Ancient Greek Epigrams: Major Poets in Verse Translation

Chapter 7: Theocritus

147 Theocritus was born about 300 bce in the important Greek city of Syracuse in Sicily, but he spent much of his life further east in Alexandria. One of his poems describes the streets and palace of the Egyptian capital in some detail, and another is addressed to Ptolemy. Theocritus may also have spent some time on the island of Kos near Rhodes, where he seems to have met the doctor Nikias, who appears in several of his poems (see epigram VIII). Theocritus is most famous for his “bucolic” or pastoral poetry, which was included in a collection of longer poems called Idylls. He may not have been the first pastoral poet, but his poems about shepTheocritus Chap ter Seven 148 / Theocritus herds and cowherds provided the stimulus for Virgil’s Eclogues and the whole of the pastoral tradition in European literature. The pastoral poems, however, represent only part of the Idylls. Some of the other poems in that collection are dramatic mimes, presenting a sharply drawn comic scene. Others are narrative, including two about Hercules. There are in addition a hymn to the gods Castor and Pollux and several poems of an occasional nature, including love poems to boys. Theocritus also wrote epigrams. These poems were not a part of Meleager’s Garland but have come down to us in ancient manuscripts of Theocritus’s bucolic poetry and in the Greek Anthology, where they appear in several distinct groups. That Meleager did not include the epigrams of Theocritus in the Garland (but did select a few poems by Theocritus’s friend Nikias) has caused some scholars to doubt whether Theocritus actually wrote the epigrams attributed to him, and a few of the poems may be spurious. The majority, however, including those I have translated, are very likely to be genuine. They are for the most part typical productions of a Hellenistic poet and show clear affinities with poems of other third-century authors, particularly Anyte, Leonidas, and Callimachus. The epigrams that have survived are mostly epitaphs and dedications, though there are also epideictic epigrams, including poems of a rural character. Our evidence would suggest that Theocritus was a member of a circle in Alexandria that included many of the most important literary figures of his day. According to one source Theocritus was a pupil of Asclepiades, and in one of Theocritus’s pastoral poems (Idyll 7) a character perhaps intended to represent Theocritus himself says that he is no match for Asclepiades, the great poet of the island of Samos. Theocritus never mentions Callimachus by name, but a comparison of their epigrams reveals many similarities. Both wrote epitaphs for nursemaids (Theocritus III, Callimachus III) whose tombs were purportedly erected by someone with the same nickname—Mikkos, or “little one.” Callimachus wrote an epigram (IX) about an adolescent girl who killed herself in grief after her Theocritus / 149 brother died; Theocritus wrote a similar poem (epigram II), but about a girl only six years old. In both poems, the focus is on the grief of a parent , the father in Callimachus but the mother in Theocritus. Theocritus wrote an epigram (I) for a son that says nothing about him, does not even give his name, and praises only the son’s father. Callimachus wrote a similar epigram but this time for a father (IV), his own father, which again does not give the name of the deceased and says nothing about him. Theocritus resembles Callimachus in other ways as well. Both used traditional meters and forms for a new kind of poetry, and there is a subtlety in the work of both poets that is often easy to miss. When we read Theocritus’s Idylls, we must constantly be on the alert for context and hidden meaning. That is equally true of his epigrams. One of my favorites is IV, an epitaph for a man called Orthon. The English scholar A.S.F. Gow, who edited all of Theocritus’s poems, says of epigram IV that it is “probably a genuine epitaph.” Our first suspicion to the contrary is the name itself, Orthon, which in Greek means “erect” or “upright,” from which our word “orthogonal” comes. But “upright” is one thing Orthon isn’t! The poem purports to warn the reader not to go about drunk on a stormy winter night, for if he does, he will end up as Orthon says he has, buried in some...