there is a regular and equable tenor in the thoughts as well as the language. The passions are tenderly and simply expressed: the complaints of love are drawn from the very bosom of nature; and the situations have peculiar beauty. But the soul of Theocritus was not tuned to sensibility. He had less feeling, though more judgement than Bion. From the turn and manner of his composition we may infer, that he generally trusts to his own stock of ideas, to his own powers of invention.

SELECT IDYLS

OF

THEOCRITUS.

ΘΥΡΣΙΣ, Ἢ ΩΙΔΗ.

ΕΙΔΥΛΛΙΟΝ α.

ΘΥΡΣΙΣ, ΠΟΙΜΗΝ, ΚΑΙ ΑΙΠΟΛΟΣ.

ΘΥΡΣΙΣ.

Αδύ τι τὸ ψιθύρισμα καὶ ὁ πίτυς, αἰπόλε, τήνα,
Α ποτὶ ταῖς παγαῖσι μελίσδεται· ἁδὺ δὲ καὶ τὸ

ΘΥΡΣΙΣ, ἢ ΩΙΔΗ. THYRSIS, or THE SONG. In this Idyl the poet relates the unhappy fate of Daphnis, who was considered as a hero among the Sicilian shepherds. The subject is introduced by a dialogue between Thyrsis and a goatherd.—This has ever been esteemed a beautiful poem, from the

time of the Roman imitator to the present day. Its characters seem to maintain a superior rank, in point of civility and a delicacy of sentiment pervades the whole, with scarcely any mixture of vulgarity. The situations of the scene are pleasingly shifted; and we no sooner commence an acquaintance with Theocritus, than we are presented with a delightful specimen of his talents in painting.

ΕΙΔΥΛΛΙΟΝ. This properly signifies a small Picture, or Representation : -- a short Poem. It is a diminu

tive of εἶδος.

1. Αδύ τι. This and the following verse have long exercised the ingenuity of the critics, whose various conjectures may be seen in Kiessling's note. Constr. with Valckenaër, Αἰπόλε, ἡδύ

τι ἐστι τὸ ψιθύρισμα, καὶ ἡ πίτυς ἐκείνη, ή μελίζεται πρὸς ταῖς πηγαῖς, Something sweet, ο goatherd, is the whisper, and sweet is the pine, which, &c. Reiske for &, in the second verse, reads å, and makes τὸ ψιθύρισμα the object of μελίζεται, thus: καὶ ἐκείνη ἡ πίτυς, ὦ αἰπόλε, ἡ πρὸς τοῖς πηγαῖς οὖσα, μελίζε ται ἡδύ τι τὸ ψιθύρισμα, καὶ σὺ, &ct Both this pine, &c. The former construction preserved in the ancien. Latin version of Eobanus Hessus : “ Adepol dulcis hic est vicinus strepitus auræ, Dulcis et hæc strepitu fontes prope consita pinus." Theocritus wrote in the Doric dialect, which very frequently puts a for η : thus, &, ἁδὺς, παγὰ, for ἧ, ἡδὺς, πηγή. Matth. Gr. Gr. § 10. The Dorians also said τῆνος, τήνα, τῆνο, for ἐκεῖνος, ἐκείνη, ἐκεῖνο, (Matth. Gr. Gr. f 150.), and ποτὶ for πρός. They substituted σδ for S, as in μελίσδεται (Matth. Gr. Gr. § 15.); for the present tense συρίζεις, συρίζει, they said συρίσδες, σύρισδε, or τυρίσδες, τύρισδε, (Matth. Gr. Gr. $15. $200. 2.); and for the infinitive συρίζειν they wrote συρίσδεν. Β.

See

Τυρίσδες· μετὰ Πᾶνα τὸ δεύτερον ἆθλον ἀποισῇ.
Αἴκα τῆνος ἕλῃ κεραὸν τράγον, αἶγα τὸ λαψῇ·
Αἴκα δ ̓ αἶγα λάβῃ τῆνος γέρας, ἐς τὸ καταῤῥεῖ
̔Α χίμαρος. χιμάρῳ δὲ καλὸν κρῆς, ἔστε καὶ ἀμέλξῃς.

ΑΙΠΟΛΟΣ.

Αδιον, ὦ ποιμὰν, τὸ τεὸν μέλος, ἢ τὸ καταχὲς
Τῆν ἀπὸ τᾶς πέτρας καταλείβεται ὑψόθεν ὕδωρ.
Αἴκα ταὶ Μῶσαι τὰν οἴΐδα δῶρον ἄγωνται,
̓́Αρνα τὺ σακίταν λαψῇ γέρας· αἱ δέ κ' ἀρέσκῃ
Τήναις ἄρνα λαβεῖν, τὺ δὲ τὰν ἄϊν ὕστερον ἀξῇ.