Theocritus, Bion and Moschus rendered into English Prose | Page 7

delight.
We see Theocritus
[Greek]
when he 'had not yet reached the mid-point of the way, nor had the
tomb yet risen on his sight.' He reveals himself as he was at the height
of morning, at the best moment of the journey, in midsummer of a
genius still unchecked by doubt, or disappointment, or neglect. Life

seems to accost him with the glance of the goatherd Lycidas, 'and still
he smiled as he spoke, with laughing eyes, and laughter dwelling on his
lips.' In Cos, Theocritus found friendship, and met Myrto, 'the girl he
loved as dearly as goats love the spring.' Here he could express, without
any afterthought, an enthusiastic adoration for the disinterested joys,
the enchanted moments of human existence. Before he entered the
thronged streets of Alexandria, and tuned his shepherd's pipe to catch
the ear of princes, and to sing the epithalamium of a royal and
incestuous love, he rested with his friends in the happy island. Deep in
a cave, among the ruins of ancient aqueducts, there still bubbles up,
from the Coan limestone, the well-spring of the Nymphs. 'There they
reclined on beds of fragrant rushes, lowly strown, and rejoicing they lay
in new stript leaves of the vine. And high above their heads waved
many a poplar, many an elm-tree, while close at hand the sacred water
from the nymph's own cave welled forth with murmurs musical' (Idyl
VII).
The old Dorian settlers in Syracuse pleased themselves with the fable
that their fountain, Arethusa, had been a Grecian nymph, who, like
themselves, had crossed the sea to Sicily. The poetry of Theocritus,
read or sung in sultry Alexandria, must have seemed like a new welling
up of the waters of Arethusa in the sandy soil of Egypt. We cannot
certainly say when the poet first came from Syracuse, or from Cos, to
Alexandria. It is evident however from the allusions in the fifteenth and
seventeenth idyls that he was living there after Ptolemy Philadelphus
married his own sister, Arsinoe. It is not impossible to form some idea
of the condition of Alexandrian society, art, religion, literature and
learning at the court of Ptolemy Philadelphus. The vast city, founded
some sixty years before, was now completed. The walls, many miles in
circuit, protected a population of about eight hundred thousand souls.
Into that changing crowd were gathered adventurers from all the known
world.
Merchantmen brought to Ptolemy the wares of India and the
porcelains of China. Marauders from upper Egypt skulked about the
native quarters, and sallied forth at night to rob the wayfarer. The king's
guards were recruited with soldiers from turbulent Greece, from Asia,
from Italy. Settlers were attracted from Syracuse by the prospect of
high wages and profitable labour. The Jewish quarters were full of

Israelites who did not disdain Greek learning. The city in which this
multitude found a home was beautifully constructed. The
Mediterranean filled the northern haven, the southern walls were
washed by the Mareotic lake. If the isle of Pharos shone dazzling white,
and wearied the eyes, there was shade beneath the long marble
colonnades, and in the groves and cool halls of the Museum and the
Libraries. The Etesian winds blew fresh in summer from the north,
across the sea, and refreshed the people in their gardens. No town
seemed greater nor wealthier to the voyager, who (like the hero of the
Greek novel Clitophon and Leucippe) entered by the gate of the Sun,
and found that, after nightfall, the torches borne by men and women
hastening to some religious feast, filled the dusk with a light like that of
'the sun cut up into fragments.' At the same time no town was more in
need of the memories of the country, which came to her in
well-watered gardens, in landscape-paintings, and in the verse of
Theocritus.
It is impossible to give a clearer idea of the opulence and luxury of
Alexandria and her kings, than will be conveyed by the description of
the coronation-feast of Ptolemy Philadelphus. This great masquerade
and banquet was prepared by the elder Ptolemy on the occasion of his
admitting his son to share his throne. The entertainment was described
(in a work now lost) by Callixenus of Rhodes, and the record has been
preserved by Atheneaus (v. 25). The inner pavilion in which the guests
of Ptolemy reclined, contained one hundred and thirty-five couches.
Over the roof was placed a scarlet awning, with a fringe of white, and
there were many other awnings, richly embroidered with mythological
designs. The pillars which sustained the roof were shaped in the
likeness of palm-trees, and of thyrsi, the weapons of the wine-god
Dionysus. Round three outer sides ran arcades, draped with purple
tissues, and with the skins of strange beasts. The fourth side, open to