Theocritus, Idylls
IDYLL IV. THE HERDSMEN
THEOCRITUS was a Greek bucolic poet who flourished in Syracuse, Cos and Alexandria approximately 200 B.C.
IDYLLS CONTENTS
IDYLLS 1 - 4
1. Thyrsis
2. The Spell
3. The Serenade
4. The Herdsmen
IDYLLS 5 - 11
5. The Goatherd & the Shepherd
6. A Country Singing Match
7. The Harvest-Home
8. Second Country Singing-Match
9. Third Country Singing-Match
10. The Reapers
11. The Cyclops
IDYLLS 12 - 18
12. The Beloved
13. Hylas
14. The Love of Cynisca
15. Women at the Adonia
16. The Charites
17. The Panegyris of Ptolemy
18. The Epithalamy of Helen
IDYLLS 19 - 25
19. The Honey-Stealer
20. The Young Countryman
21. The Fishermen
22. The Dioscuri
23. The Lover
24. The Little Heracles
25. How Heracles Slew the Lion
IDYLLS 26 - 30 & INSCRIPTIONS
26. The Bacchanals
27. The Lovers' Talk
28. The Distaff
29. The First Love-Poem
30. The Second Love-Poem
B. Inscriptions
C. Fragments
IDYLLS 1 - 4, TRANSLATED BY J. M. EDMONDS
IDYLL IV.
THE HERDSMEN
A conversation between a goatherd named Battus and his fellow goatherd Corydon, who is acting oxherd in place of a certain Aegon who has been persuaded by one Milon son of Lampriadas to go and compete in a boxing-match at Olympia. Corydon’s temporary rise in rank gives occasion for some friendly banter – which the sententious fellow does not always understand – varied with bitter references to Milon’s having supplanted Battus in the favours of Amaryllis. The reference to Glaucè fixes the imaginary date as contemporary with Theocritus. This is not the great Milon, but a fictitious strong man of the same town called, suitably enough, by his name.1 The poem, like all the other genuine shepherd-mimes, contains a song. Zacynthus is still called the flower of the Levant. The scene in near Crotona in Southern Italy.
BATTUS (in a bantering tone)
[1] What, Corydon man; whose may your cows be? Philondas’s?
CORYDON
[2] Nay, Aegon’s; he hath given me the feeding of them in his stead.
BATTUS
[3] And I suppose, come evening, you give them all a milking hugger-mugger?2
CORYDON
[4] Not so; the old master sees me to that; he puts the calves to suck, himself.
BATTUS
[5] But whither so far was their own proper herdsman gone?
CORYDON
[6] Did you never hear? Milon carried him off with him to the Alpheus.
BATTUS
[7] Lord! When had the likes of him ever so much as set eyes upon a flask of oil?3
CORYDON (sententiously)
[8] Men say he rivals Heracles in might.
BATTUS (scoffing)
[9]And mammy says I’m another Polydeuces.
CORYDON
[10] Well, he took a score of sheep4 and a spade with him, when he went.
BATTUS (with a momentary bitterness)
[11] Ah, that Milon! he'ld persuade a wolf5 to run mad for the asking.
CORYDON
[12] And his heifers miss him sore; hark to their lowing.
BATTUS (resuming his banter)
[13] Aye; ‘twas an ill day for the kine; how sorry a herdsman it brought them!
CORYDON (misunderstanding)
[14] Marry, an ill day it was, and they are off their feed now.
BATTUS
[15] Look you now, yonder beast, she’s nought but skin and bone. Pray, doth she feed on dewdrops like the cricket?
CORYDON
[17] Zeus! No. Why, sometimes I graze her alone the Aesarus and give her a brave bottle of the tenderest green grass, and oftentimes her play-ground’s in the deep shade of Latymnus.
BATTUS
[20] Aye, and the red-poll bull, he’s lean as can be. (bitterly again) I only would to god, when there’s a sacrifice to Hera in their ward, the sons of Lampriadas might get such another6 as he: they are a foul mixen sort, they o’ that ward.
CORYDON
[23] All the same that bull’s driven to the sea-lake and the Physcian border, and to that garden of good things, goat-flower, mullet,7 sweet odorous balsam, to with Neaethus.
BATTUS (sympathising as with another of Milon’s victims)
[26] Heigho, poor Aegon! thy very kine must needs meet their death because thou art gone a-whoring after vainglory, and the herdsman’s pipe thou once didst make thyself is all one mildew.
