LONGUS, Greek romancer, author of Daphnis and Chloe. All that can be said about him is that he probably lived at the end of the 2nd or the beginning of the 3rd century A.D. Even the name attributed to the author may be a misreading of the title of the work. Longus's style is rhetorical, his shepherds and shep herdesses are wholly conventional, but he has imparted human interest to a purely fanciful picture. As an analysis of feeling Daphnis and Chloe makes a nearer approach to the modern novel than its chief rival among Greek erotic romances, the Aethi opica of Heliodorus, which is remarkable mainly for the ingenious succession of incidents. Daphnis and Chloe, two children found by shepherds, grow up together, nourishing a mutual love which neither suspects. The development of this simple passion forms the chief interest, and the only notable incident is the abduction of Chloe by a pirate. The two lovers eventually discover their parents and marry.
Rohde, Der griechische Roman (1900). Longus found an incomparable translator in Jacques Amyot, bishop of Auxerre, whose French version, as revised by Paul Louis Courier, is better known than the original. It appeared in 1559, 39 years before the publication of the Greek text at Florence by Columbani. The chief subsequent editions are those by G. Jungermann (1605), J. B. de Villoison (1778, the first standard text with commentary), A. Coraes (Coray) (1802), P. L. Courier (181o, with a newly discovered passage) , E. Seiler (1835), R. Hercher (1858), N. Piccolos (Paris, 1866) and Kiefer (Leipzig, 1904), W. D. Lowe (Cambridge, 1908). A. J. Pons's edition (1878) of Courier's version contains an exhaustive bibliography. There are English translations by G. Thorneley (1733, reprinted 1893), C. V. Le Grice (5803), R. Smith (in Bohn's Classical Library), and the rare Elizabethan version by Angel Day from Amyot's translation (ed. J. Jacobs in Tudor Library, 189o).