Chariton

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For other uses, see Chariton (disambiguation).

Chariton of

historical novel; it was later imitated by Xenophon of Ephesus and Heliodorus of Emesa
, among others.

Dating

Nothing is securely known of Chariton beyond what he states in his novel, which introduces him as "Chariton of Aphrodisias, secretary of the

rhetor Athenagoras". The name "Chariton", which means "man of graces", has been considered a pseudonym chosen to suit the romantic content of his writing, but both "Chariton" and "Athenagoras" occur as names on inscriptions from Aphrodisias.[4]

The latest possible date at which Chariton could have written is attested in papyri that contain fragments of his work, which can be dated paleographically to about AD 200.[4] A variety of dating suggestions have been generated by analyzing Chariton's words. A date as late as the sixth century AD was suggested in the 19th century, before the discovery of the papyri, based on stylistic considerations, while A. D. Papanikolaou argued for the second half of the first century BC in 1979. One study of Chariton's vocabulary favours a date in the late 1st century or early 2nd century AD.[5]

Edmund Cueva has argued

Persius,[6] who died in AD 62; if this is Chariton's novel, then a relatively early date would be indicated.[4] Regardless, Chariton probably wrote before the other Greek novelists whose works survive,[7][8] making either his work or Petronius' Satyricon
the earliest extant European novel.

Callirhoe

Main article: Callirhoe (novel)
P.Fay. 1
A second or third century AD papyrus of the Callirhoe from Karanis (P.Fay. 1)

Chariton's novel exists in only one (somewhat unreliable) manuscript, from the 13th century. It was not published until the 18th century, and remained dismissed until the twentieth. It nevertheless gives insight into the development of ancient prose fiction.

The story is set against a historical background of c. 400 BC. In

Syracuse, Chaereas falls madly in love with the supernaturally beautiful Callirhoe. She is the daughter of Hermocrates, a hero of the Peloponnesian War and the most important political figure of Syracuse, thus setting the narrative in time and social milieu. Her beauty (kallos) overawes crowds, like an earthly counterpart of Aphrodite's, as noted by Douglas Edwards.[9] They are married, but when her many disappointed suitors successfully conspire to trick Chaereas into thinking she is unfaithful, he kicks her so hard that she falls over as if dead.[10] There is a funeral, and she is shut up in a tomb, but then it turns out she was only in a coma, and wakes up in time to scare the pirates who have opened the tomb to rob it; they recover quickly and take her[11] to sell as a slave in Miletus
, where her new master, Dionysius, falls in love with her and marries her, she being afraid to mention that she is already married (and pregnant by Chaereas). As a result, Dionysius believes Callirhoe's son to be his own.

Despite the liberties Chariton took with historical fact, he clearly aimed to place his story in a period well before his own lifetime. Tomas Hägg has argued that this choice of setting makes the work an important forerunner of the modern

historical novel.[12]

The discovery of five separate fragments of Chariton's novel at Oxyrhynchus and Karanis in Egypt attest to the popularity of Callirhoe. One fragment, carefully written on expensive parchment, suggests that some, at least, of Chariton's public were members of local elites.[13]

Editions

  • D'Orville, Jacques Philippe (1750). ΧΑΡΙΤΩΝΟΣ Αφροδισιέως τῶν περὶ ΧΑΙΡΕΑΝ καὶ ΚΑΛΛΙΡΡΟΗΝ ΕΡΩΤΙΚΩΝ ΔΙΗΓΗΜΑΤΩΝ ΛΟΓΟΙ Η (in Greek). Amsterdam: Apud Petrus Mortier. The first printed edition. With Latin translation by Johann Jacob Reiske.
  • Hirschig, Wilhelm Adrian (1856). "Charitonis Aphrodisiensis De Chǣrea et Callirrhoe" (PDF). Erotici Scriptores. Paris: Editore Ambrosio Firmin Didot. pp. 413–503. Retrieved 2007-02-16. With a reprint of Reiske's Latin translation.
  • Hercher, Rudolf (1858–1859). Erotici Scriptores Graeci. Leipzig.
  • Blake, Warren E. (1938). Charitonis Aphrodisiensis De Chaerea et Callirhoe Amatoriarum Narrationum libri octo. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
  • Molinié, Georges (1989) [1979]. Chariton: Le Roman de Chairéas et Callirhoé.
    ISBN 2-251-00075-5
    .     With French translation.
  • Goold, G. P. (1995). Chariton: Callirhoe.
    ISBN 0-674-99530-9
    . With English translation.
  • Reardon, Bryan P. (2004). De Callirhoe Narrationes Amatoriae Chariton Aphrodisiensis. Bibliotheca scriptorum Graecorum et Romanorum Teubneriana. K.G. Saur.
    ISBN 3-598-71277-4. Reviewed in BMCR

English translations

See also

Other ancient Greek novelists:

Notes

  1. ^ In literature, he is also known as Χαρίτων ὁ Ἀφροδισιεύς and Χαρίτων ὁ Ἀφροδίσιος.
  2. ^ Greek: Τῶν περὶ Χαιρέαν καὶ Καλλιρρόην in Greek.
  3. ^
    S2CID 161950407
    .
  4. ^
    ISBN 0-391-04134-7
    .
  5. S2CID 170993327
    .
  6. ^ Persius (Aules Persius Flaccus). "Satire 1." Horace: Satires and Epistles; Persius: Satires. Trans. Niall Rudd. London: Penguin Classics, 2005. Print. In Satire 1 (lines 124-134), Persius suggests that those having a juvenile sense of humor and unsophisticated taste in art and literature should stick to "the law reports in the morning, and Calliroë after lunch."
  7. ^ Ewen Bowie (2002). "The chronology of the earlier Greek novels since B.E. Perry: revisions and precisions". Ancient Narrative. 2: 47–63.
  8. ISBN 978-0-19-957694-4
    .
  9. doi:10.1093/jaarel/lxii.3.699
    .
  10. Naxos, Chariton says (1.6.2), and her second husband will be named for Dionysus
    .
  11. ^ A parallel is in some versions of the myth of abandoned Ariadne.
  12. ISBN 978-0-19-872189-5
    .
  13. ^ Edwards (1994), p. 700.

Further reading

External links

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