Apollonius of Tyre is the subject of an ancient short novella, popular in the Middle Ages. Existing in numerous forms in many languages, the text is thought to be translated from an ancient Greek manuscript, now lost.

Plot summary

In most versions, the eponymous hero is hunted and persecuted after he reveals Antiochus of Antioch's

incestuous Incest ( ) is human sexual activity between family members or close relatives. This typically includes sexual activity between people in consanguinity (blood relations), and sometimes those related by affinity (marriage or stepfamily), adopti ...

relationship with his daughter. After many travels and adventures, in which Apollonius loses both his wife and his daughter and thinks them both dead, he is eventually reunited with his family through unlikely circumstances or intercession by gods. In some English versions Apollonius is shipwrecked and becomes a tutor to a princess who falls in love with him, and the good king gradually discovers his daughter's wishes. The major themes are the punishment of inappropriate lust—the incestuous king invariably comes to a bad end—and the ultimate rewards of love and fidelity.

Origins (Latin and Greek?)

The story is first mentioned in Latin by Venantius Fortunatus in his ''Carmina'' (Bk. vi. 8, 11. 5–6) during the late 6th century; it is conjectured, based on similarities with the '' Ephesian Tale'' of

Xenophon of Ephesus Xenophon of Ephesus ( el, Ξενοφῶν ὁ Εφέσιος; fl. 2nd century – 3rd century AD) was a Greek writer.''Suda'' ξ 50 His surviving work is the '' Ephesian Tale of Anthia and Habrocomes'', one of the earliest novels as well as ...

and the presence of idioms awkward in Latin but typical in Greek, that the original was a

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

romance of the third century.Stuart Gillespie, ''Shakespeare's Books'' (2001) p. 204. Some fragments of Greek romance, however, point to the possibility of an even older date. The earliest manuscripts of the tale, in a Latin version, date from the 9th or 10th century but are from late antiquity. Thus they show an intersection of Greek and Roman as well as pre-Christian and Christian influences. Overall, the work is classed with other ancient Greek romance novels. Some scholars hold that the

riddle A riddle is a statement, question or phrase having a double or veiled meaning, put forth as a puzzle to be solved. Riddles are of two types: ''enigmas'', which are problems generally expressed in metaphorical or allegorical language that requ ...

s with which the king tests the hero in many versions may be a later addition: ten derive from the c. fourth-century Latin riddle-collection attributed to

Symphosius Symphosius (sometimes, in older scholarship and less properly, Symposius) was the author of the ''Aenigmata'', an influential collection of 100 Latin riddles, probably from the late antique period. They have been transmitted along with their soluti ...

. Other scholars believe the incest story to have been a later addition as well, though others, including Elizabeth Archibald, see it as an integral thematic element of the tale. The most widespread Latin versions are those of

Godfrey of Viterbo Godfrey of ViterboAlso called Geoffrey of Viterbo, in Italian ''Goffredo da Viterbo'' and in German ''Gottfried von Viterbo'', from Latin ''Gaufridus'', ''Godefridus'' or ''Gotefredus Viterbensis''. (c. 1120 – c. 1196) was a Roman Catholic chroni ...

, who incorporated it into his '' Pantheon'' of 1185 as if it were actual history, ''Historia Apollonii regis Tyri'' and a version in the ''

Gesta Romanorum ''Gesta Romanorum'', meaning ''Deeds of the Romans'' (a very misleading title), is a Latin collection of anecdotes and tales that was probably compiled about the end of the 13th century or the beginning of the 14th. It still possesses a two-fold l ...

''.

Translations

'Fifty to a hundred versions' of the story are known from antiquity into the early modern period, mostly European, including texts in English, Dutch, German, Danish, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Polish, Russian, Hungarian, Greek, and Latin. The earliest vernacular translation is an incomplete

Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the mid-5th c ...

prose text from the 11th century, sometimes called the first English novel. The existence of this unique text is unusual, as secular prose fiction from that time is extremely rare. The manuscript copy may only have survived because it was bound into a book together with Archbishop Wulfstan's homilies. Various versions of the tale were later written in most European languages. A notable English version is in the eighth book of

John Gower John Gower (; c. 1330 – October 1408) was an English poet, a contemporary of William Langland and the Pearl Poet, and a personal friend of Geoffrey Chaucer. He is remembered primarily for three major works, the '' Mirour de l'Omme'', '' Vo ...

