Daphnis and Chloe

Introduction

Daphnis and Chloe is an ancient Greek romance novel and the only known work of the mysterious writer Longus, who lived during the 2nd century C.E., when Greece was part of the Roman Empire. The novel is a pastoral work depicting the idealized life of shepherds and rural communities, while following the love story of the two eponymous protagonists, Daphnis and Chloe. Due to the descriptions of nudity, desire, and sex, critics have traditionally considered the novel mildly pornographic.

Daphnis and Chloe was first translated from the original Greek into French in 1559 by Jacques Amyot, helping to launch a literary trend in pastoral fiction that flourished across Europe in the 16th century and into the 17th century. Longus’s novel also inspired several famous Elizabethan works, including Arcadia by Sir Philip Sidney (1590) and As You Like It by William Shakespeare (1599).

Content Warning: Please note that the novel contains references to sexual assault and pederasty. The term “pederasty,” in this context, defines a socially acknowledged romantic relationship between an older man and a younger man— usually an adolescent—in ancient Greece.

This study guide refers to the 2002 Oxford World’s Classics edition of Daphnis and Chloe.