1. Perry, Ben Edwin, The Ancient Romances; A Literary-historical Account of their Origins ((Berkeley/Los Angeles 1967) 83 Google Scholar. Love and passion, however, were considered debasing for a hero in ancient Greece; see Trenkner, Sophie, The Greek Novella in the Classical Period ((Cambridge 1958) 55f Google Scholar., ‘Aeschylus… held love to be a motive unworthy of tragedy. In the famous literary discussion in the Frogs, Aristophanes makes him express his proud boast that he had never shown a woman in love (Ran, 1043)’. Even the erotic themes of Euripides were generally of perverted, incestuous or unhappy love affairs, though there were tales of romantic, ‘eucatastrophic’, love current in literary and oral tradition: see ibid, 56ff., esp. 58n. 1; Baldwin, Barry, ‘Eros in Graeco-Roman Society and Literature’, Mosaic 1 (1968) 27–42.Google Scholar

2. Longos, proem 3, ed. and trans. Dalmeyda, Georges, Longus Pastorales (Daphnis et Chloé) ((Paris 1934) 2 Google Scholar; see Gual, Carlos Garcia, ‘La roman grec dans la perspective des genres littéraires’, Erotica Antiqua. Acta of the International Conference on the Ancient Novel ((Bangor 1977) 99–105 Google Scholar. For the possible audience/readership of the ancient novel, see Levin, Donald Norman, ‘To Whom Did the Ancient Novelists Address Themselves?’, Rivista di Studi Classici 25 (1977) 18–29 Google Scholar. For the individualistic approaches of the novelists to their love theme and narrative, see Anderson, Graham, Eros Sophistes. Ancient Novelists At Play (American Philol. Assoc. 9 1982) esp. 87–92.Google Scholar

3. Perry, Ben Edwin, ‘Chariton and his Romance from a Literary-Historical Point of view’, AJP 51 (1930) 97.Google Scholar

4. Hadas, Moses, History of Greek Literature ((New York 1950) 292 Google Scholar; see also Braun, Martin, History and Romance in Graeco-Oriental Literature ((Oxford 1938) 3f Google Scholar. For a discussion of the wider origins of the novel, see Anderson, Graham, Ancient Fiction, The Novel in the Graeco-Roman World ((London/Sydney 1984) 1–19.Google Scholar

5. Hans-Georg Beck, ‘Marginalia on the Byzantine Novel’, Erotica Antiqua, 62. For the similarity of themes and motifs, and the relationship of the saint’s life to the novel, see Pavlovskis, Zoja, ‘The Life of St. Pelagia the Harlot; Hagiographie Adaptation of Pagan Romance’, Classical Folia 30/2 (1976) 138–49 Google Scholar; Hägg, Tomas, The Novel in Antiquity ((Oxford 1983) 154–65 Google Scholar, and ‘The Parthenope Romance Decapitated?’, Symbolae Osloenses 59 (1984) 61–92; cf.Consolino, Franca Ela, ‘Modelli di santità femminile nelle più antiche Passioni romane’, Augustinianum 24 (1984) 83–113 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; for hagiographic elements in Digenes Akrites, see Trapp, Erich, ‘Hagiographische Elemente im Digenes-Epos’, AB 94 (1976) 275–87 Google Scholar. Saints’ lives can be as fictional as romance: for the life of St. Theoktiste of Lesbos (10th century) (AASS Nov. IV 224–33; cf. BHG 3 1723–26), a fictional production modelled on the equally unhistorical life of St. Mary of Egypt, and its atmosphere of romance, see Delehaye, Hippolyte, Mélanges d’hagiographie grecque et latine (Subsidia Hagiographica 42; Brussels 1966) 299–306 Google Scholar; Westerink, L.G., Nicétas Magistros, Lettres d’un exilé (928–946) ((Paris 1973) 27f., 41–6.Google Scholar

6. See Perry, Ancient Romances, 343–50; Reardon, B.P., ‘The Greek Novel’, Phoenix 23 (1969) 294.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

7. According to Perry, Ancient Romances, 103, ‘miserable pedants… trying to write romance in what they thought was the ancient manner’; Hägg, The Novel, 75, ‘From later critics and philologists they have won only utter contempt — no disparaging term has been spared — and have consequently not been subject to very much serious analysis’.

8. von Grunebaum, Gustave E., ‘The Arab Contribution to Troubadour Poetry’, Bulletin of the Iranian Institute 7 (1946) 140 Google Scholar, ‘hellenistic tradition provided the means, or the patterns, through which the sharpened sensibilities of the Arab-speaking world could express themselves… the great gift of Hellenism to Arab poetry (of the 7th Century)… was that peculiar type of sentimentality which, while traceable to the fifth century B.C., culminated several centuries later in the emotions displayed by the heroes of the Greek novel’; see also Hägg, Tomas, ‘The Oriental Reception of Greek Novels: a Survey with some Preliminary Consideration’, Symbolae Osloenses 61 (1986) 99–131 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Beeston, A.F.L., Johnstone, T.M., Serjeant, R.B., Smith, G.R., Arabic Literature to the End of the Umayyad Period ((Cambridge 1983) 460–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

9. Perry, Chariton, 95: ‘The discovery since 1890 of the papyrus fragments of ten or more new romances’, all relatively early, and of three of Chariton alone, shows that this type of literature must have been widely read’.

10. Scobie, Alexander, Aspects of the Ancient Romance and its Heritage. Essays on Apuleius, Petronius and the Greek Romances (Meisenheim am Glam 1969), 19 Google Scholar, ‘Hence many members of the lower classes probably received what literary entertainment they wanted from itinerant story-tellers who performed at a fraction of the cost of the smallest book.’ See also ibid, 20–27; idem, ‘Storytellers, Storytelling, and the Novel in Graeco-Roman Antiquity’, Rheinisches Museum 122 (1979) 229–59.

11. Socrates, Historia Ecclesiastica, V, 22 (MPG 67, col. 637), who considers them the work of the author’s youth.

12. Socrates, loc.cit., At the end of the oldest MS of the Aethiopika, the eleventh-century scribe has written, ( Rattenbury, R.M., ‘Chastity and Chastity Ordeals in the Ancient Greek Romances’, Proceedings of the Leeds Philosophical and Literary Society 1 [1926] 61).Google Scholar

13. Rattenbury, R.M., ‘Heliodorus, Bishop of Tricca’, PLPLS 1 (1926) 175f.Google Scholar; cf.Photios, , Bibliothèque, ed. Henry, R., I ((Paris 1959) cod. 73 Google Scholar; Socrates, loc.cit; for Achilles Tatios, see the Suda s.v. Allegorical interpretations of the novels were proposed by Psellos, Phillipos da Cerami and Joannes Eugenikos; see Beck, Marginalia, 59; Wilson, N.G. Scholars of Byzantium ((London 1983) 186, 217 Google Scholar. For the Byzantine reception of the ancient romances, see Gärtner, H., ‘Charikleia in Byzanz’, Antike und Abendland 15 (1968) 47–69 Google Scholar; Dyck, Andrew R., ‘Achilles Tatius’ Reception in Byzantium’, Tenth Annual Byzantine Studies Conference, Abstracts ((Cincinnati 1984) 11.Google Scholar

14. Achilles Tatius, Leucippe and Clitophon, ed. Ebbe Vilborg (Stockholm 1955) V, 27.

15. Photios, Bibliothèque, cod. 87 (Henry II, 11):

16. Photios, cod. 73 (Henry I, 147): Cf. Anthologia Palatina, IX, 203 (cited by Vilborg, Achilles Tatius, 163).

17. Text in Heliodori Aethiopica, ed. A. Colonna (Rome 1938) 363–5; Vilborg, Achilles Tatius, 165–7; trans, by Wilson, Scholars, 174–6 (and see also J. F. Boissonade, Michael Psellus: De operatione daemonum (Nürnberg 1838) 48–52, trans, by Wilson, Scholars 172–4). For a commentary, see Dyck, Andrew R., Michael Psellus, The Essays on Euripides and George of Pisidia and on Heliodorus and Achilles Tatius (Vienna 1986) 77–118.Google Scholar

18. Achilles Tatios influenced twelfth century occasional poetry as well as romance, and his novel is specifically mentioned in a poem by ‘Manganeios’ Prodromos; see Jeffreys, Elizabeth M., ‘The Comnenian Background to the “romans d’ antiquité”’, B 50 (1980) 479 Google Scholar; Kazhdan, Alexander (in association with Simon Franklin), Studies on Byzantine Literature of the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries ((Cambridge 1984) 112f CrossRefGoogle Scholar. For an analysis of the influence of Achilles Tatios on the work of Manasses, see Anastasi, R., ‘Sul romanzo di Constantino Manasse’, Rivista di Cultura Classica e Medievale 11 (1969) 214–36, esp. 216–222 Google Scholar; n. 30 below. See also Smith, Ole Langwithz, ‘Fra “Tyche” til “Eros”. Den Hellenistiske Roman i Byzans’, Museum Tusculanum 40–3 (1980) 541–51 Google Scholar. For the development of fictional writing during the eleventh century, see Roueché, Charlotte, ‘Byzantine Writers and Readers: Storytelling in the Eleventh Century’, in The Greek Novel A.D. 1–1985, ed. Beaton, Roderick ((New York 1988) 123–33 Google Scholar: ibid, 131, ‘While… there is no evidence in the eleventh century for the composition of pure fiction.. as well as the use of a new quality of description, we can observe the taste for two new kinds of story-telling: the hero story and the moral fable. Surely these are the essential progenitors of the novel’. Roderick Beaton, ‘The Greek Novel in the Middle Ages’, ibid, 135, sees the romances written between the twelfth and fifteenth centuries in Byzantium as belonging to a continuous, evolving literary tradition.

19. Vilborg, Achilles Tatius, xvff., lxxiiff.; Heliodore. Les Éthiopiques, ed. R.M. Rattenbury, T.W. Lumb, I (Paris 1960) xxiv-xlii; Dalmeyda, Longus, xiv-xlvi. For the popularity of the Byzantine works see Hägg, The Novel, 75.

20. See Beck, Marginalia, 61f.; Braun, History and Romance, 45f., ‘It is a fact which may seem paradoxical, but it has a psychological basis, that anti-erotic polemics usually go hand in hand with a strong and intense interest in erotic incidents and narratives… Nothing can illustrate this better than the luxurious growth of a kind of ascetic eroticism in the apocryphal Acts of the Apostles, or in the legends of the saints or monks. And so we see… a combination of anti-erotic preaching with a lively interest in erotic events’.

