Essays on the Greek Romances
iii
ESSAYS ON
THE GREEK ROMANCES
BY
ELIZABETH HAZELTON HAIGHT
Professor Emeritus of Latin, Vassar College
NEW YORK
LONGMANS, GREEN AND CO.
M D CCCC XLIII
iv
HAIGHT
ESSAYS ON THE GREEK ROMANCES
COPYRIGHT · 1943
BY LONGMANS, GREEN AND CO., INC.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED, INCLUDING THE
RIGHT TO REPRODUCE THIS BOOK, OR
ANY PORTION THEREOF, IN ANY FORM
PUBLISHED SIMULTANEOUSLY IN
THE DOMINION OF CANADA BY
LONGMANS, GREEN AND CO., TORONTO
FIRST EDITION
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
v
To
BLANCHE FERRY HOOKER
IN HONOR AND FRIENDSHIP
vi
The Publication
of this book was made possible
by the
J. LEVERETT MOORE RESEARCH FUND
IN CLASSICS
and the
LUCY MAYNARD SALMON FUND
FOR RESEARCH
established at Vassar College
in 1926
vii
 PREFACE
If all the world loves a lover, as the old proverb says, thenthis my book should win wide fame. For these GreekRomances of the first to the fourth century of our era seemstill to be singing the immemorial refrain from the oldspring-time song of “The Vigil of Venus”:
Cras amet qui numquam amavit,
quique amavit cras amet.
“Let those love now, who never lov’d before;
Let those who always lov’d, now love the more.”
At a time when fiction is the most popular form of literature,these wonderful old Greek stories of love, adventureand worship are half forgotten and rarely read except bythe scholar. Yet here, as in epic, lyric, elegy, drama, oratoryand history, the Greeks were pioneers. In the secondand third centuries they had created four different typesof romance (of love, of adventure, the pastoral, the satiric)which were to have great influence on French, Italian andEnglish fiction. The student of comparative literature,the student of the history of fiction cannot afford to neglectthese pioneer Greek novels.
Their appeal, however, should be just as great for thegeneral reader as for the scholar. For here are storiesthat mirror the life of the Mediterranean world in theRoman Empire with all its new excitements of travel, piracy,kidnapping, the new feminism, the new religiouscults. And through all the different types of romance exceptviiithe satiric the Love-God holds supreme sway over thehearts of men. So human, so vivacious are the love-storiesthat I offer to my readers Longus’ assurance of profit inhis introduction to his Pastoral Romance:
“I drew up these four books, an oblation to Love and to Panand to the Nymphs, and a delightful possession even for all men.For this will cure him that is sick, and rouse him that is in dumps;one that has loved, it will remember of it; one that has not, itwill instruct. For there was never any yet that wholly couldescape love, and never shall there be any, never so long as beauty                        
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