June — Touches of Reality, 189 



Pyxus. But Encritus and I turned towards where 

 Phrasidamus lived, and so did handsome little Amyntas. 

 We reclined rejoicing in deep beds of odorous mastic- 

 leaves, and in leaves just stripped from the vines ; and 

 many poplars and elms swayed to and fro over our 

 heads, and close to us the sacred fountain babbled 

 whilst it flowed from the grotto of the nymphs. And 

 in the shade-giving branches the sun-browned cicadas 

 tired themselves with chirruping, and the 6\o\vycov 

 made its murmuring noise far off* in bloomless thickets 

 of bramble. The larks and goldfinches sang, the turtle- 

 dove uttered her plaintive note, the brown-yellow bees 

 flew round about the fountains, every thing smelt of trie 

 rich late summer, of the fruit-time. Pears and apples 

 were beside us and at our feet, and the branches were 

 weighed down to the earth.' 



Evidently this description is from memory ; it is a 

 lively account of a rest in some house the poet himself 

 must have visited. There is especially one touch, the 

 poplars and elms waving to and fro over the heads of 

 the boon companions, which must have been got from 

 Nature. There are other touches scattered about the 

 idyls, which have a like reality. ■ I began to love thee,' 

 the Cyclops says to Galatea, 'when first thou earnest 

 with my mother to gather hyacinths upon the hill.' 



Whatever may be the differences between Theocritus 

 and his greatest imitator, one thing they have in com- 



* The creature is unknown, and the translation of the word 

 can only be guessed at. • M. Remer thinks it meant the green 

 frog. 