21. Anson, John, ‘The Female Transvestite in Early Monasticism: The Origin and Development of a Motif’, Viator 5 (1974) 11 CrossRefGoogle Scholar, ‘the lives of the later transvestite virgins move in a world of pure erotic romance’; Kazhdan, Alexander, Constable, Giles, People and Power in Byzantium ((Washington 1982) 112f.Google Scholar

22. See, for example, Wolff, S.L., The Greek Romances in Elizabethan Prose Fiction ((New York 1912) 129f. Google Scholar, ‘But even had Leucippe entered upon her adventures pure in heart, these are of such a gross and revolting nature, they involve so much physical and moral exposure, that Artemis herself could hardly have come through them untainted… Unfortunate as Leucippe is, oncean but feel that she is akin to those errant dames who, to their regret, become “the Helen of so many Parises” that their pristine bloom is gone’.

23. Perry, Chariton, 115.

24. Klitophon in Achilles Tatios, V, 27 (Vilborg, Achilles Tatius, 110); Daphnis in Longos, III, 17–19 (Dalmeyda, Longus Pastorales, 65–7).

25. Perry, Ancient Romances, 72. See also Perry, Chariton, 134; Müller, Carl Werner, ‘Chariton von Aphrodisias und die Theorie des Romans in der Antike’, Antike und Abendland 22 (1976) 118.Google Scholar

26. Typical Byzantine attitudes to sexuality and enjoyment are shown by Kekaumenos, , Strategicon. ed. Wassiliewsky, B., Jernstadt, V. (St. Petersburg 1896; repr. (Amsterdam 1965) 42–55 Google Scholar; Komnena, Anna, Alexiad, III, 8 (ed. Leib, Bernard, Anne Comnène, Alexiade, I [(Paris 1937] 125f Google Scholar.). For a unique oration in defence of pleasure see Manuel II Palaiologos, Oratio V (MPG 156, cols. 464–84). For the Byzantine attitude towards love and sexuality, see especially Beck, Hans-Georg, Byzantinisches Erotikon. Orthodoxie-Literatur-Gesellschaft ((Munich 1984)Google Scholar; Kazhdan, Constable, People and Power, 62–72.

27. Edited by Hercher, R., Erotici Scriptores Graeci, II ((Leipzig 1859)Google Scholar; the works of Makrembolites and Eugenianos are also edited by Hirschig, R., Erotici Scriptores Graeci ((Paris 1856)Google Scholar, and that of Eugenianos more recently by Conca, F., Nicetas Eugenianos’ “Drosilla and Charicles” ((Amsterdam 1986)Google Scholar. These romances are described by Rohde, E., Der griechische Roman und seine Vorläufer ((Leipzig 1914) 554–77 Google Scholar; Krumbacher, K., Geschichte der byzantinischen Literatur ((Munich 1897) 376–80, 763–6 Google Scholar; Hunger, Herbert, Die hochsprachliche profane Literatur der Byzantiner, 2 ((Munich 1978) 119–42 Google Scholar. For summaries of Hysmine and Hysminias, see Dunlop, J.C., History of Prose Fiction, (revised by Wilson, H.), I ((London 1888) 77–82 Google Scholar; Hägg, The Novel, 73–80.

28. Edited by Mazal, Otto, Der Roman des Konstantinos Manasses ((Vienna 1967)Google Scholar; and E. Tsolakis, (Thessaloniki 1967). See Lampsides, O., ‘Notes sur quelques manuscrits de la Chronique de Manassès’, Akten des XI. Internationalen Byzantinisten-Kongresses. München 1958 ((Munich 1960) 295–301 Google Scholar; Rohde, Der griechische Roman, 567; Krumbacher, Geschichte, 377.

29. See Rohde, Der griechische Roman, 560f.; Krumbacher, Geschichte, 764; Švoboda, K., ‘La composition et le style du roman de Nicétas Eugénianos’, Actes du IVe Congrès International des Études Byzantines I (1934) 191 Google Scholar; Perry, Ancient Romances, 103. For more recent views, see Alexiou, Margaret, ‘A Critical Reappraisal of Eustathios Makrembolites’ Hysmine and Hysminias’, BMGS 3 (1977) 24 Google Scholar, ‘the romances… reflect a genuine attempt to re-create in a twelfth-century context, insofar as the conventions of learned literature permitted, a genre which had ceased to exist’; Švoboda, La composition, 191–201; M. Gigante, ‘Il romanzo di Eustathio Makrembolites’, Akten des XL. Internationalen Byzantinisten Kongress, 168–81; Kazhdan, Alexander P., ‘Bemerkungen zu Niketas Eugenianos’, JöBG 16 (1967) 101–17 Google Scholar; Hunger, Herbert, ‘Die byzantinische Literatur der Komnenenzeit, Versuch einer Neubewertung’, Anzeiger, phil.-hist. Klasse, österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften 105 (1968) 59–76 Google Scholar; Deligiorgis, Stavros, ‘A Byzantine Romance in Interational Perspective: The Drosilla and Charikles of Niketas Eugenianos’, Neo-Hellenika 2 (1975) 21–32 Google Scholar; Hunger, Herbert, Antiker und byzantinischer Roman ((Heidelberg 1980)Google Scholar; Beaton, The Greek Novel, 134–40; Hägg, The Novel, 73–80.

30. Dunlop, History of Prose Fiction, 77, (of Makrembolites) ‘Indeed, in this last and feeble example of Grecian fiction, we seldom meet with an incident of which we have not the prototype in the romances of Heliodorus or Tatios’; see Alexiou, Critical Reappraisal, 33–6; Gigante, Il romanzo, 170–81; Beaton, The Greek Novel, 134–40; Anastasi, Sul romanzo, 214–36. For Eugenianos’ borrowing from the Greek anthology, see Hunger, Herbert, ‘On the Imitation (MIMESIS) of Antiquity’, DOP 23–4 (1969–70) 37f Google Scholar.

31. The dating of Makrembolites’ romance is particularly in dispute. Kazhdan, A.P., Epstein, Ann Wharton, Change in Byzantine Culture in the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries ((Berkeley/L.A. 1985) 202 Google Scholar, believe it to have been the earliest of the works; see Poljakova, S.V., ‘O chronologiceškoj posledovatel’ nosti romanov Evmatija Makremvolita i Feodora Prodroma’, VV 32 (1971) 104–8 Google Scholar, and ‘K voprosu o vizantino-francuzskich literaturnych svjazjach (Povest’ ob “Ismine i Isminij” Evmatija Makremvolita i “Roman o roze” Gijoma de Lorris)’, VV 37 (1976) 114–22; but Beaton, The Greek Novel, 136, believes that Rhodanthe and Dosikles predates by at least a decade the romans d’antiquité and is practically the first attempt at a sustained work of secular fiction in medieval Europe; Hunger, Die hochsprachlicheprofane Literatur, 137–42; E.M. Jeffreys, Comnenian Background, 476–83; Kazhdan, Franklin, Studies, 87–114. For the possibility of the influence of the thirteenth century Roman de la Rose on Makrembolites’ romance, see Cupane, Carolina, ‘Il motivo del castello nella narrativa tardo-bizantina. Evoluzione di un’ allegoria’, JöBG 27 (1978) 250–61 Google Scholar and La figura di Eros nel romanzo bizantino d’amore’, Atti Accademia di Scienze, Lettere e Arti di Palermo, ser. IV 33/2 (1973–4) 274–81.

32. For the introduction of individual emotions into works of the eleventh and twelfth centuries, as seen in Prodromos’ poems, see Kazhdan, Franklin, Studies, 112f.; E.M. Jeffreys, Comnenian Background, 479; Beck, Marginalia, 59f.; Hägg, The Novel, 75, ‘The Byzantine novels seem to have been much read, in spite of the fact that the learned language in which they were written must have made them inaccessible to a general audience’; for the manuscript tradition of the romance of Makrembolites, see Palau, A. Cataldi, ‘La tradition manuscrite d’Eustathe Makrembolitès’, Revue d’histoire des textes 10 (1980) 75–113.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

33. Beaton, The Greek Novel, 138, stresses Prodromos’ commitment to rhetoric as a way of livelihood and interest in chance and human powerlessness: ‘Pródromos was a highly intellectual writer with little interest in his ostensible subject-matter; the emotions of his hero and heroine are treated in a perfunctory way. Not so the things that happen to them…’ but cf. Kazhdan, Franklin, Studies, 113, ‘The twelfth century saw the appearance of the Byzantine romance, which attempted, albeit clumsily, to revive the poetry of love; and Prodromus was among its earliest practitioners’.

34. Dunlop, History of Prose Fiction, 77, ‘Eustathius is the first who has introduced his heroine avowing love without modesty and without delicacy.’ Compare the behaviour of Leukippe, Achilles Tatios, II, 19; IV, 1 (Vilborg, Achilles Tatius, 35f., 70f.).

35. Prodromos (hereafter Prod.) III, 271–93; Eugenianos (hereafter Eug.) VIII, 139–62; Makrembolites (hereafter Makr.) V, 17.

36. Prod. II, 58–75, 175–80; II, 302–9, Dosikles fears the effect her seclusion might have on his suit; cf. ibid, I, 118–21. Compare the secluded upbringing of Kallirhoe in the ancient novel (Chariton, 1, i, 5; 1, i, 8; 1, i, 14, ed. Blake, Warren E., Charitonis Aphrodisiensis De Chaerea et Callirhoe Amatoriarum Narrationum Libri Octo ((Oxford 1938) 1–3)Google Scholar. For the ancient motif of a secluded girl being escorted to the public baths, which had in fact fallen into disuse long before the twelfth century, see Vie de Ste. Mélanie, 2, ed. D. Gorce (Paris 1962) 132; Mango, Cyril, ‘Daily Life in Byzantium’, JöB 31/3 (1981) 337–53.Google Scholar

37. Eug. II, 60–2, 109–13; he flatters her with a conventional compliment calculated to bring a blush to the cheeks of the young person, (ibid., II, 105f.).

38. Eug. III, 162–72, 336–8. A festival was one of the few opportunities for secluded girls to meet lovers in the ancient novel; see Chariton 1, i, 5 (Blake, Charitonis, 1f.) Xenophon of Ephesos, Les Éphésiaques, ou le roman d’Habrocomès et d’Anthia, I, ii, 2–9, ed. and trans. Georges Dalmeyda (Paris 1926; repr. 1962) 4–6; Heliodoros III, 3–4 (Rattenbury, Lumb, Les Éthiopiques, I, 100–5). For the motif in Middle and New Comedy (for a respectable Athenian woman, as opposed to a hetaira, who can be seen in the street), see Trenkner, The Greek Novella, 110.

