Daphnis and Chloe
Encyclopedia
Daphnis and Chloe is the only known work of the 2nd century AD Greek
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
novelist and romance
Romance (genre)
As a literary genre of high culture, romance or chivalric romance is a style of heroic prose and verse narrative that was popular in the aristocratic circles of High Medieval and Early Modern Europe. They were fantastic stories about marvel-filled adventures, often of a knight errant portrayed as...
r 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...
.
Setting and style
It is set on the isle of Lesbos during the 2nd century AD, which is also assumed to be the author's home. Its style is rhetoricRhetoric
Rhetoric is the art of discourse, an art that aims to improve the facility of speakers or writers who attempt to inform, persuade, or motivate particular audiences in specific situations. As a subject of formal study and a productive civic practice, rhetoric has played a central role in the Western...
al and pastoral
Pastoral
The adjective pastoral refers to the lifestyle of pastoralists, such as shepherds herding livestock around open areas of land according to seasons and the changing availability of water and pasturage. It also refers to a genre in literature, art or music that depicts such shepherd life in an...
; its shepherds and shepherdesses are wholly conventional, but the author imparts human interest to this idealized world. Daphnis and Chloe resembles a modern novel more than does its chief rival among Greek erotic romances, the Aethiopica
Aethiopica
Aethiopica or Theagenes and Chariclea is an ancient Greek romance or novel. It was written by Heliodorus of Emesa and is his only known work.-Author:...
of Heliodorus
Heliodorus
-People:Several persons named Heliodorus are known to us from ancient times, the best known of which are:*Heliodorus a minister of Seleucus IV Philopator ca...
, which is remarkable more for its plot than its characterization.
Plot summary
Daphnis and Chloe is the story of a boy (Daphnis) and a girl (Chloe), each of whom is exposed at birth along with some identifying tokens. A goatherd named Lamon discovers Daphnis, and a shepherd called Dryas finds Chloe. Each decides to raise the child he finds as his own. Daphnis and Chloe grow up together, herding the flocks for their foster parents. They fall in love but, being naive, do not understand what is happening to them. Philetas, a wise old cowherd, explains to them what love is and tells them that the only cure is "kissing." They do this. Eventually, Lycaenion, a woman from the city, educates Daphnis in love-making. Daphnis, however, decides not to test his newly acquired skill on Chloe, because Lycaenion tells Daphnis that Chloe "will scream and cry and lie bleeding heavily [as if murdered]." Throughout the book, Chloe is courted by suitors, two of whom (Dorcon and Lampis) attempt with varying degrees of success to abduct her. She is also carried off by raiders from a nearby city and saved by the intervention of the god Pan. Meanwhile, Daphnis falls into a pit, gets beaten up, is abducted by pirates, and is very nearly raped. In the end, Daphnis and Chloe are recognized by their birth parents, get married, and live out their lives in the country.Characters
The characters in the novel include:- Chloe - the heroine
- DaphnisDaphnisIn Greek mythology, Daphnis was a son of Hermes and a Sicilian nymph. A shepherd and flautist, he was the inventor of pastoral poetry. A naiad fell in love with him, but he was not faithful to her. In revenge, she either blinded him or turned him to stone...
- the hero - DorconDorconDorcon is a character in the ancient Greek novel Daphnis and Chloe by Longus. A cow-hearder and the would-be suiter of Chloe, Dorcon dies when pirates raid the country....
- the would-be suitor of Chloe - Dionysophanes - Daphnis' master and father
- Dryas - Chloe's foster father
- ErosErosEros , in Greek mythology, was the Greek god of love. His Roman counterpart was Cupid . Some myths make him a primordial god, while in other myths, he is the son of Aphrodite....
- god of love - Lamon - Daphnis' foster father
- Lycaenion - woman who educates Daphnis in love-making
- Myrtale - Daphnis' foster mother
- Nape - Chloe's foster mother
- Gnathon - the would-be suitor of Daphnis
- Philetas - old countryman who advises the heroes about love; likely named after Philitas of CosPhilitas of CosPhilitas of Cos , sometimes spelled Philetas , was a scholar and poet during the early Hellenistic period of ancient Greece. A Greek associated with Alexandria, he flourished in the second half of the 4th century BC and was appointed tutor to the heir to the throne of Ptolemaic Egypt...
