Love, Loss, and Learning in Chariton's "Chaireas and Callirhoe"

Author(s): Jean Alvares

Source: The Classical World, Vol. 95, No. 2 (Winter, 2002), pp. 107-115
Published by: The Johns Hopkins University Press on behalf of the Classical Association of the
Atlantic States

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LOVE, LOSS, AND LEARNING IN CHARITON'S

CHAIREASAND CALLIRHOE
As Longus notes at the end to the prologue of Daphnis and
Chloe, his romance will educate those who have never loved and
recall love to former lovers. The ancient Greek romances indeed are
primarily about love, yet how complex an image of love and its
processes do they reveal? Of course the complexity of this image
varies; it is generally thought that the presophistic romances of Chariton
and Xenophon of Ephesus present a much more limited view of ideal
love, its nature, and its development than those of Achilles Tatius
and Longus. Thus in Chariton's Chaireas and Callirhoe, the couple
fall in love at first sight and are married within the first few pages;
there is no courtship whatever. Besides the central couple, however,
the Greek romances contain other lovers (both respectable and villainous) as well as other couples' whose relationships and passions
provide a contrast to those of the central couple and thus offer a
fuller view of the processes of love. This is true also for Chaireas
and Callirhoe, but it is harder to observe there. It has been noted,
correctly, how the various aristocrats who fall in love with Callirhoe
represent increasing threats to the heroine's faithfulness,2 but little
attention has been paid to the greater significance of these characters' love stories for creating a fuller description of love. In this
paper I suggest that in Chaireas and Callirhoe (hereafter C & C)
we can observe a further depth in Chariton's depiction of romantic
love by viewing Chaireas, Artaxerxes, and Dionysius as representatives of three different stages of the erotic career-young lover, mature
husband, and widower. Chariton's romance presents not just the delights but also the difficulties of these roles as each of these three
men fails his respective lover due to the temptations appropriate to
his particular career stage. This presentation of the evolution of love
gains further dramatic weight as each protagonist is punished for
his failure and is returned, by education and compulsion, to his appropriate romantic role.
Chaireas is a lover at the beginning of his erotic career, who
has important lessons to learn. David Konstan has demonstrated the
emphasis which Greek romance places on the couple's equality in
terms of age, sexual experience, and commitment.3 Such equality sig' In Xenophon of Ephesus' Ephesiaka, Hippothous and Hyperanthes (3.2)
and Aegialeus and Thelxinoe (5.1) provide the contrasting pairs (see J. Alvares,
"The Drama of Hippothous in Xenophon of Ephesus' Ephesiaca," CJ 90.4
[1995] 393-404); in Daphnis and Chloe it is Chromis and Lycaenion (3.15);
in Leucippe and Clitophon it is Kleinias and Charikles, while in the Aethiopica
the tales of Knemon furnish alternate narratives of love (1.9-14).
2 B. P. Reardon, "Theme, Structure and Narrative in Chariton," YCS 27
(1982) 8-10.
3 Konstan, Sexual Symmetry: Love in the Ancient Novel and Related Genres
(Princeton 1994) 1-98.

