Articles

The Ephesiaca as a Bildungsroman

Authors

  • Aldo Tagliabue

Abstract

Although previous studies of the Ephesiaca of Xenophon of Ephesus have highlighted its lack of quality, this paper shows that this novel is deliberately constructed as a Bildungsroman, in which the protagonists progress from a transient and merely physical conception of love to a faithful and spiritual one. This trajectory is proven by three main points: the intertextual exploitation of the Odyssey in the two erotic nights of the protagonists, their growth in the understanding of love throughout their journey and their final foundation of a new society in love. Since these features do not occur in the other romances, the Ephesiaca claims a literary originality in the novelistic corpus.

Aldo Tagliabue is a Research Fellow in Classics at the Università degli Studi di Milano, under the supervision of Professor Giuseppe Zanetto, and his project focuses on intertextuality in Heliodorus’ Aethiophica. In April 2011 he completed a European Doctorate and Joint PhD in Classics at the University of Padua and Swansea on Xenophon of Ephesus‘s Ephesiaca (whose publication is in progress) and in the academic year 2011-12 he has been a Teaching Fellow of Classics in Lampeter at the University of Wales TSD.  He is an active member of KYKNOS.

Published

2012-07-01

Issue

Section

Articles