1, 2 ἁδύ τι taken up by ἁδὺ δέ (2), ἅδιον (7), ἁδέα (65), ἅδιον (145), for 'sweet is every sound, sweeter thy voice, but every sound is sweet.' The construction of the lines is rendered clear if we attend to the balance of the words: ἁδύ τι is answered by ἁδύ δέ: καὶ ἁ πίτυς by καὶ τύ. συρίσδες (3) belongs to both clauses. καὶ ἁ πίτυς （ἃ ποτὶ ταῖς παγαῖσι μελίσδεται） ἁδύ τι τὸ ψιθύρισμα συρίσδει καὶ τὺ ἁδύ τι συρίσδες.
[To read ἁ and make μελίσδεται verb to πίτυς impairs the rhythm.] 'Sweet is the whispered music of yon pine which sings beside the water, and sweet thy music, herdsman.' Cf.ᾶδύ τι τὸ ψιθύρισμα συρίσδες = ἁδύ τι ἐστὶ τὸ ψιθύρισμα ὃ συρίσδες. τις is not often added to a predicative adjective referring to the object when the object has the article, but cf. Lycurgus, § 101 ἀνυπέρβλητον τινὰ δεῖ τὴν εὔνοιαν ἔχειν.“ 'Dulce tibi pinus submurmurat, en tibi pastor,
Proxima fonticulis, et tu quoque dulcia pangis.'
”Terent. Maurus, l. 129:
[3] συρίσδες = συρίσδεις. For the application of the word to wind in trees, cf. Longus, iii. 24 ὁ μὲν ἐσύριζεν ἁμιλλώμενος πρὸς τὰς πίτυς. 'The pines sing overhead' (Kingsley) Lucian, V. H. ii. § 5 ἀπὸ τῶν κλάδων κινουμένων τερπνὰ μέλη ἀπεσυρίζετο ἐοικότα τοῖς αὐλήμασι τῶν πλαγίων αὐλῶν.
μετὰ Πᾶνα, 'second to Pan alone.'Propert. ii. 3. 32 “'post Helenam forma secunda.'”“ τάδε δεύτερά μοι μετὰ τὰν ἱερὰν
Θησέως ζαθέαν ἐλθεῖν χώραν:
”
[5] τέ = σε a form known elsewhere only in grammarians, but restored by conjecture in v. 14.
καταρρεῖ comes over to thee (from what he leaves). The three prizes are arranged in order of value.“ καὶ βοὸς ὑλοφάγοιο κρέας μήπω τετοκυίης
πρωτογόνων τ᾽ ἐρίφων.
”
[7] Note the careful correspondence of these five lines to the preceding. ἅδιον to ἁδύ τι: μέλος to μελίσδεται: ὕδωρ to παγαῖσι: Μοῖσαι to Πᾶνα: γέρας to γέρας and the arrangement of the prizes (l. 9, note).
ἅδιον sc. καταλείβεται, cf. xx. 27. The proposed explanation ἅδιόν ἐστι ἢ τὸ ὕδωρ ἁδὺ ὂν καταλείβεται is highly artificial and awkward.[9] οἰίδα diminutive of οἶς, not the same as ὄϊς of l. 11, but as in 4-6 we had a descending scale of age, here we have an ascending order; 'the little ewe lamb--the stall-fed lamb--the sheep.' For the formation cf. ἀμνίς, ἐρωτίς, ὀροδαμνίς. The winners chose their prize, the next best left goes to the second competitor.
[13] ὡς, 'where.'
τὰς δ᾽ αἶγας parataxis = 'while I tend thy goats'; cf. vii. 86.[15] οὐ θέμις…οὐ θέμις, see Introd. 2. θέμις --fas--law relative to heaven (Soph. O. C. 1556). The gods themselves rest at noon-day, and man may not break their repose; cf. Verg. Georg. iv. 402; Ecl. vi. 14; 1 Kings xviii.
[17] κεκμακώς, 'wearied.'
[18] ποτὶ ῥινί. Herondas, vi. 37 μὴ τὴν χολὴν ἐπὶ ῥινὸς ἔχ᾽ εὐθύς: Iliad xviii. 322 “δριμὺς χόλος.”
[19] ἀείδες = ἀείδεις: 'Thou dost sing the "Sorrows of Daphnis," and surpass all others in the woodland song.'
[20] ἐπὶ τὸ πλέον is not equivalent to εἰς ἄκρον (as Haupt, Opusc. ii. 312, and editors take it), but expresses simply a degree definitely higher than that reached by others (distinguish ἐπὶ πλέον--a vaguer comparison). Cf. viii. 17 note; Xenoph. Hellen. iv. 7. 6 “ὥσπερ πένταθλος πάντῃ ἐπὶ τὸ πλέον ὑπερβάλλειν ἐπειρᾶτο.”
