Ancient Greek Novel

The ancient novel has long been recognised as a key example of fiction in the ancient world, but the implications of this identification have not yet been fully explored. Although in the modern world fiction is widely accepted as neutral and intrinsic to the novel, the lack of equivalent terminology for either ‘fiction’ or ‘novel’ in antiquity challenges any automatic assumption that fiction was a generically conventional and unproblematic part of the ancient novelistic reading experience. By situating the ancient novel within traditions of ancient fiction in theory and practice, as this thesis does, it becomes clear not only that ancient novelistic texts actively explore their own fictional potential, but also that this fictional awareness invites their audiences to consciously consider the effect of fiction upon their reading experience. Consequently, this thesis argues that ancient novelistic fiction acts as a vehicle for the novels’ and their audiences’ engagement with and situation of themselves within imperial culture.

It is a paradox that Greek novels, defined ever since Antiquity as 'romances', should convey no erotic emotion. In the present paper we try to show, by means of a formal analysis, that this erotic sense does actually exist, but in a very subtle way.

Op weg naar het Tegencontinent belandt de ik-figuur op de maan, in een walvis en op het Eiland der Gelukzaligen. De grootste absurditeiten worden beschreven met de nauwkeurigheid van een reisgids en de zelfverzekerdheid van iemand die zich gewoon niet kan voorstellen dat iemand zou kunnen twijfelen aan wat hij schrijft.
More (Utopia) en Erasmus (Lof der Zotheid) zijn schatplichtig aan Lucianus, evenals Rabelais, Cyrano de Bergerac en Swift.

Two functions are described for dreams in Ancient Greek Novels: to cause adventures which are very important for the plot and to anticipate future events. At the same time the author analyses the terminology of the visions and the types of dreams according to Artemidorus' Oneirocriticon

This paper aims to point out the Greek novel main motifs, which,
through the novella II.7 of Decameron, appear in the Catalan chivalric novel Curial e Güelfa. We also intend to assess their relevance in the work and analyze their treatment by the Anonymous, from the intertextualities previously identifi ed. In our opinion, it is a crucial aspect in the plot of the Catalan novel that the author takes consciously
from Boccaccio narrative model. Boccaccio thus appears to us as an intermediary with the Classical Tradition, as a link between Catalan writer and the Greco-Latin world the author considers repeatedly as a paradigm in his novel.

In this paper the rhetorical exercise of “narrative” (διήγημα) in the novel Callirhoe is analysed from the point of view of the
“constituents” (στοιχεῖα) and “virtues” (ἀρεταί) described in the Progymnasmata. The usefulness of the rhetorical exercise of
narrative in the novel is highlighted. We reach the conclusion that the recommendations of the Progymnasmata are followed
without undermining the creativity of the author or his stylistic and compositional features.

Cette étude décrit  la construction temporelle d'un des romans de l'Antiquité grecque, les Éphésiaques ou Habrocomès et Anthia. On trouvera dans l'introduction (1.) des renseignements sur les autres romans aussi. La partie (2.) analyse l'histoire racontée par le roman (« l'intrigue ») étape par étape, donne des listes utiles, et propose des remarques sur les personnages et leur rôle. La partie (3.) suit soigneusement quelques expressions de temps employées dans ce roman (et ailleurs) pour montrer le réseau serré des indications temporelles. La partie (4.) compare ce que le roman nous dit des moments du récit avec ce qu'il nous dit des endroits où il a lieu. Ce qui nous amène à une conclusion (5.). Cette description est conçue pour des lecteurs intéressés par ce roman, ou qui voudraient regarder de près un exemple de roman grec ancien. Elle est, j'espère, accessible à tout lecteur : il n'est pas nécessaire d'avoir étudié le grec ancien pour suivre ce que je raconte. Pourtant, j'ai parfois indiqué les mots grecs (toujours traduits) pour guider avec soin les lecteurs.

Résumé : On sait qu’Homère constitue la principale référence intertextuelle de Chariton (Reardon, 2003:333: “The most frequent of all Chariton’s literary references are to Homer".). Malgré le nombre croissant d’études sur cette relation, il reste encore beaucoup à explorer. Le but de cette communication est d’examiner l’emploi d’une formule homérique dans Chairéas et Callirhoé, roman de Chariton, à savoir « [...] τῆς/τοῦ δ'αὐτοῦ λύτο γούνατα καὶ φίλον ἦτορ » (Iliade, XXI 114 e 425 ; Odyssée, IV 703, XXIII 205, XXIV 345). Cette formule, appliquée à Callirhoé, à Chéreas et à Dionysios, se répète trois fois au long du roman (C&C I.1.14 ; III.6.3, IV.5.9). J’ai l’intention de vérifier si l’auteur fait une utilisation purement générique de la citation, ne retenant que son sens plus général, dans le seul but de prêter à son œuvre le prestige du poète archaïque, ou s’il y a une intention d’évoquer un contexte spécifique du poème cité, de manière à créer une expectative parmi ses lecteurs concernant le développement de l’œuvre. Il reste encore une troisième possibilité, celle que son utilisation soit liée à un autre but, à savoir celui de légitimer une caractéristique stylistique du propre auteur, celle de créer ses propres formules, à travers l’émulation du barde ancien.

