This was exactly what the Greek idylists did,--that is, the best of them.

They were great scholars and became friends of kings, but they wrote poetry chiefly about peasant life, and they gave all their genius to the work.
The result was so beautiful that everybody is still charmed by the pictures or idyls which they made.
Well, after this disgression, to return to the subject of Theocritus, the greatest of the idylists.

He has often introduced into his idyls the name of Comatas.

Who was Comatas?
Comatas was a Greek shepherd boy, or more strictly speaking a goatherd, who kept the flocks of a rich man.

It was his duty to sacrifice to the gods none of his master's animals, without permission; but as his master was a very avaricious person, Comatas knew that it would be of little use to ask him.