Lycidas appears in Theocritus's Idylls and reaches its apotheosis in John Milton's 1637 pastoral elegy "Lycidas," mourning Edward King; the name became synonymous with elegiac pastoral poetry. The character represents the young poet cut down before his prime, embodying themes of mortality, unfulfilled promise, and the consolations of immortal fame. Milton's Lycidas transforms the conventional shepherd into a meditation on vocation, divine justice, and poetic legacy, making the name inseparable from the pastoral elegy tradition.

Lycidas appears in Theocritus and most famously in Milton's pastoral elegy as the drowned shepherd-poet mourned by his community. Milton's "Lycidas" transformed the name into a symbol of the pastoral elegy itself and the death of young promise. Poets invoke Lycidas when writing pastoral elegy, mourning lost potential, or exploring death's intrusion into the idealized pastoral world. The character demonstrates how pastoral adapted to address mortality, loss, and grief, transforming from a genre primarily about love and song to one capable of profound elegy and philosophical meditation on death.