Moschus, Ancient Greek bucolic poet and student of the Alexandrian grammarian Aristarchus of Samothrace, was born at Syracuse and flourished about 150 BC. He was also known for his grammatical work, nothing of which survives. Note: This article contains special characters. ... Bucolic, although often used as an adjective, is a noun originally describing a type of pastoral poetry that praises rural life over that of the city. ... The poor poet A poet is a person who writes poetry. ... Aristarchus of Samothrace, Gr. ... Syracuse (Italian, Siracusa, ancient Syracusa - see also List of traditional Greek place names) is a city on the eastern coast of Sicily and the capital of the province of Syracuse, Italy. ... Centuries: 3rd century BC - 2nd century BC - 1st century BC Decades: 200s BC 190s BC 180s BC 170s BC 160s BC - 150s BC - 140s BC 130s BC 120s BC 110s BC 100s BC Years: 155 BC 154 BC 153 BC 152 BC 151 BC - 150 BC - 149 BC 148 BC...

His few surviving works consist of a short epic poem, Europa, on the myth of Europa, three bucolic fragments and a whole short bucolic poem Runaway Love, and an epigram in elegiac couplets. His surviving bucolic material (composed in the traditional dactylic hexameters and Doric dialect) is short on pasoral themes and is largely erotic and mythological; although this impression may be distorted by the paucity of evidence, it is also seen in the surviving bucolic of the generations after Moschus, including the work of Bion of Smyrna. Moschus' poetry is typically edited along with other bucolic poets, as in the commonly used Oxford text by A. S. F. Gow (1952), but the "Europa" has often received separate scholarly editions, as by Winfried Bühler (Wiesbaden 1960) and Malcolm Campbell (Hildesheim 1991). The epigram is also normally published with the Planudean Anthology in the Greek Anthology. Europa is the name of : Europe, the continent, in most European languages (most Germanic languages, Latin and some Romance languages, and some Slavic Languages) Europa (mythology), a beautiful Phoenician princess in Greek mythology Europa (moon), the smallest of the Galilean moons of planet Jupiter Europa, a small island in the... Bion, Greek bucolic poet, was a native of the city of Smyrna and flourished about 100 BC. Most of his work is lost. ... Greek Anthology (also Anthologia Graeca) is a collection of poems, mostly epigrams, that span the Ancient and Byzantine periods of Greek Literature. ...

The Europa, along with Callimachus' Hecale and such Latin examples as Catullus 64, is a major example of the Hellenistic phenomenon of the miniature epic. Although it is hard to tell because of the fragmentary nature of the evidence, Moschus' influence on Greek bucolic poetry is likely to have been significant; the influence of Runaway Love is felt in Bion and other later bucolic poets. In later European literature his work was imitated or translated by such authors as Torquato Tasso and Ben Jonson. Fresco from Herculaneum, presumably showing a love couple. ... Torquato Tasso. ... Benjamin Jonson (circa June 11, 1572 – August 6, 1637) was an English Renaissance dramatist, poet and actor. ...

Two other poems, attributed to him at one time or another but no longer thought to be his, are also commonly edited with his work. The best known is the Epitaph on Bion (i.e. Bion of Smyrna), which had a long history of influence on the pastoral lament for a poet (compare Milton's Lycidas). The other is a miniature epic on Megara (the wife of Heracles), consisting of an epic dialogue between Heracles' mother and his wife on his absence. Bion, Greek bucolic poet, was born at Phlossa near Smyrna, and flourished about 100 BC. The account formerly given of him, that he was the contemporary and imitator of Theocritus, the friend and tutor of Moschus, and lived about 280 BC, is now generally regarded as incorrect. ... Milton is the name of a number of places: In the United States of America: Milton, Delaware Milton, Florida Milton, Illinois Milton, Indiana Milton, Iowa Milton, Kentucky Milton, Maine Milton High School in Alpharetta, GA Milton, Massachusetts Milton, New Hampshire Milton (town), New York (in Saratoga County) Milton, Ulster County... In Greek mythology, Megara (in Greek: Μεγάρα) was the oldest daughter of Creon, king of Thebes. ... Hercules, a Roman bronze (Louvre Museum) For other uses, see Heracles (disambiguation). ...

References

For a recent overview of Moschus see A. Porro in Eikasmos 10 (1999) 125-25.

There are English translations by J. Banks in Bohn's Classical Library (1853), and by Andrew Lang (1889), together with Bion and Theocritus. Henry George Bohn (January 4, 1796 – August 22, 1884) was a British publisher. ... For the former National Basketball Association player, see Andrew Lang (basketball). ... Bion, Greek bucolic poet, was born at Phlossa near Smyrna, and flourished about 100 BC. The account formerly given of him, that he was the contemporary and imitator of Theocritus, the friend and tutor of Moschus, and lived about 280 BC, is now generally regarded as incorrect. ... Theocritus (Greek Θεόκριτος), the creator of Ancient Greek bucolic poetry, flourished in the 3rd century BC. Little is known of him beyond what can be inferred from his writings. ...

See also Franz Susemihl, Geschichte der griechischen Litteratur in der Alexandrinerzeit. i. 231 (1891).

External links

• Works of Moschus at Theoi Project translated by J.M. Edmonds, 1912
• Works by Moschus at Project Gutenberg translated by Andrew Lang, 1889

• This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.