Theocritus

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.