Text tradition
Until the beginning of the 19th century, about a page of text was missing; when Paul Louis CourierPaul Louis Courier
Paul Louis Courier , French Hellenist and political writer, was born in Paris.Brought up on his father's estate of Méré in Touraine, he conceived a bitter aversion for the nobility, which seemed to strengthen with time. He would never take the name "de Méré", to which he was entitled, lest he...
went to Italy, he found the missing part in one of the plutoni of the Biblioteca Laurenziana in Florence
Florence
Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....
. Unfortunately, as soon as he had copied the text, he upset the ink-stand and poured ink all over the page. The Italian philologists were incensed, especially those who had studied the plutone giving "a most exact description" (un'esattissima notizia) of it.
Influences and adaptations
The first vernacular edition of Daphnis and Chloe was the French version of Jacques AmyotJacques 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...
, published in 1559. Along with the Diana of Jorge de Montemayor
Jorge de Montemayor
Jorge de Montemayor was a Portuguese novelist and poet, who wrote almost exclusively in Spanish.-Biography:He was born at Montemor-o-Velho , whence he derived his name, the Spanish form of which is Montemayor....
(published in the same year), Daphnis and Chloe helped inaugurate a European vogue for pastoral fiction in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Daphnis and Chloe was the model of La Sireine of Honoré d'Urfé
Honoré d'Urfé
Honoré d'Urfé, marquis de Valromey, comte de Châteauneuf was a French novelist and miscellaneous writer.- Life :...
, the Aminta of Torquato Tasso
Torquato Tasso
Torquato Tasso was an Italian poet of the 16th century, best known for his poem La Gerusalemme liberata , in which he depicts a highly imaginative version of the combats between Christians and Muslims at the end of the First Crusade, during the siege of Jerusalem...
, and The Gentle Shepherd of Allan Ramsay. The novel Paul et Virginie
Paul et Virginie
Paul et Virginie is a novel by Jacques-Henri Bernardin de Saint-Pierre, first published in 1787. The novel's title characters are very good friends since birth who fall in love...
by Jacques-Henri Bernardin de Saint-Pierre echoes the same story.
Jacques Amyot's French translation is perhaps better known than the original. The story has been presented in numerous illustrated editions, including a 1937 limited edition with woodcuts by Aristide Maillol
Aristide Maillol
Aristide Maillol or Aristides Maillol was a French Catalan sculptor and painter.-Biography:...
, and a 1977 edition illustrated by Marc Chagall
Marc Chagall
Marc Chagall Art critic Robert Hughes referred to Chagall as "the quintessential Jewish artist of the twentieth century."According to art historian Michael J...
. Another translation that rivals the original is that of Annibale Caro
Annibale Caro
Annibale Caro was an Italian poet.-Biography:Born in Civitanova Marche, province of Macerata, he became tutor to the wealthy family of Lodovico Gaddi in Florence, and then secretary to Lodovico's brother Giovanni...
, one of those writers dearest to lovers of the Tuscan elegances.
The 1952 work Shiosai (The Sound of the Waves), written by the well-known Japanese writer Yukio Mishima
Yukio Mishima
was the pen name of , a Japanese author, poet, playwright, actor and film director, also remembered for his ritual suicide by seppuku after a failed coup d'état...
following a visit to Greece, is considered to have been inspired by the Daphnis and Chloe myth. Another work based on it is the 1923 novel Le Blé en herbe
Le Blé en herbe
Le Blé en herbe is the title of a novel written by French writer Colette in 1923.The book was written during the vacation of the writer on her property Roz-Ven in Saint-Coulomb, between Saint-Malo and Cancale.-Plot summary:...
by Colette
Colette
Colette was the surname of the French novelist and performer Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette . She is best known for her novel Gigi, upon which Lerner and Loewe based the stage and film musical comedies of the same title.-Early life and marriage:Colette was born to retired military officer Jules-Joseph...
.
The 1987 film The Princess Bride contains similarities to Daphnis and Chloe (for example, in both stories the male romantic lead is captured by pirates). Lawrence Rinder, director of the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, attributes the inspiration for the film to Longus.
