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'{{Short description|Genre of classical Greek and Roman fiction}} The '''Milesian tale''' ({{lang-el|Μιλησιακά}}, ''Milesiaka''; Latin:''fabula milesiaca'', or ''Milesiae fabula'') is a genre of fictional story prominent in [[Ancient Greek literature|ancient Greek]] and [[Roman literature]]. According to most authorities, a Milesian tale is a [[short story]], [[fable]], or [[Folklore|folktale]] featuring love and adventure, usually of an [[Eroticism|erotic]] or titillating nature. This resulted in "a complicated narrative fabric: a travelogue carried by a main narrator with numerous subordinate tales carried by subordinate narrative voices". The best complete example of this would be [[Apuleius]]'s ''[[The Golden Ass]]'', a Roman novel written in the second century of the [[Common Era]]. Apuleius introduces his novel with the words "At ego tibi sermone isto Milesio varias fabulas conseram" ("But let me join together different stories in that Milesian style"),<ref>{{cite web |url=http://users.ox.ac.uk/~sjh/documents/prologueOUPvol.doc |title=Archived copy |accessdate=2006-07-09 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20060523000956/http://users.ox.ac.uk/%7Esjh/documents/prologueOUPvol.doc |archivedate=2006-05-23 }}</ref> which suggests not each story is a Milesian tale, but rather the entire joined-together collection. The idea of the Milesian tale also served as a model for the episodic narratives strung together in [[Petronius]]'s ''[[Satyricon]]''. ==Aristides's ''Milesian Tale''== The name ''Milesian tale'' originates from the ''Milesiaka''<ref>In Latin ''Milesiae'', with ''fabulae''&mdash;"fables"&mdash; understood,</ref> of [[Aristides of Miletus]] ({{lang-el|Ἀριστείδης ὁ Μιλήσιος}}; fl. 2nd century BCE), who was a writer of shameless and amusing tales notable for their salacious content and unexpected plot twists. Aristides set his tales in [[Miletus]], which had a reputation for a luxurious, easy-going lifestyle, akin to that of [[Sybaris]] in [[Magna Graecia]]; there is no reason to think that he was in any sense "of" Miletus himself. Later, in the first century BCE, the serious-minded historian [[Lucius Cornelius Sisenna]] translated Aristides into [[Latin (language)|Latin]] under the title ''Milesiae fabulae'' (''Milesian Fables'') for an intellectual relaxation. Through this Latin translation of the work, the term "Milesian tale" gained currency in the ancient world. Milesian tales quickly gained a reputation for [[ribaldry]]: [[Ovid]], in ''Tristia'', contrasts the boldness of Aristides and others with his own ''[[Ars Amatoria]]'', for which he was punished by exile. In the dialogue on the kinds of love, ''[[Amores (Lucian)|Erotes]]'', [[Lucian of Samosata]]&mdash;if in fact he was the author&mdash;praised Aristides in passing, saying that after a day of listening to erotic stories he felt like Aristides, "that enchanting spinner of bawdy yarns". This suggests that the lost ''Milesiaka'' had for its framing device Aristides himself, retelling what he had been hearing of the goings-on at Miletus. [[Plutarch]], in his ''[[Crassus|Life of Crassus]]'', explains that, after the [[Battle of Carrhae|defeat of Carrhae]] in 53 BCE, some Milesian fables were found in the baggage of the Parthians' Roman prisoners.<ref>Plutarch, ''Crassus'' XXXII ("Surena, calling together the senate of Seleucia, laid before them certain wanton books, of the writings of Aristides, his Milesiaka; neither, indeed, was this any forgery, for they had been found among the baggage of Rustius, and were a good subject to supply Surena with insulting remarks upon the Romans, who were not able even in the time of war to forget such writings and practices.")