topoi romanzeschi, reminiscenze epiche e saffiche memorie È un dato critico ormai acquisito che l'ambientazione bucolica e l'eliminazione del viaggio costituiscano le peculiarità più evidenti che contraddistinguono i Pastoralia nell'àmbito della narrativa erotica 1 . Anche per altri aspetti, meno vistosi e proprio per questo efficacemente rivelatori del carattere di sofisticazione della sua prosa, Longo cerca di rinnovare la tradizione letteraria, rielaborando moduli narrativi tipicamente romanzeschi in modo accorto e consapevole. In parecchi casi l'operazione di rinnovamento viene realizzata attraverso una rilettura attenta, e al tempo stesso sottilmente ammiccante, del modello omerico. In altre parole, riportando i topoi romanzeschi direttamente a uno dei loro archetipi fondamentali, l'epos arcaico, Longo ottiene come risultato quello di avviare un processo di sostanziale rivisitazione di alcune abusate tematiche del romanzo.

Die Gattung der sogenannten ,Buntschriftstellerei', der Aelians Werke De natura animalium und Varia historia zugeordnet werden, wurde bislang kaum zur Deutung des antiken Romans herangezogen. Anhand einer Analyse der Gartenexkurse bei Achilles Tatius und Longus wird im folgenden Beitrag die Frage nach dem Verhältnis von Haupthandlung und Exkurs neu angegangen und gezeigt, dass sowohl im Roman als auch in der ,Buntschriftstellerei' eine Symbiose zwischen Eros und Wissensvermittlung besteht, die auf Platons Dialoge Symposium und Phaedrus rekurriert. Die fließende Gre¡ze zwischen ,Buntschriftstellerei' und Roman manifestiert sich nicht nur im Gebrauch der Tier-und Pflanzenmetaphorik, sondern auch in der Geschichte der Aspasia, die als Roman-Fragment in Aelians Varia historia integriert ist.

The Greek world was full of the divine, and the imagined world of the ancient novels was no different. 1 Divinity and its worship pervade the novels' narratives, helping to unite, drive apart, and then reunite their protagonists. In this paper, I explore the relationship between ancient religion and literature, the transformation of literary tradition, and the place of the marvelous in the novels' narratives by examining the role that one aspect of the human experience of the gods, epiphany, plays in the genre. Although the novelists describe very few scenes of actual epiphany, 2 they make abundant use of the epiphanic metaphor in what I will call "epiphanic situations," when an internal audience reacts to the hero or, most often, the heroine of the novel as if he or she were a god or goddess. These epiphanic situations transform the common metaphor of divine beauty into a reality, at least as experienced by the internal audience, 3 and they offer the novelists an alternative to ekphrasis for expressing ineffable beauty.

Literary genres designed for instruction (didaskalia) often incorporate wonder- writing (paradoxography) to produce pleasure and enthrallment (psychagogia), thus compromising the truth and their educational value. In True Stories, Lucian mimics the paradoxographical discourse in its vocabulary, style, motifs, and mannerisms, yet introduces his material as pure fiction. I argue that Lucian claims the right to a new type of narrative, one that offers the audience not just the pleasure of marvelous stories, now avowed lies, but also instruction, through the opportunity to reflect (theoria) on the transformation of the old canons and to reposition oneself within the system of literary values.

Achilles Tatius' Leukippe and Kleitophon quotes Homer less frequently than other Greek novels, but it often refers to the epic tradition in a subtle and sophisticated way. A few intertexts suggest that gender issues (such as role exchanges between men and women) and cultural mediations (other texts, literary genres, or figurative arts providing a bridge between epic and the novel) are important elements in the evolution of an epic hero into a novelistic character. Parallels with the Homeric scholia show that Achilles Tatius' writing style can combine learning and humour, two of the most important features of the 'heroism' of some of his characters.

Ancient readers were highly attuned to etymologically and allusively significant character names, which helped shape their experience and understanding of narratives in a variety of ways. Authors frequently exploited that fact in their compositions. This paper capitalizes on that state of affairs by utilizing a literarily attuned onomastic analysis to explore two themes in Xenophon’s Ephesiaca. Specifically, I argue that Xenophon deploys several character names in interpretively important and sometimes sophisticated ways to serve the construction of themes relating to erotic andreia and lasting beauty. Regarding erotic andreia, this study largely supplements and corroborates conclusions that have been emerging in recent scholarship and offers a few fresh proposals for consideration. Xenophon’s interest in lasting beauty has not received much attention in contemporary scholarship outside of David Konstan’s Sexual Symmetry. The results of this study suggest that the theme deserves further examination. I offer a brief sketch, informed by onomastic analysis, of where the theme occurs and why it matters in the story Xenophon is telling.

