Page:Masterpieces of Greek Literature (1902).djvu/465

435 IDYL VII. HARVEST HOME 435

Goatherd. Thyrsis, let honey and the honeycomb Fill thy sweet mouth, and figs of Aegilus: For ne'er cicala ^ trilled so sweet a song. Here is the cup : mark, friend, how sweet it smells : The Hours,^ thou 'It say, have washed it in their well. 155

Hither, Cissaetha I ^ There, go milk her ! Kids, Be steady, or your pranks will rouse the ram.

Translated by Charles Stuart Calverley.

IDYL Vn. HARVEST HOME.

Once on a time did Eucritus and I *

(With us Amyntas) to the riverside

Steal from the city. For Lycopeus' sons

Were that day busy with the harvest-home, —

Antigenes and Phrasidemus, sprung 5

(If aught thou boldest by the good old names)

By Clytia from great Chalcon — him who erst

Planted one stalwart knee against the rock.

And lo, beneath his foot Burine's rill

Brake forth, and at its side poplar and elm 10

Showed aisles of pleasant shadow, greenly roofed

By tufted leaves. Scarce midway were we now,

Nor yet descried the tomb of Brasilas :

When, thanks be to the Pluses, there drew near

A wayfarer from Crete, young Lycidas.^ is

The horn'd herd was his care ; a glance might tell

So much : for every inch a herdsman he.

1 The shrill chirping• noise made by the -nings of the male cicala (or cicada) was much admired by the Greeks.

- The goddesses, daughters of Zeus and Themis, who ushered in the four seasons. ^ His goat.

■* With the Introduction compare Tennyson's Gardener' s Daughter.

^ Milton took the name for his Lycidas from this.