Longus: Daphnis and Chloe

3 Credits · Level: Graduate, Undergraduate

“In Lesbos while hunting, in a grove of the Nymphs I saw a sight, the most beautiful of those I saw: a painting of a picture, a history of love.” So begins Longus’ novel Daphnis and Chloe about a boy and girl raised by shepherds who fall, unknowingly, into lovesickness. In this course for advanced students of ancient Greek, we will read Longus’ four-book novel in Greek alongside selections of texts to which he alludes, including by Sappho, Plato, and Theocritus. Topics to be discussed include allusion and intertextuality, ecphrasis, the nature-culture dichotomy, and the relationship of sexuality and violence.