Theocritus: IDYL VIII - Love, Friendship and Nature

The scene is among the high mountain pastures of Sicily: --

'On the sward, at the cliff top Lie strewn the white flocks;'

and far below shines and murmurs the Sicilian sea. Here Daphnis and Menalcas, two herdsmen of the golden age, meet, while still in their earliest youth, and contend for the prize off pastoral. Their songs, in elegiac measure, are variations on the themes of love and friendship (for Menalcas sings of Milon, Daphnis of Nais), and of nature. Daphnis is the winner; it is his earliest victory, and the prelude to his great renown among nymphs and shepherds.

As beautiful Daphnis was following his kine, and Menalcas shepherding his flock, they met, as men tell, on the long ranges of the hills. The beards of both had still the first golden bloom, both were in their earliest youth, both were pipe-players skilled, both skilled in song. Then first Menalcas, looking at Daphnis, thus bespoke him.

'Daphnis, thou herdsman of the lowing kine,
art thou minded to sing a match with me?
Methinks I shall vanquish thee, when I
sing in turn, as readily as I please.'

Then Daphnis answered him again in this wise,
'Thou shepherd of the fleecy sheep,
Menalcas, the pipe-player, never wilt thou
vanquish me in song, not thou,
if thou shouldst sing till some evil thing befall thee!'

Manalcas.
Dost thou care then, to try this and see,
dost thou care to risk a stake?

Daphnis.
I do care to try this and see,
a stake I am ready to risk.

Menalcas.
But what shall we stake,
what pledge shall we find equal and sufficient?

Daphnis.
I will pledge a calf,
and do thou put down a lamb,
one that has grown to his mother's height.

Menalcas.
Nay, never will I stake a lamb,
for stern is my father, and
stern my mother,
and they number all the sheep at evening.

Daphnis.
But what, then wilt thou lay,
and where is to be the victor's gain?

Menalcas.
The pipe, the fair pipe with nine stops,
that I made myself, fitted with white wax,
and smoothed evenly, above as below.
This would I readily wager, but
never will I stake aught that is my father's.

Daphnis.
See then, I too, in truth, have a pipe with
nine stops, fitted with white wax, and
smoothed evenly, above as below.
But lately I put it together, and this finger
still aches, where the reed split, and cut it deeply.

Menalcas.
But who is to judge between us,
who will listen to our singing?

Daphnis.
That goatherd yonder, he will do,
if we call him hither, the man for whom
that dog, a black hound with a white patch,
is barking among the kids.

Then the boys called aloud, and the goatherd gave ear, and came, and the boys began to sing, and the goatherd was willing to be their umpire. And first Menalcas sang (for he drew the lot) the sweet-voiced Menalcas, and Daphnis took up the answering strain of the pastoral song -- and 'twas thus Menalcas began:

Menalcas.
Ye glades, ye rivers, issue of the Gods,
if ever Menalcas the flute-player sang a song
ye loved, to please him, feed his lambs;
and if ever Daphnis come hither with his calves,
may he have no less a boon.

Daphnis.
Ye wells and pastures, sweet growth o' the world,
if Daphnis sings like the nightingales, do ye fatten
this herd of his, and if Menalcas hither lead a flock,
may he too have pasture ungrudging to his full desire!

Menalcas.
There doth the ewe bear twins, and there the goats;
there the bees fill the hives, and there oaks grow loftier
than common, wheresoever beautiful Milon's feet walk
wandering; ah, if he depart, then withered and lean is
the shepherd, and lean the patures!

Daphnis.
Everywhere is spring, and pastures everywhere,
and everywhere the cows' udders are swollen with milk,
and the younglings are fostered, wheresoever fair Nais
roams; ah, if she depart, then parched are the kine,
and he that feeds them!

Menalcas.
O bearded goat, thou mate of the white herd,
and O ye blunt-faced kids, where are the manifold
deeps of the forest, thither get ye to the water,
for thereby is Milon; go thou hornless goat,
and say to him, 'Milon, Proteus was a herdsman,
and that of seals, though he was a god.'

Daphnis.

Menalcas.
Not mine be in the land of Pelops,
not mine to own talents of gold,
nay, nor mine to outrun the speed of the winds!
Nay, but beneath this rock will I sing,
with thee in mine arms,
and watch our flocks feeding together, and,
before us, the Sicilian sea.

Daphnis.

Menalcas.

