The Pastoral Parents of Daphnis and Chloe

Arum Park (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill)

Studies of the pastoral setting of Longus’ Daphnis and Chloe have centered mainly on the relationship between the pastoral environment and the erotic aspects of the novel.[1]  I shall argue, however, that the pastoral setting has relevance to key non-erotic aspects as well, specifically, the complex parent-child relationships of the novel.  This paper will discuss the role of the pastoral setting as metaphorical parent for the characters of Daphnis and Chloe.

The novel opens with an ecphrasis of a painting that depicts, among other things, women giving birth, exposure of infants who are suckled by animals, and these infants’ subsequent adoption by herdsmen.  Longus then claims a “yearning to depict the picture in words (praef. 3),” and indeed, the narrative that unfolds includes every detail of the ecphrasis except women giving birth, the only detail that is conspicuously absent from the novel.  The omission of this detail at the beginning of Longus’ story creates a disjuncture between ecphrasis and narrative, for the births of Daphnis and Chloe have been depicted pictorially, but not verbally.  This omission results in a psychological void, for the biological origins of Daphnis and Chloe are not described.  Indeed, appearance of their birth parents is postponed until the resolution of the story; in their stead emerges a set of metaphorical parental figures that serve to fill the void left by their absence.

Daphnis and Chloe are each found in a setting that resembles a pastoral locus amoenus, complete with trees, grass, and, in the case of Chloe, a cave.  Such a setting evokes enclosure, safety, and protection from external dangers; the locus amoenus, then, acts symbolically as a womb for the children.  In the absence of biological mothers, the first live beings to assume maternal roles toward Daphnis and Chloe are the she-goat and ewe who are found suckling the infants.  The nourishment provided by the suckling animals within the enclosure of the locus amoenus supplants the role that would naturally be assumed by a biological mother, and removal of these infants from such enclosed and nurturing spaces symbolizes emergence from the womb into the less-protected world outside the body of the mother; the pastoral world outside the locus amoenus is idyllic, but is not afforded the same security of enclosed isolation.  Moreover, the goat and ewe provide a model that the eventual adoptive parents, Lamon, Dryas, and their wives, may emulate, for these adoptive parents appropriate the emotional relationship between parent and child that has first been established by the goat and ewe.

The pastoral environment as depicted in Daphnis and Chloe provides the means by which Longus may provide the orphaned Daphnis and Chloe with pseudo-parental figures and thus compensate for the absence of biological parents until the end of the novel.  The relationships between the children and their pastoral environments is thus profoundly psychologized, for Daphnis and Chloe are connected to their pastoral settings in the way that children are usually bound to their birth parents.