CONTENTS
Introduction
Text and Translation
Commentary
"An offering to Love, the Nymphs and Pan, a possession
to delight all mankind, which will heal the sick and comfort the
distressed, stir the memory of those who have been in love, and
give preparatory instruction to those who have not. For certainly
no one has ever escaped Love, nor ever shall, so long as beauty
exists and eyes can see." So Longus describes his novel
Daphnis and Chloe. This is the story of two young people
growing up as goatherd and shepherdess, and their discovery of
love, sex and their true selves. Beneath the pastoral charm of
its deceptively simple surface, the novel explores perennial questions
about the naturalness of conventional gender relations, about
the roles of instinct and culture in love, about the pain and
responsibilities involved in becoming an adult human being, and
ultimately about the relationship between Art and Nature, Fiction
and Truth. This new commentary presents a sequential reading
of the novel, using the tools of modern literary theory to explain
how narrative articulates meaning, and exploring Longus' creative
dialogue with the literary tradition.
J.R. Morgan is Senior Lecturer in Classics at the University
of Wales Swansea. He has been a major figure in the revival of
interest in the Greek novels in recent decades. He is the author
of a number of important articles on ancient fiction, and the
translator of Heliodoros' Ethiopian Story for Collected
Ancient Greek Novels (California 1989). He is currently preparing
books on Heliodoros and Longus.
c.200pp. cl 562 3, pb 563 1
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CONTENTS Introduction |