The Myths of Fiction: Studies in the Canonical Greek Novels

1. Chariton, History, and Myth

X 1 Chariton, History, and Myth hariton’s novel is the earliest novel and has been dated from as early Cas 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 of historiographical elements , language, and style (Perry 1967, 343–45). Papyrological evidence seems to support this date (Reardon 1971, 334 n. 55). Chaereas and Callirhoe had originally been dated to the fourth or fifth century A.D., but papyri demonstrates that the terminus ante quem of this novel must be the second century A.D.2 The search for the exact time of composition has been further narrowed down to the first decades of the second century A.D. (Ruiz-Montero 1980, 63–69; 1989, 107–50) based on inscriptions found in Aphrodisias (C.I.G. 2782, 2783, 2846) and on references in the Palatine Anthology (11.180, 181, and 150) to a certain Athenagoras, very possibly the employer of Chariton, found in the poetry of Ammianus (A.D. 88–145). It must be emphasized, however, that there is very little archaeological or historical evidence with which to date firmly any of the ancient novels. None of the authors, except perhaps Chariton, can be historically or archaeologically verified; there are in fact only two very thin historical 15 16 T H E M Y T H S O F F I C T I O N threads that can be tied to Chariton. Firstly, Philostratus addressed a letter (66) to Chariton in which he wrote: Χαρ ιτωνι᝽ Μεμν ησεσθαι τω  ν σω  ν λ  ογων ο ιει τους Ελληνας ε πειδαν τελευτ ησης᝽ ο ι δε μηδεν  οντες ο π  οτε ε ισ ιν, τινες  αν ε ι  εν ο π  οτε ο υκ ε ισ ιν;.3 Secondly, inscriptions C.I.G. 2782, 2783, and 2846 may identify Chariton’s employer, Athenagoras, as an official in Aphrodisias, Chariton’s homeland, and Chariton as a physician . Neither of these two pieces of data supplies any conclusive information capable of accurately dating Chariton the novelist. Philostratus tells his reader that Chariton was a writer and nothing more; the inscriptions reveal that a certain Athenagoras was an official at Aphrodisias and that the physician Chariton had erected a funeral mound. The inscriptions do not mention that Chariton was a writer. Chaereas and Callirhoe is not only the earliest extant Greek novel, but also the only one of its genre to use extensively historiographical features (Ruiz-Montero 1981, 237). Later novelists include such features but do not rely on them for background and structure as much as Chariton does. Accordingly, the reader of Chaereas and Callirhoe finds verifiable historical detail in the correctly assigned dates, accurately related events, and realistically depicted places and figures of the novel.4 The story, for example, takes place in the past, famous historical figures are included, and history has a tremendous effect on the behavior of the characters. In this way Chariton imitates the classical historians in technique , not for the purpose of masquerading as a professional historian, but rather, as Hägg (1987, 197) suggests, to create the “effect of openly mixing fictitious characters and events with historical ones.”5 This effect is partially created by the use of a historical source that deals with myth.6 The introduction of the two youths in the beginning of the novel exemplifies the primary function of myth in Chariton: throughout the text the novelist assigns his leading characters analogues in the form of mythical or legendary beings.7 For example, Chaereas at different times becomes Achilles, Nireus, Hippolytus, and Alcibiades. Chariton assimilates Callirhoe to Aphrodite and Ariadne, and to a much lesser extent to Artemis, Helen, Medea, and the nymphs. Most often Chariton compares Callirhoe’s loveliness to that of Aphrodite, as at the beginning of the novel:  η  ν γαρ . . . α υτη  ς Α␸ροδ ιτης Παρθ ενου (1.1.2). Most importantly, Chariton likens Callirhoe to a sleeping Ariadne: πα  ντες ε ικαζον α υτην Αρια  δνη καθευδο  υση (1.6.2). Homer (Od. 11.321–25) writes that Theseus took Ariadne from Crete to Athens but Chariton, History, and Myth 17 that he abandoned her on the Isle of Dia (Naxos), where she was killed by Artemis at the bidding of Dionysus. Hesiod (Theog. 947–49) relates that Dionysus took Ariadne as his wife and that Kronos made her immortal. Chariton’s version in 1.6.2, therefore, loosely follows the narratives of Homer and Hesiod. The novelist introduces this myth after the heroine has been kicked into...