poppy with red petals. But the one springs in summer, and the other in the winter, so that I should not have been able to bring you all these together. Now indeed, dear maiden, yes, now on the spot I will learn to swim, if so be ^^ that any foreigner arrive hither, sailing in his ship, that I may learn what possible delight it is to you to dwell in the water-depths. Mayest thou come out, Galatea, and having come forth, forget (as I do now sitting here) to go away home : ^^and mayest thou wish to feed flocks with me, and to milk along with me, and to press cheese, infusing sharp runnet. My mother '^' alone wrongs me, and I find fault with her : not a kind word ever at all has she spoken to you on my behalf, and this too, though she sees me becoming thin day after day. I will say that my head and both my feet are throb- bing, that she may be pained, since I too am pained. ^■^ O Cyclops, Cyclops, whither hast thou flown in reason ? If thou wouldst forthwith weave baskets, and mowing the young shoots, bear them to the lambs, perhaps thou wouldst have thy senses in a far greater degree. ^^Milk the ewe that is So Shakspeare, Romeo and Juliet, Oh that I were a glove upon that hand, &c. '* Virg. Eel. ii. 45, 46, Tibi lilia plenis Ecce ferunt nymphae calathis, tibi Candida Nais Pallentes violas et summa papavera carpens. '* The Cyclops are represented by Hom. Odyss. ix. 125, as knowing nothing of navigation, ov yap KvKXwirtffai vseg irapa f.iiXTOTTap7}oi. Virg. Eel. ix. 39, Hue ades, O Galatea, quis est nam ludus in undis : Hue ades: insani feriant sine littora fluctus. '^^ Virg. Eel. ii. 28, O tantum libeat mecum tibi sordida rura, Atque humiles habitare casas, &c. rapLKfov : coagulum. See Tibull. II. iii. 17, Et miscere novo docuisse coagula lacte. " fiova, in Wordsworth's judgment, is faulty, because Galatea clearly wronged the Cyclops, and so too did the Cyclops himself, (see 72). Wordsw. suggests Kopa, "o virgo, mater me la3dit," and points out the same emendation of an unsound passage in Bion xv. 1.5, where for MiHtvoQ AxiWevQ, read, Kutpog — puer Achilles. ^ Ibid. 69, Ah ! Corydon, Corydon, quae te dementia cepit. '^ Callimach. Epigr. xxxiii. 5, 6, X' dyuos tpco's T0L09 ^6. Ta fxev t\6g Ti yfvd)fit9a. * lolchos, or Colchis, the seat of government of ^etes, father of Me- dea, situate on the Euxine. * Of Midea, a city of Bceotia, mentioned by Hom. II. /3. 507, in cata- logue of ships, bestowed by Sthenelus on Atreus and Thyestes, uncles of Eurystheus. "* Kvavidv — ffvvSpofiddiov. Milton Parad. L., Harder beset, And more endangered, than when Argo pass'd Through Bosphorus, betwixt the jostling rocks. The jostling rocks, Kvdvtai, vrjaoi, were supposed to close on all who sailed between them. Eurip. Med. 2. Androm. 796. SvftTrXj^ya^ac. They were two small islands opposite the Thracian Bosphorus. Ovid. Trist. I. X. 34, Transeat instabiles strenua Cyaneas. — Phasis, a river of Colchis. — duKd'i^s — fitya XalT/jia. It seems clear in this passage that fiaOvp—fpdmv must be taken parenthetically, and fitya Xalr^ia be re- ferred to ^u^diU- Lobeck, at Soph. Ajas, vs. 475, 476, p. 267— 2G9, brings forward several instances of the construction of the verb and its dependent noun being interrupted by an intervening secondary clause. H^aioA. Theoe. 151. Eur. Ion, 700. 23—39. IDYLL XIII. 6' shot through, (and ran into deep Phasis :) like an eaoje .. great surge, from out which at that time low rocks stood ;> And what time the Pleiads rise, and far-away spots are feed- ing the young lamb-spring having now turned-then tlie godlike flower of heroes began to recollect the voya-e ?nd having taken their seats in the hollow Argo, came^o ihe Hellespont 13 at the third da/s blowing of Ihe south wind. And they found an anchorage within the Propontis, where oxen widen the furrows of the Cyanians, as they i^'^.^i^ ^he ploughshare Having landed then on the shore, they busily prepared a feast ^^at evening by pairs : and many of theni strewed for themselves one couch-on-the-ground. For bv them lay a broad meadow, suitable for beds of leaves. '^ Thence they cut for themselves the sharp flowering-rush and low £?al- ^ ingal. And the auburn-haired Hylas had gone to fetch water for supper, for both Hercules himself and the staunch Tela- mon, (both which comrades used alway to ^ feed at one table ) j with a brazen vessel ;-and quickly he spied a fountain in a ' «pnl t^T^' ^'"■'' T'^'i' ^" November and December were weaned and sent to feed apart after four months ; this would be about AprU and^he nsing of the Pleiads from April 22nd to May 10th, brought Yn fine weather commonly. Virg. Georg. iv. 231, 232, '^^""gnt m nne Taygete simul os terris ostendit honestum Pleias. PindfroT'oIt ?„"' ^'-- "• "• ^V' ^'"^ f" '"'J' "^'"g ^^'^ °f »^ kind. Horn U k ci'^ if^ T'^°'^^^^^^ yTiver/S. ■ " v° ^'Vr, """""■ Something like it is JJsch. Prom .3 lv« 'y^- X"?- """' "'^■" " <<«''<=^'o« heroes." A.r ""^V-aifTt. Dative for genitive. Matt. Gr. Gr. 5 .Wa 2 Tlie da ,ve absolute „ used instead of the genitive, as the subieet of the par .c pie may be considered as that in reference' to vvhich the action „fX III iL 25. ^ """•''"• "• 2'- T''"^- ^'"- 24- Xeuoph. H Gr! u V'l' ^f°'^- '• ^^' ^' ™''^° attritus splendescere vomer. H„^ II "Vn,"' ,«'fn'ns. Adject, for adv. Matt. Gr. Gr { 446 8 Horat Epod. xv. 51, Nee vespertinus cicumgemit ur^us ovile '^^' pooToiiov, " butomus," the flowering rush. Theoi.hr kv-ku»ov (i « Jr^iT^, .. ^''"^'=' T"""^"' '^^ f°^">" "> be the same Tth t I'e carex acuta," mentioned bj- Virg. Georg. iii. 231. runf;f?hfri.'^t?-;aIS^P^;pl-;.rJ.l3. ^''°"- ^""- «'- - At comes mvicti juvenis processerat ultnt Raram sepositi quaerere fontis aquam F 2 t 68 THEOCRITUS. 40—58. 58—75. IDYLL Xm. 69 low-lying spot ; and around it grew many rushes, and the pale-blue ^^ * swallow-wort,' and green * maiden-hair,' and blooming parsley, and couch-grass stretching through the marshes : and in the midst of the water, Nymphs were mak- ing ready a dance, sleepless Nymphs, dread goddesses to rus- tics, ^9 Eunica and Malis, and Nychea with a look like spring. In sooth 20 the boy was holding over the fountain an urn that might contain a copious draught, hastening to plunge it ; when they all clung to his hand : for love for the Argive boy had encircled the tender hearts of them all : and 2> he fell sheer into the black water, like as when a ruddy star hath fallen from the sky sheer into the sea, and a sailor has said to his 22 shipmates, 'Loosen the ship's tackle, my lads, here's a breeze for sailing ! ' The Nymphs indeed holding on their knees the weeping boy, began to console him with gentle words ; ^3 whilst the son of Amphitryon, disturbed about the lad, went, with his well-bent bow and arrows 24 after the Scythian fiishion, and the club which his right hand ever used to hold. Thrice indeed " Xf^i^oviov,^ swallow- wort or celandine. aSiavrov, a water-plant, ** capillus Veneris," ♦« maiden-hair." Theophr. aypoxrrtg, (Odyss. vi. 90,) triticum repens. '9 Cf. Aves Aristoph. 1169, Trvppixr}v /JXettwv, bellicum intuens. Matt. Gr. Gr. § 409, 2. .^sch. S. c. Theb. 500. Chapman quotes here a rich parallel from Kit Marlow. Conip. Propert. I. xx. 43, Tandem haurire parat demissis flumina palmis, Innixus dextro plena trahens humero. aBpooQ. Virg. Georg. i. 365, Saepe stellas — videbis Praecipites copIo labi. See too Horn. II. ^. 45. Ov. Met. ii. 319, Volvitur in praeeeps, longoque per aera tractu Fertur, ut interdum de coelo stella sereno Etsi non cecidit, potuit cecidisse videri. * oirXa, generally ship's tackle, specially her cordage, cables, &c., a§ Ezech. Spanheim shows in Callimach. H. to Delos, 315. It seems in all its senses to resemble ** arma " in Latin. Virg. ^n. iv. 574, Solvite vela citi. Ov. Fast. iii. 586, Findite remigio, navita dixit, aquas. 23 For a rather diffuse parallel, compare Valer. Flacc. Arg. iii. 570. "^^ MaiuiTicrri, in Scythian fashion. The lake Maeotis is in Scythia, near the mouth of the Phasis. The Scholiast tells us Hercules learned the use of the bow from Teutarus, a Scythian, the herdsman of Amphitryon .En. viii. 219, Hie vero Alcidae furiis exarserat atro Felle dolor : rapit arma manu, nodsque gravatum Robur — 20 21 I 1 he ^' shouted Hylas to the full depth of his throat, and thrice, I wot, the boy '^^ heard: and a thin voice came from the water ; but though very near he seemed to be afar off. ^^ And as when a well-bearded lion, some savage lion on the moun- tains, upon hearing a fawn crying afar off, hastes from his lair towards a most ready meal, in such wise Hercules kept moving about among the impassable briers through regret for the lad, and kept ranging over much space. Hapless are they who love ! How he toiled in roaming over ^^ mountains and thickets ! and Jason's enterprise was all secondary to it. The ship indeed was waiting with its sails floating in air ; and the youths of ^^ them that were present, kept washing the hatches at midnight, in expectation of Hercules : he however was going madly wherever his feet led him, for a cruel god was tearing his heart inwardly. ^^ Thus indeed most beauteous Hylas is numbered one of the blest immortals. But the heroes began to revile Hercules as a deserter of the ship, because he had withdrawn from Argo of the tliirty benches. And he came a-foot to Colchis, and to ^' inhospitable Phasis. 2» Virg. Eel. vi. 43, His adjungit, Hylan nautce quo fonte relictum Clamassent, ut littus Hyla, Hyla, omne sonaret. Spenser, Faery Queen, b. iii. c. 2, And every wood, and everj' valley wide. He fill'd with Hylas' name, the Nymphs eke Hylas cried. 2« Propert. I. xx. 49, 50, Cui procul Alcides iterat responsa, sed illi Nomen ab extremis fontibus aura refert. ^ Compare Hom. II. xviii. 318. Lucret. ii. 355. Ov. Met. v. 164. ^ dXojfievog is joined with an accusative. Eurip. Helen. 539. Bion, Id. i. 20, has ara ^pvfiovg dXdXrjTai. ^ Instead of the obscure rioif TraptovTuiv, Graefius suggests rtiv iroS eojvojv, i. e. the sheets or ropes fastened to the corners of the sails by which they are tightened or slackened. The line will then stand, Naus fxivEj dpfitv t )^oiv Trapcoj/rwv, sociis praesentibut. *• Virg. ^n. vii. 211, Regia coeli Accipit, et numero divorum altaribus addit. ■' aUvog. Ovid. Trist. III. ii. 7, Inhospita littora PonU. ^frfi 8—23. IDYLL XrV. 71 11 IDYLL XIV. THE LOVE OF CYNISCA, OR THTONICHUS. ARGUMENT. iEschines, jilted by a maiden of whom he was enamoured, declares to Thyonichus the causes of their quarrel. This leads to an explanation of his heart-sickness, and especially to an account of the banquet, at which their quarrel had arisen. After this ^schines declares to his friend his purpose of crossing the seas, to find relief for his griefs. Thyonichus approves and urges him to go and serve in the armies of Ptolemy ; of which monarch a graceful eulogy follows. It seems hence not unlikely that this Idyll, which is not of the pastoral kind, was either composed at Alexandria, or at any rate intended for the eye of the monarch. ^SCHINES. THYONICHUS. jEschines. Good morrow to Sir Thyonichus. Thyonichus. ^ Well, the same to you, jEschines. ^sch. How late you are ! Thi/on. Late ? And what is your care, pray ? jEsch. I am not in the best condition, Thyonichus. Thyon. Therefore I suppose you are lean, ^ and that uppei lip is covered, and your locks are unkempt. Such a sort ol •* fellow was a Pythagorean, that arrived here but lately, pale and ^ unsandaled, and he said that he was an Athenian. In truth that man too, methinks, was longing for baked flour. Ibid. IV. iv. 55, Euxini littora Ponti , ^^^^"^ ^ antiquis Axenus ille fuit. ' aXka TV avTov. So Reiske reads instead of the common roi avrt^, which will not stand, to aiWov, i. e. volo et eero te ipsum salvere Reiske also conjectures aXXa ToiavTa Atrrxu'^, sc. /(3oi/Ao;wat yiyvtaOai. Better perhaps is tv avTog, " immo te ego ipse." 2 Juvenal ix. 12, Vultus gravis, horrida siccce Silva comae : nullus tot^ nitor in cute. ^ 3 Pythagorean tenets and Athenian citizens were objects of special ridicule to the luxurious and easy Sicilian. Idvll iv. 21, is an instance of this Compare Aristoph. Nub. 103, 104,' tovq dtxpt^^^vTac, Toi^r avvTrootjTovQ Xtyitg. * KawTToSarog. Ezech. Spanheim, in Callim. H. in Cerer. 125, shows that this was the custom of mourners, and persons engaged in solemn sacrifi^ce, &c. Compare Bion, Idyll i. 21, Venus Adonidem lugens affai'CaXog dicitur. Cf. 2 Sam. xi. 30. Ezechiel xxiv. 17. n i i jEsch. 5 You are always joking, gocd sir: but me the graceful Cynisca ^vrongs ; ^ and I shall go mad without one knowing it, within a hair's breadth. Thyon. You are ever thus, good ^schines, ^ mild or sharp, wanting every thing on the spur of the moment ; but tell me, however, what news ? ^sch. The Argive, and I, and Apis, the Thcssalian driver of steeds, and Cleonicus, the soldier, were drinking at my country place. I had killed a couple of young fowls and a sucking pig, and had broached for them the fragrant Thracian '^ wine, almost four years old, as mild as if from the wine-press. ^A Colchian mushroom had been brought out : 'twas a sweet drink. And when the cup was now making way, it pleased us JO that neat wine should be poured forth to the health of whomsoever each chose, only he was bound to say to whose. We indeed began to drink naming our loves, as it had been determined. But she said nothing, though I was present. What mind, think you, had I then? ^^ ' Won't you speak ? you have seen a wolf,' said some one sportively, *as the wise man said.' Then she fired up ; you might have lighted * TrniffhiQ ej^wv. For this redundancy of the participle, see Matt. Gr Gr. § 567,^ last clause, p. 986. ^ 9pi^ ava ^kaaov. Only a hair's breadth. Prov. Plaut. Mostell I. i. 60, Plumtl baud interest patronus, an cliens, probior siet. Martial, xii. 47, Difficilis, facilis, jucundus, acerbus es idem Terent. Heautont. III. i. 21. " Bibline is the name of a district of Thrace, the wine of which was esteemed higldy for its sweetness and lightness. Hesiod O. et D. 587. * fioX^oQ KoXxdag, is the reading preferred by Kiessling, and trana- lated here. AVordsworth, in a long and learned note, suggests for ftoXftoq riQ KoxXiag to read (ioXfiog, KTttg, KoxXiag, a mushroom, a cockle, a shell- hsh ; comparing Horat. Sat. II. iv. 33, Ostrea Circeiis, Miseuo oriuntur echini, Pectinibus patulis jactat se molle Tarentum. JO Compare Idyll ii. 152, ovvex'fpiorog'AKpaTut tTrcxeTro. > AvKov eUeg; These words are those of one of the guests, following up the words of .Eschines, " Won't you speak 1 " There is a joke upon the word AvKog, (wolf or Lycus,) which shows the guest to have been aware of Cynisca's passion, and to have been at the same time apt at proverbs. See Virg. Eel. ix. 53, Vox quoque Mjrrim Jam fugit ipsa : Mfcrim lupi videre priores. St. Ambrose in Hexaem. on St. Luke x. 3, writes, Lup{, siquem priores liommem viderint, vocem ejus feruntur eripere. See Wordsw. ncte at this passage. In the next line Wordsw. would read for X* w00a, k »0frfc from ai6e 'jdrj rovfiov avrtKv{}fnovm 1—9. IDYLL XV. 75 CHARACTERS. GORGO. PRAXINOE. OLD WOMAN. FIRST STRANGER. SECOND STRANGER. SINGING WOMAN. Gorgo. Is Praxinoe within ? Praxinoe. Bear GoTgo, how l^te 1/ou are f I am at home. Tis a wonder you have come even now. i See for a chair for her, Eunoe : and put a cushion on it. Gorg. 2 It does very well. Praxin. Be seated. Gorg. Oh ! my unbroken spirit, with difficulty have I reached you in safety, Praxinoe, the crowd being great, and the chariots many. Every where there are ^ booted men ; every where cavaliers ; and the road is toilsome, and you live' too far from me. Praxin. For this reason that '* madman came to the extre- mity of the world, and took ^a den, not an habitation, in order I 'X oprjjitppov. Compare Hom. Odyss. viii. 443, Avrog vvv Ide Trwua. Somewhat less simple is the phrase in Iliad ii. 384, ei Ss rtf dpfxarog a^' the reading llfi' for lifia, prseterea or simul. And besides you live far off. He compares Soph. Alet. vii. 3. Thuc. i. 37, Kai t) TToXig iifia avrapKri &^ afjLiTExovov, a fine upper robe. Trspovarpi^a, (cf. 34, tfnrepovafia,) a robe fastened to the shoulders with a buckle, woollen in texture, sleeve- less; closed on the right side, but on the left only kept together by a few clasps, hence called (xxiffrog xirwv, &c. Liddell and Scott, Lex. in voc. It was a Dorian garment. Cf. Herodot. v. 87, 88. Virg. ^En. iv. 13^ Aurea purpuream subnectit fibula vestem. 25—4.5. IDYIX XV. 77 ing. What ^^you have seen, that you might tell, when you have seen it, to them that have not seen it. Gorg. It must be time to be off: to the idle 'tis ever holiday. Praxin. Eunoe, ^^ bring hither the towel, and place it in the middle again, good-for-nothing hussey : the cats v^^ant to sleep softly. Come, stir, bring water quickly. I want water first. See how she brings the towel. Well, give it me ! Don't DOur in too much water, wasteful ! wretched creature, why are you wetting my kirtle ? That will do. ^^ I am washed enough to satisfy the gods. Where is the key of the large press ? Bring it hither. Gorg. Praxinoe, that pelisse with ample folds greatly becomes you ; tell me ^^ how much did it stand you in from the loom ? Praxin. Don't mention it, Gorgo ! more than two pounds of good silver. But I had set even my life upon the bargain. Gorg. Well, it turned out to your wishes. Praxin. Yes, you have said well. Bring me my cloak and my parasol. Put it about me becomingly. I won't take you, child. ^^ Bugbear ! Horse bites ! Cry as much as you please : but we must not have you become lame. Let us be moving. Phrygian slave, take and play with the little man. Call the dojr in. Shut the hall door. *^ Good gods ! what a crowd ! how and when must we pass this nuisance ? They are numberless and measureless as '" The reading which has been translated here, is that approved by Kiessling, u>v Ictg, wv t'nraig Kai i^oiaa tv r€ -II IDYLL XV. 81 tures ^ How true to nature they stand, and how true they move ' They are breathing, and not inwoven. Man is a clever kind of contrivance. And how admirably is he represented as reclining on a ^b silver couch, just shedding the first down from his temples, the thrice beloved Adonis, who is beloved even in Acheron. 2nd Stranger. Ye wretched women, stop prating incessant- ly, like turtles. They will wear us out, pronouncing all their words broadly. /• ^ a «;i Gorq Mother earth, where does the man come from i And what is it to you, if we are praters ? ^9 When you have ac- quired a right, order us ! Do you order Syracusan women ? And that you may know this too, ^Owe are Corinthians by descent, as was also Bellerophon. We speak in the Pelopon- nesian dialect. And 'tis lawful, I suppose, for Dorians to speak in the Doric. • u ^ +^ Praxin. O Proserpine, may there never arise but one to be my master. I do not care, 3> don't give me scant measure. „u« sint, vivere ac spirare .ideantur." Virg. ^n. vi 848, ^ra spirantia. Prooert III. vii. 9, «Signa animosa.' Horat. ii. bat. vii. y», ^ * Yelut si Re vera pugnent, feriant, vitentque moventes Arma \iri. .— .. , Our own poets speak of • breathing marble.' See too Shaksp. Winter 8 Tale, act v. scene 3, " Life lively mocked." On the contrary, Antony and Cleopat. act iii. sc. 3, Her motion and her station are as one : She shows a body rather than a life ; A statue than a breather. CTO0OV rc xo^M. Ovid, ex Pont. II. vii. 37, Res timida est omnis miser Martial, x Epigr. 59, Res est imperiosa timor, «&c. Senec. l.p. -Jo Homo sacra res. Cic. ad Quint. Fratr. ii. 13, Callisthenes quidem vul- jjare, et notum negotium. , .. . , » comp Idvll XX. 21. Hom. Odyss. x. 318, -n-p.v (T dvu), understand rov KXivrJypoc. Milesian and Samian wools were the finest. The testimony of the natives of these therefore would be highly valued. Virg. Georg. iii. 30G, 307, Quamvis Milesia magno. Vellera mutentur Tyrios incocta riibores. fiaXuKujTfpoi virvui. Cf. Idyll v. 58. Virg. Eel. vii. 45, Somno mollior herba. Our own poets use the phrase "downy sleep." *' ov Ktvrti. Though his beard is Trvppog, reddish, his touch is not rough, but soft. Tibull. I. viii. 32, Cui levia fulgent Ora, nee amplexus horrida barba terit. »' Respecting the Adonia, see Smith's Diet. Gr. and R. Ant. p. 12. We have allusion to Adonis or Tammuz, Milton's Paradise Lost, i. 455, Thammuz came next behind, Whose annual wound in Lebanon allured The S}Tian damsels to lament his fate In amorous ditties, all a summer's day, While smooth Adonis from his native rock , Ran purple to the sea, supposed with blood Of Thammuz yearly wounded. Adonis, both hither and to Acheron : neither did Agamemnon enjoy this privilege, nor the great Ajax, hero of grievous |. wrath, nor Hector, the most honourable of the twenty sons of fI Hecuba, nor Patrocles, nor Pyrrhus having returned from Troy, nor those who were yet earlier in date, the Lapithse and ^3 Deucalions, nor the descendants of Pelops, and Pelasgi, ** eldest rulers of Argos. Be prosperous now, dear Adonis,' and mayest thou give pleasure ^^next year ; both now thou hast come, O Adonis, and whenever thou mayest arrive, thou wilt come, dear. Gorg. Praxinoe, the affair is very clever. The female is fortunate in having so much knowledge— most fortunate, in that she sings sweetly. However, it is time even for home : Diocleidas is without his dinner. ^^And the man is vinegar all over: and, if he is hungry, don't go near him. FareweU, beloved Adonis, and go to those who rejoice at your coming. IDYLL XYL THE GRACES ; OR, HIERO. ARGUMENT. This poem is written in praise of Hiero, son of Hierocles, tyrant of Sy- racuse, a ruler of great moderation, and also of warlike renown, ac- quired in his battles with the Carthaginians. The poet lashes the avarice of most rulers ; who, he says, do not favour poets, and so prevent their fame from gaining that immortality, which cannot be attained, save by song. He goes on to praise Hiero as an honourable exception ; and afterwards prays for the future safety and fortunes of Syracuse, and of Hiero, its ornament and support. In conclusion he invokes the " -AeuicaX/wvef , i. e. such as Deucalion. So Plutarch speaks of Xlr\Kii^ Kai Ayxiffai Kai Qpiioveg Kal UfiaOiojvig. And Longinus cites a Trage- dian speaking of'EKropkg Te Kai ^apTrrjdoveg. ** 'Apyeog oKpa, i. q. avroxQovtg. fiQ Vfior. elg to irribv fi vsov troQ, v. Hesych. Heinsius, Briggs. Wordsworth, prefer to read at verse 145, to xpVI-^a (Toa)Tepov a O^Xeia. Just as at verse 83. Horn. II. ix. 189, dei^i S' apa icXfa av^pCJv. Odyss. viii. 73, Mova dp' &oilbv dvrJKev acict/ifvai KXka dv^pu^v. Horat. IV. viii. 28, Dignura laude virum musa vetat mori. * TiQ yap. There is an ellipse of rovro OavfiaffTov lariv — yap supply- ing the reason. It is a wonder that mortals sing the praise of mortals, seeing how ill-requited they are. 3 X«pt^"C»i-e. his poems. For a similar prosopopoeia, see Horat. Epist. i. 20, where he compares his book with a damsel desiring to go forth in public. * V'*'XP*'*t'» starved. Compare Aristoph. Plut. 262, 6 OEffTroVrjs yap (f)r](TLU I'/xas fidtw^ aTravra's yj/vxpov ^lov KOL ivaKoXov 'Qntrnv airaWayivTa^. * avr]—Upa. Compare Idyll i, 51 ; viii. 44. * For ToioQ It wore 0i\av tov tv dnovra. So Sophocl. CEd. Tyr 1493, 1494, Ti's ouTOS loTai ; tis irapappixl/ei TtKva toluvt' ovEiSr) Xaix^dvtav ; ' Compare Horat. Od. III. xvi. 17, Crescentem sequitur cura pecuniam Majorumque fames, t-iro coXttw. See Ov. Am. I. x. 18, Quo pretium condat, non habet ille ainum. * Cicero quotes this proverb, Epist. a?' Diversos, lib. xvi. Ep. 23, I let me have something myself. Gods honour poets. And who would listen to another ? Homer is enough for all. This is the best of poets, who will carry off nothing from me.' Strange men ! now what gain is your countless gold laid up within ? Such is not the advantage of wealth to the wise : but it is rather to give a part to ^one^s tastes, and a part also to one of the poets : and to do good to many of one's ^^ kins- men, and many too of other men, and ever to perform sacrifices to the gods ; ^' and not to be a bad host, but to send away a guest having treated him kindly at one's board, whensoever he may choose to depart : but chiefly to honour the sacred inter- preters of the Muses, that, though buried in Hades, you may be well spoken of ; and may not lament ingloriously in chilly Acheron, like some ^^ poor man, having had his hands made callous inside by the spade, bewailing portionless poverty left him by his fathers. ^3 In the mansions of Antiochus and king Aleuas, ^* many Nee tamen te avoco a syngrapha, yovv Kvrjfirjg. Athenaeus ix. 383, yovv Kvr)fiT]Q tyyiov. Plaut. Tunica pallio propior. Charity begins at home. Shaksp. Two Gentleman of Verona, act ii. sc. 6, I to my- self am dearer than a friend. Oeol rifiuKTiv doiSovg, is equivalent to the cant phrase. Providence will take care of poets. 9 ^v^^—Sovvai, Genio dare, (Lat.) Horat. Epist. II. i. 144, Flori- bus etvino Genium memorem brevis aevi. ^sch. Pers. 827, ^vxs ^*" Eovreg ij^oprjv KaO' yfispav. '" TTiyoc, '* cognatus." See Odyss. viii. 581, where the Schol. observes that it denotes connexion secondary to blood relationship, for which it was never expressly used. See Valken. Phoeniss. 431,— derived from TrtTTOt/tat. " Theocrit. had in view Odyss. xv. 68. Compare Pope's Imitation of Horace, Sat. ii. 2, Through whose free opening gate None comes too early — none departs too late, &c. For patriarchal hospitality, see Genesis xviii., xix. '2 dx^]V, needy, a x«'vw> akin to egenus, iEschylus uses the substan- tive dxrjvia. Choeph. 301. Ag. 419. Virg. Mn. vi. 436, Nunc et pauperiem et duros perferre labores. '» Aleuas, a king of Thessaly, one of a most powerful dynasty, Herodot. vii. 6. Ovid Ibis, 327, Quosque putas fidos, ut Larissjpus Aleuas Vulnere non fidos experiere tuo. ^* Ifierpijffavro, 1. e. fikTprjfia tXafiov. Fawkes compares dpfiaXidp ^Hftrfvov with the "Demensum," or monthly measure of Roman slaves Terence Phorm. Act. i. § 1, Quos ille unciatim vix de demenso suo Suum defraudans genium, comparsit miser. 86 THEOCRITUS. 35— 4S, serfs had monthly provisions measured out to them : and many calves lowed with horned heifers, as they were driven to the stalls of the Scopadae : and shepherds would let out to feed along the Crannonian plain, ten thousand choice sheep for the hospitable Creondae : ^^yet had there been no pleasure to them of these things, after that they had poured out their sweet spirits into the broad bark of hateful Acheron ; and, out of mind, having quitted those many and rich resources, they would have lain long ages among the wretched dead, had not the clever bard, '^the Ceian with his changeful song set to his many-stringed lyre, made them illustrious to posterity; ^Mbr even swift steeds which came to them crowned from the sacred contests, obtained a sliare in the honour. And who had ever known the nobles of the '^ Lycians, wlio the sons of Priam Hesiod, Op. 349, tv ntv fiirgiiaBai irapa yt/roroc— TTfjuVrat.— Thirlw. History of Gr. i. 437. Each of the chief Thessalian cities exercised a dominion over several smaller towns, and they were themselves the seat of noble families, of the line of ancient kinjrs.'able generally to draw to themselves the wliole government of the nation. Larissa was thus subject to the house of Aleuadac ; Crannon and Pharsalus, to the Scopadfe and Creonda% branches of the same stock. The vast estates and flocks and herds of these were manajjed by their serfs, the Penests, who, at call, were ready to follow them to the field afoot or on horseback. Cf Herodot. vi. 127. •* (Txi^idv. JEii. vi. 304, Et ferruginea subvectat corpora cymba; for the sentiment cf. Tibull. I. iv. 03, Carmine jjurpurea est Nisi coma : carmina ni sint Ex humero Pelopis non nituisset ebur. Hor. IV. viii. 22, Quid foret Iliie Mavortisque puer, si taciturnitas Obstaret meritis invida Romuli. Add Spenser, " Ruines of Time," quoted by Gaisford. For not to have been dipt in Lethe lake Could save the son of Thetis from to die, But that blind bard did him immortal make. With verses dipt in dew of Castalie. Comp. Hor. IV. ix. 26—28 ; ii. 3, ad fin. "6 K37V0C. Simonides of Cos (b. c. 540) was the friend of Hipparchus the tyrant, Pausanias the Spartan general, and Hiero the Syracusan tyrant. He wrote, in Doric dialect, lyrics, elegies, epigrams, and dramatic pieces. •' 'iinroi, the victorious steeds from the games of Greece. Comnare Callira. in Cerer. H. 110, KUL Tov atd\o(p6pov Kal Tou iroXtfiriiov 'iinrov. >• Nobles of the lycians,] i. e. Sarpedon, Pandarus, Glaucus. Comp. 48—65. IDYLL XVI. 87 with the flowing locks, or Cycnus called feminine from his complexion, had not bards hymned the battle-dins of olden heroes? Not even Ulysses, though he wandered one hundred and twenty months over all nations of men, and went alive to extremest Orcus, and escaped the cave of the destructive Cy- clops, would have had lasting renown : hushed too in silence had been the swine-herd Eumaeus, and Philaetius busied among the heifers of the herd, and great-hearted Laertes him- self, had not the ^^ songs of a man of Ionia befriended them. From the Muses comes worthy renown to men ; but 20 the living consume the w^ealth of the dead : since however the toil is the same to measure waves on the sliore, as many as the wind drives to land witli the green ocean, 21 or to wash a muddy brick with dark-coloured water, as to get round a man 22 blinded by avarice, farewell to all such : and may they have money untold, and ever may a longing for more possess them. II. ii. 875. Cycnus, son of Neptune, was slain by Achilles at Troy. According to Hesiod, he was white-headed, and hence called Bi]\vq. Compare Ovid. Met. x. 72, &c., Jam leto proles Neptunia Cycnus, Mille viros dederat, &c. At line 51, 'OZvatvq. Cf. Horace Epist. I. ii. 19, Multorum providus urbes Et mores hominum inspexit, latumque per aequor Dum sibi dum sociis reditum parat, aspera multe Pertulit. " Horace Od. IV. ix. 26—28, Vixere fortes ante Agamemnona Multi, sed omnes illachrimabiles Urgentur, ignotique long^ Nocte, carent quia vate sacro. Fawkes observes that Theocritus, keeping up his pastoral capacity, honours with princes the swine-herd and the neat-herd. *> The living consume, &c.] Compare Horace Od. II. iii. 19, Exstructifl in altuin Divitiis potietur htcres. Virg. Georg. ii. 108, Nosse, quot lonii veniant ad littora fluctus. ^' ^oXtpai/, i, e. unbaked. Whence the proverb of Terence, Phorra. I. iv. 9, Purgem me '? Laterem lavem. -nXivdovq ttXvvhv. Zenob. Diogen. Centur. Suid. Somewhat parallel is Jeremiah xiii. 23, " Can the ./Ethiopian," &c. ^ (3i^Xafi^ivov, blinded, stricken. Mente captum. So used II. xxii. 15, Odyss. xxiii. 14, &c. Two lines below, compare Horace Od. III. xvi. 17, Crescentem sequitur cura pecuniam Majorumque fames. 5e THKOCRITIJS. m-^7. Yet I would prefer 23to many mules and horses, honour, and the friendship of men. Now I am in quest of one, to whom among mortals I may come with favour, by the help of the Muses ; for hard are the ways to minstrels, apart from the daughters of Jove, the mighty counsellor. Not yet hath heaven tired of drawing on months and years ; many steeds will yet move the chariot's wheel. Such a man will arise, as shall need me for his bard, when he has achieved as much as mighty Achilles, or strong Ajax in the plain of Simois, where is the sepulchre of Phrygian Ilus. Already '^^now the Phoe- nicians, dwelling at the very farthest part of Libya under the setting sun, shudder with alarm : already Syracusans carry their fances by the middle, having their arms burdened with wicker shields; and among them Hiero, a match for elder heroes, girds himself, and ^^his horsehair plumes overshadow his helmet. Oh that, most glorious father Jove, and lady Minerva, and thou, 2*i Proserpine, who with thy mother hast obtained by lot the great city of the exceeding-rich Ephyra^ans, by the waters of Lysimelia, stern necessity would send our enemies out of the island over the Sardinian wave, to announce to wives and children the fate of their dear ones, '^"by the fact of their be- 23 Xenoph. Mem. Socr. II. iv. 1, -ttoTos yap tTr-n-os, y irolou ^iZyo^ outu) yovaifJLov, lixTTTip 6 )(/o»jo-Tos 0tXos. Cf. Cic. de Amicit. xv. 1 i. 2*» So \irg. iEn. \i. 799, Hujus in adventum jam nunc et Caspia regna, Responsis horrent Divum, et Maeotia tellus. Carthage, as every one knows, was founded by a Phoenician colony [see ^n. i. 338, 339]. This Idyll bears evidence in these lines of having been written during the first Punic war, after the alliance of Hiero with the Romans, b. c. 263. (Vid. Arnold's Rome, ii. 471, 472.) 2* Yirg. ^n. x. 869, ^re caput fulgens crist^que hirsutus equina. 'iTTTTovpig and 'nnro^aatia couj)led with Kopvg denote the same in the Iliad, frequently. Two lines above we tind a parallel in Virg. -^n. VII. vi. 32, Flectuntque salignas Umbonum crates. *« Proserpine and Ceres were specially worshipped by the Syracusans. Syracuse was founded by a Corinthian colony (compare Idyll xv. 91, note). The ancient name of Corinth was Ephjre. Lysimelia, a pool at the mouth of the river Anapus, hard by Syracuse. Sil. Ital. xiv. 51, Sed decus Hennaeis baud ullum pulchrius oris, Quam quae Sisyphio fundavit nomeu ab Isthmo, Et multum ante alias Ephyracis fulget alumnis. 2^ dpiOfiuTovc CLTTO TToWuiv, 1. 6. Sio. TO dvat, K. T. X. The sense is that the tale of destruction should find its way home in the few that re. turned safe. Horat. A. P. 206, Populus numerabiUs utpote parvus. Cas- hi—i\)'d» IDYLL xv:. HO ing numbered by many; and oh! might cities be inhabited again by former citizens, cities as many as the hands of enemies have laid waste utterly : and oh that they might till nourishing fields ; and their ^'* thousands unnumbered of sheep, fattened upon the herbage, might bleat along the plain, and heifers, coming in herds to the stalls, urge on the traveller by twilight : and oh that the fallow lands miglit be broken up for sowing, what time'^^ the cicala, watching the shepherds in the open air, chirps within the trees on the topmost branches ; that spiders might distend fine webs in the arms, ^^ and not even the name of the battle-cry be heard any longer. And may minstrels bear lofty glory for Hiero, even beyond the Scy- thian sea, and where ^' Semiramis having bound a broad wall with asphalt reigned within it. I indeed am but one man : yet the daughters of Jove love many others also, to all of whom it is a care to hymn Sicilian ^^ Arethusa with her peoples, and aubon remarks a like phrase among the Hebrews. Isaiah x. 19, " And the rest of the trees of the forest shall be few, (in the original " anumber,") that a child may write them." So Cic. Orat. pro lege Manil. c. ix., Tanta fuit clades, ut eam ad aures L. Luculli non ex prcelio nuntius, sed ex sermone rumor afferret. * Virg. EcL ii. 21, Mille meae Siculis errant in montibus agnae. "The folds shall be full of sheep, and the valleys also shall stand so thick with corn, that they shall laugh and sing," Psalm Ixv. 14. Compare also Ps. cxliv. 13. ** a.\ti iv cLKoefiovetTeiv. Virg. Eel. II., Sole sub ardenti resonant arbusta cicadis. With the next clause compare Horn. Odyss. xvi. 34, 35. Hesiod Op. et D. ii.93. Propert. III. vi. 33, Putris et in vacuo texetur aranea lecto. So Catullus, Carm. XIII. v. 7, Nam tui Catulli Plenus sacculus est aranearum. Virg. Georg. iv. 247, In foiibus laxos suspendit aranea casses. Add to these Bacchylides, Fragm. ix., and Tibull. I. x. 49. ^^ Comp. Isaiah ii. 4, •' Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more." Theocritus is said to have imitated in some passages of this piece, Isaiah, and the C6th, 72nd, and 144th Psalms. ^' Compare Ovid. Met. iv. 57, Ubi dicitur altam Coctilibus muris cinxisse Semiramis urbem. '- Arethusa. See Idyll i. 117. Ovid. Met. v. 573 — 641. Silius xiv. 53, Hie Arethusa snum piscoso fonte receptat Alpheon, sacrae portantetu iigna coronae. Milton in Arcades celebrates, Divine Alpheus, who by secret sluice Stole under seas to meet his Arethuse. For ftlXct, Wordsw. suggests fioXci, obveniat, contingat. HI 90 THEOCRITUS. 104—109. 1-24. IDiXL XVII. 91 ^the warrior Hiero. ^* Ye goddesses having your rise from Eteocles, that love Minyan Orchomenus, hated of old by Thebes, inglorious indeed may I remain at home : yet with confidence would I go to men's halls, if they call me, along with my Muses, and I will not leave even you behind. For apart from the Graces what is ever beloved by man ? May I ever bide with the Graces. IDYLL XYIL THE PRAISE OF PTOLEMY. ARGUMENT. The poet intending to celebrate Ptolemy Philadely)hus, king of Egypt, sets out with the praise of his father, Ptolemy Lagus, to whom after his death a place among the gods had been ascribed ; and goes on to eulogize Berenice, the mother of Philadelphus, whom Venus was sup- posed to have received into her temples to be her Trapt^pog, or assessor^ He next proceeds to set forth the fortunes and virtues of Philadelphus himself, beginning with the happy omens which had attended his birth in the island of Cos, and portended his future opulence and power. Then follows an enumeration of the royal territories, and laudation of the royal wealth, augmented as it has been by the blessings of peace. The poet commends in glowing terms the munificence and discern- ment of Philadelphus in conferring favours, as well as his filial piety shown so eminently. He ends with praise of the queen, the wife and sister of Ptolemy. Reiske, Warton, and others have held this to be a poem of Callimachus ; but Eichstadt declares that, while it equals the lightness of the poems of that writer, it surpasses them in jejuneness. 33 Hiero. Silius Ital. xiv. 79, &c., gives a character of the old age of Hiero. 3^ Q Erco/cXftot Ovyarpeg. i. e. O goddesses, whose worship was origin- ated by Eteocles, son of Cephisus, or Andreus, who first sacrificed to the Charites at Orchomenus in Boeotia. See Pausan. ix. 34, § 5; 35, § 1. Schol. ad Pind. Ol. xiv. 1. Smith's Diet. Gr. R. B. vol. ii. 53. For the grounds of enmity between Thebes and Orchomenus, J. AV. refers us to Thirlwall, Hist. Greec. c. iv. vol. i. p. 91, § 9. At the last line compara Milton, L'Allegro, These delights if thou canst give, Mirth, with thee I mean to live. ^ Begin we with Jove, and at Jove make an end, ye Muses, whensoever we sing in our minstrelsy the best of immortals! But of men, on the other hand, let Ptolemy be spoken of among 2tije ^j,^^^ .