The Greek Novel and Early Christian and Jewish Narrative

(3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

Up until 1989, when B. P. Reardon's translation of the Greek novels was published, scholars of ancient Greek literature, who previously denied any interest in what they suspiciously defined as post-classical literature, had largely neglected the study of ancient novels. In recent decades, this trend has been inverted. Many studies have now been published which mostly focus on the five extant ancient novels: Chariton's Callirhoe, Xenophon's Ephesiaca, Longus's Daphnis and Chloe, Achilles Tatius' Leucippe and Cleitophon and Heliodorus' Aethiopica. Moreover, in the last few years, a new trend has been emerging within Classics, namely to compare at greater length these ancient novels with both Jewish and Christian narratives. For example, the study of Joseph and Aseneth and the Acts of Paul and Thecla, among other texts, has pointed out the existence of strong similarities within all these texts in both their narrative form and their focus on love. This has led some to suggest that the genre of the Greek novel might be both a multicultural enterprise and a key component of the literature of the Imperial Era. This advanced Greek class follows this recent trend and invites students to read and compare selections of the following texts: Longus' Daphnis and Chloe, Achilles Tatius' Leucippe and Cleitophon, Heliodorus' Aethiopica, Joseph and Aseneth, and The Acts of Andrew. Students will be introduced to a close analysis of both the koine Greek and the main structural components of these texts. In particular, students will be taught with the help of narratology, intertextuality with the Odyssey and Plato's Phaedrus, characterization and gender studies. Special attention will be given to the identification of shared themes between the texts, and to the intriguing relationship between faithful love as it is portrayed in the Greek novel, and Jewish and Christian love to God. Finally, students will reflect on how all these narratives respond to the challenges of their contemporary historical context, which was characterized both by the Romans' control over the Greeks, the rise of Christianity, and the emergence of a new attention to the human person and to women in particular.