39. Prod. I, 162–89; cf. Achilles Tatios, II, 19–24, 25–31 (Vilborg, Achilles Tatius, 35–43), for the attempted assignation and elopement of Leukippe and Klitophon. For the frequency of elopements in 12th. century romance, despite the topos of seclusion for the girl, see Prod. II, 436–41; Eug. III, 366f.; III, 14–25; VII, 57–73; Makr. VI, 9. Note her father’s insistence on Chrysochroe’s virginity in his laments on her accidental death, Prod. I, 212–9, 337–40.

40. Makr. I, 8–10; see also II, 14. Cf. Prod. VIII, 301f., and for the Empress Irene Doukaina’s dislike of showing her elbow publicly (not to mention her eyes and voice), see Alexiad, XII, 3, 3 (Leib, I, 60). Like Semiramis and Ninos (Ninos fr. A.5, B.1, ed. Lavagnini, Bruno, Eroticorum Graecorum Fragmenta Papyracea [(Leipzig 1922])Google Scholar, Leukippe and Klitophon (Achilles Tatios, I, 4f.; Vilborg, Achilles Tatius, 5–7) and Daphnis and Chloe (Longos, I, 6f.; Dalmeyda, Longus Pastorales, 5f.) Hysmine and Hysminias meet in a domestic setting. The truly secluded maiden, (e.g., Prod. II, 171–90, Eug. II, 57–117; cf. Prod. I, 162–77), has more in common with the heroines of the Digenes Akrites epic-romance, [AND 77–97 (Irene); GRO IV, 480–505 (Eudokia)] than with the heroines of the ancient novel; see below ns. 79, 90.

41. Makr. I,9; I,10. Cf. ibid., VI, 1; X,16; II,4 for the description of the figure of on the frieze in Hysmine’s garden (together with and of which the central scene features Eros in full panoply. For Pantheia’s demonic frenzy, when in Hysminias’ dream she discovers him seducing her daughter and titles the thunderstruck lover a shameless adulterer, thief, despoiler, hypocrite, rapist and a second Paris, who has stolen her ‘maiden treasure’, which all mothers zealously guard in their daughters, and incites an army of women to tear him to pieces, see ibid, V, 3.

42. Prod. IX, 276; Eug. IX, 251f.; Makr. XI, 11, (as Hysmine herself says); XI, 12f. For similar behaviour see ibid, V, 12.

43. Rhodanthe shows no interest in Dryas (Prod. II, 141–9), and runs from Gobryas (ibid., III, 265–93), while Dosikles dislikes both the idea of marrying Mistylos’ daughter Kalippe (ibid., III, 405–525) and the advances of Myrilla, Kratander’s sister (ibid, VIII, 242–59, 361–6, 416–27). Drosilla has to shun Kleinias, son of the Parthian chief (Eug. IV, 105–329), and Kallidemos (ibid., VI, 258–666; cf. VII, 13–73), while she has to dissuade Charikles from anticipating their marriage (ibid., VIII, 81–162). Charikles is loved by Chrysilla, wife of Kratylos (ibid., IV, 76–85; V, 61–106). Hysmine only has to fight off the approaches of Hysminias (Makr. V, 16–17) and Hysminias those of his mistress (ibid., VIII, 17; X, 6) and Rhodope, daughter_of Sostrates (ibid., IX, 15; X, 1f.).

44. Makr. I, 14; Eug. III, 105f.; cf. Theagenes in Heliodoros, III, 17 (Rattenbury, Lumb, Les Éthiopiques, I, 120f.).

45. Makr. XI, 17. For chastity tests in the ancient novel see Rattenbury, Chastity, 59–71; Achilles Tatios, VIII, 12–4 (Vilborg, Achilles Tatius, 155–7); Heliodoros, X, 7–9 (Rattenbury, Lumb, Les Éthiopiques, III, 82–7).

46. Makr. III, 2, See also ibid., IV, 23 where Hysmine has lost her status as virgin because she is in love; VIII, 10,13; XI,5. For Hysminias’ attempt on her chastity, see V,17. For falling in love while asleep, see Eug. III, 1–12; Digenes Akrites, AND 198–254 (for which see below n. 87).

47. Makr. VI,3; VII,13; VII,17. Cf. Hysmine’s ship-board lament (ibid., VII, 9),

48. Makr. IX,8; IX.15; IX,18; X,1. Cf. the role of Lykainion, as an experienced and ‘divinely sanctioned educator’, in Daphnis and Chloe; Donald Norman Levin, ‘The Pivotal Röle of Lycaenion in Longus’ Pastorals’, Erotica Antiqua, 130, ‘Daphnis reacts favourably to all that Lycaenion proposes precisely because her approach is not that of the sultry temptress, but rather that of the would-be tutor concerned for the welfare of Daphnis and Chloe both’. His response is markedly different to that of Hysminias on being propositioned.

49. Makr. X, 11, See also ibid., X, 12.

50. Makr. XI,4f.; XI,23.

51. Prod. 1,102–5; 111,290–3; VI,321; VI,362–413; VII,109–60 (ibid., VII, 115f.,

52. Prod. VIII,195–215; IX,36–43; see ibid., III,521f.

53. Eug. I,289–90; cf. I,221; III,3–6; V,239; Prod. II,61; VII,18; Makr. VI,8; Achilles Tatios, VI,11,16 (Vilborg, Achilles Tatius, 95f., 99f.).

54. Eug. I,219–22; I,237,243–4; IV,223; VIII,25; VIII,139–46; IX,245. Like Leukippe (Achilles Tatios, IV, 1; Vilborg, Achilles Tatius, 70f.) Drosilla has a dream. Compare Hysmine’s reaction under similar circumstances, Makr. V,17.

55. Prod. II,369–72 (Dosikles and Rhodanthe); cf. VII,57; ibid., I, 168f. (Kratander and Chrysochroe); ibid., III,159–79, 273f. (the satrap — and attempted rapist — Gobryas and Rhodanthe); Eug. I, 247–50,290; III,387–93, 398–400 (Charikles and Drosilla); ibid, III,3–6 (Kleander and Kalligone); ibid, IV,113f.,325f.; V,160f. (Kleinias and Drosilla); ibid., V,87,94,63f.,283f. (Chrysilla and Charikles); ibid., VI,374–7; cf. VI,550–2 (Kallidemos and Drosilla); Makr. III,1; V,2; VI,8,18; XI,6 (Hysminias and Hysmine); cf. ibid., VII,7,9 (where the ship on which they elope is called their ‘marriage-chamber’); ibid., X,2 (Hysminias and Rhodope); ibid, X,8 (Hysminias and his mistress).

56. Eug. VIII,139–62; IX.286–300; Prod. IX,310,441–60; Makr. VI,2,10; XI,23; cf. Prod. 1,337–40; 11,381–91.

57. Prod. 11,120–8; cf. Dryas’ attempt to do the same ibid., II,145–49. For this see Eug. IX,207–11; Makr. V,12. Ibid., V, 13 Hysminias kisses his mother because she has just kissed Hysmine to ‘steal’ her kiss. See Dunlop, History of Prose Fiction, 80f.; Achilles Tatios, II,4,7,9 (Vilborg, Achilles Tatius, 24–8).

58. Makr. I,8–12; II,12–4; cf. ibid., IV, 1. Compare the similarly provocative behaviour of Hysminias’ mistress, ibid., X,8. Dunlop, loc.cit., ‘Ismene is first enamoured, she first confesses and offers love without modesty, without shame, and without art’.

59. Prod. III,62–5; Eug. V,32–46; VIII,81–3,132–8; Makr. IV,3,21–3; IX, 14,15–8,20; cf. Manasses, fr. 113,113a (Mazal, Der Roman, 193). See Littlewood, A.R., ‘Romantic Paradises: the Role of the Garden in the Byzantine Romance’, BMGS 5 (1979) 102–5,112f.Google Scholar

60. Prod. IX.343–8; cf. Eug. IX.207–11; Eug. VII,74–8,219–21,230–5; Makr.V, 16; VI,5–8; VII,1–5,7.

61. Makr. III, 1–3,5–7; V,1–3. Cf. Achilles Tatios, II,23f. (Vilborg, Achilles Tatius, 38–40), where the mother is also named Pantheia.

62. Alexiou, Critical Reappraisal, 42, ‘If the dreams in this romance are primarily erotic, it is conversely true that the eroticism is mainly confined to the dreams’. See Makr. III,1,4,7; V.2–5; VI,18; VII,18; cf. Achules Tatios, 1,6 (Vilborg, Achilles Tatius, 7f.). Dunlop, History of Prose Fiction, 80, ‘As the work advances these dreams become quite ridiculous, from their accurate minuteness and the long reasonings carried on in them by persons whose stock of logic, even when awake, does not appear to have been very extensive’.

63. Makr. IV,1,21–3; V,15–8; VI,5–9; VII,1–5,7; IX,14–22; X,1–4,6–8. For the realistic nature of Hysminias’ dreams, see ibid., VII,17.

64. Eug. II,326–86; IV,110–50,156–219. See also, for the songs at the festival of Dionysos where the lovers meet, ibid., III,135–96,206–54,263–88,297–321.

65. 65. Eug. II,169–85,202–23,240–77,284–314; V,197–239; Prod. I,167 (by message); Makr. IX,8; X,2.

66. Prod. III,58–78, 526–30; at their reunion with their parents they have to kiss in secret (ibid., IX.343–8); Eug. I,324–9; V.1–27; VII,74–82,230–5; VIII,84–130.

67. Prod. VIII,301f.; cf. Makr. I,8; n. 40 above.

68. Eug. II,275–7; IV,105–219; VI,331–556; V.241; VI,638f.; VII,63–73; Makr. IX,15–8; for Gobryas’ ineffectual attempt at raping Rhodanthe, even here stressing his marital intentions and calling her his wife, see Prod. III,265–93.

69. Eug. IX, 295–300, Cf. Longos, IV, 40 (Dalmeyda, Longus Pastorales, 106); Eug. VI,439–50, where Kallidemos uses Daphnis and Chloe and their innocence as an ex-emplum amid other mythological and literary references in trying to tempt Drosilla to succumb to his charms.

70. Hägg, The Novel, 76f., ‘The subsequent development of the love-affair is likewise narrated in alternation between day and night scenes, between reality and dream’. For the explicitness of the dream narrations, as in two of the scenes from his first dream sequence, see Makr. V,1–3, “O For Pantheia’s reaction see above n. 41.

