The Adventures of Leucippe and Clitophon (), written by Achilles Tatius in eight books, is the second-longest of the five surviving Ancient Greek romances, and the only one to exhibit genuine humour. The novel has been variably described as a "comedy, parody, an antiplatonic essay on eros, and so on."A. Heiserman (1977) describes the novel as a comedy (The Novel Before the Novel. Chicago.); D.B. Durham (1938) as a parody ("Parody in Achilles Tatius." Classical Philology 33: 1–19.); and G. Anderson (1982) as an antiplatonic essay on eros (Eros Sophistes: Ancient Novelists at Play. Chico, California.).
Plot summary Sidon and Tyre
I. Landing in Sidon after a storm, an unnamed narrator visits the local temple, to make an offering of thanks to Astarte, the Phoenician goddess of love. He sees there a painting depicting the rape of Europa by Zeus disguised as a bull. The pair are led by Eros (Cupid) and the narrator exclaims how that little boy dominates land, sea and sky. He is unexpectedly answered by a handsome young man, Clitophon, who explains that he is a case in point: he has suffered many blows at the hands of Love. Intrigued, the narrator begs him for his tale. Clitophon agrees reluctantly, and leads his new friend to a grove of plane trees, where he begins his story.
Clitophon explains that he is from Tyre, and is the son of Hippias, whose half-brother Sostratus lives in Byzantium. Shortly after his 18th birthdayLiterally nineteen (I.3.3), but ancient Greeks used inclusive reckoning for ages: a newborn was one year old his father decides that Clitophon should marry his half-sister, Calligone. Alarmed by this prospect, Clitophon has a nightmare in which he imagines himself joined to Calligone from the waist down, but they are cut apart by Medusa brandishing a sickle. Although alarmed by this portent, he believes it signifies that Fate has destined another to be his mate.
Hippias receives word from Sostratus that war has broken out between Thrace and Byzantium. He sends his wife Panthea and his daughter Leucippe to Hippias for safe-keeping. When Clitophon sees Leucippe disembarking on the beach, he is immediately smitten by her stunning beauty. His father arranges a meal for his new guests and seats Clitophon next to Leucippe. This excites the young man further, and he spends the entire meal gazing at her in a daze. Not knowing what to do, he confides his love to his older cousin Clinias. Clinias offers him only a few tips, explaining that Love is really a self-instructed expert, and he should trust his instincts. As they are talking, Clinias' lover Charicles bursts in, complaining that he is being married off to an ugly girl. Clinias consoles him, and Charicles goes off riding on a horse Clinias had given him to take his mind off the marriage. Later, in the midst of their continued discussion, a servant announces that Charicles has been killed in a tragic riding accident. Clitophon consoles his friend, and after attending Charicles' funeral he returns to the house determined to make an amorous approach to Leucippe.
He finds her taking a stroll with her mother in the garden, which is in full bloom, with the birds and crickets contending in making music. When Leucippe and Panthea stop to examine a peacock trying to attract his mate, Clitophon launches into a philosophical discussion with a slave of his household, Satyrus, about how love is a fundamental force of nature. He explains that love can occur not only between people, but also between birds, snakes, trees, rivers, and even rocks. The examples get ever more absurd, and Leucippe is charmed by the explanation of two magnetic rocks that are drawn together by 'love'. She then retires to the house with her mother for her lyre recital.
II. During the recital a bee flies in and stings Clio, Leucippe's maid. Leucippe sings a charm taught to her by an Egyptian woman over the place where the bee had stung, and Clio declares that she feels much better. This gives Clitophon an idea. For the next ten days they glance at each other over dinner, but under the watchful eyes of their parents they can make no further move. Clitophon approaches Satyrus, who explains that Clio has fallen in love with him, and will help contrive a private meeting for him with the maiden. However, when he finally finds himself alone with her in the garden he is at a loss for words, until a bee buzzes around his face. He swats it away and then pretends to be stung on the face, on the lips. Leucippe soothes him with her Egyptian charm, singing it over his lips, which he turns into a kiss. After initially resisting, she kisses him back, but they are disturbed by an approaching servant.
Satyrus helps develop the relationship further. He exchanges their cups at dinner, allowing them to 'kiss' under the noses of their parents by touching with their lips the place on the cup where the other had drunk. He also arranges another meeting in the garden.
Meanwhile, troubled by dreams, his father hurries on Clitophon's marriage to Calligone. Her dress is purple and decorated with gold, her jewelry also expensive. However, the preliminary sacrifice to Aphrodite in the garden does not go well. The offering is stolen by an eagle, who flies off towards the beach. The soothsayers advise Hippias to sacrifice again to Zeus on the beach at midnight to avert the bad omen.
Leucippe had once been pursued unsuccessfully by a certain Callisthenes, a rich but profligate young man of Byzantium. According to the laws of that city, if a man raped a virgin he could be forced to marry her as punishment. So he got himself appointed as holy ambassador for a pilgrimage to Tyre. When Leucippe's mother goes to the ceremony with Calligone, he assumes the young woman is Leucippe, and points her out to his servant Zeno. When Hippias performs his midnight sacrifice on the beach, Zeno goes ashore with eight men disguised as women, who grab the torches of Hippias' party and extinguish them, and in the dark carry off Calligone to Callisthenes' ship. They set sail for Byzantium, thinking they have kidnapped Leucippe.