^^^ i^^^^ ^^^ ^^ ^^^ middle; for he is the most excellent of men. Heroes, who ^ aforetime sprung from demigods, having done noble deeds have met with 'skilful poets. But I, knowing how to speak well, would /«m hymn the praise of Ptolemy ; and hymns are a glory even of the immortals themselves. A wood-cutter having gone to woody Ida, looks around whence to begin his work, though there is abundance at hand. What shall I first recount*'? for in- numerable glories occur to tell, with which the gods honoured the best of kinf^s. From his fathers what a man indeed was Ptolemy son of Lagus '^to accomplish a great work, when he had conceived in his mind a counsel which no other man was able to devise. ^Him father Jypiter has made equal in honour even to the blest immortals, and for him a chamber of gold has been built in the mansion of Jove ; and beside him sits Alexander, kindly disposed to him, a god hard upon Persians with variegated turbans. And opposite to them is set the chair of Hercules, slayer of the Centaur, wrought out of solid adamant ; where with other celestials he holds feasts, rejoicing exceedingly in his grandchildren's grandchildren, « because the son of Saturn ../. y^^'F- ^^^- "^- ^^' -^ Jo^e principium. Eel. viii. 11, A te principium, tibi desmet. Hom. II. i. 97, iv pt at the division of his empire ) was associated in the government by his sire, to the exclusion of his cniidren by his first wife Eurydice ; in return for which Philadelphus deihed Lagides and his wife Berenice. Below at line 19, J. W quotes lc\v^^' ^^' ^^^ fl^ibus grata est picta lupa barbara mitra. Lalhm. H. m Dian. 159, 7 via dei>jQtiQ. Ov. Met. iv. 538, Abstulit 92 THEOCRITUS. 24 — 43. 44 — 65. IDYLL XVII. 93 has exempted tlieir limbs from old age. and because, being of his 7 brood, they are styled immortals. For to both the brave son of Hercules is an ancestor, and both « reckon up their descent to Hercules, as the source. Wherefore likewise when, at lencrth satisfied with fragrant nectar, he goes from the feast to the chamber of his dear spouse, to the one he gives his bow and the quiver under his elbow, and to the other his iron club, studded with knots ; and they bear the arms to the ambrosial chamber of white-fancied Hebe, along with their ancestor, Jove's son himself. And among wise women how did far-famed Berenice shine, a great blessing to her parents ! Upon whose fragrant breast, indeed, the august daughter ot Dione, that occupies Cyprus, impressed her slender hands. Wherefore 'tis said that never did any woman so please her husband, as Ptolemy in fact loved his own wife. She indeed returned his love far more than other ivives. Thus he could trustfully commit his wiiole house to his children's care, when- soever lover-like he ascended to the chamber of his loving wife. ^OBut of an unloving woman the thoughts are ever on a illis quod mortale fuit. Soph. (Ed. Col. 607, Movoig oh yiyvirai dtoltyi yhoac. The founder of the kingdom of Macedon was Caranus, an Argive, sixteenth in descent from Hercules. From him Philip and Alexander therefore traced their pedigree. See more, as J. A\ . refers us, in \ alkenaer on Herodot. viii. 137. . , ^ e ' \ 7 vtTTohQ, i. q. rkva, a brood. Eustath. (quasi vtoirohq, from vtoQ.) Compare nepos, nepotes. It occurs in Callim. Frag. Ixxvu. 2bO. Apoll. Rhod. iv. 1745. .„ \ ';? 8 Juvenal yiii. 131, Tunc licet a Pico numeres genus. npaKKutaq, 9 Hebe, daughter of Jupiter and Juno, was the fabled wife of Hercules. Odyss xi 602, where Ulysses is represented beholding Hercules with Ka\\'iiJ9 The Dorian Pentapolis consisted of five cities, Lindus, lalysus, La- mirus, Cos, and Cnidos. Thirwl. H. of Greece, vol. ii. 88. 30 Rhensa, an island close to Delos, to which in the purification of Delos by Pisistratus, and afterwards in the Ptloponnesian war, all dead bodies were carried from Delos for burial ; and all births of Dehan children arranged to take place there. Cf. Thuc. iii. 104 Polycrates. tyrant of Samos, bound it to Delos and dedicated it to Apollo, bee \ irg. jEn. iii. 75. " " ^gypti pars depressior." Tibull. i. 7, 23, Fertilis aestiv^ Nilus abundet aqu^ Nile pater quanam possim te dicere causd Aut quibus in terris occuluisse caput. The Delta is here alluded to. See Georg. iv. 287—294, for another ac- count of the Nile, epvirrst, confringit. Herod, ii. 12, (quoted here by J W.,) riiv A'iyvTTTOv fifXdyyaiov rt Kai Karappnyy^h^vijv uifTTS lOiffCLt iKvv Ti Kal 7rp6xvv TrdvTiov, referred to ttoXbiov, but in the neuter gender Cf Epigr. i. 3, 4. The whole number is 33,339. Wordsworth refers us fof the riches of Ptolemy, to the commentators on Daniel xi. 5. -' His ships are the best, &c. Fawkes compares Waller,' Where'er thy navy spreads her canvass wings, Homage to thee, and peace to all she brings. Byron, Corsair, opening. Our flag the sceptre, all who meet obey. iceXaSovTfQ, resonantes. Cf. Idyll vii. 137. Aristoph. Nub '>84 rai TTOTa/jiutv ^a9e r«P ^cipd vnv^yi /3«0u' »>, ovSi (XiXrivn ovpavotitv Trpov(paivt. ^V o^d^ M'et. vii. 775, Pedum calidus vestigia pulvis habebat. Horn. 11. xiiii. 763, describes the act which gives rise to this metaphor. aiiTap oTTiaQtv \xvia rvTTTi TTodtffm, Trapog »c6i/t»/ d/i^txv0'>«^- hfiaffCTBTai imitatione exprimit. »• Ptolemy raised temples in honour of his parents, as well as one to .i. sister as ^Venus Arsinoe. xpv^r^ : Signa auro lUmebant .ntiqui. J. *W. Vid. not. Wordsw. Theocr. p. 158. 129—137 IDYLL XVn. 97 embraces her bridegroom in the palace ^-with bended arm loving as she does from the heart her brother and husband! Thus too was consummated 33the holy marriage of the im- mortals, whom sovereign Rhea bare as sovereigns of Olym- pus : and Iris, still a virgin, having washed her hands with unguents, strews one couch for Jupiter and Juno to sleep upon. Farewell, O king Ptolemy ; but of thee I will make mention like as of other demigods ; and methinks^^ I shall speak a word not to be spurned by posterity: * Excellence at any rate one will gain from Jupiter.' IDYLL XVIIL THE EPITHALAMIUM OF HELEN. ARGUMENT. After the nuptials of Helen and Menelaus, the chief maidens of Sparta, ranging themselves before the bridal chamber, sing an Epithalamium, beginning with the jokes which would naturally be passed at the ex- pense of the bridegroom. Menelaus is next felicitated on the score of the prize of beauty which he has won, while so many of the noblest suitors failed. The poet passes naturally on to a description of Helen's personal and mental graces, and puts into the mouth of the chorus a warm expression of their love and regard for her. This Idyll is of a lyric character, and is amongst the most beautiful of its kind. Some have been led, by its dissimilarity from the other Idylls, to suppose Theocritus not to have been its author. But there is no reason why '^ ayocTTif, with a bent arm, akin to ayKwv. " A comparison is instituted between the marriage of Jove and Juno, and that between Philadelphus and Arsinoe ; the brother in each case wedding his sister. Iris is represented as discharging the office which, in Idyll ii. 160 of Moschus, the Hours discharge for Jove and Europa. ^ (pQsy^ofiat, &c. The moral sentence that follows is premised by (pOty^ofiai, and the sense is, that the observation of excellence in Ptolemy, granted him by the gods, causes the poet to exhort all that his words reach, not to scorn his example, but to seek from Jove, who alone can give it, like excellence. Htig. The second person here is used, as else- where, for an indefinite third person. Compare Sophocl. Trachin. 2. Ajax 155. Tacitus German : Nam magnum — baud tueare. u 98 THEOCRITUS. 1—10 11—23. IDYLL XVIII. 99 he should not haye excelled in this as in more homely styles. He may have borrowed from Stesichorus, but the Epithalamium of that poet not being extant, we have no means of deciding whether, or how far, this was the case. It is of that class of Epithalamia which as called K-ara*coift;/rtK6v, or slumber-inducing. w 1 Whilome in Sparta, at the house of auburn-haired Mene laus, maidens having blooming 2 hyacinth in their tresses, formed the dance in front of a ^ newly-painted nuptial cham- ber, the twelve first maide7is of the city, ^ pride of the Spartan women, when the younger son of Atreus, having wedded Helen the beloved daughter of Tyndarus, had shut her within his chamber. And they began to sing, I ween, all beating time to one melody with many-twinkling^ feet, and the house was ringing round with a nuptial hymn. "Hast thou then faUen asleep thus too early, O dear bridegroom ? Art thou ' It was Brunck's opinion that Theocritus wrote this Idyll with an eye to the Song of Solomon, many passages of which strikingly receive illustration from it. tv ttok dpa ^Trapr^. Callimach. H. m Lav. Fall. tv TTOKa Ori(3aig. , , ,, /-. j • oon 2 Milton's Paradise Lost iv. 301, " Hyacinthine locks." Odyss. vi. 2^0, Kao ok KaptjTOS ou\a^ VKB KOfxwi, vaKLvdivw audsL ofioia^. Horace Od. I. iv. 9, 10, Nunc decet aut viridi nitidum caput impedire myrto Aut flore, terraB quem ferunt solutte. 3 Embroidery, or tapestry, is here spoken of — provided at the husband's expense. Horn. II. xvii. 36, OaXanbio vtoio. Odyss. xxii. 178. Comp. Idyll xxvii. 36. * fi'iya xo'>«' See Matt. Gr. Gr. § 430, p. 704. Herodot. i. 3€ ffvoQ xpni^^f^h^' Acharn. Aristoph. 150; Nub. 2. Yalken. on PhoDn. 206. 5 TTfpnrXtKroig, which appears the true reading here, signifies literally "intertwined." Some would read x«P<^^ ^o"* Trocrf, bringing Horat. Od. I. iv. 6, Junctaque nymphis gratine deccntes Alterno terram quatiunt pede, and Ovid. Fast. vi. 329, Pars brachia nectit, Et viridera celeri ter pede pulsat humum, to support the reading. But these do not militate against Trotrai, which is borne out by Euripid. Troad. 2, 3; Iph. in Aulis, 1055—1057. Gray's Progress of Poesy : Thee the voice, the dance, obey, Temper'd to thy warbled lay. O'er Idalia's velvet green The rosy-crowned Loves are seen On Cythera-'a's day, With antic sports, and blue-eyed pleasurcis, Frisking light in frc ' jc measurei: then of a nature over sluggish, or art thou fond of slumber ? 6 Or wast thou drinking a draught too much, when thou didst lay thyself on thy couch ? If thou didst want to sleep in season, thou shouldest have done so by thyself, ^and have suffered the damsel to sport with her maidens beside her fond mother, until morning prime ; since both the day after to-morrow,' and to-morrow, and from year to year, O Menelaus, she is your bride. Blest husband, some lucky person ^ sneezed on thee, as thou wentest to Sparta, (whither the rest of the nobles repaired,) that thou ^mightest accomplish thine object. Alone among demigods thou wilt have Jupiter, son of Saturn, as father-in-law. A daughter of Jove has gone beneath the same coverlet with thee, being such an one as no other of Greek women, that treads the earth. Surely a great thing would she bear to thee, if she bare one like its mother. For we are play-mates all, who had the same course to run, ^^when we had anointed ourselves, like men, beside the banks of Now pursuing, now retreating. Now in circling troops they meet ; To brisk notes in cadence beating Glance their mawy ttcmkling feet. Mu-^e of the many twinkling feet. Byron, The Waltz. Compare Hom. Odyss. viii. 265; Iliad xviii. 491—495. ^ TToXvv Tiv\ understand olvov. Eurip. Cyclops 566, vaXfTrov t6^* ilTraq, octiq dv Triyy ttoUv. Theogn. v. 509, oIvoq Trivoinvog -ttovXvc, KUKog, rjv 6e riQ avrov Uivy iiriaraixkvbJQ, ov kukoq aXX' dyaGoc. ' Compare Catull. Carm. Nupt. LX., 20, Hespere, qui codIo fertur crudelior ignis? Qui gnatam possis complexu avellere matris, Complexu matris retinentem avellere gnatam, Et juveni ardenti castam donare puellam. fiaehvopGpov. Cf. St. Luke Evang. c. xxiv. v. 1, o^Opov ^aOiog. Pro Trririii* 23^^^ ^^^^^ """* ^^' ^'^"'^'^9 t"'^ ^>"e tTriTrrapov. Num tibi nascenti primis, mea vita, diebus, Aridus argutum sternuit omen amor. Catull xliii. 9. Comp. Xenoph. Anab. III. ii. 9, irrapwrai tiq dyaBbc, homo boni ominis. So Callimach. H. in Lav. Pall. 124, dyoGai Trrtpvysg. Propert. III. x. 11, Felicibus-pennis. Ovid. Fast. i. 513, Este bonii avibus yisi natoque mihique. Virg. Eel. v. 65, Sis bonus o felixque tuis. avvtrnto. Comp. Idyll v. 144, dvvfjd^av rbv duvbv. With yXaivav (two lines below) compare Sophocl. Trach. 539, Kai vvv dv ovffai fiiixvofisv jxiag vno xXaivTjg virayKU Xic avrkWoia* an Kokbv tfprjve Trpoffioirov ttot rav vvkt rj, which Kiessling seems to favour. Chapman quotes an exquisite parallel from Campbell's Gertrude of Wyoming. A boy * * * * * * * . Led by his dusky guide like morning brought by night. Wordsworth's suggestion is ttot' t'iv vvK : Sicut prae te, nox, exoriens Aurora prfenitet. As rising morn, compared with thee, O night, shines out with bright countenance. And this seems extremely probable. « XtifiutvoQ dvevrog, Solomon's Song ii. 11, *' Lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone." x**/^"'"''^ oi'xo/ifvoio, Meleag. ii. iruip^ utyaka ar\ Wordsw. proposes TTictp^ tXara ut, ut abies, &c. »3 Catull. Epithalam. Pel. 89—90, Quales Eurotee progignunt flumina myrtos, Aurave distinctos educit verna colores. OiffffaXbg 'iinrog. These were the most approved steeds of Greece. See Sophoc. Electr. 703. Solomon's Song i. 9, " I have compared thee, O my love, to a company of horses in Pharaoh's chariots." »* For the full understanding of these verses, read Smith's Diet. Gr Rom. Ant., art. Tela, p. 940— 943. »5 ^n. vi. 647, Jamque eadem digitis, jam pectine pulsat eburno. •« Laconian maidens, so skilful at weaving, might fitly hymn Minerva, and, so hardy in nurture, sing the praise of the divine huntress, Artemis. Ov.Fast. iii. 817, Pallade placata, lanam nioUire puellse Discant et plenas exonerare colos. Comp. Tibull. II. i. 65. 17 Burns, " The kind love that's in her e'e." Meleager Epigr. Anthol. xvi' 2,riv6(pi\a; ofifiaffiKpyn-Tofiivog. Cf. Musaeus, 64. 38-57. IDYLL XVIII. 101 " beauteous, O graceful damsel, thou indeed art a matron now ; but we in the morning shall proceed to the course and the liowery meads, to cull cliaplets breathing sweet ince?ise, oft remembering thee, O Helen, as suckling lambs yearning for the teat of their mother. For thee first of any having plaited a chaplet of '^low-growing lotus, we will place it on the shady plane tree ; and for thee first, taking moist oil from silver flask, we will drop it beneath the shady plare tree, and letters shall be '**^ graven on the bark, that any .passer-by may recite in Doric: "Reverence me, I am Helen's tree." — Hail, thou bride ! Hail, bridegroom, happy in thy father-in-law. May Latona indeed, Latona the nurse of youth, grant to you the blessing of children ; and Venus, goddess Venus, that ye may be loved alike one by other ; and Jove, Jove the son of Saturn, lasting riches ; that they may descend from nobly-born to nobly-born again, ^o Sleep on, breathing into the bosoms each of the other love and desire, and forget ^^not to rise to- wards morn. We too will return at dawn, as soon as the earliest ^2 songster having reared his crested neck, shall have '* The Lotos, a flower of the Nile, is found composing garlands in Egyptian monuments. Ovid. Trist. III. i. 31, Sic nova Dulichio lotos gustata palato, Illo, quo nocuit, grata sapore fuit. '• Letters graven.] Propert. I. xviii. 22, Scribitur et vestris Cynthii corticibus. Virg. Eel. x. 53, Tenerisque meos incidere amores Corticibus : crescent illae : crescetis amores. Compare Idyll xxiii. 46.— Pope Past. III. 66, 67, Oft on the rind I carved her amorous vows, While she with garlands hung the bending boughs. »• Catull. Ixii. 331, 332, Languidulosque paret tecum conjungere somnos Levia substernens robusto brachia coUo. Compare Solomon's Song viii. 3, 4, " His left hand should be under my head, and his right hand should embrace me. I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, that ye stir not up, nor awake my love until he please." '' Idyll xxiv. 7, VTrvo^ iyfpcrt^og. ^ 6 Trparoc aoiVoq. Cf. Idyll xxiv. 63, " The feather'd songster chan- ticleer." Prudentius, Hymn Matutin. Daniels' Thesaurus Hymhologicus i. 119, Ales diei nuntius Lucem propinquam praecinit. St. Ambrose calls the cock ♦' praeco diei," &c. Ovid, Jam dederat cantuf lucis praenuncius ales. 102 THEOCRITUS. 1— «. crowed from his roost, ^3 Hymen, Hymenaeus, roayest thou joy over these nuptials. IDYLL XX. THE HERDSJklAN. IDYLL XIX. THE STEALER OF HONEY-COMBS. ARGUMENT. This little poem seems to have been wrought out of the fortieth ode of Anacreon, which has been rendered into English by our freshly lost Thomas Moore ; to which however it is clearly inferior in the merit ol originality and management of subject, Valkenaer thinks it a poem of Bion ; but Stobaeus (c. 63) quotes the lines as the work of Theo- critus. Meleager (Epigr. cviii. Antholog. Jacobs) has taken the same subject for his muse. ^ The naughty bee once stung the pilferer Eros, as he was plundering a comb from the hives, and pierced all the tips of his fingers ; and he began to lament and blow his hand ; and struck the earth, and leaped aloft. Then showed he his pain to Aphrodite, and began to complain 'that at any rate tlie bee is a little creature, and yet what great wounds it inflicts ! ' And his mother smiling said — How then ? are you not a crea- ture resembling the bees ? Since little though you be, yet the wounds you inflict, how great are they ! 23 Cf. Catull. Ix., Hymen o Hymenae, Hymen ades, o Hymenaee. Milton P. L. IV. " Heavenly quires the hymenaean sung." Chapman quotes at length a parallel from the same, lib. viii. * H. Voss observes that ft£Xi(T(Ta is said collectively, not "a bee,*' but ** the bee," hence r^aOyLara, not Tpavfxa, below at line 6. 2 x^ TvrObg fiev iT]g — Eo quod tantulus quum sis, quanta facis vulnera. The imperf. trjg, observes Schaefer, has the force of a present, as at Tdyll v. 79, TJ (TTiofjivXoQ ytrOaKofidra. Anacr. xxix. 40, rd d' yv dfidvai. BioB XT. 4, K^v fioi fTvpiaitv, Mupcwj' (piXov. ARGUMENT. The poet in this Idyll introduces a rustic complaining of the scorn and contempt of a city maiden in rejecting his addresses. Having de- clared the cause of this scorn, he shows how undeserving he is of it, as being neither ugly nor a man of the lowest condition, seeing that gods and goddesses had sought out of his rank of life, objects of love. Heinsius holds this to be a poem of Moschus, but though Valkenaer inclines to the same opinion, the mass of testimony ascribes it to Theocritus. EuNiCA laughed at me when I wished sweetly to kiss her, and, teasing me, said thusr^ *Away with you from me! Clown as you are, do you want to kiss me, wretch ? I have not learned to kiss bumpkins, 2 but to press city lips. Don't you at any rate kiss my fair mouth, no, not in your dreams. What a look you have ! what a speech ! ^how rudely you toy ! How mincingly you talk ! what wheedling words you utter ! How '^ smooth is the beard you have ! what sweet hair ! ^Na?/, your lips in truth are diseased, and your hands are black, and you smell foully. Away from me, lest you contaminate me!' Speaking thus, ^she spat thrice on her breast, and ^eyed ]Jppe. JEoUc for e'pe, (says Graevius at Callim. H. in Del. 130,) as ipBippiiv for (pOtiptiv. Latin. Abin' in malam rem. Terent. Andria II. i. 17. Hom. Iliad viii. 164, tppt, Kanri yXrjvrj. II. xxii. 498, tpp' ovrioc ' GXi(3eiv x"'^«a' Labra suaviter premere. Comp. Idyll xii. 32; Bion i. 44. ^ dypia iraiaSug. Mosch. i. 11, and see the notes of this transl. on that passage. * Virg. Eel. viii. 34, Hirsutumque supercilium promissaque barba. — ddea x^^rav. Simple adjectives in vg are often common in gender. Comp. Matth. Gr. Gr. § 119, b. 4. GriXvg iipat], Odyss. v. 467. Of course the lines 6 — 8 are ironical. * Aristoph. Nub. 50, o^wvrpvyog, rpaffidg, Ipiwv. A strong description of a rustic. * rpig Elg ibv tirrvcrt koXttov, Compare ii. 62 ; Theocr. vi. 39 ; Soph. Antig. 653. ' *■ ' Comp. Virg. Mn. iv. 363, 364, Hue illuc volvens oculos, iotumque pererrat LuminibuR tacitls. 304 THEOCRITUS. 13—27. a?— 43. IDYLL XX. 105 ine all over from my head to my two feet, making mouths at me with her hps, and looking at me askance. ** And she played the woman with much affectation as to her figure, and laughed at me with a mocking and proud kind of laugh. But ^ quickly my blood boiled up, and I became purple in complexion by reason of my chagrin, as a rose is with dew. And she indeed left me and went away. But I bear wrath at my heart, because a worthless mistress has ridiculed me, pleasing though I am. Shepherds, tell me the truth ; *am I not beautiful?* ^^Has one of the gods, I wonder, made me on a sudden another mortal ? ^^ For formerly a pleasing kind of beauty was bloom- moi(riv toi'Xoi's Avdriaai, trvKaarai tc yivvv tvavdti Xdxvri. Virg. ^n. viii. 160, Turn mihi prima genas vestibat flore Juventa. See too Idyll XV. 85. ** XapoTTOJTopa. Anacreon Od. xxviii. opposes Minerva's bright blue eye to the languishing blue of that of Venus. x^poTrof seems originally to have meant a bright fierce-looking eye, without any defined notion of colour. It came to mean such as have a grayish or light blue lustre, darker than, but not differing much from, yXavKog, and indeed used here with it. Tacitus calls the eyes of the Germans, "truces etccsrulei oculi." See Liddell and Scott, Lexicon. »3 Ov, Met. xiii. 795, Mollior et cycni plumis et lacte coacto. 1* Compare Iliad i. 249, rov Kai diro yXioatrrjs /xeXiroff yXwictwv pUv honey-comb. And sweet is my melody, both if 1 warble to the shepherd's pipe, and if I sing to the flute, or the reed, or the '•'^ flageolet. And all the women along the mountains say that I am handsome, and all of them love me ; but the city miss has not kissed me, but has run past me, because I am a rustic ; '^and she is not yet aware that beauteous Bacchus used to drive the calf in the valleys. Neither did she know that Venus maddened after a herdsman, and tended flocks with him on the Phrygian mountains. ^^ Adonis, himself, she kissed in the woods, and in the woods she lamented. ^^ And who was Endymion? Was he not a herdsman? Yes, and him Selene kissed, as he fed his herds ; and coming from Olympus she went up to the Latmian glade, and slept beside the lad. ^^Thou too, Rhea, bewailest thy herdsman. And hast not even thou, O son of Saturn, wandered ^^in the form of a bird through love of a herd-tending boy. But Eunica alone has not kissed the herdsman, Eunica who is superior no doubt to Cybele, and Venus, and to Selene. av^t). Cantic, or Songof Solomon, iv. 11, «« Thy lips, O my spouse, drop as the honeycomb : honey and milk are under thy tongue." '* irXayiavXog. Hence flageolet, " quasi dicas plagiaulet." ^mil. Port. Lex. Doric. Corap. Bion iii. 7. '« Virg. Eel. X. 18, Et formosus oves ad flumina pavit Adonis, ii. 60, Quern fugis, ah demens! habitarunt di quoque silvas. Pope II. Past. 69 — 62, See what delights in silvan scenes appear. Descending gods have found Elysium here. In woods bright Venus with Adonis stray 'd, And chaste Diana haunts the forest glade. '^ Ovid Trist. ii. 299, In Venere Anchises, in Lun^ Latmius heros, In Cerere Jasion qui referatur erit. Compare Bion's Idyll on this subject. '* Endymion. Cf. Idyll iii. 49, A shepherd, by whose side, as he slept at Mt. Latmus in Caria, Selene, kissing him, lay. See Smith's Diet. Gr. R. Biogr. ii. 16, B. 'iva. One MS. has ana, which Wordsworth approves. Catull. Com. Berenices, v. 5, Ut Triviam furtim sub Latmia saxa relegans Dulcis amor gyro devocet aerio. Compare, Latmius Endymion non est tibi, Luna, rubori. Ovid. Ant. Am. iii. 85. '* Atys, a shepherd of Celenae in Phrygia, beloved by Rhea or Cybele. Cf. Smith Diet. ii. 417, B. See Ovid Fast. iv. 221—244. And see tne poem of Catullus, bearing the name of Atys, and Propert. II. xxiii. 20. *» For the legend of Ganymede see Smith Diet. G. R. B. ii. 230, and Virg. ^n. v. 253 ; Ov. Met. x. 255 ; Horat. iv. 4. 106 THEOCRITUS. 44, 45. e— 16. IDYLL XXI. 107 Love no longer even thou, ^^ * would-be Venus,' thy sweet one either in the city or on the mountain, but sleep alone all night long. IDYLL XXI. THE FISHERMEN. ARGUMENT. This Idyll contains a conversation of two fishermen by night. Our poet addressing one Diophantus with a few observations on the force of poverty in rousing men to active pursuits, describes the scene of this colloquy, which is laid in a scantily furnished sea-side hut. One of the fishermen calls upon the other to unriddle him the dream which he has dreamed. It was this: that he had in pursuit of his calling caught a golden fish, and thereupon determined with an oath to es- chew the trade for the future. Now that the golden hope and his dream have proved alike unreal, he fears lest he ought to consider his oath binding. His comrade bids him be of good cheer, telling him that his oath is clearly no more real than his dream was. This is the only Idyll descriptive of fishermen's life that has come down to us ; and it has been suggested, with much reason, that in it Theocritus imitated the 9vvvo9rjpa or AXuvq of Sophron. ASPHALION AND A COMRADE. ^ Poverty, O Diophantus, alone arouses the arts : she is the teacher of labour ; for hard cares do not permit labouring men even to sleep. And even if a man shall have tasted sleep ^for a little space in the night, solicitudes on a sudden 21 ti Would-be Venus." It seems clear that the poet makes his rustic taunt Eunica in these last words, and the suggestion of Wordsworth, top 'Apea, "thy Mars," (alluding to Venus' amour with that God,) will give point to an otherwise obscure passage. Theocritus, in the 27th Idyll, in like manner makes a shepherd call himself "Paris," and address his sweetheart as *' Helen." ' Compare Virg. Georg. i. 145, 146, Tum variae venere artes : labor omnia vincit Improbus, et duris urgens in rebus egestas. Compare Aristoph. Plut. 552 — 554. Persius Prologus 10, Magister artis, ingenique largitor venter. * For tTTixl/avayaij "Wordsworth suggests tTTiafieaffyai — shall have di»- present themselves and disturb him. Two old men, ^ hunters of the finny tribe, were reclining together, having strewed for themselves dry sea- weed in their wattled cabin, and resting themselves against its wall of leaves ; and near them were lying the implements of their handicraft, the wicker baskets, the rods, the hooks, and ^ the gum cistus, covered by sea- weed, fishing lines, and weels, and bow-nets of rushes, cords, and ^two oars, and an old boat on its rollers. Beneath their heads was a scanty cloak of mat-work, garments, and felt caps. This was to the fishermen their whole ^ stock of im- plements, this their wealth. And neither had an earthen pot, or a ^measure; all, all seemed superfluous to them; ® poverty was a friend to their fishing trade. And no neigh- "ipated (his cares), comparing Horat. Od. II. xi. 17, Dissipat Evius curias edaces. oXiyov is used here adverbially— j/vjcrof, the genitive of the part of time. Cf. Idyll xxiii. 32, aW oXiyov Ky- Horn. Odyss. xix. 515, &c., AuTap tTrfiv vv^ tXdri, tXriai T£ koTtos diravTa^ Ket/uai ivl XtKTptOj TrvKival 6t fioi a/jL3. IDYLL XXL 109 bour had they ^near ; but on all sides the sea would gently tloat up even to ^° the narrow cabin. Not yet was 8elene*3 car accomplishing the mid-way of her course, when their wonted toil began to wake the fishermen, and having thrust away slumber from their eyelids, they proceeded to rouse a song in their minds. Asph. They were all liars, friend, as many as used to say that the summer nights shorten, when Jove draws out the days to a great length. Already have I seen a myriad dreams, nor is it yet dawn. Have I forgotten myself ? What is the matter ? ^^ Are the nights then lagging ? Com. Asphalion, are you blaming the fair summer ? For it is not the season which has of its own accord over-stepped its due course, but your cares, disturbing your sleep, make the night long to you. Asph. Hast ever learnt, I wonder, to interpret dreams ; for I have seen a good one. I would not have you be with- out a share in my vision ; be partner of all my dreams, even as you are of my spoils. For you will not be surpassed in understanding ; ^^he is the best diviner of dreams with whom understanding is the teacher. Besides there is leisure too ; for what can a man do as he lies on a bed of leaves close by the waves, ^^and sleeps uncomfortably on prickly shrubs, Omnia lis Tidebantur supervacanea prae piscatione et prsedi, quae eos fecit socios. » i. e. between the cabin and the sea. 1" 0\t/3o/i€vai/, pressed for room. Theoc. xx. 4, OXifieiv x^i^f". to press the lips. Musaeus 114, ripffxa fiiv 0Xi/3wi/ po^oiidta doKrvXa KovQTjg. For Travra, (or Trsvia, which is the reading of MSS.,) Words- worth would read irvoiq. de, connecting it with OXiiSofitpav, which would then signify " fractam vento." 1' Aristoph. Nub. 2, 3, TO y^prjfjLa TuiV i/ysTTuii' ocrov ; ct-rripavTov. ouOt-TToG' rj/jiipa yivvatTai. " Scaliger reads og yap av UKa%y — which seems lorne out by the fol- lowing quotations. Cic. de Divin. ii. 5, Qui bene conjiciet ratem perhibebo optimum. Eurip. apud Plutarch, fxavriq o dpiaroQ oarig tUaXti Kd\(x)Q. Better perhaps is Wordsworth's rovvap "iv tiKuKyg. '^ dapitvoQ tv pdfiv(f). Such is the common reading, which yields a tolerable sense, viz. that Asphalion cannot comfortably, without fear, sleep on thorns, in a rough and dangerous place. If we adopt any various reading, fir)de Ka9svSu)v dWvxvog tv pdyfn^, i. e. " without a light, on the sea's edge," is best. This reading has the merit of introducing th« words following less abruptly. ^*and the liglit is in the Prytaneum, not here, '^for they say that that is ever catching spoil. Com. Tell me, pray, the vision of the night, and say and signify all to me your comrade. Asph. ^^At evening, when I fell asleep over my sea-farino- labours, (I was not indeed full of meat; for dining ^^^t the proper time, if you recollect, we were sparing of our stomachs, > Ifaiicied I saw myself on a rock, busy, and I was sitting and watching for fish, and throwing the sly bait hanging from the rod. And one of the fat fellows made a bite ; (for even in sleep every dog scents loaves, and so do I a fish ;) and it indeed clung to the hook, and the blood began to flow, and I was getting the rod bent by his movement. So stretching out both my hands, I found a struggle about the creature, how 1 should catch a large fish with hooks rather small for him. ^^Then, remind- ing him of his wound, 'will you prick me then,' said I : *iS^ay, rather you shall be pierced sorely;' and I extended my rod, while he did not escape it. I seemed to have accomplished my labour, I drew ashore a golden fish, altogether wrapt up in the gold. But fear possessed me, lest haply it should be a '^ '* To this very difficult pas^^age the only light which seems clear, is the explanation of Strothius. The comrade says, (34—37,) Unfold your dream, since we have leisure : we cannot sleep, so comfortless is our couch, and we cannot work because 'tis dark. We have not the same means of dispelling darkness as the rich, or j)ublic halls, which can keep their lamps (Xvxvia) burning all night ; nor is our aypa, our gain from our craft, such as to enable us to get a light for the dark nights. When it is said the light is in the Prytaneum, (the common hall of Athens, Syracuse, and other large towns,) it is implied that it is " not inthejisher- nwn's hut" by the same figure as we say " wine is the rich man's drink," i. e. "not for the poor man." And so in the New Testament, St. Matt, xi. 8, ** Behold, they that wear soft clothing are in king's houses," i. e. you must not look for them in the desert. The 37th verse implies that public halls can always afford to be lit up. These fishermen, says Chap- man, were lionest radicals. '* ^ttXiiov, adverbially. Compare Idyll i. 15; xiii. 69; xxiv. 11. *' iv wpiji. Pierson's suggestion, Awpi, intempestivb, yields a better sense. For fiffxaojra, two lines below, Wordsworth reads j3el3aCira; and at f < KaXdfiiov, in the line below, compare Ovid Met. xiii. 923, Nunc in mole sedens moderabar arundine limum. 1* For the obscure reading of the books, which has been literally Englished in the text, but yields no adequate sense, Kiessling, after reviewing many other suggestions, proposes fl6' vTrofiifivdffKiov ru> rput' fiaTog t'lptfia vv%a, leai vv%ag ex«^«^a, ka' ov (pfvyovrog triiva — I gently pricked him, and when I had done to, relaxed my hold ou the rod, &c I no TIIEOCKITUS. 54—67. 1-~1S. IDYLL XXII. Ill fish beloved by Neptune, or perhaps a treasure of blue-eyed Amphitrite. Then softly I disengaged him from the hook, lest ever the hooks should retain the gold from his mouth. *9 And the fish indeed I hauled ashore with ropes, and I svp-ore that never in future v^^ould I set foot upon the sea, but abide on land and reign over the gold. This was even what awoke me : but do you, my friend, resolve my mind henceforward, for I am alarmed at the oath which I have sworn. Com. Why then fear it not ! you have not sworn ; for neither did you find, as you saw, a fish of gold. But visions resemble falsehoods, ^o j^^d if in reality, and not in sleep, you shall search these spots, the hope of your dreams requires a fish of flesh, lest you should die by famine, though amid dreams of gold. IDYLL XXIL THE DIOSCURI. ARGUMENT. This hymn to the Dioscuri is divided into two parts — the first (27 — 134) in praise of Pollux, the second of Castor. After a proem (1 — 26) sounding their common praises, a most renowned contest betweeD Pollux and Amycus is described. When the Argonauts touched at the '* Wordsworth, seeing the absurdity of the text, which makes the fisher- man haul ashore a fish, after he has disengaged the hook from the mouth, suggests — Kai tote fitv KiaTy KaTeKXa^a tov ivt dppqTOv. Et tunc ego area eum conclusi tanquam sacrum. This reading he supports by Horat. Sat. I. i. 67, and v. 71; as well as by Ovid Met. ii. 557, clauserai Actaeo texta de vimine cista. ^ Here Bindemann suggests el 5' vvap, ov Kvuiaraajv tv to. \wpia Tavra fxaTivam iXiriSa Twi/ vttvoov, ^ctTtt. k. t. \. If you in reality, and not in sleep, shall seek in these places the hope raised in your dreams, seek then, &c, A sense which, it will be allowed, is clearer than that of the text. Wordsworth reads tXTrig tCjv virvwv, placing a colon at vrrvuiVy and then ^arfi, ic. r. X., i. e. There is hope ia your dreams ; seek the fish of flesh. In the next line he reads, with Scaliger, toXq for rot ; the article for the possessive pronoun " tuii,** *Le8t you die in famine, and your golden dreams." shores of the Bebrycians, Pollux and Castor, going in quest of water, find in the region, which abounds in springs, one Amycus of great bodily strength ; who gives out to them that they shall then "only draw water, when they *.un conquer him in boxing. Terms are accepted, the Argonauts and Bebrycians convened, and in the conflict Pollux comes ofl" victorious, although there was reason to fear that his adversary's vast strength might overwhelm him. In the remainder of the Hymn is commemorated Castor's fight with Lynceus. The cir- cumstances of which were these. When the Dioscuri had carried off the daughters of Leucippus, Idas and Lynceus, the sons of Aphareus, thear betrothed lovers, overtake the ravishers at the tomb of Aphareus! Then Lynceus having in vain tried to persuade the Dioscuri to give back the maidens, challenges Castor to single combat. Castor accepts the challenge, and they fight first with spears, and then with swords, till Lynceus is wounded, and pierced through at his father's tomb, to which he had fled. Idas, grieved at the loss of his brother, seizes a fragment of the tomb to hurl at Castor, but is himself overthrown in the act by a thunderbolt from Jupiter. *We celebrate the two sons of Leda and ^gis-bearing Jove, 2 Castor and Pollux, formidable to contend in boxing, when lie has bound his knuckles over with thongs of ox-hide. We celebrate both twice, and the third time, the male offspring of the 3 daughter of Thestius, twin Lacedaemonian brothers, ^preservers of men when already at the utmost extremity, and of horses thrown into confusion in the bloody rout, and of ships ^ which, running counter to setting and rising stars of heaven, have chanced upon rough gales. For these having raised a huge wave at the stern of them, or even at the prow, or wheresoever each may choose, are wont to dash it into the ' For the conflict of Pollux with Amycus, cf. Apollon. Rhod. lib. ii. and Valerius Flaccus iv. Argonaut. 99 334. ' » Horn. Odyss. xi. 299, KanTopa 9' i^Trodafiov, Kai nv^ aya9ov JIoXv^evKta. Horat. I. xii. 25, 26. Puerosque Leda, Hunc equis, ilium superare pugnis nobilem. Yirg. ^n. v. 405, Tantorum ingentia septem Terga^ boum plumbo insuto ferroque rigebant. ^ Kovpr)Q QeffTia^og, i. e. Leda. Just as in Idyll xv. 110, a BepeviKsia VvyaTijp. Comp. Hom. II. iv. 367. Her female oftspringis commemorated in Euripid. Iph. Aul. 49, ^ * Horat. Od. I. iii. 2, Sic fratres Helena?, lucida sidera.— tVt Kvpov eivai. Cf. Horn. II. x. 173; Herodot. vi. 11; Sophocl. Antig. 1009. ^^,^"^^f^^^^^—s^^^SS^^^g&g3i'inst. Herodot. ix. 41; Hom. II. xi ^^°;^'P'n<^^^o Traidas. Sophoc. Fragm. ap. Stoba?um, ttuvtojv apiffTov Uti j5iaZ,iaeai Oeoig. Compare St. Matt. xi. 12, y (iacnXeia twv ovpavu,u liia^iTai. Chapman Englishes it "star-defying;" setting at a wrong season of the year. The fate of such is given in the poet's 9th Epigram, iQira, vs. 0, 6. i !12 THEOCRITUS. 12—27. 27—50. IDYLL XXIL 113 hold, and then break up both the sides of the ship, whilst all the tackle hangs with the sail, broken oif hap-hazard ; and there ^ is a vast rain from the sky, as night steals on, and the broad sea murmurs, "^struck by the blasts, and by the inces- sant hail. » Yet, notwithstanding, ye, on your part, draw out even from the depths ships with sailors and a\\,just as they think they are going to perish. Then quickly cease the winds and there is a clear calm over the sea, and the clouds flee away in different directions ; and the Bears shine out again, and in the midst of the ^ 'asses' a dusky crib, indicating ^^that ail the weather for sailing is clear and fine. Oh ! both of you, helpers to mortals, oh both of you, friends, as horsemen, harpers, wrestlers, minstrels— Shall I begin to sing of Castor, or Pollux first ? Celebrating both, I will sing of Pollux first. Now the ship Argo, I ween, having cleared ^^the rocks • Mn. V. 10,11, . OUi caeruleus supra caput astitit imber Noctem hyememque ferens. Horn. II. ii. 413, ical eiri Kvicpag iXOuv. We have here translated the emendation of Kiessling, tvater, and the pebbles beneath seemed like crystal or silver, from the depths ; and near the spot there had grown tall pines, and poplars, and plane trees, and cy- presses with leafy tops, *^and fragrant flowers, pleasant work for hairy bees, flowers as many as, when spring is ending, sprout up along the meadow^s. And here a m^.n of overwhelming size would sit and take the air, terrible to look upon, ^^ having his ears bruised with hard thumps, 'and his huge chest and broad back were arched and rounded with iron flesh, like a forged colossus. And on his strong arms the muscles stood out at the surftice of the shoulder, like ^^ round stones which the river torrent ritus places it beyond the Bosporus, on the shore of Bithynia, which the Pontus washes. '2 vTTTjvinov, sheltered from the wind. Soph. Antig. 