In the Footsteps of a Playful Humanist Eclogue – Elias Corvinus’ Idyllion Amyntas Elias Corvinus: Idyllion Amyntas

Abstract

In European poetry, poems about animals have a tradition dating back to antiquity. Within this tradition, a specific subgenre can be identified, the animal lament. The pastoral eclogue Idyllion Amyntas by the poet laureate Elias Corvinus (1537–1602) fits into this tradition. In the eclogue, Amyntas, the shepherd, desperately searches for and mourns his lost dog, Lycisca. The author, borrowing quotations from ancient love poetry depicting tragic love stories, e.g. Ovid’s Metamorphoses, transforms the shepherd’s quest for an errant dog into a lament for a lost lover.