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Three Greek Romances
Daphnis and Chloe, An Ephesian Tale, and The Hunters of Euboea
Paperback
First published June 1, 1964
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About the author
Moses Hadas
89 books14 followersMoses Hadas (1900–1966) was an American teacher, one of the leading classical scholars of the twentieth century, and a translator of numerous works.
Raised in Atlanta in a Yiddish-speaking Orthodox Jewish household, his early studies included rabbinical training; he graduated from Jewish Theological Seminary of America (1926) and took his doctorate in classics in 1930. He was fluent in Yiddish, German, ancient Hebrew, ancient Greek, Latin, French, and Italian, and well-versed in other languages.
His most productive years were spent at Columbia University, where he was a colleague of Jacques Barzun and Lionel Trilling. There, he took his talent for languages, combined it with a popularizing impulse, to buck the prevailing classical methods of the day—textual criticism and grammar—presenting classics, even in translation, as worthy of study as literary works in their own right.
This approach may be compared to the New Criticism school: even as the New Critics emphasized close reading, eschewing outside sources and cumbersome apparatus, Hadas, in presenting classical works in translation to an influx of post-war G.I. Bill students, brought forth an appreciation of his domain for those without the specialized training of classicists.
His popularizing impulse led him to embrace television as a tool for education, becoming a telelecturer and a pundit on broadcast television. He also recorded classical works on phonograph and tape.
Raised in Atlanta in a Yiddish-speaking Orthodox Jewish household, his early studies included rabbinical training; he graduated from Jewish Theological Seminary of America (1926) and took his doctorate in classics in 1930. He was fluent in Yiddish, German, ancient Hebrew, ancient Greek, Latin, French, and Italian, and well-versed in other languages.
His most productive years were spent at Columbia University, where he was a colleague of Jacques Barzun and Lionel Trilling. There, he took his talent for languages, combined it with a popularizing impulse, to buck the prevailing classical methods of the day—textual criticism and grammar—presenting classics, even in translation, as worthy of study as literary works in their own right.
This approach may be compared to the New Criticism school: even as the New Critics emphasized close reading, eschewing outside sources and cumbersome apparatus, Hadas, in presenting classical works in translation to an influx of post-war G.I. Bill students, brought forth an appreciation of his domain for those without the specialized training of classicists.
His popularizing impulse led him to embrace television as a tool for education, becoming a telelecturer and a pundit on broadcast television. He also recorded classical works on phonograph and tape.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
June 20, 2018
This was a wild ride from start to finish.
February 5, 2021
Typical Greek fare from the period. I enjoyed two of the stories pretty well but as to in An Ephesian Tale by Xenofon, it was pretty dreadful. The same plot line happening over and over and over again ad infinitum until the predictable conclusion. Hope Xenofon doesn't read this review.....
August 22, 2013
This volume contains three works from the first few centuries A.D. translated with clear affection by Classics scholar Moses Hadas. The highlight and longest of the pieces is Daphnis and Chloe by Longus, which is the quintessential pastoral. A gem of an Arcadian idyll, it is humorous, by turns sentimental and erotic, and a worthy votive "offering to Eros, the Nymphs, and Pan, and as a delightful possession for all mankind". The second work is Xenophon's Ephesian Tale which can be quite tedious. Pauline had nothing on the Perils of Anthia and the reader is bound to raise a skeptical eyebrow as our put-upon heroine manages to save her maidenhead yet again from lusty pirates and love-sick brigands. At least some variety is provided as her beloved Habrocomes has his own bearded seducers to watch out for. There is some interest, nevertheless, in the way familiar tropes, like the Potiphar's wife scenario (Egyptian Two Brothers), are reused, and in observing the influence, direct or indirect, of this work on Shakespeare, Voltaire, etc. (After reading Daphnis and Chloe a viewing of The Princess Bride is in order). The last and shortest of the "romances" in this volume is The Hunters of Euboea by Dio Chrysostom and hardly fictional at all. It is rather a short travel piece, an encounter with the natives, as the narrator seeks help after a shipwreck. A brief tale of a court case is told by one of the title helpful hunters that serves as a paean to the joys of the simple life.
February 4, 2021
I wish I could edit the information on this edition, to make clear that Moses Hadas is the translator - without the actual three authors' names, or the names of the three individual works, the book information unfortunately contributes to the continues obscurity of the literature.
The first work, Daphnis and Chloe, ascribed to Longus, is the star here, and deservedly so. It is an endearing pastoral, deftly treating the awakening of the young lovers with both delicacy and a gauzy verisimilitude, relying only slightly on the interference of deities. As would certainly be necessary for any successful pastoral, the author exquisitely describes the idyllic scenes and moments without ever seeming to fall into triteness or repetition. Truly, the work reads wonderfully despite its age (less stilted and mannered than works written 1,000 years later), though how much of that is from Longus and how much from the translation I cannot say, but in any event this work should be more widely read among the ancient classics.
The second piece, An Ephesian Tale, by Xenophon (not the more famous Xenophon of Athens), is a rather tiresome litany of woeful events that befall an utterly un-engaging couple, dragging them around the Mediterranean in a manner that makes the journey of Odysseus seem a pleasant afternoon of sailing. Between the characters' unending vanity, and their inability to do much else other than whine about their lot and threaten to kill themselves (which they never manage to do despite plenty of opportunity), you never find yourself rooting for them, and simply slog through waiting for it to eventually provide the happy ending which you know will happen based upon an early oracle. The only interesting character is Hippothoos, a charming brigand with a modicum of complexity.
