THEOCRITUS, BION AND MOSCHUS RENDERED INTO ENGLISH PROSE WITH AN INTRODUCTORY ESSAY

Theocritus, the Chian.  But there is another Theocritus, the son of Praxagoras and Philinna (see Epigram XXIII), or as some say of Simichus.  (This is plainly derived from the assumed name Simichidas in Idyl VII.)  He was a Syracusan, or, as others say, a Coan settled in Syracuse.  He wrote the so-called Bucolics in the Dorian dialect. Some attribute to him the following works:- The Proetidae, The Pleasures of Hope ([Greek]), Hymns, The Heroines, Dirges, Ditties, Elegies, Iambics, Epigrams.  But it known that there are three Bucolic poets:  this Theocritus, Moschus of Sicily, and Bion of Smyrna, from a village called Phlossa.