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Collected Ancient Greek Novels
Prose fiction, although not always associated with classical antiquity, did in fact flourish in the early Roman Empire, not only in realistic Latin novels but also and indeed principally in the Greek ideal romance of love and adventure to which they are related. Popular in the Renaissance, these stories have been less familiar in later centuries. Translations of the Greek stories were not readily available in English before B.P. Reardon’s excellent volume.Nine complete stories are included here as well as ten others, encompassing the whole range of classical ideal romance, travel adventure, historical fiction, and comic parody. A new foreword by J.R. Morgan examines the enormous impact this groundbreaking collection has had on our understanding of classical thought and our concept of the novel.
835 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1989
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Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews
January 2, 2015
I got this - well, no I didn't. My buddy Chris got this for the Aethiopica, or An Ethiopian Story, a 3rd-century novel that's not really set in Ethiopia. And I would have gotten it for that, too, if I had gotten it, but Amazon accidentally shipped Chris two copies and he's a righteous dude so I just sortof magically received it instead.
Included here:
Heliodorus, "Aethiopica," 200s AD
Lucian, "True Romance", 100s AD - early scifi! Apparently there are aliens! A parody.
"An Ephesian Tale"
"Chaereas and Callirhoe"
"Daphnis and Chloe" - "the perils to the lovers are more psychological than physical and the story traces their love affair from the first stirrings of adolescent attraction through long-delayed consummation." (some Amazon reviewer guy who thinks this is good)
"The Ass" - dirty! Not by Lucian!
"Alexander Romance" - "shaped the later image of Alexander the Great as much as or more than did genuine history."
Here's what I've read so far:
Aethiopica: Surprisingly modern-feeling, this is clearly recognizable as a normal novel, with a plot and characters and everything, so...so much for that whole idea that novels were invented in the 1600s or whatever. It starts in media res, like The Odyssey, and moves on to a tale-within-a-tale-within-a-tale type of deal, which is a little old-fashioned; it seems like it wasn't until around the 1700s that novelists decided it was okay for a novel to have just one plot. But it's entertaining - pirates and fights and romantic confusion, whee! - and written with confidence, and it's perfectly good reading.
Included here:
Heliodorus, "Aethiopica," 200s AD
Lucian, "True Romance", 100s AD - early scifi! Apparently there are aliens! A parody.
"An Ephesian Tale"
"Chaereas and Callirhoe"
"Daphnis and Chloe" - "the perils to the lovers are more psychological than physical and the story traces their love affair from the first stirrings of adolescent attraction through long-delayed consummation." (some Amazon reviewer guy who thinks this is good)
"The Ass" - dirty! Not by Lucian!
"Alexander Romance" - "shaped the later image of Alexander the Great as much as or more than did genuine history."
Here's what I've read so far:
Aethiopica: Surprisingly modern-feeling, this is clearly recognizable as a normal novel, with a plot and characters and everything, so...so much for that whole idea that novels were invented in the 1600s or whatever. It starts in media res, like The Odyssey, and moves on to a tale-within-a-tale-within-a-tale type of deal, which is a little old-fashioned; it seems like it wasn't until around the 1700s that novelists decided it was okay for a novel to have just one plot. But it's entertaining - pirates and fights and romantic confusion, whee! - and written with confidence, and it's perfectly good reading.
February 27, 2024
Started with "The Ass" as I've picked up a new translation of Apuleius' extant version of this tale (known familiarly as The Golden Ass) and wanted to give it a try. Consequently, I was interested to see what the synopsis of the Greek original had to offer. Surprised how similar it is, really, in substance, to Apuleius' version, except for the denouement. Not sure, however if the missing episodes--the thief dressed as a bear, the corpse-sitting scene, the witches and the slit throat, the soldier and the grieving widow, the three-way sex story that Boccaccio repeats in the Decameron, and, most notably, the lengthy Cupid and Psyche digression--are simply episodes omitted by this redactor or if they were of Apuelius's invention--or perhaps even stories from other texts he lifted and inserted into his tale of a man turned into an ass. I suppose there's really no way to know definitively, given that the full original version appears lost, but I think I felt a twinge of disappointment to see how much of Apuleius's source material was unoriginal and how closely his version follows the tone, or at least the recitation of the facts, of this rudimentary version. Perhaps a post-20th century bias. Still, I love The Golden Ass and am looking forward to reading it again.
-----------
I decided, given how long it was going to take me to read all of these in-between books for courses I teach and other books for pleasure, to review each of the texts included in this volume here on Goodreads under individual editions of the novels, and this I've done.
Just now I finished the synopses and fragments of lost works and so wanted to give a nice 5 stars to this edition, which is quite readable and brings together the lion's share of the classical prose romances. I enjoyed all of the texts and translations here, with the exception of Daphnis and Chloe. Both the text itself and the translator's over-copious notes put me off. The notes seemed mainly aimed at pointing out clevernesses of the novel, as if the translator were trying very hard to convince himself and his readers that the novel was really good. I, anyway, remained unconvinced and extra annoyed at his attempts to convince me otherwise. All of the other translations and notes were fine, though, even if the novels themselves are a mixed bag. It's certainly a worthwhile read for anyone interested in the genesis of the prose narrative in the Occident.
My biggest complaint is the plastic-covered cover. Since this is an 800+ page book, it should have been hardcover, or at least somehow better wrapped. There's no way you can read it all without the cover unraveling and leaving you a perfectly blank white book.
-----------
I decided, given how long it was going to take me to read all of these in-between books for courses I teach and other books for pleasure, to review each of the texts included in this volume here on Goodreads under individual editions of the novels, and this I've done.