411, Kaef}fi(9' dKpuiv tK Traytuv vTrrjvefioi. Xen. ^c. xviii. 7. ^n. iii. 223, Tum littore curvo exstruimusque toros. " Pieces of wood for striking a light. See Hom. Hymn to Merc. 111. Vid. Apollon. Rhod. i. 1184. Add Sophocl. Philoct. 36, kuI irvpu uuov Tads. " Virg. JEn. i. 165—167, Desuper horrentique atrum nemus imminet urabr& : Intus aqua) dulces vivoque sedilia saxo. Wordsworth compares very aptly some beautiful lines of Ausonius in hit Mosella, 60—75. '* Compare Idyll vii. 80. " ^n. iii. 621, Nee visu facilis, nee dictu affabilis ulli. Hard thumps, i. e. those of hands covered with the caestus, which some say Araycus in- troduced. It is described by Virgil ^En. v. 405, Terga boum plumbo insuto, ferroque rigebant. Ibid. 478, Duros libravit caestus 436, duro crepitant sub vulnere malae. " Comp. Val. Place. Argon, iv. 202, &c., At procul e silvis, &c. " oXotrpoxoi, rolling stones thrown from a wall, on besiegers. Herodot. viii. 52. oXooirpoxog, occurs II. xiii. 137, which place Virgil has copied, ^n. xii. 684. 114 Tlifti^'KITUS. 50— <7 68— Sd. iDYj.T. xxn. 115 has polished by rolling in its vast eddies ; ^^but over his back and neck was hung a lion's skin, fastened on by the paws. And him the prize man Pollux first bespoke. Poll. Save you, stranger, whoever you are. Who are the mortals to whom this country belongs ? Amyc. How can I be ^Osafe, that is, when I see men, whom I have never seen ? Poll. Be of good cheer ! deem that you see neither unjust men, nor unjust men's sons. Amyc. I am of good cheer ! And not from you is it mee*. that I should be taught this. Poll. You are savage, in every thing malignant and over- bearing. Amyc. I am such as you see me : yes, and I am not setting foot on your country. Poll. Come — and return home again, ay, having met with hospitable treatment. Amyc. Do not either you entertain me, and my entertain- ment is not in readiness. Poll. My good sir, would not you at any rate allow us even to drink of this water ? Amyc. You shall learn, when thirst 21 shall dry your re- laxed lips. Poll. Is it silver, or what is the pay, will you tell us, by which we might persuade you ? Amyc. 22 Lift your hands against me in single combat, having stood man against man. Poll. As a boxer, or even tripping up the heels, and keep- ing eyes right ? Amyc. Having laboured might and main in boxing, spare not your craft. '9 Diomed is thus arrayed, Horn. x. 177, 178. Claudian Rapt. Proserp. i. 16, Simul procedit lacchus, Crinali florens hedera, quern Parthica tigris Yelat, et auratos in nodum coUigit ungues. 20 %ajp€ — xaipu) ttCjq. J. Wordsworth points to similar puns on this word in Alcest. Eurip. 527, and Monk's note, and Matthias at Hecuba 424. " Ttpati. We have here translated according to Buttmann's view, who holds it to come as if from a present Ttppu). The aor. imperak rspaor occurs, Nicand. Theriac. 96, 693, 709. -2 So Apollon. Rhod. ii. 14, irpiv x«tp<0'<'" eftJ)o'tv lag dvd x^'P^'fi ctipai. Poll. 23 Why, who is there with whom I shall match my hands and caestus ? '^ Amyc. He is near. Don't you see me ? The boxer shall be called Amycus. Poll Is the prize also ready for which we shall both con- tend ? Arnyc I will be called thine, or thou shalt be called mine, n 1 shall have conquered. Poll. 24 Such as these are the cock-fights of crimson-crested birds. ^''fr;. f ^f ^^^ *^^" ^e be like birds or lions, at aU events we will fight for no other prize. So spake Amycus, and ^Miaving taken a spiral shell, raised a sound/rom it. And they quickly gathered together to the shade ot the plane trees, at the blast of the trumpet, the always long-haired Bebrycians. In like manner too Castor, pre- eminent m fight, went and summoned from the Magnesian ship all the heroes. Now they, when, in fact, they had forti- fied their hands with coils of ox-hide, and had rolled ^rreat thongs 26 around their arms, proceeded to engage in the midst breathing slaughter one against the other. Hereupon a great struggle arose to them, as they were urgent which of the two should get the glare of the sun at his back. But by skill you over-reached a great hero, O Pollux, and all the countenance ot Amycus was being struck with the rays. Then he, in sooth enraged at heart, was advancing forward, taking aim with his Z J^J^^i'ele compares here the conflict between David and Goliath. The Scholiast at Aristoph. Aves, (70, 71,) states that in cock-fight, t was usual that the vanquished should ever afterwards follow and obev he victors Here Pollux refers to such a custom. It mav be remarked that, after the Persian war, cock-fights were annual occurrences at Athens KoxKov tXiov. Cf. Virg. ^n. vi. 171, Sed turn forte cav6 dum' personat a^quora concha. Ov. Met. i. 333-338, gives a full account of this instrument. ? r^'«'. , ^>"/™; H. in Dian. 177. Emesti at that passage shows that yvia IS said of all the members, especially the hands, and feet, and knees, m which lies the greatest force of the body. Horn. II. xiii. 61. yvla d' l«»?«v E\aagm. 172 ; Aristoph. Eq. 626. Below compare ^n xii. 78, Teucrum arma quies- cant, et RutiiQm : nostro dirimamus sanguine bellum. 120 THEOCRITUS. 179—202. bridegrooms instead of corpses, and shall wed these maidens ; 'tis meet, look you, to remove great strife by a little evil.* He spake, and his words in truth the god was not about to render idle. For they two, indeed, who were elder in age, put off their arms from their shoulders upon the ground ; whilst Lynceus, advanced to the mid space, brandishing his strong lance under the topmost '*^rim of his shield ; and in like manner brave Castor brandished his pointed spear, and the plumes of the crests of both kept nodding. First of all, indeed, with lances '*^they were busied in aiming at each other, if haply they saw any part of the body exposed. But, in truth, the points of their spears, ere they had wounded one or the other, were broken, having stuck fast in their '^^ mighty shields. Then they two, having drawn their hangers from the scabbards, again proceeded to deal out slaughter one against the other, and there was no withdrawal of battle. Oft, indeed. Castor pierced into the broad shield and ^^ horse-plumed helmet, and oft the '^^ keen-eyed Lynceus struck the other's shield, and the point reached ^"as far as the purple crest. Now of this man's hand, as he brought his sharp sword in the direction of his (Castor's) left knee. Castor lopped off the extremity, having removed from under the bloiv with his left foot ; and he, having been wounded, cast away his sword, and speedily set off to fly to the tomb of his father, where brave Idas was re- clining, and beholding the battle of men akin to each other. But the son of Tyndarus having rushed after him, thrust his broad blade right through his flank and navel, and the steel " The parts of the shield were avrv^, or Itvq irfpitpepsta, or kvkXoc, the rim ; (Horn. II. xviii. 479 ;) 6ii of 2* aspalathus, or paliurus, or of bramble ; or the brittle wild-pear wood shaken by the wind : and at midnight, when they wished to destroy thy child, burn these two dragons upon the wild cleft-wood. ^5 Then at mom let one of the attendants, having gathered the ashes of the fire, carry and throw :t thoroughly every whit across the river, upon the rugged rocks, over the boundary, and return home without turning back : but first of all ^6 purify the house with clear sulphur, and next remember to sprinkle with a green branch ^7 plenty of pure water, mixed, as is usual, with salt ; and to sacrifice to supreme Jove a boar pig, that ye may ever be superior to your enemies.' Teiresias spake, and withdrew with his ivory seat, though he was bent with the weight of many years. And Hercules was reared under his mother's care, like a ^s young plant in a garden, being called the son of Argive Amphitryon. Letters 29 aged Linus, son of Apollo, a sleepless guardian, a hero, taught the boy : and to bend the bow, and to be a good shot with arrows, ^^ Eurytus, rich in broad lands from his forefathers, ^i Eumolpus, son of Philammon, made him a 2* Aspalathus.] Cf. Idyll iv. 57, Rose of Jerusalem.— Paliurus.] Virg. Eel. V. 39, Spinis surgit paliurus acutis. All kinds of thorns were con- sidered efficacious for dispelling evil agency. Ovid Fast. ii. 28, Februa poscenti pinea virga data est. ax^p^OQ. Odyss. xiv. 10. Soph. O. C. 1596. A wild prickly shrub. " Eel. viii. 101, Fer cineres Amarylli foras; rivoque fluenti, Transque caput jace, ne respexeris. Cf. iEsch. Choeph. 93, daT^6 - ^-^kagl had »• ^neu8, king of Calydon, after the death of Ath«a. married Perebcea s 2 132 THEOCRITUS. 132 — 139. Thus indeed his loving mother ^^Imd Hercules brought up. And a couch was made for the lad near his father, ^7 a lion's skin, a couch very agreeable to himself: and ^his dinner was roast-meat and a huge Dorian loaf in a bread basket ; it would be safe to satisfy a digger and delver. But ^9 at the close of day he was wont to take a little supper, uncooked ; and he was clad in unembroidered garments *^ above the calf of the leg. IDYLL XXV. HERCULES THE LION-SLAYER, OR, THE WEALTH OF AUGEAS. ARGUMENT. In this fragmentary poem we find Hercules in the land of Elis, in the neighbourhood of the famous stables of Augeas. Having arrived thither, he is led to the king by an old rustic. The king has retired into the country to visit his herds. A description of a vast herd re- turning from pasture is finely interwoven, (84—137,) and Hercules is exhibited repelling with ease the assault of the finest bull of the herd, a proof of valour which excites the admiration of the king and his son. This son of Augeas, as they travel by the same road, begs Her- cules to recount to him, by what means he slew the Nemean lion. The hero, complying, narrates the whole exploit. Some have doubted whether Theocritus wrote this poem. It is variously assigned by such, daughter of Hipponous, by whom he had Tydeus. Tydeus, when grown up, was banished, and fled to Adrastus, king of Argos, and marrying hia daughter Deipyle, begat Diomed. ^ 'jraidivffaro, h. e. " educendum curavit." '^ The custom of sleeping on skins occurs Virg. JEn. vii. 87, Caesarum oviura sub nocte silenti Pellibus incubuit stratis, somnumque petivit, '* For a notion of the appetite of Hercules, see Eurip. Alcest. 750 — 760; Aristoph. Vesp. 60 ; Ran. 62 ; Av. 1690; Pax, 741. Dorian bread was of the commoner and less fine kind. 3' £7r' a/iari, post diem. In the same sense is tTri ry rsXevry rov |3toi/, " at the close of life." ** Virg. iEn. i. 317, describes Harpalyce, a Thracian princess of manly hardihood, as " nuda genu." I— 2C. IDTLL XXV. 133 to Pisander, a contemporary of TyrtaBUS, to some unknown poet earlier than the date of Theocritus, and to some Alexandrine Rhapso- dist. Hermann deems it not unworthy of Theocritus. Old editions have prefixed to this Idyll a poor attempt of some nameless gram- marian to furnish a beginning. And to him spake the old man, a husbandman Mn charge of the tillage, having ceased from the work which lay on his hands : * Stranger, I will readily tell over to you all that you ask, since I stand in awe of the dread vengeance of ^ Hermes by the wayside. For they say, that, most of all the gods of heaven, he is incensed, if so be that any one spurn a traveller very anxious to know the way. The fleecy flocks indeed of king Augeas ^feed not all on one pasture, or one spot ; but some, I ween, pasture round about on the banks of ^ Elisus, others beside the sacred stream of divine ^ Alpheus, others again hard by ^ Buprasium teeming with grapes, and others also here. Now separately, for each of these, folds have been built. But for all the herds, overflowing though they are, still there are here pastures ever rich, along the wide standing- waters of ^ Menius ; ^ for dewy meads and water-pastures luxuriate in fragant herbage in abundance, which in sooth increases the strength of horned heifers. And here, to your right hand, appears their stall, all of it quite on the other side of the flowing river, in that quarter where the planes grow all * iiTiOVpoQ, Etym. M. 362, 29, 6 i^effrr]KU}Q » Virg. Georg. i. 47, 48, Ilia seges demum votis respondet avari Agricolae, bis quae solem, quae frigora sensit. Virg. Georg. i. 398, Namque omne quotannis Terque quaterque solum scindendum. " yvai, from yvr)g, o. Elmsl. Soph. O. C. 58. Eurip. Bacch. IS, Heracl. 839. Vid. Valkenaer ad Phoeniss. Eurip. vs. 648. " Compare Virg. ^En. vii. 197, QujE causa rates aut cujus egentes Littus ad Ausonium tot per vada caerula vexiti 47—68. IDYLL XXV. 135 the servants to be my guide, whosoever is the most honour- able *3 manager over these lands, to whom I might say some- what, and yrcwi whom I might learn somewhat, when he speaks. For God, in sooth, hath made one man in need of one, and another of another.* And him the old man, trusty husbandman as he was, an- swered yet again : * By the advice, stranger, of some one of the gods you come hither. Since to you every business, which you wish, quickly finds its accomplishment. For hither hath come but ^* yesterday from town Augeas, dear son of the Sun, with his child, the strong and noble Phyleus, to visit after many days the property, which he has in countless extent in the country. Thus, I suppose, even to princes their house seems to be safer, to their mind, if they manage it themselves. But let us go to him by all means ; and I will be your guide to my stall, where we shall find the king.' Thus having spoken, he began to lead the way ; but '^ in mind he at least was pondering much, as he saw the lion's skin, and the club, which filled his hand, whence the stranger could be : and he was eager to question him. But again through fear he was keeping within his lips his speech as it rose, lest he should address to him, in his haste, any inoppor- tune word : for 'tis hard to know another man's mind. And as they approached, ^^the dogs quickly noticed them from afar '^ aiffvfxvTjTTjg, a manager, from alcria vk^iiv, to give each his due. Here the person indicated seems to be the Latin '♦ villicus." aipiKav. So the Latins use " horrere." Horat. Epod. v. 27, Horret capillis, ut marinus, asperis Echinus, aut currens aper. ^n. vi. 419, Horrere videns jam coUa colubris. uEn. i, 635, Horrentia centum Terga suum. •• Comp. Horn. II. xxi. 37, oS ipivtov 6pii -voKkiS rdfxiftf j/t'ous opirr]Ka 3 AeX^fc TTtTQa. (See Soph. (Ed. Tyr. 463. Eurip. Androm. 998.) ojxaXoQ, white Hesych. Others, (as if it were fxaWoQ,) shaggy. We have translated ayXdiai as if transitive, with Brunck. Kiessline renders it, " Delphica petra hoc decore nituit." * Daphnis, in this Epigram, dedicates to Pan his pipe, his crook, and aart, in token of bidding adieu to music, hunting, and love. • An allusion to the custom of lovers, to carry apples to their mig- tresses Compare Idyll ii. 120; iii. 10; xi. 10. Kiessl. Compare also Virg. Eel. in. 70. *^ EPIGR^iMS. III. 157 Daphnis, you sleep on leaf-strown ground, * resting your wearied body ; and the ^ poles are fresh fastened along the mountains. But Pan is in chase of you, and ^Priapus, who has saffron -berried ivy bound about his lovely head, advancing to the interior of the cave with one bound. But do you take flight, fly, having ^ shaken off* the lethargy of sleep, that is stealing over you. IV. * When you have turned down yon lane, goatherd, wher« the oaks are, you will find ^a fresh-carved image of fig-wood, 'with three legs, with the bark on, and without handles, but with creative phallus able to accomplish works of Venus : and an enclosure duly sacred surrounds it, and an ever-run- ing stream from the hollow rocks luxuriates on all sides in laurels and myrtles, and fragrant cypress : where the grape- begetting vine sheds itself around with its tendrils, and ver- ' Compare Idyll i. 16, 17. ^ OToKiKiQ, the poles on which hunters fastened their nets. Daphnis, weary of hunting, had ceased from snaring wild beasts, when, lo ! he falls himself into the snare of Pan and Priapus. The poet works upon the ground of Pan's love for Daphnis. 3 See Tibull. I. iv. 1, Sic umbrosa tibi contingant tecta, Priape, Ne capiti soles, ne noeeantve nives. Catull. xix. 10, Florido mihi ponitur picta vere corolla Primitu', et tenera virens spica mollis arista. * VTTVov Kutfia, a lethargic sleep. For a like construction, see Virg, Georg. i. 134, Frumenti herba. Eel. v. 26, Grarainis herbam. Soph. Trach. 20, eig dyutva fidxilQ- It is difficult to decide between the vari- ous readings suggested in place of Karaypofitvov. Wordsworth approves of KaTeifiofxivov, *• pouring down," which is not unlikely to be right, as in the MSS. ay and a are written with the same mark over them. * A shepherd describes a statue of Priapus, and the fair spot where it stands dedicated to the god : and at the same time he vows an ample sacrifice to him, if he will free him from love of Daphnis, with whom he is smitten. Failing this, he would fain have his love returned, and in this case he promises three victims to the god. " Horat. Serm. I. viii. 1, Olim truncus eram ficulnus, inutile lignum. ' Since Priapus is generally represented as standing on one foot, or • •take rather, Jacobs proposes to read da«X«g. 158 THEOCRITUS. V. TI. VII. — IX. FPf GRAMS. 159 ti i] > nal blackbirds, with sweet-voiced songs, chaunt various-noted melodies : yellow nightingales respond with their plaints, warbling with their throats the sounds of music. Prjthee, take your seat there, and supplicate the graceful Priapus, that I may discourage the loves of Daphnis : and sai/ that I will straightway sacrifice a fine he-goat : but if he shall have re- fused, I am wiUing, after having succeeded in this, to pay three victims. ^For I will offer a heifer, a shaggy he-goat, and a lamb which I am keeping in the stall : and may the god hear propitiously. V. Are you willing, / ask you by the Nymphs, to sing me some sweet tmfle on the ^ double flutes ? And I will take up 3 a harp, and begin to strike it somewhat : and the cowherd Daphnis shall charm us at the same time, singing to the breathing ^of a wax-bound pipe. Then standing near a leafy oak, behind the cave, would we rob of sleep ^the goat-footed Pan. VI. Ah ! thou wretched Thyrsis, what boots it thee, if thou waste with tears thy two eyes in lamentation ! The young she-goat ^is gone, the pretty kid is gone to the shades ; for a ruthless wolf crushed her with his talons. And ^the dogs » pilot. So Virgil Eel. iii. 77, Cum faciam vituU pro frugibus. ipse venito. Sajctrav. See Idyll i. 10. r 5 , i ' " Sometimes one person played two flutes (avXoi) at once See a painting from Pompeii, and Diet. Gr. and Rom. Antiq. v. tibia " L«iddell and Scott, Lexicon. » "A harp." TruKriS', from Trriyvvfii. It appears to have been an ancient kind of harp with twenty strings. Sophocl. Fragm 227 uses the word. o • » * " Kapoderift irvsvfiari, i. e. Sovuki KripoTr\dv appears in Aristot. Prioi Analyt. ii. 28. , ^ tt • • j * XvuviOETyg. We have translated the reaaing of D. Heinsms and lyric poets he was wondrously dear. The philosopher in death hath all it was fitting he should have ; even though he was • powerless, I wot he found friends-to-care-for-him. XII. UPON A TRIPOD DEDICATED TO BACCHUS BY DEMOTELES. Demoteles, 2 the leader of the choir, who set up the tripod, O Dionysus, and ^ thee the sweetest of gods, was pretty- * well-in-merit among boys ; but in the choir of men he gained victory, seeing both the beautiful and the becoming. XIII. UPON AN IMAGE OF THE HEAVENLY APHRODITE. ^ Our Venus is not the vulgar : propitiate the goddess by having called her ' heavenly,' the offering of chaste Chryso- gona in the house of Amphicles, with whom she had both children and life in common ; and ever it was better to them ^from year to year, ^as they began with thee, O divine lady ; for if they care for the immortals, mortals find advantage in it themselves. Toup. But the majority of editors consider the passage corrupt. Three MSS. read avrrjg, and for daifioriojg (piXog ijv AAIMQN Q2, against sense and metre, Wordsworth proposes a very desirable emendation grounded upon this, i. e. QtAIMON, i. q. doiSifiov, w^ ^iXog i^g. If we accept this, the meaning of the passage will be, they buried him, a stranger, in a foreign land ; and as one worthy to be sung of by its {^tivrig) minstrels, how dear he was to them. * For cLKiKvg^ Heinsius reads doiKog — KijSeixSvag. The poet says that Eusthenes had neither wife, children, nor relations, yet his worth and genius found him friends to mourn and bury him. ' 6 xop'/yoC* iiot the provider of the chorus, whose office every reader of the Greek theatre, and of the Midias of Demosthenes, knows ; but the choir-leader, as is seen by verses 3 and 4. ' fff, that is, thy statue. * fitrpiog rjvy *< modicam laudem adeptus est." — YopJ — 'AvSpdv. See Idyll xvii. 112. A t-r r * Plato, in his Symposium, says there were two Venuses ; one, the daughter of Coelus, who is called OvpaviUy Urania : the other, the daughter of Jupiter and Dione, who is known as HdvSrjfiog, or popular. * fig trog. Understand f^ tTeog, Comp. Idyll xviii. 15. Ik (TsOiv dpxofitvoig <*A te o.nnia auspicantes inde felicitatis fructum retulerunt." Briggs. 162 THEOCRITUS. XIV. — xvir. XIV. AN EPITAPH OF EURYMEDON. Yoc left an infant son ; and yourself too in life's prime, Eurymedon, found a tomb here, in death. For you indeed there is ^ a seat amid godlike men ; but him citizens will honour, remembering hi« sire as worthy. XV. UPON THE SAME. Traveller, I shall know, whether you pay any more honour to the good, than the bad, or if even the coward gets likewise an equal share from you. You will say ^ Hail to this tomb, for it lies light upon the sacred head of Eurymedon. XVI. UPON A STATUE OF ANACREON. Stranger, regard this statue ^carefully, and say, when you have returned home, ^ ' In Teos, I saw a likeness of Anacreon, ^ pre-eminent, if ever man was, among bards of old.' And by having added also, that he delighted in the young, you will truthfully describe the whole man. XVII. UPON epicharmus. Both the inscription is Doric, and the man, he who in- * 'i^Qa^ »' static." Compare Callim. H. in Del. 233, and Spanheim and Ernesti thereupon. Ktivj] 5' ovdenore (T^tTsprjg irriXfiOerai eSprjg. ^ XaiptTU), i. e. if you are favourable to the good, you will say, " Hail to this tomb," &c. ' (TTTovd^f attento animo. Brings. * Teos, a city near Colophon, the birth-place of Anacreon and Erinn.i. Horat. Epod. xiv. 10, Anacreonta Teium. Od. I. xvii. 18, Et tide Teia Dices, &c. ^ Twv TrpoffO' 61 n irfpiffaov. Understand ovtoq iripianov. Compare Idjll vii. 4, and notes there. ApoUon. Rhod. iii. 347, Uava^aii^og «2 rt ipipidTov iipwuiv. XVIII. EPIGRAMS. 1G3 vented comedy, ^ Epicharmus. O Bacchus, to thee 2 the Pelo- rians, who are settled in the city of Syracuse, set him up here in brass instead of in his true nature, inasmuch as they are mindful to pay the price of his labours to a fellow citizen, 3 for he had abundance of wealth ; for many saws useful for life and conduct taught he to their childien. Great gratitude is due to him. XVIII. the epitaph of cleita, nurse of medeius. The little Medeius raised this monument by the way-side to his 4 Thracian nurse, and inscribed it * Of Cleita.' The woman will enjoy his thanks in requital for her having reared the boy. Why not ? ^ ^\^^ ^^3 yet another name. Useful. » Epicharmus, though bom at Cos, was carried, when three months old, to Megara, about b. c. 540. From about b. c. 484 to his life's end he dwelt at Syracuse. He was the great comic poet of the Dorians. * kvidpvvTai TltXiopilQ rq, iroXti. Reiske asks with reason what had the Felorians, dwellers about the promontory of Pelorum, to do with Syracuse. Tyrwhitt and Jacobs read for mXiopelQ r^-7rtc^ujpi(rra ttoXu, excelsa urbe — but Syracuse is low. Wordsworth proposes to read TTtdoiKiffTat, coloni, inquilini, Doric for ixtroiKiaTai, just as we have 7r,6a for nera in Idyll xxix. 25—38, and very frequently in ^schylus TTtdaopoQ, TreSapmog, &c. (See Blomf. in Gloss. Prom. v. 277, 735 ^'^^'] V^^ Syracusans, it will be remembered, were a Corinthian colony' and tviSpvvrai is properly used of colonists. This suggestion, therefore is especially to the purpose. In his addenda, Wordsworth prefers tt*- CoiKiaT(f. to agree with ttoXil. 3 A curious reason for honouring him. To clear the Syracusans of such a charge, some editors have read prjfianov, for xPWarojv, but " u heap of words is no stronger ground for a statue of him at the peo- ple s expense than a heap of gold. Wordsworth has probably come very near the truth, when he suggests, ^upov iraptl^E, xph iUti/ wv fXE/jLvanivov^ TeXtlu tTri-xtipa. Donum nobis dedit, (see 9, 10,) oportet igitur nos ejus bene memorea eum remunerari. r *7^^^^'^^^ "^^ses seem to have been in esteem. See Idyll ii. 70. i.animachus has an Epigram somewhat similar to this. tH xpj^ai'/x;; KaXIiTai — U we read the words as they stand, the i^pitaph turns on the nurse's name, Cleita, (famous,) and her sur- name, given for her useful qualities, x9ntp(iv, and construe, winter is terrible to bear. * Avicdl^avTi, from AvKa^ag, an Homeric word, signifying the year : from \vKri, lux, and fiaivuj. ttccvt' elapog. Compare Theocr. xi. 58; > irgil Eel. in. 57, Nunc frondent silvoe, nunc formosissimus annus. ' The vernal equinox. Virg. (Georg. i. 208) says of the autumn*! equinox, Libra die somnique [Tares ubi fecerit horas. VII. Till. IDYLLS. l" ri pa tot' ^YT.L XV. i77 IDYLL XV. THE EPITHALAJIIUM OF ACHILLES AND DEIDAMIA.' MYRSON. LYCIDAS. Mt/rson. Are you willing now, Lycidas, sweetly to sing me *a Sicih'an melody, delightsome, charming the mind, and amorous, such as the Cyclops Polyphemus sung on the sea- sliore to Galatea ? Lycidas. And if, Myrson, it be agreeable to me to sing to my pipe, then what shall my song be ? Mi/rs. I admire, Lycidas, the Scyrian strain, sweet love, the stolen kisses, the ^ stolen embrace of the son of Peleus. How he, a boy, put on a maiden's mantle, and how he belied his form, and how among the daughters of Lycomedes, Deidamia, ^holding him in her arms, gratified Achilles, son of Peleus. Lycid. Once on a day, the herdsman carried off Helen ; and led her to Ida, a sore grief to ^none ; then Lacedasmon was wroth, and gathered all the Achaean host. Nor did any man of Hellas, of Mycena3, or Elis, or of the Laconians, stay behind in his home, ^bearing as vengeance dread war. But only 'The Scyrian strain.] Lycomedes king of the Dolopians, in the island of Scyros, near Euboea, was father of Deidamia, and grandsire of Pyrrhus, or Neoptolemus. This fragment relates to the sojourn of Achilles, in maiden's guise, among the daughters of Lycomedes at Scyros, whither he had been brought by his mother Thetis, as she knew the Trojan war must be fatal to him. Among his female companions he was called Pyrrha from his golden locks. His sex and hiding-place were discovered by a stratagem of Ulysses. 2 St^Xov/zeXoc. Virg. Eel. iv. 1, Sicelides Musa?. Mosch.,rt«Xt»ca;Mor- aai. AH marking Sicily as the land of pastoral poetry "par excellence." 3 XaQQiov tvvdv. Compare Theocr. xxvii. 67, dviffTaro (bwoioc ^i'va * For the unintelligible reading, dTraXkyoiffa 'AijdriVT] r drraaTov 'AxtWia AtjiSdfXfia— we have ventured to translate, as at least sense, Ruhnken's conjecture, dyKUQ txoiaa JlrjXsiSriv dydiratfv, k. r. X. which is approved by Valkenaer and Jacobs, and is by far the best. For the several conjectures of Toup, Wakefield, and Briggs, see Briggs' Bucohci GroBci, p. 361. ^^ * epwv (pei The dolphin's delight in song, commemorated in the fable of Arion, f Herod, i. 23 ; Pausan. iii. 25 ; Yirg. Eel. viii. 54,) is applied by Moschus here to the sorrow of all things for the hushing of Bion s song. I or traits of the dolphin's musical taste and benevolence, see Tliny, JN. H. ^^'^ Ceyx perished by shipwreck, and his wife, finding his lifeless body on the strand, threw herself into the sea. The gods in pity changed them both into the birds called Halcyons. Ov. Met. xi. 410. Comp. \ irg. Georg. i. 399. Kri^hUq, Att. KfipuXog, a sea-bird, according to some, the male Halcyon. Aristot. H. A. , , , rruu » Mauvovog opvtc. Aurora besought Jove to make her lover Tithonut immortal. She forgot to stipulate for immortal youth. She therefore had an infirm, though immortal, paramour. But while he was yet young, she bore him two sons, of whom Memnon was one. Memnon was slain at Troy by Achilles, and Aurora obtained from Jove a promise that his memory should have more than mortal honours. Accordingly from his funeral pyre there rose a flight of birds, which having thrice flown round the flames divided themselves into two bodies, and fought so fiercely, that above half perished in the fire. These birds, called Memnomdes, yearly returned to Memnon's tomb, and renewed the encounter. See Ox Met. xiii., Terque rogum lustrant, et consonus exit in auras Plangor. See also Pliny, x. 36. Who shall sing to thy pipe, thrice-regretted ? And who shall apply his lip to thy reeds ? Who so bold ? For even yet they breathe of thy lips and thy breath : and Echo amid the reeds feeds upon thy songs. To Pan I bear '^the pipe : haply even he would fear to set his mouth to it, lest he should carry off a second prize after thee. Begin, Sicilian Muses, begin the lament. '^Galatea too weeps for thy lay, she whom of old thou didst delight, as she sat in thy company along the sea-beach. For not like Cyclops didst thou sing : from him indeed the fair Galatea used to fly; but thee she was wont to regard 12 with more sweetness than the sea. And now, forgetful of the wave, she sits on the lonely sands, and even yet leads thy oxen to pasture. Begin, Sicilian Muses, begin the lament. All along with thee, O herdsman, have perished the Muses' gifts, charming kisses of maidens, lips of boys : and around thy tomb weep sad-visaged Loves. Venus loves thee far more than the kiss, with which lately she kissed dying Adonis. This is a second grief to thee, most musical of rivers ! This, '^O Meles, is a fresh grief; to thy sorrow perished Homer aforetime, that ^^ sweet mouth of Calliope, and men say thou didst deplore thine illustrious son in streams of much w^eeping, and didst fill all the sea with thy voice : now again thou weepest another son, and pinest over a fresh woe. Both ivere beloved by the fountains ; the one indeed was wont to drink of the Pegasean spring ; the other, to enjoy a draught of the Arethusa. And the one sang the fair daughter of Tyndarus, and the mighty son of Thetis, and Menelaus, son of Atreus : but the other would sing not of wars, nor tears, but Pan ; and would sound the praise of herdsmen, and feed the herd '" Ilavi ^ Au*^ sonian sorrow, /, no stranger to the pastoral song, but heir to the Doric Muse, which thou didst teach thy scholars : honouring me, to others indeed thou didst leave thy weahh, but to me thy song. Begin, Sicilian Muses, begin the lament. Alas, alas, when once in a garden the mallows have died, or the green parsley, or blooming crisp dill, they live again after, and spring up another year. But we, the great, and brave^ or wise o/'men, after we have once died, unheard of in hollow " Kai 7)pt9e TCLV 'A« Ascra, a town of Boeotia, or according to Hes'iod, who was its chief glory, a village at the foot of Helicon in the Thespian region. O. et D. 638.— Hylae, a city of Bopotia. Pindar was born either at Thebes or Cynocephalae, B. c. 522. Alctrus, a native of Lesbos. Simonides, of Ceos, B. c. 556. Archilochus, of Paros. See Theocr. Epigr. xix. Sappho' iof the same date with Alcseus, b. c. 628—570,) was one of the two leaders of the ^Eolian school of poetry, Alcaeus being the other. She was a native of Mytilene. »" 2i«Xt?ac. See Theocr. Idyll vii. 40. Lvcidas : Theocr. vii. 12 The Cydonians inhabited the south of Crete. Philetas : ibid. 40. TptoTri- iatg. Triops was a king of the island of Cos. Cf. Theocr. xvii. 68. The river Halens is mentioned in the Thalysia referred to above. ^* AvtToviKag ocvvag. The Sicilian Sea was called Ausonius Pontus, from Auson, a son of Ulysses and Calypso Therefore as Moschus wai a Syracusan, he calls his song Ausonian. earth, sleep a right long and boundless slumber, from which none are roused. »9 And in the earth thou indeed wilt be covered m sdence, but it has seemed good to the Nymphs that the frog should croak for ever. Yet I envy him not : for tis no pretty song he sings. Begin, Sicilian Muses, begin the lament. Poison came. O Bion, to thy lip : thou knewest poison. How did It find access to thy lips, yet not become sweet ? or what mortal was so far ruthless, as to mix for thee, or to give thee the poison, if thou didst speak ? He shunned the power of song. ^ Begin, Sicilian Muses, begin the lament. But justice has overtaken all. And I, shedding tears over this woe, bewail thy fate ; yet were I able, like 20 Orpheus having gone down to Tartarus, like Ulysses once, or as Al- cides in days of yore, I too would haply descend to the home ot riuto, that I might see thee, and, if thou singest to Pluto that 1 might hear what thou singest. Nay, but in the pre- Isence of the damsel (Proserpine) warble some Sicilian stniin LSing some pleasant pastoral. She too, being Sicilian, -''sport- •» Cf. Job xiv. 7-10, '' There is hope of a tree, if it be cut down that It will sprout again, and that the tender branch thereof will not cease 1 hough the root thereof wax old in the earth, and the stock thereof die m the ground ; yet through the scent of water it will bud, and brin<. forth boughs like a plant. But man dieth, and wasteth away: yea man giveth up the ghost, and where is he r ' ^ • Jea, man Spenser, Whence is it that the flow'ret of the field doth fade And lyeth buried long in winter's bale 1 Yet soon as spring his mantle hath displayed, It flow'reth fresh, as it should never fail, But thing on earth that is of most avail,' As virtue's branch and beauty's bud, Reliven not for any good. Catull., Soles occidere et redire possunt : Nobis curn semel occidit brevis lux Nox est perpetua una dormienda. 20 Alcides went alive to Tartarus by command : Odysseus, to obtain information needful to him : but Orpheus went down to recover his wife His 8 ory IS beautifully told in the fourth Georgia of Virgil. See also Pope's Ode on St. Cecilia's Day. Chapman. ' Proserpine, daughter of Ceres, was carried off by Pluto. The lei^end IS to be found in Hesiod Theog 914 ; Callimach. H. in Cerer. 9, and Spanheim, on that passage; Ovid. Met. v. 565; Fast. iv. 432. Miltoo alludes to it thus : u 194 MOSCHUS. 128—133. 1I>TLL IV. 195 I! ■H i ed on the ^tn«an shores, and knew the Doric song : nor will thy strain be unhonoured ; and as of old to Orpheus, sweetly sm^rincr to his lyre, she gave Eurydice to return, so will she send thee, Bion, to thy hills. Yes, if even I could avail aught by singing to my pipe, I too would sing before Pluto. IDYLL IV. MEGARA, THE WIFE OF HERCULES. or O My mother, why dost thou thus wound thy spirit, bein sad beyond measure, and whj/ is the former bloom no longer preserved on thy cheeks ? Why, I pray thee, art thou vexed so much ? Is it in sooth because thine illustrious son suffers countless annoyances from ^ a man of no account, even as a lion from a fawn ? Alas me ! why then have the immortal gods thus so far dishonoured me ? why then did my parents beget me to a fate thus adverse ? Ill-fated am /, who, since I have come to the bed of a faultless hero, whom I did honour indeed like my own eyes, ay, even now both worship and reverence him in my heart. But than him has no other of living beings been more ill-starred, or tasted so many cares in his own thoughts ; wretched man, who with the ^bow and arrows, which Apollo himself had provided for him, dire weapons either of one of Not that fair field Of Enna, where Proserpine, gathering flowers, Herself a fairer flower, by gloomy Dis Was gather'd, which cost Ceres all that pain To seek her through the world ; nor that sweet grove Of Daphne by Orontes, and th* inspired Castalian spring, might with this Paradise Of Eden strive. Parad. Lost. Book iv. » Eurystheus, to wit. Megara was the daughter of king Creon of Thebes, and wife of Hercules, (Horn. Od. xi. 269. Eurip. Here. Fur. 9. &c.,) by whom he had several children; whom after his battle with the Mi'nyans he slew, with two of the children of Iphiclus, under the influ- ence of madness sent by Juno. 2 ToKoimv. By this name is understood, bow, arrows, and quiver. Trdaa r) to^ikti (jkivt}. Apollodorus says Mercury gave Hercules his sword, Apollo his bow, Vulcan his mail, Minerva his cloak, whilst hi* club he himself cut in the Nemean grove. .'f > 1^ < the Fates, or of Erinnys, ^slew his own children, and ix)bbed them of their dear life, as he raged about his house, and it was full of slaughter. Them indeed I, wretched woman, beheld with mine own eyes, stricken by their father; and this hath befallen no other even in a dream : nor was I able to succour them, though they loudly called upon their mother ; for re- sistless evil was nigh. "* And even as a bird laments over her nestlings as they perish, which while still in infancy a fierce snake devours amid the thick bushes, while slie, kind mother, hovers over them shrieking very shrilly, yet is not able, I ween, to succour her children ; for in truth, she herself hath a great dread of coming nigher to the ruthless monster ; so I, most wretched mother, wailing for mine own offspring, with frantic feet kept running to and fro through my house fre- quently. Yes, and would that dying along with my children I too had lain low, having through my heart a poisonous arrow, thou, Artemis, mighty ruler to women, the gentler beings. So, when they had mourned for us, would our parents with their own hands have placed us on a common pile with many funeral honours ; and having collected into one golden urn the bones of all, would have buried us, where we first were born. But now they indeed inhabit horse-breeding Thebes, plough- ing the deep rich ^ clods of the Aonian plain ; but I at Tiryns, Juno's rocky city, wretched woman that I am, am ever in the same manner wounded at heart by many griefs ; and there is present to me no rest from tears. But my husband indeed I behold with mine eyes only for a brief space in our house ; for a work is prepared for him of many labours, at wliich he toils, as he roams over land and sea, yes, for he has within his ' Eurip. Here. F. says that Megara was slain along with her children ; he follows Stesichorus and Panyasis. Plutarch and Pausanias coincide with Moschus. * Compare for this beautiful passage, Hom. II. ii. 308. Virg. Geor. iv. 512, ^ Qualis populeii moerens Philomela sub umbra Amissos queritur foetus ; quos durus arator Observans nido implumes detraxit : at ilia Flet noctem, ramoque sedens miserabile carmen Integrat, et mcestis lat^ loca questibus implet. * Aonian plain.] Boeotia was by its ancient inhabitants called Aonia. Tiryns, a town of Achaia, not far from Argos, was the native place o. Hercules, hence called Tirynthius. o 2 ■ t' 196 MOSCHUS. 