A Discourse on Pastoral Poetry,¹ that the pastoral is the oldest literary genre, and that bucolic ditties were first composed by the early herdsmen who were both simple and good, is an answer almost as old as the genre itself. It is one of the answers given by the ancient "anthropologists," from Dicaearchus to Varro and beyond.² More commonly, however, the ancient scholars derive the genre from a background of ritual, specifically the worship of Artemis in various avatars.³ The first eclogues, the scholiasts argue, were rustic hymns and dances offered to he goddess in times of stress. But as long ago as 1821 F. G. Welcker⁴ carefully went through the evidence adduced by the scholiasts and found it wanting." /> Ecloga epicurea - Rosenmeyer Thomas G. | sdvig press