NARRATIVE AND IDENTITY IN THE ANCIENT GREEK NOVEL The Greek romance was for the Roman period what epic was for the archaic period or drama for the classical: the central literary vehicle for articulating ideas about the relationship between self and community. This book offers a fresh reading of the romance both as a distinctive narrative form (using a range of narrative theories) and as a paradigmatic expression of identity (social, sexual and cultural). At the same time, it also emphasises the elasticity of romance narrative, its ability to accommodate both conservative and transformative models of identity. This elasticity manifests itself partly in the variation in practice between different romancers, some of whom are traditionally Hellenocentric and others more challenging; but ultimately, it is argued, it reflects a tension in all romance narrative, which characteristically balances centrifugal against centripetal dynamics. This book will interest classicists, historians of the novel, and students of narrative theory. tim whitmarsh is a leading literary and cultural critic of the Greek world during the time of the Roman empire. A specialist in both ancient texts and modern theories, he has written over fifty articles and five books, including Greek Literature and the Roman Empire (2001) andthe Second Sophistic (2005); he has also edited or co-edited four books, and edits two book series.
GREEK CULTURE IN THE ROMAN WORLD Editors susan e. alcock, Brown University jaś elsner, Corpus Christi College, Oxford simon goldhill, University of Cambridge The Greek culture of the Roman empire offers a rich field of study. Extraordinary insights can be gained into processes of multicultural contact and exchange, political and ideological conflict, and the creativity of a changing, polyglot empire. During this period, many fundamental elements of Western society were being set in place: from the rise of Christianity, to an influential system of education, to long-lived artistic canons. This series is the first to focus on the response of Greek culture to its Roman imperial setting as a significant phenomenon in its own right. To this end, it will publish original and innovative research in the art, archaeology, epigraphy, history, philosophy, religion, and literature of the empire, with an emphasis on Greek material. Titles in series: Athletics and Literature in the Roman Empire Jason König Describing Greece: Landscape and Literature in the Periegesis of Pausanias William Hutton Religious Identity in Late Antiquity: Greeks, Jews and Christians in Antioch Isabella Sandwell Hellenism in Byzantium: The Transformations of Greek Identity and the Reception of the Classical Tradition Anthony Kaldellis The Making of Roman India Grant Parker Philostratus Edited by Ewen Bowie and Jaś Elsner The Politics of Munificence in the Roman Empire: Citizens, Elites and Benefactors in Asia Minor Arjan Zuiderhoek Saints and Church Spaces in the Late Antique Mediterranean: Architecture, Cult, and Community Ann Marie Yasin Galen and the World of Knowledge Edited by Christopher Gill, and John Wilkins Local Knowledge and Microidentities in the Imperial Greek World Edited by Homer Between History and Fiction in Imperial Greek Literature Laurence Kim Epiphany and Representation in Graeco-Roman Culture: Art, Literature, Religion Verity Platt Narrative and Identity in the Ancient Greek Novel
NARRATIVE AND IDENTITY IN THE ANCIENT GREEK NOVEL Returning Romance by TIM WHITMARSH
cambridge university press Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, São Paulo, Delhi, Tokyo, Mexico City Cambridge University Press The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge cb2 8ru, UK Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York Information on this title: /9780521823913 c 2011 This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published 2011 Printed in the United Kingdom at the University Press, Cambridge A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication data Whitmarsh, Tim. Narrative and identity in the ancient Greek novel : returning romance / Tim Whitmarsh. p. cm. (Greek culture in the Roman world) Includes bibliographical references and index. isbn 978-0-521-82391-3 (hardback) 1. Greek fiction History and criticism. 2. Narration (Rhetoric) History To 1500. I. Title. pa3267.w55 2011 883.0109 dc22 2010052774 isbn 978-0-521-82391-3 Hardback Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this publication, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.
,,. Keen are the ratiocinations of lovers, and quick to suspect; clever at guessing, and inspired at predicting. Iamblichus fr. 60.
