Sicilian was inventer:_

_Diodorus Siculus_ *en tois mythologoumenois*, seems to make
_Daphnis_ the son of _Mercury_ and a certain _Nymph_, to be the
Author; and agreeable to this, _Theon_ an old _scholiast_ on
_Theocritus_, in his notes upon the first _Idyllium_ mentioning
_Daphnis_, adds, _he was the author of Bucolicks_, and _Theocritus
himself_ calls him _the Muses Darling_: and to this Opinion of
_Diodorus Siculus Polydore Virgil_ readily assents.

But _Mnaseas_ of _Patara_ in a discourse of his concerning _Europa_,
speaks thus of a Son of _Pan_ the God of Sheapards: _Panis Filium
Bubulcum à quo & Bucolice canere:_ Now Whether _Mnaseas_ by that
_Bubulcum_, means only a _Herds-man_, or one skilled in _Bucolicks_,
is uncertain; but if _Valla's_ {11} judgment be good, tis to be taken
of the latter: yet _Ælian_ was of another mind, for he boldly affirms
that _Stesichorus_ called _Himeræus_ was the first, and in the same
place adds, that _Daphnis_ the Son of _Mercury_ was the first Subject
of _Bucolicks_.

Some ascribe the Honor to _Bacchus_ the President of the _Nymphs,
Satyrs_, and the other Country Gods, perhaps because he delighted in
the Country; and others attribute it to _Apollo_ called _Nomius_ the
God of Sheapards, and that he invented it then when he served
_Admetus_ in _Thessaly_, and fed his Herds: For, tis likely, he to
recreate himself, and pass away his time, applied his mind to such
Songs as were best suitable to his present condition: Many think we
owe it to _Pan_ the God of Sheapards, not a few to _Diana_ that
extreamly delighted in solitude and Woods; and some say _Mercury_
himself: of all which whilst _Grammarians_ prattle, according to their