Encyclopedia of Early Modern History Online

Get access

Idyll
(1,140 words)

1. Definition and origin

In a broader sense, an idyll is an artistic representation of a “blessed world,” and in a stricter sense a short, usually epic or lyrical text, generally written in hexameters and related to pastoral poetry. The evolution of the literary genre can be traced back to antiquity, and from the earliest times it was considered the most pristine and simplest form of poetry [1. 582]. The tradition was founded with the Idylls of the Hellenistic poet Theocritus and Vi…

Cite this page
Böhm, Elisabeth, “Idyll”, in: Encyclopedia of Early Modern History Online, Editors of the English edition: Graeme Dunphy, Andrew Gow. Original German Edition: Enzyklopädie der Neuzeit. Im Auftrag des Kulturwissenschaftlichen Instituts (Essen) und in Verbindung mit den Fachherausgebern herausgegeben von Friedrich Jaeger. Copyright © J.B. Metzlersche Verlagsbuchhandlung und Carl Ernst Poeschel Verlag GmbH 2005–2012. Consulted online on 10 December 2023 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/2352-0272_emho_COM_021243>
First published online: 2015
First print edition: 20180915



▲   Back to top   ▲