Contents

Notes on Contributors

Introduction

PART I: Novels and Authors

a. Greek

CHAPTER 1: Chariton: Individuality and Stereotype

Plot and Structure

The Story Itself

Intrigue and Melodrama

The Literary Texture

The Arts of Recapitulation

Humor

Historical Flavor

Characterization

Sexuality

Cultural Norms and Ethos

Greek and Barbarian

Readership

Conclusion

CHAPTER 2: Daphnis and Chloe: Innocence and Experience, Archetypes and Art

CHAPTER 3: Xenophon, The Ephesian Tales

Plot

The author

Date

Xenophon, Chariton and the beginnings of the novel

Transmission, reception and text-history

CHAPTER 4: Achilles Tatius, Sophistic Master of Novelistic Conventions

Introduction

The Author

The Text

Dating Leucippe and Clitophon

Trends in Scholarship

Novelistic Motifs

Scheintod of the heroine

Brief Nachleben

CHAPTER 5: Heliodorus, the Ethiopian Story

The Author and His Work

The Novel’s Setting

Literary Aesthetics and Rhetoric

Composition and Narrative Technique

b. Roman

CHAPTER 6: Petronius, Satyrica

The Work: Text and Transmission

The Author: Who Was Petronius?

The Satyrica: Title, Contents, Structure

The Cena Trimalchionis

The Inserted Novellas

The Poems

Models, Sources, Genre

CHAPTER 7: Apuleius’ The Golden Ass: The Nature of the Beast

The Beginning

The Author

The Plot

The Plot Thickens

First Impressions

Conspiracy Theories

CHAPTER 8: Historia Apollonii Regis Tyri

An Unconventional Opening

Apollonius

Tarsia

The Textual Tradition of Historia Apollonii

Dating

A Greek Model?

Historia Apollonii and the Ancient Novel

c. Related

CHAPTER 9: The Other Greek Novels

CHAPTER 10: Hell-bent, Heaven-sent: From Skyman to Pumpkin

CHAPTER 11: The Novel and Christian Narrative

PART II: Genre and Approaches

CHAPTER 12: The Genre of the Novel: A Theoretical Approach

CHAPTER 13: The Management of Dialogue in Ancient Fiction

Chariton

Achilles Tatius

Longus

Heliodorus

Petronius

Beyond the Satyrica

The Fragments

Conclusions

CHAPTER 14: Characterization in the Ancient Novel

Ambiguity

Social Control

Development

Techniques of Characterization

Epilogue

CHAPTER 15: Liaisons Dangereuses: Epistolary Novels in Antiquity

Introduction

History of Research

Epistolary Novels

The Letters of Chion: An Open-Ending, Coming-of-Age Novel

The Letters of Euripides: A Counter-story without a Story

The Reception of the Ancient Epistolary Novel in Christianity

The Apostle Paul

Ignatius, Bishop of Antioch

Paul and Seneca

Aftermath

CHAPTER 16: The Life of Aesop (rec.G): The Composition of the Text

The Tradition of the Text

The Structure of the “Life of Aesop”

Sequences of the Plot

Other Elements of the Text’s Composition

The Context of the Work

PART III: Influences and Intertextuality

CHAPTER 17: Reception of Strangers in Apuleius’ Metamorphoses: The Examples of Hypata and Cenchreae

CHAPTER 18: From the Epic to the Novelistic Hero: Some Patterns of a Metamorphosis

Cultural Mediation

Selection of Features and Gender Shifts

Philological Perspective

Selection of Secondary Characters

Mythomania

Parody

Conclusions

CHAPTER 19: Roman Elegy and the Roman Novel

Petronius and Latin Love Elegy: Critiques of Latin Love Elegy in Earlier Satire and Invective

Satyricon 16–26: Propertius 4.8 and the Quartilla Episode

Encolpius’ Impotence in Satyricon 126ff. and Ovid, Amores 3.7

Apuleius and Latin Love Elegy

The Beginning of the Novel: Lucius and Photis, Socrates and Meroe

The End of the Novel: Lucius and the Corinthian matrona—Lucius and Isis

Conclusions

CHAPTER 20: Apuleius’ Metamorphoses: A Hybrid Text?

