Daphnis and Chloe

“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, foreshadowing the strength and unexpectedness of the unbidden love that will sweep over Daphnis and Chloe. The comparison of the city to an island is also significant as, in literature, islands are spaces that do not conform to social norms and boundaries—so that even a simple shepherdess may be raised from obscurity into myth.

“It was the beginning of spring, and all the flowers—in woods and meadows and on the mountains—were bursting into bloom […] with such a delightful sense of spring all about them, it was natural that these two young impressionable people should begin to imitate what they heard and saw.”

The main action of the novel starts with the beginning of spring, traditionally a season that symbolizes new life, youth, joy, and love. In Longus’s novel, spring also symbolizes the two protagonists flourishing into early adulthood and the flush of first love. Any reference to spring also foreshadows the inevitable changes of the subsequent seasons, which mark the passage of time throughout the novel and also have symbolic value for the different stages of Daphnis and Chloe’s relationship.

“His hair was black and luxuriant, and his body was sunburnt—one could have imagined that it had been tinted golden-brown by the shadow of his hair. As Chloe looked on, it occurred to her that Daphnis was handsome; she had never considered him so before, and that made her think that the bath must be the cause of his beauty. When she helped him to wash his back, the skin felt so soft and yielding beneath her touch that she repeatedly ran her fingers over her own body (unseen by Daphnis) to see whether he had the more exquisite flesh.”

Chloe watches Daphnis bathe and experiences the awakening of desire. The tactile and somatic imagery of this passage is particularly sensual. For this reason, critics have long considered Daphnis and Chloe an erotic novel. In addition, Chloe takes pleasure in touching Daphnis and her own body as she seeks to determine which of them feels the most “exquisite”. There is an element of voyeurism here, as Longus specifies Chloe’s actions are “unseen by Daphnis” and he is ignorant of her feelings of desire. Likewise, the reader is also invited to become a voyeur as Longus creates a setup where the reader is “watching” Chloe, who is watching Daphnis.

“Chloe did not know what was wrong with herself, young and countrified as she was, and never having so much as heard another person uttering the name of love.”

This quote exemplifies Chloe’s innocence at the start of the novel. Having felt the first pangs of love and desire, Chloe panics and worries that something is wrong with her. This is the first reference to the trope of lovesickness, which Longus references several times throughout the novel. Here, Longus attributes Chloe’s naivety to her youth and the fact she is “countrified”. Natural spaces and the countryside are established as places symbolic of innocence and childhood. Later, it is significant that both Daphnis and Chloe must leave the countryside for a while and visit the town, to acknowledge their adult identities and prepare for marriage.

“Dorcon hid himself there and waited for the time when the flocks would come to drink; he was sure that he would get his hands on Chloe after terrifying her with his wolf-suit.”

Dorcon disguises himself as a wolf and waits to ambush and rape Chloe. In Greek mythology, the gods regularly transform themselves into animals to rape mortal women. Although seemingly sinister, Dorcon’s disguise is a parody of these malevolent transformations. Longus has previously depicted Dorcon as foolish—he tries to buy Chloe’s affection with cheese—and his wolf costume results in him being attacked by dogs and having to be rescued. Any potential threat posed by Dorcon is negated by his stupidity and incompetence.

“Their flames were fanned by the season of the year. It was now the end of spring and the beginning of summer, and all creation was burgeoning; the trees were hung with fruits; the corn was standing high in the plains, pleasant was the sound made by the cicadas, sweet the fragrance of the ripe fruit.”

The novel progresses into summer as the protagonists’ love and desire develops. Daphnis and Chloe’s mutual desire intensifies as the season changes into summer, their relationship metaphorically “heating up” as the weather becomes warmer. 

“They wanted something, but could not tell what it was. This only they knew, that Chloe’s kiss has unmanned Daphnis, and Daphnis bathing had undone Chloe.”

This quote emphasizes the contrast between Daphnis and Chloe’s emerging adult desire and their childish innocence. Longus relates the powerlessness that the characters experience at not being able to understand or act on their new feelings for each other. Their lack of comprehension is a stumbling block in their development. Daphnis, in particular, feels like he has been rendered impotent by Chloe’s kiss, in which she took the initiative and acted on her impulse. Daphnis’s feelings of frustration persist until he has sex with Lycaenion.

“Chloe bathing, he thought to himself, was more to be feared than the sea; and he felt as though his life yet lay in pirate hands. For he was young and country-bred, and he still knew nothing of the piracy of Love.”

Following his escape from the pirates, Daphnis sees Chloe naked for the first time as she is bathing. Here, Chloe’s feminine form is aligned with the sea’s power and reflects the ritual bathing of goddesses, another recurring image in ancient Greek mythology­. Longus also personifies love as a pirate and describes how Daphnis feels like he is being held hostage by his desire and emotion. Again, Longus reiterates that Daphnis’s inability to comprehend his emotions is due to his youth and upbringing in the countryside, a space of simplicity and innocence.

