Theocritus
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Theocritus was a Greek poet from Sicily, Magna Graecia, and the creator of Ancient Greek pastoral poetry.
Portrait bust of Theocritus in profile to left, after an antique marble
Theocritus's Idyll 13, Hylas and the Nymphs. P. Oxy. 694, 2nd century AD
Barent de Bakker: Illustration of Theocritus Idyll 1 Θύρσις ἢ ᾠδή, lines 12–14 (1779)
Pastoral
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The pastoral genre of literature, art, or music depicts an idealised form of the shepherd's lifestyle – herding livestock around open areas of land according to the seasons and the changing availabili
Theocritus
…Theokritos; Sicilian: Tiòcritu, Teocritu; 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. However, some of the poems (Idylls; Εἰδύλλια) commonly attributed to him…
Francois Boucher, Daphnis and Chloe, 1743, based on the Hellenistic pastoral novel
The Young Shepherd, engraving using stipple technique, by Giulio Campagnola, c. 1510
Georgics Book III, Shepherd with Flocks, Virgil (Vatican Library)
Romantic artist, illustrator and poet William Blake's hand painted print illustrating his pastoral poem "The Shepherd" depicts the pastoral scene of a shepherd watching his flock with a shepherd's crook. This image represents copy B, printed and painted in 1789, now in Library of Congress.