Aoidoi: Theocritus 13

Greek Learning Greek
1

Another middle-sized poem, Theocritus 13: Hylas. I’ve been interested in the scholia recently, even before I got my copy of Dickey’s new book, so in addition to the poem I have a transcription from Wendel’s edition (via Google) of the scholia for this poem: scholia in Theocritum vetera: 13.

I had hoped to have this poem ready in October, which marked Aoidoi.org’s fifth birthday, but this was one of the trickier poems I’ve worked on. As usual, Chad’s eagle-eye caught a number of issues for the final edit.

2

Yes, a quite delightful poem. For those who have the relevant armoury and inclination, this can be usefully studied alongside Propertius 1.20.

3

When my Latin’s further along I’ll give that a look.

4

I tried to read the first lines, got stuck on ἔγεντο in line 2. I would want that to be a 3d person singular, not plural.

5

Oy. How embarrassing. I’ve put up the correction.

Thanks for letting me know. It’s nice to know someone’s reading it — it landed on Aoidoi with a thud. It’s turning out to be less popular than even Pindar. The poem about Hylas may suffer his fate.

6

hey will, thanks again for this commentary, i really liked it, cheers :slight_smile:

7

I’m curious: what’s the most popular poem on your site?

8

Anything by Sappho. Then the introduction to meter. Nick’s two bigger works are consistently popular (the Hymn to Demeter and the Shield from the Iliad). Near any war-memorial holiday people try to find the “here we lie” couplet by Simonides. Archilochus is often sought, though Aoidoi.org is a disappointment for that author. After that it’s completely random.