Теокрит: ежелгі грек ақыны және пастораль поэзиясының негізін қалаушысы

3rd century BC Greek poet

Theocritus (/θ//iː/'/ɒ//k//r//ɪ//t//ə//s/; , Theokritos; born c. 300 BC, died after 260 BC) was a Greek poet from Sicily, Magna Graecia, and the creator of Ancient Greek pastoral poetry.

Little is known of Theocritus beyond what can be inferred from his writings. We must, however, handle these with some caution, since some of the poems (Idylls; Εἰδύλλια) commonly attributed to him have little claim to authenticity. It is clear that at a very early date two collections were made: one consisting of poems whose authorship was doubtful yet formed a corpus of bucolic poetry, the other a strict collection of those works considered to have been composed by Theocritus himself. Theocritus was from Sicily, as he refers to Polyphemus, the Cyclops in the Odyssey, as his "countryman." He also probably lived in Alexandria for a while, where he wrote about everyday life, notably Pharmakeutria. It is also speculated that Theocritus was born in Syracuse, lived on the island of Kos, and lived in Egypt during the time of Ptolemy II. The record of these recensions is preserved by two epigrams, one of which proceeds from Artemidorus of Tarsus, a grammarian, who lived in the time of Sulla and is said to have been the first editor of these poems. He says, "The Muses of country song were once scattered, but now they are all together in one pen, in one flock." The second epigram is anonymous, and runs as follows: "The Chian is another man, but I, Theocritus, who wrote these poems, am one of the great populace of Syracuse, the son of Praxagoras and renowned Philinna; and the Muse I have adopted is no alien." The last line may mean that he wrote nothing but bucolic poems, or that he only wrote in Doric. The assertion that he was from Syracuse appears to be upheld by allusions in the Idylls (7.7, 28.16–18). The information concerning his parentage bears the stamp of authenticity, and disposes of a rival theory based upon a misinterpretation of Idyll 7—which made him the son of one Simichus. A larger collection, possibly more extensive than that of Artemidorus, and including poems of doubtful authenticity, was known to the author of the Suda, who says: "Theocritus wrote the so called bucolic poems in the Doric dialect. Some persons also attribute to him the following: Daughters of Proetus, Hopes, Hymns, Heroines, Dirges, Lyrics, Elegies, Iambics, Epigrams." The first of these may have been known to Virgil, who refers to the Proetides at Eclogue 6.48. The spurious poem 21 may have been one of the Hopes, and poem 26 may have been one of the Heroines; elegiacs are found in 8.33—60, and the spurious epitaph on Bion may have been one of the Dirges. The other classes are all represented in the larger collection which has come down to us.

Three of these are Hymns: 16, 17, and 22. In 16, the poet praises Hiero II of Syracuse, in 17 Ptolemy Philadelphus, and in 22 the Dioscuri. The other poems are 13, the story of Hylas and the Nymphs, and 24 the youthful Heracles. In 13 he makes use of word painting; in 16 there is some delicate fancy in the description of his poems as Charites, and a passage at the end, where he foretells the joys of peace after the enemy have been driven out of Sicily, has the true bucolic ring. The most that can be said of 22 and 24 is that they are very dramatic. Otherwise they differ little from work done by other poets, such as Callimachus and Apollonius Rhodius. From another point of view, however, these two poems 16 and 17 are supremely interesting, since they are the only ones which can be dated. In 17 Theocritus celebrates the incestuous marriage of Ptolemy Philadelphus with his sister Arsinoë. This marriage is held to have taken place in 277 BC, and a recently discovered inscription shows that Arsinoë died in 270, in the fifteenth year of her brother's reign. This poem, therefore, together with xv, which Theocritus wrote to please Arsinoë must fall within this period. The encomium upon Hiero II would seem prior to that upon Ptolemy, since in it Theocritus is a hungry poet seeking for a patron, while in the other he is well satisfied with the world. Now Hiero first came to the front in 275 when he was made General: Theocritus speaks of his achievements as still to come, and the silence of the poet would show that Hiero's marriage to Phulistis, his victory over the Mamertines at the Longanus and his election as "King", events which are ascribed to 270, had not yet taken place. If so, 17 and 15 can only have been written within 275 and 270.

Two of these are certainly by Theocritus, 28 and 29, composed in Aeolic verse and in the Aeolic dialect. The first is a very graceful poem presented together with a distaff to Theugenis, wife of Nicias, a doctor of Miletus, on the occasion of a voyage thither undertaken by the poet. The theme of 29 is similar to that of 12. A very corrupt poem, only found in one very late manuscript, was discovered by Ziegler in 1864. As the subject and style very closely resemble that of 29, it is assigned to Theocritus by recent editors.

Theocritus, Bion and Moschus: Rendered into English Prose with an Introductory Essay by Andrew Lang, (1880), London. Theocritus Bion and Moschus (1913) Translated into English Verse by Arthur S. Way. Cambridge University Press. Theocritus, The Idylls of Theocritus, translated by R. C. Trevelyan (1925 Albert & Charles Boni, New York)
Theocritus, The Second and Seventh Idylls (1927), translated by Charles Stuart Calverley. Illustrated with woodcuts by Elizabeth Rivers (John Lane, London). Theocritus, Theocritus. The Greek text with translation and commentary by A. S. F. Gow (2nd ed. 1952, Cambridge)
Theocritus: Select Poems, (1971) commentary by K. J. Dover, London. Theocritus: Idylls and Epigrams, (1982) translated by Daryl Hine, Atheneum, New York. Theocritus A Selection, (1999) commentary by Richard Hunter, Cambridge. Theocritus, The Idylls of Theocritus, tr. Robert Wells (1988)
Theocritus: Idylls, (2003) translated by Anthony Verity with an introduction and notes by Richard Hunter, Oxford University Press. Theocritus, Moschus, Bion, edited and translated by Neil Hopkinson, Cambridge MA London (2015).