A comprehensive look at the use of imaginary letters in Greek literature, first published in 2001.

Der Philologus, eine der ältesten und angesehensten Zeitschriften auf dem Gebiet der klassischen Altertumswissenschaft, versteht sich als Forum für den Austausch unterschiedlicher methodischer Ansätze, die einer weiterführenden Interpretation der antiken Texte und ihrer Rezeption dienen. Dazu gehören philologische, literaturwissenschaftliche und mit interdisziplinären Perspektiven arbeitende Beiträge. Besonderer Wert wird auf die internationale Ausrichtung der Zeitschrift gelegt. Publikationssprachen sind Deutsch, Englisch, Italienisch, Französisch. Neben der Zeitschrift erscheinen ab 2014 Supplementbände. In der Reihe Philologus. Supplemente / Philologus. Supplementary Volumes werden Monographien und Sammelbände zu allen Themen der Klassischen Philologie und ihrer Rezeption veröffentlicht. Der Fokus soll hier insbesondere auf neueren Ansätzen der Literatur- und Kulturwissenschaft in einer interdisziplinären Perspektive liegen. Geschäftsführender Herausgeber: Christoph Schubert (Erlangen-Nürnberg)

Epistolary Narratives presents detailed literary readings of a wide range of Greek literary letter collections across a range of genres, cultural backgrounds, and time periods, leading collectively towards a better appreciation of Greek epistolary collections as a unique literary phenomenon.

Ancient epistolary fiction is a still largely under-explored field of research, at the intersection of studies on epistolography and on pseudepigraphy. The present volume sketches out a broad panorama of ancient fiction in letters. It covers a large period of time up to late Antiquity, with a main focus on letters from the imperial era. Epistolary fiction is examined as a mainly Greek phenomenon (there are few Latin equivalents) that was characteristic of both pagan and Christian literature. The material investigated falls within two categories: fictional letter collections from well-known authors of the Second Sophistic and their successors (Lucian, Alciphron, Philostratus, Aristaenetus); letters attributed to famous historical or legendary characters (pseudonymous letters). Focusing on the specific features of epistolary fiction, the book aims to analyse its forms, its functions as well as its effects. It gathers a series of 11 state-of-the art essays, all tackling the same important issues: the manuscript and printed tradition, the form of epistolary fictions and the universe they build, the arrangement of the letters and their overall structure, the relation between the author and his external readers.

Chapter INTRODUCTION -- chapter 1 CLASSICAL GREEK LITERARY LETTERS -- chapter 2 HELLENISTIC LITERARY LETTERS -- chapter 3 Letters and prose fictions of the Second Sophistic -- chapter 4 THE EPISTOLARY NOVELLA -- chapter 5 PSEUDO-HISTORICAL LETTER COLLECTIONS OF THE SECOND SOPHISTIC -- chapter 6 INVENTED CORRESPONDENCES, IMAGINARY VOICES.

First published in 1994. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Prose fiction, although not always associated with classical antiquity, flourished in the early Roman Empire, not only in realistic Latin novels but also and indeed principally in the Greek ideal romance of love and adventure. Enormously popular in the Renaissance, these stories have been less familiar in later centuries. Translations of the Greek stories were not readily available in English before B.P. Reardon’s first appeared in 1989.Nine complete stories are included here as well as ten others, encompassing the whole range of classical themes: romance, travel, adventure, historical fiction, and comic parody. A foreword by J.R. Morgan examines the enormous impact this groundbreaking collection has had on our understanding of classical thought and our concept of the novel.