Cypress by a cave: Erotic frustration, agon and death in Theocritus’ Idyll XI

The author offers a possible explanation of a stable thematic complex including the themes of erotic frustration, agon and death as a constitutive for idyllic genre. The choice of Theocritus’ Idyll XI for the analysis is motivated by its undoubtedly intimate character (along with Idylls VII, XIII and XXVIII), which makes them part of some specific personalized contexts: the people mentioned were Theocritus’ colleagues along with being his friends. So there are some extra characteristics for the meta position offered here to the audience – as it supposes on its part not only a certain level of erudition together with the skills enabling the reader to operate concurrently with essentially different culture codes but also professional skills of a poet accustomed with the know-how of the poetic process of the early Hellenistic ars poetica. The author pays special attention to ekphrasa and ekphrastic techniques as one of the most characteristic elements of Alexandrian poetry, as well as to the allusions to Homer’s Odyssey as a precedent text not only for this particular piece, but for the whole book. Other poems from the same book are applied to as a comparative material both for thematic and poetics reasons. Also the possible personal references are discussed as forming the intimate context crucial for understanding Theocritus.