THEOKRITOS HYLAS-IDILLJE
THEOCRITUS HYLAS-IDYLL

Summary/Abstract: Theocritus’ idyll 13 is a consolation to Nikias. The story of Hylas itself is a paradigm confronting the resoluteness and discipline of the community (the Argo) with the destructive power of love. The heroic attitude is characterized by a linear motion with a destination (Argo) or by immobility (Telamon, Heracles waiting for the lion). Heracles as a victim of his passion for Hylas deviates from the path of the Argo but he still remains in the human sphere. Hylas leaves the sphere of the rational (human) life and as a victim of the passion of the Nymphs — who are moving in a circle — he gets into the underground sphere of the irrationality, but after his death he comes to the sphere of the gods.

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