ἵκεο, 'reached,' cf. Odyss. viii. 198 “οὔτις Φαιήκων τόδε γ᾽ ἵξεται οὐδ᾽ ὑπερήσει.” The aorist is 'momentary'--an action present or habitual being vividly represented as completed at once and already passed. Cf.“ μάρτυρες ὀρθαὶ τοῖσι θανοῦσιν
παραγιγνόμεναι πράκτορες αἵματος
αὐτῷ τελέως ἐφάνημεν.
”
[22]
Κραναιᾶν, 'Nymphs of the spring,' i. e. statues of them. Cf. Leonidas in A. Pal. ix. 326:
“
Πέτρης ἐκ δισσῆς ψυχρὸν καταπάλμενον ὕδωρ1,
χαῖροις, καὶ Νυμφέων ποιμενικὰ ξόανα,
”
and A. Pal. vi. 334:
“
αὔλια, καὶ Νυμφέων ἱερὸς πάγος, αἵ θ᾽ ὑπὸ πέτρῃ
πίδακες, ἥ θ᾽ ὕδασιν γειτονέουσα πίτυς.
”
[24] τὸν Λιβύαθε cf. xxiv. 109; Demosth. Meidias 121 “Λυσίμαχος ᾿Αλωπεκῆθεν”.
[25] ἐς τρίς cf. ii. 43. In the following line ἐς δύο πέλλας = 'as much as two pails full' (not 'into two pails')--accusative of amount. Plato, Laws 704 b ἀπέχει θαλάσσης γε ἡ πόλις εἴς τινας π᾽ σταδίους.
[28] ἀμφῶες 'with two handles.'
ποτόσδον, 'fresh from the graving chisel,' still possessing the scent of fresh cut wood. The bowl is a drinking-bowl (see Odyss. ix. 346) not a milking-bowl.[29] , sqq. 'Above, about the lip twines ivy, ivy painted o'er with helichryse, and opposite (κατ᾽ αὐτόν ) the tendrils twist gay in their golden berries.'
κεκονιμένος lit. 'dusted.' Does Theocritus mean that the 'dust' of the flower is scattered over the ivy ('the yellow lotus dust is blown'), or use the verb in a somewhat new sense? The general meaning is clear that ivy and helichryse are mingled. κατ᾽ αὐτόν, 'in a line with,' or 'opposite to.' Cf. xxiv. 12 (note): a second band of floral decoration round the base of the cup is meant. Those who change κατ᾽ αὐτόν or take it in another sense than this leave ὑψόθι (29) pointless. Cf. Vergil's description, Ecl. iii. 39; Nonnus, xix. 25: “ τοῦ περὶ χείλεος ἄκρον ἐπ᾽ ἀμπελόεντι καρήνῳκισσὸς ἕλιξ χρυσέῳ δὲ πέριξ δαιδάλλετο κόσμῳ.
”
[32] ἔντοσθεν. Inside these bands (i. e. between) not 'inside the cup.' See two notes of Hiller and J. A. Hartung. The outside of the cup between the bands is divided into three fields:--the carving of the first represents a coquette, with two admirers; that of the second an old fisherman at his work; the third shows a vineyard tended by a little lad who, intent on his own pursuits, is robbed of his breakfast by a fox.
For the meaning of ἔντοσθεν cf. xvi. 95; Ap. Rhod. ii. 679 “εἴσω πετράων”, 'in between the rocks.' τί proclitic. For position cf. Soph. Antig. 159; Lysias, xxx. § 1 ἤδη ὦ ἄνδρες δικασταί, τινές. θεῶν δαίδαλμα, 'a work as of the gods.' Callim. v. 94 γοερᾶν οἶτον ἀηδονίδων ἅγε βαρὺ κλαίουσα.[34] ἄλλοθεν ἄλλος, 'this side and that.'
“ ὣς αἳ νῆα θέουσαν ἀμοιβαδὶς ἄλλοθεν ἄλλη
πέμπε δι᾽ ἠερίην ἐπὶ κύμασι.
”
[35]
ἅπτεται. Eurip. Medea 55 φρενῶν ἀνθάπτεται. There is a similar picture in Naevius (Cruttwell, Specimens of Rom. Lit. ii. 1. 1):
“
'Quasi pila
In choro ludens datatim dat se, ac communem facit,
Alii adnutat, alii adnictat, alium amat, alium tenet,
Alibi manus est occupata, alii percellit pedem,
Anulum alii dat spectandum, a labris alium invocat,
Cum alio cantat, attamen alii suo dat digito literas.'
