Theocritus established the pastoral's formal characteristics, setting and tone, retained, thereafter, for centuries. His most distinctive poems or "idylls" evoke the life and rustic arts of the shepherds of his native Sicily, maintaining a balance between idealization and local realism.

Theocritus (308-240 BC) was the most important of the Greek bucolic poets and the one who established for the pastoral its formal characteristics, setting and tone which it was to retain for centuries. His most distinctive poems or "idylls" evoke the life and rustic arts of the shepherds of his native Sicily, maintaining a balance between idealization and local realism.