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Eros and the Lesbian Pastorals of Longos1
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 December 2013
Extract
‘Daphnis & Chloe: A most sweet & pleasant Pastoral Romance for Young ladies by George Thornley, Gent. … 1657.’ The well-known title-page of the first English translation of Longos from the original is characteristic of the attitude which has always prevailed towards this work. If we turn to the present day we find that the latest translator into English writes in his introduction ‘Daphnis and Chloe was only meant to be “a source of pleasure for the human race”, and might have been described by a second-century Graham Greene as an “entertainment”’. The intervening three centuries provide some acknowledgments of Longos' skill in individual departments—the description of nature, for example, or the management of plot—but taking the work as a whole scarcely any reader seems to have regarded it as more than an amorous triviality with a country setting; enjoyable in its pastoral descriptions; enjoyable in its amorous passages (or shocking, according to the taste of the reader); essentially trivial.
It is my object to argue that this view, by taking account of only one side of the book, misrepresents it as a whole. Longos meant us to find in his work a serious import, as well as entertainment, and the way in which he realises this intention in all the details of the story makes of it a serious work of art.
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- Copyright © The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies 1960
References
2 Angel Daye's free version (1587) is based on Amyot's French translation.
3 Paul Turner (Penguin Books 1956) 15. I have borrowed or adapted many of his renderings.
4 Many of Longos' modern readers have been unable to achieve the σωφροσύνη which he himself prays for at the end of the Prologue (2), but have been bemused by the few chapters which some trans lators have seen fit to render in Latin, and so failed to judge the work as a whole. Isuspect that Rohde, 's interpretation (Der Griechische Roman 1900/1914, discussed fully below, n. 110; still the most influential)Google Scholar is prejudiced by his having been shocked by Longos. He consequently goes to extremes in condemning his plot construction (usually praised), his style (rhetorical, but not ‘sillier than that of almost anyother late Greek rhetorician’), his formal conception and his sincerity (both of which I shall attempt to vindicate). Schissel (RE s.v. ‘Longos’) sees no other motive in Longos' choice of episodes than a desire to achieve γλυκύτης—at times of a disreputable kind. Wolff, S. L.., The Gk. Romance in Elizabethan Prose fiction (Columbia 1912)Google Scholar, despite a partial realisation of the importance of Eros, and of the Town as well as the Country in Longos, still passes the verdict ‘the point of the story still remains in the piquancy of the children's experiments … heightened by the charm of their surroundings’ (p. 130). Geo. Moore, (Translation with Introduction, 1924)Google Scholar is impressed by the book's being ‘of such voluptuous subject’. Castiglioni, L. (Rendiconti d. Real Ist. Lombard. d. Sc. e Lett. Ser. 2.61 (1928) 203)Google Scholar speaks of the secondary importance of the events owing to ‘la tenuità di materia’. A glance at the interpretations of artists and musicians will confirm an excessive preoccupation with the sensual. J. Lindsay's Appendix to his translation (London, 1948) is exceptional in the awareness it displays of some deeper meaning behind Longos' charm. P. Turner's insistence (op. cit., 11, 15) on Longos' wit is a valuable corrective to the traditional view, whose most charitable judgment may be summed up in the words of the Rev. Roland Smith (introduction to translation, 1855): ‘In reading the work of Longus we must remember that he was most probably a heathen or at any rate that he describes the heathen state of morals.’
5 Denniston, GP 2370.Google Scholar Types (i) (ii) (greater weight on δέ clause). For the distinction of different kinds of narrative according to their intention see Trenkner, S., The Greek Novella in the Classical Period, Cambridge (1958) xiii–xiv.Google Scholar
6 Especially as almost all translations call the work ‘The Story of Daphnis and Chloe’. Cf. Thornley, Lowe, Lindsay, Turner. The title in the colophon reads Geo. Moore's ‘Pastoral Loves of Daphnis and Chloe’ is inaccurate. Turner (p. 14) wisely warns the reader against ‘regarding the book as a crude attempt at a modern novel’. See also n. 91.
7 For a full discussion of the question of unity (and especially Rohde's objections), see below pp. 48ff. Schissel (RE) represents the work as primarily a string of hardly related τόποι. Cf. Wolff (p. 199) ‘No strict unity is to be expected of a writer who professes to offer only a succession of pictures.’ Todd, F. A., Some Ancient Novels (1939), chap. ii 46.Google Scholar sees fit to excuse the divine interventions on the grounds that few readers would have ‘felt that there was any inartistic violation of probability’.
8 Pr. 1. Note also here τύχην ἐρωτικήν: in Pr. 2
9 Pr. 1. These all, of course, figure in Longos.
10 Wolff, 121–6. He also perceives the connexion of this with the painting in the prologue. Cf. Rohde, , Gr. Rom. 2547 n. 1.Google Scholar
11 Eros instructs the foster parents to send Daphnis and Chloe out with the flocks, i 7: arranges the situation which results in their falling in love, i 11–13; manifests himself to Philetas, and says he makes it his daily task to bring them together, ii 4, 5; gives the final permission for their marriage, iv 34.1.