”
[36] γελᾶσα = γελῶσα. The former may be explained as due to an erroneous change of ω to α on the analogy of πρᾶτος…γλᾶσσα (= γλῶσσα, Herondas); but is more probably to be derived from a collateral form of the present γέλημι or γέλαμι. So we have ἴσαμι, 'I know' (hence ἴσασι, cf. xiv. 34), with a participle ἰσάς (Ahrens, Dial. Dor. p. 345). The masculine of γελᾶσα would therefore be γελάς not γελῶν.
[38] κυλοιδιόωντες, 'with hollow eyes.' Oppian, Hal. iv. 18 'love delights χρωτός τε παράτροπον ἄνθος ἄμερσαι ὄσσε τε κοιλῆναι."
[39] τοῖς δὲ μετά, 'next after them.' For this use of μετά with the dative cf. Odyss. ix. 369 Οὖτιν ἐγὼ πύματον ἔδομαι μετὰ οἷς ἑτάροισιν: Theocr. xxv. 93; Quint. Smyrn. v. 64 τοὶ δ᾽ ἐφέποντο αἰζηοὶ μετὰ τοῖσι.
τέτυκται singular, because the two nouns joined by τε…τε form but one notion cf. ii. 7. Xen. Symp. iii. 4 “ἀνδρεία καὶ σοφία ἔστιν ὅτε βλαβερὰ δοκεῖ εἶναι.”
[40]
ἐς βόλον ἕλκει is 'hauling in his net for a catch.' Theocritus imitates (Hesiod) Scut. Her. 213:
“
αὐτὰρ ἐπ᾽ ἀκταῖς
ἧστο ἀνὴρ ἁλιεὺς δεδοκημένος: εἶχε δὲ χερσὶν
ἰχθύσιν ἀμφίβληστρον, ἀπορρίψοντι ἐοικώς.
”
[41] τὸ καρτερόν, 'with a man's whole strength,' see iii. 3 note. For ἐς cf. v. 98; St. Luke v. 4 χαλάσατε τὰ δίκτυα ὑμῶν εἰς ἄγραν.
[42] ὅσον σθένος…γυίων, 'with all the strength of his limbs.' Ap. Rhod. ii. 591 “ἐμβαλέειν κώπῃσιν ὅσον σθένος”: and with verb expressed, Ap. Rhod. iii. 716 “ὅσσον σθένος ἐστὶν ἐμεῖο.”
[45] τυτθὸν δ᾽ ὅσσον, 'a little way.' The construction is like the Platonic ἀμηχάνως ὡς, etc., Phaedrus 263 d. Polit. 308 e οὐδαμῶς ὡς οὐ φήσομεν: Laws 782 a ἀμήχανον ἂν ὅσον γεγονὸς ἂν εἴη: Arist. Eccles. 386 ὑπερφυῶς ὡς λευκοπληθὴς ἦν ἰδεῖν ἡκκλησία. The full construction would be τυτθόν ἐστιν ὅσον ἀπέχει. The verb is omitted and wherever possible the antecedent is attracted to the form of the relative. Cf. Herod. iv. 194 “ἄφθονοι ὅσοι”: Lucian, Alex. i. ὀλίγους ὅσους: A. Pal. xii. 227 βαιὸν ὅσον παραβάς. Exactly similar is the use of οὐδεὶς ὅστις οὐ: οὐδένα ὅντινα οὐ, etc.
[46] Cf. Iliad xviii. 561. πυρναίαις vid. Liddell and Scott; the word is very doubtful here, even if it does bear the meaning of 'eating' or 'fit for eating.' We want some word descriptive of colour. περκναῖσι (Briggs) is unlikely to have been displaced; it is a common word cf. Odyss. vii. 126. περκναίαις (Ribbeck) is possible, as a collateral form, cf. ἐρυθρός, ἐρυθραῖος, πελλός, πελλαῖος. Ahrens (Philol. vii. 410) favours πυρραίοις.
[48]
δύ᾽ ἀλώπεκες ἁ μέν… For the construction cf. Odyss. vii. 129:
“
ἐν δὲ δύω κρῆναι ἡ μέν τ᾽ ἀνὰ κῆπον ἅπαντα
σκίδναται, ἡ δ᾽ ἑτέρωθεν ὑπ᾽ αὐλῆς οὐδὸν ἵησι.
”
Odyss. xii. 73; Achill. Tat. i. 3. 1 αἱ γὰρ μητέρες τῷ μὲν ἦν Βυζαντία τῷ δὲ ἐμῷ πατρὶ Τυρία: Caesar, Bell. Gall. i. 53 “'duae filiae: harum altera occisa, altera capta est.'”
[49] ἐπὶ πήρᾳ, 'with designs on the wallet.'
