Poetry and Myth in Ancient Pastoral: Essays on Theocritus and Virgil

361 Pages·1981·6.333 MB·English

by  Charles Segal

CHARLES SEGAL
Poetry and Myth in
Ancient Pastoral
Essays on Theocritus and Virgil
PRINCETON LEGACY LIBRARY
Poetry and Myth in Ancient Pastoral
PRINCETON SERIES OF COLLECTED ESSAYS
This series was initiated in response to requests from stu-
dents and teachers who want the best essays of leading
scholars available in a convenient format. Each book in this
series serves scholarship by gathering in one place previ-
ously published articles representing the valuable contri-
bution of a noted authority to his field. The format allows
for the addition of a preface or introduction and an index
to enhance the collection’s usefulness. Photoreproduction
of the essays keeps costs to a minimum and thus makes
possible publication in a relatively inexpensive form.
POETRY AND MYTH
IN ANCIENT PASTORAL
Essays on Theocritus and Virgil
BY
CHARLES SEGAL
Princeton University Press
Princeton, New Jersey
Copyright © 198] by Princeton University Press
Published by Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey
In the United Kingdom: Princeton University Press, Guildford, Surrey
All Rights Reserved
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data will be
found on the last printed page of this book
Clothbound editions of Princeton University Press books
are printed on acid-free paper, and binding materials are
chosen for strength and durability
Printed in the United States of America by Princeton
University Press, Princeton, New Jersey
To MICHAEL PUTNAM
and
To the memory of CEbRIC WHITMAN
(Maenalus et gelidi fleuerunt saxa Lycaet)

Contents
Acknowledgments
Abbre viations
INTRODUCTION Poets and Goatherds, Forests and Consuls: Art,
Imagination, and Realism in Ancient Pastoral Poetry
"Since Daphnis Dies": The Meaning of Theocritus’ First /dyll
Death by Water: A Narrative Pattern in Theocritus (Idylls 1, 18,
22, 23)
Adonis and Aphrodite: Theocritus, Jdyll 3.48
Simaetha and the Iynx (Theocritus, /dyll 2)
Theocritean Criticism and the Interpretation of the Fourth Idyll
Theocritus’ Seventh /dyll and Lycidas 110
Simichidas’ Modesty: Theocritus, Idyll 7.44 167
Thematic Coherence in Theocritus’ Bucolic Idylls 176
Landscape into Myth: Theocritus’ Bucolic Poetry 210
Virgil’s Caelatum Opus: An Interpretation of the Third Eclogue 235
Pastoral Realism and the Golden Age: Correspondence and
Contrast between Virgil’s Third and Fourth Eclogues 265
Tamen Cantabitis, Arcades: Exile and Arcadia in Eclogues 1 and 9 27]
Virgil’s Sixth Eclogue and the Problem of Evil 301
Two Fauns and a Naiad? (Virgil, Ecl. 6.13-26) 330
Caves, Pan, and Silenus: Virgil’s Sixth Eclogue and the Pastoral
Epigrams of Theocritus 336
Index 341

Acknowledgments
Except for the Introduction, all of the essays in this volume have been pre-
viously published.
I wish to thank the following editors, journals, and publishers for gracious
permission to reprint these essays:
1. "'Since Daphnis Dies’: The Meaning of Theocritus' First Idyll,” Museum
Helveticum 31 (1974), 1-22. Reprinted by permission of Museum Hel-
veticum.
2. "Death by Water: A Narrative Pattern in Theocritus (Idylls 1, 13, 22,
23)," Hermes 102 (1974), 20-38. Reprinted by permission of Hermes and
Franz Steiner Verlag, GMBH.
3. "Adonis and Aphrodite: Theocritus, Idyll 3.48," L'Antiquité classique 37
(1969), 82-88. Reprinted by permission of L'Antiquité classique.
4. "Simaetha and the lynx (Theocritus, Idyll 2),” Quaderni Urbinati di Cultura
Classica 15 (1973), 32-43. Reprinted by permission of Quaderni Urbinati
di Cultura. Classica.
5. "Theocritean Criticism and the Interpretation of the Fourth Idyll" Ramus
1 (1972), 1-25. Reprinted by permission of Ramus.
6. "Theocritus! Seventh /dyll and Lycidas," Wiener Studien, Neue Folge 8
(1974), 20-76. Reprinted by permission of Wiener Studien and Hermann
Bóhlaus Nachf. GMBH, Vienna.
7. “Simichidas’ Modesty: Theocritus, Idyll 7.44," American Journal of Phi-
lology 95 (1974), 128-136. Reprinted by permission of the American
Journal of Philology, and The Johns Hopkins University Press.
8. "Thematic Coherence in Theocritus Bucolic Idylls,” Wiener Studien
N. F. 11 (1977), 35-68. Reprinted by permission of Wiener Studien and
Hermann Bóhlaus Nachf. GMBH, Vienna.
9. "Landscape into Myth: Theocritus' Bucolic Poetry," Ramus 4 (1975), 115-
139 (Ancient Pastoral, Ramus Essays on Greek and Roman Pastoral Poetry
[Melbourne, Australia 1975], 33-57). Reprinted by permission of Ra-
mus.
10. "Vergil's Caelatum Opus: An Interpretation of the Third Eclogue,” Amer-
ican Journal of Philology 88 (1967), 279-308. Reprinted by permission
of the American Journal of Philology, and The Johns Hopkins University
Press.
11. "Pastoral Realism and the Golden Age: Correspondence and Contrast
between Virgil's Third and Fourth Eclogues" Philologus 121 (1977), 158-
163. Reprinted by permission of Philologus and the Akademie der
Wissenschaften der D.D.R., Berlin.
12. "Tamen Cantabitis, Arcades: Exile and Arcadia in Eclogues 1 and 9," Arion
4, no. 2 (1965), 237-266. Reprinted by permission of the Trustees of
Boston University from Arion: A Journal of the Humanities and the Classics.