107

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108

JEAN ALVARES

nificantly differs from the usual situation for couples in the classical period, and Chariton demonstrates the considerable difficulties
Chaireas has in conforming to this new romantic standard; indeed
of the romantic heroes of the extant Greek romances,4 only Chaireas
loses his wife through a violent act motivated by jealousy (~qAo-nrwia),
one demonstrating a lack of total faith in his partner. Although a
standing suspicion of wives in Greek literature is evident from Homer
and Hesiod on, in this account of Chaireas' jealous violence Chariton
has also built upon plot developments in New Comedy which depict violence done to women due to misunderstandings, violence which
their perpetrators deeply regret,5 as Chaireas does.
Chaireas' relationship with Callirhoe starts on an equal footing
based on age, mutual love, and desire. But as, Patrizia Liviabella
Furiani has shown, the wedded Chaireas soon exhibits behaviors characteristic of traditional Greek male attitudes6 which devalue home
life and foster suspicious attitudes toward wives. The gymnasium's
darling (1.1.10), Chaireas spends much of his time with his male
companions (as he chooses to do), while Callirhoe stays at home
(1.3.2, 1.4.1 1), as a traditional wife must. As the tyrant of Acragas
points out, the company he keeps at the gymnasium will make Chaireas
all too susceptible to suspicions and jealousies (1.2.6). He is correct, and soon Chaireas, willing to believe the false story of Callirhoe's
adultery, and thinking he has caught the guilty parties in the act,
kicks Callirhoe into a deathlike coma (1.4.8-12), which leads to her
premature burial and removal to Asia. Chaireas is hardly evil; the
conspirators created believable evidence through their hired actor
and seducer. But the standards of the erotic hero for faithfulness must
be higher than a mere trust in the evidence of one's eyes, and Aphrodite
has given Chaireas no ordinary woman, but a gift of the sort that
not even Paris Alexander received;7 a proper appreciation of the true
I Clearly, however, some of the ancient Greek novels (such as Lollianus'
Phoenicica, the lolaus Romance, or lamblicus' Babyloniaca) were far less
"ideal" in respect to their protagonists' behavior; see G. Sandy, "New Pages
of Greek Fiction," in J. R. Morgan and R. Stoneman, eds., Greek Fiction:
The Greek Novel in Context (New York 1994) 130-45.
s A. Borgogno ("Menandro in Caritone," Rivista di Filologia e di Istruzione
Classica 99 [1971] 257-63) notes how the mistaken abuse of Callirhoe by
the fundamentally decent Chaireas recalls similar violence toward innocent women
in the Perikeiromene and the Epitrepontes of Menander. In light of this, it is
interesting, since anger is one of Chaireas' central faults, that Menander's first
play was entitled Opyi5. See also C. Corbato, "Da Menandro a Caritone. Studi
sulla genesi del romanzo greco e i suoi rapporti con la Commedia Nuova,"
Quaderni Triestini sul Teatro Antico 1 (1968) 5-44.
6 P. Liviabella
Furiani, "Di donna in donna. Elementi 'Femministi' nel
romanzo greco d'amore," in P. Liviabella Furiani and A. M. Scarcella, eds.,
Piccolo Mondo Antico. (Naples 1989) 47-55.
noted, the ancient Greek novel makes frequent use of the
7 As often
themes and imagery of divine epiphany and mystery religion. Many scenes
present Callirhoe as an apotheosis of Aphrodite herself (see 1.1.1-2, 1.1.16,
2.3.6-7, 3.2.17, 4.1.19, 4.7.5-7, 8.6.11). For further discussion of this topic,
see R. Beck, "Mystery Religions, Aretalogy and the Ancient Novel," in G. L.

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LOVE, Loss, AND LEARNING IN CHAIREASAND CALLIRHOE 109

