Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-cnmwb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-21T19:21:12.238Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Theocritus, Idyll 261

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 February 2013

Francis Cairns
Affiliation:
University of Leeds

Extract

Theocritus, Idyll 26 is short, starkly dramatic, and highly puzzling. Gow (1952) and his predecessors generally regarded it as bad, or even un Theocritean; and many of its details remain obscure. Lines 27–32 in particular present acute problems; and, as Gow (1952) II.475 wrote, ‘no explanation of the poem as a whole can be satisfactory unless it accounts for these mysterious lines’. No ancient scholia survive (except for scraps in P3), and Idyll 26 in isolation offers scant indications of a cultural or social context. In consequence any new attempt to increase understanding of Idyll 26 must inevitably be speculative, particularly when it moves from text-based, literary aspects to more general questions about the idyll. Such an effort may, however, seem more worthwhile nowadays, when the characteristics of professional hellenistic poetry can more easily be recognised in Idyll 26.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s). Published online by Cambridge University Press 1993

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Albert, W., Das mimetische Gedicht in der Antike: Geschichte und Typologie von den Anfängen bis in die augusteische Zeit (Athenäums Monografien: Altertumswissenschaft 190) (1988)Google Scholar
Arnott, W. G., ‘The Mound of Brasilas in Theocritus' seventh Idyll’, QUCC n.s. 3 (1979) 99106Google Scholar
Arnott, W. G. ‘Lycidas and double perspectives: a discussion of Theocritus’ seventh Idyll“, in Apophoreta Philologica. Emmanueli Fernández-Galiano a sodalibus oblata ed. Gil, L. and Aguilar, R. M. (1984) I.33346Google Scholar
Back, F., De Graecorum Caerimoniis. In quibus Homines Deorum vice fungebantur (Diss. Berlin 1883)Google Scholar
Beckby, H. (ed.), Die griechischen Bukoliker. Thoekrit–Moschos–Bion (Beiträge zur klassischen Philologie 49) (1975)Google Scholar
Beckmann, P. J. T., Das Gebet bei Homer (Diss. Würzburg 1932)Google Scholar
Bernardini, P. A., ‘L'“aquila tebana” vola ancora’, QUCC 26 (1977) 121–6Google Scholar
Bonefas, S., ‘The musical inscription from Epidauros’, Hesperia 58 (1989) 5162 and plate 14Google Scholar
Bornmann, F. (ed.), Callimachi Hymnus in Dianam. Introduzione, testo critico e commento (1968)Google Scholar
Bowie, E. L., ‘Theocritus' seventh Idyll, Philetas and Longus’, CQ n.s. 35 (1985) 6791CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bowra, C. M., Greek lyric poetry. From Alcman to Simonides (1961)Google Scholar
Bowra, C. M., Pindar (1964)Google Scholar
Brelich, A., Paides e Parthenoi (Incunabula Graeca 36) (1969)Google Scholar
Bremer, J. M., ‘Pindar's paradoxical ὲγώ and a recent controversy about the performance of his epinikia’, in Slings, S. (ed.) Archaic Greek lyric (1990) 4158Google Scholar
Brussich, G. F., ‘L'inno ad Artemide di Timoteo’, QUCC n.s. 34 (1990) 2538Google Scholar
Bulloch, A. W. (ed.), Callimachus: the fifth Hymn. Edited with an introduction and commentary (Cambridge classical texts and commentaries 26) (1985)Google Scholar
Bundy, E. L., Studia Pindarica: I The eleventh Olympian ode; II The first Isthmian ode (University of California publications in classical philology 18.1 and 18.2) (1962)Google Scholar
