Authors

Greek

Theocritos

Theocritus was a Greek poet from Syracuse who invented pastoral poetry — the idealised literary representation of shepherds and herdsmen — in his Idylls. His influence on subsequent European literature is enormous: Virgil's Eclogues directly imitate him; Spenser, Milton, and the entire pastoral tradition in English derive from him. He worked in Alexandria under the patronage of Ptolemy II Philadelphus. Several of his Idylls are not pastoral but urban mimes — sharp comedy of manners set in Alexandria.