Sicelides appears in Virgil's Eclogues as the Sicilian Muses, acknowledging that pastoral poetry originated in Sicily with Theocritus; the term represents the genre's geographic and literary roots. The character embodies pastoral poetry's awareness of its own tradition and the specific landscapes that birthed the bucolic mode. Sicelides demonstrates that pastoral verse is self-consciously literary, invoking Sicilian Muses to signal allegiance to Theocritean models and acknowledging the genre's development from Greek into Roman literature.

Sicelides represents the Sicilian Muses invoked in Virgil's Fourth Eclogue, acknowledging pastoral's Sicilian origins in Theocritus's poetry. Poets invoke Sicelides when claiming the pastoral tradition's authentic lineage or when signaling elevated bucolic themes. The character demonstrates pastoral's geographical and literary origins, showing poets' awareness of the genre's history and their place within it. Sicelides illustrates how classical poets invoked tradition through geographical references, connecting their work to specific literary and geographical origins.