12 Pr. 2. The formula is echoed at end of last book (iv 36 and 39). Divine control implied in such phrases as i 6 i 8
i 15
ii 26
ii 27.1
iv 24
(recognition of Daphnis): iv 36
(recognition of Chloe). At ii 10–11 they nearly chance on the consummation of love, but are prevented by the Methymnaean invasion: for with a chance conclusion the story would no longer have been an
to Eros, representing his controlling power.
13 Cf. Glover, T. R., Conflict of Religions in Early Roman Empire 394 ff.Google Scholar For a brief account of Posidonius as the source of this idea, see Armstrong, A. H., Architecture of the Universe in Plotinus (1940) 53Google Scholar and Introduction to Anc. Philosophy (1947) 143 ff. The unusualness of the direct manifestation of Eros at ii 4–7 justifies the weight I attach to this passage below, under Final Autumn and Initiation.
14 The Picture is found in the grove of the nymphs (Pr. 1) and this grove is the setting of almost all Daphnis' and Chloe's meetings (cf. ii 2, iii 12); Chloe found in the grove (i 4); Nymphs present Daphnis and Chloe to Eros in dream (i 7): save Chloe from raiders (ii 20–3): grant money for Daphnis' wooing (iii 27): receive sacrifice of Daphnis', ποιμενικὰ κτήματα (iv 26)Google Scholar: arrange the marriage (iv 34) which takes place at their shrine (iv 37).
15 Pan ( pl. Crat. 408b) is identified with the Stoic Zeus, Orphic Phanes as ‘All God’: see Wernicke in Roscher, s.v. ‘Pan’ 1405, 1467–8. Pan is the ‘Hellenistic counterpart of Eros’ (Wernicke, 1443–4; cf. 1456, 1464, 1469–70, 1472).
16 iv 26 associates Dionysos formally with Pan and Nymphs. An Index Nominum will reveal that the Olympian gods are named almost exclusively in Bk. iv by the town dwellers, rather than by ‘pastoral’ characters. The few exceptions which occur else where are literary allusions.
17 For a view of the relationship between Orpheus and Dionysos, see Guthrie, W. K. C., Orpheus and Greek Religion 2 (London, 1952) 41–8.Google Scholar
18 Macrob. Sat. i 18.2: Orpheus … ait …
19 Jane Harrison, Prolegomena to Gk. Religion, ch. xii, discusses the evidence for Eros in Orphism. This establishes Eros' position as an Orphic god, even if it is not necessary to go so far as she does in elevating the significance of Eros. Cf. inter alia Orph. Arg. 14–16 Orph. fr. Lobeck, p. 495, Abel fr. 123 1. 11, Kern fr. 168 1. 9
Orph. Hym. 1 ii 10
Orph. fr. Kern 167 ap. Procl. in Parm. 130b (ἔρως and
born of δημιοῦργς after
with which cf. Longos' language at ii 7.2–3).
20 iv 26. Cf. iv 13—Eros' place taken by Demeter (only here) and Dionysos. This is to be explained as referring to the action of city dwellers, cf. n. 16.
21 Thespiae, Paus. ix 27.1, 31.3. Leuctra (cult founded by Boeotians), Paus. iii 26.5. Parion, Paus. ix 27.1.
22 The evidence is collected by Furtwängler in Roscher s.v. ‘Eros’. Cf. also Harrison, ch. xii.
23 Cf. authorities cited by B. B. Rogers, not. ad loc.; Kern Orphica fr. 1. Aristoph. also parodies Orphism, then well known in Athens, in Nub. 250 (cf. Dieterich in Rhein. Mus. 1893. 275) and Ran. 145–459. Cf. Guthrie Orpheus General Index s.v. ‘Aristophanes’.
24 Worship at Phlya of Dionysos Anthios, Ismenian Nymphs and Ge, Paus. i 31.4. Lykomids sing hymn to Eros Paus. ix 27.2. Lykomids
(sc.
) Paus. ix 30.12. The Lykomids officiated at Phlya (Paus. iv 1.5 ff., cf. Harrison, 644).
25 E.g. Luc. Am. 32. Am. 37.
Cf. the group of Epigrams, , A.Pl. xvi 200–2, 207, 214–15Google Scholar, also AP xv 24 (Simmias'
). It is worth comparing the ‘Amor rure natus’, origin of fertility and music, in Pervig. Veneris 78–88. Venus is here the principal cosmic power, but in the whole poem she offers a close parallel to Longos’ Eros, in power, and in ritual (cf. especially Proem. 2 with Pervig. Ven. refrain).
26 The Orphic Eros is also (cf. Orph. Arg. 424
Schol. Ap. Rhod. 3.26. For Eros represented as πρεσβύντης on the wall of the Telesterion at Phlya see Harrison's suggested interpretation of Philosophoumena v 3 (p. 645).
