Idyll XXI

Idyll XXI, also called Ἁλιεῖς ('The Fisherman'), is a poem traditionally attributed to the 3rd century BC Greek poet Theocritus.^[1] After some verses addressed to Diophantus, a friend about whom nothing is known, the poet describes the toilsome life of two old fishermen.^[2] One of them has dreamed of catching a golden fish, and has sworn, in his dream, never again to tempt the sea.^[2] The other reminds him that his oath is as empty as his vision, and that he must angle for common fish, if he is not starve among his golden dreams.^[2]  

Summary

The poet begins with a dedication in the manner of Idyll XI, and passes quickly to his story.^[1] Two fishermen lie awake at night in their cabin on the shore, and one of them tells a dream he has just had of the catching of a golden fish.^[1] He asks his friend what the dream may mean, for he fears he may have to break his dream-oath that he would be a fisherman no longer.^[1] To this the friend replies that it was no oath he took, and that the moral of the dream is that his only wealth is the sea.^[1]

Analysis

Many considerations go to show that the traditional ascription of the poem to Theocritus is mistaken.^[1][3][4] Andrew Lang thinks the idyll is "corrupt beyond hope of certain correction".^[2]

References

Sources

• Cholmeley, R. J., ed. (1919). The Idylls of Theocritus (2nd ed.). London: G. Bell & Sons, Ltd. pp. 54–5, 329–34.
• Gow, A. S. F., ed. (1950). Theocritus. Vol. 2. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 369–81.

Attribution: This article incorporates text from these sources, which are in the public domain.

• Edmonds, J. M., ed. (1919). The Greek Bucolic Poets (3rd ed.). William Heinemann. pp. 245–53.
• Lang, Andrew, ed. (1880). Theocritus, Bion, and Moschus. London: Macmillan and Co. pp. 99–102.

Further reading

• Giangrande, Giuseppe (1977). "Textual Problems in Theocritus' Idyll XXI". L'Antiquité Classique. 46 (2): 495–522. doi:10.3406/antiq.1977.1866. JSTOR 41651075.
• Gow, A. S. F., ed. (1950). Theocritus. Vol. 1. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 152–7.
• Higham, T. F.; Bowra, C. M., eds. (1938). The Oxford Book of Greek Verse in Translation. Oxford: Clarendon Press. pp. 567–8.

External links

•  Greek Wikisource has original text related to this article: Αλιείς (Ασφαλίων και Όλπις)
• "Theocritus, Idylls, ἁλιεῖς". Perseus Digital Library.