s • LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA ^ > ALIFORNIA LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA .^^gS^^v ^V^ .^^^^. € g th; university of- California LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ^iy-oucu^y. THE IDYLLS OP THEOCRITUS, Bffl, AND MOSCHUS, AND THE WAE-SONGS OF TTRT^US. BY THE REV. J. BANKS, M. A, METRICAL VERSIONS BY J. M. C ETA J? MAN, M. A.; LONDON: GEOKGE BELL AND SONS, YOKE STREET, COVENT GARDEN. 1878. ... ""^"e XX OF THE ^ LONDON : PBINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, STAMFOUD STREET AND CHABWG CHOSS. CONTENTS. PREFACE BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE Or THEOCRITUS BION MOSCHUS TYRT^US . TAflK y vii xviii XX xxi itt^ns of Cfjeoctitue. IDYLL PROSE. VERSK .,«^. THYRSIS THE SHEPHERD, AND THE GOATHERD 1 205 n. THE SORCERESS 9 209 /mt THE GOATHERD, OB 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 ^ ^H 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 ... 97 260^ XIX. THE STEALER OF HONEY-COMBS . • . 102 262 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 XXVK THE BACCHANALS 144 .287 XXVII. THE FOND DISCOURSE OF DAPHNIS AND THE DAMSEL . 146 288 « (^ O * c IV CONTENTS. IDYLL XXVIIl. THE DISTAFF XXIX. LOVES ..^XXX. THE DEATH OF ADONIS. A FRAGMENT FROM THE BERENICE EPIGRAMS PROSE. TERSE. 150 29^- 151 293 153 294 155 156 295 ib. i^^lU of 33 ton. O THE EPITAPH OF ADONIS 166 301 II. EROS AND THE FOWLER .... 170 304 III. THE TEACHER TAUGHT 171 lb. IV. THE POWER OF LOVE 172 305 V. LIFE TO BE ENJOYED 173 ib. VI. CLEODAMUS AND MYRSON . . . . 174 306 VII. ON HYACINTHUS . . . . . . 175 307 VIII. FRIENDSHIP ib. ib. IX.-XIV. FRAGMENTS 176 ib. XV. THE EPITHALAMIUM OF ACHILLES AND DEIDAMIA 177 308 XVI. TO THE EVENING STAR 179 309 XVII. LOVE RESISTLESS ib. 310 aEXicUs of iHogc!)tt0. I. II. i. IV. V. VI. VII. LOVE A RUNAWAY EUROPA THE EPITAPH OF BION, A LOVING HERDSMAN MEGARA, THE WIFE OF HERCULES THE CHOICE "love THEM THAT I.OVE YOU*' . ALPHEUS ... * . AN EPIGRAM . . . • < FRAGMENT ... . • 180 310 181 311 188 316 194 319 199 323 ib. ib. 200 ib. ib. 324 201 ib. THE WAR-80NGS OF TYRT^US.. 325 337 PEEFACE In the following translation of Theocritus, Bion, aud 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 Poetae Grseci Minores, of Gaisford ; to " Theocritus Sacram Scrip- turam illustrans," by Chr. Porschberger, Lipsiag, 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 a bard whose lays are so full of poetry. « J. B. Grammar Scliool of King Edward VI. t Ludlow. BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE CF 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 metaech 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 crifiog, flat-nosed,) as well as with the QeoKpirov yivoQ, 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 Till BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE suppose that tlie claims 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 tov tadXov 'SniceXidav Tov IK Sa/zw, (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 ] resided for some space at Alexandria, and afterwards au 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 tht 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 trace? 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 strength of internal evidence to the supposition that Theo- critus availed himself of the access, which he might undoubt- OF THEOCRITUS. ix .;dly have had, to the Septuagint, receives additional force in the comparison of the whole scene of altercation between Pollux and Amycus with the historical record of the encountei* 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 6ven 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- Ved 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 gimplicity, 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- ^nony from a heathen poet to the charms of composition and .. vterial, with which the sacred volume is so richly fraught. b X- BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE Our taste will be wilfully dull, if it acknowledge not the extreme probability that the Syracusan saw the Septuagint, and there need be no stumbling-block in the argument that he no where mentions the Jews. He di^ed for pearls of poesy, leaving unexplored the buried treasures of history and reli- gion. 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 hymning at Syracuse the praises (considerably qualified by doubts of his open-handedness) of King Hiero the 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, wbich, 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 25th 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, 15 th, 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. . Xl Mosclius are pretty conceit-weavers : they sometimes delight U8^ 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 height 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. Who can enjoy with true zest the pastoral, where the shepherd Roffin symbolizes a bishop of Rochester, and the watch-dog Lowder, one of his chaplains ? (See Shepherd's Calendar, Eel. ix.) 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 '^rder 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," -lor 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 ipsara 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 his f 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 soIut 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 modernM And this must have arisen from the familiarity in which, we^nfer, 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 fall . OF THEOCRITUS. .Xlll asleep afar from the din of cities, bewept, like his fabled DaplMiis, by universal nature ? Ovid, we can hardly doubt, was in his Ibis confusing the poet with his Chian namesake, where he says, Utque Syracosio prsestrict^ fauce poetse Sic animffi 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 evid-ence 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 poetry. He will X1V^ BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE 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 poets of more or less historical periods, some have been fain to date it from the golden age. Now, when we gain experience of the difii- 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 his 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 song had not arisen ; and that song, in common gratitude, of such a kind as should depict and hold up to imitation the life which was so singularly blessed. Gratitude, too, led OF THEOCRITUS. XT ^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, Daphnis, 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 Ameeboean 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 Lydiastse 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 knowledge 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 eidri, or eldyXKia, 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 29tli, itVl BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE are erotic: the 16th and 17th, encomiastic: the 22n(I, 24tli, 25th, 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 be«i 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,) X 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, Is not so mournful as the strains you sing. " Add to these Virg. Eel. viii. 22. to ^i9vpi Besides these.] For this use oi fxkra with a dative, compare Idyll xvii. 84 and xxv. 129, " The full expression here would be /card Toaov aOsvog, cxrov yviwv IffTiv, or rather, perhaps, ToaovTov oaov laH yvliav cB'tvog, omnibus membrorum viribus. ^" tvtQov d' oaaov^ "non procul." Schol. toctovtov ^icKyrrj^a oaov oXiyov, Virg. Eel. vi. 16, (Heyne,) Serta. procul tantum capiti sublapsa jacebant. ^2 Compare Canticles or Song of Solomon ii. 15, "Take us the B 2 4 THEOCRITUS. 49—66. is roaming up and down the rows, spoiling the ripe grapes, while the other, preparing all his subtlety for the hoy's wallet, is vowing he will not leave the lad, before that ^"^he shall / have brought him to beggary, as being without his breakfast.-^ But he in sooth is weaving a fine locust-trap with asphodel stalks, fitting them on rushes : and neither is he at all con- cerned for his wallet, nor for the fruits, so much as he is delighting about his platting. But all about the cup clusters the moist ^^ bear's-foot, a kind of jEolian sight : the marvel would astonish your senses. As the price of it, I gave to the Calydonian boatman, a goat and a large cheese cake of Avhite milk, nor has it at all anywise reached ^^ my lip, but it still lies untouched. With this I would right willingly gratify you, if you would sing me, friend, that lovely hymn. And I do not envy you at all. Come, good sir ! for by no means shall ^'^you ever hoard your song, at any rate for Hades that bringeth forgetfulness. ^. Thyrs. ^^ Begin, dear Muses, begiiTthe pastoral strain. Here am I, Thyrsis from .^tna, and this is the voice of Thyrsis. ^^ Wherever, I wonder, wherever were ye. Nymphs, foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines ; for our vines have tender grapes. " V " sTTt %r\^6lQ KaOiZeiv riva. To run one aground ; hring to a nonplus ; ruin utterly. Wordsworth shows that KaOi^eiv often has the sense of reducing to a certain state, and leaving in it (redigendi et destituendi). Xenoph. Sympos. iii. 11. Plat. Theset. p. 146, a. Thuc. i. 109. So! Ovid. Fast. iii. 52, In sicca -pueri destituuntur %.nmo. For dvapwrrov, breakfast-less, "Wordsworth proposes Trpdrtorov, i. q. wparov. *^ Moist bear's foot.] Virg. Eel. iii. 45, Et molli circum est ansas amplexus acantho. Virg. Georg. iv. 123, Flexi vimen acanthi. Plin. Ep. V. 6, 16, Acanthus in piano mollis, et poene dixerim lubricus. 16 Virg. Eel. iii. 43, Necdum illis labra admovi sed condita servo. •' Horn. II. ii. 600. Moschus Epitaph. Bion, 21, 'AXXd Trapd UXovrrj'i fikXoQ XaOalov deiSsi. Above tov e ^^' 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. ^2;^^^. 1 right eye throbs ! I wonder whether I shall see her ? I will sing, having reclined here beside the pine. And haply she ,\inay regard me, since she is not made of adamant. ^^ Hippo- menes, 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 the 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, Prseterea duo, nee tut^ mihi valle reperti, Capreoli, sparsis etiam nunc pellibus albo ; Bina die siceant ovis ubera, quos tibi servo. Jampridem a me illos abducere Thestylis orat Et faciet : quoniam sordent tibi munera nostra. '^ aXXerai, k. t. X. This the Greeks and Egyptians 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 % Ps. Unde 1 unde dicam 1 Nescio Nisi, quik futurum sit ! ita supercilium salit. ^' Hippomenes, son of Megareus, by aid of the golden apples given to him by Venus, won the raee against Atalanta, daughter of Jasus and Clymene. Vid. 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 Avho should steal the bulls from Iphi- clus. Melampus, to win the bride for his brother Bias, ran the risk, and was eaptured in the attempt by the herdsmen of Iphiclus. 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 Amithaoni^, nupta futura domo. Comp. Hom. Odyss. xvi. 226, *^ Upon Endymion, the lover of Luna, Jove sent eternal sleep, because Juno had been smitten with love of him. An. Rhod. iv. 57. Theocr. Id XX. 37. 49—54. IDYLL III. r-^-^^*^ M 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. Z 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 2 olive branches, and Battus, driving them off, is pricked by a thorn. ^ While Corydon is tending his wound, they spy the old father of jEgon, 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 to tend. '^ Ceres came to Jasion while he slept. She became the mother of Pluio by him. Her mysteries were withheld from the common herd of men. Ovid Amor. HI. x. 25, Viderat lasium Cretsea Diva sub Id^ Figentem certa terga ferina manu, Viderat : ut tenerae flammam rapuere medullae (Hinc pudor, ex alia parte trahebat amor) Victus amore pudor. Virg. Eel. iii. 1, 2, Die mihi, Damaeta, cujum pecusl An Melibceil Non, verum iEgonis ; nuper mihi traiiidit iEgon. 22 THEOCRITUS. 3—13. Batt. 2 Do you happen any where to mUk 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 ? Cori/d. 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. ^A.j, wretched are they ! How bad a cowherd they have found ! Coryd. ^ Why yes, in very truth they are wretched: and they no longer care to feed. ^ ^e here is Doric for (T0t, or ^^' 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 liquescit aquae. ^ The Scholiast explains this of a goatherd named Comatas or Men- alcas, who, while engaged in tending his master's herds, was wont to Bacrifice to the Muses. To try whether they would preserve him, his master 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. 2* (Tog ijpiov, *trimestre tempus exegisti.' Steph. Totum annum exegisti. Crispinus. The Scholiast seems to consider the words to de- signate " the spring." The three months of spring in which the flowers, &c., mentioned just before, would bloom chiefly, wpa signifies specially TO tap, which Homer calls commonly iiprj eiapivt]. See Lex. Doric. JE,. Porti, at the word &piog. 30 Comp. Virg. Eel. x. 35, Atque utinam ex vobis unus, vestrique fuissem Aut custos gregis, aut maturse vinitor uvse, &c. .1 42 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.' 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.' ^^ ' 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. ^^Aristis, a worthy man, and highly excellent, (whose singing with the accompaniment of the lyre not even Phoebus himself beside his tripods would refuse,) knows that by a lad Aratus, is consumed to the very bone with love. Him I pray thee, Pan, who hast obtained for thy portion the lovely surface of ^^Homole, 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 31 Yirg. Eel. iii. 73, Partem aliquam, ventl, divom referatis ad aures. Eel. V. 73, Hinc usque ad sidera notus. 32 One of the various omens which the Greeks drew from themselves was the TrrapfioQ, or sneezing, referred to here, and Xenoph. Exped. Cyr. iii. 2, 9. Propert. Eleg. ii. 3, 23, Num tibi nascenti primis, mea vita, diebus Aureus argutum sternuit omen amor 1 Catull. xlv. 9, Amor sinistram ut ante, Dextram sternuit approbationem. Compai-e also Idyll xviii. 16. 23 "ApicFTig — fity' dpiffTog, a play on words, which cannot be rendered faithfully, Theocritus affects it ; see Idyll xv, 26, TrsvBrjfxa Kal ov UtvOrja. 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 jueya used adverbially see Monk, Alcest. 758, Horn. II. ii. 32. ** Homole, a mountain of Thessaly. It is mentioned by Euripides, Here, Fur. 371, crvyxoproi 9' 'OfioXag tvavXoi. Virg, iEn. vii. 675, Homolen Othrynque nivalem Linquentes rapido cursu. ^ aKi\\aiin singing. They sing in alternate strains, and each carries off a prize ; Daphnis a crook, *' Virg. Eel. V. 46, Quale sopor fessis in gramine, &c. ^ Ibid. 32, Vitis ut arboribus decori est, ut vitibus uvae, Ut gregibus tauri, segetes ut pinguibus arvis, Tu decus omne tuis. ^ Than to sip honey.] Polwhele compares Septuagint Cantic. iv. 11, Krjpiov aTroaTa^ovcn X^'-^V » Soph. Ajax, 384, fitj^kv fisy i'nnjg. " ^vpav. Syrian— on account of her dark complexion. " Gipsy," perhaps. '2 fisXixXiopov, 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, lUuc prsevertamur, amatorem quod amicae Turpia decipiunt caecum vitia, aut etiam ipsa hsec Delectant. For a parallel to the next line, see Yirg. Eel. x. 38, Quid turn si fuscus Amyntas Sunt nigroe vioiae, 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 liguu- tra cadunt : vaccinia nigra leguntur. 56 THEOCRITUS. 30—43 ''' the cytisus, the wolf the she-goat, and 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 wtar- 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. Mil. Surely the ploughman has escaped my notice white 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. 1* Cf. Idyll V. 128. Virg. 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. '* Cf. Georg. i. 120, StrymouiaBque grues. Hesiod. O. et D. 448, '« Cf. Virg. Eel. vii. 31, 32, Si proprium hoc fuerit, laevi de marmore tota Puniceo stabis suras evincta eothurno. And Ibid. 36, Nune te marmoreum pro tempore fecimus ; at tu Si fsetura gregem suppleverit, aureus esto. '■^ crxrifxa. Dr. Wordsworth proposes to read XHIMA, h. e. Kal sifia, for ff^^jua, unnecessarily, for Gxr^ia may mean a dress as well as ilfia. Aristoph. Aeharn. 