The Myths of Fiction

Studies in the Canonical Greek Novels

Edmund P. Cueva

Publication Year: 2004

The tradition of historical literature begun by Herodotus and Thucydides molded the early Greek novel. As the genre evolved, however, Greek novels moved away from their historical roots to become more heavily influenced by mythological traditions. Edmund Cueva's new book examines the literary uses to which the ancient novelists put their mythological material. His work offers a stimulating discussion of myths and their rise to prominence as the key feature of the fully developed Greek novel. He also takes into account the impact of the Roman conquest on the development of the Greek novel, the last true literary creation of the Greek world. The Myths of Fiction will interest scholars of Greek literarure, imperial history, literary myth, intertextuality, and comparative literature. Edmund Cueva is Associate Professor and Chair of Classics at Xavier University.

Published by: University of Michigan Press

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Acknowledgments

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pp. vii-

Iwish to thank Jean Alvares, Chris Collins, Colin Day, Margaret Edsall, Collin Ganio, Mary Hashman, Paula James, Brian Lavelle, Edwin Menes, John Makowksi, Anthony G. McCosham, John Murphy, Robert Murray, Perry Pearson, John Rettig, Gerald Sandy, Gareth and Karen Schmeling, ...

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pp. ix-

Introduction

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pp. 1-14

Time has not been kind to the ancient Greek novel. Indeed only five examples of this genre have survived in their entirety: Chaereas and Callirhoe by Chariton, Ephesiaca by Xenophon,¹ Leucippe and Clitophon by Achilles Tatius, Daphnis and Chloe by Longus, and Aethiopica by Heliodorus.² ...

1. Chariton, History, and Myth

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pp. 15-34

Chariton’s novel is the earliest novel and has been dated from as early as the first century B.C.¹ to as late as the second century A.D. The first century B.C. date has been justified by some scholars on account of the novel’s lack of Atticism (Papanikolaou, 1973a). The latter dates are suggested on the basis of the novelist’s inclusion ...

2. Xenophon, History, and Mythological Allusions

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pp. 35-43

The date of the Xenophon’s Ephesiaca seems more firmly fixed than Chariton’s in the second century A.D. Xenophon mentions in 2.13 and 3.11 an eirenarch of Cilicia, a political and military office not known to have existed before the reign of Hadrian (A.D. 117–38).¹ The word eirenarch, however, is found ...

3. Longus, Myth, and History

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pp. 44-61

On the basis of internal criteria, Longus may be said to have written Daphnis and Chloe in the second century A.D. Two factors aid in the dating of Longus: his name and the wall-painting mentioned in the prologue of the novel. Longus’s cognomen could be identified with that of a Mytilenean family ...

4. Thematic Myths, Pan, and Achilles Tatius

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pp. 62-82

Achilles Tatius was thought to have composed his Leucippe and Clitophon as late as the fifth century A.D., papyri assure a middle- to late-second-century A.D. date (Perry 1967, 348 n. 12). The first papyrus fragment to be published was Oxyrynchus papyrus no. 1250, which is dated to the early fourth century. ...

5. The Analogue of the Hero of Heliodorus’s Aethiopica

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pp. 83-90

Heliodorus’s novel has been dated to the third or fourth century A.D.¹ It is very difficult, if not impossible, to date accurately this novel. Emperor Julian in his eulogy of the Emperor Constantius (written in A.D. 357), however, seems to parallel Heliodorus’s account of the siege of Syene (book 9) with his account of ...

Conclusion

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pp. 91-96

This present study has primarily focused on the relationship between the diminution of historical detail and the increase of mythological and literary allusion in the development of the ancient Greek novel. I have generally concentrated on the various literary functions of myth introduced into the novel as the genre evolved, ...

E-ISBN-13: 9780472025633
E-ISBN-10: 0472025635
Print-ISBN-13: 9780472114276
Print-ISBN-10: 0472114271

Page Count: 168
Publication Year: 2004