Before Pastoral: Theocritus and the Ancient Tradition of Bucolic Poetry. David M. Halperin

1986 ◽  
Vol 81 (1) ◽  
pp. 85-90
Author(s):  
George B. Walsh
Keyword(s):  
Bucolic Poetry

scholarly journals Pásztori múzsa a nagyvárosban

2018 ◽  
pp. 9-20
Author(s):  
Gergő Gellérfi
Keyword(s):  
Natural Environment ◽  
Urban Poor ◽  
The Other ◽  
Locus Amoenus ◽  
Bucolic Poetry

The title of my paper refers to a remark of Charles Witke, who specifies Juvenal’s Satire 3 in his monograph of Latin Satire as the eclogue of the urban poor. The interlocutor (who is also the main speaker in this case) of the satire says farewell to a friend before leaving his home for good, just like Meliboeus in Vergil’s First Eclogue. Both dialogues take place in natural environment, so to say, in a locus amoenus, however the setting of the satire is somewhat different from the traditional bucolic scenes. In my paper, I present the aforementioned bucolic features of the beginning and closure of Satire 3, after a brief summary of the other Juvenalian Satires showing the influence of bucolic poetry.

Miniaturization of Earlier Poetry in Greek Epigrams

2019 ◽  
pp. 85-101
Author(s):  
Annette Harder
Keyword(s):  
Small Scale ◽  
Erotic Poetry ◽  
Didactic Poetry ◽  
Diachronic Study ◽  
Bucolic Poetry

Chapter 6 offers a diachronic study of Hellenistic epigram with a focus on the issues of thematic and generic variety and on the reception and ‘miniaturization’ of earlier poetic genres—particularly of small-scale poetry such as elegy, bucolic poetry and various kinds of erotic poetry, but also of didactic poetry—in Hellenistic epigram. The chapter finds that, although these developments are more obvious in later epigrammatists, their seeds can be found in Callimachus and other poets of his generation. The earlier generations still carried out their thematic and generic experiments largely within the framework of funeral, dedicatory, or ecphrastic and the new subgenre of erotic epigram, while later epigrammatists grew bolder and explored the possibilities of ‘miniaturization’ much further.

scholarly journals Is Donatvs's Commentary on Virgil Lost?

1916 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 158-164 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. K. Rand
Keyword(s):  
Fourth Century ◽  
Introductory Note ◽  
Bucolic Poetry ◽  
The Right ◽  
Present Text

Aelivs donatvs, the note d grammarian of the fourth century of our era, wrote commentaries on Terence and Virgil. The commentary on Terence has been preserved, though in a curiously heterogeneous form which thus far has defied analysis. The most plausible supposition is that our present text is a conflation of two commentaries, one by Donatus himself, and one by Euanthius, whose work was obviously utilized for part of the introductory note on comedy. But even if this is the right statement of the question, the question remains to be solved. The problem of the commentary on Virgil is, unfortunately, more simple, or at least is universally adjudged more simple. We have extant Donatus's life of Virgil, his dedicatory letter to Lucius Munatius, and his introductory remarks on Bucolic poetry. The commentary itself, save for scattered references in later grammarians, glossaries, and commentaries, has been lost.

Colluthus' Pastoral Traditions: Narrative Strategies and Bucolic Criticism in the Abduction of Helen

Ramus ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 37 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 173-190 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lucia Prauscello
Keyword(s):  
Literary Genre ◽  
Direct Impact ◽  
Reading Practices ◽  
Narrative Strategies ◽  
Joint Effort ◽  
Narrative Strategy ◽  
Critical Response ◽  
Bucolic Poetry ◽  
Time Away

It is nowadays a commonplace to state that every literary genre is a highly selective segment of a broader world of potential representations, and presents itself to the reader as a complete, self-contained model of interpretable mimesis of that particular aspect of reality. Yet this is especially true of bucolic poetry, whose very act of foundation rests on a joint effort, on the part both of the poets and their readers, to ‘conjure up a pre-existing “bucolic” tradition’ in the very same act of ‘founding such a tradition’. Theocritus' pastoral universe has its own bucolic hallmarks: landscape, gods and ‘professional’ accessories such as those required of a rustic life (milk-pails, shepherd's staffs, goatskin-coats and the like) are appropriately paraded and customised, and these hyper-‘realist’ markers are casually made to exist on the same level as the most unrealistic aspects of bucolic life (Theocritus' shepherds sing their time away while occasionally looking after their flocks). But it is especially in later imitators and interpreters that the possibilities of Theocritus' pastoral microcosm become necessities: generic consistency and recognisability are constantly pointed out and alluded to by obsessive repetition and normalisation of Theocritus ‘open’ pastoral world. The aim of the present paper is to read Colluthus' exploitation and, I would say, mobilisation of such a crystallised pastoral world against the background of ancient exegesis on the ‘bucolic problem’. In particular, it will be shown how bucolic criticism and Homererklärung (together with some important Hesiodic elements) are indissolubly intertwined in Colluthus' interpretation and reception of Theocritus' pastoral world. Comprehensiveness in charting Colluthus' critical response to such reading practices will not be attempted here: instead attention will be focused on those passages where Colluthus' scholarly engagement with bucolic generic conventions and their later accretions has a more direct impact on his narrative strategy.

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