CORYDON
[29] Nay, by the Nymphs, not it. He bequeathed it to me when he set out for Pisa. I too am something of a musician. Mark you, I’m a dabster at Glaucè’s snatches and those ditties Pyrrhus makes: (sings)
O Croton is a bonny town as Zacynth by the sea,
And a bonny sight on her eastward height is the fane of Laciny,
Where boxer Milon one fine morn made fourscore loaves his meal,
And down the hill another day, while lasses holla’d by the way,
To Amaryllis, laughing gay led the bull by the heel.
BATTUS (not proof against the tactless reference; apostrophising)
[38] O beautiful Amaryllis, though you be dead, I am true, and I’ll never forget you. My pretty goats are dear to me, but dear no less a maiden that is no more. O well-a-day that my luck turned so ill!
CORYDON
[41] Soft you, good Battus; be comforted. Good luck comes with another morn; while there’s life there’s hope; rain one day, shine the next.
BATTUS
[44] Let be. ‘tis well. (changing the subject) Up with you, ye calves; up the hill! They are at the green of those olives, the varlets.
CORYDON
[45] Hey up, Snowdrop! hey up, Goodbody! to the hill wi’ ye! Art thou deaf? ‘Fore Pan I’ll presently come thee an evil end if thou stay there. Look ye there; back she comes again. Would there were but a hurl-bat in my hand! I had had at the.
BATTUS
[50] Zeus save thee, Corydon; see here! It had at me as thou sadist the word, this thorn, here under my ankle. And how deep the distaff-thistles go! A plague o’ thy heifer! It all came o’ my gaping after her. (Corydon domes to help him) Dost see him, lad?
CORYDON
[54] Aye, aye, and have got him ‘twixt my nails; and lo! here he is.
BATTUS (in mock-heroic strain)
[55] O what a little tiny wound to overmaster so mighty a man!
CORYDON (pointing the moral)
[56] Thou should’st put on thy shoes when thou goest into the hills, Battus; ‘tis rare ground for thorns and gorse, the hills.
BATTUS
[58] Pray tell me, Corydon, comes gaffer yet the gallant with that dark-browed piece o’love he was smitten of?
CORYDON
[60] Aye, what does he, ill’s his luck. I happened of them but two days agone, and near the byre, too, and faith, gallant was the word.
BATTUS (apostrophising)
[62] Well done, Goodman Light-o’-love. ‘Tis plain thou comest not far below the old Satyrs8 and ill-shanked Pans o’ the country-side for lineage.
THE HERDSMEN
A conversation between a goatherd named Battus and his fellow goatherd Corydon, who is acting oxherd in place of a certain Aegon who has been persuaded by one Milon son of Lampriadas to go and compete in a boxing-match at Olympia. Corydon’s temporary rise in rank gives occasion for some friendly banter – which the sententious fellow does not always understand – varied with bitter references to Milon’s having supplanted Battus in the favours of Amaryllis. The reference to Glaucè fixes the imaginary date as contemporary with Theocritus. This is not the great Milon, but a fictitious strong man of the same town called, suitably enough, by his name.1 The poem, like all the other genuine shepherd-mimes, contains a song. Zacynthus is still called the flower of the Levant. The scene in near Crotona in Southern Italy.
BATTUS (in a bantering tone)
[1] What, Corydon man; whose may your cows be? Philondas’s?
CORYDON
[2] Nay, Aegon’s; he hath given me the feeding of them in his stead.
BATTUS
[3] And I suppose, come evening, you give them all a milking hugger-mugger?2
CORYDON
[4] Not so; the old master sees me to that; he puts the calves to suck, himself.
BATTUS
[5] But whither so far was their own proper herdsman gone?
CORYDON
[6] Did you never hear? Milon carried him off with him to the Alpheus.
BATTUS
[7] Lord! When had the likes of him ever so much as set eyes upon a flask of oil?3
CORYDON (sententiously)
[8] Men say he rivals Heracles in might.
BATTUS (scoffing)
[9]And mammy says I’m another Polydeuces.
CORYDON
[10] Well, he took a score of sheep4 and a spade with him, when he went.
BATTUS (with a momentary bitterness)
[11] Ah, that Milon! he'ld persuade a wolf5 to run mad for the asking.
CORYDON
[12] And his heifers miss him sore; hark to their lowing.
BATTUS (resuming his banter)
[13] Aye; ‘twas an ill day for the kine; how sorry a herdsman it brought them!
CORYDON (misunderstanding)
[14] Marry, an ill day it was, and they are off their feed now.
BATTUS
[15] Look you now, yonder beast, she’s nought but skin and bone. Pray, doth she feed on dewdrops like the cricket?
CORYDON
[17] Zeus! No. Why, sometimes I graze her alone the Aesarus and give her a brave bottle of the tenderest green grass, and oftentimes her play-ground’s in the deep shade of Latymnus.