Contents Preface List of abbreviations page ix xi part i Introduction 1 returning romance 1 First romances: Chariton and Xenophon 25 2 Transforming romance: Achilles Tatius and Longus 69 3 Hellenism at the edge: Heliodorus 108 part ii narrative and identity 4 Pothos 139 5 Telos 177 6 Limen 214 Conclusion 253 Appendix: The extant romances and the larger fragments 261 References 265 Index 295 vii
Preface This book marks the end of a long and serpentine journey. Versions of these chapters have been tested on audiences patient and inspirational in Atlanta, Berkeley, Birmingham, Bristol, Cambridge, Dublin, Exeter, Fresno, Geneva, Groningen, Leuven, Ljubljana, Lisbon, Liverpool, Los Angeles, Manchester, Michigan, Milan, Nottingham, Oxford, Paris, Pennsylvania, Princeton, Stanford, St Andrews, Swansea, Uppsala and Utrecht; I have also benefited immeasurably from the Welsh KYKNOS group (particularly meetings at Gregynog), the Cretan RICAN team led by Michael Paschalis, and participants in my own Romance between Greece and the East workshops. I have aimed to transliterate Greek names in their most familiar forms for ease of reading, accepting that no system of transliteration is perfect. Translations are mine, but I acknowledge my debt to other translators, especially those of Reardon (1989).For Achilles Tatius I have modified my own translations from Whitmarsh (2001b). For details of texts used please consult the appendix (divergences are noted throughout, where they occur). Iotas are printed adscript throughout; I have preferred bce/ce to bc/ad. I gratefully acknowledge the support of the Arts and Humanities Research Council, which (in its former life as a Research Board ) awarded me research leave to allow me to complete a first version of this book. The Research Council also funded the Romance Between Greece and the East workshops alluded to above. Brill Academic Publishers generously allowed me to rework parts of Whitmarsh (2003)in Chapter 2.Chapter 3 contains material that originated in Whitmarsh (1998): thanks to the Cambridge Philological Society. Heartfelt thanks too, for multiple reasons, to Cliff Ando, Lucia Athanassaki, Siam Bhayro, Ewen Bowie, Camilla Chorfi, Irene de Jong, Elizabeth Dollins, Konstantin Doulamis, Jaś Elsner, Dana Fields, Chris Gill, Maud Gleason, Simon Goldhill, Stephen Harrison, John Henderson, Owen ix
x Preface Hodkinson, Christopher Jones, Daniel King, Jason König, Rebecca Langlands, Anna Lefteratou, John Ma, Francesca Martelli, Stephen Mitchell, Silvia Montiglio, Helen Morales, John Morgan, Hannah Mossman, Karen ní Mheallaigh, Steve Nimis, Daniel Ogden, Boo Onion, Jim Porter, Ian Repath, Michael Sharp, Estelle Strazdins, Susan Stephens, Edmund Thomas, Stuart Thomson, Gail Trimble, Benet Walsh, and Froma Zeitlin. My gratitude to Francesca Stavrakopoulou, to my parents (Judy and Guy), brother (Ben), sister (Kate), and children (India and Soli) goes beyond words. Here s to happy endings.
Abbreviations ACM H. Musurillo, Acts of the Christian martyrs. Oxford, 1972. ANRW Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt. Berlin, 1972. AP Palatine Anthology. APM H. Musurillo, Acts of the Pagan martyrs. Oxford, 1954. CA J. Powell ed. Collectanea Alexandrina: reliquiae minores poetarum Graecorum aetatis Ptolemaicae 323 146 A.C. epicorum, elegiacorum, lyricorum, ethicorum. Oxford, 1925. DK H. Diels and W. Kranz eds, Die Fragmente der Vorsokratiker, 6th edn Berlin, 1951 2. FGrH F. Jacoby et al. eds Die Fragmente der griechischen Historiker. Berlin/Leiden, 1876 1959; continued Leiden, 1998. GCN Groningen Colloquia on the Novel. HU T. Hägg and B. Utas, The virgin and her lover: fragments of an ancient Greek novel. Leiden, 2003. IE Die Inschriften von Ephesos, eds Wankel, H. et al. = Inschriften griechischer Städte aus Kleinasien 11. Bonn, 1979. IG Inscriptiones Graecae, 2nd edn. Berlin, 1924. KA R. Kassel and C. Austin eds, Poetae comici Graeci. Berlin, 1983. KAI 3 H. Donner and W. Rölling eds, Kanaanäische und Aramäische Inschriften. Wiesbaden, 1962 4. LGPN P.M. Fraser et al., A lexicon of Greek personal names. Oxford, 1987. LIMC H. C. Ackermann and J.-R. Gisler eds, Lexicon iconographicum mythologiae classicae. Zurich, 1981 99. xi
xii List of abbreviations LS A.A. Long and D.N. Sedley, The Hellenistic philosophers, 2 vols. Cambridge, 1987. LSJ H.G. Liddell and R. Scott et al., A Greek English lexicon, 9th edn. with supplement. Oxford, 1996. MUSJ Mélanges de l Université Saint Joseph. Beirut,1906. Pack R.A. Pack, The Greek and Latin literary texts from Greco-Roman Egypt, 2nd edn. Ann Arbor, 1965; updated on the Mertens-Pack 3 website http://promethee.philo.ulg.ac.be/cedopal. Pap. Mil. Vogl. A. Vogliano et al. eds, Papiri della R. Universitàdi Milano. Milan, 1937. P.Fay. Grenfell, B.P. et al. eds, Fayum towns and their papyri. London, 1900. P.Michael. D.S. Crawford ed. Papyri Michaelidae, being a catalogue of Greek and Latin papyri, tablets and ostraca in the Library of Mr G.A. Michailidis of Cairo. Aberdeen, 1955. P.Oxy. The Oxyrhynchus papyri. London, 1898. P.Tebt. B.P. Grenfell, A.S. Hunt and J.G. Smyly eds, The Tebtunis papyri. London, 1869 1926. PMG D. Page ed., Poetae melici Graeci. Oxford, 1962. PSI Papiri greci e latini: pubblicazioni della Società Italiana per la ricerca dei papiri greci e latini in Egitto. Florence, 1912 79. RG L. Spengel ed. Rhetores Graeci, 3 vols. Leipzig, 1856. SVF H. von Arnim ed. Stoicorum veterum fragmenta. Leipzig, 1923 4. SW S.A. Stephens and J.J. Winkler, Ancient Greek novels: the fragments. Princeton, 1994. TGF B. Snell et al. eds Tragicorum graecorum fragmenta. Göttingen, 1971. Wehrli F. Wehrli ed. Die Schule des Aristoteles: Texte und Kommentar, 2nd ed, 10 vols. Basel, 1967 9.