Daphnis.
Tempest is the dread pest of the trees,
drought of the waters, snares of the birds,
and the hunter's net of the wild beasts,
but ruinous to man is the love of a delicate maiden.
O father, O Zeus, I have not been the only lover,
thou too has longed for a mortal woman.

Thus the boys sand in verses amoebaean,
and thus Menalcas began the crowning lay:

Menalcas.
Wolf, spare the kids,
spare the mothers of my herd,
and harm not me, so young as I am to tend
so great a flock.
Ah, Lampurus, my dog, does thou then sleep
so soundly? a dog should not sleep so sound,
that helps a boyish shepherd.
Ewes of mine, spare ye not to take your fill of
the tender herb, ye shall not weary, 'ere all this
grass grows again. Hist, feed on, feed on, fill,
all of you, your udders, that there may be milk for
the lambs, and somewhat for me to store away
in the cheese-crates.

Then Daphnis followed again, and sweetly precluded to his singing:

Daphnis.
Me, even me, from the cave, the girl with meeting eyebrows spied yesterday as I was driving past my calves, and she cried, 'How fair, how fair he is!'
But I answered her never the word of railing, but case down my eyes, and plodded on my way.

Sweet is the voice of the heifer, sweet her breath,* sweet to lie beneath the sky in summer, by running water.

Acorns are the pride of the oak, apples of the apple tree, the calf of the heifer, and the neatherd glories in his kine.

So sang the lads, and the goatherd thus bespoke them, 'Sweet is thy mouth O Daphnis, and delectable thy song! Better is it to listen to thy singing, than to taste the honeycomb. Take thou the pipe, for thou has conquered in the singing match. Ah, if thou wilt but teach some lay, even to me, as I tend the goats beside thee, this blunt-horned she-goat will I give thee, for the price of thy teaching, this she-goat that ever fills the milking pail above the brim,'

Then was the boy as glad, -- and leaped high, and clapped his hands over his victory, -- as a young fawn leaps about his mother.

But the heart of the other was wasted with grief, and desolate, even as a maiden sorrows that is newly wed.

From this time Daphnis became the foremost among the shepherds, and while yet in his earliest youth, he wedded the nymph Nais.

*a superfluous and apocryphal line is here omitted.

{Above taken from Theocritus, Bion and Moschus: A. Lang, 1889}

Note from maggie: I am not sure why in this Idyl there are the names Daphnis and Menalcas with no words after their names. I have two thoughts on this - a) this was where they played their pipes and b) the Greek source was too difficult to read because of damage and could not be translated.

There are two things about Idyl VIII that struck me as I read it and entered into it's mood:
First, I thought about the dichotomy of 'picture' and 'reality'. The picture in this Idyl is beautiful - simply beautiful. The reality is, however, that in love, friendship and in nature, there is also disappointment. What I ask myself is this: Does this Idyl not show well the beautiful picture meeting the disappointment (Menalcas') - a bitter-sweet taste of life, that strikes its arrow to the heart and yet gives to the reader an essence of passion? And is this also not the place where the heart may choose or not choose to become just bitter and thereby harden one's sensitivity to the delicate pain that lets us know we are experiencing fully our being?

Secondly, somewhere in my reading about Theocritus, it was mentioned that he had been influenced by Hebrew poetry. There are many references contained in the old testament of the bible to 'honey', and 'honeycombs'. These lines spoken by the goatherd to Daphnis ('Sweet is thy mouth, O Daphnis, and delectable thy song! Better is it to listen to thy singing, than to taste the honeycomb.'), triggered some memory in me and made me go looking to find some 'remembered' verses.
In Psalm 119:103 - 'How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!'

In Song of Songs: 4:11a - 'Thy lips, O my spouse, drop as the honeyomb: honey and milk are under thy tongue;'

In Proverbs 24:13,14 - 'My child, eat honey, for it is good, and the dripping of the honeycomb are sweet to your taste. Know that wisdom is such to your soul; if you find it, you will find a future, and your hope will not be cut off.'

By his response, it is clear that the goatherd's soul was touched by the words of Daphnis. The goatherd, in his words to Daphnis, brings the wisdom of the Proverbs verses to life in Daphnis' ears and Daphnis 'leaped high, and clapped his hands over his victory, -- as a young fawn leaps about his mother'. And I walk away having sensed the "liquidly simple" that Prof. Kuin spoke about with regard to Sapphos' poetry, but this in Theocritus.