50 pages • 1 hour read
Daphnis and Chloe
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Themes
Navigating Love and Lust
The difficulty of managing the emotions of love and lust, especially as an adolescent experiencing these feelings for the first time, is the central theme of Longus’s novel. By early in Book 1, Daphnis and Chloe already love each other but it is a platonic, familial love. The two young people have been raised together, “passing their time in childish games […] when Love hatched a plan that turned their sport to earnest” (9). Here, Longus establishes that Daphnis and Chloe’s relationship was initially one of innocent childhood friendship. The shift in their feelings is attributed to the intervention of Love (Eros). The reference to sport is a double entendre, with the first meaning describing their childish play, and the second meaning denoting how these lively games will develop into another activity—that of romantic pursuit.
Critics have historically viewed Daphnis and Chloe as an erotic novel due to the sensual and intimate nature of some of the scenes. For example, there is an erotic element when Chloe convinces Daphnis to bathe: “Then she persuaded him to bathe again and watched him bathing, and passed from watching to touching” (11). Here, Longus leaves it intentionally unclear who—or what—Chloe is touching. Chloe’s act of voyeurism is also a metafictional moment Chloe is taking pleasure in watching Daphnis, but the reader is also watching Chloe as she gazes on Daphnis. Therefore, the reader is invited to act as voyeur, with the details of this scene left to their own imagination.
When Daphnis and Chloe first experience feelings of lust and romantic love, neither of them understands what is happening. No one has ever explained to the pair what love is like and they begin to panic: “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” (11). Longus employs the traditional trope of lovesickness in describing the young people’s feelings. Chloe says: “No I am sick / but don’t know what with / I am in pain / yet have no wound upon me” (11). Her feelings are mirrored by Daphnis, after Chloe kisses him for the first time: “But as for Daphnis, he behaved as though he had been bitten not kissed” (14). Both Daphnis and Chloe feel as though they have contracted an ailment, as the turbulence of their internal emotions manifests as external physical symptoms. The idea that pain and pleasure are intertwined states is an established literary motif used to describe the state of being in love. Indeed, the presence of pain is an indication of true love. When Daphnis later has sex with Lycaenion, he only experiences pure pleasure because he is motivated solely by lust, which is uncomplicated by the feelings of loving care and consideration he has for Chloe.
Longus also shows lust as a potent emotion, with animalistic urges driving the natural cycles of reproduction. During spring, Daphnis and Chloe observe the animals mating: “Among the billy-goats, too, there was pursuing and amorous mounting of the she-goats” (51). The young people hope to learn how the animals seem to satisfy their desire and then copy them, but their naivety prevents them from making any progress. The inability to satisfy one’s lust in a mutually consensual way leads to immoral thoughts and behavior. After winter, Daphnis is obsessed with satisfying his desire and feels “meddlesome and impudent enough for any devilry” (52). More extreme manifestations of insatiable lust are the incidents of attempted rape, with Dorcon and Lampis attempting to force themselves on Chloe, and Gnathon assaulting Daphnis.
Daphnis’s liaison with Lycaenion allows him to satiate his physical desire and to continue a less sexual relationship with Chloe. Lycaenion, in contrast to Chloe, is an expert in seduction and practiced in lovemaking. Describing the sexual intercourse between Lycaenion and Daphnis, Longus writes that Lycaenion “slid her body expertly under his, and guided him into the road which had eluded him till then” (54). Lycaenion is keenly aware of her own desires and needs and does not hesitate in fulfilling them. The reference to “the road” is a double entendre, with the first literal meaning being Lycaenion’s vagina, and the second being the new understanding that Daphnis now has about sex. Daphnis will metaphorically walk this road with Chloe, when they marry at the end of the novel.
Growing Up and the Loss of Innocence
The main events of the novel take place over the course of approximately a year and a half, marked by the passage of the seasons. During this time, Daphnis and Chloe both mature physically and emotionally. At the start of Book 1, both protagonists are still childish and naïve. It is a shock to both when they begin having more adult thoughts and feelings. Chloe’s innocence and naivety is particularly emphasized. For example, when she sees Daphnis bathing, Chloe reflects: “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” (10). At this point, although Chloe is beginning to be attracted to Daphnis, she does not have the emotional maturity to understand her feelings. Chloe registers that she previously never thought of Daphnis as being handsome, but childishly assumes it is the bath that has altered Daphnis’s appearance, rather than the reality that it is her perception of him that has changed.
