“Daphnis and Chloe” is probably one of the most famous pastoral romances of ancient Greece. Almost nothing is known about Longus, the author of the romance, but his name is praised by scholars nowadays for his ability to entertain and to teach at the same time. The author’s main aim was not only to describe the childhood and adventures of the young couple but to convey the first experience of love (Hunter 5-8).
The author often concentrates on the nature description so that to show how this influences the life of Daphnis and Chloe who are closely connected to nature as they were brought up in the open air. The action of the romance takes place on the island of Lesbos. It is depicted as a beautiful place with thick forests, clearings sown with flowers and it serves as the setting for love in the romance.
Love awakens between two teenagers who have never experienced such a strong feeling before. Daphnis and Chloe have reached the right age but they cannot understand their feelings. They don’t know that these are the first signs of love. It is their first kiss that helps them to recognize that they are in love. And Doron, a young cowherd, played a crucial role in this.
Main Dorcon’s function in the romance is to contrast experience and force with innocence and naivety. Chloe has to make a choice not only between two young men but in some way between two possible lives. One of the most important episodes in Book I is a speech contest between Daphnis and Dorcon. It is when Chloe has an opportunity to compare them and to reward a winner with her precious kiss. During the contest, we find out that Daphnis and Dorcon are opposed to each other even in appearance. While Dorcon is “white as milk, ruddy as corn fit for the sickle” (Longus 35) Daphnis is “short, beardless as a woman, black as a wolf” (Longus 35). But Daphnis wins either due to the compliment he maid or to Chloe’s desire to kiss him. After this kiss, he falls in love with Chloe. Thus, Dorcon is the one who hitched the young people to love, to their first kiss which awakens strong unknown fillings. Unlike Daphnis, Dorcon is not so young and naïve so when he has feelings for Chloe he knows it is love. He presents the girl with gifts and compliments, seeks her attention but she is not experienced in love and does not understand his behavior. She is more attracted to Daphnis who is “dark, so is the hyacinth: and yet Dionysus is superior to the Satyrs, the hyacinth to the lily” (Longus 35).
Dorcon is the first obstacle and the first temptation the young couple meets on their way to happiness and all his attempts to win the girl’s attention, to separate them, and even to lay hands on Chloe seem to make the young lovers even closer. Even Dorcon’s death is the force that unites the young couple’s hearts together.
Thus, the central purpose of Dorcon in the romance is to unite the two young lovers at the very start of their timid feelings, though his ultimate goal seems to separate them. Would Daphnis or Chloe have had the courage to say something about their feelings or to kiss for the first time if there was no beauty contest?
Works Cited
Hunter, Richard L. A Study of Daphnis and Chloe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983.
Longus, McCall, Ronald (trans.) Daphnis and Chloe. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002.