The poetry of Theocritus has offered its readership intellectual reward and inspiration as well as rich material for academic study ever since Hellenistic times; and its appeal has not waned over the years. It is therefore a great pleasure to read this new Companion devoted to Theocritus. The volume consists of six sections, which encompass 33 chapters, and begins with a foreword by A. Kampakoglou, which is a useful methodological introduction explaining the book's compilation and approach to the problems in Theocritus’ poetry as faced by both editors and particular authors.
The first part, particularly instructive and useful for students, is an excellent compendium about the author and the corpus of his extant texts. Chapter 1, ‘A Poet's Lives’, by T. Phillips, is an illuminating analysis of the ancient approach to (auto)biographical and meta-biographical elements in Hellenistic poetry. The next chapter by C. Meliadò is devoted to historical issues and those associated with the interrelationships between the preserved manuscripts. It is a carefully thought-out and succinctly written analysis. This is followed by O. Tribulato's discussion of Theocritean linguistic features and use of dialects: an excellent and useful essay demonstrating the manner in which language becomes the material of poetic creation. In Chapter 4 J. Kwapisz offers a stimulating and convincing set of observations on form and composition as well as ancient genealogical and metapoetic classifications, and multi-layered allusions, which constitute the core of Hellenistic poetry.
Part 2, ‘Genres and Models’, begins with Chapter 5, in which G. Massimilla analyses bucolicism in the Idylls, and especially the archetypal features of the shepherd-figure as well as of the poet's loca amoena and other essential motifs of the genre. This Part also includes two chapters on the relationship between the Idylls and ancient drama. In Chapter 6 S. Miles aims to demonstrate the connections with mime on the basis of poems 2, 14 and 15. This dramatic genre, however, is lacking in sources and reliable testimonia, which hampers the analysis. Miles is well aware of the difficulty in comparing the Idylls to mime. The next contribution on drama is Chapter 11 by C. Cusset on comic (and tragic) patterns in bucolic poetry. It seems that both chapters are mutually complementary in covering the issues associated with the relationship between the Idylls and drama. Meanwhile the Companion lacks any discussion of satyr play, which was an important genre in the development of bucolic poetry. In the Hellenistic era in particular satyr drama had a close relationship with bucolic poetry, as is indicated by the testimonia and fragments of the plays of Sositheus – Daphnis or Lityerses and Crotus (Massimilla [p. 134] mentions Sositheus once in the context of Daphnis). An in-depth analysis is beyond the scope of this review, but it should be noted that in these plays appear both characters and locations known from the Idylls. Since we cannot be certain of Sositheus’ dating, we cannot exclude the possibility that it is Theocritus who is alluding to drama rather than the other way round. In the entire volume there is only sporadic reference to Euripidean satyr drama, even though Theocritus makes use not only of the character of Polyphemus, but also refers to the Satyrs and Pan(s) (Idyll 4.62–3).
Chapter 7 by A. Sens discusses the broad literary background of Idylls 13, 22, 24 and 26, and demonstrates how Theocritus makes use of mythical tradition and illustrates the Ptolemaic context of the polemic with classical authors. R. Hunter (Chapter 9) takes us on a theoretical literary journey with Odysseus and Polyphemus to present the importance of Homer as ‘model and anti-model’ (p. 223) in Theocritean bucolic. A perfect balance to this is found in Chapter 10 by Kampakoglou, in which the author shows clearly and comprehensively the nuances of Theocritus’ reception of lyric poetry (here our guide is Polyphemus, now accompanied by Galatea). In Chapter 8 T.S. Coughlan offers a solid analysis of the extant epigrams ascribed to Theocritus, paying particular attention to the introduction into their works of bucolic convention by poets inspired by the Idylls. It is worth noting that nowhere in Part 2 is there a clichéd Kreuzung der Gattungen treatment. Rather, all the essays are innovative analyses of Theocritus’ multifarious and metapoetic games.
Part 3, ‘Poetics and Aesthetics’, opens with ‘Ancient Scholarship on Theocritus’ by L. Pagani, which is essential in presenting the original context – the oldest interpretations of the Idylls by Hellenistic poets and philologists; it also gives a comprehensive history of the first editions and commentaries (a useful list of ancient scholia and their characteristics). In Chapter 13 Sistakou convincingly shows that one of the fundamental aesthetic characteristics in Theocritus’ poetry is sweetness, which is understood on many different levels. It also deals with sensual perception in the poems. The discussion of the core categories in bucolic is continued by K.-H. Stanzel (Chapter 14), who thoroughly analyses the role of the agōn in the genre. Chapter 15 by J. Klooster is a systematic study of Idylls 1 and 7, demonstrating their programmatic importance and the poetic strategy of the Syracusean poet. This part is supplemented by the splendid chapter entitled ‘Theocritus and the Visual Arts’ by É. Prioux, which contains illustrations of supreme quality.