[50] οὐ πρὶν ἀνησεῖν φατί (= φησί), 'says she will not let the lad go.' Xen. Hellen. v. 2. 38 “ὅτι οἱ ᾿Ολύνθιοι κατεστραμμένοι τὴν μείζω δύναμιν Μακεδονίας εἶεν καὶ οὐκ ἀνήσουσι τὴν ἐλάττω εἰ μή.” Commoner is ἀφήσειν.
[51] φατί of speechless things; Xenophanes, i. 5 οἶνος ὃς οὔποτε φησὶ προδώσειν: Catull. iv. 2 'Phaselus ille ... ait fuisse navium celerrimus.' But in this picture, as in the first, the description reads more into the carving than can strictly be expressed. Cf. Verg. Aen. viii. 634 sqq.; Martial, viii. 51. 14 'Palladius tenero lotus ab ore sonat.'
πρὶν ἢ ἀκράτιστον, κ.τ.λ. is the MS. reading. In this ἀκράτιστον cannot be the verbal adjective from ἀκρατίζομαι or the accent would be oxytone, but must be a substantive--'breakfast'--cf. ἄμητος, τρυγητός （̣ τρύγητος）: (1) Ahrens (Philol. vii. 410) takes it thus as a substantive, and explains the phrase as a metaphor from navigation, 'before the breakfast has been wrecked.' He supports this by Polyb. xx. 5. 7 ἐκάθισαν πρὸς τὸ ξηρὸν αἱ νῆες ('the ships grounded'); Diodorus, xi. 77 τῶν νεῶν ἄφνω καθιζουσῶν ἐπὶ ξηρὰν τὴν γῆν. This explanation is rendered improbable by the weakness of the phrase, even if ἐπὶ ξηροῖσι can have this meaning. To say 'the breakfast has touched bottom' is far from saying 'the breakfast has been totally wrecked.' (2) J. A. Hartung (reading ἀκρατισμόν) takes the metaphor to mean 'before she has safely docked the breakfast'--καθίζειν, active. This is a good sense, but there is no evidence for the phrase. (We might also change the metaphor and say, 'before she has safely landed the breakfast.') The question is whether ἐπὶ ξηροῖσι can possibly mean 'on dry land' in face of the fact that ξηρά (fem. sing.) and τὸ ξηρόν (sing.) are the standing phrases. Cf. also Thucyd. i. 109; viii. 105. (3) Changing the accent to ἀκρατιστόν, verb. adj., the only explanation possible is 'before she set him down to starveling fare to get his breakfast.' ξηρός = 'wasted,' 'used up'; see Eurip. Androm. 637; Callim. vi. 113 οἶκον ἀνεξήρανεν. The use of the verb. adj. is then strangely and scarcely parallel even to Thucydides' μενετοὶ καιροί ('inclined to wait') bk. i. 142. 1. (4) Interpreting ἐπὶ ξηροῖσι as in (3), we should get a good sense by substituting for ἀκράτιστον a verbal in -τος formed with ἀ- privativum. Nearest would be ἀκράστιστον, a nonexisting word but formed regularly from κραστίζομαι, 'to eat green stuff.' Tr., 'Before she set him down to a starveling fare with not a bite of green stuff.' [The explanation recorded in Liddell and Scott, 'having breakfasted on dry stuff,' i. e. 'having made no breakfast,' joins ἀκρατιστόν and ἐπὶ ξηροῖσι in a way that is hardly Greek; we should at least have ἀπὸ ξηρῶν.][53] μέλεται for μέλει. So in Soph. Elect. 74; Oppian, Pisc. i. 117 μέλεται δέ οἱ οὔτι μόροιο τόσσον. Late authors play havoc with the forms and constructions of this verb.
[54] περὶ πλέγματι. Verbs of rejoicing take ἐπί not περί, with dative, in Classical Greek. περί here expresses not only joy at his work, but 'joy engrossed in his work.'
[56]
αἰολικόν τι θέαμα, 'a dazzling sight.' αἰολικόν is a collateral form of αἰόλον (see a note by the editor in Classical Review, July, 1896); cf. Schol. k αἰολικόν, ἀπατητικόν, ποικίλον, Αἰολίζειν γὰρ τὸ ἀπατᾶν. So Ap. Rhod. i. 765, perhaps in imitation of this:
“
κείνους κ᾽ εἰσορόων ἀκέοις, ψεύδοιό τε θυμόν,
ἐλπόμενος πυκινήν τιν᾽ ἀπὸ σφείων ἐσακοῦσαι
βάξιν, ὃ καὶ δηρόν περ᾽ ἐπ᾽ ἐλπίδι θηήσαιο.