27 (Pr. 2). For ἐξηγτές as interpreter of sacred rites, etc., see LSJ s.v. ἐξηγτές II.
28 Cf. ii 7 Belief in Winds as fertilising agents (cf. Guthrie Orpheus 2 94, 144 n. 17) also lends significance to i 4
iii 12
i 23 (see my comment, under First Summer).
29 Rohde, E.Psyche 8 (tr. Hillis, ) chap, x ‘The Orphics’ 339.Google Scholar
30 Athens NM 1852, reproduced in Harrison 636, fig. 172, and Hesp. Suppl. viii pl. 5.2, where M. Bieber (p. 31) discusses this and other fourth-century vases depicting Eros and Dionysos. Cf. also A.Pl. xvi 14 Eros by a fountain. In A.Pl. xvi 202 Eros is ‘born of a nymph, country-bred, the helper of the husbandman, who is crowned by the four Horae’.
31 Most obviously in Apuleius', Cupid and Pysche (Met. iv 28 ff.).Google Scholar Also when Lucius became ‘the ass who bore the mysteries’ (Ar. Ran. 159) he had intended to become a bird, as Pamphile did become, for erotic purposes (Met. iii 21, 25). Apul. like Longos is aware of different levels of the same Eros. For archaeological evidence for mystic allegories of Psyche see Collignon, Essai sur les monuments Gr. el Rom. relatif au mythe de Psyche (Paris, 1877)Google Scholar, with bibliography in Haight, E. H., Apuleius (1927) 187–90.Google Scholar On the World-Egg see Guthrie, Orpheus 92 ff.Google Scholar
32 ii 4. ii 6
He is
(ii 5). Philetas'
begins
(ii 7.1) Cf. Pervig Ven. 3, Amores: alites.
33 iii 4.11. Note (5);
(6.1).
34 Cf. Meleager, , A.Pl. v 96.Google Scholar
35 The title occurs in the Athenian Iobacchic inscriptions (Wide, AM xix (1894) 248Google Scholar): the suggestion is Harrison's, 656–7. The evidence for Eros as musician is listed in Roscher, s.v. ‘Eros’ 1350. For music as a symbol of κοσμός, cf. Strabo x 3.10; Luc. Salt. 7 For the music of Pan as that of the spheres, see Roscher s.v. ‘Pan’ 1468 (Wernicke).
36 The nymphs, whose statues represent them dancing (i 4), are (iii 23).
37 (cf. n. 119 for
); and
like bird-catching, is love: cf. especially ii 24. For Philetas as Daphnis’ predecessor in representing Eros, cf. Philetas' opening words (ii 3) and the story of his youth (ii 5), and (ii 37)
Ph. does this in admiration of Daphnis' representation on the
of a story of Eros. Cf. also the list of ‘erotic’ modes played by Daphnis (37.2) with the ‘pastoral’ modes played by Philetas (35.2) and Daphnis (iv 15). For music in Orphic initiation cf. Arist. Quint, , de Musica 3, p. 158Google Scholar (Meib.).
38 iv 14 and iv 15 passim.
39 i 10 having made his first pipe: i 13 his flocks already attentive to the sound: i 22 frightened flocks soothed by pipe: i 32 elated when Daphnis returns and pipes. Similarly the cattle of Phassa (i 27) and Dorkon (i 29) are trained to obey the σύριγξ.
40 E.g. ii 29, 30. cf. also n. 15 and p. 47 for the different aspects of Eros–Pan.
41 Fertility symbolism will readily occur in connexion with apples, figs, pomegranates (cf. Schol. Luc. 280.20 Rabe (Kern Orphica, test. 218): list of Orphic headed by
). The rose is Love's flower. Daphnis' and Chloe's regular meeting-place was an oak i 12.2, i 13.2
ii 11, 30, 38.2, iii 12, 16. Also Philetas’ (ii 5). Dryads (ii 23.1) are beloved of Pan (ii 39.2). Daphnis was found in a δρυμός (i 2); Chloe's father named Δρύας (i 4).
42 Valley, G. (Über den Sprachgebrauch des Longos (Uppsala, 1926) ch. vi)Google Scholar suggests that Longos’ description of the garden of Philetas is based on that of the garden of Alkinoos (Hom. Od. vii 112 ff.). The fruits mentioned are identical except that Longos has ἀχράς for Homer's ὄγχνη and, for At iv 3 Philetas swears
43 Also in Pervig. Ven. 28 (cf. ll. 6, 44 myrtle arbours) Μυρτάλη was Daphnis' mother (i 3). Note also significance of μνρρινον, μύρτον Ar. Eq. 964, Lys. 1004.
