Longus

Longos of Lesbos (Greek Λόγγος, in its Latin form: Longus ) was a Greek writers of antiquity. He is the author of the famous pastoral and romantic novel Daphnis and Chloe.

Nothing is known about his life, and all that can be said is that he probably lived at the end of the 2nd century or early 3rd century. It is even speculated the ascribed name was merely a misinterpretation of the last words of the title ΛΟΓΓΟΥ ΠΟΙΜΕΝΙΚΩΝ ΤΩΝ ΠΕΡΙ ΔΑΦΝΙΝ ΚΑΙ ΧΛΟΗΝ ΛΕΣΒΙΑΚΩΝ ΛΟΓΟΙ Δ in the Florentine manuscript. Ernst Eduard Seiler also observed that the best manuscript (not λόγγος ) πρώτος begins with λόγος and ends. If his name was really Longos, he was probably a freedman of a Roman family who bore this name.

Longos developed in his novel the type of Arcadian love story. Through his detailed descriptions feeling is Daphnis and Chloe of modern literature nearer than his main rival among the Hellenistic romance novels, the Aethiopica of Heliodorus, which has many similar plot elements.

Daphnis and Chloe are two of shepherds discovered, parentless children. At the beginning of the action he is 15 years old, 13 Both grow up together in mutual affection and unsuspected. The development of this affection of love is the main theme of the novel, which includes very little action. However, the protagonists are faced with external problems. So Chloe is kidnapped and returns, it is with Daphnis as well; the two are found again by her parents, large families from a distant city, they want to marry each other. Daphnis and Chloe finally return but back to the happy lives of their youth days in the country.

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