MATERIALITY AND HYLÊ IN LONGUS’ DAPHNIS AND CHLOE

Abstract This article reads the word ὕλη (‘woods’, ‘forest’) in the Greek novel Daphnis and Chloe as reflecting a philosophical tradition in which the word means ‘matter’. From Aristotle onwards, ὕλη gains the meaning of transformable matter, which admits fundamental changes of form. Through Aristotle, the concept also becomes gendered, and associated with the feminine. In the novel, the word shows up in significant moments which relate to transformations—either of the two protagonists, or of their mythical stand-ins in the inset tales of metamorphosis. The argument of this article is that the philosophical resonances of the forest as matter can be heard in these moments of redefinition and reshaping. The transformations associated with ὕλη primarily concern girls, and thus the social transition from girl to woman under the normative pressures of masculine society can be figured on the model of the shaping of matter. The article therefore argues for an interest in materiality as an additional component of Daphnis and Chloe ’s sexual and philosophical make-up, as well as proposing a greater sensitivity to the polyvalence of an important term between philosophy and literature.