44—66, 66—96, IDTLL rV. 197 breast a strong heart of iron or stone ; ^ but thou meltest away like water, weeping both at night, and as many days as come from Jove. None other, however, of my kinsfolk can stand by and comfort me ; for it is not a wall between houses that shuts them in; no! but all dwell right beyond tlie 'piny Isthmus : nor have I to whom, having looked, as an ill-fated woman, I could unfold my heart, except at least, 'tis true, my sister Pyrrha : but she herself, too, is grieving more about her husband, thy son, ^ Iphiclus ; for most woeful children of all I deem that you have borne both to a god and a mortal man. Thus in sooth spake she : and ^the warmer tears poured the more down from her eyelids on her lovely bosom, as she called to mind her children, and her own parents afterwards. And in like manner Alcmena was '° bedewing her white cheeks with tears ; and deeply while she groaned even from her heart, with wise words thus did she reply to her dear daughter-in-law : ^^' Unhappy in thy children, why then, I pray, hath this fallen upon thy sharp thoughts ? how is it that thou wishest to disturb us both, by speaking of our unceasing sorrows ? for not now have they been wept for the first time. Are not the woes enough, in which we are involved as they arise, ever and anon, each second day? Yes, fond indeed of laments ^ So the Hebrew sacred writers. Joshua vii. 5, "Wherefore the hearts of the people melted, and becanve as water." Psalm xxii. 14, " 1 am poured out like water : my heart also in the midst of my body is like melting wax." Iviii. 6, '* Let him fall away like water that runneth apace." ^ The Isthmus Corinthiacus is here meant, icar' l^oxy)v. Pine trees were common in that maritime country, and a garland of pine leaves formed the victor's crown at the Isthmian games in honour of Neptune, to whom the pine was sacred. ' Iphiclus, the half-brother of Hercules, married, secondly, Pyrrha, youngest daughter of Creon, king of Thebes. Apollod. ii. 4, § 11, Qn^ r« Kai dvepi. Jupiter and Amphitryon. ^ Of the numerous emendations of the probably corrupt firjXtovy "Wake- field's ^aXXov seems most intelligible. Briggs suggests dijXiog. If we read the verse as it stands in Heskin's edition, firjXujv, we should con- strue, " and moist tears were pouring down her cheeks from her eyelids on her fair bosom ;" but this is hardly Greek. " Wakefield suggests here Ifiiaivfv, quoting Virg. JEn. xii. 67, Stat. Theb. ix. 713, and Young's line, " And lights on lids unsullied with a tear." " Aainovirj TTaiSojv, rightly explained by Schwebel, KaKocmiiov iraiSiuv tveKa. would be the man, who ^^ would wish to add to the numbei of our woes. Cheer up then ! such fate as this we have met by Heaven's behest; and in truth I see thee, dear child, la- bouring under unabating griefs: yet I am ready to pardon your woe ; for in fact I suppose ^^even of joy there is satiety. And I very exceedingly lament and pity thee, for that thou hast partaken of our dismal destiny, which also hangs heavily over our heads. For be Proserpine and richly-robed Demeter witnesses, (by whom with great hurt to himself would any of our foes swear wilfully a false oath,) that in mine heart I love thee not a whit less, than if thou hadst come from out my womb, and wert to me in mine house a ^'* late-born daughter: nor do I imagine that, for thine own part, this at any rate altogether escapes thee. Wherefore say not ever, ^•''my young shoot, that I care not for thee, not even if I wail more con- stantly than fair-haired Niobe : for 'tis no cause of blame for a mother to weep over an afflicted son : since for ten months did I labour, before even I first beheld him, whilst I had him in my womb, and he brought me near to ^^ HelVs gate-keeper Pluto ; so severe throes did I endure when about to travail hard with him. But now my son is gone to accomplish a fresh toil on a foreign land, nor know I, ill-starred woman, whether I shall welcome him again having returned hither, or not. And besides also a fearful dream has scared me during sweet sleep ; and I fear exceedingly, having seen a hurtful vision, lest it betide something untoward to my chil- dren. For my son, stout Hercules, seemed to me to hold in both his hands a well-made spade, with which he was delving, ^' otjTiQ a.pi9iir)(Teiiv, understand axsa. Qui numeret dolores ultra nos- tros, or construe as if it were offrig kTrapiOfiiiasuv tjixeTspoig dx««o'0'i, which has been done in this translation. Two lines above, Polwhele compares Matt. v. 34, " Sufficient for the day is the evil thereof." '^ " And if there is a satiety of joy, much more of grief." These words are an excuse for sorrow finding vent. Moschus imitates Horn. Iliad xiii. 636, ttolvtojv yap Kopog tcrri' Kal vttvov Kai iXkovTa ^twicti. Horace, Od. I. xxxiii. 5, Insignem tenui fronte Lycorida Cyri torret amor : Cyrus in asperam Declinat Pholoen, &c. • fjpa and iiparo. Theocr. (vii. 96) and Bion (vi. 8) have the swna variations of the form of this verb— 2»ctprijra Sarupw. So Virg. Eel ▼. 73, Saltantes Satyros imitabitur Alphesibaeus. 200 MOSCHtJS. vn. 3—6. FRAGMENT. 201 1II| Satyr : and love was smouldering in each in tlieir turns. For as strongly as any one of tliem hated the lover, so strongly in like manner was he, loving, hated, and was suffer- ing 1 a requital. These lessons speak I to all them that love not, 2 < Cherish them that love you, that if ye love, ye may be loved again.' IDYLL VIL ALPHEUS. ^Alpheus, when he glides along the sea, past Pisa, comes to Arethusa, bringing his waters Maden with wild-olives, bearing as a dower fair leaves and flowers and sacred dust ; and he enters the waves deeply and runs in under the sea beneath, and water mingles not with waters ; and the sea is not conscious of it, as the river passes through. Love, knavish boy, plotter of ill, teacher of fearful things, has taught through his spell even a river to dive. AN EPIGRAM ON EROS PLOUGHING. ^ Having laid aside torch and bow, mischievous Eros took up an ox-goad, and he had a wallet slung-on-his-shoulders ; » Trdffxe 5' a TTOta, is another reading; but airoiva, which has ffood authority, is more elegant. ^ Cf. Theocr. xxiii. verse the last. Shelley has translated this Idyll See notes to Chapman's translation. ^ » The legend of Arethusa ran thus: Heated with the chase, she bathed m the Alpheus ; and while so engaged, frightened by a strange murmur in the stream, she sprang to the shore in terror. The river-god i)ur8ued her through all Arcadia, where at eventide, feeling her strength fast failing, she called Artemis to aid, by whom she was changed into a foun- tain Alpheus, resuming his watery form, would fain min-le his stream with hers. But she fled under the earth through the sea, till she rose again in Arcadia, followed by Alpheus still. The Greeks believed that offerings thrown into the Alpheus at Elis rose again at Ortygia near Syracuse. See Pausan. v. 7, $ 2; Ov. Met. v. 572; Virg. Mn. iii. 694 &c * Compare Sil. Ital. xiv., " ' Hie Arethusa suura piscoso fonte receptat Alphaeum, sacrae portantem signa coronse. • Grotius has rendered this Epigram into Latiu : and having joined under the yoke the toil-enduring' necks of oxen, he sowed the furrow of Ceres, that it should bear grain. And looking up he said to Jove himself, ^ ' Make full the sown fields, lest I place thee, Europa's bull, under the plougli. FRAGMENT. 2 Would that my sire had taught me to tend fleecy sheep, in which case, seated beneath the elms, or under the rocks, playing on my pipes, I would solace my cares with reeds. Let us fly, ye Pierides : seek we another well-built city for our country ; yet in sooth I will speak out to all, that ruinous drones have harmed the honey-bees. Rus petiit positis arcu facibusque Cupido : Virga manu ; tergo pendula pera fuit. Hoc habitu sulcos glebae Cerealis arabat Gnavus, agens domitos sub juga curva boves : Respiciensque Jovem : terras, ait, ignibus ure, Ne bos Europae tu quoque factus ares. ' 7r\i/«X. / THEOCRITUS. IDYLL I. THYRSIS THE SHEPHERD, AND THE GOATHEKD. THYRSIS. Sweet is the music which the whispering pine Makes to the murmuring fountains ; sweet is thine, Breathed from the pipe ; the second prize thy due — To Pan, the horned ram ; to thee, the ewe ; And thine the yearling, when the ewe he takes — A savoury mess the tender yearling makes. GOATHERD. Sweeter thy song than yonder gliding down Of water from the rock's o'erhanging crown ; If a ewe-sheep for fee the Muses gain, Thou, shepherd ! shalt a stall-fed lamb obtain ; But if it rather please the tuneful Nine To take the lamb, the ewe shall then be thine. THYRSIS. O wilt thou, for the Nymphs' sake, goatherd ! fill Thy pipe with music on this sloping hill. Where grow the tamarisks? wilt sit, dear friend, And play for me, while I thy goats attend ? GOATHERD. We must not pipe at noon in any case ; For then Pan rests him, wearied from the chase. Him, quick to wrath we fear, as us befits ; On his keen nostril sharp gall ever sits. But thou — to thee the griefs of Daphnis known, And the first skill in pastoral song thine own — Come to yon elm, into whose shelter deep Afront Priapus and the Naiads peep — :~v;«S2QS3Su 206 THEOCRITUS. Where the thick oaks stand round the shepherd's seat There, sitting with me in that cool retreat, If thou wilt sing, as when thou didst contest With Libyan Chromis which could sing the be-^t, Thine, Thyrsis, this twin -bearing goat shall be, That fills two milk-pails thrice a-day for me ; And this deep ivy-cup with sweetest wax Bedewed, twin-eared, that of the graver smacks. Around its lips lush ivy twines on high, Sprinkled with drops of bright cassidony ; And as the curling ivy spreads around. On every curl the saffron fruit is found. With flowing robe and Lydian head-dress on, Within, a woman to the life is done — An exquisite design ! on either side Two men with flowing locks each other chide, By turns contending for the woman's love, But not a whit her mind their pleadings move. One while she gives to this a glance and smile. And turns and smiles on that another while. But neither any certain favour gains — Only their eyes are swollen for their pains. Hard by, a rugged rock and fisher old. Who drags a mighty net, and seems to hold, Preparing for the cast : he stands to sight, A fisher putting forth his utmost might. A youth's strength in the gray-head seems to dwel' So much the sinews of his neck outswell. And near that old man with his sea-tanned hue, With purple grapes a vineyard shines to view. A little boy sits by the thorn-hedge trim, To watch the grapes — two foxes watching him : One through the ranges of the vines proceeds. And on the hanging vintage slyly feeds ; The other plots and vows his scrip to search. And for his breakfast leave him — in the lurch. Meanwhile he twines and to a rush fits well A locust trap with stalks of asphodel ; And twines away with such absorbing glee, Of scrip or vines he never thinks — not he ! The juicy curled acanthus hovers round IDYIL I. 207 Th* -^olian cup — when seen a marvel found. Hither a Calydonian skipper brought it. For a great cheese-cake and a goat I bought it ; Untouched by lip — this cup shall be thy hire, If thou wilt sing that song of sweet desire. I envy not : begin ! the strain outpour ; 'Twill not be thine on dim Oblivion's shore, THYRSIS. Begin, dear Muses ! the bucolic strain ; For Thyrsis sings, your own w^tnean swain. Where were ye, Nymphs ! when Daphnis pined away, Where through his Tempe Peneus loves to stray. Or Pindus lifts himself ? Ye were not here Where broad Anapus flows or Acis clear, Or where tall ^tna looks out on the main. Begin, dear Muses ! the bucolic strain. From out the mountain -lair the lions growled. Wailing his death — the wolves and jackals howled. Begin, dear Muses ! the bucolic strain : Around him in a long and mournful train, Sad-faced, a number of the horned kind, Heifers, bulls, cows, and calves, lamenting pined. First Hermes from the mountain came and said, " Daphnis, by whom art thou disquieted ? For whom dost thou endure so fierce a flame ?" Then cowherds, goatherds, shepherds, thronging came, And asked what ailed him. E'en Priapus went. And said : " Sad Daphnis, why this languishment ? In every grove, by fountains, far and near, Thee the loved girl is seeking every where. Ah, foolish lover ! to thyself unkind. Miscalled a cowherd, with a goatherd's mind ! The goatherd when he sees his goats at play. Envies their wanton sport and pines away. And thou at sight of virgins, when they smile. Dost look with longing eyes and pine the while, Because with them the dance thou dost not lead." No word he answered, but his grief did feed, 208 THEOCRITUS. And brought to end his love, that held him fast. And only ended with his life at last. Then Cypris came— the queen of soft desire. Smiling in secret, but pretending ire, And said : " To conquer love did Daphnis boast, But, Daphnis ! is not love now uppermost?" Her answered he : " Thou cruel sorrow-feeder ! Curst Cypris ! mankind's hateful mischief-breeder I 'Tis plain my sun is set ; but I shall show The blight of love in Hades' house below. *Where° Cypris kiss'd a cowherd'— men will speak— Hasten to Ida ! thine Anchises seek. Around their hives swarmed bees are humming here, Here the low galingale — thick oaks are there. Adonis, the fair youth, a shepherd too, Wounds hares, and doth all savage beasts pursue. Go ! challenge Diomede to fight with thee— ^ * I tame the cowherd Daphnis, fight with me.' " Ye bears, who in the mountain hollows dwell, Ye tawny jackals, bounding wolves, farewell ! The cowherd Daphnis never more shall rove In quest of you through thicket, wood, and grove. Farewell, ye rivers, that your streams profuse From Thymbris pour ; farewell, sweet Arethuse ! I drove my kine — a cowherd whilom here — To pleasant pasture, and to water clear. Pan ! Pan ! if seated on a jagged peak Of tall Lycseus now ; or thou dost seek The heights of Msenalus— leave them awhile, And hasten to thy own Sicilian isle. The tomb, which e'en the gods admire, leave now— Lycaon's tomb and Helice's tall brow. Hasten, my king ! and take this pipe that chps, Uttering its honey breath, the player's lips. For even now, dragged downward, must I go, By love dragged down to Hades' house below. Now violets, ye thorns and brambles bear ! Narcissus now on junipers appear ! And on the pine-tree pears ! since Daphnis dies, To their own use all things be contraries ! IDYLL II. 209 The stag trail hounds ; in rivalry their sotig The mountain owls with nightingales prolong ! " He said, and ceased : and Cypris wished, indeed, To raise him up, but she could not succeed ; His fate-allotted threads of life were spent. And Daphnis to the doleful river went. The whirlpool gorged him — by the Nymphs not scorned* Dear to the Muses, and by them adorned. Cease ! cease, ye Muses ! the bucolic strain. Give me tlie cup and goat that I may drain The pure milk from her ; and, for duty's sake, A due libation to the Muses make. All hail, ye Muses ! hail, and favour me. And my hereafter song shall sweeter be. GOATHERD. Honey and honey-combs melt in thy mouth, And figs from JEgilus ! for thou, dear youth. The musical cicada dost excel. Behold the cup ! how sweetly doth it smell ! ' Twill seem to thee as though the lovely Hours Had newly dipt it in their fountain-showers. Hither, Cissaetha ! milk her ! yearling friskers. Forbear — behold the ram's huge beard and whiskers ! IDYLL IL THE SORCERESS. Where are the laurels ? where the philters ? roll The finest purple wool around the bowl. Quick ! ThestyHs, that I with charms may bind The man I love, but faithless and unkind. This is the twelfth day he my sight hath fled, And knows not whether I be quick or dead ; The twelfth day since he cross'd my threshold o'er. Nor, cruel ! once hath knocked upon my door, In all that time. His fancy, apt to change, Cypris and Love have elsewhere made to range. / 210 THEOCRITUS. m go — to see and chide him for my sorrow — To Timagetus' wrestling-school to-morrow. Now will I charm him with the magic rite : Come forth, thou Moon I with thy propitious light; Cold, silent goddess ! at this witching hour To thee Til chant, and to th' Infernal Power, Dread Hecate ; whom, coming through the mound* Of blood-swoln corses, flee the trembling hounds. Hail, Hecate ! prodigious demon, hail ! Come at the last, and make the work prevail ; That this strong brewage may perform its part No worse than that was made by Circe's art, By bold Medea, terrible as fair, Or Perimeda of the golden hair. Him hither, hither draw, my magic wheel ! First in the fire is burnt the barley meal ; Quick ! Thestylis, quick ! sprinkle more — yet more ; Wretch ! wither do thine idle fancies soar ? Am I thy scorn and mock ? sprinkle and say — " The bones of Delphis thus I shred away." Him hither, hither draw, my magic wheel ! Delphis has made me fiercest tortures feel ; I burn the laurel orer Delphis now : As crackles loud the kindled laurel bough, Blazes, and e'en its dust we not discern — So may the flesh of Delphis dropping burn ! Him hither, hither draw, my magic wheel ! As by the help divine, which I appeal, I melt this wax, may Myndian Delphis melt ! As whirls this wheel, may he, love's impulse felt, At my forsaken door be made to reel ! Him hither, hither draw, my magic wheel ! Bran now I oiFer : thou. Queen Artemis ! Canst move aught firm, e'en Adamantine Dis. Hark ! the dogs howl ; the goddess now doth pass The cross-roads through : ring, ring the sounding brass ! Him hither, hither draw, my magic wheel I The sea is silent ; not a breath doth steal IDYLL n. Over the stillness ; but the troubled din Of passion is not hushed my heart within ; I burn for him, who hath defamed my life, Undone a virgin, made me not his wife. Him hither, hither draw, my magic wheel ! Thrice the libation poured, I thrice unseal My lips, August One ! thrice these words I speak ; Whoever lies with Delphis, cheek by cheek. May he forget her so much as they say Theseus forgot, and left in Dia's bay The bright-haired Ariadne — fast away Sailing from Dia with his rapid keel. Him hither, hither draw, my magic wheel ! A little herb in Arcady there grows, Which colts and mares doth strangely discompose, (Hence called Hippomanes) ; for this they skurry O'er mountain-ranges with a frantic hurry : Thus from the wrestling-school, all bright with oil. May Delphis madly rush — with thoughts that boil ; May he for me this maddening passion feel ! Him hither, hither draw, my magic wheel ! This fringe he dropt, that ran his cloak across, I tear, and to the furious fire I toss. Ah, love ! ah, cruel love ! why dost outsuck All of my blood, like marsh-leech firmly stuck ? Him hither, hither draw, my magic wheel ! A draught whose ill none antidote can heal From a bruised lizard I'll to-morrow make : Now, Thestylis, this poisonous brewage take. And smear his threshold — there my mind must be, As thereto bound ; but he cares not for me : And having smeared the door-way, spitting there, Then say, " The bones of Delphis thus I smear." Him hither, hither draw, my magic wheel ! Flow, left alone, shall I with sorrow deal ? Or where begin with my grief-plighted thought ? Who first on me this love — this mischief brought ? Anaxo came, on whom it fell this year The basket to Diana's grove to bear ; F 'i 211 I ( 212 THEOCRITUS. She came for me and told mc, in the show 'Mid many a beast a lioness would go. Whence grew my love, divinest Moon ! attend : Theucharila, whose life did lately end My Thracian nurse, now numbered with the blest, Came also to me, prayed me, strongly prest To ffo and look upon the splendid show. At last I went— ah, doomed to bitter woe I My linen tunic, never worn before, And Clearista's glistering robe I wore. Whence grew my love, divinest Moon ! attend : Whilst I along the public road did wend, Midway by Lycon's house, I saw, alas . Delphis and youthful Eudamippus pass. The beards of both were of a yellower dye Than the brio-ht Kold-bedropt cassidony. . , ,, , Sainwres^^^^^^ ^"^^^ • Outshone the sparkles of thy golden sheen. Whence grew my love, divinest Moon ! attend : I saw, loved, maddened ! raging love did rend My very soul ; my bloom of beauty bright Withered at once as by a sudden bbght : The pomp I saw not passing in my view, And how I reached my home I never knew ; A fiery torment on my vitals fed ; Ten days and nights I lay upon my bed. Whence grew my love, divinest Moon I attend: Such hues and juices of the thapsus lend ^ Gloomed on my cheek ; off dropt my crown of hair ; I was but skin and bones ; in my de^^pair Whom sought I not ? what magic-deahng crone Consulted not ? but I found help from none : On hastened time, that brings all things to end. Whence grew my love, divinest Moon I attend: Then to my hand-maid I revealed my mind ; « Some remedy for my sore sickness find ; I pine for, dote upon, the Myndian youth. Am altogether his in very sooth ; At Timagetus' school watch, bring him me. IDTLL II. For there he visits — there he loves to be. And when you see him from the rest apart. Then nod and softly whisper him, ' Sweetheart ! Simsetha calls you ' — guide him here, my friend." W hence grew my love, divinest Moon ! attend : She went and found the remedy I sought. And to my house the blooming Delphis brought. But when I saw him o'er my threshold-sill Pass with light foot, I sudden grew more chill Than wintry snow ; and from my forehead burst Sweat like the dew the melting South hath nurst ; I could not utter — e'en the murmur fine That sleeping infants to their mothers whine ; Senseless I stiffened in my strange affright. Like a wax-doll, the girl-child's dear delight. Whence grew my love, divinest Moon ! attend : The heartless minion first on me did bend His eager eyes, then sitting on the bed He turned them on the ground, and softly said :^ " In calling me before I came self-moved, Thou hast as much outpast me, my beloved, As I did lately with swift foot out-pace The beautiful Philinus in the race." — (Whence grew^ my love, divinest Moon ! attend :) " For, by sweet Eros ! with a second friend, Or with a third, I should have come to-night. Bringing sweet apples, crowned with poplar white, Careful the wreath with purple stripes to blend:" (Whence grew my love, divinest Moon ! attend:) "Had you received me — well ; for me, 'mid all, The handsome, active bachelor they call ; A kiss from those rich lips, that sweetly pout, Had been enough ; but had you shut me out, And your barred doors had interposed delay, Axes and torches then had forced a way." (Whence grew my love, divinest Moon ! attend :) " To Cypris first in gratitude I bend, Thou, next to her, hast snatched me from the fire» In calling me half burnt with fierce desire ; 213 214 THEOORITUS. For Eros oft a fiercer flame awakes ^ Than those Sicilian fires Hephaestus makes. (Whence grew my love, divinest Moon ! attend :) «< He from her bed the virgin oft doth send, Stung by his furies ; and the new-made bride ^ Scares from the warm couch and her husband s side. These words he spoke ; but 1 with credulous mind Held his dear hand, and on the bed reclined : Our bodies did by touching warmer grow, And on our cheeks there came a hotter glow : Sweetly we whispered ; and, in short, dear Moon ! By Eros fired, we gained Cythera's boon. Nor any blame on me could Delphis lay, Nor haply I on him— 'till yesterday. I only learned to-day his yester ill : While yet up-prancing the high eastern hiU, Her fiery-footed steeds from ocean's dew With rosy-armed Aurora upward flew, There came the mother of the festive pair, Sweet-voiced Philista and Melixo fair. And told me :— " Delphis loves elsewhere, I know. But whom I know not ; yet enamoured so, That from the banquet suddenly he fled, ^ To hang his lady's house with flowers, he said. My old friend told me this, and told me truth : For twice or thrice a day once came my youth, And often left his Dorian pyx with me ; This the twelfth day since him I last did see. Has he forgot me for another love ? With philters will I try his soul to move ; But if he still will grieve, betray me, mock. He shall, by fate ! the door of Hades knock. That chest has drugs shall make him feel my rage ; The art I learned from an Assyrian sage. ^ Thy steeds to ocean now, bright Queen, direct ; What I have sworn to do I will eff'ect. , . . ^ Farewell, clear Moon ! and skyey cressets bright. That follow the soft-gliding wheels of Night. * )d IDYLL III. AM A RTLLI S. I GO to serenade my charming fair, Sweet Amaryllis ; Tityrus, to your care I leave my goats, that on the mountain feed ; But of yon Libyan tawny ram take heed. Lest with his horn he butt you ; careful tend, And to the fountain drive them, heart-dear friend ! Sweet Amaryllis ! why dost thou no more, Peeping from out thy cavern as before, Espy and call to thee thy little lover ? Dost hate me ? or do I myself discover Flat-nosed, or with a length of chin, when near ? Thy scorn will make me hang myself, I swear. Behold, ten apples, nymph ! I bring for thee. Plucked from the place where thou didst order mo To pluck them ; others will I bring to-morrow. Consider now my heart-devouring sorrow : Oh ! that I were a little humming ])ee, To pass through fern and ivy in to thee, Where in thy cave thou dost thyself conceal ! I now know love — a grievous god to feel ; He surely sucked a savage lioness. Reared in the wild, who works me such distress, Eating into the marrow of the bone. O sweet in aspect ! altogether stone ! Nymph ! with thine eye-brows of a raven hue, Clasp me, that I may suck the honey-dew From off thy lip : mere kisses yield some joy. Now wilt thou make me the sweet crown destroy. This wreath of ivy which for thee I brought. With rose-buds and with parsley sweet inwrought. Ah me ! what shall I do ? I plead in vain— - Thou hearest not : I'll plunge into the main, My jerkin stript, where Olpis sits on high, Watching the tunnies. Should I even die, 216 THEOCRITUS. *Twill please thee. This the sign I lately found For the struck pop-bell gave me back no sound, (When by that proof thy doubtful love I tried,) But withering on my elbow shrunk and dried. Agraeo, the diviner by the sieve, Forewarned me also what I now believe, (Binding the sheaves, the reapers followed she,) That I loved wholly one who loved not me. A white twin-bearing goat, which the brunette, Old Memnon's child, Erithacis, would get By wheedling from me, I have kept as thine ; But since thou scornest me with airs so fine, It shall be hers. A throbbing, I declare, In my right eye — shall I behold my fair ? My ditty, leaning on this pine, I'll chant ; She'll haply look, since she's not adamant. When in the race, mistrustful of his knees. To win the virgin ran Hippomenes ; Three golden apples in his hand he took, And Atalanta could not help but look — She saw, and maddened instant at the sight, And rushed into the gulf of love outright. The seer Melampus from Mount Othrys drove The stolen herd to Pylos. Thence did Love His brother Bias crown — for in his arms Alphesibaea's mother lodged her charms. Did not Adonis, the fair shepherd youth. So madden Cypris that for very ruth. E'en when she had received his dying gasp. She could not bear to loose him from her clasp ? Thrice blest, methinks, was that Endymion, Now laid asleep ; thrice blest lasion. Who in his life did those sweet joys obtain. Of which ye must not, shall not hear, profane ! How my head aches ! my anguish doth not move tliee { I'll sing no more, and since in vain I love thee, Here will I lie— me here the wolves shall eat ; 'Twill be to thee like melting honey sweet. IDYLL IV. THE HERDSMEN ; OR, BATTUS AND CORYDON. BATTUS. Whose are these kine ? Philondas's, my friend 7 CORYDON. No — jiEgon's, and he gave them me to tend. BATTUS. Do you not milk them privily at eve ? CORYDON. I could not the old man's quick eyes deceive ; And her own calf he puts to every one. BATTUS. But whither has the master cowherd gone ? CORYDON. Have you not heard ? with JEgon by his side. Milon has gone where Alpheus loves to glide. BATTUS. When did e'er iEgon see th' Olympian oil ^' CORYDON. In Strength for every feat of manly toil, They say he is a match for Hercules. BATTUS. My mother said, believe her if you please, That I surpassed e'en Pollux. CORYDON. Hence he hied, Taking a spade, and twenty sheep beside. BATTUS. Nor needed much persuasion, I engage, iEgon to wrestle — and the wolf to rage. CORYDON. His lowing heifers for their master pine. BATTUS. They have a worthless keeper — wretched kin« . CORYDON. Poor creatures ! they no longer wish to feed. 218 THEOCRITUS. BATTUS. Here is a calf but skin and bones indeed — Like a cicada, does she feed on dew ? CORYDON. Not she, by Earth ! but whiles the fodder new Eats from my hand ; or else with us she goes, Cropping the verdant bank, where jEsar flows ; Or up Latymnus bounds away at will. Frisking along the thickly wooded hill. BATTUS. How lean that red bull is ! just such another May Lampra have to offer to the mother Of Mars ! it is a tribe compact of ill. CORYDON. Yet at the lake-mouth he doth take his fill, Browses on Physcus, or at times doth go Where the sweet waters of Necethus flow ; There the best herbs are freshened by the shower, Wild thyme, and fleabane, and the honey-flower. BATTUS. Ah, wretched JEgon ! thy poor kine wiU die. Whilst thou dost aim at evil victory. Even the pipe, which thou didst whilom make, Lying neglected, doth defilement take. CORYDON. No ! by the Nymphs ! he gave it me the day When he to glorious Pisa went away. The songs of Pyrrhus and dear Glauca's lays I know to sing, and Croton love to praise. Fair is Zacynthus ; lovely ever shone To the bright east up-heaved Lacinion, Where the bold boxer ^gon at a meal Ate eighty cakes ; where from the mountain's heel He seized and dragged a proud bull by the hoof, And gave it Amaryllis ; then aloof Shouted the women, and the cowherd smiled BATTUS. Sweet Amaryllis ! though by death defiled^ Thee shall I ne'er forget : dear to my heart As are my frisking goats, thou didst depart, To what a lot was I, unhappy, born ! IDYLL V. 219 CORYDON. Take heart ; there will be yet a brighter morn. While there is life there's hope ; the dead, I ween, Are hopeless. One while Zeus shines out serene, Another while is hid in mist and shower. BATTUS. I do take heart. But see ! yon calves devour The olive branches : pelt them ofl", I pray ; Confound the calves ! you white-^kin thief, away I CORYDON. Hist ! to the hill, Cyma-tha ! don't you hear ? If you don't get away, by Pan ! I swear 1 will so give it you ! now only look ! She comes again— I wish 1 had my crook ! BATTUS. Here, Corydon ! a thorn has wounded me— How long and sharp these distaff-thistles be . Confound the calf ! gaping at her I got The wound : under the ankle— see you not f CORYDON. Ay ! I have hold of it ; see ! here it is ! BATTUS. How small a wound tames man so tall as this ! CORYDON. Unshod you must not on the mountain go ; For on the mountain thorns and prickles grow. IDYLL V. THE WAYFARERS, OR COMPOSERS OF PASTORALS Comatas and Lacon. COMATAS. Lacon my goat-skin filched ; by timely flight Avoid, my goats ! the thievish Sybarite. LACON. Lambs ! from the fountain, do you not perceive Comatas, who my pipe did lately thieve t 220 THEOCRITUS. COMATAS. What sort of pipe ? when, slave of Sybaria I Didst own a pipe ? are you not fain to hiss Still through a pipe of straw with Corydon ? LACON. 'Twas Lycon's gift, good freeman ! worthy one ! From you when and what sort of skin stole I ? Your master has not one whereon to lie. COMATAS. The gift of Crocylus, when late he gave The Nymphs a goat in sacrifice : you, slave Did steal my spotted skin from envy sheer. LACON. No I no ! by the shore-guarding Pan I swear— Or from that rock into the waters deep Of rapid Crathis may I madly leap ! COMATAS. Nor, by the Nymphs, the guardians of the lake, Did ever I the pipe of Lacon take — So may the Nymphs look kindly to my weal. LACON. If I believe you, be it mine to feel The griefs of Daphnis ! will you stake a kid, (It is none enterprise to men forbid,) And I'll out-sing you, till you cry " Enough ! ** COMATAS. Athene challenged by a sow of scruff ! Here is my kid, which, when you beat me, take j A lamb, fat from the pasture, be your stake. LACON. How is this fair ? in this you are no fool ; Who ever thought of shearing hair for wool. Or passed a goat to milk a sorry bitch ? COMATAS. Who has for conquest a prevailing itch. Like you conceited, is a wasp that rings His buzzing horn when the cicada sings. But since ray kid seems insufficient stake, Behold this ram ! at once the song awake, LACON. ^ftly ! you are not walking over fir. IDYLL V. 221 Here you may sing whatever your muse inspire More sweetly in this grove, beneath the shade Of the wild olive ; here a couch is laid Of softest herbage ; locusts babble here ; Cool water flows a little onward there. COMATAS. I'm cool — but feel annoyance at your daring To look at me, yourself with me comparing. Who taught you when a boy. What thanks one gains ! Rear a wolf-whelp — to rend you for your pains ! LACOX. Envious and shameless babbler ! any thing Learnt, heard 1 from you worth remembering ? Come hither, now, and learn from your defeat No more with pastoral singers to compete. COMATAS. Not thither — here are oaks and galingale ; And round their hives the bees, soft-humming, sail } Two springs of coolest water murmur near ; A deeper shade and singing birds are here ; And from aloft her nuts the pine-tree throws. LACON. On fleece and lambskins here your may repose. Softer than sleep ! your goat-skins smell more ill— E'en than yourself. I for the Nymphs will fill A bowl of white milk, of sweet oil an urn. COMATAS. On flowering pennyroyal and soft fern You here may tread ; on skins of kids lie down Softer than lambskins. I to Pan will crown Eight jars of white milk, and as many more Of honeycombs with honey running o'er. LACON. Each from his place pour out his rival strain ; Keep to your oaks, and I will here remain. But who shall judge between us ? How I wish The herdsman, good Lycopas, with us — COMATAS. Pish ! I want him not ; but, if you please, we'll cry, And summon to us yonder man doth tie 222 THEOCRIirS. II/TLL V. 223 The broom in bundles near you. What dost say ? 'Tis Morson. LACON. I'm agreed. COM ATA S. Then bawl away. LACON. Ho ! Morson ! hasten hither, and decide Which sings the best — a wager to be tried With you for judge : only impartial be ! COMATAS. Now, by the Nymphs ! nor favour him nor me. Thurian Sybartas owns the sheep in sight ; The goats Eumaras claims — the Sybarite. LACON. You good-for-nothing babbler ! answer this, Who asked you whose the sheep were, mine or his ? COMATAS. I vaunt not, and I speak the simple truth ; But you are very scurrilous, in sooth. LACON. Sin^ — if you have a song : don't kill with babble Our' friend here ; by Apollo ! how you gabble ! COMATAS. Me more than Daphnis love the Muses true : Two yearling kids to them I lately slew. LACON. Apollo loves me much ; for him I rear A goodly ram — his festival is near. COMATAS. I milk my goats, twin-bearing all but twain : A sweet girl cries, " Why milk alone, fond swain ?" LACON. Some twenty baskets Lacon fills with cheese. And gets him kisses wheresoe'er he please. COMATAS. Me with sweet apples Clearista pelts. While round her lips a honey-murmur melts. LACON. On me a blooming beauty fondly dotes, Round whose white neck the hair bright-shining floats. COMATAS. With the screened garden-roses cannot vie The common dog-rose, nor anemony. LACON. The mountain-apples most delicious are — Who crabbed beech-nuts would with them compare? COMATAS. I for my love will snare, and give to her A ring-dove brooding on a juniper. LACON. Wool for a mantle will I give my dear. Soon as my sober-suited sheep I shear. COMATAS. From the wild-olive, bleaters ! feed at will. Where grow the tamarisks, on this sloping hill. LACON. Off from that oak Cyncetha and Conarus ! Feed eastward — yonder where you see Phalarus. COMATAS. A cypress milk-pail for my girl I have. And bowl— which old Praxiteles did grave. LACON. A hound, wolf-strangling keeper of the sheep, A faithful guardian, for my love I keep. COMATAS. Locusts, that overleap my fences, spare My vines— their shoots yet weak and tender are. LACON. Cicadas ! see this goatherd I provoke : So to their toil ye wake the reaping folk. COMATAS. I hate the bush-tailed foxes— nightly troop. That Mycon's vineyard, grape-devouring, swoop. LACON. I hate the scarabs — air-borne host, that mow Philonda's fig-trees, fig-devouring foe. COMATAS. Do you remember when I smote you, fellow, How you did wriggle round the oak, and bellow ? LACON. No ! but I do remember when with scourge Eumaras did your peccant humours purge. 224 THEOCRITUS, COMATAS. Some one, my Morson, into rage is dashing ; Go ! from the tomb pluck gray squills — for a lashing. LACON. T too prick some one, Morson ; do you take ? Hasten to Hales ; and for sowbread rake. COMATAS. Flow Himera with milk, and Crathis flow Purple with wine ! and fruit on cresses grow ! LACON. Fountain of Sybaris, to honey turn. And fill with honeycombs the maiden's urn ! COMATAS. On goat's-rue feed, my goats, and cytisus ; On lentisk tread, and lie on arbutus ! LACON. Of the rose-eglantine there blooms a heap, And eke the honey-flower — to feed my sheep. COMATAS. Alcippe for my ring-dove gave no kiss, Holding my ears — I love her not for this. LACON. I love my love because a sweet lip paid With kisses for my pipe — the gift I made. COMATAS. Nor whoop the swan, nor jay the nightingale May rival ; still you challenge, still to fail. MORSON. Cease, shepherd ! Morson gives the lamb to thee, Comatas ; fail not to remember me, And let my portion of the flesh be nice. When to the Nymphs you make your sacrifice. COMATAS. By Pan ! Ill send it. Snort and gambol round, My buck-goats all ! hark ! what a mighty sound I peal of ringing laughter at the cost Of Lacon, who to me his lamb has lost ! I too will skip. My horned goats, good cheer! To-morrow in the fountain, cool and clear, Of Sybaris I'll bathe you. Hark ! I say, White butting ram ! be modest, till I pay IDYLL VI, 225 The Nymphs my offering. Ha ! then blows I'll try- Or may I like the curst Melanthius die. IDYLL VI. THE SINGERS OF PASTORALS. To the same field, Aratus, bard divine ! Once Daphnis and Damoetas drove their kine. This on the chin a yellow beard did show : On that the down had just begun to grow. During the noontide of the summer heat, They by a fountain sung their ditties sweet. But Daphnis first (to whom it did belong As challenger) began the pastoral song.