Just now I finished the synopses and fragments of lost works and so wanted to give a nice 5 stars to this edition, which is quite readable and brings together the lion's share of the classical prose romances. I enjoyed all of the texts and translations here, with the exception of Daphnis and Chloe. Both the text itself and the translator's over-copious notes put me off. The notes seemed mainly aimed at pointing out clevernesses of the novel, as if the translator were trying very hard to convince himself and his readers that the novel was really good. I, anyway, remained unconvinced and extra annoyed at his attempts to convince me otherwise. All of the other translations and notes were fine, though, even if the novels themselves are a mixed bag. It's certainly a worthwhile read for anyone interested in the genesis of the prose narrative in the Occident.
My biggest complaint is the plastic-covered cover. Since this is an 800+ page book, it should have been hardcover, or at least somehow better wrapped. There's no way you can read it all without the cover unraveling and leaving you a perfectly blank white book.
partially-read
March 9, 2025I've been reading several of the novels in this collection through the years, sometimes from within this volume, and sometimes in different editions or translations. I have written brief reviews of some of them. Others, I seem to have neglected to write anything. But it's starting to seem desirable to have links to the various components that I've been reading so I can track and find my thoughts on them. Here's what I've got:
Chaereas and Callirhoe
An Ethiopian Story
Daphnis and Chloe
A True Story (reviewed in a collection of Lucian works)
The Story of Apollonius King of Tyre (Oops, I just marked it read and didn't write a review!)
And... I've read most of the others books and fragments, or perhaps all of them, but I've neglected to write anything review-like... looks like it's time for some rereads and some diligence in recording my thoughts closer to the time when I read something.
To be continued.
Chaereas and Callirhoe
An Ethiopian Story
Daphnis and Chloe
A True Story (reviewed in a collection of Lucian works)
The Story of Apollonius King of Tyre (Oops, I just marked it read and didn't write a review!)
And... I've read most of the others books and fragments, or perhaps all of them, but I've neglected to write anything review-like... looks like it's time for some rereads and some diligence in recording my thoughts closer to the time when I read something.
To be continued.
April 19, 2020
The protagonist is unjustly accused and suffers a violent death. She is entombed but resurrects during the night. In the morning her husband visits the tomb and finds it empty, the stone moved. He is afraid and immediately assumes she has been transformed into a goddess.
This is the plot of Chaereas and Callirhoe, or ‘Q’ as I like to call it for short. It was a popular novel, the Da Vinci Code of its day. It appears to have been written in Asia Minor but copies have been found as far away as Egypt. It predates the Gospels. I was gob-smacked by what I was reading. Why would the Gospel writers base their religion on a popular novel? I find the idea astounding. God knows how I’d feel if I were a Christian. Fear, probably. The identical plot is only the beginning of the similarities. There are also themes of repentance and forgiveness.
Perhaps there are other explanations. This idea of a resurrecting god are common in the area. Not just in Egypt, but also just a few miles away from Judea in Phoenicia. Our only knowledge of these religions is from their surviving texts. Is it possible that those features of the novel that we consider to be specifically Christian, the stone and the fear, were in fact already attributes of the older religions?
Another possibility may be that our interpretation of this book as a novel is anachronistic. We read it as a novel because we have so many of them, but at the time only one or two had previously been written. Is it a different art form with superficial similarities? I’m reminded of when The Da Vinci code was published and was read by many people who did not usually read novels. Many of them struggled to see the dividing line between truth and fiction and thought that what they were reading was true.
But there are problems with these alternative explanations because Chaereas and Callirhoe also has similarities to the Acts of the Apostles. You see, while Callirhoe has been resurrected she hasn’t been turned into a goddess. She’s actually been stolen by pirates! She then travels around Asia Minor where she is mistaken for a goddess. In Acts, Paul and Barnabas travel around Asia Minor where they are mistaken for gods. This leaves us with rather a disturbing possibility. Mark wrote his Gospel, taking as his source this novel. When Luke wrote his Gospel he took Mark as his source, but when he wrote Acts he went back to Mark’s source and used that.
It’s a Mystery and a very interesting one.
As for the rest of the collection, there are seventeen works in all. Nine complete novels (novels/novellas/romances – whatever you want to call them) and fragments of eight largely lost works. There are also two summaries of entirely lost works excerpted from Photius.
I think it would be fair to say that not everything in the collection is ‘good’. You have to make some allowances. We’re lucky living in the in the heyday of the novel, but these writers didn’t have that great tradition to look back on. Some of the techniques appear childish. There’s nothing in this collection that an editor wouldn’t ask for some changes to if it were submitted for publication today. And many of their conventions seem as strange to us as I’m sure the conventions of our novels would seem strange to readers in the ancient world. That said, there is much here to enjoy.
Leucippe and Clitophon is the Greek-style novel par excellence. It has all the ingredients. Young lovers cruelly separated and subjected to a series of episodic scenes of peril before finally being reunited. I enjoyed this a lot. The author, Achilles Tatius, managed to maintain my interest despite the episodic nature and the whole thing is rather a lot of fun.
Longus’ Daphnis and Chloe is a strange, atmospheric novel, translated by no less a personage than Christopher Gill. I guarantee you’ve never read anything like it. It’s also extremely funny. It’s about these two teenagers who really want to bonk each other, but just can’t work out how to do it, no matter how hard they try. And they try really really hard.
The Alexander Romance. There’s a whole genre of these books. Apparently eight versions, translations, adaptaions and retellings in twenty-four languages. This is a translation of manuscript L of recension B. If you’re interested in the genre this may be a good place to start as it’s about as close to the author’s lost original as you’re going to get.
