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.

The Greek poet Theocritus of Syracuse (first half of the third century BC) was the inventor of 'bucolic' poetry. These vignettes of country life, centred on competitions in song and love, are the foundational poems of the western pastoral tradition. They were the principal model for Virgil in the Eclogues, and their influence can be seen in the work of Petrarch and Milton. Although it is the pastoral poems for which he is chiefly famous, Theocritus also wrote hymns to the gods, brilliant mime depictions of everyday life, short narrative epics, epigrams, and encomia of the powerful. The great variety of his poems illustrates the rich and flourishing poetic culture of what was a golden age for Greek poetry. Book jacket.