Following a scholarly conference given in honor of Adela Yarbro Collins, this collection of essays offers focused studies on the wide range of ways that women and gender contribute to the religious landscape of the ancient world. Experts in Greek and Roman religions, Early Christianity, Ancient Judaism, and Ancient Christianity engage in literary, social, historical, and cultural analysis of various ancient texts, inscriptions, social phenomena, and cultic activity. These studies continue the welcomed trend in scholarship that expands the social location of women in ancient Mediterranean religion to include the public sphere and consciousness. The result is an important and lively book that deepens the understanding of ancient religion as a whole. With contributions by:Patricia D. Ahearne-Kroll, Loveday Alexander, Mary Rose D'Angelo, Stephen J. Davis, Robert Doran, Radcliffe G. Edmonds III, Carin M. C. Green, Fritz Graf, Jan Willem van Henten, Paul A. Holloway, Annette B. Huizenga, Jeremy F. Hultin, Sarah Iles Johnston, James A. Kelhoffer, Judith L. Kovacs, Outi Lehtipuu, Matt Jackson-McCabe, Candida R. Moss, Christopher N. Mount, Susan E. Myers, Clare K. Rothschild, Turid Karlsen Seim

The main aim of this paper is to present the way, how Theodorus Prodromus uses the description of the feast in the 4th book of his romance "De Rhodathes et Dosiclis amoribus libri IX".
  It is not a secret that in the Ancient and Byzantine times feasts were used not only for social gatherings of the upper class, but also to astound the guests with all the attractions attached to the main event and mostly with all the sophisticated kinds of food.
  The depictions of the feasts have long tradition in the literature and, since we do not have many sources to examine the Ancient and Byzantine culinary tradition, as the cookery books were not preserved to our time (besides the one attributed to Apicius), they do bring us to the light at least some of the details on culinary habits and everyday life of the Ancient and Byzantine times.
  Theodorus Prodromus with the depiction of the feast, that was put in the 4th book of his romance, enrolled himself to the long-lasting festive tradition that begun at the very beginnings of European literature.

Towards the end of the life of Aesop, probably written in the first century CE, a surprising, bawdy tale appears. I give here the version preserved in Vita W chapter 131, also collected as fabula 386. 1 γυνή τις εἶχε θυγατέρα παρθένον μωράν. πάντοτε οὖν ηὔχετο τὴν θυγατέρα νοῦν ἔχειν. εὐχομένης δὲ αὐτῆς παρρησίᾳ ἡ παρθένος ἤκουσε καὶ τὸν λόγον κατέσχε. μεθ᾿ ἡμέρας δέ τινας σὺν τῇ μητρὶ εἰς ἀγρὸν ἐξελθοῦσα καὶ τῆς προαυλίου προκύψασα θύρας, εἶδεν ὄνον θήλειαν ὑπὸ ἀνθρώπου βιαζομένην. καὶ προσελθοῦσα τῷ ἀνθρώπῳ εἶπε "τί ποιεῖς;" ὁ δέ φησι "νοῦν αὐτῇ ἐντίθημι." ἀναμνησθεῖσα δὲ ἡ μωρὰ ὁτὶ καθ᾿ ἑκάστην ἡ μήτηρ αὐτῆς νοῦν αὐτὴν ἔχειν ηὔχετο, παρεκάλει λέγουσα, "ἔνθες, ἄνθρωπε, κἀμοὶ νοῦν· καὶ γὰρ ἡ μήτηρ μου πολύ σοι πρὸς τοῦτο εὐχαριστήσει." ὁ δὲ ὑπακούσας, καταλιπὼν τὴν ὄνον διεπαρθενεύσατο αὐτήν. ἡ δὲ ἀναβᾶσα πρὸς τὴν μητέρα εἶπεν "ἰδού, μῆτερ, κατὰ τὴν εὐχήν σου νοῦν ἔλαβον." ἡ δὲ μήτηρ αὐτῆς φησιν "ἐπήκουσάν μου τῶν εὐχῶν οἱ θεοί." ἡ μωρὰ ἔφη "ναί, μῆτερ." "καὶ πῶς," φησιν, "οἶδας, τέκνον;" ἡ δὲ εἶπεν "ὁ τοῦτόν μοι ἐνθεὶς μακρὸν πυρρὸν νευρῶδες ἔσω καὶ ἔξω ἐντρέχον ἐνέβαλέ μοι, κἀγὼ ἐτερπόμην." ἡ δὲ μήτηρ ἀκούσασα ἔφη, "ὦ τέκνον, ἀπώλεσας καὶ ὅν πρῶτον εἶχες νοῦν."

