“Daphnis and Chloe” Longa in brief summary
The action takes place on the well known Greek island of Lesbos in the Aegean Sea, and not even on the whole island, but in the village alone on its outskirts.
There lived two shepherds, one co-op, another sheep-breeder, one slave, another free. Once, he saw: a goat feeds his abandoned child – a boy, and with it a purple diaper, a gold clasp and a knife with an ivory handle. He adopted him and named Daphnis. A little time passed, and the sheep-dog also saw: the sheep feed the abandoned child-a girl, and with her a bandage sewn with gold, gilded shoes and gold bracelets. He adopted her and called Chloe. They grew up, he’s handsome, she’s beautiful, he’s fifteen, she’s thirteen, he grazed his goats, she’s his sheep, they frolicked together, made friends, “and you can soon see that sheep and goats are grazing apart than to meet separately Daphnis with Chloe. “
It was summer, and Daphnis was in trouble: he stumbled, fell into
I do not know the word “love”, but when the neighbor – worpas argued with Daphne, who is more beautiful, and they decided that Chloe would kiss the person who she liked best, then Chloe immediately kissed Daphnis. And after that kiss, Daphnis also felt something strange in him: “The spirit has seized me, my heart throws out, my soul melts, and yet again I want her kisses: was not it a potion on Chloe’s lips?” The words “love “he did not know either.
Autumn has come, the grape holidays have come, Daphnis and Chloe have rejoiced with everyone, and then the old shepherd approached them. “There was a vision for me,” he said, “an Erot baby with a quiver and
There is no medicine from Eros either in drink, in food, or in conspiracies, the only means is to kiss, hug, and nude, lying down on the ground. “Daphne and Chloe thought and realized that their strange longings were from Eros. , they began kissing each other, and then hugging, and then naked on the ground to lie, but the longing did not pass, and what to do next, they did not know.
There was a misfortune with Chloe: the young rich loafers from the neighboring city, having quarreled with the villagers, attacked them, drove away the herd and stole the beautiful shepherdess with him. Daphnis desperately prayed to the rural gods – the nymphs and Pan, and Pan let his “panic horror” on the kidnappers: plastered with ivy, told the goats to howl like wolves, let the fire on the ground, and the noise in the sea. Frightened villains immediately returned the prey, the reunited lovers swore to each other in loyalty – “by this flock, I swear and the goat that nursed me: I will never leave Chloe!” – and the old shepherd played them on the flute and told how once the god Pan was in love with the nymph, and she fled from him and turned into a reed, and then he made of a reed such a pipe with unequal trunks, because they were unequal love.
Autumn has passed, the winter has passed, icy and snowy, a new spring has come, and the love of Daphnis and Chloe has continued – all the same innocent and painful. Then the wife of the neighboring landowner, young and crafty, spied on them. Daphnis liked her, she took him to a secluded clearing and told him: “I know what you lack with Chloe, and if you want to know this, become my student and do everything I say.” And when they lay down together, she and nature itself taught Daphnis all that is needed. “Just remember,” she said in parting, “it’s something for me, and Chloe is ashamed for the first time, and it’s scary and painful, but do not be afraid, because it’s so natural.” And yet Daphnis was afraid to make Chloe painful, and so their love stretched as before – in kisses, caresses, embraces, gentle chatter, but only.
It was the second summer, and the grooms began to get married to Chloe. Daphnis is in grief: he is a slave, and they are free and prosperous. But good rural nymphs came to his aid: in a dream they pointed out to the young man where to find a rich treasure. Chloe’s adoptive parents are happy, Dafnisovs too. And they decided: when in autumn the landlord will go round his estate, ask him to agree to a wedding.
The autumn came in the summer, the landowner appeared, and with him the depraved and cunning lived. Handsome Daphnis liked him, and he begged him from his master: “Everyone is in love with beauty: they fall in love even with a tree, into a river and into a wild beast!” And I love the body of a slave, but beauty is free! ” Is not there a wedding? Then the old man, the adoptive father of Daphnis, rushed to his master’s feet and told how he had once found this baby in a rich dress: perhaps he is actually a freeborn and can not be sold and donated? The landlord looks: “Oh gods, are not these the things that we once left with my wife at my son who was planted to not break up the inheritance?” And now our children are dead, we repent bitterly, we beg your pardon, Daphnis, and we call again in the father’s house “. And he took the young man with him.
Now Daphnis is rich and noble, and Chloe is poor, as was: will not the wedding be upset, will the landowner reject such a daughter-in-law? He helps all the same survivors: he is afraid that the owner is not angry with him because of Daphnis, and so he persuaded him not to interfere with the union of lovers. The girl was taken to the manor house, there was a feast, at the feast – the surrounding rich people, one of them saw Chloe, saw her in her hands a baby armband and recognized her as her daughter: once he was ruined and left her for poverty, and now became rich and regained his child. They cope with the wedding, on it – all the guests, and further rejected by Chloe’s suitors, and even the beauty that once taught Daphnis love. The newlyweds are led to the bedchamber, “and then Chloe found out that everything they did was done only by the shepherd’s jokes.”
They live happily ever after, their children are reared by goats and sheep, and the nymphs, Eros and Pan rejoice, admiring their love and consent.
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