Idyll IX, also titled Βουκολιασταί γʹ ('The Third Country Singing-Match'), is a bucolic poem by the 3rd-century BC Greek poet Theocritus.^[1] Daphnis and Menalcas, at the bidding of the poet, sing the joys of the neatherds and of the shepherds life.^[2] Both receive the thanks of the poet, and rustic prizes—a staff and a horn, made of a spiral shell.^[2]

The characters are two neatherds, Daphnis and Menalcas, and the writer himself.^[1] We are to imagine the cattle to have just been driven out to pasture.^[1] There is no challenge and no stake.^[1] At the request of the writer that they shall compete in song before him, each of the herdsmen sings seven lines, Daphnis setting the theme; and then the writer, leaving it to be implied that he judged them equal, tells us how he gave them each a gift and what it was.^[1] The writer now appeals to the Muses to tell him the song he himself sang on the occasion, and he sings a six-line song in their praise.^[1]

J. M. Edmonds thinks this poem "would seem to be merely a poor imitation of the last" (Idyll VIII).^[1] Doubts have been expressed as to the authenticity of the prelude and concluding verses.^[2]

• Idyll VI

Attribution: This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.

• Edmonds, J. M., ed. (1919). The Greek Bucolic Poets (3rd ed.). William Heinemann. pp. 123–7.
• Lang, Andrew, ed. (1880). Theocritus, Bion, and Moschus. London: Macmillan and Co. pp. 50–2.

• Cholmeley, R. J., ed. (1919). The Idylls of Theocritus (2nd ed.). London: G. Bell & Sons, Ltd. pp. 255–64.
• Gow, A. S. F., ed. (1950). Theocritus. Vol. 1. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 76–9.
• Gow, A. S. F., ed. (1950). Theocritus. Vol. 2. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 185–92.
• Parry, Hugh (1987). "Circe and the Poets: Theocritus IX. 35—36". Illinois Classical Studies. 12 (1): 7–21.

•  Greek Wikisource has original text related to this article: Βουκολιασταί (Δάφνις, Μενάλκας και Αιπόλος)
• "Theocritus, Idylls, Βουκολιασταὶ Δάφνις καὶ Μενάλκας". Perseus Digital Library.