nature of that gift would have made Chaireas far less willing to believe in her supposed adultery.
Thus, after this outrage, Aphrodite begins to punish Chaireas
for his groundless jealousy.8 Konstan notes that the Greek romances
exhibit a movement "by which the loyalty [my emphasis] appropriate to marriage is distinguished from the spontaneous erotic attraction
that brought the couple together. . . "9 and thus this period of punishment can also be seen as entailing Chaireas' education in the proper
attitudes of an ideal lover. These require a loyalty to Callirhoe (and
the perfect love she embodies), a loyalty manifested by an absolute
trust in her actions, and an abandonment of violent jealousy. Indeed, such savage behavior is basically foreign to Chaireas' nature
as a lover later Callirhoe herself comments about its strangeness
(1.14.7-8). Thus, in short order, Chaireas learns of Callirhoe's innocence and that she is alive somewhere in Asia, and, deeply guilty,
he will risk anything for her recovery (3.5.1-2). Marcelle Laplace
is right to see in Chaireas' expedition to Asia an allusion to Menelaus'
attempt to recover Helen,'0 but Chariton uses this motif in an ironic
context, undercutting any epic pretensions along with epic's glorification of masculine dominance. For instead of fighting a heroic
war for Callirhoe," at this point Chaireas first undergoes a type of
Schmeling, ed., The Novel in the Ancient World, (Leiden 1996) 132-50; D.
G. Edwards, The Acts of the Apostles, and Chariton's Chaereas and Callirhoe:
A Literary and Sociohistorical Study (Ph.D. diss., Boston University, 1987)
29-51. Thus Chaireas' abuse of Callirhoe becomes a far more serious offense against a basic power of the universe.
Chariton says of Aphrodite: '`j1 'tap auT-r4 0Aqa4TTeTo, TrpOTEpOV 6ptrioeciova
xa1eTr1i;)?ai T &VaKa#pOV >AoruOTUaV, OTl &L)poV 7rap' acsiTr AL$(V TO' KeAAI-rOV,
oTov ooE' 'AA?ivaypoo o JIaptq, $OpIeV Eit Tr'?V XdaPIV. ETrEi as KaAci;) a7rfr,oo1-aTo
T(rp "EptoTi XalPia5
tro6&OEW; EI' CvaaToA; A4l p,u
vpiv 1ra&Ojv7rav,00ei, WAi'waev
a6rov 'A4poii-rq Kai o7rep E
vvo
KLAAiOT`o)V sP5oE
rpwxs
UEoJ'yO, tv4vaaO
(= "having trained, exercised" as well as "harassed") Aaa vvk Kai 8aeAa4oo'i,
7raAlI
IeioA.,sey inro&oQvai(8.1.3). Chaireas, in his letter to Callirhoe (4.4.9),
likewise acknowledges his jealousy and asserts he has paid for it by his sufferings.
For jealousy as a particular problem of Chaireas, see J. Helms, Character
Portrayal in the Romance of Chariton (The Hague 1966) 32-34. Of course,
Callirhoe also is educated by these trials, learning, among other things, the
strength of her own faithfulness.
9 See Konstan (above, n.3) 45-46;
also F. Zeitlin, "The Poetics of Eros:
Nature, Art, and Imitation in Longus' Daphnis and Chloe," in D. Halperin,
J. Winkler, and F. Zeitlin, eds., Before Sexuality (Princeton 1990) 423. This
process implies some kind of character development, a point often denied;
see T. Hggg, The Novel in Antiquity (Oxford 1983) 53. While I agree that
the lovers' reunion in some respects represents a return to the initial state of
their love, it is the love that partakes of unchangeable divinity that remains
unaltered in its direction and intensity, while the protagonists, especially the
males, must learn to adjust their behavior to this new force, which implies
character change.
10 M. Laplace, "Les Legends Troyennes dans le Roman de Chariton Chareas
et Callirhoe," REG 93 (1980) 84-85.
" Phocas is said to have acted "to put off something terrible and quench a
war that would not be great or widespread, but only concerning Dionysius' household" (3.7.2).
Trxv

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110

JEAN ALVARES

sexual betrayal and abandonment more typically suffered by women,

a reversal which corresponds to a restoration of the equality that
Konstan has stressed. The Greek romances tend to present a comparatively archaic view of the freedom of women to chose their own
mates and gain divorces, especially in those scenes set in the heroine's
homeland. But in Asia Minor, far from Syracuse, it is Callirhoe who
has taken a new husband,'2 and Chaireas is, so to speak, the abandoned wife, who pleads the sanctity of virginity and the marriage
bed, a reversal underscored by Chaireas' letter to Callirhoe: "Remember our bridal chamber and that night of mystery-when we first
undertook for ourselves to learn, you of a man, and I of a woman!"
(tkV

