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The Song of Thyrsis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 December 2013

R. M. Ogilvie
R. M. Ogilvie
Affiliation:
Errachd
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Extract

How and why did Daphnis meet his end? The story of Daphnis was in origin Sicilian and its most popular and consistent form goes back at least to the Sicilian writers, Timaeus and Stesichorus (Aelian, Vera Hist. 10.18). It occurs also in Diodorus Siculus (4.84) and the scholia on Vergil (Servius, ad Ecl. 5.20, 8.68; Philarg. ad Ecl. 5.20). According to this version Daphnis, who was the son of a Nymph and had been exposed under a laurel bush from which he took his name, was a herdsman. He was loved by a Nymph and plighted his troth to her, promising γυναικὶ μὴ πλησιάζειν. He was, however, seduced by a beautiful princess and, as a punishment, was blinded and, in some accounts, fell to his death from a cliff.

Opinion has long been divided whether in his treatment of Daphnis Theocritus follows the popular version or elaborated an original story of his own (or, it may be, followed a version otherwise unknown to us). We know of other such original versions, by Hermesianax and Sositheus so that a striking departure from the old tradition would not be unprecedented. His casual allusions to Daphnis are all ambiguous or uninformative (5.20, 81; Epigr. 2, 3, 5) while Idyll 8 must be discounted since it is certainly not from his pen. We are left, therefore, with Idyll 7.73–5 and Idyll 1.64–142. Thyrsis' song is, however, far from being a straightforward narrative. It is throughout allusive, seeming to assume from the listener familiarity with the story. The salient points of it may be summarised: Daphnis is languishing with love (66, 78). The gods visit him. Hermes comes first from a hill, which is a feature of the landscape (77, πράτιστος ἀπ' ὤρεος), and asks with whom Daphnis is in love. He receives no reply. Then Priapus, who also is unanswered, teases Daphnis with his love and reveals that the maiden wanders the countryside looking for him. Finally Aphrodite comes and Daphnis at last breaks out into a tirade against the miseries brought on mankind by Love. He ends by taking leave of his surroundings and, despite an attempt by Aphrodite to revive him, dies.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Hellenic Studies , Volume 82 , November 1962 , pp. 106 - 110
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies 1962

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References

1 I am deeply indebted to Professor P. H. Lloyd-Jones and Mr J. P. Barron who read an early draft of this note and made most valuable suggestions.

2 FGrH 566 A 83. Jacoby holds that Theocritus' version is different throughout.

3 Her name is variously given: Echenais (Timaeus), Thalia (Sositheus), Nomia (Servius, ad Ecl. 8.68) or Lyca (Philargyrius). There is equal diversity over the name of the princess.

4 Σ Theocr. 8.53 d.

5 Servius, ad Ecl. 8.68.

6 85 ζάτεισ'. There should be no need to defend the reading.

7 Summaries of the older discussions in Stoll, Roscher, s.v. ‘Daphnis’ (1); Knaack, RE s.v. ‘Daphnis’ (1).

8 Jahrb. f. Philol. iii (1829), 284 fr. = Kl. Schriften 1. 188–204; a somewhat similar view is held by Jacobi, Handwörterbuch d. Gr. u. Röm. Mythol.

9 Gött. Gel. Anzeigen (1845), 1072 ff.

10 De Poetarum Graecorum Bucolicorum inprimis Theocriti carminibus in Eclogis a Vergilio adumbratis (Diss. Leipzig, 1856), 74–83.

11 Epigram u. Skolion, 144 ff.

12 Philologus lviii (1899), 111–20.

13 Étude sur Théocrite, ff.

14 CQ x (1960), 37–40.

15 Sappho and Alcaeus, 15.

16 It is not found, for instance, in Homer, Hesiod, Pindar, Bacchylides, Aeschylus, Sophocles, Aristophanes, Herodotus, Isaeus, Isocrates, Demosthenes, Plato, Aristotle or Menander.

17 It does not seem possible to determine the exact force of the word in Lyr. Adesp. 7. 16 (Coll. Alex., ed. Powell, 185) where bees are described as πηλουργοὶ δυσέρωτες. The treatment of the word by LSJ is hardly adequate.

18 Class. Phil. iv (1909), 321; cf. Harvard Studies x (1899), 121–40; CR xvii (1903), 107–11.

19 Rede u. Vorträge (1913)) 298 ff.

20 It could, of course, be replaced by conjecture; e.g. (C. P. Jones).

The only other conjecture worth noting is Madvig's (Adv. Crit. 1. 293).

21 So Hermann; Schwartz, , Nachr. Gött. Gesell., 1904, 285 ff.Google ScholarPrescott, , in his last discussion of the problem (CQ vii (1913), 176 ff.)CrossRefGoogle Scholar, met the objection to the acc. ῥόον by modifying Hermann's translation to the extent of taking ῥόον as an acc. of motion ‘he disappeared into the waters of the water-sprite’, his nymph-mistress, and a spring resulted.

22 For this device in Theocritus see Gow, , CR lvi (1942), 111Google Scholar; in Aeschylus, Fraenkel, on Agamemnon 1196.Google Scholar

23 So Milton, of course, took the passage, as the opening lines of Lycidas show.

24 Servius, ad Ecl. 8.68 luminibus orbatus est deinde in lapidem versus: a good example of a Servian scholion derived from a commentary on Theocritus with all the attendant hazards of mistranslation; see Fraenkel, , JRS xxxix (1949), 154.Google Scholar

25 For the change of locality from Syracuse to Himera see Wilamowitz, , Sapph. u. Simon. 240.Google Scholar