Artistically, it’s deeply flawed. The structure has abandoned all hope and caused Alexander to split into two distinct characters of the same name. For all its problems it’s a lot of fun and I enjoyed it very much. It’s definitely a proto-Mediaeval Romance. In places it reminded me of some of the King Arthur stuff I’ve read and sometimes had a Mediaeval feel to it. This is only the second time I’ve had that feeling from a book that predates the fall of the Western Roman Empire.
Lucian True Story is a satire of the Greek novel. I’d had my eye on reading this for quite a while as a science fiction fan as I’d heard it described as proto-sf. I think that might be pushing it a bit. There are a couple of similarities. The use of a fantastical setting to comment on the contemporary world, and the idea of a trip to the moon. But this is a satire, and the idea of going to the moon is presented as a ridiculous concept, rather than something we might achieve. Lots of fun though, and if you’re read The Alexander Romance you’ll see exactly the kind of thing he’s satirising.
The only thing that has a modern feel to it is Heliodorus’ Ethiopian Story. This a piece of literature in the modern sense. For a start it appears to have been subject to more than one draft. It’s oddly progressive. The heroine is a kick-arse Ethiopian with albinism who slaughters a boat-load of pirates single-handed. I’m going to stick my neck out and call it a literary masterpiece. If Heliodorus walked into a bar full of Russian authors they’d buy him a vodka. At least Dostoyevsky would. I think Tolstoy might have been tee-total. Heliodorus has a complete command over his technique and material that the other writers in this collection could never hope to match. He opens in medias res and there follows a series of nested stories told by various characters as the sub-plots multiply. It’s like a coiled spring, and as those sub-plots resolve the main plot catapults forward, taking us to the dénouement.
The translator, J. R. Morgan, has this to say about it in his introduction:
“...a very religious, or rather religiose text. References to to supernatural agencies of various kinds abound… but in a work of fiction Providence is only Plot in disguise. I cannot find any consistency in the attribution of events to non-human agencies and am inclined to think the whole divine apparatus a literary device to give the plot a sense of direction… virtually the whole plot is motivated sufficiently at a human level...”
I’m sure Morgan is right, of course. But I think that Heliodorus, unlike the other writers in this collection, has realised that within the context of a novel the author is God. And in this novel Heliodorus is literally God and he has the control of his material to prove it. It’s worth noting when the Sun or the Sun God are mentioned. In the colophon Heliodorus claims to be descended from the Sun God. That’s your last clue, just in case you didn’t get it. The first clue is the opening sentence with it’s description of the dawn. It’s worth looking out for solar mentions as they usually come at critical moments. But as Morgan says, references to to supernatural agencies of various kinds abound. I would argue that these all refer to the god of this novel, Heliodorus. He’s playing a literary game by repurposing the deus ex machina. It seems to me that there are two ways round the problem of a deus ex machina. Like Euripides you can give the appearance of the god real emotional impact, or, like Stephen King you can tell the reader about it at the start of the book, before it’s needed. In this novel, the deus ex machina is not an ejector seat for the plot, it is disguised as the plot. And Heliodorus, being god, is the deus in the machina of the plot.
Morgan is right in saying that virtually the whole plot is motivated sufficiently at a human level. I think the character of Kalasiris is particularly interesting here. The plots are coiled in on each other and while there are a number of obvious coincidences I think that if the narrative were straightened out many more would be apparent. You don’t know it at first, but Kalasiris turns out to be be the main plot-driver. I think he represents the god-like Heliodorus’ human agent. Kalasiris kidnaps the hero and heroine just as Heliodorus, as author, is causing his characters to be kidnapped. And I don’t think it’s any coincidence that Kalasiris (spoilers) dies at exactly the time the sub-plots are resolved and the trust of the main plot kicks in. Thought provoking stuff.
This is the plot of Chaereas and Callirhoe, or ‘Q’ as I like to call it for short. It was a popular novel, the Da Vinci Code of its day. It appears to have been written in Asia Minor but copies have been found as far away as Egypt. It predates the Gospels. I was gob-smacked by what I was reading. Why would the Gospel writers base their religion on a popular novel? I find the idea astounding. God knows how I’d feel if I were a Christian. Fear, probably. The identical plot is only the beginning of the similarities. There are also themes of repentance and forgiveness.
Perhaps there are other explanations. This idea of a resurrecting god are common in the area. Not just in Egypt, but also just a few miles away from Judea in Phoenicia. Our only knowledge of these religions is from their surviving texts. Is it possible that those features of the novel that we consider to be specifically Christian, the stone and the fear, were in fact already attributes of the older religions?
Another possibility may be that our interpretation of this book as a novel is anachronistic. We read it as a novel because we have so many of them, but at the time only one or two had previously been written. Is it a different art form with superficial similarities? I’m reminded of when The Da Vinci code was published and was read by many people who did not usually read novels. Many of them struggled to see the dividing line between truth and fiction and thought that what they were reading was true.
But there are problems with these alternative explanations because Chaereas and Callirhoe also has similarities to the Acts of the Apostles. You see, while Callirhoe has been resurrected she hasn’t been turned into a goddess. She’s actually been stolen by pirates! She then travels around Asia Minor where she is mistaken for a goddess. In Acts, Paul and Barnabas travel around Asia Minor where they are mistaken for gods. This leaves us with rather a disturbing possibility. Mark wrote his Gospel, taking as his source this novel. When Luke wrote his Gospel he took Mark as his source, but when he wrote Acts he went back to Mark’s source and used that.
