Essays on the Greek Romances
I _THE GREEK ROMANCES AND THEIR RE-DATING_
The term "Greek Romances" is applied to long stories in Greek prose,written from the end of the first to the beginning of the fourth centurybefore Christ and later imitated by Byzantine writers. It was one ofthese last, Nicetas Eugenianus, who prefixed to his own romance aprelude of verses which described their content:
"Here read Drusilla's fate and Charicles'-- Flight, wandering, captures, rescues, roaring seas, Robbers and prisons, pirates, hunger's grip; Dungeons so deep that never sun could dip His rays at noon-day to their dark recess, Chained hands and feet; and, greater heaviness, Pitiful partings. Last the story tells Marriage, though late, and ends with wedding bells."[2]
The subjects listed in these lines are typical of nearly all the novels.An author selected new names for his hero and heroine and portrayed thesame quest for love and adventure. The young pair always marvellouslyhandsome fall desperately in love and plight their eternal fidelity in asacred oath. Soon they are separated by misadventure or the cruel willof Fortune and suffer alone every misfortune and temptation, but bysuperhuman effort and often by the aid of the gods, they at last emergetriumphant and chaste and fall in exultation into each other's arms.
It was just because of this similarity of pattern that it became thefashion for critics to belittle these melodramas, to emphasize theirsimilarities, and to disregard their individual characteristics andenthralling style. Erwin Rohde's great critical study, _Der griechischeRoman_, was perhaps the first to treat them with the seriousconsideration which they deserve. Now Rohde's theories have to be inlarge part rejected because of new discoveries in papyri which havenecessitated the re-dating of the extant novels and adding to theirstudy fragments of novels hitherto unknown which help establish newtypes and give a basis for a new critique.
My own discussion is to be concerned with the novels themselves, theirindividual characteristics, their literary qualities, viewed on thebasis of their new dating. For this reason I shall spend little time onthe famous theories of the origins of the Greek Romances and on theirprecursors. For my purpose of intensive, literary study it is enough topresent these in outline.
In regard to the origins of the Greek Romances, two special theoriesmust be mentioned since they have had more vogue than any others. Theseare the theories of Erwin Rohde and of Bruno Lavagnini. Erwin Rohde in_Der griechische Roman_, which first appeared in 1876, recognized twoessential elements in the Greek Romances: stories of love and stories oftravel. He studied the precursors of these two types. He finallyaffirmed that the synthesis of the two, the romance, is a direct productof the rhetorical schools of the Second Sophistry which flourished inGreece during the Empire. Rohde based his work on the extant romancesand the summaries of Photius (Patriarch of Constantinople, 858-886) andbelieving that none of this material antedated the second century of ourera, he constructed his theory that "Greek romance was a product of the_Zweite Sophistik_, and had no direct connection either with the shortstory as represented by the Milesian Tales or with any Greek orAlexandrian literary form."[3] W. Schmid in the third edition of Rohde(1914) summarized in an Appendix the new discoveries and theories afterRohde's death.
I omit a resume of the work of Huet,[4] Dunlop,[5] Chassang[6] and ofChauvin,[7] all significant in their times, to present a theory which isnow more striking. In 1921 Bruno Lavagnini in a learned monograph, _LeOrigini del Romanzo Greco_, traced the development of the Greek romancefrom local legends of Magna Graecia, Greece proper, the Greek Islandsand Asia Minor. He found support for his theory in the titles of many ofthem:
{Ephesiaka} by Xenophon of Ephesus, {Babyloniaka} by Xenophon of Antioch, {Aithiopika} by Heliodorus, {Kypriaka} by Xenophon of Cyprus, {Rhodiaka, Koaka, Thasiaka} by
a Philippus of Amphipolis, which Suidas mentioned. In his study he tookinto account the novelle or short stories which Rohde believed had noinfluence on the novel, and studied the {Milesiaka}, the short _LoveRomances_ of Parthenius, the fragment of the _Aitia_ of Callimachus,_Acontius and Cydippe_. He showed that Rohde had entirely neglected theimportant influence of the novella in the Greek romance and had beenmistaken in his insistence on the fundamentally different character ofthe two. Rohde claimed that the novella was realistic, the romanceidealistic and hence declared that any derivation of the romance fromthe novella was impossible. Lavagnini recognized other influences in thedevelopment of the romance, especially those of satire and of the newcomedy, but he maintained that an essential feature was the historical.He admitted that in the use of his local legends the events areprojected into an ideal and remote past.
