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the rue ource of prose fictio in ancient
Among the Greeks the oldest fori ofliterar production that we have remainingis the epic, and the epic is in poetry the representative of the historica romance in prose But of course the Ilia and the Odysse , o far rom giVin us a primitive type of poetry in reality represent the epicin iis ast perfection, the edition de itive of the rhapsode' ari, elaborated by centuries of experimen and writte in an artificiallangvage evolve frona ali the dialects of Greece, and wrought into a marvel of elastic
The Homeri epic, as e have it, is in realit a callida iunctura, a leve doVetallingo brilliant episodes There are the pisodeSos Achilles an Briseis, of Ares an Aphrodite, o Circe and Odysseus, and a undredothers. It is in faci, in ali these epi sodes,
rather han in the epicos a hole, that eare t See a suggestior at eas of the earliest
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e foris of conscious fiction, hicli eganwhere it seem likel to end in the hort
A stili close approach to the archetype cani found in Herodotus, illi hom the histor o Gree prose egins and who, himself a born tory-teller, prinkles his pages illi the necdotes that he atheredin his traveis. The stor of Candaules, hostio ed his iis alae to the vardsman
Gyges, of Arion and the olphin, os Rhampsinitus and the obber, o Polycrates and the Ring, and of Pheron' remarkable recoVery of his sight - these re allinstances of the hori Stor in iis early rin, Xtremel bries, sinapi told, illi analet et like that o Mandeville o De e, and acti embodyin a single incident. One cannot doub that it a froni Syria an Persia that the Greelis received theirearlies modet os iterar fiction. It is nemore debl to e recorded in favour of the EaSt, the mysterious East,hicli, is no the
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cradle of the human race, aS, at an rate,
the birthplace of philosophy, of history, fpOetry, and of art. Ali thes the Greelis of Europe wed to Asia through thei brethreno Asia Minor, hos close contact illi thepurely Oriental eoples proVed at Once a stimulus and an intellectual inspiration. The ast has alway been the home of Story-telling, and there the ar o fictionfirs hecam a distinc profesSion. That this is true - that the suggestionwhen it carne to Greece came frona ithout rather han rom illiin is reasonably to e inferresfrona the fac that the earli est riterso Greeli romances ere o Greelas of Greece, ut of the Orient of the four Xenophons hos names elon to the history of ancient fiction, ne as a natiVOo Antioch, ne o Ephesus, and ne fCyprus Achilles Tatius and SeVerus ere Alexandrians Heliodorus rote at Emesa
in Syria, Chariton and Longus at Aphro disias in Caria. Parthenius ines Nicaea in
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Bithynia, Dio Chrysostomus a Prusias in Bithynia, Lucian a Samosata in Syria, Iamblichus a Babylon, Clearchus a Soli. Theodorus Prodromus as an Asiatic, and Eumathius an Egyptian Hellas Proper, then, has carcely anythin in common illi her romancers. Sh lend to them herlangvage, ut mos of them elon to hernei ther in birili nor in education nor in
EVen more stri hin is the interna evi dence of the romances thenaseives OneVery page, in Ver plot in the whole spiritand sentiment of the stories, there are UnmiSta able traces of Orientalism. The ad Ven tures of Over in undefinei and unknown countries, the surisit os marVeis, the strange and improbabie appenings, the magical rites, the metamorphoses of men into easis, - at these saVour of the East, and laim
rather han with the simple and more congruous narratives of the literatur that e
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know to e trul Greeli. The style sequali significant, ein florid, ighlywrought, and lo aded with an Xces of ornament, in hori, earin ali the martis of that diction hicli the Greelis an Romans both characterised as Asiatic, and distin guished frona the more reserVOd more terSC, and much more mani style of Athens and Boeotia Asiatic, too, is the languorousmoVemen and nerVelessnes of these curious noveis. In readin them ne reathes an atmospher heaVy illi altaris roses and thescent of pastilles, an atmosphere in hicli sensualit thrives an virilit expires. Allare a Unlilae the rapid Vigorous, and bracingmoVernent of hat the Greelas of Greece rote down, a the of skies and perfumedat of Asia Minor are unlike the gra cloudsand driving now of Thrace, - a Miletusis unlike Marathon. To the Oriental Xample there re, UStbe ascribed the rst nown appearance fpure prose fiction in ree literatur in the