Opera
- Jacques OffenbachJacques OffenbachJacques Offenbach was a Prussian-born French composer, cellist and impresario. He is remembered for his nearly 100 operettas of the 1850s–1870s and his uncompleted opera The Tales of Hoffmann. He was a powerful influence on later composers of the operetta genre, particularly Johann Strauss, Jr....
wrote a one-act operettaDaphnis et Chloé (Offenbach)Daphnis et Chloé is a one-act opérette by Jacques Offenbach. The libretto was by Clairville and Jules Cordier , based on the story of Daphnis and Chloe....
based on the story in 1860.
Ballet
- Maurice RavelMaurice RavelJoseph-Maurice Ravel was a French composer known especially for his melodies, orchestral and instrumental textures and effects...
wrote the 1912 ballet Daphnis et ChloéDaphnis et ChloéDaphnis et Chloé is a ballet with music by Maurice Ravel. Ravel described it as a "symphonie choréographique" . The scenario was adapted by Michel Fokine from an eponymous romance by the Greek writer Longus thought to date from around the 2nd century AD...
for Sergei DiaghilevSergei DiaghilevSergei Pavlovich Diaghilev , usually referred to outside of Russia as Serge, was a Russian art critic, patron, ballet impresario and founder of the Ballets Russes, from which many famous dancers and choreographers would arise.-Early life and career:...
's Ballets RussesBallets RussesThe Ballets Russes was an itinerant ballet company from Russia which performed between 1909 and 1929 in many countries. Directed by Sergei Diaghilev, it is regarded as the greatest ballet company of the 20th century. Many of its dancers originated from the Imperial Ballet of Saint Petersburg...
, choreographed by Michel FokineMichel FokineMichel Fokine was a groundbreaking Russian choreographer and dancer.-Biography:...
. - John NeumeierJohn NeumeierJohn Neumeier is a well-known American ballet dancer, choreographer, and director. He has been the director and chief choreographer of the Hamburg Ballet since 1973. 5 years later he founded the Hamburg Ballet School, which also includes a boarding school...
choreographed the ballet Daphnis and Chloe for his Frankfurt Ballet company.
Cinema
The work was adapted into a 64-minute mute film by Orestis Laskos in 1931, one of the first Greek cinema classics. The movie was originally considered as shocking due to the nudity in some of the scenesMovie Wikipedia Page (GR Only): http://el.wikipedia.org/wiki/%CE%94%CE%AC%CF%86%CE%BD%CE%B9%CF%82_%CE%BA%CE%B1%CE%B9_%CE%A7%CE%BB%CF%8C%CE%B7_(%CF%84%CE%B1%CE%B9%CE%BD%CE%AF%CE%B1)
Movie IMDB Page: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0122448/
Radio
The work was adapted into a 45-minute radio play by Hattie Naylor, first broadcast at 14:15 on Friday 3 March 2006. This broadcast was repeated as the Afternoon Play 14:15 on Wednesday 27 June 2007 and made available for streaming download for 7 days on the BBC Radio Four Afternoon Play webpage.It was played for comedy, with the sexual encounters preceded by 'I must speak in Latin!' and each dream-sleep preceded by a sudden comic thud. The cast were:
- Longus ...... Adrian ScarboroughAdrian ScarboroughAdrian Philip Scarborough is an English character actor and won an Olivier award for best actor in a supporting role in 2011.Scarborough was born in Melton Mowbray, and trained at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, winning the Chesterton Award for Best Actor.In 1993, he was nominated for the Ian...
- Chloe ...... Lyndsey MarshalLyndsey MarshalLyndsey Marshal is an English actress best known for her performance in The Hours as the recurring character Cleopatra on HBO's Rome, and as Lady Sarah Hill in BBC period drama Garrow's Law.-Biography:...
- Daphnis ...... Ben McKayBen McKay (actor)Ben McKay is a British actor, who is probably best known for his roles in Torchwood and Hot Fuzz.-Television:-Film:-External links:...
- Lamo/Megacles ...... Kim WallKim WallKim Wall is an American Actress. She is probably best known for starring in the 1988 sequel Sleepaway Camp III: Teenage Wasteland.-Career:...