7TOV
aTIJ KTO

0'aKTOa

T
ZVKTTIKXKT,

O5

TS

7rppTOld

4.4.9). ' But his pleas

kv'lU/KO;
are apparently without effect: during the trial at Babylon, Chaireas
receives no encouragement from Callirhoe,'4 and he readily believes
that she will remain with Dionysius, for Chaireas a worse punishment than chains and the cross (5.10.6-9). At the political/social
level, Chaireas' subsequent suicidal heroism makes him a warrior and
political leader worthy of Hermocrates' daughter. But Chaireas' humiliation and suffering are also followed by more trusting attitudes
toward Callirhoe. Correspondingly, Aphrodite ceases to be angry at
Chaireas and intervenes so that the couple can be reunited (8.1.3-4).
Chaireas demonstrates the results of his reeducation on his return to
Syracuse when, without apparent embarrassment, but rather with complete trust in Callirhoe, he tells the assembled Syracusans how his
wife was the wife of another man, who has kept his son (8.7.11-12).'
While Chaireas and Callirhoe are beginning their relationship,
Artaxerxes has been married to Statira for some time. Although
Chariton's Artaxerxes combines the idealized image of the Great King
with the lustful monarch of Plutarch's sources,'6 he also resembles
EV a/po0 0E)W
,

7reIpaA

EAcfo.Ley,

12 In Syracuse, Callirhoe is engaged to Chaireas without consultation (1.1.14),

and Chaireas gives his nameless sister to Polycharmus (8.8.12). Callirhoe's
freedom to give herself to Dionysius by autoekdosis probably reflects the
great freedoms of Chariton's era and the Hellenistic-Roman world. See B. Egger,
"Women and Marriage in the Greek Novel: The Boundaries of Romance," in
J. Tatum, ed., The Search for the Ancient Novel (Baltimore 1994) 267-69.
13 Translations of Chaireas and Callirhoe are a modified version of those
from Reardon, ed., Collected Ancient Greek Novels (Berkeley 1989).
14 It can be argued that Callirhoe's silence conforms to manners proper
for Greek wives; as noted above, however, romantic heroines show more freedom
of activity outside their homelands and thus Chaireas' expectation at Babylon
may not be totally unreasonable.
e O'jjOe-rTo Ka.AAipo6s
Oioo-al TOVi 7roAr'Tr
EeaUTiV iei f4.oi,
KLIOIOaV
15ITr
1kqisV
r TOV TEKVOU 'riwV 7OVlV, ';va
70o$10glo
Lai,
6eAouoa',
aV6YK1/V 'e`xe AiooVU,hP l'aIu

TO 7at5alov f7ra.i.
1L1V,
Tpe$eTrat lap'
Kal
TpKa;
a4
ryIE)v3KEVa
Kai
EVU8ou
7fSP eKiEiVOU
/avpEs X2ZPaKLKOO0, 7?OAi'T'1 E'l MIAX'TO) 7TAO6OIO0 LTr' alaPo6
Oo'6erw,V nr4
au
K L.
EaL.T
TO yivo5 E`ao0ov 'EXA',,K6v.
KA72PO1jkO#a;.
EK AIOvLJOiOL Uoi>

16 The idealization
of the Great King appears in Aeschylus (Darius in
the Persae), Ctesias, Herodotus, and especially Xenophon of Athens, and continues
into the imperial period; see A. Moinigliano, Alien Wisdom: The Limits of
Hellenization (Cambridge 1975) 123-35. C & C's Artaxerxes reveals some of