Longus explains much of Chloe’s naivety through her status as a virgin. Even her faith in Daphnis and feelings for him are attributed to the fact she is “young and a virgin” (44). Later, when establishing Chloe’s suitability as a bride, Dionysophanes tells Daphnis he “must answer the single question, ‘Is Chloe a virgin?’ And when Daphnis swore that matters had not gone beyond kissing and oath taking, Dionysophanes expressed himself well pleased” (81). Therefore, part of Chloe’s childish innocence is maintained until her marriage, which marks the official transition from girlhood into womanhood. At the end of the novel, when Chloe has sex for the first time on her wedding night, she learns that all her previous activities with Daphnis “were just games that shepherds play” (86). Here, Longus presents marital consummation as a key lesson in adulthood.
However, the theme of growing up is wider than Daphnis and Chloe’s sexual maturing—it is also linked to the difficulties they overcome throughout the course of the novel (including surviving attacks from pirates and the Methymnaeans) and especially the discovery of their true birthright. On learning about their birth parents, both Daphnis and Chloe offer their rustic possessions to the gods, symbolizing a transition away from their respective childhood identities as a goatherd and shepherdess. The innocence of childhood is linked to the simple, bucolic life of the countryside, but the two young people must learn to navigate both town and country to understand all aspects of their identities.
Urban Life and Country Idylls
The opening of Daphnis and Chloe establishes a contrast between the two settings of the novel: Mytilene, “a city in Lesbos” (5), and an “estate belonging to a wealthy man” (5). The theme of urban life and country idylls, which these settings represent, is developed throughout the novel. While both settings are beautiful in their own way, Mytilene’s beauty is man-made as it is shaped by human society and architecture, “adorned with bridges made of polished white stone” (5). Meanwhile, the country estate has “mountains abounding in game, plains fertile in wheat, gentle slopes with vineyards, pastures with flocks, and a long stretch of shore where the sea broke on the softest of sand” (5). Filled with symbols of abundance and fertility, the countryside is the perfect place for two young people to fall in love. Moreover, in contrast to the town, the countryside is presented as a raw, untouched wilderness. Outside of social norms, it is a space inhabited by nymphs and gods, where supernatural forces bring the seemingly impossible to fruition.
The concept of the town’s cultivated beauty versus the countryside’s natural beauty also manifests in Chloe’s appearance. While Chloe inhabits the countryside, her prettiness is compared to the beauty found in nature. Daphnis is full of admiration for Chloe’s “eyes, because they were as big as a cow’s, and for her face, because it really was whiter than goat’s milk” (14). Although these are humorous comparisons, they emphasize Chloe’s simple beauty, which is an extension of the rural surroundings she was raised in. Later, Daphnis compares Chloe with the delights of nature again: “Her lips were softer than rose-petals / her mouth was sweeter than honeycomb” (14). In this instance, Choe’s attractiveness is superlative to any of nature’s offerings.
However, when Daphnis is preparing to marry Chloe, his birth mother Cleariste begins dressing Chloe in “a style befitting the wife of her son” (81). Daphnis’s birth parents are from the town, and their idea of what a wife of their son should look like is shaped by urban social values such as class and fashion. When these values are impressed upon Chloe, her appearance is so altered that she is almost unrecognizable to Daphnis: “When Chloe had put on a robe, done up her hair in braids, and washed her face, she seemed to them all so much lovelier that Daphnis himself scarcely recognized her” (81). Not only does Chloe look different because she is dressed in urban fashion, she is also dressed in the style of a woman. Her free-flowing, girlhood tresses have been pinned up in braids, symbolizing her maturity and readiness for marriage. Therefore, while the countryside represents a place of childhood innocence and freedom, the town is associated with adulthood and stricter customs.
The novel also contrasts the values and lifestyle of the town and countryside. While the seasons determine the type of tasks that the country dwellers perform, there is always work to be done. For example, in autumn “all the country-people were hard at work; one man repairing the wine presses, another was scrubbing out the storage-jars, another was weaving baskets; a fourth was busy with his sickle for cutting the bunches of grapes” (25). The country people value hard work and cooperation; the pastoral ideal is presented as working on rustic tasks harmoniously to achieve a shared goal.
The appearance of the Methymnaeans in Book 2 represents an incursion into the pastoral ideal by a foreign and urban force. The Methymnaeans intend “to pass the vintage-time in a pleasure tour” (30). These rich young men have grown lazy and indulgent by a life of leisure in the city. The Methymnaeans do not understand the ways and dangers of the countryside, nor have they experienced the hard work and simple pleasures that the rural life provides. Rather, the men symbolize the corruption of hedonism that abounds in wealthy urban life, in contrast to Chloe and Daphnis, who symbolize the wholesomeness of the bucolic lifestyle.
Ultimately, having experienced both town and country life, Daphnis and Chloe ask to marry in the countryside because they are “not taking kindly to life in the town” (84). Recognizing the goodness and value of their childhood upbringing, the protagonists choose to remain in the countryside and raise their own children in the rural way of life.
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