Theocritus Idyll 2

Theocritus Idyll 2

Less typically pastoral than Theocritus’ other Idylls, Idyll 2 takes the form of an incantation, performed by the naive girl Simaetha who has been abandoned by her lover Delphis, and is attempting to conjure his return. The idea of charm and magical power is one both within and surrounding the idyll; having been charmed herself by Delphis’ looks and language, Simaetha attempts her own magic to lure him back to her. Furthermore, Simaetha’s incantations are passionate expressions of herself as a naive, confused and love sick young girl. Kathryn Gutzwiller describes the appeal of the idyll to be lying ‘in the tension between Simaetha’s turbulent emotional state and the quiet nocturnal setting, tense with the practice of black magic; Theocritus thus creates an uncertain balance between the girl’s helplessness and her power.” (Gutzwiller, Kathryn J. A guide to Hellenistic literature (Oxford: Blackwell, 2007) Pg 91).


An interesting feature of Idyll 2 is Theocritus’ placing of Simaetha not only as a female voice but as the only voice in the poem - Delphis’ speech is present but is reported by Simaetha, and Simaetha’s servant Thestylis, although present, is a silent listener. Through Simaetha’s monologue, we experience her desperate attempt to regain her lost lover in her resort to magic, invoking the help of the deities (Hecate and the Moon) and reflecting on her relationship with Delphis.


The Idyll can be divided into two sections. The first can be identified by the repeating line ‘Wryneck, wryneck, draw him hither’ which can be found after each stanza, and the latter by the similarly placed line ‘List, good Moon, where I learnt my loving.’ This we are told in the prologue (I read J. M. Edmonds translation):
‘in the first a Coan girl named Simaetha lays a fire-spell upon her neglectful lover, the young athlete Delphis, and in the second, when her maid goes off to smear the ashes upon his lintel, she tells the Moon how his love was won and lost.’
While casting the spell, Simaetha sings to the moon and invokes the assistance of the goddess Hecat who is associated with witchcraft:
‘So shine me fair, sweet Moon; for to thee, still Goddess, is my song, to thee and that Hecat infernal who makes e’en the whelps to shiver on her goings to and fro’
Simaetha also mentions the goddess of sexual love in the line ‘And as this wheel of brass turns by grace of Aphrodite’, and soon after Artemis, who famously represents female virginity. These references to the female deities not only strengthen themes of sex and virginity (in Simaetha’s case lost) but also symbolise female power, displaying Simaetha’s desperate search for power to regain Delphis’ love.


A recurring image in the idyll is that of fire, which Theocritus uses in relation with the power and passion of love. Simaetha describes her incantations as her ‘fire spell’, and as she watches the barley-meal burn, wills that Delphis’ body shrivels up in flames of love, begging Hecat to ‘melt with love’ her lost lover. Later, Simaetha states that she is ‘all afire’ with love for Delphis. Through the relation of love with fire, we gain insight into the flammable and destructive nature of Simaetha’s love, and perhaps a foreshadowing that her love will eventually ‘go out’.


In the second half of the idyll, we learn the story of Simaetha’s love, and the extent to which it affected her. She speaks of when she first saw Delphis:
‘in a moment I looked and I was lost, lost and smit I’ the heart; the colour went from my cheek; of that brave pageant I bethought me no more. How I got me home I know not; but this I know, a parching fever laid me waste and I was ten days and ten nights abed’
Simaetha’s appearance is dramatically changed by her passion towards Delphis. She became ‘wan and pale [...] the hairs o’ my head began to fall; I was nought but skin and bone.’ Her love is at this point described as a ‘malady’ and a ‘distemper’, showing her naivety of love. By presenting Simaetha’s story in present and past, we can acknowledge how her love for Delphis changed her from a victim to ‘malady’ to a sorceress, passionately attempting to conjure back her loved one. That the love is described with fire and has physical affects on its subjects portrays the great strength of the love that Simaetha is trying to regain, and enables us to comprehend the great effort she is going to in order to succeed.


Ultimately, although Simaetha’s incantations do not return the affections of Delphis, the act of performing them serves to heal her personal anguish, and after a final stanza of threats to Delphis’ life if he does not return her love, she states that she ‘will bear [her] love as best [she] may’. Mark Payne is far from the mark when he says that ‘In Idyll 2 a disappointed teenager tells of her love affair with a local athlete’ (Payne, Mark, Theocritus and the invention of fiction (Cambridge University Press)), it is a complex and passionate expression of a desperate lover, who’s naivety in love has caused much pain and anguish.

POSTED BY NAOMI