In my BA dissertation I chose to analyse one of the most interesting characters of Heliodorus's "Aethiopica", Knemon. Beginning from the fundamental studies of Winkler, Morgan and Paulsen I have tried to give an account as detailed as possible of the various features and behaviours showed by Knemon during the story. I have split my analysis into three sections according to different roles performed by Knemon: Knemon as narrator, as narratee and as friend/helper. The first section is the largest: it includes a narratological examination of Knemon’s tale and compares his narrative techniques to those of Kalasiris. The second and the third deal mainly with Knemon’s relationships with other characters of the novel. In the conclusions there are some considerations about his leaving the “stage” of "Aethiopica" and also a final picture that briefly tries to make clear and put together all the complex shades of this character.

Romanii au recunoscut totdeauna prioritatea grecilor în literatură şi s-au considerat discipolii scriitorilor he-leni. Adesea ei au exagerat acest rol de precursori şi de modele al scriitorilor greci, neglijînd aportul original al autorilor latini, prelucrarea creatoare a motivelor şi pro cedeelor artistice preluate de Ia predecesorii lor helenici. Dar ei au afirmat totdeauna cu mîndrie că satira reprezintă o creaţie în întregime originală, un gen literar autentic roman. De aceea Quintilian declara ferm: satira tota nostra est -"satira este în întregime a noastră". Adevărul este că elemente satirice şi chiar poezii cu un caracter fundamental satiric au existat şi în literatura greacă (iambii lui Arhiloh), dar genul ca atare şi mai ales în forma sa caracteristic romană a apărut numai în cadrul literaturii latine. într-adevăr, prin satira romanii înţelegeau în primul rînd o producţie literară cu un caracter compozit, eterogen, bazat pe amalgamarea unor elemente diverse (iniţial, mai cu seamă dramatice, ca: pantomimă, dialog, muzică, joc de scenă), fapt care postula o compoziţie laxă, foarte liber realizată'. De aceea, satirele lui Horaţiu constituie într-o anumită măsură nişte conversaţii inteligente. Fireşte atitudinea critică faţă de De altfel se crede că termenul de satura ar proveni din satura lanx -"farfurie cu mîncare făcută din tot felul de alimente" (deci o varietate de ghiveci). Există însă şi alte ipoteze cu privire la originea satirei (vezi N. I. Barbu şi colaboratorii, Istoria literaturii latine, Bucureşti, 1964, voi. I, Pp. 223 -224, capitol redactat de Felicia Vanţ-Ştef şi p. 50, capitol redactat de Toma Vasilescu) Trecerea de la satura la satira s-a datorit unei false etimologii Termenul de satura a fost legat de cuvîntul grecesc satyros "satir" 7 defecte morale şi sociale, reprobarea lor cu ajutorul unor mijloace care să provoace rîsul sau surîsul, au reprezentat totdeauna conţinutul esenţial al satirei latine'. Satiricii romani n-au pierdut niciodată contactul cu umorul popular italic atît de bogat, atît de variat. Satira menippee, structural deosebită de poemul satiric, are totuşi un punct de plecare grecesc (pe lîngă satura romană), şi anume lucrările filozofului şi scriitorului Menipp din Gadara (sec. II -III î.e.n.). Acesta tratase într-o formă liberă, hazlie, o serie de probleme de etică şi criticase caustic unele presupuse erori ale filozofilor, precum şi emfaza oratorilor. Creatorul satirei menippee, deci inspirată de exemplul şi numele lui Menipp, rămîne însă scriitorul şi savantul roman Marcus Te-rentius Varro (sec. I î.e.n.)2. Varro a alcătuit 150 de cărţi de satirae menippeae, care ne-au parvenit numai sub formă de fragmente. Fiecare carte era dedicată tratării unei anumite probleme. Fragmentele păstrate sînt grupate în jurul anumitor titluri revelatoare, ca: Fereşte-te de cîine, Beţi cu măsură, Cine fuge de ai săi, fuge departe *. In asemenea fragmente, Varro îşi propune să trateze o serie de probleme de etică practică, să furnizeze precepte, indicaţii de conduită prezentate într-o formă umoristică, şi să critice unele defecte morale şt sociale. Există însă şi fragmente altfel întitulate. întîlnim, astfel, titluri, ca: Aiax sperietoare, Judecata armelor, Hercule filozof socratic, Un Ulise si jumătate, Eumenidele. Aici Varro realizează parodierea unor teme mitologice şi a unor motive utilizate în trage ' Dar satirele literare ale lui Lucilius, Horaţiu, Persius nu mai însumează amestecuri de elemente dramatice, ca satura, ci reprezintă poeme cu structura descrisă pe scurt în ultimele două fraze. 2 Nu ni se par fundate încercările unor teoreticieni americani de a găsi şi alţi precursori greci ai lui Varro, care să fi stabilit de fapt formula satirei menippee. In schimb, Varro s-a folosit de experienţa lui Ennius (sec. III -II î. e. n.), scriitor roman care a scris patru cărţi de Saturae. Aceste saturae nu semănau cu producţiile populare latine mai sus menţionate, ci constituiau poezii amestecate, adică scrise într-o metrică variată şi cu un conţinut moralizator. 3 Deci unele titluri sînt proverbe populare. 