THE BUCOLIC POETS
INTRODUCTORY POEMS
The Muses of the country, scattered abroad ere this, are now of one fold and of one flock.
The Chian is another man; the Theocritus who wrote this book is one of the many that are of Syracuse, the son of Praxagoras and the famed Philina, and his Muse is the Muse of his native land.
The first of the above poems would appear to have been written for the title-page of the first collected edition of the Bucolic poets, published by the grammarian Artemidorus early in the first century before Christ; the second is thought to have stood upon the title-page of a separate edition of Theocritus, published by Artemidorus’ son Theon. “The Chian” is believed by some to be Homer, but is more probably the orator and epigrammatist Theocritus of Chios.
