(_From Suidas_)
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_
(Ἐλπίδες), _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.
LIFE OF THEOCRITUS
ΘΕΟΚΡΙΤΟΥ ΓΕΝΟΣ
(_Usually prefixed to the Idyls_)
THEOCRITUS the Bucolic poet was a Syracusan by extraction, and the son of
Simichidas, as he says himself, _Simichidas_, _pray whither through the
noon dost thou dray thy feet_? (Idyl VII). Some say that this was an
assumed name, for he seems to have been snub-nosed (σιμός), and that his
father was Praxagoras, and his mother Philinna. He became the pupil of
Philetas and Asclepiades, of whom he speaks (Idyl VII), and flourished
about the time of Ptolemy Lagus. He gained much fame for his skill in
bucolic poetry. According to some his original name was Moschus, and
Theocritus was a name he later assumed.