ABSTRACT
Theocritus was a native of Syracuse in Sicily. He was probably of humble origin. The importance of Theocritus in the history of Greek literature rests on his claim as the inventor of the genre known as the bucolic idyll. His poems present idealized pictures of rustic life. While homosexual love is mentioned in many of the thirty idylls attributed to Theocritus, it is the main subject of Idylls 12, 29, and 30. Theocritus offers dramatic dialogues spoken by shepherds or other rustic characters. They are more correctly described as lyric meditations than as idylls. As such they rank among Theocritus's most elegant and alluring works. Idyll 6 is more representative of Theocritus's bucolic poetry. It tells the story of a singing contest between two herdsmen: Daphnis and Damoetas, who is the younger of the two. Their song concerns another pair of lovers, the Cyclops Polyphemus and his beloved, a sea nymph named Galatea.