Bundy, E. L., ‘The “Quarrel between Kallimachos and Apollonios”. Part 1 The epilogue of Kallimachos's Hymn to Apollo”, CSCA 5 (1972) 3994Google Scholar
Burkert, W., Homo necans. The anthropology of ancient Greek sacrificial ritual and myth (tr. Bing, Peter) (1983)Google Scholar
Burkert, W.Ancient mystery cults (1987)Google Scholar
Burnett, A., ‘Performing Pindar's odes’, CPh 84 (1989) 283–93Google Scholar
Cairns, F., ‘Five “religious” odes of Horace (I, 10:1, 21 and IV, 6:1, 30:1, 15)’, AJPh 92 (1971) 433–52Google Scholar
Cairns, F., Generic composition in Greek and Roman poetry (1972)Google Scholar
Cairns, F., Tibullus: a hellenistic poet at Rome (1979)Google Scholar
Cairns, F., ‘Propertius and the Battle of Actium (4.6)’, in Woodman, T. and West, D. (edd.) Poetry and politics in the age of Augustus (1984) 129–68 and 229–36Google Scholar
Cairns, F., ‘Theocritus' first Idyll: the literary programme’, WS n.f. 18 (1984) 89113 (= 1984b)Google Scholar
Calame, C., Les Choeurs de jeunes filles en Grèce archaïque. I: Morphologie, fonction religieuse et sociale. II: Alcman (1977)Google Scholar
Carey, C., ‘The performance of the victory ode’, AJPh 110 (1989) 545–65Google Scholar
Carey, C., ‘The victory ode in performance: the case for the chorus’, CPh 86 (1991) 192200Google Scholar
Carrière, J., ‘Théocrite et les Bacchantes’, Pallas 6 (1958) 719CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carrière, J., ‘Sur le message des Bacchantes’, Ant. class. 35 (1966) 118–39Google Scholar
Cerfaux, L. and Tondriau, J., Un concurrent du Christianisme. Le culte des souverains dans la civilisation gréco-romaine (Bibliothèque de théologie Ser. 3.5) (1956)Google Scholar
Clinton, K., ‘Publius Papinius St[–––] at Eleusis’, TAPA 103 (1972) 7981Google Scholar
Daux, G., ‘Recherches préliminaries sur le Calendrier sacrificiel de Thoricos’, CRAI (1980) 463–70Google Scholar
Daux, G., ‘Le Calendrier de Thorikos au Musée J. Paul Getty’, Ant. class. 52 (1983) 150–74CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Daux, G., ‘Sacrifices à Thorikos’, The J. Paul Getty Museum Journal 12 (1984) 145–52Google Scholar
Davies, M., ‘Monody, choral lyric, and the tyranny of the hand-book’, CQ 38 (1988) 5264CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Demand, N., Thebes in the fifth century: Heracles resurgent (States and cities of ancient Greece) (1982)Google Scholar
Deubner, L., ‘Ein Stilprinzip hellenistischer Dichtkunst’, NJb. 24 (1921) 361–78Google Scholar
Di Benedetto, V., ‘Teocrito, XXVI 29–30“, Parola del Passato 12 (1957) 271–4Google Scholar
Di Benedetto, V., ‘Pindaro, Pae. 7b, 11–14’, RFIC 119 (1991) 164–76Google Scholar
Dodds, E. R. (ed.), Euripides Bacchae ed. 2 (1960)Google Scholar
Dornseiff, F., Pindars Stil (1921)Google Scholar
Dover, K. J. (ed.), Theocritus. Select poems (1971)Google Scholar
Dunand, F., ‘Les Associations dionysiaques au service du pouvoir Lagide (IIIe s. av. J.-C.)’ in L'Association dionysiaque dans les sociétés anciennes (Coll. École française de Rome 89) (1986) 85103Google Scholar
Ebert, J., ‘Zu den Amphiktyonen-Dekreten über ein Thebanisches Dionysos-Fest’, Epigraphica 45 (1983) 710Google Scholar
Effe, B., ‘Die Destruktion der Tradition: Theokrits mythologische Gedichte’, Rh.M 121 (1978) 4877Google Scholar
Falivene, M. R., ‘La mimesi in Callimaco: Inni II, IV, V e VI’, QUCC n.s. 36 (1990) 103–28Google Scholar
