The Strange Price of Voyeurism
Daphnis experiences a rather strange—certainly offbeat—reaction to seeing the beautiful Chloe naked for the first time. Only metaphor could make this emotion come to life; any literal construction would not be believed:
“He had a pain in his heart as though it was being eaten away by poison.”
What is Love, Anyway?
Who knows, right? Well, an apparently wise old man—despite being dressed in skins and sandals—knows. As Philetas explains to Daphnis and Chloe:
“Love…is a god, young and beautiful and winged. That's why he delights in youth and pursues beauty and gives wings to the soul.”
Lips Like Sugar
The story is, when all is said and done, a romance. A love story. And so one would rightly expect to find a fair share of similes comparing one thing to another for the purpose of pointing up the romantic nature of the relationship at hand. Perhaps, even, the story contains the first ever comparison of kissing to sweetness beyond compare:
“what revived him most of all was the kiss that she gave him with her soft lips - a kiss that was like honey”
Romance...and a Tragedy
Dorcon is a rival for the affections of Chloe. He even asked to marry her, but was denied! And so the narrative unreels to a tragic end for Dorcon, which can be inferred from this passage freely—almost recklessly—mixing metaphor with the literal:
“I'll be dead in a moment, for when I tried to defend my cattle those devilish pirates carved me up as if I'd been an ox myself.”
Who Said What Now?
The thing about using metaphorical imagery is that it is poetic, but it can be mistaken for simply literal. And when that mistake is possible, perspective and interpretation can put the meaning up for grabs. For instance, the following passage which it would be quite natural to assume is coming from Chloe when, in fact, it is the old man in skins and sandals who is the author of the imagery:
“I saw, under the pomegranate-trees and the myrtles, a boy with myrtle-berries and pomegranates in his hands. His skin was as white as milk, and his hair was as golden as fire, and his body glistened as if he'd just been bathing. He was naked, he was all alone, and he was playing and picking fruit as if the garden belonged to him.”
The modern reader is certain to bring assumptions to this passage that the readers of the Roman Empire might not. Or, then again, might they?