*' DAPHNIS. " With apples Galatea pelts thy sheep, Inviting one, whose pulses never leap To love, whilst thou, cold Polypheme ! dost pipe, Regardless of the sea-born beauty ripe. And lo ! she pelts the watch-dog — with a bound He barking starts, and angry looks around — Then bays the sea ; the waves soft-murmuring show An angry dog fast running to and fro. Take heed he leap not on her, coming fresh From the sea-wave, and tear her dainty flesh. But Hke the thistle-down, when summer glows. The sportive nymph, soft moving, comes and goes ; Pursues who flies her, her pursuer flies, And moves the landmark of love's boundaries. What is not lovely, lovely oft doth seem To the bewildered lover, Polypheme." Preluding then, Damoetas thus began. DAMCETAS. "I saw her pelt my flock, by mighty Pan ! Not unobserved by my dear single eye. Through which I see, and shall see till I die. Prophet of ill ! let Telemus at home Keep for his OTv-n sons all his woes to come. 226 THEOCRITUS. I, to provoke her, look not in return, And say that for another girl I burn. At hearing which with envy, by Apollo ! The sea-nymph pines ; and her eye-quest doth follow. Leaping from out the sea like one that raves, Amid my flocks, and peeps into the caves. I make the dog bark just to discompose her ; He, when I loved her, whining used to nose her. Noting my action, she perchance will find Some messenger to let me know her mind. I'll shut my door, till she on oath agree To make her sweet bed on this isle with me. Nor am I that unsightly one they say : For in the calm, smooth wave the other day I saw myself : and handsome was my beard, And bright, methought, my single eye appeared. And from the beautiful sea-mirror shone My white teeth, brighter than the Parian stone. To screen myself from influence malign, Thrice on my breast I spat. This lesson fine I learned from that wise crone Cotyttaris." This sung, Damoetas gave his friend a kiss. Of pipe and flute their mutual gifts they mad Daphnis the pipe, the flute Damoetas played. Thereto the heifers frisked in gambols rude : And neither conquered ; both were unsubdued. IDYLL VII. THE THALYSIA. 'TwAS when Amyntas, Eucritus, and I, Did from the city to sweet Haleus hie ; The harvest-feast by that abounding river Was kept, in honour of the harvest-giver, By Phrasidamus and Antigenes, Sons of Lycopeus both, and good men these. If good there is from old and high descent. From Clytia and from Calchon, who, knee-ben« IDYLL vn. Firmly against the rock, did make outflow The spring Burinna with a foot-struck blow, Near which a thickly wooded grove is seen, ' Poplars and elms, high overarching green. ' Midway not reached, nor tomb of Brasilas,' We chanced upon Cydonian Lycidas, By fiivour of the Muses ; who not knew That famous goatherd as he came in view ? A tawny, shaggy goat-skin on his back. That of the suppling pickle yet did smack ; Bound by a belt of straw the traveller wore An aged jerkin; in his hand he bore A crook of the wild olive; coming nigh, With widely parted lips, and smiling ey^— The laughter on his lip was plain to see- He quietly addressed himself to me : " Whither so fast at noon-tide, when no more The crested larks their sunny paths explore, And in the thorn-hedge lizards lie asleep ? ' To feast or to a wine-press do you leap ? The stones ring to your buskins as you pass." To him I made reply—" Dear Lycidas ! All say you are the piper— far the best 'Mid shepherds and the reapers ; this confest Gladdens my heart ; and yet (to put in speech My fancy) I expect your skill to reach. Our way is to a harvest-feast, which cater Dear friends of ours for richly robed Damater, Ofienng their first-fruits— since their garner-floor Her bounteous love hath filled to running o'er. Let us with pastoral song beguile the way ; Common the path, and common is the day. We shall each other, it may be, content ; For I, too, am a mouth-piece eloquent Of the dear Muses ; and all men esteem. And call me minstrel good— not that I deem. Not I, by Earth ! Philetas I surpass, Nor the famed Samian bard, Sicelidas, A frog compared with locusts. I beguile The time with song." He answered with a smile :- (4 '^ 227 i.Sf...,ira--'^ijaia3::: 228 TnEOCRlTU*^ ^' This crook I give tbee — for thou art all ovw An imp of Zeus, a genuine truth-lover. Who strives to build, the lowly plain upon, A mansion high as is Oromedon, I hate exceedingly ; and for that matter The muse-birds, who like cuckoos idly chatter Against the Chian minstrel, toil in vain : Let us at once begin the pastoral strain ; Here is a little song, which I did late, Musing along the highlands, meditate : " To Mitylene sails my heart-dear love : Safe be the way, and fair the voyage prove, E'en when the south the moist wave dashes high on The setting Kids, and tempest-veiled Orion Places his feet on ocean ; and, returned, My love be kind to me by Cypris burned ; For hot love burns me : may the Halcyons smooth The swell o' the sea, the south and east winds soothe, That from the lowest deep the sea-weed stir- Best Halcyons ! whom of all the birds that skir The waves for prey, the Nereids love the most. Safe may my loved one reach the Lesbian coast, And on the way be wind and weather fair ! With dill or roses will I twine my hair, Or on my head will put a coronet, Wreathed with the fragrance of the violet. I by the fire will quaff the Ptelean wine, And one shall roast me beans, while I recline Luxurious, lying on a fragrant heap Of asphodel and parsley, elbow deep ; And mindful of my love the goblet clip, Until the last lees trickle to my lip. Two swains shall play the flute ; and Tityrus sing How love for Xenea did our Daphnis sting. How on the mountain he was wont to stray, How wailed for him the oaks of Himera, When he, dissolving, passed away from us. Like snow on Haemus, or far Caucasus Athos or Rhodope : or in his song Recite, how by his master's cruel wrong IDTT.T. VTT The swain was in a cedar ark shut up. While quick — and how from many a flower-cup The flat-nosed bees to his sweet prison flew, And there sustained him with the honey-dew. For that the Muse into his lip distilled Sweet n^XtUr : blest Comatas ! that fulfilled A whole spring, feeding on the bag o' the bee, Shut in an ark ! How had it gladdened me, (Would only thou wert of the living now !) To tend thy goats along the mountain's brow. And hear thee sweetly sing, O bard divine ! Lying at leisure under oak or pine ! " He ceased : I in my turn : " Dear Lycidas ! Whilst on the highlands with my herd I pass, The Nymphs have taught me precious ditties oft, Which haply Fame has borne to Zeus aloft. I choose for you the very best I know ; Now listen, since the Muses love you so : " The Loves, ill omen ! sneezed on me, who dote On lovely Myrtis, as on spring the goat. Aratus, whom of men I love the best, Loves a sweet girl. Aristis, minstrel blest. And worthiest man, whom his own tripod near Phoebus himself would not disdain to hear Sing to the harp, knows that Aratus feels Tliis scorching flame. Pan ! whose rich music peals On Homolus, place in his longing arms Of her own will the blushing bloom of charms. So may the youth of Arcady forbear With squills thy shoulders and thy side to tear. When fails the chase. If thou wilt not, then weep, By nails all mangled, and on nettles sleep ! Where Hebrus flows, in frost-time of the year Dwell on the mountains 'neath the polar bear ; In summer with swart ^thiop, at the pile Of Blemyan rocks, beyond the springs of Nile ! Ye loves ! from Hyetis and Byblis flown. Who make Dione's lofty seat your own ; Ye loves ! that are to blushing apples like, The blooming Phyllis with your arrows strike— 229 230 THEOCRlTrS. Strike her, because she pities not my friend ; Though softer than a pear, her bloom shall end : Ah, Phyllis ! Phyllis ! now the bachelors say, Behold thy flower of beauty drops away ! Let us, my friend Aratus ! pace no more, Nor keep our painful watch beside her door ; Let Chanticleer, that crows at dawn, behold Some other lover there benumbed with cold : Such watch be Molon*s, and be his alone ; But rest be ours — and eke a friendly crone, Who may by spitting and by magic skill Quick disenchant us from foreshadowed ill." Ended my song, he, smiling as before, The friendly muse-gift gave — the crook he bore ; Then turning to the left pursued the way To Pyxa ; speeding, presently we lay. Where Phrasidamus dwelt, on loosened sheaves Of lentisk, and the vine's new-gathered leaves. Near by, a fountain murmured from its bed, A cavern of the Nymphs : elms overhead. And poplars rustled ; and the summer-keen Cicadae sung aloft amid the green ; Afar the tree-frog in the thorn-bush cried ; Nor larks nor goldfinches their song denied ; The yellow bees around the fountains flew ; And the lone turtle-dove was heard to coo : Of golden summer all was redolent, And of brown autumn ; boughs with damsons bent, We had ; and pears were scattered at our feet. And by our side a heap of apples sweet. A four-year cask was broached. Ye Nymphs excelling Of Castaly, on high Parnassus dwelling. Did ever Chiron in the Centaur's cave Give draught so rich to Hercules the brave ? Through Polypheme did such sweet nectar glance, That made the shepherd of Anapus dance. The huge rock-hurler — as the generous foam. Which, Nymphs, ye tempered at that harvest-home ? O be it mine again her feast to keep, And fix the fan in good Damater's heap ; IDYLL VIIL And may she sweetly smile, while spikes of com And up-torn poppies either hand adorn ! 231 IDYLL VIIL THE SINGERS OF PASTORALS. Daphnis. Menalcas. A goatherd. Menalcas met, while pasturing his sheep, The cowherd Daphnis on the highland steep ; Both yellow-tressed, and in their life's fresh spring,— Both skilled to play the pipe, and both to sing. Menalcas, with demeanour frank and free. Spoke first : " Good Daphnis, will you sing with me ? I can out-sing you, whensoe'er I try. Just as I please." Then Daphnis made reply : daphnis. Shepherd and piper ! that may never be. Happen what will, as you on proof will see. menalcas. Ah, will you see it, and a wager make ? DAPHNIS. I will to see this, and to pledge a stake. menalcas. And what the wager, worthy fame like ours ? DAPHNIS. A calf my pledge, a full-grown lamb be yours. MENALCAS. At night my cross-grained sire and mother use To count the sheep — that pledge I must refuse. DAPHNIS. What shall it be then ? What the victor's prize ? MENALCAS. I'll pledge a nine-toned pipe, that even lies In the joined reeds, with whitest wax inlaid. The musical sweet pipe I lately made ; This will I pledge — and not my father's things. DAPHNIS. I, too, have got a pipe that nine-toned rings, 232 THEOCRITUS. I Compact with white wax, even-jointed, new, — Made by myself : a split reed sudden flew, And gashed this finger — it is painful still. But who shall judge which has the better skill ? MENALCAS. Suppose we call that goatherd hither — see ! Yon white dog at his kids barks lustly. He came when called ; and, hearing their request^ Was willing to decide which sung the best. Clearly their rival tones responsive rung, Each in his turn, but first Menalcas sunsr. MENALCAS. Ye mountain-vales and rivers ! race divine ! If aught Menalcas ever sung was sweet. Feed ye these lambs ; and feed no less his kine, When Daphnis drives them to this dear retreat. DAPHNIS. Fountains and herbs, growth of the lively year ! If Daphnis sings like any nightingale. Fatten this herd ; and if Menalcas here Conduct his flock, let not their pasture fail. MENALCAS. Pastures and spring, and milkful udders swelling, And fatness for the lambs, is every where At her approach : but if the girl excelling Departs, both herbs and shepherd wither there. DAPHNIS. The sheep and goats bear twins ; the bees up-lay Full honey-stores, the spreading oaks are higher, Where Milto walks : but if she goes away, The cowherd and his cows themselves are drier. MENALCAS. Uxorious ram, and flat-nosed kids, away For water to that wilderness of wood : There, ram without a horn ! to Milto say, Proteus, a god too, fed the sea-calf brood. DAPHNIS. Nor Pelops' realm be mine, nor piles of gold. Nor speed fleet as the wind ; but at this rock To sing, and clasp my darling, and behold The seas blue reach, and many a pasturing flocks IDYLL Vm. MENALCAS. To forest-beast the net, to bird the noose, Winter to trees, and drought to springs is bad ; To man the sting of beauty. Mighty Zeus ! Not only I — thou, too, art woman-mad. Their sweet notes thus, in turn, they did prolong/ ,• Menalcas then took up the closing song. MENALCAS. Spare, wolf! my sheep and lambs ; nor injure me, Because I many tend, though small I be. Sleepest, Lampurus ? up ! no dog should sleep That with the shepherd-boy attends his sheep. Be not to crop the tender herbage slow. Feed on, my sheep ! the grass again will grow. Fill ye your udders, that your lambs may have Their share of milk, — I some for cheese may save. Then Daphnis next his tones preluding rung. Gave to the music voice, and sweetly sung. DAPHNIS. As yesterday I drove my heifers by, A girl, me spying from a cavern nigh, Exclaimed, " How handsome ! " I my way pursued With down-cast eyes, nor made her answer rude. Sweet is the breath of cows and calves — and sweet To bask by running stream in summer heat. Acorns the oak ; and apples on the bough Adorn the apple-tree ; her calf the cow ; His drove of kine, depasturing the field, His proper honour to the cowherd yield. Th' admiring goatherd then his judgment spake: Sweet is thy mouth, and sweetest tones awake From thy lips, Daphnis ! I would rather hear Thee sing, than suck the honeycomb, I swear. Take thou the pipe, for thine the winning song. If thou wilt teach me here my goats among Some song, I will that hornless goat bestow. That ever fills the pail to overflow. 233 234 THEOCRITUS. ^i Glad Daphnis clapped his hands, and on the lawn He leaped, as round her mother leaps the fawn. But sad Menalcas fed a smouldering gloom, As grieves a girl betrothed to unknown groom. And first in song was Daphnis from that time, And wived a Naiad in his blooming prime. IDYLL IX, THE PASTOR, OR THE HERDSMEN. Daphnis. Menalcas. Daphnis ! begin the pastoral song for me ; Begin, and let Menalcas follow thee. Meanwhile the calves the mother-cows put under. Let the bulls feed — but not roam far asunder, Scorning the herd — and crop the leafy spray ; And leave the heifers to their frolic play. Begin for me the sweet bucolic strain, And let Menalcas take it up again. DAPHNIS. " Sweet low the cow and calf — the tones are sweet, The pipe, the cowherd and myself repeat. My couch is by cool water, and is strown With skins of milk-white heifers ; them threw down, While they cropt arbutus, the south-west wind From the bluiF crag. There stretehed, no more I mind The scorching summer than a loving pair Their parents sage, who bid them each * beware !"* Thus Daphnis sweetly sung at my request ; Menalcas next his dulcet tones exprest. MENALCAS. " ^tna ! my mother ! in the hollow rock My pleasant mansion is ; I own a flock Of many yearlings and of many sheep, Numerous as those the dreamer sees in sleep. Fleeces are lying at my head and feet ; On an oak-fire are boiling entrails sweet ; I IDYLL IX. And on my hearth in winter-time I burn Fagots of beech. I have no more concern For winter — than the toothless elder cares For walnuts, whose old dame his pap prepares." SHEPHERD. Both I applauded, and made gifts to both, A crook to Daphnis — the spontaneous growth Of my own father's field, yet turned so well, None could find fault with it ; a sounding shell I gave Menalcas ; four besides myself Fed on its flesh — I snared it from a shelf Amid th' Icarian rocks. The conch he blew. And far abroad the blast resounding flew. Hail, pastoral Muses ! and the song declare, Which then I chanted for that friendly pair. " On your tongue's tip may pustules never grow, For speaking falsely what for false you know ! Cicale the cicale loves ; and ant loves ant ; Hawk, hawk ; and me the muse and song enchant. Of this my house be full ! nor sudden spring, Nor sleep is sweeter ; nor to bees on wing The bloom of flowers more dear delight difl'uses, Than to myself the presence of the Muses. On whomsoe'er they look and sweetly smile, Him Circe may not harm with cup or wile.'* 23.1 IDYLL X. THE "WORKMEN, OR REAPERS. Mihn and Battus, MILON. Ploughman, what is the matter with you, pray ? You cannot draw the furrow straight to-day, Nor with your neighbour even do you keep, But lag behind like a thorn-wounded sheep. If you cannot the furrow now devour, What will you be, my friend, at evening hour ? 236 THEOCRITUS. BATTUS. You rock-chip, reaping till the sun's descent, Did you some absent darling ne'er lament ? MILON. Never. A labourer's heart with love-grief ache ! BATTUS. Did you ne'er chance for love to lie awake ? MILON. No — never may I ! When a dog has eaten Meat for his master, the poor dog is beaten. BATTUS. I'm deep in love — almost eleven days. MILON. From a full wine-cask you your fancies raise ; I have not even vinegar enough. BATTUS. Thence lie the sweepings of all sort of stuff Before my door. MILON. Who is your mischief-bringer ? BATTUS. The child of Polybotas— the sweet singer, Who for the mowers at Hippocoon's chaunted. MLLON. Sinners heaven pricks— you have what long you wanted ; A dry tree-frog will hug you close in bed. BATTUS. None of your jibes : care-breeding Love is said, And not old Plutus only, to be blind. Don't talk too big. MILON. I do not — only mind To cut the corn down, and some love-song try About your girl ; you'll work more pleasantly : And Battus once, at least, was musical. BATTUS. To sing my charmer, slender, straight, and tall, Best Muses ! aid me ; for, with skill divine. Ye, whatsoe'er ye please to touch, refine. Lovely Bombyce ! though all men beside Call you a Syrian sun-embrowned, and dried. IDYLL X. T call you a transparent sweet brunette. The lettered hyacinth and violet Are dark ; yet these are chosen first of all For the sweet wreath and festive coronal. The goat the cytisus, the wolf the goat. And cranes pursue the plough— on thee I dote. Would that I had the wealth report hath told Belonged to Croesus ! wrought in purest gold, Statues of both of us should then be seen. Due dedications to the Cyprian Queen : Thou with a flute, an apple, and a rose ; I sandalled, in a robe that proudly flows. Lovely Bombyce ! beautiful your feet, Twinkling Hke the quick dice ; your voice is sweet ? But your sweet nature language cannot tell. MILON. He privily hath learned to sing— how well ! But my poor chin in vain this great beard nurses ; List to a snatch or two of Lytierses. Damater ; fruit-abounding ! grant this field Be duly wrought, and rich abundance yield. Bind without waste, sheaf-binder ! lest one say, These men of fig-wood are not worth their pay. Let the sheaf-hillock look to north or west ; The^ corn, so lying, fills and ripens best. Ye threshers ! let not sleep steal on your eyes At noon— for then the chaff most freely flies. Up with the lark to reap, and cease as soon As the lark sleeps— but rest yourself at noon. Happy the frog's life ! none, his drink to pour. He looks for — he has plenty evermore. Boil, niggard steward ! the lentil ; and take heed. Don't cut your hand— to split a cumin-seed. 237 Men toihng in the sun sucli songs befit ; Your puling love, poor rustic little-wit ! Is only fit — to whisper in her ears. When your old mother wakes as dawn appears. IDYLL XL THE CYCLOPS. NiCiAS ! there is no remedy for love, Except the Muses ; this alone doth prove A sweet and gentle solace for the mind Of love-sick man — not easy though to find. Full knowledge of this truth I deem is thine, Physician, and beloved of all the Nine ! Thus, Polypheme of yore, our Cyclops, found The power of song on love's uneasy wound ; With the first down that budding youth discloses On cheek and chin, he doted — not with roses And apples for his love, and the trim curl To please her eye, but with delirious whirl, Neglecting all things else. Oft to the stall His sheep from pasture came without his call, While he from dawn mid sea-weeds and the spray Of Galatea sung, and pined away. By mighty Cypris wounded at the heart, Who in his liver fixed her cruel dart. He found the cure while from the cliff he flung His glances seaward, and his ditty sung : — " Why, Galatea, scorn for love dost render ? Whiter than fresh curds, than the lamb more tender ; More skittish than the calf, more clearly bright Than unripe grape transparent in the light ! Here dost thou show thyself when sleeps thy lover, Still flying ever as my sleep is over. E'en as the sheep, the gray wolf seeing, flees. I loved when with my mother from the seas Thou first didst come, and seek the mountain-side To gather hyacinths — and I thy guide. Since then I never yet have ceased to love thee, Although my passion never yet did move thee. I know the reason why the beauty flies — One shaggy eye-brow on my forehead lies Over one eye, stretched out from tip to tip Of either ear, and overhangs my lip nOTLL XI A nostril broad. Such as I am, 1 keep, Drinking their best of milk, a thousand sheep ; My cheeses fail not in their hurdled row In depth of winter nor in summer's glow. No Cyclops here can breathe the pipe like me, Who sing, when I should sleep, myself and thee, Sweet-apple ! I for thee four bear- whelps rear And eke eleven fawns that collars wear. Come live (thou slialt not fare the worse) with me. And to its murmurs leave that azure sea. Thy nights will sweeter pass within my cave, \yhere the tall cypress and the laurel wave ; The sweet-fruit vine and ivy dark are there ; From the white snow its waters cool and clear Thick-wooded ^tna sends : whom would it please In sea to dwell, when land has joys like these ? Though rough I seem in Galatea's eyes, My wealth of oak a constant fire supplies ; O fire of love ! I could be well content That life and precious eye at once were brent. Had I but fins ! then would I dive and kiss Thy dainty hand, though daintier lip I miss ; In different seasons take thee different flowers The summer lily white in summer hours, And while it winter was, what winter bred, The tender poppy with its pop-bells red. From some sea-ranger I will learn to swim, To see what charms you in your ocean dim. Come, Galatea ! sparkling from the foam. And then, like me, forget to turn thee home. Would that the shepherd and his life could please To milk my ewes, with runnet fix the cheese. My mother is in fault, and only she — She never spake a friendly word for me ; Although she sees me pining fast away. Thinner and thinner still from day to day. I'll tell her that my feet and temples throb, That she, as I have done, with grief may sob. O Cyclops ! Cyclops ! whither dost thou hover ? To weave thy baskets would more wit discover, And get thy lambs green leaves. Milk the near ewe 239 240 THEOCRITrS Why one that faster flies in vain pursue ? A fairer Galatea you may find ; Others are fair, and all are not unkind : For many a damsel, wlien eve's shadow falls, Me to sport with her fondly, sweetly calls ; And all of them, with eyes that brightly glisten. Giggle most merrily, whene'er I listen : That I am somebody on earth is plain." Thus Polypheme with song relieved love's pain And from his ails himself did safer free, Than had he given a leech a golden fee. IDYLL XIL AITES. Art come, dear youth ? Two days and nights away I For love who passion, wax old — in a day. As much as apples sweet the damson crude Excel ; the bloomy spring the winter rude ; In fleece the sheep her lamb ; the maid in sweetness The thrice-wed dame ; the fawn the calf in fleetness ; The nightingale in song all feathered kind — So much thy longed-for presence cheers my mind. To thee I hasten, as to shady beech The traveller, when from the heaven's reach The sun fierce blazes. May our love be strong. To all hereafter times the theme of song ! " Two men each other loved to that degree, That either friend did in the other see A dearer than himself. They lived of old, Both golden natures in an age of gold." O father Zeus ! ageless Immortals all ! Two hundred ages hence may one recall, Down-coming to the irremeable river, This to my mind, and this good news deliver : " E'en now from east to west, from north to south, Your mutual friendship lives in ever}^ mouth." This, as they please, the Olympians will decide : IDYLL xin. Of thee, by blooming virtue beautified, My glowing song shall only truth disclose ; With falsehood's pustules I'll not shame my nose. If thou dost sometime grieve me, sweet the pleasure Of reconcilement, joy in double measure To find thou never didst intend the pain, And feel myself from all doubt free again. And, ye Megarians, at Nisasa dwellmg, Expert at rowing, mariners excelling, Be happy ever ! for with honours due Th' Athenian Diodes, to friendship true, Ye celebrate. With the first blush of spring The youth surround his tomb : there who shall bring The sweetest kiss, whose lip is purest found. Back to his mother goes with garlands crowned. Nice touch the arbiter must have, indeed. And must, methinks, the blue-eyed Ganymede Invoke with many prayers — a mouth to own True to the touch of lips, as Lydian stone To proof of gold,— which test will instant show The pure or base, as money-changers know. 241 IDYLL XIIL HYLAS. Friend ! not for us alone was love designed. Whoe'er his parent of immortal kind ; Nor first to us fair seemeth fair to be, Who mortal are, nor can the morrow see. But e'en Amphitryon's brazen-hearted son, Who stood the lion's rage, did dote upon The curled and lovely Hylas— made his joy To train him as a father would his boy. And taught him all whereby himself became A minstrel-praised inheritor of fame ; Nor left him when the sun was in mid-air. Or Morn to Jove's court drove her milk-white pair | 242 THEOCRITUS. Or when the twittering chickens were betaking Themselves to rest, her wings their mother shaking, Perched on the smoky beam ; that, trained to go In the right track, he might a true man grow. When Jason sailed to find the golden fleece, And in his train the choicest youth of Greece ; Then with the worthies from the cities round, Came Hercules, for patient toil renowned, And Hylas with him : from lolcos they, In the good Argo ploughed the watery way. Touched not the ship the dark Cyanean rocks, That justled evermore with crashing shocks. But bounded through, and shot the swell o' the flood. Like to an eagle, and in Phasis stood : Thence either ridgy rock in station lies. But at what times the Pleiades arise : When to the lamb the borders of the field (The spring to summer turning) herbage yield ; The flower of heroes minded then their sailing ; And the third day, a steady south prevailing, They reached the Hellespont ; and in the bay Of long Propontis hollow Argo lay : Their oxen for Cianians dwelling there The ploughshare in the broadening furrow wear. They land at eve ; in pairs their mess they keep ; And many strow a high and rushy heap : A meadow broad convenient lay thereby, With various rushes prankt abundantly. And gold-tressed Hylas is for water gone For Hercules and sturdy Telamon, Who messmates were : a brazen urn he bore, And soon perceived a fountain straight before. It was a gentle slope, round which was seen A multitude of rushes, parsley green, And the close couch-grass, creeping to entwine Green maiden-hair, and pale-blue celandine. Their choir the wakeful Nymphs, the rustics' dread. In the mid sparkle of the fountain led ; Malis, and young Nychea looking spring. And fresh Eunica. There the youth did bring, IDYLL XIIL 243 And o'er the water hold his goodly urn, Eager at once to dip it and return. The Nymphs all clasped his hand ; for love seized all, Love for the Argive boy ; and he did foil Plumping at once into the water dark. As when a meteor glides with many a spark Plumping from out the heavens into the seas — And then some sailor cries, " A jolly breeze. Up with the sail, boys ! " Him upon their knees The Nymphs soft held ; him dropping many a tear With soft enticing words they tried to cheer. Anxious Alcides lingered not to go. Armed like a Scythian with his curved bow. He grasped his club ; and thrice he threw around His deep, deep voice at highest pitch of sound ; Thrice called on Hylas ; thrice did Hylas hear. And from the fount a thin voice murmured near ; Though very near, it very far appeared : As when a lion, awful with his beard, Hearing afar the whining of a fawn, Speeds to his banquet from the mountain-lawn ; In such wise Hercules, the boy regretting. Off" at full speed through pathless brakes was setting. Who love, much suffer : what fatigue he bore ! What thickets pierced ! what mountains clambered o'er * What then to him was Jason's enterprise ? With sails aloft the ship all ready lies ; Midnight they sweep the decks and oft repeat, " Where, where is Hercules ?" Where'er his feet Convey him, there the frantic mourner hurries. For a fierce god his liver tears and worries. Fair Hylas thus is numbered with the blest : Their friend, as ship-deserter, all the rest Reproach ; while trudges he (and sad his case is) To Colchos and inhospitable Phasis. IDYLL XIV. 245 IDYLL XIV. THE LOVE OF CYNISCA, OR THTONICHITS. ^schtnes. Thyonicus. ^SCHINES. Health to Thyonichus I THYONICHUS. The same to you. ^SCHINES. How late you are ! THYONICHUS. Late ? what concernment new ? .«SCHINES. It is not well with me. THYONICHUS. And therefore lean, With beard untrimmed and dry straight hair you're seen. But lately one, in seeming much the same, Who called himself Athenian, hither came, A barefoot, pale Pythagorean oaf, In love, methought, and longing — for a loaf. iESCHINES. You'll have your jest : Cynisca flouts me so. That I shall madden unawares, I know — There's but a hair's-breadth now 'twixt me and madness. THYONICHUS. Extreme in changes ever — brooding sadness, Or moody violence — as the whim makes you Sport of the time : but what new care o'ertakes you ? -ffiSCHINES. The Argive, I, and the Thessalian knight Good Apis, and Cleunicus, brave in fight, Were drinking at my farm. We had for fare Two pullets and a sucking pig ; and rare Rich Biblian wine (near four years old) I drew, And fragrant still, as from the wine-press new. A Colchian onion gave the brewage zest ; As mirth with drink advanced, we thought it best To quaff the wine's pure juice, each to his flame, And every one was bound to tell her name. So said, so done : we drank to them we loved : But she, my she ! by all my love unmoved. Said nothing, though I then and there named her. Think what a tempest did my temper stir 1 " Won't speak ? " I said : " or, as the wise man spoke, Hast seen a wolf?" another said in joke. From her red burning face (it kindled so) You might have lit a lamp. Lycus, you know, Is name for wolf ; and there is such an one, Tall, delicate, my neighbour Laba's son ; And many think him handsome : for this youth, And his fine love my damsel pined in sooth. I heard a whisper, nor I sifted it. Having a man's beard without manly wit. But Apis — we were at our cups again — Sang out " My Lycus ! " a Thessalian strain. Then sudden into tears Cynisca burst — The girl of six years for the breast that nurst Her tender infancy, not so much weeps. You know me, how no bound my temper keeps ; With doubled fist once and again I struck Both of her cheeks. She thereat did up-tuck Her skirts and quickly bolted through the door. Do I not please thee ? hast a paramour Nearer thy heart ? plague o' my life ! go, go ! Hug him for whom your tears, like beads, thick flow. As for her callow brood, that nested lies Under the roof, the swallow swiftly flies To bring them food, and flies for more again : From her soft couch more swift she fled amain, Through hall, court, gate, as fast as she was able : " The bull into the wood," as runs the fable. Add two to this, the eight and fiftieth day, 'Twill be two full months since she went away ; And since we parted, as a sign of woe. My hair has, Thracian-like, been left to grow. But only Lycus is her sole delight ; For him her door is open e'en at night. But hapless I, with the Megarian lot. if I 246 THEOCRITUS. Am held in none account, and quite forgot. All would be well, could I my love restrain ; But mice, they say, the taste of pitch retain. I cannot cure myself, howe'er I try ; For hapless love I know no remedy ; Except that Siraus sailed across the water, When smitten with old Epichalcus' daughter, And came back whole. I too will cross the wave. Nor best nor worst of soldiers, but a brave. THYONICHUS. May all be as you wish, my ^schines ! But if you will depart beyond the seas. Gladly king Ptolemy brave hearts engages. Best man of all that gives the soldier wages. What sort of man is he in other things ? THYONICHUS. To brave and noble souls the best of kings ; Has a discerning spirit ; takes delight In all the Muses ; courteous to the height ; Who loves him and who loves him not, he knows ; And many gifts on many men bestows. When asked a boon, he king-like not denies •, But oft to ask is neither right nor wise. Then if you wish a martial cloak to fold Around your shouldei-s, and in station bold, Firm on both feet, abide the shielded foe On-rushing — instantly to Egypt go. Soon we grow old, and Time steals on apace, Whitening the hair, and withering the face. We ought to do what us behoves, I ween, While yet our knee is firm, our strength is greea i IDYLL XV. 247 IDYLL XV. THE STRACUSAN WOMEN ; OR, ADONIAZUS^E. CHARACTERS. Gorgo Praxinoa. Old woman. First stranger. Second stranger. Singing woman. GORGO. Is Praxinoa at home ? PRAXINOA. Dear Gorgo, yes ! How late you are ! I wonder, I confess. That you are come e'en now. Quick, brazen-front ! ^ \_To EUNOA. A chair there— stupid ! lay a cushion on't. GORGO. Thank you, 'tis very well. PRAXINOA. Be seated, pray. GORGO. My untamed soul ! what dangers on the way ! 1 scarce could get alive here : such a crowd ! So many soldiers >vith their trappings proud ! A weary way it is — you live so far. PRAXINOA. The man, whose wits with sense are aye at war, Bought at the \vorld's end but to vex my soul This dwelling— no ! this serpent's lurking-hole, That we might not be neighbours : plague o' my life, His only joy is quarrelling and strife. GORGO. Talk not of Dinon so before the boy ; See ! how he looks at you ! PRAXINOA. My honey-joy 1 My pretty dear ! 'tis not papa I mean. GORGO. Handsome papa ! the urchin, by the Queen, (' .f 248 THE0CRI1U5. . Knows every word you say. PRAXINOA. The other day — For this in sooth of every thing we say — The mighty man of inches went and brought me Salt — which for nitre and ceruse he bought me. GORGO. And so my Diocleide — a brother wit, A money-waster, lately thought it fit To give seven goodly drachms for fleeces five — Mere rottenness, but dog's hair, as I live, The plucking of old scrips — a work to make. But come, your cloak and gold-claspt kirtle take, And let us speed to Ptolemy's rich hall, To see the fine Adonian festival. The queen will make the show most grand, I hear. PRAXINOA. All things most rich in rich men's halls appear. To those who have not seen it, one can tell What one has seen. GORGO. 'Tis time to go — 'tis well For those who all the year have holidays. PRAXINOA. Eunoa ! my cloak — you wanton ! quickly raise, And place it near me — cats would softly sleep ; And haste for water — how the jade does creep ! The water first — now, did you ever see ? She brings the cloak first : well, then, give it me. You wasteful slut, not too much — pour the water ! What ! have you wet my kirtle ! sorrow's daughter ? Stop, now : I'm washed — gods love me : where's the key Of the great chest ? be quick, and bring it me. GORGO. The gold-claspt and full-skirted gown you wear Becomes you vastly. May I ask, my dear, How much in all it cost you from the loom ? PRAXINOA. Don't mention it : I'm sure I did consume More than two minae on it ; and I held on The work with heart and soul. roYLL XV. 249 GORGO. But when done, well done ! PRAXINOA. Truly — you're right. My parasol and cloak — Arrange it nicely. Cry until you choke, I will not take you, child ; horse bites, you know- Boo ! Boo ! no use to have you lame. Let's go. Play with the little man, my Phrygian ! call The hound in ; lock the street-door of the hall. Gods, what a crowd : they swarm like ants, how ever Shall we work through them with our best endeavour ? From when thy sire was numbered with the blest. Many fine things, and this among the rest. Hast thou done, Ptolemy ! No villain walks The street, and picks your pocket, as he talks On some pretence with you, in Egypt's fashion : As once complete in every style, mood, passion, Resembling one another, rogues in grain. Would mock and pilfer, and then — mock again. What will become of us, dear Gorgo ? see ! The king's war-horses ! Pray, don't trample me, Good sir ! the bay -horse rears ! how fierce a one ! Eunoa, stand from him : dog-heart ! won't you run ? He'll kill his leader ! what a thought of joy, That safe at home remains my precious boy ! GORGO. Courage ! they're as they were — and we behind them. PRAXINOA. I nearly lost my senses ; now I find them, And am myself again. Two things I hold In mortal dread — a horse and serpent cold. And have done from a child. Let us keep moving ; ! what a crowd is on us, bustling, shoving. GORGO. ( To an old woman,) Good mother, from the palace ? OLD WOMAN. I Yes, my dear. GORGO. Is it an easy thing to get in there ? 250 THEOCRITUS. . I OLD WOMAN. Th' Achaeans got to Troy, there's no denying ; All things are done, as they did that — by trying GORGO. The old dame spoke oracles. PRAXINOA. Our sex, as you know, Know all things — e'en how Zeus espoused his Juno, GORGO. Praxinoa ! what a crowd about the gates ! PRAXINOA. Immense ! your hand ; and, Eunoa, hold your mate's ; Do you keep close, I say, to Eutychis, And close to us, for fear the way you miss. Let us, together all, the entrance gain : Ah me ! my summer-cloak is rent in twain. Pray, spare my cloak, heaven bless you, gentleman ! STRANGER. 