44 iii 5. Note the ivy clusters are
45 Dalmeyda, G., ‘Longus et Alciphron’ in Mélanges Glotz (1932) i 277–8, 284 n. 3.Google Scholar
46 This garden discussed p. 46. Ivy grew over the dell where Daphnis was found (i 2), the only plant mentioned here: it also sprouted from the horns of his goats (ii 26).
47 Reich, H., De Alciphronis Longique aetate (1894) 53.Google Scholar
48 Explicitly i 29, ii 7, 39. Implied i 23, iii 24 (cf. my comment p. 40). Cf. ii 23, 31, iii 12, iv 8, 39.
49 i 23. So too Phassa, i 27. On such see Cumont, F., AJA xxxvii (1933) 256.Google Scholar Pine in initiation, see Cumont, F., Les Religions Orientales dans le paganisme Romain (1929) 201–2Google Scholar with fig. 13 and pl. 16.
50 E.g. Castiglioni, 204. Rohde, , Gr. Rom 2544Google Scholar recognises a correspondence of the seasons with man's life and labour, in general, but not with Daphnis' and Chloe's love in this book.
51 My object is to deny not that Longos uses the τόποι of the schools (that he does so is clear, cf. Rohde, Gr. Rom 2 on Longos, and Part iii (Gr. Soph.) sect. 4; Schissel, RE, loc. cit.) but that he does so indiscriminately and irrelevantly. The same could be argued, against Rohde, of his style. For objections of lack of unity, cf. n. 7 and p. 33. Dunlop, J. C. (History of Fiction, 1814, ch. i)Google Scholar points to the effect of the opposition between dramatic excitement and pastoral calm. This is true so far as it goes, but does not guard against such an objection as that of Rohde (see n. 110) who sees in just this opposition an inevitable cause of lack of unity.
52 See LSJ for μέλισσα as name of poets, priestesses and neophytes (s.v. μέλισσα II). The bee in religious belief, especially connected with Aphrodite, Harrison, 444.
53 Not an appealing touch of realism (Turner, 14): ‘natural’ flies are but would not
In the Delphic Paean to Dionysos the god is invoked
(Weil, BCH xix 403Google Scholar). Cf. A.Pl. xvi 196
Orph. Hym. xi (to Pan) 23
54 Cf. n. 119.
55 The kiss is important: ii 7, it is the first of the three precepts of Philetas: i 17, its effect on Daphnis (cf. i 22): i 29–30, Dorkon's kiss (see n. 105) is similar to that at ii 2—bothare potential causes of (cf. n. 96): ii 18, 30.1, its curative properties.
56 The paradoxes here are designed to represent Eros as different in his effect from (secondary) natural causes. The physical effects are consequently unique and unexpected.
57 The refs. are i 13.3, 15.1, 15.4, 17.1, 19.1.
58 Note that when Dorkon proposed to her father, he was setting his vines (i 19). He was threshing his grain when asked by the successful Daphnis (iii 29).
59 Macrob. Sat. i 23.22. Solem esse omnia et Orpheus testatur in his versibus … See further Lobeck 497–8, Kern fr. 236–7, Plut. Am. 19, Kern frr. 86, 96.
60 The words are adapted from Theocr. i 1 (Rohde, Gr. Rom. 2534 n. 1Google Scholar): but the implication of the words , which are not in Theocritus, is Longos' own and typical of his constructive use of his sources. Cf. also iii 24
(sc.
)
is regular of the
(i 24, ii 33, 35). For rivers and winds cf. n. 28; Pine, nn. 47–9; Apples, cf. my comments on iii 33–4, under Second Summer.
61 D'Arcy Thompson, Greek Birds, s.v. For τέττιξ connected with Eros cf. Boettiger Kleine Schriften ii pl. 7.1 (gem showing Eros with moon (?), sun and torch, in chariot drawn by τέττιγες).
62 It seems just possible that Longos' choice of φάσσα in particular is based on ritual practice. Porphyry Abst. 416 says that derive the name
Persephone was the mother of Dionysos-Zagreus (Clem. Protrep. ii 16): and Dionysos is about to appear in the chapter following the φάσσα legend (i 29 see my interpretation below p. 46). Although not part of my present thesis it may be of interest to note that the folk story used by Longos, with its eight cows, is reminiscent of our own nursery explanation of the wood-pigeon's call: ‘Take two cows, Taffy’ and equally of a legend quoted by Fisher, J. in British Birds, xlvi, 1953Google Scholar (a reference I owe to the kindness of Professor M. F. M. Meiklejohn) on the Collared Dove, streptopelia decaocto. There a maidservant was turned into a dove for sorrow at being paid no more than eighteen pieces a year. This fact the bird still proclaims (hence its scientific name). Cf. Longos, i 27
Longos' source might have explained the call as
(Cf. Aristoph. fr. 760 for the contraction
)
63 For Love as Pirate cf. A.Pl. v 309 v 161
Love is traditionally associated with the sea which figures largely in Longos: cf. A.Pl. xvi 207
Cf. also Luc. Dem. Enc. 13 for the distinction of
and
Note the use by Longos of διώκω both in piratical contexts: i 32 also erotic), ii 20: and erotic: ii 5, ii 34, iii 13–14. The Methymnaean raid is tantamount to an act of piracy both in its symbolical function and in the eyes of Longos' characters (iii 2.1; cf. ii 19
).
