Theocritus, Idylls (English) (XML Header) [genre: poetry] [word count] [lemma count] [Theoc. Id.]. | ||
<<Theoc. Id. 3 | Theoc. Id. 4 (Greek) | >>Theoc. Id. 5 |
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. note 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)
CORYDON
BATTUS
CORYDON
BATTUS
CORYDON
BATTUS
CORYDON (sententiously)
BATTUS (scoffing)
CORYDON
BATTUS (with a momentary bitterness)
CORYDON
BATTUS (resuming his banter)
CORYDON (misunderstanding)
BATTUS
CORYDON
4.17 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
CORYDON
BATTUS (sympathising as with another of Milon’s victims)
CORYDON
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)
CORYDON
BATTUS
CORYDON
BATTUS
CORYDON
BATTUS (in mock-heroic strain)
CORYDON (pointing the moral)
BATTUS
CORYDON
BATTUS (apostrophising)
Theocritus, Idylls (English) (XML Header) [genre: poetry] [word count] [lemma count] [Theoc. Id.]. | ||
<<Theoc. Id. 3 | Theoc. Id. 4 (Greek) | >>Theoc. Id. 5 |
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