Bion of Smyrna

Who is Bion of Smyrna?

Bion, Greek bucolic poet, was a native of the city of Smyrna and flourished about 100 BC. Most of his work is lost. There remain 17 fragments and the Epitaph of Adonis, a mythological poem on the death of Adonis and the lament of Aphrodite. Some of the fragments show the pastoral themes that were typical of ancient Greek bucolic poetry, while others attest the broader thematic interpretation of the bucolic form that prevailed in the later Hellenistic period. They are often concerned with love, mainly homosexual. Besides Adonis, other myths that appear in his work are those of Hyacinthus and the Cyclops; to judge from references in the Epitaph on Bion, which frequently alludes to Bion's work, he also wrote a poem on Orpheus, to which some of the extant fragments may have belonged. The Greek texts of Bion's poems are generally included in the editions of Theocritus. There is no particular reason to think that the Epithalamium of Achilles and Deidameia, preserved in bucolic manuscripts and usually included under his name in modern editions, is Bion's work.

Bion's influence can be seen in numerous ancient Greek and Latin poets and prose authors, including Virgil and Ovid. His treatment of the myth of Adonis in particular has influenced European and American literature since the Renaissance.