71. Eug. VIII,84–8,91,129f.; nevertheless, middle-class morality is always seen in these romances to be triumphant.

72. Ibid., 74f.; Beaton, The Greek Novel, 137, ‘The element of nostalgia for the past glories of classical Greece… is vastly developed and extended by Pródromos by the simple expedient of doing, almost a thousand years later, exactly the same as his predecessors had done. Rodánthi and Dosiklis makes no mention of the Christian Byzantine empire under which it was written, or explicitly of any historical events or circumstances which could be dated specifically to the Christian era’. But see Kazhdan, Franklin, Studies, 111f., for Pródromos’ use of ‘outwardly conventional forms to express specific, contemporary opinions — not only in his ‘historical’ poems, but also in his ultra-conventional genre-pieces, such as Rodanthe and Dosicles and the Catomyomachia.’

73. For a discussion of the work’s historical and geographical setting, interaction between Byzantines and Arabs, and a full bibliography, see Galatariotou, Catia, ‘Structural Oppostions in the Grottaferrata Digenes Akrites’, BMGS 11 (1987) 29–34 Google Scholar; Stylianos Alexiou, (Athens 1985) 54–68.

74. For the influence of Eastern and Islamic works on Byzantine popular literature, see especially Alexiou, 102–34; Pecoraro, V., ‘La nascita del romanzo moderno nell’ Europa del XIIo secolo. Le sue origini orientali e la mediazione di Bisanzio all’ Occidente’, JöB 32/3 (1982) 307–18 Google Scholar; Christides, Vassilios, ‘Arabic Influence on the Acritic Cycle’ B 49 (1979) 94–109 Google Scholar; George Kehayioglou, ‘Translations of Eastern “Novels” and their Influence on Late Byzantine and Modern Greek Fiction (11th-18th Centuries)’, in The Greek Novel, ed. Beaton, 156–61; Beck, Hans-Georg, Geschichte der byzantinischen Volksliteratur ((Munich 1971) 63–97 Google Scholar. According to Christides, Vassilios, ‘An Arabo-Byzantine Novel ^cUmar b.al-Nu^cmān Compared with Digenis Akritas’, B 32 (1962) 561 Google Scholar, ‘there occurred a general mutual exchange between Arabic folkloristic materials of the seventh and eight centuries and Greek materials of the eighth century’. von Grunebaum, Gustave E., ‘Parallelism, Convergence and Influence in the Relations in Arabian and Byzantine Philosophy, Literature and Piety’, DOP 18 (1964) 91f. Google Scholar, speaks of the ‘sharing of folk tale themes and the similarity of the atmosphere which had become condensed in the Digenes epic, on the one hand, and in narratives such as ^cUmar b.an.Nu^cmān in the Arabian Nights corpus or the Sayyid Battāl, on the other’, while Jeffreys, Michael J., ‘Digenes Akritas and Kommagene’, Svenska Forskiningsinstitutet i Istanbul Meddelanden 3 (1978) 17 Google Scholar, believes that the Lay of the Emir is a story of Arab origin altered for Christian use.

75. For the dating and interrelationship of the versions of Digenes Akrites, its origins and transmission, and its dependence on literary and oral tradition, see especially Jeffreys, Michael J., ‘Digenis Akritas Manuscript Z’, Dodone 4 (1975) 163–201 Google Scholar and ‘The Astrological Prologue of Digenis Akritas’, B 46 (1976) 375–97; Beaton, Roderick, ‘Was Digenes Akrites an Oral Poem?’, BMGS 7 (1981) 7–27 Google Scholar; MacAlister, Suzanne, ‘Digenis Akritas: The First Scene with the Apelatai’, B 54 (1984) 551–74 Google Scholar; Trapp, Erich, Digenis Akrites, Synoptische Ausgabe der ältesten Versionen (Vienna 1971) 13–48 Google Scholar; Alexiou, 91–134 (reviewed by Roderick Beaton, JHS 106 (1986) 271–3), and (Herakleion, 1979). For the MSS tradition see also Politis, L., ‘L’épopée byzantine de Digénis Akritas. Problèmes de la tradition du texte et des rapports avec les chansons akritiques’, Atti del Convegno Internazionale sul tema: La poesia epica e la sua formazione ((Rome 1970) 551–6 Google Scholar. Of the two major versions, the oldest MS, that of GRO, is dated to the late 13th. or early 14th. century, that of ESC to the late 15th., the underlying version of which may be the oldest of those extant. The confusions of ESC are ascribed not to oral tradition but to scribal error. The early or mid-twelfth century, the time of the production of the learned romances and of contact with Crusaders and Westerners as a whole, now seems to be the most likely date of the redaction of GRO at least; M.J. Jeffreys, Digenis Akritas and Commagene, 28; Angold, Michael, The Byzantine Empire 1025–1204 ((London/New York 1984) 218–20.Google Scholar

76. References are to the following editions: GRO, Mavrogordato, J., Digenes Akrites edited with an Introduction, Translation and Commentary ((Oxford 1956)Google Scholar; ESC, Alexiou, AND, Petros Kalonaros, I (Athens, 1970); TRE, Savvas Ioannidos, (Constantinople 1887); Z, Trapp, Digenes Akrites, based primarily on a compilation of TRE and AND.

77. Kazhdan, Epstein, Change in Byzantine Culture, 117–9; for the Komnenian ‘aristocratic ethos of noble blood, noble violence, and noble luxury’, see Magdalino, Paul, ‘Byzantine Snobbery’, in The Byzantine Aristocracy IX to XIII Centuries. ed. Angold, Michael ((Oxford 1984) 68f. Google Scholar, ‘There were of course highly cultured Comneni with literary pretensions… but the majority, including perhaps the emperors themselves, probably felt more at home in the philistine fantasy world of Digenes Akrites, a man’s man who lived in the country, never met an intellectual, and devoted himself to sex and violence’.

78. See Galatariotou, Structural Oppostions, 30, for her reasons for concentrating a discussion of the text on a single version, namely GRO. Allusion will also be made to the Escorial version, and the prologue of AND, inasmuch as they are agreed to belong to the older traditions of the work, and pre-date the late fifteenth century. In the Escorial version, despite its more accurate historicity, the language is incoherent, it is metrically suspect and linguistically heterogenous (Beaton, loc. cit.). For the romantic prologue to the Andros version, inspired probably by the description of Eudokia and her setting, its composition by the compiler of Z, and its probable dating to the late 15th. century, see M.J. Jeffreys, Astrological Prologue, 375–97.

79. While the two heroines are frequently unnamed and given no specific family background, both Irene and Eudokia are said to belong to the Doukas Family, GRO IV,43,325; VI,414; TRE V, 1101–5 (Mavrogordato, Digenes Akrites, 68,88). The emphasis on aristocratic birth throughout the work is presumably influenced at least in part by twelfth century attitudes towards nobility: see Kazhdan, Franklin, Studies, 105–111; Masdalino, Byzantine Snobbery, 63–9. For increased concern with lineage and genealogy, see Kazhdan, Epstein, Culture and Change, 102–10; ibid., 117, ‘the romance (Digenes Akrites) provides a special insight into the mentality of the Byzantine military aristocracy.’

80. GRO IV,267–71,486–99; AND 17–123. GRO IV,291–9,326–30, many noble Romans, with designs of carrying off Eudokia, have been caught and beheaded or blinded by her father. For the Arabic attitudes towards chastity, see The Ring of the Dove by Ibn Hazm (994–1064): A Treatise on the Art and Practice of Arab Love, trans. A.J. Arberry (London 1953) 230–84: ibid., 257, ‘Adultery violates the sanctity of the harem, confuses the lawful offspring of wedlock, and separates husband and wife; which last God has declared to be a most grievous offence, and is not lightly regarded by any man of intelligence or with the least sense of morality’; ibid., 262, ‘The finest quality that a man can display in Love is continence: to abstain from sin and all indecency.’

81. GRO IV,960–4; VII,157–73 (cf. AND 2314–23,4277–84). She is discomposed by the arrival of some apelates, and runs, veiled, into the tent GRO VI,137f. (cf. AND 2987f.). For the theme of the girl hidden in a fabulous setting, See Beaton, Roderick, ‘Digenes Akrites and Modern Greek Folk Song’, B 15 (1981) 32–4 Google Scholar: ‘An only daughter is shut away in a beautiful palace and garden to protect her from the dangers of love. The fabulous beauty of both girl and setting is detailed at some length’ (ibid., 33). For the motif of the castle in Byzantine romance as a setting for the girl and as the domain of the god Eros, see Cupane, Il motivo del castello, 229–67, esp. 234–6.

82. Love at first sight is a common feature of Arabian romance: see von Grunebaum, Gustave E., ‘Greek Form Elements in the Arabian Nights’, Journal of the American Oriental Society 62 (1942) 283 CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Concerning the desert romances, see Arberry, Ring of the Dove, 12, ‘Islam made it increasingly difficult for the situation to develop in which boy meets girl. Love became a complicated and dangerous exploit, though marriage was of course never difficult; the romantic drama acquired its stock characters and conventional scenes’. For a survey of Arabic love poetry see Beeston, Johnstone et al., Arabic Literature, 393–432.

83. TRE V, 1100–8 (Mavrogordato, Digenes Akrites, 88), and GRO IV, 286–307 imply-that Digenes is in love with the girl and suggests their marriage to his father before he has actually seen her. For the topos of falling in love by report, cf. Chariton IV, i, 8–12 (Blake, Charitonis, 56); Achilles Tatios, II, 13 (Vilborg, Achilles Tatius, 30f.); Prod. VII, 166–91; for Arabic romance, Arberry, The Ring of the Dove, 48–51, ‘On Falling in Love through a Description’; Gregoras, Byzantina Historia, VIII,3, ed. L. Schopen, E. Bekker (CSHB 1829) I,293f., for Eudokia Palaiologina, wife of Constantine Palaiologos in Thessalonika, whose beauty, wit and charm were such that many fell in love with her on hearing her described.

84. GRO I,243–4; ESC 119–22 (cf. AND 462–3,470–2).

85. GRO I,75–6,85 (cf. AND 325). For a woman’s honour in Arabia, see Beeston, Johnston et al., Arabic Literature, 397; Galatariotou, Structural Oppositions, 44f., 51f., ‘The attitude to women in Digenes is very like the one generally prevailing in Byzantium; except that it appears to have shifted a step further in the frontier areas, with a much more polarised conception of gender roles and gender relations than appear in the rest of Byzantium’. Female honour in the work depends primarily on the wealth and nobility of the girl’s family and her personal, i.e. sexual, honour. For Eudokia, see below n. 111.

86. GRO I,308; ESC 166 (cf. AND 535–7).

87. AND 276–7. For the prophecy that Irene must be secluded in a splendid palace and not be allowed to fall in love at the age of twelve because she will be carried off by an Emir, her sight of a picture of Eros which makes her susceptible to Love’s power, and her enslavement to Eros in a dream, see M.J. Jeffreys, Astrological Prologue, 376–8.