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so called Milesian ales of Aristides andothers, amous in antiquit and the fore runne of a Warm os simila productions in mediaeval and modern times. The date twhicli they ere ritten sincertain thoughit a Unquestionabi preVious to the second
tivel known eyond the fac that they erein prose, and that they eretri ef, Witty, and indecent. The choice of subjecis in theseearlymoVelettes cani seen by examining the existin collection o Parthenius o Nicaea, Who, though a Greela, lived a Rome in the firSt centUry B. C., here e taught his native language. Amon his pupil Wasthe poet Vergil, and the poena entilled Moretum, hicli is osten ascribe to Vergil, is a translation into Latin os a Gree originalb Parthenius, as may be also the Seudo Vergilian poem entilled Ciris. Parthenius, in faci, was Ver popular among the educated RomanS, o much so that in the followingcentury the Emperor Tiberius sediu his bust
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in the imperia library, and himself con
descended to rite imitations of his Verse. Froni Parthenius here has come down O US
curious litile book illi the ille Erotio Experiences dedicate by the author to the Latin an o letters Cornelius Gallus, eliknown a the friend of Vergil, ho has hande down torus in his enth Eclogue the
may be compare With the fragmentarysuggestions and hastil gathered impressi oras whicli outhe and Dickens also made illithe purpos o deVeloping them at omefuture time. The clites interes of the collectio os Parthenius te in the fac that heplois givera by lim arae ali derived Dom
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every instance, has ref Xed to his synopsis an in the insight that e thus have gi Vento us of the subjecis usualty chosen by the writers of the Milesian ales. Man aretaken Dona the mythologi sis, and a Cer tali number of them are studies in theab .rmat manifestations os seXUal ove,
reminding one in a way of the imaginingso Catulle Mend CS. To ho ho bald andiare these ullinestorie are the literat translation o a singleone is here given. It was rawn by Parthenius rom hiletas, and is entille Polymela.
Odysseus, in his andering abolit Sicil and the Tyrrhenian an Sicilian eas, came to thecourtis Eolus in the standis eligunis. Eolus, out os respectri his guest' reputation or isdom, made much of him, questioning him abolit thedo nisi os Troy and how on the return of the Greeh fro Troy their hips ad been Cattered. In faci, in his hospitable spirit, he etained him fora long time, and Odysseus found his sta extremelypleasant since Polymela, a daughter of Eolus, hav-
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SOme a to punish Polymela. As his rother Diores ad fallen in love illi her an asked fortier in marriage, the fallier a persuade to give Polymela to him as his ride.
This is bare nough in ali conscience, et one an readit discern ho effectively the hinis here ive could e orked, by asympatheti imagination, and o readi lythe salieni potnis are tot seen, - the subile
Odysseus comin with at the restige of novelty to the simple fland giri a secondPrinces of Thule, and with ait the romance of his Trojan exploit about hina his asyconques of the trusim ignorance of Polymela; his caretes departure the X-posure of her secret in a burs of gries theange of the fallier the necessit forin hastymarriage after the fas hion of Viviettes in
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Parthenius gives usinly the faintest clue tolli natur of the subjecis deali illi in the Milesian ales. I we isti tomet a good notion of the generat anne of reaimentem ployed by their riters no ette illus tration an e found than the extrem elysemous citor of the Ephesia Matron, whicli is old by one of the character in thenovet os Petronius. o an ecdote of the kindlias eve had so great a VOgue a this, hose antiquity and universalit are remarkabie, and whicli has been han ded down and imi taled for century after century. Uet Saysthaesit exist in the oldest Chines literature; it a certainly ver popular in classical times. Aster Petronius, Apuleius paraphrased i in his Golde Ass, though at theeXpense of the liquandi crispnes of the