”
[57] πορθμεῖ Καλυδωνίῳ a coaster from Calydon to Sicily; not from Calydon to Peloponnesus. πορθμεύς is used of one making a long voyage in Herod. i. 24 (Sicily to Corinth); in Lucian, V. H. ii. 29, of the pilot who brought Lucian home from the μακάρων νῆσοι. The objection should not have been raised that the word is only used of a ferryman across a strait. The v. l. of the Scholiast, πορθμῆι Καλυδνίῳ, is interesting. Calydnae is the name of a group of islands near Cos. The reading is apparently due to some critic who wished to fix the scene of the poem in Cos, not Sicily. πορθμῆι is however not a Theocritean form, and ll. 24 and 65 speak emphatically for Sicily.
[60] πρόφρων, 'with all my heart.'
ἀρεσαίμαν, 'would fain please thee'; cf. xvi. 67, note.
[62]
κερτομέω, 'I do not mock,' i.e. I do not say what I do not mean. Soph. Philoc. 1235:
“
ΟΔ. πότερα δὴ κερτομῶν λέγεις τάδε;
ΝΕ. εἰ κερτόμησίς ἐστὶ τἀληθῆ λέγειν.
”
[63] τὸν ἐκλελάθοντα accent and sense mark this as a present, not an aorist form. Homer has a causal reduplicated aorist; cf. In Aphrod. 40 ῞Ηρης ἐκλελαθοῦσα, 'making to forget Hera.' The form used here would seem to belong to the number of presents formed from the perfect stem, of which Theocritus has several: πεπόνθω (x. 1), δεδοίκω (xv. 58). So κεκλήγοντες, ἐμέμηκον, Odyss. ix. 438; τετύποντες, Callim.; ἐπέφυκον, Hesiod. Naturally we should have λελήθω: the stem is shortened as in λελακυῖα （λεληκώς）, ἐϊκυῖα （ἐοικώς）, σεσαρυῖα （σεσηρώς）, etc. It is immaterial whether we take the verb as causal or neuter. If the latter, cf. Horace's 'oblivioso Massico'; Ovid, Fast. iv. 341 'furiosa tibia.'
[64] The refrain as used here and in Idyll ii is said to be specially characteristic of Sicilian poetry. So in the drama it is frequent in Aeschylus (Agam. 117 sqq.; Choeph. 955; Eumenid. 1016; Persae 665, etc.). But it is found in all ages and all languages in varying forms, cf. Aristoph. Birds 1731; Peace 1334. In Hebrew, in the Psalms, 'For His mercy endureth for ever.' In Latin, Verg. Ecl. viii. 21; the Pervigilium Veneris, 'Cras amet qui numquam amavit, quique amavit cras amet'; Catull. 61, 62; and in direct imitation of Theocritus, Bion, Epit. Adon. αἰάζω τὸν ῎Αδωνιν…ἐπαιάζουσιν ἔρωτες: Auctor, Epit. Bion. ῎Αρχετε Σικελικαὶ τῶ πένθεος ἄρχετε Μοῖσαι. In English it appears especially in the ballad.
[65] ἁδέα = ἡδεῖα, the Ionic form, cf. Odyss. xii. 374. The variant ἅδ᾽ ἁ besides lacking good MS. support spoils the rhythm and is weak.
[66]
Cf. Verg. Ecl. x. 9; Milton's Lycidas:
“
'Where were ye, Nymphs, when the remorseless deep
Closed o'er the head of your loved Lycidas?'
”
[67] Πίνδω sc. καλὰ τέμπεα, the last word being used in the general sense of valleys.
[68]
εἵχετε, 'were ye dwelling in.' Aesch. Eumenid. 24 Βρόμιος δ᾽ ἔχει τὸν χῶρον. So teneo in Latin, Verg. Aen. vi. 788 “'omnes supera alta tenentes.'”
“
'For neither were ye playing on the steep,
Where your old bards, the famous Druids, lie;
Nor on the shaggy top of Mona high,
Nor yet where Deva spreads her wizard stream.'
”
[72] χὡκ δρυμοῖο = καὶ ὁ ἐκ, 'the lion in the thicket'; the double crasis as in 109 χὥδωνις. The Scholiast has a delightful variant ἂν ἔκλαυσε, and note: 'There were no lions in Sicily. If there had been they would have wept!'
[77] Hermes first, who according to the legend was father of Daphnis, then the herdsmen, seeing Daphnis' misery, come in pity to know the cause. ἀπ᾽ ὤρεος, 'from the hill.' The article is omitted as in ii. 36; vii. 74; i. 140.