64 Just as it is the cessation of the music of and bird (cf. iii 12
).
65 The direct mention of Ἔρως is sufficiently rare to attract attention in Longos.
66 The childish innocence of Chloe is emphasised at 20.2 in sharp contrast to what precedes.
67 (iii 23), where the pun has significance for the ‘mystery’.
68 the first mention of this emotion in their relationship.
69 (
Edmonds)
(33.2). (Cf. Sappho fr. 116 Diels2, and Himerius' interpretation Or. i 16. The apple is also Chloe in the words
(34).
70 Note in the sentence which follows this Daphnis is impelled to take the apple, Love isfirst seen in the picture which this book represents (Pr. 1). Love gives eyes to Chloe i 13.1, to Daphnis i 17.1, cf. i 24, 32. For the entry of love through the eyes as a literary convention see Wolff 168.
71 Hence too the virtual abandonment of Longos' regular arrangement, (a) There is no sustained description of autumn, (b) Reaction of Daphnis and Chloe see especially iv 6.2, 14.1. (c) Events make up virtually the whole book, the salient ones being: Lampis' ‘rape’ of the garden (iv 7), Gnathon's attempt on Daphnis (iv 11), recognition of Daphnis (iv 19), Lampis' attempt on Chloe (iv 28), betrothal and recognition of Chloe (iv 30), marriage (iv 37).
72 Perhaps cf. the ritual silence of initiates. (Cumont, AJA xxxvii 262Google Scholar who quotes Suidas s.v. στέγανον Diogenian, iii 43 )
73 Particularly over the garden, for the was
(iv 7). Cf. ii 6 (Eros speaking)
74 Diod. Sic. i 11.3. No doubt Longos is also thinking, in his choice of name, of the common use of φαίνομαι for the manifestation of a god. For the significance of many of the names in Longos cf. p. 102 of the suggestive Appendix to J. Lindsay's translation. Other writers have noted Longos' debt to New Comedy for names and plot. This is true, but not relevant to my present theme.
75 Who thereby sets him free, just as he does Chloe, Dryas and Nape, Lamon and Myrtale. For freeing by Dionysos λύσιος as the culmination of initiation cf. Olympiod. ad Pl. Phaedr. 32 Fisch. (Kern fr. 232, q.v. for bibliogr.) See also Rohde, Psyche 8342.Google Scholar
For initiation regarded as adoption by the divinity cf. Rohde, Psyche 8 App. xii 601.Google Scholar
76 Specifically at i 22
77 Hence the common representation of initiates as children, e.g. Cumont, Rel. Or. 202Google Scholar fig. 13, pl. 16. So Cupid and Psyche are often represented as children (cf. Collignon, op. cit. 346). The importance of lustration as a part of ritual purification is a basis for the noticeable part played by bathing in the fountain in Longos, especially i 13, 32 (washing induces love rather than cleanliness); cf. also i 22, 24: also in rivers and the sea (i 23, i 30, iii 24). The fountain is peculiarly the gift of Eros (above, p. 36). Sexual abstinence was sometimes forced on an initiate by means of hemlock (Philosophoumena p. 170, Cruice) and ritual purity is the reason for Dionysophanes' insistence on Chloe's virginity (iv 31). For virginity in other novels cf. Wolff 127 and Rattenbury, R. M.Proc. Leeds Lit. and Phil. Soc. 1925–1928 58.Google Scholar
78 Eros as the source of knowledge is familiar (in his own sense) in Plat. Rep. vi 485b–e Symp. 1786, Phdr. 246c–249e. Cf. also A.Pl. xvi 201 (5–6C. A.D.). Longosrefers to love-making as ii 11; perhaps cf. iv 19
in conjunction with iv 18
Cf. the latter with the ritual procedure (Philodemus Ir. p. 46 W
) discussed by Cumont Rel. Or. 202.
79 For ignorance of (specifically) and
by Daphnis and Chloe see i 13.3, 15.1, 4, 18.3–19.1, ii 8.1, iii 14. Cf. also i 22
ii 8
ii 11
iii 14
The convention of ignorance is extended to their parents (i 8.2) and to Philetas (ii 4—before his enlightenment).
80 iii 17.1. Cf. iii 14, where Chloe too points out that men differ from goats and sheep.
81 (a) The idea of instruction (introduced in Prologue, 2, ) is especially prominent in the use of
and
in connexion with:
Philetas ii 8.1 iii 14.1
Lykainion iii 17
iii 18.1
iii 19.1
completes Lykainion's instruction
iii 18. Cf. i 9.1
(in dreams).
