Pastoral

Alvan Fisher, Pastoral Landscape, 1854

The pastoral genre of literature, art, or music depicts an idealised form of the shepherd's lifestyle – herding livestock around open areas of land according to the seasons and the changing availability of water and pasture. The target audience is typically an urban one. A pastoral is a work of this genre. A piece of music in the genre is usually referred to as a pastorale.

The genre is also known as bucolic, from the Greek βουκολικόν, from βουκόλος, meaning a cowherd.[1][2]

  1. ^ βουκολικόν. Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; A Greek–English Lexicon at the Perseus Project. βουκόλος. Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; An Intermediate Greek–English Lexicon at the Perseus Project.
  2. ^ Harper, Douglas. "bucolic". Online Etymology Dictionary.