Portret idealnej królowej w antycznej powieści greckiej – w stronę modelu

This article line of reasoning follows the assumption that in the period in which the ancient Greek novel was developing there already existed fixed cultural norms which thus provided for the frames of the then literary presentations of women in power. In Callirhoe by Chariton or Aethiopica by Heliodorus the reader comes across three images of queens and can consequently ponder over the most significant elements of the model of an ideal female ruler. The comparative analysis of the three heroines in question as well as the juxtaposition of their images with the remaining female characters of Greek novels thus constitutes the core of the article.

THE ADDRESSEE-SHIP OF ANCIENT GREEK NOVELS: PORTRAYING PICTURES, DEBUNKING MYTHS

This paper delves into the question of the potential addresses of ancient Greek novels. After shedding some light on the matter (based on ancient sources which account for the sociocultural underpinnings of the new genre), a classification is established in an attempt to provide a deeper understanding of alleged homogeneity in readership. The entire bibliography demonstrates a discontinuation in the conception prevalent decades ago, which, based on subjective and anachronistic interpretations, would find reinforcement in the silence of ancient sources. To make matters more intricate, the surviving information regarding how the novel was viewed in ancient times appears not to point to a prestigious status thereof. All things considered, should these presumptions alone lead us to consider the novel as a low-quality genre in terms of literary and stylistic standards? Ancient Greek novel might well be one of those cases in which literary or cultural creations have called for reassessment and revaluation several centuries following their conception.

Complexes of Emotions in Joseph and Aseneth

The ancient Greek novel introduced to the history of literature a new topos: the “complex of emotions.” This became a staple of storytelling and remains widely in use across a variety of genres to the present day. The Hellenistic Jewish text Joseph and Aseneth employs this topos in at least three passages, where it draws attention to the cognitive-emotional aspect of the heroine’s conversion. This is interesting for what it contributes to our understanding of the genre of Aseneth, but it also has social-historical implications. In particular, it supports the idea that Aseneth reflects concerns about Gentile partners in Jewish-Gentile marriages, that Gentile partners might convert out of expedience or that they might be less than fully committed to abandoning “idolatrous” attachments. The representations of deep, grievous, and complex emotions in Aseneth’s transformational turn from idolatry to monolatry, then, might play a psychagogic role for the Gentile reader interested in marrying a Jewish person.

The Acts of John, the Acts of Andrew and the Greek Novel

Since the 1930s, it has been observed that the Greek novel and the Christian Apocryphal Acts of the Apostles (AAA) display a series of similarities. This is not surprising, as the earlier AAA all belong to about the same period of time as the latest novels, except for Heliodorus, and derive from Asia Minor, the same area in which most of the surviving novels seem to have originated. Consequently, some of the similarities may well have been determined by the fact that the authors of the novel and the AAA lived in the same world. Yet there are clearly also scenes and motifs, which the AAA derived from the novel. In this contribution, I note the impact of the novel on the Acts of John and the Acts of Andrew and identify an influence from Chariton, Xenophon’s Ephesiaca and Achilles Tatius despite the fact that the novel ends in the reunion of the couple, who will enter now a happily married life with plenty of sex, whereas the couples in the AAA ideally end up in a chaste Platonic relationship. The surprising influence of the novel on the AAA may well be explained from a similar intended readership, that is, well educated higher-class women.