He invented a genre: the pastoral poem, where shepherds lounge in shade and sing about love and loss. Before Theocritus, no one had thought to make high art out of herdsmen's conversations.
Also inDeutsch
Photos 8
.jpg?width=1200)
Teocrito (Ritratto)
"Pharmacienne" s'adressant à la lune pour obtenir son aide_(14783914352).jpg?width=1200)
"Quomodo de Vergili arte poetica eum iudicare liceat, qui Ecologas cum Theocriti Idylliis comparat." (1905) (14783914352)
Aldus Manutius Theocritus 1495 editio princeps - Theognis
Depiction of Theocritus at the NKUA on May 22, 2022
Edition de 1515 des oeuvres completes de Theocrite_-_n._1253_recto_-_Pasquale_suona_il_piffero_sopra_una_roccia_-_Cm_16%2C5x22%2C3.jpg?width=1200)
Gloeden, Wilhelm von (1856-1931) - n. 1253 recto - Pasquale suona il piffero sopra una roccia - Cm 16,5x22,3_(page_182_crop_bis).jpg?width=1200)
Idilli di Teocrito (Romagnoli) (page 182 crop bis)Writers born in the 400s BC 6
About this person
Born around 300 BC in Sicily, Theocritus was a Greek poet working at the edges of the Greek-speaking world. He took the countryside - shepherds, goatherds, the rural dialect - and turned it into a new form: pastoral poetry, verse that made the simple life artful and strange. The innovation stuck. He was still writing after 260 BC, long enough to watch his invention take root. Every Arcadia that came after traces back to him.
Category
Writers
Type
Writer / Author
Status
deceased
Dates
Lived 400 BC to 260 BC · aged 140
Written about in
31 languages
Fame.am measures public visibility signals. It does not measure human value, talent, morality, or credibility.