Five ancient Greek novels survive complete from antiquity

Classical antiquity

Classical antiquity is a broad term for a long period of cultural history centered on the Mediterranean Sea, comprising the interlocking civilizations of ancient Greece and ancient Rome, collectively known as the Greco-Roman world...

: Chariton

Chariton

Chariton of Aphrodisias was the author of an ancient Greek novel probably titled Callirhoe , though it is regularly referred to as Chaereas and Callirhoe...

's Callirhoe, Xenophon of Ephesus

Xenophon of Ephesus

Xenophon of Ephesus was a Greek writer. His surviving work is the Ephesian Tale of Anthia and Habrocomes, one of the earliest novels as well as one of the sources for Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet....

' Ephesian romance, Longus

Longus

Longus, sometimes Longos , was the author of an ancient Greek novel or romance, Daphnis and Chloe. Very little is known of his life, and it is assumed that he lived on the isle of Lesbos during the 2nd century AD...

' Daphnis and Chloe, Achilles Tatius

Achilles Tatius

Achilles Tatius of Alexandria was a Roman era Greek writer whose fame is attached to his only surviving work, the ancient Greek novel or romance The Adventures of Leucippe and Clitophon.-Life and minor works:...

' Leucippe and Clitophon

Leucippe and Clitophon

The Adventures of Leucippe and Clitophon , written by Achilles Tatius, is one of the five surviving Ancient Greek romances, notable for its many similarities to Longus' Daphnis and Chloe, and its apparent mild parodic nature.-Plot summary:...

and Heliodorus of Emesa

Heliodorus of Emesa

Heliodorus of Emesa, from Emesa, Syria, was a Greek writer generally dated to the third century AD who is known for the ancient Greek novel or romance called the Aethiopica or sometimes "Theagenes and Chariclea"....

's Ethiopian Romance. There are also numerous fragments preserved on papyrus or in quotations, and summaries by the Byzantine bishop Photius. In one case, that of the unattributed Metiochus and Parthenope, we have what appears to be a faithful Persian translation by the poet Unsuri

Unsuri

Abul Qasim Hasan Unsuri Balkhi was a 10-11th century Persian poet.He is said to have been born in Balkh, today located in Afghanistan, and he eventually became a poet of the royal court, and was given the title Malik-us Shu'ara .His Divan is said to have contained 30,000 distichs, of which only...

.

The Greek novel as a genre seems to have emerged in the first century CE, and flourished in the first four centuries of our era; it is thus a product of the Roman Empire. Although the plots of the surviving novels appear to be relatively conventional, based around the fulfilled heterosexual desire of a beautiful and usually virtuous young couple, this impression of uniformity and moralism may be an illusion created by later Christians, who decided which to copy for posterity. Certainly writers now lost such as Lollianus

Lollianus

Lollianus is a Roman personal name which may refer to many figures of classical antiquity, including:...

 and Iamblichus (novelist)

Iamblichus (novelist)

Iamblichus was an Ancient Syrian Greek novelist.Iamblichus was an Emesene that achieved wide prominence in the 2nd century. He describes himself on being having ‘descended from the ancient dynasts’, including the Priest Kings of the Emesani Dynasty...

 seem to have been much more experimental and lurid. Even so, the surviving texts (arguably with the exception of Xenophon's Ephesian romance) show great sophistication in their handling of character, narrative and intertextuality

Intertextuality

Intertextuality is the shaping of texts' meanings by other texts. It can include an author’s borrowing and transformation of a prior text or to a reader’s referencing of one text in reading another. The term “intertextuality” has, itself, been borrowed and transformed many times since it was coined...

. Although most authorities are agreed that the five surviving novels constitute a coherent if flexible genre, we know of no name by which that genre was known in antiquity, what we call the 'novel' passing almost completely without mention by contemporary literary critics. Because of the absence of any clear generic markers, it is probably unhelpful to insist on too sharp a generic boundary between the 'romantic' novels mentioned above and other works of Greek prose fiction, such as Lucian

Lucian

Lucian of Samosata was a rhetorician and satirist who wrote in the Greek language. He is noted for his witty and scoffing nature.His ethnicity is disputed and is attributed as Assyrian according to Frye and Parpola, and Syrian according to Joseph....

's True stories, the Alexander romance

Alexander Romance

Alexander romance is any of several collections of legends concerning the mythical exploits of Alexander the Great. The earliest version is in Greek, dating to the 3rd century. Several late manuscripts attribute the work to Alexander's court historian Callisthenes, but the historical figure died...

and the Life of Aesop.

The relationship between the Greek novel and the Latin novels of Petronius

Petronius

Gaius Petronius Arbiter was a Roman courtier during the reign of Nero. He is generally believed to be the author of the Satyricon, a satirical novel believed to have been written during the Neronian age.-Life:...

 and Apuleius

Apuleius

Apuleius was a Latin prose writer. He was a Berber, from Madaurus . He studied Platonist philosophy in Athens; travelled to Italy, Asia Minor and Egypt; and was an initiate in several cults or mysteries. The most famous incident in his life was when he was accused of using magic to gain the...

 is debated, but most scholars consider that both Roman writers were aware of, and to an extent responding to the Greek novels. The influence of the novelists is demonstrable on Musaeus' Hero and Leander

Hero and Leander

Hero and Leander is a Byzantine myth, relating the story of Hērō and like "hero" in English), a priestess of Aphrodite who dwelt in a tower in Sestos on the European side of the Dardanelles, and Leander , a young man from Abydos on the opposite side of the strait. Leander fell in love with Hero...

, the late antique epic by Nonnus

Nonnus

Nonnus of Panopolis , was a Greek epic poet. He was a native of Panopolis in the Egyptian Thebaid, and probably lived at the end of the 4th or early 5th century....

 titled Dionysiaca, Procopius

Procopius

Procopius of Caesarea was a prominent Byzantine scholar from Palestine. Accompanying the general Belisarius in the wars of the Emperor Justinian I, he became the principal historian of the 6th century, writing the Wars of Justinian, the Buildings of Justinian and the celebrated Secret History...

, the Byzantine novel

Byzantine novel

The Byzantine novel represents a revival of the ancient Greek romance of Roman times. Works in this category were written by Byzantine Greeks of the Eastern Roman Empire during the 12th century.-History:...

, and Byzantine historiography in general. Thanks in large part to Jacques Amyot

Jacques Amyot

Jacques Amyot , French Renaissance writer and translator, was born of poor parents, at Melun.He found his way to the University of Paris, where he supported himself by serving some of the richer students. He was nineteen when he became M.A. at Paris, and later he graduated doctor of civil law at...

's translations, they were rediscovered in early modern Europe, and played an influential role in the formation of the modern novel, particularly the 'romance' variety.