It’s a Mystery and a very interesting one.
As for the rest of the collection, there are seventeen works in all. Nine complete novels (novels/novellas/romances – whatever you want to call them) and fragments of eight largely lost works. There are also two summaries of entirely lost works excerpted from Photius.
I think it would be fair to say that not everything in the collection is ‘good’. You have to make some allowances. We’re lucky living in the in the heyday of the novel, but these writers didn’t have that great tradition to look back on. Some of the techniques appear childish. There’s nothing in this collection that an editor wouldn’t ask for some changes to if it were submitted for publication today. And many of their conventions seem as strange to us as I’m sure the conventions of our novels would seem strange to readers in the ancient world. That said, there is much here to enjoy.
Leucippe and Clitophon is the Greek-style novel par excellence. It has all the ingredients. Young lovers cruelly separated and subjected to a series of episodic scenes of peril before finally being reunited. I enjoyed this a lot. The author, Achilles Tatius, managed to maintain my interest despite the episodic nature and the whole thing is rather a lot of fun.
Longus’ Daphnis and Chloe is a strange, atmospheric novel, translated by no less a personage than Christopher Gill. I guarantee you’ve never read anything like it. It’s also extremely funny. It’s about these two teenagers who really want to bonk each other, but just can’t work out how to do it, no matter how hard they try. And they try really really hard.
The Alexander Romance. There’s a whole genre of these books. Apparently eight versions, translations, adaptaions and retellings in twenty-four languages. This is a translation of manuscript L of recension B. If you’re interested in the genre this may be a good place to start as it’s about as close to the author’s lost original as you’re going to get.
Artistically, it’s deeply flawed. The structure has abandoned all hope and caused Alexander to split into two distinct characters of the same name. For all its problems it’s a lot of fun and I enjoyed it very much. It’s definitely a proto-Mediaeval Romance. In places it reminded me of some of the King Arthur stuff I’ve read and sometimes had a Mediaeval feel to it. This is only the second time I’ve had that feeling from a book that predates the fall of the Western Roman Empire.
Lucian True Story is a satire of the Greek novel. I’d had my eye on reading this for quite a while as a science fiction fan as I’d heard it described as proto-sf. I think that might be pushing it a bit. There are a couple of similarities. The use of a fantastical setting to comment on the contemporary world, and the idea of a trip to the moon. But this is a satire, and the idea of going to the moon is presented as a ridiculous concept, rather than something we might achieve. Lots of fun though, and if you’re read The Alexander Romance you’ll see exactly the kind of thing he’s satirising.
The only thing that has a modern feel to it is Heliodorus’ Ethiopian Story. This a piece of literature in the modern sense. For a start it appears to have been subject to more than one draft. It’s oddly progressive. The heroine is a kick-arse Ethiopian with albinism who slaughters a boat-load of pirates single-handed. I’m going to stick my neck out and call it a literary masterpiece. If Heliodorus walked into a bar full of Russian authors they’d buy him a vodka. At least Dostoyevsky would. I think Tolstoy might have been tee-total. Heliodorus has a complete command over his technique and material that the other writers in this collection could never hope to match. He opens in medias res and there follows a series of nested stories told by various characters as the sub-plots multiply. It’s like a coiled spring, and as those sub-plots resolve the main plot catapults forward, taking us to the dénouement.
The translator, J. R. Morgan, has this to say about it in his introduction:
“...a very religious, or rather religiose text. References to to supernatural agencies of various kinds abound… but in a work of fiction Providence is only Plot in disguise. I cannot find any consistency in the attribution of events to non-human agencies and am inclined to think the whole divine apparatus a literary device to give the plot a sense of direction… virtually the whole plot is motivated sufficiently at a human level...”
I’m sure Morgan is right, of course. But I think that Heliodorus, unlike the other writers in this collection, has realised that within the context of a novel the author is God. And in this novel Heliodorus is literally God and he has the control of his material to prove it. It’s worth noting when the Sun or the Sun God are mentioned. In the colophon Heliodorus claims to be descended from the Sun God. That’s your last clue, just in case you didn’t get it. The first clue is the opening sentence with it’s description of the dawn. It’s worth looking out for solar mentions as they usually come at critical moments. But as Morgan says, references to to supernatural agencies of various kinds abound. I would argue that these all refer to the god of this novel, Heliodorus. He’s playing a literary game by repurposing the deus ex machina. It seems to me that there are two ways round the problem of a deus ex machina. Like Euripides you can give the appearance of the god real emotional impact, or, like Stephen King you can tell the reader about it at the start of the book, before it’s needed. In this novel, the deus ex machina is not an ejector seat for the plot, it is disguised as the plot. And Heliodorus, being god, is the deus in the machina of the plot.
Morgan is right in saying that virtually the whole plot is motivated sufficiently at a human level. I think the character of Kalasiris is particularly interesting here. The plots are coiled in on each other and while there are a number of obvious coincidences I think that if the narrative were straightened out many more would be apparent. You don’t know it at first, but Kalasiris turns out to be be the main plot-driver. I think he represents the god-like Heliodorus’ human agent. Kalasiris kidnaps the hero and heroine just as Heliodorus, as author, is causing his characters to be kidnapped. And I don’t think it’s any coincidence that Kalasiris (spoilers) dies at exactly the time the sub-plots are resolved and the trust of the main plot kicks in. Thought provoking stuff.
