This chapter argues that in Theocritus Idyll 7 Lycidas falls into none of the categories listed by Dover in his 1971 commentary (ostensibly a comprehensive list) but into a category he had overlooked, that of a fictional character from another poet’s work. This other poet, I suggest, was Philitas of Cos, whose very influential early Hellenistic poetry is known only from a few fragments and from later allusions and references. Among the many things explained by this hypothesis (and it remains only a hypothesis) are the Coan setting of Idyll 7’s narrative and the erotodidactic role of Philetas in Longus. The ‘Cydonia’ given as Lycidas’ origin becomes a Cydonia some kilometres north of Mytilene on Lesbos, arguably the hill-flanked coastal plain where Longus asks readers to imagine the estates on which Daphnis and Chloe pastured goats and sheep.

The Introduction describes the kinds of masculinism and forums for manhood in Milton's works that the book will study. Outlining the chapters and framing the theory and cultural history underlying the book, the Introduction places its study of Milton's masculinity in current scholarly conversations on gender, queer theory, critical race theory, and Milton's major works. Using "Lycidas" and Milton's sonnets as frames, the Introduction shows how Milton makes his own manliness.