As Peter Brooks observes in Reading for the Plot, a man glimpsing a beautiful woman is a key trigger for the onset of desire, which in turn is the primary engine of narrative. M.'s new book explores the culmination of that initial desire – and of the story – as represented in the ancient novel: recognition scenes which tend to reunite two lovers who have been separated by the vicissitudes of the plot. Recognition in the ancient novel has been a subject thus far neglected in early modern and contemporary accounts of the motif in ancient literature; T. Cave's seminal Recognitions discusses only the unique final scene in Heliodorus' Aethiopica (which, as M.'s study demonstrates, significantly departs from other novelistic treatments). In five chapters and an epilogue M. comprehensively deals with recognition scenes not only in the Greek novels, the subject of the first three chapters, but also in the two Roman novels of Petronius and Apuleius and in the lesser studied pagan, Jewish and Christian narratives Apollonius of Tyre, Joseph and Aseneth and the Pseudo-Clementine Recognitions. An epilogue examines the place of the ancient novel in the larger history of recognitions in Western literature, and explains the ancient novel's influence in the development of the motif in the early modern period. Throughout M. persuasively argues for the richness and uniqueness of the ancient novel, particularly the manner in which the novelists creatively engage with earlier classical texts (especially epic and drama) and how they radically depart from this literary tradition. This productive book will be useful to anyone interested in ancient Greek, Roman, Jewish and Christian narratives, as well as those concerned with the history of the novel. For readers new to the ancient novel M.'s study will provide a fascinating introduction to the genre broadly defined, whereas seasoned scholars will gain fresh perspectives on the richness and complexities of these texts.
In the introduction M. makes the case for the unique nature of recognitions in the ancient novel, which tend to be recognitions of personal identity rather than moral recognitions or scenes involving an awareness of agency (though these other types of recognitions are occasionally featured in the novels, as M. acknowledges on p. 37). A broad overview of recognitions in Greek literature, which naturally references Aristotle's Poetics and his treatment of anagnōrisis at length, allows M. to situate the ancient novel's preference for recognitions that occur between the lovers. In her view, this privileging ‘reflects the exaltation of love as a value and, more important, the subordination of family to it’ (p. 13). For each narrative M.'s aim is to analyse the function of such scenes in the plot structure, to evaluate their significance to each novel's larger concerns, and finally to uncover the extensive ‘rapport’ that these scenes have with the epic and dramatic literary tradition, which likewise privilege recognitions of personal identity.
The first two chapters examine the recognitions in Chariton's Callirhoe and Xenophon's Ephesiaca. M.'s study of Chariton reveals that his novel is the first ancient work to feature the voice as a decisive factor in recognition. The idea of voice as gnōrisma is fascinating given the importance that scenes of recognition usually place on opsis. M. also skilfully teases out the various subtexts with which Chariton engages, such as Euripides' Alcestis and Helen, Xenophon's Cyropaedia, and of course the Odyssey, revealing a complex novel full of literary sophistication. The remainder of the chapter is devoted to the reunion of Anthia and Habrocomes in Xenophon's Ephesiaca. The novel, long believed by various scholars to be a summary, contains a long and ‘clumsy’ (p. 48) recognition scene that might be taken as further proof that the surviving text is not a complete narrative. Contrary to such opinions, M. argues that Xenophon parodies various patterns of literary recognitions in his novel. Despite M.'s best attempts to ‘play Xenophon's advocate and give him credit’ (p. 49), her argument regarding the sophistication of this scene is not entirely convincing.
The second chapter deals with the more ‘sophistic’ novels: Leucippe and Clitophon and Daphnis and Chloe. M.'s analysis of Achilles Tatius' novel is centred on three scenes of misrepresentation of identity in which the man in love curiously fails to recognise his beloved. In these ‘unromantic blunders’, M. demonstrates the manner in which Achilles Tatius plays with audience's expectations and reinvents the recognition motif. In particular, in poking fun at his male protagonist who continually postures as a romantic hero, Achilles Tatius ‘composes an ironic narrative with his character's connivance’ (p. 81). The chapter concludes with an extended discussion of Daphnis and Chloe, focusing in particular on the manner in which Longus underscores the fictional and literary quality of recognition in a narrative openly acknowledged as a plasma. Throughout this ‘pastoral’ romance, M. unpacks the frequently neglected comic – Menandrian and Plautine – undertones.
M. devotes her longest chapter to the longest surviving ancient novel, Heliodorus' Aethiopica, which similarly draws attention to the fictional status of its own elaborate recognitions. Earlier in the novel, Heliodorus stages a few recognition scenes between the lovers, but he engineers a final recognition scene that contains every subcategory of anagnōrisis enumerated by Aristotle. M. analyses each of these with great care, and demonstrates how Heliodorus carefully builds up to his famous final scene. Her study furthermore reveals how incongruous this scene is in light of the novelistic tradition: it is not only a recognition between the heroine and her royal parents (rather than between two separated lovers) but it is also the explicit aim of Chariclea's journey from the outset of the novel (rather than an accident of fortune).
In the Greek novels, recognitions are happy scenes that reunite the long-suffering protagonists, or in Heliodorus' case, reunite a child to her long-lost parents. Petronius and Apuleius, however, eschew this ‘happy-ending’ model and instead depict recognitions that bring trouble and pain. M. demonstrates that despite this distancing from the Greek novelistic tradition, both the Satyrica and Metamorphoses are aware of the expectations that such scenes demand and subsequently play with traditional recognitions. As M. notes, Petronius draws from Homer in a scene in which the disguised Encolpius and Giton are recognised by Lichas; by having Lucius' relatives rush to him upon news of his rebirth, Apuleius ‘disposes of the climactic moment of recognition that in the Greek novels underpins the reunion’ (p. 164).
The final chapter discusses the development of recognition scenes in pagan, early Jewish and Christian narratives and how these continue to draw from – and subvert – the classical and novelistic traditions. M. shows the extensive parallels that Apollonius of Tyre has with the Odyssey, the manner in which Joseph and Aseneth alters the novelistic sequence of ‘encounter, separation, and reunion’ in order to accommodate the heroine's conversion, and finally how the Pseudo-Clementine Recognitions ‘compounds several elements paralleled in novelistic recognitions’ (p. 212). In order to illuminate her observations of patterns found in the Pseudo-Clementine Recognitions, M. also includes a perfunctory consideration of other early Christian narratives, the Acts of Paul and Thecla and Xanthippe and Polyxena, texts which this reader believes merit further exploration, particularly in such a study.
Ultimately, however, the book does not suffer from this omission. Throughout M. successfully demonstrates the richness of the ancient novel, and particularly the complex nature of its recognitions, which continually draw from epic and dramatic sources. Not only does this book enrich our understanding of ancient narratives, but it will also serve as an invaluable resource to all students of ancient literature, who will take pleasure in following M. as she unpacks the multiple epic and dramatic strands in the novel.
