Longus
flourished 3rd century AD
Greek
writer, author of Daphnis and Chloe, the first pastoral prose
romance (see pastoral literature) and one of the most popular of the
Greek erotic romances.
The story concerns Daphnis and Chloe,
two foundlings brought up by shepherds in Lesbos, who gradually fall
in love and finally marry. The author is less concerned with the
complications of plot, however, than with describing the way that
love developed between his hero and heroine, from their first naïve
and confused feelings of childhood to full sexual maturity. Longus'
penetrating psychological analysis contrasts strongly with the inept
characterization of other Greek romances. His stylized descriptions
of gardens and landscapes and the alternating of the seasons show a
notable feeling for nature. The general tone of his romance is
dictated by the quality prescribed by ancient critics for the
bucolic genre—glykytes, a “sweetening” of the pastoral life.