Lastly is The Hunters of Euboea, by Dio Chrysostom, which is actually not a self-contained novel, but serves as the first half of one of his 80 Orations, or Discourses (#7, to be specific), which tells this tale to his audience as introduction to the philosophizing he wishes to offer. Excerpted on its own, however, it remains a very enjoyable snapshot of a particular utopian life, similar to what you might find in some of the best authors' travel literature (Stevenson or Steinbeck, for example). I also enjoyed the tangent into political discussions of land-usage and waste that spoke to some of my personal occupational interests, as well as reminding me of similar discussions throughout history regarding land rights. Again, this work struck me as much more modern than its period (~1,900 years old), and I now want to wade into the author's Discourses when I get the opportunity.
The first work, Daphnis and Chloe, ascribed to Longus, is the star here, and deservedly so. It is an endearing pastoral, deftly treating the awakening of the young lovers with both delicacy and a gauzy verisimilitude, relying only slightly on the interference of deities. As would certainly be necessary for any successful pastoral, the author exquisitely describes the idyllic scenes and moments without ever seeming to fall into triteness or repetition. Truly, the work reads wonderfully despite its age (less stilted and mannered than works written 1,000 years later), though how much of that is from Longus and how much from the translation I cannot say, but in any event this work should be more widely read among the ancient classics.
The second piece, An Ephesian Tale, by Xenophon (not the more famous Xenophon of Athens), is a rather tiresome litany of woeful events that befall an utterly un-engaging couple, dragging them around the Mediterranean in a manner that makes the journey of Odysseus seem a pleasant afternoon of sailing. Between the characters' unending vanity, and their inability to do much else other than whine about their lot and threaten to kill themselves (which they never manage to do despite plenty of opportunity), you never find yourself rooting for them, and simply slog through waiting for it to eventually provide the happy ending which you know will happen based upon an early oracle. The only interesting character is Hippothoos, a charming brigand with a modicum of complexity.
Lastly is The Hunters of Euboea, by Dio Chrysostom, which is actually not a self-contained novel, but serves as the first half of one of his 80 Orations, or Discourses (#7, to be specific), which tells this tale to his audience as introduction to the philosophizing he wishes to offer. Excerpted on its own, however, it remains a very enjoyable snapshot of a particular utopian life, similar to what you might find in some of the best authors' travel literature (Stevenson or Steinbeck, for example). I also enjoyed the tangent into political discussions of land-usage and waste that spoke to some of my personal occupational interests, as well as reminding me of similar discussions throughout history regarding land rights. Again, this work struck me as much more modern than its period (~1,900 years old), and I now want to wade into the author's Discourses when I get the opportunity.
December 30, 2017
These were novellas were a complete surprise to me. Of course I had heard of Daphnis and Chloe, though I imagined that was via Greek mythology, but really I knew nothing about this narrative tradition. Longus's _Daphnis and Chloe_ is my clear favorite. Apart from knowing it was a love story, I knew nothing, and while it is a pastoral idyll, it has a remarkable modernity to it. Sure there are moments of panic and disaster, but they are resolved quite quickly and the story of enduring companionship remains at the center. At the same time, one gets a glimpse of a world that is most distinctly not modern with the issue of bondage obligations, even when masters and mistresses are far removed. We also see the prejudices, or seeming like thereof, of the era as well. The notion that Daphnis needs sexual experience to satisfy Chloe for example as well as the rather open discussion of homosexual desire, albeit thwarted and associated with a less than admirable person, both signal a different time. The story of Daphnis's birth parents' loss also suggests some moral discomfort with the old custom of abandoning children that perhaps represents a social shift that will be fulfilled with Christianization, even if that has not yet happened.
Xenophon's _An Ephesian Tale_ contrasts considerably with _Daphnis and Chloe_ even as it too portrays enduring love. Indeed, it involves a sequence of misfortune for its two protagonists that would give Candide and Cunegunde a run for their money, and I can't help but think that Voltaire may well have been familiar with it. At some point, knowing from the beginning of the story that all would turn out well too, my patience began to be tried and I began just wanting it to all be over. That sentiment, however, was tempered along the way by the tribute to homosexual love as equal and deep in the story of Hypothoos.
_The Hunters of Euboea_ is much shorter than the other and is really a kind of extended anecdote. Like _Daphnis and Chloe_ it is a tribute to the simplicity of country life over the city, which is implied to be corrupt.
I have only read a few of Boccaccio's tales, but reading these, I couldn't help but feel like I had found something of a missing link between _De Camerone_ and classical myth-based storytelling.
Xenophon's _An Ephesian Tale_ contrasts considerably with _Daphnis and Chloe_ even as it too portrays enduring love. Indeed, it involves a sequence of misfortune for its two protagonists that would give Candide and Cunegunde a run for their money, and I can't help but think that Voltaire may well have been familiar with it. At some point, knowing from the beginning of the story that all would turn out well too, my patience began to be tried and I began just wanting it to all be over. That sentiment, however, was tempered along the way by the tribute to homosexual love as equal and deep in the story of Hypothoos.
_The Hunters of Euboea_ is much shorter than the other and is really a kind of extended anecdote. Like _Daphnis and Chloe_ it is a tribute to the simplicity of country life over the city, which is implied to be corrupt.
I have only read a few of Boccaccio's tales, but reading these, I couldn't help but feel like I had found something of a missing link between _De Camerone_ and classical myth-based storytelling.
February 15, 2022
An Ephesian Tale (Xenophon of Ephesus); all over the place and a lot of characters to track; can see some influence on Romeo and Juliet and Candide by Voltaire.
The Hunters of Euboea (Dio Chrysostom) is pastoral and lovely.
The Hunters of Euboea (Dio Chrysostom) is pastoral and lovely.
April 3, 2017
Beautiful material.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews