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[ SOLD OUT ] HALPERIN, D.M., Before Pastoral: Theocritus and the Ancient Tradition of Bucolic Poetry. Yale University Press, New Haven / London, 1983. XIV,289p. Original gilt titled green cloth. Tail spine a little bit bumped. Upper edge slightly foxed. A few light remains of pencil markings. ‘There seem to be essentially three propositions which are gradually unfolded in Professor Halperin’s study. First, the bucolic poetry of Theocritus is to be distinguished from pastoral poetry (…). Second, the hexameter poems of Theocritus and the Theocritean corpus constitute bucolic poetry (…). Third, bucolic poetry in Theocritus is a kind of ‘epos’ which by its oppositional nature requires a negative formulation (e.g. it may be regarded as a form of anti-heroic epic which elaborates the non-heroic alternatives of early Greek epic). (…) In its circuitous and even tortuous approach, the book not only offers a wide-ranging scholarly survey that includes modern pastoral theory as well as the origins of pastoral song in the Near East, but usefully challenges conventional assumptions, and stimulates reconsideration of some basic questions about poetic genre and the achievement of Theocritus. There is much profit and pleasure to be gained by a patient reader.’ (A.E. HINDS in Hermathena, 1986, p.82). (Antiquarian) (approx. delivery time: undeliverable) ISBN: 9780300025828