Cover not available
Part of
The Reality of Women in the Universe of the Ancient Novel
Edited by María Paz López Martínez, Carlos Sánchez-Moreno Ellart and Ana Belén Zaera García
[IVITRA Research in Linguistics and Literature 40] 2023
► pp. 173–180

Chapter 11
The home life of a heroine

The winter of Chloe’s discontent in Longus

 | Emory University
Within the seasonal structure of Daphnis and Chloe, Longus’s brief portrayal of winter contrasts with pastoral idealism elsewhere to foreground a sharper realism, especially in the lives of the title characters. In scenes not easily paralleled in other Greek novels, Chloe experiences realities of life for women in pastoralist households, rendering her temporarily ἀμήχανος (“helpless”). Winter thus disrupts the symmetries of experience for heroine and hero. Although Daphnis initially appears more active in attempting to overcome the separation, benevolent chance and Chloe’s newfound ability to work within domestic constraints restore sexual symmetry and renew forward movement of the plot.
Keywords: ἀμηχανία, Daphnis and Chloe, domesticity, Longus, pastoral, realism, sexual symmetry, τέχνη, winter
Published online: 1 December 2023
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/ivitra.40.11sla
References (20)
Bibliography
Arnott, W. G. (1994). Longus, Natural History, and Realism. In J. Tatum (Ed.), The Search for the. Ancient Novel (199–215). Baltimore: Johns Hopkins.Google Scholar
Bowie, Ewen. (2019). Daphnis and Chloe. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Cueva, Edmund P. (1998) Longus and Thucydides: A New Interpretation. Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies, 39, 429–440.Google Scholar
Doody, Margaret Anne. (1996). The True Story of the Novel. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.Google Scholar
Fairclough, H. Rushton, & Goold, G. P. (1999). Virgil. New ed., revised by G. P. Goold. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Gill, Christopher. (2018). Style and Ethos in Longus’ Daphnis and Chloe. In Kathryn Chew, J. R. Morgan, and S. M. Trzaskoma (Eds.), Literary Currents and Romantic Forms: Essays in Memory of Bryan Reardon (113–36). Groningen: Barkhuis.Google Scholar
Hadas, Moses. (1936). The Tradition of a Feeble Jason. Classical Philology, 31, 166–168. DOI logo [URL]Google Scholar
Henderson, Jeffrey. (2009). Daphnis and Chloe. Cambridge, Mass.; London: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Heubeck, Alfred and A. Hoekstra. (1989). A Commentary on Homer’s Odyssey. Volume II. Books IX-XVI. Oxford and New York: Clarendon Press. Google Scholar
Hunter, R. L. (1983). A Study of Daphnis & Chloe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(1993). The Argonautica of Apollonius: Literary Studies. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kloft, Hans. (1989). Imagination und Realität: Überlegungen zur Wirtschaftsstruktur des Roman Daphnis und Chloe. Groningen Colloquia on the Ancient Novel, 2, 45–61.Google Scholar
Konstan, David. (1994). Sexual Symmetry: Love in the Ancient Novel and Related Genres. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Mason, H. J. (2003). Winter on Lesbos: Imagination and Reality. Mouseion, n.s. 3 (3), 285–294.Google Scholar
Morgan, J. R. (2004). Longus: Daphnis and Chloe. Oxford: Aris & Phillips. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Most, Glenn W. (2006). Hesiod. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Race, William H. (2008). Apollonius: Argonautica. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Temmerman, K. (2014). Crafting Characters: Heroes and Heroines in the Ancient Greek Novel. Oxford, U.K.: Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Trzaskoma, S. M. (2005). A Novelist Writing ‘History’: Longus’ Thucydides Again. Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies, 45, 75–90.Google Scholar
Vieillefond, Jean-René. (1987). Longus: Pastorales (Daphnis et Chloé). Paris: Les Belles Lettres.Google Scholar