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260 SHEEP BREEDING AND
for the nymph, whom he had offended*. According to Virgil
{Buc. V. 56-71.) he was raised to the stars, and sacrifices
were offered to him by the shepherds.
Daphnis was the frequent subject of pastoral poetry, being
regarded as an ideal representation of the perfection of the
shepherd's culture and manner of life. Of this we have a
proof in the epigram of Callimachus on the death of Astacides,
and which concludes thus : " We (shepherds) wiU no longer
sing of Daphnis, but of Astacides." The poet's design was to
extol Astacides, by comparing him with Daphnis. According
to vElian [I. c.) the first bucohc poems related to the blindness
of Daphnis and its cause ; and the first poet, who composed
verses upon this subject, was Stesichorus of Himera in Sicily.
In Theocritus the allusions to the beautiful story of Daphnia
are very frequentt, and his sad fate is described at length by
contending shepherds or goatherds in the First and Seventh
Idylls. We shall quote only his dying words, where he calls
on Pan to leave the great Maenalus and the long ridges of
Lycaeus, and to come to Sicily in order to receive from his own
hand the syiinx, on which he had been accustomed to play.
*Ei/9' (Lva^j Koi Tavic (pip' ciiraKTOto fie\iiTvovv
'Ef KTipoi avpiyya KoKav^ vcpX p^trAoj LXiKTaV
'H yap lyujv vtt' tpcJToj £j aSSv e^KOfiai iifrj.
Come, mighty king, come, Pan, and take my pipe,
"Well join'd with wax and fitted to my lip ;
For now 'tis useless grown. Love stops my breath,
I cannot pipe, but must be mute in death.
Creech's Translation.
PHny informs us, that in his time the wool of Apulia was
in the highest repute ;
that throughout the South of Italy the
best sheep were bred in the vicinity of Tarentum and Canu-
sium ; and that the wool of Tarentum was admired for its
tinge of black, and that of Canusium for its fine brown or yel-
low colorl.
* Theocritus, Idyll i. 66-141. and vii. 72-77.
t Idyll V. 20. See also v. 80. In Idyll vi. Daphnis is one of the performers,
and gives a description of Galatea,
t See Appendix A.