“Love is a god, and he is young and fair, and he can fly. And so he takes pleasure in all youth and seeks out beauty and causes souls to grow wings. As for his powers, he has such power as even Zeus has not.”

In this passage, Philetas explains who Love is. In Daphnis and Chloe, Love represents Eros, the Greek god of love, lust, desire, and sex. Eternally young and beautiful, Love seeks out other young people, such as Daphnis and Chloe, and inspires them with intense emotion. The reference to Love causing “souls to grow wings” reflects the idea that love is the highest emotional state. Ancient Greek philosophical thought, especially that of Plato, considered souls to be immortal. In Plato’s Phaedrus, the philosopher argues that an immortal soul has wings that become redundant when it enters a human body at birth. However, these wings can be nourished when a human cultivates wisdom, goodness, and love. Love himself has golden wings and being touched by his power allows mortals to aspire to a god-like experience. Love’s power is so strong that Philetas depicts him as more powerful than Zeus, King of the Gods.

“I could neither think of food

nor swallow drink

nor take rest—

I ached in spirit,

my heart fluttered,

my body grew chill;

I cried out as though beneath the lash,

I was as silent as a corpse,

I plunged into rivers as if I burned.”

Philetas describes his experience of falling in love as a youth as akin to an illness, further establishing the trope of lovesickness. In ancient Greek medicine, lovesickness was described as a “depressive disease” and Hippocratic works refer to “love melancholy”. The bodily symptoms that Philetas, Daphnis, and Chloe experience when they are in love are physical manifestations of extreme internal emotion.

“They kissed on meeting […] and embraced so closely that the arms of each were crossed behind the other’s back. But they shied from the third remedy, to take off their clothes and lie down.”

In this passage, Daphnis and Chloe begin to experiment with Philetas’s advice for lovers. However, although their intertwined bodies symbolize their close and trusting relationship, they are not yet ready to be naked together. The protagonists’ shyness reflects the pair’s continuing childishness and innocence. The reference to Philetas’s advice as a “remedy” for love reinforces the idea of love as a sickness.

“Then Daphnis drew Chloe to him in a particularly violent caress—she somehow rolled onto her side, and Daphnis, as he pressed home his kiss, ended up lying alongside her. Both knew that this was the very image of their dream, and they lay there for a long time as though held in bonds.”

Daphnis and Chloe both dreamed that they would lie together as described in this passage. The oxymoron of Daphnis’s “violent caress” conveys how his lust contrasts with his tender love for Chloe, leaving him feeling confused. When the pair’s dream comes to pass, the couple feel as though they are held in each other’s arms by some external force. The power of their desire that roots them to the spot is simultaneously natural and the result of the god of love’s meddling. The image of the pair lying, almost as if bound together, reflects the limbo that they are trapped in, wanting to further their physical relationship but not knowing how to.

“The Methymnaeans heaped insults on the holy images, then drove away the animals and made Chloe their captive—they beat her as though she were a goat or a sheep, using withies for whips.”

Chloe hides from the Methymnaeans in a grove sacred to the nymphs, but the men desecrate the sacred site and treat Chloe like an animal. The Methymnaeans are sacrilegious with no respect for the gods, nor the countryside or people that inhabit it. This scene sets up the inevitable retaliation of the gods—in Greek mythology, another common trope is gods releasing their wrath on mortals that have disrespected them. 

“You have filled with war the countryside that I love, you have stolen the herds of cattle and goats and sheep that are my care, you have dragged from the altars a girl whom Love desires to make into a myth, and have felt no shame before the Nymphs, who witnessed your sacrilege, or before me, Pan.”

Pan reinforces his status as the god of shepherds, the wild, and the countryside when he appears to the Methymnaean general, Bryaxis, and chastises him for pillaging the country folk and kidnapping Chloe. This episode is another intervention by a god into the mortal realm, emphasizing the power and influence they have over events in the human world. Moreover, Pan references Love’s intention to make Chloe a myth, reinforcing her special status and foreshadowing the prosperous culmination of her story.

“Not so our two lovers! Remembering departed joys—their kisses and embraces and the delightful picnics which they had shared—they passed sleepless nights and doleful days, and waited for the spring, that rebirth after death.”

While the other herdsmen are enjoying the rest that winter brings, Daphnis and Chloe are in torment as the icy weather metaphorically cools their relationship, as they are unable to spend time together in the pastures. For the couple, their separation causes an emotional desolation that reflects the death of plants and hibernation of animals that winter brings. The pair long for the return of spring, with all the hope and love it symbolizes, along with the promise of their reunion.

“He thought it delightful to share a bed even with Chloe’s father, with the result that he spent the night pawing and kissing Dryas—the silly boy was doing it all to Chloe in his dreams.” 

