The Wound and the Kiss: The Morbid Pleasures of Post-Theocritean Aesthetics

Abstract The paper examines the aesthetics of the pseudo-Theocritean idylls and of the later additions to the bucolic corpus, which can be viewed as a ‘sensualized’ version of Theocritus’ poetics. Based on readings of some of the pseudo-Theocritean Idylls (19 Love Stealing Honey, 23 The Lover), the fragments ascribed to Bion and his Epitaph on Adonis, and the anonymous poem To the Dead Adonis, the paper argues that post-Theocritean aesthetics may be defined by reference to two images, ‘the wound’ and ‘the kiss’, where two concepts converge: morbidity and sensuality. This poetic style stands in stark contrast to the sophisticated and balanced ideal of leptotēs and it is un-Callimachean in tone and taste; this aspect of post-Theocritean aesthetics, which tends towards pathos and aestheticism, mainly looks forward to romanticism and decadence.