With his marriage to Calligone now impossible, Clitophon begs Leucippe to perform the 'mysteries of Aphrodite' with him. She agrees, but only if they can meet in her bedroom at night. However, Panthea sleeps across the corridor, and access to that part of the house is barred by a locked door, and guarded by the eunuch Conops. Satyrus obtains a copy of the key and befriends Conops, discussing with him fables about gnats (the meaning of Conops' name), and then offers him a meal with a spiked drink that puts him to sleep. Satyrus at once informs Clitophon, who unlocks the door and enters Leucippe's bedroom with the assistance of Clio. Unfortunately, Panthea wakes up, having had a nightmare about a robber slitting open her daughter's belly with a sword. In a panic she enters Leucippe's bedroom and discovers that she is not alone, but Clitophon escapes in the dark without being recognised.
Panthea assumes that Leucippe's virginity has been stolen, and takes out her rage on Clio. She accuses Leucippe of complicity, but she denies it, suggesting it was a slave, demigod or burglar, and reassures her mother that her virginity is still intact. She did not cry out because she was paralysed by fear. Suspecting that Clio will be forced to reveal the plot in the morning, Satyrus and Clitophon take her by night to Clinias' house. He advises Clitophon to elope to Alexandria, if he can persuade Leucippe. Satyrus and Clinias agree to accompany them, and Clio is sent away to safety at Clinias' suggestion.
In the morning Panthea seeks out Clio, but she has disappeared. Again she accuses Leucippe of knowing her attacker. Leucippe is distraught by her mother's accusations, and when Satyrus tells her of the plan to elope to Alexandria she agrees, threatening to kill herself otherwise. A few days later Clinias arranges for a carriage to come to the house at dusk. They all get on and press on through the night, reaching Sidon by midnight and the port of Berytus (Beirut) at dawn. They catch a ship bound for Alexandria.
On board they meet Menelaus, an Egyptian who has just completed three years' exile in PhoeniciaNot the ancient country of Phoenicia, but the coastal region comprising Tyre, Sidon, Berytos and Arados, which lay in the Roman province of Syria (P. Głogowski, The Notion of Phoenicia in the Roman Period, EOS CV 2018, p. 245) for accidentally killing his male lover in a boar hunt. Clinias sympathises with him, having lost Charicles in similar circumstances. Clitophon suspects that Clinias, with Menelaus' support, will now embark on his usual tirade against women, and questions why homosexuality has become so fashionable. A philosophical argument ensues between Clitophon and Menelaus, arguing the case for heterosexual versus homosexual love. Clitophon says that the beauty of women is longer-lasting, but Menelaus counters that the charm of love lies precisely in its fleeting nature. Clitophon says that women's bodies are built for intercourse with men. Their kisses are more skillful and their orgasms more powerful. Menelaus counters that women are all makeup, hair dye and perfume. He prefers the sweet smell of a boy's sweat, and their kisses, which taste like nectar.
III. After three days at sea in gentle winds they are suddenly struck by a storm. Struggling to keep the ship afloat, they shift their baggage from one side to the other and begin throwing the cargo and even their baggage overboard. Eventually the captain gives the order to abandon ship. The crew climb into the lifeboat being towed behind, and suddenly cut the hawser, leaving the passengers to their fate. The ship hits a rock and breaks up. Clitophon and Leucippe cling to a fragment of the prow. They watch as Menelaus, Clinias and Satyrus drift away on separate pieces of wreckage. Clitophon prays to Poseidon, the storm abates, and they are washed up on the coast of Egypt near Pelusium in the eastern delta.
Pelusium and Nicochis They enter the temple of Zeus where they admire two paintings: one of Andromeda being attacked by Cetus, and rescued by Perseus, the other of Prometheus whose liver is being torn out by an eagle, with Hercules aiming his bow at the bird, painted by an otherwise unknown artist Euanthes. The paintings are a hint about Leucippe's fate.Euanthes was the son of Dionysus (Scholion to Homer Odyssey ΙΧ.197), who in Egypt was strongly identified with Osiris. Both gods were resurrected from the dead, as Leucippe will also be. After waiting two days for their friends, who do not appear, they hire a boat for Alexandria which goes via the Nile. However, they have not gone far when they are attacked by bandits, who steal their money and shut them in a hut. Clitophon bewails the misery of their wedding, which he imagines he is now having with Leucippe: instead of necklaces she has ropes, the guard is her bridesman, their bridal chamber is a prison, etc., but Leucippe, mortified by her situation, says nothing.
At dawn a savage man arrives on horseback and takes Leucippe away, to be sacrificed as a virgin on behalf of the army. Clitophon is distraught, but the bandits force their remaining captives to move on. On the way, they are attacked by a small force of soldiers, who make light work of the bandits and free Clitophon. Their commander is Charmides, who enlists him in the army as a cavalryman and gives him an Egyptian servant.