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LOVE, LOSS, AND LEARNING IN CHAIREASAND CALLIRHOE 111

a middle-class husband of New Comedy, distracted and embarrassed

over his infatuation with a younger woman who may be a slave, with
Artaxates serving as his servus callidus. 17 Such midlife infatuations
are a violation of the erotic ideal, but belong to a later stage of the
romantic relationship. Like Chaireas, Artaxerxes must learn a new appreciation of his wife and be compelled to play his proper roles.
I wrote "roles," for since a central theme of Chariton's romance
is that Aphrodite is a potent historical force,18 the fortunes of Persia will be tightly connected with these errors of its Great King.
The reader can observe how, as the King's erotic interest in Callirhoe
intensifies, his ability to rule properly decreases. For example, he
corrupts Persian justice during Mithridates' trial by ignoring Dionysius'
correct objections to Callirhoe's presence (5.4.11), and then undercuts Persian religion by feigning a dream from the royal gods to
avoid assigning Callirhoe a husband (6.1.6-12, 6.2.2-4). Perhaps the
Great King's most important duty was as a military leader, and, as
Xenophon of Athens shows, the royal hunt was a training and substitute for war.19 But when Artaxerxes attempts such a hunt, instead
of pursuing game, he becomes lost in eros-inspired, voyeuristic fantasies of Callirhoe (6.4.5-7). It is probably significant that at this
point, when Artaxerxes tellingly reveals his shortcomings as a ruler,
he also prepares a final betrayal of his wife, accepting his eunuch's
sophistic explanation of how he can take Callirhoe and not violate
his own laws on adultery, and commanding him to procure her (6.4.7).2?
Since the Great King's errors occur on two levels-the public
and the private-Artaxerxes suffers a double loss. Because the Persians, as epitomized by their King's behavior during the hunt, are
militarily lacking, it is fitting that revolt breaks out in Egypt and
spreads northward, and a significant portion of the Persian empire
is soon lost (6.8.1-2). Artaxerxes sets out to war, and following the
usual Persian custom, takes along wives, concubines, and Callirhoe
(6.9.6-7). While such Persian baggage is a well-known historical topos,21
the qualities of the ideal monarch of the Stoics and Cynics; see E. Karabelias,
"Le roman de Cariton d'Aphrodisias et le droit: Renversements de situation et
exploitation des ambiguites juridiques," in G. Nenci and G. Thur, eds., Symposion
1988 (Koln 1990) 395, n.109; C. Ruiz-Montero, "Carit6n de Afrodisias y el
Mundo Real," in P. L. Furiani and A. M. Scarcella, eds., Piccolo Mondo Antico
(Perugia 1989) 139-41. For the tradition of Artaxerxes' erotic preoccupations,
see Plutarch's Life of Artaxerxes; also W. Bartsch, Der Charitonsroman und die
Historiographie (Ph.D. diss., University of Leipzig, 1934) 5.
17 As I suggest
below, the manner in which Dionysius is deceived by
Callirhoe and by his own self-delusion likewise recalls situations found in
New Comedy.
18 See J. Alvares, "Chariton's Erotic History," AJP 118 (1997) 613-29.
19 For the importance and grandeur of the Persian Royal hunt, see J. K.
Anderson, Hunting in the Ancient World (Berkeley 1985) 57-76. For the importance of hunting as training see J. Tatum, Xenophon's Imperial Fiction:
On the Education of Cyrus (Princeton 1989) 110-11.
20 The text is somewhat defective at this point. See Reardon (above, n.13)
94, n.97.
21 See Herodotus
7.83, 7.187; Xenophon, Cyropaideia 4.3.1-2.