64, wKJSaTava tov rrxriixaTOQ. Besides Kal can hardly precede de where fjiev goes before. See a Avriter in the Classical Mu- seum, vol. ii. 294. But Avhy should we not adopt Groefius's explanation of this somewhat difficult passage, and suppose kuivoq to be used doubly with reference to (txVI^(^ and diJiVKXag. a/xyKXai were costly shoes used in Laconia, and so called from Amyclae, the town where their inventor lived ■? '* 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 darpaydXoi in point of white- ness. Dice were called dorpayaXot. 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, eiQ dvdpa yeveiiov. Hor. ii. Sat. iii. 35, Sapientem pascere barbam. Lytierses was a son of Midas, king of ?hrygia. '" Here we have certain invocations of Ceres and reapers' saws strung 44—58. IDYLL X. 57 Bind up, reapers, the sheaves, lest haply a passer-by should say, 21 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. ^3 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. 2' avKivoi, good for nothing — Men of fig- wood (not worth a fig"?) Aristoph. Acharn. 108, speaks of Trpivtvoi yepovTsg, from irplvog, " hearts of oak." " Understand fi'sfivacro or opa in such cases. Matt. Gr. Gr. § 546. Compare at this place Milton's L'AUegro, 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 in matters indifferent, St. Matt, xxiii. 23. 58 THEOCRITUS 1—16. favourable mention in Idyll xxviii. 6, and Epigr. vii. 3,) respe(;ting 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 his 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, thQ famous Cyclops our countryman, the ancient Polyphemus, used most easily to pass his time, when-v; 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 eyxpKTTov. Compare ^sch. Prom. V. 4S8, (and Pearson on the Creed, Art. ii. p. 89,) ovk riv dXs^rjfi' ovdev, ovde ^pdjaifiov oh XQKTTov, ovde Tnarbv. The Greeks had divers remedies and medicines. XQt-(JTa, unguents, iraaTa. or TrXaara, plasters, Triora or Trortfja, liquids, ^puxTifxa, esculents, and sTry^at, incantations, charms, &c. Pope, Past, ii., calls " Love the sole disease thou canst not cure." 3 avTai, suk sponte. Virg. Eel. vii. 11, Hue ipsi potum venient per prata juvenci. iv. 21, Ipsae lacte domum referent distenta capellse, 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 ? Uvid. Met. xiii. 62, Quid sit amor sentit, nostrique cupidine captug Uritur, oblitus pecorum, antrorumque suoram. 16—34. IDYLL XI. 59 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. 'O fair Galatea, why dost thou spurn thy lover? ^More white than cream-cheese to look upon, more tender than a lamb, more frisky than 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 m^ brow, and a broad nostril over the lip. Yet this same I, being such as you see, ^^feed a thousand * KwTTpi^og £fc jwtyaXrtc. Idyll ii. 30, t^ AcppoSirag, and vii. 55, to oi YliraTi : Here we must either, as Jacobs thinks, retain to, supposing it to mean " quoniam," or read to. oi, i, q. a oi, according to the oldest form of the article, toq, to., 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 vitro, tenero lascivior hsedo, &c., and "Virg. Eel. vii. 37, Nerine Galatea, thymo mihi dulcior Hyblae Candidior cycnis, hedera formosior alba. Dvid imitates this and the next line in the verses beginning, MoUior et cycni plumis, et lacte coacto. ^ Hor. Od. i. 15, 29, Quem tu, cervus uti vallis in alter^ Yisum 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, «» 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. Horn. 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 overbur- 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 night. 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 ^'Etna 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 shaggy, I have oak-branches near, and unresting 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 " yXwKUjuaXov, cf. Callim. H. in Cerer. 29, a term of endearment. '^ vvKTog dojpi, 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 dwpi not followed by vvktoq or vvKru)v. toI spSsku vtfSpcjg. Cf. Yirg. Eel. ii. 40, Praeterea duo, nee tut&, mihi valle reperti, Capreoli, sparsis etiam nunc pellibus albo. '^ ixavvofopiog, bearing collars, th. fxawog, a necklace. Propert. IV. viii. 24, Armillati colla Molossa canes. Others read ixavo(p6p(jjg, i.e. fir}vo^6povg, moon-marked, which Reiske holds to be the true reading. kuI (TKVfiviog, Compare Ovid, Met, xiii. 836, Villosae catulos summis in montibus ursae. " opexdriv — In the parallel passage of Virg. Eel. ix, 44, Bentley reads "incani" for insani, as the literal rendering of yXavKav. Virg. Eel. i. 80, Hie tamen banc mecum poteris requiescere noctem. Chapman com- pares with this invitation, Kit Marlow's Shepherd's song, beginning, Come live with me and be my love. And we will all the pleasures prove, &c. " Compare Horn. Odyss. ix, 183— 187, from which Theocr. has taken the ground-work of this passage ; and comp. Odyss. ix. 219, 223, 233, &c, at 51, 52. '* CatuU, iii. 5, Quem plus ilia suis oculis amabat. *' Pope, Past. ii. 45, expresses the same kind of sentiment: Oh, were I made, by some transforming power, The captive bird, that sings within thy bower. Then might my voice thy listening ears employ, And I those kisses he receives enjoy. , 54—75. IDYLL XL 61 did not bring me forth having gills, in which case I should 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. ^'^ Cyclops, Cyclops, whither hast thou floAvn 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 T were a glove upon that hand, «S:c. i» Virg. Eel. ii. 45, 46, Tibi lilia plenis Ecce ferunt nymphae calathis, tibi Candida Nais Pallentes yioias et summa papavera carpens. '^ The Cyclops are represented by Horn. Odyss. ix. 125, as knowing nothing of navigation, oy ydp Ki;KXw7r£(T(Tt a/££f Trdpa jUtXroTrapjjot. Virg. Eel. ix. 39, Hue ades, O Galatea, quis est nam ludus in undis : Hue ades : insani feriant sine littora fluctus. 20 Virg. Eel. ii. 28, O tantum libeat mecum tibi sordida rura, Atque humiles habitare casas, «&c. ranKTov : 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 laedit," and points out the same emendation of an unsound passage in Bion xv. 15, where for Muivoj 'AxtXXfi'i;;, read, KuJpog — puer Achilles. 22 Ibid. 69, Ah ! 'Corydon, Corydon, quae te dementia cepit. ^^ Callimach. Epigr. xxxiii. 5, 6, X' Ct/XOS £(JtOS TOtOS 8s. TCt /JLtV (ptvyOUTU SlWKtlV OiSe, tu d' kv fiia-a-co Ks.ifxtva TrapTTtTa-Tai. Hor. Sat. I. ii. 108, Transvolat' in medio posita, et fugientia captat. 62 THEOCRITUS. xr. 75— xn. 5. close at hand ! Why dost pursue the one that flies you ? ^'^ Haply you will find another Galatea even more beautiful. ^^ Many damsels bid me sport with them in the night season, and all of them titter whenever I listen to them. Plainly even I appear to be somebody on the land. Thus in sooth Polyphemus used to beguile his love by sing- ing ; and ^6 he passed his days more easily than if he had given money /or a cure. IDYLL XIL AITES. ARGUMENT. This Idyll, which is of a lyric, not a Bucolic character, has heen suspect- ed to be not the work of Theocritus. It is an expression of love towards a youth on his return to his friend after three days' absence. The poet goes on to hope that this love may be mutual and perpetual. It is ended with a strain in honour of the Megarensians, on account of their having instituted annual kissing-matches at the tomb of Dio- des. For the different opinions of commentators, &c., on the author- ship of this Idyll, see the edition of Kiessling, London, 1829, at the head of the 12th Idyll. Hast thou come, dear youth, after three nights and morn- ings ? Hast thou come ? ^ Yet those who long, grow old in a day. As much as spring is sweeter than winter, as much as the apple than the sloe, as much as a sheep is more woolly than its lambkin, as much as a virgin is better than a thrice- Ovid. Met. xiv. 28, Melius sequerere volentem Optantemque eadem, parilique cupidine captam. 2* Eel. ii. 73, Invenies alium, si te hie fastidit, Alexim. ** Horat. Od. I. ix. 19, Lenesque sub noctem susurri, Composita repetantur hora. At Tiq in the next line, compare Juvenal Sat. i., Aude aliquid brevibus Gyaris et carcere dignum Si vis esse aliquid. 2« 7] for x] £1, which should perhaps be written. ' Horn. Od. T. 3G0, al^a -^a^ iv KaKorrjri (Sporoi KaTaytjpdaKOVai. Virg. Eel. vii. 43, Si mihi non hsec lux toto sit longior anno. 6—19. IDYLL XII. 63 wed wife, as much as a fawn is swifter than a calf, as niuch as a clear-voiced nightingale most musical of all birds toge- ther ; so much have you gladdened me ^ hy having appeared : and I have run to thee, as some traveller runs to the shelter of a shady beech when the sun is scorching. ^ Would that the loves might breathe upon both of us evenly, and we might be- come 'a song ' ^ to all who shall come after. ' In truth, a certain pair of men were thus affected one to- ward another ; the one ^a lover (ei(T7rpr)\oQ), as one, who spoke the Amyclaean dialect, would say; and the other again the Thessalian would call thus, ^ ' the beloved' (airav). And " they loved each other with equal yoke. Surely then, I wot, were golden men of yore, when he that was loved requited that love.' Yes, would that this might be, father Jove, would it might be, O undecaying immortals; and ®two hundred gener- ations afterwards some one might bring word to me, unto ^ For a similar grouping of similitudes. See Pope Past. iii. 43 — 4.(5, Not bubbling fountains to the thirsty swain ; Not balmy sleep to labourers faint with pain ; Not showers to larks, nor sunshine to the bee, Are half so charming as thy sight to me. Drummond of Hawthornden, from whom Warton thinks Pope took the idea of this passage, comes very near Theocritus. Cool shades to pilgrims, whom hot glances burn, Are not so pleasing as thy safe return. Virg. Eel. V. 16, Lenta salix quantum pallenti cedit olivae, Puniceis humilis quantum saliunca rosetis, Judicio nostro tantum, &c. And for the sentiment of the eighth line, see Horat. Od. iv. 5, Vultus ubi tuus Affulsit populo, gratior it dies Et soles melius nitent. » Tibull. II. i. 80, At ille Felix, cui placidus leniter afflat amor. * Propert. i. 15, 24, Tu quoque uti fieres nobilis historia. * Amyclse was a city of Laconia having a temple of Apollo, south of Sparta. sia7rvt]\oQ, from eicTTrvku), is a Laconic word, used by Callimach. Fragm. 169, p. 505, (Ernesti). * dtrT/c, a Thessalian word, which Welcker thinks is a form of i^tOeog. ' l(T({> Kvytp. Pliny Epist. III. ix. 8, Cum uterque pari jugo, non pro se, sed pro causa niteretur. -xpiaiioi irdXai dvdptg. Comp. Aristoph, Nub. 1024 ; Horat. Od. I. v. 9, Qui nunc te fruitur credulus aurea ; and Virg. Georg. ii. 538, Aureus banc vitam in terris Saturnus agebat. ^ Virg. JEn. iv. 387, Audiam ; et haec manes veniet mihi fama sub imos. dve^odov. Cf. Virg. ^n. vi. 426, Evaditque celer ripam irre- meabiiis undae. And ibid. 126, 64 THEOCRITUS. 19—37. Acheron, whence we return not, 'Thy love and that of thy graceful loved one is eveyi no\^ in the mouths of men, and espe- cially among the youths.' But in truth, of these things indeed the celestials will be arbiters, as they choose ; yet I, in praising thee as the beautiful, ^ shall not breed fib-marks on the top of my nose. For even if you should have pained me at all, you have immediately made the hurt innocent, and doubly gratified me, so I have departed having good measure. ^°0 Nisaean Megarensians, excelling at the oars, may ye dwell happily, since ye have ^'honoured especially the Attic stranger Diodes, the lover of youths. Ever about his tomb in crowds, in earliest spring, youths contend to bear off the prize of kisses. And whoso shall have pressed most sweetly lip to lip, goes back to his mother loaded with garlands. Happy he, who is arbiter of those kisses for the lads. Surely, me- thinks, he oft ^^ invokes the gladsome Ganymede, that he may have a mouth like the Lydian stone, by which money-changers try gold, whether it be base or pure. Facilis descensus Averni Sed revocare gradus, superasque evadere ad auras Hoc opus, hie labor est. ' apai^Cj Koehler, Dahl., Kiessling, read oKpairig, Avhich makes a much better sense. Compare Idyll ix. 30, and the passages there quoted, yptvdsa = signa mendacii. Wordsw. would have apaiijg retained, but translated not as " exilis," but ** tenerae." ^^ NiscBan, of Nisaea, the sea-port and arsenal of Megara, '' Diodes, an Athenian, became a hero of the Megareans, for dying in defence of a youth in battle. See Scholiast. A festival was held in the spring to his memory, and the youth who gave the sweetest kiss received a garland. 12 He invokes Ganymede, that he may have as serviceable a mouth for testing rival kisses, as the Lydian stone is useful to money-changers, to test pure and alloyed gold. Wordsw., in a long note, suggests the reading ixy tvttov for iTrjTVfiov, i. e. whether it have a false stamp. IDYLL XIIL HYLAS. ARGUMENT. The poet premising somewhat about the power of love over gods and men, opens the subject of the rape of Hylas with a description of the love and care of Hercules for the lad. When the Argonauts had put to shore at the land of the Cyanians, on the coast of the Propontis, Hylas was sent by Hercules to fetch water. Whilst drawing from the fountain, in a lovely spot, he is drawn in by the Nymphs, who are captivated by the exceeding beauty of the boy. Hercules, suspecting some mishap from the delay of Hylas, sets out in quest of him ; and ">« his fruitless search detains him a long time, he is left behind by the Argonauts, who suppose he has quitted them purposely. The hero goes afoot to Colchis. This Idyll is Epic in its character, but with such a touch of Bucolic sweetness about it as to win it a high place among the Idylls of Theocritus. Note the description of the fountain, TS. 40, and the anxiety of the Nymphs to console the lad, 54 — 59. Not for us alone, as we used to suppose, my Nicias, did he beget Eros, to ^ whomsoever of the gods this child was once born : nor to us first, who are mortals, ^ and do not see the morrow, do the things that are beautiful appear to be beauti- ful. But even the ^ brazen-hearted son of Amphitryo, who sustained the attack of the fierce lion, was enamoured of a lad, * the graceful Hylas, that wore the curly locks, and he taught ' Compare the lines of Virg. Georg. iii. 242, beginning, Omne adeo genus in terris hominum, &c. The father of Cupid is unknown. Cora- pare Meleager Epigr. xci., IlaTpos, 5' oukIt' tX'" 4>p^X>^i-v Tii/os* ouTE yap aWvp Ov ■)(Qu>v <^j]v Idsg wv tliroiq Kari^dlaa tv rip fiil IdovTi. For u)v — wv, repeated, see ii. 82, wg — wg, iv. 39, ocrov — o?£r, uttered a cry of joy. Eur. Electr. 691. This impersonation of the island is bold an^ sublime. Polwhele compares with passages of holy writ, e. g. Why hop ye so, ye high hills. Break forth into singing, 94 THEOCRITUS. 65—82, said, with fond hands touching the infant: ^^ 'Blessed, boy, mayest thou be, and mayest thou honour me as much as even Phoebus Apollo honoured Delos of the azure fillet : and in the same honour mayest thou rank the ^^ promontory of Triops, assigning equal ^^ favour to the Dorians dwelling near, as also king Apollo lovingly paid to ^^ Rhenoea." Thus, I wot, spake the island, and the propitious eagle-bird of Jove thrice from on high, above the clouds, screamed with its voice. This methinks is a sign of Jove. To Jove the son of Saturn august monarchs are a care : and chiefly he, whomsoever he shall have kissed at his first birth ; and great fortune attends him. Much land rules he, and much sea. Numberless con- tinents, as well as myriads of races of men, till corn-fields assisted by the moisture of Jove : but no region produces so much as low-^' lying Egypt, when Nile gushing forth breaks up the moist clods. Nor hath any so many cities of men skilled in works. Three hundred indeed of towns have been ye mountains. Theocritus however has a closer parallel here, inCallim. H. in Del, 264, AvT-fj St xpv(Teoio cnr' ovdfog e'lXso Trat^a, spoken of the island Delos. Horn. H. in Apoll. 61, 119, q. v. Virg. Eel. v. f)2, Ipsi laetitia voces ad sidera jactant Intonsi montes. '^ 6Xj3u KiSjpe ysvoio, for oXIiiog, a rare construction in Greek, Eurip. Troad. 