Complete Works of Theocritus

by Theocritus

  ‘And then at last I took thought how I should strip the rough hide from the dead beast’s limbs, a right hard labour, for it might not be cut with steel, when I tried, nor stone, nor with aught else. Thereon one of the Immortals put into my mind the thought to cleave the lion’s hide with his own claws. With these I speedily flayed it off, and cast it about my limbs, for my defence against the brunt of wounding war.

  ‘Friend, lo even thus befel the slaying of the Nemean Lion, that aforetime had brought many a bane on flocks and men.’

  IDYL XXVI

  This idyl narrates the murder of Pentheus, who was torn to pieces (after the Dionysiac Ritual) by his mother, Agave, and other Theban women, for having watched the celebration of the mysteries of Dionysus. It is still dangerous for an Australian native to approach the women of the tribe while they are celebrating their savage rites. The conservatism of Greek religion is well illustrated by Theocritus’s apology for the truly savage revenge commemorated in the old Theban legend.

  Ino, and Autonoe, and Agave of the apple cheeks, — three bands of Maenads to the mountain-side they led, these ladies three. They stripped the wild leaves of a rugged oak, and fresh ivy, and asphodel of the upper earth, and in an open meadow they built twelve altars; for Semele three, and nine for Dionysus. The mystic cakes from the mystic chest they had taken in their hands, and in silence had laid them on the altars of new-stripped boughs; so Dionysus ever taught the rite, and herewith was he wont to be well pleased.

  Now Pentheus from a lofty cliff was watching all, deep hidden in an ancient lentisk hush, a plant of that land. Autonoe first beheld him, and shrieked a dreadful yell, and, rushing suddenly, with her feet dashed all confused the mystic things of Bacchus the wild. For these are things unbeholden of men profane. Frenzied was she, and then forthwith the others too were frenzied. Then Pentheus fled in fear, and they pursued after him, with raiment kirtled through the belt above the knee.

  This much said Pentheus, ‘Women, what would ye?’ and thus answered Autonoe, ‘That shalt thou straightway know, ere thou hast heard it.’

  The mother seized her child’s head, and cried loud, as is the cry of a lioness over her cubs, while Ino, for her part, set her heel on the body, and brake asunder the broad shoulder, shoulder-blade and all, and in the same strain wrought Autonoe. The other women tore the remnants piecemeal, and to Thebes they came, all bedabbled with blood, from the mountains bearing not Pentheus but repentance.

  I care for none of these things, nay, nor let another take thought to make himself the foe of Dionysus, not though one should suffer yet greater torments than these, — being but a child of nine years old or entering, perchance, on his tenth year. For me, may I be pure and holy, and find favour in the eyes of the pure!

  From aegis-bearing Zeus hath this augury all honour, ‘to the children of the godly the better fortune, but evil befall the offspring of the ungodly.’

  ‘Hail to Dionysus, whom Zeus supreme brought forth in snowy Dracanus, when he had unburdened his mighty thigh, and hail to beautiful Semele: and to her sisters, — Cadmeian ladies honoured of all daughters of heroes, — who did this deed at the behest of Dionysus, a deed not to be blamed; let no man blame the actions of the gods.’

  IDYL XXVII. THE WOOING OF DAPHNIS

  The authenticity of this idyl has been denied, partly because the Daphnis of the poem is not identical in character with the Daphnis of the first idyl. But the piece is certainly worthy of a place beside the work of Theocritus. The dialogue is here arranged as in the text of Fritzsche.

  The Maiden. Helen the wise did Paris, another neatherd, ravish!

  Daphnis. ’Tis rather this Helen that kisses her shepherd, even me!

  The Maiden. Boast not, little satyr, for kisses they call an empty favour.

  Daphnis. Nay, even in empty kisses there is a sweet delight.

  The Maiden. I wash my lips, I blow away from me thy kisses!

  Daphnis. Dost thou wash thy lips? Then give me them again to kiss!

  The Maiden. ’Tis for thee to caress thy kine, not a maiden unwed.

  Daphnis. Boast not, for swiftly thy youth flits by thee, like a dream.

