Theocritus biography for kids

  • Eclogues summary
  • Theocritus name meaning
  • Theocritus epigrams

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    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.

    AuthorTheocritus
    EditorFrancis Fawkes and Samuel Johnson
    TranslatorFrancis Fawkes
    PublishedLondon: Printed for the author by D. Leach and sold by J. and R. Tonson
    Date1767
    Edition{{{edition}}}
    LanguageEnglish
    Volumes{{{set}}} volume set
    Pageslvi, [12], 288
    Desc.8vo (21 cm.)
    LocationShelf I-4
      [[Shelf {{{shelf2}}}]]

    Armorial bookplate of Lord Camden, front pastedown.

    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 that he visited Alexandria, Egypt during the reign of Ptolemy II Philadelphus.[2] Se

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    Poet born in Syracuse, Theocritus was the creator of pastoral poetry. His poems were termed eidyllia (“idylls”), a diminutive of eidos, which may mean “little poems.” There are no certain facts as to Theocritus’s life beyond those supplied by the idylls themselves. He lived in Sicily and spent some time in Cos and Alexandria -perhaps in Rhodes too. His surviving poems include bucolic compositions (pastoral poetry), mimes with either rural or urban settings, brief poems in epic or lyric metres, and epigrams.

    The bucolic poems are the most characteristic and influential of Theocritus’s works. They introduced the pastoral setting in which shepherds wooed nymphs and shepherdesses and held singing contests with their rivals. They were the sources of Virgil’s Eclogues and much of the poetry and drama of the Renaissance and were the ancestors of the famous English pastoral elegies, John Milton’s “Lycidas,” Percy Bysshe Shelley’s “Adonais,” and Matthew Arnold’s “Thyrsis.” Among the best kn

  • theocritus biography for kids

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    Theocritus

    The Greek author Theocritus (ca. 310-ca. 245 B.C.) is credited with being the first and greatest pastoral poet. He expressed great delight in natur and rural life.

    The best source for the biography of Theocritus is his own poems. He was a native of Syracuse who was familiar with Croton and Thurii in southern Italy, the island of Cos, Miletus, and Alexandria. He was born by at least 310 B.C., and probably earlier. His parents were Praxagoras and Philinna (who was originally from Cos).

    Theocritus was a pupil of Philetas of Cos, as it is conjectured that Ptolemy Philadelphus also was. Theocritus was a friend of Callimachus, of the physician Nicias of Miletus, and of King Hiero of Syracuse. Theocritus's life has been described as falling into fyra divisions: the Coan, the Sicilian, the Alexandrian with a second Coan residence, and after 270 B.C.

    All of Theocritus's work fryst vatten not pastoral; it fryst vatten as an idyllist that he fryst vatten known because with great skill he established th