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Theocritus · 3rd century BC

Idylls

Εἰδύλλια
Ancient Sources / Theocritus / Idylls

The thirty poems traditionally collected as Theocritus' Idylls are not all by him, and they are of very different kinds. The best-known are the pastoral songs and singing contests of shepherds and goatherds (Idylls 1, 3 to 11), but the collection also holds town mimes (2, 14, 15), a love-letter to a boy (29), hymns of praise (16, 17), miniature epics on Heracles and the Dioscuri (13, 22, 24, 25) and marriage and love poems (18, 27). Lang's translation is in plain prose and follows the numbering of the Greek poems one-to-one; it carries no line numbers, so inside each idyll its paragraphs are matched to runs of Greek lines and the ranges are approximate.

Read from the start
Text
Greek original with English translation, 30 passages, about 30900 words in English.
Translator
Andrew Lang (1889)
Edition
R. J. Cholmeley (ed.), The Idylls of Theocritus, London: George Bell and Sons, 1901-1919 (Greek text as digitised by Perseus)
Cite as
Theocritus, Idylls 1.1 (by idyll, line)

Contents · 30 passages

  1. 1.1–152Idyll 1: Thyrsis' lament for Daphnis1658 words
  2. 2.1–166Idyll 2: Simaetha's love-charm1927 words
  3. 3.1–54Idyll 3: The goatherd's serenade to Amaryllis632 words
  4. 4.1–63Idyll 4: Battus and Corydon767 words
  5. 5.1–150Idyll 5: Comatas and Lacon's singing match1746 words
  6. 6.1–46Idyll 6: Daphnis and Damoetas sing of the Cyclops533 words
  7. 7.1–157Idyll 7: The Harvest Feast1705 words
  8. 8.1–93Idyll 8: Menalcas and Daphnis' singing match1111 words
  9. 9.1–36Idyll 9: Daphnis and Menalcas' pastoral song428 words
  10. 10.1–58Idyll 10: The reapers Milon and Battus693 words
  11. 11.1–81Idyll 11: The Cyclops' love for Galatea972 words
  12. 12.1–37Idyll 12: A friend's return413 words
  13. 13.1–75Idyll 13: Hylas838 words
  14. 14.1–70Idyll 14: Aeschines and Thyonichus860 words
  15. 15.1–149Idyll 15: The Syracusan women at the Adonis festival1782 words
  16. 16.1–109Idyll 16: The Graces, or Hiero1257 words
  17. 17.1–137Idyll 17: In praise of Ptolemy1479 words
  18. 18.1–58Idyll 18: Helen's wedding song664 words
  19. 19.1–20.45Idylls 19-20: Love and the bee; Eunica and the herdsman596 words
  20. 21.1–67Idyll 21: The two fishermen753 words
  21. 22.1–223Idyll 22: The Dioscuri2445 words
  22. 23.1–63Idyll 23: The lover and the statue of Love771 words
  23. 24.1–140Idyll 24: The infant Heracles1512 words
  24. 25.1–137Idyll 25: Heracles at the farm of Augeas1482 words
  25. 25.138–281Idyll 25: Phaethon the bull and the Nemean lion1554 words
  26. 26.1–38Idyll 26: The Bacchae and Pentheus417 words
  27. 27.1–44aIdyll 27: Daphnis and the maiden904 words
  28. 28.1–25Idyll 28: The distaff305 words
  29. 29.1–40Idyll 29: Wine and truth, a plea to a beloved boy415 words
  30. 30.1–32Idyll 30: The death of Adonis263 words

English translation by Andrew Lang (1889). Original text: R. J. Cholmeley (ed.), The Idylls of Theocritus, London: George Bell and Sons, 1901-1919 (Greek text as digitised by Perseus).

Greek text and translation from the Perseus Digital Library, Tufts University, CC BY-SA 4.0 (Perseus Digital Library, Greek text); translation public domain. Introductions, summaries and notes © GreekMythology.com.