1229. In Latin, Tibull. i. 7, 53, Sic venias hodierne. Propert. II. XV. 2, Lectule deliciis facte beate raeis. Yirg. ^n. ii. 282, Quibus Hector ab oris, expectate venis. ^* Spanheim, at Callim. H. in Del. 160, says that Triops was king of Cos, and father of Merops, another king of the island ; and that from him the promontory of Cnidos was called Triopium. Comp. H. in Cerer. 31. '^ The Dorian Pentapolis consisted of five cities, Lindus, lalysus, Ca- mirus, Cos, and Cnidos. Thirwl. H. of Greece, vol. ii. 88. ^" Rhenaea, an island close to Delos, to which in the purification of Delos by Pisistratus, and afterwards in the Peloponnesian war, all dead bodies were carried from Delos for burial ; and all births of Delian children arranged to take place there. Cf. Thuc. iii. 104. Polycrates, tyrant of Samos, bound it to Delos and dedicated it to Apollo. See Virg. Mn. iii. 75. 21 "^gypti pars depressior." Tibull. i. 7, 23, Fertilis sestiva Nilus abundet aqua Nile pater quanam possim te dicere causS. Aut quibus in terris occuluisse caput. The Delta is here alluded to. See Georg. iv. 287—294, for another ac- count of the Nile. BpvTrrei, confringit. Herod, ii. 12, (quoted here by J. W.,) T7JV AlyvTTTOv fifXdyyaiov re Kai KaTapprjyyv/jievrjv wore tov(Ta» iXvp Tt Kal TTpSxvmv k^ AiOiOTrirjg Kartviiveiyixivrjv virb tov irorafiov. 82—107. IDYLL XVIT. 95 built for him, ay and three thousand over and above thirty thousand, and two triads, and besides them thrice nine ; in 22 all which magnanimous Ptolemy is sovereign. And in truth he -juts off for his portion a part of Phoenicia and Arabia, and of Syria and Libya, and the black Ethiopians ; and he bears sway over all the Pamphylians, and warrior Cilicians, and Lycians, and war-loving Carians, and the island Cyclades, for 23 his ships are the best that sail over the sea ; and all sea and land and rushing rivers are ruled over by Ptolemy. And for him many horsemen and many shield-bearers arrayed in gleaming brass rage and roar. In wealth indeed he outweighs all monarchs, so much every day comes into his splendid house from every quarter, and the peoples go about his works in peace and quietness. For no hostile infantry having crossed the Nile abounding in 24croco- diles, has raised the battle-cry in strange villages ; nor has any armed man leapt ashore from a swift ship against the cattle of Egypt, as a foe : such a hero yellow-haired Ptolemy has established himself in her broad plains, skilful to wield the spear ; whose whole care is to protect his patrimony, as a good king's should be; and other realms he is himself ac- quiring. Not however to no purpose, I ween, is the gold in his wealthy house, ^^even as the riches of labouring ants are -2 tCjv TTOLVTiov, referred to ttoXscjv, but in the neuter gender. Cf. Epigr. i. 3, 4. The whole number is 33,339. Wordsworth refers us for the riches of Ptolemy, to the commentators on Daniel xi. 5. 2* 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. KsXadovTSQ, resonantes. Cf. Idyll vii. 137. Aristoph. Nub. 284, cat TTOTafioJv Za9k(i)v KeXadTifxari. 2* For the crocodiles of the Nile, see Herodot. lib. ii. Senec. Natur. Qusest. iv. 1, p. 611, Elzev. J. W. At "yellow-haired Ptolemy," com- pare Horat. Od IV. xv. 17, Custode rerum Caesare, non furor Civilis, aut vis exiget otium. " Cf. ^sch. Prom. v. 451, dficrvpoi jxvpjxijKeg. Horat. Sat. i. 1, 33. Magni formica laboris Ore trahit quodcunque potest, atque addit acervo Quem struit. For the next line compare Virg. ^n. x. 619, Tua larga Saepe manu multisque oneravit limina donia. 96 THEOCRITUS. 107—128. ever poured in ; but much of it indeed the splendid temples of the gods have, whilst ever and anon he offers first-fruits with other gifts : and much has he bestowed on brave kings, and much on cities, and much on good comrades ; nor has any man, skilled to strike up a sweet song, ^^come to the sacred contests of Bacchus, ^^to whom he has not presented a gift worthy of his craft, ^a^n^ the interpreters of the Muses sing the praise of Ptolemy, in return for his beneficence. But what can be more honourable to a man of wealth than to win worthy renown among men ? This remains sure even to the sons of Atreus, while those countless acquisitions, as many as they made, when they had taken the mighty house of Priam, have been hidden some where in the ^^ mist, from which there- after there is no longer a return. ^^ This man, alone of men of former ages, impresses the foot-prints of his parents, yet warm in the dust, as he treads above them. ^^ To his loved mother and father he has placed incense-breathing temples, and has set them up therein conspicuous with gold and ivory, as helpers to all mortals. And many fatted haunches of oxen does he burn, in revolving months, on blood-red altars, him- self and his goodly spouse, than whom no nobler woman 26 The festivals of Bacchus celebrated by Ptolemy, and the " sacred contests " here alluded to, appear to have been either dramatic pieces, or the Dionysia at which poets contended v^^ith those dramatic pieces. ^^ Ptolemy's munificence drew to his court seven poets, called the Pleiades from their number, Theocritus, Callimachus, ApoUonius, Aratus, Lycophron, Nicander, Philicus, 2^ Horat. Od. III. i. 3, Musarum sacerdos. In Cicero's oration for Archias, Ennius is quoted as calling poets " sanctos." Propert. III. i. 3, Primus ego ingredior puro de fonte sacerdos. Virg. Georg. ii. 475, Me vero primum dulces ante omnia Musae, Quarum sacra fero ingenti percussus amore, " aspi : caligine. See Hom. Odyss. ix. 144, dijp yap Trapd vrjvai ^a9e.V -qv, ovde atXrjVTj ovpavoQsv TrpovAI 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 ^2 ayocrr*^, with a bent arm, akin to ajKUiv. " 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. 3-* (pQsy^ofiai, &c. The moral sentence that follows is premised by (pOky^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, 'i^tig. The second person here is used, ac else- where, for an indefinite third person. Compare Sophocl. Trachin. 2. Ajax 155. Tacitus German : Nam magnum — baud tueare. H 98 THEOCRITUS. 1—10 he should not have 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 is called KaraKoifuiTiKov, or slumber-inducing. ^ Whilome in Sparta, at the house of auburn-haired Mene- laus, maidens having blooming ^ hyacinth in their tresses, formed the dance in front of a ^newly-painted nuptial cham- ber, the twelve first maidens 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 fallen 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. iv ttok apa ^irdprq,. Callimach. H. in Lav. Pall. Iv iroKa Qr]l3atg. 2 Milton's Paradise Lost iv. 301, " Hyacinthine locks." Odyss. vi. 230, Ka8 8k /t"Ctp7JT0S ou\a? r]KE KOfxa^y vaKLvdivto avdei o/xolu's. Horace Od. I. iv. 9, 10, Nunc decet aut viridi nitidum caput impedire myrto Aut flore, terrae quem ferunt solutse. ' Embroidery, or tapestry, is here spoken of— provided at the husband's expense. Horn. II. xvii. 36, 0a\a/i5to vsoio. Odyss. xxii. 178. Comp. Idyll xxvii. 36. * fieya XP»5i««. See Matt. Gr. Gr. § 430, p. 704. Herodot. i. 36. ffvoQ xpfjl^a fiiya. Acharn. Aristoph. 150; Nub. 2. Valken. on Phoen. 206. ^ TrepnrXsKTOig, which appears the true reading here, signifies literally "intertwined." Some would read x^P^-* foi" Troai, bringing Horat. Od. I. iv. 6, Junctaeque nymphis gratiae decentes Alterno terram quatiunt pede, and Ovid. Fast. vi. 329, Pars brachia nectit, Et viridem celeri ter pede pulsat humum, to support the reading. But these do not militate against Troaari, 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 Cythersea's day. With antic sports, and blue-eyed pleasures, Frisking light in frolic measures; n— 23. IDYLL XVIII. 99 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 i your bride. Blest husband, some lucky person ^ sneezed oi 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 many twinkling feet. Muse of the many twinkling feet. Byron, The Waltz. Compare Horn, Odyss. viii. 265 ; Iliad xviii. 491 — 495. * TTokvv TLv, understand oivov. Eurip. Cyclops 566, ^^aXfTrov toc' fliTag, OGTiQ av Trivy ttoXvv. Theogn. v, 509, olvog ttivo^iivoq itqvKvq, KaKOQ, {]v Se Tig avrov Uivy eTritTTa^svug, ov KUKog aXX' aya96g. ^ Compare Catull. Carm. Nupt. LX., 20, Hespere, qui coelo fertur crudelior ignis 1 Qui gnatam possis complexu avellere matris, Complexu matris retinentem avellere gnatam, Et juveni ardenti castam donare puellam. fiaBvv op9pov. Cf. St. Luke Evang. c. xxiv. v. 1, 6p6pov (BaOsog. * iTriTTTapei'. See Idyll, vii. 96, St/xix'^? A*£*' tpujrtg iTrsTrrapov. Propert. II. iii. 23, Num tibi nascenti primis, mea vita, diebus, Aridus argutum sternuit omen amor. Catull. xliii. 9. Comp. Xenoph. Anab. III. ii. 9, TrrdpvvTai Tig ayaObg, homo boni ominis. So Callimach. H. in Lav. Pall. 124, dyaQai TTTtpvytg. Propert. III. x. 11, Felicibus — pennis. Ovid. Fast, i, 513, Este bonis avibus visi natoque mihique. "Virg. Eel. v. 65, Sis bonus o felixque tuis. ' dvvffaio. Comp. Idyll v. 144, dvvadfiav tov dfivbv. With xXdivav (two lines below) compare Sophocl. Trach. 539, Kal vvv dv ovcrai iiifivofifv jxidg vrvh xXaivrjg virayKd \i(Tfia. " The river Eurotaa ran close by Sparta. For the hardy nurture and ii 2 100 THEOCRITUS. 23—37. Eurotas, four times sixty damsels, a youthful band of maidens ; of whom not one would he faultless, if haply she should have been compared Avith Helen. ^^As the rising morn would show out its beauteous face against the night, or as bright spring ^^when winter has relaxed ; so also the golden Helen was wont to shine out amongst us. ^^As a tall cypress hath shot up, an ornament to a fertile field or garden, or a Thes- salian steed to a chariot, thus also the rosy-complexioned Helen is an ornament to Lacedaemon. ^"^ Neither does any damsel weave such work in the wool-basket, nor cut off from the long upright beams a closer warp in the curiously wrought web, having woven it with the shuttle. ^^No, nor is any damsel so skilled to strike the cithern, ^^ singing of Artemis, and broad-chested Athene, as Helen, ^"in whose eyes are all loves. exercises of Spartan maidens, see Thirl w. Greece, vol. i. p. 327. Virg. ^n. i. 315, Virginis os habitumque gerens et virginis arma Spartanae. '* 'Ab)Q avrkWoiaa. Comp. Solomon's Song vi. 10, "Who is she that looketh forth like the morning 1" Job xli. 18. In this ])assage, Avhich is unsound as it stands in MSS.,Ave have adopted the reading awe avTeXKoKr' are kuXov e(pT]ve TrpocrioTrov ttot rdv vvkt r), 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 tvot tLv vv^ : Sicut pras te, nox, exoriens Aurora prsenitet. As rising morn, compared with thee, O night, shines out with bright countenance. And this seems extremely probable. *' ■)(tilxCJvoQ avkvroQ. Solomon's Song ii. 11, " Lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone." xti^aroQ oixo/uiivoLO, Meleag. ii. Truip^ /icyaXa cit'. Wordsw. proposes Trte/p^ tXara cir, ut abies, &c. '3 Catull. Epithalam. Pel. 89—90, Quales Eurotse progignunt flumina myrtos, Aurave distinctos educit verna colores. OetTaaXbQ'iTTTroQ. These were the most approved steeds of Greece. St-e 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. '^ ^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 puellae Discant et plenas exonerare colos. Comp. TibuU. II. i, 65. 1' Burns, " The kind love that's in her e'e." Meleager Epigr. Anthol. xvi. Z/jj'o^iXat; o^^iaai KpvTTTontvoQ. Cf. Museeus, 64. 38—57. IDYLL XVIII. 'ilQV>*' " beauteous, graceful damsel, thou indeed art a matron now ; but we in the morning shall proceed to the course and the Howery meads, to cull chaplets breathing sweet incense, 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 plane 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. ^^ 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 22 songster having reared his crested neck, shall have 18 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. 19 Letters graven.] Propert. I. xviii. 22, Scribitur et vestris Cynthia 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. 20 Catull. Ixii. 331, 332, Languidulosque paret tecum conjungere somnos Levia substernens robusto brachia collo. 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." 21 Idyll xxiv. 7, vttvoq iykgainoq. '2 6 Trparog aoi^bq. Cf. Idyll xxiv. 63, " The feather'd songster chan- ticleer." Prudentius, Hymn Matutin. Daniels' Thesaurus Hymnologicus i. 119, Ales diei nuntius Lucem propinquam preecinit. St. Ambrose calls the cock " praeco diei," &c. Ovid, Jam dederat cantm iucis prgenuncius ales. '.'102/: >;.' '. .' • ; ' THi-^OCKITUS. 1—8. crowed from his roost, ^^ Hymen, O Hjmenseus, roayest thou joy over these nuptials. 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 of originality and management of subject. Valkenaer thinks it a poem of Bion ; but Stobgeus (c. 63) quotes the lines as the work of Theo- critus. Meleager (Epigr. eviii. 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 the 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. CatuU. Ix., Hymen o Hymeriae, 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, Yoss observes that /tlXto-cra is said collectively, not "a bee," but •* the bee," hence rpaufxara, not Tpavf.ia, below at line 6. 2 ^at tvtOoq [xev erjg — Eo quod tantulus quum sis, quanta facis vulnera. The imperf. irjg, observes Schaefer, has the force of a present, as at Idyll v. 79, ij (TTcj/jLyXog tjcrOaKofidra. Anacr. xxix. 40, tA d' fjv dfisivu). Bion XT. 4, Ktjv fioi trvQiaSiv, Mupu)'iu viro KpoTdcf>OL* 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 aiia, which Wordsworth approves. Catull. Com. Berenices, v. 5, Ut Triviam furtim sub Latmia saxa relegans Dulcis amor gj'ro 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, 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. Love no longer even thou, ^I'would-be Venus,* thy sweet one either in the city or on the mountain, but sleep alone all night long. IDYLL XXL 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 9vvvo9r]pa or AXuvg 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 2 for a little space in the night, solicitudes on a sudden 21 i« Would-be Venus." It seems clear that the poet makes his rustic taunt Eunica in these last words, and the suggestion of Wordsworth, top 'Apia, "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, Turn 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 tTTixpavayai, Wordsworth suggests tTna^kaaijai — shall have dis- 6—16. IDYLL XXI. 107 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- sipated (his cares), comparing Horat. Od. II. xi. 17, Dissipat Evius curias edaces. oKiyov is used here adverbially — vvktcq, the genitive of the part of time. Cf. Idyll xxiii. 32, aXK' bXiyov Zy- Horn. Odyss. xix. 515, &c., AifTap lirr)v vv^ 2X6^7, eXtictl te koIto^ awavTU^ YLzifxai kvl XiKTpw, irvKival Si jjloi a/jicp' aSivov Krjp 'O^tlai fJLEktdtovat o8vpofxivr}V kpiQov x^P'^^ TrpoSeiKvvQ. Some read xapc, unnecessarily, for crKTjTrrpt^ irpodsiKvvQ occurs in Sophoc, CEd. T. 456, "Feeling his way." As Seneca, "Baculo seniliter praetentare." Yirg. ^n. v. 433, Multa viri necquicquam inter se vulnera jactant. ^' Virg. ^En. 446, Ipse gravis graviterque ad terram pondere vasto, Concidit. ^ Ibid. 453, At non tardatus casu, neque territus heros, Acrior ad pugnam redit, ac vim suscitat ira. 108—130. IDYLL XXII. 117 himself, and they were hurting one another by blows with the hard caestus. But the ruler of the Bebrycians for his part was directing his fists against the chest, and outside the neck of his foe, while Pollux the invincible was disfiguring all the others visage with unseemly blows. And his flesh (i. e. that of Amycus) was sinking through sweat, and from being huge he had become on a sudden a little man ; but the other, as he tasted toil, was bearing limbs ever stronger, and still im- proving in healthy colour. Now how at last the son of Jove overthrew ^^ the athlete, declare, thou goddess ! for thou knowest ; and I, the inter- preter of others, will speak as much as thou desirest, and as is agreeable to thyself. In truth, Amycus for his part being desirous to do some great deed, seized with his left hand the left hand of Pollux, bending slantwise with a lunge ; and with the other hand making his assault, raised ^''his broad fist from his right side, and he would have hit and injured the king of the Amyclseans, but he in turn came up secretly from under with his head, and then with his strong hand struck him under the left temple, and fell on his shoulder ; then the cark blood poured out rapidly from his gaping temple : ^^ and with his left hand he struck his mouth, and the thickset teeth rattled ; whilst he kept maiming his face with ever sharper blows, until he had smashed his cheeks ; but then all on the 3^ ground he fell senseless, ^^and lifted up both hands at once, as renouncing the victory, for he was nigh unto death. ^3 dSrjfdyov, " gluttonous." Cf. Philoct. Sophocl. 