88. GRO IV,501–22 (cf. AND 1934–7).

89. GRO IV,573–83; ESC 902–11 (cf. AND 1976–86). For this feature of the oath in twelfth century romance also, see Eug. III, 398–400; Makr. XI,6; cf. Xenophon of Ephesos, I, xi, 4f. (Dalmeyda, Les É4phésiaques, 15). Digenes’ father, the Emir, had indeed already proposed the marriage, and presumably therefore approved of the elopement and the alliance (GRO IV,301–9).

90. AND 77–123 (Irene); GRO IV,492–500 (Eudokia),

91. GRO IV,331–48 (cf. AND 1746–57). For the comparable modesty and seclusion of twelfth century romance heroines, see above n. 40.

92. So concerned is the girl that all be respectable that she is deeply ashamed that Digenes has not let any great retinue of hers accompany them to his father’s house; GRO IV,808–15 (cf. AND 2206–18); for her massive dowry, and its importance, see GRO IV,704–27.

93. GRO V,66–149 (cf. AND 2551–670).

94. GRO V,210–2.

95. GRO VI,766–70; ESC 1563–6 (cf. AND 3780–5). For the Maximo episode see Trapp, Digenes Akrites, 65f.

96. GRO VI,769f., cf. TRE 2654 (Mavrogordato, Digenes Akrites, 212; AND 3824).

97. GRO VI, 773f.; ESC 1568–74 cited below in n. 111 stresses not his love but the girl’s family wealth and status; cf. AND 3788f.

98. GRO VI,834–8; VIII, 118–200. On Maximo see Grégoire, H., ‘L’Amazone Maximo’, Annuaire de l’Institut de Philologie et d’Histoire Orientales et Slaves 4 (1936) 723–30 Google Scholar. The Greek versions of the romance do not state whether Maximo loses her strength together with her virginity. See Grégoire, ibid., 725, and ‘Le Digénis russe’, in Russian Epic Studies, ed. Roman Jakobsen and Ernest J. Simmons (Philadelphia 1949) 152f., ‘Maximo vaincue, désarmée, déshonorée par Digénis, perd sa force avec sa pudeur, et est chassée honteusement par les siens.’ On barbarian women in the ancient novel, see Scobie, Alexander, More Essays on the Ancient Romance and its Heritage (Meisenheim am Glan 1973) 19–34 Google Scholar. For the Amazon-like heroines featured in the Arabic romances Dat-el-Hemma and ‘Umar b.Nu^cmān, both of which are probably based on material from the seventh and eighth centuries, see Canard, M., ‘Un personnage de roman arabo-byzantin’, Revue Africaine (1932) 1–14 Google Scholar, ‘Delhemma, épopée arabe des guerres arabo-byzantines’, B 10 (1935) 283–300, ‘Delhemma, Sayyid Battal et ‘Omar an-No’mān’, B 12 (1937) 183–8 and ‘Les principaux personnages du roman de chevalerie arabe Dhat al-Himma wa-l-Battal’, Arabica 8 (1961) 158–73; Christides, An Arabo-Byzantine Novel, 558–65.

99. GRO II,64. Abduction is a common feature of this romance; GRO IV,294f.,965f.; VI,115–58; ESC 665–8,1151–6 (cf. AND 1619,1707f.), as of Arab works; see for example, Canard, Les principaux personnages, 161. In GRO there are four successful and six attempted bride thefts: see Dyck, Andrew R., ‘On Digenis Akritas Grottafer-rata Version Book 5’, GRBS 24 (1983) 186 Google Scholar; Beaton, Digenes Akrites, 30–2.

100. GRO II,87–8,107–11; III,127–9, cf. AND 669.

101. GRO III,236–40 (cf. AND 1175–8).

102. GRO IV,332–5, and see GRO IV, 545–6 (cf. AND 1747–9, 1966–74). Compare Eug. III,105–6 (Charikles); Makr. I,14 (Hysminias); for the ancient novel, Heliodoros, III,17 (Rattenbury, Lumb, Les Éthiopiques, I,120f.).

103. GRO IV, 316–8, cf. AND 1730–3. For the lack of such courtesy in the Russian version see Grégoire, Le Digénis russe, 159, ‘Digénis, assex brutalement, la menace de mort, et lui donne le choix entre le sort d’une épouse volontaire et celui d’une esclave.’ For his oaths see GRO IV.577–83: ESC 902–11; n.89 above.

104. GRO IV,284–5; cf. AND 1698f., where it is the comment of Eudokia’s nurse.

105. GRO IV,550–3, See GRO IV,594–5; ESC 902–18, where marriage is not mentioned so explicitly (cf. AND 2090–8). Compare the emphasis on the matrimonial aims of the protagonists in the twelfth century romances above.

106. GRO V,1–17,231–56; VI,605f. (cf. AND 2450–6, 2750–73, 3806–12). This self-condemnation is mostly absent in the account of ESC 1561–78, nor does this version mention the episode of the daughter of Haplorrabdes.

107. GRO V,15–7. In this version he is only fifteen years old, presumably to help excuse his conduct (GRO V,24). Dyck, On Digenis Akritas, 187, suggests that the daughter of Haplorrabdes was in fact the bride of Digenes in an alternative version, which was ‘one of several competing versions of Digenes’ winning of his wife’. Its incorporation into a version in which Digenes is already married would thus necessitate this episode being altered into one of his extra-marital affairs.

108. GRO V,281–9 (cf. AND 2797–803).

109. GRO VI,827–38; ESC 1561–78; cf. AND 3825–52; Galatariotou, Structural Oppositions, 59–62. See AND 3821 for his farewell to Maximo, These extra-marital affairs, while recalling those of Klitophon (Achilles Tatios, V,27; Vilborg, Achilles Tatius, 110) and Daphnis (Longos, III, 18–19; Dalmeyda, Longus Pastorales, 66f.), are alien to the morality of Byzantine romance, where the most shocking incidents are tentative pre-marital attempts on their fianceé’s virtue by Charikles and Hysminias (Eug. VIII,86–94; Makr. V,17).

110. GRO VI,142–3. See ESC 1304–7 where this is his reply to Philopappos; cf. AND 2994f.

111. GRO VI,771–4 (cf. AND 3786–9). The grounds given in ESC 1568–73 are based, significantly, on social conventions rather than sexual morality, and take into account the girl’s wealth and family background and thus her suitability as a wife, See Huxley, George, ‘Antecedents and Context of Digenes Akrites’, GRBS 15 (1974) 336 Google Scholar, ‘The poet understands the significance of dowries in strengthening the ties between powerful families, though the hero claims that he desires Eudokia only for her beauty (G1695); the bonds are made tighter still when the contract for the dowry was completed with the emir (G1844) and the general and his family presented other magnificent gifts (G1845–82).’ Cf. Galatariotou, Structural Oppositions, 44, ‘…the Girl decides to elope with her suitor only after she realises that he is (GRO IV,323–5).

112. GRO III,329. For an example of erotic description in Arabic works, see The Ring of the Dove, 68–70. Von Grunebaum, The Arab Contribution to Troubadour Poetry, 143, ‘Sensuality though bridled is strongly in evidence — the Arab tradition of viewing love-experience in retrospect enables the poet to keep within rigorous standards of decency without forcing him into insincerity in the portrayal of his attitude’.

113. The Emir, for example, has a gaze full of love (GRO 1,35) as does the young Irene, AND 135–8,

114. See Littlewood, Romantic Paradises, 95–114, esp.111f. For the role of gardens and meadows in Arabic poetry see Grunebaum, von, ‘The Response to Nature in Arabic poetry’, Journal of Near Eastern Studies (1945) 145–51 Google Scholar and ‘Aspects of Arabic Urban Literature’, Islamic Studies 8 (1969) 293; for the Islamic garden as part of celestial paradise, see The Islamic Garden (Dumbarton Oaks Colloquium on the History of Landscape Architecture IV), ed. Elisabeth B. Macdougall and Richard Ettinghausen (Washington 1976) esp. 13–39. For gardens and garden imagery in learned romance, see Littlewood, Romantic Paradises, 97–113; Prod.VI,291–305; Eug. IV,276–9,330–41; VI,566–71, VIII,84–130; Makr. II,7–9; IV,21–3; V,17.

115. GRO VI,42f.; VI,15–44,100–8; ESC 1139–50 (cf. AND 2833–83); see GRO VI,105–8, (cf. AND 2955–61).

116. GRO VII,8–41; ESC 1618–94; cf. AND 3904–31. The garden has the usual features of a wall, a river, fruits, flowers, and birds of all kinds. For Eudokia, see GRO VII,160–73 (AND 4200–12) and for music and dancing girls see GRO IV,890–2. In AND 4232, they even had the delights of a together, and an exotic bath was also built for Irene as a child (AND 114–21). For the bath as an erotic feature of later romance, see Kallimachos and Chrysorrhoe, ll.787–804, for which see below n. 179.

117. GRO VII,159. Although Digenes is said to have done many martial deeds (GRO IV,968–70; VII,5f., 193–229; ESC 1609–14,1688–92; cf. AND 3892–8,4285–357), in current versions of the work he instigates nothing after his marriage, but only fights when provoked by an attack on Eudokia. See ESC 1299–1301, for his reply to Philopappos’ offer of partnership, cf., for his desire for solitude and lack of social commitment, GRO IV,956–9; (referring to his elopement) IV,374.

118. GRO II,263–70,280–6; TRE 1030–36 (Mavrogordato, Digenes Akrites, 82); ESC 467–81; cf. AND 884–906. Irene’s gift of a ring as a love token to the Emir is paralleled by Eudokia’s gift to Digenes, GRO IV,364f. (cf. AND 1778f.).

119. GRO III,22–6; ESC 487–93; cf. AND 911–4. Compare the love songs of Digenes, GRO IV,256–8,401–4,432–5; ESC 839–43,847–51 (cf. AND 1677–9,1844–8,1866–71). For the Emir’s return to Irene, see GRO III,288–93, Cf. ESC 583–5; AND 1237–47. For other examples of endearments or expressions of love as in the love-songs see GRO IV,765–7; ESC 833–51; AND 1959–74,2164,2955–7. Many of these endearments have an obviously erotic significance; for the apple see Littlewood, A.R., ‘The Symbolism of the Apple in Byzantine Literature’, JöB 23 (1974) 48f Google Scholar.

