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but he does use  , 'iron', in this way. Achilles, says the dying Hector, has a  (22.357), a 'heart of iron', and Penelope has, according to Odysseus, a  (Od. 23.172). This does not indicate that somebody is courageous, but rather relentless and merciless; in Od. 5.191 Calypso contrasts a  with a  , a 'compassionate mind'. Likewise  , which appears twice in Aeschylus, is a negative qualification.11 Theocritus may well have coined the adjective  , thus evoking associations with epic poetry and at the same time creating a certain ambiguity. Is Heracles characterised only as a hero or, to some extent, as a brute as well? In any case, the heart of bronze has its weak spot: Heracles  (6), 'was in love with a boy'. |
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Theocritus examines two aspects of the relationship between Heracles and Hylas. First we are told that Heracles is planning to groom his sweet  , 'the boy with the braid of hair', to be as great a hero as he is himself. And second, we learn that Heracles never left his side, neither in the afternoon, nor the morning, nor the evening. |
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It is worthwhile to consider here the manner in which Theocritus describes these three parts of the day. First there is the afternoon:   (10), 'not when noon had set in'; according to Dover, this part of the day is "expressed plainly". But is it?  is preeminently an epic verb and the word combination is  used in a similar way in the Iliad: in the enumeration of the three parts of the day.12 Before killing Lycaon Achilles says to him: |
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(21.111112) |
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('There shall come a dawn or eve or midday, when my life too shall some man take in battle.' |
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Transl. A.T. Murray) |
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It does not seem too far-fetched to suppose that Theocritus'  derives from 21.111 and that, as Gutzwiller (1981: 21) says, the lines 10b13 are an 'expansion' of this line.13 But if we accept this, another question |
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11 Gow refers not only to  but also to  , having an  (Il. 2.490)". But since there is hardly any similarity between the poet's heart of bronze and the 'iron mind' of all those who do not pity Prometheus (A. Pr. 244), the reader is none the wiser. |
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12 The use of the Homeric  is not in itself remarkable, since Theocritus uses it regularly and for an obvious reason: the metrical structure of  is poorly suited to the hexameter;  is found only in 29.7, a poem that is written in another metre. Forms of  , however, are rare in the Idylls; there is only  in 24,15 and  in 24,82. |
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13 Cf. Campbell (1990) 115, note 3: "an elaborate reworking, in ascending tricolon form, of Il. 21. 111". |
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