Fantuzzi, M., Premesse to Konrat Ziegler, L'Epos ellenistico. Un capitolo dimenticato della poesia greca ed. 2 (“le Rane”. Collana di Studi e Testi. Studi– 1) (1988)Google Scholar
Farnell, L. R., The cults of the Greek states 5 vols. (1909)Google Scholar
Fedeli, P. (ed.), Properzio. Il libro terzo delle elegie (Studi e Commenti 3) (1985)Google Scholar
Fehrle, E., Die kultische Keuschheit im Altertum (Religionsgeschichtliche Versuche und Vorarbeiten 6) (1910)Google Scholar
Fraenkel, E., Horace (1957)Google Scholar
Fraser, P. M., Ptolemaic Alexandria 3 vols. (1972)Google Scholar
Fritzsche, H. (ed.), Theokrits Gedichte ed. 3 rev. Hiller, E. (1881)Google Scholar
Gabathuler, M., Hellenistische Epigramme auf Dichter (Diss. Basel 1937)Google Scholar
Gentili, B., Theatrical performances in the ancient world: hellenistic and early Roman theatre (London studies in classical philology 2) trans. Cole, T. A. (1977)Google Scholar
Gershenson, D. E., ‘Theocritus 26.31’, CR n.s. 18 (1968) 148Google Scholar
Giangrande, G., ‘Hellenistic poetry and Homer’, Ant. class. 39 (1970) 4677Google Scholar
Gow, A. S. F. (ed.), Theocritus. Edited with a translation and commentary ed. 2, 2 vols. (1952)Google Scholar
Gow, A. S. F. and Page, D. L., The Greek anthology. Hellenistic epigrams 2 vols. (1965)Google Scholar
Griffiths, F. T., Theocritus at court (Mnemosyne Suppl. 55) (1979)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hardie, A., Statius and the Silvae. Poets, patrons and epideixis in the Graeco-Roman world (Acea 9) (1983)Google Scholar
Harrison, J., Prolegomena to the study of Greek religion (1922)Google Scholar
Heath, M., ‘Receiving the κῶμος: the context and performance of epinician’, AJPh 109 (1988) 180–95Google Scholar
Heath, M. and Lefkowitz, M. R., ‘Epinician performance’, CPh 86 (1991) 173–91Google Scholar
Hempel, O., Quaestiones Theocriteae (Diss. Kiel 1881)Google Scholar
Henrichs, A., ‘Greek maenadism from Olympias to Messalina’, HSCPh 82 (1978) 121–60Google Scholar
Henrichs, A., ‘Human sacrifice in Greek religion: three case studies’, in Le Sacrifice dans l'antiquité (Entretiens sur l'antiquité classique 27) (1981) 195235Google Scholar
Henrichs, A., ‘Changing Dionysiac identities’ in Jewish and Christian self-definition 3 Self-definition in the Graeco-Roman world ed. Meyer, B. F. and Sanders, E. P. (1982) 137–60, 213–36Google Scholar
Hollis, A. S. (ed.), Callimachus Hecale (1990)Google Scholar
Hopkinson, N. (ed.), Callimachus: Hymn to Demeter. Edited with an introduction and commentary (Cambridge classical texts and commentaries 27) (1984)Google Scholar
Hutchinson, G. O., Hellenistic poetry (1988)Google Scholar
Jory, E. J., ‘Associations of actors at Rome’, Hermes 98 (1970) 224–53Google Scholar
Kern, O., ‘Griechische Kultlegenden’, Archiv f. Religionswissenschaft 26 (1928) 116Google Scholar
Keyssner, K., Gottesvorstellung und Lebensauffassung im greichischen Hymnus (Würzburger Studien zur Altertumswissenschaft 2) (1932)Google Scholar
Kiessling, J. G. (ed.), Theocritus Bion et Moschus 2 vols. (1829)Google Scholar
Kroll, W., Studien zum Verständnis der römischen Literatur (1924)Google Scholar
Kuhlmann, G., De Poetae et Poematis Graecorum Appellationibus (Diss. Marburg, 1906)Google Scholar
Lefkowitz, M. R., ‘Bacchylides' Ode 5: imitation and originality’, HSCPh 73 (1969) 4596Google Scholar
Lefkowitz, M. R., The lives of the Greek poets (1981)Google Scholar