[78] ἐρᾶσαι from ἐράσμαι a rare middle form of ἐράω cf. ii. 149; Bion x. 9 ἀλλ᾽ ἐράω: καλὸν δέ τ᾽ ἐρασσαμένῳ συνερᾶσθαι (al. συνέρασθαι); Constant. Anacreont. i. 75 παρὰ θῖν᾽ ἁλὸς βαδίζειν πολιῆς τανῦν ἐρῶμαι (Hiller). The use of the middle for the active is common in Alexandrian Greek. Theocritus himself has σκοπιάζεται (iii. 26). ἀρτίζοντο (xiii. 43), ποτελέξατο (i. 92), ἐτινάξατο (xxii. 185), and others; see Legrand, Étude, p. 229.
[81] τί πάθοι. Note that while the use of the optative in dependent statements is confined to Attic Greek and Herodotus, the use of this mood in dependent questions is universal.
Πρίηπος. Priapus comes in a different mood; knowing the reason of Daphnis' misery, and the object of his love, he taunts him for not giving himself up to the love which might be his.[82] τί τὺ τάκεαι, ἁ δέ τε, κ.τ.λ. 'why dost thou sit pining while the maid hastens through all the springs and all the groves'--begin dear Muse, begin the woodland song--'seeking thee. Ah! thou art feckless and a fool in love. Thou art no neatherd as thou wast called, but a sorry goatherd, who can do no better than mope and pine for what he is not; thou hast the girls gay before thee, and all thou dost is to mope and pine.' The key to this difficult passage is right understanding of (1) δύσερως, not 'perdite amans,' as most translate, but, as the Scholiast explains, οὐκ εἰδὼς ἐρᾶν: cf. δύσθυμος. (2) τάκεται ὀφθαλμώς = 'you pine and hold aloof from the pleasure you might have, because you are too mawkish or prudish to go and enjoy yourself,' i.e. here you are in love, the girl is seeking you, and for a silly vow you waste your life away instead of taking the good things offered.
δέ τε joins the sentence closely to the preceding, so that here τί τὺ…ἁ δέ τε is equivalent to the Attic τί σὺ μὲν τήκει ἡ δὲ κόρη…φορεῖται cf. xxiv. 38; xv. 120; Odyss. vi. 108 ῥεῖά τ᾽ ἀριγνώτη πέλεται, καλαὶ δέ τε πᾶσαι. The ordinary punctuation of these lines would make δέ τε couple two sentences of dissimilar form contrary to the right use of the particles.[85] ζάτεισ᾽ an Aeolic form = ζατοῦσα. The interposition of the refrain verse adds to the emphasis of the word.
[86] αἰπόλῳ ἀνδρί cf. vi. 7; Longus, iii. 18 ἄγροικος καὶ αἰπόλος. The word is used contemptuously.
[88] ἔγεντο, 'that he was not born.' Odyss. viii. 311 οὕνεκ᾽ ἔγωγε ἠπεδανὸς γενόμην. This syncopated form occurs first in Hesiod; then frequently.
[92] ἀλλὰ τὸν αὐτῶ. 'But continued on his bitter way of love, and continued thereon to the end of fate--begin ye Muses--but Aphrodite came.'
αὐτῶ (not αὑτῶ) according to the Epic use. Monro, Hom. Gram. § 252; Tyrtaeus, x. 3 τὴν αὐτοῦ προλιπόντα πόλιν.[93] ἄνυε note the tense. It is not finished but 'journeyed along'; cf. A. Pal. vii. 316 ἢ μὴ τὴν ἀνύσεις τελέσαις ὁδόν.
καί Herod. i. 124 ποίεε ταῦτα, καὶ ποίεε κατὰ τάχος.[95] γε μάν strongly adversative. 'But ere he reached the end Aphrodite also came, smiling with kindly heart, hiding her smile, but feigning dire wrath.' Much unnecessary trouble has been caused here by a misunderstanding of the situation. Venus has tormented Daphnis rather in jest than earnest of revenge; she makes pretence of anger and is in heart kind to him and would save him from destruction if only he will confess his love (cf. 139). ἁδεῖα is therefore not 'glad at Daphnis' plight,' but 'kind' as in Soph. O. T. 82. For λάθρια cf. Soph. Philoct. 1272 πιστός, ἀτηρὸς λάθρα. ἀνέχοισα not 'restraining' as most editors translate, ruining the sense, but 'keeping up'; cf. Eurip. Medea 482. With the whole cf. Nonnus, Dion. xxxiv. 303 εἶχε νόον γελόωντα, χόλον δ᾽ ἀνέφηνε προσώπῳ. In 95 ἁδεῖα is to be construed closely with γελάοισα: cf. Pindar, Pyth. viii. 12 τραχεῖα ὑπαντιάξαισα and Aesch. Eumenid. 223 πράσσουσαν ἡσυχαιτέραν as if it were an adverb. To construe ἁ Κύπρις ἁδεῖα καὶ γελάοισα is unnatural.