April 12, 2022
read: 5/9
Chaereas and Callirhoe (5/5✨)
An Ephesian Tale (3/5✨)
Daphnis and Chloe (4/5 ✨)
An Ethiopian Story (dnf, 3/5 ✨)
A True Story (5/5 ✨)
an absolutely phenomenal collection, would recommend if you're interested in Greek ideal romance novel. this is basically everything we have that survives of the genre, so having this is a blessing. i definitely plan to work through the rest of this collection!
Chaereas and Callirhoe (5/5✨)
An Ephesian Tale (3/5✨)
Daphnis and Chloe (4/5 ✨)
An Ethiopian Story (dnf, 3/5 ✨)
A True Story (5/5 ✨)
an absolutely phenomenal collection, would recommend if you're interested in Greek ideal romance novel. this is basically everything we have that survives of the genre, so having this is a blessing. i definitely plan to work through the rest of this collection!
January 14, 2025
A lot of really fun stories that somehow have survived to our time. I love some and dislike others so the collection is balanced at a 3/5.
June 3, 2010
An excellent collection of not just the 5 main Greek Romance novels (Chariton, Achilles Tatius, Xenophon of Ephesus, Longus and Heliodorus) but also other fringe novels such as the Alexander Romance. The section covering the novel fragments (probably the only place they are gathered in this way) makes this volume particularly indispensable for anyone interested in studying the Ancient Novel.
Lastly, what makes this book such a pleasure is the easy readability of all the translations (no stodgy antiquated language in sight).
Those interested in the ancient novel should also consider reading the Roman novels Apuleius' 'Golden Ass' and Petonius' 'Satyricon'.
Enjoy!
Lastly, what makes this book such a pleasure is the easy readability of all the translations (no stodgy antiquated language in sight).
Those interested in the ancient novel should also consider reading the Roman novels Apuleius' 'Golden Ass' and Petonius' 'Satyricon'.
Enjoy!
December 8, 2016
It doesn't get much better than this. Well, for a classics major at least. I loved this book so much, and I regret not buying it, as I have to give it back when the semester ends next week. But before then I'll be reliving the tale of Chaereas and Callirhoe, The Ephesian Tale, Daphnis and Chloe, and my favorite of them all, Calligone.
Something about old literature fascinates me so much, as it allows us to see how people lived, but also how people interpreted life and love. I recommend this to anyone who likes epic romances, and old literature. All around an awesome read.
Something about old literature fascinates me so much, as it allows us to see how people lived, but also how people interpreted life and love. I recommend this to anyone who likes epic romances, and old literature. All around an awesome read.
April 3, 2017
Did you really think the romance began with Harlequin? Try these tales on for size. Love, eros and misbehaviors between men, women and a donkey ( but not all together). They will make you sweat. What were the Greeks thinking in 120 C.E.? read on to discover....
September 12, 2018
This is an excellent set of translations for the major works of ancient Greek prose fiction from approximately the first century BC to the third century AD. Since it is over 800 pages, it takes some time to read in its entirety. The translations are generally well done and quite lively and it is clear that the translators put plenty of effort into restoring the original tone of the texts, as best they can. The introduction for this volume provides a decent background into the scholarly study of these ancient prose works, such as the definitional problems of classifying them as “novels” or “romances.” Each translator also provides a helpful introduction before each text, usually indicating main themes, connecting it to other literary genres, and noting translating issues. Lastly, the occasional footnotes are useful for pointing to the sources of allusions and direct quotes or explaining aspects of the ancient world for non-scholarly readers.
Overall, this is a great introduction to study of these texts for classicists and those interesting in literary history. Anyone who reads fiction might enjoy this volume as well. It is full of interesting stories that will be somewhat different from modern works of fiction. I’ll summarize the works included here to help give a sense of what these are about. The first five of these are the extant Greek “romances” that involve a young heterosexual couple (usually teenagers) that fall in love, become separated, and undergo a variety of hardships (kidnapping, enslavement, shipwrecks, etc.), before being reunited.
Chaereas and Callirhoe by Chariton: This text recounts the tale of the titular youths, raised in Syracuse, who fall in love. After Callirhoe appears to be killed (by her own lover in a fit of rage), grave robbers steal her away and sell her into slavery, while Chaereas sets out to find her. Callirhoe’s exceptional beauty is a recurring theme and leads to practically every male character developing an obsession with her and, therefore, more troubles for the pair. Eventually, the couple even end up at the Persian royal court before sailing back to Syracuse for their happily ever after.
An Ephesian Tale by Xenophon of Ephesus: This is the shortest text of these five. In fact, it is so short and minimalist that scholars suspect that it is not actually a full text, but rather an epitome of it. Nevertheless, it follows the usual format of a young couple, Habrocomes and Anthia, suffering through many ordeals. The couple first get abducted by pirates on their honeymoon voyage, but they reunite at the end and sail home to Ephesus. Although it is a brief read, the quick pace of this one sometimes makes it more difficult to keep track of the characters and events.
Leucippe and Clitophon by Achilles Tatius: Possibly intended as a partial parody of the genre, this one follows the titular couple as they are forced to runaway from their home and, of course, run into many hardships. The two protagonists are exceptionally well developed characters and there is certainly a depth to their personalities and motivations. The framing that begins the work is also fascinating. It sets up the story as a first-person narrative told by Clitophon to a stranger. This work is often used for gleaning details about ancient sexual mores (as in Kyle Harper’s book on the subject), since Leucippe’s virginity is a major focus of the story, with her even undergoing a supernatural virginity test at the conclusion.
