Moschus

Moschus, Ancient Greek bucolic poet and friend of the Alexandrian grammarian Aristarchus, was born at Syracuse and flourished about 150 BC.

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He was the author of a short epic poem, Europa, and a pretty little epigram, Love, the Runaway, imitated by Torquato Tasso and Ben Jonson. The epitaph on Bion of Smyrna, wrongly supposed to have been his tutor, was in all probability written about the time of Sulla (see F B?cheler in Rheinisches Museum, xxx., 1875). The poem on Megara (the wife of Heracles) is probably not his, but a few other pieces, undoubtedly genuine, have been preserved. His poems are nearly all in hexameters. They are usually printed in editions of Bion and Theocritus, and have been translated into many European languages.

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The text has been edited by Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, in the Oxford Scriptorum classicorum bibliotheca (1905); there are English translations by J Banks in Bohn's Classical Library (1853), and by Andrew Lang (1889), together with Bion and Theocritus. See F Susemihl, Geschichte der griechischen Litteratur in der Alexandrinerzeit. i. 231 (1891).

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Ancient Greek: Ancient Greek refers to the stage in the history of the Greek language corresponding to Classical Antiquity, which normally applies on two ancient periods of Greek history: Archaic and Classic Greece. The Ancient era of Greek history normally includes also the Hellenistic (post-Classic) age, however...

Bucolic: Bucolic, although often used as an adjective, is a noun originally describing a type of pastoral poetry that praises rural life over the city. The manner of a bucolic is usually somewhat fantastic, and the poetry tends to contrast the pleasant and pure life of the country with the corrupt and corro...

Poet: Poets are authors of poems, or of other forms of poetry such as dramatic verse. Poets are often regarded as imaginative thinkers or writers. Bad poets are called poetasters....