Page:A History of Ancient Greek Literature.djvu/427

THE ROMANCE 403 But the work may have looked different before it was epitomised. There is real invention in the work of one Antonius Diogenes about The Incredible Wonders beyond Thule. He lived before Lucian, who parodies him. The book was full of adventures, and included a visit to the moon ; but, to judge from the epitome, it repeated itself badly, and the characters seem to have been mere puppets. One particular effect, the hero or heroine or both being taken for ghosts, seems especially to have fascinated the author. There is some skill in the elaborate and indirect massing of the imaginary sources from which the story is derived. Romance was popular in the third century, which has left us the complete story of Habrocomes and Antheia by Xenophon of Ephesus. The two best Greek novelists are with little doubt LONGUS and HeliodQrus : the former for mere literary and poetic quality ; the latter for plot and grouping and effective power of narrative. Helio- dorus writes like the opener of a new movement. He is healthy, exuberant, full of zest and self-confidence. His novel is good reading even in our own age, which has reached such exceptional skill in the technique of novel-writing. You feel that he may well be, what as a matter of fact he was, the forerunner of a long array of notable writers, and one of the founders of an exception- ally prolific and durable form of literature. It is said that Heliodorus was a Christian and bishop of Salonica, and that the synod of his province called upon him either to burn his book or to resign his bishopric, whereupon the good man did the latter. The story rests on weak evidence, but it would be like the Heliodorus that we know. Longus is very different — an unsanguine man and a pagan. Not that his morals are low : it needs an