313, where the word is applied to v6' yvat, from yvrig, 6. Elmsl. Soph. O. C. 58. Eurip. Bacch. 13, Heracl. 839. Vid. Valkenaer ad Phceniss. Eurip. vs. 648. " Compare Virg. Mn. vii. 197, Quae causa rates aut cujus egentes Littus ad Ausonium tot per vada caerula vexit 1 \ 47—68. IDYLL XXV. 135 the servants to be my guide, whosoever is the most honour- able ^^ manager over these lands, to whom I might say some- what, and from whom I might learn somewhat, when he speaks. For God, in sooth, hath made one man in need of one, and A 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 " aiVv/iV)7r);e, a manager, from ai(Tia v£/i£iv, to give each his due. Here the person, indicated seems to be the Latin " villicus." aiavfjivrirrjg stands for the elective prince of the Mitylenseans in Aristot. Politic. III. xiv. 8. Cf. Smith, D. G. and R. Antiq. pp. 32—36. ^* xdi^og, elegantly for x^^Q- So 11. A. 497, iqepiT] d' a.i'e[3r] fieyav ovpa- vov. See below at vs. 223. Horat. Epod. xvi. 51, Nee vespertinus cir- cumgemit ursus ovile. — From town.] Elis was not built in Homer's day, much less that of Hercules. There is no doubt an anachronism, unless we suppose, with Warton, that aarv here stands for the palace or seat of government. " Polwhele remarks, that the ancients never inquired the names of their stranger guests, instancing the Phgeacians of the Odyssey, and the Ger ■ mans of Tacitus, De Mor. G. c. 21. '« Compare Homer Odyss. xiv. 29, 30, E^aTTtvtjs 5' '05uo-77a l^ov kvvz'3 vXaKOfxoopoL 01 fikv KtKkriyovTE^ kiriBpaiiov — Comp. Odyss. xvi. 5. " Princes of old made much of dogs. Telemachua is attended by two house dogs, Odyss. ii. Achilles has nine at hit board, II. xxiii. Two attend Evander, .^n. 8, and Syphax in Livy." — Warton. 136 THEOCRITUS. 69—100. off, in botli ways, by their scent of flesh, and by the sound of feet. And barking furiously they rushed from different sides on Hercules, son of Amphitryon : but about the old man, barking without need or cause, they kept fawning on the other side. These indeed he for his part proceeded to frighten into retreating, by stones, merely lifting them from the ground ; and sharply with his voice did he threaten every one of them» and check their barking, though he rejoiced in his heart that they protected his stall, yes, when he was absent ; then spake he such words as these : ' Strange ! what an animal this is, that the gods our rulers have made to be with men : how sagacious ! if it had but a mind, so far intelligent, within, as to know with whom 'twere right to be angry, and with whom not, then no other of brutes had vied with it for the meed of honour. But, as it is, 'tis a very wrathful kind of beast, and ^^ savage to no purpose.' He spoke ; and speedily they came in their progress to the stall. The ^^ Sun indeed at that time had turned his steeds towards the west, bringing on eventide : and the fat sheep arrived, coming up from pasture to their ^^ folds and pens. Next full myriads of heifers were seen, one after another, com- ing, like rainy clouds, as many as in the heaven are being driven forward, either by force of the south wind, or of Thracian Boreas : of which there is no numbering, as they move in air, no, nor cessation ; for so many does the violence of the wind roll after the first, and the rest too rise and swell upon others again : so many herds of heifers, 1 say, were coming up ever and anon behind. Then in sooth all the plain was filled, and all the ways, with the cattle coming in, while the fertile fields were full of lowings, and the stalls easily crowded with trailing-footed oxen ; the sheep too were fold- ing themselves in the pens. '^^ Here, indeed, no man, though they *' apprfveg, savage, (a collateral form of dppijv, from pr]v, L. and S.,) aypiov, Svax^P^Q- Hesych. " Compare Horn. Odyss. xvii. 170, 'AW OT£ 5j; ^ElTTVtJO-TOS t1]V, Kul tTTriXvds fltjXa UdvTodav l^ dypuiv. Virg. Georg. iv. 433, Yesper ubi e pastu vitulos ad tecta reducit. '^ auXia, shelters for the smaller stock ; (rrjKovg, for the larger. Cf. 99, 18, 61, 76, 169, (for avXia,) of this Idyll ; for atjKol, see vs. 98. Horn. II. iv. 433, wctt' ot£9 TroXvird/JLOVo's dvSpo^, tv avkrf Mvpiai iOTTVKaaiv ajxsXyofjitvat. ydXa XtvKov. -" * Though they were mimberlessy' is to be understood, says Kiessling, 100—127. IDYLL XXV. 137' were numberless, stood inactive by the oxen, in lack of work : but one was fitting with well-cut thongs wooden logs about the cows^ feet, for the purpose of standing close beside to milk them. Another, again, was putting the dear calves to their own mothers, all eager as they were to drink of the pleasant milk : another was holding a milk -pail ; another was ^^hickening a rich cheese ; another was driving in the bulls, apart from the cows. And Augeas was going over all the ox- stalls, and noting what fruits of his possessions his herdsmen were making for him. And with him his son as well as mighty and wise Hercules were following, as the king went round his large property. Hereupon the son of Amphitryon, though hav- ing in his bosom a spirit unbroken 22and sternly fixed for ever, yet was vastly astonished on seeing the countless tribe of oxen, I ween. For no one would say, or ^3 have supposed, that the stock of one man, no, nor of ten others, ay, such as were rich in flocks beyond all other men, was so great. Since Phoebus had presented to his son this special gift, to be rich in cattle above all men ; yes, and he kept altogether prospering for him all his beasts to the uttermost ; '^^for no disease, of those which destroy the labours of herdsmen, assailed his herds. But ever more in number, ever finer sprang up horned heifers duly from year to year: for of a truth all were 25 mothers of live offspring, far beyond others, and all of fe- male offspring. And together with these, three hundred bulls were ranged in rows, white-legged and crumple-horned ; nay, of the cattle. Harles refers the words to the men, and illustrates the number of servants by Dido's Feast, Virg. ^n. i. 701. ^* The first meaning of rps^w is, to thicken, congeal, or curdle, hence rpo^aXig, Aristoph. Vesp. 338, fresh cheese. Odyss. ix. 246, kvf'iKa Z i]fii TTvevfiaTi, i. e. Sovuki KrjpoTrXdaTip : fistula." Briggs. * Aiyi^dravy capripedem, a dubious reading is aiytftorav, a goatherd. Jacobs remarks, from a comparison of this passage with Idyll i. 15, that shepherds and cowherds had less reverence for Pan than the goatherds, whose tutelary god he was. * oix^Tai is a * vox solennis ' of the dead common in pastoral and other poets. ^ Briggs observes, *' It was late for the dogs to bark, when the kid was devoured." VII.— IX. EPIGRAMS. 159 then give tongue. What boots it, when, gone as she is, nor a bone nor ash is left of her ? VII. UPON A STATUE OF ^SCULAPIUS.^ The son of Paean came even to Miletus, ^to dwell along with a man that heals diseases, Nicias by name: ^who ever day by day approaches him with sacrilfices, and has had this statue carved out of '* fragrant cedar, having promised the highest price to Eetion, because of his skilful hand ; and he has thrown all his art into the work. VIII. the EPITAPH OF ORTHON. Stranger, Orthon, a man of Syracuse, gives thee this charge : Walk no where, in your cups, of a wintry night. For such is the fate, which I have met : and ^ instead of my ample father land, I lie having wrapped myself in foreign soih IX. Good man, ^be careful of your life, nor be a voyager out * This is an Epigram on a statue of iEsculapius by the hand of Eetion, set up by Nicias the physician of Miletus, concerning whom see Idylls xi., xiii., xxviii. 2 (TVfi^kpofiai is used elsewhere in this sense. Philoct. Sophocl. 1084, dW tfioi Kai 9vT], ^ The Chian namesake of our poet was an orator and sophist, and perhaps historian of the time of Alexander the Great. This Epigram is probably the work of some grammarian who wished to mark the differ- ence between the two persons. See Smith's Diet. Gr. Rom. Biog. vol. iii. pp. 1031, 1032. 3 Some have supposed, from Theocritus seeming to represent himself under the character of Simichidas, or son of Simichus, Idyll vii. 21, that he was son of Simichus : but it seems better to consider that he used that name as an assumed one, just as Virgil does Tityrus. And indeed this Epigram seems to establish his parentage. * " Alienge laudis appetens nunquam fui." Briggs. *« I never flirted with another's muse." Chapman. * \pf]ov Trpbg \6yov epx^f^^^VQ* is in Latin •' rationibus recte subductis." 6 Caicus is of course the manager of the bank, which never fears a run upon it. ^ This Epigram (Anthol. Pal. vii. 262,) is printed among those of Theocritus only in Wordsworth's edition. He is led to print it there by the reasons given for ascribing it to Theocritus in the Anthologia Palat. ■.^i THE IDYLLS OP BION THE SMYRNJIAK IDYLL L THE EPITAPH OF ADONIS. I WAIL for Adonis ; beauteous Adonis is dead. * Dead is beauteous Adonis ;' the Loves join in the waiL Sleep no more, Venus, in purple vestments ; rise, wretched goddess, in thy robes of woe, * and beat thy bosom, and say to all, ' Beau- teous. Adonis hath perished.' I wail for Adonis : the Loves join in the wail. Low lies beauteous Adonis on the moun- tains, having his white thigh smitten by a tusk, a white tusk, and he inflicts pain on Venus, as he breathes out his life faintly ; but adown his white skin trickles the black blood ; and his eyes are glazed neath the lids, and the rose flies from his lip ; and round about it dies also the kiss, which Venus will never relinquish. To Venus, indeed, his kiss, even though he lives not, is pleasant, yet Adonis knew not that she kiss- ed him as he died. I wail for Adonis : the Loves wail in concert. A cruel, cruel wound hath Adonis in his thigh, ^ but a greater wound doth Cytherea bear at her heart. Around that youth ^ indeed * And beat thy bosom.] See Ovid Met. x. 720, Utque sethere vidit ab alto Exanimem, inque suo jactantem sanguine corpus Desiluit, pariterque sinus, pariterque capillos Rupit et indignis percussit pectora palmis. * ^tptt iroTiKapdiov (Xkoq. Ov. Met. v. 426, Inconsolabile vulnus Mente gerit tacita. ; » Faithful hounds whined.] Senec. Hippolyt. 1108, Msestseque domini membra vestigant canes. Ossian, *• His dogs are howling in their place.'* 18—45 IDYLL J. 1(57 faithful hounds whined, and Oread Nymphs weep ; but Aphrodite, having let fall her braided hair, wanders up and down the glades, sad, unkempt, ^ unsandaled, and the brambles tear her as she goes, and ^ cull her sacred blood : then wailing piercingly she is borne through long valleys, crying for her ^Assyrian spouse, and calling on her youth. But around him dark blood was gushing up about his navel, arid his breasts were empurpled from his thighs, and to Adonis, the parts beneath his breasts, white before, became now deep-red. Alas, alas for Cytherea, the Loves join in the wail. She hath lost her beauteous spouse, she hath lost with him her divine beauty. Fair beauty had Venus, when Adonis was JW/ living ; but with Adonis perished the fair form of Venus, ' ^A alas, alas ! All mountains, and the oaks say, * Alas for "^PtW*^ Adonis.' "^And rivers sorrow for the woes of Aphrodite, and ^^'-'^^ springs on the mountains weep for her Adonis, and ® flowers redden from grief ; whilst Cytherea sings mournfully along all ^ woody-mountain-passes, and along cities. Alas, alas for Cytherea, beauteous Adonis hath perished. And Echo cried in response, * Beauteous Adonis hath perished.' *°Who would not have lamented the dire love of Venus ? alas ! alas ! When she saw, when she perceived the wound of Adonis, which none might stay, when she saw gory blood about his wan thigh, unfolding wide her arms, she sadly cried, * Stay, ill- fated Adonis, Adonis, stay : that I may find thee for the last time, that I may enfold thee around, and mingle kisses with kisses. Rouse thee a little, Adonis, and again this last time * dffdvdaXog, unsandaled, betokening haste or severe distress. See Theocr. Id. xxiv. 36. ^ Cull her sacred blood.] See for the same bold metaphor, iEsch. S. c. Theb. 718, dXV avTudtX^ov alfxa dpsxl/aaOai BsXitg. Virgil ^n. xi. 804, Hasta sub exsertam donee perlata papillara Heesit, virgineumque alt6 bibit acta cruorem. * Assyrian spouse.]" Adonis was son of Cinyras and Myrrha. Cinyras is variously called king of Cyprus, Arabia, and Assyria. ^ Rivers sorrow.] Compare Mosch. iii. 2 and 28.' * And flowers redden.] Cf. Theocr. xx. 16, Kal xpo« ^oivix^riv vTTo ToiXysog, ojg poSov tpoq.. Briggs reads for tttoKiv, voltvoq from the Aldine Edit, ^ Kvrjfiog is used in Homer II. for the woody passes of Ida. Trovf, the base of the mountain. KVTjfiog, from Kvqfiri, (the leg between ancle and knee,) the part just above the base. "^ Milton's Lycidas. Who would not sing for Lycidas, &c. 168 BION. 45—63. kiss me : kiss me just so far as there is life in t hy kis s, ^^till from thy heal't tiiy spirit shall have ebbea intomy lips and soul, and I shall h»ve drained thy sweet love-potion, and ^2 have drunk out thy love : and I will treasure this kiss^ even as if it were Adonis himself, since thou, ill-fated one, dost flee from me. Thou flyest afar, O Adonis, ^^ and comest unto ^,/Acheron, and its gloomy and cruel king ; but wretched I live, and ^'^am a goddess, and cannot follow thee. Take, Proserpine, my spouse : for thou art thyself far more power- ful than I, ^^and the whole of what is beautiful falls to thy share ; yet I am all-hapless, and feel insatiate grief, and mourn for Adonis, since to my sorrow he is dead, and I am afraid of thee. Art thou dying, O thrice-regretted ? ^^ Then my longing is fled as a dream ; and widowed is Cytherea, and idle are the Loves alcfeg my halls : and with thee has my charmed-girdle been undone ; nay, why, rash one, didst thou hunt ? Beauteous as thou wert, wast thou mad enough to contend with wild beasts ? ' Thus lamented Venus ; the Loves join in the wail. Alas, alas for Cytherea, beauteous " The last kiss was wont to be given to the dearest one, when " in articulo mortis ;" and it was a fancy of old, that the survivor drew in, •with the last breath of the dying, their passing life. Virg. Mn. iv. 684, Extremus si quis super halitus errat, Ore legam. Seneca, Here. Oct. 1339, Spiritus fugiens meo Legatur ore. Cicero, Ut extremum filiorum spiritum ore excipere liceret. " IK dk TTiw Tov ipojTa. Virg. ^n. iv. 749, Necnon et vario noctem sermone trahebat Infelix Dido, longumque bibebat amorem. '^ Acheron, and its gloomy and cruel king.] Virgil Georg. iv. 469, 470, Manesque adiit, regeraque tremendum, Nesciaque humanis precibus mansuescere corda. Job xviii. 14, '• His confidence shall be rooted out of his tabernacle ; and it shall bring him to the king of terrors." 1* And am a goddess.] Compare Spenser's Fairy Queen, O what awails it of immortal seed To been ybred, and never born to die ; For better I it deem to die with speed, Than waste with woe and wailful miserie. " rb Sk Trap koXov. CatuU. iii. 13, At vobis male sit, malae tenebrse Orci, quae omnia bella devoratis Tam helium mihi passerem abstulistis. i« u)Q ovap tTTTrf. Compare Job xx. 8, " He shall flee away at a dream, and shall not be found ; jea, he shall be chased away as a vision of the night." 