Daphnis and Chloe

“Out hunting in Lesbos,

in a grove sacred to the Nymphs

I saw a sight

whose like, for beauty, I had never seen—

a painting,

a love story.”

This quote is taken from the Prologue, which opens the novel by claiming that the text is a description of a story contained within a beautiful painting. The discovery of the painting is a framing device, where an introductory narrative is used to introduce another narrative. This structural device leads readers from one story into the next, drawing them into the tale to generate greater investment in the novel’s events. It also establishes the narrative as an exercise in “ekphrasis”—a description of a work of art. Longus attempts to paint the picture that he discovered in the sacred grove using words, relaying the details of the painting so that the reader can clearly imagine the artwork for themselves.

“Mytilene is a city in Lesbos, a big city and a handsome one; for it is divided by canals, along which the sea comes stealing into its heart, and adorned with bridges made of polished white stone—you would think you were looking at an island rather than a city.”

Book 1 opens with a description of Mytilene, the nearest city to the countryside where Daphnis and Chloe are raised—it is also where their birth parents hail from. The setting of Mytilene is romanticized: As the location that ultimately facilitates the union of the two protagonists, it must be suitably beautiful. Elements of the city are also anthropomorphized, with the wild, untamable sea “stealing” like a thief into the “heart” of the city,