Daphnis and Chloe by Longus: This story is considerably different from the rest. There is a strong influence of the pastoral genre as this couple is raised in a rustic setting and grow up to be shepherds. Although they still face plenty of hardships, they never leave their homeland of Lesbos, unlike the other stories. It certainly has a stronger element of an “internal struggle,” being that it is essentially a story of two teenagers trying to figure out how to have sex. In the end, the couple are revealed to be of noble birth and live the rest of their lives in prosperity.
An Ethiopian Story by Heliodorus: This is the longest and most narratively complex of these texts and possibly the most entertaining. It begins in medias res at the scene of a shipwreck and banquet where all, except the couple, Theagenes and Chariklea, have been slaughtered. They are seized by bandits and it is only slowly, through their own retellings, that the reader learns how they came to be in this situation. Chariklea is a lost Ethiopian princess who was abandoned at birth and now seeks to return to her homeland, accompanied by her lover Theagenes. It is an incredible tale and the character of Chariklea is particularly good and especially notable for being a strong female character in a literary work from an extremely patriarchal culture.
The Ass by Anonymous (Pseudo-Lucian): Breaking from the stories of lovers, The Ass is a farcical work. It is the story of the narrator accidently transforming himself into a donkey, due to his own foolish curiosity about magic. This story is much more lurid than the others and the narrator suffers through a tremendous amount of abuse before he can transform back into a human.
A True Story by Lucian: In antiquity, there was a genre of wonder literature that described exotic wonders that were said on to exist in far away places. A True Story is Lucian’s satirical take on these works and he uses it to poke fun at these incredulous stories and their authors. He famously begins the text by saying “that I am going to tell you the biggest lies you ever heard; and this is the only true statement in the whole book.” According to Lucian, the only difference between him and other authors of miraculous journeys is that he admits to being a liar. The journey that follows takes the narrator to island with rivers of wine, the moon, being swallowed by a whale, trapped on a frozen ocean, meeting the ghost of Homer, and more. It has sometimes even been referred to as the world’s first work of science fiction, though, of course, that depends on how you want to define that nebulous genre.
Alexander Romance by Anonymous (Pseudo-Callisthenes): The textual transmission of the Alexander Romance is notoriously muddled, since there are several versions among the extant manuscripts. However, the translator does a good job with providing a version of the text and noting differences with other versions when necessary. The Alexander Romance is a whimsical tale that loosely follows the life of Alexander the Great. He encounters a variety of wonders on his wars of conquest in the east and is even said to reach the ends of the earth. It was an immensely influential work in the medieval period and remains an entertaining read today, even if it tells little accurate information about Alexander.
The Story of Apollonius of Tyre by Anonymous: This story takes on a fairytale-like tone. It recounts the life of the noble Apollonius as he flees from a hostile monarch. Apollonius is a generous king, who is well liked by most people he encounters, and a cleaver man adept at solving riddles. He comes to believe both his wife and daughter have died and lives in misery for a brief period before discovering they are both alive.
Photius’ Summaries: There were plenty of other works of ancient prose fiction that are now lost to us entirely. The only known information about two of them resides in the writings of the ninth century Byzantine patriarch Photius. His Bibliotheca was intended to review and summarize books that he had read. Two of these works were The Wonders Beyond Thule by Antonius Diogenes, a work of wonder literature recounting a fantastical journey to remote places, and A Babylonian Story by Iamblichus, another “romance” work that is set in a much earlier period than the rest. These summaries are intriguing to read, but can be overwhelming, since they condense such large works into only a few pages. It takes a slow and meticulous read to fully comprehend the outline of these stories.
Fragments: Lastly, this volume includes a handful of fragments that are believed to come from other lost works of ancient prose fiction. This section will be most interesting to scholars and generally provides more evidence for the overall scope of these works.
Overall, this is a great introduction to study of these texts for classicists and those interesting in literary history. Anyone who reads fiction might enjoy this volume as well. It is full of interesting stories that will be somewhat different from modern works of fiction. I’ll summarize the works included here to help give a sense of what these are about. The first five of these are the extant Greek “romances” that involve a young heterosexual couple (usually teenagers) that fall in love, become separated, and undergo a variety of hardships (kidnapping, enslavement, shipwrecks, etc.), before being reunited.
Chaereas and Callirhoe by Chariton: This text recounts the tale of the titular youths, raised in Syracuse, who fall in love. After Callirhoe appears to be killed (by her own lover in a fit of rage), grave robbers steal her away and sell her into slavery, while Chaereas sets out to find her. Callirhoe’s exceptional beauty is a recurring theme and leads to practically every male character developing an obsession with her and, therefore, more troubles for the pair. Eventually, the couple even end up at the Persian royal court before sailing back to Syracuse for their happily ever after.
An Ephesian Tale by Xenophon of Ephesus: This is the shortest text of these five. In fact, it is so short and minimalist that scholars suspect that it is not actually a full text, but rather an epitome of it. Nevertheless, it follows the usual format of a young couple, Habrocomes and Anthia, suffering through many ordeals. The couple first get abducted by pirates on their honeymoon voyage, but they reunite at the end and sail home to Ephesus. Although it is a brief read, the quick pace of this one sometimes makes it more difficult to keep track of the characters and events.
Leucippe and Clitophon by Achilles Tatius: Possibly intended as a partial parody of the genre, this one follows the titular couple as they are forced to runaway from their home and, of course, run into many hardships. The two protagonists are exceptionally well developed characters and there is certainly a depth to their personalities and motivations. The framing that begins the work is also fascinating. It sets up the story as a first-person narrative told by Clitophon to a stranger. This work is often used for gleaning details about ancient sexual mores (as in Kyle Harper’s book on the subject), since Leucippe’s virginity is a major focus of the story, with her even undergoing a supernatural virginity test at the conclusion.