[97] κατεύχεο, 'vowed.' λυγιξεῖν a metaphor from wrestling; cf. Lucian, i. 249 τοὺς μὲν ἄλλους θεοὺς κατηγωνίσω ἅπαντας.
[101] νεμεσσατά probably 'revengeful.' In Homer of persons = 'revered.'
[102] 'Sith thou dost mark that all my suns are set, Daphnis shall be a bane to Love even in death.'
Daphnis feels that the struggle is over for him, and that death is the price of his resistance. He takes Venus' words in l. 98 as spoken in earnest; hence his bitter cry against her cruelty, and vow of further battle. δεδύκειν infin. from δεδύκω cf. 63. For the metaphor cf. Livy, xxxix. 26 'elatus deinde ira adiecit, "nondum omnium dierum solem occidisse."'[105] sqq. ὧ λέγεται. 'When the herdsman is said to have won Cypris, get thee to Ida, get thee to Anchises; there are pleasant spots enough; Adonis too is ripe for thy love, for he too is a herdsman and hunts the beasts of the field. Then hie thee and stand before Diomede and say, I have conquered the herdsman, Daphnis; fight thou with me.' The italicized words give the key to the sense. Venus has, thinks Daphnis, boasted of her unbroken victories. He retorts in bitter scorn, 'Thy victories have been gained over poor shepherd folk in soft places--over Anchises, Adonis, Daphnis; but remember that thou art not invincible, but fled from Diomede. Go then and win thy easy triumphs; then in the strength of them challenge a stronger foe on the battlefield and be disgraced, and boast no more.'
There are many difficulties in the detail of the lines; in line 106 τηνεῖ δρύες, ὧδε κύπειρος (the MS. reading) gives a pointless antithesis. In the parallel passage v. 45 τουτεῖ δρύες, ὧδε κύπειρος the two together form a pleasant spot. There is no comparison of the merits of the two. As therefore τηνεῖ appears here in place of τουτεῖ of v. 45 it is probable that ὧδε has wrongly displaced the real word. I have accordingly substituted ἔνθα. This is supported by a passage in Plutarch, Quaest. Nat. 36, quoted in Ahrens' edition. l. 107 is probably merely interpolated from Id. v. loc. cit. So arranged the text will fall into pairs of verses, divided by the refrain. l. 110 is rejected by many editors, but without need. It is partly repeated from v. 107, but such partial repetitions are common in Theocritus. In l. 112 αὖθις = not 'a second time,' but 'after that'; cf. Demosth. Phil. i. 13 μετὰ ταῦτα Πύδναν, πάλιν Ποτείδαιαν, Μεθώνην αὖθις: Soph. O. T. 1403. See further Class. Review, July, 1896.
[115]
θῶες the lengthening of the syllable is justified by the pause and stress of the verse, cf. viii. 65; vi. 22, etc. With this farewell of Daphnis cf. Soph. Phil. 936-939:
“
ὦ λιμένες, ὦ προβλῆτες, ὦ ξυνουσίαι
θηρῶν ὀρείων, ὦ καταρρῶγες πέτραι,
ὑμῖν τάδ᾽, οὐ γὰρ ἄλλον οἶδ᾽ ὅτῳ λέγω,
ἀνακλαίομαι παροῦσι τοῖς εἰωθόσιν,
”
and ib. 1453.
[118] Θύμβριδος. The spelling is uncertain in the MSS. both here and in Servius on Aen. iii. 500 who mentions this as “'fossam circa Syracusas'” (k has δύβριδος, p θύβριδος, Serv. loc. cit. Thibrin or Ybrin). It is doubtful whether Servius' description of the place as 'fossa' is correct. The context does not favour it, but points rather to a well-watered valley. Whatever it was it seems to take its name from Apollo Thymbraeus.
[120] Daphnis in these two lines merely proclaims himself aloud to the Nature to which he has bidden farewell. The couplet is not a sepulchral inscription as is Vergil's adaptation, Ecl. v. 43, for if so to whom would Daphnis commend the duty of writing the epitaph? He has refused communication with his fellow men.
[123] sqq. Daphnis calls finally on Pan, the herdsmen's god, and delivers to him his shepherd's pipe.