Previously Chloe was (i 17). Cf. also the end of this paper.
(b) The listed by Philetas at ii 7
form the pattern of instruction followed by Daphnis and Chloe (ii 8, 9, 10, 11, iii 14) and it is their failure to interpret it which Lykainion assists.
82 Cf. Pollux On. iii 38 Also Firmicus Mat. de Ev. Pr. Relig. 38c: Neque verba solum sed etiam ritus nuptialis sacris mysticis intercurrisse indicio est solemnis gratulado qua mystae recens initiatos sponsarum nomine consalutabant.
Cf. Bieber, M.Hesp. Suppl. viii 31Google Scholar (Eros and Dionysos on fourth-century (Wedding) Vases). Toynbee, J. C. M.JRS xix (1929) 67Google Scholar (on Marriage-initiation murals of Villa Item).
83 For such objections see nn. 7, 110.
84 See Harrison 475 (who connects the belief specifically with the pantomimic character of ancient ritual) and her discussion (479 ff.) of Eur. fr. 475 Cf. also Schol. Ar. Eq. 408.
On the status of βάκχος see Cumont, AJA xxxvii 258.Google Scholar
85 T. R. Glover III (my italics). The same opinion—Harrison 625: ‘We feel that everyone is changing into everyone else.’ The baffling result could be fruitful in the hands of a sufficiently clear-headed writer, as Longos shows.
86 Arist. Po. 1450b8
By this criterion too much of Daphnis' action consists of bewailing his misfortunes in tears (e.g. i 12, ii 21, 23, iii 14, iii 26.1, iv 28) instead of choosing or avoiding anything (as Longos humorously hints iii 27.1).
87 Cf. ii 6
88 The legends of and Ἤχω are introduced as μῦθοι (i 27.1, ii 33, iii 22). When on the other hand Philetas saw Eros face to face and gave a direct explanation of his name and nature, Longos invites us to smile at Daphnis and Chloe because
(ii 7.1.)
89 Cf. the discussion of Music, pp. 37f. Also i 16.2 and iv 4 (Daphnis compared to Pan): i 32, ii 29 (behaviour of Daphnis' flocks as though before Pan): ii 37 (Daphnis mimes Pan).
90 i 14, Chloe wishes to be Syrinx; ii 37 mimes Syrinx; iii 11.1 Chloe compared to Echo; iii 23 Echo legend; Chloe also compared to Nymphs (i 24.1) and Bacchae (i 15, 23, ii 2).
91 (iv 39). For Eros as shepherd cf. A.Pl. vii 703 (IC A.D.), Nonnus, Dionysiaca i 79.Google Scholar Longos' thought may have been assisted by the metaphorical use of
occurring at: Theocr. xi 80 (
cf. 65): A.Pl. xii 99 (
[sc.
]
): Orph. fr. 82 (Kern) (
[sc.
]). The idea of God and King as Shepherd goes back to Homer's
but in Longos' age had already received the mystic implication which it retained in Christian tradition.
92 Other expressions implying the identification of Daphnis and Chloe with the Year god are: i 18 (compared with violets and hyacinths): i 17 he is
(A 1 so corrects A καιρνῆς)—cf. the similar description of Dorkon quoted in n. 102: Daphnis' life is endangered in the first autumn (i 28 ff.) and again in the second (iii 26.1, late summer; iv 8–9, 22, autumn). Chloe, a cult title of Demeter (LSJ s.v. Χλόη II) lit. means ‘the first green shoot of plants in spring’.
93 Cf. the common equation of marriage and its consummation with death.
94 iv 3.2 Wolff (168) misses the point when he accuses Longos of ‘inserting into his description of the garden … an irrelevant list of the paintings or sculptures in the temple of Bacchus’.
95 Cf. the list in n. 71.
96 ii 2.1 Cf. i 22 and for formal descriptions i 14 (Chloe), i 18, 32 (Daphnis), Philetas is affected ii 7–8. Note in this context that Pan is
(ii 38).
97 Hym. Hom. vii 1–12. The miraculous vine (line 38) is perhaps echoed in the corresponding episode of the capture of Chloe (ii 26.1).
98 The ‘element of self-mockery’ which Turner invokes (quite rightly seeing the need to save the absurdity here) does not seem to me quite strong enough alone. Why did Longos choose such a method of saving Daphnis? He could have swum ashore.
99 For Dionysos coming from the sea as a bull and on bull-back cf. Elean hymn to Dionysos Diels2Carm. Pop. 46. Harrison 432–7. Rohde, Psyche 272 n. 35Google Scholar to ch. viii. For Dionysos coming in a wagon (cf. Longos i 30. ) Bieber, M.Gk. and R. Theater 96–7Google Scholar, figs. 139–42. Cattle do not often occur in Longos: it may therefore be significant that Philetas, Dorkon and Lampis are
was a title in the Dionysiac hierarchy (Cumont, AJA xxxvii 247Google Scholar).
