Idyll III, also called
Κώμος ('The Serenade'), is a
bucolic
The pastoral genre of literature, art, or music depicts an idealised form of the shepherd's lifestyle – herding livestock around open areas of land according to the seasons and the changing availability of water and pasture. The target aud ...
poem by the 3rd-century BC Greek poet
Theocritus
Theocritus (; , ''Theokritos''; ; born 300 BC, died after 260 BC) was a Greek poet from Sicily, Magna Graecia, and the creator of Ancient Greek pastoral poetry.
Life
Little is known of Theocritus beyond what can be inferred from his writings ...
.
[Edmonds, ed. 1919, p. 41.] The poet appears to
persona
A persona (plural personae or personas) is a strategic mask of identity in public, the public image of one's personality, the social role that one adopts, or simply a fictional Character (arts), character. It is also considered "an intermediary ...
te a young goatherd, who after five lines dedicatory to a friend whom he calls Tityrus, serenades his mistress Amaryllis outside her cave.
[Chesi 2018, p. 489.] The poem is a monologue, but, like
Idyll II Idyll II, also called Φαρμακεύτριαι ('The Sorceresses'), is a poem by the 3rd-century BC Greek poet Theocritus, usually categorised with Idylls XIV and XV as one of his 'urban mimes'.Edmonds, ed. 1919, p. 24. The speaker of the poem, ...
, preserves the dialogue-form by means of a dumb character.
Summary
A goatherd, leaving his goats to feed on the hill-side, in the charge of Tityrus, approaches the cavern of Amaryllis, with its veil of ferns and ivy, and attempts to win back the heart of the girl by song.
[Lang, ed. 1880, p. 16.] He mingles promises with threats, and repeats in verse the names of the famous lovers of old days, Milanion and
Endymion
Endymion primarily refers to:
* Endymion (mythology), an Ancient Greek shepherd
* ''Endymion'' (poem), by John Keats
Endymion may also refer to:
Fictional characters
* Prince Endymion, a character in the ''Sailor Moon'' anime franchise
* Ra ...
.
Failing to move Amaryllis, the goatherd threatens to die where he has thrown himself down, beneath the trees.
Analysis
According to
J. M. Edmonds
John Maxwell Edmonds (21 January 1875 – 18 March 1958) was an English people, English classics, classicist, poet and dramatist and the author of several celebrated martial epitaphs.
Biography
Edmonds was born in Stroud, Gloucestershire on 21 ...
, "The appeal to Amaryllis may be regarded as consisting of three parts each ending with the offer of a gift—apples, garland, a goat—and a fourth part containing a love-song of four
stanza
In poetry, a stanza (; from Italian ''stanza'', ; ) is a group of lines within a poem, usually set off from others by a blank line or indentation. Stanzas can have regular rhyme and metrical schemes, but they are not required to have either. ...
s. The reciter would doubtless make a slight pause to mark the rejection of each gift and the failure of the song before the renewal of the cry of despair."
Illustrations
File:The Idyls of Theocritus 5.jpg, link=, 'Ah, lovely Amaryllis, why no more, as of old, dost thou glance through this cavern after me, nor callest me, thy sweetheart, to thy side'
File:Mythological scene with Endymion and Selene sepia (cropped).jpg, Endymion asleep, watched by Selene; engraved by Cornelis Bloemaert
Cornelis Bloemaert II (1603 – 28 September 1692), was a Dutch painter and engraver, who after training in the Dutch Republic worked most of his career in Rome. His workshop in Rome played an important role in spreading Italian art throughout E ...
and Theodor Matham after Abraham van Diepenbeeck
Abraham van Diepenbeeck (9 May 1596 (baptised) – between May and September 1675) was a Dutch painter, draftsman, glass painter, print maker and tapestry designer who worked most of his active career in Antwerp.[Arnold Böcklin
Arnold Böcklin (16 October 182716 January 1901) was a Swiss Symbolism (arts), Symbolist Painting, painter. His five versions of the ''Isle of the Dead (painting), Isle of the Dead'' inspired works by several late-Romantic composers.
Biography ...]
, 1866
See also
*
Eclogue 2
Eclogue 2 (''Ecloga'' II; ''Bucolica'' II) is a pastoral poem by the Latin poet Virgil, one of a series of ten poems known as the Eclogues. In this Eclogue the herdsman Corydon (character), Corydon laments his inability to win the affections of th ...
*
Eclogue 8
Eclogue 8 (''Ecloga'' VIII; ''Bucolica'' VIII), also titled ''Pharmaceutria'' ('The Sorceress'), is a pastoral poem by the Latin poet Virgil, one of his book of ten Eclogues. After an introduction, containing an address to an unnamed dedicatee, th ...
References
Sources
*
Attribution:
*
*
Further reading
*
*
*
External links
*
*
*
{{Authority control
Poetry by Theocritus
Monologues
; painted by <div class=){kind=link}