'Tis not with me — 1 will do what I can. PRAXINOA. The crowd, like pigs, are thrusting. STRANGER. Cheer thy heart, 'Tis well with us. PRAXINOA. And for your friendly part. This year and ever be it well with you ! A kind and tender man as e'er I knew. See ! how our Eunoa is prest — push through — Well done ! all in — as the gay bridegroom cried. And turned the key upon himself and bride. GORGO. What rich, rare tapestry ! Look, and you'll swear The fingers of the goddesses were here. PRAXINOA. August Athene ! who such work could do ? Who spun the tissue, who the figures drew ? How life-like are they, and they seem to move ! True living shapes they are, and not inwove ! How wise is man ! and there he lies outspread In all his beauty on his silver bed, \ IDYLL XV. 2.1 1 Thrice-loved Adonis ! in his youth's fresh glow, Loved even where the rueful stream doth flow. A STRANGER. Cease ye like turtles idly thus to babble : They'll torture all of us with brogue and gabble. GORGO. Who's you ? what 's it to you our tongues we use ? Rule your own roost, not dames of Syracuse. And this too know we were in times foregone Corinthians, sir, as was Bellerophon. We speak the good old Greek of Pelop's isle : Dorians, I guess, may Dorian talk the while. PRAXINOA. Nymph ! grant we be at none but one man's pleasure ; A rush for you — don't wipe my empty measure. GORGO. Praxinoa, hush ! behold the Argive's daughter. The girl who sings as though the Muses taught her, That won the prize for singing Sperchis' ditty. Prepares to chaunt Adonis ; something pretty I'm sure she'll sing : with motion, voice, and eye, She now preludes — how sweetly, gracefully ! SINGING GIRL. Of Eryx, Golgos, and Idalia, Queen ! My mistress, sporting in thy golden sheen, Bright Aphrodite ! as the month comes on Of every year, from dureful Acheron What an Adonis — from the gloomy shore The tender-footed Hours to thee restore ! Hours, slowest of the Blest ! yet ever dear, That wished-for come, and still some blessing bear. Cypris ! Dione's daughter ! thou through portal Of death, 'tis said, hast mortal made immortal. Sweet Berenice, dropping, ever blest ! Ambrosial dew into her lovely breast. Wherefore her daughter, Helen -like in beauty, Arsinoe thy love repays with duty ; For thine Adonis fairest show ordains, Bright Queen, of many names and many fanea I All seasonable- fruits ; in silver cases His gardens sweet ; and alabaster vases 252 THEOCRITUS. Of Syrian perfumes near his couch are laid ; Cakes, which with flowers and wheat the women made | The shapes of all that creep, or take the wing, With oil or honey wrought, they hither bring ; Here are green shades, with anise shaded more ; And the young Loves him ever hover o'er, As the young nightingales, from branch to branch, Hover and try their wings, before they launch Themselves in the broad Air. But, ! the sight Of gold and ebony ! of ivory white Behold the pair of eagles ! up they move With his cup-bearer for Saturnian Jove. And see yon couch with softest purple spread, Softer than sleep, the Samian born and bred Will own, and e'en Miletus : that pavilion Queen Cypris has — the nearer one her minion, The rosy-armed Adonis ; whose youth bears The bloom of eighteen or of nineteen years ; Nor pricks the kiss — the red lip of the boy ; Having her spouse, let Cypris now enjoy. Him will we, ere the dew of dawn is o'er. Bear to the waves that foam upon the shore ; Then with bare bosoms and dishevelled liair, Begin to chant the wild and mournful air. Of all the demigods, they say, but one Duly revisits Earth and Acheron — Thou, dear Adonis ! Agamemnon's might, Nor Aias, raging like one mad in fight ; Nor true Pairoclus ; nor his mother's boast, Hector, of twenty sons famed, honoured most ; Nor Pyrrhus, victor from the Trojan siege- Not one of them enjoyed this privilege ; Nor the Deucalions ; nor Lapithae ; Argive Pelasgi ; nor Pelopidae. Now, dear Adonis, fill thyself with glee. And still returning, still propitious be. GORGO. Praxinoa, did ever mortal ear A sweeter song from sweeter minstrel hear ? O happy girl ! to know so many things — Thrice happy girl, that so divinely singa ! IDTLL XVI. But now 'tis time for home : let us be hasting ; My man's mere vinegar, and most when fasting : Nor has he broken yet his fast to-day ; When he's a-hungered, come not in his way. Farewell, beloved Adonis ! joy to see ! When come, well come to those who welcome thee. 253 IDYLL XVI. THE GRACES ; OR, HIERO. Jove's daughters hymn the gods ; and bards rehearse The deeds of worthies in their glowing verse. The heaven-born Muses hymn the heavenly ring ; Of mortals, then, let mortal poets sing. Yet who — as many as there be that live Under the grey dawn, will a welcome give To our sweet Graces, or the door-latch lift, Or will not send them oiF without a gift ? Barefoot, with wrinkled brows, and mien deject, They chide me for the way of chill neglect ; Though loath, into their empty chest they drop, And on cold knees their heavy heads they prop ; And dry their seat is, when no good they earn, But from a fruitless journey back return. What living man the poet will repay With generous love for his ennobling lay ? I know not : men no longer, as before, Would live for good deeds in poetic lore ; But are o'ercome by detestable gain ; Close-fisted, every one doth fast retain His money, thinking how to make it grow. Nor freely would the smallest mite bestow ; But says : *' the knee is nearer than the shin ; Some good be mine ! from gods bards honour win. But who will hear another ? one will do — Homer, best poet, and the cheapest too — He costs me nothing." Fools ! what boots the gold Hid within doors in heaps cannot be told ? Not so the truly wise their wealth employ : 254 THEOCRITUS. I With some 'tis fit one's natural man to joy ; Some to the bard should freely be assigned, To kin — and many others of mankind. The gods their offerings ; guests should have their dues, Welcome to come and go whene'er they choose. But most of all the generous mind prefers The Muses' consecrate interpreters. So may you live to fame, when life is done, Nor mourn inglorious at cold Acheron, Like one from birlh to poverty betrayed, Whose palms are horny from the painful spade. To many a serf Antiochus the great. To many king Aleuas in his state. Measured the monthly dole. Much kine to see Lowed at the full stalls of the Scopadie. Innumerous flocks to some cool green retreat The shepherds drove, to screen them from the heat, O'er Cranon's plain — choice flocks in choicest place, The wealth of Creon's hospitable race. No pleasure had been theirs these things about. When once their sweet souls they had emptied out Into the broad raft of drear Acheron ; But they, sad with the thoughts of life foregone, Had lain — their treasures left and memory hid — Long ages lain the wretched dead amid. Had not the glorious Ceian breathed the fire Of his quick spirit to the stringed lyre, And would not let them altou^ether die. But made them famous to posterity : And e'en their swift-foot steeds obtained renown, Which in the sacred race-course won the crown. Who would have known the noble Lycian pair — The sons of Priam with their pomp of hair — Or Cycnus, as a woman fair to ken, Had no bard sung the wars of former men ? Nor that Odysseus, who went wandering round, Twice sixty moons, wherever man is found, And, while alive, to farthest Hades sped. And from the cavern of the Cyclops fled. Had been aye famed ; the keeper of the swine, Eumseus, and the man the herded kine IDYLL XVI. Had in his watchful care, Philcetius, And e'en Laertes the magnanimous, Had been in a perpetual silence pent, But for that old Ionian eloquent. The Muses best renown on men bestow : The living waste the wealth of those below. It were all one the waves to number o'er, As many as wind and blue sea drive ashore Or wash with water from the spring's dark um The clay of unbaked brick, as try to turn The money-lover from his wretched pelf — But let us leave the miser to himself. May countless pieces swell his silver store ! And let him ever have a wish for more ! But may I still prefer bright honour's meed. And man's good will, to many a mule and steed ! I am in quest of one whose willing mind I may, by ftivour of the Muses, find. Without the Jove-born sisters, harsh and hard Are all approaches found by every bard. Not weary yet revolving heaven appears Of bringing round the months and circling years. The car shall yet be moved by many a steed ; And me shall some one as a minstrel need ; Than him more deeds heroic never wrought Achilles, or stout Aias, when they fought, Where in his tomb the Phrygian Ilus lies, On the broad plain of mournful Simoeis. Who, where the sun sets, dwell — on Libya's heei, The bold Phoenicians shuddering terror feel ; For Syracuse against them takes the field, Eacli with his ready spear and willow shield. Amidst them arms heroic Hieron, Equal to heroes of the times foregone ; Floats o'er his helm, in wavy darkness loose, His horse-hair crest — Athene ! mightiest Zeus ! And thou, who with thy mother reignest queen O'er Ephyra the wealthy, where is seen Lysimeleia's water, may the blow Of harsh Necessity rebuke the foe, 255 k* 256 THEOCRITUS. And scatter them from our sweet island back O'er the Sardonian ocean's yeasty track ; And out of many, few return to tell Their wives and children how the perished fell f In the foe-ruined cities of the plain Soon may their former dwellers live again, And till the fruitful fields ! unnumbered sheep. And fat, bleat cheerily ! the cattle creep Herded in safety to the wonted stalls, Warning the traveller that evening falls ! For sowing-time be wrought the fallow lea, When the cicada, sitting on his tree, Watches the shepherds in the open day, And blithely sings, perched on the topmost spray ; O'er martial arms may spiders draw their train, And of fierce war not e'en the name remain ; And famous Hieron illustrious be, By poets hymned, beyond the Scythian sea ; Or where Semiramis her station chose. And her huge walls, asphaltos-built, arose ! I am but one : but many others are Dear to the Muses — may it be their care To praise the warrior-king (as poets use). And people, and Sicilian Arethuse ! Ye goddesses ! whose loving favours wait On that Orchomenos, the Thebans' hate. No where unbidden, but to court or hall Bidden, with you will I attend the call. Through your dear presence confident to please, Enchanting daughters of Eteocles ! What good, what f^iir can men without you see ? Oh ! may I ever with the Graces be ! IDYLL XVIL THE PRAISE OF PTOLEMY. Muses ! begin and end the song with Zeua, When of immortals we the chief extol : IDYLL XVII. 237 Of men the name of Ptolemy produce First, last, and midst — for he is chief of all For their exploits the seed heroical Of demigods life-giving minstrels found ; I, skilled to sing, will Ptolemy install Theme of my song — and glowing hymns redound E'en to their praise, who dwell th' Olympian heights around. In Ida's thick of wood, perplexed with choice. Which to begin with, the wood-cutter flings His glance around : to what shall I give voice First out of all the many blessed things. With which the gods have graced the best of kings ? How great the son of Lagus from his birth ! Born for what deeds ! what great imaginings His mind conceived beyond the sons of earth ! Up to the gods by Zeus exalted for his worth ! In Jove's own house his golden couch is spread, And by him sits his friend in royal pride. Great Alexander, the portentous dread Of Persians glittering with the turban pied : And Hercules, the vast Centauricide, Sits opposite on adamantine throne ; There with the gods he banquets gratified. In his sons' sons rejoicing as his own, Made free of age by Zeus, and as immortals known. For from heroic Hercules the twain Descended : therefore when he goes content From the gods' banquet to his wife again, Sated with nectar of a fragrant scent, To one his quiver and his bow unbent Ever he hands, and to that other blest His iron-shotted club, with knobs besprent ; And so they marshal him unto his rest In his ambrosial home, white-ankled Hebe's nest How excellent of dames was Berenice ! To her dear parents what a wealth of pleasure I Dionis wiped her fingers on the spicy Swell of her bosom. No man in such measure E'er loved his wife, as Ptolemy's best leisure 258 THEOCRITUS. Doted on her ; and slie with him contended In love yea ! loved him more : his house and treasure Thus to his sons he with full trust commended, Since, loving, he the couch of loving wife ascended. Some stranger draws the wanton's fancy flighty — Her children many, like the father none ! Loveliest of goddesses ! bright Aphrodite ! Through thee, the way of wailful Acheron Was ne'er by lovely Berenice gone : Her, thy sweet care, from the Cyanean river. And death's grim ferryman, the gloomy one I Thou didst, soft-placing in thy f\ine, deliver, And a conceded share of thine own honours give I.lt. Soft loves on mortal kind she breathes benign, And makes his love-care Hght to every lover. Thou, who in Argos didst with Tydeus twine, Dark brows thy gentle eye-lids arching over, Didst Diomede to light of day discover ; To Peleus the fuU-bo^omed Thetis bore Achilles ; thee, (for there the birth-pang drove her The aid of Eileithuia to implore,) Bright Berenice brought forth on the Coan shore : The Woman-helper stood benignant by, Her limbs from pain composing, till she smiled On thee new-born to warrior Ptolemy — And like his father was the lovely child. Exulting Cos, with jubilant rapture wild. Fondled the babe, loud-hymning at the sight : - " Boy ! be thou blest ; for me be honours piled On thy account, such as the Delian bright Hung round the blue-crowned isle, on which he sprung to light. " From thee to Triop's hill such honour follow, And no less to the Dorians dwelling nigh, As his Rhenffia had from King Apollo ! " Thus Cos : the bird of Zeus, up-poised on high. Under the clouds, well-omened thrice did cry : From king-protecting Zeus the sign was sent ; But when from birth he marks a royalty, IDYLL XVn. That king surpassingly is excellent For wealth, wide rule by sea and o'er much continent. In many a region many a tribe doth till The fields, made fruitful by the shower of Zeus ; None like low-lying Egypt doth fulfil Hope of increase, when Nile the clod doth loose, O'er-bubbling the wet soil : no land doth use So many workmen of all sorts, enrolled In cities of such multitude profuse, ^ More than three myriads, as a single fold Under the watchful sway of Ptolemy the bold. Part of Phoenicia ; some Arabian lands ; Some Syrian ; tribes of swart ^Ethiopes ; All the Pamphylians, Ly cians he commands. And warlike Carians ; o'er the Cyclades His empire spreads ; his navies sweep the seas ; Ocean and rivers, earth within her boujids Obeys him : and a host of chivalries. And shielded infantry, with martial sounds Of their far-glittering brass, the warrior-king surrouiida, His wealth, that daily flows from every side, The treasure of all other kings outweighs ; His busy people's days in quiet glide : The monster-breeding Nile no hostile blaze Doth overpass, the war-shout there to raise. Nor hath armed foeman from swift ship outleapt To seize the kine Egyptian pastures graze ; For o'er the broad lands of that happy sept The bright-haired Ptolemy strict ward hath ever kept. His whole inheritance he cares to keep. As a good king : himself hath garnered more : Nor useless in his house the golden heap, Increased like that of ants ; for of his store The gods have much, since them he doth adore Ever with first-fruits, and his love commends With other gifts ; his bounty ne'er is poor ; To noble-minded princes much he sends. And gives to cities much, and much to worthy friends, s 2 259 260 THEOCRITUS. None in the sacred games e'er took a part, Skilled the melodious song to modulate, Without a royal recompense of art : Whence Ptolemy the muse-priests celebrate For his munificence. What meed more great Than good renown can wealthy man befall ? This meed doth on the dead Atridae wait ; Their infinite spoil from Priam's ravaged hall In the thick gloom lies hid, from whence is no recall Only this prince hath in his Withers' ways Exactly walked, and doth their stamp retain ; Whence he to both his parents loved to raise Temples, and placed their statues in each fane, Of gold and ivory — never sought in vain By prayer of mortals ; on their altars red Fat thighs of oxen burn the royal twain, Himself and consort — one more furnished With love and excellence ne'er clasped her spouse in bed. Such were the nuptials of the royal pair. Whom Rhea bore, the royalties divine Of blest Olympus : Iris spread with care, Iris the virgin yet, whose fingers shine With fragrant brightness, when they w^ould recline The marriage couch. Hail, Ptolemy ! to thee And other demigods I will assign Due praise. One word for after-men ; to me It seems, whatever good there is, from Zeus must be. IDYLL XVin. THE EPITHALAMIUM OF HELEN. Twelve Spartan virgins, the Laconian bloom. Choired before their Helen's bridal room. New hung with tapestry : entwined the fair With hyacinths their hyacinthine hair ; When Menelaus, Atreus' younger pride, Locked in sweet Tyndaris, his lovely bride ; To the same time with cadence true they beat IBYLL XVin. The rapid round of intertwining feet ; One measure tript, one song together sung — Their hymenaean all the palace rung. So early, bridegroom ! fix'd in slumber deep ? So heavy-limbed, with such a love for sleep ? Thyself, wine-heavy, on the bed hast thrown For only rest ? thou sliouldst have slept alone, And with her mother left the girl to play With only girls until the break of day. She's thine from day to day, and year to year — Thrice-happy bridegroom ! on thy way 'tis clear Good demon sneezed, that only thou shouldst gain The prize so many princes would obtain, Only of demigods, whose bosomed love Her husband makes the son-in-law of Jove ! Jove's daughter, peerless beauty-bud of Greece, Now lies with thee beneath one broidered fleece. What offspring to thy hopes will she prefer — Could her dear offspring but resemble her ! Where flows Eurotas in his pleasant place. Thrice eighty virgins, we pursued the race. Like men, anointed with the glistering oil, A bloom of maiden buds — love's blushing spoil : Of equal years ; but, seen by Helen's side. Not one in whom some blemish was not spied. As rising Morn, oh, venerable Night ! Shows from thy bosom dark her face of light ; As the clear spring, when winter's gloom is gone. So mid our throng the golden Helen shone. As of a field or garden ornament, The lofty cypress shoots up eminent ; As of the chariot the Thessalian steed. So rosy Helen of the Spartan breed Is ornament and grace. Like Helen none Draws the fine thread around the spindle spun, And in the ready basket piles so much ; None interlaces with so quick a touch The woof and warp ; for other never came A web so perfect from the broidering frame. Like Helen none the cithern knows to ring. 261 n h ^2 THEOCRITUS. Of Artemis or tall Athene sing, Like Helen, in whose liquid-shining eyes Desire, the light of love, dissolving lies. O fair and lovely girl ! a matron now — Where meadow-flowers in dewy briirhtness grow, We'll hie with early dawn, and fondly pull Sweets to twine garlands for our beautiful ; Remembering Helen with our fond regrets, As for the absent ewe her suckling frets. Of lotuses we'll han"; thee many a wreath Upon the shady plane, and drop beneath Oil from the silver pyx ; and on the bark, In Doric, shall be graved for all to mark, " To me pay honour — I am Helen's tree.'* Hail, bride ! high-wedded bridegroom, hail to thee \ Fruitful Latona fruit of marriage give ; Cypris in bonds of mutual love to live ; And Zeus the wealth that shall without an end From high-born sire to high-born son descend ! Sleep, happy pair ! in love enjoy your rest. Breathing desire into each other's breast. But wake at dawn ; for we'll present us here At the first call of crested chanticleer. Hymen, O Hymena^an ! joyful spread With love's contentment sweet this marriage-bed. IDYLL XIX. THE STEALER OF HONEY-COMBS. As from a hive the thieving Eros drew A honey-comb, a bee his finger stung ; Then in his anguish on his liand he blew. Stamped, jumped — and then to Cytherea sprung; Showed her the wound, and cried : " A thing how wee, How great a wound makes with its little sting ! ** His mother smiled : " Art thou not like a bee, Such great wounds making — such a little thing ? " l\ IDYLL XX. THE HERDSMAN. EuNiCA, smiling with a bitter scoff. When I would sweetly kiss her, bade me " off 1 Fool cowherd ! would you kiss me ? not to kiss Rude clowns, but city lips, I've learnt, I wis. You never, man I shall kiss my lovely mouth — Not in a dream. You are — O how uncouth ! Your look oiFends me, and your speech provokes ; Your play is horse-play ; vulgar are your jokes. How smooth in speech ! how dehcate an air ! How soft your beard ! how odorous your hair ! Your lips are sickly ; and your hands are black, And you smell rank : don't foul me ; back, clown, back ! " Thrice on her breast she spat, these hard words saying. Me scornfully from head to foot surveying ; Pouting and muttering proudly looked askaunt. Before mine eyes did plume her form and flaunt, And mocking smiled with lips drawn far apart. My blood boiled fiercely from my grief of heart, And red my cheeks from passionate anguish grew, As vernal roses from the morning dew. She left me then : but angry feelings glow Within my heart, because she used me so. Am I not handsome, shepherds ? tell me truly ; Or has some god transformed my person newly ? For as lush ivy clips the stem o' the tree, The bloom of beauty lately covered me. My curls, like parsley, round my temples clung ; A shining forehead my dark brows o'erhung ; My eyes were bluer than Athene's own ; My mouth than new cheese sweeter ; every tone Sweeter than honeycombs : and sweet I take My song to be ; the sweetest sounds I wake From all wind instruments, in very deed — , Straight pipe or transverse, flute or vocal reed. The girls upon the hills me handsome call ; They kiss me lovingly — they lov^ me ail. * 264 THEOCRITUS. But ah ! my city-madam never kist me ; And for I am a cowherd she dismist me. That Dionysus in the valleys green Once tended kine, she never heard, I ween ; Nor knows that Cypris on a cowherd doted. And on the Phrygian hills herself devoted To tend his herd ; nor how the same Dionis In thickets kist, in thickets wept Adonis. Who was Endymion ? him tending kine Stooped down to kiss Selena the divine, Who from Olympus to the Latmian grove Glided to slumber with her mortal love. Didst thou not, Rhea, for a cowherd weep ? And didst thou not, high Zeus ! the heaven sweeps In form of winged bird, and watch indeed To carry off the cowherd Ganymede ? Only Eunica (daintier she must be Than were Selena, Cypris, Cybele,) Won't kiss a cowherd. May'st thou ne*er uncover Thyself, self-worshipt Beauty ! to a lover In town or country ; but, vain poppet ! ever Sleep by thyself — despite thy best endeavour. IDYLL XXI. THE FISHERMEN. Asphalion and a comrade. The nurse of industry and arts is want ; Care breaks the labourer's sleep, my Diophant ! And should sweet slumber o'er his eyelids creep, Dark cares stand over him, and startle sleep. Two fishers old lay in their wattled shed, Close to the wicker on one sea-moss bed ; Near them the tools wherewith they plied their craft. The basket, rush-trap, line, and reedy shaft, Weed-tangled baits, a drag-net with its drops, Hooks, cord, two oars, an old boat fixt on props. Their rush-mat, clothes, and caps, propt either head ; These were their implements by which they fed, IDYLL XXI. And this was all their wealth. They were not richer By so much as a pipkin or a pitcher. All else seemed vanity : they could not mend Their poverty — which was their only friend. They had no neighbours ; but upon the shore The sea soft murmured at their cottage door. The chariot of the moon was midway only, When thoughts of toil awoke those fishers lonely : And shaking sleep off they began to sing. ASPHALION. The summer-nights are short, when Zeus the king Makes the days long, some say — and lie. This night I've seen a world of dreams, nor yet 'tis light. What's all this ? am I wrong ? or say I truly ? And can we have a long, long night in July ? FRIEND. Do you the summer blame ? The seasons change, Nor willingly transgress their wonted range. From care, that frightens sleep, much longer seems The weary night. ASPHALION. Can you interpret dreams ? I've seen a bright one, which I will declare. That you my visions, as my toil, may share. To whom should you in mother-wit defer ? And quick wit is best dream-interpreter. We've leisure, and to spare : what can one do. Lying awake on leaves, as I and you, Without a lamp ? they say the town-hall ever Has burning lights — its booty fails it never. FRIEND. Well : let us have your vision of the night. ASPHALION. When yester-eve I slept, outwearied quite With the sea-toil, not over-fed, for our Commons, you know, were short at feeding hour, I saw myself upon a rock, where I Sat watching for the fish — so eagerly ! And from the reed the tripping bait did shake, Till a fat fellow took it — no mistake : ('Twas natural-like that I should dream of fish. 265 2f)6 THEOCRITUS. i P M As hounds of meat upon a greasy dish :) He hugged the hook, and then his blood did flow ; His phmges bent my reed hke any bow ; I stretched both arms, and had a pretty bout, To take with hook so weak a fish so stout. I o-ently warned him of the wound he bore ; *• Ha ! will you prick me ? you'll be pricked much more.' But when he struggled not, I drew him in ; The contest then 1 saw myself did win. I landed him, a fish compact of gold ! But then a sudden fear my mind did hold, Lest king Poseidon made it his delight, Or it was Amphitrite's favourite. I loosed him gently from the hook, for fear It from his mouth some precious gold might tear, And with my line I safely towed him home, And swore that I on sea no more would roam. But ever after would remain on land, And there my gold, like any king, command. At this I woke ; your Avits, good friend, awaken, For much I fear to break the oath I've taken. FRIEND. Fear not : you swore not, saw not with your eyes The fish you saw ; lor visions all are lies. But now no longer slumber : up, awake ! And for a false a real vision take. Hunt for the foodful fish that is, not seems ; For fear you starve amid your golden dreams. IDYLL XXII. THE DIOSCURI. The twins of Leda, child of Thestius, Twice and again we celebrate in song, The Spartan pair, stamped by jEgiochus, Castor and Pollux, arming with the thong His dreadful hands ; both merciful as strong Saviours of men on danger's extreme edge, And steeds tost in the battle's bloody throng, IDYLL XXIL 267 And star-defying ships on ruin's ledge. Swept with their crews by blasts into the cruel dredge. The winds, where'er they list, the huge wave drive, Dashing from prow or stern into the hold ; Both sides, sail, tackle, yard, and mast, they rive, Snapping at random : from >Jight's sudden fold Rushes a flood ; hither and thither rolled, Broad ocean's heaving volumes roar and hiss, Smitten by blasts and the hail-volley cold : The lost ship and her crew your task it is, Bright pair ! to rescue from the terrible abyss. They think to die — but lo ! a sudden lull O' the winds ; the clouds disperse ; and the hush'd sheen Of the calmed ocean sparkles beautiful : The Bears, and Asses with the Stall between. Foreshow a voyage safe and skies serene. Blest Brothers ! who to mortals safety bring. Both harpers, minstrels, knights, and warriors keen : Since both I hymn, with which immortal king Shall I commence my song ? of Pollux first I'll sing. The justling rocks, the dangerous Euxine's mouth. Snow-veiled, when Argo safely passed, and ended Her course at the Bebrycian shore, the youth Born of the gods from both her sides descended. And on the deep shore, from rude winds defended. Their couches spread ; and strook the seeds of fire From the pyreion. Forthwith unattended Did Pollux, of the red-brown hue, retire With Castor, whose renown for horsemanship was higher. On a high hill a forest did appear : The brothers found there a perennial spring, Under a smooth rock, filled with water clear. With pebbles paved, which from below did fling A crystal sheen like silver glistering ; The poplar, plane, tall pine, and cypress, grew • Hard by : and odorous flowers did thither bring Thick swarm of bees, their sweet toil to pursue, As many as in the meads, when spring ends, bloom to view. li 268 THEOCRITUS. There lay at ease a bulky insolent, Grim-looked : his ears by gauntlets scored aud marred j His vast chest, like a ball, was prominent ; His back was broad with flesh like iron hard, Like anvil-wrought Colossus to regard ; And under either shoulder thews were seen On his strong arms, like round stones which, oft jarred In the quick rush with many a bound between, A winter torrent rolls down through the cleft ravine. A lion's hide suspended by the feet Huns from his neck and o'er his shoulders fell : Him the prize-winner Pollux first did greet : *' Hail, stranger ! in these parts what people dwell ? " " The hail of utter stranger sounds not well, At least to me." " We're not malevolent, Nor sons of such, take heart." " You need not tell Me that — I in myself am confident." ** You are a savage, quick to wrath and insolent." " You see me as I am ; upon your land I do not walk." " Come thither, and return With hospitable gifts." " I've none at hand For you, nor want I yours." *' Pi*ay, let me learn, Wilt let me drink from out this fountain urn ?*' " You'll know, if your thirst-hanging lips are dry." " How may we coax you from your humour stern, With silver or what else ?" ** The combat try—" " How, pray, with gauntlets, foot to foot and eye to eye ? " In pugilistic fight, nor spare your skill." *' Who is my gauntlet-armed antagonist ? " " At hand ! he's here ; you see him if you will, I, Amycus, the famous pugilist." " And what the prize of the victorious fist ? " " The vanquished shall become the victor's thrall." " Red-crested cocks so fight, and so desist.'* " Cock-like or lion-like the combat call ; This is the prize for which we fight, or none at alL* Then on a conch he blew a mighty blast : The long-haired Bebryces, hearing the sound. Under the shady planes assembled fast ; IDYLL XXII. 269 2^» And likewise Castor, in the fight renowned, Hastened and called his comrades to the ground, From the Magnesian ship. With gauntlets both Armed their strong hands ; their wrists and arms they bound With the long thongs ; with one another wroth, Each breathing blood and death, they stood up nothing loth. First each contended which should get the sun Of his antagonist ; but much in sleight That huge man, Pollux I was by thee outdone; And Amycus was dazzled with the light ; But raging rushed straight forward to the fight. Aiming fierce blows ; but wary Pollux met him. Striking the chin of his vast opposite. Who fiercer battled, for the blow did fret him, And leaning forward tried unto the ground to get him. Shouted the Bebryces ; and, for they feared The man like Tityus might their friend down-weigh In the scant place, the heroes Pollux cheered : But shifting here and there Jove's son made play, And struck out right and left, but kept away From the fierce rush of Neptune's son uncouth, Who, drunk with blows, reeled in the hot affray. Out-spitting purple blood ; the princely youth Shouted, when they beheld his battered jaws and mouth. His eyes w^ere nearly closed from the contusion Of his swoln face ; the prince amazed hiia more With many feints, and seeing his confusion. Mid-front he struck a heavy blow and sore. And to the bone his forehead gashing tore ; Instant he fell, and at his length he lay On the green leaves ; but fiercely as before. On his uprising, they renewed the fray, Aiming terrific blows, as with intent to slay. But the Bebrycian champion strove to place His blows upon the broad breast of his foe, i Who ceaselessly disfigured all his face : His flesh with sweating shrunk, that he did show, From huge, but small ; but larger seemed to grow 270 THEOCRITUS. I The limbs of Pollux, and of fresher hue The more he toiled : Muse ! for 'tis thine to know, And mine to give interpretation true. Tell how the son of Zeus that mighty bulk o'erthrew. Aiming at something great, the big Bebrycian The left of Pollux with his left hand caught, Obliquely leaning out from his position, And from his flank his huge right hand he brought, And had he hit him would have surely wrought Pollux much damage ; but escape he found, Stooping his head, and smote him, quick as thought. On the left temple ; from the gaping wound A bubbling gush of gore out-spurted on the ground. Right on his mouth his left hand then he dashed ; Rattled his teeth ; and with a quicker hail Of blows he smote him, till his cheeks he smashed : Stretched out he lay ; his senses all did fail. Save that he owned the other did prevail By holding up his hands: nor thou didst claim The forfeit, Pollux, taking of him bail Of a great oath in his own father's name. Strangers to harm no more with word or deed of shame. To Castor now belongs my votive strain, The brass-mailed, shake-spear knight. The twins of Zeus. It chanced, had carried off the daughters twain Of old Leucippus ; wroth for which abuse. The two bold brothers, sons of Aphareus, Pursued the ravishers incontinent — Their plighted bridegrooms, Idas and Lynceus. They overtook them at the monument Of the dead Aphareus, as on their way they went. With shiekls and spears all from their chariots leapt. And Lynceus through his helmet loudly spoke: " Why not let brides be by their bridegrooms kept? Why with your drawn swords, ready for the stroke, Do you so eagerly the fijrht provoke ? To us their sire betrotiied them, and did swear An oath thereto — which oath he only broke IDYLL XXIL Persuaded by your gifts, (foul shame to hear In case of others' brides,) kine, mules, and divers gear. " Oft have I said, although no speechifier. Before you both ; my friends ! it is not right Princes for wives those maidens should desire. Whose bridegrooms wait them and the nuptial night Sparta, sweet Arcady with fleeces white, Equestrian Elis, famous Argolis, The Acha3an towns, Messenia's ample site, And all the shore-reach of rich Sisyphis, Are all of great extent with choice of maids, I wis. " And you may pick and choose at will of these. Who are in mind, form, feature, excellent ; Good men for sons-in-law most fathers please, And you 'mid heroes are pre-eminent. On either side ennobled by descent. Come, let our nuptials to their end proceed ; We'll find brides for you to your heart's content : The wind to Avave swept off my useless rede ; I might as well have preached unto the winds indeed. " You are ungentle in your wilful mood ; Be now persuaded for your own behoof ; Though we are cousins — if it seems you good This strife to finish by the battle-proof. Let Idas and brave Pollux stand aloof, While Castor and myself, the younger, try The battle ; thus to the parental roof We shall not leave an utter misery — One death is quite enough for one sad family. *' Those who survive shall gladden all their friends, (Bridegrooms, not corses,) and these virgins wed : Good is small ill that great contention ends." And Providence fulfilled the words he said. That elder pair their arms deposited ; But Lynceus shook, under his shield's broad rest, His quivering lance, and Castor likewise sped To meet him : to the conflict fierce they prest ; On either martial head nodded the horse-hair crest. 2^1 11 272 THEOCRITUg. First with their spears they aimed full many a blow, "Where'er an exposed part came into sight, But ere they injured one another so, The spear-heads broke in either broad shield pight : Then from the sheaths they drew their swords outright,- And fiercely on the other either prest, Nor paused a moment in the furious fight ; And each at shield or helm their blows addrest. But quick-eyed Lynceus maimed — only the purple crest. At Castor's left knee then he fiercely strook, Who, 'scaping, smote the threatening hand away ; He, running, to his father's tomb betook Himself, dropping the hand : there Idas lay Watching the cousins ply the bloody fray ; But eager Castor drove his thirsty sword Through flank and navel ; out-gushed to the day His bowels, where out-spread he lay begored ; And down his eyelids dim the heavy sleep was poured. Nor was it fated that his mother dear Should see the other wed to her content ; For Idas at that hapless sight did tear A pillar from his father's monument. To slay his brother's slayer ; but Zeus sent. In aid of Castor, his devouring fire, Made drop the marble, and himself up-brent. So they did to none easy task aspire. Who fought those mighty ones — the sons of mighty sire. Hail, sons of Leda ! give my hymns renown : To you and Helen, dear the minstrel's claim. And dear to all who threw proud Ilion down. The Chian minstrel, princes ! gave you fame. Of Troy, th' Achaean ships that thither came, The war, and tlie war's tower, Achilles brave. Hymning the song : may mine be free from blame t I give you what to me the Muses gave ; And gods prefer the song to all the gifts they have ! IDYLL XXm. THE LOVER ; OR LOVE-SICK. A YOUTH was love-sick for a maid unkind. Whose form was blameless, but not so her' mini She scorned her lover and his suit disdained ; One gentle thought she never entertained. She knew not Love— what sort of god, what darts From what a bow he shoots at youthful hearts ! Her lips were strangers to soft gentleness, And she was diflftcult of all access. She had no word to soothe his scorching fire, No sparkle of the lip ; no moist desire To lier bright eyes a dewy lustre lent ; Blushed on her cheek no crimson of consent ; She breathed no word of sighing born— no kiss That lightens love, and turns its pain to bliss. But, as the wild game from his thicket spies The train of hunters with suspicious eyes, So she her lover ; ever did she turn Toward him scornful lip, and eye-glance stern. She was his fate : and on her glooming face. The scorn that burned within her left Its trace. Her colour fled ; and every feature showed Pale from the rage that in her bosom glowed. Yet even so she was— how fair to see ! The more she scorned him, still the more loved he. At last by Cypris scorched without her cure, He could no more the raging flame endure. He went and kist her door, and tears he shed, And, 'midst his tears and kisses, sadly said : — " Harsh, cruel girl ! stone-heart and pitiless I The nurseling of some savage lioness. Unworthy love ! my latest gift I bring, This noose— no more will I thine anger sting. But now I go where thou hast sentenced me — The common road which all reports a^ree Must at some time by all that live be gone, And where love's cure is found— Oblivion. 