8 dia greacă. Sînt de asemenea persiflate disputele sterile ale filozofilor şi filologilor. Varro evocă unele realităţi sociale, face uneori aluzie la raporturile dintre categoriile socialG (într-o formă glumeaţă este prezentată situaţia grea a sclavilor), reprobă unele defecte ale păturilor sociale preponderente, ca luxul meselor, al nunţilor şi al înmormîntărilor etc. Varro a creat cîteva norme compoziţionale de bază, tiparele satirei menippee latine. într-adevăr, pe lîngă conţinutul serios, original, înveşmîntat în haina comicului întîlnim amestecuri, amalgame semnificative. Astfel alternează proza şi versurile, se amestecă stilul înalt, uneori pedant şi arhaizant, cu expresiile familiare, se parodiază limbajul poeţilor arhaici, al tragicilor, dar şi al scriitorilor preţioşi. Verva spumoasă şi evocarea plastică, pregnantă, a faptelor care să sprijine ideile, fantezia bogată, mobilă se reliefează în aproape toate fragmentele. Starea fragmentară a operei lui Varro poate sugera cercetătorului numai prudenţă atunci cînd se decide la generalizări, dar este totuşi clar că el a oferit un model preţios pentru urmaşii săi, Seneca şi Petroniu. într-adevăr, trăsăturile satirei menippee se pot regăsi într-o producţie literară apărută la cîţiva ani după redactarea opusculului senecan. Ne referim la Satyriconul lui Petroniu'. Se pot remarca şi în această producţie literară, transmisă nouă în stare fragmentară, trăsăturile caracte ristice ale satirei menippee: amestec de proză şi versuri, amalgam de stiluri, parodii, observaţie realistă a fenomenelor sociale, ironie şi comic gros, limbă care să mimeze vorbirea curentă, proverbe2. Satyriconul narează la persoana întîia, sub forma povestirii lui Encolpius, aventurile burleşti ale unor eroi 1 Pentru titlul lucrării şi autor vezi şi nota biografică. 2 Vezi şi A. Collignon, Etude sur Petrone, Paris, 1892, pp. 26 -27, 31. Inrîurirea satirei menippee este cea mai clară, mai greu contestabilă. Este foarte limpede că Petroniu a avut la dispoziţie şi a utilizat din plin satirele menippee anterioare (vezi E. Cizek, Autour de la date du Satyricon, Studii clasice VII, Bucureşti, 1965, p. 202) 9 picareşti, tineri cu o anumită pregătire intelectuală, dar declasaţi şi hotărîţi să trăiască din tot felul de expediente, inclusiv din furtişaguri şi chiar tîlhărie: Encoipius, Ascyltos, micul Giton. Ulterior, acestora li se adaugă bătrî-nul poet pedant şi netalentat, Eumolpus, care ia locul lui Ascyltos, -pe lîngă cuplul Encolpius-Giton. Fragmentele conservate îi înfăţişează iniţial într-o şcoală de retorică, pe care ei o părăsesc curînd. Cunoaştem numai din aluzii succinte, care apar în pasajele păstrate, aventurile lor anterioare, narate în fragmentele pierdute. De la şcoală, Encolpius şi Ascyltos nimeresc direct într-un lupanar. Scăpaţi de aici, ei îşi continuă tribulaţiile desfăşurate în cele mai surprinzătoare condiţii, aproape incredibile. împreună cu micul Giton, ei ajung oaspeţii unui libert îmbogăţit, numit Trimalchio. Astfel începe Cena Trimalchionis -" ospăţul lui Trimalchio"', cel mai important episod al Satyriconului, cel mai închegat şi mai bine conservat (cap. XXVI -LXXVIII). După ce părăsesc în grabă banchetul lui Trimalchio, Encolpius şi Ascyltos şi-1 dispută pe Giton, care în cele din urmă fuge împreună cu cel dintîi. Pentru a scăpa de urmărirea lui Ascyltos, cei doi tineri se îmbarcă pe o corabie împreună cu Eumolpus, care se împrietenise între timp cu ei. După tot felul de peripeţii ei naufragiază şi ajung în oraşul Crotona, unde trăiesc confortabil de pe urma prostiei şi lăcomiei unor localnici, care îşi închipuie că sărmanul Eumolpus este un bătrîn bogat şi fără copii, în căutare de moştenitori. Naraţia se întrerape tocmai în momentul în care Eumolpus citeşte un testament burlesc moştenitorilor săi prezumptivi. Aşa cum rezultă şi din acest scurt rezumat al Satyriconului, opera lui Petroniu nu constituie numai o satiră menippee. Ea este şi un roman, primul roman latin'. Problema înrudirilor cu romanul grec a fost amplu şi contradictoriu dezbătută de cercetători. într-adevăr, din literatura greacă, pe solul căreia au apărut primele romane ce descriau la modul cel mai serios tribulaţiile sentimen-' Şi totodată primul roman important (din care s-au păstrat fragmente iMai întinse) din literatura universală. 10 le ale unor tineri îndrăgostiţi, adesea nişte păstori, nu păstrat romane umoristice şi satirice consacrate parodierii corespondentelor grave, serioase. Totuşi, anumiţi savanţi germani au opinat că Petroniu a avut un model moristic, care parodia romanul pastoral-erotic1. Dar nimeni n-a putut demonstra existenţa unui asemenea tip de roman. Ni se pare mult mai simplu să presupunem că Petroniu a parodiat romanul de dragoste direct, fără să fi avut vreun model grecesc. Este adevărat că cele mai caracteristice romane greceşti de dragoste datează din sec. II -IV e.n. Dar este mai mult decît probabil că asemenea romane au fost scrise înainte de jumătatea sec. I e.n. de cînd sînt datate primele romane greceşti, mai puţin caracteristice pentru genul respectiv. Oricum, în Satyricon se pot regăsi elementele erotice şi aventuroase caracteristice pentru ro manul grec. Complexitatea şi varietatea aventurilor, imaginea nestatorniciei soartei (tyhe), care proiectează pe eroi în tot felul de peripeţii, revelă filiaţia existentă între Satyricon şi precedentele sale helenice. Cuplul central din romanul de dragoste -fata, frumoasă ca Venus, băiatul, chipeş ca Apolo -este aci reprezentat, evident la modul parodic, de Encolpius şi Giton, numiţi de unii cercetători antieroi, personaje intenţional contrapuse omologilor sentimentali din literatura narativă greacă. în textura Satyriconului se remarcă lesne episoade şi elemente specifice romanului grec: peregrinări de tot felul, coincidenţe şi întîlniri stupefiante, despărţiri nefericite şi regăsiri inopinate, certuri...