64—82. IDYLL L 169 Adonis has perished. The Paphian goddess sheds as many tears as Adonis pours forth blood : and these all, on the ground, become flowers : ^"^ the blood begets a rose, and the tears the anemone. I wail for Adonis : beauteous Adonis hath perish- ed. Lament no more, Venus, thy wooer in the glades : there is a goodly couch, there is a bed of leaves ready for Adonis ; this bed of thine, Cytherea, dead Adonis occupies ; and though a corpse, he is beautiful, a beautiful corpse, as it were sleeping. Lay him down on the ^^ soft vestments in which he was wont to pass the night : in which with thee along the night he would take his holy sleep, on a couch all-of-gold ; yearn thou for Adonis, sad-visaged though he be now: and lay him ^^amid chaplets and flowers ; all with him, since he is dead, 20 ay, all flowers have become withered : but sprinkle him with myrtles, sprinkle him with unguents, with perfumes : perish all perfumes, thy perfume, Adonis, hath perished. Delicate Adonis reclines in purple vestments ; and about him weeping Loves set up the wail, ^^ having their locks shorn for Adonis : — and one was trampling on his arrows, another on his bow, and 22 another was breaking his well-feathered »7 The blood begets a rose, &c.] Cf. Ovid Met. x. 731—737. ** Soft vestments.] Indicative of rank and luxury. Compare St. Luke vii. 25, " Behold, they which are gorgeously apparelled, and live delicately, are in king's courts." In the next line tov iepov vttvov ifioxQu, •' divinum ilium soporem tecum elaborabat," certaminibus ni- mirum amatoriis. Briggs. " ^dWe d' kvl (TTecpdvoKTi, &c. See Milton's Comus at the end, Beds of hyacinths and roses, Where young Adonis oft reposes, "Waxing well of his deep wound, In slumber soft ; and on the ground Sadly sits th' Assyrian queen. *> I must here refer the reader to the beautiful lines from Ben Jon- son's "Sad Shepherd," quoted by Chapman in his translation of this passage. ^^ Keipdfievoi x<*'''"C ^'^' 'A.do)vtSi. For this ancient custom, see Homer, II. xxiii. 135 ; Odyss. iv. 197 ; Sappho, Epigr. 2. Ovid and Statius have illustrations of the same practice. In sacred Scripture, Ezechiel says, in a description of a great lament, " They shall make themselves utterly bald for thee," xxvii. 31. ** Ovid imitates this passigo in his death of Tibullus, Amor. iii. 9,7, Ecce puer Veneris fert eversamque pharetram, Et fractos arcus, et sine luce facem 170 BION. 82—98. quiver ; and one has loosed the sandal of Adonis, while an- other is carrying water in golden ewers, and a third is bathing his thighs ; and another behind him is fanning Adonis with his wings. The Loves join in the wail for Cytherea herself: Hy- menosus has quenched every torch at the door-posts, and shredded the nuptial wreath ; and no more is ^^ Hymen, no more Hymen the song that is sung, alas ! alas ! is chanted : alas, alas for Adonis, wail the Graces, far more than Hy- menaeus, for the son of Cinyras, saying one with another, * Beauteous Adonis hath perished ;' and far more piercingly speak they, than thou, ^4 Dione. The Muses too strike up the lament for Adonis, and invoke him by song, but he heeds them not ; not indeed that he is unwilling, but Proserpine does not release him. Cease, Cytherea, thy laments, refrain this day from thy dirges. ^5 Thou must wail again, and weep again, another year. IDYLL IL EROS AND THE FOWLER. A BIRD-CATCHER, yet a boy, hunting birds in a leafy grove, spied Eros, ^from whom men -turn-away, perched on the branch of a box-tree ; and when he had observed him, in delight because in sooth it seemed to him a great bird, ^ fitting Below at Xw filv tXvoi irkdiXov, for this oflSce of respect, see St. John i. 27 ; Acts xiii. 25. ^^ ovK en d' 'TfiAv. Compare Lamentations v. 15, " The joy of our heart is ceased ; our dance is turned into mourning." For Hymenaeus, see Theocr. xviii. 58 ; CatuU. 62 ; and in its primary sense, Horn. II. xviii. 493. 2* Dione was the mother of Aphrodite, but here we are to understand the daughter under the mother's name. 25 Compare Theocr. Idyll xv. 143, 144. ^ aTTOTpoirov, explained by Hesych., "quod aversetur aliquis." It is so used (Ed. Tyr. 1313, 1314, im gkotov v's^og ijxbv aTroTpoirov. Briggs here conjectures vTroTrrtpov, "alatum." * The ancient mode of catching birds with rods was this. Reeds smeared with bird-lime were joined together lengthwise, till they struck the wings of the bird, which meanwhile was being charmed by the song of the fowler hid amid the bushes. (Schwebel.) 5—16. iDxxL n. 171 together one on another his rods all at once, he proceeded to lay a trap for Eros, as he hopped ^ hither and thither. And the lad, being chagrined that no success befell him, threw down his rods, and went to an old rustic, who had taught him this art ; and spoke to him, and showed him Eros perch- ing. '*But the old man, gently smiling, wagged his head, and answered the boy : ' Beware of thy sport, and come not at yon bird ; fly far from it; 'tis an evil brute ; happy will you be, ^so long as you shall not have caught it ; but if you shall have reached to man's stature, yon bird that now flees, and hops away, will come himself of his own accord, on a sudden, ^and settle upon your head.' IDYLL IIL THE TEACHER TAUGHT. The mighty Venus stood beside me, when I was yet ^ in youth's prime, leading with her fair hand infant Eros, nodding towards the ground ; and addressed me as follows, ' Prythee, good herdsman, take and teach Eros to sing.' Thus said she, and herself went away ; but I, witless as I was, began to teach Eros, as though he wished to learn, as many pastorals as I knew ; namely, how ^Pan invented the cross-flute, how 2 Tq. Kat TO.. Mosch, i. 16, Kai TTTEpoets tis opvi^ iipLTTTaTai aWoT Itt' dX\ov9 dvipa^ TjSk yui/ai/cas. Cf. Theoc. XT. 119. * 6 'jrpk' r\ pa tot' ^arav •Xpv(T£Ot OL iraXaL dvdpti, ot' avTicpiXijar' 6 <^i\Tj0£ts. » Compare Horat. Od. IV. vii. 27, 28, Nee Lethaea valet Theseus abrumpere caro Vincula Pirithoo. * The churlish inhospitables.] 'A^dvoi. Allusion is here made to the fierce character of the barbarians dwelling on the east coast of the sea called first from them Axenus, the inhospitable ; but afterwards Euxine, from the civilization introduced by Greek settlers. For xaXtTroTtrtv, Briggs suggests XaXv^sdcriv. The Chalybes were a nation of Asia Minor, bordering on Pontus. ^sch. Prom. V. calls them dvrj^epoL yap, ovde TTpOtTTtXaaTOl ^kvoiQ. ^ The friendship of Pylades and Orestes is commemorated in more than one Greek tragedy : Achilles and Patroclus appear as fast friends in the Iliad. See Ovid. Ep. ex Ponto II. iii. 41 — 46 ; and for some ex- cellent remarks on this beautiful trait of the Heroic ages, see Thirlwall't Greece, a-oI. i. c. vi, 77. 176 BION. IX.— XIT. IX. It is jiot well, my friend, on every occasion to have re- course to a craftsman, nor at all in every matter to have need of another, but ^ do you even yourself fashion a Pan's pipe ; and it is an easy task for you. May Eros invite the Muses, may the Muses bring Eros : and to me, always yearning after it, may the Muses give song, the sweet song, than which ^no charm is sweeter. XI. ^From the frequent drop, as the saying is, ever falling, even the stone is bored into a hollow. XII. But I will go on my way to yon slope, '* warbling at the sands of the shore, whilst I supplicate cruel Galatea : for I will not relinquish my sweet hopes even till extreme old-age. XIII. Neither leave me unrewarded, since even Phoebus gave a reward to song. And honour makes the things we do better. XIV. ^ Beauty is woman's grace : but man's is courage. ' rtx^affOai, may be the infinitive for the imperative here. 'No charm, or remedy. Comp.Theocr. Idyll xi. 1, for the same sentiment, 3 So Ovid., Quid magis est durum saxo 1 quid mollius und^ ? Dura tamen molli saxa cavantur aqua. And again, Gutta cavat lapidem, non vi sed ssepe cadendo. Lucret. lib, iv. ad fin., Nonne vides etiam guttas in saxa cadentes Humoris, longo in spatio pertundere saxa^ * Warbling.] I have translated Brunck's reading, i//i0i;pto"^a*i', as ^t0t;- piadb) seems condemned by the futures before and after it. In the next line \pdfia9ov rs Kai tjiova, is an instance of Hendiadys. See Theocr. i, 1 . * See Anacreon, Ode II., yvvai^lv oinc ir elxsv ri ovv diddjtri ; KaXXog, k. t. X. 1—16, IDYLL XV. '377 IDYLL XV. THE EPITHALAMIUM OF ACHILLES AND DEIDAMIA.^ MYRSON. LYCIDAS. Myrson. Are you willing now, Lycidas, sweetly to sing me *a Sicilian melody, delightsome, charming the mind, and amorous, such as the Cyclops Polyphemus sung on the sea- shore to Galatea ? Lycidas. And if, Myrson, it be agreeable to me to sing to my pipe, then what shall my song be ? Myrs. 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 Lacedaemon was wroth, and gathered all the Achaean host. Nor did any man of Hellas, of Mycenas, or Elis, or of the Laconians, stay behind in his home, ^bearing as vengeance dread w^ar. 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 2iK£X6r n'iXoq. Virg. Eel. iv. 1, Sicelides Musae. Mosch., 2i/f«\tKac Mot- i;ai. All marking Sicily as the land of pastoral poetry "par excellence." ^ Xd^piov tvvdv. Compare Theocr. xxvii. 67, aviararo (pwpiOQ diva. * For the unintelligible reading, airaX'tyoiaa 'Aijdrjvrj r airaarbv 'AxtXXia ArjiSafieia — • we have ventured to translate, as at least sense, Ruhnken's conjecture, ayKUQ Ixoica JltjXsidrjv dycLTra^sv, k. t. X. which is aj)proved by Valkenaer and Jacobs, and is by far the best. For the several conjectures of Toup, Wakefield, and Briggs, see Briggs* Bucolici Grseci, p. 361. > ^ ^spujv diaaiv ctvav dpva, is hopeless. Scaliger amended it thus, 4ifpuiv Ticriv aivdv'ApTja, to which Lennep. prefers riffiv, vindictam, which Brunck follows. This has been translated in the text above. Ruhnken's 178 BION. 15—32. Achilles was lying concealed among the daughters of Ly- comedes, and was learning skill in wool, instead of arms, and in his white hand was holding a maiden's ®task; and in ap- pearance he was as a girl ; for he was equally womanish with them, and as fresh a colour as theirs blushed on his snowy cheeks ; and he was wont to walk with the step of maiden- hood, and to cover his hair with a veil ; yet had he the spirit of Mars, and possessed the love of a man, and from dawn to nightfall would he sit beside Deidamia ; and at times indeed he would kiss her hand, and often '^ would he raise her beau- teous mouth, and the sweet tears would flow forth. But with no other of like age did he eat ; and he kept doing every thing in eagerness for a sleep in common. Then he spoke also a word to her, ' With one another other sisters slumber, but I remain alone, and thou sleepest ^ apart /rom me; we two, vir- gins of like age, we twain beautiful. Yet sleep we alone in our several beds, and this evil and troublesome partition -wall ^ wickedly separates me from you. For not of you am I — ' '^ suggestion ^epwv v. So Horn. Odyss. xxiv. 12, drjfiov oveipojv. iroifiaiverai, ovium ritu vagatur. ^ i^irtipovg doiag. So ^sch. Persae, 186. — 'AaiSa r dvTi7rkpT]v re. dvTiTrkprjv is an adverh. Supply rriv dvTnrsprjv ovaav ijTreipov. * Eurip. Orest. 313, fxtve d' «7rt arpwroi) Xkxovg. Soph. Trach. 916, aTpo)T& — ^dprj. TO yap wg virap eUev bvtipov. The order seems to be il^tv yap TO oveipov YJ,L in. 189 hyacinth, speak thy letters, and with thy leaves lisp *ai,' ' ai,' more than is thy wont ; a noble minstrel is dead. Begin Sicilian Muses, begin the lament. Ye nightingales, that wail in the thick foliage, tell the news to the SicHTan waters of ^Arethusa, that Bion the herdsman is dead, that with him both the song is dead, and perished is Doric minstrelsy. Begin, Sicilian Muses, begin the lament. - Plaintively wail beside the waters, Strymonian swans, and with mournful voices sing a sorrowful ode, with as sweet a sound as was that of old, loherewith he used to sing to your lips. ^ And tell, again, to ^agrian maids, tell to all Bistonian nymphs, that the Dorian Orpheus has perished. Begin, Sicilian Muses, begin the lament. That darling of the herds no longer sings : no longer does he warble, as he reclines beneath the solitary oaks : but in Pluto's realm he chants ^ a song of forgetfulness. And voice- lesb are the hills ; and the heifers, which roam with the bulls, lament and will not go to pasture. Begin, Sicilian Muses, begin the lament. Thy sudden fate, O Bion, even Apollo bewailed, and the rSatyrs grieved, and the dark-robed Priapi ; and Pans sigh for t^y melody, whilst the fountain nymphs through the wood mourned for thee, ^and their tears became waters ; and Echo According to other traditions, the flower sprang from the blood of Ajax. See Sophocl. Ajax 430 (Lobeck) ; Ov. Met. xiii. 395, who combines the two legends, and Virg. Eel, iii. 106. The hyacinth, we know, has no such inscription on its leaves. ^ The nymph Arethusa, pursued by the river-god Alpheus, was changed by Artemis into a stream, which, flowing beneath the sea, rose again near Syracuse. See Yirg. .^n. iii. 694 — 696. Virgil alludes to he land of pastoral song, Sicily, under this name, Eel. xi., Extremum lunc Arethusa mihi, &c. ■* A verse would seem to have slipped out here, which should have lade mention of Thracian Orpheus, and so have connected Strymon, Eagria. and the Bistones with this song. — The Dorian Orpheus. So 'ropert. IV. i. 64, says of himself " Umbria Romani patria Callimachi." * A song of forgetfulness.] Compare Theocr. i. 63. ^ rat vdara SaKpva ykvTO. " Et lachrymae in rivos abeunt." Briggs uggests reading vdaai. Et undis lachrymae obortie sunt. Comp. Bion 34. Kal Jlayal rbv 'Adtoviv iv urpim daKpvovn. Spenser, Shepherd'i .lendar, November, The floods do gasp, for dried is their source, And floods of tears flow in their stead perforce. 190 % MOSCHUS. 30—61. amid the rocks laments, because thou art mute, and mimics no more thy lips ; and at thy death the trees have cast off their fruit, and the flowers have all withered ; good milk hath not flowed from ewes ; nor honey from hives ; but it has perished in the wax wasted with grief ; for no longer is it meet, now that thy honey is lost, to gather that. Begin, Sicilian Muses, begin the lament. ^Not so much did the dolphin lament beside the shores of the sea, nor so sang the nightingale ever on the rocks, no, noiP so much complained the swallow along the high mountains.^ ® neither did Ceyx wail so much over the griefs of Halcyon. * Begin, Sicilian Muses, begin the lament. '^ Neither did Cerylus sing so much in the gray-green wa , es, nor so much ^did the bird of Memnon, fluttering around his tomb, deplore the son of Aurora in the valleys of the East, aj= they have bewailed Bion, having perished. Begin, Silician Muses, begin the lament. Nightingales, and all swallows, which once he was wont to delight, which he was teaching to speak, sitting on the branches. of trees, kept wailing opposite to each other, whilst the other birds kept responding, * Grieve, ye doves, but we will do so too. Begin, Sicilian Muses, begin the lament. ' The dolphin's delight in song, commemorated in the fable of Arion (Herod, i. 23 ; Pausan. iii. 25 ; Virg. Eel. viii. 54,) is applied by Moschu.' here to the sorrow of all things for the hushing of Bion's song. Fo traits of the dolphin's musical taste and benevolence, see Pliny, N. H> ix. 8. ) * 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. Virg. Georg. i. 399. KrjpvXog, Att. KeipvXog, vl sea-bird, according to some, the male Halcyon. Aristot. H. A. • Mkfivovog upvig. Aurora besought Jove to make her lover Tithonut? immortal. She forgot to stipulate for immortal youth. She therefon had an infirm, though immortal, paramour. But while he was yet young she bore him two sons, of whom Memnon was one. Memnon was slaii at Troy by Achilles, and Aurora obtained from Jove a promise that hi memory should have more than mortal honours. Accordingly from hi funeral pyre there rose a flight of birds, which having thrice flown rouri the flames, divided themselves into two bodies, and fought so fierce!) that above half perished in the fire. These birds, called Memnonides yearly returned to Memnon's tomb, and renewed the encounter. See O Met. xiii., Terque rogum lustrant, et consonus exit in auras Plangor. See also Pliny, x. 36. 