  The Maiden. The grapes turn to raisins, not wholly will the dry rose perish.

  Daphnis. Come hither, beneath the wild olives, that I may tell thee a tale.

  The Maiden. I will not come; ay, ere now with a sweet tale didst thou beguile me.

  Daphnis. Come hither, beneath the elms, to listen to my pipe!

  The Maiden. Nay, please thyself, no woful tune delights me.

  Daphnis. Ah maiden, see that thou too shun the anger of the Paphian.

  The Maiden. Good-bye to the Paphian, let Artemis only be friendly!

  Daphnis. Say not so, lest she smite thee, and thou fall into a trap whence there is no escape.

  The Maiden. Let her smite an she will; Artemis again would be my defender. Lay no hand on me; nay, if thou do more, and touch me with thy lips, I will bite thee.

  Daphnis. From Love thou dost not flee, whom never yet maiden fled.

  The Maiden. Escape him, by Pan, I do, but thou dost ever bear his yoke.

  Daphnis. This is ever my fear lest he even give thee to a meaner man.

  The Maiden. Many have been my wooers, but none has won my heart.

  Daphnis. Yea I, out of many chosen, come here thy wooer.

  The Maiden. Dear love, what can I do? Marriage has much annoy.

  Daphnis. Nor pain nor sorrow has marriage, but mirth and dancing.

  The Maiden. Ay, but they say that women dread their lords.

  Daphnis. Nay, rather they always rule them, — whom do women fear?

  The Maiden. Travail I dread, and sharp is the shaft of Eilithyia.

  Daphnis. But thy queen is Artemis, that lightens labour.

  The Maiden. But I fear childbirth, lest, perchance, I lose my beauty.

  Daphnis. Nay, if thou bearest dear children thou wilt see the light revive in thy sons.

  The Maiden. And what wedding gift dost thou bring me if I consent?

  Daphnis. My whole flock, all my groves, and all my pasture land shall be thine.

  The Maiden. Swear that thou wilt not win me, and then depart and leave me forlorn.

  Daphnis. So help me Pan I would not leave thee, didst thou even choose to banish me!

  The Maiden. Dost thou build me bowers, and a house, and folds for flocks?

  Daphnis. Yea, bowers I build thee, the flocks I tend are fair.

  The Maiden. But to my grey old father, what tale, ah what, shall I tell?

  Daphnis. He will approve thy wedlock when he has heard my name.

  The Maiden. Prithee, tell me that name of thine; in a name there is often delight.

  Daphnis. Daphnis am I, Lycidas is my father, and Nomaea is my mother.

  The Maiden. Thou comest of men well-born, but there I am thy match.

  Daphnis. I know it, thou art of high degree, for thy father is Menalcas.

  The Maiden. Show me thy grove, wherein is thy cattle-stall.

  Daphnis. See here, how they bloom, my slender cypress-trees.

  The Maiden. Graze on, my goats, I go to learn the herdsman’s labours.

  Daphnis. Feed fair, my bulls, while I show my woodlands to my lady!

  The Maiden. What dost thou, little satyr; why dost thou touch my breast?

  Daphnis. I will show thee that these earliset apples are ripe.

  The Maiden. By Pan, I swoon; away, take back thy hand.

  Daphnis. Courage, dear girl, why fearest thou me, thou art over fearful!

  The Maiden. Thou makest me lie down by the water-course, defiling my fair raiment!

  Daphnis. Nay, see, ‘neath thy raiment fair I am throwing this soft fleece.

  The Maiden. Ah, ah, thou hast snatched my girdle too; why hast thou loosed my girdle?

  Daphnis. These first-fruits I offer, a gift to the Paphian.

  The Maiden. Stay, wretch, hark; surely a stranger cometh; nay, I hear a sound.

  Daph
nis. The cypresses do but whisper to each other of thy wedding.

  The Maiden. Thou hast torn my mantle, and unclad am I.

  Daphnis. Another mantle I will give thee, and an ampler far than thine.

  The Maiden. Thou dost promise all things, but soon thou wilt not give me even a grain of salt.

