Longus' Daphnis and Chloe

Quiz 4

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Access

Longus, Daphnis and Chloe, translated by Paul Turner (Penguin: London and New York, 1989). Course textbook.

Journal Entries Both Classes

Does the gender/sexuality value system animating this text seem congruent with (similar to, parallel to) that underpinning the views of a Finnis or Nussbaum? If so, or even if not, does that fact offer insight into questions those two debate?

Study Guide

Daphnis and Chloe exemplifies ancient Greek prose romance. Like all such novels in Greek, it follows a typical pattern: boy and girl meet, fall in love, and marry, though not without undergoing the requisite trials and tribulations to make things interesting. D&C also self-consciously evokes the Greek past, sort of the way we might experience a trip to a museum, with evocations of the classics of ancient Greek literature.

But it dates from a period when Greeks would have long been used to Roman domination and cultural influence — when, in fact, all free subjects of Rome (Greeks, etc.) either already were, or soon would be, Roman citizens (Caracalla's citizenship edict of 212 CE).

So could it be that this work presents us with a melange of Greco-Roman, late-antique values, protocols, ideologies — a fitting finale to our examination of Greek and Roman texts? Let's read the novel and see!

Daphnis and Chloe: Background

DATE: Ca. 200 CE
AUTHOR: Called "Longus" in the manuscripts, he is, to my knowledge, otherwise an unknown figure.
GENRE: Novel: Aka romance. I.e., a love story featuring a pair of (heteroerotic) lovers; cultivated, rhetorical PROSE; adventure (pirates, etc.); suspense
Bucolic: I.e., a story of herders in the countryside (competitive singing-playing, erotic themes)
SETTING: The setting is the island of Lesbos, in the neighborhood of its most important city, Mytilene. You'll remember that Lesbos is the island from which Sappho, the preeminent love poet of antiquity, comes. It is, then, the "island of love" in a certain sense.
But it is important to keep in mind that the action takes place in the countryside — that is, OUTSIDE THE CITY. This fact has, arguably, important implications for any cultural interpretation of the action
CHARACTERS: Note that most of the characters are slaves — how might that be significant for our interpretation of the work?
Daphnis: A herder; his name is a conventional herder's name in bucolic poetry. ("And to ensure that the child's name should sound adequately pastoral ....") Reared by Lamon and Myrtale
Chloe: Also a herder. Her name means "green young shoot" or "foliage." Reared by Dryas ("Man of the Woods") and Nape ("Woodland Glade").
Dorcon: In Greek, "Roe-Deer," called dorkon/dorkas, a species so-called from its large eyes (from the verb dedorkenai, "to gaze"). Our Dorcon is another herder, and, for a while, a rival to Daphnis. His name represents him as getting an eyeful of Chloe, i.e., as a kind of embodiment of the desiring gaze.
Philetas: An older herder, he has the same name as the Philetas who was teacher to Theocritus, the bucolic poet. Our Philetas also teaches, in a sense, our lovers — how? He fell in love with, and had children by, Amaryllis ("Sparkling"), a pastoral name in ancient authors. He has a son, Tityros ("short-tailed ape"? "he-goat"?).
  Bryaxis: ("Swelling"? "Teeming"? Or a name related to an epithet [Bruaktēs, "The Jolly God"] for Pan?) The Name of the Methymnian general leading an expedition against the Mytilenian country folk on the island of Lesbos.
Lycaenion: A woman from town, wife to the rather old, but evidently free, Chromis. Her name means "Little She-Wolf" — significant, perhaps, in some way? (See terms.)
Lampis: Another herder, and another rival to Daphnis. How does he figure into things?
Astylus: "Urbane," "City Slicker," son of Daphnis' master, Dionysophanes ("manifestation of Dionysus"), who is married to Cleariste ("she of noble fame").
Gnathon: "Ravenous Mouth," Astylus' sidekick (the Greek word for "sidekick" is parasitos, and yes, he is rather parasitic) — how does he figure vis-à-vis Daphnis?

Study Questions

First, a sort of personal-response, entirely anachronistic-presentist question:

How do you view the love of Daphnis and Chloe as a model for love in any period? What, if you could, would you want to tell D&C about love? How, in your opinion, do they get it? How not?

Second, a question with a view to the larger theme of the state and society as a whole — its interest in intervening in matters of the heart (i.e., Nussbaum v. Finnis):

Does D&C take place entirely outside the framework of social convention or state interests? If not, if, that is, D&C isn't just a bucolic idyll, fairy tale, or silly love story, then how do social or legal status, the aim or purpose (emotional, practical, etc.) of D&C's love, all that sort of thing, how does it matter (if it matters) in this story? What, in other words, would Nussbaum or Finnis make of the ethical-legal implications or resonances of D&C? Does it instantiate-validate modern-traditional notions of matrimony? An animus against homosexuality? Or does it provide ammunition to anyone seeking to interrogate such mindsets?

Then there are more narrowly focused considerations to bring to bear on this text :

  1. EROS IN DAPHNIS AND CHLOE — How is eros transacted?
    • symmetrically?
    • asymmetrically?
    • homoerotically?
    • heteroerotically?
    • through . . .
      • persuasion?
      • force?
  2. CULTURAL VALUES — What sorts of eros approved of/disapproved of, why? How does eros fit into the larger social context? Especially ...
    • homoerotic love (how evaluated?)
    • heteroerotic love (how evaluated?)
  3. CONTINUITIES/DISCONTINUITIES — in this work from late antiquity, do you see continuity with
    • gender-related and/or sexual patterns of earlier, classical Greece (400s-300s BCE), especially Athens? Or have things changed? (How?)
    • Roman gender-related and/or patterns?
    • a pan-Mediterranean, "care of the self" (Foucault) mindset as, say, in Apuleius?

Quiz 4 Study Guide

QUIZ of material covered in class assignments 12-Nov (Petronius 2) through and including 5-Dec (Longus 1).

It will be very short, plain, non-interpretive, and straightforward — a "fact-check" quiz more than anything else to encourage attentive reading and in-class listening.

Specifically, expect:

  • Multiple choice questions targeting. . .
  • Class-assigned readings, for which know. . .
    • authors
    • titles (where appropriate)
    • characters, key actors/speakers (where appropriate)
    • basic and crucial content info
  • key terms and concepts listed below, for which consult
    • your notes
    • our target texts
    • my PowerPoints
    • Terms page

Terms list:

  • Atargatis
  • curiositas
  • enupnion
  • fascinum
  • invidia
  • Isis
  • oneiros
  • scopophilia
  • Syrian Goddess

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