5r 4v:. IDYLL III. 191 W ho 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 lelight, as she sat in thy company along the sea-beach. For lot like Cyclops didst thou sing: from him indeed the fair jalatea used to fly; but thee she was wont to regard ^^^ith ^re sweetness than the sea. And now, forgetful of the ve, she sits on the lonely sands, and even yet leads thy xi to pasture. jiBegin, Sicilian Muses, begin the lament. All along with thee, 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, ^ Meles, is a fresh grief ; to thy sorrow perished Homer iforetime, that ^"^ sweet mouth of Calliope, and men say thou lidst deplore thine illustrious son in streams of much weeping, md didst fill all the sea with thy voice : now again thou veepest another son, and pinest over a fresh woe. Both were oloved by the fountains ; the one indeed was wont to drink )f 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 *• Uavl ^igo) TO fikXiyfia. fikXiyfia is equivalent to "fistula," the Sect for the cause. In Meleager's epigrams, as Wakefield observes, Lnacreon is called to fiiXiafia, that is, " auctor tov (ieXiafiaTog." " The poet here alludes to Bion's Idyll on Galatea, a fragment only )f which is extant. >2 Compare Theocr. Idyll xi, 43 ; Virgil Eel. ix. 39. " Meles, a river of Ionia, washes the walls of Smyrna, where Bion /as born. Here also was supposed to have been the birth-place of omer : hence called Melesigenes. '* Compare here Theocr. Idyll vii. 37, Kai yap tyw Moiaav Kairvpbv r('na — 192 MOSCIIUS. 83—110, as he sang : and he was wont to fashion Pan's-pipes, and to milk the sweet heifer, and to teach the lips of youths, and to cherish Eros in his bosom, ^^and rouse a passion in Aphrodite. Begin, Sicilian Muses, begin the lament. Every famous city laments thee, O Bion, as do all the towns: ^^Ascra indeed wails for thee, far more than for Hesiod : not so much does Boeotian Hylae regret Pindar ; nor so much did pleasant Lesbos weep about Alcseus : no, nor hath the Ceian town wept for her bard so much. Paros regrets thee more than Archilochus ; and Mitylene yet plaintively utters thy melody instead of Sappho's. All, as many as have, a clear-sounding voice, all singers of pastorals by the Muses* favour, weep for thy fate, now thou art dead. ^' Sicelidas, the glory of Samos, weeps ; and among the Cydonians, he who was aforetime cheerful to look on with his smiling eye, Ly- cidas, yet sheds tears as he wails : whilst among the citizens of Cos, Philetas mourns beside the river Halens ; and among Syracusans, Theocritus : but I sing for thee a strain of '® 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 wealth, 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 ** Koi TqgiBt TCLv 'A^podirav. Comp. Theocr. Idyll xxi. 21. '* Ascra, a town of Bceotia, or according to Hesiod, who was its chief" glory, a village at the foot of Helicon in the Thespian region. O. et D. 638. — Hylge, a city of Bceotia. Pindar was born either at Thebes or Cynocephalae, b. c. 522. Alcaeus, a native of Lesbos. Simonides, of Ceot;, B. c. 556. Archilochus, of Paros. See Theocr. Epigr. xix. Sappho, (of the same date with Alcseus, b. c. 628 — 570,) was one of the two leaders of the ,^olian school of poetry, AlctBus being the other. She was a native of Mytilene. »^ ^iKsXidag. See Theocr. Idyll vii. 40. Lycidas : Theocr. vii. 12. The Cydonians inhabited the south of Crete. Philetas : ibid. 40. TptoTr/- Saig. Triops was % king of the island of Cos. Cf. Theocr. xvii. 68. The river Halens is mentioned in the Thalysia referred to above. " AvtToviKag oSvvag. The Sicilian Sea was called Ausonius Pontus, from Auson, a son of Ulysses and Calypso. Therefore as Moschus was a Syracusan, he calls his song Ausonian. 111—128. IDYLL m. . 193 earth, sleep a right long and boundless slumber,, from which none are roused. ^^ And in the earth thou indeed wilt be covered in silence, 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 ^ Orpheus, V having gone down to Tartarus, like Ulysses once, or as Al- cides in days of yore, I too would haply descend to the home of Pluto, that I might see thee, and, if thou singest to Pluto, /that 1 might hear what thou singest. Nay, but in the pre- ^' sence of the damsel (Proserpine) warble some Sicilian strain, sing some pleasant pastoral. She too, being Sicilian, ^i sport- '* Cf. Job xiv. 7 — 10, *' There is hope of a tree, if it be cut do%vn, that it will sprout again, and that the tender branch thereof will not cease. Though the root thereof wax old in the earth, and the gtock thereof die in the ground ; yet through the scent of water it will bud, and bring forth boughs like a plant. But man dieth, and wasteth away: yea, man giveth up the ghost, and where is hel " Spenser, Whence is it that the flow'ret of the field doth lade 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, CatuU., Soles occidere et redire possunt : Nobis cum semel occidit brevis lux Nox est perpetua una dormienda. 20 Alcides went alive to Tartarus by command : Odysseus, to obtaiiti information needful to him : but Orpheus went down to recover his wife. His story is beautifully told in th« fourth Georgic of Virgil, ftee also Pope's Ode on St. Cecilia's Day. Chapman. ^' Proserpine, daughter of Ceres, was carried off by Pluto. The legend is to be found, in Hesiod Theog. 914 ; Callimach. H. in Cerer. 9, and Spanheim, on that passage ; Ovid. Met. v. 565 ; Fast, v^/k 432. Milton alludes to it thus : r o 194 MOSCHUS. 128—133. ed on the ^tnaean shores, and knew the Doric song : nor will thy strain be unhonoured ; and as of old to Orpheus, sweetly- singing 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. My mother, why dost thou thus wound thy spirit, being sad beyond measure, and why 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 sufiers 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 -fbow and arrows, which Apollo himself had provided for him, dire weapons either of one of Not that fair field Of Euna, 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 oj king Creon of Thebes, and wife of Hercules, (Horn. Od. xi. 269. Eurip. Here. Fur. 9, &QI...) by whom he had several children ; whom after his battle with the Miay^ans he slew, with two of the children of Iphiclus, under the influ- ence of .rnadness sent by Juno. ^ r6^oter;»,j/. By this name is understood, bow, arrows, and quiver. trdoa tf TQ,?^Kri crrcw^. ApoUodorus says Mercury gave Hercules his sword, Apollu his bow, Yulcan his mail, Minerva his cloak, whilst hi* club he himself zMt in the Nemean grove. IDYLL IV. 195 the Fates, or of Erinnys, ^slew his own children, and robbed them of their dear life, as he raged about his house, and it was full of slaughter. Them indeed T, 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 she, kind mother, hovers over them shrieking y^vy 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 otfspring, 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 o'nJy for a brief space in our house ; for a work is prepared for him of many labours, at which he toils, as he roams over land and sea, yes, for he has within his ' Eurip. Here. F. says that Megara Avas slain along with her children ; he follows Stesichorus and Panyasis. Plutarch and Pausanias coincide with Moschus. * Conapare for this heautiful passage, Horn. II. ii. 308. Virg. Geor. iv. 512, Qualis populeS, 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 late 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 6. Hercules, hence called Tirynthius. o 2 196 MOSCHUS. 44— 6fi 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 tliat shuts them in ; no ! but all dwell right beyond the "' piny Isthmus : nor have I to whom, having looked, as an ill-lated 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 became 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, kut' i^oxriv. 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. 8 Iphiclus, the half-brother of Hercules, married, secondly, Pyrrha, youngest daughter of Creon, king of Thebes. ApoUod. ii. 4, § 11, Ot(^ r« Kai dvspi. Jupiter and Amphitryon. ^ Of the numerous emendations of the probably corrupt nr)\o)v, Wake- field's fiaXKov seems most intelligible. Briggs suggests drjXwg. If we read the verse as it stands in Heskin's edition, firjXiov, we should con- strue, " and moist tears were pouring down her cheeks from her eyelids on her fair bosom ;" but this is hardly Greek. *o Wakefield suggests here ifilaivtv, quoting Virg. ^n. xii. 67, Stat. Theb. ix. 713, and Young's line, " And lights on lids unsullied with a tear." '* Aaifioviii Traidiov, rightly explained by Schwebel, KaxoSaiiiov iraiStitv 66—96. IDYLI, IV. 197 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 y'our 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 ^^ Hell's 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, '' otTTiQ api9fi^(TH£v, understand dx^a, Qui numeret dolores ultra nos- tros, or construe as if it were offng iTrapiOfiriffetev rffitTspois dx^^ffffi, 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, 7rdvro)v yap Kopog kari' kuI vttvov kuI fiXoTtfTog fioXTrrjg re yXvKsprjg, Kal dfivfiovoc ipxijOfioio. '* rriXvyerri — ij TsXtvTdla T

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 muc]j 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 his 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 rough, 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 4oes 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. 282 THEOCRITUS. The herds and flocks, returning from the meads, Came to the stables where they niglitly 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 Angelas 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 Amphitryonides 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 ; IDYLL 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, upright. 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 Achaean 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 am not sure if on Tirynthian ground, Or else in Argos born, or in Myeenian 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 declined. 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 Was 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. Though sharp, into his flesh, but with rebound Fell on 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. Enraged 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 XXVI. 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 ; 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 I Shalt know, not hear " — and mightily did bellow, Loud as a lioness her brood defending ; His mother clutched his head, whilst Ino rending Tore off 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. Name Dionysus as hereby defiled, — Nor though he harsher used some curious chiW. 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 COVTHERD 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— IDYLL XXVII. 289 CHLOE. I will 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. Hush ! 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. I 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. CHLOE. What can I do? marriage brings only care. DAPHNIS. Not pain, nor grief, but joys which sweetest ara. CHLOE. They say that women fear their wedded dears. DAPHNIS. They rule them rather : show me one that fears. CHLOE. Lucina*s bolt — ^the child-bed pang I dread. DAPHNIS. Thy sovran, Artemis, puts wives to bed. CHLOE. Child-bearing will my fine complexion blight. DAPHNIS. Thy children will become thy bloom and light u 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 ! your alarm allay. IDYLL XXVIL 291 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. CHLCE. 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. I'll 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. For virgin thine a wife's and mother's name. Thus whispered they, their youthful prime enjoying, With their fresh limbs in furtive marriage toying. She rose and to her flock went, seeming sad. Blushing and shamefaced, but at heart was glad ; And to his herd the happy Daphnis sped, Rejoicing greatly in his marriage-bed. ',j% IDYLL XXVin. THE DISTAFF. Distaff I quick implement of busy thrift, Which housewives ply, blue-eyed Athene's gift ! "VVe 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, distaif 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 ! 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 prize Not in the gift but in the giver lies. IDYLL XXIX. LOVES. They say, my dear, that wine and truth agree > 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 j 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 burn 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. 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. 295 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 prove — 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. A FRAGMENT FROM THE BERENICE. 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-groaying 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 296 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. III. 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, Jk. heifer, and a ram for him shall bleed : Freely I offer, may he kindly hear ! EPiaRAMS. 297 V. 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 ^SCULAPIUS. 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 unforgotten still. XL 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. xn. UPON A TRIPOD DEDICATED TO BACCHUS BY DEMOTELEa. 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 xin. 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. 299 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 lie ; 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 OP 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. 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. XX. UPON A STATUE OF PISANDER, WHO COMPOSED " THE LABOURS OF HERCULES." 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 XXII. 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 ; Stifien beneath his brow his sightless eyes ; The rose is off his lip ; with him no more Lives 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 lies, 302 BION. E'en in her heart. The Oread's eyes are dim ; His hounds whine piteouslj ; in most disordered trim, 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 glide, [Or wail or weep for her ; in tearful rills pFor her gush fountains from the mountain side ; Redden the flowers from grief; city and hills 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. My hapless own Adonis ! and embay thee, And mingle lips with lips, whilst in my arms I lay thee. " Up for a little ! ki ss me ^ back^gain ^ Th e latest kiss — brief as itself thaTdies In Igeing breathed, untiT I fundi)' " d Taiir^ 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 live, nor can I follow thee. y IDYLL I. " 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 — I Ros es his^ blood, her Jtears anemonjes. Uypris ! no longer iitTthe tliickets weep ; The couch is furnished ! there in loving guise Upon thy proper bed, that odorous heap, 'ihe 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 flings The marriage wreath away ; and for the lay Of love is only heard the doleful " weal-awa^^ ^ *^ j S^-.*^ Yet more than Hymen for Adonis weep ^ -^ The G-races ; shriller than Dione vent Their shrieks j for him the Muses wail and keep 304 BION. Singing the songs he hears not, with intent To call 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. While 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. iJIs IDYLLS IV. V. 305 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 foro^et them not. IDYLL IV. THE POWER OF LOVE. The Muses fear not, but with heart-love true Aifect 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. LITE TO BE ENJOYED. If sweet my songs, or these sufficient 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. 806 BION. 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 VI. 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 hunger 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 ; And hard I find to bear the Winter frore. The chilling snow I fear, and crystal hoar. IDYLL VII. — X. 301 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. VII. ON HYACINTHUS. Phoebus 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. VIII. 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 me. Than which no sweeter remedy can be. X 2 308 BION. XL When drop on drop, they say, doth ever follow, 'Twill wear the 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 I'll 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. I THE EPITHALAMIUM OF ACHILLES AND DEmAMLA. Myrson. Lycidas. MTRSON. 