[314] L. iv. c. 84, p. 283.
But, although the rustic Dorians of Sicily had the full credit of this invention and were never surpassed in the practice of it by any other people, yet the imitation of it was attempted in various instances by the pastoral inhabitants of other countries. More especially, it appears to have been adopted in the neighboring district of Magna Græcia; for it is near Sybaris that Theocritus has placed the scene of his Fifth Idyll, in which, a shepherd having staked a lamb and a goatherd a kid, they contend in alternate verses, whilst a wood-cutter, whom they have called from his labor, listens as judge, and awards the prize to the goatherd, who hereupon joyfully sacrifices his newly acquired lamb to the Nymphs.
In the Seventh Idyll (v. 12, 27, 40.) Theocritus mentions the goatherd, Lycidas of Crete, who was his contemporary, and also his predecessors and supposed instructors, Asclepiades of Samos, and Philetas of Cos, as distinguished for skill in pastoral music.
The bucolic poems of Theocritus prove, that the Arcadian belief in the attributes of Pan had extended itself into Sicily and the South of Italy, so that the rustics of those countries not only invoked him by name, but even sometimes offered sacrifices to him. Thus, in Idyll v. 58, the Lucanian goatherd already referred to says, that he will set aside for Pan eight dishes of milk and six of honey.
But besides importing the belief in Pan from Arcadia the Sicilians recognized two demigods of native origin, who contributed, if not to excite feelings allied to religion, at least to amuse their imagination and to contribute greatly to the variety and liveliness of their poetry. These were the shepherd Polyphemus, who was horridly deformed, and the herdsman Daphnis, who was endowed with the most surpassing beauty.
Polyphemus was the son of Neptune. Notwithstanding his forbidden aspect he is represented as susceptible of some tender emotions, and it is his misfortune to be deeply enamored of the beautiful Nereid or Mermaid Galatea, whom he sees sporting in the green waves, while he surveys the coast from the summit of a mountain and plays upon the syrinx for the amusement of himself and his flock[315].
[315] Theocritus, Idyll vi. and xi. Lucian, Dial. Doridis et Galateæ. Ovid, Met. L. xiii. 739-870.
The Sicilian Daphnis, like the Arcadian Pan, was the son of Mercury and of a mountain nymph, and excelled in playing on the syrinx; but his form was entirely human and the most beautiful that could be imagined.
The guardian of fair kine, himself more fair.
Virg. Buc. v. 44.