</ref> ==Legacy== [[File:Byzantinischer Mosaizist des 5. Jahrhunderts 002.jpg|thumb|A [[Byzantine]] mosaic depicting a scene from ''[[The Golden Ass]]'' by [[Lucius Apuleius]]]] Though the idea of the Milesian tale served as a model for the episodic narratives strung together in ''The [[Satyricon]]'' by [[Petronius|Gaius Petronius Arbiter]] and ''[[The Golden Ass]]'' by [[Lucius Apuleius]] (second century CE),<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Walsh|first1=P.G.|title=Lucius Madaurensis|journal=Phoenix|date=1968|volume=22|issue=2|pages=1–15|doi=10.2307/1086837|jstor=1086837}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Apuleius Madaurensis|first1=Lucius|last2=trans. Lindsay|first2=Jack|title=The Golden Ass|date=1960|publisher=Indiana University Press|location=Bloomington, Indiana|isbn=0-253-20036-9|page=[https://archive.org/details/goldenass00apul_0/page/31 31]|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/goldenass00apul_0/page/31}}</ref> neither Aristides's original [[Greek language|Greek]] text nor the Latin translation survived. The lengthiest survivor from this literature is the tale of "[[Cupid and Psyche]]", found in Apuleius, which [[Sir Richard Burton]] observed, "makes us deeply regret the disappearance of the others".<ref>R. Burton, [http://www.worldwideschool.org/library/books/lit/horror/VikramandtheVampire/chap1.html ''Vikram and the Vampire'', Preface to the First Edition, 1870] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070313165846/http://www.worldwideschool.org/library/books/lit/horror/VikramandtheVampire/chap1.html |date=2007-03-13 }}.</ref> Aristidean saucy and disreputable heroes and spicy, fast-paced anecdote resurfaced in the medieval ''[[fabliau]]x''. [[Chaucer]]'s "[[The Miller's Tale]]" is in Aristides' tradition. M. C. Howatson, in ''The Oxford Companion to Classical Literature'' (1989), voiced the traditional view the Milesian tale is the source "of such medieval collections of tales as the ''[[Gesta Romanorum]]'', the ''[[The Decameron|Decameron]]'' of [[Giovanni Boccaccio|Boccaccio]], and the ''[[Heptameron]]'' of [[Marguerite de Navarre|Marguerite of Navarre]]". Gottskálk Jensson of the [[University of Copenhagen]], [[Denmark]], however, offerd a dissenting view or corrective, arguing the original Milesian tale was: "a type of first-person [[novel]], a [[Travel literature|travelogue]] told from memory by a [[narrator]] who every now and then would relate how he encountered other [[Fictional character|characters]] who told him stories which he would then incorporate into the main tale through the [[rhetoric]]al technique of narrative impersonation".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.apaclassics.org/AnnualMeeting/98mtg/abstracts/Jensson.html|title=Home - Society for Classical Studies|website=www.apaclassics.org}}</ref>}}{{failed verification|date=August 2022}} In 2010, Nicholas Chong published retold Milesian tales in his book "The Milesian and Malesian Tales",<ref name="chong">{{Cite book |last=Chong |first=Nicholas |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/692271402 |title=The Milesian and Malesian Tales. |date=2010 |publisher=Olympia Publishers |isbn=1-84897-067-6 |location=London |oclc=692271402}}</ref> in which he mentions an Arcadian human sacrifice.<ref>{{Cite web |date=28 September 2012 |title=Sacrifice in honour of Lycian Zeus in Arcadia |url=http://naughtymilesiantales.blogspot.com/ |access-date=2022-08-02 |language=en-GB}}</ref> ==Notes== {{reflist}} {{Ancient Greek novels}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Milesian Tale}} [[Category:Ancient Greek novels]] [[Category:Fabulists]] [[Category:Erotic literature]] [[Category:Miletus|Tale]] [[Category:Ancient Greek erotic literature]] [[ca:Aristides de Milet]] [[de:Aristeides von Milet]] [[fr:Aristide de Milet]] [[it:Aristide di Mileto]]'