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. I'll 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 Lacedaemon raged, And all th' Achaean s in the feud engaged : Hellenes, Elians, and Mycenians, came, And brave Laconians, to retake the dame. When G-reece 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 Lycomede. A seeming virgin with a virgin's bloom. Instead of arms his white hand plied 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 De'idamia'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 ? ** IDYLL XVL 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 — 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 with Immortals and our mortal kind Art thou so wroth ? what stung thy gentle mind To bring 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 I. LOVE A RUNAWAY. Her 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 II. 311 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 offer 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." IDYLL II. 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 Phcenix, in her virgin bloom, Thought that she saw a contest fierce arise Betwixt two continents, herself the prize ; 312 Mosciius. 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 ^giochus gave her, By Fate'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 surprise — 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 reach. 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 the great Earth-shaker's side ; IDYLL n. 818 She gave it Telephassa fair and mild, Who now had given it to her virgin child. Therein were many sparkling wonders wrought— The hapless 16 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 full, 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, 314 MOSCHUS. Who only tames e'en Zeus. To shun the rage Of Here, and the virgin's mind engage, To draw her ejes and her attention claim, He hid his godhead and a bull became ; Not such, as feeds at stall, or then or now. The furrow cuts and draws the crooked plough ; Not such as feeds the lowing kine among^ Or trails in yoke the heavy wain along ; His body all a yellow hue did own. But a white circle in his forehead shone ; His sparkling eyes with love's soft lustre gleamed ; His arched horns like Dian's crescent seemed. He came into the meadow, nor the sight Fluttered the virgins into sudden flight. But they desired to touch and see him near ; His breath surpassed the meadow-sweetness there. Before Europa's feet he halted meek, Licked her fair neck, and eke her rosy cheek ; Threw round his neck her arms the Beautiful, Wiped from his lips the foam and kissed the bull ; Softly he lowed ; no lowing of a brute It seemed, but murmur of Mygdonian flute ; Down on his knees he slunk ; and first her eyed, And then his back, as asking her to ride. The long-haired maidens she began to call : — *' Come let us ride, his back will hold us all, E'en as a ship ; a bull unlike the rest, As if a human heart were in his breast, He gentle is and tractable and meek. And wants but voice his gentleness to speak." She said, and mounted smiling, but before Another did, he bounded for the shore. The royal virgin, struck with instant fear. Stretched out her hands and called her playmates dear ; But how could they the ravished princess reach ? He, like a dolphin, pushed out from the beach. From their sea-hollows swift the Nereids rose, Seated on seals, and did his train compose ; Poseidon went before, and smooth did make The path of waters for his brother's sake ; IDYLL IL 315 Around their king in close array did keep The loud-voiced Tritons, minstrels of the deep, And with their conchs proclaimed the nuptial song. But on Jove's bull-back as she rode along. The maid with one hand grasped his branching horn, The flowing robe, that did her form adorn, Raised with the other hand, and tried to save From the salt moisture of the saucy wave ; Her robe, inflated by the wanton breeze, Seemed like a ship's sail hovering o'er the seas. But when, her father-land no longer nigh. Nor sea-dashed shore was seen, nor mountain high, But only sky above, and sea below — She said, and round her anxious glance did throw : — " Whither with me, portentous bull ? discover This and thyself: and how canst thou pass over The path of waters, walking on the wave, And dost not fear the dangerous path to brave ? Along this tract swift ships their courses keep, But bulls are wont to fear the mighty deep. What pasture here ? what sweet drink in the brine ? Art thou a god ? thy doings seem divine. Nor sea-born dolphins roam the flowery mead, Nor earth-born bulls through Ocean's realm proceed ; Fearless on land, and plunging from the shores Thou roamest ocean, and thy hoofs are oars. Perchance anon, up-borne into the sky, Thou without wings like winged birds wilt fly ! Ah me unhappy ! who my father's home Have left and with a bull o'er ocean roam, A lonely voyager ! my helper be. Earth-shaking regent of the hoary sea ! I hope to see this voyage's cause and guide, I^or n«t without a god these things betide." To her the horned bull with accent clear : — " Take courage, virgin ! nor the billow fear ; The seeming bull is Zeus ; for I with ease Can take at will whatever form I please ; My fond desire for thy sweet beauty gave To me this shape — my footstep to the wave. 316 MOSCHUS. Dear Crete, that nursed me, now shall welcome thee ; In Crete Europa's nuptial rites shall be ; From our embrace illustrious sons shall spring, And every one of them a sceptred king." — And instantly they were in Crete : his own Form Zeus put on — and off her virgin zone. Strowed the glad bed the Hours, of joy profuse ; The whilom virgin was the bride of Zeus. IDYLL in. THE EPITAPH OF BION, A LOVING HERDSMAN. Ye mountain valleys, pitifully groan ! Rivers and Dorian springs, for Bion weep I Ye plants, drop tears ! ye groyes, lamenting moan I Exhale your life, wan flowers ; your blushes deep In grief, anemonies and roses, steep ! In softest murmurs. Hyacinth ! prolong r'The sad, sad woe thy lettered petals keep ; Our minstrel sings no more his friends among — Sicilian Muses ! now begin the doleful song. Ye nightingales, that 'mid thick leaves let loose The gushing gurgle of your sorrow, tell The fountains of Sicilian Arethuse That Bion is no more — with Bion fell The song, the music of the Dorian shell. Ye swans of Strymon, now your banks along Your plaintive throats with melting dirges swell For him who sang like you the mournful song : Discourse of Bion's death the Thracian nymphs among ; The Dorian Orpheus, tell them all, is dead. His herds the song and darling herdsman miss, And oaks, beneath whose shade he propt his head : Oblivion's ditty now he sings for Dis : The melancholy mountain silent is ; His pining cows no longer wish to feed, But mourn for him : Apollo, wept, I wis. For thee, sweet Bion ! and in mourning weed The brotherhood of Fauns, and all the Satyr breed. r IDYLL in. 317 The tears by Naiads shed are brimful bourns ; Afflicted Pan thy stifled music rues ; Lorn Echo 'mid her rocks thy silence mourns, Nor with her mimic tones th y voice renews v=r - TEe~Howers'their btoom^'^e trees their fruitage lose No more their milk the drooping ewes supply ; The bees to press their honey now refuse ; What need to gather it and lay it by, When thy own honey-lip, my Bion ! thine is dry ? Sicilian, Muses ! lead the doleful chaunt : Not so much near the shore the dolphin moans ; Nor so much wails within her rocky haunt The nightingale ; nor on their mountain thrones The swallows utter such lugubrious tones ; Nor so much Ceyx wailed for Halcyon, W^hose song the blue wave, where he perished, owns ; Nor in the valley, neighbour to the sun. The funeral birds so wail their Memnon's tomb upon — As these moan, wail, and weep, their Bion dead. The nightingales and swallows, whom he taught, For him their elegiac sadness shed ; And all the birds contagious sorrow caught ; The sylvan realm was all with grief distraught. Who bold of heart will play on Bion's reed. Fresh from his lip, yet with his breathing fraught ? For still among the reeds does Echo feed . /' • Vi^^-^ On Bion's minstrelsy. Pan only may succeed \x^^^^ » IM ^ 'jJ^^ ^ ^^^ To Bion's pipe ; to him I make the gift : ^^^'^ ^ JU**-«^ ^ But lest he second seem, e'en Pan may fear The pipe of Bion to his mouth to lift. For thee sweet Galatea drops the tear, And thy dear song regrets, which sitting near She fondly listed ; ever did she flee The Cyclops and his song ; but far more dear Thy song and sight than her own native sea : On the deserted sands the nymph without her fee Now sits and weeps, or weeping tends thy herd. Away with Bion all the muse-gifts flew — The chirping kisses breathed at every word : / 318 MOSCHUS. Around thy tomb the Loves their playmate rue ; Thee Cypris loved more than the kiss she drew And breathed upon her dying paramour. Most musical of rivers ! now renew Thy plaintive murmurs : Meles ! now deplore Another son of song, as thou didst wail of yore That sweet, sweet mouth of dear Calliope : The threne, 'tis said, thy waves for Homer spun With saddest music filled the refluent sea ; Now melting wail and weep another son Both loved of fountains— that of Helicon Gave Melesigenes his pleasant draught ; To this sweet Arethuse did Bion run. And from her urn the glowing rapture quaft : Blest was the bard who sang how Helen bloomed and laught : On Thetis' mighty son his descant ran, And Menelaus ; but our Bion chose Not arms and tears to sing, but Love and Pan ; While browsed his herd, his gushing music rose ; He milked his kine ; did pipes of reeds compose ; Taught how to kiss ; and fondled in his breast Young Love and Cypris pleased. For Bion flows In every glorious land a grief confest : A-Scra for her own bard, wise Hesiod, less exprest : Boeotian Hylae mourned for Pindar less ; Teos regretted less her minstrel hoar, And Mytelene her sweet poetess ; Nor for Alcseus Lesbos suffered more ; Nor lovely Paros did so much deplore Her own Archilochus. Breathing her fire Into her sons of song, from shore to shore For thee the Pastoral Muse attunes her lyre To woeful utterance of passionate desire. Sicelidas, the famous Samian star. And he with smiling eye and radiant face, Cydonian Lyyid as. renowned afar. Lament thee ; where quick Hales runs his race, Philetus wails ; Theocritus, the grace Of Syracuse, thee mourns ; nor these among IDYLL in. 319 Am I remiss Ausonian wreaths to place Around thy tomb : to me doth it belong To chaunt for thee from whom I learnt the Dorian song. Me with thy minstrel skill as proper heir Cithers thou didst endow with thine estate. Alas ! alas ! when in a garden fair Mallows, crisp dill, or parsley yields to fate, These with another year regerminate ; But when of mortal life the bloom and crown, The wise, the good, the valiant, and the great Succumb to death, in hollow earth shut down We sleep — for ever sleep — for ever lie unknown. Thus art thou pent, while frogs may croak at will; > I envy not their croak. Thee poison slew — ^ How kept it in thy mouth its nature ill ? If thou didst speak, what cruel wretch could brew The draught ? He did, of course, thy song eschew. But justice all o'ertakes. My tears fast flow For thee, my friend ! Could I, like Orpheus true, Odysseus, or Alcides, pass below To gloomy Tartarus, how quickly would I go ! To see and haply hear thee sing for Dis ! But in the Nymph's ear warble evermore, My dearest friend ! thy sweetest harmonies : For whilom, on her own Etnoean shore, She sang wild snatches of the Dorian lore. Nor will thy singing unrewarded be ; Thee to thy mountain haunts she will restore. As she gave Orpheus his Eurydice. Could I charm Dis with songs, I too would sing for thee. IDYLL IV. MEGARA., THE ^Y1FE OF HERCULES. " Why dost thou vex thy spirit, mother mine? Why fades thy cheek ? at what dost thou repine ? Because thy son must serve a popinjay, As though a lion did a fawn obey ? 320 Mosciius. Why have the gods so much dishonoured me ? Why was I born to such a destiny ? Spouse of a man I cherished as mine eyes, For whom heart-deep my vowed affection lies, Yet must I see him crossed by adverse fate. Of mortal men the most misfortunate ! Who with the arrows, which Apollo — no ! Some Fate or Fury did on him bestow, In his own house his own sons raging slew — Where in the house was not the purple dew ? I saw them slain by him ; I — I, their mother, Did see their father slaughter them ; none other Had e'er a dream like this ; to me they cried, ' Mother ! save us ! ' what could I do ? they died. As when a bird bewails her callow young, O'er whom, unfeathered yet, she fondly hung, ^ Which now a fierce snake in the bush devours — Flies round and round — shrieks — cannot help them — cowers, Nor nearer dares approach her cruel foe : Thus I, most wretched mother ! to and fro Rushed madly through the house, my children dear, My dead, dead children wailing every where. Would that I too had with my children died, The poisoned arrow sticking in my side ! Then with fast tears my mother and my sire Had laid me with them on the funeral pyre ; And to my birth -land given, on their return, Our mingled ashes in one golden urn : But they in Thebes, renowned for steeds, remain. And still they farm their old Aonian plain ; But in steep Tiryns I must dwell apart. With many sorrows gnawing at my heart ; Mine eyes are fountains, which I cannot close ; I seldom see him, and but brief repose My hapless husband is allowed at home ; By sea or land he must for ever roam ; None but a heart of iron, or of stone, Could bear the labours he has undergone. Thou, too, like water, meltest still away, For ever weeping every night and day. None of my kin is here to comfort me. IDYLL IV. 321 For they beyond the piny isthmus be ; There's none to whom I may pour out my woes, And like a woman all my heart disclose, But sister Pyrrha ; — but she too forlorn For her Iphicles, thine and hers doth mourn ; Unhappiest mother thou ! in either son — Twin stamps of Zeus, and of Amphitryon." And, while she spoke, from either tearful well The large drops faster on her bosom fell. While she her slaught(*red children called to mind, And parents in her country left behind. With tear-stained cheek, and many a groan and sigh, Alcmena to her son's wife made reply— " Why, hapless mother ! with this train of thought Dost thou provoke the grief that comes unsought ? Why dost thou talk these dreadful sorrows o'er, Now wept by us — as we have wept before ? Are not the new griefs that we look to see From day to day, enough for you and me ? Lover of dole were he, who would recount Our tale of woes, and find their whole amount ! Take heart, and bear those ills we cannot cure, But by the will of heaven we must endure. And yet I cannot bid thee cease to grieve, For even joy to spend itself has leave. For thee I wail, why wert thou doomed, oh why, To be a partner in our misery ? I mourn that fate with ours thy fortune blends Under the woe that over us impends. Ye ! by whose names unpunished none forswear, Persephona and dread Demeter, hear ! Not less on thee has my true love reposed. Than if my womb thy body had enclosed ; I love thee, sweetest ! as an old-age child. That has, beyond hope, on its mother smiled ; Thou knowest this ; then say not, I implore, I love thee not, or foster sorrow more. Or in my grief I careless am of thee. Though I weep more than e'er wept Niobe. No blame is due to her with anguish wild, 322 MOSCHUs. Who hapless weeps for her unhappy child. Ten weary months within my womb he lay— What pains I suffered ere he came to day ! What pangs ! I all but said farewell to earth, While yet my unborn lingered in the birth. New toils now task him in a foreign plain — Oh shall I ever see my son again ? Besides, an awful vision of the night, Scaring my sleep, hath filled me with affright, And much I fear, when I my dream recall. Lest some untoward thing my sons befall. Methought, aside his cloak and tunic laid. My Hercules with both hands grasped a spade, And round a cultured field a mighty dyke He delved, as one that toils for hire belike. But when the dyke around the vineyard run, And he was just about (his task now done. The shovel thrown on the projecting rim,) With his attire again to cover him ; Sudden above the bank a fire burst out. Whose greedy flames enclosed him round about : He to the flames with rapid flight did yield, Holding the spade before him as a shield, And here and there he turned his anxious eye. If he might shun liis scorching enemy. High-souled Iphicles, I remember well As it me-seemed, rushing to help him, fell ; Nor could he raise himself from where he rolled. But helpless lay there like some weak man old, Tript up by joyless age against his will; Stretched on the ground lie was, and seeming still Hopeless of rising, till a passer-by In pity raised the hoar infirmity. Thus helpless lay the warrior brave in fight ; And I did weep to see that sorry sight — This son stretched feeble, that engirt with flame. Till sleep forsook me and the day-dawn came. Such frightful visions on my sleep did fall ; Ye gods ! on curst Eurystheus turn them all ! Oh be this presage true my wish supplies, And may no god ordain it otherwise ! " IDYLL V. / THE CHOICE. When on the wave the breeze soft kisses flings, I rouse my fearful heart, and long to be Floating at leisure on the tranquil sea ; But when the hoary ocean loudly rings, Arches his foamy back and spooming swings Wave upon wave, his angry swell I flee : Then welcome land and sylvan shade to me, Where, if a gale blows, still the pine-tree sings. Hard is his life whose nets the ocean sweep, A bark his house — shy fish his slippery prey ; But sweet to me the unsuspicious sleep Beneath a leafy plane — the fountain's play, That babbles idly, or whose tones, if deep, Delight the rural ear and not affray. IDYLL VI. "LOVE THEM THAT LOVE YOU." Pan Echo loved ; she loved the frisky Faun ; The Faun to Lyda by strong love was drawn ; As Echo Pan, the Faun did Echo burn. And Lyda him : all fell in love in turn. And with what scorn the loved the lover grieved Was that one scorned, and like for like received. Hear, heart-free ! let who love you love obtain. That if you love, you may be loved again. IDYLL VIL ALPHEUS. Alpheus, gliding by old Pisa's towers, Deep in the sea his eager way pursues. With sacred dust, and olive-leaves, and powers, With which he hastens to his Axethuse. 