Theocritus Poems

Thyrsis:
That pine tree, goatherd, sings a rustling sweet
Beside the streams, and sweetly do you play
...

COMETAS. LACON. MORSON.
COMETAS.
Goats, from a shepherd who stands here, from Lacon, keep away:
Sibyrtas owns him; and he stole my goatskin yesterday.
...

DAPHNIS. A MAIDEN.
THE MAIDEN.
How fell sage Helen? through a swain like thee.
...

THYRSIS. A GOATHERD.
THYRSIS.
Sweet are the whispers of yon pine that makes
Low music o'er the spring, and, Goatherd, sweet
...

BATTUS. CORYDON.
BATTUS.
Who owns these cattle, Corydon? Philondas? Prythee say.
...

DAPHNIS. MENALCAS. A GOATHERD.
Daphnis, the gentle herdsman, met once, as legend tells,
Menalcas making with his flock the circle of the fells.
Both chins were gilt with coming beards: both lads could sing and play:
...

Where are the bay-leaves, Thestylis, and the charms?
Fetch all; with fiery wool the caldron crown;
Let glamour win me back my false lord's heart!
Twelve days the wretch hath not come nigh to me,
...

Agave of the vermeil-tinted cheek
And Ino and Autonoae marshalled erst
Three bands of revellers under one hill-peak.
They plucked the wild-oak's matted foliage first,
...

Cythera saw Adonis
And knew that he was dead;
She marked the brow, all grisly now,
The cheek no longer red;
And 'Bring the boar before me'
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Distaff, blithely whirling distaff, azure-eyed Athena's gift
To the sex the aim and object of whose lives is household thrift,
Seek with me the gorgeous city raised by Neilus, where a plain
Roof of pale-green rush o'er-arches Aphrodite's hallowed fane.
...