Page "Theocritus" Paragraph 8

Idyll vii, the Harvest Feast, is the most important of the bucolic poems.

The scene is laid in the isle of Kos.

The poet speaks in the first person and is styled Simichidas by his friends.

Other poets are introduced under feigned names.

Thus ancient critics identified Sicelidas of Samos ( 1. 40 ) with Asclepiades the Samian, and Lycidas, " the goatherd of Cydonia ," may well be the poet Astacides, whom Callimachus calls " the Cretan, the goatherd.

" Theocritus speaks of himself as having already gained fame, and says that his lays have been brought by report even unto the throne of Zeus.

He praises Philitas, the veteran poet of Cos, and criticizes " the fledgelings of the Muse, who cackle against the Chian bard and find their labour lost.

" Other persons mentioned are Nicias, a physician of Miletus, whose name occurs in other poems, and Aratus, whom the Scholiast identifies with the author of the Phenomena.