324 MoscHUs. Smoothly he runs ; the sea not feels the river With soft unmingled stream its water rive ; Eros it was, that subtle counsel-giver, Who taught a river how for love to dive. EPIGRAM. ON EUOS PLOUGHING. His torch and quiver down sly Eros flung, ; ^ An ox-goad took in hand, a wallet slung, Then yoked strong bulls and made the plough to train, And as he went the furrow sowed with grain. And looking up he said to Zeus, " Make full The harvest, or I'll yoke Eurooa's bull." FRAGMENT. Would that my sire had brought me up to feed The happy bleaters of the fleecy flocks ! 'Twould soothe my sorrow then to breathe the reed Beneath the shade of elms or hanging rocks. Now let us fly ; and other cities seek To be our country, dear Pierides : But I my mind to all will plainly speak — Injurious drones have harmed the honey-bee». THE WAR-SONGS OF TYRTJIOS. WAR-SONGS OF TYRTiEUS. I. * Now it is noble for a ^ brave man to die, having fallen opposite the foremost ranks, whilst fighting for his father-land. But most grievous of all is it for a man ^ to be a beggar, hav- ing quitted his own city and fertile fields, and wandering with a loved mother and aged father, with little children and ^ wedded wife. For to whomsoever he shall have come, among them will he be hateful, yielding to need and to wretched poverty. He disgraces his race, and ^belies his fair beauty ; and every kind of ^ dishonour and woe follows him. Besides, for a man thus vagrant, look you, there is no care, nor has he ^ This is not a fragment, though yap is so placed. Frequent examples of the same usage occur in Homer and Herodotus. Cf. Matt. Gr. Gr. § 615. Compare the use of " Nam " among the Latins. Yirgil, Geor. iv. 445, Nam quis te, juvenum confidentissime, nostras jussit adire domos : and of " quisnam " in Plautus, Curcul. 398, Nam quid id refert mea. Terent. Andr. iii. 5, 6. — koXov, noble, Cf. Soph. Antig. 72, koXov fioi TovTO 7roiov(nj OaveTv. Yirg. JEn. ii. 317, Pulchrumque mori succurrit in armis. .^n. xi. 24 ; ix. 286. Horat. Od. ii. 2, 13, Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori. ' dyaObv, good in war, brave. Just as KUKog stands for the opposite. Hom. II. iv. 299 ; ii. 365. Soph. Aj. 456. Horace uses '* melior " in this sense, Od. i. 15, 28, Tydides melior patre. — Trtpt y TraTpidi. In verse 14, we have Trspl in this sense with a genitive. But Homer uses it thus with a dative. Odyss. ii. 245. 3 TTTuix^vHv. This verb differs from irkvo}iai. See Aristoph. Plut. 549, ovKOVv Cr]Tcov Trjg TTTiox^'ag irtviav (pafiev tlvai dSe\(priv. * Kovpiciy, " wedded in youth." Eustath. But Butmann (Lexil. pp. 392 — 394) shows that it means rather " lawful," regular " wedded." * alaxvvu. Bergler, in a note at Aristoph. Aves, 1451, {to ysvog ov Karaiaxwut,) states, on the authority of Stobceus, that the youth of Athens were obliged to swear ov KaraKTxvvC) rd oirXa. ^ aTifiia. The severity of this punishment may be judged of by the treatment which Aristodemus met at Sparta, after his inglorious return from Thermopylae. Cf. Herodot. vii. 229. 328 THE WAR-SONGS OF TYRT^US. 1. respect in time to come. '^ With spirit let us figlit 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 ^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 ivere sliameful, that fallen amid the foremost champions, in front of the youths, an older man should lie low, ^^ having his head now white and his beard hoary, and breathing out a valiant spirit in the dust ; whilst ^^he covers with his hands his 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 "> Ovfjup. Cf. Yirg. JEn. ii. 617, Nunc animis opus, ^nea, nunc pectore tolo. Thucyd. ii. 11, o'i Xoyia/L«p IXdxKfTa xpw/icvot, 6vfi(^ TrXeiora eg (pyov KaBicTTavrai. 8 dXXd — itaque, igitur. See L. Kuster's notes ad Aristoph. Equit. 202. He explains it as v iroXiovTt Kaprj TToXiov Te ykvHov. Ov. Met. viii. 528, Pulvere canitiem genitor vultus- que seniles Fcedat humi fusus. " aiiiaTotvT — This regard of seemliness in death is a favourite point with classical authors. Cf. iEsch. Agam. 241, &c. ; Ov. Met. xiii. 479; Fast. ii. 833, Tunc quoque jam moriens, ne non procumbat honeste, Respicit : hoc etiam cura cadentis erat. *' The scope of the passage is, no doubt, the contrast between the sight of an old and a young hero dead on the battle-field. The young are lovely to look on even in death. But the bald head cloven, and the grey beard blood-stained, are sights which the young must not permit. For the origin of the idea, see II. x. 71. '2 ayXabv avQoq. This metaphor from vegetation is very common. Theocr. Idyll, xiv. 70, ironh' tl del, olg yovv xXojpov. Horat. Epod. xiii. 4, Duraque virent genua. Ov. Trist. iii. 1, 7, Quod viridi quondam male lugit in sevo. '•* Tig, every one, vos, or quisque, as in Horn. II. ii. 39, 'AXXa tiq iyyvg loJt' — Soph. Aj. 245, lopa nv' ijctj Kapa, k. t. X. Aristoph. Thesm. 603, &c. — ev Siafidg is said of a warrior standing firm to throw his spear Cf. Aristoph. Eq. 77 ; ApoUon. Khod. iii. 1293 ; Xenoph. Eq. i. 14. II. THE WAR-SONGS OF TYRT^US. 329 stride await the foe, having both feet fixed on the ground, 1^ biting his lip with his teeth. II. But since ye are the race of ^ invincible Hercules, be ye of good courage ; not yet halh Zeus ^ turned his neck aside from you. Neither fear ye, nor be affrighted at a host of men, but let hero hold his shield right against the foremost fighters ; having counted life hostile, and ^ the dark fates of death dear as the rays of the sun. For ye know that the ^ works of Ares of-raany-tears are much-seen, and well have ye learned the ^ temper of troublous war. Ye have been, O young men, with the flying and the pursuing, and have pushed on to a full measure of both. Now of those, who dare, abiding one be- side another, to advance to the close fray, and the foremost champions, fewer die, and they save the people in the rear ; but in men ^that fear, all excellence is lost. No one could ever in words go through those several ills, which befall a man, '^if he has been actuated by cowardice. For 'tis grievous '* X^'i^oQ bdovai SaKUiv. Cf. Eurip. Bacch. 610 ; Aristoph. Vesp. 1078. Virgil depicts his warrior as " dentibus infrendens." ^n. viii. 230 ; X. 715. ' dviKi)Tov — Hercules is styled " invictus," on several Latin inscrip- tions. Propertius so calls him in the first book, El. 20, 23, At comes invicti juvenis precesserat ultra. — ykvog. At the return of the Heracleids, the descendants of Hercules, and the triple division of the Peloponnese, which took place, according to tradition the sons of Aristodemus, Procles and Eurysthenes, obtained Lacedaemon. Lycurgus was of this stock, as were the Spartans generally. The poet urges the fact as a ground of coTiiidence. * avx^va Xo^ov tX£i, has withdrawn his favour. * The ordinary reading here is inexplicable. Klotz prefers, as the slightest alteration, Krjpag icr' avyaiaiv ■ijeXioio (piXag. laa' icwg. Grotius suggests KFjpag bjxCjg avydig T^eXtoto (piXag. I have translated the former reading. * So the Greeks spoke o/ tpya Mo7J(Tu)v, tpya A^poS'iTijg, epya ydfioio, tpya fidx'ng. Virgil, JEn. viii. 516, Militiam et grave Martis opus. \ 6pyi)v, the nature, or temper. So Thuc. i. 130, Kai Ty opyy ovTutg XaXfmj txPV^o, and i. 140. Soph. Aj. 646. So ingenium is used by the Latins. Sil. Ital. iv. 90, CoUisque propinqui ingenium. Ov. Met. 574, Grande dolori ingenium est. •^ Comp. Hom. II. v. 532, (pevyovTuiv d' ovt' dp' KXkog opvvrai, ovn riQ d\ictj. ' dv aiVxpa Trddy. " Qui turpiter se gesserit • Interpr." But it i» 330 THE WAR-SONGS OF TYRT^US. II. to wound in the rear the back of a flying man in hostile war. Shameful too is a corpse ^ lying low in the dust, ^wounded behind in the back by the point of a spear. Rather let every one with firm stride await the enemy, having both feet fixed on the ground, biting his lip with his teeth, and having covered with the ^^ hollow of his broad shield thighs and shins below, and breast and shoulders. But in his right hand let him brandish a heavy lance, and ^^ shake above his head a threaten- ing crest. Then let him learn war, by doing bold deeds, nor let him stand with his shield out of the range of weapons. But let each, drawing nigh in close fray, ^^hit his foe, wound- ing him with long lance or sword. ^^And having set foot beside foot, and having fixed shield against shield, and crest on crest, and helmet on helmet, and breast against breast, struggle in fight with his man, having seized eitlier the hilt of his sword, or his long lance. But do ye, ^'*0 light-armed soldiers, crouching under your shields, some from one quarter, some from another, make them fall with huge stones, and with polished spears, as ye dart at them, and stand near to the ^^ heavy-armed troops. not to be supposed that 7rdor%5tv is equivalent to irgaTTHv. See Liddell and Scott's Lex. v. Traaxu). * KaraKiifievog. II. xix. 389, Ktltrat 'OTpwreiSij Travrcjv tKTrayXo- TUT dvdpwv. Cf. V. 4fi7 ; Eurip. Orest. 1489, &c. So " jacere " in Latin. Virg. Mn. ii. 557, Jacet ingens littore truncus. Ov. Met. ii. 268, Corpora — exanimata jacent. Phsedr. Fab. i. 24, 10, Rupto jacuit corpore. ' vwTov, K. T. X., a great disgrace. Cf. Horn. II. xiii. 288. Ov. Met xiii. 262, Sunt et mihi vulnera, cives, Ipso pulchra loco. Fast. ii. 211, Diffugiunt hostes iuhonestaque vulnera tergo Accipiunt. '<* yaffTpL The Greeks were wont to apply toother matters the names of various parts of the human body. Thus, yvdOoi;, to fire. ^sch. Choeph. 325 ; Prom. 368. So x^'^oc, 6(ppvg (supercilium, Virg. Geor. i, 108) ofKpaXbg, (rrepva yjyc. — avxvi' (coUum) svpea vioTa OaXdcFffTjg. ^' KivsLTio. So Horn. II. y. 337, deivbv Se Xocpog KaOv-ntpQev evtvsv. ^sch. S. c. Thsb. 115, KVfjia ^o^ftoXo^wv dvcpiov. '2 (XsToj. Klotz thinks this should be construed " choose out," " pick," as in Virg. ^n. xi. 632, legitque virum vir. " Kai TToda, k. r. X. So Hom. II. xiii. 130 ; Eurip. Heracl. 836, 7 : Virg. ^n. X. 360, Trojanse acies, aciesque Latinae Concurriint, hseret pede pes, densusque viro vir. Ov. Met. ix. 44. ** yvfiviiTeg, i. e. oi 4"-^oK t'* o^fvdovrjrai Kal o'l ro^oTai. — iTTOKraovTig, i. q. KpvTTToiitvoi. Cf. 11. xxii. 14, Tpo)tg Trrujaaov vtto Kprjjxvovg, '* IlavoTrXioig, for /ravoirXiTaic. Abstract for concrete. So we very often find oirXa for oTrXtVat. Eurip. Orest. 444 ; Soph. Ant. 115 ; Xen. nu THE WAR-SONGS OF TYRTiEUS. 331 III. ' I AVOULD 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 than Pelops, son of Tantalus, and have the ^ soft- voiced tongue of Adrastus ; nor yet if he should have all glory, save that 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, name!?/, whatsoever man standing Anab. ii. 2, 4, Arma for armati. Virg. ^n. i. 509, Septa armis ; ii. 238, FoBta armis ; v. 409, Consequimur cuncti et densis incurrimus armis. In the same manner " Vitara " is, in Phsedr. Prol. i, 3, equivalent to "vi- ventes.'' " Consilia ;" Cic. Ep. viii. 4, 6, consilia agitantes. Flagitia, for facinorosos. Sallust, B. C. xiv. 1. ^ This line is quoted by Plato, de Leg. i. pp. 15, 16, (vol. vi. ed. Ast,) and has been rendered into Latin by Erasmus, Adag. tit, ** Fortitudi- ni-s," p. 259, ed. Francof 1670. Plato's quotation is read with riOeiixrjv, which Stephanus would read here — ev Xoytp TiOtiTjv. Cf. Theocr. Idyll, xiv. 48, djXiXEQ 6' ovri Xoyov rivbg d^ioi — aptri^ from "Aprjg, as virtua from vir, signifies excellence of any kind. Arist. Nic. Eth. ii. 5. Lucret. V. 964, et manuum mira freti virtute pedumque. 2 Boreas is called Thracian, because Thracian Hfemus was supposed to be the dwelling of the blustering North wind. Callimach. H. to Dian. 114. At/iy Itti Opr)iKi, TToOev (3opedo KaraX^ tpxirai. For comparison of swift runners with the wind, see Hom. II. x. 437 ; Virg. ^n. vii. 206, 207, " Cursuque pedum prsevertere ventos." 3 Tithonus. Horat. Od. ii. 16, 30, Longa Tithonum minuit senec- tus. Virg. ^n. 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 Cyprus, whose wealth rendered his name a pro- verb. Pindar, Nem. viii. otnrep Kai Kivvpav t/Spicc TrXoury irovriq. iv TTOTS Kvirptf). ^ [jLiiXixoy T]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, TsrXaiT] bpSiV. For the use of the participle for the infin. after other verbs signifying perseverance, endurance, &c. see Matt. Gr. Gr. § 650, 332 THE WAR-SONGS OF TYRT^US. Ut. firm bides unceasingly in the front ranks, and is wholly for- getful 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 quickly 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 brought 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 ^tomb and children are famous among men, ay, '^his children's children, and his race after him. Never does his fair fame 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 ofl" the splendid boast of battle won, all honour him, young and old alike ; 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. ^ Ovfibv TrapOsfievoQ. Horn. Od. ii. 237, afag yap TrapOsfievoi KtpaXag. Od. iii. 74. II. i. 372, TrapafiaWonevog, similarly used. * (TTTOvdy, the opposite to aairovhi, II. x. 303. Odyss. xv. 209, fTTTOvSy vvv avd^aivi. — (.axiBf — tx^ here is equivalent to KwXvia, tTrexw. — Kvna fiaxrjg. For similar metaphors taken from the raging sea, com- pare Eurip. Hippol. 823 ; Soph. Aj. 1082, 1083 ; Antig. 162, 163 ; CEd. C. 1240—1245 ; (Ed. T. 23 ; Trach. 114 ; ^Esch. Prom. V. 1014 (Dind.) ; S. c. Theb. 63. Horat. Od. ii. 7, 15, Te rursus in helium resorbens Unda fretis tulit sestuosis. ' TVfiPog — Compare with this passage Thuc. ii. 43, Koivy ydp rd (TU)fiaTa didovreg, k. t. X. '<> The laws of Athens 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. Tratdtg TraiSwv. Hom. II. xx. 308, Kai 'Trathg irai^iav Toi Ktv fitro- TTia-Oe ysvwvTai. " Tipirva iraBwv. Traax^iv is used " de bonis." See Budseus Comm. de L. G. p. 74, (Paris, 1529,) who quotes Lysias, rig ovv iXirtg virb TovTiov Ti ayaObv TrdaeaOat. — Aristoph. Eccles. 893 ; Eq. 876. Plautus in Asinar. ii. 2, 58, Fortiter malum qui patitur, idem post patitur bonum. IT. THE WAR-SONGS OF TYRT^US. 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 ^sit secure in peace, yet war possesses the whole land. 2 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, having lifted aloft his lance, and ^ gathered up his stout heart under his shield, go '- OioKoiaiv — For this reverence to honourable age cf. Cic. de Senect. c. 18, § 63, 64. Juvenal xiii. 54, Credebant hoc grande nefas et morte piaudum Si juvenis vetulo non assurrexerit. Virg. Eel. vi. 66, Utque viro Phoebi chorus assurrexerit omnis. '^ dptTTjg, glory. 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