120. Cf. GRO III, 127–9, where the Emir is lovingly kissed by his harem.

121. GRO IV,588–91; ESC 912–6 (cf. AND 1991–3); GRO IV,649–52,

122. GRO IV,783f.,

123. GRO IV,832–40; ESC 1061f.; cf. AND 2238–42.

124. GRO VI,170, after Digenes defeats Philopappos and his gang, who try to abduct Eudokia, she washes him with rosewater while he calms her fears, There is then a suggestive gap until the next day (cf. AND 3016–7); for their kisses see also ESC 1593f.; AND 3029,3826.

125. As even the reivers wish for them, GRO VI,305–7; cf. AND 2806–7. Their only regret is childlessness, GRO VII,179–82. It is presumably the fact that Irene and Eudokia are married to their lovers that permits them an open, un-Byzantine demonstrativeness in their affections, not displayed by the heroines of twelfth century romance who are restricted to the conventionally modest behaviour of young unmarried girls.

126. GRO V,112f. (cf. AND 2598–9). Galatariotou, Structural Oppositions, 58, ‘As a transgressor of the female norm, Haplorrabdes’ daughter is a rebel towards patriarchal authority’.

127. GRO V,242–56 (cf. AND 2758–67). See Galatariotou, Structural Oppostions, 63f. for evidence of tensions and mistrust between Digenes and the Girl in GRO.

128. GRO VI,777–85 (cf. AND 3792–821). The version of ESC (1561–78) is very abrupt (1575f.), Compare GRO VI,782–5, M.J. Jeffreys Digenis Akritas Manuscript Z., 173, n. 2, points out that Z softens the crudity of Maximo’s offer of herself to Digenis, in accordance with the changes due to the manuscript’s moral tone elsewhere: see AND 3803–5, and cf. ibid., 3810–2.

129. For the traces of a more martial tradition in which is both a great warrior and a peace-maker, see n. 117 above.

130. For a general survey of the vernacular romances and their milieu see Jeffreys, M.J., ‘The Literary Emergence of Vernacular Greek’, Mosaic 8 (1975) 171–93 Google Scholar; n. 143 below.

131. See Jeffreys, ibid., 189f. For social interaction between the two cultures, see Jacoby, D., ‘The Encounter of Two Societies: Western Conquerors and Byzantines in the Peloponnese after the Fourth Crusade’, AHR 78 (1973) 873–906 Google Scholar; Zakythinos, Denis A., Le despotat grec de Morée: vie et institutions ((London 1975) esp. 1–45,146–226 Google Scholar; Topping, Peter, ‘Co-Existence of Greeks and Latins in Frankish Morea and Venetian Crete’, XVe Congrès international d’études byzantines I ((Athens 1976) 3–23 Google Scholar (= Studies on Latin Greece A.D. 1205–1715 (Variorum, London 1977) XI); and Ostrogorsky, George, Pour l’histoire de la feodalité byzantine (Brussels 1954)Google Scholar. In general, Greek-speaking lands under the control of westerners are hypothesized as the most logical places for these ‘adaptations’ to have originated. For a general discussion, see Knös, Börje, ‘A propos de l’influence française sur la littérature néohellenique du moyen âge’, Mélanges de Philologie Romane offerts à M. Karl Michaëlsson ((Göteborg 1952) 281–91 Google Scholar; Irmscher, Johannes, ‘Les origines de la littérature populaire neó-grecque dans les îles ioniennes’, BF 5 (1979) 147–57 Google Scholar; Bury, J.B., Romances of Chivalry on Greek Soil ((Oxford 1911) 4 Google Scholar, ‘it was a matter of course that the new literature of the twelfth century… the Provençal romances of adventure and the tales of the Arthurian cycle, should have circulated at the courts of the barons who ruled in Hellenic lands’. For Greek borrowings of Frankish feudal terms in the Morea and elsewhere, such as and see Henry, Renée Kahane, ‘The Western Impact on Byzantium: the Linguistic Evidence’, DOP 36 (1982–3) 127–53.Google Scholar

132. An undated fragment of some 307 lines (of probably the end of the 13th. century) adapted into archaizing language from the beginning of the compilation of Rusticiano da Pisa on the Arthurian cycle; see Breillat, P., ‘La table ronde en Orient: le poème grec du Vieux Chevalier’, Mélanges d’Archéologie et d’Historie de l’ École Française de Rome 55 (1938) 308–40 Google Scholar; Speck, P., ‘Der “Schriftsteller” Palamedes’, JöB 18 (1969) 89–99 Google Scholar; Beck, Geschichte, 138, K. Mitsakis’ suggestion (‘Palamedes’, BZ 59 (1966) 5–7) that this might be the tip of a submerged Arthurian cycle was refuted by Elizabeth Jeffreys, M., ‘Further Notes on Palamedes’, BZ 61 (1968) 251–3 Google Scholar. This piece, which shows that themes of love and aventure were certainly of interest to the general public, deals with the adventure of Brannor le Brun, the old knight and giant, who comes to the court of King Arthur and duels with the most renowned of his knights (Palamedes, Gawain, Tristan and Lancelot). While the fragment dwells primarily on the jousting, the old knight is accompanied by a beauteous girl who is to be the prize for the victor.

133. Afaithful 14th. century translation of the whole of Benoît de Ste. Maure’s c.30–000 line romance Roman de Troie (composed c. 1165 and dedicated to Eleanor of Aquitaine) into 14,369 political verses as For its sources see Jeffreys, Elizabeth M., ‘The Judgement of Paris in Late Byzantine Literature’, B 48 (1978) 115–7 Google Scholar and ‘The Manuscripts and Sources of the War of Troy’, Actes du XIVe Congrès International des Études Byzantines. Bucharest 1971 3 (Bucharest 1976) 91–4. For a discussion of the work as a transitional text between oral and literary composition, see E.M., Jeffreys, M.J., ‘The Traditional Style of Early Demotic Greek Verse’, BMGS 5 (1979) 115–39 Google Scholar, updated in ‘The Style of Byzantine Popular Poetry: Recent Work’, Okeanos: Essays Presented to Ihor Ševčenko (Harvard Ukrainian Studies VII; Cambridge Mass. 1984) 316, ‘Our minds have been changed by editing the huge romance, the War of Troy, which has five major manuscripts and two substantial fragments. Its more than 14,000 lines are a fairly close translation… and can only result from a single act of translation made in a purely literary way from text to text’; Beck, Geschichte, 138f. For an edition in preparation (E.M. Jeffreys, M. Papathomopoulos), see M. Papathomopoulos, ‘L’ édition critique du problèmes méthodologiques’, in Neograeca Medii Aevi, Text und Ausgabe, ed. H. Eideneier (Cologne 1987) 279–84.

134. For the close Cretan translation of Boccaccio’s Teseide dated probably to the late fifteenth century, and a partial transcription and study of the printed edition of 1529, see Marshall, Frederick Henry, ‘The Greek Theseid’, BZ 30 (1929–30) 131–42 Google Scholar; Follieri, E., ‘La versione in greco volgare del Teseida del Boccaccio’, Studi Bizantini e Neoellenici 7 (1953) 67–77 Google Scholar; Spadaro, G., ‘Sul Teseida neogreco’, Folia Neohellenica 2 (1977) 157–60 Google Scholar; Beck Geschichte, 139f.; Gareth Morgan, ‘Cretan Poetry: Sources and Inspiration’, 14 (1960) 253–70. The Theseid, which consists of twelve books and over twelve hundred lines, bears great resemblance to the Erotokritos in theme and expression, as, for example, in the long laments of the lovers and the lengthy descriptions of a great tournament and may possibly have influenced Kornaros. Certainly it is witness to the degree of popularity enjoyed by prolix and stereotyped tales of love and adventure during the fifteenth century and later despite the fact that in the printed version the publishers ‘tried to change its popular language into a jargon that must have been acceptable only to the most arrant pedants… It was not a complete aesthetic failure, though its faults are egregious and painful’ (ibid., 263).

135. On the Byzantine adaptation (c.1400) of the Hellenistic romance of Apollonios of Tyre, thirteen editions of which were printed between 1534 and 1805, and its possible links with the Apollonio di Tiro of Antonio Pucci, see Morgan, Cretan Poetry, 379–93; G. Kechagioglou, Neograeca Medii Aevi, ed. Eideneier, 179–203; Beck, Geschichte, 133–8; for the latest edition of the two principal Latin recensions, and the history and transmission of the romance, see Kortekaas, G.A.A., Historia Apollonii Regis Tyri ((Gröningen 1984).Google Scholar

136. For the Troas, an anonymous version of the legends concerning Troy, probably composed at a later date than the War of Troy and with little if no connection with it in subject matter, see the edition of Nørgaard, L., Smith, O.L., A Byzantine Iliad, The Text of Par. Suppl. Gr.926 ((Copenhagen 1975)Google Scholar. For the Alexander romance, a popular version of the romance of Pseudo-Kallisthenes, see Beck, Geschichte, 133–5.

137. Troas 651–60,661–5,692–7. Cf. the daughter of Haplorrabdes, her disguise in men’s clothing, and her flight from home and disregard of social and moral values. For Helen’s fear on discovering her pregnancy and of her husband’s anger, see ibid., 724–33.

138. Troas, 696f.;682–5 Paris plays to Helen: The secrecy and concealment necessary in the relationship is also stressed, 663f.,727. Cf. 714–20, Where after the consummation of their relationship he tells her that he has entered Paradise, that he was before as if blind, is walking on air, and feels like ruler of the world. The poet is also aware of the affair of Briseis and Chryseis (805–49), and has brought in the scene of Achilles in girl’s clothes (850–77), a transposition from his stay on Skyros as a youth, and in reducing nine years of the war to 7 lines (878–84), has given the setting especially the Greek camp a flavour of a medieval tournament rather than a full-scale and bloody war.

139. Nørgaard, Smith, Byzantine Iliad, 8, ‘Like the Byzantine Achilleid this is essentially an exploitation of a Homeric hero in the framework of the Byzantine romance. But unlike the Byzantine Achilles the Paris of our is always recognisable as an elaboration of the classical figure’. It is however true that the work shows very decidedly medieval overtones, and Paris in his jousting, musical skill and amorous nature is little akin to his classical predecessor.