  Daphnis. Ah, would that I could give thee my very life.

  The Maiden. Artemis, be not wrathful, thy votary breaks her vow.

  Daphnis. I will slay a calf for Love, and for Aphrodite herself a heifer.

  The Maiden. A maiden I came hither, a woman shall I go homeward.

  Daphnis. Nay, a wife and a mother of children shalt thou be, no more a maiden.

  So, each to each, in the joy of their young fresh limbs they were murmuring: it was the hour of secret love. Then she arose, and stole to herd her sheep; with shamefast eyes she went, but her heart was comforted within her. And he went to his herds of kine, rejoicing in his wedlock.

  IDYL XXVIII

  This little piece of Aeolic verse accompanied the present of a distaff which Theocritus brought from Syracuse to Theugenis, the wife of his friend Nicias, the physician of Miletus. On the margin of a translation by Longepierre (the famous book-collector), Louis XIV wrote that this idyl is a model of honourable gallantry.

  O distaff, thou friend of them that spin, gift of grey-eyed Athene to dames whose hearts are set on housewifery; come, boldly come with me to the bright city of Neleus, where the shrine of the Cyprian is green ‘neath its roof of delicate rushes. Thither I pray that we may win fair voyage and favourable breeze from Zeus, that so I may gladden mine eyes with the sight of Nicias my friend, and be greeted of him in turn; — a sacred scion is he of the sweet-voiced Graces. And thee, distaff, thou child of fair carven ivory, I will give into the hands of the wife of Nicias: with her shalt thou fashion many a thing, garments for men, and much rippling raiment that women wear. For the mothers of lambs in the meadows might twice be shorn of their wool in the year, with her goodwill, the dainty-ankled Theugenis, so notable is she, and cares for all things that wise matrons love.

  Nay, not to houses slatternly or idle would I have given thee, distaff, seeing that thou art a countryman of mine. For that is thy native city which Archias out of Ephyre founded, long ago, the very marrow of the isle of the three capes, a town of honourable men. But now shalt thou abide in the house of a wise physician, who has learned all the spells that ward off sore maladies from men, and thou shalt dwell in glad Miletus with the Ionian people, to this end, — that of all the townsfolk Theugenis may have the goodliest distaff and that thou mayst keep her ever mindful of her friend, the lover of song.

  This proverb will each man utter that looks on thee, ‘Surely great grace goes with a little gift, and all the offerings of friends are precious.’

  IDYL XXIX

  This poem, like the preceding one, is written in the Aeolic dialect. The first line is quoted from Alcaeus. The idyl is attributed to Theocritus on the evidence of the scholiast on the Symposium of Plato.

  ‘Wine and truth,’ dear child, says the proverb, and in wine are we, and the truth we must tell. Yes, I will say to thee all that lies in my soul’s inmost chamber. Thou dost not care to love me with thy whole heart! I know, for I live half my life in the sight of thy beauty, but all the rest is ruined. When thou art kind, my day is like the days of the Blessed, but when thou art unkind, ’tis deep in darkness. How can it be right thus to torment thy friend? Nay, if thou wilt listen at all, child, to me, that am thine elder, happier thereby wilt thou be, and some day thou wilt thank me. Build one nest in one tree, where no fierce snake can come; for now thou dost perch on one branch to-day, and on another to-morrow, always seeking what is new. And if a stranger see and praise thy pretty face, instantly to him thou art more than a friend of three years’ standing, while him that loved thee first thou holdest no higher than a friend of three days. Thou savourest, methinks, of the love of some great one; nay, choose rather all thy life ever to keep the love of one that is thy peer. If this thou dost thou wilt be well spoken of by thy townsmen, and Love will never be hard to thee, Love that lightly vanquishes the minds of men, and has wrought to tenderness my heart that was of steel. Nay, by thy delicate mouth I approach and beseech thee, remember that thou wert younger yesteryear, and that we wax grey and wrinkled, or ever we can avert it; and none may recapture his youth again, for the shoulders of youth are winged, and we are all too slow to catch such flying pinions.

