The Prologues of the Greek Novels and Apuleius

Abstract

Abstract The prologues of other ancient novels may seem an obvious place to look for helpful analogues to Apuleius’, but the differences have turned out to be more important and interesting than the similarities. The following survey does not say all there is to say about the prologues of the Greek novels; and occasionally a more illuminating perspective is provided by fictions not normally classified as novels. Despite the notorious homogeneity of the Greek romances, there was no prologue template; the five extant novels employ widely various opening strategies. Two of them (possibly), the earliest and (certainly) the latest, Xenophon’s Ephesian Story and Heliodorus’ Ethiopian Story, plunge immediately into the narrative, although their opening paragraphs function also as informal prologues, adumbrating themes and establishing protocols. The other three, Chariton’s Chaereas and Callirhoe, Longus’ Daphnis and Chloe, and Achilles Tatius’ Leucippe and Cleitophon, open with material as it were inside the book but outside the novel, as apparently did two novels not extant but summarized by Photius, the Babylonian Story of Iamblichus and The Wonders beyond Thule of Antonius Diogenes. Prefaces are also found in the Latin narratives of the Trojan War masquerading under the names of Dictys and Dares, in the pseudo-Clementine Recognitions and in fictions by Lucian, Dio, and Philostratus.