Λυκαίω Mount Lycaeus in south-west Arcadia, on the boundaries of Elis. τυ γε. The pronoun is used thus in either of two alternative clauses, without special emphasis; cf. Herod. ii. 173 λάθοι ἂν ἤτοι μανεὶς ἢ ὅ γε ἀπόπληκτος γενόμενος. Conversely in first clause, Odyss. iv. 821; in both, Odyss. viii. 488. ἔνθ᾽ = ἔνθε = ἐλθέ.[125] ῾Ελίκας, 'and leave the tomb of Helice and the high cairn of Arcas.' Arcas was son of Callisto, translated to the heavens, and made into the constellation ῾Ελίκη (The Bear). Callisto was daughter of Lycaon. Λυκαονίδας therefore = 'grandson of Lycaon,' not 'son of.' These tombs are described by Pausanias viii. 35 τάφος Καλλιστοῦς χῶμα γῆς ὑψηλόν, δένδρα ἔχον πολλά: cf. viii. 9. 2 πρὸς δὲ τῆς ῞Ηρης βωμῷ καὶ ᾿Αρκάδος τάφος τοῦ Καλλιστοῦς ἐστί. Meineke maintains that the name Helice is only used when the constellation is meant. If it were necessary to find two instances of every usage in Greek a parallel might be quoted from Callim. i. 41 υἱωνοὶ Λυκαονίης ἄρκτοιο.
[129] ἐκ κηρῶ join with μελίπνουν honey sweet with its fragrant wax.
ἑλικτάν has gerundival force; 'that can be moved across the lip,' not 'curved to fit round the lip.' See Jebb, Appendix to Oed. Tyr. p. 298; cf. γνωτός, ῥηκτός, etc., Monro, Hom. Gram. § 246. 2.[130] ῞Αιδαν one of the few instances of a neglect of the 'rule' of the bucolic caesura in the pastoral idylls. The effect is to give the line a sudden heavy cadence, suited to the sense.
[132] Daphnis is dead; let all nature change and go awry to show his loss. Conington (on Ecl. iii. 89) is hardly right in regarding the lines as a curse invoked by Daphnis.
[134] ἔναλλα, 'and let all change'; cf. Ovid. Trist. i. 8. 5 'Omnia naturae praepostera legibus ibunt.' Vergil seems to have mistranslated the line: Ecl. viii. 58 “'omnia vel medium fiant mare,'” taking ἔναλλα as = ἐνάλια. The line is however of doubtful authenticity. It breaks the here regular arrangement of four-line strophes; and among the specified changes the general πάντα ἔναλλα is weak.
[135] ἕλκοι, 'worry.' Herod. i. 140 ἑλκυσθῆναι ὑπὸ κυνῶν: cf. the proverb ὁ νεβρὸς τὸν λέοντα, Lucian, Dial. Mort. viii. 1.
[136] κἠξ ὀρέων, 'and let the owls cry to the nightingales upon the hills,' i.e. cry in rivalry.
[140] ἔβα ῥόον, 'went down to the stream of death.' ῥόον is accus. of motion to; cf. xiii. 29; xxv. 141.
[141] A favourite form of 'closing line' in Theocritus, divided into two rhythmic parts, balanced, and antithetical; see Introd., and cf. i. 126; xv. 86; xiii. 7, etc.
[145] ἐς ὕστερον…ᾀσῶ an echo of the ending of the Homeric hymns; e.g. h. Demet. 495 αὐτὰρ ἐγὼ καὶ σεῖο καὶ ἄλλης μνήσομ᾽ ἀοιδῆς.
[147] ἀπ᾽ Αἰγίλω ἰσχάδα, 'figs from Aegilus.' For construction cf. xxiv. 111; ix. 34; Aesch. Eumenid. 183; Arist. Acharn. 146 ἀλλᾶντας ἐξ ᾿Απατουρίων: ib. 192 πρεσβέων ἐς τὰς πόλεις.
Αἰγίλω. Theocritus probably means Aegilia in Attica, where figs of special excellence were grown, and calls the place by the name of its eponymous hero Aegilus (Hiller).
[150]
῾Ωρᾶν. The Hours are the givers of all beauty and fragrance, cf. xv. 104; cf. a fragment of the Cypria quoted by Athenaeus (xv. 682 d)
“
εἵματα μὲν χροῒ ἕστο τὰ οἱ Χάριτές τε καὶ ̂̔Ωραι
ποίησαν καὶ ἔβαψαν ἐν ἄνθεσιν εἰαρινοῖσιν,
οἷα φέρουσ᾽ ὧραι, κ.τ.λ.:
”
Pindar, Nem. viii. 1.
[151] Κισσαίθα name of a goat.
αἱ χίμαιραι. The article with the nom. plural is not uncommon in place of vocative; cf. v. 100; Arist. Clouds 601. With singular, iv. 45, note. So in Shakespeare: “ 'The jewels of our father, with washed eyesCordelia leaves you.'--King Lear, i. 1. 263.
”