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Achilles Tatius
REGINE MAY

Achilles Tatius of Alexandria (late second

century CE) wrote the extant novel Leukippe
and Kleitophon (eight books) and perhaps
treatises on the sphere of heaven (fragments survive in a commentary on Aratos
Phaenomena), etymology, and a miscellaneous
history of illustrious men (both no longer
extant). The Sudas information (where he is
called Achilles Statius) that he converted to
Christianity and became a bishop is probably
fictitious (see HELIODORUS), but the idea was
later extended to the novels protagonists
(Patrologia Graeca 116.94).
The racy novel narrates the adventures in
love of the cousins Leukippe and Kleitophon,
two beautiful young Phoenicians, portrayed as
Greeks in language, education, and character.
Typical of the genre are the initial separation of
the couple and their travels through the Mediterranean. Divine apparitions in dreams (e.g.,
of ARTEMIS) direct and foreshadow the action.
The novel, however, toys knowingly with
the conventions of the genre: only Kleitophon
falls in love at first sight, Leukippe after some
courtship; her continued virginity is accidental, since the couples attempts at love-making
are interrupted only just in time by her
mother; Leukippe at first does not value her
chastity as highly as other novel heroines,
although she defends it spiritedly after Artemis intervention, and it becomes a major issue
in the novels last two books. Kleitophon has
sexual experiences with prostitutes before the
events of the novel; during it, he has sex with
Melite, a sympathetically portrayed love rival,
as a therapeutic measure against her love sickness, although at that point of the story both
know that her husband and Leukippe are alive
when previously both had been thought dead.
Both Melite and Leukippe pass farcical chastity
tests (Melite on a technicality). Kleitophon
also avoids telling the complete truth about
his relationship with Melite.

Unusually, the story is told to a stranger by its

protagonist Kleitophon as his autobiography;
the stranger is the actual narrator, although
neither frame is picked up at the end, leaving
the ultimate fate of the couple uncertain. This
focalization through Kleitophon as the narrator
allows for scenes with limited viewpoints to
enhance the suspense; for example, Leukippes
two staged false deaths, which utilize special
effects from contemporary drama and are only
later explained by Kleitophon. The characterization is often stereotypical (with some notable
exceptions; e.g., the amorous yet sympathetically drawn Ephesian widow Melite), although
the heroine is more resourceful and active
than the hero.
The language varies between plain and rhetorical Atticistic Greek and a playful, poeticmanneristic Second Sophistic style. Style and
content function to display the authors learning. Digressions and ekphraseis (ranging from
art and animals, such as the phoenix, hippopotamus, and crocodile, to the panpipe) are skillfully woven into the novels texture, and
function both as ornament and as prolepseis of
the plot. Expositions of the nature and power of
emotions in philosophical language are frequent, but the narrator keeps a mischievous
and humorously distant point of view, playing
intertextually with PLATO; for example, Phaedrus
and Symposium (e.g., discussion of hetero- vs.
homosexuality; pastiches of Platonic mythos).
SEE ALSO: Alexandria (Egypt); Chariton;
Greekness; Longus.

REFERENCES AND SUGGESTED READINGS

Bartsch, S. (1989) Decoding the ancient novel: the
reader and the role of description in Heliodorus and
Achilles Tatius. Princeton.
Morales, H. (2005) Vision and narrative in Achilles
Tatius Leucippe and Clitophon. Cambridge.
Plepelits, K. (1996) Achilles Tatius. In
G. Schmeling, ed., The novel in the ancient world:
387416. Leiden.
Whitmarsh, T. and Morales, H. (2001) Achilles
Tatius, Leucippe and Clitophon, trans.
T. Whitmarsh. Oxford.

The Encyclopedia of Ancient History, First Edition. Edited by Roger S. Bagnall, Kai Brodersen, Craige B. Champion, Andrew Erskine,
and Sabine R. Huebner, print pages 4445.
2013 Blackwell Publishing Ltd. Published 2013 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
DOI: 10.1002/9781444338386.wbeah10002