Throughout Egyptian history, high-ranking Egyptian priests were the scholars responsible for the creation of the very material that constituted the core of Egyptian intellectual culture. During the first millennium BCE, and particularly in the Graeco-Roman period (late fourth century BCE–fourth century CE), they were the social group in charge of mediating and negotiating the terms of the relationship between traditional Egyptian culture and the new foreign rulers of the country. As such, they are fundamental figures for our understanding of the greater Mediterranean and Near Eastern world of the time.
Marina Escolano-Poveda offers for the first time a detailed analysis of the most relevant Egyptian priestly characters from Egyptian and Graeco-Roman literary and paraliterary sources. The examination of these sources contrasts the self-presentation of Egyptian priests in texts created and circulated within the temple environment with images presented by outside sources, providing a solid base to analyze how these figures were seen in their historical milieu. In the second part of the book, the results of the previous analysis are contrasted with a series of widely-used models employed to understand the historical and intellectual context of Egyptian religion and the Egyptian priesthood in the Graeco-Roman period, questioning the usefulness and applicability of such models. Escolano-Poveda proposes new ways of understanding the role of the Egyptian priests in this context as fundamental actors in the development of the philosophical, scientific, and literary culture of the Hellenistic, Roman, and Late Antique worlds.

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The Egyptian priest Kalasiris of Heliodoros’ Aithiopika is one of the most complex characters in the ancient Greek novels. While many studies have been devoted to him from the fields of classics and ancient philosophy, no in-depth analysis of Kalasiris has been pursued from the field of Egyptology so far. In this paper I analyze two passages of the Aithiopika: Kalasiris’ description of the two types of Egyptian wisdom in 3.16.3–4, and the necromantic ritual of the old woman of Bessa in 6.14–15. I compare the presentation of Egyptian magic and necromancy in these passages with two descriptions of necromancy in Demotic literature: the reanimations of the scribe of the divine book in the beginning of the Fight for the Armor of Inaros, and of the wife and son of Naneferkaptah in Setne I. By means of this comparison I demonstrate that the difference in Kalasiris’ dichotomy between the two types of Egyptian wisdom does not reside in the magical practices themselves, but in the degree of initiation of their practitioners and the nature of their motivations.

