DAPHNIS

This article appears in Volume V07, Page 826 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: DAH-DEM

DAPHNIS , the legendary hero of the shepherds of Sicily, and reputed inventor of bucolic poetry. The

chief

CHIEF (from Fr. chef, head, Lat. caput)

authorities for his story are Diodorus Siculus, Aelian and Theocritus. According to his countryman Diodorus (iv.84), and Aelian ( Var. Hist., x.18), Daphnis was the son of

Hermes

HERMES
HERMES, GEORG (1775-1831)

(in his character of the shepherd-god) and a Sicilian nymph, and was born or exposed and found by shepherds in a grove of laurels (whence his name.) He was brought up by the nymphs, or by shepherds, and became the owner of flocks and herds, which he tended while playing on the syrinx. When in the first

bloom

BLOOM (from A.S. bloma, a flower)

of youth, he won the affection of a nymph, who made him promise to love none but her, threatening that, if he proved unfaithful, he would lose his eye-sight. He failed to keep his promise and was smitten with blindness. Daphnis, who endeavoured to console himself by playing the

flute

FLUTE

and singing shepherds' songs, soon afterwards died. He fell from a cliff, or was changed into a

rock

, orswas taken up to heaven by his father

Hermes

HERMES
HERMES, GEORG (1775-1831)

, who caused a

spring

SPRING (from " to spring," " to leap or jump up," " burst out," O. Eng., springau, a common Teut. word, cf. Ger.
springer
- SPRINGER (Fr. rein)
- SPRINGER, ANTON HEINRICH (1825–1891)
, possibly allied to Gr. QnrFpxecOac, to move rapidly)

of water to gush out from the spot where his son had been carried off. Ever afterwards the Sicilians offered sacrifices at this

spring

SPRING (from " to spring," " to leap or jump up," " burst out," O. Eng., springau, a common Teut. word, cf. Ger.
springer
- SPRINGER (Fr. rein)
- SPRINGER, ANTON HEINRICH (1825–1891)
, possibly allied to Gr. QnrFpxecOac, to move rapidly)

as an expiatory offering for the youth's early death. There is little doubt that Aelian in his account follows Stesichorus (q.v.) of Himera, who in like manner had been blinded by the vengeance of a woman (Helen) and probably sang of the sufferings of Daphnis in his recantation. Nothing is said of Daphnis's blindness by Theocritus, who dwells on his amour with Nails; his victory over Menalcas in a poetical competition; his love for Xenea brought about by the wrath of Aphrodite; his wanderings through the woods while suffering the torments of unrequited love; his death just at the moment when Aphrodite, moved by compassion, endeavours (but too

late

LATE

) to save him; the deep sorrow, shared by nature and all created things, for his untimely end (Theocritus i. vii. viii.). A later form of the legend identifies Daphnis with a Phrygian hero, and makes him the teacher of Marsyas. The legend of Daphnis and his early death may be compared with those of Narcissus,

Linus

LINUS

and Adonisall beautiful youths cut off in their prime, typical of the luxuriant growth of vegetation in the spring, and its sudden withering away beneath the scorching summer sun.
See F. G. Welcker, Kleine Schriften zur griechischen Litteraturgeschichte, i. (1844); C. F. Hermann, De Daphnide Theocriti (1853); R. H. Klausen, Aeneas and die Penaten, i. (1840) ; R. Reitzenstein, Epigramm and Skolion (1893) ; H. W.

Prescott

PRESCOTT, WILLIAM HICKLING (1796-1859)

in Harvard Studies, x. (1899); H. W. Stoll in Roscher's Lexikon der Mythologie; and G. Knaack in Pauly-Wissowa's Realencyclopddie.

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