Books by Theocritus

Theocritus (early third century BCE) was the inventor of the bucolic genre, also known as pastoral. The present edition of his work, along with that of his successors Moschus (fl. mid-second century BCE) and Bion (fl. around 100 BCE), replaces the earlier Loeb Classical Library volume of Greek Bucolic Poets by J. M. Edmonds (1912).

This selection of the poems of Theocritus illustrates his creative genius and rare powers of observation. Dover's introduction and notes offer insights into both the writing and the life and times of the poet.

Theocritus of Syracuse (first half of the third century BC) was the inventor of 'bucolic' poetry, the principal model for Virgil in the Eclogues and the foundational figure of the western pastoral tradition. The great variety of his other poems - hymns, short narrative epics, mimes, encomia, and epigrams - illustrates the rich and flourishing poetic culture of what was a golden age for Greek poetry.

Under Ptolemy II Philadelphus, who ruled Egypt in the middle of the third century B.C.E., Alexandria became the brilliant multicultural capital of the Greek world. Theocritus's poem in praise of Philadelphus-at once a Greek king and an Egyptian pharaoh-is the only extended poetic tribute to this extraordinary ruler that survives. Combining the Greek text, an English translation, a full line-by-line commentary, and extensive introductory studies of the poem's historical and literary context, this volume also offers a wide-ranging and far-reaching consideration of the workings and representation of poetic patronage in the Ptolemaic age. In particular, the book explores the subtle and complex links among Theocritus's poem, modes of praise drawn from both Greek and Egyptian traditions, and the subsequent flowering of Latin poetry in the Augustan age. As the first detailed account of this important poem to show how Theocritus might have drawn on the pharaonic traditions of Egypt as well as earlier Greek poetry, this book affords unique insight into how praise poetry for Ptolemy and his wife may have helped to negotiate the adaptation of Greek culture that changed conditions of the new Hellenistic world. Invaluable for its clear translation and its commentary on genre, dialect, diction, and historical reference in relation to Theocritus's Encomium, the book is also significant for what it reveals about the poem's cultural and social contexts and about Theocritus' devices for addressing his several readerships.COVER IMAGE: The image on the front cover of this book is incorrectly identified on the jacket flap. The correct caption is: Gold Oktadrachm depicting Ptolemy II and Arsinoe (mid-third century BCE; by permission of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston).

This volume contains the text of eight poems by the third-century BC Greek poet Theocritus, together with an introduction and extensive commentary. This is the first full-scale commentary on the work of Theocritus since Gow's edition of 1950. It makes a major contribution to the understanding of pastoral poetry.