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meaning, but one that as far as we know had not yet been employed to describe the power of Eros. Thus in a manner of speaking he has transported  from the field of battle to the field of love, just as in later passages he calls up other, more direct, associations with the battlefield.17 |
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When Hylas falls into the water, this is compared to a falling star. In Gow's view this comparison is "perhaps suggested by Il. 4.75, where Athena's descent from Olympus to earth is compared to a shooting star sent  ." Mastronarde maintains that in that case "Hylas is humorously substituted for Athena" (1968: 279, note 9). We might add that here, as well as in Iliad 4, there is a comment forthcoming from the characters who observe the phenomenon. In the Iliad the soldiers wonder what is going to happen ( . . ., 81), while in the case of Theocritus a sailor urges his mates to prepare to sail ( . . ., 51). Here, however, the sailor's words are part of the comparison, although there is a mysterious association with the main narrative, since the Argonauts are also ready to sail, in spite of the fact that it is close to midnight (68).18 |
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Campbell (1990: 115) is certainly correct when he says that Theocritus also evokes a simile that appears in the Iliad, both in 13.38991 and in 16.4824: |
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('and he fell, as an oak falls or a poplar or a tall pine, that among the mountains shipwrights fell with wetted axes to be a ship's timber.') |
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In 13 it is the death of Asius which is described in this manner, while in 16 it is the death of Sarpedon; both have fought bravely on the battlefield, but have succumbed to the violence. A variation of this simile appears in The Shield of Heracles, 4212: |
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('and Cycnus fell as an oak falls or a lofty pine that is stricken by the lurid thunderbolt of Zeus'
Transl. Hugh G. Evelyn-White) |
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17 Cf. Idyll 2.137, where Eros frightens away the bride from her bedroom. |
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18 Cf. Campbell (1990) 115116; however, his explanation of the Argonauts' departure at midnight (viz. that they fear a surprise attack because Hylas has not returned; 116) is too rationalistic for my taste. Real men, in real life, would perhaps behave this way, but that is no reason to introduce such behaviour into the poem. |
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