100 iv 8.1 and 8.–9.1, on which see Dalmeyda 286 on,
Daphnis is intimately associated with this garden and with Eros as having found the spring in it, which waters its plants, iv 4.1.
101 If Valley (chap, vi) is right in suggesting that the description of the trampled garden (iv 7–8) draws on Sappho fr. 117, we may suppose that Longos used Sappho's words here to refer, as in their original context, to the trampling of virginity. Cf. his use of Sappho fr. 116 in iii 33 discussed above.
102 Dorkon is in effect a scapegoat, like the garden. The pirates (i 29): cf. his own words
(i 16.1) with the descriptions of Daphnis quoted in n. 92. Valley (p. 86) points out that this passage is modelled on Theocr. vi 2: it is the more significant that the words
are Longos' own addition. So are the words
(applied to him by Daphnis 16.2), for whose significance see below n. 105.
103 iv 39, altar dedicated to Pan Stratiotes. Cf. ii 23 Pan was associated with war from Marathon on (Hdt. vi 105), but I have not found any other case of this as a cult title. For Pan as
the role of Warrior developing from that of Hunter, see Wernicke in Roscher s.v. ‘Pan’ 1388.
104 LSJ s.v. Cf. Latin lupa (Lewis and Short s.v. II). Probably Longos is conscious of this innuendo at ii 39 (Chloe's speech). Double meanings as characteristic of Longos' irony are discussed below, p. 49. Obvious puns occur at ii 15
iii 6
iii 23 μέλη iv 12 χειραγωγία.
105 Dorkon's attempt and kiss and Lykainion's instruction are similar (a) in description: setting and subterfuges of both are similar (wolves hiding in thickets): both are experienced in both prosperous and ply their innocent victims with gifts: note i 16.2
iii 15
cf. n. 102; (b) in function. The two episodes are moments at which love is revealed as a universal not a purely private experience (the different degrees of revelation being due to merely practical necessity). The lovers' reactions (these are the only two experiences which they consciously conceal from each other) are part of their ultimate hesitation to leave their private Golden Age and face marriage. The language suggests that a parallel is to be drawn also between the wound which fatally shed the blood of Dorkon (i 29) and that described at length in connexion with Lykainion (iii 19–20).
106 Pan is a hunter regularly from Hym. Hom. xix 13 on, e.g. especially A.Pl. vi 11–16, 106, 107, 109. Dionysos is hunter and hunted (as Zagreus, , Rohde, Psyche 352Google Scholar n. 27, 353 n. 35 to ch. x). Cf. R. P. Winnington-Ingram Euripides and Dionysus, ch. x, ‘The hunt’.
107 (opening words of Pr.). Why Lesbian Pastorals? I hope my interpretation may suggest a new line of approach to the vexed question of Longos' identity. The head of Orpheus was washed to Lesbos where it gave oracles. Later it became part of a shrine of Dionysos (Phil. Her. v 3, Vit. Apoll. Tyan. iv 14, Lucian adv. indoct. 11). Cf. Kern, Orphic. Fr. testim. 118Google Scholar, 130, 134, with 77 l. 18. Lesbos was the home of the old-established cult of Dionysos Brisaeos, and of the family of Dionysiac priests, from whom was descended Pompeia Agrippinilla, Bacchic priestess of the Torre Nova inscription (Cumont, AJA xxxvii 232Google Scholar).
108 My interpretation makes Longos a successor to the tradition of the Virgilian Pastoral with an ulterior allusion, carried on by Calpurnius, Nemesianus and the Einsiedeln Eclogues. Apuleius provides a parallel for the love story with a religious ὐπόνοια.
109 Schissel (RE s.v. ‘Longos’) notes that the age of the independent πόλις is implied in Longos (as in some other novelists). For the pastoral ideal in cxiv–xv cf. Huizinga, J.The Waning of the Middle Ages (Penguin, ed.) 38–9, 130–9.Google Scholar For cxvi–xviii cf. Empson, W.Some Versions of Pastoral (1935).Google Scholar The idealisation of childhood has been a more popular form of pastoral than that of the shepherd's life since Wordsworth and Blake, cf. especially Lewis Carroll, J. M. Barrie, A. A. Milne. E. Lewis Dew on the Grass provides a pastoral of childhood within a framework of seasons. There, as in Milne, the final ‘initiation’ consists in leaving home for school.
110 Rohde, Gr. Rom. 2549.Google Scholar (I have not had access to a later edition than that of 1900 (Leipzig) to which I refer.) Rohde's interpretation of Longos has not been challenged as a whole. He is followed by, e.g., Wolff., 124; Castiglioni, 204; Turner, 11. His position may be summarised as follows:
(1) His general theory of the Greek novel is that of a synthesis of love story with adventure story (ii 1: this is no longer tenable; see especially Schmid, W., Neue Jahrb. für das Klass. Alt. 1904, 465Google Scholar).
