April 25: World Penguin Day

Thanks to the “Penguin Classics”-series, the works of ancient writers, like Sophokles, Plato or Euclid, are still in bookshops today. Less known are the “big five”: five “romantasy”-novels that have survived in their entirety. A Greek book (or “biblos”) consisted of a number of scrolls, put together in a box, called “capsa”, hence “caption”. They were recited out loud and attracted a crowd. Take “Leukippe and Clitophon”, famous for the “kiss by intermediary”. (The lovers place their lips at the same spot on a cup, thus “drinking kisses to one another”). Another one is “Chloe and Daphnis”, in which prince charming Daphnis engages in whining and blaming others, while Chloe comforts him and does most of the heavy lifting. The format prescribes abandonement, misunderstanding, jealousy, scandal, enslavement, extreme weather, piracy, wild animals, curses, abduction, trial, slander, shipwreck, torture and poisoning, not necessarily in that order. And of course, a happy ending.

Big Five Greek Novels: Callirhoë, Daphnis and Chloe, Leucippe and Clitophon,

An Ephesian Tale, Aethiopica.

Demosthenes with Capsa, statue, Vatican Museums, Rome, Italy