The tendency in the new criticism of the Greek Romances, notably in thework of Aristide Calderini,[8] is not to seek for any one main sourcefor their "origins," but rather to consider all possible precursors inthe field of fiction who directly or indirectly influenced them. Theirname is legion and they appear in the fields of both poetry and prose.For from the earliest times of Greek literature the art of narration wasin use. Epics presented narratives of war in the Iliad, of adventure inthe Odyssey, of love in Apollonius Rhodius. Drama produced narrativespeeches particularly in tragedy in the role of the messenger. Elegiacpoetry developed subjective-erotic stories, based on myths, or history,or real life, and written in lyric mood in narratives or letters. Idylsfinally portrayed against a pastoral setting the outdoor loves ofshepherds.
In prose, there are full-grown novelettes combining love and adventureembedded in the Greek historians: Herodotus' story of Candaules'wife,[9] the story of Rhampsinitus' treasure,[10] the story of the loveof Xerxes,[11] the story of Abradatas of Susa and Panthea in Xenophon's_Education of Cyrus_ which Whibley calls "the first love-story inEuropean prose."[12] Short stories or novelle in prose are known fromthe accounts of the Milesian Tales and from Parthenius' miniature _LoveRomances_. The {Milesiaka} were written in the second century B.C., byAristides of Miletus and a collection of them was translated into Latinby Cornelius Sisenna who died 57 B.C. Their character was definite: theywere erotic stories of a lascivious type. Their philosophy of life wasthat all men--and women--are sinners, and this belief was embodied inepisodes from every-day life. Their amorality was such that the ParthianSurena was horrified when in the Parthian War of 53 B.C., a copy of theMilesian Tales was found in the pack of a Roman officer. Other shortlocal tales, for example those of Sybaris and of Ephesus, shared thesecharacteristics of realism, irony and disillusion.
Parthenius of Nicaea wrote a collection of short _Love Romances_ of avery different type. This Greek elegiac poet of the Augustan Age wrotehis _Love Romances_ in Greek prose as a storehouse for his friend,Cornelius Gallus, to draw upon for material for epic or elegiac verse;and for this reason he put them forth in the briefest and simplest formpossible. Most of them are unfamiliar stories even when they are aboutwell-known mythological characters. In many the love tales are setagainst a background of war. Short as they are, both their subjectmatter and style are significant for the development of Greek prosefiction.
Moreover, the work of the rhetorical schools must be considered amongthe forerunners of the novel, both in Greek and Latin. Although we knownow that the Greek Romances were being written before the time of theNew or Second Sophistry which Rohde postulated to be their origin, stillin the Greek Romances as well as in the _Satyricon_ and in Apuleius'_Metamorphoses_, there are many illustrations of the influence of thepractice cases of the rhetorical schools. A study of the _Controversiae_in Seneca the Elder and in the pseudo-Quintilian, a study of _The Livesof the Sophists_ by Philostratus demonstrates that in these schoolexercises where "oratory became a theatrical fiction"[13] lay many firstdrafts of a new literary genre, the romance.[14]
It is a pity that Erwin Rohde could not have lived to revise himself hisgreat work on the Greek Romances in the light of the new discoveriesabout them. No scholar has yet arisen equipped with his tremendouse
rudition and penetrating criticism to succeed him worthily. Perhapsindeed the time has not yet come to write a new critical history of theGreek romance, for at any time added discoveries may demand stillfurther revision of dates and consideration of types. But at this stageit is essential to review the new discoveries and to try to estimatetheir significance. This outline is based on three important summaries:the introduction by Aristide Calderini to his translation ofChariton;[15] the "Appendix on the Greek Novel" by Stephen Gaselee inthe edition of _Daphnis and Chloe_ and Parthenius in _The Loeb ClassicalLibrary_;[16] and the chapter on "Romance: the Greek Novel" by R. M.Rattenbury in _New Chapters in the History of Greek Literature, ThirdSeries_.[17]
Most spectacular and important of the new discoveries was that of thefragments of the Ninus Romance, first published in 1893. They were foundon an Egyptian papyrus, on the back of which are written some accountsof A.D. 101. The writing of the romance is so clear and beautiful thatit is dated by experts as belonging to the first century B.C. AsRattenbury says: "The Ninus Romance is therefore the only pre-Christianspecimen of its kind; it is indisputably two centuries earlier than theearliest of the completely extant romances (Charito), and probably asmuch earlier than any of the known fragments."[18] The remains consistof two separate fragments with parts of five columns on the first and ofthree on the second. Gaselee writes of the content:[19] "in the first(A) the hero, Ninus, and the heroine (unnamed), deeply in love with oneanother, approach each the other's mother and set forth their love,asking for a speedy marriage; in the second (B) the young couple seem tobe together at the beginning, but almost immediately Ninus is foundleading an army of his Assyrians, with Greek and Carian allies, againstthe Armenian enemy."
Fragment A is short enough so that we can read Gaselee's translation ofit:[20]
Ninus and the maiden were both equally anxious for an immediate marriage. Neither of them dared to approach their own mothers--Thambe and Derceia, two sisters, the former Ninus' mother, the latter the mother of the girl--but preferred each to address themselves to the mother of the other: for each felt more confidence towards their aunts than towards their own parents. So Ninus spoke to Derceia: "Mother," said he, "with my oath kept true do I come into thy sight and to the embrace of my most sweet cousin. This let the gods know first of all--yes, they do know it, and I will prove it to you now as I speak. I have travelled over so many lands and been lord over so many nations, both those subdued by my own spear and those who, as the result of my father's might, serve and worship me, that I might have tasted of every enjoyment to satiety--and, had I done so, perhaps my passion for my cousin would have been less violent: but now that I have come back uncorrupted I am worsted by the god of love and by my age; I am, as thou knowest, in my seventeenth year, and already a year ago have I been accounted as having come to man's estate. Up to now I have been nought but a boy, a child: and if I had had no experience of the power of Aphrodite, I should have been happy in my firm strength. But now that I have been taken prisoner--thy daughter's prisoner, in no shameful wise, but agreeably to the desires both of thee and her, how long must I bear refusal?
"That men of this age of mine are ripe for marriage, is clear enough: how many have kept themselves unspotted until their fifteenth year? But I am injured by a law, not a written law, but one sanctified by foolish custom, that among our people virgins generally marry at fifteen years. Yet what sane man could deny that nature is the best law for unions such as this? Why, women of fourteen years can conceive, and some, I vow, even bear children at that age. Then is not thy daughter to be wed? 'Let us wait for two years,' you will say: let us be patient, mother, but will Fate wait? I am a mortal man and betrothed to a mortal maid: and I am subject not merely to the common fortunes of all men--diseases, I mean, and that Fate which often carries off those who stay quietly at home by their own fire-sides; but sea-voyages are waiting for me, and wars after wars, and I am not the one to shew any lack of daring and to employ cowardice to afford me safety, but I am what you know I am, to avoid vulgar boasting. Let the fact that I am a king, my strong desire, the unstable and incalculable future that awaits me, let all these hasten our union, let the fact that we are each of us only children be provided for and anticipated, so that if Fate wills us anything amiss, we may at least leave you some pledge of our affection. Perhaps you will call me shameless for speaking to you of this: but I should indeed have been shameless if I had privily approached the maiden, trying to snatch a secret enjoyment, and satisfying our common passion by the intermediaries of night or wine, or servants, or tutors: but there is nothing shameful in me speaking to thee, a mother, about thy daughter's marriage that has been so long the object of thy vows, and asking for what thou hast promised, and beseeching that the prayers both of our house and of the whole kingdom may not lack fulfilment beyond the present time."