BATTUS
[20] Aye, and the red-poll bull, he’s lean as can be. (bitterly again) I only would to god, when there’s a sacrifice to Hera in their ward, the sons of Lampriadas might get such another6 as he: they are a foul mixen sort, they o’ that ward.
CORYDON
[23] All the same that bull’s driven to the sea-lake and the Physcian border, and to that garden of good things, goat-flower, mullet,7 sweet odorous balsam, to with Neaethus.
BATTUS (sympathising as with another of Milon’s victims)
[26] Heigho, poor Aegon! thy very kine must needs meet their death because thou art gone a-whoring after vainglory, and the herdsman’s pipe thou once didst make thyself is all one mildew.
CORYDON
[29] Nay, by the Nymphs, not it. He bequeathed it to me when he set out for Pisa. I too am something of a musician. Mark you, I’m a dabster at Glaucè’s snatches and those ditties Pyrrhus makes: (sings)
O Croton is a bonny town as Zacynth by the sea,
And a bonny sight on her eastward height is the fane of Laciny,
Where boxer Milon one fine morn made fourscore loaves his meal,
And down the hill another day, while lasses holla’d by the way,
To Amaryllis, laughing gay led the bull by the heel.
BATTUS (not proof against the tactless reference; apostrophising)
[38] O beautiful Amaryllis, though you be dead, I am true, and I’ll never forget you. My pretty goats are dear to me, but dear no less a maiden that is no more. O well-a-day that my luck turned so ill!
CORYDON
[41] Soft you, good Battus; be comforted. Good luck comes with another morn; while there’s life there’s hope; rain one day, shine the next.
BATTUS
[44] Let be. ‘tis well. (changing the subject) Up with you, ye calves; up the hill! They are at the green of those olives, the varlets.
CORYDON
[45] Hey up, Snowdrop! hey up, Goodbody! to the hill wi’ ye! Art thou deaf? ‘Fore Pan I’ll presently come thee an evil end if thou stay there. Look ye there; back she comes again. Would there were but a hurl-bat in my hand! I had had at the.
BATTUS
[50] Zeus save thee, Corydon; see here! It had at me as thou sadist the word, this thorn, here under my ankle. And how deep the distaff-thistles go! A plague o’ thy heifer! It all came o’ my gaping after her. (Corydon domes to help him) Dost see him, lad?
CORYDON
[54] Aye, aye, and have got him ‘twixt my nails; and lo! here he is.
BATTUS (in mock-heroic strain)
[55] O what a little tiny wound to overmaster so mighty a man!
CORYDON (pointing the moral)
[56] Thou should’st put on thy shoes when thou goest into the hills, Battus; ‘tis rare ground for thorns and gorse, the hills.
BATTUS
[58] Pray tell me, Corydon, comes gaffer yet the gallant with that dark-browed piece o’love he was smitten of?
CORYDON
[60] Aye, what does he, ill’s his luck. I happened of them but two days agone, and near the byre, too, and faith, gallant was the word.
BATTUS (apostrophising)
[62] Well done, Goodman Light-o’-love. ‘Tis plain thou comest not far below the old Satyrs8 and ill-shanked Pans o’ the country-side for lineage.
1. The identification of Milon with the great athlete is incorrect. The great Milon flourished B.C. 510; the scholiast knows of no such feats in connexion with him; and the feats ascribed to him by authors ap. Athen. 10. 412 e, f, are by no means identical with these.
2. “Hugger-mugger” : on the sly.
3. “Oil” : used by athletes upon their bodies.
4. “A score of sheep” : athletes when training fed largely upon meat, and kept themselves in condition by shovelling sand.
5. “Persuade a wolf” : i.e. “he beguiled Aegon to compete at Olympia though he is but a poor hand at boxing (cf. l. 7) just as he beguiled Amaryllis away from me though she never really loved him.”
6. “Might get such another” : the greater part of a sacrificed animal was eaten by the sacrificers.
7. “Mullet” : usually called ‘fleabane.’
8. “Old Satyrs” : effigies of Pan and the Satyrs were a feature of the country-side.
2. “Hugger-mugger” : on the sly.
3. “Oil” : used by athletes upon their bodies.
4. “A score of sheep” : athletes when training fed largely upon meat, and kept themselves in condition by shovelling sand.
5. “Persuade a wolf” : i.e. “he beguiled Aegon to compete at Olympia though he is but a poor hand at boxing (cf. l. 7) just as he beguiled Amaryllis away from me though she never really loved him.”
6. “Might get such another” : the greater part of a sacrificed animal was eaten by the sacrificers.
7. “Mullet” : usually called ‘fleabane.’
8. “Old Satyrs” : effigies of Pan and the Satyrs were a feature of the country-side.
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