's ''

Confessio Amantis ''Confessio Amantis'' ("The Lover's Confession") is a 33,000-line Middle English poem by John Gower, which uses the confession made by an ageing lover to the chaplain of Venus as a frame story for a collection of shorter narrative poems. Accord ...

'' (1390), which uses it as an

exemplum An exemplum (Latin for "example", pl. exempla, ''exempli gratia'' = "for example", abbr.: ''e.g.'') is a moral anecdote, brief or extended, real or fictitious, used to illustrate a point. The word is also used to express an action performed by an ...

against

lust Lust is a psychological force producing intense desire for something, or circumstance while already having a significant amount of the desired object. Lust can take any form such as the lust for sexuality (see libido), money, or power. It c ...

. It is described as being based on ''Pantheon'', but it contains many details that work does not but the old ''Historia'' does. Its numerous vernacular versions, along with the Latin ones, attest to its popularity throughout the Middle Ages. It appears in an old Danish ballad collected in '' Danmarks gamle Folkeviser''.Laura A. Hibbard, ''Medieval Romance in England'' p168 New York Burt Franklin,1963

Robert Copland Robert Copland (fl. 1508–1547), English printer and author, is said to have been a servant of William Caxton, and certainly worked for Wynkyn de Worde. The first book to which his name is affixed as a printer is ''The Boke of Justices of Peace' ...

translated from the French the romance of ''Kynge Appolyne of Thyre'' (W. de Worde, 1510).

Later versions and influence

The story was retold in thirteenth-century Castilian as '' Libro de Apolonio''. It is also a major inspiration of the

chanson de geste The ''chanson de geste'' (, from Latin 'deeds, actions accomplished') is a medieval narrative, a type of epic poem that appears at the dawn of French literature. The earliest known poems of this genre date from the late 11th and early 12th c ...

Jordain de Blaivies (sometimes modernised ) is an Old French ''chanson de geste'' written in decasyllables around 1200. It is an adventure story, largely inspired by the ancient story of Apollonius of Tyre. It survives in a single manuscript. The original was neve ...

''. Robert Copland wrote an early 16th-century prose version.

William Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

and

George Wilkins George Wilkins (died 1618) was an English dramatist and pamphleteer best known for his probable collaboration with William Shakespeare on the play ''Pericles, Prince of Tyre''. By profession he was an inn-keeper, but he was also apparently invo ...

's play ''

Pericles, Prince of Tyre ''Pericles, Prince of Tyre'' is a Jacobean play written at least in part by William Shakespeare and included in modern editions of his collected works despite questions over its authorship, as it was not included in the First Folio. It was p ...

'' was based in part on Gower's version, with the change of name probably inspired by

Philip Sidney Philip, also Phillip, is a male given name, derived from the Greek (''Philippos'', lit. "horse-loving" or "fond of horses"), from a compound of (''philos'', "dear", "loved", "loving") and (''hippos'', "horse"). Prominent Philips who popularize ...

's '' Arcadia''. ''Apollonius of Tyre'' was also a source for his plays ''

Twelfth Night ''Twelfth Night'', or ''What You Will'' is a romantic comedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written around 1601–1602 as a Twelfth Night's entertainment for the close of the Christmas season. The play centres on the twins Vi ...

'' and ''

The Comedy of Errors ''The Comedy of Errors'' is one of William Shakespeare's early plays. It is his shortest and one of his most farcical comedies, with a major part of the humour coming from slapstick and mistaken identity, in addition to puns and word play. ...

''.

Notes

External links

* , from

Plot summary

Marcus Welser's 1595 Latin edition, "Narratio eorum quae contigerunt Apollonio Tyrio"

* ttps://archive.org/stream/anglosaxonversi00apolgoog/anglosaxonversi00apolgoog_djvu.txt The Anglo-Saxon version in the 1834 Benjamin Thorpe English translation
The Latin Library edition of the Latin text

The Librivox audio edition of the Latin text
* includes Latin text&translation of ''Historia Apollonii regis Tyri'' {{Authority control Latin prose texts Translations into Latin Medieval legends Early medieval literature Romance (genre) Fictional kings