Page:The history of silk, cotton, linen, wool, and other fibrous substances 2.djvu/298

 for the nymph, whom he had offended. According to Virgil (Buc. v. 56-71.) he was raised to the stars, and sacrifices were offered to him by the shepherds.

Daphnis was the frequent subject of pastoral poetry, being regarded as an ideal representation of the perfection of the shepherd's culture and manner of life. Of this we have a proof in the epigram of Callimachus on the death of Astacides, and which concludes thus: "We (shepherds) will no longer sing of Daphnis, but of Astacides." The poet's design was to extol Astacides, by comparing him with Daphnis. According to Ælian (l. c.) the first bucolic poems related to the blindness of Daphnis and its cause; and the first poet, who composed verses upon this subject, was Stesichorus of Himera in Sicily. In Theocritus the allusions to the beautiful story of Daphnis are very frequent, and his sad fate is described at length by contending shepherds or goatherds in the First and Seventh Idylls. We shall quote only his dying words, where he calls on Pan to leave the great Mænalus and the long ridges of Lycæus, and to come to Sicily in order to receive from his own hand the syrinx, on which he had been accustomed to play.

[Greek: Enth' ônax, kai tande pher' eupaktoio melipnoun Ek kêrô syringa kalan, peri cheilos heliktan; Ê gar egôn hyp' erôtos es hadan helkomai êdê.]

Come, mighty king, come, Pan, and take my pipe, Well join'd with wax and fitted to my lip; For now 'tis useless grown, Love stops my breath, I cannot pipe, but must be mute in death.

Creech's Translation.

Pliny informs us, that in his time the wool of Apulia was in the highest repute; that throughout the South of Italy the best sheep were bred in the vicinity of Tarentum and Canusium; and that the wool of Tarentum was admired for its tinge of black, and that of Canusium for its fine brown or yellow color.