Callirhoe, Daphnis and Chloe, Letters of Chion

Greek Fiction

Longus (Author) Longus (usually dated between the mid-second and mid-third centuries AD). Daphnis and Chloe is available in Penguin Classics in different translations in Greek Fiction and Daphnis and Chloe.

In this collection of Greek fiction written between the first and fourth centuries AD, 'Callirhoe' is the stirring tale of star-crossed lovers Chaereas and Callirhoe, torn apart when she is kidnapped and sold as a slave, while 'Daphnis and Chloe' tells of a boy and girl abandoned at birth, who grow up to fall in love and battle pirates. Greek Fiction - also containing 'Letters of Chion', an early thriller about tyranny and a political assassination - is a fascinating glimpse into an alternative view of Ancient Greece's literary culture.

Daphnis and Chloe

Paul Turner's distinguished translation retains the beauty and elegance of Longus' original, while his introduction sets the work in context and outlines the history of the text

Longus (usually dated between the mid-second and mid-third centuries AD). Daphnis and Chloe is available in Penguin Classics in different translations in Greek Fiction and Daphnis and Chloe.

A tender novel describing eager and inept young love, Daphnis and Chloe tells the story of a baby boy and girl who are discovered separately, two years apart, alone and exposed on a Greek mountainside. Taken in by a goatherd and a shepherd respectively, and raised near the town of Mytilene, they grow to maturity unaware of one another's existence - until the mischievous god of love, Eros, creates in them a sudden overpowering desire for one another. A masterpiece among early Greek romances, attracting both high praise and moral disapproval, this work has proved an enduringly fertile source of inspiration for musicians, writers and artists from Henry Fielding to Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot and Maurice Ravel. Longus transforms familiar themes from the romance genre - including pirates, dreams, and the supernatural - into a virtuoso love story that is rich in insight, humorous and ironical in its treatment of human sexual experience.

Longus

Books by Longus

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