140. For a certain freedom of morals and frankness about sexual matters which becomes apparent in the 14th century, see Laiou, Angeliki E., ‘The Role of Women in Byzantine Society’, JöB 31/1 (1981) 259 Google Scholar. This increased frankness, which already appears in the epic-romance Digenes Akrites, is evident primarily in popular literature, such as the ed. Wilhelm Wagner, Carmina Graeci Medii Aevi (Leipzig 1874) 199–202; the ed. V. Tsiouni (Munich 1972) and the ed. Isabella Tsavaris (Athens 1987), and the eroticism and sexual innuendo in these texts can not be attributed to the Western European influences which may have affected the increased freedom of morals in the popular verse romances. Eroticism was however an important feature of 12th century romance and it is significant that the most Byzantine verse romance, Kallimachos and Chrysorrhoe, contains the greatest degree of erotic innuendo, though conventional standards of morality are upheld. But the early 15th. century satire, Mazaris’ Journey to Hades (Arethusa Monographs V; Buffalo 1975), in which liaisons with prostitutes and love affairs are recounted with vigour, describes behaviour which contravenes all Byzantine conventions and standards of sexual morality.

141. E.M. Jeffreys, The Comnenian Background, 483, ‘It seems to me very probable that it was an awareness of the literary vigour of the vernaculars in the West that loosened Byzantine stylistic conventions’.

142. Beck, Marginalia, 64, calls them ‘a very fourteenth century-like flight from the gloomy present into the world of fairy tales’; Jeffreys, Elizabeth M., ‘The Later Greek Verse Romances: a Survey’, Byzantina Australiensia I (1981) 118 Google Scholar, ‘You will be disappointed if you turn to them for a delicate use of language, for subtle delineation of character or deep insights into human emotion. You will find instead conventionally improbably plots, brightly coloured but cardboard scenery, couched in the jog-trot rhythms of the political verse with a repetitious vocabulary’; and see E.M., M.J. Jeffreys, The Traditional Style, 139 for the lack of literary originality in plot and use of language in Byzantine popular poetry as a whole. But see Beaton, The Greek Novel, 136f., ‘Originality, naturalness of language, plot, characterisation are all increasingly being seen as the aesthetic yardsticks of a particular time and place… The task of the historian of literature ought then to be, not to apply the aesthetic criteria of his own time to the literature of the past, but rather to seek to extrapolate from the surviving texts the somewhat different aesthetic criteria that must have determined their production and reception’. For the relationship bettveen learned and popular romance in Byzantium and their common features, see Ševčenko, I., ‘Society and Intellectual Life in the Fourteenth Century’, Actes du XIVe Congrès International des Études Byzantines ((Bucharest 1974) 76–9 Google Scholar; Irmscher, Johannes, ‘Der byzantinische Roman’, Das Altertum 30 (1984) 247–51 Google Scholar; E.M., M.J. Jeffreys, The Style of Byzantine Popular Poetry, 338f.

143. For the most recent discussion of the works’ transmission, see ibid., 309–43. The definitive works on the tradition are their studies: Jeffreys, M.J., ‘Formulas in the Chronicle of the Morea’, DOP 27 (1973) 165–95 Google Scholar and ‘The Nature and Origins of the Political Verse’, DOP 28 (1974) 141–95; E.M., M.J. Jeffreys, The Traditional Style, 115–39. For a discussion of the oral tradition in the verse romances, see E.M., Jeffreys, M.J., ‘“Imberios and Margarona”: the Manuscripts, Sources and Edition of a Byzantine Verse Romance’, B 41 (1971) 122–60 Google Scholar; Alexiou, Margaret, Holton, David, ‘The Origins and Development of “Politikos Stichos”’, Mantatoforos 9 (1976) 22–34 Google Scholar; E.M. Jeffreys, The Later Greek Verse Romances, 120–123. For Digenes Akrites, see Beaton, Was Digenes Akrites an Oral Poem?, 7–27, and, for the signs of oral performance in the ESC MS, see Morgan, Cretan Poetry, 44–68.

144. In general, the romances are assigned to the 14th. century; E.M. Jeffreys, The Later Greek Verse Romances, 118. For the MSS tradition see E.M., M.J. Jeffreys, The Style of Byzantine Popular Poetry, 333–43 (ibid., 343, ‘…it would be highly significant to discover that most of our surviving manuscripts were written around 1500 outside Greek-speaking lands, based on prototypes written within Greek lands a century or more earlier’); for the MSS tradition of Digenes Akrites, see M.J. Jeffreys, Digenis Akritas Manuscript Z, 163–201. Sources, editions and studies until 1971 for the popular verse romances are given by Beck, Geschichte, 115–153; a bibliography from 1971 to 1979 is given by Jeffreys, Elizabeth M., ‘The Popular Byzantine Verse Romances of Chivalry: Work since 1971’, Mantatophoros 14 (1979) 20–34 Google Scholar, and for earlier work see also Mazal, Otto, ‘Der griechische und byzantinische Roman in der Forschung von 1945 bis 1960’, JöBG 14 (1965) 83–124 Google Scholar. Editions here used are: Le roman de Callimaque et de Chrysorrhoé (hereafter KC), ed. and trans. Michel Pichard (Paris 1956); Le roman de Phlorios et Platzia Phlore, ed. D.C. Hesseling (Amsterdam 1917) (hereafter PP); Belthandros and Chrysantza (hereafter BC), ed. Emmanuel Kriaras, 2; Athens 1955) 101–27; Imberios and Margarona (hereafter IM) ed. Kriaras, ibid., 215–232; L’Achilléide Byzantine (hereafter Ach.), ed. D.C. Hesseling (Amsterdam 1919); Le roman de Libistros et Rhodamné (hereafter LR), ed. J.A. Lambert (Amsterdam 1935).

145. Ach.N 709–94; LR E 2448–510. The same topos is perhaps reflected in BC 832–68. Compare KC 280–90, 831–8, and cf. Chrysorrhoe’s garden as queen, 1619ff. For the convention of the ‘garden of love’, see Littlewood, Romantic Paradises, 102–114. The topos also appears in the prologue to the Andros MS of Digenes Akrites, and see GRO VI,15–41, VII,13–108. For the significance of the ‘hortus conclusus’ in western romance and its sexual and social symbolism, see Piehler, Paul, The Visionary Landscape: a Study in Medieval Allegory ((London 1971) esp. 72ff Google Scholar.; for the motif of the castle in KC, LR, BC, see Cupane, II motivo del castello. 236–46. See above ns. 59,81,116 for the topos in Byzantine romance and Digenes Akrites. Platziaphlora is confined in an exotic tower with other desirable maidens by the Emir of ‘Babylon’ (PP 1285–90) but for different reasons.

146. This romance has been generally considered to be the product of the Byzantine court the authorship being attributed to Andronikos Palaiologos, first cousin of Andronikos II; see also Ševčenko, Intellectual Life, 77, who follows Hunger, Herbert, ‘Un roman byzantin et son atmosphère: Callimaque et Chrysorrhoé’, Travaux et Mémoires 3 (1968) 421f Google Scholar., while Magdalino, Byzantine Snobbery, 75, suggests the author to be the son of the sevastokrator Constantine Palaiologos. A date between 1310 and 1340 seems likely for its composition; see Pichard, Le roman de Callimaque, xxviii; Börje Knös, ‘Qui est l’auteur du roman de Callimaque et de Chrysorrhoé’, 17 (1962) 274–95. According to M.J. Jeffreys, The Literary Emergence, 188, ‘its roots are in popular literature but most of its leaves and branches in the rarefied air of the court’; E.M., M.J. Jeffreys, The Style of Byzantine Popular Poetry, 340, ‘…only one poem, Callimachos and Chrysorrhoe, is likely to have been produced at the imperial court, and that, to judge from its low formulaic density and comparatively educated language, was some way from the living oral tradition’. For Meliteniotes’ parody of such romances in his see Cupane, I motivo del castello, 236–41, 246–67. See also Hunger, Un roman byzantin, 405–22; Diller, Inez, ‘Märchenmotive in Kallimachos und Chrysorrhoe’, Folia Neoellenica 2 (1977) 25–40 Google Scholar. Beaton, The Greek Novel, 140, suggests that the element of magic in the romance results from contact with Western tradition, but such influence could equally well be argued to stem from Eastern folklore. Angold, The Byzantine Empire, 218, ‘The demand for such [vernacular] literature was not popular in origin, but came from within the court; perhaps even from the emperor [Manuel Komnenos] himself, given that so much of the earliest literature in the vernacular is addressed to the emperor in person’. For an analysis of the language of the romance, see Apostolopoulos, Ph., La langue du roman byzantin ‘Callimaque et Chrysorrhoe’ ((Athens 1984).Google Scholar

147. BC 386f.; IM 16–32, 262f.; Lambert, Le roman de Libistros, 41–8; see Loenertz, J., ‘La belle Maguelonne ou le fondement historique d’un roman de chevalerie’, Thesaurismata 13 (1976) 40–6 Google Scholar, for the geographical and historical allusions in IM implying a primarily 12th century setting.

148. See Richard, Jean, ‘La vogue de l’Orient dans la littérature occidentale du Moyen-Age’, in Les relations entre l’Orient et l’Occident au Moyen Age ((Variorum, London 1977) XXI Google Scholar; Schlauck, Margaret, ‘The Palace of Hugon de Constantinople’, Speculum 7 (1932) 500–9 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Farai, Edmund, Recherches sur les sources latines des contes et romans courtois du moyen âge ((Paris 1913) esp. 307–77 Google Scholar. The Byzantines too may have had a preference for the East, rather than the prosaic West, as a setting for romance and fantasy, as the two verse romances which are set in Western Europe are those that are in fact adaptation of Western originals.

149. Phlorios and Platziaphlora has as its prototype an Italian version of the far-reaching romance Floire et Blanchefleur..See Beck, Geschichte, 139–40. For the provenance and transmission of the western romance, see Giacone, Roberto, ‘Floris and Blanchefleur; Critical Issues’, Rivista di Studi Classici 27 (1979) 395–405 Google Scholar; Spadaro, G., Contributo sulle fonti del romanzo greco medievale ‘Florio e Plat ziaflora’ ((Athens 1966)Google Scholar. For the ostensibly morally subversive doctrine of Courtly Love in Western Europe, see Denomy, A.J., ‘Courtly Love and Courtliness’, Speculum 28 (1953) 44 CrossRefGoogle Scholar, ‘Since sexual love is represented as the sole source of man’s ennoblement on earth, then its practice is incumbent on everyone… What is done, moreover, under Love’s compulsion cannot be sinful or immoral’. For Marie de Champagne’s statement, that love between husband and wife is impossible, see Capellanus, Andreas, De Arte Honeste Amandi, I, 6 ed. Trojel, E., ((Copenhagen 1892) 153.Google Scholar

150. PP 1664–7,1780–2,1787–9. If they succeed, the girls are promised husbands, ibid., 795–7. For the Emir’s chastity test, see ibid., 1326–36. For the narrator’s lack of criticism when the Emir discovers the lovers in bed together (1664f.),

151. PP 787–840,955–71,1634–46,1664–7,1682–7. When they are to be burnt at the stake he holds her tightly and the magic ring saves them both, ibid., 1729.

