Death & Dying

The Disconsolate Shepherd (Mackail)

by Theocritus fl. c. 270 BC

Translated by J. W. Mackail (1890) · From Select Epigrams from the Greek Anthology (1890)

Death & Dying

Ah thou poor Thyrsis, what profit is it if thou shalt waste away the apples of thy two eyes with tears in thy mourning? the kid is gone, the pretty young thing, is gone to Hades; for a savage wolf crunched her in his jaws; and the dogs bay; what profit is it, when of that lost one not a bone nor a cinder is left?

This translation is printed as prose in its source edition.

MLA

Theocritus. “The Disconsolate Shepherd (Mackail).” Translated by J. W. Mackail. Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/theocritus/137/.

Chicago

Theocritus. “The Disconsolate Shepherd (Mackail).” Translated by J. W. Mackail. Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/theocritus/137/.

Read this poem with the Codex →

More by Theocritus