Thestylis appears in Theocritus's Idylls and Virgil's Eclogues as a working country woman, distinct from idealized shepherdesses; she represents the labor and domestic life of the pastoral world. In Theocritus, Thestylis pounds garlic and herbs for reapers' meals, grounding pastoral poetry in agricultural reality. The character provides a more realistic female presence in bucolic verse, acknowledging women's work in the countryside beyond serving as objects of romantic pursuit, thus enriching the social dimensions of the pastoral landscape.

Thestylis appears in Virgil's Second Eclogue as a woman who prepares food for harvest workers, representing rustic domestic labor. Unlike idealized shepherdesses who sing and love, Thestylis embodies the working woman of the countryside. Poets invoke Thestylis when depicting agricultural labor's support systems, the domestic economy of rural life, or working-class women beyond romantic contexts. The character demonstrates pastoral's occasional attention to actual labor and the working people who sustained rural communities, showing bucolic poetry could acknowledge class realities beneath its typical focus on leisured shepherds.