Idyll XVIII

Idyll XVIII, also titled Ἑλένης Ἐπιθάλαμιος ('The Epithalamy of Helen'), is a poem by the 3rd-century BC Greek poet Theocritus.[1] The poem includes a re-creation of the epithalamium sung by a choir of maidens at the marriage of Helen and Menelaus of Sparta.[2] The idea is said to have been borrowed from an old poem by Stesichorus.[3]

Analysis
'Then sang they all in harmony, beating time with woven paces, and the house rang round with the bridal song'

This is a short Epic piece of the same type as XIII.[1] Both begin, as do XXV and Bion II, with a phrase suggesting that they are consequent upon something previous; but according to Edmonds this conceit, like the ergo or igitur of Propertius and Ovid, is no more than a recognised way of beginning a short poem.[1] The introduction, unlike that of XIII, contains no dedication.[1]

The scholia tells that Theocritus here imitates certain passages of Stesichorus' first Epithalamy of Helen.[1] The text likely contains allusions to certain passages from lost works by Sappho,[2] and Edmonds thinks Theocritus "seems to have had Saphho's book of Wedding-Songs before him" when writing this poem.[1]

Lang thinks this epithalamium may have been written for the wedding of a friend of the poet's.[3] The epithalamium, chanted at night by a chorus of girls, outside the bridal chamber, was a traditional feature of weddings.[2] Compare the conclusion of the hymn of Adonis in XV.[3]

See also

References
  1. Edmonds, ed. 1919, p. 223.
  2. Hopkinson, ed. 2015, p. 258.
  3. Lang, ed. 1880, p. 92.

Sources
  • Hopkinson, Neil, ed. (2015). Theocritus. Moschus. Bion. LCL 28. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. pp. 258–67.

Attribution: Public Domain This article incorporates text from these sources, which are in the public domain.

Further reading
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