Originally published in 1953, this book provides a series of English translations from ancient Greek bucolic poetry by Theocritus, Moschus and Bion. A detailed introduction is included, with information on each of the poets. Textual notes are incorporated throughout. This book will be of value to anyone with an interest in ancient Greek literature, literary criticism and bucolic poetry.

MOSCHUS of Syracuse, 2nd century B.C., came next. As a 'grammarian' he wrote a (lost) work on Rhodian dialect. Though he was classed as bucolic, his extant poetry (mainly 'Runaway Love' and the story of 'Europa') is not really pastoral, the 'Lament for Bion' not being Moschus's work. 'Megara' may be Theocritus; but 'The Dead Adonis' is much later. BION of Phlossa near Smyrna lived in Sicily, probably late 2nd and early 1st century B.C. Most of the extant poems are not really bucolic, but 'Lament for Adonis' is floridly brilliant. 'Myrson and Lycidas' is probably not by Bion. The so-called Pattern-Poems, included in the 'bucolic' tradition, are found also in the Greek Anthology.

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Brill's Companion to Theocritus offers an up-to-date guide to a thorough understanding of Theocritus’ literary output. Exploring his corpus from a variety of novel perspectives, it presents a detailed account of the intricacy of Theocritus’ poetic art.

This study provides for the first time an in-depth examination of a central mode of Greek poetic competition--capping, which occurs when speakers or singers respond to one another in small numbers of verses, single verses, or between verse units themselves.