Decoding the Ancient Novel: The Reader and the Role of Description in Heliodorus and Achilles Tatius

by Shadi Bartsch

Using a reader-oriented approach, Shadi Bartsch reconsiders the role of detailed descriptive accounts in the ancient Greek novels of Heliodorus and Achilles Tatius and in so doing offers a new view of the genre itself. Bartsch demonstrates that these passages, often misunderstood as mere ornamental devices, form in fact an integral part of the narrative proper, working to activate the audience's awareness of the play of meaning in the story. As the crucial elements in the evolution of a relationship in which the author arouses and then undermines the expectations of his readership, these passages provide the key to a better understanding and interpretation of these two most sophisticated of the ancient Greek romances.

In many works of the Second Sophistic, descriptions of visual conveyors of meaning--artworks and dreams--signaled the presence of a deeper meaning. This meaning was revealed in the texts themselves through an interpretation furnished by the author. The two novels at hand, however, manipulate this convention of hermeneutic description by playing upon their readers' expectations and luring them into the trap of incorrect exegesis. Employed for different ends in the context of each work, this process has similar implications in both for the relationship between reader and author as it arises out of the former's involvement with the text.

Originally published in 1989.

The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

212 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1989

Reviews

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

I seem to be saying this a lot this semester (perhaps due to rose-tinted glasses?), but this is one of the best pieces of scholarship I've ever read. The general premise is that we can't dismiss description of any kind in Heliodorus and Achilles Tatius, and to do so is lazy readership that the authors themselves would most definitely not approve of. I particularly enjoyed the discussion of Lucian and Philostratus in Chapter One ('Description and Interpretation in the Second Sophistic'), the discussion of Europa in Chapter Two ('Pictorial Description: Clues, Conventions, Girls, and Gardens'), and the discussion of realism and ethnography / geography in Chapter Five ('The Other Descriptions: Relation to Narrative and Reader'). The discussion of Heliodorus' depiction of his text as a space of godly stage-drama - and himself as a potential godly-descendent choregos - was also fantastic (cf. Chapter Four - 'Descriptions of Spectacles: The Reader as Audience, the Author as Playwright').