So did he speak to the willing Derceia, and easily compelled her to come to terms on the matter: and when she had for a while dissembled, she promised to act as his advocate. Meanwhile although the maiden's passion was equally great, yet her speech with Thambe was not equally ready and free; she had ever lived within the women's apartments, and could not so well speak for herself in a fair shew of words: she asked for an audience--wept, and desired to speak, but ceased as soon as she had begun. As soon as she had shewn that she was desirous of pleading, she would open her lips and look up as if about to speak, but could finally utter nothing: she heaved with broken sobs, her cheeks reddened in shame at what she must say, and then as she tried to improvise a beginning, grew pale again: and her fear was something between alarm and desire and shame as she shrank from the avowal; and then, as her affections got the mastery of her and her purpose failed, she kept swaying with inward disturbance between her varying emotions. But Thambe wiped away her tears with her hands and bade her boldly speak out whatever she wished to say. But when she could not succeed, and the maiden was still held back by her sorrow, "This," cried Thambe, "I like better than any words thou couldst utter. Blame not my son at all: he has made no over-bold advance, and he has not come back from his successes and his victories like a warrior with any mad and insolent intention against thee: I trust that thou hast not seen any such intention in his eyes. Is the law about the time of marriage too tardy for such a happy pair? Truly my son is in all haste to wed: nor needest thou weep for this that any will try to force thee at all": and at the same time with a smile she embraced and kissed her. Yet not even then could the maiden venture to speak, so great was her fear (_or_, her joy), but she rested her beating heart against the other's bosom, and kissing her more closely still seemed almost ready to speak freely of her desires through her former tears and her present joy. The two sisters therefore met together, and Derceia spoke first. "As to the actual (marriage?)," said she...."
In fragment B the seventeen-year-old warrior is found marshalling hisforces, "seventy thousand chosen Assyrian foot and thirty thousandhorse, and a hundred and fifty elephants," and at the end beginning theadvance at the head of his cavalry:
And stretching out his hands as if (offering sacrifice?), "This," hecried, "is the foundation and crisis of my hopes: from this day I shallbegin some greater career, or I shall fall from the power I nowpossess."[21]
In this Ninus Romance as we have it, the name of the heroine is notmentioned, but her mother's name is Derceia and that is a close variantof Derceto, the name of the divine mother of Semiramis in the usuallegend. So although the type is different from that of the queen ofBabylon, the character is probably hers. It seems evident that thisearly novelist was, then, building his romance around historicalcharacters. Rattenbury points this out and also shows conclusively thatthe characteristics of all the other romances are indisputably presentin this early fragmentary story:[22]
"The impetuous but honest Ninus reappears clearly enough in the Theagenes of Heliodorus, and the lovesick maiden of unassailable virtue and almost intolerable
modesty might be the heroine of any Greek romance."
Ninus pledges his faith as later heroes take an oath. He like them isthe toy of Eros or Aphrodite. In the extant romances,
"The characters, the treatment, and even the plots are almost stereotyped; and yet one difference is observable--a tendency to abandon an ostensibly historical background in favour of a purely fictitious setting. The relative dates of the authors are by no means certain, but the fortunate discovery of papyrus fragments of Charito and Achilles Tatius supports the view, probable on other grounds, that Charito is to be considered the earliest, and Achilles Tatius the latest. It is therefore of interest to notice that Charito, though his hero and heroine are creatures of his imagination, introduces some historical characters and some historical events; his main story is fictitious, but he seems to have been at pains to lend it a historical flavour. Heliodorus, somewhat later, presents a picture of a fairly definite historical period, but no more; his characters are all fictitious and there is no historical authority for the sequence of events which he describes. Achilles Tatius degrades romance from the realm of princes to the level of the bourgeoisie. His story is frankly fictitious, and he evidently had no feeling that romance should be related to history."