274 THEOCRITrS. Ah ! could I drink it all, I should not slake My passionate longing : at thy gates I take My last farewell, thereto commit indeed My latest sigh. The future I can read — The rose is beautiful, the rose of prime, But soon it withers at the touch of time ; And beautiful in spring-time to behold The violet, but ah ! it soon grows old ; White are the lilies, but they soon decay ; White is the snow, but soon it melts away ; And beautiful the bloom of virgin youth, But lives a very little time in sooth. Thy time will come — thou too at last shalt prove^ And weep most bitterly, the flames of love. But grant, I pray thee, grant my latest prayer ; When thou shalt see me hanging high in air, E'en at thy door — pass not heedless by ! But drop a few tears to my memory. From the harsh thong unloose thy hapless lover, And from thy limbs a garment take and cover The lifeless body, and the last kiss give ; Fear not that haply I may come alive At thy lip's touch — I cannot live again ; Thy kiss, if given in love, were given in vain ! Hollow a mound to hide my love's sad end, And thrice on leaving, cry, 'Here lie, my friend !' And, if thou wilt, by thee this w^ord be said, * Here lies my love, my beautiful is dead.' And let this epitaph mine end recall, Just at the last I scratch it on thy wall : * Love slew him : stop and say,— Who here is laid Well but not wisely loved a cruel maid.' " Then in the doorway for its cruel use He set a stone ; he fitted next the noose ; Put in his neck, and eagerly he sped. Spurning the stone away — and swung there dead But when she saw the corse her doorway kept. She was not moved in spirit, nor she wept : She felt no ruth, but, scornful to the last, She spat upon the body, as she past ; And careless went to bathe her and adorn. IDYLL XXIV. Where stood a statue of the god, her scorn. From the bath's marble edge whereon it stood, The statue leapt and slew her: with her blood The water was impurpled, and the sound Of the girl's dying accent swam around : " Ah lovers ! she that scorned true love is slain • Love is revengeful : when loved, love again." 275 IDYLL XXIV. THE LITTLE HERCULES. Alcmena having washed her twin delight. Her Hercules, who then was ten months old. And her Iphicles, younger by a night, Gave them the breast, then laid them in the hold Of a brass shield won by Amphitryon bold — The spoil of Pterelas in battle slain ; And, touching eitlier head, her blessing told : " Sleep, healthful sleep enjoy my blessed twain ; Sleep happy ! happy wake at coming dawn again." And with these words she rocked the mighty shield. And sleep came over them : in the midnight. What time the Bear, watching Orion's field, (Who then his shoulder shows uprising bright,) To setting turns, vex'd Hera's wily spite. With many threats of her revengeful ire. To eat the infant Hercules outright. Sent to the chamber-door two monsters dire. Each bristling horribly with his dark -gleaming spire- They their blood-gorging bellies on the ground Uncoiling rolled ; their eyes shot baleful flame, And evermore they spat their poison round ; But when, quick brandishing with evil aim Their forked tongues, they to the children came, They both awoke : (what can escape Jove's eye ?) Light in the chamber shone ; and who can blame Or wonder that Ipliicles did outcry. Screaming, when he did their remorseless teeth ^\spJ ? T 2 ill ¥ 276 THEOCI^ITUS. He kicked aside the woollen coverlet, Struggling to flee ; but Hercules comprest, Relaxing not the gripe his hand did get, With a firm grasp the throat of either pest, Where is their poison, which e'en gods detest. The boy, that in the birth was long confined, Who ne'er was known to cry, though at the breast A suckling yet, they with their coils entwined : Infolding him they strained their own release to find. Till wearied in their spines they loosed their fold. Alcmena heard the noise and woke in fear :— " Amphitryon, up ! for me strange fear doth hold— Up ! up I don't wait for sandals ; don't you hear Iphicles screaming ? see ! the walls appear Distinctly shining in the dead of night. As though 'twere dawn. There is some danger near j I'm sure there is, dear man ! " He then outright Did leap from off the bed to hush his wife's affright. And hastily his costly sword he sought ; Suspended near his cedar-bed it hung ; With one hand raised the sheath of lotus wrought, While with the other he the belt unswung. The room was filled with night again : he sprung, And for his household, breathing slumber deep, He loudly called ; his voice loud echoing rung : " Ho ! from the hearth bring lights ! quick ! creep ! r i » Fling wide the doors— awake ! this is no time for sleep. They hastened all with lights at his command ; But when they saw (their eyes they well might doubt) A serpent clutched in either tender hand Of suckling Hercules, they gave a shout. And clapped their hands : he instantly held out The serpents to Amphitryon, and wild ' With cliild-like exultation leaped about, And laid them at his father's feet and smiled— Laid down those monsters grim, in sleep of death now mi id. Alcmena to her fragrant bosom drew Iphicles screaming and with fear half-dead ; do not IDYLL XXIV. 277 The lamb-wool coverlet Amphitryon threw O'er Hercules and went again to bed. The cocks, the third time crowing, heralded The day-dawn : then Alcmena sent to call Tiresias the seer, who truly said Whate'er he said would be ; and told him all. And bade him answer her what thing would thence befall : " Hide not, I pray, from reverence for me If aught of ill the gods design : 'tis clear What fate has spun for him no man can flee ; But saying this I teach the wise, good seer ! " He answered : " Woman ! privileged to bear The noblest offspring, princess of the blood Of Perseus, by my own sweet light I swear, Which once was in these eyes, as name for good Shall be remembered long Alcmena's womanhood. " The Achaean women while they spin, I wis, Alcmena's name to latest eve shall sing ; And famous shalt thou be in Argolis ; For this thy son to star-paved heaven shall spring • All that contend with the broad-breasted king. Or man or beast, shall yield the victory. Twelve labours wrought, him Destiny shall bring To Jove's own house, but all of him can die On the Trachinian pyre shall perish utterly. " And he the son-in-law of her shall be, Who sent these dragons to destroy the child ; Then in his lair the sharp-toothed wolf shall see The fawn, nor harm it, wonderfully mild. In the hearth -ashes let there now be piled All sorts of thorn, bramble, and prickly pear. And dry, wind-shaken twigs of buck-thorn wild ; And at the midnight burn these dragons here, Since they to slay the child at midnight did appear. " A maid must cast these ashes with the wind At morn from yon rock to the rusliing tide, | Then hasten home and never look behind. With sulphur let the house be purified ; Pure water, mixed with salt, from side to side 278 THEOCRITUS. Then from a full urn sprinkle on the floor : For so the holy custom doth provide ; And sacrifice to Zeus supreme a boar, That o'er your foes you may be victors evermore.* Then, rising from the ivory chair, withdrew Tiresias, and bent with years was he. But Hercules with his fond mother grew, As grows a young plant in a fruitful lea, And still Amphitryon's boy was thought to be : Linus, Apollo's son, heroic name ! Instructed him in letters carefully. And Eurytus, wlio from rich parents came. Taught him to bend the bow and take unerring aim. To move his fingers on the harp with ease, And to the music minstrelsy to sing. Him taught Eumolpus Philammonides : And with what sleights the men of Argos fling Each other, wrestling fiercely in the ring, And every sort of pugilistic sleight. Him tauglit the son of the Cyllenian king, Harpalicus, whose dreadful brow did fright Men from afar, that few would dare with him to fight. To drive the chariot, and impel, control The rapid-bounding steeds, and how to shun Dashing his axle-nave against the goal. He was instructed by Amphitryon, Who willingly did teach his hopeful son : In Argos oft, whose praises are far-spoken For generous steeds, himself had prizes won ; And of his skill there was this certain token. Though time had marred the reins, his chariot was unbroken. In stationary fight to aim the lance. Shielding himself ; to bide swords flashing round ; To draw his battle out, and bid advance The cavalry ; to scan the foeman's ground. While to the charge the troops impetuous bound, — He learned from Castor, who, till he was old. Of demigods was warrior most renowned, Exiled from Argos then, which Tydeus bold With all the vine-land broad did from Adrastus held. n>YLL XXV Alcmena thus had taught her Hercules. His sleeping-place was near his father's bed ; And, what did most of all his fancy please, For the bold boy a lion's hide was spread. His morning meal, roast meat and Dorian bread- No ploughman would a larger loaf desire ; His evening meal (the day already sped) W^as very light, nor such as needed fire. He always wore, bare to his knees, a plain attire. 279 IDYLL XXV. HERCULES THE LION-SLAYER, OR, THE WEALTH OF AUGEIAS. When, to perform his fated lord's behest, Amphitryon's son, with toils and perils tried, Hero with the prodigious breadth of breast, — In his right hand his club, the lion's hide Hung from his shoulders by the fore-feet tied, — To the rich vale of fruitful Elis came, Where the sweet waters of Alpheus glide. Seeing herds, flocks, and pastures, none might claim. But only wealthiest lord, some prince well known to fame, He asked a countryman, whose watchful care O'erlooked the grounds, (his task was his delight,) " Good friend ! wilt tell a traveller, whose are These herds, and flocka, and pastures infinite ? He is, I well may guess, the favourite Of the Olympian gods. Here should abide Those I am come to seek." The man, at sight And claim of stranger, quickly laid aside The work he had in hand, and courteously replied ; " What thou dost ask I willingly will tell, Good stranger ! for I fear the heavy wrath Of Hermes, the way-god ; of all who dwell Above us, most is he provoked, when scath Or scorn is done to him who asks his path. Not in one pasture all the flocks appear, 280 THEOCRITUS. Nor in one region. King Augeias hath : Some pasture where Elisson glides ; some, where Alpheus ; at vine-clad Buprasion some ; some, here : " And every flock has its particular fold. Their pasture never fails his numerous kine In the green lowlands that receiving hold The gush of Peneus, and the dew divine : As in the genial moisture they recline. The meads throw up soft herbage, which supplies The strength of the horned kine. Beyond the shine Of the far-gliding river — turn your eyes A little to the left — their stalled enclosure lies ; " Yonder, where the perennial planes elate Stand lordly, and the green wild-olives grow, — A grove to King Apollo dedicate. The pastoral god, most perfect god we know. Hard by, our dwellings in a lengthened row ; Our labour an immense revenue yields To our good lord, as often as we sow. When thrice or four times ploughed, the fallow fields : Each of his husbandmen the spade or hoe that wields, " Earthing the vine-roots, or at vintage-tide Toils at the wine-press, knows where the domain Of rich Augeias ends on every side. For his is all the far-extended plain. Orchards thick-set with trees, and fields with grain, E'en to the fount-full hill-tops far away ; All which we work at (as behoves the swain. Whose life is spent a-field) through all the day. Why thou art come — to tell may be thy profit — saj, " Dost seek Augeias, or some one of those Who serve him ? I will give an answer clear, And to the point, as one that fully knows. Not mean art thou, nor of mean sires, I'd swear, So grand thy form. The sons of gods appear Such among men." To him Jove's son replied : " In truth, old man ! for that did bring me here, Augeias I would see : if it betide Th' Epean chief doth in the city now abide. IDYLL XXV. 281 *• And, caring for the folk, as j udge fulfils True judgment ; bid his trusty steward me speed. With whom as guide I may converse. God wills That mortal men should one another need." ; To him the husbandman ; " It seems, indeed, Thy way was heaven-appointed : in thine aim, E'en to thy wish, thou dost at once succeed ; For yesterday Augeias hither came. With his illustrious son, Phyleiis hight by name. "After long time, his rural wealth to see, He came : to this e'en princes are not blind, The master there, his house will safer be. But let us to the stall ; there shall we find Augeias." Led the way that old man kind : Seeing the great hand-filling club, and spoil Of the wild beast, he puzzled much his mind. Who he could be, come from what natal soil ; And with desire to ask him this did inward boil. But caught the word just to his lips proceeding, For fear he might with question indiscreet. Or out of place, annoy the stranger speeding : *Tis a hard thing another's thought to weet. The hounds both ways, by scent and fall of feet, Perceived them from afar. At Hercules They flew, loud barking at him, but did greet The old man, whining gently as you please, And round him wagged their tails, and fawning licked hio knees. But he with stones — to lift them was enough — Scared back the hounds, their barking did restrain, And scolded them ; but, though his voice was roughs His heart was glad they did such guard maintain, When he was absent. Then he spoke again : " Gods ! what an animal ! what faithful suit He does to man ! if he where to abstain, Where rage, but knew, none other might dispute With him in excellence ; but 'tis too fierce a brute." And soon they reached the stall. The sun his steeds Turned to the west, bringing the close of day. I 282 THEOCRITUS. The herds and flocks, returning from the meads, Came to the stables where they nightly lay. The kine in long succession trod the way, Innumerous ; as watery clouds on high, By south or west wind driven in dense array, One on another press, and forward fly. Numberless, without end, along the thickened sky ; So many upon so many impels the wind ; Others on others drive their crests to twine : So many herds so many pressed behind ; The plain, the ways, were filled in breadth and line ; The fields were straitened with the lowing kine. The sheep were folded soon ; the cattle, too. That inward, as they walk, their knees incline, Were all installed, a multitude to view : No man stood idle by for want of work to do. Some to the kine their wooden shoes applied, And bound with thongs ; while some in station near To milk them took their proper place beside : One to the dams let go their younglings dear, Mad for the warm milk ; while another there The milk-pail held, the curds to cheese one turned : Meanwhile Augeias went by every where, And with his own eyes for himself he learned What revenue for him his cattle -keepers earned. With him his son and mighty Hercules Through his exceeding show of riches went. And, though his mind Aniphitryonides Was wont to keep on balance and unbent, At sight thereof he was in wonderment : Had he not seen it, he'd have thought it fable, That any one, however eminent For wealth, or any ten, in fold, stall, stable. The richest of all kings, to show such wealth were able. Hyperion gave unto his son most dear. That he should all in flocks and herds excel. His care increased them more from year to year ; IDTLL XXV. 283 For on his herds no sort of ailment fell, Such as destroys the cattle : his grew well. In pith improving still. None cast their young. Which almost all were female. He could tell Three hundred white-skinned bulls his kine among, And eke two hundred red, that to their pastime sprung. Twelve swan -white bulls were sacred to the sun, All inknee'd bulls excelling ; these apart Cropped the green pasture, and were never done Exulting ; when from thicket shag did dart Wild beasts, among the herds to play their part. These twelve first rushed, death-looking, to the war. Roaring most terribly. In pride of heart And strength great Phaethon (men to a star Did liken him) was first, mid many seen afar. When this bull saw the tawny lion's hide, He rushed on watchful Hercules, intent To plunge his armed forehead in his side : But then the hero grasped incontinent The bull's left horn, and to the ground back-bent His heavy neck ; then backward pressed his might. The bull, more struggling as more backward sent. At last stood, stretching every nerve, upriglit. The king, and prince, and swains, all marvelled at the sight. But to the city, on the following day, Bold Hercules and prince Phyleiis sped. At first their path through a thick vineyard lay. Narrow, and 'mid the green, through which it led, Half-hid. This past, Phyleiis turned his head O'er his right shoulder, soon as they did reach The public road, and to the hero said. Who walked behind him : " Friend, I did impeach Myself as having lost, concerning thee, some speech " I long since heard : now I remember me, A young Achnean hither on a day From Argos came, from sea-shore Helice, Who, many Epeans present, then did say He saw an Argive man a monster slay. 284 THEOCRITUS. A lion, dread of all the country round, Whose lair in grove of Zeus the Nemean lay i I am not sure if on Tirynthian ground, Or else in Argos born, or in Mycenian bound ; " But said, if I remember rightly now, The hero sprung from Perseus : I confess Methinks none other Argive man but thou Dared that adventure : yea ! that piece of dress, The lion's hide, avows that hardiness. Then, hero, first of all explain to me. That I may know if right or wrong my guess, Whether thou art in truth that very he, Whose deed was told us by the man of Helice. " Next, tell how thou didst slay the dreadful beast. And how his way to Nemean haunt he found: One, if he searched in Apian land at least, Such monster could not find, though bears abound. Boars and destructive wolves, the country round : Wherefore all marvelled at the man's recital. And thought the traveller, with idle sound Of his invented wonders, in requital Of hospitable rites, was striving to delight all." Then from the mid-path to the road-side near Phyleiis kept, that both abreast might find Sufficient room, and he might better hear What Hercules should say, who, still behind, To him replied : " Not from the truth dechned. But with just balance thou hast judged it well: Since thou would'st hear, I with a willing mind Will tell, Phyleiis, how the monster fell. But whence he came nor I, nor Argive else can telL " Only we think that some immortal sent, For holy rites profaned or left undone. That ill on the Phoronians ; forth he went, And the Piseans, like a flood, o'errun : The Bembinaeans least of all could shun His fateful wrath ; they, nearest, fared the worst: To slay that terrible redoubted one IDYLL XXV. 285 f^as task enjoined me by Eurystheus erst ; His wish I undertook, of my set toils the first. « My flexile bow I took, and quiver full Of arrows, and my club, the bark still on, The stem of a wild olive I did pull Up by the roots, when thither I was gone, Under the brow of holy Helicon. ^ But when I came to the huge lion's lair, I to the tip the string did straightway don, And fix'd one of the arrows which I bare : To see, ere I was seen, I looked around with care. " It was the mid-day, and not yet I found His traces ; nor could hear his mighty roar. I saw no herdsman, ploughman on the ground, To point me where I should his haunt explore : Green fear kept every man within his door. Nor till I saw him and his vigour tried, Ceased I to search the sylvan mountain o'er ; And ere came on the cool of eventide. Back to his cavern, gorged with flesh and blood, he hied. « His dew-lap, savage face, and mane, were gory ; He licked his beard, while I, yet unespied, Lurked in a thicket of the promontory ; But as he nearer came, at his left side I shot an arrow, but it did not glide, Thourrh sharp, into his flesh, but with rebound Fell o"n the grass. The thick he closely eyed. His bloody head up-lifting from the ground And ghastly grinned, showing his teeth's terrific round. " Then on the string another shaft I placed. And shot— vext that the former idly flew : Mid-breast I hit him, where the lungs are placed: His hide the sharp, sharp arrow pierced not through, But at his feet fell ineffectual too : Again a third I was in act to shoot, Enrac^cd to think in vain my bow I drew. When I was seen by the blood-thirsty brute. Who to the battle-thought his angry signs did suit. 286 THEOCRITUS. ** With his long tail he lashed himself ; and all His neck was filled with wrath : the fiery glow Of his vext mane up-bristled ; in a ball He gathered up himself, till like a bow His spine was arched : as when one, who doth know Chariots to build, excelling in his art, Having first heated in a fire-heat slow Bends for his wheel a fig-branch ; with a start The fissile wild-fig flies far from his hands apart. " Collected for the spring, and mad to rend me, So leapt the lion from afar : I strove With skin-cloak, bow, and quiver to defend me With one hand ; with the other I up-hove My weighty club, and on his temple drove, But broke in pieces the rough olive wood On his hard shaggy head : he from above Fell ere he reached me, by the stroke subdued, And nodding with his head on trembling feet he stood. "Darkness came over both his eyes : his brain Was shaken in the bone ; but when I spied The monster stunned and reeling from his pain, I cast my quiver and my bow aside. And to his neck my throttling hands applied. Before he could recover. I did bear me With vigour in the death-clutch, and astride His body from behind from scath did clear me, So that he could not or with jaw or talons tear me. "His hind feet with my heels I pressed aground ; Of his pernicious throat my hands took care ; His sides were for my thighs a safe-guard found From his fore-feet : till breathless high in air I lifted him new sped to hell's dark lair. Then many projects did my thoughts divide. How best I might the monster's carcass bare. And from his dead limbs strip the shaggy hide : Hard task it was indeed, and much my patience tried. " I tried and failed with iron, wood, and flint ; For none of these his skin could penetrate ; Then some immortal gave to me a hint IDYLL XXVt. 287 With his own talons I might separate The carcass and the hide : success did wait The trial of this thought ; he soon was flayed. I wear his hide, that serves me to rebate Sharp-cutting war. The Nemean beast was laid Thus low, which had of men and flocks much havoc made." IDYLL XXVI. THE BACCHANALS. Three troops three sisters to the mountain led ; Agave with her cheeks that blossomed red The bloom of apple ; and in wildest mood Autonoa and Ino. From the wood They stript oak -leaves and ivy green as well, And from the ground the lowly asphodel ; In a pure lawn with these twelve altars placed ; Nine Dionysus, three his mother graced j Then from the chest the sacred symbols moved. And, as their god had taught them and approved, Upon the leafy altars reverent laid. Hid in a native mastic's sheltering shade, Them from a steep rock Pentheus then surveyed. Him perched aloft Autonoa first discerned. And dreadful shrieked, and spurning overturned The sacred orgies of the frenzied one. Which none profane may ever look upon. She maddened, maddened all : scared Pentheus fled, And they, with robes drawn up, pursued : He said : " What want ye, dames ! " Autonoa then : " Thou, fellow ! Shalt know, not hear " — and mightily did bellow, Loud as a lioness her brood defending ; His mother clutched his head, whilst Ino rending Tore ofl* his shoulder, trod and trampled o'er him ; Autonoa likewise : limb from limb they tore him. Then all returned to Thebes ; defiled with gore, They of their Pentheus only fragments bore, Their after-grief. This troubles not my mind : Not let another, impotent and blind, 288 THEOCRITUS. liitil Name Dionysus as hereby defiled, — Nor though he harsher used some curious child. May I my life to holy courses give, Dear to the holy who reproachless live ! This omen, sent from aegis-bearing Jove, Shows what he hates, and what his thoughts approve ; Blest are the children of the godly — ever ; Blest are the children of the godless — never. Hail, Blessed ! whom Jove's thigh enclosed for us, Till thou wert born on snowy Dracanus. Hail, Semele ! Cadmean sisters, hail ! Whose names in songs of heroines prevail. By Dionysus this (no need of shame) Possest ye did. The gods let no man blame. IDYLL XXVII. THE FOND DISCOURSE OF DAPHNIS AND THE DAMSEL. CHLOE. A COWHERD with chaste Helen ran away. DAPHNIS. This Helen here was kist by one to-day. CHLOE. Boast not : they say there's nothing in a kiss. DAPHNIS. But in mere kissing is some touch of bliss. CHLOE. I wipe my mouth — and off thy kiss is ta'en. DAPHNIS. Wipe you your mouth ? then let me kiss again. CHLOE. Calves, not a maid, to kiss doth you beseem. DAPHNIS. Boast not : thy youth is flying like a dream, CHLOE. Ripe grapes are raisins, and dry roses sweet. DAPHNIS. Come to yon olives ; I would fain repeat-^ i{ IDYLL XXVn. ... CHLOE. 1 wiJl not : you deceived me once indeed. DAPHNIS. Come to yon elms, and hear me play my reed. CHLOE Play to yourself: nought wretched pleases me. ^ DAPHNIS. Take heed : the Paphian will be wroth with thee. CHLOE. A fig for her, if Artemis be kind. DAPHNIS. -tlush I lest she smite you and for ever bind. CHLOE. Not me— my guard is Artemis the wise. DAPHNIS. Canst thou fly Love— none other virgin flies ? CHLOE. By Pan ! I fly him : he doth ever drive you. DAPHNIS. 1 fear that Love to some worse man may give you. CHLOE. Many have woo'd me, but have pleased me— none. DAPHNIS. And I am come— of many wooers one. Ttru CHLOE. What can I do ? marriage brings only care. T^ . DAPHNIS. Not pain, nor grief, but joys which sweetest are. CHLOE. Ihey say that women fear their wedded dears. DAPHNIS. Ihey rule them rather : show me one that fears. T . , CHLOE. Lucina s bolt— the child-bed pang I dread. rp, , DAPHNIS. lliy sovran, Artemis, puts wives to bed. ^ . CHLOE. Child-bcaring will my fine complexion blight. TV. T.-1J .„ DAPHNIS. Ihj children will become thy bloom and Hgbt u 28.9 I 290 THEOCRITUS. CHLOE. If I consent, what spouse-gifts shall be mine ? DAPHNIS. My pastures, groves, and herd, shall all be thine. CHLOE. Swear, when 'tis done, thou never wilt forsake me, DAPHNIS. By Pan ! not even shouldst thou try to make me. CHLOE. Chamber and hall will you for me provide ? DAPHNIS. Chamber and hall, and fleeces fine beside. CHLOE. What ? what shall I my aged father tell ? DAPHNIS. Hearing my name, he'll like thy marriage well. CHLOE. Repeat it : oft a name sweet influence has. DAPHNIS. Daphnis, Nomsea's son by Lycidas. CHLOE. A good descent, but than mine own not higher. DAPHNIS. I know it well — Menalcas is thy sire. CHLOE. Show me thy grove, where stands thy wealthy stalL DAPHNIS. See where for me flowers many a cypress tall. CHLOE. Feed, goats ! while I my lover's wealth inspect* DAPHNIS. Feed, bulls ! while I the virgin's way direct. CHLOE. Hands off ! what business have they in my dress ! DAPHNIS. First these love-apples will I gently press. CHLOE. By Pan ! I shudder — take your hand away. DAPHNIS. Dear little trembler I your alarm allay. IDYLL xivn. CHLOE. The ditch is dirty : would you throw me down ? DAPHNIS. I spread a soft white fleece beneath your gown. CHLOE. Why do you loose my zone ? what do you mean ? DAPHNIS. This first I offer to the Paphian queen. CHLOE Some one will see us : hist ! I hear a sound. DAPHNIS. The cypresses thy marriage whisper round. CHLOE My dress is spoiled : ah me ! what shall I do ? . DAPHNIS. 1 11 give thee, love, a better one and new. CHLOE. Perhaps e'en salt you will not give to me. DAPHNIS. Would I could give my very soul to thee ! CHLOE. Pardon, Queen Artemis ! my broken vow. DAPHNIS. Eros a calf, Cypris shall have a cow. CHLOE. I go a woman, who a virgin came. . DAPHNIS. 1? or virgin thine a wife's and mother's name. wTwK ""^I'^T^ t^^7, their youthful prime enjoying. With their fresh hmbs in furtive marriage toyin^ * bhe rose and to her flock went, seeming sad. Blushmg and shamefaced, but at heart was glad • And to his herd the happy Daphnis sped, Bejoicing greatly in his marriage-bed. 291 3% IDYLL XX\aiL IDYLL XXIX. i THE DISTAFF. Distaff ! quick implement of busy thrift, Which housewives ply, blue-eyed Athene's gift \ We go to rich Miletus, where is seen The fane of Cypris 'mid the rushes green : Praying to mighty Zeus for voyage fair, Thither to Nicias would I now repair, Delighting and delighted by my host, Whom the sweet-speaking Graces love the most Of all their favourites ; thee, distaff bright ! Of ivory wrought with art most exquisite, A present for his lovely wife I take. With her thou many various works shalt make ; Garments for men, and such as women wear Of silk, whose colour is the sea-blue clear. And she so diligent a housewife is. That ever for well-ankled Theugenis Thrice in a year are shorn the willing sheep Of the fine fleeces which for her they keep. She loves what love right-minded women all ; For never should a thriftless prodigal Own thee with my consent : 'twere shame and pity I Since thou art of that most renowned city, Built by Corinthian Archias erewhile, The marrow of the whole Sicilian isle. But in the house of that physician wise. Instructed how by wholesome remedies From human-kind diseases to repel, Thou shalt in future with lonians dwell, In beautiful Miletus ; that the fame For the best distaff Theugenis may claim, And thou may'st ever to her mind suggest The memory of her song-loving guest. The worth of offering from friend we pnse Not in the gift but in the giver lies. LOVES. They say, my dear, that wine and truth agree k To speak truth in my cups beseemeth me. And I will tell you all my secret thought ; You do not wholly love me as you ought. All of my life— the half that is not fled, Lives only in your form — the rest is dead. Just as you will, my life is one delight. Like that of gods, — or glooms in thickest night. How is it right to vex one loves you so ? Take my advice ; you will hereafter know, That I your elder taught you for the best. And, to believe me, was your interest. In one tree build one nest ; so shall not creep Some crawling mischief to disturb your sleep. See ! how you change about for ever now, Never two days together on one bough. And if one chance to praise your lovely face, Him more than friend of three years proof you grace \ To him that loved you first you are as cold. As to a mere acquaintance three days old. But now you breathe of wantonness and pride ; Like should love like ; in love be this your guide ; So do, and good renown you shall obtain, And Love will never visit you with pain. Who mortal hearts can easily subdue, And made me, heart of iron, dote on you. In all the changes of your fitful will, Unchanged I live but in your kisses still. Remember that you were last year, last week, Younger than now : we grow old while we speak. Wrinkles soon come ; and Youth speeds on amain, Wings on her shoulders, ne'er to come again : We, slow-foot mortals, cannot overtake Birds, or what else a winged passage make. Take thought, and be more mild : to me, who burQ In love for you, a guileless love return. 294 THEOCRITUS. That when your bloom of youthful beauty ends, We may be time-enduring, faithful friends. But if you cast my words unto the wind, Or piqued to anger murmur in your mind, " Why dost thou trouble me ? " I for thy sake, And thy much scorn, myself will straight betake, Where the gold apples their sweet fragrance spread, To Cerberus, the keeper of the dead. Then freed from love, and all its anxious pain, E'en at thy call, I could not come again. |l IDYLL XXX. THE DEATH OF ADONIS. Cypris, when she saw Adonis Cold and dead as any stone is, All his dark hair out of trim. And his fair cheek deadly dim, Thither charged the Loves to lead The cruel boar that did the deed. And they, swiftly overflying All the wood where he was lying, Soon the hapless creature found, And with cords securely bound. One the captive dragged along Holding at its end the thong ; While another with his bow Struck behind and made him go. Path of fear they made him tread- Aphrodite was his dread. Him the goddess thus addrest : " Of all beasts thou wickedest ! Thou ! didst thou this white thigh tear ? Didst thou smite my husband dear ? *' Fearfully, then, answered he : " Cypris ! I do swear to thee By thyself and husband dear, By the very bonds I wear. By these huntsmen, never I IDYLL XXX. Meant to tear thy husband's thigh ; Thinking there a statue stood, In the fever of my blood, I was mad a kiss to press On the naked loveliness : But my long tusk pierced the boy : Punish these, and these destroy. Tusks that worse then useless prov What had they to do with love ? And if this suffice not, pray, Cypris ! cut my lips away — What had they to do with kissing ? " Cypris then, her wrath dismissing, Pitied him that knew no better ; And she bade them loose his fetter. The boar, from that time of her train, Went not to the wood again ; But, approaching to the fire. Fairly burned out his desire. 295 A FRAGMENT FROM THE BERENICK If for good sport one prays and lucky gains, Who from the sea his livelihood obtains, His nets his plough ; let him at evening-fall. Offering a " white fish," on this goddess call — The fish called " white" as brightest that doth swim ; Nor shall his prayer be without fruit for him : For let him throw his nets into the sea. And he shall draw them full as they can be. EPIGRAMS. I. Thick-groaving thyme, and roses wet with dew. Are sacred to the sisterhood divine Of Helicon : the laurel, dark of hue. The Delphian laurel, Pythian Paean, thine I •^96 THEOCRITUS. For thee shall bleed the white ram which doth chew The downward hanging branch of turpentine. II. To Pan, the fair-cheeked Daphnis, whose red lip To his sweet pipe the pastoral wild notes married. Offered his pipe, crook, fawn-skin, spear, and scrip, Wherein he formerly his apples carried. m. Daphnis ! thou sleepest on the leaf-strown ground— Thy hunting-nets are on the mountain pight : Thee Pan is hunting— thee Priapus crowned With ivy and its golden berries bright ; Into the cavern both together bound : Up ! shake off sleep, and safety find in flight. IV. Where yon oak-thicket by the lane appears, A statue newly made of fig is seen, TLree-legged, the bark on still, but without ears, Witness of many a prank upon the green. A sacred grove runs round ; soft-bubbling near, A spring perennial from its pebbly seat Makes many a tree to shoot and flourish there, The laurel, myrtle, and the cypress sweet ; And the curled vine with clusters there doth float : Their sharp shrill tones the vernal blackbirds ring. And yellow nightingales take up the note, And, warbling to the others, sweetly sing. There, goatherd ! sit, and offer up for me Prayer to the rural god : if from my love He only will consent to set me free, A kid shall bleed in honour of his grove. If I must love, then, should my love succeed By his good grace, the fattest lamb I rear, > heifer, and a ram for him shall bleed : Freely I offer, may he kindly hear ! EPIGRAMS. V. 297 For the Nymphs' sake thy double flute provoke To breathe some sweetness : I the harp will take, And make it vocal to the quill's quick stroke ; And Daphnis from the pipe sweet sounds will shake. Come ! let us stand beside the thick-leaved oak, Behind the cave, and goat-foot Pan awake. VI. What boots it thee to weep away both eyes, Sad Thyrsis ! of thy pretty kid bereft : The wild wolf seizes it, and bounding flies, And the dog barks — at his successful theft. What profit now from weeping can arise ? For of the kid, nor bone nor dust is left. VII. UPON A STATUE OP -SSCULAPIUS. The son of Paean to Miletus came. And with the best physician, Nicias, staid. Who, daily kindling sacrificial flame. From fragrant cedar had this statue made. The highest price was paid Eetion's fame. Who all his skill upon the work outlaid. VIII. THE EPITAPH OF ORTHON. Stranger ! the Syracusian Orthon gives thee charge : Walk not o' winter nights, with many a cup Reeling : from this, instead of country large, I have a foreign mound — that shuts me up. IX. Man ! spare thy life, nor out of season be A voyager : man's term of life soon flies. For Thasus Cleonicus put to sea From Coelesyria with his merchandise : 298 THEOCRITUS. What time the Pleiad hastes to set, went he, And, with the Pleiad, sunk— no more to rise. X. UPON A STATUE OF THE MUSES. To you, this marble statue. Muses nine ! Xenocles placed ; the harmonist, whose skill No man denies : owning your aid divine, He by your aid is untbrgotten still. XI. AN EPITAPH ON EUSTHENES THE PHYSIOGNOMIST. This is the monument of Eusthenes, Who from one s face his mind and temper knew. In a strange land all rites the dead can please He had— and he was dear to poets too. Nothing was wanting to his obsequies : Homeless, he had dear friends and mourners true. XII. UPON A TRIPOD DEDICATED TO BACCHUS BY DEMOTELES. Sweet Dionysus ! sweetest god of all ! To thee this tripod and thy statue placed The leader of the choir, Damoteles. Only small praise did on his boyhood fall, But now his manhood is with victory graced, And more, that him virtue and honour please XIII. UPON AN IMAGE OF THE HEAVENLY APHRODITE. The heavenly Cypris, not the popular this : So call her bending lowly on thy knees. The chaste Chrysogona, for nuptial bliss, Had it set in the house of Amphicles, Her life-long spouse— his home, heart, children, hers : Their life, begun with thee, from year to year EPIGRAMS. Was happier, goddess ! They are ministers Of their own blessings, who the gods revere. XIV. AN EPITAPH OF EURYMEDON. Leaving a little son, Eurymedon ! Dead in thy prime, thou in this tomb dost Ke ; Thou dwellest with the blest : thy little son The state will prize for thy dear memory. XV. UPON THE SAME. Traveller ! by this it will be understood, If thou dost equal hold the bad and good : If not, then say : " Light lie this mound upon The sacred head of good Eurymedon." XVL UPON A STATUE OF ANACREON. Stranger ! this statue view with care, And say, when homeward you repair : " In Teos lately saw these eyes The statue of Anacreon wise. If ever bard in bower or hall Sang sweetly, sweetest he of all. Most of all things he loved in sooth The unblown loveliness of youth." Thus will you, stranger, in a little Express the whole man to a tittle. XVIL UPON EPICHARMUS. We Dorian Epicharmus praise in Dorian, Who first wrote comedy, but now, alas ! Instead of the true man, the race Pelorian, Bacchus ! to thee present him wrought in brass. 