Great Cypris stood beside me, while still I slumbered, and with her beautiful hand she led the child Love, whose head was earthward bowed. This word she spake to me, "Dear herdsman, prithee take Love, and teach him to sing." So said she, and departed, and I -- my store of pastoral song I taught to Love, in my innocence, as if he had been fain to learn. I taught him how the cross-flute was invented by Pan, and the flute by Athene, and by Hermes the tortoise-shell lyre, and the harp by sweet Apollo. All these things I taught him as best I might; but he, not heeding my words, himself would sing me ditties of love, and taught me the desires of mortals and immortals, and all the deeds of his mother. And I clean forgot the lore I was teaching to Love, but what Love taught me, and his love ditties, I learned them all.
Three Idylls from the Greek Anthology
by Granville Ransome Bantock, Sir (1868 - 1946)
1. Great Cypris stood  [sung text not yet checked]
Authorship:
- by Andrew Lang (1844 - 1912), "The Tutor of Love"
Based on:
- a text in Greek (Ελληνικά) by Bion of Smyrna (flourished 100 BCE) [text unavailable]
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Confirmed with Theocritus, Bion and Moschus. Rendered into English Prose with an Introductory Essay by A. Lang, M. A., Lately Fellow of Merton College, Oxford, London, MacMillan and Co., Limited, 1896, pages 179-180. Note: this is a prose text. We have added line-breaks arbitrarily.
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
2. Would that my father  [sung text not yet checked]
Would that my father had taught me the craft of a keeper of sheep, For so in the shade of the elm-tree, or under the rocks on the steep, Piping on reeds I had sat, and had lulled my sorrow to sleep.
Authorship:
- by Andrew Lang (1844 - 1912), "Idyl IX"
Based on:
- a text in Greek (Ελληνικά) by Moschus (flourished 150 BCE) [text unavailable]
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Confirmed with Theocritus, Bion and Moschus. Rendered into English Prose with an Introductory Essay by A. Lang, M. A., Lately Fellow of Merton College, Oxford, London, MacMillan and Co., Limited, 1896, page 210. A note below the poem says "For the translations in verse I have to thank Mr. Ernest Meyers."
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
3. The thievish Love  [sung text not yet checked]
The thievish Love, -- a cruel bee once stung him, as he was rifling honey from the hives, and pricked his finger-tips all; then he was in pain, and blew upon his hand, and leaped, and stamped the ground. And then he showed his hurt to Aphrodite, and made much complaint, how that the bee is a tiny creature, and yet what wounds it deals! And his mother laughed out, and said, "Art thou not even such a creature as the bees, for tiny art thou, but what wounds thou dealest!"
Authorship:
- by Andrew Lang (1844 - 1912), "Idyl XIX", appears in Theocritus, Bion and Moschus
Based on:
- a text in Greek (Ελληνικά) by Theocritus (c310 BCE - c250 BCE), "Κηριολεπτησ"
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Confirmed with Theocritus, Bion and Moschus. Rendered into English Prose with an Introductory Essay by A. Lang, M. A., Lately Fellow of Merton College, Oxford, London, MacMillan and Co., Limited, 1896, page 101. A note at the top of the translation reads: "This little piece is but doubtfully ascribed to Theocritus. The motif is that of a well known Anacreontic Ode. The idyl has been translated by Ronsard." Please note that this is a prose text, but we have added line-breaks.
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]