Rattenbury goes on to illustrate his theory of the change from thesemi-historical to the purely fictitious romance by a study of theAlexander Romance and the new fragments of other stories. Thepseudo-Callisthenes Alexander Romance in the oldest version extant isdated about A.D. 300. But papyrus fragments indicate that a large partof the material in it goes back to a time shortly after Alexander'sdeath. From the evidence of our late pseudo-Callisthenes version whichprobably followed tradition it would seem that history was treated asfiction and little attention paid to the love-story of Roxane whichcould have furnished such a lively erotic interest. New fragments ofother romances show other great rulers used as heroes.[23] One is theEgyptian prince, Sesonchosis, called by the Greeks Sesostris.Mythological characters too become protagonists in romances: Achillesand Polyxena; the Egyptian Tefnut, daughter of Phre, the sun-god, whotook her adventures in the shape of a cat wandering in the desert ofEthiopia. Other fragments run true to the general type of the GreekRomances in manifesting now this, now that characteristic.
The sum total of all the fragments discovered up to date givesconvincing evidence of two important facts: first, the extant GreekRomances are only a small part of the output of this genre; second, thedating of all the fragments places them between the end of the first andthe beginning of the fourth century of our era. The Ninus Romance is theearliest fragment, Chariton's the earliest complete romance, that ofAchilles Tatius the latest. On this framework a chronological list ofthe extant novels arranged on the basis of proved data and theprobabilities of internal evidence and comparisons, shapes like this:
The Greek Romances _Date_ _Author_ _Title_ I Century B.C. Unknown The Ninus Romance (frag.) Before A.D. 150 Chariton of Chaereas and Callirhoe Aphrodisias II Century A.D. Lucian of Samosata A True History Lucius or Ass (an epitome of the lost _Metamorphoses_) II-III Centuries Xenophon of Ephesus Ephesiaca, Habrocomes and A.D. Anthia II-III Centuries Heliodorus of Emesa Aethiopica, Theagenes and A.D. Chariclea II-III Centuries Longus Daphnis and Chloe A.D. About A.D. 300 Achilles Tatius of Clitophon and Leucippe Alexandria _Byzantine_ XII Century A.D. Eustathius Hysmine and Hysminias XII Century A.D. Nicetas Eugenianus Charicles and Drusilla (verse) XII Century A.D. Theodorus Prodromus Dosicles and Rhodanthe (verse) XII Century A.D. Constantine Aristander and Callithea Manasses (verse) Also known by translation or abstract II-III Centuries Unknown Apollonius of Tyre (Latin A.D. translation) II-III Centuries Iamblichus, a Babyloniaca, Rhodanes and A.D. Syrian Sinonis (abstract in Photius) II-III Centuries Antonius Diogenes The Wonderful Things A.D. beyond Thule (abstract in Photius) Not before A.D. pseudo-Callisthenes Alexander Romance 300
It is to be observed that from internal evidence Xenophon of Ephesusprobably came before Heliodorus. Longus is _sui generis_, and so standsapart from the typical genre of the novels; in fact is a unique specimenof another type, the pastoral romance.
The new discoveries from the papyri with the consequent re-dating of allknown material has given a strong impetus to new study of GreekRomances; new editions of text with translation are being brought out byEnglish, French, Italian and American scholars.[24] The introductions tosome of these editions, especially those of Calderini and Dalmeyda, arethe first distinguished literary work in the field since Rohde with theexception of Samuel Lee Wolff's monograph on _The Greek Romances inElizabethan Prose Fiction_, New York, 1912.
The time has now come for a literary study in English which will makeavailable foreign criticism and present perhaps some new ideas. I planto discuss in successive chapters Chariton, Xenophon of Ephesus,Heliodorus, Achilles Tatius and Longus, and to suggest something oftheir influence. Then I shall take up the {Loukios e onos} attributed toLucian and his _True History_ and finally I shall show the synthesis ofthe novel of adventure and the true Greek romance of love in the greatLatin novel, Apuleius' _Metamorphoses_.