Abstract

This chapter views ideal Greek novels-or the as some now prefers to say-from viewpoint of some ancient biographical texts. The author intention is to let characteristics of canon emerge in comparison with works of so-called fringe, rather than he other way round, as has been more usual. The texts chosen for comparison are five works sometimes described as biographical romances: Xenophon's Cyropaedia , Life of Alexander ascribed to Callisthenes, anonymous Life of Aesop , Pseudo-Herodotean Life of Homer , and Philostratus' Apollonius of Tyana . The treatment of love in biographical romances-as far as biographical subject himself is concerned-is remarkably summary, as well as remarkably similar among several of them. In Cyropaedia, marriage of Cyrus to his nameless cousin is described as a purely political arrangement. Keywords: ancient biographical texts; Apollonius of Tyana ; Greek novels; Life of Aesop ; Life of Alexander ; Life of Homer ; Xenophon's Cyropaedia

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