Lefkowitz, M. R., ‘Who sang Pindar's victory odes?’, AJPh 109 (1988) 111Google Scholar
Legrand, Ph.-E., Étude sur Théocrite (Bibliothèque des Écoles françaises d'Athènes et de Rome 79) (1898, repr. 1968)Google Scholar
Lembach, K., Die Pflanzen bei Theokrit (1970)Google Scholar
Maass, E., ‘Theokrits Dionysos aus einer Inschrift erläutert’, Hermes 26 (1891) 178–90Google Scholar
Maltby, R., A lexicon of ancient Latin etymologies (Arca 25) (1991)Google Scholar
March, J. R., ‘Euripides' Bakchai: a reconsideration in the light of vase-paintings’, BICS 36 (1989) 3365Google Scholar
McKay, K. J., ‘Theokritos' Bacchantes re-examined’, Antichthon 1 (1967) 1628Google Scholar
Meillier, C., Callimaque et son temps. Recherches sur la carrière et la condition d'un écrivain à l'époque des premiers Lagides (Publications de l'Université de Lille 3) (1979)Google Scholar
Meincke, W., Untersuchungen zu den enkomiastischen Gedichten Theokrits (Diss. Kiel 1965)Google Scholar
Meyer, H., Hymnische Stilelemente in der frühgriechischen Dichtung (Diss. Würzburg 1933)Google Scholar
Mineur, W. H. (ed.), Callimachus. Hymn to Delos. Introduction and commentary (Mnemosyne Suppl. 83) (1984)Google Scholar
Mitchell, S., ‘Festivals, games, and civic life in Roman Asia Minor’ (review article), JRS 80 (1990) 183–93Google Scholar
Mylonas, G. E., Eleusis and the Eleusinian mysteries (1961, publ. 1962)Google Scholar
Nilsson, M. P., The Dionysiac mysteries of the hellenistic and Roman age (Skrifter Utgivna av Svenska Institutet i Athen 8.5) (1957)Google Scholar
Nisbet, R. G. M. and Hubbard, M., A commentary on Horace: Odes Book 1 (1970)Google Scholar
Nisbet, R. G. M. and Hubbard, M., A commentary on Horace: Odes Book II (1978)Google Scholar
Norden, E., Agnostos Theos. Untersuchungen zur Formen-Geschichte religiöser Rede (1913)Google Scholar
Pascal, C. B., ‘Tibullus and the Ambarvalia’, AJPh 109 (1988) 523–36Google Scholar
Pfeiffer, R., Callimachus (1965)Google Scholar
Pfeiffer, R., History of classical scholarship. From the beginnings to the end of the hellenistic age (1968)Google Scholar
Pickard-Cambridge, A., The dramatic festivals of Athens ed. 2 revised Gould, J. and Lewis, D. M. (1968)Google Scholar
Poland, F., Geschichte des griechischen Vereinswesens (1909)Google Scholar
Powell, J. U. (ed.), Collectanea Alexandria (1925)Google Scholar
Price, S. R. F., Rituals and power. The Roman imperial cult in Asia Minor (1984)Google Scholar
Privitera, G. A., Dioniso in Omero e nella poesia greca arcaica (Filologia e Critica 6) (1970)Google Scholar
Rackham, O., ‘Observations on the historical ecology of Boeotia’, ABSA 78 (1983) 291351 and plates 34–8Google Scholar
Reitzenstein, R., Epigramm und Skolion. Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der Alexandrinischen Dichtung (1893)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rice, E. E., The Grand Procession of Ptolemy Philadelphus (1983)Google Scholar
Richardson, N. J. (ed.), The Homeric Hymn to Demeter (1974)Google Scholar
Robert, L., ‘Inscriptions de l'antiquité et du bas-Empire à Corinthe’, REG 79 (1966) 733–70Google Scholar
Robert, L., Opera Minora Selecta I (1969)Google Scholar
Robert, L., ‘Les Fetes de Dionysos à Thèbes et l'Amphictionie’, AE (1977, published 1979) 195210Google Scholar
Russell, D. A. and Wilson, N. G. (edd.), Menander Rhetor (1981)Google Scholar
Le Sacrifice dans l'antiquité (Entretiens sur l'antiquité classique 27) (1981)Google Scholar
