Erotic Narrative Anonymous (Ἐρωτικὰ Ἀδέσποτα)
Life No biographical information exists for the anonymous author or authors of this corpus. The name is a modern scholarly designation for a collection of 25 short fictional prose narratives, composed between the 1st and 4th centuries CE during the Roman Imperial and Late Antique periods. The works are written in Koine Greek, the common literary dialect of the era [1].
Works The corpus consists of 25 extant short prose narratives transmitted together as a collection. The individual titles are not specified in the consulted sources, but the works are uniformly described as anonymous erotic tales or novels [1].
Significance The Erotic Narrative Anonymous provides significant insight into popular fictional literature of the Roman era. As a collection of erotic tales, it offers comparative material for studying narrative conventions, readership, and social attitudes toward love and sexuality outside the canonical "ideal" Greek novels. Its preservation allows for analysis of non-canonical, entertainment-focused prose in Koine Greek [1].
Sources 1. ToposText: https://topostext.org/work/206#:~:text=Erotic%20Narrative%20Anonymous%20(1st%2D4th%20c.%20AD)%20%2D%2025%20works
Available Works
Sources
- ToposText Entry (ToposText) Accessed: 2026-01-26