Daphnis and Chloe by Longus: This story is considerably different from the rest. There is a strong influence of the pastoral genre as this couple is raised in a rustic setting and grow up to be shepherds. Although they still face plenty of hardships, they never leave their homeland of Lesbos, unlike the other stories. It certainly has a stronger element of an “internal struggle,” being that it is essentially a story of two teenagers trying to figure out how to have sex. In the end, the couple are revealed to be of noble birth and live the rest of their lives in prosperity.
An Ethiopian Story by Heliodorus: This is the longest and most narratively complex of these texts and possibly the most entertaining. It begins in medias res at the scene of a shipwreck and banquet where all, except the couple, Theagenes and Chariklea, have been slaughtered. They are seized by bandits and it is only slowly, through their own retellings, that the reader learns how they came to be in this situation. Chariklea is a lost Ethiopian princess who was abandoned at birth and now seeks to return to her homeland, accompanied by her lover Theagenes. It is an incredible tale and the character of Chariklea is particularly good and especially notable for being a strong female character in a literary work from an extremely patriarchal culture.
The Ass by Anonymous (Pseudo-Lucian): Breaking from the stories of lovers, The Ass is a farcical work. It is the story of the narrator accidently transforming himself into a donkey, due to his own foolish curiosity about magic. This story is much more lurid than the others and the narrator suffers through a tremendous amount of abuse before he can transform back into a human.
A True Story by Lucian: In antiquity, there was a genre of wonder literature that described exotic wonders that were said on to exist in far away places. A True Story is Lucian’s satirical take on these works and he uses it to poke fun at these incredulous stories and their authors. He famously begins the text by saying “that I am going to tell you the biggest lies you ever heard; and this is the only true statement in the whole book.” According to Lucian, the only difference between him and other authors of miraculous journeys is that he admits to being a liar. The journey that follows takes the narrator to island with rivers of wine, the moon, being swallowed by a whale, trapped on a frozen ocean, meeting the ghost of Homer, and more. It has sometimes even been referred to as the world’s first work of science fiction, though, of course, that depends on how you want to define that nebulous genre.
Alexander Romance by Anonymous (Pseudo-Callisthenes): The textual transmission of the Alexander Romance is notoriously muddled, since there are several versions among the extant manuscripts. However, the translator does a good job with providing a version of the text and noting differences with other versions when necessary. The Alexander Romance is a whimsical tale that loosely follows the life of Alexander the Great. He encounters a variety of wonders on his wars of conquest in the east and is even said to reach the ends of the earth. It was an immensely influential work in the medieval period and remains an entertaining read today, even if it tells little accurate information about Alexander.
The Story of Apollonius of Tyre by Anonymous: This story takes on a fairytale-like tone. It recounts the life of the noble Apollonius as he flees from a hostile monarch. Apollonius is a generous king, who is well liked by most people he encounters, and a cleaver man adept at solving riddles. He comes to believe both his wife and daughter have died and lives in misery for a brief period before discovering they are both alive.
Photius’ Summaries: There were plenty of other works of ancient prose fiction that are now lost to us entirely. The only known information about two of them resides in the writings of the ninth century Byzantine patriarch Photius. His Bibliotheca was intended to review and summarize books that he had read. Two of these works were The Wonders Beyond Thule by Antonius Diogenes, a work of wonder literature recounting a fantastical journey to remote places, and A Babylonian Story by Iamblichus, another “romance” work that is set in a much earlier period than the rest. These summaries are intriguing to read, but can be overwhelming, since they condense such large works into only a few pages. It takes a slow and meticulous read to fully comprehend the outline of these stories.
Fragments: Lastly, this volume includes a handful of fragments that are believed to come from other lost works of ancient prose fiction. This section will be most interesting to scholars and generally provides more evidence for the overall scope of these works.
December 28, 2022
This is hard to rate! I am SUPER glad that this collection exists and I did not need to track down these titles individually. That being said, I am not looking forward to reading most of these again. It turns out Early Greek novels are all more or less the same. Two lovers are separated, one of them is presumed dead and buried alive, one or both of them is captured by pirates multiple times, someone is sold to a King or Queen who falls in love with them but they stay true to their partner, they are captured by pirates again and then magically reunited in the end. The standouts for me were Daphnis and Chloe, The Alexander Romance, and particularly Lucian's A True Story. Lucian's satire of other romances, Herodotus, and the Odyssey was actually funny -- not something I have said about much writing from this time period. Daphnis and Chloe was simply the best executed version of the standard formula. The Alexander Romance was a fanciful retelling of Alexander the Great's adventures that stuck out from the others.
April 27, 2025
I was pleasantly surprised by this collection. Although taking a Classical Studies course in tandem with it might have helped. I was expecting The Odyessy level density, sitting on Spark Notes to grasp what was happening, and just an overall struggle bus. No. Don’t get me wrong; these short stories (which are technically full novels) are epics. Some of them are very dense in plot. But they were very entertaining and threw me some curve balls I wasn’t expecting. Like a man casually mentioning that he learned mummification to mummify his deceased wife, and then sleeps with her corpse. Didn’t expect to find myself sitting in class debating whether this meant he was sleeping with the corpse or sleepinggg with the corpse… Let alone the number of times someone has a meltdown about being infatuated with someone and decides dramatic suicide must be the answer. Because everyone is just THAT gorgeous. These stories kept me on my toes. I am satisfied.