Schachter, A., Cults of Boiotia. 1. Acheloos to Hera (Institute of Classical Studies, Bulletin supplement 38.1) (1981)Google Scholar
Schachter, A.Cults of Boiotia. 2. Herakles to Poseidon (Institute of Classical Studies, Bulletin supplement 38.2) (1986)Google Scholar
Seaford, R., ‘The “Hyporchema” of Pratinas’, Maia 29/30 (19771978) 8194Google Scholar
Seaford, R., ‘Dionysiac drama and the Dionysiac mysteries’, CQ 31 (1981) 252–75Google Scholar
Seaford, R., ‘Pentheus' vision: Bacchae 918–22’, CQ 37 (1987) 76–8CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sherwin-White, S. M., Ancient Cos. An historical study from the Dorian settlement to the Imperial period (Hypomnemata 51) (1978)Google Scholar
Sifakis, G. M., Studies in the history of hellenistic drama (1967)Google Scholar
Slater, W. J., Lexicon to Pindar (1969)Google Scholar
Slater, W. J., ‘Futures in Pindar’, CQ n.s. 19 (1969) 8694 (= 1969b)Google Scholar
Sokolowski, F., Lois sacrées des cités grecques (École française d'Athènes, Travaux et Mémoires 17) (1969)Google Scholar
Spengel, L. (ed.), Rhetores Graeci (1856)Google Scholar
Stefanis, I. E., (1988)Google Scholar
Stewart, A., ‘Dionysos at Delphi: the pediments of the sixth temple of Apollo and religious reform in the age of Alexander’, in Macedonia and Greece in late classical and early Hellenistic times edd. Barr-Sharrar, B. and Borza, E. N. (Studies in the History of Art 10) (1982) 205–27Google Scholar
Stoneman, R., ‘The “Theban Eagle”’, CQ n.s. 26 (1976) 188–97Google Scholar
Thummer, E., Die Religiosität Pindars (Commentationes Aenipontanae 13) (1957)Google Scholar
Tsantsanoglou, K. and Parássoglou, G. M., ‘Two gold lamellae from Thessaly’, ΕΛΛΗΝΙΚΑ 38 (1987) 316Google Scholar
van der Valk, M. H. A. L. H., ‘Theocritus XXVI’, Ant. class. 34 (1965) 8496CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Van Groningen, B. A., ‘Les Bacchantes de Théocrite’, in Miscellanea di Studi alessandrini in memoria di Augusto Rostagni (1963) 338–49Google Scholar
Vollgraff, W., ‘Le péan delphique à Dionysos’, BCH 48 (1924) 97208Google Scholar
von Holzinger, C.Theokrit in Orchomenos. Zu Id. XVI 105–109’, Philologus 51 (1892) 193–7Google Scholar
Wächter, T., Reinheitsvorschriften im griechischen Kult (Religionsgeschichtliche Versuche und Vorarbeiten 9.1) (1910)Google Scholar
West, M. L., The Orphic Poems (1983)Google Scholar
Williams, F. (ed.), Callimachus Hymn to Apollo. A commentary (1978)Google Scholar
Wimmel, W., Kallimachos in Rom (Hermes Einzelschrift 16) (1960)Google Scholar
Wiseman, T. P., Catullus and his world. A reappraisal (1985)Google Scholar
Wölfflin, E., ‘Die Etymologieen der lateinischen Grammatiker’, Archiv für lateinische Lexicographie und Grammatik 8 (1893) 421–40, 563–85Google Scholar
Wojaczek, G., Daphnis. Untersuchungen zur griechischen Bukolik (Beiträge zur klassischen Philologie 34) (1969)Google Scholar
Wüstemann, E. F. (ed.), Theocriti Reliquiae (1830)Google Scholar
Young, D. C., Three odes of Pindar (Mnemosyne Suppl. 9) (1968)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Young, D. C., Pindar Isthmian 7. Myth and exempla (Mnemosyne Suppl. 15) (1971)Google Scholar
Zanker, G., ‘Simichidas' walk and the locality of Bourina in Theocritus, Id. 7’, CQ n.s. 30 (1980) 373–7Google Scholar
Zanker, G., ‘Current trends in the study of Hellenic myth in early third-century Alexandrian poetry: the case of Theocritus’, Antike und Abendland 35 (1989) 83103Google Scholar