Personal Reflections

The State of Play

Back to the Text: Further Adventures of Lucius?

Crikey, Psyche: More Divine Encounters

Dangerous (Literary) Liaisons

Storytelling on Screen

Mixed Marriages

Hybrid Forms—the Metamorphoses as a Literary Mule

CHAPTER 21: The Magnetic Stone of Love: Greek Novel and Poetry

Eros as Central Theme of the Inserted Tales and of Reflexivity

Eros in Generic Evolution, or the Novel as an Echo Chamber for Literature

Pirates and Piracy

Magnetism of Love

CHAPTER 22: “Respect these Breastsand Pity Me”: Greek Novel and Theater

Theater in Words

Romanesque Thread and Theater Plot: the Ideal Novels and New Comedy

Theater and Myth Meet in the Novel

Theater in the Mind

CHAPTER 23: Poems in Petronius’ Satyrica

CHAPTER 24: Various Asses

CHAPTER 25: Greek Novel and Greek Archaic Literature

CHAPTER 26: Ekphrasis in the Ancient Novel

Ekphrasis in Theory and Practice

Readers and Viewers

Ekphrasis as Novelistic “Hero”

PART IV: Themes and Topics

CHAPTER 27: Miscellanea Petroniana: A Petronian Enthusiast’s Thoughts and Reviews

CHAPTER 28: Love, Myth, and Ritual: The Mythic Dimension and Adolescence in Longus’ Daphnis and Chloe

Longus’ Daphnis and Chloe as Exceptional Test Case

Longus’ Myth in Symbolic and Synaesthetic Function

Conclusion

CHAPTER 29: Gender in the Ancient Novel

Women and the Greek Novel

Sexual Symmetry, Foucault

Gender, Chastity, and Christian Novelistic Texts

Petronius and Apuleius and the Collapse of Gender

Conclusions

CHAPTER 30: Education as Construction of Gender Roles in the Greek Novels

Forever Young

Education in the Greek Novel

The First Ordeal: Separation

Continuing against All Odds: The Liminal Stage

A Time for Return: The Incorporation

Let’s Make a Man of Him!

But What Is a Greek Woman?

CHAPTER 31: Greek Love in the Greek Novel

CHAPTER 32: Latin Culture in the Second Century AD

Fronto

Fronto’s Letters

Fronto’s Moderate Archaism

Fronto and Marcus Aurelius

Aulus Gellius

Apuleius

The Speeches

Philosophical Works

Other Authors

CHAPTER 33: Mimet(h)ic Paideia in Lucian’s True History

Identity and Role-playing

Constructions of Paideia and the Pepaideumenos in the Imagines and the Somnium

Mimetic Constructions of Paideia and the Pepaideumenos in the True History

Conclusion

CHAPTER 34: Reimagining Community in Christian Fictions

CHAPTER 35: The Poetics of Old Wives’ Tales, or Apuleius and the Philosophical Novel

Introduction: The Narrative Situation

Implications and Difficulties

Modern Approaches

“Milesian” Platonism

CHAPTER 36: Achilles Tatius and Heliodorus: Between Aristotle and Hitchcock

From Aristotle to Mystery Plots

Achilles Tatius: Sudden Death

Heliodorus: Sudden Death in a Cave

Hitchcock: Sudden Death in the Shower

Aristotle Vindicated

CHAPTER 37: Longus’ Daphnis and Chloe: Literary Transmission and Reception

The Re-discovery of the Text in the Renaissance: The “Artistic” Translation

From Translation to Emulation

Longus and the Pastoral Fashion: A Brief History of a Long Passion

How to Green Again a Classic: From Lesbos to a Japanese Island

Index