COWHERD OR ATHLETE: AEGON'S AMBIGUOUS STATUS AND THE EROTICS OF GENRE IN THEOCRITUS IDYLL 4

Abstract:This paper argues that in Idyll 4 Theocritus interacts with epinician poetry and embeds at lines 32–37 a bucolic epinician in honor of Aegon, the boukolos who decided to compete in the Olympic Games. Furthermore, it demonstrates that Corydon and Battus allude to epinician conventions in their evaluation of Aegon's character.