After Daphnis is invited to spend the night with Chloe’s family, he shares a bed with Dryas. Longus intends to inject some humor into the novel, with Daphnis confusing the Chloe of his dreams with her adoptive father.

“And so he made to stand up again, and clung to her from behind in imitation of the billy-goats. But that only made him feel more baffled than ever; so he sat down and wept, to think that even the rams knew more about the deeds of love than he did.”

Daphnis is frustrated at not knowing how to make love to Chloe and turns to observing the behavior of the animals for guidance. It is ironic that two young people who have grown up with animals and are in many ways part of nature, are confounded by how to carry out the natural reproductive act. The image of Daphnis trying to imitate the goats is another instance of humor in the novel. However, the final image of Daphnis weeping reflects his growing despair at not knowing how to take his physical relationship with Chloe further.

“After Daphnis had sat by her, kissed her, and lain down with her in his arms, Lycaenion could tell that he was able for lovemaking and all athrob with desire; so she made him raise himself a little from where he lay on his side, slid her body expertly under his, and guided him into the road which had eluded him till then. After that she didn’t bother to do anything exotic—there was no need, because Nature herself taught him how to complete the act.”

Lycaenion and Daphnis have sex and she teaches him about the process of making love. This passage explores the physical mechanisms of sex, with no reference to thoughts or emotions. The lack of internal dialogue reflects how neither party has any deep feelings for the other: Daphnis views this liaison as a lesson in a subject he can then practice with Chloe and Lycaenion sees it as a means to satisfy her lust. The personification of Nature as a teacher removes some of the moral qualms of this exchange, as Lycaenion is the conduit for Nature’s lesson, rather than taking an active role.

“I felt no pain this time round, because I’m a woman, not a girl—another man taught me this lesson long ago, and took my maidenhead as his recompense. But when Chloe struggles with you in this wrestling match, she’ll wail and weep and lie in a pool of blood.” 

Lycaenion cautions Daphnis about having sex with Chloe for the first time. Lycaenion infers that it is sex—rather than marriage—that marks the transition from girlhood to womanhood. When Lycaenion talks about her own experience of having sex for the first time, she presents a woman’s virginity or “maidenhead” as something physical that can be taken, or in her case, traded for a lesson in lovemaking. Longus also incorporates traditional beliefs that a woman will experience pain and blood loss when she first has sex. In contrast to Daphnis’s pleasurable first-time experience of sex, the female expectation is that this “wrestling match” will result in some form of injury. However, Longus later clarifies that these stereotypical beliefs are “wrongly” held (55).

“O maiden

this apple

the lovely Seasons of the Year brought forth

and a fair tree fed

beneath the mellowing Sun

and chance preserved;

and, while I have eyes, I am not the one to leave it there

and it may fall to earth”

Daphnis picks an apple for Chloe. Longus adapts these lines from a poem by Sappho, where the apple symbolizes a bride that has been kept safe as a prize for her husband. In Greek tradition, the giving and receiving of apples represented the giving and receiving of love.

“I love the body of a slave, but the beauty of a free man. Do you see how his hair is like the hyacinth and his eyes shine beneath his temples with the light of gemstones in a golden setting? And how his face is tinged all over with blushing crimson and his mouth is arrayed with teeth as white as ivory? What lover would not long to take sweet kisses from that mouth?”

Gnathon describes his “love” for Daphnis and defends his attraction to a lowly goatherd. Gnathon praises Daphnis’s body, exploiting it by breaking it down into parts that are compared to natural or inanimate objects like hyacinth, gemstones, and ivory. Daphnis’s handsomeness also acts as a class marker. By asserting that Daphnis has the “beauty of a free man” (74), Gnathon links the abstract concepts of beauty and freedom, anticipating the revelation that Daphnis is actually of noble lineage. Gnathon’s desire to “take kisses” from Daphnis outlines his expectations that Daphnis will be passive in the anticipated pederastic relationship.

“‘Is Chloe a virgin?’ And when Daphnis swore that matters had not gone beyond kissing and oath-taking, Dionysophanes expressed himself well pleased.”

Dionysophanes questions Daphnis on Chloe’s sexual status, using her virginity as a measure of suitability to be Daphnis’s wife. This highlights a discrepancy between expectations around male and female sexuality, with Daphnis never questioned on his sexual experiences. In ancient Greek culture, female virginity was considered a virtue that signified temperance and purity—several goddesses swore oaths of eternal virginity.

“And so their shepherd-life grew old, as they themselves grew old.”

In this passage, Daphnis and Chloe are content in their old age and still leading a bucolic life. The couple prefer to spend their time in the countryside that they grew up in and raise their family in nature, rather than return to the town. Although Daphnis and Chloe’s time as goatherds and shepherds is coming to an end, by raising their family in the countryside they have ensured that their children will continue the familial traditions of rustic living.