Ephesian Tale

Xenophon of Ephesus's Ephesian Tale is the shortest of the five ancient Greek "novels" or romances. Possibly because it is an epitome of a longer work, it moves rather quickly in the plot of its two young lovers, Habrocomes and Anthia, who become enamored at first sight in their hometown of Ephesus. Like the other ancient Greek romances, the two vow their allegiance to the the other but are separated and reunited after surviving pirate attacks, oracles, enslavement, banditry, executions, poisoning, being buried alive, lustful men and women interested in both for their beauty and the intervention of the gods (of Greek and Egyptian extraction). Their trials bring them across the Mediterranean and the fringes of the Hellenistic world, including Egypt, "Ethiopia" (Nubia), the Levant, Asia Minor, Sicily, and Italy. 

Despite its short length and the lack of developed characters, the narrative manages to engage the reader with the sense of wonder and adventure. It follows many of the same conventions as the other surviving romances of its era, such as piracy in the Mediterranean, extended backgrounds of each main character as they are introduced, Egyptian bandits of the Nile Delta, and exotic peoples and gods whose intercession shapes the lives of the two protagonists. The god of the Nile himself directly intercedes on the behalf of Habrocomes, saving his life with his waters from a crucifixion and the flames of a pyre. It is at the temple of Isis in Memphis where Anthia is able to prevent her rape by Polyidus, who routs Hippothous's band of robbers. Intriguingly, this "novel" is also the first to be partially set in "Ethiopia," where Hippothous and his bandits have moved to raid traders en route to India and exotic lands. Cosmopolitan Alexandria also makes an appearance, where an Indian ruler named Psammis is visiting and buys Anthia as his lave, hoping to woo her. 

Exotic Indian rulers and allusions to the lucrative trade through the Red Sea from Egypt and the Nile may have been a precedent for the allusions to the wealth of "Ethiopia" in Heliodorus's more successful novel of the 300s. The translator of the edition read for this post, Graham Anderson, questions the geographic knowledge of Xenophon, but it is perfectly plausible that Egypt, Nubia ("Ethiopia") and India intersected through the Red Sea and overland trade routes from the Nile Valley, although the exploits of Hippothous and his bandits in Coptos and Nubia are not fully detailed. Indeed, they later endeavor to leave "Ethiopia" because they missed attacking larger towns and settlements instead of the individual traders and small groups (such as that of Psammis, returning to India) they attacked on the borderlands of Egypt and what must be the kingdom of Meroe. Nonetheless, this partial setting of the story in "Ethiopia" links Nile Valley banditry in southern Egypt with the vast wealth and exoticism of Africa and India, which is clearly a theme of Helodorus's Aethiopika. While there are no "Ethiopian" characters in the novel, the Nile itself and Egyptian settings present an exotic and challenging set of ordeals the two lovers endure to reaffirm their chastity or virtue. 

Leucippe and Clitophon

Leucippe and Clitophon seems to be unique among the extant ancient Greek "novels" for its use of a first-person narrator, who tells his tale to the initial narrator in the beginning of the text. In other respects, it is quite similar to the other Greek romances in that two young people fall in love at first sight but must endure a number of trials before consummating their relationship in proper marriage. The virtue of virginity for maidens and the intervention of the deities (especially Eros, Aphrodite, Artemis and Poseidon) or deus ex machina are, as in Heliodorus's novel, prolific. The author, Achilles Tatius of Alexandria, is believed to have composed the romance in the early 1st century of our era, thus predating Helidorus but drawing on similar precedents from earlier texts and Greek literature and mythology. In addition, Achilles Tatius is a master of vivid prose describing works of art, as well as the wondrous Nile of his Egyptian homeland. 

Though the kissing cousins are of Tyre and Byzantium, it is in Egypt where their most exotic and exciting escapades occur. Menelaus, the Egyptian native and proponent of pederasty (like Clinias, a cousin of Clitophon who loses his lover, Charicles), becomes a guide of sorts, a familiar Other who assists Clitophon, Leucippe, Clinias, and Satyrus for their survival in exotic Egypt. Achilles Tatius has them fend off dark-skinned bandits in the Nile Delta (not as black as Indians, but akin to "half-caste Ethiopians"), witness battles between the Egyptian army and said bandits, experience the lighthouse at Pharos near Alexandria, and hear descriptions of elephants while gazing upon the fauna of the Nile, particularly the crocodile and hippopotamus. In cosmopolitan Alexandria, Clitophon, believing Leucippe dead for the umpteenth time, agrees to marry Melite, a wealthy presumed widow of Ephesus, shifting the story's center away from Egypt for the final denouement and reunion of the the two lovers. 

But let us return to the Egyptian exoticism and African references in the tale. The Nile itself becomes a character, as its waters and the soil of the delta converge and separate, creating the marshes, streams, and lakes of the Delta region. In Tatius's novel, the legendary phoenix, which lives upriver in "Ethiopia," land associated with the Sun, comes to Egypt to die and thus reaffirms the cycle of life from the Nile's origins in the land of the Sun to Egypt. Egypt is a land of wonders (fauna, Alexandria), of horrors (a fake human sacrifice to appease the bandits is organized by Menelaus and Satyrus) and, I would argue, where the debased nature of Thersander of Ephesus is compared to the bestial bandits and conniving characters lusting for Leucippe (Chaereas, Charmides). The Egyptian setting occupies a central middle part of the narrative, after the elopement of Leucippe and Clitophon from Tyre and the subsequent shipwreck, thus, the exotic world(s) of the Nile presents the otherworldly ordeals of the two lovers must persevere against to achieve their union.