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JEAN ALVARES

112

it also epitomizes the nonmilitary (including erotic) concerns that

distract the Great King and the Persians. With the King thus hampered, Tyre is taken, and the King perceives that the empire is critically
threatened (7.4.11-12). Just as Chaireas' reformation was compelled
by the loss of Callirhoe, so these disasters begin the King's reformation. Artaxerxes' rejection of Eros' stranglehold is symbolized by
the abandonment of his excess baggage, including Callirhoe and Statira,
on Aradus (7.4.12). Then Artaxerxes can fight and win. Afterwards
the King sacrifices to Heracles (8.5.2), a god the text associates with
war (7.2.7); this sacrifice contrasts with the earlier one he made eagerly to Aphrodite and Eros (6.2.4). The sacrifice to Heracles and
the King's subsequent willing awarding of Callirhoe to Dionysius
(7.4.15) further demonstrate how the King has broken free of his
infatuation, which is followed by a reunion, so to speak, with his
lost empire.
But like Chaireas, Artaxerxes loses his wife, as Statira is captured
on Aradus (7.6), and he suffers a correspondingly deep distress (8.5.2).
When the ship carrying Statira approaches the Persian outpost, the
reader observes the King's aggressive military leadership (8.5.4-5),
which resembles Hermocrates' activity when Chaireas' fleet is first
sighted off Syracuse (8.6.2-10). The King's new appreciation of his
wife is also evident: Artaxerxes, unable to wait for the vessel to
dock properly, hastily jumps on board, embraces his wife, and weeps
for joy (8.5.5).22 After Statira has narrated the events on Aradus, the
Great King, although he misses Callirhoe and envies Chaireas, appears
glad that Callirhoe is gone (8.5.8).23 Thus, through loss and trial,
the Great King has been brought back to his royal duties, gained a
new appreciation of his wife, and now is playing the correct role
as husband and king.
The lover's last role is as a widower who must remain devoted
to the memory of his former spouse; raising their child is sometimes
a secondary duty. The novels stress the permanence of the love relationship,24 and the rule of the extant ideal romances seems to be
"one mate, for life," an ideal which corresponds to lovers' frequent
declarations that they will not live without the other and their occasional attempts at suicide when they believe their partner has died,
an ideal without which these actions make much less sense. A notable font of such dramatic (and melodramatic) situations is Euripides'
22
"But the king did not hold back, but before the ship was properly
come to shore he first jumped upon it, and, having embraced his wife, he
a
KI
Ao r
sent forth tears from joy" (o N gaoaAev ov KaTfEOXEV, aAAa rph
KaTaX4ivaf

ITp(JTOf

EI'E7F1rr E1)EvE

aLrT7l,

rrepiiOeis

Trf

Ldl/IKI'

E'K

TX;

Xap&;

&aKpUJa acLqKE ).

The text is somewhat defective at this point; see Reardon (above, n.13)
n.130.
24 See Konstan (above,
n.3) 45-59; and S. MacAlister, Dreams and Suicides: The Greek Novel in Antiquity and the Byzantine Empire (London 1996)
20-21, and 193-94, n.3.
23

118,

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LOVE, LOSS, AND LEARNING IN CHAIREASAND CALLIRHOE 113

Alcestis, which, as we shall see, finds interesting echoes in Chariton's

romance, as well as in Xenophon of Ephesus' Ephesiaka. The inevitability of postmortem loyalty is also vividly demonstrated in the
other romances, such as in Achilles Tatius' Leucippe and Clitophon,
where, despite incredible temptation, Clitophon does not give in to
his widow of Ephesus-at least while he knows that Leucippe is
dead (see 5.12, 5.14, 5.15-17). In the Latin romance Apollonius King
of Tyre,25Apollonius, after his wife's death, mourns for her until the
day she is recovered and actively avoids other women. An extreme
form of such devotion appears in Xenophon of Ephesus' Ephesiaka,
which is probably patterned on Chariton's romance.26 There both the
fisherman Aegialeus and the brigand Hippothoos have lost their mates.
Aegialeus is shown lovingly tending his wife's mummified corpse
(Ephes. 5.1.10-11); the way Aegialeus talks to, and eats with, and
lies beside his dead spouse recalls Admetus' description of how he
intends to treat the statue of his dead wife (AIc. 348-352). Later in
the romance, Hippothoos, after facing and triumphing over temptation to enter into an erotic relationship with Anthia, raises a cenotaph
to his lost Hyperanthes (Ephes. 5.15.4).
But Dionysius fails to live up to this standard. Although he is
initially described as still "distraught from grief' (aXuXwv
y&piirvro
Tr5
AXUrr'i,
2.1.1) at his wife's death, it is significant that Dionysius first
learns about Callirhoe the morning after he has had a sweet dream
about his former wife (2.1.2). The hoped-for sweetness of a postmortem dream of a lost spouse is suggested by Admetus in Alcestis
354-356: "for perhaps you will gladden me coming in dreams; for
it is sweet even in the night to see loved ones, for whatever time
is permitted" (Uva' eJoveipacm
/ 4omC-o-4ip,' eiXbpaivo; alv qu tap 4Rovo
/ Kav V.KTri
Axeverv,vrov' av 7rapnxpoo27 Similarlythe case of Aegialeus'
mummified wife, which to us may seem simply an instance of insanity and necrophilia, shows another proof of the power of love
after death; notice how Xenophon pointedly has Habrocomes draw
this lesson: "even now truly I have learned that love does not hold
a real limit of age" (Kai v1i&Ua'iO66 ,e,afrcloKa OTi "pwz Xa'i6oa opov
2AIKLaLOVK
Eo