152. IM 298–300,304–16,445–70. Imberios and Margarona’s prototype is a version of Pierre de Provence et la belle Maguelonne. See Beck, Geschichte, 144f.; E.M., M.J. Jeffreys, Imberios, 122–60; Loenertz, La belle Maguelonne, 40–6.

153. E.M., M.J. Jeffreys, Imberios, 129–31; IM 889–91.

154. IM 298–300; IM 468–510,536–44; E.M., M.J. Jeffreys, Imberios, 131. For this motif, see Renard, Jean, L’Escoufle, ed. Michelant, H., Meyer, P. ((Paris 1984)Google Scholar, in which an eagle steals a purse of red leather and is chased by the hero, Guillaume, which leads to the separation of the lovers.

155. IM 531f.; IM 839–44 (also in the French, E.M., M.J. Jeffreys, loc.cit).

156. LR S1312–69, E2448–510; LR S11OO-16, E2179–216; LR E2261–80, S1159–78 (cf. IM 306–16); LR S1189f., E2291f. (cf. IM 376–7); LR E2333–78, S1228–72.

157. LR S2135–46, E3315–27, S2168–264, E3351–447; LR S2154–62, E3337–44.

158. LR S1474–520, E2617–67, S2307–72, E3496–557, S3236–62, E4379–4407; LR S3203–36, E4350–76.

159. LR E2185–216, S1099–118; E2212–6, LR E2242, S1141.

160. LR E2383–434; E3831–68, S2665–712.

161. See especially Hesseling, D.C., ‘Le roman de Belthandros et Chrysantza’, Neophilologus 23 (1938) 375–9 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Schreiner, H., ‘Zerrissene Zusammenhänge und Fremdkörper im Belthandros-Text’, BZ 52 (1959) 257–64 Google Scholar; D. Chatzes, Berliner Byzantinistische Arbeiten 16 (1960) 93–111; Emmanuel Kriaras, Studi Bizantini e Neoellenici 9 (1957) 237–49; Hunger, Herbert, ‘Die Schönheitskonkurrenz in ‘Belthandros und Chrysantza’ und die Brautschau am Byzantinischen Kaiserhof’, B 35 (1965) 150–8 Google Scholar; Henry, Renée Kahane, ‘The Hidden Narcissus in the Byzantine Romance of Belthandros and Chrysantza, JöB 33 (1983) 199–219 Google Scholar; Cupane, 282–97, and Il motivo del castello, 242–6. Whatever the roots and origins of this romance the behaviour of the protagonists is alien to the Byzantine tradition and shows the intermixture of Frankish culture and values.

162. BC 861–8,893–923,982–5,1041–6. The exchange of shifts is not a motif of Byzantine romance, but for the possible eastern provenance of a similar theme, (which resembles the plot of the very popular late twelfth and early thirteenth century romance Tristan and Iseult in which Iseult persuades her maid to take her place with King Mark on their wedding night and they then exchange shifts) see Krappe, A.H., ‘La fille de l’homme riche’, B 17 (1944–5) 339–46 Google Scholar. But see Jeffreys, Elizabeth M., The Question of Western Influence on the Greek Popular Verse Romances with Particular Reference to the Garden-Castle Theme (unpubl. B.Litt. thesis; (Oxford 1968) 242 Google Scholar, who states that this episode in Belthandros and Chrysantza follows the Greek literary tradition rather than the French. For the Courtly Love concept of secrecy and of love for a lady of superior station, generally married, see Boase, Roger, The Origin and Meaning of Courtly Love ((Manchester 1977) 89–93, 107–9.Google Scholar

163. BC 1328–35. For adulterous love as a frequent feature of Western European romance, see, for example, Le roman de Tristan par Thomas, ed. J. Bédier, 2 vols. (Paris 1902–5) (for Tristan and Iseult), ‘an illicit love lived right through to its final and bitter consequences’ ( Fox, John, A Literary History of France. The Middle Ages ((London 1974) 144)Google Scholar; and (for Lancelot and Guinevere) Troie, Chrétien de, Le chevalier de la charrette, ed. Roques, Mario ((Paris 1958) ll.3685–4754 Google Scholar. The episode however, where Belthandros in the Castle of Love is asked to decide a beauty contest of forty princesses, is certainly a Byzantine motif and one derived from the Byzantine ‘bride-show’ concept, by which imperial brides were said to have been chosen between 788 and 882, a popular literary motif, whatever the strict historical accuracy of the institution; see Treadgold, Warren T., ‘The Bride-shows of the Byzantine Emperors’, B 49 (1979) 395–413 Google Scholar; Rydén, Lennart, ‘The Bride-shows at the Byzantine Court-History or Fiction?’, Eranos 83 (1985) 175–91 Google Scholar; their relevance to BC is discussed by Hunger, Die Schönheitschonkurrenz, 150–8; Cupane, Carolina, ‘Il “concorso de bellezza” in Belthandro e Crisanza sulla via fra Bisanzio e l’Occidente medievale’, JöB 33 (1983) 221–48.Google Scholar

164. BC 824f.,826–68,861–8,

165. BC 1114f., 1204–8,1299f. All the description is reserved for the central episode of the Erotokastron, 244–740. where Chrysantza is described at length, 677–720.

166. Ach. N706–94, N1071–4, N1233–5; Littlewood, Romantic Paradises, 113f.; for the consummation of their affair before marriage, see Ach. N1248–51, L933–7; N1080–4; L775–80, and for this behaviour, atypical of Byzantine romance, cf. PP 1664–7; BC 861–8; for their marriage see Ach. N1349–56, N1361–3, N1443–50, N1510–3, N1435–40.

167. Ach. N1073–92; 1081–8,

168. Ach. N1247–51, N1191f. he kisses the garland she throws him.

169. Ach. N768–73, N1085, N1242. For the garden as a scene for erotic action in romance, see Littlewood, Romantic Paradises, 97f.; BC 832–68; KC 2075–120.

170. Ach. N1365–7, N1388–402, N1412f., N1532–5.

171. Ach. N1536–48; for which compare Digenes Akrites, AND 1964. For love songs see Ach. N970–84,1223–9, and 1290–4, where he sings of his triumphant elopement to warn the girl’s family; cf. Digenes Akrites, GRO IV,256–8,396–406,427–35; VI,100–8; ns. 64,119 above.

172. Ach. N1554f., N1602–9, N1617–36.

173. KC 587–91,610f.,614–6,648–87,690–3,703–6,716f.,730–753.

174. KC 759–65. At the trial Chrysorrhoe introduces him to the rival king: (ibid., 2481f.).

175. KC 2132–6,2210–2,2216f.,2221,2241–8,2257,2269–72,2277–9,2293f.,2306-l 1,2333–5.

176. KC 2221,2270,2293 2243,2246 ibid., 2270–2 the fact that the affair is with a hired gardener not a noble makes it much worse in the eunuchs’ eyes.

177. KC 450–69; 583f.,

178. KC 586–91,606,609,610f.,612f.,621–6,628–43,729–53.

179. KC 754–806. The wonders of the bathroom with its flowers, windows, marble, mirrors, steam, dome, splendid decorations such as a tree of gold and jewels, its rose-water and curious doors and furnace have been described 292–354. Cf. Digenes Akrites, AND 4232 and Ach. N776f. By the Middle Byzantine period the custom of luxurious bathing was only maintained in the palace, and this detailed description emphasizes the uniqueness of this setting; for public baths in Byzantium and their decline, see Mango, Daily Life, 337–353.

180. KC 803f.,

181. KC 805f., Once they are united, their aim is to return to their magic castle for ever, ibid., 2108–13. Compare the aims of Digenes and his love of solitude, above n. 117.

182. KC 921–9,1175f.,1450–3,1659–64,1719–24,1772–7.

183. KC 1932–5,1949–59,1978–84 (dawn is like darkness to them).

184. KC 1985–95,2067–87, 2094–7 (the sometime hired man enters the queen’s bower 2155–69,2457–68; for the king’s reply, see ibid., 2470–3. Littlewood, Romantic Paradises, 113, ‘in no other romance is there so sustained and so manifestly sexual imagery drawn from a garden.’ Compare the symbolism of the garden in Le roman de la rose, ll.1ff.,1614ff., ed. R.Lecoy, I (Paris, 1965).

185. KC 2216f.; see also 2096f.,2156–9. Ibid., 1954, Chrysorrhoe on seeing Kallimachos at their first assignation trembles with desire

186. KC 2110–2, 2598–605. In Western European romance love should not lead to un-manliness. The popular verse romances are more akin to the early thirteenth century romance Aucassin et Nicolete (ed. Mario Roques, Paris 2nd. ed. 1936) which is a ‘comic’ tale, deliberately breaking many of the conventions of medieval romance, and in which the heroine is heroic, while the ‘hero’ does nothing but sigh, leaving all the action to his beloved.

187. Beaton’s statement (The Greek Novel, 141), ‘The rule of chastity, devoutly enforced in most of the ancient and all of the twelfth-century romances, is now explicitly flouted, but the consummation of love at approximately the half-way point of the narrative is followed by a setback’, is applicable to some, but not all, of the verse romances.

188. Indeed, the figure of Eros demands total obedience and his commands are unalterable: LR N540–65, E663–90; BC 369–400, 734–9. Cf. Ach. N846–58,1016–32; LR N406–15, E338–49, N317–27, E440–52, E1325–32, S202–9; KC 694–9,761–5,1452. See Cupane, 243–97, esp. 282–97. Klitovos, however, is in love with a married woman and himself marries twice, and cf. Ach. N1782–8, where Achilles agrees to marry Paris’ sister (Polyxena).

189. BC 260–6, he hesitates to enter the Erotokastron over the gate of which is inscribed a threat to all who have not yet experienced the power of Eros.

190. Childlessness is, however, a great misfortune, even in an ideal marriage; IM 40–50; Ach. N35–41; Digenes, GRO VII,179–82, a note of realism perhaps here intruding into the fantasy world.

191. Beaton, The Greek Novel, 136, ‘The three twelfth-century romances which survive complete are all of around one hundred and fifty printed pages in length, and were copied many times in manuscript form up until the early seventeenth century, a substantial investment in labour and time that presupposes a larger and more committed readership than is often assumed for them. And the later vernacular romances with their affinities to popular oral poetry and the evidence of free adaptation by successive copyists, seem to have been directed to a wide and approving public. It is at least worth while to ask why these works were written, and what their first readers and auditors expected from them, rather than merely to dismiss them with a perfunctory application of today’s aesthetic standards or yesterday’s linguistic dogma’.