Sull’ultimo e più complesso dei romanzi
greci, le Etiopiche di Eliodoro, mancava
ancora uno studio che facesse il punto, al-
meno in parte, sulla ricca messe di contri-
buti che ormai si sono accumulati sull’ar-
gomento. Partendo da una disamina degli
studi narratologici, fino a coinvolgere i
più recenti studi di narratologia cognitiva
e delle emozioni, con la presente ricerca
si è cercato di dare un nuovo volto a un
romanzo sorprendentemente complesso.
Sulla base dell’interpretazione del testo e
del vaglio di un’ampia letteratura, lo studio
offre riflessioni sulle caratteristiche
del romanzo, alcune delle quali finora tra-
scurate, come le narrazioni concentriche
(o racconti nei racconti), il valore dell’ek­
phrasis dell’ametista al centro dell’opera,
il valore delle emozioni nel romanzo e il
ruolo del lettore nella performance di let-
tura. Di fatto questa ricerca finisce per ri-
considerare e mettere in discussione al-
cune interpretazioni consolidate sul ro-
manzo greco in generale, ad esempio
sulla composizione del pubbblico e sulla
sua ricezione.

Die fünf vollständig erhaltenen griechischen Romane werden besonders hinsichtlich der Narrativistik, Struktur und Entstehung des Genres untersucht, während sie anders als die lateinischen Vertreter als historische Quelle beiläufig oder zaghaft betrachtet werden. Aus diesem Grund soll die vorliegende Arbeit ausgewählte Stellen der Ephesiaka von Xenophon v. Ephesos aus kulturwissenschaftlicher Perspektive im Rahmen eines Kommentars betrachten. Dabei gilt es aufzuzeigen, dass gerade das Verständnis der antiken (griechischen) Kultur Voraussetzung für das Verständnis und die Bewertung der ganzen antiken (griechischen) Welt ist. Der Vergleich mit Parallelquellen soll helfen, die kulturellen Elemente des Romans auf ihren realen Hintergrund zu untersuchen und einzuordnen. Deren Analyse hat gezeigt, dass der Großteil der kulturellen Phänomene auch in anderen Quellen gefunden oder zumindest erklärt werden kann. Unglücklicherweise ist es oftmals kaum möglich, die klassischen von den kaiserzeitlichen Elementen zu unterscheiden und die meisten Szenen sind zu vage, um aus ihnen auf umfassende Details zu schließen. Nichtsdestotrotz ist Kultur ein ständiger Begleiter jedes literarischen Werks, auch der Romane, wenn nur ein Blick unter die Oberfläche geworfen wird.

When it comes to the five complete extant greek novels the prevailing focus lies on narratology, structure and development of the genre while they are only occasionally and cautiously used as a historical source in contrast to the latin novels. For that reason this thesis analyses selected passages of the Ephesiaca of Xenophon of Ephesus from a cultural perspective as part of a commentary. It shall be shown that the understanding of ancient (Greek) culture is the basis for the understanding and assessment of the whole ancient (Greek) world. The comparison with parallel sources shall help to analyse the reality behind the cultural elements of the novel. The analysis of those showed that most of the cultural phenomena can be found in other sources as well or they can at least be explained by them. Unfortunately, it is often hardly possible to distinguish the elements of the classical period from that of the imperial world and the descriptions of most scenes are too vague to conclude thorough details from them. Nonetheless, culture accompanies every literary piece, the novels included, if one just looks below the surface.

In this contribution I look at ancient necromancy, both regarding its practices and its literary representations. I pay special attention to the vocabulary of necromancy, which enables us to see its different stages in the course of antiquity.

This paper discusses the blurring of the differences between necro-mancy and resurrection from apparent death in Apuleius' works, focusing on the necromantic tales of Socrates and Thelyphron in Metamorphoses 1 and 2, and two episodes where doctors wake supposed corpses from coma (Met.10.5–12 and Florida 19, on Asclepiades of Prusa). The necromancers and the doctors are portrayed similarly, while verbal allusions between all four Apuleian episodes enhance the confusing effect. The behaviour of the comatose and the necroman-tically revived dead is similar, too, and their appearance is often undistinguish-able, mystifying their audience as to their exact nature. Surprisingly, the biaio-thanatoi Thelyphron and Socrates both speak, but the two comatose patients do not, although they are alive. Other contemporary texts (Philostratus VA 4.45; Historia Apollonii Regis Tyri 26–27) do not blur this boundary and use speech to mark revived comatose patients as alive. Apuleius' boundary-blurring is unsur-prising in a novel featuring Isis, a goddess who herself crosses the border of life and death in her myth. During his Isiac mystery initiations, Lucius, too, experiences death and rebirth and keeps mystical silence about the initiation process. This cross-over of miracles and medicine is therefore Apuleius' preparation of his readership for the end of the novel.