The unique use of myth as narrative material and the suitability of the heroic character to bucolic reality is discussed by A.D. Morrison in Chapter 17, which is an appropriate introduction to the volume's fourth part. The innovative methodology, taken from social science and rarely met in research on antiquity, leads to stimulating conclusions in ‘Theocritean Spaces’ (Chapter 18) by W.G. Thalmann (for this reviewer the reading of spatial schemes in the context of the Greek feeling of displacement after Alexander's conquest [p. 462] was particularly interesting – one of many fascinating issues discussed in this essay). Chapter 19 by V. Palmieri is an elegant analysis of the ways in which the poet constructs his bucolic universe(s). In Chapter 20 A. Ambühl discusses a different element of creation of poetic worlds: images of children and adolescents, including youthful mythical figures and their meaning in specific Idylls and also in the context and meta-context of the corpus. Chapter 21 by D. Konstan offers a well-written analysis of the motif of love in bucolic (not neglecting the pederastic poems 12, 23, 29 and 30).
The first four chapters of Part 5 are essentially devoted to the various contexts of the poems’ origins. In Chapter 22 B. Acosta-Hughes, with the flair of a true detective, traces Theocritus’ references to contemporary poets and discusses new poetic games and resonances (such as my favourite ‘bramble bush connection’, p. 542) as well as allusions to the Ptolemaic kings. This last is discussed at length in Chapter 23 by D.L. Clayman. Here readers should pay particular attention to the brilliant analysis of Idyll 16, with which I could not agree more. Chapter 24 by F.T. Griffiths supplements these last two essays in focusing mainly on the Egyptian context and the multifaceted identity of the ‘court poet’. Chapter 25 by I. Petrovic first discusses ancient and modern theories about the ritual origins of bucolic poetry, and then focuses on the manner in which Theocritus refers to gods and rituals. Part 5 ends with a chapter by Kyriakou – it is an excellent systematic survey of all women appearing in Theocritus.
The final Part is devoted to the reception of the Idylls and is opened by Kyriakou's paper on the poems ascribed to Theocritus but in fact written by his first imitators. A comprehensive introduction to Virgil's aemulatio of Theocritus is found in Chapter 28 by B.W. Breed. Then in Chapter 29 J.D. Reed shows the poet as a model of court poetry in the Augustan era. The genre in an imperial context is discussed by E. Karakasis in Chapter 30. E. Bowie then takes us back to Greece and shows in detail how Theocritus is exploited by Longus. In Chapter 32 T.K. Hubbard shows the poet's presence in early modern Europe. As usual, Europe ends in the ‘deep Germanic wood’, without any mention of Renaissance and Baroque literature in the eastern part of the continent. In fact, there was great interest in Theocritus, who was translated and imitated in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries, as is clearly illustrated in the poetry of, for example, Szymon Szymonowic, Szymon Zimorowic and Jan Kochanowski. In particular, Greek editors ought not to forget the reception of the Idylls in the Cretan Renaissance. The Companion closes with J.C. Pellicer's chapter dedicated to Theocritus’ reception in nineteenth-century Britain.
In a short review it is impossible to mention every issue or controversial element found in particular chapters. Each one presents an excellent introduction to its theme, a useful summary of the current status of scholarship on the topic, and is a point of departure for further discussion and study. However, it is the reviewer's prerogative to complain a little, so here I offer a few observations. It is impossible not to notice that Brill's Companions are becoming longer and less reader-friendly. There is the impression, probably fair, that the chapters are edited in such a way as to be easily purchased online separately (this is shown by the lack of an overall bibliography); thus, abstracts would be useful for the buyer, especially in the case of those chapters in which the title does not reflect the bulk of the contents. Of course, it is unsurprising that some of the Idylls (especially 1) enjoy greater interest and discussion from varying perspectives (sometimes polemically within the volume in accordance with the old opinion of Terence, quot homines tot sententiae), and sadly less attention is paid to others, which are not any less interesting.
An obvious point of reference for this volume is Brill's Companion to Greek and Latin Pastoral (2006), in which there are ten chapters on Theocritus. Although in the new volume some of the themes reappear, and some of the same scholars were invited to collaborate, the editors entrusted them with different themes in order to avoid the reduplication of content and the awkwardness of repetition. This is a fine concept that leads to stimulating inter- (and intra-)polemics within the Brill series. Finally, it has been a long time since I had the possibility of reading so many excellent discussions contained in the same volume, from which it was hard to tear myself away.
