[Theocritus], Idyll 23: a stony aesthetic

The pseudo-Theocritean Idyll 23 is frequently criticized as a wretched and unattractive poem. In this article, I argue that such allegedly ‘unattractive’ qualities do not betray the shortcomings of its poet, but are rather part of a distinctive aesthetic strategy. The Idyll embraces the murky, the h...