January 3, 2023
Specifically and only about the Ethiopica of Heliodorus contained here: this is the most accurate translation into any language that I came across, and it's also very readable! (https://wp.me/pBfTB-2R1)
May 1, 2024
Extensive collection of novels from ancient times
Read
December 16, 2024Read for Uni Yr.2, Sem.1:
Longus' Daphnis and Chloe
Heliodorus' The Ethiopian Story
Longus' Daphnis and Chloe
Heliodorus' The Ethiopian Story
June 29, 2025
(Lucio o l'asino)
Sorprendente, stregonesco romanzo erotico-picaresco, rapido e deciso nella rappresentazione dei suoi temi (curiosità, violenza, magia, sessualità).
Sorprendente, stregonesco romanzo erotico-picaresco, rapido e deciso nella rappresentazione dei suoi temi (curiosità, violenza, magia, sessualità).
March 19, 2025
"Then the Nile rose in spate, and the surge of water struck the pyre and put out the
flames. To those who witnessed it the event seemed like a miracle:²⁰"
20. Perhaps the gods of the Nile had read Herodotus, who reports that Croesus escaped
a similar fate in a comparable manner (1.87).
Dr Reardon I am there with you in your exasperation and applaud you for your humour.
Read
April 6, 2022• Euhemerus Holy account/sacred history [early?] 3rd BCE
• Iambulus’ Islands of the Sun - 3rd cent. bce (or 2nd)a utopian travel narrative, now lost, an excerpts of which is preserved by Diodorus Siculus ‘Bibliotheca historica’ also can be found in Lucians' True History and Ioannes Tzetzes' Chiliades.. This work may have been a forerunner of the novel but apparently contained no romantic element. It is a fantastic description of the author's journey to an Island of the Sun (located in the ocean south of Arabia—perhaps Sri Lanka)
Also https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...
•Here:
Ninus - around Chariton
Ephesian tale mid/late 2nd CE
The wonders beyond thule c. 100-130 CE (likely late)
Lucius, or The Ass third quarter of 2nd CE (not golden ass)
A babylonian story 165-180 CE
Apollonius king of tyre , Orig. 3rd CE, latin 5th/6th CE
Fragments 1st-3rd CE
also :
Callirhoe
A true story
Leucippe and Clitophon
Daphnis and chloe
An ethiopian story
Alexander Romance
• Iambulus’ Islands of the Sun - 3rd cent. bce (or 2nd)a utopian travel narrative, now lost, an excerpts of which is preserved by Diodorus Siculus ‘Bibliotheca historica’ also can be found in Lucians' True History and Ioannes Tzetzes' Chiliades.. This work may have been a forerunner of the novel but apparently contained no romantic element. It is a fantastic description of the author's journey to an Island of the Sun (located in the ocean south of Arabia—perhaps Sri Lanka)
Also https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...
•Here:
Ninus - around Chariton
Ephesian tale mid/late 2nd CE
The wonders beyond thule c. 100-130 CE (likely late)
Lucius, or The Ass third quarter of 2nd CE (not golden ass)
A babylonian story 165-180 CE
Apollonius king of tyre , Orig. 3rd CE, latin 5th/6th CE
Fragments 1st-3rd CE
also :
Callirhoe
A true story
Leucippe and Clitophon
Daphnis and chloe
An ethiopian story
Alexander Romance
April 9, 2020
I absolutely love the stories, the pre reading is a little hard to get through so I skipped it, but that's cause I had that in the form of my class on it. This collection is proof that humans have always been humans and that we enjoy art for arts sake. I think it's an academic staple for entertainment.
August 29, 2011
Great organization, and some of the best translators out there. Quite helpful for understanding the meta-narrative of novels and their development, as well as helping to see what it is about the "happy ending" that we so love in Western Literature.
February 6, 2016
So much better than Greek and Roman comedy, you have no idea. Adventure tales, essentially. I enjoyed them.
Read: Chariton, Xenophon, Longus, Achilles Tatius, Heliodorus, King Apollonius, Lucius the Ass. Will come back for True Stories at some point.
Read: Chariton, Xenophon, Longus, Achilles Tatius, Heliodorus, King Apollonius, Lucius the Ass. Will come back for True Stories at some point.
Read
March 19, 2007Selections
July 11, 2008
Buy now before it goes out of print. Western prose fiction's flying start in in highly readable modern English.
September 29, 2010
Except for Daphnis and Chloe, that shit's legit
March 10, 2021
Chaereas and Callirhoe was my fave!
April 19, 2009
Read "Chaereas and Callirhoe" by Chariton and "An Ethiopian Story" by Heliodorus.
September 12, 2015
These are hilarious. So many pirates.
Read
December 14, 2016I'm reading The Novel: an Alternative History and it recommended this collection. I didn't even know most of these stories existed or that some of these really are novels. Most of these were a lot of fun. There were way more pirates than I expected. Way way more pirates. And surprisingly mostly positive portrayals of women. These felt more modern in many ways than some more modern works, like many of the Victorians and even some things from the 20th century. There were also depictions of homosexual love - not just men having sex with other men because no women were around.
I liked this quote, spoken by a female after she has been kidnapped: "My one weapon is my freedom, which cannot be shredded by lashes, dismembered by sharp blades, or burned away by fire. It is the one thing I shall never part with. If you try to set it on fire, you will not find the fire hot enough."
I liked this quote, spoken by a female after she has been kidnapped: "My one weapon is my freedom, which cannot be shredded by lashes, dismembered by sharp blades, or burned away by fire. It is the one thing I shall never part with. If you try to set it on fire, you will not find the fire hot enough."
Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews