Another danger menaced. Dorco an oxherd who had helped draw Daphnis from the pit fell in love with Chloe (he was a full-grown lad) and when he could not get her by gifts, he and Daphnis held a contest of words for beauty and Chloe was umpire. When their speeches were finished, Chloe at once gave to Daphnis her prize—a kiss—and that kiss made Daphnis fall in love though he did not know what love was.
Defeated Dorco next appealed to Dryas for Chloe as a wife, but Dryas rejected him. Then he tried a base trick. He dressed up in a wolf-skin and hid near the spring where the beasts watered, hoping to meet Chloe alone there. This he did, but the sheep-dogs caught him first and would have killed him had not Chloe and Daphnis saved him. They thought Dorco’s disguise was only a game, for they never dreamed of rape in their innocence.
So through spring and summer Daphnis and Chloe tended their flocks and played the pipes together. But in the autumn Tyrian pirates descended on the shore to raven. They wounded Dorco and stole his cows and kidnapped Daphnis. Dorco dying gave his pipe to Chloe for one kiss at last and bade her pipe his cows off the ship. And the cows on hearing the call of the pipe jumped overboard and swam ashore with Daphnis charioted between two holding to their horns. The boat was upset and the pirates who were all in armor drowned. Daphnis and Chloe went to poor Dorco’s funeral. They dedicated his pipe to the Nymphs. They cheered their flocks who lay mourning for Daphnis on the hills. And all went on as before except that Daphnis’ heart ached,—why he did not know.
Now (in Book II) came the time of vintage. These charming children helped pick the grapes, tread the wine-press, fill the vats with the new wine. That work done, back to their flocks went Daphnis and Chloe. There old Philetas met them and sitting down told them a bright story of how Eros had appeared to him in his garden, a little winged boy flitting birdlike from tree to tree. And Philetas tried to teach the children who Eros was and what was his power, for Philetas had loved Amaryllis in his youth. But though Philetas as a wise _praeceptor amoris_ instructed them thus: “There is no medicine for love, neither meat, nor drink, nor any charm, but only kissing and embracing and lying side by side,” the children did not understand his teaching and played this game of love without fulfillment. And as they exchanged childish kisses, disaster again broke upon them.