Editing Polyphemus (section)

====Hellenistic pastoral poets====
The romantic element, originated by Philoxenus, was revived by later Hellenistic poets, including [[Theocritus]], [[Callimachus]], [[Hermesianax (poet)|Hermesianax]],<ref name="Williams">{{cite web |last1=Williams |first1=Frederick John |title=Hermesianax |url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803095932797 |website=Oxford Reference |access-date=11 March 2020 |language=en }}</ref> and [[Bion of Smyrna]].{{sfn|LeVen|2014|pp=234–234}}

[[Theocritus]] is credited with creating the genre of [[pastoral poetry]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Theocritus {{!}} Greek poet |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Theocritus |website=Encyclopedia Britannica |publisher=Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. |access-date=11 March 2020 |language=en |date=5 February 2020}}</ref> His works are titled ''Idylls'' and of these [[Idyll XI]] tells the story of the Cyclops' love for Galatea.{{sfn|Ovid|2000|pp=36–37}} Though the character of Polyphemus derives from Homer, there are notable differences. Where Homer's Cyclops was beastly and wicked, Theocritus' is absurd, lovesick and comic. Polyphemus loves the sea nymph Galatea, but she rejects him because of his ugliness.{{sfn|Theocritus|1947|p=11.30–33}}{{sfn|Rosen|2007|p=162}} However, in a borrowing from Philoxenus' poem, Polyphemus has discovered that music will heal lovesickness,{{sfn|Faulkner|2011|p=178}} and so he plays the [[panpipes]] and sings of his woes, for "I am skilled in piping as no other Cyclops here".{{sfn|Theocritus|1947|p=38}} His longing is to overcome the antithetic elements that divide them, he of earth and she of water:{{sfn|Theocritus|1947|p=38}}

{{Poem quote|text=Ah me, would that my mother at my birth had given me gills, That so I might have dived down to your side and kissed your hand, If your lips you would not let me...|char=|sign=|title=|source=}}

[[File:Vanloo,_Triumph_of_Galatea.jpg|thumb|upright=1.4|[[Jean-Baptiste van Loo]]'s depiction of "The Triumph of Galatea"; Polyphemus plays the pan-pipes on the right]]
The love of the mismatched pair was later taken up by other pastoral poets. The same trope of music being the cure for love was introduced by Callimachus in his Epigram 47: "How excellent was the charm that Polyphemus discovered for the lover. By Earth, the Cyclops was no fool!"<ref name="Epigrams">{{cite web |last1=Callimachus |translator1-last=Mair |translator1-first=A. W. |title=Callimachus: Epigrams |url=http://www.attalus.org/poetry/callimachus2.html |website=Attalus |access-date=11 March 2020 |date=1921}}</ref> A fragment of a lost idyll by Bion also portrays Polyphemus declaring his undying love for Galatea.{{sfn|Theocritus|Bion|Moschus|1889|p=176}} Referring back to this, an elegy on Bion's death that was once attributed to [[Moschus]] takes the theme further in a piece of [[hyperbole]]. Where Polyphemus had failed, the poet declares, Bion's greater artistry had won Galatea's heart, drawing her from the sea to tend his herds.{{sfn|Theocritus|Bion|Moschus|1889|p=317}} This reflected the situation in [[Idyll VI]] of Theocritus. There two herdsmen engage in a musical competition, one of them playing the part of Polyphemus, who asserts that since he has adopted the ruse of ignoring Galatea, she has now become the one who pursues him.{{sfn|Theocritus|2004|loc=[http://www.gutenberg.org/files/11533/11533-h/11533-h.htm#IDYLL_VI Idyll VI]}}