Note 78 — Chapter X · THE LYRIC POETS.
Reading edition
Many poems of the Syracusan idyllists are valuable historically as adaptations of the hexameter to subjects essentially lyrical. In the Adoniazusæ, the Epithalamium Helenæ, the Lament for Bion, etc., we trace a lyrical inspiration overlaid by the idyllic form. Theocritus must have worked on the lines of old choral poetry.