The present paper is an overview and discussion of Byzantine literary criticism concerning the ancient Greek novel from the ninth to the fifteenth century CE. More specifically, I focus here on the opinions and judgments of some of the most prominent Byzantine scholars as regards two fully extant Greek novels: Achilles Tatius’ Leucippe and Clitophon and Heliodorus’ Ethiopian Tale. I review in some detail various aspects of the ‘evaluation practice’ of Patriarch Photios I (ninth century CE) and Michael Psellos (eleventh century CE), and I also – though more briefly – go over the corresponding theories and ideas of (Philip-)Philagathus of Cerami (twelfth century CE) and Ioannis Eugenikos (fifteenth century CE). The main question I attempt to address in this study is how similarly or differently (even idiosyncratically) the Byzantines read and discussed the Greek novels over the centuries.

The setting of Daphnis and Chloe is the “real” island located around the coordinates 39o N and 26o E; but this paper asserts that “Lesbos” was also a place of the imagination as significant as the “Thebes” of Athenian tragedy  (Zeitlin 1990), or the “Arcadia” of pastoral. This can be seen in Catullus’ choice (poem 51) of the pseudonym Lesbia for his lover, of whom Havelock claimed (1967, 130), that the “aura of Lesbos was round her head.” This “aura” recalled principally the island’s status as πασέων ἀοιδοτάτη, where the nightingale always sings sweetest (Phanokles 1, 22 as cited in Powell 1925, 107), and poetry and music have been especially at home since the arrival of the head and lyre of Orpheus. Within the realm of ancient fiction, the same aura informs the portrayal of the island in King Apollonius of Tyre (33-47), in the Mytileneans’ appreciation of Tarsia for her lyre-playing, education, and singing, which enables her to escape degradation in the brothel and leads to her integration with her father.  In Longus, Lesbos’ role as the home of poetry and song is emphasised in examples of the “Orpheus-like” control of the physical world by music and poetry.

Heliodor ist der Begründer des modernen Romans: Seine Aithiopika, die die Liebesgeschichte von Chariklea und Theagenes erzählen und die im 16. Jahrhundert wiederentdeckt werden, sind Vorbild für Generationen europäischer Autoren, die
sich in imitatio und aemulatio üben. Dadurch ebnen die Aithiopika der neuen Gattung den Weg und tragen erheblich zu deren Praxis und Theorie bis in die Anfänge der Moderne bei.
Die Autorinnen und Autoren nehmen den Heliodorus redivivus als europäisches Phänomen in den Blick und eröffnen neue, interdisziplinäre Sichtachsen auf die gelehrte und populäre Rezeption der Aithiopika in der italienischen und  eutschsprachigen Literatur der Frühen Neuzeit. Außer der Druckgeschichte der Übersetzungen wird dabei die Langzeitwirkung des Werkes in Nachahmungen, Parodien und Überbietungen nachverfolgt, die sich von der Spätrenaissance
über den Barock bis ins 18. Jahrhundert in die Geschichte des Romans, der Romanpoetik, des Epos und des Theaters sowie in die Kunstgeschichte einschreiben. Ergänzt werden diese Studien durch gräzistische Beiträge, die die noch offene  Datierungsfrage und die intertextuelle Vernetzung des spätantiken Autors in der Literatur seiner Zeit neu beleuchten.
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The first section of this paper discusses  the Greek notions of parthenos (virgin), and parthenia (virginity). More precisely, I will revisit the arguments made in Le Corps virginal (1986: Paris: Vrin), a book translated into English, as Greek Virginity (1990: HUP).
In Greek culture, virginity is an experience of embodiment, a condition of closure and intactness, the inexperience of "the works of Aphrodite". It is NOT a mere social status, namely non-marriage. I strongly refute this reductionist interpretation, based on a simplistic notion of what is "social", and on a superficial reading of the primary sources.
But although virginity is an experience of embodiment, it does not depend upon one  single  body part. The ancient Greeks did not recognize the existence of a membrane located in a woman's vagina -- what we call the "hymen". They did not obsess on defloration and bloodshed.
The second section of the paper will advance a new hypothesis on the medical knowledge that lay in the background of the representations of virginity.
The two sections are connected as follows: while re-examining the terminology, I will argue that ancient medical writers did not include the "hymen”, in the anatomy of a healthy young woman. Soranos of Ephesus (II century CE) was the first physician to mention a membrane obstructing the vagina, but he claimed that this was just a false belief. There could be imperforation, he argued, but this could only be an anomaly.
There was no normal occlusion.
The ancient Greeks, therefore, failed to identify what modern forensic medicine calls “the physical signs of virginity”. They relied, however, on a different kind of sign of vaginal intercourse: pregnancy. As long as they could trust the conception of a child as the predictable effect of heterosexual coition, pregnancy revealed the loss of virginity. Contraception was to disturb that trust. Soranos, the first physician who discusses the anatomy of an un-penetrated woman, is also the first to provide an extensive collection of contraceptive remedies – not just abortifacients. The transition from a representation of virginity as sexual inexperience (but without the anatomical support of the "hymen") to the need to pin down sexual integrity via a membranous structure, is correlated to the increasing aware- ness that women might tamper with their bodies, and that heterosexual coition, therefore, might go unobserved.