299 300 THEOCRITUS. Here stands he in their wealthy Syracuse, Known for his wealth and other service true ; To all he many a saw of practic use ^ Declared : and mighty honour is his due. XVIII. THE EPITAPH OF CLEITA, NURSE OF MEDEIUS. Medeius to his Thracian nurse had made This way-side monument, scored with her name Her nursing cares are to the woman paid : Why not ? her usefulness shall live to fame. XIX. UPON ARCHILOCHUS. Stay, and behold the old Iambic poet, Archilochus, of infinite renown — That he is known to east and west doth show it : The Muses and Apollo him did crown With choicest gifts : his was the poet's fire, And he could sing his verses to the lyre. UPON XX. A STATUE OF PISANDER, WHO COMPOSED LABOURS OF HERCULES." (( THE The poet of Camirus, first to sing The labours of the lion-slaying king, The quick-hand son of Zeus omnipotent. Was our Pisander : this his monument. They suffered many months and years to pass After his death — but now 'tis done in brass. XXI. UPON HIPPONAX, THE POET. The bard Hipponax, traveller ! lies here : If wicked, keep aloof; if in the number Of good men thou, of good men born, draw near, Sit down, and, if thou wilt, in safety slumber. IDYLL I. 301 XXIL AN EPIGRAM OF THEOCRITUS UPON HIS OWN BOOK. I am Theocritus, not he that was Of Chios, but a man of Syracuse. Philina bore me to Praxagoras : I never flirted with another's muse. XXIII. With Stranger and with citizen the same I deal : your own deposit take away, Paying the charge : excuse let others frame ; His debts Caicus e'en at night will pay. BION. IDYLL I. THE EPITAPH OF ADONIS. I AND the Loves Adonis dead deplore : The beautiful Adonis is indeed Departed, parted from us. Sleep no more In purple, Cypris ! but in watchet weed, All-wretched ! beat thy breast and all aread — " Adonis is no more." The Loves and I Lament him. Oh ! her grief to see him bleed. Smitten by white tooth on his whiter thigh. Out-breathing life's faint sugh upon the mountain high ! Adown his snowy flesh drops the black gore ; Stiffen beneath his brow his sightless eyes ; The rose is off his lip ; with him no more Livi^d Cytherea's kiss — but with him dies. He knows not that her lip his cold lip tries, But she finds pleasure still in kissing him. Deep is his thigh- wound ; hers yet deeper Iie8> i ' 302 BION. E'en in her heart. The Oread's eyes are dim ; ^ His hounds whine piteously ; in most disordered tnm, Distraught, unkempt, unsandalled, Cypris rushes Madly along the tangled thicket-steep ; Her sacred blood is drawn by bramble-bushes ; Her skin is torn ; with wailings wild and deep She wanders through the valley's weary sweep, Calling her boy-spouse, her Assyrian fere. But from his thigh the purple jet doth leap Up to his snowy navel ; on the clear Whiteness beneath his paps the deep-red streaks appear. "Alas for Cypris!" sigh the Loves, ^'deprived Of her fair spouse, she lost her beauty s pride ; Cypris was lovely whilst Adonis lived, But with Adonis all her beauty died." Mountains, and oaks, and streams, that broadly ghde, Or wail or weep for her ; in tearful rills For her gush fountains from the mountain side ; Redden the flowers from grief; city and hiUs With ditties sadly wild, lorn Cytherea fills. Alas for Cypris ! dead is her Adonis, And Echo '' dead Adonis " doth resound. ^ Who would not grieve for her whose love so lone is ." But when she saw his cruel, cruel wound. The purple gore that ran his wan thigh round. She spread her arms, and lowly murmured : " Stay thee, That I may find thee as before I found, Mv hapless own Adonis ! and embay thee, And mingle lips with lips, whilst in my arms I lay thee. « Up for a little ! kiss me back again The latest kiss— brief as itself that dies In being breathed, until I fondly drain ^ The last breath of my soul, and greedy-wise Drink it into my core. I will devise To guard it as Adonis— since from me To Acheron my own Adonis flies. And to the drear dread king ; but I must be A goddess still and hve, nor can I follow thee* II>YLL I. 303 " But thou, Persephona ! my spouse receive, Mightier than I, since to thy chamber drear All bloom of beauty falls : but I must grieve Unceasingly. I have a jealous fear Of thee, and weep for him. My dearest dear ! Art dead, indeed ? away my love did fly. E'en as a dream. At home my widowed cheer Keeps the Loves idle ; with thy latest sigh My cestus perished too ; thou rash one ! why, oh why " Did'st hunt? so fair, contend with monsters grim?" Thus Cypris wailed ; but dead Adonis lies ; For every gout of blood that fell from him. She drops a tear ; sweet flowers each dew supplies — Roses his blood, her tears anemonies. Cypris ! no longer in the thickets weep ; The couch is furnished ! there in loving guise Upon thy proper bed, that odorous heap. The lovely body lies — how lovely ! as in sleep. Come ! in those softest vestments now array him In which he slept the live-long night with thee ; And in the golden settle gently lay him, — A sad, yet lovely sight ; and let him be High heaped with flowers ; though withered all when he Surceased. With essences him sprinkle o'er And ointments ; let them perish utterly. Since he, who was thy sweetest, is no more. He lies in purple ; him the weeping Loves deplore. Their curls are shorn : one breaks his bow ; another His arrows and the quiver ; this unstrings, And takes Adonis' sandal off ; his brother In golden urn the fountain water brings ; This bathes his thighs ; that fans him with his wings. The Loves, " Alas for Cypris ! " weeping say : Hymen hath quenched his torches ; shreds and flinga The marriage wreath away ; and for the lay Of love is only heard the doleful " weal-away." Yet more than Hymen for Adonis weep The Graces ; shriller than Dione vent Their shrieks ; for him the Muses wail and keep 304 Blow. Singing the songs he hears not, with intent To calf him back : and would the nymph relent, How willingly would he the Muses hear ! Hush ! hush ! to-day, sad Cypris ! and consent To spare thyself— no more thy bosom tear — For thou must wail again, and weep another year. IDYLL IL EROS AND THE FOWLER. Hunting the birds within a bosky grove, A birder, yet a boy, saw winged Love Perched on a box-tree branch ; rejoicing saw What seemed a large bird, and began to draw His rods together, and he thought to snare Love, that kept ever hopping here and there. Then fretting that he could not gain his end, Casting his rods down, sought his aged friend, Who taught him bird-catching— his story told, And showed Love perching. Smiled the ploughman old And shook his head, replying to the boy . " Against this bird do not your rods employ ; It is" an evil creature ; shun him— flee ; Until you take him, happy will you be. But if you ever come to manhood's day, He that now flies you and still bounds away, Will of himself, by no persuasion led, ^^ . Come suddenly and sit upon your head." IDYLL IIL THE TEACHER TAUGHT. By me in my fresh prime did Cypris stand, Leading the child Love in her lovely hand ; He kept his eyes fixt, downcast on the ground, WWle in mine ears his mother's words did sound :- « Dear herdsman, take and teach for me, I pray, Eros to sing ; " she said, and went her way. IDYLLS IV. V. Him, as one fain to learn, without ado I then began to teach whate'er I knew Fool that I was ! how first great Pan did suit With numerous tones his new-invented flute ; Athene wise the straight pipe's reedy hollow ; Hermes his shell ; his cithern sweet Apollo. I taught him this ; he heeded not my lore, But sang me his love-ditties evermore His mother's doings — how Immortals yearn With fond desires, and how poor mortals burn. All I taught Eros I have quite forgot ; But his love-ditties — I forget them not. 305 IDYLL IV. THE POWER OF LOVE. The Muses fear not, but with heart-love true Affect wild Eros, and his steps pursue. And if one sings with cold and loveless heart, They shun him, and will never teach their art. But if one sings Love's agitated thrall, To him in flowing stream they hasten all. Of this myself am proof ; for whensoe'er For some Immortal else or mortal here I would the glowing path of song explore, Stammers my tongue, and sings not as before ; But glad and gushing flows the strain from me^ Whene'er I sing of Love or Clymene. IDYLL V. LIFE TO BE ENJOYED. If sweet my songs, or these suflicient be Which I have sung to give renown to me, I know not : but it misbeseems to stram At things we have not learned, and toil in vain. 306 BfON. If sweet these songs are not, what profit more Have I to labour at them o'er and o'er ? If Saturn's son and changeful Fate assigned A double life-time to our mortal kind, That one in joys and one in woes be past, Who had his woes first would have joys at last. But since Heaven wills one life to man should fall. And this is very brief — too brief for all We think to do, why should we fret and moil, And vex ourselves with never-ending toil ? To what end waste we life exhaust our health On gainful arts, and sigh for greater wealth ? We surely all forget our mortal state — How brief the life allotted us by Fate ! IDYLL VL CLEODAMUS AND MYRSON. CLEODAMUS. What sweet for you has Summer or the Spring, What joy does Autumn or the Winter bring ? Which season do you hail with most delight ? Summer, whose fulness doth our toils requite ? Or the sweet Autumn, when but slight distress From hunjrer falls on mortal wretchedness ? Or lazy Winter — since but few are loath To cheer themselves with fire-side ease and sloth ? Or the Spring, blushing with its bloom of flowers ? Tell me your choice, since leisure-time is ours. MYRSON. For man to judge things heavenly is unmeet, And all these seasons holy are and sweet. But I to please you will indulge your ear, And tell my favourite season of the year. Not Summer — then I feel the scorching sun ; Nor Autumn — then their course diseases run j And hard I find to bear the Winter frore, The chilling snow I fear, and crystal hoar. IDYLL VII. — X. Of all the year the Spring delights me most, Free from the scorching sun, and bitter frost. All life-containing shapes conceive in Spring, And all sweet things are sweetly blossoming ; And in that season of the year's delight There is for men an equal day and night. 307 VIL ON HYACINTHUS. Ph(ebus tried all his means, and thought of new, Scarce knowing what he did in his distress ; With nectar bathed him, with ambrosial dew ; But Fate made remedies remediless. VIIL FRIENDSHIP. Happy is love or friendship when returned — The lovers whose pure flames have equal burned^ Happy was Theseus, e'en in Tartarus, With his true heart-friend, good Pirithous. His Pylades Orestes lorn did bless Amid th' inhospitable Chalybes. Blest was Achilles in a friend long tried ; Him living loved, for his sake gladly died ! IX. Yourself to artists always to betake, And on yourself in nothing to rely Is misbeseeming : friend ! your own pipe mak^-« The work is easy, if you will but try. X. May Love the Muses evermore invite, The Muses bring me Love ! and to requite My passion, may they give sweet song to ni«^ Than which no sweeter remedy can be. X 2 308 BTOTsf. XT. When drop on drop, they say, doth ever follow, 'Twill wear tht stone at last into a hollow. XII. I to the sandy shore and seaward slope Will go, and try with murmured song to bend The cruel Galatea : my sweet hope ril cast away — when life itself doth end. XIII. Oh, leave me not unhonoured ! Artists aim And reach at excellence, provoked by Fame. XIV. Woman's strength is in her beauty ; — Man's — to bear and dare for duty. IDYLL XV. THE EPITHALAMIUM OF ACHILLES AND DEH)AMU. Myrson. Lycidas. MYRSON. Will you, my Lycidas, now sing for me A soothing, sweet Sicilian melody — A love-song, such as once the Cyclops young On the sea-shore to Galatea sung ? LYCIDAS. Fll pipe or sing for you : what shall it be ? MYRSON. The song of Scyros dearly pleases me, Sweet love — the pleasant life Pelides led — His furtive kisses, and the furtive bed. How he, a boy, put on a virgin's dress, Assumed a virgin's mien, and seemed no less ; And how Deidamia, maiden coy, Found her girl bedmate was a wicked boy. IDYLL XVI, 309 LYCIDAS. The herdsman, Paris, on an evil day, To Ida bore the lovely Helena. CEnone grieved ; and Laced^mon raged, And all th' Achaeans in the feud engaged : Hellenes, Elians, and Mycenians, came. And brave Laconians, to retake the dame. When Greece her battle led across the deep, Himself at home no warrior then might keep. Achilles only went not then, indeed. Hid with the daughters of king Lycoraede. A seeming virgin with a virgin's bloom, Instead of arms his white hand Mied the loom. No virgin of them all had airs more fine, A rosier cheek, or step more feminine : He veiled his hair ; but Mars and fiery Love, That stings young manhood, all his thoughts did move. He lingered by Deidamia's side, Close as he could, from morn till eventide : Often he kissed her hand, and often raised Her broidered work : her work and fingers praised. Of all the maids his only messmate she ; And he would fain his bedmate have her be. And thus he sued with furtive meaning deep : — " With one another other sisters sleep ; In station, love, and age, we twain are one. Why should we, maidens both, each sleep alone ? Since we together are all day, I wonder Why we are made at night to sleep asunder P** IDYLL XVI. TO THE EVENING STAR. Hesper ! sweet Aphrodite's golden light ! Hesper ! bright ornament of swarthy Night, Inferior to the Moon's clear sheen, as far As thou outshinest every other star ; Dear Hesper, hail ! and give thy light to me, Leading the festive shepherd company. For her new course to-day began the Moon, 310 MOSCHUS. And is already set — O much too soon ! 'Tis not for impious theft abroad I stir, Nor to way-lay the nightly traveller : I love ; and thou, bright star of love ! shouldst lend The lover light — his helper and his friend. IDYLL XVIL LOVE RESISTLESS. Bright Cypris ! goddess ever meek and mild, Of mightiest Zeus and loveliest sea-nymph child, Why w^ith Immortals and our mortal kind Art thou so wroth ? what stung thy gentle mind To brinnj forth Love ? who wills at all to strike, His cruel heart his person how unlike ! Winged and far-darter why didst make him, why, That we the cruel one can never fly ? MOSCHUS. IDYLL L LOVE A RUNAWAY. Ker Eros thus proclaimed the Cyprian Queen :— " If any one has in the highway seen My straying Eros, and reports to me His whereabouts, he shall rewarded be : A kiss for him ; but if it shall betide One bring him me, a kiss — and more beside. Midst twenty he is notable to view ; Not fair, but flamy, is his dazzling hue ; Sharp are his eyes, and flame their glances fleet ; His mind is wicked, but his speech is sweet. His word and meaning are not like at all ; His word is honey, and his meaning gall. IDYLL . IT. He is a mischievous, deceitful child ; Beguiles with falsehood, laughs at the beguiled. He has a lovely head of curling hair. But saucy features, with a reckless stare. His hands are tiny, but afar they throw. E'en down to Dis and Acheron below. Naked his form, his mind in covert lies ; Winged as a feathered bird, he careless flies From girls to boys, from men to women flits. Sports with their heart-strings, on their vitals sits. Small is his bow, his arrow small to sight. But to Jove's court it wings its ready flight. Upon his back a golden quiver sounds, Full of sharp darts, with which e'en me he wounds. All cruel things by cruel Love are done ; His torch is small, yet scorches e'en the sun. But should you take him — fast and safely bind him, And bring him to me with his hands behind him. If he should weep, take heed — he weeps at will ; But should he smile — then drag him faster still ; And should he off*er you a kiss, beware ! Evil his kiss, his red lips poisoned are ! And should he say, with seeming friendship hot, * Accept my bow and arrows,' touch them not ! Tears, smiles, words, gifts, deceitful wiles inspire, And every thing he has is dipt in fire." 311 IDYLL IL EUROPA. Cypris, when all but shone the dawn's glad beam. To fair Europa sent a pleasant dream ; When sleep, upon the close-shut eyelids sitting, Sweeter than honey, is eye-fetters knitting, The limb-dissolving sleep ! when to and fro True dreams, like sheep at pasture, come and go. Europa, sleeping in her upper room. The child of Phoenix, in her virgin bloom, Thought that she saw a contest fierce arise Betwixt two continents, herself the prize ; i I 31? MOSCHUS. They to the dreamer seemed like women quite, Asia, and Asia's unknown opposite. This was a stranger, that a native seemed, And closer hugged her— so Europa dreamed ; And called herself Europa s nurse and mother. Said that she bore and reared her; but that other Spared not her hands, and still the sleeper drew, With her good will, and claimed her as her due, And said that Zeus ^Egiochus gave her, By Plate's appointment, that sweet prisoner. Up-started from her couch the maiden waking, And felt her heart within her bosom quaking ; She thought it true, and sat in hushed surprfse Still saw those women with her open eyes ; Then to her timid voice at last gave vent : " Which of the gods to me this vision sent ? What kind of dream is this that startled me, And sudden made my pleasant slumber flee ? Who was the stranger that I saw in sleep ? What love for her did to my bosom creep ! And how she hailed me, as her daughter even ! But only turn to good my vision, Heaven !" So said, and bounded up, and sought her train Of dear companions, all of noble strain. Of equal years and stature ; gentle, kind, Sweet to the sight, and pleasant to the mind ; With whom she sported, when she led the choir, Or in the river's urn-like reservoir She bathed her limbs, or in the meadow stopt. And from its bosom odorous lilies cropt. And soon around her shone the lovely band. Her flower-basket in each maiden's hand ; And to the meadows near the pleasant shore They sped, where they had often sped before, Pleased with the roses growing in their reacli, And with the waves that murmured on the beach. A basket by Hephaestus wrought of gold, Europa bore — a marvel to behold ; He gave it Libya, when, a blooming bride. She went to grace th(i great Earth-shaker's side ; IDYLL n. She gave it Telephassa fair and mild, Who now had given it to her virgin child. Therein were many sparkling wonders wrought— The hapless lo to the sight was brought ; A heifer's for a virgin's form she wore ; The briny paths she frantic wandered o'er, And was a swimming heifer to the view. While the sea round her darkened into blue. Two men upon a promontory stood. And watched the heifer traversing the flood. Again where seven-mouthed Nile divides his strand, Zeus stood and gently stroked her with his hand, And from her horned figure and imbruted To her original form again transmuted. In brass the heifer — Zeus was wrought in gold ; Nile softly in a silver current rolled. And to the life was watchful Hermes shown Under the rounded basket's golden crown ; And Argus near him with unsleeping eyes Lay stretched at length ; then from his blood did rise The bird, exulting in the brilliant pride Of his rich plumes and hues diversified. And like a swift ship with her out-spread sail, Expanding proudly his resplendent tail. The basket's golden rim he shadowed o'er : Such was the basket fair Europa bore. They reached the mead with vernal blossoms ful3, And each began her favourite flowers to pull. Narcissus one ; another thyme did get ; This hyacinth, and that the violet ; And of the spring-sweets in the meadow found Much scented bloom was scattered on the ground. Some of the troop in rivalry chose rather The sweet and yellow crocuses to gather ; Shining, as mid the Graces Cypris glows, The princess in the midst preferred the rose : Nor long with flowers her gentle fancy charmed. Nor long she kept her virgin flower unharmed* With love for her was Saturn's son inflamed, By unexpected darts of Cypris tamed, 312 314 Moscnrs. . treatment which Aristodemus met at Sparta, after his inglorious .dum from ThermopylK. Cf. Herodot. vii. 229. 392 328 THE WAR-SONGS OF TYRTiEUS. I. li respect in time to come. "^ With spirit let us fight for this land, and for our children die, being no longer chary of our lives. Fight ^ then, young men, standing fast one by another, nor 9 be beginners of cowardly flight, or fear. But rouse a great and valiant spirit in your breasts, and love not life, when ye contend with men. And the elders, whose limbs are no longer active, the old, 1 say, desert not or forsake. For surely this'i^Jerc shameful, that fallen amid the foremost champions, in front of the youths, an older man should lie low, 'O having his head now white and his beard hoary, and breathing out I valiant spirit in the dust ; whilst ^^he covers with his hands •lis gory loins, (which were a shame, and would make one wroth to behold with his eyes :) and is stript as to his person : »2yet all this befits the young, whilst, I wot, he enjoys the »3 brilliant bloom of youth; to mortal men and women he is lovely to look upon, whilst he lives ; and noble when he has fallen in the foremost ranks. Then let ^^ every one with firm » Qviii^. Cf. Yirg. Mr\. ii. 617, Nunc anirnis opus, ^Enea, nunc pectore tolo. Thucyd. ii. 11, c'i Xoyio/i

v dvSpCJv. ,, « Atrw. Klotz thinks this should be construed " choose out, pick, as in Virg! ^n. xi. 632, legitque virum vir. ^ ^ . __ ,00^7. " Kai TTo^a. .c. r. X. So Horn. II. xiii. 130 ; Eurip. Heracl. 836, 7 . Virg. .En. X. 360, Trojanee acies, aciesque Latinae ooncurrunt, haeret pede pes, densusque viro vir. Ov. Met. ix. 44, / ,.^ >* yvuvfireg, i. e. ol ^/tXoi, oV atpevSovrjrai Kai ot ro^orat.— n'rwtr(Tovr«c, i. q. Kpv^TofiSvoi. Cf. 11. xxii. 14, Tpo>*c 7rr(U(T(rov vtto ^PW^^^^^ I navoTrX.'occ, for ^avo^Xiracc. Abstract for concrete. ^^ ^^ ve^f Often find oTrXa for oTrXira.. Eu -ip. Orest. 444 ; Soph. Ant. 115; X«b. ni- THE WAR-SONGS OF TYRT^US. 331 III. ^ I WOULD neither commemorate, nor hold in account a man, either for excellence in running, or for wrestling ; no, nor though he should have the bulk and strength of the Cyclopes, and in speed surpass ^Thracian Boreas. No, nor though he should in personal appearance be more graceful than ^Titho- nus, and should be more rich than Midas or ^Cinyras. Nor though he should be more kingly tlian Pelops, son of Tantalus, and have the ^ soft-voiced tongue of Adrastus ; nor yet if he should have all glory, save (hat of resistless valour ; for he is not a man brave in war, ^unless he have the courage to face bloody slaughter, and standing near attack the foemen. But this is excellence, this the best prize among men, and noblest for a young man to carry off. And this is a common good to a city, and all its people, namely, whatsoever man standing A nab. ii. 2, 4, Arma for armati. Virg. ^n. i. 509, Septa armis ; ii. 238, F^ODta armis ; v. 409, Consequimur cuncti et densis incurrimus armis. In the same manner " Vitam " is, in Pha?dr. Prol. i. 3, equivalent to " vi- ventes." " Consilia ;" Cic. Ep. viii. 4, 5, consilia agitantes. Flagitia, for facinorosos. Sallust, B. C. xiv. 1. ' This line is quoted by Plato, de Leg. i. pp. 15, 16, (voi. vi. ed. Ast,) and has been rendered into Latin by Erasmus, Adag. (it. " Fortitudi- nis," p. 259, ed. Francof. 1670. Plato's quotation is read with rt0f j'/ut/i', which Stephanus would read here — tv Xoy*^ tiOsitjv. Cf. Theocr. Idyll, xiv. 48, dfifiig d' ovri \6yov rivbg d^ioi — dptrr) from "Apyjg, as virtus from vir, signifies excellence of any kind. Arist. Nic. Eth. ii. 5. Lucret. v. 964, et raanuum mira freti virtute pedumque. 2 Boreas is called Thracian, because Thracian Ha?mus was supposed to be the dwelling of the blustering North wind. Callimach. H. to Diun 114. A(/i IttI Opi'jiKi, TToGev (iopedo KaraX^ tpx^Tai. For comparison of swift runners with the wind, see Hom. II. x. 437 ; Virg. iEn. vii. 206, 207, ♦* Cursuque pedum pracvertere ventos." 3 Tithonus. Horat. Od. ii. 16, 30, Longa Tithonum minuit senec- tus. Virg. JEn. iv. 585, Tithoni croceum linquens Aurora cubile. Tithonus, son of Laomedon and favourite of Aurora, attained a great age, by favour of Jove. * Cinyras, a king of Cj'prus. whose wealth rendered his name a pro- verb. Pindar, Nem. viii. oaTrtp Kai Kivvpav t(ipiat 7rXour<^ irovTiq, tv TTori KvTrpy. * /ictXixo-y7;pvv— Compare Theocr. vii. 82, and the Song of Solomon, iv. 11, quoted above. « These lines are also quoted by Plato in the passage cited above TiTXairi oputv. For the use of the participle for the infin. after othe ▼erbs signifying perseverance, endurance, &c. see Matt. Gr. Gr. ^ 550. » 332 THE WAR-SONGS OF TTRTJEJ3S, Ul. If. THE WAR-SONGS OF TYRT^US. 333 firm bides unceasingly in the front ranks, and is wholly for- eetful of base flight, when he has ^ staked his life, and en- during spirit ; but has the heart to fall, standing beside his next neighbour. This man is good in war. And qXiickly does he turn in flight the sturdy phalanxes of foemen, and » zeal- ously stem the wave of battle. He too himself having fallen amid the foremost, loses his life, and (at the same time) having brc^uo-ht renown to his city and people and sire : pierced in many places through breast, and round shield, and through his cuirass in the front. Him young alike and old lament, and the whole state is distressed for him with painful regret. His 9 tomb and children are famous among men, ay, ^^his children's children, and his race after him. Never does his fair fiime or his name perish, but though he be on earth, he becomes immortal, whom, bravely bearing himself, standing firm, and fighting for country and for children, impetuous Ares shall have destroyed. But should he have escaped the fate of death that-lays-men-out-at-length ; and as victor, have borne off* the splendid boast of battle won, all honour him, youncr and oldalike ; and " after tasting many delights, he comes to Hades. Growing old, he is eminent amid the citizens, nor does any one wish to hurt him in point of respect or justice. T Qvubv irapQkiiivoQ. Horn. Od. ii. 237, a(paQ ydp 7rap0l/x€voi Kt^aXaq. Od iii 74 II. i. 372, TrapajSaXXo/icvoc, similarly used. » "Wy', the opposite to^cia,roWa. II. x. 303. Odyss. xv. 209. CTTOvly vvv ava^aiv^.-iax^e^-h^ here is equivalent to ra>Xi/a,, itix^. —Kvua uaYTjc. For similar metaphors taken from the raging sea, com- pare^Eu^^'Hippol. 823; Soph' Aj. 1082 1083 ; Antig. 162 163 ; CEd C. 1240—1245; CEd. T. 23; Trach. 114 ; ^sch. Prom. V. 1014 (Dind.) ; S. c. Theb. 63. Horat. Od. ii. 7, 15, Te rursus in bellum resorbens Unda fretis tulit aestuosis. » rt-/xi3oc— Compare with this passage Thuc. ii. 43, Koivy yap rA '^'^.o^The 'lawsTf Ath'ens ordained that the children of such as had fallen in war, should be protected, publicly reared and educated, and have first seats at the theatres. Cf. Lysias, Orat. Funebr p. 521, cap. xx. ad med. •jraXhq TraiSiov. Horn. II. xx. 308, icai iraldiQ naiSiov roi Ktv turo^ '''» ^VplTh^Mv. -Kaax^iv is used " de bonis." See Budeeus Comm de L G. p. 74, (Paris, 1529,) who quotes Lysias, tiq ovv tXTrig virb ro^tv rr^i, .06v .a«cr0ac.-Aristoph. Eccles. 893 ; Eq. 876. Plautu, in Asinar. ir.. 2, 58, Fortiter malum qui patitur, idem post patitor bouum. And all ^^on the seats, alike young, and those of his age, and they who are still older, give place to him. Let every one now strive in his spirit to reach the summit of ^^ excellence like this, not'* slackening warfare. IV. How long lie ye inactive ? when will ye have a brave spi- rit young men ? and are ye not ^ ashamed of the dwellers all around, since ye dally thus exceedingly ? For ye think ye 2 sit secure in peace, yet war possesses the whole land. ♦ ***♦* 3 And let a man, as he dies, discharge his javelin for the last time For it is both honourable and noble for a man to fight for land, and children, and wedded wife, with his foes ; and death will come at some time, whensoever in truth the fates shall have allotted. But let every one, havmg lifted alott his lance, and * gathered up his stout heart under his shield, go " ewKottrtv— For this reverence to honourable age cf. Cic. de Senect. c. 18. ^ 63, 64. Juvenal xiii. 54, Credebant hoc grande nefas et morte piandum Si juvenis vetulo non assurrexerit. Virff Eel vi. 66, Utque viro Phoebi chorus assurrexerit omnis. ^ >?'ap£r^C, glory. Thuc. i. 33, Kui Trpoakrc Nard shield and lance, throw- ing them with good courage, and not sparing life in behalt ot ^our father-land. XTI5 Before he has drawn nigh the bounds of glory or death. XIII. 6 And having in his breast tne courage of a fiery lien. 1 This fragment is found in Plut. Vit. Lycurg. i. 43. 5 o\^aU Lav. the Aldine reading. But the only intelligible emend 4tion is ot'«(i5Uv«^av, domum attulerunt, which has been adopted here, a'".^' X TLese w^re the unwritten laws of Lycurgus Suidas V. in. p. **'♦!' fragment from Dio Chrysost. Orat. ii. p. 51, ed. Morell. . 1 fragment from a treatise of Plutarch, de Stoicorum rcpugntntii.. • ▲ fragment preserved by Galen. THE WAR-SONGS OF TYRT^US. TKANST,\TED BY THE KEY. R. POLWIIELE. I. If, fighting for his dear paternal soil, The soldier in the front of battle fall ; 'Tis not in fickle fortune to despoil His store of fame, that shines the charge of all. But if, opprest by penury, he rove Far from his native town and fertile plain ; And lead the sharer of his fondest love In youth too tender, with her infjint train ; And if his aged mother — his shrunk sire Join the sad group ; see many a bitter ill Against the houseless family conspire. And all the measure of the wretched fill. Pale, shivering want companion of his way, He meets the lustre of no pitying eye ; To hunger and dire infamy a prey — Dark hatred scowls, and scorn quick passes by. Alas ! no traits of beauty or of birth — No blush now lingers in his sunken face ! Dies every feeling (as he roams o'er earth) Of shame transmitted to a wandering race. z 33ft THE WAR- SONGS OF TYRT^US. But be it ours to guard this I allowed s-po*, To shield the tender otfspring and the wife ; Here steadily await our destined lot, And, for their sakes, resi^jn the gift of life. Ye valorous youths, in squadrons close combined, Rush, with a noble impulse, to the fight ! Let not a thought of life glance o'er your mind, And not a momentary dream of flight. Watch your hoar seniors, bent by feeble age, Whose weak knees fail, though strong their ardour glows ; Nor leave such warriors to the battle's rage, But round their awful spirits firmly close. J5ase — base the sight, if, foremost on the plain, In dust and carnage the fall'n veteran roll ; And, ah I while youths shrink back, unshielded, stain His silver temples, and breathe out his soul ! The remainder is omitted in the translation, on account of its in- delicacy. Priam's speech to Hector, lUad, b. xxii., contains similar sentiments ; Who dies in youth and vigour, dies the best, Struck through with wounds, all honest on the breast. But when the fates, in fulness of their rage. Spurn the hoar head of unresisting age, In dust the reverend lineaments deform, And pour to dogs the life-blood scarcely warm ; This, this is inisery ! the last, the worst That man can feel ; man, fated to be curst ! II.» Yet are ye Hercules' unconquered race — Remand, heroic tribe, your spirit lost ! Not yet all-seeing Jove averts his face ; Then meet without a fear the thronging host. ' The translator had, at first, given a different turn to this piece, vc which there is confessedly great obscurity. He is still in doubt whether the following version does not better express the sentiments of Jjr- taeus: — THE WAR-SONGS OF TyRT^:US. Each to the foe his steady shield oppose. Accoutred to resign his hateful breath : The friendly sun a mild effulgence throws On valour's grave, though dark the frown of death. Yes \ ye have known the ruthless work of war I Yes ! ye have known its tears — its heavy woe ; When, scattering in pale flight, ye rushed afar, Or chased the routed squadrons of the foe. Of those who dare, a strong compacted band, Firm for the fight their warrior-spirits link. And grapple with the foeman, hand to hand, How few, through deadly wounds expiring, sink I 33^) Ye are the race of Hercules— a race Unvanquished in the fight, and nobly proud: Then stand— for Jove not yet averts his face — Then stand, superior to the hostile crowd. Fear not ; advancing to the bloody strife, Let each oppose his buckler to the foe ! And, ready to resign his load of life. Through fate's dark path, with warrior-spirit, go. Yet is that path delightful to the sun, His radiance smiling on heroic death ! The military course ye oft have run : Then lightly value Ufe's precarious breath. For ye have seen, on many a toilsome day. How sad the ruthless work of war appears ; Seen anger furious in the battle's bray, And Mars exulting in abundant tears. For ye have known, full well, the rage of war ; Whether, o'erpowered, your gasping squadrons bled, Or, scattered o'er the purple plains afar. Your victor-arms the foe in terror fled. If as a learned friend of the Translator seems to think, the version in the text be a true representation of the original, this little poem was ad- iressed to a band of youths who had met with a repulse from the enon.y. They had, at one time, been put to flight ; and, at another been too eager to pursue ; both of which were accounted disgracetul 1 he poe exho. ts them to b'e in readiness to lay down a hfe that must be hateful to hem ; and meet the dark destiny of death, which the sua would behold i^sth pleasure, as delighting in the grave of a warrior. z 2 II I 340 THE WAR-SONGS OF TYllT.ELS. They, foremost in the ranks of battle, .enarrl The inglorious multitude that march behind ; While shrinking fears the coward's step retard, And dies each virtue in the feeble mind. But 'tis not in the force of words to paint What varied ills attend the ignoble troop, Who trembling on th*-. scene of glory faint. Or wound the fugitives that breathless droop. Basely the soldier stabs, with hurried thrust, The unresisting wretch, that shieldless Hies ! At his last gasp dishonoured in the dust (His back transfixed with spears) the dastard lies i Thus, then, bold youth, the rules of valour learn : Stand firm, and fix on earth thy rooted feet ; Bite with thy teeth thy eager lips ; and stern In conscious strength, the rushing onset meet : And shelter with thy broad and bossy shield Thy thighs and shins, thy shoulders and thy breast ; The long spear ponderous in thy right hand wield. And on thy head high nod the dreadful crest. Mark well the lessons of the w^arlike art. That teach thee, if the shield with ample round Protect thy bosom, to approach the dart. Nor choose with timid care the distant ground. But, for close combat with the fronting foe. Elate in valorous attitude draw near ; And aiming, hand to hand, the fateful blow. Brandish thy tempered blade or massy spear. Yes ! for the rage of stubborn grapple steeled. Grasp the sword's hilt, and couch the long-beat laroej Foot to the foeman's foot, and shield to shield. Crest ev'n to crest, and helm to helm, advance. But ye light-armed, who, trembling in the rear, Bear smaller targets, at a distance, throw The hissing stone, or hurl the polished spear, (Placed nigh your panoply,) to mar the foe. THE WAR-SONGS OF TYRT^US. III. I WOULD not value, or transmit the fame Of him whose brightest worth in swiftness liee ; Nor would I chaunt his poor unwarlike name. Who wins no chaplet but the wrestler's prize. In vain, for me, the Cyclops' giant might Blends with the beauties of Tithonus' form ; In vain the racer's agile powers unite. Fleet as the whirlwind of the Thracian storm. In vain, for me, the riches round him glow A Midas or a Cinyras possest ; Sweet as Adrastus' tongue his accents flow. Or Pelops' sceptre seems to stamp him blest. Vain all the dastard honours he may boast, If his soul thirst not for the martial field ; Meet not the fury of the rushing host. Nor bear o'er hills of slain the untrembhng shield. This— this is virtue : This— the noblest meed That can adorn our youth with fadeless rays ; While all the penis of the adventurous deed. The new-strung vigour of the state repays. Amid the foremost of the embattled train, Lo, the young hero hails the glowing fight ; And, though fall'n troops around him press the plain. Still fronts the foe, nor brooks inglorious flight. His life— his fervid soul opposed to death. He dares the terrors of the field defy ; Kindles each spirit with his panting breath, And bids his comrade-warriors nobly die ! See, see, dismayed, the phalanx of the foe Turns round, and hurries o'er the plain afar i While doubling, as afresh, the deadly blow, He rules, intrepid chief, the waves of war 341 342 THE WAR-SONGS OF TYRT^EUS. Now fall'ii. the noblest of the van, he dies ! His city by the beauteous death renowned ; His low-bent father marking, where he lies, The shield, the breastplate, hacked by many a wound. The young— the old, aUke commingling tears, His country's heavy grief bedews the grave ; And all his race in verdant lustre wears Fame's richest wreath, transmitted from the bravo. Though mixed with earth the perishable clay. His name shall live, while glory loves to tell, " True to his country how he won the day. How firm the hero stood, how calm he fell ! " But if he 'scape the doom of death, (the doom To long — long dreary slumbers,) he returns, While trophies Hash, and victor-laurels bloom, And all the splendour of the triumph burns. The old — the young — caress him, and adore ; And with the city's love, through life, repaid, He sees each comfort, that endears, in store, Till, the last hour, he sinks to Pluto's shade. Old as he droops, the citizens, o'erawed, (Ev'n veterans,) to his mellow glories yield ; Nor would in thought dishonour or defraud The hoary soldier of the well-fought field. Be yours to reach such eminence of fame ; To gain such heights of virtue nobly dare, My youths ! and, 'mid the fervour of acclaim, Press, press to glory ; nor remit the war ! IV. Rouse, rouse, my youths ! the chain of torpor break I Spurn idle rest, and couch the glittering lance ! What ! does not shame with blushes stain your cheek Quick -mantling, as ye catch the warrior's glance ? I !f THE WAR-SONGS OF TYRT^EUS. 343 Ignoble youths ! say, when shall valour's flame Burn in each breast? Here, here, while hosts invade, And war's wild clangours all your courage claim, Ye sit, as if still peace embowered the shade. But, sure, fiiir honour crowns the auspicious deed, When patriot love impels us to the field ; When, to defend a trembling wife, we bleed. And when our sheltered offspring bless the shield. 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