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Idyll IV, also titled Νομεῖς ('The Herdsmen'), is a bucolic poem by the 3rd-century BC Greek poet Theocritus. The poem is a conversation between a goatherd named Battus and his fellow goatherd Corydon, who is acting oxherd in place of a certain Aegon who has been persuaded by one Milon son of Lampriadas to go and compete in a boxing-match at Olympia. Corydon's temporary rise in rank gives occasion for some friendly banter, varied with bitter references to Milon's having supplanted Battus in the favours of Amaryllis.

Summary

Battus and Corydon, two rustics, meeting in a glade, gossip about their neighbour, Aegon, who has gone to try his fortune at the Olympic games. After some banter, the talk turns on the death of Amaryllis, and the grief of Battus is disturbed by the roaming of his cattle. Corydon removes a thorn that has run into his friend's foot, and the conversation comes back to matters of rural scandal. The poem, like many of the Idylls, contains a song. The scene is near Crotona in Southern Italy.

Analysis

The reference to Glaucè of Chios, a contemporary of Theocritus, fixes the imaginary date of the poem.

See also

• Corydon (character)
• Ζacynthus
• Eclogue 3

Notes

1. This is not the great Milon, but a fictitious strong man of the same town called by his name.

References

1. ^ Edmonds, ed. 1919, p. 49.
2. ^ Lang, ed. 1880, p. 19.
3. Cholmeley, ed. 1919, p. 225.

Sources

• Cholmeley, R. J., ed. (1919). The Idylls of Theocritus (2nd ed.). London: G. Bell & Sons, Ltd. pp. 220–8.

Attribution: This article incorporates text from these sources, which are in the public domain.

• Edmonds, J. M., ed. (1919). The Greek Bucolic Poets (3rd ed.). William Heinemann. pp. 49–59.
• Lang, Andrew, ed. (1880). Theocritus, Bion, and Moschus. London: Macmillan and Co. pp. 19–23.

Further reading

• Giangrande, G. (1971). "Theocritus' Twelfth and Fourth Idylls: A Study in Hellenistic Irony". Quaderni Urbinati di Cultura Classica (12): 95–113. doi:10.2307/20537648. JSTOR 20537648.
• Gow, A. S. F., ed. (1950). Theocritus. Vol. 1. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 35–40.
• Gow, A. S. F., ed. (1950). Theocritus. Vol. 2. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 76–91.
• Kampakoglou, A. (2014). "Cowherd or Athlete: Aegon's Ambiguous Status and the Erotics of Genre in Theocritus Idyll 4". Phoenix. 68 (1/2). doi:10.7834/phoenix.68.1-2.0001.

External links

•  Greek Wikisource has original text related to this article: Νομεῖς
• "Theocritus, Idylls, νομεῖς Βάττος καὶ Κορύδων". Perseus Digital Library.

• Ancient Greek poems
• 3rd-century BC poems