Kleitophon and Encolpius: Achilleus Tatius as Hidden Author

Abstract

This paper explores the possibility of applying to the novel of Achilles Ta­tius the methodology employed on the Satyrica by G.B. Conte, arguing that there is a ‘hidden author’ behind the narrator Kleitophon, who communicates with the reader through a series of oblique narrative strategies. Kleitophon is represented as constructing an approved version of himself through the per­formance and sophistic display of his narrative, which is at variance with the reality which the author allows us to glimpse. Like Encolpius, Kleitophon imposes literature on life, rewriting experience to accommodate it to the patterns and ethos of romantic fiction.

John Morgan is Professor of Greek at the University of Wales Swansea, where he is Leader of the KYKNOS Research Group on Ancient Narrative Literature. He has published extensively on the Greek novels, particularly those of Heliodoros and Longus; his commentary on Daphnis and Chloe in the Aris & Phillips Classical Texts series appeared in 2004. He is currently working on an edition of Heliodoros for the Loeb Classical Library, as well as monographs on Heliodoros and Longus.