  Mindful of this thou shouldst be gentler, and love me without guile as I love thee, so that, when thou hast a manly beard, we may be such friends as were Achilles and Patroclus!

  But, if thou dost cast all I say to the winds to waft afar, and cry, in anger, ‘Why, why, dost thou torment me?’ then I, — that now for thy sake would go to fetch the golden apples, or to bring thee Cerberus, the watcher of the dead, — would not go forth, didst thou stand at the court-doors and call me. I should have rest from my cruel love.

  FRAGMENT OF THE BERENICE.

  Athenaeus (vii. 284 A) quotes this fragment, which probably was part of a panegyric on Berenice, the mother of Ptolemy Philadelphus.

  And if any man that hath his livelihood from the salt sea, and whose nets serve him for ploughs, prays for wealth, and luck in fishing, let him sacrifice, at midnight, to this goddess, the sacred fish that they call ‘silver white,’ for that it is brightest of sheen of all, — then let the fisher set his nets, and he shall draw them full from the sea.

  IDYL XXX. THE DEAD ADONIS

  This idyl is usually printed with the poems of Theocritus, but almost certainly is by another hand. I have therefore ventured to imitate the metre of the original.

  When Cypris saw Adonis,

  In death already lying

  With all his locks dishevelled,

  And cheeks turned wan and ghastly,

  She bade the Loves attendant

  To bring the boar before her.

  And lo, the winged ones, fleetly

  They scoured through all the wild wood;

  The wretched boar they tracked him,

  And bound and doubly bound him.

  One fixed on him a halter,

  And dragged him on, a captive,

  Another drave him onward,

  And smote him with his arrows.

  But terror-struck the beast came,

  For much he feared Cythere.

  To him spake Aphrodite, —

  ‘Of wild beasts all the vilest,

  This thigh, by thee was ‘t wounded?

  Was ‘t thou that smote my lover?’

  To her the beast made answer —

  ‘I swear to thee, Cythere,

  By thee, and by thy lover,

  Yea, and by these my fetters,

  And them that do pursue me, —

  Thy lord, thy lovely lover

  I never willed to wound him;

  I saw him, like a statue,

  And could not bide the burning,

  Nay, for his thigh was naked,

  And mad was I to kiss it,

  And thus my tusk it harmed him.

  Take these my tusks, O Cypris,

  And break them, and chastise them,

  For wherefore should I wear them,

  These passionate defences?

  If this doth not suffice thee,

  Then cut my lips out also,

  Why dared they try to kiss him?’

  Then Cypris had compassion;

  She bade the Loves attendant

  To loose the bonds that bound him.

  From that day her he follows,

  And flees not to the wild wood

  But joins the Loves, and always

  He bears Love’s flame unflinching.

  Epigrams

  The Epigrams of Theocritus are, for the most part, either inscriptions for tombs or cenotaphs, or for the pedestals of statues, or (as the third epigram) are short occasional pieces. Several of them are but doubtfully ascribed to the poet of the Idyls. Th
e Greek has little but brevity in common with the modern epigram.

  I. For a rustic Altar.

  These dew-drenched roses and that tufted thyme are offered to the ladies of Helicon. And the dark-leaved laurels are thine, O Pythian Paean, since the rock of Delphi bare this leafage to thine honour. The altar this white-horned goat shall stain with blood, this goat that browses on the tips of the terebinth boughs.

  II. For a Herdsman’s Offering.

  Daphnis, the white-limbed Daphnis, that pipes on his fair flute the pastoral strains offered to Pan these gifts, — his pierced reed-pipes, his crook, a javelin keen, a fawn-skin, and the scrip wherein he was wont, on a time, to carry the apples of Love.

  III. For a Picture.

  Thou sleepest on the leaf-strewn ground, O Daphnis, resting thy weary limbs, and the stakes of thy nets are newly fastened on the hills. But Pan is on thy track, and Priapus, with the golden ivy wreath twined round his winsome head, — both are leaping at one bound into thy cavern. Nay, flee them, flee, shake off thy slumber, shake off the heavy sleep that is falling upon thee.