t'arcnfcon THEOCRITUS KYN ASTON .IBRARY DIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AN DIEGO Bonbon HENRY FROWDE OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS WAREHOUSE AMEN CORNER, E.C. THE IDYLLS AND EPIGRAMS COMMONLY ATTRIBUTED TO THEOCRITUS WITH ENGLISH NOTES HERBERT KYNASTON (FORMERLY SNOW), D.D.(CAMB.) PROFESSOR OF GREEK IN DURHAM UNIVERSITY AND FORMERLY FELLOW OF ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE Fifth Edition AT THE CLARENDON PRESS M DCCC XCII PRINTED AT THE CLARENDON PRESS BY HORACE HART, PRINTER TO THE UNIVERSITY CONTENTS PAGE PREFACE vii PRELIMINARY REMARKS IDYLL I IV V VI VII . VIII . IX x XI XIII . XIV . xv . XVI . XVII . XVIII . vi CONTENTS. PAGE IDYLL XIX 76 . xxi 77 xxn 81 XXIV 90 xxv 96 xxvi 107 xxvin 109 BERENICE Ill EPIGRAMS 112 NOTES 121 APPENDIX, containing Translations into English Verse : TRANSLATION OF IDYLL I, 11. 64-14! . . . 235 vn, 11. 52-89 . . 237 vn, 11. 130-157 . . 239 x, 11. 26-58 . . . 240 xix, 11. 1-8 . . . 241 xxvni, 11. 1-25 . . 242 PREFACE I HAVE endeavoured, in writing the Notes to this Edition of Theocritus, to give such help as would be required by boys in the higher forms of schools, and to offer remarks which would not be beneath the notice of men reading Classics at the Universities. I have purposely dealt more with illustration than with criticism ; giving references without quotation to books which the readers are likely to have at hand, and quoting the passages referred to from less common books. It may perhaps seem a useless work (and by some be considered no work at all) to edit Theocritus without an elaborate critical examination of the Text, and a dis- sertation upon the genuineness of those Idylls which have been declared unworthy of the Syracusan Poet. But the time requisite for the former, which must be spent in collating MSS., and in overcoming the difficulties of such an occupation by daily experience, can only be at the disposal of those whose sole business and pleasure it is so to spend it. Would that I were one of that number ! I know no author who would better repay such a work than Theocritus ; the elegance of whose natural flow of graceful verse must attract with ever in- creasing power those who ' listen to his sweet pipings.' Many have already ably worked to bring this music to the ears and hearts of those to whose tongues its utter- Vlii PREFACE. ance is dead : the editions of Wuestemann, Ahrens, Ziegler, Meineke, Fritzsche, Wordsworth, and Paley, are well known to all scholars. I have spent what time my professional duties would allow in reading my author over and over again with their help : which help I grate- fully acknowledge. They are all more or less my creditors, with little chance of being repaid. I have followed Paley's text * in the Idylls, and Meineke's in the Epigrams, with very few differences indeed ; but not without weighing carefully, and I hope judiciously, the merits of various readings. Any fresh conjectures, by one who has scarcely seen a MS. of the author, would be impertinent; for surely, as far as 'criticism of the text is concerned, an Editor should either learn to judge for himself from the MSS., or be content to follow humbly those who have done so. With regard to the genuineness of certain Idylls, there are no more arguments on either side to be adduced than those which have already appeared in such works as Reinhold's De Genuinis Theocriti Carminibus, &c. ; in spite of which any decision is as far off as ever, and not likely to be brought nearer by any number of future volumes. I have added, in an appendix, translations of some select passages into English verse. Admirers of Theo- critus are already in possession of Mr. Calverley's elegant translation of the whole : so I can scarcely hope that mine will be read ; but they will be found literal, if they have no other merit. H. SNOW. ETON, May 1869. 1 See Preface to 4th Edition. PREFACE. IX PREFACE TO THE FOURTH EDITION As the text of Fritzsche seems now to be pretty generally adopted by Classical Examiners, and that of Ahrens is the basis of the ' Teubner ' edition, I have thought it advisable to use the former as the main text, and to give in foot-notes the readings of Ahrens' and Paley's texts, where the variations are important. H. KYNASTON, D.D. CHELTENHAM, June 1885. PREFACE TO THE FIFTH EDITION IN the present Edition a good deal of matter has been added to the Notes and to the Introduction : and passages from the newly-discovered Mimiambics of Herodas have been quoted, wherever such illustration appears interesting. References have been carefully verified. Several passages however are still left, whose interpretation is very uncertain : nor can we expect any clearer light to be thrown on these until a more systematic examination and collation of the existing MSS. shall have been made. H. KYNASTON, D.D. DURHAM, March 1892. PRELIMINARY REMARKS ON THE LIFE AND WRITINGS OF THEOCRITUS SINCE our information respecting the life and writings of Theocritus is derived, amongst other sources, from certain statements made by the ancient grammarians, and prefixed to the MSS. containing his poems, it seems worth while to com- mence by quoting those statements in full, and making them the foundation of these remarks. I therefore subjoin a literal translation of them as they appear, in their most recently emended condition, in an edition by Ziegler (dated 'Tu- bingae, 1867') of the Scholia upon Theocritus, taken from the Codex Ambrosianus, 222. I. The first is a brief account of the poet's parentage and times : ' Theocritus, the bucolic poet, was a Syracusan by birth, and son of Simichus, as he himself says TO j TO (Id. 7. 21) : but some say that " Simichides " was a nickname ; for it is reported that he was flat-nosed (o-t/ids) in appearance, and the son of Praxagoras and Philina. He became a disciple of Philetas and Asclepiades, whom he mentions, [i. e. Id. 7- 4 oure rov f