The (Cultural) Harmony of Nature: Music, Love, and Order in Daphnis and Chloe

Abstract

Music in Daphnis and Chloe translates the order that governs the pastoral world. It is silenced when that order is shattered, especially by the irruption of love. Music, however, is not simply the expression of an idyllic order. It also participates in the education of the novel’s protagonists, who must grow to find a new order in their lives subsequent to love’s irruption: that new order is the institutionalization of love, matrimony, and the definition of man’s and woman’s roles in it. This paper attempts to show that Daphnis becomes an increasingly accomplished musician whereas Chloe’s music is gradually silenced, and argues that Longus endorses the musical education he maps.