Et,

5.1.12-13). Thus for the true lover, like Aegialeus,

even the memory of the dead can be sweet and love undying, and
25 There is a long and unresolved debate as to whether or
not Apollonius
King of Tyre was originally a Greek romance that was adapted into Latin;
see G. L. Schmeling, "Historia Apollonii Regis Tyri," in G. L. Schmeling,
ed., The Novel in the Ancient World (Leiden 1996) 528-38.
26 For Chariton as a model for Xenophon, see especially H. Gartner,
"Xenophon
von Ephesos," RE IX (Stuttgart 1967) 2055-84; and A. D. Papanikolaou, "Chariton
und Xenophon von Ephesos. Zur Frage der Abhgngigkeit," XAPIS K. I. Boup$iprn
(Athens 1964) 305-20. Scholars have generally agreed on Chariton's priority,
but recently J. N. O'Sullivan (Xenophon of Ephesus: His Compositional Technique and the Birth of the Novel [Berlin 1995]) has argued that Xenophon's
romance is the earlier and represents a transition from oral storytelling to literary novel, a fact that would explain many subliterary elements of his style.
27 Translations of Euripides and of Xenephon of Ephesus are
my own.

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114

JEAN ALVARES

this sweetness Dionysius is beginning to enjoy. But instead of being satisfied with this love, Dionysius becomes infatuated with Callirhoe.
And further, instead of raising the child of his former wife, he has
given the child to the care of Leonas, his bailiff (1.12.8). Indeed,
the text notes no direct contact of Dionysius with this child.
Unlike Chaireas and Artaxerxes, Dionysius never returnsto a correct
devotion to his former wife. And for this he can be seen to pay a
price, as he is forced to play the proper third-stage role in a debased manner. Callirhoe's letter begs Dionysius to raise their son
and never take a stepmother (8.4.5), rather as Alcestis begs Admetus
never to take a stepmother for their children (Alc. 305-310). Dionysius,
who appears ready to obey, will be hereafter unmarried (as he should
have been in the first place), mourning a lost love (but in this case
Callirhoe, not his first wife), and cherishing her image (the lifelike
statue of Callirhoe at Miletus, which recalls Admetus' statue of his
wife), and will engage himself in the raising of their child, a concern shown as Dionysius "rocks his child in his arms" (8.5.15).
There is some debate as to how sympathetically Dionysius should
be viewed.28 The confusion arises in part because Chariton must emphasize the nobility of Dionysius in order to make him a proper
object of temptation for Callirhoe and to remove any possible tawdry elements from their bigamous marriage. But Dionysius can also
been seen as the fooled victim, not only like Euripides' Admetus,
but as the butt of a Milesian tale "Of a Woman with Two Husbands."29
Mainly, however, as Alberto Borgogno has shown, Dionysius recalls
New Comedy's various respectable embodiments of paideia and selfcontrol who, overmastered by love, are deceived by slaves and hetairae
about money, love and even paternity;30compare how Callirhoe passes
off another man's child as Dionysius' own. It is not just a question
of Callirhoe's trickery; Chariton is careful to point out the power
of Dionysius' own self-deception:
But he (Dionysius) was pleased with the defense the
letter contained, and read the same passage many times,
for it seemed that she had left him unwillingly. Love
28 Most critics think highly of Dionysius.
For a summary of the positive
and negative aspects of Dionysius' character, see Helms (above, n.8) 66-74;
also B. Egger, "Women in the Greek Novel: Constructing the Feminine" (Ph.D.
diss., University of California at Irvine, 1990) 193-94.
29
For C & C as a type of Milesian tale, see C. Ruiz-Montero, "The
Rise of the Greek Novel," in G. L. Schmeling, ed., The Novel in the Ancient
World (New York 1996) 64.
For example, in Menander's Samia
30 See Borgogno (above, n.5) 258-61.
Chryses presents to the respectable Demeas the child of Plangon as being her
own; of course in Chariton, Plangon is Dionysius' slave, while characters named
Chaireas appear in Menander's Dyskolos and Aspis. The epilogue of Plautus'
Captivi mentions that this play is unusual in that it has no pueri suppositio
(1031), and Plautus presents such a trick at its most horrible in the Trtcilentus.
These facts make us suspect that such ruses were hardly foreign to Greek
New Comedy. I am very grateful to Dr. Timothy Moore of the University of
Texas at Austin for invaluable advice on this topic.