- Myrtale/Lycaenium ......Tracy Wiles
- Philetas/Dionyosophanes ...... Geoffrey BeeversGeoffrey BeeversGeoffrey Beevers is a British actor who has appeared in many different television roles.Beevers has worked extensively at the Orange Tree Theatre in Richmond upon Thames, both as an actor ; and as an adaptor/director of George Eliot's novel Adam Bede , for which he won a Time Out Award, and Balzac's...
- Love/Astylus ...... Simon Trinder
- Dryas/Gnatho/Lampis ...... Anthony Glennon
- Original music - Sarah Moody
- Producer/director Jeremy MortimerJeremy MortimerJeremy Mortimer is a British director and producer of radio dramas for BBC Radio. He is the son of John and Penelope Mortimer. His credits include The Pattern of Painful Adventures and radio adaptations of Daphnis and Chloe , Philomel Cottage and The Time Machine...
.
See also
Other ancient Greek novelists:- CharitonCharitonChariton of Aphrodisias was the author of an ancient Greek novel probably titled Callirhoe , though it is regularly referred to as Chaereas and Callirhoe...
- The Loves of Chaereas and Callirhoe - Xenophon of EphesusXenophon of EphesusXenophon 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....
- The Ephesian TaleEphesian TaleThe Ephesian Tale of Anthia and Habrocomes by Xenophon of Ephesus is a novel written in the mid-2nd century CE.Translator Graham Anderson sees the Ephesiaca as "a specimen of penny dreadful literature in antiquity." Moses Hadas, an earlier translator, takes a slightly different view: "If An... - Achilles TatiusAchilles TatiusAchilles 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 ClitophonLeucippe and ClitophonThe 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:... - Heliodorus of EmesaHeliodorus of EmesaHeliodorus 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"....
- The Aethiopica
Editions
The first printed editionEditio princeps
In classical scholarship, editio princeps is a term of art. It means, roughly, the first printed edition of a work that previously had existed only in manuscripts, which could be circulated only after being copied by hand....
.
- Courier, Paul LouisPaul Louis CourierPaul Louis Courier , French Hellenist and political writer, was born in Paris.Brought up on his father's estate of Méré in Touraine, he conceived a bitter aversion for the nobility, which seemed to strengthen with time. He would never take the name "de Méré", to which he was entitled, lest he...
(1810). Contained a previously unknown passage, after the discovery of a new manuscript. With English translation. With English translation revised from that of George Thornley. With FrenchFrench languageFrench is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
translation. Reeve's text is reprinted with the translation and commentary by Morgan (see below).
English translations
A revised version is printed with Edmonds's text (see above). With reprint of Reeve's text and a commentary. Side-by-side Greek text and English translation.External links
Editions of the Greek text- Longi Pastoralium de Daphnide et Chloe Libri IV Graece et Latine Ed. Christ. Guil. Mitscherlich, Biponti (Zweibrücken), 1794.
- Longi Pastoralia First complete Greek text of Daphnis and Chloe, edited by P.-L. Courier, with a Latin translation by G. R. Lud. de Sinner. Paris, 1829.
- Longi Pastoralia Greek text of Daphnis and Chloe with a Latin translation, edd. Seiler, Schaefer, Boissonade & Brunck. Leipzig, 1843.
- Erotici Scriptores Paris, 1856, pp. 739. Longi Pastoralia, Greek text with Latin translation, edited by G A Hirschig, pp. 174–222.
- Daphnis and Chloe The Bibliotheca Classica Selecta's 2006-2007 edition of the Greek text with the French translation of Jacques Amyot revised, corrected and completed by P.-L. Courier.
Synopses, Analyses, and Other Studies
- "A Synopsis of Longus' Daphnis and Chloe" by Jean Alvares
- An Introduction to Daphnis and Chloe Written by Kelly Blanchfield, Jamie Jones, and Carrie Lefler.
- Chirping Cicadas and Singing Crickets An article - written from the standpoint of a cultural entomologist - by Herbert Weidner, Hamburg, Germany.
- Daphnis and Chloe: Its influence on art and its impact on Goethe An entry in the Encyclopedia of World Biography which also notes the work done by William E. McCulloh, Emeritus Professor of Classics at Kenyon College, Ohio, in dating Daphnis and Chloe.
- Longus: Life, Influence & Bibliography An entry in the Encyclopedia of the Ancient World.
- J. C. Dunlop's History of Fiction London, 1888, vol. 1, pp. 45–57.