(2) In Longos' case (531 ff.) the synthesis is of love story with pastoral (537, 543).
(3) But pastoral is intrinsically without history, timeless (547).
(4) To supply a basis for the story the ‘Town’ and adventures from the outside world are therefore imported (548). They are thus a frigid intrusion, no integration being possible, by definition, between the two elements.
The view of Pastoral which I suggest differs in toto from Rohde's at (3). Rohde's distinction of idyll, romance, drama and epic seems too brash. We might as well argue that it is impossible to integrate choral lyric with dramatic episodes. But in any case his argument fails if we do not assume initially the mechanical conflation of Pastoral plus Love story Town plus Adventures. Rohde's great skill in dissecting Longos' origins and sources has left him with a corpse. But such dissection should follow, not initiate, interpretation. First we should look for the single conception from which Longos starts (in the Prologue). This is Eros, i.e. a total conception of Nature with Man/Town with Country, including violence as well as prettiness, evil as well as good. See further on Rohde's view at n. 117.
111 Not, as Rohde (pp. 549–50) accuses Longos, to a gratuitous and detestable sophistry. That the subject of the irony is frequently love is prescribed by the subject-matter. So Wolff recognises the play between sophistication and innocence but regards it merely as a salacious game (130–1): again he correctly recognises the ‘envelopment’ of the Country by the Town (122–3) but writes ‘In Longos there is very little irony: in fact very little place for it’ (215).
112 Longos laughs at the conventions of his own love story, especially iii 17 (Lykainion's cynicism about dreams from Nymphs); iii 27 (Daphnis, in trouble, ); iv 13 (Gnathon's
—Longos is drawing near the end of his own
). Turner (11) draws attention to other examples and to the commencement of this ‘self-mockery’ in the prologue, with Longos' prayer for
And Longos is not only mocking himself, but the ideal of
which is a leading motif in the Greek novel (Rattenbury, Proc. Leeds Phil. Soc. 1925–1928, 59Google Scholar). But the prayer is simultaneously serious. In the same spirit Lykainion offers Daphnis
(iii 15 cf. iii 17 σῶσαι). Cf. Hadrian's invocation at Thespiae of
(Kaibel, G.Ep.Gr. 811Google Scholar) Kaibel's sceptical comment on the adjective is unjustified. As Euripides' choruses knew (Med. 627–34, IA 543–57), there are two kinds of Eros. Longos' τελετή is to help us to the beneficent Eros. Perhaps one might note that Daphnis' original nurse was called Sophrone (Courier, MSS.
).
113 Note the statement which follows immediately (i 13.3) that Eros is the true cause. Daphnis' perplexity after the kiss (i 18) is the equivalent to Chloe's here.
114 Cf. ii 39.3
115 E.g. i 13, 1 15, i 32, ii 39 (twice), iii 18. Note that the convention of Daphnis' innocence is abruptly dropped at iv 28.
116 E.g. Ran. 391
117 I here oppose the view of Rohde which is a corollary to his position stated in n. 110. As Rohde separates the Pastoral element from the rest of the story, he believes that Longos is advocating an escape from the ‘world’ into a kindly ‘nature’ (Gr. Rom 2 545). If the need for producing some story had not prevented him Longos would, he thinks, have liked to represent the Golden Age exclusively: as it is he paints a nature exclusively pretty; man childish in character; the gods only benevolent. There are obvious and fatal exceptions to all three statements, for reasons which I have tried to show. Rohde's earlier remarks on the attitude to nature of the Greeks in general (544—not dealing specifically with Longos) would be more consistent with the juster conclusion that the harmony with nature aimed at is fusion of self rather than loss of self. For Longos man is certainly part of nature: the issue is ‘a rebellious or harmonious part?’ In either case nature is greater than man, not merely pretty (Eros is an object of awe for Philetas (ii 7); Pan of terror to the soldiers (ii 25 ff.))
118 Cf. on φύσις n. 81. Also iii 18.4 iv 23
119 So too it is Chloe's of Daphnis which is
(i 13.2). Gnathon is not, like Daphnis, a perfect embodiment of Eros. But as one of the creations of Eros he necessarily (but imperfectly, as we can see from the lack of success which Longos arranges for him) represents him. Hence he plans
(iv 13); he is
—but
(iv 17). He represents, in fact, what Eros becomes in the man whose initiation is perverted by coming exclusively from the Town and not at all from the Country.
120 Chloe's first kiss is (i 17); Daphnis and Chloe, separated in winter,
(sc.
) (iii 4); the meetings are repeated
(iii 11). Lykainion
(iii 15) cf. iii 18. 1
18.2
Daphnis asks Philetas
(ii 33.1 ). Also (i 11) note the unusual phrase
in connexion with the wolf-trap. Cf. n. 81 on
121 Cf. Rohde's summary of the significance in philosophy and art of the garden as the proper setting for man's communion with nature (Gr. Rom 2 537 ff.).
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