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LOVE, LOSS, AND LEARNING IN CHAIREASAND CALLIRHOE 115

is such an irresponsible thing and can easily persuade

a lover that he is loved in return.
(8.5.14-15)31
Thus Chaireas and Callirhoe can be read as a narrative within
which three different lovers, representing three different stages of
the love relationship, fail to measure up to what is appropriate to
their respective stages, are punished, and, to some extent, are compelled to play their proper erotic roles. Chaireas and Artaxerxes learn
and correct their mistakes, while Dionysius does not, and ends up
the poorer for it.32 Thus the struggles of Chaireas and Callirhoe gain
further significance when seen in the context of a series of threats
to love and to the lover's proper conduct that extend from young
lover to mature spouse to widower.
This last observation also helps clarify the tone and significance
of the romance's final scene, which is far from the confident assertion Xenophon of Ephesus makes concerning the fate of his principals:
"the rest of their life together was one long festival" (Ephes. 5.15.3).
Instead, Callirhoe shows a rather fearful awareness of possible future threats to their love. While Chaireas addresses the Syracusans,
Callirhoe kneels alone before the statue of Aphrodite (8.8.15-16);
she first thanks the goddess, for "you have again shown me Chaireas
in Syracuse, where I saw him as a maiden at your desire," implying
a simple return to the initial state of their love. But such a return
to the beginning is impossible; Callirhoe has seen too much. Note
how she finishes the book with a double prayer that refers to the
possibility of future crises, first asking Aphrodite, "Do not separate
me from Chaireas again, I beg of you, but grant us a happy life
together," and then, begging, "let us die together" (8.8.16). Considering the threats to love in all its stages (including post mortem)
that the romance has presented, Callirhoe has good reason to fear
general threats not only to her marriage, but also the specific dangers posed by the phases of love that still lie ahead.33
Montclair State University
CW 95.2 (2002)
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MacAlister (above, n.24) 22 wonders why, after his initial attempt to

starve to death, Dionysius does not again attempt suicide, especially after the
King has taken Callirhoe into his apartments, and suggests that Dionysius and
Callirhoe developed a relationship more mature than that of new lovers. I
think a better explanation is that Dionysius still has hope, as shown by the
way in which he fights bravely before the King, who in fact does award
Callirhoe to him. Note also how Callirhoe, when she has been reunited with
Chaireas, and all of Dionysius' hope is lost, then fears that he might harm
himself (8.4.9-10).
Her letter is designed to prevent the sort of suicide that
MacAlister suggests.
I wish to thank the reviewers at Classical World for their suggestions
33
and guidance, which have greatly improved this article, as well as Dr. Timothy Renner of Montclair State University for his invaluable help.
32

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