The Idylliums of Theocritus
by Theocritus
| The Idylliums of Theocritus | |
 Title page from The Idylliums of Theocritus, George Wythe Collection, Wolf Law Library, College of William & Mary. | |
| Author | Theocritus |
| Published | London: Printed for the author by D. Leach and sold by J. and R. Tonson |
| Date | 1767 |
| Language | English |
| Pages | lvi, [12], 288 p. |
| Desc. | 8vo (21 cm.) |
Theocritus was a Hellenistic Greek poet who lived in the first half of the third century BCE in Syracuse on the island of Sicily.[1] It is possible that Theocritus lived in south Italy for part of his life and even that he visited Alexandria, Egypt, during the reign of Ptolmy II Philadelphus.[2] Evidence for this is found in the fact that several of Theocritus’ poems are set in Alexandria and directly reference Ptolemy’s palace and life under his rule, specifically poems 15 and 17.[3] He invented the genre of pastoral or bucolic poetry which focused on artfully simplistic depictions of herdsmen singing of “themselves, their loves and quarrels.”[4] Due to the relatively limited subject matter, bucolic poetry became used for allegorical comments on society and politics around the time of Virgil.[5] Theocritus’ extant works include thirty poems, several fragments of poems, and twenty-four epigrams, though the authenticity of all of them is doubtful.[6]
This work of Theocritus’ The Idylliums of Theocritus was translated from the original Ancient Greek to English by the English reverend Francis Fawkes in 1767.[7] Fawkes’ translation is notable for being extensively annotated, and not just by himself but he received “the particular help of ten contemporary men of letters” as indicated in his preface.[8] As this scholarly article indicates by its title, Dr. Samuel Johnson is considered by some to be such a major contributor to the work that he is included in the by-line. In fact, Fawkes refers to him specifically in the preface for his contributions through editing and annotating.[9] The first portion of the book includes an explanation of Theocritus’s life and pastoral poetry, which is followed by his thirty poems, twenty-two of his twenty-four epigrams. Interestingly, the last work included is Appolonius’s Book II telling of the combat between Pollux and Amycus, with a footnote to see Theocritus’s version of that combat on earlier pages of the volume.
Evidence for Inclusion in Wythe's Library
Description of the Wolf Law Library's copy
Bound in contemporary tree calf with gilt border on boards; includes bookplate of Lord Camden.
View this book in William & Mary's online catalog.
External Links
References
- ↑ "Theo'critus” in The Oxford Companion to Classical Literature, ed. by M.C. Howatson (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011).
- ↑ Ibid.
- ↑ "Theocritus" in Oxford Dictionary of the Classical World, ed. by John Roberts (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007).
- ↑ "pastoral poetry” in The Oxford Companion to Classical Literature, ed. by M.C. Howatson (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011).
- ↑ Ibid.
- ↑ "Theocritus"] in Oxford Dictionary of the Classical World
- ↑ A.T. Hazen and T.O. Mabbott, “Dr. Johnson and Francis Fawkes’s Theocritus,” The Review of English Studies 21, no. 82 (Apr. 1945): 142).
- ↑ Ibid.
- ↑ Ibid.
