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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 February 2009
The problems of this passage were concisely stated by M. Platnauer more than thirty years ago and his suggestions for their solution have been adopted and developed in A. S. F. Gow's magnum opus. Its authority—so the present writer suspects—is liable at this point to eclipse the meaning of the text
page 37 note 1 Class. Quart. xxi (1927), 202.Google Scholar
page 37 note 2 addidi; ‘with a sweet smile’ tr. Gow.—It need no longer be argued that
is plur. neut. (and not fern, sing.), esp. since M. Platnauer has quoted valid parallels (Class. Quart. xxiv [1930], 31;Google Scholar more apud Gow, ad loc., and Schwyzer, , Griech. Gramm. i. 581, n. 2).Google Scholar The reciprocal interchange between
and
is in itself natural (cf. Theocr. 3. 20 
; Schwyzer, , loc. cit. 474, n. 2).Google Scholar Could it be that, besides, Theocritus was prompted by Hesiod, , Theog. 40 (with unordiodox punctuation)
? The proem of the Theogony seems to have been in Theocritus' mind also when writing 7. 43.Google Scholar
page 37 note 3 In this detail he was not followed by Gow.
page 38 note 1 Eur. Cycl. 552 
;
page 38 note 2 As illustrated, for example, by Andoc. 4. 15 
. Murderers have their reasons for keeping their doings ‘in the dark’; so have lovers. A modem translator may perhaps use the adjective ‘treacherous’ in the former passage (though —is not ‘treason’ really a different matter?). and possibly also when rendering
in Aesch. Ag. 1230 (hardly, however, in the cognate Prom. 1077); but not so for
This may seem obvious, but the consequence for the Theocritus passage has not been drawn.
page 38 note 3 It follows that Zeus (Il. 21. 508) does not beam a ‘sweet smile’ on the wounded Artemis; he rather seems ‘amused’ by her misfortune. In Od. 20. 358 the greatest of poets uses the traditional phrase with unique effect: the suitors
over Theo-clymenus' prophecy; madness makes them greet their doom with merriment.-—t further follows that Lycidas, in Theocritus' Thalysia (42 and 128), neither ‘smiles sweetly’ nor ‘laughs pleasantly’. He is ‘satisfied’ and ‘delighted’, first, with Simichidas' modesty and, later on, with his ‘bucolic’ performance.
page 39 note 1 Cf. Eur. 10 944
contrasted with 
.
page 39 note 2 Phil. 1272 (Neoptolemus 
in appearance but 
; cf. O.R. 386).Google Scholar
page 39 note 3 Hipp. 414 
page 39 note 4 This applies also to simple 
and 
The range of meaning of the English ‘being vexed’ is comparable, while Arist. Eth. Eud. γ 3, 1231b15 is enlightening with regard to the Greek concept: 
page 39 note 5 Also, for example, in De def. or. 14 (417d) and, similar to this, Pyrrh. 26 (401a). The only classical instance known to me, Eur. Med. 176, seems to belong here.
page 39 note 6 Tranq. an. in fine (477e); Mar. 50 (429a); Alex. 70 (704a); cf. also Clem. Alex. Strom. 5. 30. 5 (p. 663 P. = ii. 345. 28 St.) 
page 39 note 7 Textgeschichte der griech. Bukoliker, 24 n. 2.Google Scholar
page 40 note 1 See, for example, 2. 126 
and 137 
. Delphis could not possibly have promised Simaetha that he would ‘sleep’ but, if anything, that he would ‘keep his peace’. This nuance of 
is, to the best of my knowledge, unattested (but cf. 
); and yet it requires much boldness to replace the uniform wording of papyri and manuscripts by, say, 
. In 5. 137, Jacobs's brilliant conjecture 
is contradicted by 23. 48; hence one will have to acknowledge that the meaning of the transmitted verb is here strained so as to yield what the context requires; namely, impulsion by passion (and not by fear). Generally, the judicious characterization of Theocritus' language by Gow (vol. i, p. lxvi) may be compared.
