THK IDYL IN CLASSIC LITEHATUUU. 11 



iug-ly exhausted all the i'orius' of literature. Then 

 The Idyl in came the non-prodnctive and critical Alexandrian 



Greek Litera- era, no longei' believing in the gods, and subjecting 

 ture. Theocritus, the old heroes to historical criticism. New motives 

 and styles of poetry were sought for, and with an 

 advanced civilization came a surfeit of city life, a dissatisfaction 

 caused by complex social conditions. ^ The idyls of Theocritus, 

 grounded in this general feeling, were hailed with joy. These idyls 

 led one away from the bustle and hollowness of over-refinement 

 back to nature, to ascend the mountains, to listen to the rustle 

 of the brook, walk over the meadow covered with pasturing 

 flocks, and rest in the shadow of the tamarisks. 



But this description of nature, beautiful as it is, was not the 

 most important part. It served after all only as the backgi'ound 

 for those who peopled it. These chai'acters, simple, natural, in 

 full accord with their surroundings, far away from the disordered 

 state of Greece and Egypt, in Sicily "rich in flocks," pipe and 

 sing, talk in dialogue or soliloquy so naturally that we really 

 seem to hear them. They lay bare before us the primary and 

 common emotions and passions of the human heart. All is fresh 

 and has the flavor of reality; like the shepherd's skin in the sev- 

 enth Idyl: '^The smell of rennet clinging to it still;"^ or, like the 

 bowl in the first: "Smacking still of the knife of the graver."^ 



Idyllic elements are found in litei-ature before Theocritus. ■* But 

 Theocritus stands before us as the creator of this form of litera- 



1 This thought is also brought out by E. C. Stedman in his Victorian poets 

 (Boston ISTG) in the chapter entitled Tennyson and Theocritus (p. 201), in 

 which he sliows the similarity of these two idyllic author.s and of the periods in 

 which they lived. He claims the superiority of Tennyson over the Syracusan 

 ''because his thought and period are greater" 1 (p.l87).-Ct. also Fritzsche-Hiller's 

 Tiieocritus,vll, and Lang's Theocritus, p. XXXVI.-Cf. Gosche A LG., I., p. 184,ff. 



2 Idyl Vn, 1,5 : veas ra/xtVoio ttotovBov. 



3 Idyl I, 28 : in y\v(f>dvoio ■ROToaOov. 



* Even the Iliad (XVUI. .52.5) shows us Hephaestos inscribing on the shield of 

 Achilles a pastoral scene. The Odyssey has more of such elements, as in the 

 story of Nausikaa, or Polyphemus, or the description of Calypso's cave. Further- 

 more, the satyr-drama, comedy, and mimes have material of idyllic nature. See 

 Fritzsche-Hiller's Theocritus, p. 5, ff.— Gosche, p. 188, ff. 



