SHEPHERDS AND SHEPHERDESSES.
     As the subjects of Greek and Roman pastoral poetry, shepherds and shepherdesses were associated with the bucolic settings of Arcadia and the gods Pan and Apollo and represented an idealized rustic innocence. The two most influential examples of the pastoral genre were the Idylls of Theocritus and the Eclogues (Bucolics) of Virgil. The poems consist largely of songs, semicomic dialogues, lovelorn complaints, and simple narratives of rural festivals and musical contests; the countryfolk who people them are not so much individuals as stock characters.
    Among the herdsmen mentioned by Virgil and taken up by later poets were Daphnis, Lycidas, Damon, Amyntas, Thyrsis, Corydon, and Meliboeus, most of whom are also found in Theocritus. Among the Virgilian shepherdesses most often named in the postclassical era were Amaryllis, Phyllis, and Lycoris.
    The Sicilian Daphnis was one of the few shepherds celebrated by the bucolic poets who had roots in ancient mythology. According to an early legend, he was loved by a nymph, who blinded him after he was inebriated and seduced by a princess; he consoled himself by composing pastoral music that sang of his misfortune. According to Theocritus, Daphnis refused to love anyone, and for this he was punished by Aphrodite with an unquenchable passion that eventually killed him. His death and subsequent deification were commemorated by shepherds in Virgil’s Eclogues. A different shepherd of the same name was the hero of Longus’s pastoral romance Daphnis and Chloe.
    Virgil’s seventh eclogue recounts the singing contest between Thyrsis and Corydon, in which Corydon was the victor. Daphnis and Lycidas were also said by Theocritus to engage in singing contests.
    Since the Renaissance, pastoral poets and dramatists have borrowed indiscriminately from the classical models, not only elaborating on the figures and situations presented by Theocritus and Virgil, but also contriving complex plots and inventing original characters, many though not all of whom bear familiar classical names. For example, Amaryllis, a shepherdess mentioned by both Theocritus and Virgil, remained a charming but slight figure until the late sixteenth century, when she appeared in Tasso’s L'Aminta (1573), considered the first true pastoral drama, and then as the heroine of Guarini’s Il pastor fido (1590). The latter was especially influential in reestablishing the popularity of the pastoral form.

    
    See also Apollo, as Shepherd, Loves; Arcadia; Daphnis and Chloe; Pan.